Mark Clark [00:00:01]:
Hey, everyone. Mark here. Welcome to the Mark Clark Podcast. Today we are diving into Philippians chapter four. And of course, this is the third and final week of this series called Citizens of Joy, where I was preaching through the book of Philippians. And joy, of course, is one of the great themes of my next book that's coming out, the problem of life. Make sure you jump over to Amazon and pre order it. It comes out in February.
Mark Clark [00:00:23]:
It will be on your front door, hopefully on February 18 if you order it now. And it helps with all the analytics with Amazon for more people to see it. And this book, I'm sorry, super excited about it. If the first book was about God, the problem of God, and the second book, the problem of Jesus, was about Jesus. This third book is about you. It's about your soul, your longing, your identity, your purpose, your travel and adventure through this amazing and crazy, chaotic thing called life. And it's eleven principles about how you're gonna actually flourish versus flounder in life. I'm super excited about it.
Mark Clark [00:00:54]:
And so today actually is an interesting day because we talk about something that I'm asked a lot of, which is like, what's the end of the world all about? What is Jesus coming back gonna be like? And what does that have to do with our life today? In fact, the problem of life has two chapters right at the end called the problem of death. And it's all about living our life now in light of the reality of death and how it informs everything about your life as you live it. So, very similar to actually what Philippians chapter four is all about. It's about finding internal stability through your faith in the midst of everything that life throws at you. And if you're anything like me, life throws stuff at you all the time. Seems every day. So I'm gonna share how Jesus Jesus return and a view on that can be the ultimate source of peace in a totally chaotic world and what it means to live with joy, even when things feel turbulent in life. So hopefully, you enjoy it.
Mark Clark [00:01:45]:
Let's jump in and discover how to thrive in the midst of life's storms. Good to have you all here. We got a lot of work to do. We're in Philippians chapter four. If you got a Bible. Philippians chapter four. Two sermons left in this series. This week myself, next week, Pastor Kurt.
Mark Clark [00:02:01]:
And we're excited to be ending this amazing series off citizens of joy in the book of Philippians, one of the great letters of the Apostle, Apostle Paul and I entitled this sermon the end of the world. And the fate of everyone who ever lived. And we got 35 minutes. So we got a lot to do because the apostle Paul raises this amazing thing. So let's get into it. So he starts out in Philippians chapter four, and he says, therefore, my brothers and sisters, do you whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm is the first thing he says. Now, here's the issue with standing firm. He's talking to them about the fact that he wants them in the midst of the tumultuous life in which they live, in the stresses and the temptations of the roman empire and suffering and agony and trials in their life.
Mark Clark [00:02:51]:
The stuff that they're going through, the stuff that, of course, he's going through, writing from prison, he's telling them, I want you to stand firm. I want you not only. What is important is not just the first day that you decide to follow Jesus, but the last day that can you get to the end of your life and still be standing firm. You didn't bow to temptation. You didn't bow to the pressures of the world. You didn't give in to the trials and the difficulties. You had a kind of peace that surpassed understanding and inward stability that got you through. So this is what happens in life when you have external turbulence that's going on like we have in our world, like you have in your personal lives, maybe among friendships or marriage or finance or whatever, you tend to look for all kinds of reasons of how you can get stable in the midst of it.
Mark Clark [00:03:42]:
This is why in, like, planes and ships, there's stabilizers, right? If you look at a plane when it's flying, you have, like, the big fin at the back, but those two little side fins at the back, they're the ones that are stabilizing through turbulence. And so even on a ship, like, we just got back from this footsteps of Paul Cruz. It was like nine days on a cruise ship. And there were a couple nights where the winds decided to kick up in the Mediterranean and hit this ship. And it started going like, 02:00 in the morning. My body was like, off the bed. My daughter came in, she's like, daddy, daddy. And she threw it.
Mark Clark [00:04:19]:
We got her in the bathroom, throws up. My other kid's like, what? There's nowhere to go. What if this thing tips over? Ah. And I'm like, good point. Ah. And I'm like, I thought we were going on the footsteps of Paul. I end up on the deadliest catch, and I'm like, what? Trying to get alaskan king crab? What are we doing out here in the middle of the ocean? And the ship's going, and the staff's like, tomorrow's gonna be worse. I'm like, I'm out.
Mark Clark [00:04:50]:
Pulled the parachute. But there's stabilizers on those cruise ships under the waters, stabilizers on planes to stabilize in the midst of turbulence, in the midst of difficulty. And so this is what happens in our lives. We have to look for internal stabilizers because externally there's things going on in your world that you can't control. And so how are you gonna have inward stability? And this is what the apostle Paul starts to go after. He starts to go, man, I wanna give you a way that you can have internal stability so that you can stand firm in the end when externally things are going up. Now, here's what happens. We tend to go, well, the way that you end up having internal stability is by changing your circumstances.
Mark Clark [00:05:39]:
And so this is what we do as a culture, right? We go, California. I don't, you know, people go, there's too much tumult in the midst of California. I don't like the taxes. I don't like the government. I don't like this. I don't like that. And so what do they do? They move right to Montana or Nashville or Idaho. And it's like, okay, now I can be calm and look at the birds and walk around the mountains and have lesser taxes, and that's what's gonna give me stability.
Mark Clark [00:06:10]:
And they're wrong, because you can't change. This is what we do in life, right? This is what the secular story tries to tell you to do. If you're here and you're not a Christian, we're glad you're here. You're exploring Christianity, exploring Jesus. Awesome. One of the stories of secularism or atheism or agnosticism is when you have inward mess in unstable life, then you just need to change your circumstances. So we go after technique, and we tell you to breathe and meditate and go to sweaty yoga and go into the. And go on a vacation, go to Hawaii and sit on the beach for two weeks and stare out in the ocean, and then your problems will be solved.
Mark Clark [00:06:53]:
You will find yourself, you will relax. And the problem with moving to Montana or going to Hawaii is that you're still there. And that's why it never solves you. So we're trying to pull this lever and twist that knob and do this, and I'll get my circumstances exactly right. And the apostle Paul, in this moment, is in prison. He has no ability to go to Hawaii. No ability to change his circumstances. And as I looked at the camera in the first service, I looked at the guys in the folsom prison, and I told them, and you're in this.
Mark Clark [00:07:37]:
They can't change their circ, they can't change their externals. So they need to find the inward stability that in the midst of the difficulty, you're stable and you're calm, and you have peace and joy and love in the midst of the trials and the difficulties of the world. And that's how you ever get to a place in your life where you're standing firm on the last day because it's the last day that matters. Traditional cultures know this. In the modern western world, we're stressed because of all, like, never has there ever been a time, and we talked about this during a Sam mind series, where there was so much information coming at you to make you unstable. Right? Traditional cultures, they were more stable than we are, mentally, emotionally, because they were either told by authorities what to believe. They were given ideas about God and the transcendent that they bought into. But we don't have that.
Mark Clark [00:08:35]:
And so traditional cultures didn't have time to sit around and ask the question of, what's my identity? Who am I? Right? If you're a 15 year old kid and you go, dad, who am I? 200 years ago? He goes, shut up and go feed the horse. All right, we gotta. We didn't have the luxury of asking these. Well, what Enneagram number am I? See, that's why I'm always late. Cause I'm a three. No, shut up. You're late cause you don't respect human beings. So this is what we do.
Mark Clark [00:09:08]:
So this is Paul going, if you wanna ask the question of identity, if you wanna ask the question how you're gonna stand firm, how are you gonna be in love with Jesus and treasure him until your last day? He goes, here's what I want to do. I want to give you. It's not about changing your circumstances. It's about focusing on a particular doctrinal idea about God and yourself, that once you flood that idea and get it locked in, you will be able to stand firm. And this matters. Here's what Charles Darwin said. Some of you are like, why are you quoting Charles Darwin? You'll see in a sec. Here's what Darwin said.
Mark Clark [00:09:41]:
A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or a future existence with retribution or reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I see, only to follow those impulses and instincts, which are the strongest or which seem to him to be the best one. So here's what Darwin is saying. If we, in our situation like we're today, if you don't believe in God and you don't have an understanding about the future, you'll just do whatever your impulse tells you, you will do whatever you feel in a moment. And that's where we are as a culture. Here's what the apostle Paul does. I want to give you some doctrine and ideas that will center you so you can get to the last day. And this is why he says this. Therefore.
Mark Clark [00:10:25]:
Back in Bible college, my professors used to say, when you see a therefore, you ask the question, what is it? Therefore. Therefore. Right. So what has Paul just said that he's able to say? Everything I just said is how you're going to stand firm. What did he just say? Well, it's the topic of the day. The end of the world, chapter three. Right at the end of it, he says, but our citizenship is where? In heaven, not on earth. Your citizenship, where you get your identity, where you get your joy, where you get your fulfillment, where you get your meaning.
Mark Clark [00:11:00]:
It's not in this world. It's not what your friends think about you, it's not what your spouse thinks about you. It's not what social media says about you. It's in where heaven, the heavens and all that that means. And then he says, from heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's what he just said. You want to know how you stand firm in the midst of the tumult of the world? You figure out what happens at the end of all things. You say one day Jesus Christ is going to come back from heaven to earth and he's no longer going to be the victim.
Mark Clark [00:11:43]:
2000 years ago, a bunch of people beat him up and put him on a cross. He is going to come back on the clouds of heaven as the king of Kingsley and lord of lords. And he is going to defeat every enemy you've got. Satan, sin, death, all the things that tempt you away from him. He's coming back. He's coming back. He's coming back. They don't ask me to lead worship very often.
Mark Clark [00:12:11]:
This guy. What the. So, and this is the thing. Most of the time I preach about the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. And I don't oftentimes talk about the third thing, which is, yes, Jesus died. Yes, Jesus Rose, but Jesus is coming again. He's coming back and he's coming to get his church, and he's coming to defeat Satan, sin and death and defeat evil. And there will be no more crying or pain or cancer or funerals or divorce or debt anymore.
Mark Clark [00:12:43]:
It'll be gone. All of the pain will come untrue. And that's the thing you have to hold on to when you're in the midst of the turbulence. That's what he's trying to say. That's the thing to hold on to. Now, that's interesting to say it that way, because some of you are like, even I posted on social media, I'm going to be talking about the end of the world and the fate of everyone who ever lived. And people dm me, they're like, oh, thank goodness. Now we get to hear your opinion on Palestine and Israel and Russia and China and bitcoin and the Antichrist and a tinfoil hat.
Mark Clark [00:13:19]:
All right, we get to hear. And I said, no, you're not, because here's my point. Jesus is coming back. End of story. One day, Jesus is going to win. And if you're on his team, you win, too. Even if you're a loser. No, I'm serious.
Mark Clark [00:13:52]:
Even if you're a loser like some of you right now, by the estimation of the world, you're losing. You don't have money, you don't own a nice car. Your marriage is crumbling, your job is a joke, and you are here. Your friendships have dissolved, and you feel like a loser. And if atheism is true, it is true. You are losing. And if you have that cancer diagnosis and it's not going anywhere, then you are losing. It's over.
Mark Clark [00:14:25]:
This is the one life you've got. You are going back to the dust of nothing, and that's it. But if Jesus Christ exists and he's coming back from heaven one day and you belong to him, you are a winner in the end. That's what the apostle Paul is trying to say. No matter what your marriage, no matter what your diagnosis, and this is why it's supposed, this is the thing that is going to give you peace, not create fear and anxiety. How often does talking about the end of the world create anxiety and fear in people? My wife Erin grew up in nineties Christian Baptist youth group. Any nineties christian youth group, kids in here, right? Every sermon was about the end of the world. It's the end of the.
Mark Clark [00:15:03]:
He's coming. He's gonna be back in two minutes. And she used to watch these movies, and the guy would be shaving, and all the christians would all of a sudden disappear from the earth. And the guy be shaving, and the buzzer would be, some guy be doing surgery, disappear. And they're like, planes would be falling from the sky because all the christians disappeared. And you'd be scared. All the kids would be freaking out. They'd accept Christ every single week, because one day, all the christians will be gone and disappear.
Mark Clark [00:15:41]:
And it created fear versus stability. Paul's saying, this is the thing that's supposed to bring you stability, not fear, because Jesus is coming back to earth one day, not to take you away from it, but to redeem it. The new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem comes down. So here's one of the passages where Jesus talks about this. Have you ever, like, hold on. Before you put that up, have you ever, like. Have you ever, like, thought something was going to be something, and then you started, like, you got there, and it wasn't that thing, like. Like, on this trip, it was our.
Mark Clark [00:16:24]:
It's our 20 year wedding anniversary in a few weeks. So we saved up some money. Thank you. I mean, marriage isn't very good, but we got to 20 years. So we saved up some money, and we're like, okay, so a 20 year wedding anniversary. We're already there. Let's go to the Amalfi coast for, like, four days after the trip is over. Bring the girls, hang out in the Amalfi coast.
Mark Clark [00:16:53]:
Because on instagram, the Amalfi coast is the most beautiful place in the world. It's incredible. There's always around these hotels and these wonderful restaurants and the water and. Most beautiful. And everyone's like, so we're like, hey, we're gonna do it. And so we save up this money and get this beautiful hotel and a cliff. And it used to be this, and that was great. And then.
Mark Clark [00:17:09]:
And then we got there, and it rained the whole time, which it never does on Instagram. You never see it raining in the Amalfi coast. And then the hotel, the first night we're there, we're sleeping in this beautiful hotel. We got the kids in their separate room, and we got wedding anniversary. And so. And so it's 02:00 in the morning, and all we hear is we wake up, we run out, there's a fire alarm going off, and there's a guy outside of our door in a weird hat. Aaron's like, there's a guy in a hat, and he's outside the kid's room. I'm like, what? And the guy goes, whee.
Mark Clark [00:17:48]:
He runs away. And I realize that he works there and he's trying to figure out the fire alarm. So then 20 minutes later, the fire alarm goes off again. And the fire alarm goes off every 20 minutes for the next 3 hours. And every time it goes off, I call the front desk. I'm like, bro, the fire alarm is going off, and it's 03:00 in the morning. He's like, don't worry, sir. There's no fire.
Mark Clark [00:18:13]:
I don't care. I know there's no fire. Shut the alarm off anyway. So a day or two in, my kids are like, let's just go home, man. Like, let's call it, man. The Amalfi coast ain't what we thought. Okay, what am I talking about? Okay. Yeah.
Mark Clark [00:18:32]:
So have you ever. Have you ever gone to a thing thinking it was going to be one thing, but it actually turned out to be something else? That's what I realized about half the passages that we go to to come up with an end time theology. And we think it means this. But then when we actually, like, when I showed up in youth group for the first time, they would use this passage from Matthew 24. And they say this is a passage where the surgery is going to happen. So let me take you through this for a couple minutes. But about that day, Jesus talked about the coming, the second coming of Christ, Matthew 24. Wonderful passage.
Mark Clark [00:19:04]:
But about that day or hour, you can figure it out by turning on the news and knowing exactly what the day or hour will be. That's what he said. No, no, no. He doesn't say that. He says, no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven know not. Nor even the sun, which is a fascinating phrase. And this can be used when you're trying to defend the Bible against some of your friends who are skeptical.
Mark Clark [00:19:31]:
And they go, the Bible's made up. No, if people made up the Bible, if I was trying to make up a religion, I would delete that little phrase. Nor the Son, because Jesus is admitting, like, for 24 chapters, Jesus has walked around and said, I am God. And everyone's like, you're God? Yes. You know all things. I know all things. Okay. When are you coming back? I don't know.
Mark Clark [00:19:54]:
That's, you know, it's. Good point. I do not know that. Just delete that. It's gonna raise questions with my skeptical friends that the son of God is all knowing and he doesn't know when he's coming back. This is what I love about the Bible. It's just, this is what he said. So he says, I don't know the angels don't know.
Mark Clark [00:20:19]:
Only the father knows when I come back. And then he says, as it was in the days of Noah, that's important in the background, so it will be at the coming of the son of man. I arrive. It's going to be like the Noah days. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving and marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took. If you got a Bible open and took them all away, underline the word took. That is how it will be at the coming of the son of man next.
Mark Clark [00:20:48]:
They're dying in anticipation here. But what's it going to be like? Okay, here's what it's going to be like. Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill. One will be taken and the other left. So when you see that word taken, underline it. See the second word taken, underline it. We've got three takens and therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day your lord will come.
Mark Clark [00:21:07]:
So you also must be ready, because the son of man will come in an hour when you do not expect. Here's the theme. You don't know. You don't know, you don't know, you don't know. So I'm not going to roll out a chronology map and start mapping out everything that's happening in the news and telling you that it's got to be soon. It's got to be soon. It's got to be soon, because we just don't know. Here's a great quote by a great theologian.
Mark Clark [00:21:29]:
He said this. Now that the end of the world is approaching, the people rage and rave most horribly against God and blaspheme God's word. If the last day were not close at hand, it would be a small wonder if heaven and earth were to fall at such blasphemy. The fact that God can tolerate such people and such a culture as this is a sign that the day is not far off. The day is not far off. Martin Luther 1548. Everyone thinks it's them and the end is here. So back up to that passage.
Mark Clark [00:22:04]:
Jesus says, two people will be out in the field and want to be taken. And so everyone's like, yeah. So that's when we all disappear. And I'm not saying I'm right about this, but I went, ah, I just. I don't know. So then I went and started studying the text and that word taken is used later in Matthew, chapter 27, where a guy comes and he takes Jesus. It's a negative term. He takes him and he brings them to judgment.
Mark Clark [00:22:27]:
And then I started going, well, what happened in the days of Noah? There was two kinds of people. There was righteous people, and there was unrighteous people. And when the flood came, who are the ones that got taken, the righteous or the unrighteous? The unrighteous. And who stayed the righteous. And so, yes, there'll be two people in a field, but the one that gets taken might not be the righteous one. It might be the unrighteous one. Like in the days of Noah. Right? So that's the Amalfi coast for you.
Mark Clark [00:22:58]:
It's like it wasn't what I thought it was. Maybe it's the christian surgeon and everyone else disappears. I believe in Christ. We're going to get this heart transplant done. Don't worry about it. The point is, Jesus is coming back again, and it's the thing that's going to put steel in your spine. It's not about the details of the when and the how. It's the fact that he's coming back and he's going to reverse all the things that are your enemy.
Mark Clark [00:23:32]:
Jesus is coming back, and here's what it does for our soul. Once we know the end of the story, we can face anything. That's why Paul brings it up. It's like my friend did a. They were watching a football game a couple years ago, and like 20 guys had come over to. To the house and they had taped the football game because it was already over. And so they got in the room and they all said, let's not watch social media because we had to see this football game unfold. And as they're watching it, my buddy was scrolling and he forgot that when they were supposed to go on and he saw the outcome of the game, he saw that his team had won.
Mark Clark [00:24:06]:
So at that moment, I would have placed a bet, probably, and gone, who wants to, you know? But he didn't. He just watched his friends nail bite and pace the kitchen floor for 2 hours, and he sat back and drank a latte and was completely relaxed because he knew the end of the story. This thing isn't supposed to create fear and doubt and anxiety in you. It's supposed to be the one thing that puts steel in your spine so you can face anything. That's how you end up standing firm. That's what he's talking about. Okay, next verse. He says, verse eight.
Mark Clark [00:24:46]:
Finally, brothers and sisters. And this is what I love about this. In verse eight, he starts talking about your character. And what I love about it is once you've got the end of the world in your mind, the coming of Jesus as judge and ruler and savior, then you start to live your life. It's very important. Start living your life backwards from that moment. Every decision you make when you wake up in the morning make it in regard to that judgment on the last day. How does it affect what you do with your money? How does it affect what you do with your marriage? How does it affect what you do with your morality? So here's what the apostle Paul says in all that whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is praiseworthy, whatever is excellent, think on these things.
Mark Clark [00:25:38]:
How is your character? Men, ladies, are these the words that you would say? Define what you look at from day to day, what you let in to your mind every day. Whatever is pure, whatever is noble is that. Remember that old youth group principle? Garbage in, garbage out. If you dump a bunch of nonsense into your brain that will shape who you become from a character perspective. If you like. Like, I watched, I don't watch horror movies. They freak me out. But I was scrolling the other day, and on this one of the news channels that I follow, it was a big picture of Jason, the Jason mask, the guy who kills all the teenagers at the hockey mask.
Mark Clark [00:26:27]:
He was in the shot and I was like, whoa. And it kind of gave me a shiver. I'm like, oh, I hate Jason, like, flashbacks. When I was like ten and someone showed me that movie out at sleepover and I wasn't going to stand up and go, I don't like this. You know, whatever, something. I love this. So. But then for like the next 2 hours as I walked around the office, I kept feeling like Jason was behind me.
Mark Clark [00:26:46]:
I was like, and it's like the janitor going, are you all right? He's fine. This is what we do. If we watch a horror movie, then we get up at one in the morning to go to the bathroom. Every plant in our house is like, that's what he's talking about. If you dump a bunch of nonsense into your brain, that's who you're going to be. So guys in the room, girls in the room, start to think through your life in light of that last day when the son of man shows up in the clouds of heaven and he's ready to go, what have you done with your life? How have you been in regard to your character? There's this movie called the Irishman. A lot of people don't get through it because it's three and a half hours long, but it's one of Scorsese's movies. And now he's in his eighties, he's starting to make these movies that are like, what happens when you get older and you start to think about your life? And the Irishman is a brilliant story about regret.
Mark Clark [00:27:54]:
Frank Sheeran is this guy who became part of the mob and the mafia. And he hung very close to Jimmy Hoffa. And he claims, at the end of his life, when he was interviewed, he claims that he's the guy who ended up killing Jimmy Hoffa. So Jimmy Hoffa, of course, those of, you know, disappeared, never seen from again. And so he claims he's the guy who killed him. And it's all about mobsters and gangsters and killing and all this. And at the beginning, when Frank Sheeran's young, it's like, cool. I'm killing and gangster.
Mark Clark [00:28:18]:
Ah, it's cool. It's fun. It's ugh. And then he gets to the end of his life. And the end of the movie, he's sitting in an old age home. He's, like, 85 years old. He's just dying. There's no one around him.
Mark Clark [00:28:31]:
And his family has completely disowned him because of who he was. And the FBI, these two young, like, 30 something show up, and they're like, frank, we need to. We need to give the Hoffa family some, like, some closure. Like, were you the one who actually. And Frank Sheeran's like, talk to my lawyer. And they're like, dude, your lawyer's dead. Everyone's dead. All your buddies, they've been dead for 20 years.
Mark Clark [00:29:00]:
Bufalino, Sandy Scroggs. And they go, they're all gone. You're it. And the last scene of the movie is him sitting in this room in an old age home all by himself. And the nurse goes to leave, and he says, no, no, leave the door open. I want it open in case someone comes. And the camera just pans back and the credits roll because no one's coming to see Frank. His family hates him because of the choices he made.
Mark Clark [00:29:34]:
That's why the apostle Paul builds this morality clause into the last day. He says, as you build toward the day that Jesus Christ shows up on clouds, what are you doing with your mind? What are you giving it toward? And then he says this. Verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Any of you grew up with that song, right? Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.
Mark Clark [00:30:02]:
Rejoice. Okay, so now he says this twice. It's fascinating. Rejoice. Here. This is why we call this citizens of joy. Cause even though he's in prison, he uses the word joy more than any book in the New Testament and all of its versions. Joy, joy, joy, joy.
Mark Clark [00:30:18]:
Joy is constantly about it. And he says it here, and he says it because he wants the people of God. Now take this. He wants us to be defined by joy. Are you, or are you, like, when you live your life, are you scowly Christian? I'm gonna give you the truth. Or do you have joy that defines you? Because the only people who people are gonna be attracted to Jesus, not because you're right, but because you have joyous. Think about it. If, like, if you walked into a room of 40 or 50 people, and on their faces there was a scowl and everyone so serious, but then you looked at two or three of those people were, like, just leaning in and happy.
Mark Clark [00:31:13]:
Aren't those the people you would end up connecting with after? Think about that. Like, I've been preaching for 25 years, okay? So that means I've been on a stage looking out at people like you for 25 years every week. And some of you are scowly. I'm not gonna lie to you. I look out at your faces, and you're like, where's Andrew? Scowly? And then. And I look out, and I'm like, oh, man. But then some of you are just like, yeah, just, yes, you're awesome. You know? And those are the people.
Mark Clark [00:32:00]:
When I'm up here and I'm feeling like I'm getting a spot, I'm looking out at the happy, oh, she's like, okay, see, I'm doing a great job. She's like, ah, yeah, you're doing great. It's total heresy, and I don't even know what you're talking about, but you're doing great. I just got it. I just go to the people who are happy, man. That's what my soul wants to do. Right? The scowlies, they don't want to make me excited. What are you even doing here? But the happy people, now, think about that in regard to your neighbor and whether they're going to come to know Jesus because of your face, because of the way you live your life.
Mark Clark [00:32:40]:
That's why he's saying, I want you guys to rejoice, man. And then he says it in the Lord. Not just like, hey, I'm a happy person. Why? Because those are weird people. It's like it's happy in the Lord because he's the only one who can give you the kind of joy that's going to transcend your awful circumstances. He's the only one. He's the one with the power. And some of you aren't tapping into the very power, like the kind of God who can do the kinds of stuff that you have, you have no power to do in all your humanism.
Mark Clark [00:33:16]:
There's a guy who works here, I don't know if you guys know a guy named Sean Sannisarian. If you don't know him, he's an amazing guy. A couple weeks ago, I'm in a meeting, I get a text. Sean Sannisarian, we think is having a heart attack right now. He's going down quick. It's not good. He's gone off to the hospital, pray for him. So we pray for him.
Mark Clark [00:33:32]:
We're like, oh, my goodness. He's the best guy around here. Sean, Sandy, start praying for him. Story is he gets to the hospital, sitting there waiting to see the doctor, starts talking to a woman. Woman sitting there in the ER. She's like, how you doing? She's like, well, I've been sitting here, I've been praying for 30 minutes that God sends someone here to tell me about Jesus because I've heard about him and I don't know much about him and I need to get baptized. And in that moment, Shawn starts to feel complete healing. And he looks at the woman, leads her to Jesus and last week baptized her.
Mark Clark [00:34:18]:
What is that? What is that? You can't manufacture that. The principle is God will give you a heart attack to reach some people. Write that down. You can't manufacture that. You can't, man, this is God going. If you're in him, that's where the power comes from. And so he says, that's where your joy is going to come from. He says, let your gentleness be evident to all the gentleness, not the truthiness.
Mark Clark [00:34:54]:
All the time the Lord is near, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation. By prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. I love this because how many times have we been told by a preacher or a teacher or a youth pastor or whatever, don't go to God and use him as a vending machine. And always be asking him, asking him, asking him. And here's what the apostle Paul just said. Go to God. Use them as a vending machine. And ask them.
Mark Clark [00:35:18]:
And ask them. And ask them. Ask them. Pray. Present your request. Your request. Yours. What do you want? What do you feel? Tell them.
Mark Clark [00:35:30]:
Ask them. Plead with them. Plead with them. Plead with them. Because that's where the power is. You don't have any power in yourself. So a guy told one of our pastors this week, this is a true story. He said, my hindu mother in law, we've been praying for her and praying for her and praying for her.
Mark Clark [00:35:48]:
She got sick, she went to palliative care. She went into a coma. So it was over. We've been praying as she meets Jesus, trying, trying, trying. So all we could do is pray, prayed, prayed, prayed, prayed, prayed day after day. He said, a couple weeks ago, she sits up from the coma, looks at our family and says, jesus Christ came to me in a dream, and I believe. And she laid down and died. You have the power to get into someone's dreams.
Mark Clark [00:36:24]:
You are so limited in your ability to make stuff happen, it's mind boggling. So what is your play? Pray. Cause he's the one with the power. He's the one with the power. See, some of us. Here's how he ends the passage. And I'll pray for us and the peace of God. Who wants the peace of God in this room? Who wants the peace of God? We want the peace.
Mark Clark [00:36:51]:
We want the peace. We want the peace. But he's told us at the end of the passage how to get it. The world will tell you. Technique, technique, technique, technique. Do this. Go on a cruise, a calm one. Go to Hawaii.
Mark Clark [00:37:11]:
Do hot yoga. Figure your enneagram out. That's how you're going to get peace. He tells us a clue in the last verse, though, that many of us miss. Whatever you've learned to receive or heard from me or seen of me, put into practice, and the goddess of. Of peace will be with you. Some of you are going after the peace of God rather than the God of peace. Yeah, that's a.
Mark Clark [00:37:40]:
That's a tweet. That's a tweet moment right there. Some of you are going after the peace of God. I want the gifts more than I want the giver. And Paul's going, you can't ever get the peace unless you get the God of peace. So, Father, I do pray that we don't mix that up. I pray that we understand that to try to go after peace is actually downstream from the solution, that the stability comes because we get you, not your stuff, that we come to treasure. Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life who died on a cross for our sin, who rose again from death, and who is coming again, coming again to heal us, to bring a new heaven and a new earth and to restore all things.
Mark Clark [00:38:44]:
And I pray if there's people in this room right now that maybe have never gone after the God of peace, they've never received Jesus, that in this moment right now, they would just pray and say, jesus, I receive you into my life. I repent of my sin, and I give my life to you wholeheartedly, that I would be able to stand on the last day. And if that's you, I just want to pray for you. If you just lift your hand up, if that's your prayer, maybe for the first time. Yeah, I see you for the first time ever. You want to receive the God of peace. Not just the peace of God. Just lift your hand up.
Mark Clark [00:39:20]:
Yep. Jesus, I pray for these, that they would understand that to start a new life today is everything. Because there's only two kinds of people, only two kinds of attitudes toward your coming, which is people who are going to treasure it and people who don't want it to happen because they don't trust you, love you or follow you. That's it. And I pray every person that can hear my voice would be the first kind of person and that you would give the courage to the people who are starting a relationship with you today to make it to the last day. And for those of us who know you, that we would be the kind of people who live this thing out, defined by joy, not just truth, we would show the world a kind of joy that surpasses understanding. In Jesus great name we pray. Amen.