[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find
[email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Happy Father's day. To all the fathers out there and grandfathers, adoptive fathers, we want to say thank you. One of the things that I was thinking about this morning that we are so blessed at Madison to have are so many good dads and so many dads that are great leaders of their families. And so we just want to say thank you. We love you guys and we appreciate you so much. And also thinking about and praying for those of you that today is a more difficult day. Praying for your strength. And also I pray for you that one of the things that happens today, you find joy in their memory and their leadership and their legacy and saying a special prayer for you guys today. As a lot of you know, Brandon and I are in the middle of a series right now on the book of Philippians as we look at the joy that's found in very difficult times and very difficult circumstances. And before we get into this lesson today, I want to tell you a short story that was eventually so popular that Gt Haggart wrote that it eventually became a movie and a film. And in this movie and this film and this story tell the story of two different men that shared the exact same hospital room. And maybe some of you have seen one of these rooms before. If you had someone in a nursing home or someone in a hospital, sometimes those people will share a room if there's not much room at a hospital. Or. I remember my granddad, he always shared a room with this other guy, and there was this little curtain that would divide them. And one thing we know about those rooms, just like we're going to see in this short story, is that this room would usually have one man that could see out the window while the other person could not see out the window.
And so in this short story, these two men were trying to make the best of the moments that they had together. And so what they would do is they would spend their hours and time together while one of them was flat on his back away from the window, while the other one could see out that window. They would talk about their families. They would talk about their wives. They would talk about their kids. They talked about their time that they served in the military, and they talked about the different jobs that they had.
But there would come a time where the man that was by the window was able to sit up. And he was allowed to sit up for 1 hour every day. And whenever he would sit up for that 1 hour, he could see right out the window that was right beside him. And so, knowing that the man beside him did not have a window seat, what he would do was try to describe to him what he saw outside that window to kind of make him feel like he could see what he could see. And so he would talk to this man and describe to him these beautiful flowers that were all around the pond. And as he talked about the colors around that sky and that pond, he gave such vivid detail, trying to make him feel like he was there seeing the exact same thing. He would also talk about the color of the sky. He would describe couples walking hand in hand around that pond, kids skipping rocks and kids floating their sailboats and feeding the geese. He would even describe to him how one time he saw a band go around. And even though the man beside him that could not see out the window couldn't hear a band and couldn't see a band, it's almost as if he could picture it because of the man that was beside the window. And so the man that did not have that window seat, he started to live for those 1 hour moments where his world was basically joined with the guy beside the window.
Well, over time, the man that did not have that window seat, he started to get frustrated. He started to be upset because he asked a question every single one of us have asked, and it's this, why me?
Like, why can't I see out the window? Why can't I have that kind of seat? And so what happened for him is the bitterness that he had in his heart then led to rumination. And the rumination then began to take over his entire life. And all he could think about was what he did not have and what he could not.
And so there's late one night, the man beside the window was struggling to get breath. He started to use the little clicker thing to try to let the nurse know, but it was too late. And the man beside the window had tragically passed.
Well, the next day, when the nurse was coming in to gather all of the man stuff to give to his family, the man that did not have that window seat, he thought, well, maybe now's inappropriate and the right time to see if I can move seats, if I can get near that window so I can now see. So we asked the nurse, ma'am, could I please move close to the window? And she said, well, absolutely. So she moved all of his stuff right beside that window. And as they were sitting by that window, she said, you know, you can now see, but you're gonna have to, of course, sit up like him for an hour every day to be able to see it. So he mustered up all the strength he had to see out that window. And when he looked out that window, he didn't see a pond.
There was no geese. There was no beautiful landscape. There was no couples walking around. In fact, the only thing that that man saw was a blank wall that had nothing on it.
The reason I tell you this, we might call it a parable or a short story, is that I hope that as Paul describes and sees the world, even in the middle of a very difficult circumstance, that we can start to let our world be joined with Paul's world, that is joined to Christ, and to see, in difficult circumstances, the unseen.
Because if you were with us last week, we learned that Paul is basically just looking at a prison cell.
And when those are your four walls, how can you see those difficult moments and see the good in those difficult moments? And so, as we dig into this text today, what I want us to see is that joy is a pursuit. In fact, throughout this text, you're going to see this phrase, choose joy. I will rejoice. I will choose to rejoice. Joy is not just something that shows up at your front door, nor is joy something that just shows up and comes through your window. It is something that you and I have to choose. And the reality is, when it comes to circumstances in life, you're going to have good ones and you're going to have bad ones. And those are not the things that will make you joyful. And if you and I are just waiting around for the circumstances to be exactly what they need to be, you and I will never find joy, and we never will be able to laugh. In fact, there's a book that some of you may have seen, and it's called 14,000 things to be happy about. If you've ever thumbed through this book, its goal really is to show you, hey, there are a lot of things in this world that if you look for it, there's a lot of things that can bring us happiness. And what's interesting, as you go through that book, it's kind of like, oh, yeah, that is good. And that is good. And that is good, too. But I'll go ahead and tell you, when you thumb through that, you can memorize all 14,000 of those things to be happy about. But that still does not mean you will have joy if you choose not to have joy.
And the reason I say that is we're going to have a question that we're going to come back to over and over again throughout the lesson this morning. And it's this.
When was the last time you allowed yourself to be joyful?
When was the last time you really allowed yourself to be joyful in worship? When was the last time you allowed yourself to be joyful in your relationship with Christ? But when it comes to those difficult circumstances, how can you find joy in something like that? And so I want to give you a little bit of context. Paul, as Brandon so beautifully described last week, his situation and who he was as a person. If you remember what Brandon shared, Paul wanted so bad to go to Rome to have an opportunity to share the gospel with the emperor. He wanted the leadership to get to know the Jesus that he got to know on the road to Damascus. But what ended up happening with Paul is Paul gets misrepresented. He's mistreated. He had to go through, like, the red tape of their political machine. And really the only decent thing happened to him when he was on a boat. And then that boat ended up being wrecked and not a normal cruise, but crashed in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. And then later he's basically forgot about for two weeks.
And I don't know if y'all have ever been in a situation where you've been trying to do the right thing, and even when you do the right thing, things keep getting messed up.
And you're like, why is it this way? Like. And it's in those moments that it can't kind of feel like we are the victim and we have that victim mentality. And the reason I say that is if you were to look up the word victim in the dictionary, Paul's name and his picture and his bio would have been under it. If anybody, we would think, maybe had the right to have that mentality, Paul would have, but he didn't.
And the reason I think that's such a big deal is one of the phrases I've heard before. Is this is, you know, computers don't have feelings, but men do. And what that statement really is saying when you think about Paul is that Paul was not a person that was indestructible. He was not Jesus. He had Christ.
He was a man that was absolutely destructible. But here's what we see about him. He wasn't destroyed.
And how can you be a person like that in a situation like that? And again, he could have had the most victim mentality in the world. Yet he writes us the most joyous letter ever written. And so I want us to open up this text together. And as we read this, I want you to see if you can sense any resentment, any bitterness, any frustration in his voice, or if you can sense the joy he has despite his circumstances. This is what he says. I want you to know, my brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. In fact, it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
This is what's amazing, is one of his main goals was to get to Rome to be able to share the gospel with the leaders. And he's saying, because I am imprisoned, it's happening. And is that not a powerful reminder that God's word is so powerful? The gospel is so powerful. It's not confined to chains. It's not confined to a circumstance. It's not confined to some four walls. He's saying, this is the situation, but the gospel's still getting out there.
And what he says next is he says, I feel like all of what's happened to me has served to advance the gospel. Some of your translations say this to progress or progress the gospel to help it expand.
That phrase is a greek word or phrase that is very colorful in its imagery. And one of the commentaries pointed out that the way it would have been understood by them, it's kind of like during their day, whenever there was wars or battles, there would be a group of men that would go ahead of the battle, and what they would do is clear the brush, clear the trees, so the army that's on their way can win the battle. And so what he's saying is that all I've gone through is kind of like that I'm one of the guys that's like going through a difficult circumstance. But because I'm going through this and seeing the joy in it, I know I'm making the way for somebody else. And you're gonna notice throughout this text that he's getting to a point of understanding that what I've gone through and how I handle what I've gone through also helps other people who are gonna go through the exact same thing.
Doesn't he sound kind of like the man beside the window that he's determined to see? What might we say is kind of unseen?
In fact, the goal of what he wanted is happening. He says most of the brothers, they've become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more even bold to speak the word without fear.
When I read that, knowing he's in prison, I kept thinking, how in the world can a person think like that?
Well, we're going to choose one of two mindsets.
We might choose the negative mindset, which is, why did this happen to me? And I want to stop for a second and just say, it is not necessarily wrong to ask that question.
Haven't we all asked that? Like, why me? Why do we have to go through this? Like, why am I the person that doesn't have the window seat?
But the danger of only asking that question can lead to the exact same result over and over again.
So another question we could ask is kind of what I think Paul's asking here is, how has this, what I've gone through, resulted in some kind of benefit that God has had in mind? What I'm saying is this. Paul made a choice.
He chose to count the blessings he has more than his disappointments. I love the song we sing. Count your what? Many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done.
When I was reading this, it kind of made me think about Joseph. Remember when his brothers sold him into slavery?
They lied about him. They lied to him. He was mistreated, yet he had the ability to say that what other people mean for evil, God is using for good.
So it's enough to go through something physically difficult.
But you and I know that usually the relational and social pain really far outseed, exceeds the physical pain at times. It's kind of like when we were growing up, people used to say the phrase, sticks and stones will break my bones. But what words will never hurt me? And we know that's absolutely not true.
Sometimes the physical pain we go through, that can be dealt with. But then the words people say about us and to us, those things stick.
And so notice the words that people are saying about Paul. But here's what I want you to notice. It's not just that he's dealing with a physically difficult circumstance in jail. He's also now dealing with a social and relational difficulty because of how people are talking about him, but look how he handles this. And as we read this, I want you and I to all reflect on the spiritual maturity it takes to say this. Whenever people hurt you or someone you love, 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.
What then?
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. In that, I rejoice. Now, you might be sitting there thinking, wait, what is he talking about? Who's talking bad about Paul? Well, there's two common schools of thought. One of those is that it's pagans, that there's people out there that think, all right, this guy is preaching about a man that's dead. That makes absolutely no sense. He's nuts. He's lost his mind. There's another group of people that what they think about Paul is that they believe in Jesus. They just don't like Paul's ministry. One of the things that I read said that there was people during that day that didn't like the attention Paul was getting. They didn't like that his ministry was successful. And even though Paul was so humble about it, he wasn't doing it to be seen by others. Other people still didn't like it.
And so if we were in Paul's situation, would it not be easy at times to say, all right, God, you know, this is my situation. It's not what I asked for being in prison. Now, I got to talk to you about these people. They're kind of getting on my nerves. And what I need for you to do is I need you to deal with it, because, and I actually, I'm going to write a letter about how you hurt my feelings. And I wish, you know, he doesn't spend time doing that.
And what's so interesting to me, though, is that when there have been times people have spoke negatively about the gospel or the truth, he has gladly said something.
But when it comes to people speaking negatively about him, he's making a difficult decision. And it's this. Sometimes you have to choose to ignore it.
Do you see that balance of where he's at when it comes to the gospel? I'm going to protect it, and I'm going to speak out for the gospel.
But if people are after me, sometimes I have to make a very difficult choice that I can't change their behavior. I can't change what they're doing. So I'm gonna have to choose to ignore it and notice what he says. Oh, and by the way, not only is it not confined to the gospel, the gospels confined to walls or these chains, but also it's even being spread. Like he's showing us, the gospel still keeps being spread. So he says, I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but that with full courage now, as Christ will be honored in my body. This does not sound like a God that's licking his wounds, right?
I think about something we talked about at Bible camp this past week. We were looking at the life of Moses, and we discussed that two of the most dangerous things that you and I can ever say and think in our lives and to ourselves is these two phrases. What if, or if only.
Well, what if this doesn't happen? Or what if this doesn't happen? Or what if this does happen? Or if only I'd done this, or if only I had done that. And if you look at Exodus three and four, what you're going to notice about the life of Moses is. Guess what? He says, well, if only this had happened. Or what if that had happened. And in our what if moments, in our if only moments, you notice through scripture, God doesn't kind of say, oh, no, you got this, and you can handle. He points it back at him.
It's not about what you can do. You're right. It's about what I can do through you. In fact, that's why he's saying that what keeps me centered is Christ. That's what keeps me going in the right way. And then he says this, which is one of the most popular verses of all time. He says, for me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Now, I want us to think about that phrase and really kind of slow down.
To live is Jesus Christ, but if I die, there's gain.
Now, y'all might be familiar with this young lady. Alison. Felix Allison was one of the fastest women in the entire world at one time. In fact, she was given that title, the fastest woman in the world. And so when she was given this title, of course, one of the things, you know, that comes with that is a lot of notoriety, a lot of fame, also a lot of money. And so what was happening was people were asking her if they could, you know, be she could be a sponsor with them. She could, you know, wear their clothing, wear their shoes. She could promote their products, promote their clothing, and go to these certain events and do certain things. And what was interesting about Alison, she would say yes to some and she would say no to others.
And what was interesting is she was saying no to certain things that, to her, impacted her relationship with God, and she was saying no to things that actually impacted her time to be able to worship God.
And so the media was catching wind of how balanced this young lady was for being so young. They were talking like, man, this girl is getting money thrown at her, but she's handling it so maturely, saying yes to certain things but saying no to other things. And so they asked Allison, like, how are you like this, so young, and how are you such a balanced person? And this was her response. Well, Philippians 121 is very special to me because it keeps my life centered to live, is what Christ. What she's saying is what we talked about in our hebrew series a while back. If you remember, when we were digging into the book of Hebrews, we talked about what is said, this one thing that I focus on forgetting what. What lies behind.
And if you remember in that series, one of the things that we talked about is that. And we mean it well, but we'll mention in phrases and things, we'll say, I just got to get more balance. I just have to have a more balanced life.
But the more we looked at that, the more we found that balance is technically not biblical.
Balance is a middle class pursuit. It's not a Christ follower's pursuit. We're not told to put Christ in the balance. We're not told to make him a piece of the pie. We are told to pursue one thing, and she's saying, when I pursue that one thing and I'm centered on that one person, that's what's brought balance to my life. In fact, Stan Sherrod shared with me this morning that the way he's always seen this is kind of like when he was growing up and he would help. I think it was his dad plant in their field that he said that if you were to put the seed in the ground and look down, it would be crooked. But if you were to look straight ahead as you planted that seed, the line was going to be how it needed to be. It's the idea, when we have that one singular focus, it's the picture of if you've seen people be able to balance on a slack line, they're never looking at the ground. What's all around them, they're looking in what, one direction?
It's called the law of balance. We find that fixed reference point, and then we adjust. That's what he is saying, is how he's able to handle all these things in life is he's focused on one thing. That's when the Bible says, seek first his kingdom. Then what? All these other things are gonna take care of themselves. If we unite ourselves with Christ, then he can make what our joy complete, to be focused in that one direction. Then the balance begins to take place. And so let's rephrase it, because what if we did try to give life balance and to give weight to money, to things, to jobs? Look how it would fall flat. So let's reword the text for just a second. What if we said this, for me to live is money.
What's the danger of that? Well, when we die, we're gonna leave it all behind.
For me to live is fame, status, how other people see me. All right, well, when we die, one day we're gonna be forgotten.
Well, for me to live is about having power and influence and notoriety. All right, well, when you die, you lose both of those.
Well, for me to live is possessions. All right, well, when you die, you're going to part with absolutely nothing in your hands. That's why he's saying, and that's what Allison was saying, is to have this one singular focus. Christ. It's almost like in that prison cell, he's picturing himself being chained to Jesus Christ, and that is what's giving him perspective. So here's what we've covered so far.
Our limitations become a challenge rather than a chore.
Number two, being chained to Christ delivers us from preoccupation with other people. What a wonderful deliverance, by the way, that is, when we see ourselves being chained to him in those circumstances. But then the third thing is to have peace about our fears regarding ourselves and our future.
When we were talking about Moses this past week at camp, one of the things we kept talking about is when we think about those things we fear.
A lot of times, the things that we fear the most are also signs and pictures of what and where we trust God, sometimes the least. What we were saying is, what we fear oftentimes reveals what we value.
And the thing is, we're all going to fear things, but it's knowing where to turn in that fear.
See, Paul's about to say in just a second, like, I didn't necessarily choose this, and I can't choose the situation that's happened to me. But what I can choose is what I want to do next.
And so I want to give a little bit of an explanation. Y'all might have noticed that some of the most popular comedians right now are what people call situational comedians. In fact, they're selling out theaters and they're selling out amphitheaters. And a lot of the comedians today are not sharing, like, new material. They don't have a lot of jokes. What they're really sharing is life.
The hilarious nature of choices in life and dilemmas of life. And people are buying these tickets and listening to what they say. It's kind of like when Charlie Brown and Lucy were having a conversation on the peanuts cartoon and she said, charlie, have you noticed that life is kind of like a deck chair? It either faces forward so you can, you know, see what's behind you, or life is like a deck chair, where you turn it backwards to see what's going on before, or it's keeping it where it's at to see what's going on. He's like, man, Lucy, I can't even get my deck chair open. And maybe a lot of you feel that way. It's like everything you do in life, there's some kind of dilemma in it. There's kind of struggle in it. And the only thing we can do, and while we listen to comedians like this, is to laugh, to keep from crying, because we're like, yeah, that's me. And that's me. Like my deck chair. I can't even get the thing open. And so that's why in Charles Swindle's book, when he talks about what it looks like to laugh again, he poses three different dilemmas that we all face in life.
And Paul's about to share, in just a second a dilemma he's dealing with. But this first one he mentions is what is called a volitional dilemma. This occurs when there are two different things that are happening at the exact same time that we want to be a part of. And the way I think about this, this could be if you are a newly married couple and you are so excited about being married, but at the same time, you're like, yeah, but I also got to have a job, and I want to spend time with her, or I want to spend time with him, but I also got to work. Like, how do I balance that? Or it could be one of those situations, too, that some of you are living right now where you are a parent trying to parent younger children, but you're also a parent trying to be a parent to your parent.
Those are very difficult dilemmas. We want to do both, and we want to do both well. How do we do that? The other one is what is called an emotional dilemma. These are those intense feelings and occurrences where we have contrary emotions and feelings about the exact same event. And what I mean by that. Here's a. I know this might be an odd example, but if you've ever had to put a dog to sleep, it's kind of an emotional dilemma because you love the dog, your kids love the dog. But at the same time, the difficulty of that is that if the dog is still alive, the dog's going to be in pain.
So there's a difficult choice either way.
I think about when I was younger, my dad used to tell me a story about one of his older brothers. My dad, there was seven of them, and one of his older brothers went through a time in his life where he kept getting in trouble and he kept getting in trouble. And my granddad, who was a farmer in town, was very connected with a lot of different people. He knew the sheriff and a lot of the deputies that worked in that area.
And he'll never forget when a sheriff gave him a visit and said, hey, I just want you to know that your son so and so, we had to put him in prison.
But what I want to let you know is if you come up to the prison, you can come get him out, and we'll let him go today.
And my granddad, as he was listening to him say that, my dad was standing right near him, and he said, my granddad said, back to the sheriff, and he said, as he said this, tears were going down his eyes. He said, I'll be there to pick him up in a few days.
And I give that situation because I think a lot of you know why. My granddad had to pick what he picked.
He didn't want to.
We all face those kinds of dilemmas in different ways, especially with kids. Where do I intervene in this? I want them to learn, but I also know I can't do everything for them, too.
Then there's the geographical dilemmas. How many of you all have ever said, I wish there was two of me, but let's be real for just a second. If there was, is that going to just magically make all the problems disappear?
We all face different dilemmas and notice the dilemma Paul is about to face. He says this, if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. So notice what he's saying. Whatever I choose, I'm going to be laboring, and I'm going to be faithful in it. And I love this, he says, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. He's like, I don't even know what I'm going to pick.
That makes me feel a lot better, because I like to know. All right, what's next? What's next? What's next? He's like, you know what? I'm gonna labor, and I'm gonna do as best I can. How are you gonna do it? I don't know, but I know I'm gonna be faithful. And this is his dilemma. He says, see, I'm hard pressed right now.
My desire really is to depart and be with Christ, because that's way better.
But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Do you see the amazing dilemma he's facing and the choice that he has?
But here's what I want us to think about today as we start to bring this lesson to a close is this.
In life, every single one of us are choosing a chain.
We're either choosing to chain ourselves to Jesus Christ, or we're chaining ourselves to a job.
We're going to chain ourselves to Jesus Christ, or we're going to chain ourselves to somebody else.
Life is a choice of chains.
And the quicker we start to realize that one of those has a dead end, that only, like, we listed the things, right? If we live money, if we live fame, if we live power, if we live influence every single one of those things that we listed, they only make us angry, frustrated, bitter, empty, scared.
So what are we going to choose?
Life is a choice of chains. And so, as you read this and think about what Paul is basically saying, you know what? I can't choose how long this stays on me. That's why he says, I don't know. Like, I don't know how long this is going to be. But what I do know is I get to choose how I respond. We can't always choose what happens to us. We can't choose what people say about us, but we can choose, choose what's next and what we are gonna choose. And so what if we just started saying, all right, God, you might not, yes, remove this chain, but I want you to use it. And maybe we can even think about it from the standpoint he's about to share in just a second that it's not just about you and it's not just about me, that maybe what you can do is make an example of my chains for somebody else.
See, the important thing about the choice, and this is why I asked you earlier, the question, when is the last time you gave yourself permission to be joyful?
Is because whatever you choose, choices never just stay choices. They eventually become habits. They become who we are.
And that's why life is not found in just, like, these little bursts. I think that's kind of how we view it. Like, well, I'm gonna do really good at this, or just that. It's not what we do occasionally. It's what we choose daily.
And here's the good news and the bad news. The good news is we have choices. God's given us free will. The challenge is, have y'all noticed that Satan loves to give us a lot of different choices, and he'll give us a lot of really good choices to preoccupy us.
And I know this might be weird to say, but I think Satan sees and knows your potential and my potential more than we know our own. And that's why I think he gives us so many choices.
So the choice you make on how you handle those chains is going to be a habit.
And so remember at the very beginning when I talked about how Paul understood that it's me choosing in this moment to kind of clear the path for other people. Look what he says.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.
Why are you still in those chains? Could it possibly be for someone else's progress or to encourage others to have joy in their faith?
Paul, to me in this text, is kind of like that guy that was beside the window. All he could see was this blank wall, but he chose to see something else.
You know, that doesn't just happen naturally. It's a choice.
Maybe there's some of you in this room today that you have not chosen Christ. You know, when we talk about Joy, by the way, there is a difference in joy and happiness. And you've probably heard this like I have. Happiness is connected to happenings or circumstances. The danger of that is you have good ones and bad ones. So your life would then look like this. Joy is not connected to a circumstance. Joy is connected to Jesus. And so when difficult times do come, we have him. Well, that's why the Bible, when it talks about the fruit of the spirit, you know, the second fruit that's talked about, right, is what? Joy.
So if you have not put on Christ in baptism, difficult joy is something absolutely difficult to come by.
That is a fruit of what he has given us in the person of Jesus Christ.
And maybe for some of you, like we talked about earlier, you haven't given yourself permission to be joyful.
So maybe you're here today and you want to put on Christ to have his spirit living in you. That will give you that joy when you choose it. Or maybe you're here today and you haven't chosen joy. You've chosen something else that has chained you up and you don't like where it's leading.
My prayer is. Our prayer would be exactly what Paul said. And exactly what Alice and Felix said is that we will choose to live as Christ. And if we die, there is game. So whatever it is that you have a need every day, please come while we stand and we sing this song together.
