The following is a lightly edited transcript and may contain errors.
Contents
An Update on REACH
Background on Philippians
The Church at Philippi
A Thank-You for Partnership
The Theme of Joy
The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength
Closing Prayer
An Update on REACH
How’s everyone doing? Wow, that’s some echo that the sound guys will clean up. Hey, I want to give you an update on REACH and what’s going on with REACH, the pro-life organization that we’re a part of, that we’re supporting, that just started. They just opened up our first location about a week ago. Yeah. And as you know, we took over two of the leases from Thrive, which really let us get up and running super quick because we didn’t have to figure out locations and all that. We also got their equipment so we had ultrasounds ready to go and all that. We actually opened very providentially the same day that Planned Parenthood started offering abortions. So God knows what he’s doing. And so they’re up and running. The phone, honestly, has been ringing off the hook. Even before we started offering services, the phone was ringing. So there is definitely a huge need for ladies to be helped. The other thing that’s cool, and I’ll probably potentially mess up the name, but one of the things that a number of the Thrive people started to see in the last few years that we wanted to make sure was important with REACH is that a lot of times when ladies were coming in, their boyfriends, sometimes husbands, were coming in as well. And so we have a branch of REACH which really focuses on ministering to those men. So a lot of times in one room the lady might be having her appointment, but then we have a guy there to meet with the husband slash boyfriend if he comes, and also to talk to him and minister to him and kind of see where he’s at. The other thing that’s very encouraging at our last board meeting is just the heart to make sure—a lot of people wanted to know, hey, how are we presenting the gospel, how is that being set up, how are we taking the opportunity to do that. So it is very much the heartbeat of REACH to make sure as we’re ministering to these ladies that we give them the opportunity to hear the gospel. So very good stuff going on. Also, it just seems like just the flavor, if you will, of REACH. It just seems like there is a lot of camaraderie amongst the employees. I forget the numbers again, I didn’t jot them down, but I think there’s around a total of like 14 between full-time and part-time employees already that are making this happen, apart from all the board members that there are. So we’ve got a lot of good hands, and it just seems like originally they were talking about—Levi and some of the other people were talking about finding like an office location, but they started just going to the North County location as it was getting prepped, and they’ve just had such a good time with the other employees and some of the support staff that at least short term they’re going to keep going there. And they just said they open each day with prayer and sometimes they sing a song. [audio unclear] a building, whatever the proper term is, but like a building permit. And so we’ve been waiting on that. So we are ready to go, everything’s set, everything’s been painted, looks sharp and sparkling, but we need that building permit before we’re able to operate. And when we met, one of the doctors that’s on the board of Thrive, which you have to have those doctors to do some of the things that we’re doing, was super excited that she was being given so many different orders and things like that. So anyway, just a lot of passion and a lot of heart and a lot of ministry that is going on. So continue to pray for REACH, appreciate you guys. And I know I talked to one person, they’re slowly starting to reach out, ha ha, to the people that signed up to volunteer. So if you have signed up to volunteer, hopefully you’ll be getting a call in the next couple of weeks. If you don’t, and you are interested, talk to me. I’ll get you in touch with the right person.
All right, with that, let’s turn to the book of Philippians. We’re starting a new book. And we will be in the book of Philippians for a while. All right, here we go. Philippians chapter 1.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:1–5)
Let’s pray. Lord, we do pray for REACH. We thank you for the work that’s going on there, God. A lot of people with small donations and some pretty large ones came out real quick so that Thrive—sorry, REACH, I’ll probably do that a few times—REACH can get rolling and minister to ladies that find themselves with pregnancies and they’re trying to figure out what they want to do, whether they want to keep their baby or not. Even this past week, as Levi texted the board asking to pray as there was a lady there who was leaning towards abortion, God. We pray that you would use REACH to save many lives, Lord, to save many physical lives of those unborn babies, but also use it to give people new birth, and that they would hear the gospel and respond to it. We pray, Lord, for the branch that’s reaching out to the men as well, that these men would have a heart for their unborn child, a heart for their girlfriend or spouse, and ultimately, a heart for you, God. Continue to give wisdom to the board, to the different employees, as we want to make this an organization that continues to glorify you, continues to lift up your name, continues to be a difference maker in the greater St. Louis area. By the way, also thank you for Pastor Ed and Dinah being with us last week, and they flew back a few days ago, God, and thank you for just the time that they were able to be here, for us to encourage one another, to hear from them of the work you’re doing. You’re doing work, Lord, across this world, and it’s just a blessing when we get to hear about what you’re doing in the nations. So we thank you for their country, Belize. We pray your hand of blessing upon it, upon the churches there, that they continue to flourish, continue to be fruitful. We pray for Pastor Ed and Dinah and their ministry, Koinonia Ministries. Bless them, let their church, Lord, flourish and flourish. We pray for Elohim Community Church and Libertad Baptist, God, that they would seek you all their days. They would put their heart fast attached to you. They’d put their hand to the plow and not look back, God. May they follow the narrow path, and may we do so as well. And Lord, I pray as we begin this book in Philippians that you would teach us many things about you, teach us many things about ourselves. Lord, bring us closer to you. Bring us in a closer relationship to you individually, but also corporately. And we thank you that you’re such a good God, that we can gather today, we can hear your word, and that we can walk in your ways, Lord, glorifying your name always. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Background on Philippians
Let’s start with a little background on the book. I think this is important just to give us kind of some background info. So who’s the author? I mean, again, for most of us, we know the answer to this. But notice in the first verse, it actually says Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. It’s not uncommon for Paul in the beginning of his letters to mention one of his close associates with him. But notice the letter quickly goes to the singular first person. So in verse 3, immediately it’s, “I thank my God.” So he gives a hat tip, so to speak, to Timothy. Timothy’s there. He’s acknowledging, hey, Timothy is very important in the work that’s going on. But really, this is Paul’s hand that’s writing this letter. Where does it take place? Paul’s in prison. Very likely in Rome, that’s what I happen to think. He’s a Roman, and you’ll see some references to Roman prisons and different things, which seems to make sense that that’s the prison that he’s at, but if you just look at, like, verse 7 of Philippians, he says,
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. (Philippians 1:7)
Then a few verses later, verse 13, he says, “so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” And then in verse 17, he says, “The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.” So he’s in prison. This letter is written in the early 60s. Where’s the destination? Obviously, it’s the Philippian church, the church at Philippi. Well, what’s the occasion for him writing it? He had planted this church, and he actually makes—so he has really three missionary trips. He plants the church on his first missionary trip, and then he revisits the church to see how they’re doing, and then he actually revisits the church a third time. And so when he hears—when the Philippians hear that he’s been taken captive, that he’s in prison, and that he’s at Rome, they send one of their own members, Epaphroditus, to encourage Paul and to bring him an update on the congregation and actually give him a financial gift. We’ll get into that later as we run across those verses.
Just a very short history on the city of Philippi itself. It’s named after the father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon. It’s also where Brutus and Cassius, if you know your Roman history, they’re the two that led the assassination of Julius Caesar, but so Brutus and Cassius kind of meet their demise at somewhat of a decisive battle in Roman history in 42 BC at what is later known as Philippi. What’s the demographics? There’s probably around 10,000 people living in the actual city with another 5,000 kind of in the, what we would probably consider like the suburbs, immediately outside the city. And then in the like larger territory, you’d probably have a total of about 46,000 people. In terms of different positions in society, probably just about 3% of the Philippian population—we’re not talking the church here, though it does kind of, if you try to drill down, kind of mimics the same demographics. But these are just overall, probably just about 3% would have been considered like super wealthy or elite. They would have had key positions in society. About 20% would have been farmers. About 40% would have been what some people call service groups. Like slaves would have been around 20%, and then like poor, poor people would have also been around 20%.
The Church at Philippi
Think for a moment of some of the people that you might know, not personally, but you might know in the Philippian church because you’ve read about them. Because Acts actually spends a little bit of time talking about the Philippian church, right? So let’s just look there briefly. Hold your place in Philippians because we’ll be coming back. But look at Acts 16 and we’ll meet some people that are a part of this church. This helps put it in a little bit better context for us. Starting in verse 6 of Acts 16, it says,
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6–10)
All right, the Lord said, hey, come to Macedonia, where we’re going to start to see all these small cities pop up, one of them being Philippi. So they actually had their own plans, like man has his plans, right? But the Lord has his plans. So they wanted to, to what? Initially, they wanted to go to Asia. Holy Spirit says no. They wanted to go to Bithynia. Holy Spirit says no. So what happens? Then he has this vision. And they find out, okay, well, now we know why these doors have been closed. Why? Because God wants to do a work in Macedonia. So what do they do? Like how it says in verse 10: “And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately,” like the Lord spoke to him, and what does he do? He acts on it. Immediately, we start to go into Macedonia. Now, if you notice, this is just a side note, a little bonus material here, but in verse 10, that “we sought to go on into Macedonia,” that’s when he joins Paul on his journey. So it’s all singular and it’s all third-person, but once we get to this verse and it goes plural, we realize that now Luke is writing from his experience and he’s there with Paul. He’s a traveling associate of Paul. All right, two things. Okay, so actually we need to keep reading. So suddenly they’re from Troas, verse 11:
So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. (Acts 16:11–15)
So Lydia is part of this Philippian church. She and her household, they get saved. Then it goes on. This is Paul and Silas in prison.
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. (Acts 16:16–33)
I mean, think about that. This guy is moments from committing suicide and the Lord intervenes. The Lord intervenes and saves him and saves his family. Moments from an eternity separated from God, and now he’s with God for eternity. So the Philippian jailer and his family. It’s possible, we don’t know, the text doesn’t say, but it’s possible that the slave girl that Paul cast a demon out of potentially got saved and would have been a part of this church as well. So these are some of the members of the church. Others are mentioned, and we’ll run across them in the actual book of Philippians. But two things stand out as we begin this book. One, Paul doesn’t mention his apostleship, which is sort of unusual for Paul’s letters. [audio unclear] church, not that we see here. So he doesn’t have to step in as the authority to deal with the error.
A Thank-You for Partnership
What does this show though? It’s actually possible to have a church where there’s no error, right? I mean, you read some of the epistles and you’re like, man, they had a lot of stuff going on. Well, I mean, and part of the reason those letters got written was dealing with a lot of that stuff. But it’s possible to have a church that walks in uprightness. Amen? So a church doesn’t have to be rife with error, doesn’t have to be rife with sin. It can actually walk in mercy and grace. It can please the Lord. That is possible. [audio unclear] And we get an example here of the Philippian church. We see some other churches in the book of Revelation as well. Why? Purpose of the book? Primarily, I think this is going to surprise them, but primarily it’s this: thank them for their financial gift. So look at Philippians 1. He actually begins the letter. So he does the normal introductory. We’ve looked at this before, so we’re not going to look at it this time. But he writes like a normal Roman would write a letter, where you introduce yourself. You acknowledge the people you’re writing to. You greet them. Now, his word for grace is actually different, but maybe we’ll get into that later. But you greet them. Grace is more the Gentile, if you will, greeting. Peace is more the Jewish greeting. So peace would have potentially caught the Philippians off guard, but that wouldn’t be a part of a normal greeting. Then there’s usually thanks, but no, it immediately goes into you. So he’s thanking God, verse 5, “in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.” And then he really starts to get right into the reason he wrote it: “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Now that word partnership is the Greek word koinonia, which means fellowship, means fellowship. So it’s translated different ways, partnership is a common way, but fellowship is also a common—that’s Pastor Ed’s church and his ministry is Koinonia Ministries. And that’s one of the things, is this idea of partnership. Actually, Pastor Ed pulled me aside last week and he’s like, you really kind of downplayed how important you all have been to the Koinonia ministry. So he chastised me a little bit because he’s like, for the past decade, you’ve definitely been there. You’ve supported us, you’ve encouraged us. And if you guys wouldn’t have been a part of that, we wouldn’t be the church we are today. So that was very gracious of him. So, but the primary purpose that he’s writing this is to thank them for the gift. So he acknowledges it here, “because of your partnership in the gospel.” Now, we’re going to find out later. Again, we’re not going to get into it today. This is kind of like a brief overlay, if you will, of the terrain. I’ll probably hit one particular theme just slightly. But what you’re going to see is actually when it comes to fellowship, there’s actually a financial aspect to fellowship often. And we’re seeing it here. So when he’s saying, “because of your partnership in the gospel,” it’s like if you’re just reading this normally, and that’s fine, you might think, oh yeah, because like they’re partnering to send the gospel out. Well, yes, true. What does that partnership include? Finances, right? Can we all go? No, we can’t all go. We’re not all called to go. We can’t all go, but what can we all do? We can support. What can we all do? We can pray. So partnership, part of it when you’re talking about, actually when you’re just in general, even if you just look at this word in non-Christian context back then, fellowship, that idea of partnership, financial aspect to it quite often. So he’s thanking them. The primary reason he writes this letter is he’s thanking them, he’s like letting them know, hey, here’s what’s going on with me. They’re concerned, he’s in prison, so he’s thanking them for the gift. He begins the letter with this, he ends the letter with this. Look at Philippians 4. Verse 14 he says, “Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.” That’s actually again, that Greek word, a form of it, koinonia. “It was kind of you to share my trouble.” He goes on, “And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me,” and then here it is, “in giving and receiving, except you only.” Now were they partnering with him in other ways? Sure, I mean he’s planting, right, and they’re making disciples in their city, right? But his point here is, no other church was financially supporting me. The letter that way, and that’s how it ends, and like the rest of it, it’s kind of like an inclusio. The rest of it is the bulk of the letter, if you will. What are the themes you see? Well, obviously, fellowship is one of them. We also have a theme of unity and a theme of humility. But we also have one theme, and I’ll just maybe touch on it for a few moments, is the theme of joy. In fact, if you ask most people, hey, what’s Philippians about, or what’s one key word in there, they’re going to say joy. This theme of joy starts immediately. Notice in verse 4 he says, “always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.” So he links it with prayer. He’s praying with joy. And this word joy or rejoice, we’re going to see it 13, at least 13 times, we’ll see that. And it’s 104 verses, 13 times. So about every nine verses roughly on average, we’re going to see that. Well, that, I mean, that’s the flavor of Philippians, the theme of joy. Does anyone know the plural of the word emphasis? I thought that was it. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was going to be that tough of a question. It’s emphases, right? Emphases is the plural of emphasis. It comes from the Latin. So now you know, if you actually just knew those two words, that would really help you with the third declension feminine. But anyway, we digress.
The Theme of Joy
What’s our theme this year as a church? Make truth your home. But one of the things I want us to emphasize this year, and it works out well because we’re going through the book of Philippians, is I want to see and I’m going to emphasize joy. I believe it is very easy for us to run short in this area. Think about the parable of the seeds for a moment. You remember how many were there in the parable of the sower and the seeds? Four different types of seeds, right? Some seed falls on the path. Right? Where else does the seed fall? Rocky ground, where else? Thorns, where else? Good soil. So the seeds that fall on the path, you know, Jesus gives the interpretation, he’s like, that’s Satan grabbing the word away. As soon as it gets planted, Satan comes, he grabs the word away. Can’t even really do any work there. Rocky ground, it’s tribulation or persecution comes, and the person falls away. Right, so the heat gets turned up, and they’re out. What about the thorns? It’s the worries of the world. The worries of the world choke it away, the good soil, it flourishes. Well, listen, I think it’s very easy for us to be like the seed that gets choked by the worries of the world. And what happens is when we get [audio unclear] fruit of the Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. We should have it in our lives. Yes? In fact, if you are a believer, you will have it in your life. All right? You will walk in the fruit of the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, guess what? He produces fruit. It’s not you producing the fruit. It’s his fruit. And he’s the one that produces it. So if he’s living inside you, what’s he going to be doing? Producing fruit. He’s a fruitful Spirit. He produces fruit. But we should have it in our lives, but here’s the thing. I was trying to take down the directions for the fry jacks that Pastor Ed’s wife, Dinah, made for us. We went over to Justus and Laura’s house, and she was making fry jacks, very popular kind of staple, if you will, in Belize. So I was like, I was taking notes as she was making it, but she cooks like Justus, so she doesn’t have any measurements. I’m serious. Justus makes amazing dishes, and I try to steal them all the time. And he’s always like, yeah, just a little bit of like smoked paprika and a little bit of—I’m like, a little bit, like compared to what? Like the entire bag or like the little thing from, you know, little spice thing from Walmart. He’s like, I don’t know. He’s like, just a little bit. Well, that’s how Dinah cooks. And so I was trying to write down, I’m like, a tablespoon of salt. Apparently I thought she, I overestimated on how much salt she used. So when Justus made them the other night, he made them the other night for life group, he like texted me and he’s like, I need to cut back on the salt. So if you had them, I would not have actually noticed it had he not said something, but there was a little bit of a stronger salt flavor in it than normal. So we’ve tweaked our recipe, okay? But here’s my point is like when we’re talking about the fruit of the Spirit, we don’t just want, we just don’t want a little bit. We don’t just want like that teaspoon. We don’t just want the tablespoon. No, we want enough that when it’s tasted, you know, David McNeil is talking about in the Psalms, taste and see that the Lord is good. Like when it’s tasted, you get a bite of it. You get a strong flavor of it. And that’s what I’m talking about with joy. Like, yeah, maybe we all have this much. That’s really not how much the Lord wants us to have. He kind of wants it to be one of the main ingredients. Not just, oh, this would help out a little bit. So some of you might be missing that main ingredient. Or you’ve been struggling to have it lately, or my prayer is that as we’re going through this and as we’re emphasizing it this year, you work on that. You pray for that. You ask the Lord to let the Spirit produce more and more and more of that in you. And if you have the joy, like that song, if you’re happy and you know it, well then your face will surely show. Yeah. I mean, if you’re joyful, then let some people around you know it should be obvious. The joy of the Lord should be exuding from us.
Think of the Psalms for a moment, 47 times, just the word joy, not joyful or joyous, just the word joy occurs in the Psalms 47 times. Now why is that important? Because it’s the worship book of Israel. That was their little hymnal, if you will. So if you get Psalm 4, verse 7, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” I mean, that verse should be convicting for us. “You have put more joy in…” So it’s there, it’s like it’s there, but is it showing? It’s when the grain and wine abound… God is blessed, he’s using the idea. They just got grain everywhere. They’ve been blessed with wine. It’s all over the place. There’s an abundance. But what does he say? You’ve put more joy in my heart than all that. So yeah, I mean, God’s placed it there. We have to let it come out. We have to walk in that joy. Psalm 16, very similar. “You have made known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” So in your presence there is fullness of joy. Now, I think he’s talking about maybe presence [audio unclear] “In your presence, there is fullness of joy.” But the idea is more than just to have joy, which is important, but rather to let it flow through you. Let it flow through you and be a key part of you. I mean, we talk about loving people. That’s very important. Yes. And we want to be patient and we should be kind, but let’s make sure we don’t forget about joy. And some of you have. So the idea is more than to just have joy, it’s to let it flow through you and to be a key part of you. Ten verses in the Psalms have the phrase, “shout for joy.” I mean, that’s a lot. You think about, man, we’re repeatedly commanded to shout for joy. So it’s like we got so much joy, like what ends up coming out. We’re shouting. Like God is good, right? We’re yelling amen. Amen. We’re saying hallelujah. So shout for joy. Listen to Psalm 33. It says, “Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.” Right? So shout for joy in the Lord. Are you righteous? Well, not of your own account, but you are righteous if you’re a follower of Jesus. Yes? You’ve been covered in the blood of the Lamb. You’ve been declared righteous by God himself. So look what it says, “Praise befits the upright.” It’s a good thing for us to be praising. So the idea is not just to sing but truly sing with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and strength. And yes, at times this includes shouting for joy. Psalm 71, it says, “My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.” What’s the foundation for his lips shouting? His redemption. Like he recognizes how good God has been to him. He recognizes what he is apart from Christ and how much he needs the Lord. So what is he saying? “My lips will shout for joy, my soul also, which you have redeemed.” And then Psalm 81, “Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.” Now it’s interesting, I actually think overall we do vocally a good job of worshiping the Lord on Sundays overall. And I’ve had people that have visited that have made that, man, your church sings. So that’s good, but if we’re not careful, just like anything, it can just turn into a routine. It can turn into a form that is empty or meaningless, or we’re just mouthing the words, right? And you can sing loud, but not necessarily have joy. True? Well, so let’s make sure there’s the joy there. I think we do a great job, but is joy present? I mean, and some people, they just love singing for the sake of singing. I’m probably not really one of those people. I mean, that’s okay. And that’s okay if you love singing for the sake of singing. But, I mean, the danger there, again, is you’re just singing to sing. No, I mean, you come in and you’re worshiping the Lord, like you are extolling the God of the universe who created you, who knew about you before the foundations of the world, who had a plan for you and laid it all out and appointed you for this time and this season and this place. That’s the book of Acts chapter 17. We want to rout it and we want to make a joyful noise. I’ve heard some of you sing and it’s a joyful noise. Five times it talks about making that joyful. You ever hear like babies cooing? It’s like a joyful scream. They’re excited. I like that. Like, that’s why I don’t mind when the babies are in here. You should not let that distract you. You should definitely not let it irk you or bother you. I mean, it shows that there’s life in the church. Shows that there’s life. And it shows there’s a preciousness and an innocence with the baby. It’s a beautiful thing. Very beautiful. So they’re cooing. They’re making their noise. That is good. That is a good thing. We’re going to have a lot more of that in the next months. Now, if your kid is like three years old and he’s screaming his head off, you might just want to step out. That’s cool. I’m good with that. But really, my point is the sound we make in worship should sound joyful. It should sound joyful, not dour, not downtrodden, joyful. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth,” Psalm 98. So we’re going to make a noise, but we’re to make it and have it be joyful. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.” It is possible to walk in this manner. Why? Because we have the Spirit. The same Spirit who filled Paul also fills you. True? You’re not like, oh, well, that was the apostle Paul. No, that’s just the lame excuse to just keep being like you. It’s the lame excuse you use to not continue to be sanctified more and more by the Spirit of God. Listen, don’t plateau in your sanctification. Right? I don’t care if you’re 50, 60, 70, 80, don’t plateau in your sanctification. Every person, wherever they’re at, the Lord has more work to do on you. All right, if you’re not sure, just come talk to me. I will point it out to you. I’m just kidding. Mostly. But he has sanctification. He wants to continue to sanctify you. So yes, like the same Spirit who filled Paul, who filled you. So this joyful Paul, I’m glad we have this book. I’m glad we have them all. But I mean, we are blessed to have this book and we see the joy overflowing from Paul onto the pages of the Word.
The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength
Look at just briefly, I want you to see something in Nehemiah chapter 8. Just turn to Nehemiah. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job. So this is Ezra, he’s reading the law. Ezra, chapter 8 of Nehemiah, Ezra is reading the law, so we are in chapter 8 of Nehemiah, verse 8:
They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:8–10)
I mean, God’s been doing some great stuff, but they’re, I mean, they’re convicted by the Word, which we should be. Then he said to them, verse 10, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.” Right, so he wants them to celebrate. Hey, you’re bummed out, but this is, God’s been good. This is the Lord’s day. We want to celebrate. How are we going to celebrate it? Eat the fat, drink the sweet wine, and make sure everyone has a portion to enjoy as well. That’s what he says. “Send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord.” And then he says, “And do not be grieved.” And notice what it says, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The joy of the Lord is your strength. And what a word from Nehemiah to the people. The joy of the Lord is your strength. You can just memorize that. You could probably memorize it before you leave here today and meditate on that throughout the week and remind yourself as you’re working on joy, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Back in Philippians, consider the context that it’s written in. Paul’s in prison. He’s in prison. All right, so he’s not sitting on some beautiful island somewhere, drinking out of a little coconut. No, he’s in prison, and we’re going to talk about prisons later, but you don’t want to be in a prison in Rome. You do not want that, all right? It makes, I mean, I know some people say some of our prisons are already like resorts. No, it makes it look like, you know, Disney World times ten. You don’t want to be in a prison in Rome. Paul is there in prison and he has joy. Not just a little, not just some, he’s overflowing with it. I mean, think for a moment, brothers and sisters, you realize all the saints in the Bible that were imprisoned at some point? Can you name some? John the Baptist. Great, we got one. Good job. Joseph, Daniel, Paul numerous times, Peter and John, Silas, Jeremiah in the Old Testament, Samson, Micaiah, he was a prophet. Jesus himself. I mean, and God used their time in prison. He used their time in prison. In fact, one of the books outside of the Bible that we have, Pilgrim’s Progress, you all know who wrote that? Yeah, John Bunyan. It was written while he was in prison for like 13 years. And that’s when he wrote. At one point, I don’t know if it is anymore, but at one point it’s like the second most printed book in the English language, probably not anymore, but it was at one point. But God redeemed their time. He redeemed their time. And we see how some of them, we get to see exactly how their time went in prison and how they acted. We see Paul, what’s he doing? He’s singing hymns. And notice how it says the prisoners, the other prisoners that were listening. He’s singing hymns. You read about Richard Wurmbrand. Anyone read his book? You guys remember the title of it? Tortured for Christ? Y’all should read it. It’s relatively short, but it talks about his time spent in prison, probably written about, I don’t know, fifty years ago or so at ballpark, but very, very, very, very eye-opening to what people went through in some of these communist countries and how they literally were tortured for Christ. God redeems that time. He uses it. Paul had the joy. Joseph, it doesn’t specifically say he had joy, but it looks like the Lord was using him. And he was like, hey, man, this is where God has me. I’m going to make the difference I possibly can in prison in Egypt. And what does the Lord do? He uses it mightily. In part, to shape Joseph. I mean, he, you know, he’s all running around and we get a pretty clear picture. He seems like he’s a little prideful as a kid. And yeah, someday brothers, you’re going to bow down to me. That’s usually not the thing you want to share with your older brothers. Okay. Just saying, right? And yeah, you too, dad, you’re going to be bowing down. But what happens? Yeah, he gets thrown unrighteously, wrongfully into prison, and the Lord uses that time. So regardless of where you’re at right now or what season, the Lord wants to use that time. Maybe it’s not the greatest time. Maybe it’s not the best time. Maybe you’re going through a major trial. God wants to use that. And if you allow him, he will redeem it. He will use it. He will use it to mold and shape you and continue to sanctify you. And yes, very much so. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” So count it all joy, but one of the reasons you count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds is what? It shows you’re walking with Jesus. You’ve got trials, you’ve got temptations, you’ve got afflictions, right? The testing here, it’s going to produce steadfastness. It’s going to help you continue to persevere. It’s going to help continue to press on. You don’t want to be one of those weak reeds that just gets broken easily. Now you want to be able to stand when the winds come. You want to be able to stand firm. So yeah, count it all joy. Why? Because it means the Lord’s doing something in your life and he’s wanting to teach you something. And it means that he is going to show himself clearly in whatever situation you find yourself. Now you might not think you see it clearly, but if you’re walking with him, he will make it obvious. He will point it out. And you can hold fast to his word. He never leaves you nor forsakes you. All aspects of our life, all circumstances of our life, we’re called to walk in joy. And not like a fake joy, not like, oh, we’re just going to pretend everything’s great. Sometimes it’s not great. We’re not talking about faking it. There’s a difference between the happiness and the joy. There’s some overlap there, but the Spirit produces the joy. That’s why you can have it during the trials of various kinds. He produces it. It’s his, and he gives it to those that are his. So yes, we want to walk in that joy in our prayer. We want to walk in that joy in our worship and very much so in our daily life. We want to walk in that joy. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you that you are the giver of joy. That in your presence there is fullness of joy. Father, I pray for those that maybe are struggling just with that concept of having joy, or they realize they’ve not been doing a good job. Forgive them. I pray you would use this book in our time in the word going through Philippians to help them see that concept, to grab ahold of it and to make it more and more a part of their lives. Spirit, we depend on you for your fruit. So we pray that you would produce that in us in abundance. We recognize without you we just produce weeds. We don’t want to do that, and so fill us more and more to produce your fruit, and we pray especially for this fruit of joy that you would create in us in abundance. That we might display it in our prayer, we might display it as we’re worshiping you, and we might display it in our lives to others, for your glory. Amen.