Php 4:4-7 ~ Rejoice in the Lord always
Let's pray...
Introduction – Paul's context
One of the things I love about this passage is the fact that Paul was writing this from Prison facing imminent death at any moment. And not only is he saying to them, keep rejoicing, but he even goes on to say don't worry! The very words you would think the Philippians would be saying to Paul, he ends up saying to them.
And this is why it's so important to avoid taking parts of the Bible out of context. If we just came along and went, "ooh, Php. 4:4, that's nice" we would miss the impact that it has when we read it as part of Paul' letter from prison. And we might just take this away as yet another burdensome command to be obeyed. We would miss the fact that this comes after Paul has said, 'in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.' And there's a sense in which we cannot obey Php. 4:4 before we have obeyed 2:4.
If we're still worrying about our own interests and looking out for number one, then we are gonna find it next to impossible not to worry when things get tough or don't seem to be working out the way we planned. But when we have already learnt that it's not all about us, when we've learnt to take our eyes off of ourselves and onto others, when we've learnt that it's not actually all about us but about making much of Him, then commands like this make perfect sense. And, we see again that Paul puts into practice what he is talking about. His first concern – even at a life-threatening time like this – is for the joy and peace of mind of the Philippians.
Rejoice? It's a command!
One of my heroes is Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He preached his first sermon in 1850 at the age of 16. Just before his 17th birthday he became a full-time Pastor-Teacher. He founded a Bible College (Spurgeons College - still going strong today) in 1857, at the age of 22; and in the same year he had the joy of preaching to Twenty-three thousand, six hundred and fifty-four (23,654) people! So you can see why he's the sort of Man that one would adopt as a guide and example. This great man once said:
"If joy were more general among the Lord's people God would be more glorified among men. The happiness of the subjects is the honour of the Sovereign."
The happiness of the subjects is the honour of the Sovereign. Or, as John Piper puts it – and he's really saying exactly the same thing – "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? If you go into a School and watch two groups of children going into their classes and the first group is as miserable as miserable can be, whilst the second are scrambling and shoving and eager to get into class, you're bound to think that something about that second class – the lesson or the teacher – is greater than the first class. You would think that the second class does more for the pupils, it satisfies them in a way that the first doesn't. And that's what Spurgeon is saying. If joy were more general among the Lord's people God would be more glorified among men, because they would look at us and say, "Wow. What is it about their God that enables them to rise above their situations? What is it about Jesus that gives them such joy?".
Verses like Philippians 4 v.4 : Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice are firm favourites. Everyone knows them. Yet we tend to only focus on them when we're feeling pretty good anyway. Or we repeat them when we've been having a really good day and we spot a fellow Christian who isn't smiling quite as broadly as we are – "Well, I'm rejoicing. Why aren't you?" Maybe we need to take more seriously the words of this verse and similar ones that inspired C. S. Lewis to write, "It is a Christian duty as you know, for each one to be as happy as he can." You see, happiness - extreme joy- is commanded by God. Rejoicing in the Lord is not an optional extra for Super-Charismatic Christians, it is the measure of our obedience to God.
Obeying this command actually means that we are becoming more like God. He is the happy God; ineffable bliss is the atmosphere in which he lives, and he would have his people to be happy (cf. Zeph. 3:17; Lk. 15:10). I just wanna pause at that point and say, "What a God!" What kind of King passes a law dictating that all of his subjects are happy? What kind of a Master commands his slaves to be ever full of joy? I'll tell you what kind – our kind! What a God!
So to rejoice is a command, but if it is a command then it is also a CHOICE, but I'll come back to that.
Rejoice in the Lord
One of the most well known - and sadly, most misunderstood - passages of scripture is on this very topic. Psalm 37 v.4:
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your Heart.
I'm not going to get into the whole "Prosperity Gospel" controversy here, you know, Health & Wealth, Name it & Claim it, Blab it & grab it. I just want to ask you one simple question : If you were truly delighting yourself in the Lord, what do you think the desires of your heart would be? If you were really cherishing God above all things - if your heart was set on him - would you be after a Yacht and a Spanish Villa and a new Gucci Suit, or would you desire the Salvation of your neighbours and the growth of your Church and to spend eternity basking in the pristine rays of God's awesome presence? Listen, you can keep your Yacht! I'm after God and I'm not gonna settle for any material mole-hills.
The truth of Psalm 37:4 is perhaps more glorious than any of us have ever dared to imagine. If you make God the delight of your heart and if you rejoice yourself in the Lord, making Him - and him alone - the happiness of your Soul, then... you'll get him! God will give himself to you, he will reveal himself to you and enter into a relationship with you. If you can say in your heart, "I consider it all trash compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord," God will grant you Eternity to revel in that Greatness and to truly know that it does surpass all things.
The NT never just tells us to be happy or tells people to cheer up. We are to rejoice in the Lord. In the OT we are not told that joy is our strength, but that the joy of the Lord is our strength. In Psalm 51 when David is depressed and guilt-ridden, he doesn't pray, 'Lord make me happy again' or 'give me joy in my heart, keep me smiling.' He actually prays, 'Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation.'
God is to be the great object of our joy. You know, sometimes you cannot rejoice in anything else, but you can rejoice in the Lord; then, rejoice in him to the full. Don't rejoice in your temporary prosperity, for riches are fleeting and will soon fly away. Don't rejoice even in your great spiritual successes. Remember how the seventy disciples came back to Jesus, and said, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name," and he answered, "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." He changes not. If the Lord is your joy, your joy will never dry up. All other things are for a season; but God is for ever and ever. Make him your joy, the whole of your joy, and then let this joy flood your every thought. Don't paddle around the surface, or waste time dipping your toes into the passing pleasures that surround you. Be baptized into this joy of the Lord; plunge into the depths of this unutterable bliss of joy in the joyous God.
That's how Peter describes it in 1 Peter 1:8:
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him mow, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Inexpressible and glorious joy. Isn't that, when all is said and done, what everyone is after? Isn't that why people drown their sorrows in a Bottle of Wine, or seek satisfaction and intimacy in sexual promiscuity or escape from their troubles through drugs? And Peter here is writing to a group of people (or, to a number of churches, actually) who have it. This isn't just nice theory, it was their testimony. And if you spend some time looking through the book of 1 Peter you'll soon detect that the theme of that letter is suffering. The people Peter writes to are suffering gravely for their faith, they have been beaten, imprisoned, some have been killed and legend has it that a number of them were burnt alive simply for the Emperor's amusement. And it is to these people – not those living comfortably – it is of these that Peter can say, 'you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.'
Peter is not talking about those who manage to put on a brave face. And Paul is not simply saying, "keep your chin up." Nowhere are we told to ignore our circumstances or turn a blind eye to them or live in unreality. In fact, the opposite is true, we are to live in God's reality! We are to gather all of the facts. Isn't that what those suffering saints were doing to whom Peter wrote? They saw the terror and loss all around them, but they also kept their eyes on what God was doing for them. Peter says they rejoiced 'for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.'
When all around you causes you to despair, fix your eyes upon Jesus. We rejoice not because things are going well for us, or because life is easy, but because of who God is and what He has done for us – and who we are as a result. So, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of being in a right relationship with God. If you don't know God, then you are not going to be able to rejoice in Him. And if you never spend time in His word, or listening to His voice in prayer, you are not going to know what it is that you have to rejoice about! And when gloom closes in on you, you're not going to realise that there is more to this reality than what you can see with your eyes, that the four walls of your world are not the end of the story, but that God is still good, your name is still written in heaven and God is working in and through you even - perhaps, especially - when you most doubt it.
Paul knew that this secret, this key to joy lay in focusing not upon fleeting pleasure or his passing circumstances, but in the Lord. He says in 2 Cor. 4:16
…we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
So, get to know your Lord. Get to know this strange God who commands his people to rejoice. Get more intimately acquainted with the happy God.
Or maybe you've become a Christian, maybe that happened years ago, but – like David – you've lost that joy of your salvation. Sometimes the most religious, apparently the most 'Christian,' people can out of fellowship with God. Remember the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son? The younger son has returned home and the Father's rejoicing (!) and has thrown a party, but the older son is sulking becomes he feels like he's never been shown such blessing. And then the Father says some very important words. He says:
My Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. (Lk. 15:31)
Have you taken your eyes off of who God is and what He has done for you? Have you maybe begun to rely upon your own righteousness in an attempt to stay in his good books? If so, you'll know how exhausting it can be to wear that mask – that says you are a super-godly-Christian – it is exhausting, isn't it? And you'll know how depressing it can be to try that hard, but to fail again and again. If that's you, then I have got some great news for you! He is still gracious! He never stopped loving. If you will just turn around and lift up your eyes you will find him their with open arms! He longs to bless you more than you could ever imagine (forget yachts and money and foreign holidays!). He has always been there.
Let me read you some wonderful words from Isaiah 55:2-5… {Read passage}
So I would encourage you to get into a right relationship with God, and the way that we do that is not by any goodness or godliness on our part, but by freely receiving His mercy.
Rejoice in the Lord always
{Read Psalm 34:1…} This is where the choice comes in!Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was once mugged by thieves and robbed of his purse. He wrote these words in his diary about the incident: "Let me be thankful first because I never was robbed before; second, although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it was not much; fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed; and fifth, because it was I who was robbed, and not someone else."
When afflictions mount up will we allow our peace of mind and joy in God to be hi-jacked by these momentary troubles, or will we make a conscious decision to focus upon God and say with the Psalmist, "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips."
"Rejoice in the Lord always." That means, rejoice in the Lord when you cannot rejoice in anything or anyone but God. At the end of the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, the prophet, we find words that are so moving they almost bring tears to the eye:
Though the fig-tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on he vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my saviour! (Hab. 3:17-18)
Because God is still God and He is still faithful and his mercy still flows freely and his love is never-ending and his power knows no limits and Grace is still amazing! That is why we rejoice!
But we also need to take care that we rejoice in the Lord when we have other things to rejoice in. When He burdens our table with good things, and our cup is overflowing with blessings, rejoice in him - more than in them. As Spurgeon said, "Forget not that the Lord your Shepherd is better than the green pastures and the still waters, and rejoice not in the pastures or in the waters in comparison with your joy in the Shepherd who gives you all. Let us never make gods out of our goods; let us never allow what God gives us to supplant the Giver. Shall the wife love the jewels that her husband gave her better than she loves him who gave them to her?"
Don't worry about anything – Pray about everything!
I think that Paul recognises that one of the great hindrances to continual rejoicing in God is worry. You know, anxiety is a real killer! I mean it, literally. Both physically and spiritually, anxiety can be the death of us. So, it's like Paul cannot move on from his topic without addressing the question of worry. But his answer to this very universal human problem is alarmingly simply. He says don't worry about anything, but instead pray about everything!
Whenever we find ourselves worrying – or facing any challenge to our joy in God – the very first thing we need to do is to get alone with God and worship Him. When we feel overwhelmed by the immensity of our situation, we need to see the greatness and majesty of God. We need to see that He is big enough to handle our problems, that He is greater than our difficulties. This is essentially the same thing that Jesus prescribes in the Sermon on the Mount.
So Paul says, bring these things to God – get specific, by the way, he talks about briging our petitions. We hand things over to Him in general, but we also list those things that are bothering us, give God the details. And then, Paul says, give thanks. Once you've caught a vision of the greatness of God, you can't hand your problems over to him and then go away thinking, "I wonder if he can handle that?!" You then rest in the peace that comes from knowing your life couldn't be in better hands. Those around you won't understand that peace – it passes understanding because, as far as they can see, the problems remain, but you know that you have just employed the maker of heaven and earth to work on your behalf. Why would you not have peace? Why would you not rejoice?
Conclusion
Remember the Spurgeon quote we started with? "If joy were more general among the Lord's people God would be more glorified among men. The happiness of the subjects is the honour of the Sovereign."
That reminds me of a story that I think it would be good to finish on.
A seven-year-old boy approached his pastor one morning after the sermon. He said to the pastor, "Didn't you say I have to ask Jesus Christ into my heart in order to be a Christian?"
"That is what I said," replied the pastor.
"Well, how big is Jesus?" asked the boy.
"I'm not sure, but I bet He's pretty big, because He was a carpenter." He said.
"That's what I thought," said the little boy. "So as little as I am, and as big as Jesus is, wouldn't He stick out if I asked Him into my heart?"
To this the pastor smiled, "He will stick out more than you think."