Philippians 4:4
INTRODUCTION
I will read to you one of
the most difficult verses in the Bible.
It is in Philippians 4:4.
Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say, rejoice!”
Those of us who have lived as long as we have
in the world know that it is a world of sorrow and trouble—and it touches every
life.
My father was a gloomy man.
Although he loved God and tried to serve him in everything he did, he didn’t
feel very successful, and he often became discouraged. When he was “down in the
dumps” Mother used to say to him, “Cheer up, Bill!”
But those words didn’t
really help him cheer up.
No matter how often we are
told we should be happy, we can’t just turn it on like a light switch.
And yet the Bible says a lot
about happiness…joy…rejoicing…
We heard that great 100th
Psalm a few minutes ago:
“Make a joyful noise to the
Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with
gladness;
come before his presence
with singing…”
In our little message today
I will try to tell you from scripture how we can have a kind of rejoicing in
our hearts, even in our troubles.
I. Sorrow is mingled with
joy in each of our lives.
A. Jesus said, “Blessed are
those who mourn…”
And yet Jesus spoke about
his joy. On the night he was betrayed he spoke at length with his disciples in
that upper room. And one of the things he said was: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be full” (John 15:11).”
And a few hours later, in
the garden of Gethsemane, Mark reports that he says to his disciples: “My heart is deeply grieved, even to
death.”
Christian believers may
experience sorrow more deeply than ordinary people because—if we are living
close to God—we are more in touch with the sorrows of those around us.
In a sense we “bear with
Christ the burden of the suffering of the world.”
B. In music there are high
notes and low notes.
The notes in the treble clef
represent to me joy.
The notes in the bass clef
represent sorrow.
Music that is entirely in the
upper range eventually becomes tiresome.
Music that is entirely made
up of low notes becomes depressing.
To have the richness of
music, the composer uses high notes together with low notes.
That’s like life. To have a
rich life requires that we experience a mixture of joy and sorrow.
A life of all joy would
become boring. But sorrow comes to make us appreciate the joy.
The apostle Paul once
described himself as “sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
I have been studying and
meditating on this letter to the Philippians, and one thing I’ve been struck
with is that all through the letter there is that note of joy.
Over and over he tells his
readers his reasons for rejoicing.
Three times in the letter he
instructs the believers to “rejoice in the Lord.”
But there’s another side.
All through the letter there
is also a note of struggle.
Paul was in prison when he
wrote this letter.
He speaks of his struggles:
In the very first chapter he writes: “For
God has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ,
but of suffering for him as well—since you are having the same struggle that
you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (1:29-20).
He writes about his anxiety
about a friend who almost died. He says, “But
God had mercy on him, and also on me, so that I might not have one sorrow after
another” (2:27).
II. So how can we make sense
of the idea that we should be always rejoicing even though there are so many
reasons for sorrow?
A. Part of it is: “Be as
happy as you can; don’t dwell on your troubles.”
When we were in Korea during
the war, none of us were glad to be there. And we griped a lot.
One of my friends wrote very
gloomy letters to his mother.
She wrote back to him to try
to look at the bright side.
He said, “But there ain’t no bright side.”
Sometimes we make ourselves
miserable by dwelling on our troubles and disappointments.
I can choose what I want to
think about—at least some of the time.
I can choose to complain--or
not to talk about my troubles.
I can choose to see the good
in people, or I can focus on their shortcomings.
I can choose to recall the
good things in my past, or I can dwell on my disappointments.
I can choose to give people
the benefit of the doubt.
I can choose to believe that
the hurtful remark was not intentional. I can pray, as Jesus did on the cross:
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
I can choose to remind
myself often of things I am thankful for.
I can choose to think about
those I know who are worse off than I am and pray for them.
One of the best ways to
increase our happiness is to do something for someone else.
A kind word…a little gift…a
welcoming smile…a pat on the shoulder…a listening ear…
I read once about a young
woman who wore a button that said, “Act like you’re glad to see me!”
That’s what we all want: for others to be glad
they see us.
Many years ago an older
friend told me: “I used to think that I was put on the earth to be happy and to
make other people good. Then I realized that I was put on earth to be good and
to make other people happy.”
B. Our verse doesn’t just
say, “Rejoice”; it says, “Rejoice in the
Lord…”
He doesn’t say, “Rejoice
because you are healthy…or successful—but “Rejoice in the Lord.”
I take that to mean:
“Rejoice because you belong to Jesus.”
Rejoicing in the Lord is not
going around with a smile constantly on your face.
Rejoicing isn’t seeing the
funny side of everything, or cracking jokes.
Rejoicing in the Lord is
something deep down in the soul.
We can be sorrowing and
still deep down be rejoicing because of the treasure of having God in our life.
We can rejoice because, no
matter how grim things become, we know we belong to Jesus, and Jesus will make
things come out right in the end.
Sometimes when I read a
book, I cheat. I look at the last page to see how it comes out. Some people say
that spoils a book.
But I want to know if it is
a book that I put down at the end with a sigh of satisfaction—or if it will be
depressing.
I don’t want to know the
details, I just want to be sure that the ending will be satisfying.
The story of our life is
exciting—with its ups and downs. But it is a story with a happy ending.
Paul wrote in another place:
“This slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight
of glory beyond all measure” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
He doesn’t mean that
their—and his—sufferings are not intense; he means that compared with eternal
happiness with Jesus, they are not so bad.
He adds, “For we look not to the things that are
seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are
temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal” (v18).
CONCLUSION
James Ussher was a famous
Christian who lived in Ireland many years ago. You know that Ireland has lots
of rain, and the weather is pretty mild.
Dr. Ussher lived in a house
so constructed that it had a porch around three sides of the house.
When he became old he spent
a lot of time on his porch.
In the morning he would sit
in the sunshine on the east side.
When mid day came, he would
move his chair so that he could sit in the sunshine on the south side of his
house.
In the afternoon, when the
sun began to sink in the west, Dr. Ussher would move his chair and sit in the
sunshine until darkness fell.
So we should live—as much as
we are able—in the sunshine of the Lord.
And the way to do that is to
constantly remind ourselves that we belong to God—
that Jesus is always with
us—even in our sorrows—
and that he is waiting to
welcome us in the Father’s House.
You’ve heard these words
from Romans 8:
“Who shall separate us from
the Love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword?...
No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers,
nor height, or depth, nor
anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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