Positive Choices When Life Is Negative

Hey, good morning everybody. Let me try that one more time. Good morning, everybody. You glad you're here at church today? My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here at TLC and before the message I want to give you a 2020 vision update. How many of you are aware that we would love to put up Children's Ministry building? Anybody aware of the fact you may be visiting, you may not know that we have had some drama in the last month. On April 1st, and it was not an April Fool's joke, our local water board decided to start basically to fact a moratorium, stop all building including our building, no more water permits going out.

But they reconsidered at a meeting last Tuesday night. And I want you to look at this panorama of the Seascape room at the Seascape Resort. It could only hold 350 people and it was packed with 350 people. How many of you were out there? Let's thank all these people for coming out. It was awesome. And it was like, it was, it was like the most suspenseful movie I've ever seen. Because it started one of the five elected board members couldn't be there. So it was, it was four guys and it started at the very end of all this talking. Well, we're gonna issue any more water permits and it was deadlocked a two to two vote. After like three hours of expert testimony, we're like, oh no.

And then they kind of made some amendments and they took another vote and then it was one guy for, one guy against, one guy for. And then the fourth guy took about 20 minutes to make up his mind. It was like, well, I could vote for, I could vote against. But I could go vote, well, I could go to against. And people literally could hear all the TLC people in this room going, oh, oh, oh. And then finally, I think he can gauge from the reaction of the crowd, what the way he finally cast his vote. So we got the next permit we need. Isn't that exciting? Now, as Mark says, we scored a touchdown, but the game's not over. So please keep praying, keep attending.

But here's something very cool. You know how we talked about the three P's, be present, be in prayer. And what was the third one? Do you remember? Be positive. That's right. And we were hoping that everybody would be positive. And I was a little worried because check this out. This was the lobby. These were some of the 200 people who could not get into the meeting. And so it was like, everybody's showing up. We can't get in. What's going on? Are people going to like riot? Give us our water. Well, because it's like, that's no good. You don't want to get a permit and just give God a big black guy, right? So we were praying. Let's keep it positive. Did we keep it positive?

So the next really, so you say, let's see what somebody who doesn't have a dog in this game, so to speak, has to say. This is an email I get the next morning from somebody who works for the Soquel Creek water board. This is a person who, as far as I know, does not attend any church, doesn't attend to one Lakes church. And she says about our behavior. Wouldn't you love to know what she says? She says this, René, I was stationed down in the lobby last night, interacting with the members of your congregation who could not get into the meeting. I want to commend their, and she underlined, underlines this exceptional behavior and understanding while disappointed that they couldn't hear the discussion, every single person was polite and cooperative.

Now listen to this. They conducted themselves as true Christians. You should be very proud. And that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about right there. So I thank God for you. I thank God for you. I really do. Well, this headline hit all the major news blogs and news sites yesterday. Arkansas tornado victims message of hope goes viral. Here's the story. This woman, April Smith lost her two young sons in the tornado in Arkansas this last week. Here is a heartbreaking family portrait taken earlier this year. Those two boys are gone. Here's a before and after picture of their house before up on top. And this is what it looks like today on the bottom, wiped off the planet.

Well, this woman's best friend, Jessica Soward is a professional photographer. In fact, she took that family portrait you saw earlier and she was visiting April in the hospital this week. And Jessica took this picture of April and put it on her blog post. And her post has since gone viral. As of this morning, over 2 million hits on her little personal blog. Why? Well, here is what she wrote. I asked April if I could take her photo. And so she could have it later when she told other people about the story. But she told me to take it and to show all of you now. And she told me to tell you this. I have peace. I know I have more pain to go through than I can understand. But somehow I have supernatural peace.

I don't know what's ahead. I don't know what God has for me and for my husband. But I do know that he is good. His plan is good. Now, this blogger concludes with this. I don't know if she's a believer because she makes some interesting comments. She says, I don't understand this kind of faith. But I have seen it. I have seen her hope. It is anchored in eternity. And that is the kind of hope that saves people. How would you like to have that kind of hope? When negative things happen to you, because I hate to tell you this, but negative things are going to happen to you. You can't stop them from happening to you. But you can choose your response.

So I want to invite you to grab your message notes. Let's talk about positive choices when life is negative. Last weekend, we started a new sermon series, Strong Grace. That's what we call our Verse by Verse series in the book of 2 Timothy in the Bible. And Adrian Moreno did a great job kicking this off last week, didn't he? It was a wonderful overview that he gave us. Now, as Adrian told you, 2 Timothy is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a young pastor named Timothy because they were facing five very discouraging circumstances. And many of you are here today, but you are facing tough circumstances. We cannot stop those circumstances. We cannot press pause on every tornado. But our choice is how we respond to those things.

But here's why Paul is writing. I want you to jot these down and see if you can relate to the storm that he is going through. In chapter 1, Paul talks about relational rejection. And this really hurt him. I mean, this cut him to the quick. In his previous letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy, he says, "Some have rejected me. Some have abandoned me." But now in 2 Timothy, he says, "You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygilis and homogenes, who invented milk." No, just kidding. That's not true. But the rest is. He's abandoned by all of his former coworkers and friends. How much does this hurt the Apostle Paul? How much does it hurt you to pour your life into somebody and then have them not just abandon you, but desert you when you're on trial before Nero and your life is at stake? I mean, this cut him to the quick and some of you know what that kind of relational rejection feels like.

And then in chapter 2, he talks about theological confusion. Theological confusion. Paul talks about false teachers and he says, "Man, their teaching will spread like gangrene. They say that the resurrection has already taken place and they destroy the faith of some." Gangrene. Destruction. Later he uses the term shipwreck. He says, "This is horrible stuff." Now, is this going on today? Is this happening in America today? Entire denominations are leaving behind historical Christian doctrine. This is happening in America today. And then theological confusion leads to moral corruption. And Paul gets to this in chapter 3. Paul says, "People will be lovers of themselves." Lovers of money. Boastful. Proud. Abusive. Disobedient to their parents. Ungrateful. Unholy. Without love. Unforgiving. Slanderous. Without self-control. Brutal. Not lovers of the good. Treacherous. Rash. Conceited. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

This is clearly a biblical prophecy about NFL players in the offseason. No, that's not true either. It's a prophecy of all of us. This is where we all go when we don't have God in our lives. And then in the next chapter, chapter 4, he talks about his own personal misery. Paul is in a Roman dungeon. Adrian showed you pictures last week. It's an underground pit. Dark, diseased, cold, clammy. And that's why in chapter 4 he says, "Hey, when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpas at Troas. Bring my coat." And later he says, "Oh, bring my books." He's saying, "I'm achy. I'm cold. I'm lonely. I'm bored." So that's chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and throughout the whole book, he talks about facing overwhelming odds. Overwhelming odds.

You ever experienced this? I'm going to say something and I want you to raise your hand. If you've ever been in circumstances where you've been over your head and you thought to yourself, "I'm way out of my expertise here. I don't know if I can do this." Raise your hand if that's ever happened to you. Yeah, I feel like that every week. I really do. And this last month, especially with all the waterboard stuff, here's why Paul feels this way. Back on page 1, on the bottom of this point, on page 1 of your notes, he looks at Timothy. Timothy, the pastor of the church at Ephesus. Paul started it, put Timothy in charge, and then took off. And Timothy is apparently seen as too young, too timid, insecure, too sickly. That's why Paul says, "Stop drinking only water. Use a little wine for your stomach's sake." Some of you just heard your life verse right there.

But too young, too timid, too sickly, and then the town's too tough. Why is the town too tough? Let me literally show you a picture. This is Ephesus today in ruins and it's still spectacular. And now imagine this 2,000 years ago at the height of its powers. Think San Francisco in its glory, shining and beautiful port town, 300,000 people, huge for the day. Here's a map of the Roman Empire. There's Rome and there's Ephesus. And you can see all the trade between Rome and Asia, Africa, Arabia, ran through Ephesus, very important city. The stadium there, look at the size of the stadium, could hold 100,000 people. This is where they held the Pan-Ionian games. And in the time of the New Testament's writing, these were more important, these were a bigger deal than even the Olympic games.

On the ruins even today, you can see carved gladiators. And so this was a bustling port city, very important, that valued muscle, right? That valued brawn. But they were not only brawny, they were also brainy. They had the world-famous Celsus Library. This was the front of it. Intellectual city, incredible architecture. And it was also home to an amazing theater that held 20,000 people. And so this was a sophisticated city. Are you starting to get the picture here? This was an impressive place. And in fact, this very city that you're looking at here, the Bible talks about something that happened on this spot that you are looking at. In Acts 19, what happened was Paul for a few months was in Ephesus, and he's teaching them about Jesus and people really being drawn to his teaching.

And one of the guys who's the head of a manufacturing guild that makes little silver idols gets very upset. Because Ephesus was where there was the beautiful temple of Artemis or Diana, one of the Greek gods. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This is a reconstruction. And vendors on the grounds of the temple would literally sell little statues of Diana. She was a fertility god. This is one of the statues that they've unearthed. Of Diana. What I love about this is that the tourist there is clearly enamored of the most unique feature of Diana, her feet. But anyway, so there's Diana, and they're making these things like all kinds of different sizes, selling them to the tourists, and they get all upset, and they drag the Christians to this theater.

Because they're rioting because they say if everybody believes that they just need to accept God into their heart and they can worship God without an idol, we're out of business. And so the whole city gets in and up, evil, and the Christians there sneak Paul out on this very road leading out of the theater. And so I got a question for you. Now imagine you're Timothy and you're the next pastor. I think you'd be a little intimidated by all this. Not only by all the danger you're facing in this town, but also you're following the Apostle Paul. It was hard enough for me to follow Roy Kraft, who was pastor here for half a century, and Timothy's following the guy who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, right? Pretty high bar.

So Paul is writing this in tough circumstances in the Mamertime Prison in Rome. Timothy is in tough circumstances in Ephesus, and some of you are in tough circumstances right here, right now. In fact, could you use a little encouragement today? Raise your hand if you could use an encouraging word today. Well, you came to the right place because as Adrian said last week, Paul has one more letter in him. And he writes that letter to this discouraged guy, young Timothy. And Paul models for him positive choices when life is negative. And you need to know these because you're going to get a string of bad news in your life. You just are. That's life. But you can choose how you're going to respond to bad news, and that's going to make you great or it's going to make you bitter.

In fact, Jim Collins, the guy who wrote Good to Great, he said people who are history changers in any field, he says they are not necessarily smarter than the average person. They're not necessarily geniuses. They're not necessarily better connected. They're not necessarily richer. They're not necessarily better educated. But he says all of the real world changers have one trait in common that they tend to have more than most people, and that's what he calls fierce resolve. Fierce resolve. And he says they also have less of another trait. They are less apt to become easily discouraged. You see these two phrases at the top of your notes on page two. You see that dotted line between them. I want you to put an X on that line where you are at right now in your own spirit between fierce resolve or easily discouraged. Where are you on this chart? Because Paul is saying to Timothy, you're being discouraged. And I am going to build up your fierce resolve by modeling these choices.

First choice, despair will weaken you. So choose hope. Despair will weaken you. So choose hope. Verse one, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. First circle by the will of God. Paul says I didn't even want to be an apostle. I'm an apostle by the will of God. He's the one who plucked me out when I was going to persecute Christians. And you know what? Right now in your life, it may not look like God has a plan. But God has a plan. Does God always have a plan? Does God always have a plan? Does God always tell us his plan? Almost never. But God, I think part of God's plan was that you came here today. And part of what he wants to tell you is, it seems crazy in your life right now, but I have a plan.

And even when bad things happen that are not my perfect will, I'm going to weave them together into my plan, just like I did with the imprisonment of the apostle Paul. And I stopped this world shaker for a while so that he could write the Bible, right? There's the will of God involved in every equation. And then Paul says in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, that is a promise, eternal life. And Paul is choosing to have hope because he thinks, even if worst goes to worst, and I'm killed under Nero, which he was, beheaded. He says, even if that happens, I have the promise that I'm going to have eternal life with Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's why he could have hope.

And let me tell you something, this isn't theoretical. I saw this the last two weeks with a good friend of many of us, Bonnie Rice. A lot of us here knew Bonnie. Two weeks ago, Bonnie got the diagnosis. She had a fast-acting cancer, and the doctor said, "You just have weeks to live." I mean, and Bonnie was not sickly. Bonnie was a sparkly-eyed, superactive woman in her 60s, and boom. We went over, several of the pastors went over a week ago, to an order with oil to pray for her. We met her family. And Bonnie asked me to read Psalm 139, because when Bonnie visited Twin Lakes when she was in her 50s, because vaguely she wanted to find something spiritual in her life. And I was preaching on Psalm 139 that day, and she left having given her life to Christ, just in one visit, and it got really active here.

And so while Bonnie's there a week ago, I'm reading Psalm 139, which has verses like, "If I go up to the heaven, God, you are there. If I go down to the grave, God, you are there. God, every day of my life was written in your book before one of them came to be." And you could just see this peace spreading over Bonnie's face. Why? Because that Psalm reminded her of the will of God in her life, and of the promise of life, that even if she went down to the grave, God is with her through it all. Man, it's real, people. When you believe in the promise of life, it leads you from despair to hope.

And then Paul says, "Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." Now listen, if he was writing like a lot of pastors I've heard lately, it would be something like effort, sweat, and uncertainty from God. Fear, condemnation, and judgment from God. But Paul says, "Grace, mercy, and peace." You don't have to wring your hands wondering, "Have I done enough for God to let me into His heaven?" You have this promise of life because of God's grace, and that's why you can choose hope. And this is just the introduction to the letter. Then comes number two, cynicism will weaken you. Choose gratitude. Cynicism will weaken you. Choose gratitude.

If Paul says, verse three, "I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers." Circle the verbs here, thank and serve and remember. I mean, if I would have been writing this letter, I would have been, "I'm in prison. This stinks. All the other Christians stink. Somebody get me out of here. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. The government people are idiots. They have no idea." But Paul doesn't talk like that. He's not gotten bitter about his life. Or about church. Or about other Christians who've all abandoned him. Where does that come from? This choice, "I thank God." Gratitude, according to the most psychologists, is the healthiest emotion.

Now, you think of his situation, "I thank God." What did he have to thank God for? Watch this, "That I get to serve Him." The Greek word used there is the same word used in the Septuagint for the priests in the temple getting to serve God. Paul is saying, "Man, I get to serve God, even here in this prison, even though it has cost him everything." You know, let me just be blunt. There are a lot of you here in this room who need an attitude adjustment. And you need to say, "You know what? Even though I haven't gotten the life that I wanted, even though I haven't gotten the spouse that I wanted, even though I haven't gotten the career that I wanted, my life is still awesome. You know why? No matter what circumstances I'm in, I get to serve Him. I get to serve the Lord."

Now, how do I know you need an attitude adjustment in this area? How would I know that? Because I need this attitude adjustment all the time. See, nothing ever goes the way we plan, right? Nothing ever goes the way we plan, ever. And so you have to be able to go, "You know what? Even though my plans aren't happening, I still thank God because no matter what plans are coming to fruition, I still get to serve God and everything." You know, here's what's happening with Paul. Let me just kind of illustrate it this way. I need a volunteer, and you, sir, thank you for volunteering. Why don't you kind of come on up? That's the way to get volunteers. Just go, "Thank you for volunteering." How's it going? What's your name? Vito. All right, Vito. Vito, yeah. Vito might send the big man to break my legs if I keep doing this to him. All right, Vito. So, what's your last name? Charimani. No way. Hey, Vito, Charimani, what's up, man? All right, let's get to this. Stop distracting me.

Okay, I want you to see that cup right there. It's filled with the brim. It's filled with the brim with water, and I want you to pick it up carefully and not spill a drop. Be very careful to not spill a drop. Good, good. Come back over here and walk slowly. Now, what Vito's going to do is... I just specifically said not to spill. All right, what's that? Should I get to break your legs now? No. Vito, let me ask you a question. Why did water spill out of that cup? Because of you. So, the blame game begins. I see how it is with Vito. Now, let me rephrase the question. Why did water spill out of that cup? It was full. Of? Water. That's the brilliant insight I was looking for. What would have happened if coffee would have been in that cup? What would have spilled out? It would have hurt me.

That's right. I was thinking of putting in acid, so that would have been really bad. But you've just given me the insight I'm looking for. Thank you very much, Vito. And you know what? As a special gift from the church, you can keep that cup of water. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you, my friend, Vito. Listen, here's the point you're going, "What was that all about?" Here's the point. What came out of that cup when Vito got jostled was what was in that cup. The reason Paul was able to respond like this is that Paul was filled with grace on the inside, filled with a focus on God's mercy on the inside, filled with a focus on God's peace on the inside, filled with an idea about the promise of life on the inside, filled with concentrating on the sovereign will of God on the inside. And so when he gets bumped, what spills out of him is peace and grace, and a crazy mercy and love and a focus on the will of God.

Listen, this is why you have to be so careful about what you cultivate in yourself. If you hear Bonnie Rice's story, right, and you go, "Man, if the doctor ever called me and told me that I had a couple of weeks to live because I'd cancer," I'd face it with nobility like Bonnie did. I'd be like so full of peace like Bonnie, and all my friends would be, "That's awesome. Look how well he died." No, that's not how you'd face it. You know what would come out of you if you got bumped like that? If you've been filling your life with, "My job stinks. My life stinks. How come my life's not different? How come my life's not better? I wish I had a life like that person," then that would come spilling out of you when you get bumped. So what you have to make sure you pour into yourself when you're not being bumped is God's grace, God's mercy, God's peace, so that when you get bumped, what comes out of you are those virtues. Does that make sense?

All right, so number one was despair will weaken you, so choose what? Number two was cynicism will weaken you, so choose what? And number three, isolation will weaken you, so choose relationship, encouraging relationships. You see, Paul could have isolated very easily, right? I mean, who would blame him? Everybody heard him. The government, his friends, the religious leaders, he could have withdrawn into his shell and said, "Forget them. Forget the Christians. Forget church. People are painful." But instead, watch, "Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy." Timothy, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I'm persuaded now lives in you also.

Paul just gives Timothy a massive shot of encouragement here, threefold. Paul reminds Timothy, "I pray for you." Back in verse three, he said, "I remember you in my prayers." You know, there's people in this church who email me every week just to tell me they're praying for me, and it lifts me up more than you could possibly imagine. And Paul says, "I miss you." Verse four, "I long to see you." And he says, "Timothy, I believe in you," because he says, "I am persuaded that that same faith now lives in you too, Timothy. I believe in you. I miss you. I pray for you." You know what? As you'll see in 2 Timothy, Paul goes on to give Timothy 27 commands. But before he gives him a single directive, he says, "Timothy, I just want you to know I love you, man, and I believe in you. God's got great things for you." Now, here's my question for you, and you think I'm going to say, "Who are you doing this for?" Now, here's my question for you. Who's doing this for you?

You see, this is why we have over 70 small group opportunities here at Twin Lakes Church. You can plug into the women's group, the men's group, the hub if you're a young adult, GriefShare, the recovery program. There's a men's group that meets on Thursday mornings. It meets on Saturday mornings. There's all kinds of ways to get plugged into home groups. Why? Because you and I need this. There's a guy named Robert Putnam who wrote a famous book called Bowling Alone. It's a great title. And you know what the whole point of his book is? Americans have no friends. We bowl alone. And he talks about all this evidence that joining a support group of any kind, I mean, knitting group, whatever, he says, listen to this, "As a rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups and to decide to join just one, you cut your chances of dying over the next year in half." Raise your hand if you'd be interested in not dying over the next year. Can I see a show of hands? That is going to be the new motto for our small group ministry, join or die. That's going to be what it is. Not really.

And finally, Paul starts to challenge Timothy, fear can paralyze you, choose action. Fear can paralyze you, choose action. This is one of my favorite verses. "For this reason, I remind you to fan and to flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." What's he mean? He's saying, "Tinithy, you're gifted, but you've been isolating and you've been timid, so I want you to go for it. I know Ephesus is an intimidating place to do ministry, and I know you're looking at me thinking the Great Paul is going to be beheaded by Nero. I don't want to do that." But he's saying, "Tinithy, you've got to dive in because you'll make your own life greater, you'll make other people's lives greater. Go for it." It's kind of like this.

I speak once in a while at a camp way out in Missouri where they take people on boats on a lake where they have these huge tall cliffs that you jump off of. And the first time I was out on a boat and I looked at these cliffs, I thought to myself, "There is no way I am jumping off one of those cliffs. Not a chance." But then came something known as peer pressure from my own children. "Daddy, are you going to be a wimp that doesn't jump off those cliffs?" So, you know, you're sitting there. And so, first I jumped off the little cliffs and then the medium cliffs. And then finally I jumped off the, you have to be careful about your body posture or you could get knocked out when you land level cliffs like this. And you know I discovered two things. A, water hurts. I did not know that before. But B, I discovered how you get the confidence to jump off high cliffs. Let me ask you, do you think you can find the confidence to jump off high cliffs by staying in the boat looking at everybody else jump? Is that how you get the confidence? Not a chance. How do you get the confidence to jump off high cliffs? Jumping off high cliffs. That's the only way to do it. And you go, "I survived. I'll do that again." That's what Paul's telling Timothy, "Man, fan that gift into flame. Go for it."

Some of you have been sitting there going, "I know, I know that I could do that, but I'm afraid to go on a mission trip. I'm afraid to serve at church. I'm afraid to go up to San Francisco and work in the tenderloin with the Twin Lakes Church group." Maybe you heard Mark talk about Project Homeless Connect and you're going, "I'm afraid to do Project Homeless Connect." You know, "What? Watch the feet of homeless people. That's just, I can't do it. Can't do it. The cliff's too high." You know what's cool about this? This is literally, any homeless person can show up, but you know who it's really for is they say, "If you're homeless, living under a bridge somewhere and you want to get back on the grid, if you're tired of that life and you want an ID again, you want a job again, you want some clean clothes, we'll come on in, we'll give you a shave and we'll tell you some, we'll introduce you to some job counselors." That's what this is about.

And they need people just to walk these homeless people from station to station. You know, there's some of them are so disoriented and this can bring such hope and a practical way to get them out of this. Some of you, that is a huge cliff to dive off of, but just do it because like me, when you hit the water, you'll go, "Yeah, that was amazing." Paul's saying, "Do it." Listen, Paul says next verse, "For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us what?" First thing Paul says, the spirit of God gives us what? Sit. Power. But I love the balance because people of power without, what's the next word? Love our tyrants. You got to have power with love. This is how Paul could be so ambitious and driving in a world changer and yet be godly and a man of peace. And then you combine power and love with what's the next word? Self-discipline. Are these the very three things we always need no matter what?

Look, if you're in negative circumstances, you can make these positive choices right now and it's not just theoretical. I want to show you a video about a brother in Christ on the opposite side of the world in overwhelmingly negative circumstances, but watch how he makes these exact positive Christian choices. Watch the screen. For more than 20 years, Burma, my homeland, has been in a civil war. Most of the men are forced into either slave labor or the army. So 17 years ago, my family and I fled Burma along with two million other people and came to Thailand. The Thai government allows us to live here, but we are not considered citizens. My name is Pichui. I'm 30 years old. My wife's name is Jane and my son's name is Big.

When I first became a Christian, my parents were very upset because they are Buddhists. They sent me a letter asking me to quit being a Christian. They felt I disrespect them and betrayed the family. This made me very sad. But I know that God is with me and looks over me because I know God. I'm happy. I'm at peace. Since we are not Thai citizens, it is sometimes difficult trying to find work. But God has a plan for us and has provided a job doing constructions on a new house and development. In the beginning, I didn't know much how to do the job, so I pray and I ask God to give me the ability. My co-workers all know that I'm a Christian. Some of them make fun of me, mock me, calling me Jesus because I'm not Buddhist anymore. It doesn't matter what they call me. I just do my job. I'm honest and work as hard as I can. And I know the boss will see the quality of my work. I see my job as a chance to serve God, not myself.

Because we are not citizens, we are unable to stay in the same place for very long. Today, we are told we had to move out of our home. We have been given 24 hours to pack up all our things and then tear down our shelters. This happens often. We are forced to move so a new housing development can be built. We have gotten used to moving, but it is still very hard. We just accept it. It's the only way to survive. I like in the Bible where it says to trust and to obey God, and He will take care of and protect you, and He will give you new life. I like that. And whatever happens, I don't worry because I know that God is with us and we are with Him. Hopefully, one day we will return home. But whether we are in Thailand or Burma, we know we are citizens of heaven. We are citizens of God's kingdom.

Isn't that amazing? What's overwhelming you? Look at this. You can live either when it comes to the choices that we've been talking about here today. You can live—let's put all those choices up on screen here. You can live on the left side, despair, cynicism, isolation, fear, or you can live on the right side, hope, gratitude, relationship, action, and that—not your circumstances—but that is your choice. You know what this is right now? This is a chance to change your life. But I'm worried that it'll be misunderstood in a fundamental way, the way I did for years, that you look at this and go, "Okay, I've got to try harder to have hope and to be in a relationship with God and other people and so on. I've got to try to have power and love and a sound mind." That's not what Paul's saying to Timothy.

Look at a little word that pokes its head up again and again and again. Look at just two verses. Paul says, "Listen, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the what? Gift of God for the Spirit." God what? Gave us. Doesn't make us timid, but what? Gives us power. Gift, gave, gives over and over. Paul talks about this. It's not about you working up the power to be hopeful and positive. It's just about you choosing to live within the power God already gives you. And that's the choice that underlies all the other previous four choices. Here's the bottom line. God has already given me all I need to live a confident, loving, disciplined life. You have it right now. It's yours. It's time to choose in, choose to walk in the life that you have received.

And we do that by thinking of the cross of Jesus Christ and saying Jesus turned the ultimate negative circumstance into something ultimately positive to empower me to do the same. And so let's focus on that cross right now. Would you pray with me, heavenly Father? I just want to pray for all those who feel overwhelmed by life right now. Heavenly Father, strengthen them. God made despair and cynicism and isolation and fear not weaken us. Instead, by your strength, help us choose life. So we remember the cross now as an example of that kind of positive reaction to negative circumstances, but particularly as the fuel for our hope. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we are empowered to bear our crosses. So we remember that cross together in Jesus' name. Amen.