Everyday Joy 2

Smile. Cheer up, things can’t be that bad! Smile! Random strangers are always telling me what to do with my face. The other day I went to Angel’s football game, and they won, totally crushed the other team. I walked up to one of the other dads after and said, “Another successful sportsball event.” I thought it was funny. He was offended, he got all serious, “Well, I think they played really well and should be congratulated on working hard and scoring some great touchdowns.” It’s my face, isn’t it. I think it’s my face. If I had a nickel for every time I had to apologize or explain when I’m joking, I’d have—I don’t know, probably like—$143.57. See it’s funny because nickels can’t add up to 57¢. Also because $143 doesn’t seem like that much money, but that would be 2,871.4 times that I had to apologize or explain when I’m joking—more than once a week since I’ve been alive. That seems like a lot of times. Okay, now it would be $143.62. It’s okay, God gets me. He’s got a great sense of humor. Called me to be a pastor didn’t He?

People are always telling me to smile. Christians are my biggest critics by far. They’re always like, “We should be the most joyful people on earth.” “Because of Jesus.” “If Jesus saved you, you oughta let your face know about it, Frank!” Christians are always Jesus Juking my face. Just know that if you ever tell me to smile, and I show you my teeth—I’m not smiling. I’m threatening to bite you.

If you think someone needs to look more happy, then say something funny. Do something to make them smile. Don’t add to their frustration by making them feel like they’re doing something wrong.

We’re in this series called “Everyday JOY,” and I want to make sure that I’m not crushing everyone with some kind of guilt trip obligation to be more joyful. I don’t see how that’s gonna help anyone. Honestly though, I’ve heard hundreds of sermons where that’s what the pastor did. They didn’t bother to paint a picture of what we should be joyful about, didn’t express their own joy and hope we jump on the joy-train with them, they just blasted us with a command to be joyful. If we’re not careful, the idea of living a joyful life can become just another thing we feel guilty about, just another way that we fail God.

So today I hope we can all come to understand that joy isn’t an obligation, it’s the byproduct of being thankful, the byproduct of our faith. Joy is what happens when we rejoice—when we think about what we’re thankful for instead of what we’re anxious about or what we’re unhappy about.

Prayer: Father in heaven, help us to remember that You promise to be good to us. You promise to take care of us and there’s nothing that can happen to us in this world that You can’t redeem, and ultimately lead us beyond it, and to somewhere beautiful and glorious. Point us to Jesus today and may our joy be full. AMEN

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4–7 

This is the Word of the Lord—Thanks be to God. 

Just Scripture. St Paul’s kinda bossy here isn’t he? Rejoice in the Lord always. Now. Continually, habitually, constantly be rejoicing. And when do we get to stop? Never. No expiration date. Rejoice always. And just in case we were skimming when we read his letter, he repeats himself. “Again I will say, rejoice.” 

I gotta tell you. This is one of those verses that Christians like to beat me over the head with, “Frank. You don’t look like you’re rejoicing. Do I need to taunt you a second time?”

When I found out on Monday that Kilpatrick Elementary was going to be working on their air conditioning and we’d have to worship somewhere else this Sunday—my first reaction was not to rejoice. My first reaction was anxiety. Anger. I didn’t want our plans to get messed with. We had a big BBQ party planned. Rally Day. I worried that all the momentum we’ve been building by putting out our signs every week was gonna be ruined. All the what ifs and maybes. All of a sudden I was acting like I didn’t believe in God at all. Worry. Anxiety. Anger. These are all emotions driven by fear and doubt.

What would it look like to trust God instead? To remember the promises He’s given us because of Jesus? What would it look like to rejoice?

All of our worries and anxieties are driven by “what ifs” and “maybes”—but we’re supposed to answer them with our faith. What if putting all our signs out at Rylander for a week gets the attention of someone who wasn’t gonna see us at Kilpatrick? What if November 10th is a better date for Rally Day? What if we all just needed a little exercise in patience and flexibility—and trusting that God is the one who’s in control of this thing, not us. What if God is up to something good? To rejoice in the Lord always is to always trust Jesus, that He knows what He’s doing and He’s got it. To be glad we don’t have to worry about it—whatever it is. Big things, little things. Don’t worry about it, just let Him know what you want, and then be thankful for whatever you get. And the timing of when you get it. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Except for Really Bad Times. Except when something really bad happens, right? Except for those life and death moments when we’re really scared or mad or sick or wondering where the money’s gonna come from. Except for then, right?

No. Especially then. Rejoice in the Lord always. That’s what your faith is for. 

When things go bad you might be tempted to get mad at God, blame Him, feel abandoned—that’s exactly why St Paul wrote this. He wrote this from prison for telling people about Jesus. If anyone had a right to feel sorry for themselves and feel abandoned by God it was Paul. Beaten, shipwrecked, thrown in a dungeon, chained to the floor—does that sound like a #blessed life to you? It did to him. He said he counts it all as joy. He wants us to get this: the troubles of this life are what our faith is for. That’s why it’s called faith. When bad things happen, they should be like reminders—notifications to help us to remember to rejoice in the Lord. Situation might suck. Rejoice in the Lord anyway. Make yourself remember His promises to you.

Rejoicing is a choice. It’s choosing to be thankful for what Jesus has promised you instead of being worried about whatever’s going on.

But we like to worry, we think it’s our duty. I was talking to my mom one day and trying to get her to not worry about something, I don’t remember what it was, I said, “Mom, it doesn’t do any good to worry about it.” She said, “Maybe not, but there’s nothing else I can do.”

That’s it, isn’t it. We think worrying is actually doing something.

A famous French philosopher—I can’t pronounce his name—said, “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened." - Michel de Montaigne. What percentage of the things we worry about do you think actually happen? According to a study done by Dr Robert Leahy, 85% of the things we worry about never happen. Other studies have the number closer to 95%. That’s a lot of unnecessary drama and stress.

The central component of all anxiety disorders, phobias and depression is worry.

We worry about everything. Money, relationships, health, work, school—the wind starts blowing outside and we worry the tree in our front yard is gonna fall on the house. Something can always go wrong, we can find a way to worry about anything.

But most of the things we worry about aren’t going to happen. And sometimes it’s the worrying itself that causes the problem. Worry releases stress hormones as if there really is a problem, which causes heart disease, brain shrinkage, increases the likelihood of cancer, dementia, clinical depression. Worry, as it turns out, is actually something to worry about.

So, what’s the solution? Well, verse 4 says be full of the joy of the Lord instead of worry. But it’s not saying, “Just joy harder!” “Smile!” “Pretend like you don’t have anything to worry about.” This isn’t the power of positive thinking—it’s the power of faith. 

Joy is the byproduct. It’s not that part we do. We don’t make our own joy. The deal is this: we remember who the Lord is and what He’s promised us. We remember that God is God and we’re not. Our worrying doesn’t do anything good for us, and is actually really bad for us. Bad for us, bad for the people around us. We have to learn how to lean into our faith.

Rejoice in the Lord. Remember that He said to bring your cares to Him. Tell the Lord what you need, tell Him what’s going on, tell Him how you feel about it. Be persistent, if you pray and you’re still worried about the thing you’re praying about, then you’re not done praying about it—that’s how you know. It’s not about turning that frown upside down so much as it’s about turning that worry into something that resembles thankfulness. 

Rejoice in the Lord. It’s the same thing we’ve been saying about what to do when we’re overwhelmed—come to Jesus and He’ll give you rest. This passage is saying the same thing with different words; rejoice in the Lord means we bring our worries to Jesus, and if we do, here’s the promise—this is big, you should write this down and remember it: Verse 6, instead of worrying, tell God what you need, what’s heavy on your heart, whatever it is—and here’s the promise: “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” That’s a pretty amazing promise. Bring your worries to Jesus and He promises to give you peace.

You have a choice when you’re worried about something. You can let it drag you down into a pit. Compare your misery to other people’s Facebook and Instagram photos. Everybody else has it better than you. Play out the movie in your head over and over where you can’t make the house payment so you lose the house and end up living on the street, you can’t afford to send you kids to a proper school so they end up getting an online degree from the University of Phoenix in water colors. You play that movie out in your head that always ends in a tragic bloodbath where you die alone, broke and in pain.

Or, you can choose to rejoice in the Lord. Tell Him what’s on your mind and then trust that God knows what He’s doing. That all the troubles in this world are temporary and He’s taking you somewhere good. 

Rejoicing is a choice. It’s choosing to be thankful for what Jesus has promised you instead of being worried about whatever you think might happen. Trusting Him, seeing the future through faith instead of through the worries and anxieties that are surrounding you—casting your cares on Him, coming to Jesus with your heaviness—then He promises to flood your heart and mind with peace.

The Gospel. Whatever it is that you’re worried about, what does it look like through the lens of the Gospel? God looked at the world and saw that the world and everyone in it was in pain—dying and suffering and lost. He looked at the world and saw you. Your struggles, your sorrows, your worries. And He said, “I’m gonna fix that.” All the pain, all the death, all the hunger and thirst—everything that keeps you up at night—He sent Jesus to fix it. Rejoice in the Lord. Jesus is making everything new. He’s reconciling the world to Himself. He’s made it so everyone who is with Him, everyone who believes and trusts in Him—even if you die, you will live. You can lose the whole world but if you have even a little bit of faith in Jesus, you haven’t lost anything that matters, you inherit everything 

Instead of dwelling on what might go wrong, or what stinks about your life, all the heaviness—think about what God has done for you in Jesus. The eternal truth of the promises God has made to you because of the resurrection of Jesus—because He lives, you’re gonna live. Because God honored Jesus, you will be honored. Because He died in your place and forgives your sins, you are good and right and pure before God. Because God loves you, you are lovely—His love makes you loveable. Instead of worrying yourself sick, think about these things. Rejoice in what the Lord has done for you and in you and through you. Rejoicing is a choice. It’s choosing to be thankful for what God has done for you through Jesus. 

How often will we have to make this choice? This choice for joy. Every day. Always. We remember what the Lord Jesus has done for us—that’s all we can do. I’m not telling you to smile and get over it. I’m not telling you to joy harder. This is a message about joy, not killjoy. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!” Bring your worries to Him in faith. He’s got this. He promises to give you peace beyond your comprehension and fill you with Joy beyond words. AMEN