REJOICE! - Philippians 4:4

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Please open in your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter 4, verse 4.

Philippians chapter 4 can be found on page 1044 of your Pew Bibles. And just a note before we start, the plan this week was to go through verses 4 through 7, and the Holy Spirit kind of stopped me by Thursday and realized, hold on, there's too much good news here. So we're going to stop and we're going to slow down over the next three weeks as we spend time on verses 4, 5, 6, and 7. So this week is going to be specifically on chapter 4, verse 4.

Hear now the reading of God's Word. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. That ends the reading of God's Word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Well, there's a question you need to ask yourself with such a short and pointed verse. The verse is obviously about joy. But let me ask you, what is joy? What do you think of when you think of joy? Well, some of us might equate joy with happiness. And Charles Schultz, the famous author of The Peanuts, cartoon described happiness as a warm puppy.

Well that's not exactly what's being talked about here. This isn't just a happy feeling. Paul is getting at something far more foundational. Something that as Paul is writing in prison, as he has the cold shackles attached to his skin, as he sits in the cold of a prison in Rome, he's able to write to the church in Philippi and say to them, rejoice always. There is something deeper, something more enduring than just a warm puppy. And so this morning we're going to be exploring the depths of what that joy is in Philippians chapter four, verse four.

And so your call today is to do just what the text says, to rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Well, first, the key to this verse isn't the command to rejoice, but it's what you're rejoicing in, or better, who you're rejoicing in. Rejoice in the Lord. And so the first part is to rejoice in God's creation. Rejoice in God's creation.

It shouldn't be any doubt to us that creation is a gift from God, from the creator to you. The Lord on the on the first six days creates the heavens and the earth. And what does he do on that sixth day? He gives it to humanity. He gives it to Adam and he says, you take care of it now. I've made it. Now it's yours to steward. Now it's yours to care for. Now it's yours. to make your living out of and to enjoy.

And this is a good gift from God, but we've kind of, in our modern culture, stepped back a little bit from just enjoying creation. We're really busy with technology and we're really busy with things and we're really busy with science and explaining nature that we just forget to sit back and enjoy nature. And this isn't just a problem of the 21st century. A writer a century and a half ago, G.K. Chesterton, talked about how we've lost the magic of the world we live in.

We've lost the realization that the reason a leaf is green is because God the Creator said, that's the color of a leaf. Or we've lost the view of the psalmist in Psalm 19. Do you remember when Psalm 19, the first few verses, how it describes the sunrise and the sunset? The sun is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, going from one expanse to the other expanse. We've lost our awe of who God is and everything He's created. We've lost the reality. We've been so busy arguing about the details of Genesis chapter one and whether we read them literally or not, that we miss the beauty of what God has done.

That God created the light and He separated the light from the darkness and He called it good. that God set the universe in its order. God laid each star knowing each one. God has set the thousands and thousands and thousands of the galaxies spinning around with all their starry hosts and knows every single one of them who spun the earth on its axis with its moon going around it but not moving.

God's created every breath that you breathe in. God's created the whale and the minnow. God's created the eagle and the sparrow. God's created the zebra and the horse, the dog you love, and the snake that is kind of a little weird. He's made all of them. He's given them to us to enjoy. He's a good creator. We should be standing in in awe of Him because all of His creation declares His glory. Romans 1, it's clear that when we see the sun rise and we see all of its majesty and its power, we know someone created that. Do you enjoy God's creation?

Do you marvel at the sunrise? Do you see the beautiful colors? Again, we want to explain the sunrise. Why is the sky blue? Why is the sunrise orange? But do you just sit and soak in the artistry of your Lord that He paints the sky with colors so rich and so varied that we can't capture them in any good picture? You have to say in any picture, what do you have to say? You had to be there to know the power of it.

That's the artistry of your God. Do you enjoy God's creation? Do you rejoice in all that the Lord has done? Do you enjoy the cool of the fall breeze? Do you remember what it's like to have the warm sun hit upon your skin and it's like it's warming you from the inside out? That's the enjoyment that we're to have in the Lord that every good and perfect gift comes from Him when you take that bite of your birthday cake and it's sweet. God made that sweetness in your mouth. Do you enjoy the good things that God has given you?

Second Point

Rejoice! Rejoice, Christian, in every good gift that God gives you. Rejoice in the Lord. But it's not just in everything outside of you that we rejoice in the Lord with. We also rejoice that God has made you. That's your second point. Rejoice that God has made you. Rejoice in God creating you. You were no accident."

How does the Scriptures tell us about God forming and creating Adam? It's not just that God... Everything else in creation, think about it. God speaks and things come into existence. God speaks and the oceans are there. God speaks and the sky is there. God speaks and the land comes up out of the water. God speaks and the creatures are there. But what does it say about Adam?

The Scriptures give an intimate picture of how God like a potter or a sculptor, molded out of Adam, out of the dust, and then breathed into him his very life, and he became a living creature. Brothers and sisters, God knit you together in your mother's womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. We should rejoice in the life that God has given us. God knows you. God cares for you. God gave you your soul. God gave you your mind. God gave you your personality. God gave you your weaks. God gave you your strengths. God gave you every part of who you are. He knows the very number of hairs upon your head. He knows you. We should rejoice that He knows us because we know that because He knows us, we can have communion with Him.

Think back again to the book of Genesis and where is God in that story in relation to Adam? He loves Adam, doesn't He? He sees that it's not good for Adam to be alone. And so what does he do? He brings all the animals to Adam. And the idea is that there's most likely two animals at a time, a male and a female coming together. And he's saying, name them. And it's like Adam's on a search to find the helper.

But at the end of all the naming, there's still not a helper. The dog isn't good enough for him. The horse isn't good enough for him. No animal is good enough for him, but God has so much love for Adam that what does he do? He gives him a perfect helper. God is caring for his creatures. God walks in the cool of the breeze of the day with Adam and Eve. He knows them.

It's like it's not unexpected that somehow he talks to them and yet God offers us all this communion with Him. And as C.S. Lewis says, it's not that we expect too much of God, it's that we expect too little. God invites us to go to a seaside vacation, but instead we're happy making mud pies in the dirt. We're happy with the things of this world rather than realizing that the things of this world and who we are were meant to show us that we were made to have communion with God. He made you because He wants you to worship Him. Because He wants you to find enjoyment in Him. Not in His gifts. His gifts make our hearts glad in Him. God wants us to be at the wedding feast.

And yet, how often do we bring the feast of the Gospel to people and instead of feasting upon the Lord, instead of having a taste for something that will never end, instead people want their fields and their animals and their trinkets and their families rather than communion with God Himself. This is the parable of the wedding feast and the servants go out And the people say, I just got new oxen and I need to test them out. I just got a piece of land and I need to go make sure it's good. I need to go take care of my family.

Even though the king has invited them into the richest banquet in the world. Are you coming to the banquet of your Lord? Not because the food is good, but because you get to sit with the king. See, we rejoice in the Lord that He's made us. not just because He's made us, but because He wants us to be with Him.

I was reading a book recently and the author was talking about sin. And I hadn't thought about sin this way. The Westminster Confession talks about sin as being any transgression of or wanton to the law of God. And so, here's the law, and if we cross over that line, then we're a sinner. And that's a good definition of sin, This author, John Piper, he was saying, but why did you cross over the line? Why did you become lacking? Why did you become wanting of the law? It's because you found satisfaction in something less than what God designed you.

And then he pointed out in 2 Samuel, where Nathan comes, the prophet comes to David after his sin with Bathsheba, and he doesn't say, you committed adultery, you did this, you did that, you murdered. He doesn't do that amazingly. He says, you despised the Lord. See, David's sin, yes, was adultery, yes, was murder, yes, was treachery, yes, was all sorts of sins. But what was the root of those sins is he wanted satisfaction in something different than the Lord. When we sin, the heart issue is that we have desired not God, but something that's forbidden to us.

This is why the serpent deceives the woman and says, isn't it good and pleasing to the eyes? It's going to make you wise. You're not going to die. He appeals to her affections. He wants her to see that it isn't the Lord's word that she should desire. It isn't the Lord that she should want communion with. But Satan tempts her by moving her desire to something other than the Lord. God has made you to desire Him. Praise God. But again, the story doesn't end there. Because we need to rejoice not just that God has created you, but rejoice that God has re-created you. That's your third point. Rejoice that God has re-created you. Let me read to you a few verses from the Old Testament about God's promise of this re-creation.

You might think of these promises put underneath the title, heart transplant. In Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, the Lord says, and the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord. Did you hear it? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live. That's going to circumcise your hearts. That's the promise to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30. Then in Jeremiah 24, verse 7, the Lord says, Then I will give them a new heart to know Me. Do you hear the communion there? To know Me. That I am the Lord and that they shall be My people and I will be their God. And they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Then in Ezekiel chapter 11, the Lord says again, then I will give them one heart and I will put a spirit within them and take the stony heart of their flesh and give them heart of flesh that they may walk in the statutes and keep my judgments and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. God takes out that heart of stone and he gives us a heart of flesh. We have a new desire, a new reason for living, a new affection, a new foundation for why we want what we want, because we want to know Him. We want to know Him. We want to love Him. We want to be with the Lord.

Ezekiel 36, verse 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and will cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." God is doing a heart transplant every time a new person is saved.

Have you ever met a new Christian before? Have you ever seen someone who loved the things of this world and was completely enamored with satisfying every desire they ran to here and there, whether it was drugs, whether it was sex, whether it was relationships, whether it was their pet hobbies, whether whatever it was, and then all of a sudden they come to know the Lord and it's like they've done an about-face. They don't desire that stuff anymore. All of a sudden they desire the Lord. Have you met these people? Have you seen these people? Are you these people? It's like they've been given a new heart.

But this isn't just an Old Testament promise. Jesus tells us the truth of this in John 3, verse 3, when He says, Truly I tell you, no one will enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he has been born again. It's the reality that God gives us new hearts, that the Lord changes our affections because we believe. And in 1 John 5, verse 1, the Lord says, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Do you believe in the depths of your heart that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the King, that Jesus is your hope for eternity? The Greek here is the idea that if you continue believing in that till your very dying breath, you are born of God. It's a spiritual rebirth. Rejoice that God is recreating you.

The old joys food, money, reputation, friends, games, travel, sport, vacations, family, cars, reading, whatever they are, they won't ultimately satisfy. Have you seen those people in your life? Do you have family members who are chasing down those dreams, chasing down those satisfactions that you know will never satisfy? They'll always be thirsting. Those old joys, aren't it, but Matthew 13. Turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew 13. Matthew 13 and verse 44.

This is what the Lord says about how we're to desire Him and His kingdom. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasury hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Do you see it? The man finds a treasure in a field and he goes and he sells everything he has because nothing is going to compare to what the treasure in that field is, the Kingdom of God, and who is that King of the Kingdom of God but Jesus Christ Himself.

But just in case, Jesus thought they weren't getting the point. He says it again in verses 45 and 46. Matthew 13, verses 45 and 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he has found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Jesus Christ is that pearl. of great price. He's worthy of giving everything else up.

There is a man named Jim Elliott. He studied at Wheaton College and he went with four different friends. There was a group of unreached people down in the Amazons and they wanted to go and evangelize to these Alka people and somebody tried to dissuade Jim Elliott.

They said, hold on, You can get a pretty good job. You have a wife. You guys are about to have your kids. Maybe you shouldn't go down to South America. You might lose everything." And Jim Elliott's response was, he is no fool who loses everything for what he cannot keep to gain everything which he will never lose. You will never lose your joy in Jesus Christ. Selling everything, nothing else ultimately will give you satisfaction. Now, I'm going to back up a second.

Does this mean you can't enjoy the good things that God gives you? No. No, but we cannot be seeking the gifts that God gives as if they're a means in and of themselves to happiness. The happiness, the joy that we receive from the pleasures and from the things of this life are meant to point us to the One who created them and gave them. For every good and perfect gift comes from above. We're to have hearts overwhelming in thankfulness and in joy.

This joy And I started the sermon off telling you, joy isn't just putting a smile on your face. If you've been a Christian for more than a day, you know that just because you become a Christian doesn't mean everything's going to be OK. No, with Christianity, with the joy of the gospel, doesn't mean all your problems are going to go away. Remember where Paul is writing this from. He's in a cold prison cell. in Rome. The people in Philippi are under persecution, and yet Paul is able to tell them, rejoice.

Because this idea of rejoicing in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, is coming from the very fabric of the foundation of who they are, what they believe, and what they think about everything in this life. And when they come and they worship the Lord, You are designed to be brought through a series of different emotions that the Lord uses to draw you to Himself.

We're to be stunned at His holiness. Joy encapsulates the awe that we have at everything God is and His magnitude. The joy that we have in the Lord is the realization of the frightfulness we have of His judgment, but also the comfort He gives us from broken contrition and confession. You can't read Psalm 32 or Psalm 51 without seeing the deep joy that David has in confessing his sins and finding the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord encircles this idea of longing for Him like a deer panting for water. Have there been times in your life where you have seemed far away from the Lord, where His presence doesn't seem near to you and you long for Him and you want Him, and when you find Him or when He reveals Himself to you in His Word, your heart overflows with thankfulness, like somebody pouring into a cup and it just keeps overflowing and overflowing. Or to have joy when He pours out His Spirit upon us, where this joy is also the idea that He changes our mourning into gladness.

Because even when we come to the funeral of someone we love, but we know they're in the Lord, we're not like those who rejoice without hope. We rejoice in the Lord like souls waiting on God, longing for God, not for His gifts, but for Him Himself. Christian joy is enjoying God forever.

Not enjoying the golden streets, not enjoying all the things that are the blessings of heaven, but what do we see the saints in heaven doing? What do we see the angels in heaven doing? They're worshiping the Lamb who was slain. And that's your last point, Christian. Rejoice in God. Rejoice in God.

Rejoice in God, your mighty one. Rejoice in God, your Sovereign One. Rejoice in El Shaddai, God Most High and Exalted. Be rejoicing in God, who is the covenant God, who is gracious and loving and merciful and long-suffering. Rejoice in the God who you serve, who is completely loved, but completely just. Rejoice in the God who nothing can ever contain Him, but He is infinite. Rejoice in your God who always was, and who always is, and who will always be.

Rejoice in your God. Take comfort in the Lord that He is the One who will not change. There is no shifting of shadow in Him. You can trust His promises because what He says, He will do. You can rejoice in God because He is the author and the perfecter of your faith. You can rejoice in God because He is holy. Remember Isaiah chapter 6, what do the seraphim cry out before the throne of God? They praise Him, they enjoy Him, because He is holy, holy, holy, and the train of His glory fills the whole world.

Do you rejoice in the Lord? Is your heart warmed by God? Or is your fabric of the very being of your soul that you long to be with the Lord? That is our Christian hope. That is our Christian joy in God himself. When persecution comes to the Christian saints in China, they are able to rejoice because they are in the Lord. When misery and hardship and sorrow comes upon you, and I promise it will, you can rejoice. Because you are in the Lord and he is in You, Christian, rejoice in the Lord always, at all times, because He is always in you and you are always in Him. And let me say it again, Christian, rejoice.

Oh God, apply this word to our hearts. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would move us Lord, we pray that we wouldn't have a superficial joy or happiness, Lord, but we would have an eternity changing joy. Lord, we pray that we would long for you. Lord, we pray that we would long to know you and the power of your resurrection. Lord, we pray that we would be willing to give up everything for the surpassing joy that's in Jesus Christ. Lord, make us a people who would love you with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and with all of our strength.

I'm going to find absolute joy in you alone. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.