Dr. Steve Mathews
United Baptist Church
December 13, 2015
Philippians 4:4-7
Choosing Joy
I. Joy is a choice- vs. 4
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Exposition:
• Rejoicing in the Lord is a choice. Paul expects that his audience can do this. He repeats his injunction to joy twice.
• Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is based on something external to ourselves. We are happy when we get what we want.
• Joy is based on who God is and what God is doing. This is why Paul tells his readers to rejoice “in the Lord”.
• Happiness is an emotion. Joy is a decision.
• We can have joy even in times of sorrow, suffering, and loneliness. Whether we are happy or not, we can have joy.
• Paul was in prison when he wrote this epistle. He did not merely spout platitudes about being joyful in hard times. He was no armchair apostle.
Illustration:
As parents, one of things we teach our children is that their behavior does not depend on their emotions. They cannot hit or bite because they are angry, they cannot steal a toy they want, etc. Many Christians need to learn the same thing: rejoicing is not an emotion, it is an action. It is not based in how our lives are going, but in who God is.
II. Joy leads to gentleness- vs. 5
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Exposition:
How does gentleness follow from joy? I think it happens something like this:
• A Christian chooses joy in the Lord, regardless of his or her personal happiness at the moment.
• A spirit of joy puts life into perspective. Joy “in the Lord” and because “the Lord is at hand” helps to keep God first in the Christian’s life.
• Choosing a spirit of joy helps the Christian to love God and love his or her neighbor.
• Gentleness arises from loving God and others. If I love God and neighbor as I should, then I can treat others with gentleness. I don’t have to be right. I don’t try to get anything from you. I don’t see you as a means to an end, but as a brother or sister.
• Because “the Lord is at hand”, life takes on a sense of urgency.
• It matters how I treat you because God is intimately involved in human activity.
Illustration:
William “Refrigerator” Perry was one of the great defensive linemen of the 1980’s. He played for the Chicago Bears, and was one of the first players over 300 pounds in the NFL. He was a giant of a man, but capable of great speed and athleticism. In an interview, he sat and played with a kitten while he talked to the interviewer. His hand engulfed the kitten (the average man wears a size 10 ring. His Super Bowl ring is the largest ever made- size 25), and he could have crushed it. Instead, he caressed and stroked it, enjoying the company of his little pet. This is a great illustration of gentleness. Gentleness is not weakness, but strength held back. We must be gentle with one another, not because we are weak, but because we are strong enough in Christ to give them freedom.
III. Prayer, gratitude, and peace arise from a life of joy- vs. 6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Exposition:
Gentleness and joy give rise to certain virtues in the Christian life. Paul outlines four of them here:
1. Contentment- be anxious for nothing- The Christian who chooses joy and treats others with gentleness does not have to give in to worry and anxiety because of an overwhelming sense that “the Lord is at hand.” God’s got me, so I don’t have to worry.
2. Prayer and supplication- because the Lord is at hand, I can come to Him with my requests and needs. I can “let my requests be known to God”. Notice that Paul expresses this in a passive voice- we must let our requests be known. God knows what we need, so it is enough for us to simply let them be known. God’s part is to respond to our needs in His grace and wisdom. Our part is to trust not only in His power, but in His goodness.
3. Thanksgiving- Paul adds thanksgiving as a parenthetical note as he discusses prayer and supplication. Thanksgiving goes hand-in-hand with trusting God to meet our needs. Even as we let our requests be known to God, we thank Him for meeting those needs as He sees fit.
4. Peace- Paul says two significant things about the peace of God here.
a. It surpasses all understanding- we may not understand how to choose joy when we are not happy. We may be overwhelmed by the Bible, feeling like it is too big and too complicated for us. We may not see how God will meet a particular need. Our intellectual capacity is quite limited, but God’s peace is not limited to what we can understand. God’s peace passes understanding.
b. The peace of God guards our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Paul’s choice of words may be inspired by his situation. Remember, Paul wrote this letter from prison. He was under guard. Because of his situation, Rome was able to keep him right where they wanted him. They could control his behavior and movement. In the same way, the peace that God gives brings our thoughts and emotions under control. How we think and what we feel are increasingly brought under the influence of Christ. The more we choose joy, the more joy we can choose.
Illustration:
E. M. Forester was a secular humanist writer who did not believe in Christ, but he makes an observation about life that Christians cannot ignore. In his short story The Other Side of the Hedge, he writes about a walking man, one of the “people of the road” who cannot stop walking down a particular dirt road with a giant, thick hedge on one side. There are many people of the road, always walking to see how far they can get and what they can see, and the road is littered with things they brought along and dropped when they became too tired to carry them. With or without the things they brought, they must walk on. This character has even left his own brother behind when he became too tired to keep up. No matter what, one must walk on.
The character in Forester’s story becomes so fatigued with his walking that he lays on the ground beside the road to rest. From this vantage point, he can just barely see through the hedge. He sees light, and feels a cool breeze. He decides to push his way through the hedge, just a little, to see what is there. He will return to the road shortly.
He begins to wriggle through the dense undergrowth. On and on he pushes, and then he suddenly falls headlong into a cool, clear lake. He splashes to the top in time to hear someone shout “there goes another one!” Looking around, he sees men and women, boys and girls, playing, running, gardening, and napping on gentle rolling hills in the sunshine. The air smells sweet, and the breeze refreshes him.
He splashes out of the lake and is greeted by one of the inhabitants. He realizes that he is in a giant garden, circular, and that the lake into which he fell is really a moat, and that the hedge encircles the entire garden. He is compelled to take a tour of the garden, and on his tour he realizes that the inhabitants of this mysterious place were all people of the road, like himself, who wriggled under the hedge and never left. Here, they do not toil, they do not feel the need to advance themselves, they have no care for progress and gain. They simply live. They grow their food, swim in the moat, and sleep on the hills. No one is hurrying or scurrying- they are simply being.
The visitor is disgusted by this approach to life, and wants to leave. But he must continue his tour. The garden, he is told, is bordered by the walker’s road. The walkers rush past it every day, and are never more than a few feet from it, but few find it. Those who do, never leave.
The visitor has finally had enough; he is starving and tired, and tries to leave through a gate leading out to the road. As he approaches it, a man walks through with a farming tool in one hand and a bottle in the other. The visitor, mad from thirst, snatches the bottle from the unsuspecting man and downs its contents in one gulp. He immediately begins to drift off in deep sleep, and as the farmer lowers him gently to the ground, he looks up to see that it is his brother, whom he left behind in his rush for progress.
Forester was right: there is a place very close to our rushing, maddening pace where we can rest and find peace. But Forester only knew to look for it; he did not know where to find it. We know that Jesus gives rest and peace. He carries our burdens and fills our hearts with peace. When we are on the road, He walks with us. When we stop and wriggle under the hedge, He leads us to relax in His presence. If we could truly experience the joy of his presence, we would never want to leave.
