Joy in Every Circumstance

Life is full of unexpected challenges, disappointments, and setbacks—but what if your joy didn't have to depend on your circumstances? Join us this Sunday as we continue our Joy in the Journey series through Philippians. In Philippians 1:12–18, we'll discover how God is working even when we can't see it, how He uses imperfect people for His perfect purposes, and why true joy is found in Christ, not in our circumstances. Come be encouraged to anchor your life in the unchanging hope of Jesus.

Transcript

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All right. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for a new morning. Thank you for the beautiful sunshine you've given us. And Father, I pray in today's message, your Holy Spirit would move through this place. You would convict us of sin and draw us near to you. Father, I pray that we would find our joy in you and you alone. We thank you for this book in Philippians and just pray that you'd move through this place, Lord. Your Holy Spirit, we invite Him to speak to us and draw us near to you. Pray all this in your name. And all God's people said, Amen. We're continuing our series in the book of Philippians and joy in the journey. And one of the titles today's message is Joy in Every Circumstance. Pretty hard to do, amen. Hard to have joy in every single circumstance in life. And I remember facing this when I was 14 and nine months. I just got my driver's permit. I was getting excited to be able to drive, and we were parked outside of a Hallmark store. And my mom went in to get some cars for someone who needed some encouragement. And I was there with my little sister Anna, who goes to our church, and uh she was sitting there and we were getting ready to load up, and mom looked at me and said, We need to get your hours in, so why don't you drive us home? I was so excited. First time driving. I get in the front seat, and we're in a 12-passenger van because we have a huge family. And I'm sitting in the front seat, getting ready, putting it in gear, and I start revving upon the gas, and nothing's happening. And so I'm starting to look back and look forward, and but the gas is already still down, and I ended up keeping on going. I went above the curb of the sidewalk, went on the sidewalk, went right through the Hallmark store. True story. So crazy. So there was an old lady looking at the cards that'll never forget her face, you know, when the stole pastor van is driving through. But not when we're around. And so just looking at that, my mom coming my sister in before she went through the windshield. And uh, it was it was crazy. And I was so defeated. I'm like, how can I have joy in this? My mom's like, don't worry, you're gonna laugh at it one day. I'm like, I am not laughing at all. But now I can stay many years later, we're laughing at it to this day. And so, yes, you might want to stay off the roads if you see us drive down the road. I've learned how to drive since then. But craziness, looking at that, I was like, how do I have joy in that circumstance? You know, I was thankful that the police officer was very kind and he said he had done the same thing with his parents' garage. He drove right through the garage door through the garage, and so I was thanking God for that. He was very understanding. But I remember as a youth, I was so excited to get my license. How many are there today? You're just like, man, I want my license. You got a couple in the room, some who still identify as their 16, right? They want that driver's license. If I just get that driver's license, I'll be set. I'll be joyous in my life, I'll be able to drive, I'll have my independence, I'll be able to go where I want. But then you get the driver's license and you start thinking, you know what? I actually want more. And then you start to move into adulthood and you start to think, well, what if I got married? And then after that, that's not enough. And after that, you're like, you know, what if I buy a house? Or what if I get that promotion in my job and we spend our lives believing that joy is always waiting at the next destination. I'll finally reach joy once I move from here to here. But every time we get there, it moves again and again and again. And we're like, where is the joy? That's because happiness is always attached to circumstances. And circumstances never stay the same. Most people spend their lives chasing happiness. The problem is, happiness depends on happiness. And if circumstances are good, then we're always happy. If circumstances are bad, we get discouraged. And that's why happiness comes and goes. It's tied to circumstances. Joy is different. Joy is deeper, joy is stronger. And so joy is not based on what is happening around us. Joy is based on what God is doing within us. Joy is not based on what's happening around us, joy is based on what God is doing within us. I don't know if you guys are hearing a low hum here. Is that better? All right. So when Paul writes Philippians, he's not sitting comfortably in a church office or in a church sanctuary with AC. He's in a prison. He's chained to a prison officer and he's restricted. He can't see his friends, uncertain about his future, yet throughout this letter, one word case appearing: joy. Joy. How can a man in prison write a filled joy letter? Because Paul's joy was anchored in something totally different than prison. Bars couldn't even touch it. His joy was anchored in Christ. What if I told you this morning you can experience that same joy this morning? That same joy the Apostle Paul had in his life, you can have this morning as well. In his passage, Paul teaches us three truths that allow believers to experience joy in every circumstance. And so if you're taking notes, the first is this God is working even when we can't see it. God is working even when we can't see it. In Philippians 1 and verse 12. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And so we see that the Apostle Paul says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. I mean, you're thinking about the church in Philippi. You see, one of the greatest missionaries ever to be is in prison. You're probably thinking, we're done. We're ruined. This is not going to work. Ministry is going to stop. The mission has failed. This is a setback. But Paul says the exact opposite. He says, what has happened to me actually advances the gospel. And notice Paul's perspective. He didn't complain. He very well could have. He doesn't question God's goodness. He doesn't have a self-pity party. Paul understood something many Christians struggle to believe. God's plans are never interrupted by our circumstances. Oftentimes we think it is, but God's plans are never interrupted by our circumstances. In fact, many times our circumstances are the very means God uses to accomplish his plans. We often assume that if life is going according to our plan, then God, then God must not have a plan. But Scripture repeatedly reminds us that God is always at work. Even when we can't see him, God is working. Even when life doesn't make sense, God is still accomplishing his purpose. I love this passage in Proverbs 16 9. It says, Many are the plans of man, but the Lord determines their footsteps. It happens to be my life verse. It's so true. Many are the plans of a man, but the Lord determines their footsteps. God often works through what appears to be setbacks. Setback after setback. From a human's perspective, we look at the character in the Bible. Joseph, his imprisonment looked like a setback. David, King David hiding in a cave looked like a setback. Daniel living in Babylon, it definitely looked like a setback. Yet every one of those moments became preparation for something greater. God's never been absent in any of those stories. He was preparing, he was positioning, he was accomplishing his purpose. And the greatest example of that is the cross. You could say on Friday, when you saw it looked like evil had won, but then Sunday morning death had been defeated, and God has always been in the business of turning what looks like defeat into victory. Paul's chains, they became a platform. Thinking about that, it didn't make any sense. Why am I in chains? How can I talk about the gospel in this? But Paul's chains became the platform. Paul was chained to these elite Roman guards. The Praetorian Guard consisted of thousands of soldiers assigned just to protect Caesar. Every few hours, another guard would rotate in. Paul couldn't leave, but neither could the guard. And Paul literally had a captive audience. He's literally chained to him. And he would go through six of these guards a day. You imagine that? Like, what if I chained you to the chair today and we just preach all day long? I'd have a captive audience, you know? And uh, but that's what the apostle Paul's doing. He was continuing the gospel this way. Before long, the guard knew that why Paul had been in prison, they knew that Jesus was Lord and that Christ had died for their sins and that salvation was through grace, through faith, would look like this confinement became an incredible mission field for the Apostle Paul. Paul never viewed himself as a prisoner of Rome, he viewed himself as a servant of Christ. His change did not stop the gospel. They carried the gospel into places that Paul never really could have entered otherwise. And he finds out that not only is he chained, but this didn't defeat the church. And verse 14 tells us that Paul's imprisonment had another unexpected result. Other believers became bold. Instead of frightening the church, it strengthened the church. Instead of silencing Christians and emboldened Christians throughout church history, this has always been true, the blood of martyrs has become the seed of courage for the church. Faithfulness inspires faithfulness. Courage encourages courage. And one believer standing firm often gives another believer the strength to stand. You know, my first encounter of that was when I was reading the book called Bruco. It's about this man named Bruce Olsen who was 19 years old in 1961. He had this vision from God that he had to go and talk to the Moline tribe, the people in the jungles of Colombia and Venezuela. God had told him to do that, and everyone he talked to in America said, that is impossible. This is the unreached people group. No one's going to believe you. No one will want to see you. And if anything, you're going to get killed living in the jungle and trying to reach these people. It's not going to be easy. But that didn't scare Bruce Olsen. He ends up going and going to this unreached people group. He starts living in the jungle. And this man got beaten up. I mean, he started getting all kinds of diseases living in the jungle and just struggling. And he finally works up the courage to go to this tribe. And when he goes, he's not greeted with cookies and coffee and lemonade. He was greeted with just the opposite. People throwing spears at him, throwing knives at him. And they actually hit him and he got punctured and he ends up running back to the jungle and tries to mend the wounds that he got from trying to reach the people. Then he works up the courage and finally goes back in again. And they did the same thing, throwing spears at him, throwing knives at him, and they beat him up, and he ends up crawling back to the jungle at this point. And he's sitting there and he just didn't understand. But his joy came from God. And so he ended up saying, you know what? I'm going to try it again. Try it again. God called me to do it. I'm going to do it. So he ends up not walking this time, but crawling. He's crawling on all fours, gets to the village, and they had so much sympathy for this man because he was bleeding so much and he was struggling so much. They brought him into the village. They started to help this man and he started to heal. And at the process of healing, he started to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they all accepted God. They accepted him as their Lord and Savior. And the whole village was transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The very people who once were feared for their violence became known for their love for Christ. Looking back, reading the whole book, setback after setback after setback this man went through, but God was preparing the way for the gospel. Bruce couldn't see what God was doing in the moment, but God was working through every single hardship this man went through. Church, let me ask you this morning, what chains are you wearing today? What chains are you wearing today? Maybe they're not made of iron, but maybe you're going through a difficult marriage. You're struggling. Like I've tried everything to make this marriage work. Or maybe you've been praying on your knees day after day after day for your youth, for your kids to come to Christ and they've walked away. It's a prodigal child. You keep on praying, they come back to the truth. Or maybe you got a frightening diagnosis. I don't know what to do with this diagnosis. It's just, it's so difficult. I don't know what to do. Maybe it's a season of loneliness and you can't bear it anymore. It's like day after day alone. Or maybe it's grief from losing a lost, uh losing a loved one. A season maybe that just doesn't make any sense that you're going through. Can I encourage you? Your chains do not mean that God has abandoned you. They actually mean uh they actually be the very place where he tends to use you the most. I mean, think about the guard who never heard Paul preach, if Paul hadn't been chained, never would have heard the gospel. Sometimes the very thing that you're asking God to remove is the very thing that God is using to accomplish his greatest work. Sometimes the very thing that you're asking God to remove is the very thing that God is using to accomplish his greatest work. Instead of asking, Lord, why is this happening to me? Maybe we should be asking, Lord, what are you doing? What are you trying to accomplish through this? Because someone is watching how you walk through the season. Little children are watching, your kids, your grandkids, your spouse is watching, coworkers, everyone that God has brought around us, they're watching. Your faithfulness may become the courage someone else needs in the season of life that they're facing right now. And we often pray for God to change circumstances. God just make this go away. But sometimes God wants to use our circumstances to change us. And through changing us, he changes the people around us. And he and remember this God's providence is often invisible, but it never is inactive. He's always working. It's sometimes invisible, and you're wondering what is going on, but it is never inactive. Even when you can't trace his hand, you can trust his heart because our God has never wasted a prison, he's never wasted a disappointment, and he won't waste yours either this morning. He's using it. I love the song by Jason Gray. He and I have talked at times, and one song he wrote is nothing is wasted. Nothing is wasted in the arms of Jesus. I love that song. Nothing is wasted. God is working even when I can't see it. God's working even when I can't see it. Number two, God can use imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. God can use imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. Look at Philippians 1 and verse 15. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. I mean, this is one of the most surprising passages in the New Testament. Paul says some people are preaching Christ because they actually loved him, and others are preaching Christ out of envy and this selfish ambition. At first, that almost sounds impossible. Like, why would anyone do that? Why would someone preach with selfish motives? Yet Paul says that's exactly what's happening. They weren't preaching a false gospel, they weren't denying Christ. Their message was true, their motives were not. Their motives were far from God. This reminds us that God not only looks at what we do, He also looks at why we do it. We can do the right thing for the wrong reasons at times. And we can serve to be seen, give to be noticed, lead to gain influence. Even spiritual activities can become opportunities for pride if we're not careful. I love this in Proverbs 16, verse 2. All the ways of a man are pure in his eyes, but the Lord weighs the Spirit. God watches. God is always concerned more about the heart than about the outward appearance. And not everyone has pure motives. Some minister genuinely wanting people to be saved, where others want attention and recognition. And human nature, I would say, this morning has never changed. Every church, including ours, is made up of redeemed sinners who are constantly being sanctified. We're being sanctified every day. That means that we're always going to be misunderstandings. There's always going to be personality differences. There's always going to be people who say the wrong thing. That's not an excuse for sin. It's simply reminding that no church, this side of heaven will ever be perfect. And sometimes we imagine the early church, oh, they're perfect, they're doing everything right, but there was jealousy, there was pride, there was false motives, and there was conflict. Yet in the middle of imperfect people, God continued building his church. And Paul refused to be distracted. This man could have gone down that path. I can't believe they're preaching like this. I can't believe they're saying that or this. Their motives aren't pure. He could have gone down that rabbit trail, but he stayed focused and made the main thing the main thing. He refused to be distracted. Most of us would become frustrated. And you'd be thinking of all the things that are going on around us, but his concern wasn't his reputation. His concern was Christ's reputation. You can't control what others say about you. I'm sorry, you just can't. You can't control the motives of other people, you can't control every criticism you're ever going to get, but you can control whether you remain faithful to Christ. Paul refused to waste emotional energy fighting those battles. One of Satan's greatest strategies isn't trying to get us to abandon the faith, it's simply to distract us. Well, did you hear what Susie said yesterday? Did you hear what George did? Did you hear that George has been really curious lately? Just joking, y'all. Ha ha ha ha. Just make sure you're with me. All right? Did you hear what George did? Did you hear what's going on in this house and what's going on in Petwater? Oh my goodness, the Canadian smoke. I mean, the list goes on and on. We can get so sidetracked and not make the main thing the main thing. But church, the enemy doesn't always have to destroy a ministry to win. Sometimes he only has to distract us. And he goes around and takes us off the main thing. The gospel is bigger than any individual. I think Paul understood this. The gospel was here before me, the gospel will continue after me. I love us in Matthew 16, 18. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Notice who builds the church. Jesus does. We're simply his servants. That's both humbling and freeing. Humbling because we realize we're not indispensable, freeing because the way of the church doesn't rest on our shoulders, it rests on Christ. I mean, you think about the Bible, all the stories in the Bible. Think about people that God use throughout scripture. Not the greatest resumes, if you ask me. Noah, he was a drunk. Abraham, he lied. Jacob, he deceived. You think of Moses, he was going to be a guy abused by God. He lost his temper all the time. Rahab, well, we don't even want to go down that route. She was a prostitute. David, he committed adultery, and then after committing adultery, he committed murder. Jonah ran from God. Peter denied Jesus three times. Thomas doubted. Paul himself killed Christians. Yet God used every one of them. Why? Because the Bible is not ultimately a story about extraordinary people, it's a story of an extraordinary God. And God delights in taking broken people, imperfect people, and displaying his perfect grace through them. The spotlight has never been the servant, it's always been on him, the Savior. And church, this passage reminds us two dangers we must avoid. First, don't expect perfection from people. I'm sorry, but no one here is perfect. Not even I. In faith, your faith depends. If it depends on people, you're always going to be disappointed. Your faith will always be shaken. Because there's only one thing that never changes. Hebrews 13:8 tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He's the only one that never changes. Our faith needs to be resting on that. Second, examine your own heart. Is it because you love Christ that you serve or because you love recognition? God is not simply interested in our actions, He's interested in our motives and why we do what we do. Don't become consumed with imperfect people. Keep your eyes on the perfect Savior. The church has never been held together by perfect leaders, it has always been held together by a perfect God. And the gospel is too glorious to allow our eyes to get so sidetracked on things that we can't control. People's motives, or they said this, or they did this. Did you hear they did this? It doesn't matter. We got to keep our eyes on the main thing and make the main thing the main thing. And I love that Paul could have gotten sidetracked, but he stayed focused, laser focused, and he was encouraged that God was still working through, he was working through imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. That's what he does. Last but not least, true joy is found in Christ, not in circumstances. And I think this is key. This is key to the whole book. True joy is found in Christ, not in circumstances. In Philippians 1.8, what then, only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. What then, only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice after everything Paul just said. He has imprisonment, criticism, the selfish motives of others around him, the uncertainty. We expect him to express frustration. There should have been frustration. Instead, it says, I rejoice. I mean, how is that even possible? Was he pretending everything was okay? No. Paul wasn't ignoring the reality, he was interpreting reality through the lens of God's sovereignty. His joy wasn't rooted in changing circumstances around him. It was rooted in an unchanging God, Jesus Christ. And that is one of the defining characteristics of biblical joy. Happiness depends on the happenings, and joy depends on Jesus and who he is. Happiness rises and falls with circumstances where joy remains because Christ remains. In Philippians 4 4, he later writes this rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice. Our joy is not this object, and that object never changes. Paul's joy was not circumstantial. I mean, think about everything Paul could have focused on. The injustice, the uncertainty, the execution date that he was waiting for, the opposition, the criticism, the loneliness. Yet none of those things dominated this man's thinking. Because Paul's life was not centered on Paul, it was centered on Christ. His greatest desire wasn't comfort, it was faithfulness. It wasn't freedom. It was seeing Jesus be glorified. Church, our perspective changes when Christ takes the throne of our lives. When Christ truly is on that throne, every inconvenience doesn't feel enormous anymore. Every disappointment doesn't feel like it's crushing. Every criticism doesn't always feel personal. But when life becomes about us, it does. Our circumstances no longer have the final word Christ does. Joy grows when Christ becomes bigger than ourselves. When he is the one truly on the throne, nothing shakes us anymore because it's not something that changes. He's the same today. And many people struggle with joy because their life revolves around comfort. If my comfort gets disrupted, then my life falls apart. If my plans get disrupted, my life falls apart, or schedules or expectations, or my success or reputation. And whenever life doesn't cooperate, joy just disappears. Because they attach the joy to things that constantly change. The more Christ occupies our hearts, the less our circumstances control our emotions. He wasn't ignoring that at all. It's because our greatest treasure cannot be taken from us. No prison bars or walls could take the apostle Paul away from the gospel or to take him away from Christ. And that is why his joy remained. His circumstances changed every day. But Christ never changed. Christ was being proclaimed. Paul says, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. He rejoices because Christ is proclaimed. Christian joy isn't pretending pain doesn't exist. It's choosing to believe that Christ is greater. He's greater than any pain we go through. And in the life of Paul, we see that Paul isn't minimizing suffering, he's maximizing Jesus in every way possible. That's the difference. So often we magnify the problem, the thing that we're facing, until it all shades our view of God. And we start asking God these questions like, why God? Why did you allow this to happen in my life? Paul didn't go down that route. He followed Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your understandings. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he is the one that's going to make the path straight. That's what the Apostle Paul did. He didn't minimize the suffering, he maximized Jesus. I don't have to understand. He's told me to simply trust in who he is. I think the greatest example of this was Jesus in Hebrews 12, 2. It says, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, is see at the right hand of the throne of God. It was humiliating. It was this place where it was agonizing and so much pain. And it says in Hebrews, for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the suffering because he saw beyond the suffering. He saw redemption. He saw forgiveness. He saw sinners reconciled to God. He saw a Father's glory in the empty tomb. You see, Jesus teaches us that joy is not found in avoiding suffering. Joy is found in seeing God's purpose through the suffering. He's always working. And if our Savior walked through suffering with joy because he trusted the Father's plan, then we can trust our Father in suffering as well. And I know what I'm saying is not easy to do. You know, Sayer's grandparents have a rich history of following Jesus through suffering. Scott and Janet Willis, we got a picture of them on the screen. They had three kids and they moved out of the house and they kind of got convicted, like, we want to have some more kids, and they ended up having six more kids, total of nine kids. And they were on their way through Chicago, going towards Wisconsin, in their minivan. You can see it in the picture right there. And as they were driving through with their kids, five weeks to age 13, there's a semi in front of them. If something fell off the semi, hit the gas tank, and immediately the van caught flame. Scott and Janet got out and they're trying to get the door and they end up getting the oldest out. He didn't make it in the hospital. And all six kids passed away. You imagine the pain. Looking at six coffins. So much joy. I mean, you look at my family right now. I got five. We're almost the same ratio what they had. I can't even imagine the agony that these two face. The nation watched in disbelief. Reporters wonder, how is this Christian couple going to respond? And when they were interviewed, this is what Scott said. It's been their rock every time they've gone through trials. It's Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be on or in my mouth. Then he said something the world could hardly understand. God is still God. He has not changed. We do not understand why this happened, but we trust in him. You think of if Scott and Janice's will, like if their everything, their hope, their joy was based on their kids. Think of how their world would have shattered. But because they made the main thing the main thing, their hope was in God who never changed. Their circumstances, kids, and everything around them changed, but they were able to put their joy in God. They were rejoicing because God had not changed. Joy isn't the absence of sorrow. Joy is the settled confidence that Christ is still worthy, still faithful, still enough, even in the darkest moments of life. And they went through dark moments. We would talk to them and just recently saw them last weekend and just talking through the times when they got home and they're folding clothes for the kids they no longer have. Can you imagine? The pain that they went through. But their joy was anchored in something greater than their kids. It was anchored in Jesus. Let me ask you a personal question this morning. Where's your joy anchored today? If you were to lose all your retirement, would you lose it? If you were to lose your spouse, would you lose it? If you were to lose all your kids, would you lose it? Where is your joy truly anchored? Because here's the thing. When trials come, it really tells you where your joy is anchored. It tells you. Where's your joy anchored today? Is it anchored in your health, your retirement, your career? Is it even in politics? Who wins and who doesn't? The stock market. Maybe it's a vacation or your success. None of those things are bad in themselves, but every one of them can change overnight with an instant. Six kids. Now you don't. Everything around us can change. But Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He never changes. The same Savior who sustained Paul in prison is the same savior who can sustain us through trials, through pain, through brokenness today. Joy isn't found in getting everything you've always wanted. Joy is finding, it's found in realizing that in Christ, you already have everything you truly need. One day, your health's going to fail. One day, your possessions are going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It's going to be given to your next generation. Your career will end, your earthly accomplishments will fade. But Jesus Christ will still be king. He will still be on his throne. He will not change. He will be faithful. He will remain who he is today. And that's why Paul could say, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. His circumstances changed, his Savior never did. And because Christ never changes, our joy doesn't have to either. Church, I got to ask you this question this morning: where is your joy anchored today? If your joy is anchored in your circumstances, then your joy will rise and fall with life. But if your joy is anchored to Jesus Christ, it can remain the steady eddy. Because he never changes. He's the same yesterday and today. When I look at this passage, Philippians 1, 12 through 18, it teaches us these three powerful truths that God is working even when he can't see it. Man, you don't know how much pain I've been in the last couple days. God's working. I have been praying for 20 years. God's working. You wouldn't believe what's going on. I get it, but God's working. Number two, God can see, can't God can use imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. Praise God on that. He would be willing to even use us sinners for his will. True joy is found in Christ, not in our circumstances. When the storms of life come, you got to ask yourself, where is my joy anchored? In Pentwater, we know anchors better than anyone. We all got boats are out there, right? And if you don't have a boat, you got several boats you can look at to remind you. Where's my joy anchored this morning? Where is it? When I look at the Apostle Paul and the things that this man went through, I can truthfully say it was anchored in Christ. Is your joy anchored in Christ? Your circumstances can change like that. Everything can change. So my encouragement is don't make your anchor on that. Anchor your joy to Christ. Because when Christ is enough, joy is possible. You realize if Christ becomes your anchor in your life, you can have a joy-filled life no matter what comes your way. No matter what. Is it going to be easy? No. No, it won't be easy. But you can have a joy-anchored life. Father, I thank you. I thank you that we can have joy that never diminishes, never goes away. We thank you that you were the same yesterday and today and forever. Thank you for the example of the Apostle Paul. Even though he could have complained, he could have struggled, he chose joy. He chose to rejoice. Father, I pray today that we'll do the same thing. We thank you for Scott and Janet, Lord, and how you use their life as a testimony to Sarah and myself. No matter what we face, no matter what we go through, we can taste and see that you are still good. And you still have a plan. You're still working, even when we can't see it. You want to use imperfect people. And Father, we thank you that we can have joy in every circumstance. Help us, Father. I pray if there's anyone here today who does not know you as their Lord and Savior, they would not leave this place without coming to know you as their personal Lord and Savior, Father. They would be able to link to joy. Father, I can tell even in all the tech challenges we've had today, Satan doesn't want us to share this message. And I boldly proclaim this message, even though we keep getting attacked with dumb tech things, Father. We want to have that same joy the Apostle Paul had. And so, Father, I pray that the gates of hell would stay away from this place and that you would allow each person in this room to cling to you, the one and only source of truth. We thank you for Jesus. And I pray that you help us to cling to that joy today, Father. And I pray if there's anyone here who does not know you, Father, they would stop following circumstantial happiness and they would cling to the one source of joy. And all God's people said, Amen.