Happy in Jesus

Isn't that spectacular? We don't know when the Lord's going to return. He could come tonight. He could come any moment. Incredible. Prepare your souls. Prepare yourselves. It's going to be glorious. Would you all open with me to the book of Philippians and chapter four. Can you hear me, Jim? All right. Amen. Book of Philippians and chapter four. Philippians chapter four. We're going to read verses one through four. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech you, Odius, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Let me read verse four one more time for you. You can all start to circle this verse. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Amen. I just want to pray one more time. Would you pray with me? If you're led, raise your hands with me and let's ask for the Lord's assistance right now. O Lord Jesus, joy, joy. Lord, I have so much joy and we have so much joy. But we want to know more of this reality. We want to walk out into the beautiful sunshine of your joy today, Lord. So help me to preach, Lord. Help me to be true to your word. Hide me behind your cross, Lord. And may it be that you increase and I am very nothing today, Lord. But to help people to hear directly from the word of God today, directly from your mouth, Lord Jesus, speak to us today. Please illuminate your word to our heart, Lord. We believe in the illuminating, revelatory work of the Holy Spirit. Lord, may your spirit speak into our lives today through the blood of Christ, shining glory on our Father in heaven. Lord, hear us today. We praise your name forever. Amen. Amen. On this rainy day, I have a message for you from heaven. And it is this. You, Christian, are allowed to be happy. Amen? You, Christian, are allowed to be happy. No, even more, it's suggested in the Bible that you might want to be happy. No, even more than that, you are encouraged to be happy. Let me go even one step further. Right here in Philippians chapter four and verse four, you are commanded to be happy. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. We are commanded twice in this verse to be happy. And did you know that all throughout Scripture we hear things like this? Nehemiah, he tells those 39 builders he has, he says, guys, take a break from your work. We're going to have a feast. Why? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. Amen? Or Peter, he says, you can't see Jesus right now. You just have to believe in him. But if you believe in him, you will have a joy unspeakable and full of glory. And Peter's actually saying right there, you will have a glorified joy. You'll have a little taste of heaven in the joy that you experience right now. What does David say? He says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Oh, that's quite a condition, huh? You want the desires of your heart? Then spend your time delighting yourself in the Lord. Or we hear in the New Testament that this gospel we preach is a gospel of glad tidings and great joy. Amen? Did you know that all throughout the Bible you are encouraged to have joy? It's suggested that you have joy and it's even commanded of you that you have joy. And I love that we're commanded by God the Father through his word to have joy. It can be a little ugly, can't it be, when other Christians, when other humans tell you to have joy. Has that ever happened to you? Another human comes up and says, hey, turn that that frown upside down or something like that. And people are just sort of calling you out thoughtlessly. But right here, we have the loving Lord of the universe speaking through his apostle Paul. And he's giving us a universal command for all of us, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. So would you all be pleased to study this with me today? How we can be happy in Jesus. Happy in Jesus. I'm going to give us four things about this verse and I want us to just dive in and look at what Paul is saying here from a few different angles. Four things, I'll just name them as they come up, but our first point is this. This is a life-changing commandment. This is a life-changing commandment. Paul tells us, rejoice. And the Greek word right here is literally the Greek word for giving a hearty greeting. The word right here is still used today in modern Greece, if you were to go over there. And it's the word for hello, hi, great to see you. But it's a really strong word. It's a word for a bakery. You all know where that is. And I saw a man named Paul Lichter. He was a mentor to me in the musical world when I was growing up here in the state of Maine. And the minute he saw me, it was like he fell off his bench. And then I fell off my bench. We weren't sitting on benches, but anyway, we were just like, whoa, it's Paul. Whoa, it's Sam. And then we gave each other the heartiest greeting. And then we started checking our phones. Do I have your number? Do you have my number? Can I see you for lunch next week? That's the sense of this word right here. It's like, hey, it's great to see you. Man, where have you been? And that's the sense we ought to have. Look at it again. Rejoice in the Lord always. That's why I like singing that song. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. That's what is being depicted right here. It's not just get a little bit of joy, but it's like, hello, Lord Jesus. It's this sense of I know the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If any of you guys ever had that feeling, you're like, what? Jesus came into my life. I know Jesus. Oh, hello, Lord. Praise God. That's the sense of this verse right here. Go deeper with me. It's plural and it's repeated, meaning Paul is talking to all Christians here. And then he repeats it, doesn't he? He says, rejoice in the Lord. Again, I will say rejoice. I'm telling you right now that this is a life changing commandment. If you would but hear it. It's to all Christians and it's always relevant. He's saying this is always on the table. We can always rejoice. Did you know that? Remember when James says you got tribulations coming your way? You got trial coming your way? What does he say? Count it all joy when these trials come to you. There is a way that as Christians we can always live with this joy. Sometimes it might feel more like a seed of joy, right? Like I'm not actually feeling that good, but I've got that little seed of joy in my heart. And then sometimes it feels like, oh, Lord's pumping that joy into me and I'm getting more joy and I don't feel that good, but it's coming and it's coming. And sometimes you just have to burst out and express that joy. Maybe when you're driving in the car, you're outside walking, you rejoice in the Lord. Anybody here know the old Westminster Confession of Faith? The larger catechism? The first question it says, what is the chief end of man? Can anyone tell me? Amen. It's to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Do you all have your priorities straight? I'm preaching to myself too. Do I have my priorities straight? Can we literally say my chief end every day of my life is to glorify God and enjoy Him, rejoice in Him, be happy in Him? Just a few more points on this first point here. There's also a pedantic debate among theologians, where if you try to look up commentaries on Philippians chapter four, verse four, theologians will ask, may we use the word happy here? Or may we only use the word joy? And other theologians will say, we may not use the word happy in the Christian life. We may only use the word delight or rejoicing. Do you all see what I'm getting at? There's a pedantic debate here, but this is what I want to tell you. This word does mean be happy. Okay? You can do all the studies you want to do, but our Bible tells us you can be happy in the Lord. And we could say, yeah, maybe there's a worldly type of happiness that's sort of cheap. But right here, Paul's talking about rejoicing in whom? In the Lord. It's a true happiness. It's a deep happiness. Let me tell you, my old King James Bible has the word happy 25 times in it. And each of those 25 times it's saying, it's suggesting that Christians get happy. The new King James Bible, anybody have that translation? It's in our pews right here. 22 times the word happiness appears. Amen? Isn't that telling us something? We can be happy as Christians. The NIV, 20 times the word happy appears. The new American standard version, 19 times the word happy appears. That ought to suggest to you that we ought to get happy as Christians. Amen? That's why I also preach from the old King James. It has the most happies in it. So, second point. First, I told you this is a life-changing commandment. So are you hearing it? Are you going to prick up your ears? Are you going to let it sink into your heart that you can get happy? It's okay. Second point is this. This verse helps us avoid pitfalls. Look at it in context. Verse four, he says, rejoice in the Lord. Why does he say this? Go back to verse two. In verse two, we find there were, I know none of you would believe this, but in this particular church, there were two women arguing. I know that would never happen in this church, but look at verse two. He beseeches Euodius and Syntyche, what? That they be of the same mind in the Lord. And two verses later, I think he says, and you know what is a great way to avoid that pitfall? Focus on rejoicing in the Lord. And then look at verse three. We hear about some Christians that might be getting worn out in their work for the Lord. Look at verse three. I entreat thee also to, yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with my other fellow laborers. You see, he's talking to people who are laboring, who are laboring day in and day out for the gospel. And he wants to tell them, if you want to avoid the pitfall of arguing with each other, you want to avoid the pitfall of getting worn out in Christian service, then jump down to verse four and learn the art of rejoicing in the Lord. Amen? My second point for you is that this verse right here, this command, is a way to avoid pitfalls in our Christian life. Thirdly, verse four is a victorious approach to time. And please think this through with me. It's a victorious approach to time. Circle this word, verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. So when ought we to rejoice in the Lord? Can you tell me? Always. So right now, we ought to rejoice in the Lord, right? What about 30 minutes from now? Yes. What about tonight? Yes. What about tomorrow morning? That's also an always, right? So whenever I could say it's now, I ought to be rejoicing in the Lord. So amazing. If you all, for this brief moment on point three right now, if you all try to get this with me, this will make us a very dangerous, very dangerous church. I believe right now in what's happened in the last five months since we've all been together, and I say this delicately, I believe Satan is quaking in his boots. I believe he is scared of us. I believe the fact that we've come together and we're actually loving each other, and there's an impulse among us to reach the community of Portland, and we're staying right here, and we're digging in our heels. We're not going anywhere. We're going to give the gospel to the souls here who need it. Satan is getting scared. Also, there's a prayer meeting. Also, there's love. Also, people are eating together. Also, people are talking to each other and actually becoming friends. Satan does not like that at all, but if we go one step further, and we actually learn to rejoice in the Lord as we minister, we learn to be a church that's full of joy. Satan's just going to flee. He will have no part in us. He will have nothing to do with us. Well, he'll still try to attack us, but he's out of here. Listen to this. I read in the C.S. Lewis book. Look, in one of C.S. Lewis's books, what is it called? The one about the demons. Everybody know? Amen. There you go. I just didn't write it down. Screw tape letters. Kiara just read it to me. It floored me. An incredible book. I would heartily recommend it to you. C.S. Lewis, The Screw Tape Letters. What he depicts there is two demons who are talking to each other about how they can take down a Christian. It's a very moving story. It's incredible. And in one of the chapters, one of the demons says, all you really need to do is mess with his approach to time. Okay? I want everybody to hear me here. The Christian approach to time throughout the Bible is this. Your past is redeemed. Your present is joyful. And your future is exciting. Can I say that again? That actually checks out in the Bible. So listen to me. Your past is redeemed. Your future, your present is potentially very, very joyful. And your future is exciting. Let me just show you that. It's in the text right before us, okay? Look at Philippians chapter three in verse 13. Paul says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. So how does Paul want us to approach the past? He says, forget it. It's redeemed. It's in the past. Joel, the prophet Joel actually says, those years that the locusts have eaten will be restored to you. God is restoring those years that the locusts have eaten. The writer of Ecclesiastes says, don't look back in the past and say those were golden years. He explicitly says, don't do that. Why? Because the Christian's past is redeemed. You can look back through all of it and say, the Lord is working good, even in the most difficult times of my life. He works all things for good for them that love him. Amen? So you all getting this? Your past, Christian, is redeemed. What about your present? The present is in Philippians four, verse four. You're rejoicing in the Lord always. Or Philippians four, verse 12. In verse 11, Paul says, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know both how to be abased and how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need. So what's Paul's approach to the present? Be joyful and be content. Isn't that beautiful? And what about the future? I just want to show you this. Go back to chapter three and verse 13. He says, I forget those things which are behind and I reach forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So how does Paul see our future? It's incredibly exciting. He's pressing forward. He's moving on into the future. In Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah says, don't remember the things of the past. Praise God in the present and God is going to do a new thing in the earth in the future. Amen? Are you all building this up together with me? I really want you all to see this. So C.S. Lewis says the demons are looking at this Christian and they say, if we can just mess with his sense of time and any one of those three will take him down. Think through this with me. How would that work? We've got a Christian who's really good in the present. So I'm joyful. In my future it looks exciting, but I can't stop thinking about the past and I keep thinking of how our church used to be and I keep thinking I want to go back there. You see? Then the demons have got us on just one of our approaches to time. But what about the person who says, okay, my past is redeemed. My future is exciting. But in the present, I'm scared. I'm fearful. You see what I'm talking about? Isn't that fascinating? Or what about my past is redeemed. I'm joyful right now. But when I look to the future, I don't know if we're going to make the bills. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. And C.S. Lewis, he just paints this amazing picture that if the demons can get us to think that way, they could potentially really deeply hurt us and discourage us and take us down. Think about it in one more way in our personal lives. You can say I'm joyful in the present. I'm excited for the future. But when I think of the past, it's just guilt and guilt and condemnation and condemnation. Or you can say my past is redeemed. My future is looking good. But right now in the present, I just hate it. I'm discontent. I'm arguing with my spouse. I can't even get along. Or you could say I'm good in the past. I'm good in the present. But I'm fearing the future. Am I sensing through? You guys see what I'm talking about here? This is very, very powerful. And that's why my third point for you is that Philippians 4 and verse 4 is a victorious approach to time. If all that I just said gets maybe too complicated for us, one thing we can always say is this. Rejoice in the Lord. Always. Rejoice in the Lord for what He's done in your past. Rejoice in the Lord for what He's doing right now. And don't stop and think, oh, but there's not this in place. There's not this many numbers. There's a problem in our church. There's a problem in my household. There's a problem. No. Rejoice in the Lord now. And when you look to the future, say, there's a bright hope for tomorrow. It's very exciting. God is going to do a new thing in this earth. Amen? Amen. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Fourth and finally, and we'll end with this. I've said what? First point, this is a life-changing commandment if you'll hear it. Secondly, it's a way to avoid pitfalls in your life. Third, there is a victorious approach to time right here in this verse. Such a secret, beautiful thing that can help us just shame the forces of evil. Finally, in verse four, is the best way to approach the Lord. The best way to approach the Lord. And we'll end with this. Please give me all of your attention. Give the Lord all of your attention as we think this through. In the Bible, you are told to trust the Lord. Amen? In the Bible, you are told to believe in the Lord. Amen? You are told to repent and turn to the Lord. You are told to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Amen? You're even told to love the Lord. But right here, Paul goes a step further and he says, rejoice in the Lord. Amen? And I consider this right here, it's like whipped cream on every moment of your life. You can say, yeah, I do all these things. I trust him. I believe him. I love him. I'm going after him. I'm following him. My soul is following hard after him. But you have to add this. I rejoice in him. You got to put that whipped cream on the top. Amen? I rejoice in him. Every moment I rejoice in him. What about bad approaches to the Lord? Some of us say, I'm going to study the Lord, but it becomes very dry. And Paul says, you better rejoice when you study. Some of us say, I'm just going to hear about Jesus on Sundays. But Paul says, don't just hear about him. Rejoice in him. Some of us say, I'm going to try to please the Lord. I'm just going to grin and bear it. I'm going to try to please him. And we can get very legalistic. And Paul says, stop it. Rejoice in the Lord. Some of us forget the Lord. And Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. Get that good stuff going. I look at a baby, like my new son. And what you find is that babies just delight in everything. It's very weird. They delight in Cheerios. They delight in other crumbs on the floor that they shouldn't be eating. They delight in anything that comes their way. Here comes a new person. Here comes someone going, and they delight in it. They delight in sounds. They delight in sights. They delight in colors. And we get older and older. And what happens? I think our capacity to rejoice gets diminished and diminished and diminished. But what does Christ tell us? He says we ought to become like unto little babes, like little children who are rejoicing in everything. Think about a few things. Take a few more notes with me. Let's go a little bit deeper as we end here. Rejoice in the Lord's presence. Do you rejoice in the Lord's presence as you go about your days? If you aren't able to rejoice in the Lord's presence, let me give you a simple way to do it. Get clean. That's the simplest way to get the Lord's presence back. I knew for the last three months I had to write two emails to some people. It was three emails, actually. I'm just confessing sin to you all, okay? There are emails I had to reconcile with some people. I had to say, hey, I love you. Do you love me? Can we talk? It wasn't until I wrote those emails and sent them out that I could feel that, oh, the Lord's presence is back. I can sense you, Lord. I know you're here with me. You see? So if you're lacking the Lord's presence, go and get clean. Go put that thing away. You know you're supposed to put it away. You know you're supposed to stop doing that. Or you know you're supposed to call your brother and you haven't been calling him. Go do it. And immediately, the Lord's presence will start to come back. The whole Bible testifies to that. If you want to enter into the Lord's presence, you've got to come with clean hands and a pure heart. Amen? Rejoice in the Lord's presence. What about this? Rejoice in the Lord's character. Do you rejoice in everything about Jesus? Do you rejoice in everything you hear about Jesus? I woke up a few mornings ago and my Bible reading was Psalm 78. And if you go through that Psalm, what you hear about is the wrath of God. Almost over and over again in Psalm 78, the wrath of God. And you can start to say, this seems a little dark. Or you can remember Philippians chapter 4, verse 4 and say, I rejoice in the Lord. You learn about his wrath and you start to say, there's something good here, Lord. There's a reason you have wrath. I need a God who has righteous indignation. I need a God who's going to judge those who deserve judgment. I need a God who's going to vindicate those who are pursuing righteousness. I need that sort of God. Amen? Do you all see that? And then your whole Bible reading can become transformed. Because you're looking at every part of God's character and you're saying, I rejoice in it, Lord. I rejoice in it. How about rejoicing in the Lord's gifts? Anybody do that? Are you able to rejoice in what the Lord gives you? My wife, for my birthday a few weeks ago, she gave me, I wondered if I should share this, three sweatshirts. Does that sound super holy and amazing? She gave me three sweatshirts. One was gray, one was sort of dark, like black, and one was red. And it was wonderful. And you can look at these sweatshirts and you can say, okay, that's vain. But it's not really vain to have a sweatshirt because you just look like a boring dad and that's who I've become. That's good. But these sweatshirts, you can, you could potentially get obsessed with your sweatshirts and get into sin, I suppose. But really they're, they're a gift from your wife. And then when you add that whipped cream on top and say, it's also a gift from the Lord. I'm going to put on this sweatshirt and I'm going to enjoy the Lord. I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. Is that a silly example? I want to tell you all, you've got to rejoice in the Lord's gifts. If He's enabled you, you know, to go out to McDonald's one night this week, rejoice in Him. Love Him. If He's enabling you to do a new thing or get a new job or whatever it is, if, if you have a car, rejoice in Him. Rejoice in all these gifts. We go wrong when we say that's just worldly. We practice a sort of Gnosticism when we say, oh, that's just, that's just material stuff. No, take whatever that material stuff is and bring it back to the Lord and say, hallelujah, thank you, Lord. I'm rejoicing in these sweatshirts in your presence. Amen? And here's the final thing. Rejoice in the Lord's book. Rejoice in the Lord's book. Is there anybody here who rejoices in the Lord's good book, in His Bible, in His Word? Are there passages you delight in? Is anybody daring enough to say, even right now, is there a part of the Bible where you say, I can go there and I'm going to rejoice in Him? Anybody want to share? Amen. Wonderful. Amen. That's beautiful. Amen. Praise God. 413. Let's see. What does that say here? Amen. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Amen. Praise God. You know, we can have sort of a false holiness where we say, no, I don't delight in any one portion of the Bible. I delight in all of the Bible. Come on. If you're truly delighting in the Lord's Word, then there are some portions that bring you joy, where you know you can go there. For me, it's 2 Corinthians. I know I can go there and just rejoice in Him. Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Song of Solomon. I know I can go to all of those and rejoice in Him. What about verses in the Bible? Are there places you can go, like our brother Tim just pointed out? For me, recently, it's whenever it says something like, who is this? You know, who is this king of glory? Who is this one coming over the mountains? Who is this one who's leaping over the hills like a deer? Those passages just get me excited. I don't know what it is. I get fired up with those passages. It's incredible. Do you have those things where you can say, I know I can go right there and I will rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord's book? I leave you with this story. A man named George Mueller, though I think you've all heard of him from the pulpit a few times. It's a sign of God's grace if George Mueller is being mentioned in your church, by the way, okay? If you have people in your church who are obsessed with George Mueller, it's a pretty good sign that God's going to pour out His grace on you, okay? It's a big deal. I'm not talking about myself. There are others here who love George Mueller, which means that they want to live a life of faith. George Mueller was a man who gave himself wholeheartedly to the Lord. He didn't only want to live a life of faith. He said, I want to raise up a testimony in England to the fact that God still answers prayer. That's a big deal. Do we have that much faith right now where we want to raise up a testimony in Portland, Maine that God still answers prayer? That's why George Mueller has been mentioned in this church. I pray he's always mentioned. Listen, midway through George Mueller's life, he said, early in the morning, I would wake up and I would just start to pray and read my Bible. And he found out I was wrong. So let me just read to you an account of why he says he was wrong, okay? He says, I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. Amen? Not just to read the Bible, not just to pray, but to have his soul happy in the Lord. Hallelujah. He says, the first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how much I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For, listen, I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted. I might seek to benefit believers. I might seek to relieve the distressed. I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world. And yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Amen? So what he set out to do is, he would still wake up and read and pray. He didn't give up on that. But his goal was different. And he would go very slowly, he said, through passages of the New Testament. And the minute he found a little food for his soul, he would stop right there and meditate. And you see just a few words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and he'd stop. And the Son of God. The Son of God? The Son of God? And you meditate. You slow down. Why? What does he say? He says, I'm going to make it my priority to have my soul happy in the Lord. Isn't that beautiful? Could we all aspire to be more like that? Brothers and sisters, if you have not heard anything else in this sermon, I want you to hear this. Make it your first priority every day to get your soul happy in the Lord. It doesn't have to be at 6.30 in the morning like George Mueller. It could be at lunch. It could be as you're driving in the car. It could be whatever it is. But Paul tells you right here, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. And one more thing as I think of it. Paul's verb right here, he says, again I say. That's in the future tense. He's saying, again I will say. Not only am I saying it now, but I will say it again in the future. Do you all mind if as I'm pastoring this church I say, and I will say it again. Rejoice in the Lord. We don't stop right here, brothers and sisters. You have to encourage each other. You have to say, again I'm going to say next week. A few years from now when we're having going through a time of trial or a person has left. Again I will say, rejoice in the Lord. Amen. Put that whipped cream on every moment of your life. Father we love you. We praise your name. Father I confess to my own joylessness at times. If anybody here wants to confess to their joylessness, you can just lift up your hands and praise the Lord right now. Lord I pray for joy in this place. I pray for anybody who needs to repent of living a Christian life without joy. Lord we give you our lives. We ask you Lord to fill us with true joy, with rejoicing, with happiness Lord. Help us not to shy away from that word. Help us to be happy Lord. Help us to be truly happy in you. Oh God make us a people who are joyful in our King, joyful in our Jesus, joyful in our heavenly God. Oh Lord we love you. Fill this place with your joy always. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you Pastor.