Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] My name is Sipo.
[00:00:04] I am a saint in the church.
[00:00:06] I am the husband of no wife, and I am the father of no kids.
[00:00:20] It's great to be with you guys this morning.
[00:00:24] I've been away for a bit, but it's good to be here today. And I'm just trusting that the Lord can really show us what he desires of us in terms of what I am trusting he has for us today.
[00:00:45] And just before I begin, I want to start with a story.
[00:00:52] It's from my own life, back when I was young. I can say that because I've lived for two decades and seven years.
[00:01:03] So I can gladly say back when I was younger.
[00:01:07] So the story is, when I was young, I used to look forward to a lot of Saturdays. Saturdays were fun days for me. They were great days. I always used to look forward to Saturdays because within the weekdays you have school. And then Saturday was the day you get a break from your books. So this one Saturday, I get up excited for the world, excited to play.
[00:01:32] And then my mom tells me, could you please look after your young brother?
[00:01:38] I wasn't too excited about that. That meant I can't play with friends.
[00:01:43] But there was another adult. She just didn't leave me with a baby. Don't be worried.
[00:01:49] But I chose not to do that.
[00:01:53] I chose to go against that.
[00:01:57] It was quite an experience for me because when I go back home, I found my mom there. And she was standing right at the door.
[00:02:04] And then she looked at me the entire time. I kept looking at my toes, kept looking down. I hear they don't see movement.
[00:02:12] So I thought, maybe she won't see me. And then she asked me, what did I tell you?
[00:02:18] And then I explained and I said, you told me to look after my brother. And she said, you know what?
[00:02:23] Today I'm not going to deal with you.
[00:02:26] I'll tell your father.
[00:02:28] Ladies and gentlemen, that moment, the mind games began.
[00:02:33] Because for the next eight hours, I was thinking about what my dad would do to me.
[00:02:40] And that spiraled from being completely depressed and hopeless to two hours before that, where my mom laughed with me, she joked with me, we sat together, and I was like, this slither of hope simply means that now that we are friends, she has forgotten.
[00:03:00] I am absolutely safe.
[00:03:02] That wasn't the case. I caught a spanking.
[00:03:05] But.
[00:03:07] So the moral of the story is just like those eight hours for me, where I was spiraling out of control, thinking about so many occasions we go through so many seasons of life that make us anxious and we tend to respond in the very same way.
[00:03:25] We overthink.
[00:03:27] We either give up hope, we either get depressed.
[00:03:32] Oh, we delude ourselves.
[00:03:36] You know what happens. And so today we're going to unpack what the scriptures actually say about moments like that, because the Bible teaches us on how to handle such moments and how in those moments we can still remain under the hand of the Lord.
[00:03:54] So, and what I am going to, what I believe the title of this could be is from worry to a mind guarded by God.
[00:04:10] And so if you have your Bibles open with me to the Book of Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6.
[00:04:24] And so just even as we go there, just a little bit of context on this letter.
[00:04:31] This is seen as one of the most happiest letters that is obviously in the New Testament. It's interesting because the circumstances for both the person that was writing it and the people that were receiving the letter warrant happy circumstances.
[00:04:47] Paul was in prison when he was writing this letter, and the church in Philippi was going through a lot of hectic things.
[00:04:56] So it's quite interesting. Joy comes across a lot in this letter, and a lot of teachings on peace also come through in this letter. But then the circumstances did not show that.
[00:05:11] So we turn to the book of Philippians, chapter six.
[00:05:17] And the Bible reads, ah, yes, the nlt. Perfect.
[00:05:24] So the Bible reads, do not worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.
[00:05:31] Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.
[00:05:36] So in this passage, what Paul is trying to teach us is to actually pause for a moment when our minds seem to be drifting afar and the seasons of life seem to be drawing us into a position where they have us panicking. So he actually asks us to do something. He asks us to pause and to shift our focus.
[00:05:58] And so what he's asking us to shift our focus from is that he's asking us not to deny the reality of what we are going through, but to respond to it.
[00:06:10] And in the way we respond to it is very dependent upon the mercies of the Lord.
[00:06:17] And the beauty of this is it's not a passive dependence.
[00:06:23] It actually works in our hearts and in our minds.
[00:06:28] And so looking at what dependence upon the mercies of God looks like is that like I mentioned, it's not an empty or vague dependence, but it's actually quite dependent on the character of the Lord and on the promises of the Lord. And so here in the verse where Paul actually tells us to say, do not be anxious, or that's for some versions, or in the nlt, as we have seen, do not worry.
[00:07:01] In that moment when he says pray about everything, he's actually teaching us that our sole focus in these moments when life gets hard for us is that we need to shift our focus to the Lord and to depend upon Him. And as we depend on his mercies, certain things happen to us. And the reason I say that this mercy that we depend on from the Lord is actually not void because it comes to do a work in our lives, and this work is what we're going to actually look at. But before we do that, I also just want to mention something that happens as we go through these times when we're worried or we have anxious thoughts.
[00:07:48] So of course, I did mention my age quite subtly.
[00:07:53] So I'm what they call a zillennial.
[00:07:56] So that simply means we couldn't make it into the millennial club and that Gen Z are too young for us, so they just put us somewhere in the middle.
[00:08:09] So that's what zillennials are. And because I'm a zillennial, there's a type of way that we think and that we speak.
[00:08:20] So in moments that we're anxious, like I mentioned, we tend to do two things.
[00:08:26] See, as though for some people, they become absolutely hopeless about the situation and they just give up.
[00:08:32] They completely say, I'm not going to do anything, and they give up. Or you choose to be delusional and see a hope that is not strong, a hope that is not foundational, and then in those delusions, you get hurt.
[00:08:47] For my fellow zillennials, we say delulu, it's not the salulu.
[00:08:54] So, yeah, so, and the reason I mention this is because we tend to do this. And if we look at the Book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5, The Bible reads, trust the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. And so the reason I mention those situations is because in situations like that, what trying to have control is is exactly those two things.
[00:09:32] And most times we actually don't need to strive for control, but we need to depend on the Lord.
[00:09:40] And what depending and what a trust in God actually does for us is that it takes us to a place where the worries stop being the focus, but God becomes the focus.
[00:10:00] And so what happens is when our worries are the focus, we tend to lose control.
[00:10:10] We tend to even at some point, begin to lose values that we hold dear that honor the Lord.
[00:10:20] And so now what trust in the Lord simply means is a reliance upon his hand in that situation and not looking to ourselves for solutions. But looking to Him. And so in the first verse in chapter six, Paul tells us not to be anxious, but to pray.
[00:10:39] And as he tells us to pray, he also adds something to that. He says, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known.
[00:10:48] And so now what Thanksgiving does for us is it actually.
[00:10:55] It's actually pretty cool because it works in our hearts. And so the importance of this is that even as we pray, we're not making our requests known to God.
[00:11:06] This is not us informing him about the things that we're going through. He already knows that he knows what we go through.
[00:11:16] Jesus reminds us in the Gospels to say that even before you pray, the Lord knows your requests. So what prayer actually does is in that moment, it aligns us with the will of God.
[00:11:29] And as we align with the will of God, our trust begins to build in Him.
[00:11:34] And so as we rely upon the will of God, what it does is it's two things.
[00:11:41] So the first one is that we remember his providence in knowing that he is God and that he has numbered our days.
[00:11:49] But also we remember that like a son in a house, a father has a desire. And even in these moments, the Lord desires a response from us and how we respond to these things.
[00:12:02] And so what that does is that it teaches us that in these moments we can rely upon God's will and providence and his will in terms of how he desires us to look at the situation.
[00:12:16] And so now, moving on to a heart that is always thankful in all circumstances, like he says in the first chapter, one thing it does is it keeps us in awe of God's providence. It reminds us that the Lord is above all and that he provides for us. The second thing it does is that because it says that we should remember what he has already done in our lives is that it makes this experience for us personal.
[00:12:48] So it reminds us of what he has already done in our lives. And I think that's something that's also been mentioned to us before to say that when we trust in the Lord or our faith in the Lord, most times we look back at what he's done to show us where he's leading us. And so what it does is when we thank him for the things that he has already done, the individual experience in our life reinforces our trust in Him.
[00:13:15] And so as this happens, we remember his faithfulness and we remember his goodness.
[00:13:22] And so that's what a heart that is thankful to the Lord does. For me, in my own personal life, one thing that I'm always grateful for is the relentless love of God because we read about it in Romans and Paul speaks about it, that nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord. But I think it's different when you have felt that and you have experienced that love. Because for me, that's always a reminder that he's always going to be with me, regardless of what this seems like. And I can always place my trust in him.
[00:13:56] So that is a heart that gives thanks. And so if we move on going on to chapter seven, the Bible reads, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:14:16] And so now what this does is actually pretty cool, because in the beginning it spoke about our worries and the things that we're worried about. And the interesting thing about this verse is that where it says your minds, actually what I was looking at this and I felt like it was pretty cool. What the Greek actually speaks of is its mind. It's understanding, but it's the thought process someone has on perceiving things. And so what this verse is saying that the things that we're anxious about that were mentioned in verse 6, and all this stems from this mindset and this perspective that we have.
[00:14:59] When the peace of God comes into our life to reign, it far surpasses anything that we can think of to deal with the solutions and anything we can try and master.
[00:15:12] And so I actually think that that's.
[00:15:15] That's pretty cool.
[00:15:17] And something else to remember is that when we look at this, because it says the peace of God will guard your hearts, and the peace of God will guard your minds, your hearts and your minds.
[00:15:30] So our minds deal with a lot of thought, a lot of reasoning, a lot of ways we see things. And also our hearts deal with emotion, though we emotionally respond to situations.
[00:15:43] And so when the peace of the Lord comes to reign in our life, what happens is now that it protects us from almost from getting ourselves, if I can say, in a desperate place where we begin to think that if I can use the term ends justify the means, for example, or that we can go about doing anything we desire.
[00:16:12] So now the peace of God comes to guard our hearts against such thought patterns, and we're actually protected, and the Lord guides us.
[00:16:23] So in what this looks like, first it needs to be explained that this is different from peace with God, which Christ does give us when we receive salvation, but something that Christ gives us when we first receive salvation gives us peace with God. So that's part of the peace that we get with God. But the peace of God is something that's been mentioned about in the book of John where Jesus actually says, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. So the peace of God far exceeds anything that we can understand and anything that we can do.
[00:17:02] And this is a divine peace.
[00:17:05] It's a divine peace that calmly settles us and that helps us to continue to live in a way that honors God and in a way that glorifies Him.
[00:17:24] Alright, are you with me?
[00:17:28] Okay. All right, that's good.
[00:17:33] So now we've seen what this divine peace does and we've seen how it works in our life.
[00:17:41] And like what was mentioned before in the beginning is that this is not void, it does not just end here, it's not open ended.
[00:17:54] But like in most cases with what the Lord does is when he saves us, he leads us towards something.
[00:18:00] So even in this case the Lord leads us towards something.
[00:18:06] And what he leads us towards to is what we read in chapter eight, which way it says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Thank you.
[00:18:39] So now what this does is most times when we read this verse we can think like, maybe this is a checklist.
[00:18:46] This is the way we now need to start doing things in our own strength. But the beauty of this is this is what happens with a mind that is ruled by the peace of God.
[00:18:57] And this is what is then drawn out of it.
[00:19:00] And this is how now we begin to see the world.
[00:19:04] So what this does is that it shows us that in our thoughts we need to one, honor God in the way that we think. So we begin to think in ways that reflect his character, align with his desires, rather than being driven by fear, by suspicion, by anxieties or by worries.
[00:19:30] The other thing that this does is it renews our discernment.
[00:19:35] So we learn now to reflect deeply upon the circumstances in a way again that glorifies the Lord.
[00:19:43] We reflect deeply on the way we view life, people, circumstances, with our minds renewed and sanctified by Christ, no longer being anxious in some way, but dependent upon the truth, which is the revelation of God.
[00:20:00] And then.
[00:20:07] The last one. Sorry, let me just.
[00:20:17] And so the last thing is, the affections that we have are now redirected and they're directed towards what is worthy.
[00:20:32] So what is worthy is again, it's a mind that honors God and it's a mind that desires to glorify Him.
[00:20:43] And so a Peaceful mind guarded by God is not a mind that is merely just empty, if I could say that. But it's a mind that's occupied with excellence and praiseworthy, praiseworthy things rather than things that corrupt us.
[00:21:03] And so now what this does, is this redirects of what this does, sorry, is it keeps us in a way with the Lord dwelling upon him and glorifying him.
[00:21:15] And so with that, I would like to share a bit of a testimony from my life.
[00:21:39] So for the best part of my life, I had suffered quite greatly with anxiety.
[00:21:55] It was quite severe, and it was something that I had since childhood.
[00:22:01] But then what happened for me is that the Lord worked in a way that far exceeded anything that I could.
[00:22:17] So for many years I suffered from this, and it was quite depressing until I came to a place where I realized that seeking solutions in and of myself wasn't working.
[00:22:33] And so what happened is this one day, This one day while I was at church, obviously not this church, what the Lord did is during a time of worship and prayer, I think I was at the end of my rope and I just cried out to him and I called out and I said, lord, my life really is.
[00:23:07] It's hectic right now. And this is something that really has me downcast.
[00:23:13] And what the Lord did at that moment is I was called up for prayer.
[00:23:18] And when I was called up for prayer, there was a revelation that was given.
[00:23:24] So what I saw was a man that was in.
[00:23:31] A man that was in a bowl and chains.
[00:23:35] And as I was being prayed for, these chains began to break and fall off.
[00:23:41] And so as these chains were breaking and falling off, this man was still scared, this man was still worried. This man was still greatly in panic.
[00:23:52] But then came another man that gave him reassurance and stepped next to him and said that life is formal now and those things have fallen away.
[00:24:02] So at that moment, I couldn't understand what that meant for me.
[00:24:08] But I remember the following morning, because that happened on a Sunday.
[00:24:12] The following morning when I got up, I remember because there's this thing that I used to do. I wouldn't just hop out of bed because then if thoughts raced in my mind, it wasn't pretty, to say the least.
[00:24:25] So most of the times when I get up, I would count to seven, slowly work my way into the day. And then. So this morning as I was lying on bed, I was lying in the bed, sorry.
[00:24:36] And I opened my eyes and as I began to count, something profound happened. I actually felt someone. Tell me you don't need to do that again because I have taken that away from you.
[00:24:54] And then from that day on, that's how my mind has been shifted. And the Lord has transformed my mind.
[00:25:02] So in closing, that's my testimony, and that's what I had to share for today.
[00:25:06] Thank you.
