PENTECOST 19 – October 11, 2020 – Phil. 4:4-13
“REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Philippians 4. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- All human beings tend to vacillate between joy and sorrow, happiness and misery, hopefulness and hopelessness. When the vacillation becomes too great and the extremes render a person incapable of functioning, we identify that as being “bi-polar.” But we all have these “poles” in our lives, and are moving back and forth upon a continuum of emotion.
- There are times when God calls us to mourning and sorrow – when He calls us to repent of our sin and to acknowledge our need for His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. But for the most part – including our text for this morning – God calls His people to joy and rejoicing, to hopefulness and optimism.
- Why should we need such encouragement? Well, human experience turned from being perfect to miserable when Adam and Eve fell into sin. The misery of the curse of sin continues to this day – with the process of dying [disease, accidents, aging] and also with the curse being upon nature [natural disasters, droughts, fires, etc.]. These things – which we at times experience very poignantly – tend to bring sorrow, misery, and hopelessness into our lives, moving us to just give up.
- However, one aspect of the blessings of the Gospel – of God’s forgiveness, His restoration of peace between Himself and us, and His promise to bless us in all circumstances, and His promises regarding the life to come – is to restore peace and joy to our hearts and minds. And as we grasp these promises by faith, His peace and joy is to overcome all of the negatives that we experience, so that we can “REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS.”
- In our text Paul shows us the way. First:
I. In Order To Have Joy In God We Need To Know The Peace Of God
A. We Have The Assurance That God Is At Hand; There Is No Need For Anxiety
Text: “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything.”
B. He Promises To Provide Us With All That We Need
Text: “In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God.”
C. Knowing And Believing That God – Who Is Love – Is With Us And For Us Enables Us To Revel In His Peace
Text: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard you hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Statement: Without peace of mind, calmness of heart and inner being, it is literally impossible to have true joy. Whatever joy we may think we have is always threatened and imperiled by our fears, worries, sorrows, and frustrations. So the Word of God urges us to go to the start of true peace and joy – and that is knowing the goodness, mercy, kindness, and presence of Almighty God in our lives. This is guaranteed to us most forcefully in the gift of Jesus, our Savior, Who has taken away all of our sins, Whose blood cleanses us from all sin, and Who promises: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matt. 28:20]
Application: This is God’s Word – revealing His desire for us. We do Him the honor of accounting Him truthful and trustworthy when we take refuge in His forgiveness and mercy, and when we put our faith and trust in His promises. This is why worship is so important, why studying the Word of God is so precious. It conveys to us, and imprints on our hearts and minds the wondrous love of God, and in turn grants us the peace of God!
Transition: Knowing these things, keeping them at the forefront of our thinking and consciousness, enables us to move forward to even greater blessings. If we agree with the Apostle, that “if God is for us, then who can be against us?” [Rom. 8:31], then there are other things that God grants us to increase our joy:
II. Having The Peace Of God, And His Joy, We Can Set Our Minds On What Is Best And Noblest For Human Beings
A. We Can Set Our Minds On What Is Honorable
Text: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
B. We Can Demonstrate That We Are In Fact Reasonable In Trusting God And Pursuing What Is Honorable
Text: “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.”
C. And We Have The Apostolic Example To Follow
Text: “Whatever you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
D. We Can Also Learn To Be Content In All Circumstances
Text: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him Who strengthens me.”
Statement: If these things were not an issue that we have to deal with, not a common difficulty for Christians, there would have been no need for the Spirit of God to have caused these things to be written. But even as Christians there is much that distracts our attention from the things that are truly noble and eternal, and that destroy our peace and joy in God. God, because of His great love for us, seeks to deliver us from such depression and futility. He does so through these assurances of His presence and blessing, and through these encouragements to strive for nobility of thought and behavior!
Application: We often fail at this, and most of us do in fact suffer with bouts of depression, sadness, a sense of futility and incompleteness, and discontentment. God calls us to repent of this, and offers us relief – so that we can continue on in life with His peace, His joy, and courage and confidence. It is a challenge – to be content in all circumstances. It requires that we wean ourselves away from attaching our “contentedness” to the “things” of this world. However, once we are freed from such idolatry, keeping God’s peace and joy becomes much easier for us!
Conclusion: As long as we are sinful human beings, living in this fallen world which is under the curse of sin, we will have experiences that try to drive us to depression, sorrow, pessimism, and even despair. We will be tempted to just give up when being ground down by pain, by inability, by seeming futility, and by all the things that threaten our well-being and enjoyment of life.
But there remain two things that are able to overcome the worst of circumstances – God’s peace, and rejoicing in the Lord! Knowing and believing and trusting in His love brings these blessings to us, and ennobles our lives in all circumstances. This is the good and gracious will of God for each of us! May His Spirit enable us all to continue growing in the peace and joy of God! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.