Women's Retreat - Session 3: From Trials to Triumph/Walking in God’s Strength and Joy

All right. All right. All right, welcome back. Wow, that went fast, actually. So hopefully you guys have a good lunch. Thank you for lunch. That was phenomenal. [APPLAUSE] And everyone who contributed, there was quite a few people that contributed to that. So thank you. And I do agree with, I'm going to tell the mess with our patty yes, it's the bread of life. I've been on the carnivore thing. So I haven't been eating carbs. But not today. So hopefully I'm not like-- [BOTH GRUNTING] So if I tell me to slow down, if I start ripping, because I don't have any too many carbs and months. So all right, let's, if we can, we'll start in prayer. And that all starts at the timer. All right, there, Emily Father. We just thank you for this day, Lord, and just thank you for the blessing and the fellowship Father that we have had and the wonderful food and everyone who contributed, Lord. We just praise you and thank you for having the opportunity, Lord, to be here, be able to talk about you, worship you, praise you, and be so grateful for everything you've done in our lives. Lord, I just pray for this last session that it just, whatever you want to be said, Lord, I just pray it's said and that for who to hear, whatever resonates with them, Lord. I just pray that it blesses them. We praise you, Lord, again. And thank you in Jesus' name, amen. OK. All right, so now we're going into the application. All right, let me start my timer. OK. So on this one now, we're going to move more into the application where we're talking about from trials to triumphs. We're going to walk in God's strength and joy. And so we've all heard the phrase, we have our ducks in a row. That is for saying, basically saying, everything is organized. We are good to go and we are in control. But often, actually, when we look at our own lives, we might be missing ducks, or maybe some of those ducks are pigeons. So you look at it, right? So I want to dig into this because I want to get to that application piece and let's see what the Lord has to bring and how we can actually just as myself, too, incorporated into our lives. So we talked about the health aspects of stress and anxiety and fear. It's not very good on our physical well-being. But what about our mental well-being? So in our body here comes the science. So here we go. I love science. The science teacher by nature. So in our brain, we have a limbic system. And so we have something called the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Your amygdala is your fight or flight. You get scared. And you want to fight, or you're going to run and take off. Your prefrontal cortex is the area where it controls the amygdala, which means you can regulate your emotions. And then the hippocampus-- sorry for some of you-- that is your brain memory area. So if we multitask too much, it can impact our brain. I've been telling people. So they try not to multitask too much. But women, we are all multitaskers. So we got to try to maybe slow that down a bit. So when you are in constant fight or flight, when your anxiety is constantly up, up, up, up, your prefrontal cortex cannot drop it. It makes it very challenging to regulate our emotions. And I don't know if you've noticed after COVID, just being in education, our kids are high in anxiety. They are depressed because they also think if they vape and use drugs, they're like, but it decreases my anxiety. And increases your depression. So they don't understand. They cannot cope. They have safe spaces in colleges. We have a wellness room in high school, because we have students that just can't manage coming to school for a whole day. It's just overwhelming. And the problem is when your amygdala is up here so much, you're in that fight or flight mode, every little thing seems like your gun to die, and you have to be in fight or flight. So now you're probably thinking, why are you telling me this? Well, because in our limbic system, that's our brain, right? And so anxiety not only impacts our well-being physically, but it can impact your well-being mentally. And what happens is when you do that in a pro long state, and you cannot decrease your stress, anxiety, worry, and fear. Sorry, Patty. You start to have brain deterioration. And memory loss. And you're not as good as you used to be. So I only keep doing that because we've been talking about memory. And just so you know, my memory is terrible, which is why I keep having to look at my notes all the time. So as I've gotten older, I cannot remember half the things I used to remember. So hey, you young people, I'm going to look forward to. There you go. So-- but this is why Paul and Jesus talked about, do not worry. Don't be anxious. Do not fear. So when we look at 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5, I love this. I use this a lot when the enemy tried to attack me. It was for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful. For the destruction of fortresses, we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing that's raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So when we worry, are anxious, or we are trials weighing on us, we are reminded to anchor our thoughts in God. The enemy tries to plant those seeds of lies. But the scriptures call us to take every thought captive. So when a thought would jump into my head, maybe about women, no, sorry, I cast that out because you know it. That's not what my God said. And the scripture, I'm going to tell you I've learned-- and this is why I have so many scriptures-- there is scripture for everything. Well, I'm unworthy. Yeah, that's a lie because Jesus led you and died on the cross. So I don't have the courage to go out and evangelize like everybody at will. That's a lie too, because God doesn't give us a spirit of timidity. He gives it power in my-- I mean, anything you have or are battling, I can guarantee you there's a scripture in there that will tell you the opposite. OK, so again, I keep saying it's important to be in the Word of God because then when you know that scripture and that thought kicks in your head, you can hold it captive to the obedience of Christ and say, I don't think so and kick it right back out. And so then, again, put your thoughts on what's pure, lovely, right, excellent, praiseworthy, which ultimately is Jesus Christ. So some of you are wondering, how can I get victory over anxiety and worry? Well, people have been trying to solve that problem for millions of years. But I believe that we, in our scriptures, we have the key how to do that. And we, like I said before, anxiety pulls us to the storm and our focus is off Jesus. But if we can take that anxiety and give it back to the one who comes to the storm, that's how you'll be able to survive, to crease your fear. And this goes with fears. Jesus says, do not fear. Do not be anxious and stress and all of it. So how do we do that? Well, it's interesting. Science seems to be a little bit behind the Bible. And so science says that in research, gratitude and anxiety cannot exist in your brain, your limbic system at the same intensity at the same time. So the less grateful gratitude you are, the higher anxiety goes. The more grateful and gratitude you are in half, all of a sudden anxiety starts to drop. They are basically researchers are saying they compete against the other. So thank you research. But God said it first. Don't be anxious and nothing and be grateful and thankful in everything and all your circumstances. And so I thought that was pretty interesting because when we start to feel anxious, I even step back and say, okay, let's take a look at this. Thank you Lord, I have a job. Thank you Lord, I have a card to get to my job. Thank you Lord, I have a place to live. Thank you Lord, I have a belt to wear on my pants, you know, whatever, everything I'm grateful. Thank you for the food that I have, for the job that I have, the people I work with, the people at church, the church that I have, what a blessing with blessed hope because it's very hard to find a good church these days. They've been compromising hugely. And so when we start thanking him, truly thanking the Lord, something happens inside of us. Anxiety starts to lose its grip and our heart becomes at rest. And that's what God wants us to do is to rest in him. And we, when anxiety comes a knocking on your door 'cause it's gonna love to come knocking on your door or fear or worries, then you don't have to answer it with worry or stress. You can say, Lord, you've got this, he has not in five years filled me yet. I just, I'm just telling you, I may not like answers I've done, but he has not once in five years filled me once. So I have to really say, okay, am I trusting you? Yes, you've got the answer. this and I'm going to get myself out of the way. And the one thing I love is that when we have gratitude, it turns into worship. We're in the presence of the Lord. And do you know what it says in 1 John 4, 18? Perfect love casts out fear. And these are scriptures that are huge to try to remember because it's going to try to creep in because Satan wants to distract you. He wants to take your mind off of the one true God and onto the things here because then we get all like riled up. And so the other thing I want to encourage you is that when your heart and your mind is truly on Jesus Christ and you're full of joy, there is no room for anxiety. There's no room for it to even sit. So here's what I'd like to do. I have talked a lot today and I kind of went into the Word with a lot of scriptures. So what I would like to do is I'm going to take two minutes out and step back because what I want you to do is just to kind of take a minute and whatever is on your heart, worry, stress, anxiety, whatever burden you're carrying or struggle going through. I want you to be able to take it to the Lord right now and we'll do like a minute and a half to two minutes to do that. So I'm going to step back. Okay. Even me. I was like, Lord, this is my first time doing this. It can be very anxious written as well. So I was just praying, thank you for the opportunity, right? And then it's like you turned the opportunity into something to glorify and honor you, right? So we can always take whatever is going here and twist it into the gratitude and a grateful heart. So with that right perspective, we're able to focus on Jesus and the joy of the Lord will always be with you. In Isaiah 26, 3 through 4, it says, this steadfast of mind, you will keep him in perfect peace because he trusts in you, trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord. We have an everlasting rock. You know, Christ is our rock. It reminds me of Matthew 7. When Jesus says, you hear my words and you act on them, you're going to be like a man who builds his house on a rock. And if you're someone who hears his words and do not act on them, you're going to be like the man who builds his house on the sand. And then when the storm is a come in, the one that is on the rock will stand firm. The one that is on the stand will fall. But if you read, it's interesting when you read it, it's not just fall. It's great is his fall because he knows what to do. He's just not doing it. And this is for me is you. Are you going to be here today or are you going to be doers? There's a wealth of information that we put out there today which thank you, Paddy, for making these books and the notes because I think it helps keep our minds on track and what we're doing. But the important thing to remember, what's the purpose? There's two purposes of a storm. One is to destroy what's in this path and reveal what is. So if you are able to stand on the rock of Christ and stand firm in those storms, then you're going to come out solid. Not because of you or anything that you're doing, but because of what Christ is doing. It's like, Joe, right? You're being tried and you're going to come out like gold. So the question is, can we lose our joy? Yeah, actually we can lose our joy. Because our joy is rooted in Christ, right? So and he is our joy. But what I also want to make clear is we can lose our joy just because of discouragement. We can feel discouraged and we can even be beat down. I mean, think of David. Think of Joe, right? They weren't like celebrating and having a party when things were tough, but both were amazing men after God's own heart and David even said and asked himself, why are you in despair? Oh, my soul. So until really we hit heaven, we can run into those stagnant times. But the thing that we have to be careful is is making sure it's not our fault. And I'll tell you what I mean by that is that we need to make sure that we're not having an unhealthy focus or we're half in the world and half in God and church or possibly being in sin. And so we need to make sure that we're doing what's right and we know things are going to come that may try to discourage us. And during those times and challenging times, you just got to remember the face of your perspective back on Christ. So what do I mean? There's joy killers. You have the three peas. You've got the people, right? People are problems sometimes. I can tell you that in my job right there. You have pain. It could be physical pain. It could be emotional pain. And you also have pressure. Pressure coming from the outside world to conform and change in mold. Your pressures of just life coming in. Yeah, those unplanned obstacles, right? Like trials that you weren't even considering where it's going to happen. You're on your way to work. Boom, you got a flat tire. Wonderful. How do you praise God in that? Well, that's less hours than minutes I get to work today. That's all I look at it as I'm changing my tire. I'd be like, well, I'm just going to go a little slower. And then instead of 10 hours, I do nine hours. Praise God. Right? You lose a loved one. Whether it's through death or you have relationships struggles. Haters or persecutors, right? People are just in constant opposition to you. Those are what we call external factors. You also have internal factors. The internal factors that you have are the ones when you get in your own head. I'm not good enough. I don't have this. It's constant, self-non-constructive criticism, right? It's like stressful situations or you have thoughts or impure thoughts and things are just bombarding your brain, right? That can also take our joy. We're in anxiety we've talked about. What about comparing yourself to others or unforgiveness and bitterness that you may be holding on to? So what we're going to do is we're going to, I'm going to do a little bit more head knowledge and then we're going to dive into the application piece because a lot of you know this already is that when you are in worldly living and sin, we're focusing on materials or things that gratify our lust, right? And James 1 says, 13 through 16 says, reminds us that the temptations come from our own desires. And when sin takes root, it does bring forth death. You also have number, so that was number one, worldly on your notes is by worldly living in sin. Number two is disobedience to God. When we are choosing disobedience is like will for choosing like Jonah, go to them of a, yeah, I don't think so. I'm going that way, right? What happened to him? That wasn't too pleasant. He was in a storm and then got swallowed by a whale or a fish. So disobedience to God can definitely take our joy away. One of the things that we've been studying and blessed hope see me value is the Old Testament and God says in Jeremiah 25, 10, he said to Judah moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. So if we are not walking in him, God will take that from you. He gave Judah every opportunity to repent three, four hundred years and finally he's like done now to wasteland. So he took their voice of joy and bridegroom and bride is like celebrations. When you have celebrations in the city or the grinding of a millstone shows that that city is prosperous, it's alive, it's living, it's joyful, you've got festivals and festivities. And when you have lights of the lamp, it shows that at night that the city is alive and the lights are burning bright. We have wiped it out like there is nothing left. So Judah became a wasteland until 70 years later when they were able to go back to start to rebuild. In Ephesians 5, 1 through 6, it warns us that we need to make sure that we are being imitators of God as beloved children walking in love, justice, Christ also loved and gave himself up for us. If you keep going, it says, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints and there must be no filthiness and no silly talk or coarse-justing which is not fitting, but I love this next word." Next three words. "But rather giving or thanks, but rather giving of thanks for this, you know with certainty that no immoral or pure person or covetous man who is an idol, has an inherent inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." So number three is lack of trust, a doubt, worry, fear, self-reliance. We need to make sure we are not relying on ourselves, but we are relying on the one true God. Proverbs 28 says, "He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered." Proverbs 14, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." and saw him win 18, it is better to do it. take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. So again, we need to make sure we are putting our 100% trust in the Lord. Number four, spiritual neglect. This is failing to care or prioritize your relationship with God. And there's three ways that if you do not spend time in the work, if you do not pray with him and you do not fellowship, then you will slowly do cause spiritual neglect. Spiritual neglect to me is like physical health, right? Like if we take care of our physical health, our body is eat right and work out. Great, if we don't, we start to go into decline. My muscle turns into fat and all this other stuff, right? And then you have health issues. No different than spirituality. There are things that you need to do in order to make sure that you are staying strong in the Lord and growing in him spiritually. We are commanded to read the Bible. Matthew 4 or 4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by everywhere that proceeds out of the mouth of God." If you don't read the Bible, how do you know it comes out of his mouth? How do you know what he expects? We are instructed to pray without ceasing. If you read the New Testament, Paul with Ephesus, Colossians, Ephesians, Galatians, all of them. He's praying all the time I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray, I pray to strengthen you. I pray for all these things. We are told to pray without ceasing. And in 1st Thessalonians, or I'm sorry, in Hebrews 10, 25, we are instructed to not forsake the fellowship. So if you do those three things and we start to slowly slip, like, "Oh, I'll go next Sunday." "Oh, you know what? I'll pray a little bit later today." "Oh, you know what? I'm really busy this morning. I'll do it tonight." But then you don't get to any of those things, then you could slowly go into spiritual neglect. Remember, it's not something that happens really fast. It's a slow fate. It's something that goes over time. And we have to be careful. In Hebrews 2, 1 through 3, it talks about, "How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" So it talks about here that for this reason, we much pay closer attention to what we've heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For the word spoken through angels provided unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received just penalty. So then how can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? And in Proverbs 4, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but at the end, I love the end of it. This is a really good scripture. It's basically saying, "Listen to what I'm telling you. Do what I say. Protect your heart. Protect your mind." That's in a nutshell, what that verse is saying. But I love the last two sentences. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do you not turn to the right, nor to the left, turn your foot from evil. So we need to just make sure that we are doing everything that we possibly can in the Word and praying and hanging out with each other like we're doing today or fellowshiping or women's Bible study or talking after church just to make sure and if you're struggling, open up and share. We're here to bury each other's burdens so that we can all stay in abiding in Christ. I'm forgiveness. Holding on to grudges, man, that poisons our heart and God does say, "If you do not forgive, man, I will not forgive you in Matthew 6. For if you forgive others, for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you don't forgive others, then your heavenly Father will not forgive you." Ephesians 432, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Justice Christ has forgiven you." In Corinthians, it talks about love. Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't boast. It doesn't brag, but it also doesn't take offense when wrongdoing is done to you. Now, and it also says, Jesus says, "Love your enemies. Those are all very challenging things. When we get hurt, we get hurt and we are stung. I will be honest, it's taken me a long time to forgive my ex, but I've done it. And I just, and now instead of being frustrated and bitter, I'm praying for her that she finds the Lord that someone puts her in her path to help her find God and have the happiness and peace. I believe that she keeps striving for, but not achieving." Number 6 is discontentment. We are in a material, realistic world. And this is a tough one because if we are discontent, we are failing to be thankful for what God has given us. God has you in a place exactly where he wants you to be. We may not understand the way. We may not totally get the full picture, but you are exactly where God wants you to be. And you cannot be discontent with that. Because what happens is that can lead to idolatry. It can lead to covetousness or anxiety. And I used to do that even with my mom and my brother. Why are they such people? People, people, persons, people. They could talk to anybody, "Hey, what's up? How are you doing?" My mom would walk out of the store with somebody's phone number and texting them as they're walking out and praying for you. I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" And so I am more, I know it's hard to believe, but I'm more the shy and quiet one until you get to know me. But I'm no longer any of that. But compared to them, I would compare myself. How come they can do that? How can they just walk up and talk about God? How did they do that? But you know what I learned? The more I was in the word, the more that I understand who he is, the more excited I got about him. And then I got to see all the cool things he's doing in my life. Why would I not want to share that with anyone? So now, I'm probably going to get in trouble by sharing with my whole school. I talk to kids, I talk to people, I start and I'm like, "Wow, but that's not me, that's God, that's the Holy Spirit giving me the opportunity because I'm so happy and so grateful for what he's done. I want everybody to know that and have the same feeling it happens like. It's kind of cool. Anyways, so Hebrews 13, 5, we want to be content with what you have. For God has promised, I will never leave you nor will I forsake you." Philimians 4 says, Paul has learned to be content in all circumstances. So he says, "I've been brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. Here's what I loved and I never caught this before. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. What's the secret? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's the secret. I have nothing to do with me. I'm just a tool. I'm a vessel and if you're willing and I think that's why what I didn't mention in my testimony is I think God radically worked in me. I was humble and I was willing and I wanted to change. If you are here I am, send me, he will do it." And that's a pretty cool thing, but you've got to surrender everything and be willing to give all. First Timothy 6, 6 through 7, here's my favorite. Godliness with contentment is great gain. But we take nothing from this world. It doesn't matter how much money you have or much money you don't have or what kind of cars you have or what kind of house you have because like you've always heard this, you don't see a U-hole behind you. What do you call, her? Thank you. I'm all, what do you call those cars? A hers, right? And when my mom passed she didn't get to tell you anything with her. So here's the deal is that we need to be content where we are. I'll give you some examples. Adam and Eve, Eve was discontent. She was in paradise. She had everything she could possibly wonder. She could pet lions on the head. Like you had everything. Satan's like, but did you know if you eat that you can be like God, really? That can be like him and all of a sudden she wasn't happy where she was. She was discontent. She wanted something more than what she already had and then look what happened. Here we are, Laura, in living in you know a wicked sinful world. Look at the Israelites. God took them out of slavery and those brought them out into freedom. Oh, it's so hot. I need water. Oh, the bread is so I want meat. Well, then God gave them meat. It's just like they were discontent. Look how many made it into the Promised Land. Yeah, not too many. So right. So discontentment can be a very negative thing in our life. If we keep looking around and seeing what people have and what we don't have, what you need to do is flip that script and think about all the things that you do have and be grateful for. God has given you a way you're at. There is a quote from John McArthur. It's a little long, but I am going to go through this because I thought it would be helpful to hammer the point of discontentment. In Hiroshima, and it's 1945, you have a problem with the of a considerable concern because of the atomic bomb. But just because you lost out on a promotion or a business deal, just because your child announced that she hates her room, just because the bank notified you this morning that you're overdrawn, I am sure you can find a way to survive. Calm down. Review the situation. Think it through. I hear all about midlife crisis is and do you know that there are nations in the world that don't even have a midlife crisis? Because they don't even live that long. Some people are not bothered by such things at all. There are parts of the world where the average lifespan is 37 years old. Men and women are spared from the distressing reality of a 40th birthday. Right? I read that I was like, "Whoa." Some people complain about grocery bills, more than 10,000 people die of starvation every day, and you're complaining about grocery bills. Millions more suffer from malnutrition. Some people complain about the high cost of rent. Well, maybe you'd rather be a pavement while they're in Calcutta as they do not pay rent. They were born, they live, and they die on the pavement. The only thing they have to worry about is to find a rag where they can put their head under so they can go to sleep. When these kinds of porous go on around the world in a sort of normal accepted pace, we throw a temper tantrum because we don't get seated in the right location or a poor location in a fancy restaurant, or we are frustrated because we can't lose 10 pounds, or we gripe about our monthly debts. You've got problems relative to what? But you see it's the mood of the mob to complain, and then it's the ideal holistic fantasy oriented, consubbed culture that feeds this in, this contentment. How can we disc-beak discontent? What do we have possibly to complain about? And in America, we have so much wealth and so much prosperity, right? And then we've turned into this materialistic world that all of a sudden, if we take our eyes off of Jesus and start looking around, well, how come they drive that kind of car? And I want this. And I want that. Then you get that that complaining and discontent, and then you're unhappy and you're not joyful. And scripture warns us about these things, but the beautiful thing is it also points us back to Jesus, repent, sorry Lord, help me to be discontent exactly where I am. And then he will restore you to a right relationship. So when we're down and times are hard, how do we find strength? So here we go. We're going to go into some practicality of some of the steps that I believe we can take in order to find strength. So here we go. As I tell the kids, buckle up, here we go. So number one, we have confidence in our sovereign God. This reminds me of David and Goliath. It's confidence in our sovereign God is where you can find strength. David and Goliath, David was not afraid to go battle the 10 foot whatever a foot Philistine. He was battling bears and lions prior to that. And the Lord was giving him the strength, the battle that in the courage. So what did he say in first Samuel? I know you all know this and we sing it. We've sung it today. The battle belongs to the Lord. He knew it wasn't his. So he's like David's confidence was not in himself, but in the power. And he already knew God gave the victory because he goes, God's going to give you over into my hands, meaning Israel's hands. So here is the application that we go with that. When we are facing challenges, do you typically, typically remember the battle belongs to the Lord? Do you also remember that you've, it's already been one. You just got to walk through it and keep your eyes on him. Number two, unwavering conviction, unwavering conviction. Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abende go, man, these guys got stripped out of their home in their teenage years, got plucked and landed into a foreign country and basically was indoctrinated with paganistic ideas and ideology. And they still said, I will not defy all myself. And when they, when they made a statement that you couldn't pray, Daniel's like, I'm still praying. Prayer die is pretty much what it was. Daniel's like, I'm still praying. Shadrach, Meshach and Abende go, bow or die. They're like, we're gonna, we're not gonna bow. And they, and I would love what Shadrach, Meshach and Abende go, say when they said, the king gave them a second time, right? I'll give you one more time. If you do, eh, come on. They're like, whether God saves us or not, we will not bow to your gods ever. And then the king got really angry about that. So the application is when we are facing challenges. Nope, I take that back. I was just repeating the last one for you. Is how well do you stand firm in your faith when pressures are mounting a barangil? Three, weakness and humility. Paul shows us that God's strength is the greatest when we are the weakest. He asked God, please take this out, take this darn out of my side. God said, sorry, Paul, no, probably didn't say sorry. He just said, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. Basically deal with it. And you know what, Paul embraced it because you said, you know what? I will boast in my weakness because in my weakness is when Christ is the greatest and the strongest. This is what I would call a test of pride. Can you say or see things about yourself that aren't good or right? But how do you handle it when others say the same thing about you? Number four, embracing hardship. Paul embraced the hardships he went through. Is interesting. A rabbi in Israel said something striking. Americans tend to think that their life will be spent 70 to 80 percent in the promised land. When the reality is it in the wilderness. I thought that was interesting. Second Corinthians 12 says, therefore Paul goes, I am well content with weakness. I am well content with insults. I am well content with distresses. I am well content with persecutions with difficulties for Christ's sake because when I am weak, he is strong. He was well content. Whether he was being beaten, shipwrecked, prisoned, no food, he was well content because it was through his weakness. Christ came out the strongest. Remember, ladies, you have value because you've got Christ in you and the devil hates that. That's why he comes at you so hard because he wants to strip you away and remove you from the one true living God. Remember, I wouldn't say it's a badger bonner, but hey, if you're getting hit and you're struggling and you're getting hit hard, that means that you're doing something right. You're sticking with God. You're abiding with Him. You're trusting in Him. You're reading, you're praying, you're serving others. You're doing exactly where God wants you to be because also think about this. Thieves don't just break into empty houses. Right? They go where there's the money, the value and you're valuable and He wants to separate you from what brings you your life and identity, which is Christ. Application, does your weakness become the place where Christ strength is at its greatest? Five read the Scriptures, Psalm 119. My soul weeps because a grief strengthened me according to your Word. Colossians 1, 9 through 12, I won't read the whole thing, but Paul was talking to the people of Colossia, Colossae, and said basically that I pray for you and I want you to increase in the knowledge of God and strengthen with all power according to His glorious might and attaining the steadfastness and patience joyously giving thanks to the Father. Joy comes all the time, giving thanks. I'm hoping that you're seeing the repetitive peace, joy, peace, hope, gratitude. So are you building a firm foundation by daily reading and living God's Word? Number six, praying. Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus. He prayed, Lord, He got on His knees, he bowed before the Father and said, "Straighten them, Lord, innerly with the Spirit. Strength comes when we humbly bow before our God, knowing that we are weak and He is strong. How's your prayer life?" I heard a story a daughter once called her mother and heard this. If you're a friend, press one. If you're a salesperson, press two. If you're my daughter who never calls, press nine-mom-one because I pretty much just had a heart attack. Right? Now, we can't give the Lord a heart attack, right? But do you regularly spend time with Him? Or do you just come here and there and call upon when you need something? Remember prayer is huge. It is a staple. It's a radical part of our walk with the Lord. Number seven, my favorite. This is actually my favorite. Wait on the Lord. This is something I believe God gave me a gift in. I love waiting. I don't like moving too fast. I always joke and say, "I'm a sloth. I move very slowly." So waiting for me is very simple. Just kick back and relax and let God do its thing. His thing. Our strength is renewed as we wait upon the Lord. I know you all know this verse, so here we go, Isaiah 40. He gets strength to the weary and to Him who lacks might, He increases power. The youth grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly. Yet those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles and they will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Waiting on the Lord is not passive. It's trusting, depending, resting in His timing, knowing that He will sustain you. One of the ways we can love God is by waiting on Him. In Corinthians it says, "Love is patient." Are you patient? Leigh waiting? Are you waiting to hear His word? Are you waiting to see His guidance and how He's going to direct you? Are you waiting for him as long as needed? How's that going for you? Are you trusting in truly his timing and not yours? Look, we all know the Sunday school answers, right? Like we can, many of you can quote scripture you, "I see you nodding. I may not see you fully because it's a little blurred with my ring glasses, but I see nodding." And so you guys know the answers. But don't just give the Sunday school answer. Go through these questions and ask yourself, examine yourself. Are you doing these things and how well are you doing them? So now the question is, we know how to find strength. How do we find joy? Number one, I believe it's a choice. So number one, it's a choice. We choose our attitude we have. Yeah, I wake up in the morning tired and sometimes like morning learn. I'll get there, hold on. Right? And other times I wake I'm like, "Oh, good. Morning, Lord, here we go. I'm ready to attack the day." How we live is we choose our attitude. Up in Washington, there's this book, it's called Fish. And what it is, it's a marketplace and the people are energetic. They're excited. People come to not buy fish. They come to watch these people because they're infectious. They're energies infectious. They'll be yelling across the marketplace. One guy will grab a huge fish, chuck it across the whole marketplace over the counter and the guy behind just catches it and then wraps it up and then they pay for it. And they're talking and they're laughing and they're being there for people. And they have a philosophy. One is to play. One is to be there for people. That's two. Three is to choose your attitude when you go to work. And four, hold that back, make their day. So as believers, our we is our attitude and infectious. Do people see something different than us? Then they do the world. Are we, we can have fun? Are we kidding? I have all kinds of fun. Healthy fun. I mean, I'll just be honest, my mom loved the fart machine. She had a great, great, I heard, I heard she used to take their women's retreats and I'd be like, "Oh, how embarrassing." She just got a hood out of that thing. And she had a lot of fun with it, I heard. So we can have fun and good fun. But are you there for people when they need it? Do you go out of your way to make somebody's date and then we have them wonder, "Wow, why'd they do that? Do you choose your attitude?" Because these guys just sold fish and attracted a huge crowd. So we are to be fishers of men, are we attracting people to us to say, "Why are you different? Why are you so happy in this whole crazy tumultuous world?" Two, I am going to repeat a couple things, but again, I want you to see how scripture can tie to each one. So be in the Word of God. Number two, be in the Word. Because in Psalms, it says, "I've chosen the faithful way. I've placed your ordinances, your laws, your commands before me." And my favorite scripture of all, one of them, is Psalm 1133. "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit at the sea of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates on it day and night." And then it says, "Hew it, I love the most. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields fruit in its time. And the leaf is not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers, put God first, you will prosper. Just depends what you think success is. I could ask God for a billion dollars, but I mean, I could have a faith of a must receive, maybe I'll get it, but I don't know if that's not God's will. I'm not going to get a billion dollars. I would love it though, could you imagine? You can quit your job. So I'm just saying, right? We want to make sure that we are asking if we ask, God, soften my heart. Help me to love people more. Help me to serve you more. That's in his will. He will give it and give it abundantly. I was just talking about that with Lou. We're saying if we ask in his will, he will not give it, just give it. He will give it to you greatly. Verse 3, "Abiding Christ." This is one of my favorites, John 15, 10 through 11. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love, these things I've spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Jesus wants us to be joyful. He wants us to have peace. He wants us to have His joy. And if we obey and follow the commandments, we're going to get that joy and joy overflowing. In Psalm 16 11, it says, "In your presence is the fullness of joy." So again, when we're in the presence of God, we can have the fullness of joy. Okay? Number four, I know we talked about praying, but still pray, Lord, help me. I want to have a joyful heart. I want me to take the eyes off the things that are down here and get my focus on you, Lord. John 16, 24 says, "until now you've asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be full." Oh, I love that scripture. When we pray at deepened our relationship with the Lord, we can talk to Him. We can share a deepest, our good secrets, things that were bothering us. And when we trust in He, we hear and we repent for the things that we need to repent, pray for the things that we want to be so we can be the very best servant for the Lord. There's a story about George Mueller. He was an evangelist and he was a director of an orphanage. This man had the prayer of like, who is a powerful prayer, pray your prayer. And so he had a story where he ran an orphanage with 300 students. Many of you may have heard this story is that they did not have any food, but they set the table. They set the kids down in the morning and they started praying for the Lord. Please provide the food. And it was interesting within minutes, there was a knock at the door. They opened the door and there's a baker standing there saying, "I couldn't sleep. I got up around midnight. I felt that you were going to need food. So here you go. I baked it all this morning." And then they shut the door and knocked again, boom, boom, boom, open the door. Milkman, my truck broke out in front of here. Milk's going to spoil. Can you use it? Boom. Do we have that kind of faith when we pray? Do we really believe God will do it? Because if we don't, we're missing out. Because he believed in everything he prayed for. He said, "I loved it. I have never failed to have an audience with the king when I pray. He always hears me. He always listens." So when we're faced with the need or challenge, do you approach God in prayer with the same trust and expectancy that George Mueller had, thanking him in advance for what he's done and the provisions he will provide? 5) Sing praises to the Lord, man. There's nothing greater than singing to the Lord and having joyful, making joyful noises. Psalm 95, come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and install him with music and song. Psalm 100, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful singing." There's a song that I absolutely love. It's called Praise the Lord. When you're up against your struggle that shatters all your dreams and your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan's manifested schemes. And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears. Don't let the faith you're standing in seem to disappear. Praise the Lord. He can work through those who praise Him. Praise the Lord. For our God and habit praise. Praise the Lord for the chains that seem to bind you, serve only to remind you that they draw powerless behind you when you praise Him. Now Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think that we are poppers when he knows we're children of the king. So lift up the mighty shield of faith for the battle must be one. We know that Jesus Christ is risen to the works already done. Praise the Lord. I love that. I was going to say that but I thought that would be a good idea. Number six, serving others. One way to find strength is to serve others. After my mom's death, which was on May 17, I had to take my car in because I was going to drive to Arizona to do the maintenance on my car. And I got, I had to take a new birth to Toyota to pick up my truck. I got in the car and the Jamaican music is playing. Now I don't know about you. When you hear Jamaican music, I only think of one thing. Weed. I'm sorry. It's just what it goes through my head. And I was like, oh, come on. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like noise and everything. I just want to be home. I don't want to talk. And the guy's, chatty chatty, chatty, chatty, is what he was. Oh, it's great. You know, I saw marijuana and it's great. And I'm like, what? You know, people don't understand about medical marijuana. It's phenomenal. They got it all wrong. And you know what else? I love like, you know, I'm training to be a shaman. I'm just sitting here like you've got to be kidding. I was like, no, no, no, Lord, no. There's no way I'm going to start witnessing right now. It's only been a day to have. What would my mom be? Of course she'd witness. Of course she would. So I was like, Lord, OK, fine, Lord. I need an end. Show me an end. God turns his head ever so slightly. He has a New York Yankee sat on, which is my baseball team. I'm like, here we go. Buckle up. I said, so are your Yankees fan? Oh, yeah, I love the Yankees and the Angels. I go, you're not a Yankees fan. He goes, why do you say that? I go, we don't like the Angels. I go, we're rivals. He goes, oh, yeah, that's true. I like the hat. The hat's cool. I go, yeah, it is a cool logo. And then he's talking to me how he wants to-- all these things, and I'm like, well, he goes, I don't-- he goes, you know, I go, I'm a Christian. I don't do drugs. So I'm just going to try to squatch that right there, because I think he's trying to get more clientele. So I'm not happening, wrong person you're coming to. Maybe 30 years ago, but not today. And I said, huh, and I go, I'm a Christian. I don't do that. And he goes, oh, I was a Catholic. But you know, I don't like mad maybe religion. I really love these older religions, like Hinduism. I was like, OK, I said, well, since you're in the Catholicism, you know that God created the heavens in the earth. And I don't even know where these answers came up, by the way, because I just was like, OK, Lord, take over. I can't even speak right now. I said, well, you know, God created the heavens in the earth. You know, I created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve the whole sin thing. You know, and yet she had big leaves on. And I go, it's interesting. Did you ever read the part where it said he gave them fur? And I said, because he did the first sacrifice of an animal when Eve sinned to cover the blood. And he goes, I didn't know that. I go, oh, yeah. I go, you know, it's cool about that. I go, that's a picture of Jesus on the cross. So I think if we had to rerun history all the way back, I think that's the oldest religion. So you might want to try that one. And I go, you know, Hinduism is man-made, right? And he's like, well, look at the crusades. Like he just started throwing things out. Look what they did in Christ's name. They were killing people. I go, that's terrible. I agree with you. I go, God's not like that. I go, look at Peter and Paul. Paul was abused and beaten and shipwrecked and all these things. And you know what? You never reviled back. You never retaliated. And I go and Peter and them. They were so excited that they got beaten for the Lord. They were happy and rejoicing. And so he kept trying to just go, but I will tell you, I was like taking a back seat, sitting out, tripping out. Like what is coming out of my mouth right now? Scriptures and things. And so I learned, as I got out of the car, I realized this guy's a drug dealer and he knows where I live. So I said, hey, just wanted to let you know. I love this type of conversation. Thank you for working and chatting with me. It's phenomenal. I go and engaging in conversation. I said, but do me a favor, don't count God out. He hasn't counted you out. He loves you and you would love for you to return. And I think he said he had a Bible. And I said, I'd love for you to pick it up and take a look at that. But don't count him out. That shamanism stuff is really bad. And you're opening up to the spirits and all that kind of stuff. And then I shut the door and I walked away. Oh my goodness, I was the happiest I'd been in a whole day and a half. I was joyful, praising God like, wow, that was radical. Like I had never experienced anything like that. It was like in my very weakest moment of vulnerability, boom. The Holy Spirit came right through and was able for me to answer everything he was throwing out. It was like throwing spaghetti against the wall and trying to make everything stick with nothing far and stuck because God was able to have me respond biblically in every way to him. So again, why did I tell you that story? Because we should be serving and witnessing others, especially when we're struggling and we're in our weakest toughest moment to get our eyes off of ourselves and onto other people. And then God can be glorified. Okay. Number seven, we're to comfort those with the comfort that we've been given. And second Corinthians one, it talks about when you're going through tough times, God has comforted you. So you can comfort those with the comfort that you've been given. And so one of the things I want to share with you was I have a story with a student and his name was Nick Burrito. And this kid, my mom passed in May 1723. I came back to work in September or October. And I called him in my office. I said, hey, man, are you okay? Like, something's off with you. He goes, yeah, I'm just struggling. My dad died in. I go, well, how long ago was that? He goes, May 22nd. And I looked up and I was like, oh my goodness, that's five days after my mom. I said, oh, how are you doing? He goes, people just don't understand unless you've lost a parent. So I let him talk. And I looked at him and I said, well, interesting enough, my mom lost my mom five days before you lost your dad. And I said, do you go to church? He goes, no. He goes, we did one, we were five. And I go, what happened? He goes, my dad got sick at five. I go, how old are you right now? He goes, I'm 16 and I said, praise God, he gave you 11 more years with your dad. He could have taken him at five. I said, what a gift God gave you, those 11 beautiful years that you got to hang out with your dad. And then he said, yeah, and then his dad got, they got a divorce and he lived in Columbia. And I said, praise God, I go, God brought him back to you because he came back to visit his son. But then he got sick. So while they were visiting in the home, he came back from Columbia. I got to hang out with his son for a little bit of time. What a gift God gave you because God could have taken you, could have taken him in Columbia and you didn't get to see him. I go, but God brought him back to you so that you could have one more last time with him. I go, praise God, don't get bitter on God. Look at the gift he's giving you. He goes, yeah, my friends telling me to go back to church with him. Go back to church. And so we just talked some more and then, you know, he laughed and I prayed and I thanked God and I said, Lord, I don't know what's going to happen with him because then he went to independent study and I never saw him again. But that very next day his mom called the counselor to give me a message. You tell her to thank her very much for the conversation that she had with him. He went home that day and opened up entirely and talked to his mom about what was going on with him. And she was so grateful. So here I am in my midst of my own trial suffering but knowing that I have God who's comforted me. He allowed me to comfort that young man. I don't think that was an accident. He landed in my office that day. I think that was God's intervention that. And I can't believe I got through that story that quick because it really impacts my heart a lot. So number eight is gratitude and thankfulness which we've talked about. So I'm not going to go too much more deeper into that but it is important. I think that we need to reflect. Are we as grateful as we should be? And when we're going through tough times just thank the Lord for just what he's done for you with salvation and all of that. And so I just want to encourage you remember first that salonians says, give thanks in all circumstances. Not some. All. For this is God's will. For you in Christ Jesus. God's will for you to give thanks in all circumstances. So there's a song that I really like. It's called my wife. And this is something I wanted to share with you because this is why I'm here out for the Lord every single day. And I try to make this kind of like my thing of this is why I'm alive because because if you list here the words of this song I feel like they're very powerful and they resonated and they pretty much touch on everything we've talked about today. It's like a song in a summary of a song. A song in a summary. I'm not sure. I didn't say that right. Sorry. Be in this world. Not of it. Follow Jesus. Not the crowd. Be light wherever it looks dark and love where hate is loud. Make every day's ambition be to make my father proud. That's my wife. Greet every day with gratitude. Be humble and be kind. See the path in front of you and leave the past behind between grudges and forgiveness, choose forgiveness every time. That's my wife. Knowing my Jesus and making him known, following him where he calls me to go and running this race knowing I'm running home every day of my life. That's my wife. I'm fixing my eyes on a heavenly prize. So if anyone asks, yeah, that's my wife. And when I cross that finish line and my race has been one, may the reasons why I lived my life come down to just this one. To look into my father's eyes and hear him say, that's my wife. In closing, I'm going to, I loved and on story. So I'm going to end another story with you. There is once a shepherd leading his flock home after a long day. As the sun set and the shadows grew, one little lamb wandered away, slipping down into a rocky ravine, the lamb tannicked, bleeding, desperately, unable to climb out. The more it struggled, the more attractive it became. But the shepherd heard the cry. He didn't stand at the top and shout instructions. He didn't scold the lamb for wandering. Instead, he climbed down into the ravine, lifted the trembling lamb onto his shoulders and [BLANK_AUDIO] it safely back to the fold. Sister, that is our good shepherd. We may stumble under the weight of trials, slip into pit of anxiety or feel trapped by fear and despair. Wow. But Jesus is the way out. He doesn't leave us in the darkness. He comes down to us, lifts us up in his strength, and carries us when we cannot carry ourselves. His presence restores our peace. His joy fills our hearts and his love anchors us securely. As we leave the retreat today, please remember you're never alone, ever, whatever ravine you face, the good shepherd is with you. His voice calms our fear. His presence gives us courage, and his joy gives us strength. Keep your eyes fixed on him. For he is not only the author and perfector of your faith, he is the shepherd who leads you home safely. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, just thank you so much. Thank you today. I just pray, Lord, that your word just comes out through and the message that we can have joy in the Lord regarding of our circumstances. And to remember you are the good shepherd, you're not going to lead us astray. You're not going to take us down a road or a path that's rocky or unstable because you are a constant, loving, consistent, caring, compassionate, kind, forgiving, patient, God. I pray for every woman in this room, Lord, whatever is going on in their lives, that they can take something away from here and apply it to their lives so that they can have even through their toughest times and challenges that they too can have joy. And knowing that when they delight in you, you are their strong refuge. You will protect them. You are hold them secure. You're not going to leave. You're not going to forsake. But you are right there in the thick of it, right with us, Father. I praise you and thank you, God, for everything you've done in these ladies' lives, but not just what you've done, but what you're doing and what you will do for them in the future. Thank you so much, Father, and Jesus' name I pray. Amen. [APPLAUSE]