Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. One of the times it was made famous was when Evander Holyfield had it on his

Transcription

1 1 Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. One of the times it was made famous was when Evander Holyfield had it on his robe as he was going to go fight Mike Tyson. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" meant I'm going to beat up Mike Tyson. People were like, "Yeah, you can do all things. You're the real deal." But then he wore it again for Lennox Lewis, right? "I can do all things," and then he got beaten up. What are all things? Philippians 4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Our I CAN series continues where we are discussing all the things we can do. Paul writes that we can rejoice. I agree, I Can do this most of the time, or actually some of the time, if the situation is just right, if people are nice to me, if my fantasy football team wins, if my boss cuts me some slack, if my wife cooperates with me and if my kids are low maintenance then I CAN rejoice. Paul says to rejoice always, which is not dependent on the if s falling into place. And it is a double emphatic, which shows how important it is. Whatever is worth repeating in the scripture is worth repeating in our daily lives. Rejoicing is mentioned 16 times in this brief book. It is a command, which means we can choose to rejoice and should choose to rejoice. We know we don t control feelings but we can choose our focus which feeds our feelings. Sounds pretty idealistic to me. Is that really doable? God says we all have a choice to rejoice. We will be amazed by what this does inside of us and how this effects how we act towards others. Tan and I were at a round about early in the morning this week. A car was confused, or texting, unmoving in the middle of the turnabout and just sat there not moving forward when they had the right of way. Cars were backing up everywhere from all sides. The car behind them gently tapped on their horn after an extended wait just to help them. Immediately the 1

2 2 driver thrust his hand out the window flipping them the bird. An emotionally violent gesture to someone who was trying to do them a favor. I thought that didn t take long to get ugly. And this is CDA, not the road stress of New York City or LA. My observation is the world is angry, and people can get ugly real fast. There is not a lot of rejoicing going on in society. We need this message today. Are you rejoicing today? Notice what rejoicing leads to? A gentleness. A gentleness with people that is easily detectable or evident. The word means sticking with people in difficult situations. How gentle are you with others? Philippians 2:14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, Grumbling on the inside will result in arguing on the outside. An argumentative person outwardly is unhappy on the inside. Vs. 14 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Being glad within will result in rejoicing outwardly alongside others. God loves it when we rejoice in Him! Studies show us that we're actually born smiling. 3-D ultrasound technology now shows that developing babies appear to smile even in the womb. After they're born, babies continue to smile (initially mostly in their sleep) and even blind babies smile in response to the sound of the human voice. Life then has a way of removing the smile from our faces. God wants to help us get it back. Biblical rejoicing takes into account all proper human emotions, even sadness. You can be sad and rejoice at the same time. Christians are not to be people who are to be fake in their rejoicing or gladness. It is a deep joy and worship of Jesus that embraces the realities of earth but also the realities of heaven. 2

3 3 I have a friend who texts me a weekly update about his cancer treatments. He tells me the realities of his cancer, it s sad and also expresses how much He loves Jesus. We are sad and rejoicing. Not in cancer but in the Lord. The most popular course in the history of Yale University was titled Psychology and the Good Life. Nearly one-fourth of Yale undergraduates registered for it. Laurie Santos, the psychology professor who teaches the course, says that she "tries to teach students how to lead a happier, more satisfying life." She teaches the principle that the things students most associate with achieving happiness or rejoicing a high grade, a prestigious internship, a good-paying job do not increase happiness at all. She concludes "Our intuitions about what will make us happy, like winning the lottery and getting a good grade, are totally wrong." We need to be redirected towards true rejoicing. I think we all have an inner longing for joy, gladness and rejoicing. But I do believe we can be misinformed on how to achieve it and where it comes from. 1. The reason we rejoice Context: Philippians 4:1-3 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! 2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Paul shares a key principle that makes everything else work. The eternal security because of what Jesus has done. Names are in the book of life. Through faith in Christ are names are written in the book of life. This is reference to our eternal destination in heaven. 3

4 4 Which was accomplished not by our performance, but the performance of Jesus. That is the source of how we stand firm and the basis in which we rejoice. Listen how Jesus reinforced this with His disciples. Luke 10: The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. 18 He replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. They wanted to rejoice over their ministry performance, or life victories, or wins at work, or days when everything comes together, when you get that promotion, and He redirected them on what to attach their rejoicing to. Their names are written in heaven. The unconditional love of God. We don t rejoice in our righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. And we actually realize we cannot self produce a righteousness that is God s standard. That is why He did it for us. When we rejoice in ourselves we can over react to earthly victories (pride or arrogance) and over react to earthly defeats (shame and self loathing). Jesus knows this and wants us to rejoice in what is worthy of rejoicing. 2. Personal impact when we rejoice We stand firm Paul was seeking to coach the church to stand firm. To stand firm in Jesus and to stand firm with one another, which is an aspect of gentleness. Rejoicing in Jesus is the way to standing firm. This will then impact our relationships. When we rejoice in the Lord, our affection and love for Jesus becomes our first and primary love over our personal preferences and secondary disagreements. A church wins when everyone is rejoicing in the Lord. If your not rejoicing in the Lord, what are we doing? Rejoicing in ourselves, our opinions, our preferences. 4

5 5 These two prominent women were in a disagreement of some sort. Which can be very disruptive. If personal preferences triumph over rejoicing in Jesus we do not stand firm in Jesus or with one another. We are in trouble. Which means we allow disagreements to create shallow or transactional relationships with each other. That is what s at stake here. Something that is happening in the world of social media and is happening too much in the church and maybe with you, your friends, your family. In her book The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, MIT Professor Sherry Turkel concludes that social media usage is negatively effecting real world relationships. When conflict happens relationships become transactional, we drop them and we move on to the next person or next relationship, like we do on social media. So we have a less ability to empathize and work through conflict and we don t communicate face to face. We are developing thin relationships, relationships we drop, like we unfriend people on social media. It is referred to as weak ties of acquaintances, not the strong ties of real friendships. Paul is seeking to counteract a possible breakdown in real life relationships between two prominent ladies in the Philippian church. That is why Paul pleads with them. Thin relationships reflect we are not rejoicing in Jesus but rejoicing in our personal preferences and therefore our relationships in the body of Christ suffer. Quitting relationships and quitting church is disruptive to everyone. 3. The message we send when we rejoice The Lord is Near! My first worship experience in a church gathering showed me there was another realm involved. The worship of the people was different than the songs at a concert. These people are singing to and about someone they believe is real but invisible. 5

6 6 These people believe in God, and He must be a good God because these songs are about His love and goodness, and everyone seems to be in a great mood. I felt that God was close and in the room. I did not know Jesus was alive and near until I saw it in people who were in love with Jesus and how it effected their relationships. I never saw supernatural love from Jesus within relationships between people. Contrast is important. Light is a contrast to darkness. Love is a contrast to apathy. Gladness, gentleness and rejoicing is a contrast to grumbling, division and complaining. Both send a message. It either says Jesus is far off or Jesus is near. What do our lives say? What do our social media posts say? What does our relationship to other brother and sisters in Christ say? Does it say the Lord is near or does it say the Lord is far off? Close: Are you able to worship Jesus? Everything else makes sense when we can rejoice in the Lord. Boring Conference. London. The conference's website claims it's a "oneday celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious, and the overlooked." Speakers have addressed the following topics: sneezing, toast, the sounds made by vending machines, barcodes, ice-cream-truck chimes, similarities between 198 of the world's national anthems. Sounds pretty boring, right? Actually the conference has been a sell-out hit because it has a serious aim: to take "subjects often considered trivial and pointless, but when examined more closely reveal themselves to be deeply fascinating." These folks find joy in what most people overlook and consider boring. What are we looking for in life? Can u detect the presence of Christ in life? Or are you someone who is quick to discover where God is absent? Do you know people who rejoice in criticizing and pointing out what is wrong with everything? What about looking for the presence of Jesus in this world and rejoicing about that. 6