GOD WITH US BRINGS JOY
Years ago there was a farmer in Nova Scotia who owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that would come up, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received nothing but refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with his work.
Then one night the wind howled loudly from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows." Enraged by the old man’s response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarps. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred and locked. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, and he returned to bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
The moral of the story is that when you’re prepared, you have nothing to fear. The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. Can you sleep when the storms of life come? Ever since we got rid of our pool I am able to sleep a little better when it is windy outside knowing that nothing is going to happen. We secure ourselves against the storms of life by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and by grounding ourselves firmly in the Word of God.
This week is Christmas. Today we are continuing our series God With Us and we want to talk about Joy. Christmas is a time of joy, or at least it should be.
Luk 2:8-12 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
The angels talked about a great joy for all people. That means you and me. Often we do not experience the joy of Christmas. There are many joy killers in our world today. The book of Philippians has a lot to say about joy. In chapter four, Paul talks about the keys to joyful living.
Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 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.
Paul says here that if you are going to be joyful you must be able to handle stress and problems when they come about in your life. If you are going to be joyful this Christmas then you have to be able to deal with the stress that often Christmas brings. How do you handle stress? This passage from Philippians talks about four different ways;
1. WORRY ABOUT NOTHING (vs. 6a) – do not be anxious about anything
Worry is a kill joy and a source of stress. We often tend to expect the worst in life. Smithsonian
magazine calls this the Age of Anxiety. There are some worries that everybody on the planet
worries about like global warming and overpopulation. There are also worries that are personal to each one of us that we face every day.
The Greek word used for worry is the word MERIMNAO which literally means "to be drawn in different directions". Worry pulls us apart. It is trying to live in a place you are not. Worry is worthless. It cannot change the past or control the future. It only messes you up right now. It is an incredible waste of energy. It is stewing without doing. When we worry about things, they just seem to grow larger.
E. Stanley Jones said "Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles." It is when we become so preoccupied with future troubles that our present thoughts are troubled. Gordon MacDonald said "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear."
Worry is assuming responsibility that God never intended for me to have. It's playing God, trying to control the uncontrollable. Douglas Rumford cites a study that explains why we shouldn't allow fear to rule our lives: 60% of our fears are totally unfounded; 20% are already behind us; 10% are so petty they don't make any difference; 5% are real, but we can't do anything about them. That means only about 5% are even things that we can actually do something about.
Matt. 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
For some people, this is the hardest command to obey. Some people are born worriers; they have the ability to find a problem in every solution. They look at the negative, the bad. This Christmas I encourage you to live one day at a time. This is what Jesus and Paul was saying. When Paul wrote Philippians he was in prison waiting to be executed by Nero.
We need to be like the 84 year old grandmother who fiercely maintained her independence and lived alone in the old family home. Her 4 children lived n the same town, but she rarely called them except in emergencies. It was with some apprehension, therefore, that one of her sons drove to her house one morning in answer to her phone call. When he arrived she said she suspected that there was a burglar in her bedroom closet, since she had heard noises in there the night before. “Why didn’t you call me last night?” he exclaimed. “Well,” she replied, it was late and I hated to bother you, so I just nailed the closet shut and went to bed.” That’s the kind of attitude a Christian can have when faced with the impossible. Nail the door of fear shut and go to bed in calm assurance.
Don't try living tomorrow before it comes. Give all your fears and uncertainties to Jesus. Yard by yard life is hard, but inch by inch it is a cinch. Worry about nothing, but then…
2. PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING (vs. 6b) – by prayer and petition present your requests
Whenever God tells you to eliminate something He always has something superior to replace it with. He always replaces a negative with a positive. Paul is saying, don't panic -- pray. When you stop worrying, you realize how much free time you have. Pray during that time. If those people who say "I don't have time to pray" would spend their time praying instead of worrying, they'd have a whole lot less to worry about. In fact, meditating on God’s word is like worry – it is just filling your mind with good things instead of bad things.
Paul said to pray "In everything..." We can bring everything in our lives to God not just the spiritual or religious things. God is interested in everything about us. We are told to ‘by prayer and petition.’ A petition is just a specific, detailed request. Get specific with God. Write down a list. Tell Him exactly what you want and what you need. Most people pray too vague, too general. "God, bless my life." Don't pray general, vague prayers but be specific.
In the Phillips translation it says: "When you pray tell God every detail of your needs." If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about.
1 Pet 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Take your problems to the Lord, pray about everything instead of worrying. Unload them! Pray is a tremendous safety valve release of pressure.
A life insurance company did a study. They learned that people who attend church once a week,
they live on the average, almost 6 years longer than the general public. Why? Perhaps, people who
attend church every week are more likely to pray than worry. God says unload all your worries on Him. The God who made every thumbprint in the world different and the God who made every snowflake in the world different and the God who made every voice print in the world different is a big enough God to handle all the details in your life. He is a God of details. He can handle anything you give Him. There is no problem that is too big for God's power or too small for God's concern.
In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a king. He decided that he wanted to become a monk and so applied at a local monastery, asking to be accepted and spend the rest of his life there. “Your Majesty,” said head mink, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.” “I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” “Then I will tell you what to do,” said the monk. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written about him: “The King learned to rule by being obedient.” It is easy to get tired in life. The stress and pressure can make us lose sight of who God has called us to be and lose track of God’s will for our life. In prayer we silence the distractions and return to a place of obedience when we can hear God’s voice and be reminded by Him of what is truly important in life.
Twenty times in the New Testament we are told to ask. Prayer helps us relieve stress. Worry about nothing, pray about everything…
3. GIVE THANKS IN ALL THINGS (vs. 6c) – with thanksgiving
The third thing that helps us maintain our joy by avoiding stress is cultivating an attitude of gratitude. The healthiest human emotion is gratitude, having a grateful heart, being thankful. It actually increases your immunities. It is a physical benefit to express the attitude of gratitude. Ungrateful people also tend to be unhappy people. Nothing every satisfies them, it's never good enough. They are "when... and then" people -- "when such and such happens then I'll be happy".
In his new book ‘Jesus, Lord of Your Personality’ pastor Bob Russell points out that having a lot doesn’t tend to produce a grateful spirit. "Have you had a taste of the best this world has to offer? You went to Hawaii once on vacation, so now it’s harder for you to enjoy the state park. You’ve eaten at a wonderful steak restaurant so now it’s harder to be thankful for a meal at Ponderosa. You’ve driven a Jaguar, so now you can’t be as content with your used Chevrolet. You’ve cheered for a national champion, so now it’s difficult to be grateful when your team has a good season but doesn’t take home the title... Generally speaking, the more we have, the less grateful we are. It should be the opposite; the more we have, the more thankful we should be. But it usually doesn’t work that way, does it?" It is a rare person who, when his cup frequently runs over, can give thanks to God instead of complaining about the limited size of his mug!
This Christmas, why not make a list of fifty things you can be grateful for. Don’t spend so much time looking forward to what is under the tree that you forget all the blessings that are already lying around your house. When you're grateful, it gets the focus off your problems and gets the focus on the benefits in your life. We have so much that we take for granted. Develop the attitude of gratitude and watch the stress level in your life go down. It gets your eyes off the problem and onto the many things we do have to be grateful for.
1 Thess 5:16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
There is always something to be grateful for. Worry about nothing, pray about everything, give thanks in all things…
4. THINK ABOUT THE RIGHT THINGS (vs. 8) – think about such things
We talked about this a few months ago when we were looking at the Attitude of Gratitude. It is important that we choose to focus on what is good. Choose to think about what is positive, not negative. To reduce stress in your life you must change the way you think. The stress is in you, not outside you. Your mind is a special gift from God. Your mind is capable of storing over 100 trillion thoughts. It can handle enormous things. You have been given by God the freedom to choose what you think about.
You need to choose what you think about and think about the right things. What we put into our minds affects our lives. What I see that some people allow to enter their minds, no wonder they are under stress. Many people, even Christians, are totally indiscriminate about what they allow to enter their minds. They are allowing all kinds of trashy garbage and reading material and movies and songs that are downers. Then they wonder why they are depressed. What you think affects the way you feel; the way you feel affects the way you act. Guard your mind. Keep your mind on the right things.
It was a mild October afternoon in 1982 and Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin was packed. Over 60,000 die-hard University of Wisconsin fans were watching their beloved football team take a beating by Michigan State. What seemed odd was that it seemed the more their team lost the more cheers and applause kept being heard in the stands. It was only natural that some people began to wonder who these strange people were who were cheering while their own team was losing.
As it turns out seventy miles away from Badger stadium the Milwaukee Brewers were beating the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of the World Series. Many of the Badger fans in the stands were listening to portable radios and responding to something else besides what was happening right in front of their eyes. In many ways that is a fairly accurate description of what the Christian life is like. Even in the midst of horrible circumstances in this world a different voice tells us we have something to cheer about.
Paul is saying this involves a deliberate, conscious choice. Change the channels of your mind. When a thought comes into your mind, ask "Is this true, noble, right...?" If it's not, reject it. These eight words are eight filters. If the thoughts is not right, true, pure, lovely, etc. don't think about them. Don't allow them to get into your mind, because it's going to create stress.
Whatever I think about is what I am becoming. If you don't like the way you're headed, change what you think about. Change the direction of your thought life.
What happens when we stop worrying and start praying and giving thanks for the things in our lives? Paul says that the end result will be that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We will talk more about peace next week, but for now I just want to remind you that the Greek the word used for peace is EIRENE (i-ray-nay) and comes from the root verb EIRO which means to join together. The opposite of worry (to be pulled apart) is peace (to be joined together). In this context, peace is not the absence of something but the joining together of something. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of grace.
Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God. -- J. Oswald Sanders
God’s peace will guard our hearts. The word GUARD in the Greek is a military term which means to watch over. It means a sentry guard, a garrison, or a detachment of soldiers keeping watch.
The book of Philippians was written to a group of people who lived in the city of Philippi in Greece. It was a Roman colony that was protected by the Roman legion. The people knew this word very well for they knew the Roman legion kept the peace in Philippi. When we stop worrying and start praying, giving thanks and thinking about the right things, God will put a garrison, a sentry guard, around your heart and when fear and doubt comes knocking at the door He will protect you with His peace.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. I saw it again last week. One of the things that struck me as I watched the movie again is how quickly everything in life can change. When George Bailey woke up that day before Christmas, he had everything in the world to live for. He had a wonderful family – a loving wife and healthy kids. He had a brother who had just won the Congressional Medal of honor and was soon coming home. He was walking around the town like he owned it, handing out newspapers to everyone he met about his brother coming home. He was on top of the world, but then $8,000 went missing. Instead of remembering all he had, all he could focus on was what had been lost. In just a few hours he went from having everything in the world to live for to thinking he was better off dead than alive.
That is the power of perspective, and that is what we need to guard closely.
A few weeks ago Naomi and I took Pastor Parimal and Joyce for a break up to the Attrell’s cottage. We went out for a walk one day and it was beautiful out. Along the way I taught Parimal what tree tipping was. For those of you who do not understand what I am talking about, when I was young a friend and I would go out into the woods and we would find an old dead tree. It would still be standing, maybe 30 or 40 feet high, but it had no signs of growth or life. If you pushed hard enough on the tree it would start to sway, and then if you pushed at the right time… TIMBER! The tree would come falling down.
You cannot do that with a living tree. The roots hold it strong in the ground. When a tree dies, it’s roots rot. It loses connection to the soil. When that happens it is easy to just push it over. It can happen with us as well. When we lose our connection to Jesus we whither up and die. When we isolate ourselves we become a target.
This Christmas let me ask you a question, how is your walk with Jesus? Are you connected and growing? Or have you grown distant and your roots are beginning to rot? Don’t be a push over. As you celebrate His birth this week, how is GOD WITH US transforming your life?
God’s present to you is His presence with you. Will you return that gift? Take time this week to spend with Jesus. Give him all your worries. Bring him all your concerns. Pray and ask Him to guide you. Give thanks for all He has already given you and make time to just spend remembering all that He means to you. Your present to Him is your presence with Him this week.
