The God of the Second Chance

Jonah 3:1-5

Well we left Jonah last week drying out on some beach probably near God’s destination for him:  Nineveh.  After three days and three nights in the digestive tract of a fish, Jonah would have been something to see.  Skin bleached white by the gastric juices, clothes mostly dissolved, and smelling to high heaven, Jonah stumbled out of the water blinded by the bright sunlight.  We aren’t told whether or not there were witnesses, but it was a pretty humbling arrival!

We also aren’t told how much time lapsed between Jonah’s arrival and God’s call.  The text simply says, “Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time…” (3:1), as if to say, “Jonah, now do I have your attention?”  But I want us to notice that there’s a lot of grace evident in that second calling.

JONAH’S FAILURE AND GOD’S GRACE

Some have drawn a comparison between Jonah’s story and the parable of the prodigal son.  In Jesus’ parable in Luke 15, a man has two sons.  The younger came to his father, asked to cash out his inheritance, and he left home.  He squandered “all of his money” in reckless behavior until all of it was gone, along with his new “friends.”

Starving and alone, on rock bottom, the young man took a job feeding pigs and eating the food they were eating.  Dear ones, there aren’t many things that smell more nauseating than a pig pen…unless maybe it’s how you smell after three days inside of a fish!

The younger son and Jonah had both “bottomed out.” They had fallen down as far as someone could fall.  Both had nothing left to their name but ragged, smelly clothes.  The younger son decided to “come home” and throw himself on the mercy of  his father. He confessed his folly and his ignorance and his sin, and the father “placed a robe and a family crest on his finger” and threw a great party for him, saying “this my son who was dead is now alive.”  It was resurrection language.  Jesus compared Jonah’s coming out of the fish alive as a resurrection!

The prodigal son got a second chance that he didn’t deserve.  The prodigal prophet did too.  Chapter 1 and 2 of Jonah, Jonah is like the younger son.  Running, disobedient, away from the presence of his Father, and then going down, down and down to the lowest point on earth.  We remember Jonah’s downward journey: Down to Joppa, down to the belly of the ship, down into the water, and finally down inside a fish.  When we run from God, down is the only direction we can go!

It doesn’t matter how far we fall.  God is ready to receive back any person who will come truly repentant and truly yielded to Him.  We all need grace, we need a second chance.  And some of us today know exactly where Jonah was, and exactly where the prodigal son was.  Broken, alone, messed up, and maybe reeking like the garbage of the world.  You need a second chance…or a third, or fourth…

JONAH’S ASSIGNMENT AND GOD’S MESSAGE

So now we see a second time, Jonah is given an assignment from God.  I am certain hearing the voice of God again was reassuring to Jonah.  After all, when he left for his trip to Tarshish he effectively quit his job!  We are given no indication that God spoke anything to him while he was inside the fish.

But now, as the Word of the Lord came to him a second time, Jonah went to Nineveh instantly.  Nothing in God’s plan had been altered.  God still wanted a message brought to Nineveh.

It is an act of compassion and grace that, before God ever brings judgment to a people or a nation, He always sent a messenger first.  God warns, and then He acts.  “The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” The “win” for God, if you would, is not that He acts in destructive force against sinful people, though He can and He has, but that people are given every chance to change course if they choose.

Let me say it this way.  God could have just blown the Ninevites into oblivion if He wanted.  They certainly deserved it. Our nation deserves it.  We are guilty of systemic sin.  It is everywhere, in every institution, and in every heart.  He owed Nineveh no warning, but He gave it just the same because God is compassionate and merciful and gracious.

“So pastor you’re saying then that God wouldn’t send me to Hell without warning me first?”  Did you know that one of the most common Google searches during these months as we have gone through the pandemic is, “Am I going to go to hell?”  640 million Google searches on that.  SO what I’m saying is this.  If your life is not where it needs to be before God, and if you do not repent and trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord, as your only hope, you will die in your sins and you will go to Hell.  Forever.  No chance of escape.  Now, you’ve been warned.

But if you will turn away from your rebellion and sin and return to the Father, you will be forgiven.  You will be given a second chance!  That is what the Father really desires.  “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” God said.

That message of grace is what Jonah went to Nineveh with.  He went to warn them of judgment that would fall if they did not turn away and turn to Him: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”

Jonah obeyed.

JONAH’S HEART AND GOD’S PATIENCE

Jonah obeyed.  But we find later that Jonah’s heart was not in it.  In the first chapter his disobedience was clearly open rebellion.  In the third chapter, his sin was half-hearted obedience. Jonah had not truly repented.  Maybe he went because he made a vow to God that he would while he was inside the fish. (“What I have vowed I will pay…” 2:9)

Jonah was a racist prophet.  He was a man who put his nationality as a Jew above every other race on earth.  It was entrenched in him.  He blamed the Ninevites for what they had done, not to him personally, but to his forefathers and to his country.  It’s a tragic thing when a Christian loses his heart for the lost of the world.  When we get complacent in our spiritual life the first symptom is we lose our desire to see lost people come to the Lord.

Jonah despised the Assyrian people so much he was more eager for God to wipe them off the map.  People he’d likely never met, never sat with for tea; people with whom he’d never shared a meal.  But he hated them.  How much?  Enough to rejoice if God wiped them out and to take it personally and sulk when God didn’t.

None of that changed in Jonah’s attitude, even after his time in the belly of the great fish.  He was still racist and prejudiced and filled with hatred.  He wanted God to fry these people while he sat on a hillside and watched the show.  It is true that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but Jonah certainly was ready to!

The parable of the prodigal son does not end with the son’s return.  There was an older brother in the story too, who had stayed behind with his father and continued doing his duty.  This is actually the main point of the parable.

And when his younger prodigal brother returned home, this older brother didn’t rejoice.  He was resentful.  He was angry that everyone was celebrating his prodigal and sinful brother’s return.  And he wasn’t about to go to his party!  He believed the Father owed HIM a party because of his obedience.

You know folks, there are two ways we can run from God.  One is, like the prodigal, by running into the world and into a sinful lifestyle.  The other is, like Jonah and the older brother, to run into religious practice and performance that makes us believe God owes us.  There’s a lot of “older brothers” in the church today.

Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother’s heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janeiro. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture—taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn’t too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” She did.

God is a God of second chances.  Almost everyone greatly used in the Bible was a recipient of that honor!  God gives second chances, and maybe you need one today.

If so, His arms are open wide for you to come home too.

The Secret of Contagious Joy

Having the Mind of Christ Part 2

(Philippians 2:5-11)

Two little guys were arguing at breakfast over the last pancake. Mom broke the conflict up and said, “Now boys you remember what we learned about the way Jesus thought? Do you think that Jesus would argue over the pancake? No He would let His brother have the pancake. Now I need you to be like Jesus to each other and do what He would do.” The boys were quiet for a moment, staring each other down. Then the older brother looked at the younger and said, “You be Jesus first.”

We need to be Jesus to each other. And we need to go first.

Paul’s appeal to the Philippians applies equally to us today. He didn’t leave what that would mean in the area of theory. We are to outwardly show the inward and hidden mind of Christ, which you have if you’re a Christian. Having it, however, does not mean we are perfectly showing it!

You know we miss the joy of the Lord sometimes precisely because we look for it in all the wrong places. We look for it as we grasp selfishly, and live proudly, and refuse to give ourselves sacrificially in service to others. A selfish, proud man who will not love His wife sacrificially is a death sentence to his marriage.

Selfishness, pride, and an unwillingness to give ourselves freely should not characterize us if we’re Christians. Now we will no doubt occasionally slip back into these from time to time. After all, they are our default mode! We still live with a fallen nature.

The Bible doesn’t just show us how Jesus lived and what He, but it takes us inside how He thought. And then it says, “When you think this way, and then you’ll live the same way.” If we are not acting this way, it’s a thinking problem. And we must be willing to have our minds renewed. How often? Well every time we start living and thinking in the flesh again. “The mind set (same word) on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.”

How does that look? Well, three things we learned last week. The mind of Christ (or “mindset” of Christ) leads us first to be unselfish…considering the interests of others first.

FIRST, JESUS DEMONSTRATED UNSELFISHNESS BY GIVING UP EQUALITY WITH GOD. (V 6)

Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” Jesus had a good thing going in heaven. Jesus didn’t come to earth to become God. He was eternally God before He came. “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich” we read in 2 Corinthians 8.

This One Who is Deity, was Deity, and will always be Deity—the second person of the Trinity—had eternal wealth and power and wisdom and strength and angels worshiping Him constantly. He was enthroned in glory, but He gave that up unselfishly, seeking the interests of His Father and our interests before His own.

We had nothing to motivate Jesus to act unselfishly toward us. We are not unselfish people by nature. Anything but, actually. Now that said, there are some folks who seem to be less selfish than others; who are more generous and philanthropic. But that is not the kind of radical unselfishness Jesus demonstrated for us.

Recently there was a picture on Twitter that demonstrated something of this. A twelve year old girl was having trouble with her math homework, and so she emailed her teacher. He came to her home with a whiteboard, knelt down on her front porch and taught her through the door! He didn’t say “good luck” or “come to my front porch.” This teacher would have been paid the same to stay home. He didn’t have to risk his health or give up his free time to help this little student out. He had nothing to gain, but the satisfaction of getting to help.

We couldn’t comprehend God. We couldn’t solve our sin problem, and didn’t know enough to know we were in real, eternal trouble. A person unawaken to their sinfulness is like a person infected with the coronavirus but is not aware that something is terribly wrong inside them.

But Jesus, Who was equal with God, Who in fact WAS “the fullness of the godhead bodily,” gave that up to be born as a Jewish man, and He came and knelt before us and gave us a picture of Who God is. He washed His disciple’s dirty feet. He served the least deserving.

The mind of Christ leads us to live unselfishly. Even when it’s hard; ESPECIALLY when it’s hard. We are to have an unselfish attitude (mindset) even toward people who are selfish by nature.

JESUS SHOWED HUMILITY BY BECOMING A SERVANT

You know it may sound strange, but the Bible says that Jesus, “for the joy set before Him” went to the cross. Sometimes there are hard things we have to endure. But even hard times don’t stop the joy Jesus gives us.

He did not count equality with God something to be clung to. He unselfishly gave up His rights to be worshiped, to be honored, to be adored as He was in Heaven and He stepped onto earth as an infant.
RG Lee, the great Southern Baptist evangelist, used to say, “Jesus was as much God as God is God, and as much man as man is man.”

I know some critics have claimed that Jesus never directly claimed to be God, but let’s understand that when Jesus was tried by the Jews He was being tried for blasphemy. They understood that He was making a claim to be God, and they wanted Him crucified for it. 3 reactions to Jesus: Hate Him, run from Him, follow Him. But you can’t “like” Him.

We are remembering the HUMILITY of Christ as we think about and reflect on His dying. I think, of all the qualities of Christ we need to be looking for in our lives, humility is the one thing (my opinion) that God values most. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” The death of Jesus, the obedience of Jesus shown by the humiliation and shame of the cross, is the extreme illustration of Christ’s humbling Himself. Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” The mind of Christ is a mind of humility.

JESUS SHOWED THE DEPTH OF SACRIFICE BY GIVING UP HIS LIFE

Jesus “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

We see some amazing illustrations of sacrifice in our world today in the self-giving we are seeing in our medical communities. Doctors and nurses are risking their lives just by showing up for work. Yet they serve even knowing it may cost their lives.

These sacrifices point us to the One Who said, “No man takes my life from Me, I give it to them.” You know it’s one thing for us to see these amazing folks giving as they are, but let me ask you a question. If a patient showed up one day that the doctor knew; let’s say a guy that he had recently found out was having an affair with his wife.

So ideally that wouldn’t change the doctor’s treatment of this patient. But now, this man who took the doctor’s wife has the virus and treating him may cost this doctor his life. Would he give up his health and maybe his very life to care for one who was an enemy?

What is unique about Jesus’ sacrifice is that EVERY PERSON He died for was an enemy! “But God demonstrated His love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were enemies (at enmity) with God, He sacrificed Himself for us.

There will be countless ways, I believe, for us to show a sacrificial attitude. But for the Christian, there should be no hesitance here. We have the mind of Christ! A mind that forgives; that loves even when love isn’t returned; that shows the best when others show their worst.

We should not shrink back when we are called to give everything for the sake of the Kingdom. In his book The Insanity of Sacrifice, missiologist Nik Ripken wrote,

It is one thing to read about God’s people in other times and other places who have sacrificed in obedience to God. It is another thing altogether to imagine that God would expect the same of us. But why would God exempt us from the same sacrifice that He has required from His people throughout history? God will do anything—ask for anything—demand anything . . . to fulfill His purpose. He even sent His only Son to fulfill His purpose. And when that Son arrived, He declared the purpose of God clearly and openly: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). That is the purpose of God: to seek and to save the lost, for His glory. As the people of God, it is both our privilege and our calling to embrace and share in God’s purpose. In fact, the very reason for our existence is to join God in His work.

These three attitudes: unselfishness, humility, and sacrifice should mark us as Christians. The verses we have briefly examined show a perfect picture of all three.

JESUS DEMONSTRATED THE PLEASURE OF GOD IN HIS EXALTATION

“Therefore,” Philippians 2:9 begins. “Therefore,” looking back on all that was written in verses 6-8; Christ’s self-emptying, His refusing to “grasp” the privileges of Deity, His becoming a servant (doulos: slave), His becoming obedient to the death of crucifixion; all of that is included and summarized in THEREFORE.

THEREFORE God has “super-exalted Him.” Jesus stepped down into human existence, occupying a lowly human body. He became man and yet never ceased being fully God.

Of all the world religions and philosophies that people have followed, NONE regards the material, physical world as highly as Christianity. Eastern religions as a whole reject the material world as an illusion. Greco-Western religions regard matter as evil.

Neither religions of the East or the West could have imagined a statement like the Hymn to Christ that is found in Philippians 2:6-11.

That God became a man…not for a little while, but reigns forever in a human, though exalted and resurrected body!

THEREFORE God has exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every Name…

“There is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved, “ we read in Acts. Jesus has a Name that excels and exceeds every Name that could be named.

It is before Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that HE IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father. Every knee, every tongue, in every language…for the first time since Babel every tongue will speak the Name of Jesus together!

The confession, JESUS IS LORD, has been for two millennia the confession by which men and women, boys and girls are saved. No other Name will do. No other Name can suffice. No other Name but the Name of Jesus.

This confession requires two things:

1. It requires CONVICTION. We must be convinced in our hearts that Jesus is indeed Lord of our lives. He is God, as He claimed to be. When the disciples said “Jesus is Lord,” they did not confuse what they meant. The Greek word “kurios” (Lord) was used in the Greek Old Testament translation to translate the word “Yahweh,” which is the Hebrew name for God. Over 1600 times this term was used. For the apostles who wrote the New Testament, this would have been the Old Testament translation they were most familiar with. For them, saying “Jesus is Lord” was claiming “Jesus is God.”
2. If Jesus Christ is God, as the Bible claims He is, then this requires of us a second thing: COMMITMENT. Our conviction of Who He is must be followed by our COMMITMENT of everything to Him. You cannot casually “like” Jesus. People didn’t just “like” Him. Some people hated Him, and wanted Him dead. Some feared Him, and fled. But some fell at His feet and called Him Lord and God.

If Jesus Christ is Lord, then that confession demands “our soul, our life, our all,” to paraphrase the old hymn. It leaves us no quarter. We despise Him, we flee from Him and hide in claims of atheism and intellectual arguments to prove His claims wrong, or we fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.

But you can’t just “like” Him. That option is not open.

He is Lord, He is Lord
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord
Every knee will bow, every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord

THE SECRET OF CONTAGIOUS JOY

Having the Mind of Christ, Part One

(Philippians 2:1-5)

A first grader was sitting with his family at the dinner table when he did the unpardonable:  He sneezed into his hands.  Right after the blessing.  Then he wiped them on his pants, and started to eat his macaroni and cheese.  Mom said, “Uh-uh young man.  You have germs on your hands now and you need to go to the bathroom and wash them.” He pushed away from the table, and stomped off to the bathroom muttering, “Jesus and germs, Jesus and germs.  That’s all I ever hear about around here and I can’t see either one of them!”

Well I hope this finds your home life less stressful than that!  Hopefully you’re seeing moments of joy break through even in the chaos of these days.

Let’s remember that we’re not just talking about ordinary joy here.  Ordinary joy comes to everyone at times if we’ll look for it:  the joy of playing with our kids or grandkids; of enjoying a good meal or watching a beautiful sunset.  These are gifts, and these are good.  But the quality of Christian joy is something more.

We are talking about embracing the joy that Jesus said “I give to you…” in John 15:11.  This is a joy that stays with you, regardless.  It’s the joy that helps you sing songs in the midnight of a prison cell or in your living room or a hospital room in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak.

We know that Paul had that kind of contagious joy.  We want to understand how to have a joy that will not be taken from us…a joy that Jesus had even as He faced the cross and His passion in Jerusalem.

The “hinge point” of this text and THE BIG IDEA of Philippians 2 revolves around verse 5:  “Have this mind in yourself that was also in Christ Jesus…”   If we don’t learn to think like Christ we will never know His joy.  If we want His joy that can’t be taken from us, we must embrace:
THE BODY OF CHRIST  (vv 1-2)

Now even as I write this, I am in a conversation with a person online about the frustration of social distancing.   Figuring out how to “embrace” the body in this time is tricky to say the least.  I know many watching would love nothing more than to be on our campus today.

But let’s remember that Paul was not physically with the Philippian church when he wrote this.   He was “socially distanced” in a jail cell hundreds of miles from them.   Let’s remember also that, in many places in the world today, contact between believers is illegal if not impossible due to persecution.

I will never forget the Iranian pastor who asked a group of believers gathered in Turkey for a time of learning, and prayer and encouragement, to please sing loud when we sing.  In Iran, small groups of believers gather in apartments for worship.  They have to whisper their songs, out of concern that their neighbors will hear and report them.  “Sing loud for us.”  Even isolation can’t keep us from worship!

But what Paul gives us in the first two verses are things that make Christian community strong and healthy, even when we can’t be physically with each other.

• First, he speaks of ENCOURAGEMENT IN CHRIST
• Next, he talks about COMFORT FROM LOVE
• Then, PARTICIPATION (fellowship) IN THE SPIRIT.  “If any man…”
• Followed by AFFECTION AND SYMPATHY (over 100 widows)
• And finally, WALKING IN HARMONY

You know it’s interesting that all of these drain down to one bucket:  We are to be in unity, in harmony, walking in love.  Jesus said, “By this shall all men know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35). (Or Jim).   These verses tell us what that love looks like.  Joy comes when we embrace the body of Christ.  It is this that “completes our joy.”   

Until we embrace the MIND of Christ, we will not know the JOY of Christ.   Paul locates everything he’s said and is about to say “in Christ.”  If there is any encouragement IN CHRIST…  Christian joy requires a healthy relationship with Christ and with the body.

Christians are called to ACT like Christ.   Acting like Christ means we first begin THINKING like Christ.  If you or someone you know ACTS like the devil it’s because they are THINKING like the devil.   The enemy, by nature, is SELFISH, PROUD, and SELF SEEKING and when those attitudes characterize our lives, we are thinking the wrong way.

The mind of Christ, in other words, bears three fruits or life attitudes

• Unselfish
• Humble
• Sacrificial

Paul refers to the MIND (lit. “Mind set”) three different times in the first five verses of Philippians 2.   There is a connection between how we THINK and what we DO.  If we are “like-minded,” we will have “the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”   Our fellowship as believers with each other and with Christ is rooted in how we think.

A. THINKING PRECEDES ACTING

Our THINKING precedes our ACTING.  We will act exactly like we think…no more and no less.   I’ve been reading a book lately called The God-Shaped Brain.  What would our brains; our minds look like if they had not been distorted by sin?   How would our thinking, and then our acting and living be different?  How would we think if we thought like God created us to think?   “The mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” (Romans)

Part of what begins the moment we are redeemed is a process the Bible calls “the renewing of our minds.”  Think of it as a sort of rewiring of our brains; of our neural pathway and thought processes.  We all live with loose wiring and misplaced connections because of sin, and because we are born into and grow up in and live in an environment of sin.  Sin actually physically rewires our brains.  (PORN)

The God Who created you and wired up the three trillion plus nerve endings when He “knit you together in your mother’s womb” to begin with knows how to reconnect them properly.  But it doesn’t happen overnight.  It’s a process that we must cooperate with as we read God’s Word and stop believing lies that are hard-wired into us and then allow this process to transform us into thinking and then acting like Jesus.

“Let this mind (set); this attitude be in you which was also in Christ…”  Our attitudes are a reflection of how we think.  In a sense, the way we look at others is like looking at ourselves in a mirror.  These attitudes are characteristics of a God-shaped brain.

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THE MIRROR

If we are selfish, we will be suspicious of others.  If we are of a generous nature, we will be more trusting.  If we are honest with ourselves, we are less likely to anticipate deceit in others.  If we are inclined to be fair, we won’t always feel we’re being cheated.  Looking at others is like looking at ourselves in a mirror.  In other words, if you want to know how you think, ask yourself what you think about when you think about other people.

When you look in that mirror, what do you see?  Do you see the things that reflect the attitude; the mindset of Christ?

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Are you humble, or are you constantly seeking to exalt yourself?

Are you unselfish, or are you mainly concerned with what you want no matter what happens to others?

Are you sacrificial, or are you more concerned with losing or protecting your privilege… your possessions… or your life?

Now I can imagine some of you asking, ‘Ok Pastor.  I’m going to throw a flag here.  We’re in a crisis!  I have to take care of me and mine, don’t I?  I mean, on most days I’m a reasonably humble, unselfish, and sacrificial person.  But we are in a state of war right now!  Surely we get a pass on this don’t we?  How do we survive when everyone else is pushing themselves, protecting themselves, and not being sacrificial?

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How would Jesus think about this present time we are in?  What would Jesus’ attitude be to others?   Are these attitudes just to be applied on warm spring Sunday mornings, as we gather in Bible study groups, and the birds are singing and the sky is cloudless?

Or is this the mindset most needed in a time like we are facing?

Again, I am challenging us in this study to experience joy.  I don’t want this to be a theoretical exercise.  And I never promised this was easy-peasy.  I want it to work in you right now!

Here is where it starts.  Finding joy…being joyful…means having the mind of Christ as we relate to God and to others.  And relating well to God and others embracing these 3 essential things:

Living Unselfishly :  Consider the interests of others ahead of yours

Allison’s gift…Joy comes as we live putting others interests first

Living Humbly:   Esteem others better than yourself…humility doesn’t mean we think less of ourselves; it means we don’t think of ourselves.

CS Lewis suggested that the first step of humility is admitting that we are proud!   “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for `God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”   For the sake of our country, we had better begin to be humble!

Hold back nothing in your obedience to God

Until you figure out what you’re willing to die for, you’ll never learn what you are meant to live for.  “The Son of man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  Jesus knew what He was willing to give everything for.

WE MUST EMBRACE THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

(Hebrews 12:2) “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  In Phil 2 we see Christ’s unselfish attitude, His absolute humility “making Himself nothing;” His sacrificial love.

READ PHILIPPIANS 2:6-11

KEEPING OUR MINDS PURE

There once was a town high in the Alps that straddled the banks of a beautiful stream.  The stream was fed by springs that were old as the earth and deep as the sea. The water was clear like crystal. Children laughed and played beside it; swans and geese swam on it. You could see the rocks and the sand and the rainbow trout that swarmed at the bottom of the stream. High in the hills, far beyond anyone’s sight, lived an old man who served as Keeper of the Springs. He had been hired so long ago that now no one could remember a time when he wasn’t’t there. He would travel from one spring to another in the hills, removing branches or fallen leaves or debris that might pollute the water. But his work was unseen. One year the town council decided they had better things to do with their money. No one supervised the old man anyway. They had roads to repair and taxes to collect and services to offer, and giving money to an unseen stream-cleaner had become a luxury they could no longer afford. So the old man left his post. High in the mountains, the springs went untended; twigs and branches and worse muddied the liquid flow. Mud and silt compacted the creek bed; farm wastes turned parts of the stream into stagnant bogs. For a time no one in the village noticed. But after a while, the water was not the same. It began to look brackish. The swans flew away to live elsewhere. The water no longer had a crisp scent that drew children to play by it. Some people in the town began to grow ill. All noticed the loss of sparkling beauty that used to flow between the banks of the streams that fed the town. The life of the village depended on the stream, and the life of the stream depended on the keeper. The city council reconvened, the money was found, and the old man was rehired. After yet another time, the springs were cleaned, the stream was pure, children played again on its banks, illness was replaced by health, the swans came home, and the village came back to life. The life of a village depended on the health of the stream.

THE SECRET OF CONTAGIOUS JOY

Finding Joy in Confusing Times

(Philippians 1:21-30)

So last week I mentioned that I’m using Brut cologne as a hand sanitizer since the main ingredient in Brut cologne is alcohol.  Apparently that created a run on Brut cologne, so some guys called me and asked if Old Spice or Stetson would work.   Though they aren’t FDA approved, I’m sure they’d do fine.  I have found, full disclosure, that smelling Brut cologne has caused me to have flashbacks to the 60’s, and I’m having this unconscious need to listen to Bob Dylan music.

The classic little Charlie Brown cartoon offered this favorite of mine.  Charlie and Lucy are having a deep discussion about life.  Lucy says, “Charlie Brown, life is like a deck chair.  Some people set their chairs so they can see where they’re going.  Others set their chair to see where they’ve been.  And others so they can see where they are in the present.” Charlie was wordless for a frame, and then said, “I can’t even get mine unfolded!”

One of the last places we would expect to encounter joy is in the middle of a dilemma…a confusing, perplexing experience…tossed back and forth between options or opinions.   Quite a few of us are facing dilemmas today in the midst of our current situation, and you’re “trying to get your deck chair unfolded…”

Paul dealt with this very thing in 2 Corinthians 4…

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”  (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)

We are perplexed, but not in despair.

1. Do I hunker down…or try to press on with life as usual?
2. Do I stockpile as though the end of the world is upon us…or just live day-to-day?
3. Which media reports do I believe…the conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated Twitter opinions or another source? Should I pay attention to them at all?
4. How do I talk to my kids about all this? Do I tell them everything, or shelter them from much of what is happening?
5. Do I spend my time and energy taking care of my own family, or do I see this also as a time of generosity and ministry to my neighbors who hurt just like me and try to reach out to them?

We could list more.  Again, we are living through times like we’ve never seen in our lifetime.  The uncertainty of it all produces a lot of dilemmas for us.  And times of crisis usually do.  They are “perplexing.”

Ideally, though, they force us to our knees in prayer.  Maybe we need to spend more time just focused there, rather than worry about  the storm blowing around us.    Every emotion you are experiencing right now…fear, anxiety, anger, depression, loneliness, frustration…should be processed before God in prayer.  Don’t dwell on it until you have prayed about it.

We stand in serious times, to paraphrase a famous quote of John Adams.  Most of us have never seen times more serious than these.  It seems almost hourly a new reality is revealed making our bad situation worse.

Let’s admit it.  We do find ourselves confused, perplexed, sometimes frightened, anxious, stressed and unsure what to do next.  Sometimes that is precisely where life circumstances bring us.  God knows right where you are today.  He is still on His throne and He is the One we should be looking to in this.

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It may also help to realize that this is not the first time, nor the worst time the Body of Christ has faced on earth.  The church has continued and even thrived through far worse.  (The Black Plague, The Spanish Flu of 1918, the Nazi takeover of Germany in World War 2; not to mention wars, genocide, and persecution on a scale we have never experienced).

CS Lewis was a voice of stability to the British people during the Second World War.  His messages were broadcast over the BBC network and were eagerly heard by this beleaguered people.  After World War Two ended, Lewis continued to lecture and write.  In one essay, he responded to a question asked by an individual who was concerned of the possibility of a nuclear attack on London.

I will read his reply as he wrote it.  But as you hear it, just insert “coronavirus” wherever you heard the word “atomic bomb.”

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”  In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.

Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways…It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty

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God does not forsake His people.  The Lord is in the Heavens, and He does whatever He pleases.   He’s not afraid of catching the coronavirus, nor is He washing His hands and trying not to touch His face.  He’s not socially distancing from us!  Do not begin to believe God is absent from us, even though we are for a time absent from each other.    We should not let the prospect of what MIGHT happen dominate our minds and preoccupy and sideline our lives.

And as chaotic as all of this seems, God is working in the midst of our distress to bring His purpose to completion.  You and I get to be a part of that purpose, and whatever the coronavirus does to us as a child of God, we still win!

So let’s stop acting like we’ve already lost the war and everything important to us.  We haven’t.  God is still on His throne.  I am asking God daily to do a work that will be so amazing and undeniably His hand that no man or no country can take credit for it.  I am daily praying Ephesians 3:20 over us that we will see God do “exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.”    “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”  Habakkuk 1:5 ESV.    God is at work, in ways that we would not believe.

I want us to be delivered from this moment.  I truly do.  I want my granddaughter who is home watching Poppy preach on TV this morning (thinking it’s FaceTime) to grow up in a world without this pestilence.  But if not this it will be something else.  The world we live in… the world our Creator God entrusted to us…is  broken beyond our remedy.  We are seeing now what that truly looks like, without the candy coating of our daily lives and activities softening the reality.

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Yesterday, the NYT ran a headline article which said,
“Coronavirus-weary people are seeking joy.”

In our study today, we hear again through the inspired Words of the Bible about a man who could be joyful in spite of false accusations, a prison sentence, and even possible execution for the crime of claiming that only Jesus was Lord… and not Caesar.

And we are looking clearly for the secret of his joy that was contagious.  Joy is more contagious than the coronavirus!  If we can choose joy in a time like this, well, some people will think we’ve just gone insane.  But others will want to know, “How do you do that?”

Well, we can do it like Paul did it.   People are looking for it now more than ever.

PAUL FOUND JOY BY HAVING A CONFIDENT HOPE

Paul was not suicidal, nor did he have some kind of morbid death wish.  Paul had hope.  He knew that when he went home, his suffering would be over forever.  The persecutors that sought to shut him up would forever be silenced.

Paul did not fear death.  He did not vacillate in what he believed about it.  He had a confidence that the life to come is “better by far” than his life here.  He had confidence that death was a beginning, and not an end;  a continuation of His walk with Christ only now with  face to face fellowship.   It is possible to walk in a fellowship with Christ that is so real, and so life-giving that you barely notice it when you die.  I think Paul was there.

But fear is indication of a problem.   We are ONLY to fear God.  Oswald Chambers said, “If you fear God, you need fear nothing else.  If you fear anything else you are not properly fearing God.”  Jesus said, “Fear Him Who has the power to throw both body and soul into hell.”

If we are fearful about everything happening around us, then we are not focused on the One we should TRULY fear.   Paul was not afraid.  He had a certain hope.  He knew, as he new that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” that death opened the door to a  lot of things for the faithful one who dies in Christ.

Death held an end of suffering for Paul; an end to pain and despair of imprisonments and illness and having nothing and no money and no family and no home.  Of course he looked forward to it!

What is your hope in today?  Are you hoping in government, in the United States, in science, in health care, in the economy?  I pray for all of these and those involved in trying to solve this crisis.  But all of these will fail us, if not this time, then at some point.  Only God is the rock we can anchor your hope to, and He never wavers and never fails.

PAUL FOUND JOY BY LIVING  A WORTHY LIFE

CS Lewis’ 1948 article continues:

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are… going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.  (And they should not crush our spirits.)

Jesus used an interesting word in talking about the day of His coming.  He gave instruction to the disciples, and to us,  “occupy until I come,”

So how then do we live in this present distress?  What does it look like to “walk around” having a worthy life…to occupy until He comes?

Firm in one spirit:  Encourage each other  (…continue to be the church)

Defending the faith:  Engage the lost

Not being fearful of the enemy:  Enrage the devil by refusing to be afraid of his threats.

PAUL FOUND JOY BY SEEING A VICTORIOUS OUTCOME

This part of Paul’s letter leaves them with an expectation.  He fully expected they would be victorious, no matter what happened to him or even what happens to them.  “It has been granted you that you believe and suffer….”. As your faith is a gift of God’s grace; (BUCKLE IN here; ) so is your enduring suffering well an evidence of faith.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean we won’t have problems.  It doesn’t create a guarantee for you that you won’t get this cursed virus.

But even if you do,  when you suffer as a believer you are showing the certainty of your faith and bearing witness to God’s goodness in the midst of it.

Paul had a certainty they would do this well.  I have the same confidence in you, and in this now temporarily scattered body of believers called Fruit Cove.

It’s our time to step up,.. Folks.

Welcome to the battle.

It’s our time to live a worthy life in a dark, dark time.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are cheering us on!  It’s our time to choose to rejoice in the Lord, and having done all else, to rejoice!

• Make sure your hope is in the right place—and fear is put in its place
• Make sure you are living a life worthy of the Gospel—if not, course correct!
• Make sure you are keeping your eye on the finish line, confident that the One Who began this good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

The Secret of Joyful Prayer

Philippians 1:3-11

So many of the activities we participate in to celebrate our faith are done mechanically, without much conscious thought or effort, and are often without much joy.   Among those activities is our prayer life.

It may well be we’re just doing it wrong.  The disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11, “Lord teach us to pray.’. Sometimes a person will say, “I tried praying. But God didn’t give me what I asked for.”  Well maybe He didn’t if your prayers included:

• “Help me win the lottery”
• “Bring my cheating boyfriend back to me”
• “Help me lose weight while I eat whatever I want and never exercise”
• “Bless me now, even though I’ve been ignoring you for years”
• “Make me smart enough to pass the test I didn’t study for”

Why didn’t God answer my prayer?  Maybe what you wanted was not God’s will for you.  James wrote, “You ask, and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it on your lust.”

But maybe it was just dumb.  Now I’ve said many times in a lecture to seminary students, there are no dumb questions.  But there sure are some dumb prayers.

Maybe if we prayed liked Jesus taught us:

• That the Father’s Name would be hallowed
• That His Kingdom would come…it’s more important than yours
• That His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven…and in me
• That He would give us what we need for the day
• That we would be forgivers of those who sin against us
• That we/our family would be delivered from the enemy’s snare
• That His kingdom would be our first priority now and forever.

If these prayers that Jesus taught us were the content of our praying, then prayer would begin to make sense…and even be joyful!

We try to turn our prayer life into a thing that enriches us…not as a means of truly hearing from God and aligning with His will.

Paul gives us a model of praying joyfully.  Now that isn’t to say that sometimes our prayer life isn’t marked with tears of sorrow at times or even by the pain of grief or guilt and shame over our sins.  We will at times agonize in intercession.  And the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus was heard through His “loud cries and tears.” (Hebrews 5:7)

But communion with our Heavenly Father should be marked with a sense of joy regardless of circumstances.  Jesus said, “My joy I leave with you.”  Let’s remind ourselves again that Paul wrote this letter from a prison cell awaiting execution.

Prayer should dry our tears, ease the heartache of grief and loss, and erase the shame and guilt stains of sin.  When this happens, joy remains.  But how do we pray with joy when it seems nothing is joyful around us?

Paul prayed with joy, first, because

HE WAS NOT ALONE (vv 3-5)

When Paul prayed, he carried the grateful memories of the congregation that gathered in Philippi…a congregation that was marked by their love for Paul and their faithfulness to pray for him.

He offered his prayer “with thanksgiving,” which is a key to joyful praying.  His joy came from their fellowship (partnership) in the Gospel with him.

It’s an incredible thing to have people pray for you.  A friend shared a dream he had about me a while back.  In the dream, he saw me standing in the pulpit, and then kneeling down weeping.  During the dream, the church came around me, laying their hands on me.

I truly believe and will continue believing that I am standing here because of the prayers of God’s people…your prayers.  The grace of God holds me fast…but your hands and prayers for me keep me moving forward.  I never told you this, but throughout the first two-plus years after Pam’s death I never lost a night’s sleep, and until only recently I never even dreamed at night.  Never.  About anything.

Fellowship brings joy, and healing, and recovery.  We are not to live this thing alone, folks, though some of us try really hard to do that.

That’s one of the reasons we have Celebrate Recovery!

The joy comes along as a contagious experience of fellowship.  Paul could pray with joy, further, because he had

CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S FAITHFULNESS. (vv 6-7)

Not only did Paul experience joy because he knew he wasn’t alone, but also because he prayed with confidence knowing that, no matter what happened in his life or in theirs, God was working.  We all understand that God’s working doesn’t mean we are going to see everything go our way, or always experience sunshine and pleasant circumstances.  (“Even when I don’t see it you’re working…”) In fact the greatest work of God we have seen is His work of atonement at the cross and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  “For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

But it is God’s energizing at work in us that brings to completion what He began at the moment of salvation.  If you can look back at a time in your life when you can say, “I know God brought that about…I know it is God Who saves me and that is not something I can do for myself…;” if you have that moment to remember then know this:  God has never, is not now, nor will ever give up on you.  He will never throw up his hands and say, “this one’s too tough…I’m gonna bail out.”  God doesn’t give up on what He starts.  This looks forward to Phil 2:12-13 which says,

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This means something really important for us to take away today.

Our salvation, in Christ, is secure.  I hear people sometimes say, “I’d be a Christian, but I couldn’t live the life.”  Or, “I’m afraid I wouldn’t hold out.”  “I’d quit and then be a hypocrite.”

Well, you can’t live the life.  Christ -in- you lives out the life He wants you to live through the presence of His Spirit.  And you won’t hold out. Not in your own strength.   You are held in His hand, and Jesus said “No man can take them out of My hand.”  You are not holding on to God.  You’re not that tough.  He is holding on to YOU!  That’s our confidence, and our security.  He Who began the work will be faithful to complete it.

In Romans 8, we read of the ultimate plan that God has for our lives in Christ:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”   (Romans 8:28-29)

God’s plan…God’s will for your life is that, through every experience and circumstance, you are being sharpened and shaped to be more, think more, and act more like Jesus.

A sculptor chips away everything that doesn’t look like the image he or she is seeking to bring to the shapeless and formless rock.  The Divine Sculptor is doing the same in us as He “chips away” everything in us that doesn’t look like Jesus.

This is exactly what happens in the process of sanctification.  The Divine “sculptor” hammers away at all those dimensions of our life that keep Jesus from shining through!    In the hard and the good times, God is at work.  Nothing stops His Divine progress in our lives.

AN ABIDING AFFECTION  (v 8)

This affection for the Philippians, which interestingly could also mean “you have me in your hearts” can literally be translated “I have a heartache for you.”  Have you ever cared so much about someone that it hurts?  We hear songs that talk about that, and usually they’re sung when the two lovers are apart.

The Motown hit, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was written to describe the power of love drawing two lovers together, no matter the obstacles.   When you really love someone, it can physically hurt to be away from them.

That’s what Paul is talking about as he prays for them…this is a unique love that bound them together around their partnership in seeing the Gospel of Christ go forward.  But his heart was aching because of his separation from them.   He genuinely loved these people.

BECAUSE OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD’S GRACE

Christian friendships are not just coffee meetings and potluck meals.  They are marked by a “sameness” of experience…a similarity of a grace they shared in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   The Gospel is mentioned nine times in Philippians.

And that further bound them to a mission together to share that grace with others, in the same way it should bind us together.   A fellowship that is formed around a mission is different and deeper than a fellowship that forms around coffee and donuts.

 BECAUSE OF ABOUNDING LOVE. ( vv 9-11)

This is strongly paralleled by what was written in Colossians 1:9-11.  A lot of the words are repeated in Colossians that are used here (by the dating of the letters, probably first).  ‘

• He prays for their abounding knowledge
• He prayed for the their growth in discernment
• He prayed that they would be fruitful
• He prayed that this would be to God’s glory
• He prayed for the “good work”.

Someone has said that love is like a river.  Rivers can bring life.  I grew up around the banks of the Ohio River.  This river that I played in, drove over, and gazed into thousands of times in my life brought commerce, and recreation, and beauty and life.  But a river that floods over its banks doesn’t bring life.  It brings chaos and death.

The same river decimated my hometown more than once.    Love is like a river that “abounds” and flows. It brings life.  But even Christian love, like a river, needs to stay in its banks.  If there are no boundaries, and it loves everything indiscriminately …it will even love things it should not love.  Christian love is discriminating; distinctive; discerning.  It loves and approves “that which is best/excellent.”

I hear a lot of people say, “being a Christian just means you’re supposed to love.”  Yes, but love what?  What are the “banks” of love?  Love needs to be guided by “knowledge” and discernment and result in “the fruit of righteousness” or else it indiscriminately picks up garbage and pollution.   We are to be “pure” (our inner world)…below the surface where few if any people see…and “blameless” (our outer behavior) that we might be fruitful in our faith.  The same river that brought life and beauty to many people through the years today is polluted and filled with garbage.  You can still catch fish in it…but you’d better not eat them.

This is how we are to praying for each other.  Can you plug your spouse’s name into that prayer?  That SUE might be….that ROD might be…or your children’s names…that BETH might be…that DON might be…

We are all headed for the day of Christ.  He is coming.  Being ready doesn’t just mean BELIEVING…being ready means “bearing the fruit of righteousness” that will TRULY bring joy to our lives and glory to God as we wait for His appearing.

And folks, I’m not trying to be apocalyptic here, but things are not getting better and better in the world, are they?  We are seeing things that we never thought we’d see…and the world just seems like it’s on the verge of exploding into chaos.  Jesus predicted that His appearing would come after the birth pains of tribulation… the baby doesn’t come out on the first contraction.

But we need the wake-up call and the reminder on occasion that it won’t be long before Christ appears…and we need to be ready now.  If you’re dozing through life or barreling through it without giving a thought for your eternal destiny, maybe right now is a good time to push pause…to hear the alarm sounding…and get our lives right with the Lord.

THE SECRET OF CONTAGIOUS JOY
Letter of Contagious Joy Series
Philippians 1:1-2 & Acts 16:6-10

We are overstocked on a lot of things in our world today: discontent, misery, grief, unhappiness, fear, anger, division, criticism, and death. But we are short of one major commodity that would make all these other things easier to bear, if not make some of them disappear completely: Joy!
Most of us can number on one hand, with a few fingers left over, how many people we know who are truly joyful. Joy and happiness are in short supply today. But people are looking!

Worldwide, people say the number one thing they are searching for is happiness. In the three hundred year storied history of Yale University, the most popular class they ever offered was on How to Find Happiness! And if you Google “happy hour,” you will find over two billion five hundred and eighty thousand options.

We are assured in our founding documents as a nation that “all men are created equal, and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Well, we’re sure pursuing it, but few are finding it.

And so, with this series and over the next several months, I am going to drop us right in the middle of this conversation. What does the Bible say about happiness? Well really, nothing. Sometimes the word “happy” shows up in translations, but it’s translating the Greek word “joy.” Happiness comes to us from an old English word that is a shortened version of “happenstance.”

Happiness has to do with circumstance. Magazine covers promise us everything from happiness with weight loss to financial happiness to happiness in remodeling your house. But they’re empty promises. Happiness is circumstantial. Circumstances change.
I want to talk to you about how to find something that remains even when your circumstances change. Some of you might say,
“I was happy but then my job was eliminated”
“I was happy but then I was diagnosed with cancer.”
“I was happy but then my wife left me.”
In other words, life has kicked the happiness right out of some of us!

So let’s stay focused on finding joy. “Weeping endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” In spite of weeping, and loss, and illness, and loneliness, we can know JOY that the world can’t give us, and, as an old song says, “the world can’t take away.” And neither can your circumstances.
Joyful Christians are contagious Christians. You will spread this “virus” of joy if you have it. There is nothing more inconsistent than a person sharing Jesus and looking like they just gargled apple cider vinegar. Get joy and then give it away! The Bible tells us that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. If we’re short of joy, we are not connected to the source which is the Holy Spirit indwelling those who believe.

By the end of this study, I am praying that some of you who have come to believe you could never know joy will be smiling and overflowing. I want to encourage you, but more than that I want the Word of God to challenge us, change us, and drop us into a vast stockpile of joy.

Let’s start at the beginning. Philippians is one of the most-quoted, most familiar books in the New Testament. More verses in Philippians have ended up on coffee mugs, T-shirts, Facebook memes, and Christian art plaques than any other Biblical book.
“For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
“He Who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
“I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering.”
“This one thing I do, I press forward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.”
“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!”
“Do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God…and the peace of God….”

THE JOYFUL APOSTLE ( v 1)

Paul was first a missionary, but also a church planter. Church planting requires people to share the Gospel with, and a harvest to build on. When Paul, and Silas, and Timothy, a young Greek, left the mainland they journeyed out to sea.
They didn’t have a travel itinerary, so as they left Derbe and Lystra they attempted to go to at least two different places where God said “no.” They continued sailing and praying, and one night God sent Paul a vision of a man from Macedonia (Greece) saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Some believe Luke was the man in the vision).

Pretty clear answer to prayer. And so they went following this vision. Paul’s clear ministry vision was “not to build on another man’s work.” He wanted to preach the Gospel where it had never been heard, and that led him to places he had never been and into experiences he had never had before. This is the first time the Gospel is proclaimed in Europe!

Now they had a plan. And that leads us to point 2:
THE JOYFUL CHURCH ( v 2)

This is the only one of Paul’s letters in the New Testament that is not corrective in nature or dealing with some divisive issue. It is a joyful letter. Obviously we can see that Paul had a deep affection for this little church. Part of his purpose was to thank them for a sacrificial gift they had given Paul while he was in prison.

Acts 16 tells us that the first person Paul preached to in Macedonia was not the man he had dreamed about. It was actually an Asian woman named Lydia, who dealt in purple cloth. She was a fashion mogul. She was wealthy; she wasn’t from Philippi, but she owned a home there, as well in her home in Thyatira. So here’s this lady, houses in New York and LA, wealthy and bright, and the Bible also adds she was “a worshiper of God.” Her foundation had been laid in Old Testament Scripture, and her heart was ready to hear the Gospel. When Paul arrived, she received Jesus and was baptized, along with her family.

Then we meet a person on the opposite end of the social spectrum. She was a slave girl. Not only was she physically possessed by men, but she was also possessed by a “python spirit;” she had the power of divination, a demonic gift that her owners exploited. She followed Paul and Silas and Timothy yelling out “these men are the servants of the most High God” until Paul could handle it no more. He cast out the demon, and she was became a believer. She was the second member of the Philippian church.

The third person was equally unlikely as the first two. The jailer, a former Roman soldier, had been given the responsibility of keeping Paul and Silas in custody. He threw them into the inner dungeon, a dark, damp, place and “placed their feet in stocks.” This, by the way, was a means of torture, not just securing them. It was an interrogation technique to place prisoner’s feet and legs in distorted positions causing cramps and sometimes paralysis.
But at midnight, the Bible informs us, Paul and Silas began singing praise through their pain. By the way, that’s a characteristic of joy. Joy isn’t having all of your circumstances line up just the way you’d like. It transcends them. But as they sang, “the place began to shake,” and the jail doors flew open. When the guard saw all the doors unlocked, he drew his sword to kill himself for failing to do his duty.

Paul stopped him. “We are all here” he said. And the jailer fell at Paul and Silas’ feet, saying, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

The jailer…blue collar…retired Marine…and his family became part of the church at Philippi. The most unlikely group possible of people to be in the same house group; to make up the first church on the European continent!

Right here is a problem we face. Do you know how easy it is to build a church where everyone is the same age, the same nationality, the same race, from the same background? Sociologists call this “the principle of homogeneity.” Like attracts like. Most churches are that. Caucasian churches attract Caucasian people. African American churches attract AA people; Phillipino churches… Baptist churches attract…well you get the picture.

But the “picture” that presents is not the Gospel. Now here me carefully. The most joyful and powerful testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not churches that all see things the same way, want things the same way, or think about life in the same way.

The picture of heaven is “every kindred, every tongue, every race,” together. Ever think about that? You will be the same race in heaven that you are on earth? Different races are not a mistake, and not a curse. There is no preferred race. They are an indication of God the artist’s love of variety!
And He wants His church to reflect that variety and that glory on earth! Now I’ll be candid here.

It would be a lot easier to pastor this church if we all were from the same generation, saw things the same way, wanted the same things, liked the same music, and had the same background. We’d get along great! And thats how some larger churches grow. Some churches are begun with the intention of catering to ONE group of people. Just run the rest of them off. Again, much easier.

But my understanding of the New Testament shows churches that do the hard work of tearing down walls between people, forgiving, and messing up and forgiving again. (Ephesians 2:14-22)

I am praying that there will come a day in Fruit Cove that we will worship each week with 30 different nationalities and people groups. As America changes, and the world keeps coming to us, I think that day is coming sooner rather than later.

THE PURPOSE OF JOY

Paul begins his address to this beloved church with the reason for their joy: “Grace and peace….” He calls them “saints.” That doesn’t mean, as we normally think, that they all had accomplished some lofty ideal of humanitarianism or were even uniquely holy or godly people. Saints aren’t made of plaster. We become saints because of the grace of God…”by grace you have been saved, through faith….” They were saints, not because of what they had done, but because of Jesus. We are saved by grace, and justified by faith. And we are made holy by the same grace.

But the outcome of our receiving grace is “peace.” Now that doesn’t mean that we will never find life and even our hearts in turmoil.

But it does mean that the most foundational issue of life, being reconciled with our Creator, has been settled.

Jesus came as our reconciler, to bring us peace with God and this joy we’re talking about. You may have it all together like Lydia. You may have nothing like the slave girl. You may just be a blue collar working man like the jailer. But we all need this grace. We all need this peace.

And we all want joy. Here’s how you get it. Here’s how it starts. We admit our need. We have sinned, and fall short of God’s glory. We need a Savior:

Only Jesus can save us.

He stands ready today with grace…and peace. It can be yours.