The Three Greatest Joy Robbers Series

So the first joy robber in our passage is sour relationships. And the antidote is this: get along with people. Usually this means extending lots of grace. Keep in mind that sometimes God brings difficult people into our lives to teach us. Left to ourselves, we’d like to get rid of these difficult people. We’d like to brush them aside or ignore them. But God doesn’t let us do that. Everyone in God’s family matters, not just those we get along with easily. So, in Paul’s words in verse 2 “agree with each other.” Get along with people. Why? It will increase your joy!

2. Worry

A second major joy robber is worry. Have you ever laid awake at night worrying about something? I know I have! Joy and worry are like oil and water. They don’t mix. If I am worrying about something, it’s almost impossible to have joy. That’s what makes verses 4-6 so relevant.

Anytime a word is repeated in the Bible it should catch our attention. In verse 4 rejoice is repeated twice. Both times it’s a command form of the verb in the present tense. The present tense in Greek carries the idea of an ongoing activity. Our rejoicing is to be an ongoing part of our day-to-day lifestyle. Friends, this is a call to supernatural living! Typically, most of us are joyful when things are going well, but we don’t have much joy when things aren’t going well. Raise your hand if that’s your experience.

In verse 4 God calls us to a lifestyle of joy that remains steady regardless of our circumstances. Remember Paul was writing this while he was chained to a Roman soldier! Apparently his adverse circumstances didn’t put a damper on his joy. This raises a question. How was Paul able to do that? How could he sustain joy when his circumstances were so rotten?

I think a key is found in verse 5. I’d like you to underline the phrase “the Lord is near.” This is a truth that anchors everything else in this paragraph. If God is near, we can rejoice no matter how hard things get. Knowing God is near—if we remember it—makes all the difference. Why? Because if God is by our side, then we’ve got nothing to worry about! He can handle every one of our concerns.

Three years ago I swam the Donner Lake open water race for the first time. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was committed to finishing the 2.7 mile swim. Well, that first year I swam for about a half hour and then I picked up my head to look around. I was completely alone. I didn’t see anyone anywhere. I’d been told there would be kayakers nearby in case I got in trouble, but there wasn’t a kayaker within ½ mile. It was my first open water race and I started to wig out. I thought about how fast I could disappear beneath the surface. It would be weeks before they found my body! I started to panic and almost quit the race. But just before I headed to shore I started praying. Then I put my head back down and didn’t look back.

But the second year I swam Donner I did things differently. I recruited my own escorts. In fact, I had two kayaks one on either side. Karl Rodriguez was on my right and Leo Castro was on my left. Their presence made all the difference! If anything went wrong, I knew they’d be able to fish me out. They were only a few feet away during the entire swim. Because I knew they were next to me, I didn’t lift my head up once. I settled right down, got into a good swimming rhythm and kept it up for the whole race.