I've God the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy

Text: Philippians 4:4-9

Focus: Christian Joy

Function: To help believers embrace the joy of serving God.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

I wish you could have known my daddy. He was a funny man, and very simple in humor. He could pull off stunts like “Let's Go on a Bear Hunt” and with a child-like enthusiasm, get even the most sour-faced individual to god along.

He would lead the Church in that Children's song: “I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart!” “Where?” “Down in my heart!” and everyone would have a lot of fun with it.

Funny song. People, at times have asked me about the theology of that song. They have asked the question: “Does being a Christian mean that all the time, 100% of the time, you will be filled with joy and nothing will ever phase you?” Does being a Christian mean that every single problem in your life will automatically go away and you will live a perfectly blissful existence?

Well?

What if we asked that question of the Apostle Peter's wife, right after he was crucified for his faith, she may not have agreed that living the Christian life meant that at all times, a person would feel happy.

Honey, did you ever feel that way?

God calls us as the apple of His eye. But that doesn't necessarily mean that we will be delivered from a problem.

Most of you know that this. It is elementary theology. God's promise is for the strength and perspective to go through trials, not some sort of automatic release from all problems.

Trials will come. Brother James tells us to Count it all joy when trials come, because they prove God and build our faith. James 1:2-3

And Paul is telling us to live our Christian lives with Joy.

What does he mean?

How do we be joyful in trials?

We all know when we are facing physical pain, we get irritable, we do not feel good and the last thing we feel like doing is having fun or celebrating our joy.

Pain, whether it is physical or emotional distracts us.

Fear distracts us as well.

What is he talking about?

Is it correct theologically to always say: “I have got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart?

Has anyone ever had that time when it didn't feel right to sing it?

I remember a woman who attended our church. The wife of a police officer who had been killed in the line of duty.

That first Sunday in church, she didn't feel like clapping her hands. Kathy just went up to her and hugged her.

So what about this joy, down in our hearts?

The idea “down in my heart” means that at times it doesn't surface, but it is still a part of us.

The command here is to rejoice, to practice joy.

How?

The command is to rejoice. The command is to celebrate. The command is to allow ourselves to feel joy. In order to do that we have to allow ourselves to have peace, allow ourselves to have faith and to have hope.

When faced with trials, there is a big difference between enduring pain and trials and letting pain and trials consume us with fear.

Fear is the opposite of faith.

Rejoice in God because no matter what, God still loves us.

Don't over react. Don't panic! Don't cry out: “Oh woe is me! My life is over!”

Trust God!

Rest in God!

I love the phrase that peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace dancing.

When we are at peace, there is this knowledge inside of us that eventually all will be well.

I remember in Chaplain training, this woman had just lost her husband. He fell off a scaffolding at work. She was in terrible pain, sobbing, so I embraced her and told her that it would be okay. (act out, it will be okay)

My supervisor was critical. She said, “It isn't okay, to tell her it will be okay is to give her a false hope.”

My supervisor was was wrong.

I love the meal after a funeral. I think it might symbolize the most important fact. We eat this meal bravely, because we will go on.

Have you met someone who just quit living?

Rest in God. Trust in God. God is still God.

So, after he tells us to rejoice, and God is still in control, he tells us, in verse 5, to let our gentleness be made known to all people.

When we watched the movie “Amish Grace” we saw exactly what this means.

Don't react harshly. React with gentleness to everything.

Why? Because God is still in control.

Turn to someone and say: “God is still in control.”

I love the way it is put in the paraphrase: “The Message.”

He says: ^4-5Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

The translator realizes that the quiet trust we have in God is actually evangelical.

My own mother-in-law was dying without Christ in her life. She was hanging on to every thread of life here on earth because it was all she had, until she confessed Jesus 2 days before she died. Then, everything changed. She went from wanting to be put on the life-support to forcing the doctors to remove it because her family was there, her loved ones were around her, she had peace with God and she was ready to die.

She died in faith.

This passage also talks about cussing when we have a problem.

Do you ever wonder why it is that Christians shouldn't swear when they have a problem?

If we believe that God is in control, then why should we curse when things go wrong?

That's the principle.

I think sometimes we get more hung up on the swear word than we do the principle behind it.

The principle is that if we really believed God was in control, then instead of a curse our answer would be a statement of trust.

We are under the law: “don't cuss.” I know a lot of people who don't curse, but they still haven't worked out the principle to trust.

We are not under law, we live by faith. And by faith we trust God when things go bad. Or we should.

Don't you wish it were always that easy?

We were setting a wall panel on a house in Tijuana MX two years ago. The concrete was poured the day before and it was still a little green.

I had the corner, and it was heavy and it slipped out of my hand and hit the corner of the concrete a little to hard and the corner broke off.

I felt bad, and before I could stop myself, a word that I regret saying slipped out of my mouth.

I spent the rest of the day beating myself up, not so much for saying the word, but because I said it in front of a couple members of this church.

I wondered just what they thought of the spirituality of their pastor because this word escaped my lips.

I kept waiting for a recrimination from them, but they were gracious and the words never came.

But I was afraid of what they thought of me.

I was worried about the law: “Don't cuss” instead of the principle, “truse God.”

It isn't because there is anything particularly wrong with the word “Damn.” It is throughout the bible.

But the context is that if we are living by faith, then we will have the faith that whatever circumstance, whether it be good or bad, negative or positive, fortunate or unfortunate, God will indeed still love us and does indeed have a plan to keep us.

Faith is just that. Whatever the circumstance, whether it be good or bad, negative or positive, fortunate or unfortunate, God still loves us.

Turn to someone and say: “God still loves us.”

He doesn't promise to keep us from harm, but He does promise to keep us as His own.

So, I was afraid of my word, because I was afraid that it made me look like I wasn't really trusting God.

Listen, that is backwards spirituality. That is legalism, not faith.

What God wants us to practice is faith, not a list of rules about words that we can or cannot say, or that we can only say in certain circumstances.

So, in the Message it is written like this since the word used means Gentle. “Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!”

Be gentle with others. Everyone. Even the people who give you trouble.

The reason is because at any minute, Jesus could return and if they are not believers, you may be their last hope.

Our faith and trust are indeed evangelical.

So, if, or when, we panic, act in fear, stop being gentle, take matters into our own hands, work out revenge, we are forgetting whose work we are doing here while we are waiting for our eternal reward. We aren't working for ourselves anymore.

If we are living for ourselves, then gentleness, revenge and etc are the regular course of things.

But the Scripture states that the Lord is close at hand. And, it is Him we are serving.

Let our lives reflect the peace of Christ Jesus.

That is why the next words in this passage are don't be anxious.

“Be anxious for nothing...”

Worry and fear get in the way of our Christian life.

Actually, he says two things: First, Don't be anxious. Second: don't forget to pray. Everything that makes us anxious is a chance for us to be praying about something else.

Tell someone “don't forget to pray!”

Listen, there is something wonderful about prayer.

Not one of us are perfect enough to take every single thing that happens to us in stride as if it never affects us.

Bad things affect us. When it does, don't forget to pray about it.

There a promise about the success of prayer. He says it right here: “The peace of God will guard your hearts.”

Why does our heart need to be guarded?

Because fear is the opposite of faith. When we give into fear, we quit trusting God.

Last Saturday night, I was upset about something. I grabbed Kathy and went into my office to pray. And while we were praying, the Lord brought to my mind part of Psalm 23 where David said: “God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.”

I think about that. David, the man who wrote that Psalm, had a lot of enemies. Many of them wanted to kill him.

Enemies are merely human, God is God.

And for him to sit down and eat a meal, at ease, in the face of his enemies was almost like laughing at them.

Not that we insult them. But his faith was that God knows how to protect us.

Right before being thrown into the fiery furnace, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced the King, who was very angry with them.

The King said, “no other gods of any other nations have been able to protect their people from my wrath. What makes you think your God will?”

Calmly they answered “Whether or not God will protect us, we do not know, whether He is able to protect us, we are sure of that. But either way, protect us or not, we are not going to bow down to your idol.”

They didn't know the outcome. They could have died in the next 5 minutes. But they did know this. They were going to trust God.

Can you trust God regardless? It is your choice.

When we pray, God protects our heart. He helps to keep us from losing faith.

When we face a trial, we are at risk. Our faith is being put to the test. And when we pray, God promises to keep us trusting in Him.

Don't forget to pray. Don't give up on prayer.

Now verse 8.

⁸whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

This is one of my favorite verses in the NT. It speaks volumes to what it means to live an wholesome Christian life.

God has us given a lot of good things to enjoy. Worship Him by enjoying them.

I had a dear friend, a very zealous Christian. At one point in his life, he got rid of every piece of music that wasn't Christian.

Then a year later, he got rid of every piece of Christian music that didn't directly lead him to worship.

His reasoning was that if it didn't come directly from God, it must be evil.

Maybe he was overly zealous. He has changed. Now, his facebook picture has him sitting with his wife and together they are enjoying a romantic fire and a glass of wine.

This verse taught him a lot.

Initially, if it wasn't something that was specifically spiritual, or a tool for evangelism, he had nothing to do with it.

He had a lot of zeal.

But then he realized something. God made many beautiful things in this world. For me, God made Kathy. He made classical music, He helped us discover photography, writing, reading, the arts, sculpture, more kinds of music, nature, pets and the list goes on.

So think about it. The passage is about having the joy of the Lord.

How often do we stop to enjoy the fragrant smell of the roses?

Enjoying God and His gifts is a form of worship.

How much more peaceful would our lives be if we took the time to allow beauty, both in nature, and the arts to bring out depth in our own lives?

God delights in giving to His children. Remember, For God so loved the world that He gave...

The primary thing that He gave was Himself, as our Savior. But He has also given all the beauty in this earth.

When we enjoy God's beauty, we enjoy God Himself.

When Jesus was being prepared for His death, Mary anointed His feet with a vial of perfume that today would be worth over $50,000.

God really is extravagant in His love for us.

So Paul speaks of our extravagant forgiveness and love toward others, and toward God.

Finally, in verse 9, right after telling us about prayer and then beauty, we have a final promise in todays scripture text: “The God of Peace will be with you.”

Immanuel, God with us. If we know that God is with us, we can face all kinds of troubles.

And God, in this passage, describes Himself as the God of Peace.

I go back to the simple joy of serving Jesus that I learned from my father.

I was raised in an “hell-fire and brimstone” denomination. And my dad never really made it far as a preacher in the denomination.

Because his reason for serving Jesus had nothing to do with the fear that maybe, after working hard for God, we might end up in hell.

His reason for serving Jesus didn't spring out of the fear that maybe there was something wrong with his faith and if he could just learn a little more, give a little more, serve a little harder God would love him more.

His reason for serving was this: Jesus brings joy.

And Jesus invites you into His family.

Philippians 4:4-9

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:4-9

The Message (MSG)

^4-5Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

^6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

^8-9Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.