Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, good morning, church.
[00:00:03] It's good to see you today.
[00:00:06] I'm sure you were as excited as I was to wake up to the snow.
[00:00:12] Quite a little week here of that 60° to this.
[00:00:17] But, hey, today I want to just begin and invite us into a special moment of prayer.
[00:00:26] So, you know, we are a church family. And that means, you know, we go through the good and bad together and we seek God's help.
[00:00:34] And some of you might know, some of you might not, but we lost a high school student this week, A very special young girl named Cheyenne that was part of our student ministry.
[00:00:44] And so I just want to pray a special prayer for her family, for our teens, that we're connected to her, for our leaders.
[00:00:55] And before I do that, I want to read this scripture to you. It says this. Blessed be the God and father of our lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
[00:01:26] And so that's my prayer today.
[00:01:29] I believe the solution to the pain of life. I wish life was always easy.
[00:01:36] I wish we didn't have moments like this.
[00:01:40] But the solution to that is God's mercy to us and seeking that and receiving that.
[00:01:47] And as we receive his mercy, then God gives us something good to give to others.
[00:01:53] And so my prayer is that just during this time, as a church family, we could receive God's mercy. And we could be a channel of God's mercy and comfort to anyone who needs it. You with me, church. And so you pray that in your hearts. And I'm gonna pray that out loud, so you bow your heads with me. Father, we do know you are the God of all comfort. And we come to you.
[00:02:19] We believe you are the father of all mercy. And mercy is what brings relief to the pain of this life.
[00:02:28] And we pray for your mercy to meet us, to meet Cheyenne's family and friends and our students, Lord, and we ask for your precious mercy, mercy and grace to fill their hearts and their minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:02:43] We pray you would guard them from all evil.
[00:02:47] We pray, lord, that in the midst of this, they would draw nearer to you than they ever have.
[00:02:54] And that Christ would be glorified in them and through them. And, father, we pray as your church family that we could love each other in deeper, greater ways.
[00:03:05] We could serve each other more wholeheartedly.
[00:03:10] And, father, we could be your church in this time in this place in this season, we ask for your help in all this. In Jesus good name we pray.
[00:03:21] Amen.
[00:03:23] Thank you, church. And I just ask you, keep that in your mind and heart and keep lifting that up in prayer. Thanks.
[00:03:30] All right, we're gonna transition now into the message here.
[00:03:35] So, as you know, we've been looking through the book of Philippians, and we've been talking about having a faith that is growing and is becoming more joyful at the same time, that is maturing and developing, but also being strengthened by joy. And that's kind of what I think the whole book of Philippians is about.
[00:03:58] And today we're gonna continue that. But when I was thinking about the verse today, I was reminded several years ago, my brother in law, he had this cool little red car, and it was stick shift.
[00:04:13] And I love stick shift.
[00:04:16] I would have every car. I just think it's fun.
[00:04:21] And not that I've ever really had a cool stick shift car, but I still feel like Mario Andretti or whatever.
[00:04:29] I don't know who's a good race car guy out of the loop on that, but it's always fun to drive. So he needed it moved somewhere, and I was like, yeah, man, I can love to move it wherever. I can't remember what the exact details were. And so I got in it and I started to drive and was finding my flow again, shifting around, but I was like, man, this thing's not really driving very well.
[00:04:54] Like, this thing just kind of seems pretty janky and not real great. And so I finally got to where I needed to park it, and as I put it in park, my arm hit the emergency brake and it was up.
[00:05:11] And I realized the whole time I had the emergency brake on, I was like, well, that's why it wasn't driving so well.
[00:05:20] And then I put it down and I've never told him since. So hopefully it's my brother in law, you know, I'm like, yeah, it'll be fine.
[00:05:29] And it didn't drive that well with the brake on. And I think kind of, you know, in life you could think about it this way. There's two ways to accelerate. One is to give it more gas.
[00:05:42] The other is to release the brake. You know, both work right, and if the brake's going, the brake's on, but you're trying to give it gas, you're going to have a problem.
[00:05:53] And so there's kind of two different ways to grow. One is you add fuel to the fire of things that move you in the right direction. You Raise your intensity on those things. The other way to grow is you remove the things that are slowing you down. You with me on this. You release the break.
[00:06:14] You look at the things in your life that you're tripping over that are making weight that you don't need to carry, and you figure out how to remove them from your life. And today, this passage that we're gonna look at in the book of Philippians, it's a release the breaks kind of teaching.
[00:06:33] Paul's gonna say, hey, if you want a growing in a more joyful faith, part of that is you gotta take the parking brake off.
[00:06:44] And he's gonna show us what that is and what that looks like. So we're gonna pick up where we left off at verse 12.
[00:06:52] And I'm gonna read these verses to you. So Paul says this. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. And just listen to these verses. They're very interesting.
[00:07:08] Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his Good pleasure. And 14. Here we go.
[00:07:24] Do all things without grumbling or disputing.
[00:07:32] This is the release, the brakes moment.
[00:07:34] Do all things without grumbling or disputing.
[00:07:39] But like Paul, if I can't complain, what do I have to say?
[00:07:45] If I can't argue in dispute with, like, there's gonna be no conversations at my house. Amen. No, just me. All right, moving on. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. And then look at this. That you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Now I think these verses are hilarious.
[00:08:13] And here's why. Like, sometimes the Bible sets the bar incredibly high. You know, Jesus is like, be perfect as I am perfect. You're like, man, there's no way. That bar is unbelievable. And then sometimes the Bible just like meets us right where we're at.
[00:08:30] It's like, hey, if you wanna be a shining star in the world, stop complaining so much.
[00:08:37] That's it. Don't worry about anything else. Like, thank you for some low hanging fruit for our lives. You don't find it as funny as I do. I thought that I was laughing about that all week. But anyway, holding fast to the word of life, so in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain, even if I'm gonna be poor, poured out as a drink Offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Now, let's dig into these verses. And Paul begins. And he has this really interesting phrase. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
[00:09:26] Now, when you read that, you might be tempted to think that Paul's saying, like, kind of make a deal with God. You know, work it out. Like, when my girls are fighting about something and I don't feel like dealing with it, I'm like, just go work it out. Just figure it out.
[00:09:44] I don't got time for that right now. Amen.
[00:09:47] I do. I just don't want to, you know, and like you figured out yourselves. But Paul's not saying that. He's not saying it in the sense of work out a deal with God for salvation, but he's saying, the salvation that God has given to you, work it into your life.
[00:10:09] Just like you're making something and you pour an ingredient, you stir it into whatever you're creating. He's like, stir in the reality of God's salvation into your life. And specifically here, what he's really talking about is into our relationships with each other. That's what this whole chapter is about.
[00:10:33] That. The work that God does for us in Jesus Christ.
[00:10:38] His love, his forgiveness, his sacrifice.
[00:10:43] All of these things. Paul says, all right, he's done that for you. This is all a gift. But then you've gotta bring that into your daily life. You with me on this? Here's just kinda one really simple way I was thinking about it this week. Cause we had that beautiful day of like 60 degrees. I was like. I started thinking about landscaping. I was getting excited.
[00:11:06] I cleaned out my garage. Bob?
[00:11:08] Yeah, yeah, thanks. Bob's my hero. I just think, what would he do today? And then I do that. And that's what I did.
[00:11:18] And so I was thinking about landscaping. And last year. Last year we have just some flower beds around the house, probably similar to what most of us have. And last year we got rocks in them. Because I like how rocks look. I also like the fact that. That I don't have to take em out and put new ones in every year. Amen. I like that mulch. I had to do that. And took me a while to convince Allie on the rocks, but I got her.
[00:11:46] And so. But I was thinking about, you know, when the rocks came. You know, big truck came and dropped them off right in the driveway.
[00:11:54] And they were, you know. And I was, yeah, yeah.
[00:11:57] And I was trying to find someone I could hire to spread them around.
[00:12:01] It didn't work out. The kids aren't old enough yet.
[00:12:05] No. So I got a wheelbarrow and shovel and put them in there. And then took them all around the flower beds and filled them up. And I was kind of thinking that's sort of a good image of what Paul's saying here. Salvation is. God just drops this off on your drive.
[00:12:23] You didn't bring it all here. You didn't do it. It's a gift.
[00:12:27] God loves us. Not cause we're awesome and lovable, but because Christ died and rose again for us.
[00:12:33] It's a gift. It's an act of mercy. It's this incredibly powerful thing that just gets brought into our lives. But then Paul's saying, he's saying, but hey, now, get your shovel out and get your wheelbarrow out and take what's been given to you and, and bring it into every corner of your life. You with me on this now. It took me no effort for the rocks to show up. You with me?
[00:13:03] Your salvation has nothing to do with your effort.
[00:13:08] But what you do with it does require your effort. You got me the Lord saying, I've given this to you and I will even help you move the rocks around.
[00:13:20] But you still gotta get the shovel out with me. You got it. I'll still do the heavy lifting most of the time, but you gotta put some effort in.
[00:13:30] And that's what a growing faith looks like. And then Paul says, he says, and you work it out. You work your salvation out into your life with fear and trembling.
[00:13:43] Here's what he means.
[00:13:45] Means we don't take this casually that what God has done for us, man, we are so honored and humbled by it. We are so grateful for it, we're so moved by it that we don't take it for granted that we see this as an act of reverence before God to grow and become the man or the woman that he's called us to be. You with me on this, he says, and you work it out with fear and reverence. What that means is that, and I know this is true for you here today, that it matters to you. How you honor God with your life.
[00:14:33] Paul says it should fear and fear.
[00:14:38] I want to honor him, I want to serve him. I want to grow. I don't wanna stay stuck.
[00:14:46] I don't wanna get complacent. I don't wanna dishonor him. I wanna work all of this out into my life the way God wants You with me? That's fear and trembling. I was thinking about when my oldest daughter, Emory was born, Allie and I. It was a very.
[00:15:05] It was a really stressful pregnancy because Emory, we would later find out years later that she has a very rare genetic disease that affects the base of her brain. And it took us years to, you know, doctor's appointments after doctor's appointment. But they first noticed this issue when Allie was pregnant on ultrasounds. And so then we were at the doctors all the time getting ultrasounds while she was pregnant.
[00:15:30] We had to do an MRI while she was pregnant and when she was gonna be born. We didn't know there was a chance that she would have to go into emergency surgery because of these issues. So it was just more questions than answers. We were, you know, when you're a first time parent, you're already nervous. And then that just put us, you know, we were on just overcharge as much as we could be. And again, not a lot of answers, lots of questions, lots of fears, all this kind of thing. So when she was born, thankfully she didn't need that emergency surgery. And by the way, she's doing really awesome and thriving and growing. And we're so thankful to God, but when she was born at that time, we were the most paranoid parents you could ever meet.
[00:16:21] You know, and like, you're already first time parent, you're already like that. But then when there's all the hell stuff around, like I was, you know, when we drove like Emmy home, I was two miles an hour down 71. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, we're not. I'm afraid of the smallest bump. Like when she was little, like, I hated when other people held her. I was like, I don't think you're doing it right. Like, do you better. Like, I was like a hawk, man. I was.
[00:16:52] We were just so, you know, we integrated her into our life with fear and trembling because we didn't want anything bad to happen. We were so grateful, we were so overwhelmed.
[00:17:09] We wanted it to go as good. And it was fear and trembling.
[00:17:17] My son Teddy, when he was born, I sent an Uber to pick him up from the hospital.
[00:17:21] I just said, you get it didn't last.
[00:17:25] But, you know, I was like, yeah, whatever, he'll be fine, you know, but you see what I'm saying? This is what Paul's saying. Fear and trembling, it's about reverence. You with me, it's about how precious it is to you.
[00:17:42] And Paul's saying, your salvation should be precious to you.
[00:17:47] It should be sacred.
[00:17:50] It should matter immensely in that, that you care about how it works out into your life. You with me, and that's fear and trembling. But Paul says, but here's the good news, here's the good news before you get too wigged out about this, he says, it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to act for his good pleasure.
[00:18:14] Paul says, I want you to feel the weight or the responsibility a bit. But it says, but I also need you to know God is at work in you, doing what you can't do, helping you in ways you can't even help yourself. And you can be confident in that. And I don't know about you, but that's good news to me.
[00:18:35] Church, I believe probably many of us today in this room, you feel under suited for the challenges in your life.
[00:18:44] Like maybe you just kind of look at the issues in your own heart and your own life and you're like, I don't think I'm a match for him.
[00:18:53] Or maybe you look at the issues in relationships or circumstances and we look, we just say I am under suited for the challenges that my life demands of me.
[00:19:10] And that's not a fun feeling.
[00:19:12] But here's the good news.
[00:19:14] You are not alone in it.
[00:19:18] And the God who saved you is at work in you forever and always.
[00:19:27] And you can meet those not because of you, but because of Christ in you. You with me on this.
[00:19:36] And church, if God is for you, which Paul is saying he is, then who or what can be against you?
[00:19:44] So yes, on the one hand I walk forward with fear and trembling, but on the other hand I walk forward with confidence that God is at work. Both of those things I hold in my mind and my heart. You with me.
[00:20:02] One keeps me dependent, one keeps me prayerful, one keeps me from taking it all for granted, and the other gives me courage to keep going forward. And you need both of those church, because you don't wanna fall in either of those ditches. You with me on this? Paul says, so we work it out. And then he says, and here's where he goes to. And again, I just love this. He says, so here's a good starting point for all of us.
[00:20:28] He says, do all things without grumbling and disputing.
[00:20:37] In some ways I'm like, paul, I wish you would have maybe aimed a little higher for us, you know, like we like love people really well. And he's like, just, let's just start here, try to complain less.
[00:20:52] Let's Just take this beginning point here.
[00:20:55] And Paul says, do all things without grumbling and disputing. Now what is grumbling? Now, this word that Paul uses is interesting because it has a lot of allusions to the Old Testament story of the Exodus. And this is when God had led his people miraculously out of Egypt and out of slavery. And now they were traveling through this wilderness area for a long time as they were on their way to the future that God had for them. And one of the main things that made this journey so terrible was that God's people were constantly grumbling.
[00:21:44] And what is grumbling? They were. They were just saying, like, oh, man, I kind of liked where I was before this constant discontent.
[00:21:58] That wasn't just circumstantial, but it also became spiritual. You with me on this?
[00:22:03] And it's something that can very easily, I think, exist within all of us now. He says grumbling and disputing. And the way that I think about those is. Is one is more internal and one is more external.
[00:22:19] See, some people complain to themselves a lot. And they keep it in and they keep it in their own heads and minds. But it's still very active, very real. And then some people can't do that. And it gets out to everyone all the time. You know the types.
[00:22:35] And you're like, oh, I was having a good day and then this person walked in.
[00:22:39] I know it's going down, but it's the same issue. You with me? It's the same sense of discontent and frustration, but it's not productive in any sense. You with me on this? Now, I wanna make a distinction here. Cause I've been reading a really helpful book.
[00:23:02] It's called Deep Clouds and Deep Mercy by this guy named Mark Vro Pog or something like that.
[00:23:11] But it's a book about lament.
[00:23:16] And in the Bible, there's a whole book called Lamentations. Lamenting.
[00:23:23] And lamenting is something that the Bible actually teaches us and invites us into.
[00:23:31] And there is a book of the Bible called Psalms.
[00:23:35] And these Psalms are written by mostly this ancient King David. And there's a lot of laments in there. And the laments sound like complaining, but they're a little bit different. And I wanna make a distinction between lamenting and grumbling.
[00:23:54] Lamenting is when you acknowledge the pain and frustration of life, of circumstances, of everything that we all go through. But here's the key difference.
[00:24:09] You bring it to God first and foremost.
[00:24:13] You complain up.
[00:24:17] And what you do in that moment.
[00:24:20] And this is why it becomes lament and not grumbling is as you bring it to God, what you're actually doing is. Is you're inviting God into it, to direct it, to change it if it needs changed, to heal it if it needs healed, to vent it if it needs vented. But it's actually an act of faith because you're bringing it to God. Cause you're saying, like, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know how to go through this. I don't know what is justified in me or what isn't. And I need your help.
[00:24:54] And so when our complaints of life, because we are going to have them.
[00:25:00] Cause life is hard and it hurts and it's painful. And there's things that happen that we don't understand that don't make sense.
[00:25:10] And that's when we go to lament. Where instead of just keeping it at the level of earth, either in our own minds and hearts or in the people around us, we bring it to heaven before God. You see the difference, Church, and that's actually a healthy thing.
[00:25:30] When it doesn't go there, then it becomes this thing. Grumbling. Because we all know the difference between sometimes you bring something up because you genuinely wanna figure it out.
[00:25:46] And you bring up a problem. Cause you wanna find a way through it. You wanna do something healthy with it, and that's a good thing. But sometimes we bring it up cause we just wanna complain about it.
[00:25:57] You with me? Sometimes we're like, yeah. And in your heart, you know, you're like, I'm not really looking to do anything productive out of this.
[00:26:09] I'm just looking to be frustrated about it. Or am I the only sinner in this room who does that? Man, I need to talk to some broken people.
[00:26:19] You get me. And that's the difference. So it can sound the same, but the intent of the heart and where it's going and what our real motive is, that all matters. You with me? And grumbling is when it's not. We're not really looking for God's help, for God's wisdom, for God's direction.
[00:26:40] But we're keeping it to ourselves or to others in ways that aren't inviting his help in.
[00:26:48] And Paul says, you know what a great starting point is to try to remove that out of your life. Cause here's what I find when I open the door to that.
[00:27:02] It puts me in a very passive place.
[00:27:06] Like I'm not taking any action towards something healthy. I'm just kind of. I'm just stewing in it.
[00:27:14] What I also know is that sometimes as I open that door, I just wanna indulge in it even more.
[00:27:22] It's kind of. It almost becomes like an infected wound and it can just get worse and worse really quick.
[00:27:29] And then my attitude and my mind and my heart and my spirit get drugged down by it. You with me Reminds me. Years ago I had this like, what I thought was like a little wound on my foot, but it was like kind of doing weird things. And so I started to get concerned and I was like, it's a spider bite.
[00:27:51] Now. I've never been bit by a spider in my life. I don't even know what spiders bite and don't bite. You know, I'm like, all the spiders I've seen around my house don't really look all that dangerous. But I was like, it is a spider bite. You know, just self diagnosis. And so I went to the doctor cause it wasn't looking good. And I said, hey, I got this thing on my foot. It's a spider bite. I don't know what you do for those, but can you do something? He's like, it's not a spider bite. That's staph infection.
[00:28:22] I was like, oh, all right. Well. And he's like, it's really good that you came in here because that thing is growing and this is incredibly dangerous and we gotta get you antibiotics and all this stuff. And they did, you know, and it cleared up and it was fine.
[00:28:38] But that's kind of what grumbling can do to our souls.
[00:28:42] Like. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal.
[00:28:45] And that's part of the allure of it is it doesn't seem monumental. But the infection grows church. And it's more dangerous than we think it is. You with me on this? This is what Paul's showing us. And it draws us from God.
[00:29:04] And that infection spews out to the people around us and it doesn't help them much either. You with me on this? So Paul says, do nothing without grumbling or disputing that you may be children of God. That you might shine in this world in a unique way. So here's the challenge I have for you this week. I'm gonna keep the bar low like Paul does.
[00:29:33] Just audit yourself this week and see how many times you think you're grumbling.
[00:29:41] I don't even want you to change it. Yet again. We're gonna keep the bar low today.
[00:29:47] Just notice it. Just say, okay. I think that was grumble. I think that was a grumble or disputing whatever I think that was. You know, I'm just being contentious. I'm just being a pain. I'm just making things more difficult. Just audit yourself.
[00:30:01] Tally it up in your mind. You don't actually have to count it, you know, but just try to say, I'm just gonna try to be aware of it and see how much is actually there.
[00:30:15] We might be unpleasantly surprised, but it's a beginning point. But Paul says, look, believe it or not, this can make a big difference, and this can make you stand out.
[00:30:33] And in some ways, I think it can be overwhelming to think about living a life that shines for God.
[00:30:46] Sometimes you can think that's such a overwhelming thing.
[00:30:52] That could be true for our life. But in some ways, it might not be out of reach as we think.
[00:31:00] In some ways, standing out for what is good and God honoring might be closer than we imagine.
[00:31:10] I just was. I went to Panera this week, and I really wanted an. Yeah, I'm Ran, who didn't eat breakfast, and I wanted an egg sandwich.
[00:31:22] Cause I just, like, had it on my mind. You ever get a food item on your mind? You're like, I don't care what it costs. I don't care where it is. I was just in one of those places.
[00:31:33] So I went there and I got. And the guy who was taking orders, there's a couple people ahead of me. I was like, dude, this guy, like, he stood out.
[00:31:43] And he was just really, like, present with everyone, you know, you weren't just like, order a number. Like, he was, like, treating you like a person, just in some real subtle ways. And then I got up and I was like, hey, you know, I'd like an egg sandwich. He's like, man, I got terrible news.
[00:31:59] Oh, no.
[00:32:01] He's like, the bread that it normally is made on, we're out of it. He said, but any bread you see here.
[00:32:09] He did.
[00:32:11] You can pick, and I can make it out of that. I was like, all right, how about some sourdough? He's like, great choice.
[00:32:20] I was like, I felt pretty good about it. Now I'm really.
[00:32:24] And I was like, you know what? While we got some momentum, why don't you give me one of those cherry pastries, too?
[00:32:30] He's like, you got it. And I was like, dude. I was like, that was the most pleasant fast food I've ever ordered.
[00:32:37] I felt like.
[00:32:39] Like I was crushing it at life. Like, sourdough.
[00:32:43] Great choice.
[00:32:45] I was thinking about a plain bagel you know, I don't know if that would have been a great one too, but I was like this dude, like he just stood out. He was just being pleasant, engaged, making like some simple things. And in some ways Paul's saying, look, you can stand out for God with some basic stuff.
[00:33:07] Treat people like they're people.
[00:33:10] Be more grateful about the life he's given you.
[00:33:14] Work out your salvation with fear and reverence. Here's what Paul's saying, man, there's some low hanging fruit in our lives that can really move the needle in glorifying God.
[00:33:27] And that should be encouraging to all of us. So Paul says this and he says, stand out as children of the light, children of God, without blemish, holding fast to the word of life. So in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain, even if I'm poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith. He says, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Now here's the last thing about this, and this is one really cool theme in this whole book.
[00:34:07] Paul does not see joy as a feeling, but as a choice.
[00:34:13] You see, many times we're waiting for joy to happen to us.
[00:34:19] And Paul says, no, no, no, don't wait it for to happen to you. You can choose it.
[00:34:25] You can choose it.
[00:34:27] Now again, Paul's not in the best circumstances here.
[00:34:31] Everything's not working out.
[00:34:34] Yeah, it's easy to choose it when everything's great. But here's part of what our faith gives us. It gives us the ability to find Christ's joy in unusual places, in unusual times.
[00:34:52] And I want you to know, church, instead of grumbling, we can choose it. Now this whole chapter, it lays out these examples of selfless service.
[00:35:07] I don't have time to read through all these. Cause I know I said I was gonna take my time in Philippians, but I'm taking a little too much time.
[00:35:16] So I don't have time to get through all these. But he talks about Timothy and Epaphroditus as two examples. And he says, hey, these gu are serving you and they're serving Christ selflessly.
[00:35:29] And here's what Paul is getting at. Do you know? One of the greatest paths of joy in our lives is selfless service to others is getting outside of ourselves and serving those around us in the name of Christ, how we can, when we can, and the ways that God calls us and church that brings powerful joy to our lives. And you can choose that every day. I can choose that every day. It doesn't matter what's happening in my life. I can still wake up, I'm gonna say, hey, my family, I'm gonna serve them for Christ's sake and glory.
[00:36:12] People I work with, I'm gonna find a way. I'm gonna serve them for Christ's sake and glory the people around me. I'm gonna add value. And when our mind is heart and heart is there, there is always joy that can fuel and strengthen us. I love the book of Nehemiah.
[00:36:33] The joy of the Lord is our strength.
[00:36:37] Some of us, we need strength today. And let it be from the joy of your Lord, the joy of our God, the joy of knowing him and serving him and trusting him and worshiping him. Let's pray for that right now. Lord, we ask that your joy would be our strength today.
[00:37:04] We ask, Lord, that you could help us to see where our hearts and our minds go to that grumbling place.
[00:37:15] Help us to choose a better place to go, Lord, if we need to lament, let us lament.
[00:37:23] Help us to see the difference. Let us bring our concerns and our pain and our hurt and our struggle and bring it to you.
[00:37:35] But, Father, may you fill our hearts with the joy of Christ, the strength of Christ, the goodness of Christ, and may that come through us to others. We ask for all this in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
