JOY … the Recipe
CHCC: November 23, 2008
Philippians 4
INTRODUCTION:
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Some of you probably have favorite recipes you’re going to be making this week --- for dressing or sweet potatoes or pies that you make every Thanksgiving. How many of you are planning to cook a Turkey?
Well, I’m going to help you out. Sometimes it’s hard to know when a big bird like a Turkey is cooked to perfection. I came across a recipe that might help. You’ll need ---
10-15 lb. turkey
2 cup melted butter
2 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is Good.)
2 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER’S LOW FAT…..of course)
Salt/pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with melted butter salt, and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan, with the neck end toward the back of the oven.
Listen for the popping sounds and wait …
When the turkey’s rear end blows the oven door open … and the turkey flies across the room … you’ll know it’s done. There’s no way you can miss the magic moment.
Philippians chapter 4 the Apostle Paul’s gives his favorite recipe. He says: I’ve found the recipe for having joy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.
Remember that Paul is in Prison when he say’s he’s found the RECIPE for JOY. The Philippian Christians had sent one of their members, Epaphroditis, with supplies to help Paul while he was chained in the Roman Prison. Paul wrote this letter to thank them for their prayers and help, and he tells them this: "I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for having joy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Philippians 4:12-13 (The Message)
Remember that Paul was in prison in Rome when he wrote this. But he told his friends in Philippi, "I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess …" Philippians 4:10
The secret to joy is a simple 3-step recipe.
First you need to empty your mind of worry…
1. Empty your mind of worry
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
The things we worry about have no existence outside of our own imagination. In fact, worry is imagining your future without any faith.
It can be like a virus that saps your strength and energy for getting through the day. As Christians, we don’t have to live in fear of the future.
But notice that Paul doesn’t just advise us to stop worrying. Turn your worry into prayer – this means doing your imagining of the future WITH faith. Ozwald Chambers said this: "Trusting is based on confidence in God, whose ways I do not understand; if I did, there would be no need for trust.”
Faith doesn’t mean pretending that everything will always turn out the way you want it to. We know we live in a fallen world where bad things can and do happen. But we also know that God hears and answers our prayers. We can’t know what He will do, but we do know that
* He will never leave us.
* We know that nothing can separate us from His love.
* We know that He works all things for our good. (Rom.8:28)
* We know that He has overcome the world!
And He has promised that if you will empty out the worry and pour in the prayer, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (vs.7)
We live in this world, but when we were born again, we started a simultaneous life in the Kingdom of God. Nothing that happens in our earthly lives needs to worry us. I like the story told about a Christian Professor named Howard Hendricks. He asked one of his students how he was doing and the student groaned and said, “I’m doing pretty well, I guess … under the circumstances.” Howard Hendricks demanded, “Well, what are you doing under there?” Being a Christian means you never have to live UNDER the circumstances of your life.
My wife works in a Middle School. The job can be … let’s say challenging … sometimes. But she got tired of complaining whenever people asked how school was going. (Maybe that scripture in Philippians 2 had something to do with it: Do everything without complaining or arguing.) Anyway, when people would ask how school was going, she started answering, “I’m not an undergoer, I’m an overcomer. I rise above!”
She said that at our Pueblo group the other day and one of the ladies misunderstood her and said, “You what? You ride the bus?” So that’s our new code-word. So now, if I ask her how school’s going, she says, “I ride the bus!”
2. Fill your mind with good thoughts
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
In other words, if there’s ANYTHING out there that’s good, FILL your mind with those thoughts. I don’t know why, but it seems to be human nature to focus on what’s WRONG instead of what’s RIGHT. One thing that’s great about THANKSGIVING is that we focus on the things we can be thankful for.
Elizabeth Elliot was a missionary whose husband was killed trying to bring the Gospel to the Auca Indians in Ecuador. She learned the lesson of filling her mind with good thoughts. Here’s how she put it: “Thank God for what is GIVEN; and don’t allow the NOT GIVEN to spoil it.”
One of the most amazing things about human beings is our ability to control our conscious thoughts. Science can’t fully understand how the human will controls thought, but what science DOES know about the brain is impressive. The human brain is comprised of 100 billion nerve cells, give or take a few, and each nerve cell has 10,000 inputs, called dendrites, from other neurons, and only a few outputs.Those numerous neurons are so interconnected that despite their great number one can get from one cell to any other cell in the brain in just seven steps or less. (Insight on the News, August 18, 1997 by Stephen Goode)
Scientists estimate that an average person has about 10,000 conscious thoughts a day. (Since women are multi-taskers, they may have more than this!) You’ve heard the saying “You are what you eat.” It is more accurate to say, “You are what you think.” Just like this pulpit or that piano, or anything else physical is made up of billions of invisible molecules, I think we are made up of thousands of our invisible thoughts. It’s our way of thinking that makes us the person we are.
When I think about that, two of Susan’s Great Aunts come to mind. I got to know them well during the 11 years we lived in a little town between Houston and Galveston where just about everyone who lived there was related to Susan. The two Great-Aunts, Marjorie & Thelma, were sisters and had lives that were a lot alike. Both had been widowed and both had been through divorces. Both had raised several children and step children and some had turned out well … others not so well. Neither of them had a lot of money … and both had some health problems.
But that’s where the similarity ended. Every time I saw Marjorie, she’d go into a litany of everyone who ever “done her wrong.” Everything was awful and no one treated her right. On the other hand, you never saw Thelma without her telling some nice thing someone had just done for her … or something she was happy about.
Circumstances had nothing to do with the difference in these two ladies. The difference was their inner lives. One chose to focus on the negative and the other filled her mind with thoughts of what were true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy.
I remember a picture aunt Thelma had on her wall that seemed to sum up her way of thinking. It was a magazine picture of a pre-school child sitting on a potty chair reading a little children’s book. The caption read, “Bliss does not require far away places or exotic settings.” Aunt Thelma had certainly turned her tiny cottage into a blissful venue for joyful fellowship.
3. Fill your life with good deeds
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9
Thoughts always overflow into action. If you empty your mind of worry and fill your mind with good thoughts, your life will pour out in good deeds. From our thinking comes our doing. And Paul took time to thank the Philippian brothers for the good deeds they had done in Paul’s behalf while he was in prison. At a time when no one else had come to Paul’s aid, the Philippian church alone had sent gifts of support when they sent Epaphroditus to Paul to help him out while in Jail.
Paul wrote about their good deeds in Phil. 4:16-19, “…you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
The practicality of the Christian walk involves more than just bad things we don’t do. It includes the altruistic selfless deeds that come from a heart filled with the right kind of thinking that leads to the corresponding right kind of doing. When we fill our minds with things that are good, right, lovely, true, praiseworthy, and so on, we will be inspired to let that good thinking overflow in good, right, lovely, and praiseworthy deeds in the name of the Lord, and for his glory.
John Wesley had a motto for his rule of life:
“Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can.”
I’m reminded of the prayer of the little girl who prayed, “Dear God, make all the bad people good, and make all the good people nice.” If only we could fill our days with “nice goodness” displayed by our kind deeds to who ever may be in need of them. Perhaps we could open our eyes to the good deeds God has prepared for us ahead of time so that we could live out our Christianity in very loving and practical ways.
CONCLUSION:
Our recipe for joy is simple. It involves an emptying, a filling, and a doing. We empty ourselves of worry by prayer in faith, and fill our minds with things that are good, true, right, praise-worthy etc. Then we fill our time with deeds of goodness and kindness that burst forth with the aroma of Christ himself. That is a sure fire recipe for Joy.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4
