Everything of quality must be tested to determine its value. Our faith has been tested and approved.  

We face many storms in our lives; storms that are physical as well as spiritual. Through these storms, we are called to remained focused on Christ and to have hope.

In our lives, when we become distracted by the frenzied pace of our everyday life, it becomes increasingly difficult to remained focused on heavenly things. Paul reminds us about the joy of remaining focused on Christ.

According to scripture, the best things are yet to come. God promises salvation though faith in Christ Jesus and the hope of eternal fellowship with Him in heaven.

Individual perspectives play a significant role in determining how to interpret life’s situations. If we view the world through an earthly perspective, we miss God’s divine plan.

Happiness is a funny thing: the more you look for it, the less you find it and the unhappier a person becomes.  Joy is rooted in God and not circumstances. 

Humility is difficult to demonstrate: as soon as you say, “look how humble I am” you have ceased being humble and become proud. A proud person does not rely on God and will not experience the joy which comes from Christ.

As Christians, we have an absolute assurance that, no matter our earthly situations, our eternal security is found through faith in Christ. We do not need to fear the future because, if we are living lives devoted to Jesus, we have a promise from God that we are not alone. Thus, there are four implications this revelation should have on our lives.

Everyone has been through a time in life where things seemed out of control.  Something happened that defies understanding and we're left asking the question, 'what does it all mean?'  As we continue our study of Philippians we see Paul was going through a similar time of uncertainty, he's in jail and his future is in the hands of Caesar.  However, we also see Paul is filled with the joy of knowing that even when life seems out of control, God is in control.  

While happiness depends on how things are going in a person's life, the joy of the Lord is an interesting thing because it is unaffected by those circumstances.  In this message we see how Paul was able to write this incredible letter of joy even as he sat in a Roman jail.  And as Paul writes we see the joy of the Lord through the fellowship he has with the Philippian church.

Galatians 5

Life can be trying at times and it can be easy to forget this one truth: in the end, We Win!  Whatever you're going through, it isn't how your story ends.  If you go to the last page you'll discover We Win!  So, open your Bible to Revelation 21 as Pastor Collin wraps up our series, Say What? as we look at the promise of our new home in the new heaven and the new earth.

Revelation 21:1-6

The life of a believer should be filled with joy because there is nothing more joyful than the knowledge of having a personal, saving relationship with God.  It is a joy the world cannot match or even come close to!  On the other hand, though, there is another side, the side that says there will be difficulty, there will be hardship, not everyone will respond.  And when we come across those times we say, “Things Just Got Real.”

God is a dividing God:

When we read about great people of the Bible it can be tempting to want to compare ourselves with them and then become discouraged when we think we don’t match their faith, we’re too weak in the faith.  It becomes easy, then, to doubt our ability.  Moses was one of the greatest men in the Bible but what we find when we read about his life is that he also had doubts. And through it all we see how God chose Moses, not because of his greatness, but because of his weakness and God was able to work.

God chose Moses because of his weakness: