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Joy In Everything - Philippians Series
72 Plays2 years ago
In this week's Sunday sermon, pastor Ridley Barron delves into the theme of unity and joy as emphasized in the book of Philippians. With a focus on maintaining unity within the church and finding joy in all circumstances, the episode covers topics such as the impact of division on the church, the importance of self-reflection, and the role of gratitude in finding happiness. Drawing from personal experiences and biblical teachings, Ridley Barron discusses the powerful impact of maintaining a positive mindset and the significance of abiding in the promises of peace and victory through faith. So, join us as we explore the importance of unity, joy, and self-reflection within the context of our Christian walk.
Timestamps:
00:00 Ridley reflects on Lottie Moon's challenging words.
05:39 Theme of joy emphasized throughout Paul's letter.
09:27 Embrace and memorize, don't worry about anything.
11:20 Starting church, wife bought house while abroad.
15:26 Community with believers fosters peace and positivity.
18:11 Find empowerment and peace by abiding in God.
22:07 Public call out signals importance of unity.
24:18 Church discipline is vital for purity.
27:44 Expect mistakes, be open to help. Be humble.
32:06 Division destroys fellowship, maintain joy daily.
34:31 Find joy in salvation, not in desires.
36:54 Addressing anxiety, depression, and church hurt, seeking healing.
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Transcript
Introduction to Lottie Moon's Legacy
00:00:00
Speaker
I have to be honest with you to tell you that I had not seen that video before this morning. And although I grew up in Southern Baptist churches knowing all about Lottie Moon and who Lottie Moon was and what she had done, I don't think I was prepared to hear that this morning when I first got here. The challenge that Lottie Moon offered us, not just by her life, but even by her words.
00:00:30
Speaker
I don't know if he caught it in there where she said, tell the missionaries that are going to follow me that they are coming to a life of difficulty and self-denial. And I thought about those words because while they are a challenge and they're incredibly powerful for those who might consider going overseas, it suddenly struck me that that's actually what Jesus said to anybody who would follow him.
00:00:53
Speaker
that none of us are called to a life of ease, that we're called to a life of self-denial. Unless you've not heard these words, they might be familiar to you in Luke where Jesus says, if any man's going to come after me, he's going to have to deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
00:01:11
Speaker
And so I was reminded of that thinking about that. You know, we talk about the word sent around here and living sent and what that meant, what it means. We talk about going. We talk about serving. We talk about giving all these words of action. But how often do we really talk about laying down our lives the way that Lottie Moon literally laid down her life by giving up everything she had known, the prosperity of her family,
00:01:36
Speaker
and going to a foreign world that she had never seen and never been a part of in order to share the gospel. Then, in the first Advent reading this morning as the Manning family was reading it, I was reminded of those words of Isaiah that were in the middle of that reading where it says, oh, that you would rip open the heavens and would come down and show yourself to the nations.
Reflecting on Personal Mission
00:02:01
Speaker
So let me ask you this this morning as we get ready to turn our heart to God's word.
00:02:05
Speaker
What would you do if that happened? What if right now the heavens ripped open and God appeared, what would your response be? Would it be a thrill of your heart rejoicing because you get to see your Savior? Or would it be joy because finally this whole thing, this whole messy chaotic world we live in is over and we get the peace that we've already been promised and the restoration of all things to rightness? Or would you be one of those
00:02:33
Speaker
And be honest, one of those who's going, God, I need a little more time. I need a little more time. That coworker that you put next to me for the last five years, I never spoke the name of Jesus to him. My neighbor, the one I said was one of my best friends. We never talked about whether or not she or he would know eternity in heaven if this came to an end.
00:02:59
Speaker
And my children, I didn't want to rush my children, so I never talked about Jesus much with them. I need more time. Because the Bible's clear that when the heavens rip open and he shows up, there will be no more time. The time we are given to perform the mission that we've been called to perform is now. It's here. It's at this moment. It's this day, this time we've been given. The question isn't where are you going to go? The question is, have you found your mission field yet?
00:03:30
Speaker
Because your mission field may be Forest High School, your mission field may be your workplace, your mission field may be your neighborhood, but your mission field is wherever God takes you and wherever you're willing to open your heart and your mouth to those who need to hear. Find your mission field. Wrapping up Philippians today. I have no idea where we're going next week. Come back and be surprised. Philippians chapter 4, we're going to read the first nine verses there.
00:04:00
Speaker
And let me just remind you, I think I said this when we started the series, I should have if I did not. Philippians is just full of really good meaty stuff. And so there's any number of places in these four chapters where we could have stopped and spent a lot of time on just a verse or two or three and really, really dug in.
Exploring the Letter to Philippians
00:04:21
Speaker
But when we do these books expository like this, one of the things we try to do is we try to take like a 30,000 foot view
00:04:28
Speaker
cover the book, cover the theme, cover the intention of the book, kind of give you a good picture of everything that's going on in there. So when we get to chapter 4, what we're giving to is the end of a letter that Paul has written from his prison cell, his prison room in Rome, to the church at Philippi. The church at Philippi is a very good church, but it's got its points of correction that it needs. It's just like any other good church
00:04:54
Speaker
It's got to keep its eyes open, its heart open to the corrective teaching of Jesus Christ. So that's why Christ tells us, compels us, all of us as believers, stay in my word. Love my word because you're going to need your heart corrected, your attitude adjusted. You're going to need your life rearranged on a daily, sometimes moment by moment basis. So don't lose sight of my word. So great churches still need correction, right?
00:05:23
Speaker
If you don't believe that, go home and look at the mirror and tell yourself that. You need correction. You need correction. I need correction. Why? Because we don't ever ultimately get to the place where we're doing this all right. Not until Jesus rips open the heavens and comes down.
00:05:38
Speaker
So let's dig in. We're going to cover several different things today, but we're going to come back to this theme, this theme of joy, which Paul obviously has emphasized over and over throughout the letter. And as we get there on our way there, we'll uncover some other subjects, some other topics that he wants to cover for us. Verse one, it says, So then I dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters.
00:06:00
Speaker
My joy and my crown. I want to say this to you. 39 years of ministry now, starting out in student ministry and now as church planner and pastor. When I started off early in ministry, I thought I knew what I was doing. Looking back, I realized how little I knew.
00:06:19
Speaker
But one of the things I do know that I can trace, that I can follow all the way from the day when I was 17 years old and gave my life to ministry to this point now is that God has been working in me through me to become more of a shepherd and to have a shepherd's heart. And what that means is that as a shepherd, I understand how Paul can say that his brothers and sisters are his joy and his crown. I love you guys very deeply.
00:06:46
Speaker
I don't get paid to say that, okay? I get paid to do a lot of other things for you, but I don't get paid to say that. I say that because Christ has compelled me to see you as my family. So I want to say a couple of things in regards to that. Number one, if you're a guest here today and you're just maybe kicking the tires on this whole church thing and you haven't been in church in a while,
00:07:12
Speaker
I would encourage you, find a place here. This is the most loving group of people you will ever find. It's an amazing group of people. They take care of each other. They pray for each other. They stand with each other in the seasons of good and bad. This is a wonderful place to be apart. Secondly, and I'm taking a huge risk by saying this because one of my four adult children might actually watch this live stream later. I'm just gonna say it anyway and then apologize when I give them Christmas presents later.
00:07:42
Speaker
I love my children very deeply, but there's a sense in which I am more attached to you now than I am to them. And the reason is because of the cross of Jesus Christ. And so one of the things I have learned is that because of who we are, the bond that's between us, the Holy Spirit bond between us as we follow Christ Jesus, there is something stronger in the bond of Christ than there is even in blood relationship.
00:08:09
Speaker
And some of you can know that, some of you feel that because you've got blood relatives, you're going, you know, I'm just not real connected to them or maybe we've gone distant or whatever. But I would say that even some of your closest family, the connection between you and them is not as strong as your bond with other believers in Christ Jesus. And this is what Paul's talking about. Lean into that. Accept that.
00:08:35
Speaker
Allow this group of people here to be your strength, your protection, your nurturing, your care. It's okay. It's what Christ designed the church to be like. So let's keep reading.
00:08:53
Speaker
Verse 2, I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. There it is. Paul, as I said, is underlining the major themes of this book for us. And he comes back to this one. This is the home run. This is the nugget that he wanted people to get. Rejoicing in all things.
00:09:23
Speaker
He says, let your graciousness be known to everyone, the Lord is near. Now this next verse, if you write in your Bible, I want you to circle it, start, highlight it, memorize it, embed it in your memory, and tattoo it on your arm if you need to. Some of you really need to hear this. Don't worry about... How about saying it with some conviction this time?
00:09:48
Speaker
don't worry about anything okay so the word anything means anything you see what we have a tendency to do is we love these verses and we will put them up on our wall or we'll put them on our screensaver or we'll make memes about them but the first thing that comes at us we start to do what
00:10:09
Speaker
to worry. We are the exception to the rule that Christ has given us here through Paul. Paul meant everything but what I'm facing right now. But Paul was very, very clear, do not worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. In everything. See, you don't have to worry about anything because you serve the God who's over everything.
00:10:38
Speaker
Let me say that to you again because somebody needed to say amen at that point.
Trusting in God's Control
00:10:42
Speaker
You don't need to worry about anything because you serve the God who is over everything. There is nothing going, that's late, sorry. Y'all are making me ask for it, it's too late. There is nothing in your life that God doesn't already know is coming. And here's the shocking thing for some of you, he knows what's coming next when you don't. And yet he still says, do you have peace in these situations because I got it.
00:11:08
Speaker
I've got it. I am in control of it all, and I promise you that it may not take away the situation, it may not take away the consequences, it may not take away the sting, but I promise you, I will take care of this for you. When my first wife and I bought our house in southeast Georgia, I went to start our first church plant, very rural area, very much like this, and she bought the house while I was on a mission trip in Mexico, which was very scary for me because I had never seen it.
00:11:37
Speaker
Okay, so she calls me while I'm in Mexico and says, hey, I found our next house. And I'm like, oh, thanks. Can I at least see a picture of this?
00:11:45
Speaker
But we moved into it, it was the first house in a new neighborhood that they were building in this rural area. One day I'm at work, she calls me, she says, we've got a mouse in the house. And I said, okay, no big deal. She's like, no, we have a mouse in the house. I said, I get the point. I understand, it's going to be okay. She said, no, I need you to come home and take care of the mouse in the house. I said, I feel like this point, I'm in a Dr. Seuss book, the mouse in the house.
00:12:15
Speaker
I promise you I will take care of it. So I came home, did what any good husband did. I pulled out traps everywhere and began to take care of mice one by one. So I'm thinking, okay, everything's taken care of. I looked at her, I said, baby, everything's gonna be good. I promise you, I'll take care of this issue. Well, a few weeks later, I'm at work. She calls me and she says, I need you home right now. And I was like, is everything okay? She goes, I wouldn't say I need you home right now if everything was okay. I said, what's going on? She said, just get home.
00:12:44
Speaker
So I hung up, it was about a five minute drive, got to the house, before I even walked in the back door to the kitchen, I could smell it. The smell of a dead mouse. And y'all know how bad that smells, right? I mean, it's awful.
00:12:56
Speaker
So I walked in and I thought, man, I can't even place where this is. So I called this pest control guy who came and took a look at it. He said, I got some bad news for you. He said, you're going to need to call an appliance man. I said appliance man. I said, I got a mouse problem, not an appliance problem. He said, no, you've got an appliance problem because the mouse is crawled up in the insulation of your refrigerator and died.
00:13:19
Speaker
Said you have got to be kidding. He said nope called the appliance man the appliance man comes in he says I got some bad news for you I said I know about the mouse in the house. Okay, so what's the bad news? He says you've got two options He said you either live with the smell until it goes away, which it will eventually when the mouse completely rots Are you by a new refrigerator? I'm like seriously he goes yeah, that's pretty much your only two options and
00:13:46
Speaker
So I went into my wife, she was sitting in the other room, I said, so here's what's going on, and she said, we're selling the house. And I said, excuse me? She said, we are selling the house. And I said, that's a little bit of an overreaction, baby. I said, I will buy the refrigerator if we need to, but I'm pretty sure we'll be okay. Yeah, we live with it for about a week and a half before the smell ever went away. It was awful. What am I saying to you?
00:14:15
Speaker
Every one of us will have pests who come into our life at times. Those pests appear in a whole lot of different ways. Sometimes they're challenging relationships, sometimes it's financial struggles, sometimes it's the loss of a friend, the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, a marriage that falls apart. God says, trust me, I'll take care of the pest. You may have to live with a bit of the residue, the smell for a while. You may have to make some adjustments in your life.
00:14:42
Speaker
that are going to take care of these issues, but I will be your peace in all these situations, all these difficulties, but you have to trust me. There's no need to sell the house.
00:14:55
Speaker
Don't give up on life. See, this is one of the encouragements that Paul's given to them at the end of this letter. He's saying, hang in there. Endure. Do not give up on your Christian walk. Your struggle with your marriage, don't give up. Your struggle with your kids, don't give in. The culture is overwhelming you. Do not fear. Hang on.
00:15:15
Speaker
Grab on tight to who I am and what I have done for you and trust me because in all things you can have peace But you have to keep pushing on and can I go back and remind you it's one of the reasons why we preach and teach and push you to be in community with other believers because in those situations God quite often surrounds you with people of his to get you to the plan that he has for you
00:15:40
Speaker
He wants you to have those people around you to encourage you to help you endure. Let me keep reading, it says in verse seven, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brother, let me just stop here. This is another verse. This is another verse that we absolutely need to take to heart. This should be a filter over every thought that you have. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
00:16:09
Speaker
whatever is commendable if there's any moral excellence and if there's anything praiseworthy dwell on these things if you're using this as a filter they're going to be thoughts in your head where you're going to go uh-uh that doesn't line up with the cause of Christ yesterday afternoon as I was watching my team go down to Alabama there were thoughts that did not go in my head that did not fit this and I had to filter those thoughts praise God there is something more important than football right
00:16:41
Speaker
Let's just go with that thought. There's something more important than football. No, seriously, when life gets challenging and it will get challenging, stop and ask yourself, am I thinking the right thoughts here? Am I filtering those thoughts through the right things that God tells me to focus on? Because your focus changes your mentality and your mentality literally can change your physicality.
00:17:03
Speaker
This morning as I'm rereading this passage and looking at it, I got through doing that and started to flip through the Fox News app this morning. Fox News app has a story. Science has come out. Some scientist has done tremendous research that says having a heart of gratitude changes your way of thinking and because of that, causes you to have better physical health. And I thought, what a novel thought. It's only been in the Bible for 2,000 years. But now that science has proved it, I guess we can believe it, right?
00:17:34
Speaker
But that's literally what Paul's saying here. Think the good thoughts. Hang on to the good ideas. Hang on to these things that I've got for you because in that is the promise that you will have peace. He goes on to say it in verse 9. Do what you've learned and received and heard from me and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you. The God of peace will be with you in all situations.
00:17:56
Speaker
So not only does he tell us to have endurance, but he also tells us how to have endurance. He tells us in the beginning of verse 2 here,
00:18:10
Speaker
some i'm not verse two yeah verse two here he says yes i spoke uh i urge euodia and urge suntag to agree in the lord there is this empowerment that comes from being in the lord look at verse four and verse four it says rejoice
00:18:27
Speaker
the Lord in verse 7 it says in the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Paul is saying to them you can have peace you can have the power to live the life that you're asked to live but it comes by abiding in what has already been given to you not working for something you think you've got to earn you see you actually cause greater anxiousness in your life when you try to earn what Christ has already given you
00:18:57
Speaker
You can spend a lot of wakeless nights, you can spend a whole lot of unnecessary energy trying to earn the presence of God when Paul says you just need to abide in what has already been given. Just rest in the promise that God is with you. Now, here's the challenge. This means if you're not a Christian, none of this applies to you. Let me say that to you again.
00:19:24
Speaker
If you are not in Christ Jesus, these promises about peace, these promises about no anxiety, these promises about having purpose in the midst of anxiety, none of that applies to you. The good news is it can. The good news is you can accept Christ and your life can be changed and you can receive these promises, but what we've got is a lot of people running around posting memes about God taking care of them and claiming victory over certain things in the name of God, but they don't know this God, so they're claiming things that don't apply to them.
00:19:55
Speaker
And because of that, the world's confused. Wait a minute. I thought God was going to take care of you. Well, they don't know God. They may know about God, but knowing about God doesn't change anything. Most of the people in the story of Jesus's birth knew about God. In fact, I would say all of them knew about God, but only a few of them would ever come to know who God really was through the power of Jesus Christ.
Resting in God's Promises
00:20:20
Speaker
So he says, if you're a believer,
00:20:23
Speaker
Don't keep trying, don't try harder, don't work harder. Just be at rest in the power that the Spirit of God gives you. And then you can know the peace. So now His counsel turns to two very important subjects as he wraps up the book. Number one, he says, I want you to pursue like-mindedness with other true believers.
00:20:43
Speaker
He comes back to a lot of other themes here. He's talking about unity. He's talking about rejoicing in all circumstances. He's talking about gentleness and graciousness. He's talking about forbearance with one another. But here he begins to focus on the idea that as believers in Christ Jesus, we are connected together by the power of the cross. And because of that, we should be like-minded in the way we serve his mission here together. Now, let me put this disclaimer out here because I know human tendency.
00:21:12
Speaker
There is no conflict in our church right now. And the reason I'm preaching about it is so that there will be no conflict in our church. OK, don't start trying to come up with some good juicy gossip to take to the diner. It does not live here right now, but it will if we're not careful. You with me? Some of you are. Some of you are still questioning.
00:21:39
Speaker
So let me tell you what I'm talking about. He very clearly in verse 2 addresses Euodia and Syntyke, two women. Now let me remind you how this used to work. Paul writes a letter. He's sitting in a prison cell. He sends it via a messenger to the church at Philippi to encourage their hearts. That messenger arrives and they would call together the church. Keep in mind these churches were probably 30, 40, 50 people most of the time, maybe a little bit larger depending on where they were.
00:22:03
Speaker
But he would call them all together and they would read the letter from Paul to the church. Can you imagine the look on the faces of these two ladies as Paul calls them out in public in front of the rest of the church and says, you two ladies are not cutting it, we need you to get your act together. So that ought to tell us how much unity matters to Jesus Christ. Because Paul isn't playing games here.
00:22:28
Speaker
He's not worried about hurting anybody's feelings. He's not worried about whether or not they're going to be a little embarrassed. In fact, he's using shame at this place to say, you ladies need to work things out. You need to get on the same page here because the mission of the kingdom of God suffers when you and I don't serve alongside of each other with unity.
00:22:51
Speaker
That's what Paul instructs them to do. He says, I want you to get together. I want you to have that difficult conversation. The best solution when we don't get along is to find the person we don't get along with and make it right ourselves. It's always the best way. It's always the right way. He says to them, if you can agree to submit yourselves to the Lord, you'll find that there is great unity in this.
00:23:13
Speaker
So why am I having this conversation today with you? Because Paul's addressing it here, but guys, you know that as we continue to push forward for the cause of Christ, Satan's going to come at this church at every possible angle he can. He's going after some of your families right now. He's attacking your kids. He's attacking your marriages. He's attacking your finances. He's attacking your relationships. He's attacking your personal security. He's attacking your peace of mind. He's going after all those things because the more he can nibble at us, the greater chance he can find an opening and get inside this body of believers.
00:23:44
Speaker
This is not my favorite thing to preach about. I would much rather preach about other things. But guys, if we are going to focus on what the kingdom of God has us to do, then we gotta set aside the things that Satan would rather us do, okay? So secondly, he says, call for intervention is necessary. Look at verse three, he says to the guy who delivered the message here, he says, I ask you, true partner, to help these women, to help these women.
00:24:13
Speaker
What is Paul saying? He's saying to both of them, don't you dare look at the rest of the church and say stay out of my business because when you start having problems like this inside the church, it becomes the church's business. It becomes the church's business. This is one of those areas where sadly I believe too many churches today have walked away from the importance of church discipline. Church discipline is one of those things we don't like to talk about, we don't like to be a part of, it's very uncomfortable, but church discipline is necessary for the purity of the bride of Christ.
00:24:44
Speaker
See, you don't like this because half of you are looking at the ground right now, you're like, is he talking about me? I'm not talking about anybody in here, I'm talking about all of us. Every single one of us should be open to the discipline that comes from the body of believers because it is that discipline that keeps us on the right path.
00:25:01
Speaker
It is the accountability of other believers that holds us where we need to be. And sadly, too many churches have walked away from it. And so what do we got? We got churches that are compromising in all kinds of areas in their congregations because they're afraid they're going to hurt somebody's feelings. Church discipline is necessary to keep the body of Christ focused and on its mission.
00:25:22
Speaker
And so this is what Paul says. He says, if necessary, get involved. But don't you dare tell them it's not part of their business because if it's affecting the body, it becomes the body's business. Thirdly, Paul reminds them why this is so important. He says it's because of the gospel. This is the reason we gather together is for the glory of God.
Unity and Gratitude in Faith
00:25:43
Speaker
It's to bring Him honor and to worship Him. And we do that by our lives. And we do that most effectively by unity in how we present ourselves to the world around us.
00:25:52
Speaker
So in that regard, I want to ask you three questions. Three questions of self-reflection here. I want you to seriously take these in and ponder these questions for yourself. Number one, are you a threat to the unity of this church? Now, just in case you're having trouble coming up with the answer to that question, let me tell you, yes, you are, as am I.
00:26:16
Speaker
All of us have the tendency as human beings to become a threat to unity. Why? Because there are 600 of us in a minivan trying to figure out where to eat dinner. Right? I mean, there are some of you right now who are going, it's a little warm in here. Can we turn the air down? And there's some of you who are looking at me saying, if you touch that thermostat, I will kill you.
00:26:39
Speaker
There are some of us right now who are struggling with the fact that we've done this or haven't done this or that we do this too loud or not this loud enough. We have all kinds of biases. We have all kinds of prejudices. It is the nature of human beings to bring those things to any gathering we get together. So you put 600 people in this church. There's going to be 600 opinions about how we do anything. And guess whose opinion matters most? Sounds like a Sunday school answer, but it is. It's Jesus.
00:27:10
Speaker
I'm not worried about how we follow your biases and prejudices. I'm worried about how happy we make Jesus as the groom who's waiting for his bride. And it's true of every leader in this church. Our goal is to deliver this bride to Jesus Christ in its purest, most integrity-filled state to make its character be impeccable. Are we going to be perfect? Not at all.
00:27:41
Speaker
Are we going to get it right every time? Not a chance. Are there going to be mistakes made along the way? I can guarantee you that's going to happen because I'm the pastor and I make mistakes. And your elders, they make mistakes too. Your deacons, they make mistakes too. So why is that important? Because the second question is equally valid. Are you going to ask for help when conflict comes? Are you going to be open to that kind of help?
00:28:12
Speaker
Are you going to become stubborn? Are you going to be arrogant? Are you going to be too proud? Are you going to say, I've got this and I don't want anybody else meddling in my business? Let me remind you what we said earlier. If your business interferes with the church's business, it becomes our business. If you keep us from following the kingdom call, then we have to deal with it because we got to get back to doing the kingdom call.
00:28:34
Speaker
There are too many churches today who've become distracted because of all kinds of other little side issues. Those side issues become deadly for churches who lose sight of what the mission and the commission are for us. Lastly, are you prepared to help others when conflict arises? Are you willing to have the awkward conversations it takes?
00:28:57
Speaker
Are you willing to be the one who sits down and says, hey, I love you, I care for you? And because of that, we need to have a hard conversation.
00:29:07
Speaker
I need to talk to you about what's going on in your family. I need to talk to you about your business practices. I need to talk to you about your personality right now because man, you're not really living like Christ. The world's watching you and it's important that we get these things right. We need to have these difficult conversations. Some of you right now are a little scared that I'm even saying this because you're going, what does that mean? Does that mean I'm going to be held accountable? Yes. Does that mean that somebody might ask me something really, really difficult? Absolutely. I hope so.
00:29:37
Speaker
Does that mean that sometime I might have a visit from an elder or a deacon who says, hey, we want to talk to you and pray with you? Yes, but it's always, always, always with the end goal of reconciliation and restoration, not punishment. It's not our goal to punish. It's not our role to punish. It's not even our role to judge. It is our role to keep you on the straight and narrow with every other brother and sister who's following Christ. Why is this so important?
00:30:06
Speaker
Well, because division damages the body, it hurts us. When we don't get along, when we don't see eye to eye. This is why I've said literally almost probably from the first week I became the pastor of this church almost five and a half years ago, I said, if you ever have a problem with me, please come talk to me. Please come talk to me. 30 something years of ministry. How many did I say? 39. 39 years of ministry.
00:30:31
Speaker
I can't tell you how many times I've had people walk away from a church and never once tell me what the problem was. And I'm like, how am I supposed to address the issue if I don't even know what the issue is? And people go, oh, I have church hurt. That phrase is from Satan, by the way. Churches don't hurt people. People hurt people. The church doesn't hurt people, okay?
00:30:57
Speaker
So what is church hurt? Why do we throw that phrase around? Well, because we're trying to hide from our own poor excuses most of the time. We don't have a legitimate reason for the way we feel, or we're too scared to address the way we feel, and so we throw that word out there. Church hurt. Well, if you legitimately think you have church hurt, then why not come back to the church and say, let's talk about the hurt and let's deal with it. Let's address the issue. You ever been hurt by anybody at work?
00:31:26
Speaker
Did you walk away from your job? Not a chance. Did your team ever let you down? Yes, but did you walk away and leave your team? No. Did your husband ever tick you off? I'm not gonna ask you if you left your husband. That's getting personal. No, division also derails us from our mission.
00:31:52
Speaker
We get caught up in having to deal with that kind of stuff. Think of all the hours that are spent doing that instead of the hours that are spent going to the end of the earth. The hours that are spent having gospel conversations. The hours that are spent teaching our children. Thirdly, division destroys the witness of the fellowship. The world's watching us all the time. They're watching us online right now. They're watching us all the time and they're going, okay, doesn't she go to church?
00:32:21
Speaker
Isn't he a member of that such and such church? Why are they acting that way? Why are they doing that? Why would they behave that way if they really believe in Jesus? I mean, if they believe in Jesus, why are they giving up an hour on Sunday and acting like the rest of the world the rest of the week? So, enough about pursuing like-mindedness, because I want to get back to what is really the main theme of the book, and that's the idea of maintaining joy in all things.
00:32:50
Speaker
This is where Paul wraps up everything in the book, brings it all home for us. The pastor, author, great prayer warrior George Mueller once wrote this. He said, the first great and primary business of every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first great and primary business is to have my soul happy in the Lord. What is he talking about? He's talking about starting from a place of gratitude.
00:33:17
Speaker
How would your life be different if you started every day from a place of gratitude? If you woke up saying thank you God for another day, thank you God for the home that I've been given, for the warmth of that home, for the bed that I get to lie in, thank you God that I get to walk to a pantry and choose from a multitude of things that I can eat, not necessarily all good for me, but I can eat them and it's my choice.
00:33:38
Speaker
Thank you God that I don't have to wonder where my next meal's coming from or whether or not I'll have anything to wear today. Thank you God that my kids get to go to school and get an education that I have a job to go to. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All those things should start our day in the right direction, but the greatest gratitude comes from knowing that we have been spared judgment of God because of the grace of Jesus Christ. And if you've got no other reason to be thankful and grateful, that's the place to start.
00:34:06
Speaker
You see, what causes us to lose our joy are things like anxiety, fear, depression, loss of health, loss of jobs, broken relationships. Those are the things that cause us to lose our joy because they get our mind off of what's most important, and that is gratitude. So what is the solution? Well, Paul underlines it, circles it, bold faces it for us. He says, rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord always.
00:34:34
Speaker
Now the problem is that many people think joy comes when you get your way, when circumstances fall in line with what you desire for yourself. Real joy comes when you realize you have not gotten what you deserve, which is judgment, and instead you have received what you could not possibly earn, which is salvation. That's where real joy begins. Y'all remember the song Happy by Pharrell Williams? Because I'm happy.
00:35:02
Speaker
Some of y'all will be singing that the rest of the morning now, because I did that for you. You know where that song first appeared? In the movie Despicable Me 2, Volume 2, Part 2. There's a scene where Lucy, who's one of the heroines of the story, goes up to the supervillain on the sidewalk outside of his house, and she just abruptly leans over and kisses him.
00:35:28
Speaker
Now, Gru is the super villain. He's supposed to be the evil guy in the story, but she's giving him a kiss. And I thought about that story. What a remarkable example of what the gospel is all about. When despicable people who don't deserve what they get are blessed by something like unmerited joy, which causes you to break out in songs like happy.
00:35:57
Speaker
or maybe just to be a little more grateful for what you've been given. To be more grateful about the situation you're in, even though it may be a struggle, even though it may be difficult, even though it may not be going the way you thought it should go. Paul is not naive. He doesn't expect us to skip through life and pretend like there aren't bad moments. He doesn't expect us to ignore that there are troubles. But he does believe that even in those times we can draw from the well of our salvation,
00:36:23
Speaker
and hang on to our eternal joy because it is itself eternal.
Prayer as Remedy for Anxiety
00:36:28
Speaker
It's not damaged by time. It's not damaged by circumstances. Well, Paul goes on to talk about anxiety and worry. We've highlighted that a little bit as we read through it a minute ago. And as he's talking about that, he says that prayer is the greatest remedy for anxiety. Prayer is the greatest remedy for anxiety. Now, how's this for a teaser?
00:36:49
Speaker
If you come back after the first of the year, we're gonna do a three-part series on mental health. We're gonna be talking about anxiety, we're gonna be talking about depression, and we're gonna be talking about church hurt. We're gonna have the opportunity to address some of those issues for us as a congregation, as individuals. But suffice it to say here and now for this moment that Paul says that bringing your fears, your anxieties, your worries, your doubts, bringing all those obsessions that you have and giving them to Jesus, that's the beginning of healing.
00:37:20
Speaker
That's the beginning of the remedy for what you need for your life. If you're sitting here today and you're going, you know what, I just don't know that I have that kind of joy in my life. I just don't know that I have that all overcoming kind of feeling that things are good. Then I just refer you back to what I said at the beginning of the sermon. You may not know these promises because you don't know the promise giver.
00:37:44
Speaker
That's where the peace comes. That's where the peace enters in. It's having a growing, dynamic, life-giving relationship with the one who can give you that peace, can grant you that joy. So my encouragement to you today, examine yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions. Listen, there's no embarrassment in not knowing Jesus. The embarrassment is refusing to acknowledge that.
00:38:13
Speaker
The danger is in saying I can make this on my own. The danger is in somehow believing that religion's gonna give you what only Christ can. The invitation today is to know real joy. Real all surpassing eternal joy. And that can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ. Will you join me as we pray this morning? Father, we thank you for the promise of your word, the promise
00:38:42
Speaker
of peace, the promise of joy, the promise that all of these things can be eternal, and then in that eternal joy, we can celebrate you. We are grateful, Father, for peace that passes understanding. We are grateful for salvation that is unearned. We are grateful for grace that is unmerited, Father, and we ask that you would teach us how to truly, fully embrace those things in our life.
00:39:12
Speaker
If there's anybody here today, Lord, who has done religion, they've tried churches, they've tried ritual and tradition, Lord, and they come up empty. I pray that today would be a day they swap all those things for a real relationship with you. They would understand the real hope that can be found in the all surpassing love of the Savior. Lord, you broke into this world 2000 years ago. Would you break in again today?
00:39:42
Speaker
Break into our darkness, break into our sadness, break into our confusion, break into our chaos, break into our arrogance and our pride, break into our resistance. Let us find the peace that comes from the Prince of Peace himself. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.