June 28th, 2026

Pastor Michael Crocker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

So we've been walking through the book of Philippians this summer, and somebody asked me at the first service, he said, Is it going to be in Philippians again? And he said it with that much excitement. And I said, Yes. And if you don't like it, I'll see you in the fall. Because we were walking through the book of Philippians all summer long, and we were going to be defiantly joyful about it because that's what that book is all about. It's about joy. Joy in the midst of suffering, joy in the midst of persecution. For a reminder, this is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. And this church was the first church that he started in Europe, and it was hugely important for the spreading of the kingdom of God, for the for the gospel message. This was a key place for the kingdom to take off from. And Paul has a heart for that because at his heart he was a church planter and he wanted more than anything to see the message of Jesus, the message of hope, the message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the power that that is to spread across the world. So Paul, if you know, he writes letters back to his churches and different people and he checks in on them from time to time. And this one he's writing from prison. So this is a letter when he's locked down in a prison. And prisons, you know, today prisons might be a little different. Like if Paul saw prisons today, he'd be like, seriously? This is a four seasons resort. Like it was not a nice place to be. And yet, throughout this letter, you hear this just this exuding joy from Paul. He's writing back to these people he loves so much, who are going through persecution, they're going through a little conflict in the church, but he knows that they're going to stay true to the message that he gave them. And he just, for the life of him, he's just like, oh, when I think of you. It just brings joy to my heart. And if anybody had an opportunity to not focus on the positive things in his life, it was Paul. I mean, Paul writing from that, he didn't know whether or not the next day would bring execution, still staying in prison, or being released. His future was all up in the air, and yet he's like, but I choose joy. I stand in a place of this. Man, that's a message, and that's a that's a sentiment and a driving force that's just missing from today's world. I mean, how many of you by show of hands are on social media? Alright, so okay. Some of you are on it and you just don't want to raise your hand because you feel embarrassed. Like, God knows if you're on social media. It's okay. You're not surprising. You have an Instagram account? Um, I mean, the in what social media is this thing, and it's just how many of you, like I'm not on social media. I don't, I don't get on it. There, I have a Facebook account that I created about 10 years ago when we started the one here at St. Andrews because you had to have one to do that and all that stuff. I don't check it. If you ever, if I ever like something on your post, it's not me. It's Grace. She gets on my phone and she's scrolling because she likes to stalk you people through Facebook and Instagram, her mother's Instagram account. And she's it's like if you're man, Jenna just loves everything I'm doing. No, she doesn't. She doesn't, as Grace does. Grace loves it. She loves to watch your pictures and see what you're doing, all that stuff. Can I just give you a little hint though? She doesn't like your animals. She doesn't care about your animals. Stop posting pictures of your animals. Okay? She just wants to see you and your family. But it's when you go through, there's there's even a term doom scrolling. Right? It's like when you scroll through so often and so much, you just feel like ugh at the end of it. Because it feels like, it seems like, from what I hear from other people, that most of the stuff that's posted on social media is just bent to make you feel worse about yourself. Right? And we just have this tendency. Here's a better one. Is anyone on the next door neighborhood app? Okay. I encourage you to get on it. And this is why. I don't encourage you to participate. Just be on it and realize the crazy people that live in your neighborhood. The wackos that live right beside you. Right? It's just, it is, that app I feel like was built to complain about other people and just tell you how horrible everyone else is because I am awesome. Right? There's you know the comedian John Chris? Anybody know that guy? Okay, yeah. He does a bit on this, which is hysterical. I encourage you. He has two accounts. He's got his normal neighborhood account and he's got a burner account. And what he likes to do, he says, is to have them come at each other from opposing views to get the rest of his neighborhood in a stir. I think that's hysterical. He'll post something and then his burner account says the opposite thing. And it's just like everybody gets on fire and pointing and like, everything's horrible, the world is a dumpster fire, and everything's gonna end. Right? Because it feels like that's the stuff that we really focus on all the time. Are the things that are going horribly wrong about stuff. Not everybody is practically perfect in every way, like Miss Natalie, and likes to talk about her vacuum cleaner, which is a shark, by the way. Today's message is brought to you by the good people of Shark Vacuum Enterprises. Right? But because we we want to tell you how how bad, in fact, there's there's like a culture around it. And so I spent some time, arguably more time on this than I did my sermon, looking up one-star reviews for things, because we have to tell people, because our opinions are so important that you must know what my experience with a place or a service or an item is. I am saving you the hurt and heartache. For example, this guy gave a one-star review for Legos. Wasn't put together when I opened the box. I'm outraged. I have never had something like this happen with Legos before, but this crossed the line. That's a reason. That's Legos. Here's a husband who's trying to do good things for his wife. I look for a change in breakfast for my diabetic wife, looking at no sugar added, and being called grape nuts, and looking at the picture on the front of the packet, I would have expected some fruits or nuts. We all know by the picture you can add fruit, but but I find I've been misled. Plus, I tried it and they taste horrible. I would give it no stars if I could. Grape nuts has neither grapes nor nuts, apparently. Here's a guy who his name's John, and I kind of agree with him on some levels about this this place, but for very different reasons. He gives a one-star review. He said, I arrived at the store at 10.02 p.m. only to be greeted by no one. I understand the store is closed, but that's a target problem. You need better employees. Uh here's a uh a one-star review for a movie uh called Magic Mike. Anyone seen that? Yeah, y'all aren't raising your hands for that one, are you? You're like, I will raise my hand for social media, but I'm in church. Um, one star says, I don't mean to give any spoilers away, but there are literally no magicians in this movie. That was awesome. All right, here's a Holiday in Express uh one star review. Says, they would not let us play with balls in the hallway. That's funny, but the response is why I actually included this one. Hi, Dawson Truck. Although I see how exciting that would be to play with balls in our hallways, we still have to be considerate of neighboring guests. I do apologize if that ruins your whole stay and pray that in the future you would understand the reasoning. Please see the front desk on your next visit for information regarding neighborhood parks and or play areas. I didn't think that was funny. Okay, this was a little long, and I get it. I spit I tell you, I spent more time on this than I did in my sermon. Um, but it's great. This is absolutely the best chiropractor in the Capitol District. Dr. Smith is a blessing. I came to his office with extreme chronic back pain and a mistrust for chiropractors. Not only did he ease my mind, but he completely took away my back pain. He didn't force any adjustment techniques, I wasn't uncomfortable with him or anything. He really listened to my concerns. Now I will only see Dr. Smith. I recommend him to all my family, friends, and anyone I meet experiencing back issues. Unfortunately, Dr. Smith has cantankerous face to his business. His receptionist, Mary Ann. She's the first person you must see when you enter, and she is the self-appointed warden when making an appointment upon leaving. Dr. Smith is a loyal person, so I understand why he keeps the old bag around, but she is literally a deterrent to his business. She's rude, unprofessional, and disrespectful. If she doesn't like you, she lets you know with disgusting faces, sighs, and an uncooperative attitude when trying to make future appointments. She's so miserable, I sometimes prefer to deal with my back pain than deal with her. If Dr. Smith invested in online appointment access that removed interaction from this human form of cancer, this place would be a perfect score. And otherwise, I am I have no choice but to leave him a one-star review. Dr. Smith. And then this last one, um, it's another movie one, and if you know the movies, it's going to this is the only reason I included it because it's, I think it's hysterical, and I laughed for a while about this. It's a one-star review over Taken, the movie Taken 3. He says, I mean, I'm beginning to think that he's just a bad parent. If you don't know what those movies are, that isn't funny to you. But if you do, that's hysterical. I just like, at some point you have to go, you're just a bad father. Um, like your kids keep getting kidnapped all the time. Um, okay, so there's these review things, and like we want to share the negative response we have, someone. We want to, like, because it makes us feel better about ourselves a lot of times. Like, I'm better than you because you gave me a bad experience. And I want to tell the world about it because you have offended me in such a way, because I'm more special than you are, and so I need to stick it to you. And there's almost like this sickness, this need for us to release those things and to and to let others know to summarine someone else. It kind of goes along with a little bit of Christendom in that what we focus on most of the time are the prayer concerns of the world. You ever heard that prayer concerns are a way for a church to gossip? We should pray for so-and-so. She's at the bottle again. We need to pray for she's drinking too much. I saw her the other night. We need to pray for her. God bless her soul, right? Oh, you need to pray for him. Yep, I saw him beating his kids at the Little League field again. He just looked angry again. We need to pray for him. Let's pray. Jesus, we pray for Mr. So-and-so, who's a bad father. His kids keep getting kidnapped. It's horrible. But but we we do this, and that's an extreme. But a lot of times what we do is we focus on those prayer concerns and we forget the moments when God answers. Right? Like we want to throw out those concerns, those heat, those, those, those hurts in our life, and we want everybody, hey, I need you to pray about this. I can you pray for me for this because this is going on, it really hurts, and everything. And then when God answers, it's like, well, did God answer? Oh yeah, did I not tell you that? Well, no, you were complaining about everything, but you didn't give me the five, you threw out the one star, but you didn't give me the five-star answer. I have a group of folks that prays for me every week. And and they reach out to me on Mondays and they're like, hey, um, Pastor Michael, what can we be praying for you this week? Um, and I'll and I'll give them different things. Sometimes it's, you know, about you people. Um, never. Uh sometimes, you know, just about different things, whatever. But it's usually personal stuff, and they're kind of that that for me. Um and so I'll focus on some of those things, but every now and then they have to gently remind me, hey, have any of the prayers we've been praying been answered? Right? Because I I tend to focus and we tend to focus on the one-star moments of our life and not on the five-star moments. We tend to focus on those things that are going horribly wrong instead of those moments when God has stepped in and shown his glory. And in truth, we need to hear those moments where God has stepped in and shown his glory because it gives us hope. And when we live a life of hope, where it's easier to live a life defiantly joyful in a world that says we shouldn't be. That's what Paul is doing here. It's you know, I I was early on in um in my daughter's life, there's a good friend of ours who said, You're being prayer hogs. All you ever do is ask for prayers for your daughter. Yes, yes, we do. Um, that's right. We we're praying, and she was being funny about it and everything. She's wonderful, and I love her, and she's dear uh to our family. But she, you know, she you're prayer hogs. You ever what we're throwing? We were thrown out a lot of one-star moments. We were throwing out a lot a lot of stuff. Like, hey, they'd say she'd never walk. They said she wouldn't eat, they said all these different things about her. Hey, can we get her just to eat? Grace went on a hunger strike when she was a baby, and she was really protesting something. We don't know what she was protesting. She didn't file an official memorandum against somebody or some organization, but she was really adamant that she was not going to eat until something was done. Um, so much so that she got a label on her called Failure to Thrive. Um, and that's a glorious label to have on your baby daughter. Um, it means she's dying. Uh, and and and unless we get food into her, she will not live. And so we scrambled and we put an NG tube in. That's a nose tube. So we stick this long thing and it goes all the way down into her tummy. Um and she and we had to feed her through that. Uh and but she didn't like it because it's the tube in your nose, right? And so she would pull it out. And so I had to learn how to put it back in. And so I would stick it in, and sometimes it would go in fine, and other times it would come out of her mouth. Um, and I'm like, what's happening? Well, we come to find out that she had bone blocking one of her nostrils. So every time I was trying to shove it in, a bone was blocking it, and it was causing her a great deal of pain to come out of her mouth. Great father, right? Those are good father moments. And so we realized that that isn't going to be issues, the this the thing that's gonna solve it. And so, and we're praying about it. We're like, God, please, God, please. Okay, G tube. And that's a tube that goes straight into your belly. It goes, it went straight through, it was hers, it was right above her belly button into her tummy. And we would feed her through that. We would sit her down in front of our TV, we would watch the Wheel of Fortune come on Pat Sajak, um, and we would feed her, and it would take about 30 minutes because we did it too fast, it would all go ball, and just a like an exorcist type moment. It was wonderful. Um, our dog liked it. Ooh, look at this. Um, but it was the other night, it was not good. And she learned how to pull that out of her tummy, too. So I had to learn how to deflate the balloon, stick it in, and inflate the balloon to keep it set into her tummy. It was great and wonderful and glorious moments. And we prayed and we had one star thing after one star thing, going, God, please move. Now our prayer is that she stops eating Whataburger grilled cheese sandwiches. Like we're over that. She eats and it is glorious. And it's because God moved in her life and gave her the muscles and everything and the brain, something, whatever she protested was over, whatever it is, it was a glorious moment. But we didn't celebrate that as much as we were crying out to God from those one-star dark moments. And that's unfortunate because that story can bring life to someone else. That story of God moving in a dark moment of our life and bringing his light with it can bring light to somebody else. Maybe you don't have an NG tube or a G tube, but maybe you're going through something, and that testimony gives power to the power of Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is doing. Paul is doing this in chapter two, towards the end of it. He just comes out, last week we talked about this beautiful poem that either Paul wrote or somebody else wrote, but it talks about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us, and every knee will bow down because of the power and the grace of Jesus Christ. And then he goes in to talk about two specific people, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Says this, if the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. I have no one else like Timothy who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what really matters to Jesus. But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the good news. I hope to send him to you just as soon as I find out what's going to happen to me here. And I have confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon. What Paul is doing is he's setting Timothy up, and they would have known who Timothy is because Timothy was his disciple. Timothy was the guy who he came in, he grabbed from his family, he was a mamzra, is the word that they use. That means bastard. It was he was part Greek, half of his world was Greek, Gentile, and the other part was Jewish. Like me, he was decided, he was in between. And no one either side, neither side wanted him. But Paul saw something in him. His grandmother and his mother saw something in him, and they poured God's love into him. And Paul raises him up and brings him into this life, and he becomes one of the biggest movers in the kingdom of God for the early church. The church of Philippi would have known that. And Paul's going, hey, I want to tell you, remember who Timothy was? This is who he is now. He focuses only on Jesus. Everybody else is in it for themselves. No, no, no. Let me tell you about this guy's story. He's been with me in prison, he's been with me all these places, and he focuses on Jesus. Oh, that brings me such joy to know that he is fulfilling all that God has for him. He's stepping into those places. And Paul is full of hope that he too will get to experience the joy of being reunited with that church if he is released. And then he goes on to talk about Epaphroditus. He says, Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. Remember that one of the reasons why Paul is writing this letter is to say thank you to the church at Philippi. While he's in prison, he has to care for himself. Food has to come from himself or outside people. And so they send him this care basket while he is there. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill. In fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. Welcome him home with Christian love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away. See, Paul's sending them back, and he's sending a testimony with him. Epaphroditus almost died in that prison. You the sanity levels were not good, I'm sure. And he got sick, and we don't know what the sickness was, we don't know, but we know that he almost died. But God had mercy on him, and Paul wants the people to know that. Because Ephroditus was supposed to stay with Paul. The plan was he would carry the gift basket and he would stay with Paul and be one of Paul's disciples. But Paul's like, no, no, no, this story is too big. You need to go home and tell what God did. You need to go home because they know you. And if they know how sick you were to the point of death, and God reached in in that moment and brought you out, that's going to bring them hope. And when you live in hope, it's much easier to live in joy. Because hope gives us strength for tomorrow. Hope gives us assurance of what we don't see. We step into those places of darkness and realize that the light of Christ is greater and more powerful than any darkness that has ever existed in this world. That's the beautiful thing, isn't it? When we share those testimonies. When we get out of the one-star reviews of the world and say, Yeah, but let me tell you when God moved. So often we for whatever reason we don't. I don't know if it's because we feel like, well, I don't want to share my good news of where God moved because maybe he hasn't moved in your life. It's almost like survivor's guilt. Like God moved in me and healed my disease, but he didn't to that person. Why? I don't know. But I know that God moved. And that's something to shout about. That's something to praise him about. It's something to bring hope in moments where there is none. Too often we want to slide things under the rug when we know that God has moved. For about a year and a half, I didn't want to be up here. We weren't here, we were in the sanctuary. But I just I I was so lost in the darkness and and and depression. I just I didn't I didn't like coming here. I didn't like looking at your faces. Sorry. I mean, don't take it personally, it wasn't you, it was me. Um and I just I couldn't. And and Lisa would play this song on Sundays, and I and I don't know if you remember where I would stand in the sanctuary, I'd stand over by The organ. And I used to do that because I get a little excited when we worship. And I kind of sometimes I jump around, jump up, jump up, jump down, right? And I do that and I would hit and I hit the organ thing sometimes and try to mess the drummer up by doing that. And I just get excited and I sing loud and I raise my hand sometimes and do things like that. And so as to not make some of you uncomfortable, because some of you that would make you uncomfortable, I would go back by myself to do that over by the organ. And I remember there was a season where they were kept playing this song. And it was about praise. I'll praise you in the morning, praise you in the evening. As long as I'm living, I've got a reason to praise. And I remember very specifically that song because I wouldn't sing it. Right? I was like defiant about it. Because it's a great song, and I love that song. And before that season, I was walking, as long as I'm there. You know, just like, yeah! But during that season, I sat over there by the organ and it was just like this. And then I'd walk up on stage and go, Good morning, St. Andres! I didn't share it with anybody. Some people saw it in me and sensed it. And saw that I was off and knew that something was wrong. But I was in a one-star review season of my life. And I gotta tell you, God brought me out of it. God and my wife and Dr. Mark Jones and some different times and friends, and just and really just praying through it and getting through that. That God met me in my darkness and said, Hey, there is a light, and I need you to step into it. In fact, part of this first step was to sing that stupid song. Even when I didn't feel like it, was to step into that. And it brought me out of that darkness. Can I tell you that you've been through a moment of darkness too that might give someone else hope in the midst of theirs? That every season of darkness we have, when we have that one-star review in our life, when God pulls us through, there's a five-star moment that someone else needs to hear. That's why God gives us testimonies. It's so that we can give someone else hope. Too often we're embarrassed by it. Whatever it was. Too often we used to, oh well, I I can't tell that. I don't want the community to know that. My first time I told my testimony in the big church, at my old church, in the big sanctuary, an old guy walked up to me and goes, That was a really powerful sermon. I was really courageous. You're gonna be fired over it, but that was great. Because I talked about my drug use in college and the dark places I've spent off to there, trying to search for something that couldn't ever fill me the way that Jesus does. So often we run away from those moments and don't share them. And in truth, they are the thing that maybe could unlock the darkness in someone else's life. The reason that Paul was telling about Timothy, the reason that Paul was encouraging them through the Epaphroditus moment where he just brought back from is because maybe the church in Philippi, who was going through persecution and suffering, needed to hear that in the darkness the light of Christ reigns. And that same Jesus, the same power that rose Jesus from the dead resides in each one of you. God's not through with bringing people back from the dead. God's not through with removing cancer from people's lives completely and fully. God's not through with ending addictions and getting rid of depression. God is not through meeting us in those dark moments. Come on, Baptist church, somebody say hallelujah. I'm gonna amen myself if y'all don't amen me. Sometimes we just to need to remember, and the way that we can remember is by someone else sharing their story. In a world that wants to hold us down and focus on the one-star moments of our life, we are going to be defiantly joy-filled because we know the hope of Jesus. That's who I choose to be. In the midst of my darkness, I know the light of Christ, and that light cannot be extinguished. And it is there for you too. Maybe today is the day that you're walking through a moment of darkness and despair, and maybe you're lost in whatever it is. Maybe today you say yes, and maybe my story, or maybe you're thinking of a story of someone else, where God moved in mighty ways. And maybe you have that moment where God moved. Can you stop keeping it to yourself and be obnoxious about it? We want to hear about your vacuum cleaner. We want to hear about, I have got to go get, it's got to be brownie and cookie dough. Is that what I'm thinking? Okay, yeah, brownie and cookie dough ice cream. Come on, somebody. Each one of us has those moments in our life where God has moved. And if you don't feel that right now, can I encourage you with mine? That it's not just available for me, it's available for you too. We are a church who will be defiantly joy-filled in a world who wants us to not be. Let us pray. Father, I thank you and praise you for the way that you move in our life. God, I thank you so much that you are a God who offers us joy and your light in a world of darkness. Father, I ask that you would give us the courage to step into those moments. If we've had those moments where we've experienced your presence and your power and your grace and peace, let us not hold them to ourselves but to share with all who would listen. How will they know unless they hear, and how will they hear unless we speak, God? Let us speak that truth. Let us share those victories, those moments where we felt your power and your presence. Let us sit with those who are going through dark moments and realize that the light of Christ comes in the morning. We pray, Father, that we would be the people who say yes to you, yes to your power, yes to your church. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Look, I've gone over a couple minutes and she's about to play a song, but I'm gonna cut her short because I try to always land on time and I'm over time because I got a little passionate, a little fired up. Um, and Natalie had to talk about her vacuum cleaner and ice cream. Um so uh we're I'm gonna just stand you up and I'm gonna give you the dismissal and blessing, and maybe you'll play us out as we leave. But um and you can leave, you can take a moment. Our prayer team will be up here if you want to pray about something. Um come, we we offer that time for you. Remember the chairs stay throughout summer. So receive this benediction. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, lift his countenance unto you, and give you his peace. Amen. See you next week, everybody.