Hey, welcome to One and All.

We're so glad that you are here for week four, and Pastor Michael is closing us out with the Joy Hack sermon series.

So before we get into it, I want to encourage you to get your Bible out and to download the One and All app, so that way you can follow along with the sermon notes.

All right, everybody.

Hi, everybody.

We are in Philippians chapter 4 as we conclude our series called The Joy.

And this has been an amazing journey.

I've heard lots of great feedback from lots of you about this sermon series.

We started with chapter one, Pastor Roy reminding us that pain is inevitable, but joy is a choice.

The second week, Philippians chapter two, Pastor Don told us joy is found by sacrificially serving others.

Then last week we had from Pastor Dave Stone, joy is found in realizing that...

but everything is worthless compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

And what a great journey that has been.

Now, remember, we want to take your Bibles out.

We want to circle any words that are important to you, especially the word joy or rejoicing.

Underline, write notes about what God is saying to you.

All right?

So we're going to be in Philippians chapter 4, and that's where we're going to be.

Of course, I'm going to be referencing lots of other scripture, but stay there.

Stay right there, Philippians chapter 4.

All right.

As I was writing this sermon, it was one of those sermons, like Pastor Don said, Pastor Don Jackson, that it's one of those sermons that God was already speaking to me about in my own life.

So Philippians chapter 4, verses 1 to 7.

Here we go.

Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way.

My beloved, I urge Yodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.

Indeed, true companion, I ask you also help these women who have shared in my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement, as well as the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I say rejoice.

Let your gentle spirit be known to all people.

The Lord is near.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading.

Some versions say by prayer and supplication.

With thanksgiving, make your requests known.

Be made known to God.

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

Powerful scripture.

Now, I'm going to have, I'm going to do two sections.

One on joy, we're going to do one on peace, and it's going to all come together in what the Africans call katogo.

It's going to be a nice mixed meal that's going to taste really good, and I hope that God speaks to you through this.

All right, verse 1.

Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, whom I long to see my joy and my crown stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Paul calls the Philippians his joy and his crown.

Their faithfulness, their maturity and their sacrifice make him joyful whenever he thinks of them.

They were his crown, they were his reward.

Think about, you know, Noah Lyles wearing that gold medal.

That's what it looked like for Paul whenever he thought about.

the Philippians.

The word joy comes from the Greek word kara, which means a calm delight, a cheerfulness, gladness.

It also means rejoicing.

So when Paul thinks of Philippians, there is gladness, there is delight, there's rejoicing because of them.

They were a convincing proof that he had not run the race in vain.

They were his chief cause of rejoicing.

The thought of them filled him with gladness.

as if he was having a feast at La Tolteca with enchiladas and rice and beans, even though he was in prison.

Notice that his joy is connected through a relationship to the Philippians, not his circumstances, which was his house arrest.

And you've heard about that.

Another good example would be in Philippians chapter 2.

He says, Paul says this, Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent, and...

On purpose.

In other words, Paul is saying, make my joy feel out, make it perfect, bring it to the end by how you relate to one another.

Paul's joy is connected to how the Philippians treat each other.

While Paul is in prison, Paul is visited by Timothy and Epaphroditus. Now, Epaphroditus brought a gift to Paul from the Philippians church, but Epaphroditus falls ill and stays a bit of a longer time with Paul.

And as Paul says, Paul sends Epaphroditus back, he says this in Philippians chapter 2.

Therefore, I have sent him all the more eagerly.

I've sent him all the more eagerly so that you, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you.

Receive him then in the Lord, listen to this, with all joy, with all joy.

The point here being joy is a relational emotion.

It connects people.

at deeper levels of intimacy.

It can override circumstances.

Yes, it can.

In joy, we are glad to be together, says Jim Wilder.

Now let us continue.

Let's jump to verse four.

Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I say rejoice.

And the word rejoice, we talked about this, comes from the same root word as joy, which is kara.

So you could rephrase this and say, Find your joy in the Lord again.

I say, find your joy in the Lord.

Calberth, in his brief survey of the commands to rejoice in the book of Philippians, concludes that joy in Philippians is a defiant nevertheless.

The Philippian church was facing persecution.

As you've heard, Pastor Rory talked about this, right?

N.T.

Wright says that they, like other churches in Macedonia, had undergone persecution hardships and were experiencing the same struggles that Paul himself.

was going through the struggles that he had already known.

And so we heard from Pastor Rory, and we've also known from history, that Emperor Nero was doing this.

He was putting Christians as lampposts.

He was putting them in arenas to be eaten by animals.

It was very serious persecution.

And in fact, there's a great movie called Paul the Apostle starring James Faulkner and Jim Caviezel.

Now, this isn't a movie for kids, but it's a fantastic movie that has accurate depictions depiction of what was happening in the early church.

And so Paul tells them in chapter 4, verse 1, he says, stand firm.

Then he commands them to rejoice.

And this is intense repetition.

This is a metaphor for intense repetition.

You really need to get good at this.

This is not a generic brand of glad-mating, glad-making, but rather is targeted around our relationship with God.

God.

That's what it is.

Why?

Because Paul, this is important, by the way.

Why?

Because Paul's unqualified rejoice does defy thankless, complaining nature of humanity and human custom throughout history.

We are a complaining people.

The human race complains a lot, okay?

But you trust God because you have a relationship with Him.

So therefore, we conclude that joy is anchored in relationship.

One, joy is anchored in our relationship with the Lord.

Two, joy is anchored in our relationship with others.

So Paul is saying something here, that joy is foundational to being a human.

It is what Marcus One and Jim Wilder call the best version of you when you act from joy.

Because when God created us, There was joy with him in the garden.

He would come down.

He would chill with Adam and Eve.

There was fellowship.

It was awesome, right?

And then sin entered the world.

And therefore, we now move to verse two.

I urge you, O dear, and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.

Indeed, true companion.

We don't know who this true companion is.

It's a third person.

He doesn't mention it by name.

He says, I indeed true companion.

I ask you also.

Help these women who've shared in my struggle or have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement as well as the rest of the fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

These two women are not acting in the best version of themselves.

These two women in the church are having a conflict and it seems like they have failed to reconcile so far as we know.

They seem to be prominent women in the early church in this particular text.

Now, some...

commentaries think that this might be Lydia and end this.

particular passage paul is using her last name okay but it is serious enough to be mentioned for all treasures to read imagine if something was going on in your life and paul just writes a letter to all the churches and your stuff is in there okay it's amazing but anyway whatever the problem was it had robbed these two women of experiencing joy with each other now randy frazi in his book the joy challenge has a phrase he uses called the joy robber in This book, it outlines situations that rob you and I of joy, the emotion that's foundational to being human, the best version of you.

Here are some, and I'm going to ask you to just listen to this.

This is fantastic.

When you worry about finances, joy robber.

When you don't trust God with your children, joy robber.

When you are betrayed and spiral into depression, joy robber.

When you lose a loved one and go into despair.

Joy robber.

When you feel like a failure because you lost your job or you lost your marriage.

Joy robber.

When you can't reconcile after a conflict.

Joy robber.

When you constantly obsess about what people think of you.

Joy robber.

When you lose your mind over politics.

Joy robber.

When you refuse to forgive someone.

Joy robber.

When you constantly complain about everything.

Joy robber.

See, we were created to live from joy.

That's the best version of you, the best version of me.

Paul calls it, make my joy complete.

You are my joy.

Rejoice in the Lord.

But because we live in a broken world full of sin, sinful people, we experience joy robbers that block us from being the best version of ourselves, the best version of you.

So that's joy.

Now we're going to jump.

I'm going to move.

So that's joy.

Now we're going to move to...

The next passage, which is Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 to 7.

This is about peace, and we'll talk about the relationship it has with joy.

Paul says this, Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, or prayer and pleading, with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.

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

We all know this is a very, very popular verse.

People, you know, quote this all the time.

And you also know a couple of songs about worry.

I'm going to do one of them.

Don't worry about a thing.

Because every little thing is going to be all right.

Paul tells the Philippians not to be anxious about anything.

Not to worry about persecution.

Not to worry about Paul's impending death.

The Philippian church knew that Paul was going to face trial and probably going to be beheaded.

He says, do not worry.

And Pastor Rory mentioned that when you look at...

But Paul's life in the book of Acts alone, it's insane.

And actually in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists the bunch of times his life was just miserable.

Okay.

In 2 Corinthians 11, he says this.

He was in prison many times.

He doesn't even give a count.

Okay.

He was whipped times without number.

Five times lashed, 39 lashes.

Three times bitten with rods.

A whole night adrift at sea.

Enemies, both Jews and Gentiles.

He had.

enemies with both Jews and Gentiles.

He had very many sleepless nights.

Okay, I get grumpy when I don't sleep.

I just get grumpy.

I don't know how this guy did it.

He still had joy when he was not sleeping.

Okay, he was hungry, thirsty, cold with no clothes many times.

Can someone please tell me who would be the most miserable person?

Okay, imagine landing on the island of Malta and you've got a bajillion snakes around you biting everybody.

Yeah, I would be out of there very quickly, okay?

Boom, faster than Usain Bolt, okay?

And I would be swimming even faster than whoever.

Anyway, he tells us the same thing.

Many of you have heard this verse.

Don't be anxious.

Pray with thanksgiving.

Make your requests known to God.

And then verse 7, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding or comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

See, the peace...

that the Greeks thought about is the peace that many of us think about today.

It is the absence of war.

But in the Bible, Paul talks about this word meaning quietness and rest.

Of course, there's a deeper meaning in Hebrew, but for this particular verse, it is quiet, quietness, and rest.

Worldly peace and God's peace are two different things.

Worldly peace is the absence of tribulation and is man-made, and that's why it never...

Ever lasts.

The peace of God.

Contrary is a result of deliverance from self and is God given.

I'm going to repeat that.

The peace of God is a result of deliverance from self and is God given.

Metaphorically, it means tranquility arising from reconciliation with God.

Because I have a relationship with God, I have no reason to worry about my life.

God has his favor on me.

Therefore, I have quietness and I have rest in God.

The peace of God comes when we listen to that command to be anxious about nothing and praying about everything with thanksgiving.

It surpasses our understanding because it is something given to us as a fruit of self-surrender.

It's a gift of the Spirit.

And then God's peace will guard your heart.

Now the word God here is, I loved studying for this.

It was amazing.

It is the word meaning God.

See, the Philippians, the Philippian city was a colony of Rome. And so they were very aware of the mighty military hardware everywhere, keeping peace in a conquered lands and protecting their colonies.

The Romans had garrisons everywhere.

It was a picture of military power protecting what belonged to Rome.

Paul is saying God's peace can be a mighty guard over your heart.

In the Jewish culture, the mind and the heart are.

One, in the West, we kind of break them apart.

But Ray Anderson says this, the Jewish metaphor for the heart is the core of the self as a thinking, feeling, and willing person.

The heart is the center of emotions, feeling, moods, and passions.

So joy, people, joy is found in the heart.

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where?

Down in my heart.

Okay, that is where joy is found.

Therefore, the peace of God is given to us to guard the heart, to garrison the heart.

This is very, very important because this guards what is inside of here.

Another cool metaphor that Paul uses is Colossians 3, verse 15.

Let the peace of Christ, to which you are indeed called in one body, rule your hearts.

But the word rule here refers, is talking about an empire or a referee.

So in that sense, it's the same as a military garrison in some sense, because military stations call the shots in areas they occupy.

They're meant to keep order and to protect the colony.

Joy is found in the heart along with other negative emotions like fear and anxiety and so on.

Joy is supposed to be central and the other negative emotions.

peripheral.

However, many times those negative emotions override joy and we stop being the humans that God called us to be.

As Pastor Jeff always says, joy should be center and other emotions peripheral.

But sometimes or many times, joy becomes peripheral.

You have to have the peace of God to guard or referee your heart so that joy remains central.

other emotions remain peripheral.

But here is the secret, people.

You want to know the secret?

Galatians tells us that both joy and peace are the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit includes joy and peace.

If you're a Christian, you must demonstrate both joy and peace.

Galatians 5.19.

Now, the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, and immorality.

indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions or dissensions, factions, envy, draconies, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarned you, just as I forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

See, the first list is not the best version of you.

It is best exemplified by...

Scar in The Lion King, right?

His life is motivated by jealousy, greed, selfishness, and envy.

He is not a good lion by any means.

He's not the best version of himself.

Which lion teams up with hyena to kill his brother and his nephew?

We don't want to be Scar.

No, we don't.

I never thought hyenas essential.

They're cruel and unspeakably plain.

But maybe there's a glimmer of potential if allied to my vision and brains.

He had a vision to kill his brother and his nephew and align with the hyenas.

That's not what we want to be, but the fruit of the spirit.

Galatians 5 says this, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law.

And the second list is the best version of ourselves.

It's the best version of you.

It includes joy and peace.

And these are both given to us when we submit to God.

And they're meant to help you and I become the best version of ourselves.

especially during difficult times.

Now here's some tension that we face.

That number one, peace always gets hit first when trials of any kind come our way.

See, when the peace of God is removed from protecting the heart, guess who gets in trouble?

Joy, because all kinds of things start attacking joy and joy can easily be dropped out of the heart.

And then all the other things start attacking the heart.

And that is really important for you to know.

Joy gets in trouble.

And then the other emotions start leading.

The consequence is going to be sin.

When the peace of God is taken away, bad things happen.

The peace of God will keep us from sinning under troubles and from sinking under them, says Matthew Henry.

If the peace of God is not, if the peace of God...

is not garrisoning, is not guarding our heart, except I can put that in there, yes, is not guarding our heart, you will fall into sin.

It is inevitable.

In Numbers 13, we learned of Moses.

You know, God tells Moses, hey, I have had a generation of people complaining and they complained 10 times after having been brought from Egypt. It was really bad.

What happens is that After they start complaining, God gets really, really upset with them.

And he says, you know what?

You guys are not going to enter the promised land.

And in fact, it gets so bad that sometimes, that in some places in the Bible, when you read, they are literally swallowed up by their own problems, like the sons of Korah.

After complaining against Moses, the Bible says that the ground they were standing on opened and his whole family was swallowed up because they were complaining.

Why?

Because completely.

Complaining is a sin.

When you lose God's peace, you are going to start complaining.

Lots of things are going to start happening in your mind.

And once that complaining and rebelling against God, that is called sin.

It is called sin.

And you don't want to be doing that.

So what tends to go first when problems come is the peace of God.

And that is something you need to be aware of.

Secondly, we may have a misunderstanding of what peace is.

Many of us, when we think of God's peace, we think of worldly peace.

The peace of the world is linked with self-interest.

A lot of us who grew up in the West, we have no idea what peace is.

I have traveled to Hungary, I've traveled to Europe, and many of those countries, they're very nice.

Canada, they're beautiful.

Got mountains, it's nice and peaceful.

They've got everything they need.

But what we found out is that a lot of the young people, even the older people, struggle with...

a lot of internal strife.

Their souls are searching because they think by having stuff and having some kind of tranquility, physical tranquility, that their spiritual souls are fine.

No, they know they are not fine.

And in fact, when you talk to them, you realize, man, these guys are lost.

Their souls are so lost.

In the last year alone, we've been talking to a lot of youth and young adults, and we found out that they are looking for peace here.

Just here in San Dimas, okay?

In fact, we talked to one person a few weeks ago, and she said to us, everywhere I turn, there is no peace.

This young generation has grown up in broken homes and a promise from the secular worldview and education that they don't need God, they don't need parents, they don't need anybody else.

They can pursue their own dreams and allow their feelings to lead them, and everything will be fine and dandy.

And now, as a young adult, You're looking for peace through crystals, drugs, divination, pornography, and self-gratification outside of God's perimeters.

You are choosing to trust in things that you can't actually trust.

The third thing is sometimes we double in trusting both the world and God at the same time.

We put our hand on the Bible and we also put our hand on money, on reason, on doubt, on Eastern philosophy of karma.

on Ethnistic Worldview.

I was watching a movie the other day.

called The Missing, starring Cate Blanchard and Tommy Lee Jones.

Now, I don't watch movies with witchcraft.

I'm very careful what I watch, unless it's showing culture or it's just something small that is part of a true story.

It has to be part of a true story.

And this particular movie, by the way, has six trafficking themes, so not particularly ideally for kids.

However, in this movie, Cate Blanchard seems to be affected by a curse.

from a witch doctor.

And she looks like she's possessed, her skin is swelling, she's shaking like, you know, she's crazy.

And so her dad, Tommy Lee Jones, and a nice Native American start chanting over her, chanting some weird stuff.

And then the younger daughter has no idea what to do because there's just chaos going on.

She opens her Bible, she has a little Bible, and she starts quoting Matthew chapter one.

So and so begot, so and so and so and so and so begot, so and so and so and so begot, so and so and so and so.

And she just keeps going on.

And just naming all these people in the Bible and this whole scene is so chaotic and it's an extreme example.

But many of us try to achieve peace through both God and other means that the world gives us and it ends up being chaotic.

But God asks you and I this question that he asks the Israelites in 1 Kings chapter 18.

How much longer will you waver hobbling between two opinions?

If...

God, if the Lord is God, follow him.

If Baal is God, then follow him.

But the people were completely silent.

The people were completely silent.

See, God's peace is a gift.

We don't try to achieve it.

It is something that's given to us as a fruit of self-surrender.

And the result is contentment.

Nothing will give you true peace.

As God gives, but God.

All right?

So we've talked about joy.

We've talked about peace, God in the heart, the peace of God right there.

Looking good?

Okay?

Now, we're going to move into application, okay?

The best version of you is a person who is filled with joy and acts from joy.

So, first application.

If you are not a Christian, the best version of you...

is going to do something.

He's going to seek God's joy and God's peace.

Unless you understand that God is your ultimate source of objective joy and peace, you will keep on being deceived.

Everyone in the world seeks to have peace and joy.

We want to be happy.

But we do that by defining our own terms of joy and peace, which are subjective.

See, when Jesus was born, the Bible says he came into the world to bring us joy.

Therefore, you hear that song, joy to the world, the Lord is come.

Let earth receive a king.

Let every heart prepare him room.

If you think in this world you'll achieve some kind of utopia of joy and peace, if you think that money, fun, and the lifestyle that you are living is going to bring you joy, you are disillusioned.

The world is going to fail you and maybe it already has.

This is not the best version of you because you're not living from God's joy.

The best version of you is being reconciled to God, being at peace with God, so that true joy, objective joy, will be rooted in your heart.

Romans 5 says this, Because of Jesus'death on the cross, we...

can walk to God and say, God, I'm sorry for my sin.

I want to accept you as Lord and Savior.

And the Bible says the Holy Spirit is going to come into your life and make you a Christian, and you will have peace with God.

You will be reconciled with God, and the Holy Spirit coming in you will bring you joy.

And from there, the Bible says you start producing the fruit of joy.

It will make the best version of you.

C.S.

Lewis, in his book, Surprised by Joy, speaks of joy this way.

I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it, joy, would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.

But then joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.

Pleasure is right there.

You can tap into pleasure very, very quickly.

Joy, uh-uh.

We can manufacture pleasure.

It's within our power.

However, joy is, like we said, is a gift bestowed.

on us by God himself, says Amy Matravadi.

If you're not a Christian today, I'd like to invite you, invite you into this glorious relationship with him.

where true peace and joy exist, where the best version of you will begin.

Now, if you're a Christian, the best version of you is learning to return to joy quickly.

That's number two.

If you're a Christian, the best version of you is learning to return to joy quickly.

What emotions do you lead with?

The best version of you is one that remembers you were created to experience joy and live from joy.

But like we saw in the case of the two women in Philippians chapter 4, these two women seem to be in a big fight and their joy has been robbed of them.

We have joy robbers.

It does not say here, but it seems like anger and maybe some hurt were leading these women in their response to one another.

Today, many of us allow joy robbers to lead our interactions with God and with others.

If you lead your interactions with worry and mistrust, anxiety and depression and lust and envy and shame.

It is not the best version of you God intended.

And it always leads to broken dysfunctional relationships.

If you're leading out of codependency, it's going to break relationships just like scar like we saw.

So I would like you to analyze your relationships.

In which relationships do you not lead out of joy?

In which relationships do you not lead out of joy?

And please hear me on this one.

There are some of us who suffer from disorders.

And we talked about this at prayer night, about two prayer nights ago.

And I agree, some disorders are chemical and hormonal, but some of them are a result of us having relinquished joy and peace that surpasses all understanding.

And so you have anxiety and eating and panic disorders and mental health because you have removed the peace of God.

from guarding your heart.

And I want to say this compassionately as well, as compassionately as I can.

If you're struggling with your sexuality, ask yourself, have you fully surrendered this struggle to God?

Or are you allowing your feelings to lead you?

If you're a young adult, most of you have grown up in broken homes and maybe your family has failed you, school has failed you, the economy has failed you, your friends have failed you.

And now you're leading out of anxiety, fear, and shame.

Paul tells us to return to joy, the best version of you.

Paul encourages you and I to choose joy in our relationships.

Jesus led with joy.

I want to take you back to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus suffers a major anxiety attack.

Imagine for a second with me that Jesus led this moment as he's on the ground, just sweating and...

having just strong anxiety.

Imagine if he led that moment with anxiety or anger.

I don't know whether I would be here.

Imagine if he zapped all the soldiers and they all just died.

Or imagine if he was so scared that he actually ran from the cross.

We wouldn't be here.

Therefore, tells us in Hebrews, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us read ourselves of every obstacle and sin that so entangles us.

And let's run with endurance the rest that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and sat at the right hand of the throne of God.

For the joy set before him, which was you.

Jesus did not allow the joy robber anxiety to rob him of his mission to save you and others.

I because we bring him joy.

You and I should not allow joy robbers to rob you and I of our humanity and the life that God has for us in Christ Jesus.

So here are some questions that you could ask yourself if you are leading with bad emotions.

These are questions from Marcus Werner and Jim Wilder.

They ask, do people walk on eggshells around you?

Do people avoid you?

Do people feel safe at disagreeing with you or do they keep opinions to themselves?

Can people expect a tender response to their weaknesses or do they fear any sign of weakness will be used against them?

Do you often present yourself as stronger than you actually feel?

How long do negative emotions control your relationships?

See, the best version of you returns to joy by maintaining our capacity to be relational and act ourselves during upset emotions instead of shutting down important aspects of our humanity.

says Jim Wilder.

So here are some tools.

You want to quiet yourself with emotions and getting upset.

Number two, you know, try and establish relational connections quickly when things go bad.

And you want to seek to return to an authentic relationship where there is no tension.

Joy is foundational to being human.

God made us like that so that when Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice, we have to get good at it.

It's a nevertheless joy.

The best version of a Christian returns to joy and leads from joy in their relationship with God and with others.

I wonder if we took this approach, how many marriages would not end in divorce?

How many sibling relationships would be healed?

How many church or work relationships would stay healthy?

Number three, the best version of you is best guarded by God's peace through surrender.

Since we know that joy is found in the heart and we know that God's peace...

protects our heart and our mind, then we must invite God's peace in our hearts.

How do we do that?

By praying the prayer of relinquishment.

Not my will, but yours be done.

The prayer of relinquishment, as written by Richard Foster, is one that moves from struggling to releasing.

It brings us into soul-satisfying rest.

See, in the garden, like we talked about, Jesus faced a mind.

battle as he journeyed to the cross.

He said, your will, he said to his father, your will be done and not mine.

Richard Foster continues and says that Jesus knows the burden of an unanswered prayer.

Do you have an unanswered prayer?

Do you?

Yet Jesus having faced this, he led himself to the cross with the joy before him.

Has this unanswered prayer in your life?

led to a lack of joy and a lack of peace.

The battle is my will be done versus your will be done.

If my will overcomes God's will, I will lose the peace of God.

I'm going to say that again.

If my will overcomes God's will, then I will lose the peace of God.

If you submit to God's will, God's peace will be given to guard your heart.

The question is, have you prayed about it?

Have you given God your request?

And sometimes, by the way, your request may not be granted.

Your request might not be answered.

It may not.

But remember, Jesus'request was not answered.

God walked Jesus to the cross.

And God gave Jesus joy and peace as he walked to the cross.

Now, the other part of this is praying with thanksgiving.

Not just a prayer of relinquishment, but also prayer with thanksgiving and petition.

Praying about...

everything because gratitude reminds us of what God has done in the past.

It recalls His testimony, grounds us back into His faithfulness, just like the Israelites.

They never recalled what God had done when they crossed the Red Sea or when He gave them manna.

They were always complaining.

But when we pray with thankfulness, what happens is we are grounded back in God's testimony that He's faithful to bring us through.

King David knew something about unanswered prayer.

Unanswered prayer, he says this in Psalm 35, but my prayers...

returned and answered.

Then he says this, but later he says, I will give thanks in the congregation.

So he's aware of his unanswered prayer, but he comes to church and he says, I am going to give thanks in the congregation.

The result is peace given to you.

Peace that surpasses all understanding.

It transcends all rationality.

Okay.

I have been going to this.

martial arts thing.

And one of the things they've been teaching us is when you go, before you go into the mat, you kind of get there, you bow down.

And the scripture says you have to leave your stuff right there.

As you get inside, you can focus on what you're supposed to be doing.

However, and he says, when you leave, you have the option of whether to pick that stuff up again and go away with it, or you can leave it there.

Sometimes when we pray to God, we give him our stuff.

And then as soon as we finish praying, we pick it up.

God says, you want to leave your stuff with me so you can have peace.

But also many of us lack a consistent personal prayer life.

How many times do I talk to people that I meet every day and I ask, how is your prayer life?

Are you in a community group?

And no, many of us are not.

And because of that, we lack peace.

If you live a life of total surrender to God's way through prayer, the peace of God will guard your heart.

will garrison your heart, will rule your heart.

Joy will stay central and you will be the best version of you.

being the way that God intended you to be.

Feel good theologian, Forrest Frank, has a song that's out and he says this, I don't have to worry about a thing.

Even when the wind and waves are rising, I know I'm safe and sound in your love.

I know I'm safe and sound in your love.

And if you are young adult or youth, you know who Forrest Frank is.

Number four, the best version of you is continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

In order to keep on bearing the fruit of joy and peace, or the fruit of joy, you need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

Pray for God to fill you up every day because the world keeps influencing you and I.

Ephesians chapter 4, chapter 5, verse 18 says this.

Paul says, don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life.

Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul plays off being drunk because you need to keep drinking.

in order to keep being drunk, okay?

And he says the same thing for you and I, that in order for us to stay connected with the Holy Spirit, to be filled with joy, we've got to ask him, please fill me up, fill me up, fill me up continually.

You're already saved and sealed, but this idea of being filled is something, let me read it this way.

Let me give you another example before I go there.

Acts chapter 13, verse 52.

But the Jews incited the devout women of the prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the region.

They were preaching in Philippi here.

But they shook off the dust from their feet and protested against them and went to Iconium.

And the disciples were continually, here it goes, continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

So here's the same idea again.

They had already received the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2.

They were ready.

They were ready to go.

Okay.

But it says they will continue to refill the Holy Spirit.

The idea here is bring me back to full measure so I can be the best version of me.

He's not saying I don't have the Holy Spirit.

It's like, I want more of you.

Bring me back.

So maybe I was halfway.

Now I want to be back to full measure.

So the question I have for you today is, are you half empty?

Are you quarter empty?

Do you need a refilling of the Holy Spirit today?

Maybe that's your prayer today.

Maybe that's your prayer this week, that you want the Holy Spirit to fill you up again so you can bear the fruit of joy.

It is given to you as a result of surrender.

So as we end today, the Apostle Paul lived an extraordinary life.

And we've learned that looking at Philippians, looking at some of the things he did in the book of Acts.

Throughout the whole series, we have seen time and time again that Paul led with joy.

And even though he had challenges, he led with a joyful life.

Whether he was shipwrecked, whether he was bitten, whether he was in prison, whether he was with snakes on the island of Malta, he led with joy.

Paul lived the best version of himself being led by a nevertheless joy.

Joy in the Lord and joy with others.

He was a man.

full of the Holy Spirit, so that no matter what the situation, Paul lived the best version of himself.

Therefore, making probably the biggest impact, apart from Jesus, on Christianity.

So imagine with me for a second that if every Christian led with joy, imagine with me for a moment if every Christian led with joy.

What impact would we have on our families?

What impact would we have on our communities?

What impact would we have on our country?

What impact would we have on the world?

When you look at your life right now, the question that I have for you, are you the best version of you?

Do you lead with joy?

When you look at your life right now, Are you the best version of you?

Are you leading your life with joy?

By the way, the best version of you is not about you.

It's about what God can do through you like Paul.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your message.

We thank you that we've learned a lot from the book of Philippians and what God can do through a man who is seated in prison.

who suffered a lot because he loved you.

God, you remind us every day to take up our cross daily and follow you.

The Bible tells us that when we rely on you and when we are filled up by you and to the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live a life of joy, lead from joy.

God, we ask you in Jesus'name for everyone who is listening to this and maybe they're struggling with shame, anxiety, and codependency.

Maybe they're just realizing right now their lives have led to broken relationships.

I pray that, God, there will be a way out for them.

There is a way out for them, God, that is asking you to give them joy so that they can be the best version of themselves.

God, I pray for anyone who needs to receive Jesus, that they will receive Jesus because you are the only source of joy.

You're the only source of peace.

God, we just want to pray that you feel us again.

You feel us every day.

Help us to be hungry for you so that we can be the best version, so you can live a life that makes an impact for your kingdom, so that many people who are far from God can come near to God by seeing Jesus in us.

In your name we pray, and everybody said, Amen.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If something resonated with you and you just want a little more information about Christianity and this walk with Jesus, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.

Jesus.

From there, we can give you all the information for your next best step.

One of the things we love to offer here is a lot of content that will help you with your relationship with Jesus.

And two of those things is, the first one is called The Daily Podcast, which is just a two to three minute daily devotional that you listen to and just reflect on the devotional and pray.

I encourage you to go to anywhere you listen to your podcast, whether that be Spotify, Apple Music, as well as on our one and all app where you can actually watch the daily video with a reflection and with a time to pray.

The second thing is, is we have a conversation podcast where we get to sit down with our speakers or with authors and pastors and just dive deeper into what Christianity looks like and your walk with Jesus.

So I wanna encourage you to watch that on our YouTube channel.

And we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.