[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Man, the music was fantastic last night and tonight. What is this guy's name?
[0:12] I'm not telling you, you're doing a great job. Ed, you did great. I'll tell you what I appreciate, Ed, and I don't even know you, you don't know me.
[0:22] But I can tell you love the Lord. And you stand up here and it shows. And you're not just mechanically going through stuff up here.
[0:33] And that means a lot. And what's your pianist's name? What's her name? Kristen, where's Kristen? Kristen, we need you in Connecticut next week. Kristen, do you have a twin?
[0:44] Do you have somebody else that you can train, that you can send to Connecticut? I want to thank Brother Gardner. Before I jump into the message tonight, I want to thank you for inviting me.
[0:57] It's been a real privilege just to be here and to meet you. I connected with Trent and Brother Gardner on Twitter when it started.
[1:11] I mean, Twitter was new. I think I was like the 6,000th user or something. And you guys were on there early. And at the time, you did devotions.
[1:25] You were writing devotions and posting a lot. You were blogging. And I began to follow these guys and read their blogs. And I was intrigued with their heart. I was intrigued with what was their obvious interest of the gospel.
[1:42] And then over the years, just hearing things, good things, and then to be here. And I love to be around people who get it.
[1:53] And here's what I mean. This isn't typical church. I love that. You know, I know people that would, like, write blogs about him. They write blogs about me, against us, you know, because we don't do things the way everybody else does them.
[2:08] If we did things the way everybody else does them, then we would have the same impact everybody else is having. Which is like, you know, this, you get it.
[2:20] You get it. The music, Blessed Assurance. And then the songs you sang. I've heard a couple of them, and some of them I haven't heard. And I'm like, man, I want to get all the lists of the songs because I want to go back and teach them to my church family.
[2:31] I think that it's so refreshing to experience the balance of good old songs, good new songs. The most selfish thing I see today in music is a generation who refuses to let the 20-something generation sing songs they write.
[2:51] No, you've got to sing our songs. And then the other selfish thing is the 20-something generation who won't sing the old hymns. It's extreme self-obsession instead of just honoring the Lord with songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, like the Bible says.
[3:08] And that's biblical. And that's what we experience here tonight. And I think it's awesome. I think it's awesome. And your church is having an impact. I mean, just to see the pictures on the wall of the families on the mission field and to sit, there was this circle of chairs today, and to talk to all these that are preparing for missions or on deputation.
[3:29] Wow. My heart has been blessed greatly to see how God's hand is on this place and on your vision. And it's a different, it's a unique vision. But it's, I love it.
[3:41] I just love it. And thank you for allowing me to be here. I have been the greater recipient, I assure you. Well, are you guys awake?
[3:51] Are you ready to grow and open the Bible together? No pulpit tonight. So you never know what I'm going to say. Pop psychology, you just never know what's going to happen. Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14.
[4:04] And what I'm trying to do is cram four messages into two, okay?
[4:15] And the reason is I'm doing an 11 or 12-week series about off-script times. And I hadn't planned that when Trent invited me to come, but it's just the way that it timed out with the life of our church and the leading of the Lord.
[4:35] And I'm now five weeks into that series. And the book off-script is, I don't know, 12 or 13 chapters. And really what that book is was my effort in the midst of the trial to share decisions that God was leading me to through Scripture.
[4:56] As I was reading and walking with God through that valley, he was leading me very specifically to Scriptures. And he was speaking very specifically to me in that valley.
[5:07] And it seemed like every day, every week, there was some other verse, some other principle, portions of Scripture I had never seen in the context that I was seeing them through. And it was December 31st.
[5:21] So that was about, let me see, September was my diagnosis. October were all my tests and staging. November I started treatment. So two months into chemotherapy, it was vision night at our church, which was something I was normally totally engaged in.
[5:36] I had had a treatment three days before, and I was toast. I was just laying at home in bed, and I couldn't go to vision night, which was like missing your biggest day of the year, you know, your birthday or something.
[5:50] For ministry, it was our big day, big night of excitement and vision for the new year. I'm sitting at home. My family's at church. Everybody's at church. And I'm moping. I'm literally just pouting.
[6:02] It's cold. I look outside. It's snowing in the desert, California. Believe it or not, we got snow a couple times a year. It would only last until about 10 o'clock the next morning, and it was gone.
[6:14] But it was snowing outside. And I sat there moping, looking out the window, and I felt like a hostage. And everybody's over at the church celebrating and, you know, New Year, Happy New Year, and yay, yay, yay, vision night.
[6:28] We're going to go forward. And I'm sitting here in my prison cell called Cancer, and I'm pouting, and I'm kind of complaining against God, and I'm kind of arguing with him about why. And this, by the way, is after I decided to love God, trust God, live for God for the rest of my life, no matter what.
[6:43] You know, I mean, yay, trust God. Oh, now it stinks. Life stinks. And I'm sitting there, and I'm moping, and I got out my computer. I started writing about how I felt.
[6:54] And I was thinking about the snow outside. And I got this parallel going between the snow. You know, the snow was so cold and icy, but to a kid, snow is fun, right?
[7:07] Kid, snow means no school. Snowmen, snow ice cream, snowball fights. Yes, to me, in that night, snow was like the coldness of my soul in the trial I was going through.
[7:19] And I kind of documented and just began to journal. And I finished what I wrote that night. I felt better afterwards because I kind of put it all on God. I said, God, this is how I feel.
[7:30] This is what I'm dealing with. And I trust you, but you're really messing my life up right now. And put that away and promised myself I would never let anybody read that.
[7:43] And about two, three, four weeks later, the Lord said, start writing more of what I'm showing you and write some thoughts down. And so I started putting some of this stuff on the blog, and I started having people reading that, other people with cancer, and writing to me.
[7:59] And some people got saved because of it, and I started thinking, wow, maybe I should look at this differently. Maybe I should stop pitying myself. Maybe I should stop expecting everybody else to pity me.
[8:10] Maybe I should stop asking God to remove this. Maybe I should start walking through this the way God wants me to walk through this. And people had given me a couple of books.
[8:21] They gave me books of people that beat cancer, and they went back a decade later or five years later, and they wrote about their cancer struggle. And I read them, but they helped me, but they didn't help me. And I'll tell you why. The whole time I'm reading this book, I'm screaming at the guy that wrote it, yeah, easy for you to say, you lived.
[8:38] I want the book written by the guy that doesn't know if he's going to live because I didn't know if I was going to live. And I looked for the book that was written in the middle of the trial. Somebody show me a book, you know, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Psalms.
[8:51] That's what the authors of God's Word did. They wrote from the middle of their pain, and I couldn't find the trial that the guy that wrote the book in the middle of the trial. Does he live or die? He doesn't know. He's just going to, he's walking through it.
[9:03] And the Lord said, well, you start writing. And I started writing, and I thought, there's no way I can do this. I'm half out of my mind on chemo and can't hardly remember my wife's name half the time.
[9:13] I'm on more drugs than I've ever been on. I mean, you know, it was crazy just to see the number of pills I had to take. And I started writing, and then I quit. And then I started writing again, and then I quit.
[9:24] And I started, and I quit. And five times, I just, I can't do this. I can't write this stupid book if it was going to be a book. And then I, pretty soon, February was here, and March was here.
[9:34] And I had five or six chapters. And before I knew it, it was done. I was done, and I handed it to a few people. And I thought, there's no way anybody would want to read this or that anybody would benefit from this.
[9:48] And then a few people said, yeah, this would help some people. And what the book ended up being was just simply decisions that I made along the way. And I share that with you because I can only really share three of them.
[10:01] One last night, Love God, Trust God, Live for God. And tonight, I want to share two. And two of the ten, and you can read the book or go to the blog and find out the rest.
[10:12] But early in the trial, God led me to Matthew chapter 14 and verse 22. This is Jesus, I think, next to his crucifixion.
[10:24] This was probably his hardest day of his ministry. Early in the chapter, he finds out that John the Baptist has been beheaded. John the Baptist would have been close to him, a close friend, a cousin, a co-laborer, someone that shared the vision of his ministry and paved the way and prepared the way and a partner.
[10:46] So Jesus, verse 13, when he hears of it, he goes in a ship to a desert place. He just wants to be alone. I'm sure he wanted to grieve. I'm sure he wanted to be with the Heavenly Father.
[10:59] The crowds are like paparazzi. They're like tracking him, finding out where he's going. And in this point of his ministry, word was spreading. If there had been Twitter and Facebook, he would have been trending.
[11:11] I mean, everybody wanted to see Jesus heal and do his miracles. And they were finding out where he went, and they were following him. And so when he gets to this desert place, the people are coming. And he was moved with compassion.
[11:21] And you know what he does. He teaches, and then he feeds them all. And so we have the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. And then when that's all done, verse 22, and straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the ship and go before him onto the other side while he sent the multitudes away.
[11:37] And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary.
[11:49] And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is the Spirit. And they cried out for fear.
[12:00] But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. Read verse 27 out loud. Ready, go. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I.
[12:14] Be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
[12:25] But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
[12:40] Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you would bless our time together tonight. Let your word and the principles of your word speak. And use me to be an encouragement to these folks that would give their Friday night to come out and hear your word.
[12:54] And I pray that whatever trials, whatever hardship is represented in this room, that tonight we would leave making good decisions. That we would love you, trust you, live for you. That we would be able, cognitively, intentionally, to choose to be of good cheer.
[13:12] And to make the decisions we speak of and we study tonight. And we thank you for it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In September I got the diagnosis.
[13:23] In October it was test, test, test. The last test was the bone marrow biopsy. Is there anybody in here that's had a bone marrow biopsy? Anybody at all?
[13:34] Oh, you've got to get one. They're memorable. They're very memorable. I had been told all month long, the biopsy under my arm wasn't so bad.
[13:46] They just numb you and do their thing. And then all the other tests were relatively painless or simple or laid out on a table while the machine does the work. I went to a preaching trip with my daughter.
[13:56] Took her with me. Spent a wonderful few days together. Got to go downtown Washington, D.C. Take a lot of pictures. And it was just a good memory time. And I was dreading getting on that plane and flying back to California because I was flying back on a Saturday.
[14:09] Sunday was church. Monday or Tuesday morning, I can't remember, was bone marrow biopsy. And that was to make sure that this cancer was isolated to the lymph nodes and not in the bone marrow.
[14:22] If it was bone marrow related, then it was stage four and it was a lot more serious and the treatments would be longer and more intense. And so we got up. We dropped the kids off at school.
[14:35] I was supposed to be at the doctor's right after we dropped the kids off at school. And I was dragging my feet. You know, like when you've got to go to the dentist or something. You just, you plan to be late. You know what I'm talking about?
[14:46] You don't get up on the day that you've got to have a root canal just really excited about your root canal. You put it off as long as you can. So I'm driving slow. I'm lagging.
[14:57] Our kids were late to school. My wife's trying to hurry me up. Hurry, hurry. You've got to get to the doctor. You've got to get to the doctor. I'm like, get thee behind me, Satan. This was just like, I'm trying to cope with, I'm getting ready to go to a place and lay down on a table.
[15:09] They're going to drill into my hip with a needle. And they're going to draw out part of my body that I need, you know. And so don't anybody bother me this morning.
[15:20] Everybody be nice to me. You know, like make balloon animals for me and treat me nice. And I'm driving, we drop the kids off. I'm driving to the doctor and I'm thinking, what can I do to make this day happy?
[15:32] How can I find some bit of joy in the midst of bone marrow biopsy? And I thought, ah, a cinnamon roll. I need a cinnamon roll.
[15:46] And I don't go crazy with donuts because donuts cause cancer. And everything causes cancer, actually. Everything causes cancer. If I didn't eat what everybody told me causes cancer, I would die of starvation.
[15:59] Even water causes cancer. Tap water, it's got chemicals, it causes cancer. Purified water, the plastic from the bottle seeps in and it causes cancer. Everything, air causes cancer. If you breathe, it causes cancer.
[16:12] Everything causes cancer. You guys are like, is he serious? Yes. And there's all kinds of cure for cancer and natural cures. Everybody tells me about all these things.
[16:22] So anyway, I decided on my own, me and God, I'm going to the donut shop, whether I'm late or not. Whether donuts cause cancer. I already got cancer.
[16:33] What do I have to lose, right? So I pull the car into the parking lot of the donut shop. My wife looks at me like, what are you doing? She says, what are you doing? We're late. We're already 15 minutes late.
[16:44] They're not going to take you. I said, good. I don't want them to take me. She said, Carrie, we've got to go to the doctor. What are you doing? I said, I'm getting a cinnamon roll.
[16:54] She said, we don't have to. I said, I said, there's no debate about this. Someone is going to be putting a pipe into my hip.
[17:08] I need a cinnamon roll. So I walked in very slowly to the donut shop like this. You know, I stand there.
[17:19] I get my cinnamon roll. Come out. I sit in the car. I eat my cinnamon roll. I enjoyed every bite of my cinnamon roll. It was a very happy moment. I will cherish that memory for the rest of my life. The last bite, I start the car.
[17:32] I'm driving to the doctor's office. Now we're 20, 25 minutes late. My wife is, you know, she's just tolerating my tardiness. We get to the counter. We go back to the room.
[17:43] They lay me down on this. It's kind of an embarrassing procedure, to be honest with you, because they've got to drill into right here, you know. So, you know, you're a little bit exposed. And I'm laying down. There's three nurses. There's my wife. There's a doctor.
[17:54] I'm laying down on this table with my backside in the air. And I'm hoping none of them go to my church, you know. I'm hoping I don't know these people. I'm sure. It's a big church.
[18:05] And, I mean, I direct music every week. So I'm sure someone's going to come in and go, you're a brother, Schmidt. I didn't recognize you from this angle, but I see you on this.
[18:16] I just knew someone was going to say, I know you. And so I'm laying there, and they're getting stuff ready, and they numb me. Ow, that hurt. And then he says, now you're going to feel some pressure.
[18:26] No, they never mean pressure. They always mean pain. And then I didn't feel anything for a little while. I just felt the doctor just kind of wrenching my body.
[18:37] I mean, I just, what he was doing, and I'm going to gross you out a little bit here. They have this core needle. It's a needle that is, it's like a corkscrew with a handle at the top.
[18:48] And they put it into your hip, and they go, and they drill it into your hip. And it's hollow. So, I know. You guys are like, I know. It's a wonderful experience.
[18:59] Really, you need to get one. Really. I mean, and when they're doing this, they're really wrenching you. I mean, because they're going into your bone, you know. Now, at this point, I was numb until they got to where the bone marrow was.
[19:11] They can't, he told me, now we can't numb where the bone marrow is. So, that's when you're going to feel it. And sure enough, whoa. And my wife, she's like rubbing my hand. And I'm like, you're making me nervous. Stop it, woman.
[19:21] You know, she's trying to calm me down. And then there's, then he said, now we're going to draw out the bone marrow. And that'll take your breath away. And then there was this silence for a while.
[19:31] And I'm laying there. And everyone's quiet. And I'm thinking, would somebody put a towel over me? You know, could I be covered up, please?
[19:42] And then I thought, well, this is a good opportunity to be a witness for the gospel of Jesus. So, I said, while we're all quiet, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit Lancaster Baptist Church.
[19:54] I'm one of the pastoral staff members there. And they got me all taken care of and bandaged me up and covered me up. And then I was able to sit up. And the doctor took the needle and he showed it to me.
[20:06] And that corkscrew needle that he showed me, it was shaped like a fish hook. It was bent. And he showed it to me. And he looked and he said, you bent my needle. And I was so proud of that.
[20:19] I said, I should have told you about my steel infrastructure. And he was an Ethiopian guy. He goes, oh, you think you're Superman, huh? I said, exactly.
[20:30] I said, I've always tried to tell my wife. Now I've got proof. And literally, that's what they were looking at when they were all quiet. He was handing the needle around because he said, nobody ever did that to my needle.
[20:42] He said, I've done hundreds of these. You're the first one to bend my needle. I said, don't mess with me. That's who I am. And so anyway, that day I read this passage.
[20:54] And that morning, I should say, before I had left the house to take the kids to school, I read about this storm. And I read of Jesus sending the disciples into the storm.
[21:05] I read of Jesus sorrowing and grieving, going away and having compassion. And then sending these apostles out on the ship, knowing they were going to be in the storm. And then seeing them and then walking out to them. And then I think it's Mark that says he would have passed by, but they see him.
[21:18] They call out to him. And he says to them, and look at it, verse 27. And this was like God speaking right to me. It's like he put his arm around me. And he said, be of good cheer. It is I.
[21:28] Be not afraid. And in that moment of reading, and before that bone marrow biopsy, and as all this was ramping up, it was as though the Lord said to me in the middle of the storm, and everything raging around me, and all the uncertainty, and all the questions, and all the doubts, and all the erratic emotions, and ups and downs, and unpredictability of this.
[21:47] It was like Jesus came, and all I could see was the storm, and the chaos swirling around me. And it's like he said, hey, Carrie, it's me. I'm doing this.
[21:58] I am with you in this. And this is me, and I want you to be of good cheer. And I have conversations with God, and I know you do too. But in these moments, I'm like, I read this, and I said, really?
[22:13] Jesus, really? You expect me in the middle of the storm to be of good cheer? You expect me to be happy? You expect me to be like a five-year-old kid on his birthday?
[22:25] You expect me to be like a kid on Christmas morning? I mean, like, yay, celebrate, birthday hats and cake? Yeah. And I'm thinking, I don't think I can do that.
[22:41] I don't know that I have the capacity to be of good cheer. I see in this passage the dismay of the storm. The dismay of the storm.
[22:52] I think I've got to go back here. Hold on just a second. Yeah, no, hold on. You guys bear with me. We already did that one, didn't we? All right, all right. Here we go.
[23:04] I know, I'm a loser. All right. We'll get to those next slides in a minute. I see the dismay of the storm. The storm talks. Your storm talks.
[23:14] My storm talked to me. It screamed at me. It demanded my attention. The Bible says that the ship was in the midst of the sea tossed with the waves. The wind was contrary.
[23:26] The storm commands you to panic, to fear, to be filled with unrest and chaos. The storm says, be afraid. Be afraid. I could tell you I was afraid.
[23:37] It was the weirdest experience. I've never had to this day an experience anything like this. But from the minute I left that doctor's office, knowing I had cancer growing inside of me, it was like every waking moment, it was like the devil was sitting on my shoulder screaming into my head, cancer, cancer, cancer.
[23:58] You have cancer. What are you going to do? You're dying. Cancer. Lymphoma. Every, you know how in the night you wake up to turn over or to adjust your pillow, you're just barely awake. You're kind of between asleep and awake.
[24:10] How many of you know what I'm talking about? When I just got barely conscious, lymphoma! I'm just like screaming into my head, you've got cancer. And then now I'm wide awake, you know. And I remember hours, night after night, just laying there staring at the ceiling, I've got lymphoma.
[24:24] I don't believe I've got cancer. And the first thought every morning waking up, you're dying. You've got cancer. And fear. It was like the storm screaming, look at nothing but me.
[24:37] Be afraid. I've got you in my grips. The storm didn't just say, be afraid or look at me. The storm told me to play the victim. Play the victim.
[24:49] The storm says, sit down and pity yourself. Sit down and pout. You deserve pity. The storm wanted me to not go forward, not to see the storm as it was, not to see Jesus as he was.
[25:06] I was tempted, and you're tempted to play the victim. And can I challenge you tonight? Don't play the victim. You're going to be tempted to. You're going to be tempted to pity yourself and to mourn and grieve.
[25:19] And to some degree, tragic loss and loss of a loved one and things like that. There's a period of grief, and there's waves of grief. What I'm saying is don't choose willfully to continually, perpetually, in an ongoing way, remain the victim of your storm.
[25:37] Jesus didn't see the disciples in this passage as a victim of the storm. And the longer you play the victim, the longer you put off being victorious or victor.
[25:49] You cannot go forward with Christ. You cannot have the capacity for cheer if you are the victim. Victims cannot have cheer. I'm not saying you haven't been victimized.
[26:01] But I'm saying to play the victim, to choose to continue to play the role of victim is a choice. It's a choice to let your trial win. It's a choice to not go forward in the grace of God and not to claim the grace of God.
[26:15] Victims of emotions and circumstances and imaginations. Don't play the victim. But the storm will shout to you and scream at you.
[26:26] Be afraid and play the victim. And if you look at the storm and if you think of nothing but the storm, that's where you'll be. The storm says, look at me, not Jesus. I also see in this passage the distraction of the ship.
[26:37] The disciples were bailing water and toiling. The Bible says they were toiling. They were panicked. And they turned to all they could turn to, the ship. It was their best plan.
[26:49] It was their only hope for survival. It was the only thing they had to get through this. And so the ship was saying to them, trust me. Cling to me.
[26:59] Hold on to me. The ship was saying, do something. Panic. Bail water. Lighten the load. Do everything you could do to survive. And even so, when we come into trials and when we come into pain and calamity, the calamity says, play the victim and be afraid.
[27:15] And then we turn to our human resources and we look for solutions and escape. And how can I get a plan together to make this go away? How can I escape this? The ship is your best efforts or your best strength or your best human logic.
[27:29] The ship is what you cling to. I wrote this down. The ship is what you fear losing the most. The ship is what you hold on to. The ship says, do something and trust yourself, not Jesus.
[27:43] But Jesus comes in spite of the storm and in spite of the weakness and frailty of the ship. Jesus comes to us in the storm and he says, it is I.
[27:57] Be not afraid. Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. And when I read that and when God threw that out into my face and as though he sat next to me and said, Carrie, this is me.
[28:11] What I saw in this moment is that this was not Jesus walking into a storm. And it wasn't the storm at the center of the story. The storm is not the dominant player in this screenplay.
[28:25] The storm is not the real center of the story. Jesus is the main character of the script here. Jesus is the center of the story. The storm is something that Jesus is in command of.
[28:40] This is Jesus at the helm of a storm. Do you get that? Jesus is in control of the storm. And the disciples see themselves as a victim of the storm instead of the protected, loving children of a heavenly father.
[28:56] And in his grace and in his grip in the middle of the storm. And Jesus wanted them to change their perspective. He wanted them to see the storm as different than they saw it.
[29:08] He wanted them to see Jesus as different than they saw him. He wanted to see their circumstances as different than they saw them. And he says literally you can celebrate. No matter how bad things are.
[29:19] No matter how hopeless things appear. If Jesus is in control and in the middle of it all and he's there with you. You can celebrate. You can be happy. You can laugh.
[29:30] You can enjoy life. And you can even enjoy the trial. In essence you can have a cinnamon roll day on a bone marrow biopsy day. Are you there?
[29:40] Lord, Jesus liked this phrase be of good cheer. You can do your own study on it. You can do your own search. He had this tendency to show up when things were really bad.
[29:54] He had this tendency when everything was falling apart to show up with like a party hat and a birthday cake. Hey, it's me. Be happy. You guys are looking at me like.
[30:09] That's what he does. He says it five times in scripture. Be of good cheer. He says to the sick of palsy. Your sins are forgiven. You can't. You're messed up physically but your sins are forgiven. We read here that you're stuck in a storm but Jesus is there.
[30:23] Be of good cheer. John 16.33 last night we read it. Things are going to get really bad. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. He says to Paul in Acts 23.
[30:34] Paul, you've been badly beaten and unjustly imprisoned. But I'm here with you. So be of good cheer. He says to Paul in a shipwreck. Acts 27.
[30:45] You're about to lose the ship. But be of good cheer. You're going to Rome. Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Intentionally rejoice. Rejoice. Choose to celebrate though you want or though you think you're about to disintegrate.
[31:01] Have you ever chosen to rejoice against all rationale? Have you ever chosen to be joyful when everything around you says be anything but joyful?
[31:14] When everything's out of control. Jesus says be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. Now I want to apply this decision and then I want to move on to the next one very quickly.
[31:27] Listen. I know this is irrational. I know this goes against all logic. I know it doesn't make sense. I don't know what pain you brought in here tonight but you have a choice.
[31:38] If Jesus says be of good cheer you must be able to. Am I right? He would not command you to do something that you were not capable by his grace of doing.
[31:48] I'll tell you another one that was really hard for me in this trial was to give thanks. And yet it's not an emotion.
[31:59] Joy is not an emotion. In this passage be of good cheer. It might lead to an emotion. But originally, initially it's a decision.
[32:10] It's an intention. Okay. And it calls us to the understanding, to the belief, to the biblical teaching that belief should create behavior which should create experience or emotion.
[32:23] Okay. In other words, love is not a feeling. I don't decide to emotion love my wife. I decide to action love my wife. I decide to truth, doctrine, theological decision love.
[32:40] I will. I do. I decide to love. And that decision creates behavior to give, to sacrifice, to serve, to invest, and to please my wife.
[32:52] And as I give myself to serve and to love and invest and give and please her, her joy that that produces causes me joy. So choosing to love her produces an emotion of, wow, I really love you.
[33:07] But it starts with a decision, an intention. Okay. So in this moment of storm raging all around you, tragic loss, total upheaval financially, career, abuse, whatever happened to you.
[33:20] In my case, cancer. Whatever's going on in your life. In the moment when everybody around you would go, yeah, you should be miserable. You deserve to be pitied. You deserve our pity. You deserve. Your life stinks.
[33:31] Boy, it sure would stink to be you. There's no joy. There's no happiness. You are miserable. And everybody will do that to you. Everybody will do that to you. And when I, and they meant well.
[33:42] People just didn't, people didn't know what to do. And it's uncomfortable for people. When you're going through a tragedy or a trial and you're around people that aren't, they feel bad and they feel bad for you. And they feel bad that their life is good and yours isn't.
[33:53] And I, I mean, I would be having a wonderful day and trying to be joyful in the Lord and trying to trust God. I'd come around the corner and I'd hear somebody walking around the corner and they'd be whistling or laughing and talking to somebody.
[34:03] And then they'd see me and they'd be like, oh. And I was like, sorry, I wrecked your day. You know, and they, I mean, literally it was like, oh. Oh.
[34:16] And in their mind, it's like, you're the dying guy. We're not allowed to be happy around you because you're dying. And then they would kind of feel uncomfortable and then they'd go, how are you doing?
[34:32] And I wanted to go, I was doing great until I saw you. You are depressing me, you know. You're just reminding me I'm dying, thanks, you know. And I had to give people permission to laugh, to tell jokes, to be themselves, to rejoice, to be okay.
[34:47] And in this passage, God said, God showed me, look, you don't have to stay at the doorway of self-pity. You don't have to sit there and stew.
[34:58] You're gonna, some. But at some point, you can make a decision. You can make a decision to get up and hold the hand of the Lord Jesus and walk through the doorway and go into the storm.
[35:09] I tell you, Peter is my hero in this passage because he didn't want Jesus to just settle the storm or get him out of the storm.
[35:20] He wanted to be with Jesus in the storm. And we can fault him for whatever, you know. Would you have gotten out of that boat? I wouldn't have. I would have been like, hey, Jesus, if it's you, could you say something quick?
[35:34] Like, stop. Cease. I mean, Jesus said, if it's you, I want to, I mean, Peter, if it's you, I want to come out there with you.
[35:45] And Jesus said, come on out. How cool. And when I read this, it was like Jesus said, it's me. Don't be afraid. Be of good cheer. Jump in.
[35:57] The water's fine. Come on. Get into the storm with me, Carrie. Jump into this with me. Let's do cancer. And I don't know.
[36:08] I'm not trying to trivialize your pain. I'm not trying to minimize what you're going through. But listen. Jesus is bigger. And his joy is real.
[36:19] And his presence is real. There's got to come a time in your life where you jump into it. There's got to come a time in your trial where you embrace it. There's got to, you'll go crazy if you don't.
[36:30] There's got to come a time where you stop complaining. Where you stop wishing it away. Where you stop praying it away. Dear God, please take it. Please take it. Please take it. Please take it away.
[36:41] There's got to come a time where you just say, I'm jumping in. Death, abuse, hardship, pain, loss, financial meltdown.
[36:54] All right, God, it's just money. I'm jumping in. All right, Lord, it's just my house. I'm jumping in. Ah, it's just my career. I'm jumping in. Ah, it's just my health. I'm jumping in. I got heaven.
[37:06] Jesus died on the cross. I'm going to see you all forever. I'm jumping in. Now, I know you guys are going, you're psychotic. I'm telling you, you either do that or you lose your mind in trials.
[37:20] You can be joyful. You can be cheerful. But it's an act of faith. Saying thank you for this was incredibly difficult the first time.
[37:32] In all things give thanks. In everything give thanks. This is the will of God. And there came a moment, just like cheer, there came a moment when I came face to face with the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of God saying, you haven't thanked me for this.
[37:46] And I said, Lord, I don't know if I can do that. This hurts. This is uncomfortable. Carrie, this is me. Be of good cheer. Be not afraid. I know what I'm doing.
[37:56] I love you. You're mine. Thank me. Now, I can tell you, I didn't feel thankful. But thanks isn't a feeling. It's a fact.
[38:09] Okay, Lord? Lord, and audibly, with my lips, with my mouth, Lord Jesus, I love you. I trust you. And thank you for cancer.
[38:21] Difficult. But I'm telling you, in that moment, something changed. Something turned. Something released its grip. Something changed between me and God.
[38:33] Something changed in the dynamic of the trial and how it was unfolding. Did I feel thankful? No. Did I express thanks? Yes, I obeyed. And that's what Jesus calls you to do in your trial.
[38:46] He commands you. He calls you to cheer. We define a joyful life as an easy life. But an easy life is not always joyful.
[38:57] And a difficult life is not always sad. Are you with me? You can be of good cheer even in hardship. And I challenge you to make that decision.
[39:09] Now, very quickly, I want you to see another passage and we're done. Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. So, first decision that the Lord said to make is love God, trust God, live for God.
[39:21] Second decision the Lord said to make is be of good cheer. Jump into the storm. Embrace it. Accept it. Stop resisting it. Stop wishing it wasn't a part of your life.
[39:32] Now, just jump in. Come into the storm with me. Philippians chapter 1. The third decision that God put on my heart was to strive together for the faith.
[39:45] And I want you to see something here that God showed me and it just rocked my world and changed my whole perspective yet again on my trial. And I hope it will for yours. Paul is writing to the Philippians and I want you to see verse 12.
[39:59] I want you to read it out loud with me. Ready? Begin. But I would not. I'm sorry. Go back again. But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
[40:14] I want you to think about this. Why? I want you to think about your trial.
[40:29] Why? Why me? Why this? Why now? God, why? You can't know. You're not going to know why.
[40:40] You're never until heaven going to know the why looking backwards. Paul, in this passage, does to me something profound.
[40:57] You know the story of the church at Philippi. Paul was trying to preach the gospel in Asia. He was stopped by the Holy Spirit, prevented. And then he got on a boat and went over to Macedonia.
[41:09] After seeing the vision, come help us. You guys with me? Okay. So he goes to Macedonia where the Holy Spirit led him. He ends up in Philippi, which was a chief city in that region.
[41:20] Pagan. A lot of population. That's where he meets Lydia. And all along his journeys, God just kind of orchestrated key relationships and believers and new believers. And it was amazing how the gospel touched lives.
[41:31] And he's down by the river. And you know the story of the slave girl that was a fortune teller and into mysticism and her owners. And Paul, she was mocking and screaming. These are the servants of God.
[41:43] And making fun of them and hindering the gospel. And Paul, after many days, commands the demons to leave her. The owners got mad because he messed up their business. They drag him downtown to the magistrates.
[41:54] The magistrates beat them brutally, throw them into prison. And they're witnessing and singing at night in the prison. Remember? In the earthquake.
[42:05] And the jailer. And he's going to kill himself. And he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And he's saved and all of his house. And they're baptized. And he takes them to their home.
[42:15] And he washes their stripes. And they later, the next day or shortly thereafter, they packed up and said goodbye to all the new believers in Philippi. And they moved on. So number one, I want you to get this.
[42:27] The church at Philippi was born out of adversity. It was born out of calamity. It was born out of mockery and scourging and imprisonment and closed doors and others opening and hardship and the leading of God through adversity and pain.
[42:44] This letter was written somewhere around 10 years later. Okay. So the jailer and Lydia and the people, the new believers now, 10 years later, are saved.
[42:55] And they're the church at Philippi and all the other believers with them. And this church, as well as the apostle Paul, are still experiencing calamity and hardship and trial. They're still going through difficult times and persecutions and poverty and all sorts of challenges and trials.
[43:10] And Paul now is in prison or in bondage at Rome. Now, you know, he wanted to go to Rome to preach the gospel. The way he got there was not his script.
[43:21] He wanted to go as a preacher of the gospel to Rome and plant churches. But he went as a prisoner, chained to Roman guards and shipwreck and all the disaster. And boy, did God take him on a roundabout way.
[43:32] None of us would have written the script the way God wrote it. But Paul was this relentless, joyful, I'm going to turn everything that happens to me into the furtherance of the gospel.
[43:43] Okay. So even shipwreck, even hardship, even being chained to a Roman soldier, even being under house arrest in Rome, I'm going to turn all of this into the furtherance of the gospel.
[43:54] So as I'm studying this passage and as I'm reading this way back when I had cancer and then even this last week as I was preparing to preach it, it hit me. Instead of, I want this direction on the platform to represent back in time.
[44:08] And I want this direction to represent forward in time. So here's the Apostle Paul. And instead of looking backward, whining and complaining and griping, why me?
[44:21] Why this? Why have all these things happened to me? I just wanted to serve God. I just wanted to preach the gospel. I just wanted to do what I was supposed to do in my call. Why, why, why?
[44:32] Why, whining, looking back. He can't answer the backward why. But he turned around and he looked ahead and he realized that this why was under his control.
[44:45] In other words, he could decide the forward why. He couldn't decide the backward why, but he could decide how this trial was going to be used.
[44:56] He could have decided he was too beaten and too battered and too discouraged to share the gospel. And it didn't work out the way he wanted it to work out. So there's really no opportunity to share the gospel.
[45:07] He could have rendered himself incapacitated and inefficient and ineffective and incapable and undersupplied. And he could have had every reason to believe, I can't plant churches in Rome.
[45:19] I can't share the gospel at Rome. And he would have stifled the why that God intended. But in this verse, the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians and says to them, I want you to understand, these things that happened to me, they happened for the furtherance of the gospel.
[45:39] In other words, Paul said, I'm going to turn everything that happens to me into a platform for Jesus Christ. Let me try to click this slide here.
[45:52] I want to give you a couple statements. I want you to write down these two words, solitude versus isolation. A couple principles and we're going to wrap it up. The devil wants you to pull away in isolation.
[46:05] He wants you to forget that you have a calling. He wants you to forget that you have a purpose and a mission. He wants you to think that your trial derails you from your calling, cancels out your usefulness, neutralizes your potential to serve God.
[46:24] He wants you to render you completely ineffective. He wants you to conclude that your weakness, your brokenness, your hurt, your pain makes you a useless resource.
[46:39] He wants you to pull away in isolation. Now, you need solitude when you go through a trial. You need time alone with God. You need to grieve. You need to pour out your heart.
[46:51] You need to shed your tears. You need to get alone on your bed and mourn and mourn and mourn. But then you need to connect your calamity to your calling.
[47:04] You need to connect your calamity to your calling. Calamity can be causative. Calamity can be causative.
[47:14] What am I saying? The Apostle Paul didn't stay isolated, neutralized for the work of Christ, even though he was hurt, even though he was beaten, even though he was discouraged, even though he had every kind of hardship imaginable and every kind of trial.
[47:32] He turned every single one of these events into a cause. He connected this. Wait a minute. I have a calling. I have a Christ. My Christ is with me in my calamity.
[47:45] I have a crisis unfolding. Christ is in charge of my calling and my crisis. They must be related. My crisis is no surprise to Jesus.
[47:57] He wants me to fulfill my calling. My crisis or calamity must be a part of what he wants to use in me and through me to fulfill my calling.
[48:09] This is huge. Calamity can be causative. Calamity can be used for gospel.
[48:20] When Jesus handed you a trial, he handed you a megaphone. When Jesus handed you hurt, when he handed you hardship, he gave you a megaphone for the gospel.
[48:38] Listen. Listen. People. Your testimony whispers when your life is good.
[48:51] Your gospel witness whispers when your life is good. But when your life is hard, when your life is painful, and everybody around you is watching hardship unfold in your life, your testimony shouts.
[49:06] Your testimony screams loudly. You have in your calamity the attention of people that would never otherwise listen to you.
[49:19] You have the attention of people that you would have never been able to communicate with. And I'm not just talking about the attention. I'm talking about peaked attention.
[49:30] I'm talking about rabid attention. They are locked on you. They are studying you. They are examining you. They're trying to figure out what are you made of? What do you have inside of you?
[49:42] Who do you have inside of you? Your faith. Your relationship with Jesus. Wow. It's real. Now, when life is good and the bank account's padded and you're healthy and everybody's happy, your testimony whispers.
[49:55] But when you get a trial and hardship, lots of people listen and watch and study you that never would have. The question is, how are you going to steward that? Now, you have been given influence that you didn't have before the trial.
[50:11] What are you going to do with it? Are you going to stay under the trial, letting it crush you and letting it neutralize and isolate and disengage you?
[50:24] And listen, I'm not talking about physical strength and ability and capacity. I was in bed half the time I had cancer. I was under the covers on drugs half asleep.
[50:36] I was sleeping 12 hours a day. Those were wonderful days. I was taking, I mean, they fill you with chemo. Then they give you a whole bunch of drugs to counteract the chemo.
[50:47] When they're giving you chemo, they're dressed in like nuclear protective outfits. You're like, wow, you don't want to get it on you. You're putting it in me? You know, I mean, and so they fill you with all, then they give you all these drugs.
[50:58] And you go, what is this? They go, we've got to take all these, all these, you know, every hour, every three hours, take all these pills. Why? Because the chemo does all this really bad stuff to you and this counteracts that. Well, then what they give you to counteract the chemo messes you up on a whole new level.
[51:10] So then you've got to go to the store and get over the counter stuff to counteract all the drugs that counteract the chemo. You're a mess. You are a mess. I mean, I was a zombie half the time.
[51:21] I'm not talking about, you know, just go soul winning and get on your boss route and just go do what you ought to do. Because, you know, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, though, in your incapacitated state, there will be some way, somehow, that God will further the gospel through your trial if you will allow him to.
[51:39] There will be somebody somewhere that you'll have their ear that you would not have had. The Apostle Paul would not have had the ear of Roman soldiers. He would not have been within earshot of Roman government and leaders within the palace had he not been a prisoner.
[51:52] God knew what he was doing. God knew what he was doing. But the Apostle Paul had to decide this is going to be used for the furtherance of the gospel. He decided to connect his calamity to his calling.
[52:07] He decided to leverage the calamity for the glory of God. I want you to see it down here in verse 20. Look at it. Chapter 1. He talks through this whole passage about his trials and how he was using his trials for the furtherance of the gospel.
[52:22] But let's go back, actually, let's go back to verse 12. And I want to see a couple things here. And I'm almost done. You should understand the things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
[52:32] Look at verse 13. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
[52:51] Are you there? Paul said, not only is my witness louder and to a different set of people than it would have been, but other people are seeing me in my bonds preach the gospel and they're getting more courageous.
[53:04] They're getting more bold in their trial to magnify Christ. How awesome! Look at verse 20 now. Listen. Listen. Whether I live or die, whether I get healed or whether I suffer, whether this goes this way or that way, no matter what happens, God, I want to connect my calamity to my calling.
[53:38] I want to magnify Jesus Christ through my suffering, through my hardship. Listen, folks. Listen. He said he was going to suffer for Christ's sake.
[53:49] He was going to suffer for his sake. Everybody suffers. Everybody on the planet suffers. What a joy that we as believers, Listen.
[54:02] Everybody out there, they suffer for no good reason. They just suffer because they're in a broken, sinful world and that's just part of their life. They got no hope. They got to drug it away.
[54:13] They got to drink it away. They got to sex it away. They got to party it away. They got to thank God it's Friday it away. They got to weekend it away. They got to get, they have got to numb themselves as much as they can because there is no purpose to their suffering.
[54:25] Right? You and I get to suffer for his sake. I got news for you. If I'm going to suffer, I hope I can suffer for Jesus' sake.
[54:39] You mean God can take my suffering, whenever he suffers, that God, because of his grace, he'll take mine and turn it into a megaphone for the gospel? That I get to suffer for Christ's sake?
[54:50] What a privilege. What a joy. What a whole different perspective on my trial. It changes everything. Calamity. I'm going to click to this last, I'm just going to click ahead.
[55:03] I got one more statement I want you to write down. That one. Calamity is a catalyst for the movement of the gospel. Calamity is a catalyst for the movement of the gospel. Look at the book of Acts. The gospel moved.
[55:16] The word of God grew and multiplied. Oh, but why? Because they were persecuted. Because the believers had hardship. The Christian faith moves forward in calamity.
[55:32] Your faith can grow. Your relationship with Jesus can be real. Your joy can be full. His presence can be undeniable. And more than that, other people can come to Christ.
[55:43] Jesus Christ can be magnified through your calamity. But you've got to decide. You've got to decide. You're going to strive together for the faith. You're going to connect your calamity to your calling in Christ.
[55:58] So, the last two decisions that we talk about tonight. Be of good cheer. Decide against all logic, all human emotion. Decide, I'm going to be of good cheer.
[56:11] And decide to connect your calamity to your calling. Decide to use your trouble as a megaphone for the gospel. That God will be glorified through your suffering.
[56:25] Let's stand together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, if you would, for just a moment. And let's pray together. And I'm going to ask Pastor Gardner to come and close out our service. Lord Jesus, thank you for showing us in your word that you're with us in the storms.
[56:38] You call out to us to join you in the storm. You call out to us to be of good cheer. To be not afraid. We can trust you. We can hold on to you. We can join you in the storm.
[56:48] And then you speak through the Apostle Paul and you say that the things which fall to us, the things that happen to us, have fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel. Lord, let that be the case.
[57:00] Whatever trial, whatever hardship is represented in this room, let us take the trials of our lives, the sufferings of our lives. We cannot answer the backward why, but we can answer the forward why.
[57:11] Let us step up onto the platform of our trial and our pain and shout out the gospel. We'll shout out the love of Christ and magnify the Lord Jesus, whether it be by life or by death.
[57:26] Work in our hearts now. Let us respond. Let us make decisions by your grace. Pastor. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.