Joy in Christ
- Ashland Church of Christ
- Dec 1, 2024
- 25 min read
Guest Pastor Melissa Stuemke
December 1, 2024
Scriptures
1Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel
12Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
Life Worthy of the Gospel
27Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
1Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas in Prison
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
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Transcribed by Turbo Scribe
My husband was here two weeks ago, and I was silent. I had laryngitis, and I just smiled and waved and looked like a pretty wife.
And my kids ran around and disobeyed me because I couldn't yell at them. They were great. It was absolutely wonderful.
It's almost Christmas. Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving? Anybody make the best pie? Who had the best pie? I had a pumpkin pie. All right, we have kids who say they had the best pie, so that's good.
The adults are like, mm, it's over. All the turkey is gone, and now they have to go shopping. Whoever's saying it.
No smiles today. Are you guys awake? Yes. You are? OK, all right, cool.
She only made my wife a pie, and I got a piece. She shared it. I mean, she could have not given you any.
It comes out. I'm pretty sure my mom made me a pie, and it's still in the fridge with my name on it. And it has an alarm on it if someone opens it.
Because I didn't cook my mom's pie. Thanksgiving, I cooked my mother-in-law's. So she always makes me a pie because she loves me more than anyone else.
So I'm Melissa Stuemke. My husband is Jerry Stuemke. And our kids, I don't have pictures of them because, well, I'm not all about that.
My husband did that two weeks ago. You met them. We're here.
We are missionaries to South Africa. We are hoping to get over there in the next year or so. I do have business cards.
I did set up a table because we did that two weeks ago. Did that, done that. You guys, if you want a card, come see me.
We are getting to where, just so you know, we are getting to where we are only meeting 100 people. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's really daunting to join us at $30 a month. So if you guys have a missionary that you want or a group of people want to support a missionary or you know someone who's looking for something, let me know at the end of the year.
People are giving and they love commissions for some reason. I don't know. Today, we're going to talk about joy.
And I've dropped my happy folder because we have joy, right? Who knows what joy is? Huh? Happiness? Kind of. I'd say a happiness that never leaves. A happiness that never leaves.
OK. So where do you get joy? The Lord, Jesus. The Lord.
Who said that? Shelby, of course. All right. So I have, I need the youngest child to come up here that's still in here.
Who do we got? Abby. All right, come here. They're both eight.
They're both eight. All right, you two both, come up. Come on.
Come on. OK. So if I don't get it.
You're fine. OK, as long as you guys can ignore it, we're good. I'll just leave it in my pocket so I don't drop it.
If I give you a box of donuts, would that make you happy? It won't make you happy? No. Would it bring you joy? No. You're trying to give me the Bible answer.
Right? OK. Would you be happy to get donuts? I don't like donuts. Ah, well, then you don't like donuts.
Wouldn't make me not work out with you. All right. Would you be happy to get donuts? I don't like donuts.
OK, so she's happy to get donuts, right? But where do you think the joy would be in getting these donuts? Eating them. Eating them? No. You're required to share every bit of one piece.
You're required to share every bit of these donuts except for one piece for yourself throughout the day. So you can only eat one piece. The joy is going to be you sharing them with other people.
Because the more you share Christ, the more joy you will get in your heart. Amen. Don't get to share them, though.
I'll get a report. So not many people bring donuts, but you know, we've got to have donuts, right? So when we have joy in our hearts, our lives are changed. But joy does not come from everyday things.
So we're going to look into Philippians today. And we're only going to look at chapter one because that's all we can handle in one day. So I love looking into Paul's missionary journeys.
Why? Because I'm a missionary. I love seeing how he works with the smaller churches. I love how he encourages them and what they're already doing for Christ.
I love the correspondence that he has with the Philippians. So we're going to focus on Philippians chapter one. But before we get that, let's look at Acts 16.
We're not going to open the Bible for this, because this is just kind of an overview of it. We'll open the book for Philippians. We'll stand up and read chapter one in a minute.
Before we get to Philippians, in Acts 16, I'm not going to touch it. I'm not going to touch it. Paul and Silas were called to Macedonia through a vision of a man saying, please come help us.
We're going to say that my skin is doing that today. Please come help us. How many of you ever had that thought of, come help me.
Someone help me. I mean, if you have a lot of kids, especially I told some of my moms, we're like, teachers, come get them. You know, you always have that moment.
But he had a dream of someone asking him and begging him for help. And with that dream, he said, I think we're supposed to go there and share Jesus. We're supposed to go and share the word.
How many of you have a dream of someone and think, oh, that's who I'm supposed to share Jesus with. Have you had those? Because those are good dreams. They're focused.
Paul translated this as, go and share the gospel with them. They landed in Philippi, which was mostly a retired Roman village. On that Sabbath, after arriving there, Paul and Silas went to the city gates to worship and pray.
They began to speak to a group of women. Does anyone know who was there? I like interaction, but I don't see that you're reading a Bible. Does anyone know the woman? Besides Shelby, I know who she is.
She's like, you don't know? I could guess. Olivia, the dealer of purple cloth. She used to sell purple cloth.
What is purple cloth? Royalty. It's a cloth. It's a royalty.
So she was a dealer of purple cloth. She was a whisperer of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
And in Acts 13, 14, her whole family came to know Jesus. Just because Paul and Silas went to the gate and worshipped and they just decided to speak to this group of women. Linnaeus' conversion was the first of three significant events associated with the beginning of the Church of Philippi.
That's all it took. That was the beginning. The second was of the slave girl.
She had a spirit of the future. How many moms and dads do I have in here? Raise your hands. OK.
How many of you have a youngest child who likes to talk to you a lot? Right? Right? They like to tell you the same thing over and over and over again. And they follow you. OK.
Now listen to what was happening to Paul. OK, because as a mother, I'm like, oh, I would have done the same thing. I'm going to carry this because I'm going to walk.
She was following Paul around and saying, these men are servants of the most high God. But she didn't say it once. She followed them for many days, yelling this as she's following behind them.
Just yelling it. These men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved. Now, it's not a bad thing, right? But imagine someone pre-telling everyone what you're doing.
Before you're going to do it, because they know your plans. But they're yelling it constantly behind you. Does anyone know what Paul did? Every mother.
After many days, Paul became so annoyed. Very, very annoyed. Did anyone feel the annoyance in you whenever you hear that? Nonstop.
He said to the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her. And then he breathed really deeply. I mean, can you feel that? Ooh.
OK. After it left her, that's got Silas and Paul thrown in jail. He yelled at a child and went to jail.
That sounds like good. So that, why is it significant, though? Because that Spirit came out of that girl. She is now one of the next families that joined the church.
So we have Lydia and a slave girl. Lydia's family and a slave girl. While in jail, this is where Paul and Silas were worshiping in the middle of the night.
And during the time of worship, there was an earthquake. So these are all happening. So there's an earthquake.
What happens? The prison doors open. Everyone can leave, right? All of the prisoners can just get up and walk away. The prison had fallen apart enough for prisoners to escape.
The guard takes his sword and out to take his own life. Why? Because he was going to get killed anyway. He would rather have been on his own court.
Because he had failed. Because something had happened to where his job was not OK anymore. Paul stops him and says, don't harm yourself.
We are still here. Every prisoner stayed. The prison guard came to know Jesus, asked at all of his house.
So the Church of Philippi was started with Lydia and her family, a slave girl, and a prison guard, and his family. That was the church. It was very small.
These two converted families, plus a slave girl, were the beginning of that church. After this missionary journey, it seemed as though Paul had a soft spot for the believers of Philippi. So if you guys ever raised anyone besides your own child, or started, or seen someone come to Christ, and now you're just like, every once in a while, God just lays them on your heart and you're praying for them, and you thank God for them, and you know that they're growing and maturing, that's what he does.
He saw their lives changed. You think fondly of them, smile when you hear their name. Can you think of that one person? Can you think of that one person that you know that God's allowed you to make a difference in their life? Or you are so proud of them because they made a change in their life? Those days are really big deals.
And those are the people that will come to your heart for you to pray for. Later in life, when he was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote them a very personal letter, and Paul was facing some very serious circumstances. And yet he focused on some encouraging things, such as Thanksgiving and rejoicing, and what we will focus on today is joy.
It's really important when you're reading the Bible to know where things come from, and not just to read the story. Every book in the Bible has a different genre. I can't say that, is that how you say it? So they are written different, which means you have to read them differently.
You cannot read Revelation the way you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It will not work out for you. So when we look at Philippians, it's a letter from Paul.
It's for the pastors. It's for the church. And this is a church, right? We are here to encourage you.
Did you know missionaries come to you guys to encourage you? Yeah. I mean, you guys are doing a good job here. You have no big pastor, and yet, as a team, you are serving God and ministering to this town and the towns around you.
So in this brief letter, Paul emphasized that believers can experience true joy by living out the mind of Christ within the body of Christ. In chapter one, he did, adopting the attitude of remembrance, prayer, selflessness, confidence. Chapter two is unity, humility, evangelism, servitude.
Chapter three, he went over gratitude, commitment. And chapter four was joy and support. That is all in the book four chapters of Philippians.
That is my introduction. Welcome to Philippians. We are now going to a church that is 10 years old, and Paul is writing them from prison.
So when we read chapter one, we're gonna stand and read the whole chapter. If anyone wants to read, I'll let them read. But we're gonna read the whole chapter of Philippians one, just straight through, and then we'll talk about it, because I'm not gonna keep going back and forth.
Can we stand while I read the God's word? Mm-hmm. Philippians one. Paul and Timothy, service of Jesus Christ, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how long I've been for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and everyone else that I am in chains for Christ, and because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and arrogance, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love.
Knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel, the former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether for false motives or true, Christ is preached, and because of this, I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
I eagerly expect and hope that I will no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now and always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean equal labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I don't know.
I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue to with all of you for your progress and joy of faith, so that through my being with you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.
Since you are going through the same struggles you saw I have, and now hear that I still have. Lord, we just thank you for this word. Thank you for your word, that no matter what I speak, no matter what the words come out of my mouth, Lord, that you are magnified, glorified, and praised.
Lord, that they will hear what you want them to hear, not the screw-ups that I let out of my mouth. Lord, thank you so much for all you do. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen. Thank you guys for standing with me. I love to stand and read God's word.
It's just respect. I may not always look like the most respectful person. I don't like shoes.
I'd rather be barefoot. But I do love God's word. So joy in Christ.
Paul's letter is only four chapters long. However, it is chock-full of encouragement and joy from the Philippian church. He opened it in this way, Philippians 1, 3-6.
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my courage for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel. From the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul expresses his deep, heartfelt thanks to God for the Philippians. Why is he so much into this? Why does he want them to know that he is so in love with them? He suggests that he prays for them every time he offers prayer. Do you guys have people that you do that for? Do you have a list of names that you pray for every time you pray? Because I do.
Currently, we have a wall. Well, I have a wall. And I have my folders that I carry.
And every day of the week is a different group of our supporters. And I pray for most of the churches on Mondays because that's when the pastors start preparing for their next week's sermon. And I want them to be prepared.
I want to give them that support that I can. And so we pray for them because it brings us closer to them. It brings us closer to God, but it brings us closer to those people.
These verses challenge me to pray for others, especially when I'm struggling and starting to focus on myself more than God. I like to do that. I'm loud, I'm social, I like people.
Being without voice for two weeks is really hard. But what if we pray for others more than we complained about in situations? Sometimes we have situations that are not ideal. Sometimes we have arthritis or we can't get out because it's cold and I don't want to go out and my car won't start unless my husband starts it, right? There's a little bit of complaining there.
But what if, instead of complaining, we're like, Lord, thank you for allowing me to have a car that I can get to places instead of walking in this cold. What if we're praying about all of those things and make our life a daily prayer? We don't have to shut the door and pray that there are moments for that. Everything we do is speaking to God.
What are the ways that you can bring God's focus into your life? What can you do to refocus your prayer life? And I'm starting with joy in December because it's Christmas. Christmas can be very hard to have joy. We need to have all the right presents, all the right decorations.
We've lost people. We are sick. And Christmas is supposed to be when you're happy.
I don't care if you're happy. My question is, do you have that joy in your heart? From a prison cell, Paul reflects, from a prison cell, how many of you have been in prison? I don't know. Paul reflects on his joy and all their generosity to him and to his team.
Paul wants them to know that their gift to his team was tangible work, furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Philippians were willing to be used by God in their generosity to Paul and his missionary team. I'm going to give you a little side note from a missionary group.
So let's talk about Paul. Paul, he was a missionary. So he traveled.
He woke up one day and said, God told him to go. He didn't say, take your work with you. I take my laptop with me a lot and do my job.
I go drive a bus and I minister on the side. You know, like, I can do all that. He told Paul to go.
How many of you would be willing to walk out that door right now, leave everything behind, and go? That's what he had to do. His pockets, who knows how full they were because back then they had nothing anyway. So he literally relied on church people to supply his housing, his food, and his travel.
He would not have eaten without the Philippian church. And when you're in jail, back then, they didn't provide food. They provided a cell.
Whatever they ate or slept on was provided by their friends or family. So if the Philippians did not send him money or food or bedding, he would have been on a concrete floor with no food. He had enough to share with the other prisoners, which means he got to share the gospel even more.
He relied on people's faith and their continued yes. He had to trust daily that God would go in front of him and speak to his people, soften the hearts of those people, and provide what Paul would need. Most of the time in prison, a prisoner would only get that food.
So I tell you, to reiterate how thankful Paul really was to the church of Philippi, this is why I pray for the churches who support us. Because we can't go to the next step without our supporters. And so, as you guys support, I saw your wall of missionaries.
I think that is so great. But I ask that you pray for them, not just give them. Make sure you're praying for those missionaries because your prayers really do make a difference out there.
Because there's times where God will lay those missionaries on your heart, and you will all of a sudden be praying for them. You'll be like, why am I thinking of them? It doesn't matter why, just pray. Because they may be in a spiritual battle.
They may be in a traffic jam in another country, or they may be walking to a town that is very dangerous. Or they may have to eat food that could make them sick. Because over there, we have to do what we're told.
We don't get to say no if we don't like the food because then that's a cultural no-no. So when you are served, you eat. It's so great for the missionaries' children.
Especially mine, because we would never have had to live that yet. He was rejoicing. So, I think we're on the third point, yeah.
I don't think my slides don't really matter. There we go. He was rejoicing, but he knew it would be difficult for some believers in Philippi to believe that God was still working mightily in his life while he was in prison.
Paul's hope was to offer practical encouragement to his friends at Philippi so they would not be tempted to doubt. They didn't want to doubt God's faithfulness even in dire circumstances. So Paul's in prison, and he's writing to encourage the Philippians to let them know that even though I'm in trouble, I'm in here, God is still Lord.
That even though things are falling apart around us, God is still Lord. We can still have that joy in Him. Paul stresses that all of the hardships that they heard about should be viewed through the eyes of faith in the God who is always in control.
Paul observes, what has happened to me has actually resulted in the advancement of the gospel. Sometimes we're going through these trials, and when we are seeking God during those trials, someone else will be advanced in their relationship with Christ. Thus, Paul can emphasize the joy of the Lord, which is actually mentioned 18 times in this book of four chapters, despite the circumstances.
So in the midst of this trial, this time of imprisonment, Paul had joy. What type of trials are you going through? Do you have joy? Or selective happiness? We've all had trials. The times that seem unbearable, this loss of the loved ones, incurable illnesses.
So I'm going to share my testimony, just a part of my testimony. So in 2020, when the world shut down, I got diagnosed with a kidney stone, and that turned into a mass in my mesentery. So I had a tumor that had cancer.
Got that removed. No big deal, right? COVID hit, beat us hard that Thanksgiving. So three years ago, four years ago, this past week, we had COVID really, really bad.
And that January, because my tumor had cancer, but I didn't, we decided to go sugar-free. So January 21, we went on a sugar-free carnivore diet, because cancer eats sugar. It really does.
It's a scientific thing. If you're eating a lot of sugar, and you have cancer cells, they'll grow because of that. Most of us have cancer cells.
Just so you know. So we decided to go sugar-free, because obviously I was unhealthy, and I needed to get rid of my sugar, because I love sugar, because I brought donuts, guys. I didn't need any of them.
And I started gaining three pounds a week. My husband was losing three pounds a week, and I was gaining three pounds a week. And I kept gaining them, and he kept losing them, and I felt like there was a tube connected to us at night, and I was sucking his fat out, and putting it in mine, and I was like, and I was blowing up.
And he thought I was lying, you know, like I was going around eating cake in the corner. I actually handed him my debit card. I gave him all my possibilities for me to go shopping, because I needed to prove to my husband that I was not, because I really did have an addiction to sugar.
It took me three weeks to actually do it, so we're going to deal with that. And we were supposed to go to South Africa that year, for a month, and we did. We went to South Africa, and I was not quite right.
My blood pressure was through the roof. My blood sugar was through the roof. All these inward symptoms were happening, and they were not connecting them.
We go to the chiropractor in South Africa, and I had gained, we were over there, and the fight over there wasn't bad, but I had gained about 30 pounds while I was in South Africa, and I was still on no sugar. And we went to the chiropractor in South Africa. He looks at me and says, hey, when you get back to America, get checked for Cushing's.
Well, what's that? He goes, just do me a favor and do it. So, of course, I had to Google it. And so I get home, and every symptom on there, the buffalo neck, the wound face, the hairy arms.
That's another one. Lots of hair. I was going bald.
I had, I looked like I was pregnant with quadruplets, and my muscles were deteriorating. I could barely walk anymore. I barely fit on my plane, the plane on the way back.
So uncomfortable. And we got checked, and I have Cushing's. Cushing's is a tumor on your pituitary.
It's four millimeters. It releases cortisol 24-7. I had it for 10 years without knowing it.
They do believe COVID activated the outward symptoms. But Cushing's causes cortisol to be released. Do you guys know what cortisol is? Stress hormone.
How many of you ever had that feeling of, can you feel that little rage? I've had it flowing for so long, I never felt it. My face was so red at all times that my husband lived in the garden. Because that was a safe place.
My daughter was raising the boys because no one wanted to be near me, and I never saw it happening. We were so thankful that I got diagnosed. Because it also gave my husband hope that I wasn't really that crazy, first of all.
But it was, it was a relief. So when we got diagnosed, I was still gaining weight. And the one thing I did right before I got diagnosed, through those years, and then I came to Christ a little bit later in life, but I was reading my Bible.
I was praying to God, and I was seeking him.
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