[Music] Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barber Carmac. This is Jimmy Lakey and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at box 370367 Denver, Colorado 80237 or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a word-powered daily reading Bible guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll-free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now let’s join Barbara in the studio. Welcome to Call to Freedom. I’m so glad you joined us today. We’re going to be talking about joy in the midst of great and mighty turmoil as Paul experienced that in his life, living and dwelling in dungeons of misery. And we’re going to find out how he overcame that every minute of his day. I want to thank God today. I hope that you’re with me. Thank God for reminding me of the ways that he’s met my needs past, present, and he’s going to meet my needs in the future. We can say that again, past, present, and future, reassuring my heart of his constant love and faithfulness in everything that I get into and some are messes they are. Because eventually we’re going to see that God is the one who gets us out of those messes. Oh, praise the Lord. I’ve been thanking him for the times in the past where I didn’t know what to do or where to go. And he was there and he just kind of gently took me out of those messes. I can’t even imagine what it would be living without him. And I hope today if you don’t know the Lord Jesus, you will accept him into your heart. Oh, Lord Jesus, I’m so sorry. I’m a sinner. I want to make you Savior and Lord of my life. So I give you my heart today. And I know that you’re going to clean me up. And even though I’m looking back at the sins I’ve committed in my past, you’re going to clean me up so that I have a beautiful future to look forward to. Oh, he does. He has a beautiful future for you, friend. So give him a chance. Give him a chance. Give him like we had a friend who we were changing churches. For 90 days. And if it isn’t what you want, then you can leave. But give it 90 days. Okay, I’m saying to you, give the Lord, give Holy Spirit 90 days in your life. And see what he can do for you instead of doing it your way. I do it my way. We don’t want to do it our way. We want to do it God’s way. So I hope that you are thanking him and praising him for what he’s about to do in your life. And this week we were dwelling on Ezekiel 11, verse 19 and 20. I just want to go over them before Kimberly comes on with this beautiful teaching. And the passion translation of Ezekiel 11, 19 says, when you return, you will purge the land of all its filthy idols into testable practices. I will give you a new undivided heart. And I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn heart of stone and give you a tender heart that responds to me, a devoted heart. Therefore you will keep my laws and faithfully obey my commands. Then you will truly be the people of my heart. And I will be the God you worship. Oh, he wants that relationship friend. He really does. Thank you for coming on board Kimberly and giving us such a wonderful teaching today. I’m looking forward to it. Well, thank you for that amazing encouragement that you just started us off with because if we’re not willing to really sit with the Lord and let him do a work in our hearts, then how are we going to know how faithful he is? How are we going to know how steadfast he is? How are we ever going to know his joy if we don’t devote ourselves to time with him? And that’s not just time memorizing the word, but time in prayer, constantly talking with him and sharing every moment of every day with him just to see that he is with us. We want to see that. We want to experience that he is with us and that he truly is working all things together for good. How are we going to know that if we don’t devote ourselves to it? That’s right. That’s a good word of encouragement that you gave us. We need to be devoted to that. Yes, all glory to God. Yes. Oh, and Matthew has his first thing to do. So I want to start in Philippians. Oh, yes. Are you wanting to recognize Matthew? Yes. Happy birthday to Matthew today. I know. One of his favorite things is food. So I spent a couple of days just doing some extra special things for him and creating a wonderful feast. And a corn squash that had like a pulled curry chicken. And so I had to do two separate meals in order to combine those, you know, and it’s just the time that it took I prayed over every step that I was taking. And then the beef stew and I made a cheesecake without sugar. I sweetened it with stevia because he’s trying not to do sugar and did a frosting for the cheesecake as well. So we just we had the kids over last night and we we enjoyed some harmony last night. And I’m going to use the word harmony because I want to start out in Philippians for today. And Philippians for there are a lot of verses in that chapter that many of us have memorized like rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. We know that one. We know that was verse four verse six is don’t fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving continue to make your request known to God. So that’s one that’s familiar to us. And if you continue on God’s peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and mind. We know that one. We know whatever’s lovely, whatever’s true, whatever’s pure, whatever’s worthy and honorable. So I’m kind of giving an overview just a little bit now I want to come back and get more deep and deeply into this. But what I’m saying is we’ve memorized a lot of those scriptures over the years from this chapter four of Philippians. Even the I know how to be content in all things that’s in this chapter two being content in all things, whether I go hungry or I have sufficiency and enough to spare. I know that I have the strength for all things in Christ who strengthens me. Yes, I powers me. I know that in college when you know I was going 12, 1200 miles away from my home, I’d never been even in Colorado along distance. And here I was going 1200 miles to school, which I knew no one. I knew not the area. It was really scary. It was. And my verse a scripture that I took with me was Philippians 4, 13. And at that time I can do all things through Christ, which who strengthens me. Then I learned that scripture that verse out of the passion. And that’s been my verse, the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty. Oh, that’s just an absolute one of the powerful scripture. It really is. Oh, we need those scriptures Kimberly. We do. Yes. Well, I wanted to give just a small overview because there are so many in chapter four of Philippians that we have memorized that have given a strength through the years as Christians. There are many who know these scriptures out of Philippians 4. I think something that goes ignored is how it starts out. The chapter starts out with Paul saying, therefore my brothers whom I love and I yearn to see, you are my delight and my crown. Stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. And here’s verse two, I in treat. I mean, he’s begging. He’s imploring. I in treat and advise. Yodia and I in treat and advise. Sintiki to agree and to work in harmony in the Lord. Do you think they were in the whole chapter starts out? Do you think they were in disagreement? These two women and he was just urging us to have enough fight? Yes. Somebody is having a fight here. Yes. And he’s exhorting the one he’s writing to. He’s exhorting him to help these two women to keep on cooperating, to help them. They have toiled along with him in spreading the good news. This is verse three. And he doesn’t want them to go down in a fight. So that’s how this chapter starts out. I think we all need to look at that a little more closely because when we realize that life is about unity and harmony, this is what our Lord wants us to have more than anything else. So Philippians chapter four and verse one, let me look at this in the, I haven’t looked at it in the Passion translation yet. It says, in the Passion, my dear and precious friends whom I deeply love, you have truly become my glorious joy and a crown of reward to me. Now arise in the fullness of your union with our Lord and I plead with Yodia and Sintiki to settle their disagreement and be restored with one mind in our Lord. Yes. Wow. Be restored with one mind in our Lord. And what I see at the very beginning, he starts kind of like he’s in the middle of a sentence, Kimberly, by saying therefore, so you’re wondering what happened before that he can say therefore. And so we see in chapter three that he’s saying our citizenship is in heaven, verse 20, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior and Lord. Bringing them around to focus on Jesus who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. Then he goes into chapter four, therefore my beloved brothers and sisters get along with each other because there’s something more important than just this present thing going on. It’s so good. Wow. Right. Right. Yes. Well, Brian Simmons in the Passion translation did something really special for us. He broke down the names, Yodia and Sintiki. And for those of you who speak Greek and know how those are actually supposed to be pronounced, forgive me and just go with me. Yodia and Sintiki is what I chose to say for their names, but their names mean something. Yodia means a fair journey. And Sintiki means an accident. So we don’t know exactly what happened, but it looks like life was going along really nicely with no waves. There was something just to look forward to, we’re getting along and then possibly an accident. And when that happened, it caused a dissonction. Well, we know we live in a broken world. And in this broken world, accidents happen. And you know, rejection happens. Betrayal happens. We go through sorrow and suffering here, broken relationships. God intends for us to hold on, really hold on tightly to the ministry of reconciliation. And that is what Paul is pleading with them here. I plead with you to settle your disagreement and be restored with one mind in our Lord. That can be hard to do when your personalities are very different. And it looks like Yodia and Sintiki have very different personalities. It looks like Yodia likes to just enjoy the journey. And maybe Sintiki might be the kind that just throws something out of the boat and doesn’t even think of what that trash might do along the side of the river. So there’s an accident that happens because she’s just kind of maybe hapless. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can cause problems. And you and I were talking earlier. I told you about a friend that I wanted to go take something to she was in need. And so I took a package to her. And when I went to drop off that package to her, she was in tears. And when she opened the door, I could smell the smell was not a pleasant fragrance. And I realized that her tears, she came out of the house. She didn’t even want to let me in. And she started processing with me out in the driveway. So here she is crying and telling me what a mess the house is and that the others that she lives with won’t take responsibility for their messes. And she doesn’t want to just continually be the maid that that makes up the difference and picks up their messes. And you know, we were taught that Jesus came to serve. Right? He was not, in fact, the night that he was betrayed, he is the one who put the towel around his waist and went around and washed all the dirty feet. Yes. Of all his disciples. He came to serve. And he wants us to learn how to serve. So she was wanting to teach responsibility to, by the way, these are other adults she’s living with. They’re not in a mindset where they want to learn responsibility. So here we’re looking at two different perspectives here. And to be restored and to live in harmony, you can’t just keep going and let it pile up and pile up like they had been. All right. So I actually followed her into the house and I said, show me, let’s show me one spot that is the worst. And I dug in. I didn’t bring gloves or any kind of cleaning supplies to do this. And she had no gloves or cleaning supplies to do this. So I just got my hands into it. And I found that there were, there was food and dishes and silverware and cups and containers that had left over food in them. All over the house, all over the house in every room and on the couches and on the chairs and all over the floor. There wasn’t a space you could walk on the floor from all the trash that they’ve all just thrown on the floor. They all had copped these attitudes and it was in pride. That’s the point I’m getting to. When we decide pridefully that that mess is not ours, I’m not picking that up. And we choose not to serve like Jesus served. We can get ourselves into a real mess. Pride can take us down a path that will wreck our homes. It will wreck our mentality and our relationships. Here are two women in Philippians 4 who really needed to settle their differences, to settle the disagreement and just serve one another in love, in harmony and in unity with the Lord. And then from then on you can read the rest of Philippians 4 with a different perspective. Hold on to this idea of reconciliation and restoring relationship. Hold on to that while you read the rest. So going to verse 4, that’s when we see rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. If you are so focused on someone else’s pride and someone else’s mess, you’re not going to be able to rejoice. I drove away from helping this person get a start in one corner of the house and really clean up food. I’ve had my hands in a lot. I’ve raised four kids and I lived with them day and night. When they were throwing up, in diapers, when they were sick, I had my hands in a lot. I can’t say I’ve ever had my hands in anything like what I put them into this past weekend when I was helping this dear one. Goodness. She is dear. She is a dear one. She just got her focus on something that the Lord didn’t necessarily need her to be focused on. Now you wanted her to remain focused. That’s right. You took her a package. You took her some things that you thought would help her and bless her. That’s what I was going to say is I realized that she had never thanked me for that. This is after the fact. After I drove away, I realized that she didn’t even have gratitude for what I dropped off to her. It cost some money. So after I drove away and I realized, “Huh, Lord, we need to be really careful to constantly be thankful to you and to have a heart full of gratitude.” And Philippians 4, verse 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Again, I say, “Rejoice, be cheerful about what He’s given you. Let your life overflow with cheerfulness and gratitude.” And when you do that, you’re actually restoring reconciliation, unity, harmony, you’re bringing that back into your life and you’re surrounding. As I was helping her clean up her home, I just started singing. I started singing praise songs and she knew the songs I can’t even remember now what I was singing. But I just needed to sing. I needed to actually distract myself, to be honest, because it was pretty messy and smelly. And there were also roaches and gnats and there were mice and rats and the droppings were very evident. And yes, and so I really did need to distract myself. So I started singing worship songs and she knew the songs I was singing and she’s got a lovely voice. She started harmonizing with me. It was so beautiful. All of a sudden, here we were in the midst of the mess, just rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Lord. And I was encouraging her, keep rejoicing, keep singing and learn his humble heart, just humble yourself and do this work. Just get it cleaned up. Because honestly, why would you want to continue to live like this? Why would you want to live in that? I don’t think anybody really wants to. So just clean it up. Just clean it up and be the servants of all. Learn to be the servant of all. Don’t you think that the worry and all of this mess had really overtaken in her mind everything? Yes. And she didn’t have any more room for praise until somebody comes along with songs of worship. I pray Kimberly that time with her that it changed her whole countenance and changed her. Oh, I prayed over that that that was a seed that was sewn that the Lord would plant deeply and that he would watch over and continue to water it and give his light to that and that it would produce a great harvest in her life and the life of those living in that home. That is my prayer and I know God heard that prayer. I know I’m praying and agreement with him. That’s what he wants to. So that’s fun to pray prayers like that because you know you are agreeing with the God of the universe. And he will make it happen. Yes. So that’s when we get to verse six of Philippians chapter four. You just mentioned it was the worry in her that kept her from really living in a state of rejoicing in a state of gratitude. But verse six of Philippians four says do not worry do not have anxiety about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving constantly be thanking God. Thank you for this home that you have given me. Thank you that you’ve given me the strength that I need and some really great ideas of how to clean it up and keep it clean. Thank you Lord that you are making me a good steward of what you’ve given me in this life. I want to steward things well. Oh, and continue to make your wants known to God and verse seven God’s peace. Oh, his peace is the best piece. You know, there are so many things. And in fact, I think one of her worries is that the others in that home would not be responsible people. And so for peace of mind, she wants to teach them responsibility. There are a lot of things that we do just to have peace of mind. You know, we will do extra jobs. We will put our put our finances in someone else’s hands to invent. We will take out insurance that ends up costing us so much more than just paying cash. You know, sometimes insurance really does that. And so we want peace of mind. So we do these things. But guess what? That peace really quickly fades when something happens and it’s all a sudden taken away. And that can happen in this life any day. Yes. It’s like God’s peace is not fragile. That’s right. It’s not fragile. And like Jesus said in John 14, peace. I leave with you. My peace. I give to you not as the world gives because it’s so transient and so temporary. Do I give to you let not your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful or afraid? And I believe Kimberly so many people, including so many Christians, they’re just afraid. They’re worried. And Paul is saying here what you’re teaching. It’s wonderful what happens in verse seven. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life with his peace. It’s just that’s right. We can’t even describe it. It’s so true. And God’s peace is so much stronger than our peace. We don’t need peace of mind. We need his peace that transcends our mind. And that’s what this verse talks about. And we have a certain understanding of what we think is going to bring us peace. You know what was going on in that house. They had a certain understanding of what they thought would bring them peace. Wow, it just created a mess and it wrecked the home. And that’s not what we want. So keeping that in mind, we want to constantly stay in touch with the Lord. And be giving him our every worry and concern. I love that he is saying that we can replace our worry with his rest, his calm, his peace. And that’s what we really long for is being so at rest and so calm. Knowing that our soul is fully satisfied and content because our God has taken care of everyone else around us. We don’t have to take care of that. We don’t have to teach them the lesson. Holy Spirit will teach the lessons. And then verse 8, whatever is true, whatever is worthy and honorable, worthy of reverence and whatever is just and pure. You know, that’s describing Jesus. He is the one who is true and worthy of reverence, honorable and just and pure and lovely and kind and gracious. That is describing Jesus. Keep your minds here. Think on him. Think on these things. Take account of these things and really see that God sent his only son so that he could teach us this beautiful place of releasing our worry and our anxiety so that he can give us the true rest that we are seeking. Oh, that is so good, but you’re not even halfway through the chapter, Kimberly. So you got to come. Am I not? Oh, it’s been beautiful. Oh, we need to center and focus on what he’s done for us and it’s going to continue to do for us. Not allow worry to come in at all. Thank you so much. And I hope we’ll see you tomorrow. Yes, I will see you then. Take joy. Take joy. Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom. Call to Freedom is a listener supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up call to Freedom Ministry. Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your phrase reports in heart prize by mailing them to Call to Freedom. Box 370-367 Denver, Colorado 802-37 or you may email us at barbracarmac@freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you and take joy. [Music]
