You Can’t Control Everything, But You Can Control Some Things! - August 24, 2025
Dennis R. Wiles
First Baptist Arlington
August 24, 2025
Flourishing Together
First Baptist Arlington
2025 – 2030
2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ
1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)
AUGUST 2025: Gold’s – God’s Gym
August 3 – September 6, 2025
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30)
You Can’t Control Everything, But You Can Control Some Things!
Matthew 11:28-30
Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ
Theme for August 2025: Gold’s – God’s Gym
ACCEPTANCE: Life is often beyond our control.
JOURNEY: When we encounter the crises of our lives, we will embark on a journey that may include stages or seasons: dismay, disorientation, discouragement, despair, and desperation.
REDEMPTION: God can work redemptively in and through your journey to lead you to stages or seasons: encouragement, enlightenment, edification, and example.
RESPONSE: You can control how you respond to the crises and the various stages of your journey.
ENCOURAGEMENT
- Always run to the Lord!
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
-Jesus (Matthew 11:28)
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
-Psalm 94:19
- Share your burden with trusted believers!
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor; If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
-Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
-Galatians 6:2
- Keep worshiping God!
Hear my cry, O God; From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
-Psalm 61:2
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
-Psalm 62:1-2
ENLIGTENMENT
- Let God change your perspective.
By faith these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
-Hebrews 11:13-16
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
-Hebrews 11:39-40
EDIFICATION
- Let God strengthen you through your suffering and pain.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
-Romans 5:3-4
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
-1 Peter 1:6-9
EXAMPLE
- Allow God to use your experience as an example to others.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
-2 Corinthians 1:3-4
SERENITY PRAYER
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as He did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that He will make all things right,
If I surrender to His will,
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as He did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that He will make all things right,
If I surrender to His will,
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
SUMMARY – WE CAN CONTROL THESE THINGS!
I can always run to God in my crises!
I can always share my burden with others!
I can keep worshiping God!
I can allow God to change my perspective!
I can let God strengthen me through my pain!
I can let God use me in the lives of others!
