[SPEAKER_00]: And for the reading of the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am Lisa Clark, and I'll be reading from Philippians one, eighteen through twenty one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and I will continue to rejoice for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the spirit of Christ Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: What has happened to me will turn out to my vengeance, does deliverance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gained.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have a seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Miss Lisa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get you there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, again, thank you all for being here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we've been going through this summer, we've had a couple different sermons last week y'all got to hear from Mike Waterson, our youth pastor did a great job talking to us about God's provision and the wilderness for his people, but also we've gotten to hear several amazing stories, amazing testimonies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll know if you guys have enjoyed these as much as I have enjoyed listening to the various stories that we've heard this summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today is our fifth one that we get to hear and we'll have a couple more after this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a mislead to just read from Philippians chapter one, to live as Christ and to die as gain.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is an amazing, amazing truth and an amazing kind of, I think Christian motto, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like as we live our lives unto Jesus to live as Christ and to die as gain as the apostle Paul says, and we'll dig into that a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: after our testimony.
[SPEAKER_01]: But today's testimony is from Mr. Josh Snyder, Josh and good and come on up.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys know Josh, Josh and his wife Anna and kids have been here how long, like, a couple years now, two years.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Josh, just a guy that man just loves the Lord, loves this kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he may have seen Josh hopefully worship here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just I think having a heart for Jesus, heart for his word, I've been privileged to get to know you a little bit and befriend with you as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm excited to hear your story.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna bless all of you as well as you hear Joseph's story.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you know what it's like to share a testimony, if you've ever done this, not enough the easiest thing, sometimes a little hard and nerve-wracking in, but it is our story and it's what God has done in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's pray together for Josh.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys will pray with me as we get ready to hear your story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, thank you so much for your goodness, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your grace and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And thank you for Josh being willing to share today for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you have done, really, this is your story.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always your story, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: what you have done in his life and through him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm God, just the provision that he has seen, the grace that he has seen and the healing that he has experienced in his heart in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, just pray you use him right now, just to speak your truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let us hear it, God, and let us rejoice in your goodness today through this testimony in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you Pastor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, good morning.
[SPEAKER_02]: kind of like I got a concert that there's multiple artists, everyone stands up and asks how you're doing today and expects everyone to be super hype every single time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if anyone can relate.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was coming up here and he mentioned just a second ago that sometimes there's some little bit of angst that comes with standing in front of people and for me I do it all over the country and that's not a brag I'll come back to that but
[SPEAKER_02]: This morning, I was like, oh man, I'm saying in front of a bunch of people that I know, and then I realized, oh, I'm at first service.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know any of y'all.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, hey.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, let's, let me jump right in here and share this story.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything we walk through, whether good or bad, big or small shapes who we are, and who we become.
[SPEAKER_02]: Each moment leaves its mark,
[SPEAKER_02]: forming the story of our lives and ways that we don't often recognize until we look back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I'll be the first to say that the quality of life, the quality of our lives, doesn't have to be defined by whether or not we had a perfect upbringing, but money in the bank, food on the table every single day, or a pain free set of circumstances.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we'd be lying to ourselves if we didn't admit that even the smallest of choices,
[SPEAKER_02]: Our own or someone else can change everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: When those choices are compounded with what feels like random chance, note feels like random chance.
[SPEAKER_02]: A single moment can redirect the course of an entire life.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not here to give you a bunch of the obvious, but I'm setting the stage for what I'd like to share.
[SPEAKER_02]: As mentioned, my name is Josh Snyder.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a child of God who earnestly seeks to follow him in every area of my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a husband of nearly eight years to an amazing wife.
[SPEAKER_02]: She'll be here for a second service, Anna.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the proud father of four incredible children, Elena, Kieran, Jonathan, and Kaine.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're a lot of hats.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm an entrepreneur, creative at heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: I lead in many different settings.
[SPEAKER_02]: But above all, I'm
[SPEAKER_02]: most passionately called to the music ministry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Over the last seven years or so, I've had the intentional privilege of leading a small music collective that takes and has taken me and my crew across the country and even places abroad.
[SPEAKER_02]: We share the love of God in places of great need, encouraged weary hearts and in some cases, help spark life back into struggling churches.
[SPEAKER_02]: And through some of the wildest, most God-centered experiences, I've gained something for more, there are far more valuable
[SPEAKER_02]: than a platform could ever give.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've gained testimonies.
[SPEAKER_02]: Front row seats to the faithfulness of our God, even in the middle of uncomfortable circumstances and in today's story, tragedy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Early on in this journey, when I first began to step into this calling as a songwriter and an artist, a calling that I sensed as early as seven or eight years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wrote a song when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the very first Christian hip pop song that I'd ever pinned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not quite sure why I shifted to that genre around on this particular song.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was born from one of the hardest trials of my family and I that we had to go through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And over the next few months, I'd like to share that story, the story that this song called Johnny Song is based on.
[SPEAKER_02]: This particular story that I'd like to share is one that I know that might be hard for some to hear, especially if you're carrying grief or currently standing in a hard season of your own life.
[SPEAKER_02]: But my hope, my hope in this is that through the lens of God's provision and His providence, even in the middle of unimaginable sorrow, you'll begin to see or continue to see what I call and what I've come to formally call the fingerprints of God all over your own life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I believe that that's where faith grows.
[SPEAKER_02]: in the tension between heartbreak and hope.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the space where heaven leans, close and reminds us that God is still working all things out for our good and his glory to those of us who are in his family and called according to his purposes.
[SPEAKER_02]: What am I about to read?
[SPEAKER_02]: From my notes here is an excerpt from a book that I'm writing called Twelve Stones, a collection of stories that serves as memories.
[SPEAKER_02]: memorials, reminders of God's presence and the valleys as much as the mountain tops.
[SPEAKER_02]: The story changed my life and I pray that in some ways it will impact yours too.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a stone number two called Johnny's story.
[SPEAKER_02]: Their experiences in life, in which etch themselves into your memory with clarity that time cannot erase.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of those experiences for me occurred during a seemingly ordinary week in August of XIV.
[SPEAKER_02]: A time that would mark one of the most challenging seasons of my family and I, and that we would ever face.
[SPEAKER_02]: This story is not an easy one to tell, and especially in great detail, but in sharing it, I hope to show the beauty of God's presence in every darkest time.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the summer of XIV, as I mentioned, and our family had just returned from a whirlwind of events.
[SPEAKER_02]: trips to the east coast, our annual tent revival meeting, summer camps, and the local fair, and this all happened up and mostly up in central Montana, where I was born and raised.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were settled back into our routine when we all began to come down with a persistent cough.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing too abnormal.
[SPEAKER_02]: It seemed like it's typical seasonal virus.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing out of the ordinary, but as the days were on, the cough lingered persisted, especially among the younger kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: August seventh, twenty-fourteen, a Thursday.
[SPEAKER_02]: My parents decided that it was time to take us to the doctors just to get some things checked up and to be safe and at least identify what was going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Upon getting checked up, the diagnosis was looping cough.
[SPEAKER_02]: And not so familiar, but manageable illness.
[SPEAKER_02]: The doctor prescribed some medication, told us to go home and get some extra rest and we had it home.
[SPEAKER_02]: Relieve that this could be behind us soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: We began to take the doctorate prescribed in very quickly, even throughout that first day, our symptoms, namely the excessive coughing, seemed to nearly normalize in all of us as we'd had this for some time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Little did we know that this visit to the doctor was more than just a precaution.
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe it was part of God's intricate plan, one that we couldn't fully understand until much later, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: The next morning, Friday, August eighth,
[SPEAKER_02]: Our church had hosted its monthly men's prayer breakfast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Typically, my younger brother, younger brothers, I had three younger brothers.
[SPEAKER_02]: They wouldn't attend this prayer breakfast.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that morning, for some reason, all of us went sat in a far corner booth at the local restaurant, sharing some food and conversation.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it was in those moments during this breakfast that my eleven-year-old brother named Jonathan or affectionately known as Johnny spoke up kind of randomly too I remember this as if it were yesterday he said talking to my dad daddy I'm the youngest of our family and so that was mean that I'm gonna I'm gonna die last right at that time I brushed off his comment with the confidence of a wiser
[SPEAKER_02]: older brother, explaining that none of us were guaranteed tomorrow, citing the recent loss of a younger cousin to cancer.
[SPEAKER_02]: It seemed like a normal sibling exchange, one of those moments where you don't think much of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But looking back now, looking back now, I see God was gently preparing us for what was to come.
[SPEAKER_02]: Later that afternoon,
[SPEAKER_02]: We were all home except for my dad who was preparing for some things for a short business trip that he, my mom, and most of my family, my siblings, would be going on that evening.
[SPEAKER_02]: A couple of hours away.
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom was busy helping Jonathan, the youngest boy in our family, with some schoolwork as we were all home schooled at the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: When we had become, rather when he had become slightly
[SPEAKER_02]: overly cranky.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you see, he was the youngest boy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that meant he was cranky all the time, but he was more cranky than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: She decided to lay him down for a nap that afternoon, hoping that rest would help him feel a little better.
[SPEAKER_02]: At the foot of my parents bed, he, Johnny, had his bag packed for the short trip that we had planned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Staying at a hotel, getting the swimming pool, waking up to some Saturday morning cartoons and eating a continental breakfast,
[SPEAKER_02]: What could be better, huh?
[SPEAKER_02]: He was excited and ready to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: A detail that would later take on profound significance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Around four PM, as I was playing some video games down in my room.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was, in that moment, around four PM, August, eighth.
[SPEAKER_02]: where I heard a scream come from my mom that sent chills down my spine.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the kind of scream that makes your heart stop.
[SPEAKER_02]: The kind of scream that tells you something is sincerely and horribly wrong.
[SPEAKER_02]: I bolted up the stairs to find her standing over Jonathan, who lay unconscious, his body cold and pale.
[SPEAKER_02]: Panic set in as I tried to perform what I thought was CPR, but nothing changed, nothing helped.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nine-one-one was immediately called and moments later the paramedics had arrived and rushed him to the nearby hospital, a half a mile away.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was in those agonizing moments I prayed with all of my heart for God to bring him back, but it wasn't to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jonathan had likely been gone for at least an hour by the time that they had reached the hospital.
[SPEAKER_02]: On August eighth, the eighth day of the eighth month,
[SPEAKER_02]: a number that in biblical numerology, for some of y'all nerds, represents new beginnings often.
[SPEAKER_02]: At the age of eleven, my little brother, Jonathan Rockland Snyder, went home to be with Christ.
[SPEAKER_02]: The cause of his death was somewhat unclear for a long time.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it seems that the virus that we were all getting over had taken a devastating turn, a freak devastating turn to some might call it, traveling up his spine to his brain and shutting it down.
[SPEAKER_02]: believe they call us encephalitis.
[SPEAKER_02]: Based on all signs in the bedroom indicating that there was no physical struggle where Johnny had laid down.
[SPEAKER_02]: Johnny laid down to take an app and peacefully woke up in the next life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a surreal feeling to look back on those three days.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me zoom in on this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not here to tell you a sad story.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm here to share something about this story.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a surreal feeling to look back on those three days.
[SPEAKER_02]: even after a decade has gone by.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was on the third day that we received where I can only describe as a love note from heaven.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you won't understand the significance of that love note unless I take you back to one of the most important details of the day in which my brother had passed.
[SPEAKER_02]: That same morning, after returning from the prayer breakfast, our family had sat down for our daily devotional time together.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were reading through the Bible one chapter at a time, one verse at a time, and that day we read Philippians chapter one.
[SPEAKER_02]: August eighth, twenty fourteen, Philippians chapter one is where we landed that day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Each of us took turns reading one verse at a time with Johnny reading every seven verses as he was the seventh in our family.
[SPEAKER_02]: Upon cycling through the whole family, for the third time, seven three different times.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jonathan read verse twenty one, which was just read just a moment ago, which states for to me to live as Christ and to die is gain.
[SPEAKER_02]: At the end of this reading, we all, all of us children, wrote down this verse in our prayer journals.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whether it was because it was one of the shortest verses in the chapter, or something deeper.
[SPEAKER_02]: Little did we know that this verse would become a lifeline for us, not just that day, but in the days and years to come.
[SPEAKER_02]: The next morning, the morning after his passing, and the quiet and painful moments that followed, we all sat in the living room as a family.
[SPEAKER_02]: My dad decided that we would read some of the same chapter rather go over that entire chapter that we read the prior morning as a family with Johnny to take it and read it once again as a family without Johnny.
[SPEAKER_02]: Based on what his words were, he did not recall some of the profound implications from that particular chapter as we begin to read Philippians chapter one once again.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as we read, it felt as though God himself had pinned these words just for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were not only a comfort, but a reminder of the hope that we have in Christ, a hope that transcends even death.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in the days and the years that followed, I've come to see what I've formally called the fingerprints of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: All over this experience and many other experiences of similar proportion.
[SPEAKER_02]: From the doctors visit the day before, it's measured rather reassured my parents that they had done everything that they humanly could.
[SPEAKER_02]: To the conversation and breakfast about life in death, to Jonathan's reading and writing of Philippians one, twenty one, and how some of the passage goes on.
[SPEAKER_02]: The same passage goes on to speak of the wrestling between the desire to stay and the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
[SPEAKER_02]: according to Paul.
[SPEAKER_02]: And from the packing of his suitcase, as he was ready to go, to the very first date, rather to the very date of his passing, all of these signs, I believe, pointed to this moment to make this clear statement.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was time to come home.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see, we all have an appointment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can't tell you when yours is, I don't know when mine is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to scare anyone, but ultimately, that's what it has to come back to.
[SPEAKER_02]: We all have an appointment.
[SPEAKER_02]: where we cross from this to the next.
[SPEAKER_02]: And after years of reflecting on these truths, I have come to completely accept and be at peace with this reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't share the story to diagnose the meaning of every tragedy, but in the highlight, rather I would like to highlight some of the ways that God has carried us through myself, my family.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't have chosen this path, but I now see that God was doing so much more than I could have imagined.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would expect
[SPEAKER_02]: in tragedies like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I believe that he is orchestrating so much more that we cannot see behind the scenes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think most of us probably, if you've experienced walking with God for any amount of time, you know what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're walking through a season of grief or a complete uncertainty, I encourage you to reflect on how God has worked in your life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Surrender the areas that you've been holding on to and trust that God's plans are always better.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're always for our good in His glory when we desire to follow Him and strive to live after Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: We all have an appointment, as I just said, as believers, this appointment does not have to come with the morning that the world mourns with.
[SPEAKER_02]: As the verse, first this, theologians, fourth, thirteen through fourteen states, but I would not have you to be ignorant.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is Paul speaking, brethren or brothers, sisters, I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them, which are a sleeper who have died before, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
[SPEAKER_02]: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a hope, amen.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a future in Christ.
[SPEAKER_02]: So live each day with purpose.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love and share those around you as though that you are not guaranteed tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when tragedies do come, because they will cling to the only one.
[SPEAKER_02]: who can breathe life and meaning into the chaos of life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, even in death.
[SPEAKER_02]: challenge you today is if there this comes back to memory and you want to reflect on it or maybe even now if you have if you take notes I would challenge you to take a few moments and write down some of these moments some of these memories if there comes to mind any memories of God's fingerprints on your life and when he has been closest to you in these painful situations let these be memories or memorials that feel your faith as you walk forward
[SPEAKER_02]: in his strength and in his grace.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for your time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Josh.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate that, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, what I love about testimonies, I think, is everybody's testimony is different and unique, but everybody, we have so many similarities as well, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when you hear somebody's story and their story is different, like most of us have not gone through something like that specifically.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you probably heard in Josh's story, like I did, or like many of the other stories we've heard this summer, just little bits and pieces of your own story, your own circumstances, your own tragedies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, to be able to walk through as a family, what I can imagine Josh is one of the hardest things to walk through.
[SPEAKER_01]: a death of a little brother, a son that is unspeakably difficult to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But thank you, Josh, for just sharing that truth of seeing God's hand you work, seeing God's fingerprints, seeing his sovereignty as Providence over, even the worst, even the worst of moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible before we sing again, I would love for you to open up to Philippians with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh reference Philippians chapter one several times there and I just want to encourage you if maybe maybe you're looking for somewhere in scripture to be reading right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Philippians is a great place to to go to the little letter of Philippians four chapters long.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a letter and I'll give this word to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think more than anything else and probably two words you could say about Philippians the word joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a letter about joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a letter about here here's my other word and there's really the word I want us to hold on to today is the word contentment.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word contentment, contentment is not something we talk about a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a not an exciting thing to talk about contentment.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a simple thing and a humble thing, but contentment is a miraculous gift of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that that word joy, our joy in Christ is just that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a contentment.
[SPEAKER_01]: in and in every circumstance right in every season of life it goes so far beyond mere worldly pleasure or worldly happiness right we know that contentment joy in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: is something that is unshakable because it's rooted in who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And from Josh's story, I was just thinking, you know, I think there's a couple great lessons for us to learn here.
[SPEAKER_01]: One is parents, parents, listen, moms, dads, having family devotions every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: What a simple lesson from that story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Being in God's Word, being in the book of Philippians, that day,
[SPEAKER_01]: Set the foundation for them to be able to get through this season, right Josh?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, set the foundation for you guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because God's Word saturated their family, their hearts, their minds.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so parents, listen, if you're not currently doing that, look, no judgment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just start doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: getting to God's Word with your kids every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Her spouses do that with one another or just do it for yourself as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get into God's Word be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then specifically in this book that word consent makes I want you to kind of look through this book with me real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a pen you can even underline a couple of these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at chapter one verse eighteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it matter?
[SPEAKER_01]: The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached, and because of this, I rejoice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul is talking about, he's in prison, and while he's in prison, people are out there preaching Christ, who are his adversaries, who aren't even doing it with good motives.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Paul is so content in Jesus that his heart is, he's being preached.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care who's preaching him.
[SPEAKER_01]: As long as the gospel's preaching, I'm sitting in prison, who cares?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm content.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am content.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse twenty.
[SPEAKER_01]: I eagerly expect and hope that in no way that I will in no way be ashamed but with sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live as Christ to die as game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul is saying I am content with living because to live as Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says here too, like, if I get out of prison, I'm gonna go on and do more ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm content with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if I die, I'm content with that too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's coming to grips with his own mortality here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's just saying, look, I'm content, life or death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is, you can't get more content than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I live or die today, increase Jesus, I am content.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at chapter two, verse three, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you content with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you content with others being considered better than you?
[SPEAKER_01]: With others getting the platform when you have to take a back row seat?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you content with serving people that you don't always want to serve?
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul was content with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: contentment, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Contentment is a miracle from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at chapter three, but whatever was to my prophet verse seven, whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord for who sake I have lost all things.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what Paul was content with?
[SPEAKER_01]: Knowing Jesus, even if he had nothing else,
[SPEAKER_01]: I know Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, the man's in jail, man has lost everything, not only his physical kind of worldly stuff, but he's lost his good name, his good standing in the Jewish community.
[SPEAKER_01]: This guy was important.
[SPEAKER_01]: A Pharisee of Pharisees, he says at the beginning of this chapter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've lost it, but now I consider all that stuff garbage anyway for the sake of knowing Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's contentment, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can we be that content in this life?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where joy comes from.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are struggling with joy in your life, I would say the diagnosis for that is you are discontent.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not content and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying that to shame anybody because we all struggle with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Struggle with that daily.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can take with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have long considered Philippians three, verse eight, maybe my life verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then look at chapter four last one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a famous verse for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can do everything through him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives me strength.
[SPEAKER_01]: We always think that verse is about winning.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what that verse is about losing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That verse is about losing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Read it in context.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I've learned the secret of having a lot and a little, of having plenty and having nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've learned the secret of going hungry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've learned the secret of being poor and being rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can do everything to crush your strength as me.
[SPEAKER_01]: His point is, I'm good because I got Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay if I got riches if I am in poverty.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm healthy, if I'm sick, listen, we've heard several testimonies this summer already.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the testimonies we've heard people got healed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of the testimonies we've heard, they did not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you content and Christ, either way?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the question.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the miracle God has after in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you content to know Jesus and trust in Him?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I encourage you, maybe if you're looking for a place to read and scripture, go through Philippians this week, read through it, look for that contentment, look for that joy and just let God transform your heart to a place where
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ is gain to live this Christ to die is gain no matter what I'm going through matter where I'm at and so right now We're gonna sing here in just a moment and I want to encourage you In this time here here's what you can do When we start singing you can stand and you can sing the words of the song out and praise God through that or you can stay sitting and you can pray and you can just continue to seek the Lord
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to kind of lead us in a moment of prayer before we begin to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need prayer, if you're on the prayer team and you want to come on down here, if you need prayer and you'd like to walk down and have somebody pray with you for you, please do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And after service, we'll have the prayer room open as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to encourage you, let this time be a time where you just let the Lord lead you as you need to be led.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, just let the Lord lead you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So right now, let's do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just bow our heads together, bow our heads together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm actually going to, as Josh said, I don't want to give us an opportunity to do this to think through your life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And ask this question.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, God am I being content in my life, being content with who you are, with what you have done and are doing, being content in my current season despite the circumstances that I may be facing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And too, as Josh asked us, God, can I see your fingerprints upon what I'm going through or have been through?
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you can't just ask him right now, God help me to see, help me to see some part of your glory in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we want.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to see God's glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to know him better.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just want to give us a moment to pray through that here in a minute we're going to start singing continue to pray if you want to keep praying stand and sing if you want to sing come on down for prayer if you want that as well