Pastor Bob Fox
Philippians 4:6-7

When anxiety sweeps over us, which it will, God wants to lead us in a radically different direction. Two commands in this text tell us how to head that direction and be led in it.

Command #1―tells me that when I feel anxiety, I should think “Reboot!” Anxiety tells me I need to be doing something differently.

Command #2―tells me to identify the things I NEED and ask God for them.

1. The command is not to “pray about it.”
2. The command is to “pray and petition with thanksgiving.”
3. Thanksgiving gives perspective and eases anxiety.

The Blessing―composure, peace that is sourced in God will come to you.

1. Because of its source, it belies circumstances and defies analysis.
2. It wards off anxiety.
3. It is “in Christ”―ours because of Him and ours through our experience of Him.

Listen to Bob.

Read Pastor Bob’s personal notes on this passage.

Pastor Bob Fox
Philippians 4:5

1. God wants to put on public display through us a distinct emotional climate that is His handiwork.
2. There are five signs that this work of God is progressing in us.
• When we embrace emotion as both valuable and unreliable.
• When we understand emotion as complex―shaped by the moment, but also by the past, by unrelated circumstances, by uninformed thinking, etc.
• When we moderate emotion with reason―governing what we feel by what is true, realistic and right.
• When we honestly express emotion in a righteous way.
• When we resolve tough emotional experiences without demanding our “pound of flesh.”
3. This climate is created in us as we practice the “nearness” of God through the full gamut of emotional experiences.
• Engaging with Him whether or not He feels near.
• Trusting that He has your back and will bring about your good.
• Believing that He will return to rescue us.

Listen to Bob.

Read Pastor Bob’s personal notes on this passage.

Pastor Bob Fox
Ephesians 1:18-23

There’s something God wants you to grow confident of and experience. It is this; His beyond-great-power enables those who dare to live as He wants them to. The resurrection illustrates four things about His power that we can be confident of.

1. God exerts His power on our physical beings. We can push our bodies past what they desire, and we can arrest the anxiety that comes as they wind down.
2. God’s power is such that He will bring about good through evil. We are complete when we are not embittered by evil, confident He will bring us into good.
3. God’s power is sovereign over all other powers that be. We are complete when our lives are shaped by confidence that He will prevail over all else.
4. God’s power is focused on strengthening His Church as His primary disclosure of Himself. We are complete when we seek His empowerment to do this work.

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Pastor Bob Fox
Daniel 2:31-45, Luke 19:28-44 & Luke 14:25-27

1. Jesus has a unique destiny―He is God’s designated ruler over all that is.
2. Palm Sunday is the future―God scripted it to provide a glimpse of this King and His unique manner. The message is clear.
1. Jesus is King! Make no mistake about His identity.
2. Fear not! Have no fear for your welfare under Jesus’ rule.
3. What it all means for us today
1. We must make Jesus Christ our most important relationship. Submitting ourselves to what He has said, what He values and what He is doing is our life work.
2. We must die to ourselves―let go of the normal self-gratifying agenda.
3. We must faithfully throw ourselves into His unfinished mission.

OR . . . find ourselves miserable.

Listen to Bob.

One of the most perplexing problems facing believers in God―one which has existed for eons―is the problem of pain. Philosophers, theologians, and others have discussed and written about this problem for millennia.

So, does it make sense to believe in a loving, all―powerful, good God given the terrible things that have happened through the centuries? Why would God allow all the pain and suffering to exist in the world―or in your life or mine? Are there reasonable answers to this dilemma?

The following are answers given by Dr Chad Meister, Director of Philosophy Program and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana at the recent Faith Articulation Workshop.

1. Humans have Free Will
   A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all. Now God can create free creatures, but He can’t cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they aren’t significantly free after all; they do not do what is right freely.

   To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can’t give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so.

   As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good.

2. God may use the evil in the world for our greater good and the good of others.

Romans 5:3-5 – “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”

James 1:2-4 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

3. The purpose of our lives on earth may not be for us to be as happy as possible, but rather to help us come to know God and to mold our characters into His image.
4. Our minds may be too limited to understand it all.
5. The Christian message is that the goodness of God will, in the end, engulf all evils which have been experienced in this life.