The Extra Mile | Joy Over Negativity

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hey good morning welcome to southland my name is mike this is jessica we along with the rest of the team up here so glad you're here to worship with us this morning if you're new around here or if this is your very first time here welcome we're so glad you're here to worship with us uh we're gonna start our service off this morning by lifting some praise to jesus singing some songs about his power about his about overcoming the stand the darkness has to retreat just one touch i feel the presence of them [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] that's right [Music] just one touch my heart [Music] is is [Applause] [Music] [Music] there's no power like the power of jesus let faith arise let all agree there's no power like the power of jesus [Music] greater things [Music] to let faith [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] no is [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen let's continue in our worship [Music] now the darkness fades into new beginnings as we lift our eyes to hope beyond [Music] our god [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] in the name of jesus as the heavens cry let the earth respond i'll [Music] create a voice of the lord [Music] let's sing this out together he shall reign forever [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign when the earth gives away before there is a one is overcome [Music] and for every fear foreign [Music] [Applause] amen amen hey it's so great to worship with you guys this morning you can go ahead and have a seat [Music] hey everyone and welcome to southland we're so glad that you're here wherever you're joining us from today here are a few things that you need to know there's a lot going on at southland and we want to make sure that you have the info you need so that you can be a part of what's going on here to learn more about what's happening where you are visit southland.church one of the best ways you can stay informed is just to follow us on social media we even have a facebook group created just for your campus we are so thankful for your generosity if you'd like to give today you can visit southland.church forward slash give there it's really easy to make a one-time donation or set up a recurring gift of course you can always drop your offering in one of the bins at your campus hey if you're new around here text new to southland to 97 000. we'd love to say hello answer any questions you may have and help you get to know southland a little better and if you need anything while you're with us today be sure to stop by the help desk on your way out in the lobby before you leave we're here to help you in any way that we can and we're excited to be able to connect with you again we're so glad that you're here thanks for joining us well good morning everybody my name is eric and i serve on our south and students team and i'm so glad that each and every one of you are here with us this morning well as a church we strive to love god and love people really really well and one of the coolest ways we get to see that play out is when we trust god in the way that we're generous with what we have and so like peter just talked about in that video there's so many different ways to give around here whether that's online or when you drop it off on the bins when you come but one of the coolest ways is seeing what god does with our generosity one of the coolest ways that we see that happen around here is through this thing called the dollar club if you don't know what the dollar club is we just asked that everybody would give one dollar above and beyond what you're already choosing to give and then we take all that and we find somebody in our community that we can bless in a radical and meaningful way and this last week part of your dollar club contributions went to helping a set of grandparents get their house outfitted with beds and other supplies that they needed to be able to take in their three grandchildren who are about to go into the foster care system and if that hadn't happened these kids would have been taken away from their family in the midst of a really really difficult time and so those kind of things can't happen unless we love people well with the way that we're generous so however you choose to give we just want to say thank you because it's things like that that are making a huge difference in real people's lives right here in our community well another thing that we know is true is that you guys can come in here uh you can kind of get into a routine every single week you can come in you probably have your place that you sit that you're really comfortable with and maybe you come with people that you know or maybe you just come in and you receive and then it's really really easy to just step back out and go back out into the world without ever actually connecting with real life people that are right around you we know that's the easy thing to do but we also think it's really really worthwhile for each and every one of us to be in community with other people one of the best ways to do that is by being a part of a southern group next sunday our groups directory for the fall semester is going to go live and i guarantee you in a room this size there are people who are in the same stage of life as you are looking for that same kind of community that you are or there are probably people in this room who have the same interests or hobbies that have a southern group together that you could also jump into to be in community with other people and so when that groups directory goes live next weekend at southland.church slash groups if you look through that i guarantee you you will find a group that is right for you and here's the deal i know that's a big guarantee but if not maybe that's your sign that it's time to start a group so other people can find you and be in community together and so whether it's finding a group or just finding out how you can be in community with other people here in our church we'd love for you to check out southam.church nicholasville to learn more about that we're getting ready to move into a time of teaching which is something we do every single week where we get to hear from one of our pastors and we've been in a series over the last few weeks called the extra mile and it's been a great series if you missed any of it i would highly encourage you to go back to southland.church watch and get caught up on that but we've got scott nicholl with us here today to give us a great message so if you have a bible or bible app you like to use once go ahead and get those out and let's get ready for our time of teaching so one more [Music] all right wanna welcome everybody in across all of our campus really glad to be joining with you today wasn't it good to watch some football yesterday yeah a passing game that's going to be fun this year hey uh quick question who can tell me uh what this is a walkman some old folks around here today all right i'm with you see kids we used to have these things called cassette tapes you could make something really cool for your girlfriend called mix tape it was great and um if you wanted to go running and listen to music at the same time or exercise really in any way shape or form and listen to music at the same time this is what you had to carry you could maybe have one that would clip onto your waistband or something like that or you just hold it like this now uh some technology improved kind of maybe sort of when in the late 90s we we got these remember what this is called a discman all right and we were all very excited he says oh very cool we can listen to cds in a mobile way like we can walk and run and things like that and then he's like nope because they'll skip every step you take and it was so disappointing you know i mean you had to walk like really slow i remember having one that worked in my car but i had to put like a towel underneath it on the dashboard so that it wouldn't wouldn't skip and so this was a big big disappointment in technology but then these came along this is the first ipod the first generation this will not surprise you to know this actual ipod belongs to one pastor john wiess and he still uses it and it's the old kind with the wheel on it before the touchscreen all that made that clicking sounds really really cool but this was great because you could actually run you could exercise with this in your hand as long as you can figure out how to get all the music from those cds onto a computer and onto this device you were off and running you could listen to music while you were exercising and here here's the question i have why do we need songs when we're suffering like why do we need a soundtrack to the suffering of running and in acts chapter 16 we're going to pick up a story today in the middle of a journey some men named paul and silas and some other folks in their entourage have traveled to this little roman outpost in this town called philippi and they meet this local businesswoman very successful businesswoman named lydia she's by a river she's gathered there to pray with some other women and they actually paul and silas lead her to faith in christ they teach her about jesus she gets baptized her whole household gets baptized and she actually offers up her home as being kind of a base of operations for paul and silas and the others on this missionary journey in this town called philippi and so right at the outset it's like man things are going great like you roll into town you already have somebody convert to christianity so happens that she has a great house to live in things are smooth sailing for like i don't know 48 hours and then everything takes a turn for the worse and that's where we're going to pick up the story check this out once when we were going to the place of prayer we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling she followed paul and the rest of us shouting these men are servants of the most high god who are telling you the way to be saved and she kept us up for many days finally paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit in the name of jesus christ i command you to come out of her at that moment the spirit left her when her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone they seized paul and silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities they brought them before the magistrates and said these men are jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us romans to accept or practice the crowd joined in the attack against paul and silas and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods after they've been severely flogged they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully when he received these orders he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in stocks about midnight check this out paul and silas were praying and singing hymns to god and the other prisoners are listening to them here's my question how how in the world is that possible how can they be singing songs in a situation like this how can you sing from a prison cell what is it that made them feel safe and secure enough to sing while they were bloody and beaten and here's the thing we do this so often with bible stories don't sanitize this don't just gloss over the details everything that was done to paul and silas was wrong they're just innocently walking to a place of prayer when they have this slave girl who's possessed by a demon accost them on a daily basis screaming and shouting at them which is at the very least unsettling and don't miss the fact that philippi this town is such a dark place that culturally speaking no one had any problem with two dudes owning a little girl who's tormented by an evil spirit and making money off of her that's how sick and twisted the culture of philippi was and so when paul delivers this little girl from her suffering there's no celebration amongst anyone there's actual just annoyance when her owners become so livid at the fact that they can't make money off of her anymore that they drag it says they literally seize and drag paul and silas to the to face the authorities which means that here's a couple dudes who are exploiting the little girl enslaved a little girl taking advantage of a little girl and in this moment they actually think they're the ones with the moral high ground like they think that they can make a good case when they bring paul and silas before the town authorities that they can actually win the case that's how that's how screwed up the culture of philippi was and what do they do their first line of argument is to stir up the racist tendencies of the crowd when they say these men are jews you see the jews were hated by gentiles in towns like philippi and so it didn't take much to get them all riled up so much so that the mob swarms in and literally beats paul and silas with rods again don't skip over that detail what would it feel like to be beaten with a rod over and over and over again by an angry mob and then what would you want more than anything when the beating finally stopped i can tell you what you wouldn't want you wouldn't want to be thrown in a cold prison cell probably beneath the house of a former military man you probably wouldn't want to be thrown into a dark and damp place surrounded by other prisoners and you probably wouldn't want to have your feet stretched out in front of you and locked into stocks i don't know about you my back gets stiff just sitting in my office chair for too long i can't imagine how painful that must have been but that's what happened to paul and silas in prison broken bloody and beaten and the whole thing turned so fast right like the day before they were warm and well-fed living in a upper-class house life was good you ever felt like life just took a turn on you like that everything was going well and then you got a phone call you were comfortable life was good and then pain paid you a visit and if you haven't had life turn on you like that you will and when it does the question becomes what song will you sing what song will you sing in the moment when suffering comes and here's the thing you better know the song before the suffering comes if you want to sing it when it does a lot of researchers will tell you that whatever kind of music you listen to when you were in your like pre-teen and early adolescent phase of life is what your heart will naturally gravitate toward for the rest of your life which doesn't bode well for some of us right because hey your steady diet of boy bands back in the 90s is not gonna help you when life gets painful the beetles won't help you when life gets painful and in my case dr dre won't help you either when life gets painful which means that we need to soak our hearts in some better songs and as much as i didn't really like going to church when i was a little kid i'm thankful that certain songs kind of stuck so much so that in certain circumstances those are the songs that come to my heart and come to my mind and come to my lips like songs like great is thy faithfulness and when i'm at the ocean for some reason the old chorus i will exalt thee it's always on my mind and heart and when i'm really tired the old chorus our god reigns is something i just sing over and over again when i'm at a loss for what to do the song lord i need you is a song that i sing i've showed you this before but it would have been easy to forget that right up until the events of 2020 there was a uprising in hong kong because of the takeover of communist china and christians had taken to the streets and by the millions and when they gathered together to protest the rule and reign of the communist chinese communist party what did they do they sang [Music] oh [Music] and in singing what are they doing well they're saying loudly for anyone who wants to know that our allegiance is not to this man xi jinping our allegiance is to king jesus that's what they're singing about how did horatio spafford managed to pen the famous words that he did while standing on the bow of a boat over the waters were just a few weeks beforehand his children had drowned and he wrote when peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like billow's role whatever my lot thou has taught me to say what it is well it is well with my soul how does a man stand on a boat who's just lost so much sing such words and how did paul and silas sing while sitting in stocks why are certain words of such value when suffering hits did you know that when the japanese bombed pearl harbor one of the very first things our government did was send the hard copies of the declaration of independence the gettysburg address and the constitution to fort knox right here in the commonwealth of kentucky as you might know that's where half our country's gold reserve resides it's probably one of the safest places on earth so why in that moment did we send those famous words for safe keeping it seems that in times of intense suffering there are certain words worth treasuring right i would contend that paul and silas felt genuinely safe and secure while they were sitting in that prison and that that safety and security had nothing to do with the place that they were in it had everything to do with the person that they worshipped this wasn't their first rodeo with suffering i mean paul had already been stoned and left for dead dragged outside of his city they had already suffered in just basically every place they had been intense persecution this wasn't the first or the last time that they would suffer but if you just pay attention to this one story that we're looking at today it can look like a shiny happy story with a fairy tale ending watch how it turns out suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken at once all the prison doors flew open everyone's chains came loose the jailer woke up when he saw the prison doors open he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped but paul shouted don't harm yourself we're all here the jailer called for lights rushed in fell trembling before paul and silas and he brought them out and asked sirs what must i do to be saved they replied believe in the lord jesus you'll be saved you and your household then they spoke the word of the lord to him and all the others in his house and at that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds then immediately he and all his household were baptized the jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in god he and his whole household when it was daylight the magistrate sent their officers to the jailer with the order release those men jailer told paul the magistrates have ordered that you and silas be released now you can leave go in peace but paul said to the officers they beat us publicly without a trial even though we're roman citizens they threw us in a prison and now they want to get rid of us quietly no i love that let them come themselves and escort us out the officers reported to the magistrates and they came and when they heard that paul and silas were roman citizens they were alarmed they came to appease them and escorted them from the prison requesting them to leave the city after paul and silas came out of the prison they went to lydia's house where they met with the brothers and sisters and cursed them then they left it don't get any better than that right i mean angels and earthquakes prison doors fly open and you know you baptize the jailer and then on top of that the very people that be in through you in prison have to come and apologize and escort you out publicly and shame i mean that is that is a that is a happy ending right i mean that just goes to show that if you put out the right energy into the universe and positive vibes the universe will pay you back that the power of positive thinking always pays off right wrong that's called karma that's not christianity and it's certainly not reality if you really want to see the big picture of this context you got to zoom out about at least a decade because about a decade later paul pends a letter back to this church in philippi this church that began with this businesswoman named lydia this little slave girl and this gentile jailer and when he writes the letter it's found in your new testament it's simply called philippians where does he write it from prison paul's back in prison and i bet that just like in paul's life it hadn't been all sunshine and rainbows since his first time in that prison in philippi it hadn't been for the people in that philippian church either but they have been through some stuff but i've always wondered i wonder what it was like sitting in that little church when that letter from their friend paul was read out loud i wonder if lydia was there i bet she was and i wonder what happened in her life in the years to follow i wonder if she ever struggled with some things i wonder if her faith was ever shaken i wonder if she ever struggled with thinking yeah you know it was easier before paul rolled through town i wonder if she ever struggled with finding her identity and her financial capabilities wonder if she ever faced suffering and all those years after paul's jailbreak wonder if she ever had family dysfunction what about that little slave girl did you ever have to face down demons again did the stigma of being a slave follow her for a long time was she seen by others as damaged goods did she ever grow up get married start a family did her former oppressors ever come back searching for it a hundred down did she still have nightmares at night what about that jailer is he still alive if he is probably an old man by now what kind of repercussions did he face for switching allegiances from caesar to jesus was he seen as a traitor did he sometimes still feel like an outsider maybe even in his church community and as that letter was read in church was anybody surprised to find that paul had found himself back in prison probably not was anybody surprised to find that the theme of this little letter was one word joy i doubt it because paul's joy and paul's security had nothing to do with the place that he was writing to them from it had everything to do with the person he was writing to them about his name is jesus there are probably some young people in that church in philippi that didn't know paul maybe they didn't come to christ till later maybe they were really a little when paul rolled through town and maybe they wondered man how does this guy that we hear so much about all the beatings all the suffering all the imprisonments like how does he press on how does he keep going how does he maintain the theme of this letter called joy in the face of all that intense suffering and they didn't have to wonder for long because right in the middle of his letter in philippians 3 12 he gives him the reason that he can press on he says i can do that because christ jesus has made me his own that's it period bottom line because christ jesus has made me his own in other words paul's joy was anchored not in his circumstances it was anchored in a person that had made him his own see jesus had taken a man like paul who later would refer to himself as the worst of sinners a man who had dragged off men and women murdered christians and made his objective to rid the earth in violent ways of christian people he was a self-righteous arrogant violent man and jesus made him his own spectacular story but not an isolated one jesus had taken a self-sufficient businesswoman and a male-dominated culture a woman who could have easily found her identity and her abilities in business savvy a woman who could have found her value and worth in her performance and prestige and jesus made her his own jesus who took a tortured little slave girl abused and exploited a girl who could have gone on being a slave of possession of evil in a commodity of selfish men a girl who was captive to darkness and he made her his own he brought her from death to life from darkness to light from slave to free jesus who took this retired soldier who may have lost his sense of value and worth and purpose with no more battles to fight a man who felt cut off not only from his purpose and mission but from god himself and yet jesus drew him near when he made him his own he made an outsider an insider by his grace you see ironically this time in in history jewish men would wake up every day and thank god that they weren't born a woman a slave or a gentile but god started a church with one of each a place called philippi and the question becomes why why do you do that and the answer is simple because that's the kind of god that he is that's the kind of god that we worship and because of that we can have joy i love the way that k warren defines joy she says this joy is the settled assurance that god is in control of all the details of my life the quiet confidence that ultimately everything's going to be all right and the determined choice to praise god in every situation coming from a woman who lost her son to suicide that definition carries a lot of water with me i love every part of that definition but especially the last part the determined choice to praise god in every situation you see joy unlike happiness has a stubborn streak you see happiness in the face of suffering will turn tail run and hide joy rather grits its teeth and leans into the storm that's what joy does see i don't know i don't know what the other prisoners were doing that night that paul and silas were thrown into that jail cell i don't know if they were asleep i don't know if they were chatting i don't know if they were bickering i don't know if they were fighting i don't know if they were complaining i don't know what they were doing when paul and silas got thrown in there that night but what i do know is what they were doing when paul and silas started singing what were they doing they were listening they were listening when we sing in the middle of our suffering the world leans in to listen robby maharaj tells a story about his life when he left behind the hindu religion he'd grown up under and began following jesus he recounts going to a christian worship service when he was a teenager and he says this the small group of indian believers met in a very run-down house but there was something very special about their worship the small song leader held up her tambourine then she hit her hand with it and a new chorus had started over and over the words were repeated and soon i had joined in it was hard not to be enthusiastic if what this song said was true wonderful wonderful jesus is to me counselor mighty god prince of peace is he saving me keeping me from all sin and shame wonderful as my redeemer praise his name no one had started to preach but i had already learned so much what a contrast between the relationship these christians had with jesus and the ritualistic appeasement of the gods of hindu ceremonies i never heard anyone say that a hindu god was wonderful or a counselor certainly no one would sing like that about shiva about khali his bloodthirsty wife or about their favorite son ganesh the elephant half human and they called jesus the prince of peace the words of that simple course were burning themselves into my heart jesus would not only save but he would keep me from all sin and shame what good news these people must have found it to be true or they wouldn't be singing with such enthusiastic joy earlier this year one of my closest friends lost his teenage daughter she was my daughter's best friend for many years she was like a member of our family we shared meals and carpools and laughs and trips and memories and when we went to her funeral we sang we had to sing through gritted teeth we sang we sang through the suffering we worshiped defiantly because joy has a stubborn streak joy's not anchored in circumstances it's anchored in a person one of the songs that we sang at her funeral is simply called jira it's one of god's names proverbs 18 10 says this the name of the lord is a strong fortress the godly run to him and are safe see some of us have learned that the only place to run when the brutality of life comes raining down on your head is to the name of the lord see names have significance and our god has a lot of them our sermon series that starts next week is going to be all about the names of god names like yahweh the faithful god el shaddai the almighty god jehovah jireh the provider god jehovah rapha the healer god jehovah shalom the god of peace question anyone want those things i do and the problem for me and you is we go running to all kinds of places and all kinds of people trying to find these things that we can only find in the name of the lord see the reason that you can have joy when you get a call from a doctor and that doctor says it's cancer the reason you can have joy when you don't you don't have any idea how you're going to have the energy to get up and go work another 12-hour shift in the icu is exhausted as you are the reason that you can joyfully fight depression the reason you can sing worship songs at your little girl's funeral is simply because christ jesus has made you his own bottom line see sometimes you have to sing through broken teeth and bloody lips like paul and silas our worship teams are going to come out and we're going to sing that song jira the first time we ever see that name appear in the bible it's when god provides a sacrifice as a substitute for someone else and it simply proclaims this god is more than enough for us and if you ever doubt that reality all you have to do is look to the cross i want to challenge you to listen to the words of this song and really reflect on them and then when you're ready to sing them and during the song you have the opportunity to take a piece of bread and be reminded of jesus's broken body that was provided for you as a substitute and during the song you can take some juice and you can remember how jesus provided the perfect payment for your sin and as you do treasure this simple but profound reality you will never be more loved than you are right now there's nothing you can do to make him love you anymore there's nothing you can do to make him love you any less and because of that you can grit your teeth and live joyfully regardless of your circumstances let's thank him right now father god thank you thank you for your faithfulness thank you for how you fight for us thank you for how you provide for us thank you for how you've given us peace thank you father for how you can give us joy in the face of our circumstances of all father we thank you for your son jesus thank you for how he was our substitute and giving him to us you gave us more than we could ever need ask for want or imagine thank you for his payment for our sins because we've all fallen so desperately short of your glory and thank you for the security that we have in his name thank you for being more than enough thank you for your love in jesus name amen [Music] i'll never be more than i am right now i wasn't holding you up so there's nothing i can do to let you down doesn't take trophy to make you proud [Music] [Music] so i wouldn't enjoy [Music] i [Music] forever [Music] stay by when the sun goes down [Music] i will be content [Music] forever [Music] [Music] i'm forever chosen i know who i [Music] i could am i know who i am [Music] [Music] [Music] everybody [Music] you are [Music] every circumstance [Music] yes i will be content in every circumstance [Music] we're going to continue to worship so i want to invite you guys to stand up and to sing with us [Music] the storm surrounding me let it break [Music] jesus jesus you make the darkness jesus jesus [Music] [Music] you make the darkness [Music] jesus [Music] jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] silence [Music] uh [Music] jesus jesus the precious name of jesus jesus [Music] [Music] was [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] we serve a faithful god and this song just sings about that and celebrates it promises [Music] when you speak a word [Music] from the rising sun to the setting same i will praise your name grace [Music] [Music] the world remains the same your history may prove there's nothing you can't do faith is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] me [Music] my [Music] foundation [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] rey is faithfulness to me amen he's faithful would you lift him up this morning [Music] our prayer team is going to be down front after the service and they would love to pray with you or just to talk to you about who jesus is if you have questions please come down front we'd love to talk to you as scott said we've got a new series start next week called name dropping you do not want to miss it it's going to be awesome invite a friend come back you all have a great week [Music] you

Channel: Southland Christian Church

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Length: 55min 39sec (3339 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021