Title: The Source of Our Joy
Series: The Joy of the Christian Life (Sermon # 1)
Philippians Book Sermon
Date Preached: July 20, 2008
COPYRIGHT © Joe La Rue, 2008 (All Rights Reserved)
Introduction
A. What is it that gives you joy? Think about that for a minute. What is it for you?
1. For many people, it’s their family. A recent study suggests that strong family ties is one of the key predictors for happiness for most people. In fact, strong family relationships have more to do with happiness for most people than even how much money they made.
(Salynn Boyles, For Happiness, Seek Family, Not Fortune, WebMD Health News (June 19, 2008), at http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20080619/for-happiness-seek-family-not-fortune?src=RSS_PUBLIC (last visited July 15, 2008))..
2. There is no doubt: Our families are very important in terms of whether we are happy or not. Many of us derive much joy from interacting with our spouses and our children and our siblings and our parents. Certainly, for many people, feeling close to family makes it more likely that they will feel happy.
3. And yet, money seems to play into the equation for many people as well. The same survey that found that strong family ties are more important than money to most people for happiness also noted that ninety percent of people whose annual household income was at least $250,000 said that they were “very happy.” Only forty-two percent of those whose household incomes were less than $30,000 said the same. We may wish it were not so, since most of us are closer to the $30,000 level than the $250,000 level. We may even think that there is something wrong with deriving joy from money: it feels somewhat ungodly, doesn’t it? And yet the truth is, most people derive joy from being able to provide a nice living for their families, and they also derive joy from being able to have this possession or that possession.
4. For some, joy comes from their day-to-day activities. Maybe it’s a job, or an activity that they engage in. But whatever it is, what they do on a daily basis gives them a sense of joy.
a. I truly enjoy what I get to do in life. I enjoy being a lawyer and the type of law I practice. I also enjoy being a minister, and helping to lead and shepherd this church. I enjoy thinking deeply about our faith and writing sermons and teaching you each Sunday. I enjoy what I get to do. I think I have the best job in the world.
b. And there are some of you who would say the same thing. You do totally different things than I do. Perhaps you work in an office or in a school or in a hospital. Perhaps you spend your days under the sun landscaping or farming or working construction. Perhaps you stay home with your children and keep house. Perhaps you are retired, and you enjoy traveling or puttering in the garden or meeting other retirees each morning at the local coffee shop. But whatever you do, you love it! You cannot imagine doing anything else! It is like you were specially made to do the very things that you are doing, and those day-to-day activities bring you happiness, satisfaction, and joy.
B. There is nothing wrong with enjoying our family. Nor is there anything wrong with enjoying our activities, or our money and possessions. It is dangerous, however, to depend on these types of things to bring us joy. There is a significant difference between deriving joy from things, and depending on them for our joy. Our activities and our possessions are transient—they are not eternal. Even our families cannot be taken for granted. In an instant our loved ones could be taken, we could lose our jobs or activities, and we could suffer financial ruin. If these transient, unsure things are the source of our joy, rather than merely something that we enjoy, our joy is unsafe and insecure. We risk losing our joy when we tie it to transient things.
1. Now, of course if we were to lose our family, we would be heartbroken in our grief. If we were to lose the ability to engage in the activities we love, we would be sad and upset. And, if we were to lose all our money and possessions, we would be frightened and unsure of how we would make it.
2. However, even in the midst of the worst that life can throw at us, and even in the midst of our heartbreak and sadness and fear, it is still possible to experience joy, if the source of our joy is an eternal source instead of transient one. Our reality is that we live in an uncertain world filled with turmoil and adversity. We live in a world where we frequently experience setbacks, suffering, and sadness. We need a source of joy that transcends all of that. We crave a source of joy that will not go away. We all want to find something or someone that can keep us encouraged and joy-filled, even when life is hard and everything seems to be falling apart around us. We need an eternal source of joy.
C. For the next eight weeks, we will study how we can experience joy that does not fade or falter with the frailties of this life, but rather endures and encourages us through whatever we may encounter. That is what we all want to experience—true joy.
D. To help us discover how we can experience true joy, we are going to look at the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. If any of the New Testament letters can be characterized as “The Epistle of Joy,” it is this one. One commentator writes that “Joy is the music that runs through this epistle, the sunshine that spreads over all of it. The whole epistle radiates joy and happiness.”
(R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians 691 (Hendrickson Publishers, 1998) (Lutheran Book Concern, 1937)).
Indeed, in this short letter of just four chapters, the word “joy,” or some form of it, occurs sixteen times. As we study this letter, we will learn that we can experience joy because of God’s grace at work in our lives, and also because of the promise of eternal life. We will discover that there is joy to be found in Christian unity in the church, fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, and in the relationships God allows us to enjoy. We will also find, though, that joy is not dependent on any of these things; in fact, we can experience joy even in the midst of suffering and deprivation. This is because ultimately, our source of joy is beyond anything in this world. Our joy does not have to change with our circumstances, because the source of our joy is not transient. The source of our joy is Jesus, and He is eternal. Consequently, we can experience joy in every situation we encounter, because Jesus never changes. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He does not change! And because He does not change, He is able to be the source for unchanging, unending, indestructible joy for us.
E. Before we commence this study, however, we should be aware of the circumstances out of which Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians in order to fully understand how to experience the joy that he speaks of in this letter. To do that, let us consider boht Paul’s present circumstances, and also his view of his future ones. First, let me say something about Paul’s present condition. We can sum it up this way: His present was unfair.
I. Paul’s Present Was Unfair.
A. Paul had been arrested on trumped up charges while in Jerusalem and he had been held under arrest for two years without being allowed to defend himself against the charges. Finally, Paul availed himself of his right as a Roman citizen to appeal directly to the Emperor.
1. Under Roman law, a citizen who felt that he was not getting a fair trial was allowed to appeal to the Emperor to decide his case. Paul was a Roman citizen, and since he had been locked away without a trial, he utilized his right to appeal.
2. Appealing, however, carried significant risk. The emperor’s decision was final, and the emperor could impose whatever punishment he thought appropriate. Since Paul had been accused of ‘stirring up dissension all over the world,’ he likely would be sentenced to death if he were found guilty. The last thing that Emperor Nero wanted was someone stirring up dissension in his empire. So this appeal was somewhat risky, but it was what Paul thought that he had to do to attempt to win back his freedom. And so he made his appeal, and he was sent to Rome to appear before Nero.
3. Once in Rome, however, his appeal was not immediately heard. Rather, he was subjected to house arrest for at least the next two years, until Nero had time to hear his case. To add insult to injury, he had to pay for all his own expenses, even his rent. No wonder Paul wrote in Philippians that he had “suffered the loss of all things” for Jesus (Phil 3:8). He was under house arrest on trumped up charges, deprived of his freedom and depleting his finances, all because he tried to share the good news about Jesus with people. His present predicament was unfair.
B. ILL: Have you ever had something happen to you which caused you to think, “This isn’t fair!”? Ken Wyniemko sure has. Just like Paul, he was locked away for a crime that he did not commit. In 1994, he was convicted by a jury based of a horrible crime against a young woman on the basis of a mistaken identification by the victim and fabricated testimony by a jailhouse snitch. He was sentenced to 40 to 60 years in prison, for something he did not do.
1. Ten years later, however, DNA testing showed that he could not have been the man who committed the crime, and he was released from prison. Did he feel that what happened to him wasn’t fair? You better believe it! In fact, he felt that it wasn’t fair for him, or for the victim. He realized that while he was locked up, the real person who hurt the victim was walking around free. It wasn’t fair that he was in jail while the real criminal was walking free.
a. Have you ever felt like “it’s just not fair”? Maybe you feel that your life has been just like driving some old car with the shock absorbers going out down some gravel road with lots of potholes. You have had a rough road in life. Earlier we were talking about how some people derive joy from their family and jobs and activities and money. Maybe you feel like you really got short-changed in some of those. Maybe you look around at the people who seem to have it all, while you feel like you have nothing, and you say, “It’s just not fair! Why can’t I have those things too?”
b. Keeping with the driving analogy, perhaps you have not had a rough road in life so much as you have hit a patch of ice that has your life spinning out of control. Perhaps some crisis has occurred—a job crisis, or financial crisis, or family crisis, or health crisis—and you think, “Why me? It’s just not fair!”
2. Most of us have felt that way at one time or another. Certainly Ken Wyniemko did. It was not fair that he was in prison, when he had done nothing wrong. It was not fair that the real criminal was walking the streets. Ken correctly feels that the police, prosecutors, and the real perpetrator cost him ten years of his life—ten years that he would never get back. Yet, he refuses to allow himself to become angry or bitter. In a recent interview, he related how people sometimes ask him why he isn’t angry over what happened to him. Ken says that he tells them that “you cannot allow yourself to become angry. Anger will kill you. It will distort your mind and make you unable to focus.” So, how did he survive his time in jail, when it seemed that life was so unfair? He says, “I prayed and I prayed and I prayed.”
(Sandra Svoboda, “Beyond Innocence,” Detroit Metro Times (July 2, 2008) at http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=13039 (last visited July 16, 2008)).
C. What do we do when life is unfair? Do we grumble? Do we become bitter and angry? Do we say, “Why me?” If our joy is centered on transient things, that’s most likely what we do. Paul, though, centered his joy on Jesus and his relationship with Him. That’s why he wrote in Phil 3:1, “My brothers and sisters, be full of joy in the Lord.” (Phil 3:1, New Century Version). That’s where our joy comes from: Jesus wants to be the source of our joy. When He’s the source, our joy does not have to dissipate when problems come our way, because Jesus never changes. We can rejoice in Him, even when our lives get rocky. That was Paul’s experience. In this study, we will learn how it can be our experience too.
D. Trans: Let me share one more thing about Paul this morning. Not only was Paul’s present unfair, but his future was uncertain.
II. Paul’s Future Was Uncertain.
A. Most of us can keep a somewhat even keel during rocky patches of life, so long as we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But, what if there is no light? What if we look down that tunnel, and all we see is murky darkness? What if the future is uncertain? What then?
1. That was the situation confronting Paul. His future was uncertain. There was a very real possibility that the Emperor might find Paul guilty of the charges of which he had been accused, and might sentence him to death as a result. He really did not know what the future held. He writes in this letter that he felt confident that God was going to work things out so that he would be released. Yet, he really did not know. Death was a real possibility for him. That adds extra meaning to his words in Phil 1:21 where he wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil 1:21).
2. Paul had no death wish. He did, however, have a proper view of life and death and eternity. He wrote in Phil 1:23 that if he died he would “be with Christ,” and he talked in Phil 3:20 about how “our citizenship is in heaven.” So Paul was able to face his uncertain future bravely, writing in Phil 4:13 that “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
B. Is anyone here facing an uncertain future? Some of us are experiencing problems which we can see no way to overcome. Some of us are caught in situations from which we can see no escape. We desperately want to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but there does not seem to be one. Our future is uncertain.
1. That was the situation in which Paul found himself. Yet, as we read this letter, we do not find words of bitterness, gloom, or despair, but rather words of hope, encouragement, and joy. Why was Paul able to experience joy even in the midst of such uncertainty? You already know the answer: His joy was centered on Jesus, who does not change. Jesus was the source for his joy, not his freedom, or his finances, or even his future. Jesus was the source, and so he experienced joy, not matter what was going on around him.
2. Do you want that? Do you want to feel joy no matter what? Do you want to have a source of joy that will carry you through life’s pain, even when the future is uncertain? You can experience that, if you make Jesus the source of your joy. We are going to discuss that in this study.
Conclusion
A. It is one thing for someone who has everything going for him and does not have a care in the world to be filled with joy. It is something entirely different when the joy-filled one is someone who is being treated horribly unfairly, and is facing an uncertain and frightening future. Paul was not some ‘happy-go-lucky, nothing-bad-ever-happens-to-me’ type of person. No, his freedom was denied. His finances were dwindling. His future was in doubt. Yet, it was this man who wrote such things as “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” in Phil 4:4 and “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” in Phil 4:11. Paul could write those things because the Eternal, Unchanging Jesus was the source of his joy. In this study, we will learn how we can make Him the source of our joy and experience joy in any circumstance as well.
B. Invitation.
