4 Roadblocks to receiving Peace:
- Conflict : Resolve it! (Phil 4:2-3)
- Negativity : Replace it! (Phil 4:4)
- Unreasonableness : Reject it! (Phil 4:5)
- Anxiety : Release it! (Phil 4:6-7)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Philippians chapter 4, what are we going after this year?
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We're going after joy.
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How are we doing with that?
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You're good?
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You know, beginning of August, I went away for a week and was prayerfully thinking through what are we going to talk about this year?
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and the Lord just really laid it on my heart to talk about joy.
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And these past several months have probably been the biggest attack on my joy in my Christian walk, to be honest with you.
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And isn't that just like God?
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Isn't that just like God?
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Oh, you're learning about joy.
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How you wanna talk about joy?
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You wanna learn about joy?
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Okay.
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Okay, well, you're going to learn some things about joy.
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And one of the things that I've learned is joy can't rest in my circumstances.
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Joy can't be dependent on what's happening around me or with the people around me.
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Joy has to come from where?
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Has to come from God.
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It has to.
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In fact, Galatians 5 tells us that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
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It's not something that we can just sit at home on a Sunday afternoon and say, OK, I'm going to try really hard to have joy.
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It has to come from God's Holy Spirit.
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It has to.
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And you know, one of the key components of joy that we're going to be talking about today is peace.
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And there's much happening right now that we could allow to take our peace.
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Just knowing some of the situations happening in people in this room.
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A dear Christian brother of mine had to say goodbye to a biological brother this week.
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And people dealing with job loss and financial worry and relationship problems, problems with children, young and old.
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There's a lot happening that we could allow to take our peace.
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We live in a time where there's the constant fear of foreign terrorist attacks, and we live in a time where people walk into an elementary school and shoot children.
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And you're like, "Oh, you want to talk about peace?" Well, there's not going to be world peace until the Prince of Peace comes back. Amen?
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However, that doesn't mean that we are without peace in the meantime, because peace comes from the same place that joy comes from, which is where?
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It comes from God.
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Now, I want you to jot this definition down.
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What is peace?
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Peace is the calm assurance that what God is doing is best.
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I must say that again.
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Peace is the calm assurance that what God is doing is best.
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Now, the key word there is best.
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Peace is not the calm assurance that what God is doing is easiest.
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Okay?
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Peace is not...
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I'm just trusting that God's going to make my life easy.
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Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble." Peace is not the calm assurance that what God is doing is fastest.
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I've noticed in my life, have you?
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Sometimes God's timetable of events is a little bit different than mine.
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Have you noticed that?
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"But God, I'm going through this trial, I want it over now, I want it over now, I want it over yesterday." And God's like, "No." But peace is the calm assurance that what God is doing is best.
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whether it looks bad, or whether it looks good, whatever your situation is, God can be trusted.
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That's what peace is.
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No matter what I'm going through, God can be trusted.
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I trust him.
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I trust him.
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But we're dealing with this health thing here.
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Yeah, but God knows best, and I trust him.
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Yeah, but don't you see what's happening in my life right now?
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Don't you see the pain that we're going through over this?
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Peace says, God knows what he's doing and what he's doing is best, even if it doesn't look like it right now.
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Now, I've already told you, you know, you can't muster up peace, you can't do it.
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But do you know what you can do?
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You can block it.
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You can't muster it up, but you can block it.
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That's why the title of this message is Four roadblocks to receiving peace, and it all comes from the text.
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You're going to see it.
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It all comes from the text. Four roadblocks to receiving peace.
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Number one is conflict.
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Resolve it.
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Conflict.
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Resolve it.
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Look at Philippians, chapter four, verse two.
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where the apostle Paul says, "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord." Now, you know what happened with these New Testament letters, right?
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Paul would actually write these to a church that he had some involvement with, whether he planted the church or whether he influenced the church, And he would send these letters and you know what they did, they'd actually stand up in church and read the letters.
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Okay, so imagine like modern day, like if, you know, let's say James McDonald, since he's tied into this fellowship, if he said, "Hey, I have a message "for Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North." And he sent a letter, I'd stand up and say, "Oh, we got a letter from Pastor James and I would read it." That's what happened with Paul.
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Which makes this passage kind of crack me up a little bit.
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Could you imagine sitting in church?
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Hey, we got a letter from Paul and everybody's cheering.
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Letter from Paul, letter from Paul, read it, read it.
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Okay, here's what Paul says.
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You Odiah and Syntyche, stop bickering, called them out by name, called them by name.
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But notice in the text in verse two, he says, "I entreat you Odiah and I entreat Syntyche." He says, "Entreat" to both of them.
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Why?
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Because you know, as soon as he mentions these ladies, one of them is going to say, "Well, she started it." Parents, parents of more than one child, has that ever happened in your house?
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that you're like, "Knock it off." And what do they say?
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I see Laura Ming shaking her head.
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Not your kids, no.
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But you can just relate, you can imagine.
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"Knock it off." And they said, "Well, he started it." And you say, "Parents, what?
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"I don't care who started it.
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"I'm telling both of you, knock it off." That would happen at our house, right?
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If mom wasn't sure who started it, she'd be like, "Line up, you're all getting it.
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Who's first?" We all had our little strategy about the order of that one.
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I'll tell you about that some other time.
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But he says, "Agree in the Lord." Listen, ladies, agree in the Lord.
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Why agree in the Lord?
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Because when bickering takes place, so often we take sides, right?
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And we don't have a lot of details on what was going on here.
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I'm gonna share some more as we get to verse three.
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Here's what we do know.
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Here were two ladies that weren't seeing eye to eye and it was causing a problem, so much so, that forever recorded in the word of God are these two ladies' names.
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Knock it off.
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Right?
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Don't take sides.
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I don't care who started it.
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Here's what I'm telling you both.
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You need to agree in the Lord.
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We may disagree about personal things, but we have to get on the same page here, right?
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We might disagree about personal things, but this is where we have to agree.
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I was thinking, what would be a great illustration to use?
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Is there anybody here that follows this football game?
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Right, anybody?
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I guess there's a team in this area called the Steelers or something.
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Well, I was thinking about this this week.
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You know, what would happen if, for some reason, Ken, what would happen, he's a baller, I knew you could catch him here.
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Yeah, throw it back.
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What would happen if Big Ben and Heath Miller had an argument?
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They had a little tizzy.
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And they said, Darren, they said, Big Ben says, "You know what?" Oh, I was hoping Evan wasn't sitting right there.
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Donk!
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Thanks, Uncle Jeff.
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But what if Big Ben was like, "You know what?
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"I'm not throwing to Heath.
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"I'm just not.
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"I'm not gonna throw to him." And Heath is like, "You know what?
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"Good, because if you throw to me, "I'm not gonna catch it." And like, all through practice during the week, I know the Steelers are done playing, you know, for a while now.
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But all through the practice week, this is going on, that Ben's like, "I'm not throwing.
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"I'm not throwing to Heath.
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"I'm not throwing to Heath." And Heath is like, "If he throws to me, "I'm totally just gonna drop it." Okay, so tell me, what would happen with the team?
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What would the team do, rather?
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What would the team do?
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If this tizzy was going on throughout the week, what would happen?
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What would you tell me?
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Trade 'em to the Eagles.
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Trade 'em to the Eagles.
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Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad of an offense.
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What would happen?
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Like, what would happen?
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They'd tell them to knock it off, right?
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What would happen is Mike Tomlin or one of the other probably veteran guys would probably do what?
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They'd probably step in and be like, "Ben, seriously, you're being a baby.
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"Throw the ball to Heath." And then they'd go to Heath, what would they tell him?
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Heath, come on, seriously.
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Knock it off.
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Come on.
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Now, why would they be so concerned to get involved in that argument?
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Because, I mean, seriously, isn't that just their deal?
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That's not my business.
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That's not my business.
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Why would they get involved in that argument?
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What's that?
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Because it affects the team is exactly right.
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The reason another player or the coach would get involved in that argument is because their behavior is affecting the whole team, right?
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And we're not going to win if two members of the team aren't getting along.
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And that's why Paul says in verse three, "Yes, I ask you also, true companion, "to help these women who have labored side by side with me "in the gospel together with Clement "and the rest of my fellow workers "whose names are in the book of life." Just like you would expect a player to step in and say, "Hey, we got a game on the line here.
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Big picture.
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Stop fighting." Notice the apostle Paul here says the same thing.
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"Look, get in there and help resolve this issue." Who, by the way, he says at the end of verse three, "Whose names are in the book of life." Okay, I'm a Steelers fan, but you know, there's a team I'm even more fired up about than the Steelers, and no, not the Penguins, I love them too.
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But do you know the team that I'm most fired up about is the team that's listed in the Book of Life?
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That's the team that I'm most concerned about.
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What is the Book of Life?
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Well, that's from Daniel chapter 12, Malachi chapter three.
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God knows who belongs to him.
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If you belong to Jesus Christ, if you're born again, God has you down in his book.
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He has like a ledger.
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You belong to me.
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And Paul is reminding these two ladies, look, ladies, Clement and whoever else is going to step in and resolve this, you guys are on the same team here.
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Notice Paul says, we were laboring side by side.
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He's saying, you know, church, we have worked so hard together let an offense get in the way.
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And I would echo the same to you, church.
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This church has worked very hard to get going, to get planted.
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This church continues to work very hard to get some things happening ministry-wise.
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We're working on outreach.
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We're working on international missions.
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We're working on small group discipleship.
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We're working on youth group.
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We're working on all these things.
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And the point is we're working too hard to let little tiffs, little arguments get in the way of what we're trying to do here.
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Which by the way is more important than winning a football game.
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When we spend time and energy on inward fighting, that time and energy is not being used to advance the kingdom.
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Let's be honest, the biggest arguments, the biggest standoff is usually over something so minor.
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What was the issue with these two ladies?
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Again, I don't know, but here's what I do know.
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It wasn't a doctrinal issue.
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Like, well, how do you know that?
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Do you think Paul would have said something if it was a doctrinal issue?
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Do you think he would have said something?
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Like if one of these ladies was going around teaching other ladies that Jesus Christ did not raise from the dead, that's heresy.
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Do you think that Paul would have said, "Hey, correct the heresy." He was never shy about that, was he?
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He was never shy about attacking false teaching.
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We saw that in the last chapter.
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He's not shy about that.
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Also, we see Paul didn't take sides.
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He wouldn't have been shy about that either.
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If it was a major doctrinal issue, It had to have been something minor.
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I've been around the block a couple of times.
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I've seen people get involved in very serious conflict that has very serious consequences for the church over something that's not very serious.
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Well, the leadership didn't make the decision I would have.
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What are the chances that's going to happen, seriously?
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You're gonna go to a church that the leadership is always going to make the decision that you would have every time.
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That's what I like about this church.
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They do everything exactly as I would have done it.
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Small issues.
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He walked right by me and didn't say hi.
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People get bent about that kind of stuff.
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The very first church I pastored Before I was on board there, one of the big church blowups was over the color of the carpet that was going in the church.
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Like, seriously, we're still talking about that?
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A friend of mine had told me several years ago, it's kind of funny now, wasn't funny at that church at the time, but they almost had a church split over a bulletin board, over what should go on the bulletin board.
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We're not talking like racy pictures or something like that, but each little ministry wanted to have their cut of the bulletin board, and they were like at each other's throats over that.
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I'm like, "Really?
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"Is that what we're fighting about?" So always something so minor, so minor that Paul didn't even mention what it was.
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He's just like, "Just tell them, look, I'm begging you.
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"Agree in the Lord.
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"Get on the same page." One more thing, if I can insert this parenthetically, he's not talking about moral issues.
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Again, that's obvious.
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Not a doctrinal issue, not a moral issue.
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If one of these ladies would have been involved in some sort of immorality that was causing conflict, Paul would have addressed that.
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That wasn't the case.
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But we're also not talking about church discipline issues either.
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There is a time when if an issue comes up in the church and the leadership tries to address it, tries to deal with it, and it's not happening, it's not being resolved, and people as a result are being continually divisive.
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And I'm not going to let this go.
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I'm going to keep fighting about it, but it's not a major issue.
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I know it's not a major issue, but I'm going to keep fighting about it.
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there is a time that people have to be shown the door.
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You're like, where do you get that?
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Well, Titus 3.10.
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You warn a divisive person once and then twice and then have nothing to do with that person.
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That's not a pleasant thing.
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But when someone is continually divisive, they're shown the door, biblically.
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So again, what we're talking about here is over minor issues.
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Do you have a little minor issue that you're dealing with someone You're like, "Well, I'm not sure if this is minor or not." Well, jot this down.
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Here's three questions to ask.
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If you're like bent out of shape over some kind of a conflict, three questions to ask yourself.
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And actually, this is better if you're not in one of these conflicts now, because ask yourself when you're tempted to get into a conflict with someone.
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First question is this, is it a matter of eternal importance?
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Is it a matter of eternal importance?
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You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Here's how you gauge that.
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In 5,000 years, will we still be talking about it?
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No.
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If the answer is no, then here's my counsel to you.
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Let it go.
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You don't need to say anything.
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You don't need to email that person and tell them you don't quite approve of the decision they made.
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I could go on and on.
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I've heard it all from people on their heads about people wearing blue jeans to church.
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I picked the wrong Sunday to use that illustration.
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People wearing cargo shorts to church.
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And you know, that guy wore sandals to church.
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You mean like Paul.
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Is it a matter of eternal importance, really?
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Are we gonna be sitting around in heaven and Jesus is like, I can't believe you didn't address that blue jeans in church question.
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Like, let's talk about, no!
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Ridiculous.
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Is it a matter of eternal importance?
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No, let it go.
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Second question, is it a matter of personal conviction?
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Is it a matter of personal conviction?
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Look, we all have personal convictions.
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We all do.
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I do, you do.
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We run into legalism when we start enforcing our personal convictions on other people.
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That's when you get in some of those blue jeans and sandals and all those kinds of things.
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Well, that's my conviction.
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Okay, well then don't wear jeans to church.
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But when we start enforcing that on others, that's legalism.
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And then the third question to ask, is it a matter that we must agree on?
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Is it a matter that we must agree on?
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As in the church isn't going to take a step forward until we get on the same page here.
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If the answer is no, let it go.
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So conflict, resolve it.
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One other thing I wanna say about that, if you know of two people that are having a conflict, biblically, you can step in and help resolve that.
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That's exactly what Paul was calling for here.
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When it becomes a church issue, When it becomes a church issue, he says, "Help these women.
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"Get in there and help." Okay?
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So conflict, resolve it.
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You're not going to have peace as long as you have conflict.
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When there are people in your life that I still have this issue with that person, I'm still angry with this person, I haven't forgiven this person.
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If you still have that in your life, you're not gonna have peace.
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You're just not.
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Resolve it.
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because forgiven people forgive.
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So let it go.
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The second roadblock to receiving peace, negativity, replace it.
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Negativity.
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Okay, so you had these ladies that were having this little bit of a tiff.
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Now step in, let's get this resolved.
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We're all on the same team.
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And then the apostle Paul says it again, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Again, I will say rejoice.
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What is joy?
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Joy is the supernatural delight in the person of God, the purposes of God and the people of God.
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That's what joy is.
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We've been talking about this all year.
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But negativity, replace it.
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Acts chapter 16, jot that reference down.
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You can look it up later, but in Acts chapter 16, do you remember the story?
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Paul and Silas were thrown in prison, by the way, in Philippi.
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And they had a lot of song options they could have sung, right?
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So Paul and Silas were sitting in prison and they were gonna pass the time.
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What were they gonna sing?
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Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, right?
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They could have.
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They could have sung some "Woe is Me." What does your Bible say?
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Acts 16.25 says that they chose to pray and to sing hymns.
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That's why Paul here in Philippians 4.4 gives a command.
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It's a command, it's an imperative.
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Rejoice in the Lord always.
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Seriously?
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Again, I will say rejoice.
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Well, how can I do that?
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How can I?
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Okay, you're telling me it's a command, but you tell me how that happens.
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Like I said, we've been talking about death and job loss and health issues and problems with children.
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and you're standing up there, oh, you know, your life must be just so perfect.
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Telling me to rejoice.
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How in the world do I do that?
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Well, notice, he doesn't say rejoice in your circumstances.
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Your circumstances change, right?
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So you can't rejoice in your circumstances always.
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There are times that I can rejoice in my circumstances.
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I'm having a good day, having a good time with my wife, having a good time with my kids, having a good time with my friends and things are fun, I'm feeling good.
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Problem is I'm probably not gonna feel that way tomorrow.
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Things change in an instant.
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So I can't rejoice in my circumstances always.
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I can't rejoice in pain.
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Like, what am I, sick?
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He's not telling you to rejoice in pain, Rejoice in your suffering.
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When you're having a hard time, just rejoice in your suffering.
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You're gonna be sick in the head.
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Like, yeah, I slammed the car door on my hand.
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Praise the Lord for that.
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What is your problem?
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He's not saying to rejoice in your pain.
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He's not saying rejoice in discouragement.
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'cause honestly, I just don't feel like it.
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What's he saying?
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Tell me.
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Rejoice, where?
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Rejoice in the Lord.
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Do you see the difference?
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Rejoice in the Lord, because your circumstances are going to change, but he's never going to change.
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Pain and discouragement, those things drag me down.
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He lifts me up.
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So our rejoicing is in the Lord.
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And when do we do that?
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Look at your Bible and tell me, when do we do it?
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Always, always.
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As I reminded you before, I remind you again, you cannot focus on two things at once.
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And just like Paul and Silas in prison, You have the choice on what song you're going to sing.
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You can sing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" or you can sing "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord." You have a choice.
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You have a choice on what your mind is going to dwell on and we're going to be tackling that next week.
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You need a checkup from the neck up because you're tore up from the floor up.
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So we need to get in there and fix some stinking thinking.
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We're going after that next week.
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So negativity, replace it.
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Rejoice in the Lord always.
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Things aren't going to be like they are forever.
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We talked about that last week, didn't we?
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Our best days are ahead of us.
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We have a real living hope in Jesus Christ.
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We have an eternal destination of perfection and glory in eternity, in heaven forever and ever.
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We have a God who loves us.
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So negativity, replace it.
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Thirdly, look at verse five.
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Paul says, "Let your reasonableness "Be known to everyone, the Lord is at hand." Let your reasonableness be known to everyone, the Lord is at hand.
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So in your outline, jot this down, "Unreasonableness, reject it." "Unreasonableness, reject it." This word for reasonableness literally means gentleness.
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is talking about not being overly rigorous.
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This is hardcore demanding your rights in all matters, that's what he's speaking against.
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People that demand their rights in all matters.
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It's never giving people the benefit of the doubt, it's never showing grace.
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He's teaching here against people that are bent about everything.
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That's being unreasonable.
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Do you know somebody like that? No pointing.
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But do you know somebody that just is like...
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They get a fuse this long.
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And the slightest thing turns them into Yosemite Sam.
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You know what I'm talking about? The slightest thing.
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They just, they fly off the handle.
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You know, they, you drive up the parking lot in Target because you see a really good parking place and you pull in and it says, "For new and expectant mothers only." Oh, I can't believe it, a new and expectant mother.
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Well, there's a spot over there.
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Then, "For fuel efficient vehicles only." I can't believe it, these green people.
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Really?
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That's what he's talking about here.
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Some people just fly off the handle about everything.
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Everything.
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There's no...
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Let me stop and think.
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Is this really something to scream about?
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It's just knee-jerk reaction.
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It's unreasonable.
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That's what he's talking about.
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It's so funny, through the week, I'm constantly thinking about how can I illustrate this?
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and what can I share to kind of bring flavor and color to this?
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And I was thinking about this yesterday.
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I took the kids swimming at this gym, of which I'm a member.
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And I was thinking about this, and in walks this guy.
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I'm not going to say his name.
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But this guy walked in.
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And I remember the first time I met this guy.
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He was actually somewhat attending the church that I used to belong to.
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And I didn't know that, because I was new at the time when I first met him.
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And so just being friendly, I made conversation with him, again, not knowing who he was, his background, where he went to any of that.
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So I'm lifting, he walks in and I'm just like, "Hey, how are you doing?
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And what do you do?" I get talking to the guy and he says, "Well, what do you do for a living?" And I said, "Well, actually I'm a pastor." He said, "You are not a pastor.
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"Listen, the Greek word for pastor means this." And he gave me some Greek lesson.
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He goes, "Technically, you're an evangelist because when you study with the..." He just like went off on me, like yelling at me in the weight room.
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And I'm just like, "The pleasure was all mine, sir." Like, really?
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That's what he's talking about here.
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Be reasonable.
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Okay, so we leave the gym and I take my kids to McDonald's.
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just spending some father-son's time together while Aaron was getting things ready for our trip.
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We're going on this week.
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I go to McDonald's and I'm in line and this guy comes up beside me and just starts like barking at the girl working behind the counter, like yelling.
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And he was all animated and fired up.
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And she was just like, I didn't quite hear what was going on, but she was just like, okay, turn around and gave him one of those like little like to-go bags.
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and he grabbed it out of her hand and like took off.
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I'm like, he was that mad and had to scream at her to get a to-go bag?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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It's just constantly mad about everything.
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I'm always looking for a reason to be offended.
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You know, you get shortchanged 30 cents and you're screaming and hollering and you're ripping me off.
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Sorry, that was more than a 30 cent reaction to that though.
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That's what he's talking about here.
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Constantly bent about everything.
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Well, obviously this attitude forfeits a peace of mind.
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It forfeits peace of mind and it leads to conflict.
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So he says, "Let your reasonableness be known to everyone." Just be chill, all right?
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Settle down.
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Everything's not like life and death, right?
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Then he reminds us the Lord is at hand.
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You know, the classic psychological question, right?
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People say, "Well, I can't control my behavior." And they teach you in counseling.
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You know, when you teach people that they're able to control their behavior, you say, "Well, would you have acted like that "if there was a police officer present?" Well, no.
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Well, Paul here is sort of talking like that, only he's not talking about a police officer, he's talking about the King of Kings.
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Would you act like that if Jesus were standing beside you?
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Because he is.
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The Lord is at hand, all right?
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Let's just relax a little bit.
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He says, "Let your reasonableness," I'm having a hard time with that word, "be known to everyone." I'm going to let people see that I don't lean on the panic button.
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Okay?
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I don't lean on the panic button.
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Let's calm down.
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Be reasonable.
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And finally, last roadblock of peace.
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This is a big one, anxiety.
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Release it.
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Anxiety.
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Look at verses six and seven.
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A lot of you probably have these verses memorized, and that's fantastic.
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Paul says, "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 of God, which surpasses all understanding, "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Anxiety, release it.
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This word for anxious literally means dividing care, dividing care.
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You know what that means.
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You can tell when somebody's burdened about something that they're just distracted.
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Have you ever noticed that?
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They're just distracted.
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They're like there, but they're not there, you know?
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Like, man, what's going on?
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Like, you seem like something's really bothering you.
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Well, they're having a hard time being in this moment because their mind is on some kind of a trial they're going through.
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And you're like, yeah, we're gonna get this worrying passage but you know what?
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I get a pass on that.
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There's something in my life that I should genuinely be worrying about, right?
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Well, let's see what the Bible says.
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Do not be anxious about anything.
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Sometimes I have little footnotes in the bottom of my Bible, and there's no footnote that like has your name on it.
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You know, with the exception of so-and-so, they should be anxious about some things.
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Do not be anxious about anything.
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What are some things that people get anxious about?
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We've already talked about some of them.
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What are some things that people get anxious about?
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Shout them out.
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Money.
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So should we be anxious about money?
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It falls under the anything category.
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So the answer is no.
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What else do people get anxious about?
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The future, right?
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The future, what's gonna happen?
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What's gonna happen?
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The future falls under the anything category.
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I'm not gonna be anxious about that.
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What else falls under the, or what else do people get anxious about rather?
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Relationships, right?
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Whether it's with your spouse or with your children or with your friends or with your boss or whatever, that falls under the anything category.
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What else?
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Can anybody think of something that doesn't fall under the anything category?
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So whatever it is that's troubling you, The Bible says, "Don't let that divide your care." Meaning, don't worry about it.
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Well, you're like, well, you know, some people, some people worry about stuff that never happens.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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Some people worry about stuff that never happens.
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They're always like, well, what if I get in an accident?
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And they don't get in an accident.
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Like, well, you wasted your time worrying.
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And some people are like, well, what if my kid goes off to college make some bad decisions and they don't, but I was worried about it, it didn't happen.
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Like yeah, some people worry about things that don't happen but I'm worried about something that actually is happening because I got this family member that has cancer, I'm worried about that.
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I'm not worried that he don't get cancer, he has it.
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So I should be worried about that, right?
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My stuff is real.
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My stuff is real.
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Well, let's see what the Bible says.
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in everything by prayer and supplication.
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Notice this, with thanksgiving.
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With thanksgiving.
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That's a missing ingredient in a lot of prayers.
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God, I'm worried about this, I don't like this, and I'm praying for this person, amen.
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Thanksgiving, pray with the spirit of Thanksgiving.
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Tell God specifically things that you are thankful for.
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Thank him for those things.
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He says, let your request be made known to God.
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I want you to do something on your outline.
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I want you to do something in your outline.
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I want you to rate yourself.
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How anxious are you right now?
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Like, if I were to ask you, how much worry do you have in your life right now?
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I want you to rate that on a scale of one to 10.
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One is, calm, cool, and collected.
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I got no worries, man.
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My English is bad, but I got no worries, man.
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That's one.
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10 is, I'm sitting on the panic button.
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I can't sleep because I'm worried about something and I'm freaking out here.
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Okay, give yourself a one to 10.
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Go ahead, write it down in your outline.
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Rate your anxiety.
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One is calm, 10 is nervous wreck.
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Five is average worry.
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Do you have that number down?
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Do you have it down?
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Okay, now I want you to give yourself a rating on your prayer life right now.
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One is I don't pray at all, and 10 is I pray without ceasing.
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Give yourself a number there.
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I'm not going to collect your papers, but I have a pretty good guess that if I would and would look at it, those numbers would be inversely proportional, meaning this, if you have a 10 in anxiety, I would guess that you probably have like a one or a two in prayer.
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And if you have a 10 in prayer, I would guess that you'd have like a one or two in anxiety.
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There's a correlation there.
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Anxiety, release it.
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Do you want peace in your heart?
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You're gonna have to let go of some things "I'm worrying you." Notice what he says, we'll close with this.
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"And the peace of God," I love that.
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Not the peace of the world, not the peace of Paul, peace of God.
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He says, "Surpasses all understanding." Do you know what that means?
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That means it just doesn't make sense.
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That means you see this guy that's going through what looks like the worst trial in his life, and you're like, why is he so calm?
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Why isn't he like loading himself on prescription medication?
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He should be a nervous wreck.
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And he's just saying, you know what?
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I am going through a really hard time right now, but God has been so good to me, and I'm gonna trust him to see me through this.
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And the world looks at a guy like that and says, you're crazy.
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You know why they say that?
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because this peace surpasses all understanding.
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It doesn't make sense to them because it's of God.
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It doesn't make sense.
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So this peace of God is beyond, and you know what?
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Can you describe it to me?
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Well, go through a huge trial and experience the peace of God.
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There's no way to really describe it.
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So what will this piece of God do?
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Notice he says it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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What does that mean?
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Well, as born again believers, we have confidence in God, don't we?
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Amen. We have confidence in God.
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I believe God is who he said he is.
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I believe God will do what he said he will do.
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Do you have that confidence?
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God's going to do what he said he's going to do.
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But when the trials come in, they sort of attack that confidence.
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Right? When trials come in, you're sort of like, "Maybe God's not really going to come through here.
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Maybe God's going to disappoint me." Well, when you have the peace of God, He said it guards your hearts and minds.
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It puts a wall up around that confidence that we have in God.
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That's what the peace of God does.
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He puts this wall up so when these trials come, they hit that wall and you say, hey, I have peace.
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My confidence in God has not been shaken because his peace is guarding my heart and mind.
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So I close as I close rather, let me ask you, is there peace in your heart?
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Is there peace in your heart right now?
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(sighing)
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Is there a conflict that you need to resolve?
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Have you been dwelling on the negative?
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Have you been set off by everything?
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Or is there something worrying you?
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It's our prayer today rather that this is a day of letting some things go.
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Offenses, grudges, negativity, anxiety.
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Let's leave them here.
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Bow your heads with me, please.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 4:2-7
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.