Rejoice in the Lord Always

Last weekwe started a sermon series entitled “Always.” We are taking a look at various concepts that we should be “Always” trying to follow as followers of God through Jesus. This week we are focusing on how we should “Rejoice in the Lord Always.”

Our scripture comes from Philippians 4:1-9. The words will be on the screen.

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Please pray with me…

Verse 4of today’s main scripture offers us the words that form our sermon title, “Rejoice in the Lord Always.” We don’t have Paul setting any parameters on time or location. Paul does not tell us to only rejoice in the good times. He does not say for us to only rejoice when we feel like it.

He wants us to be willing to always remember our God. He wants us to focus on the good that our God has done for us. Paul wantsus to be willing to have God in our hearts and on our minds “always.”

It is when we remember where Paul is at when he is writing this letter that can show us that he is living out the words that he is expressing. Paul is in prison writing these words. He is not a free man but a man that believes all the time is the right time to “rejoice in the Lord.”

He begins this reading with a desire from the Christians in Philippi. He begins by asking for two women of the church, Euodia and Syntyche to settle their differences. He wants them to remember that they are both worshipping and serving the same God and should therefore focus on what they agree on instead of their differences.

We areto rejoice even when we face conflict. Paul has lived this throughout his ministry. He had been in conflict with the Jewish religious authorities he used to work for. He had been in conflict with a group of Jewish Christians who believe that a person needed to be Jewish to be a Christian.

He hadbeen in conflict with the townspeople both Jew and Gentile in the areas that he was ministering. And he was in conflict with the Roman authorities, which is why he was imprisoned while he wrote this letter.

But throughout these conflicts. Despite these disagreements, we have Paul rejoicing in the Lord. We have Paul spreading the word of God. We havePaul writing letters to the churches that he founded helping them on their faith journeys.

Conflict is not a reason to choose to not rejoice in the Lord. I know some of you if not most of you know we are facing conflict within the United Methodist Church. We have churches choosing to leave the denomination.

We havea choice as a part of “the church,” meaning as followers of Jesus, to not associate with them. We can decide that they are making a decision against God. We can do as some have and “rejoice” that they have left.

The other option is for us to “rejoice in the Lord.” We rejoice in the Lord during conflict by showing the love of God. We don’t focus on our disagreements. We instead focus on the fact that we follow the same God. A God of love and grace for all people.

This is what Paul is stating. He asks the congregation of Phillipi to work with these women and attempt to end this conflict. Help them to come together in solidarity with God, with the church, and with each other. He believes the best way for them to change would be for their focus to be on rejoicing in the Lord.

We canchoose to do the same. We can decide that we are not going to let conflict stop us from interacting with the churches that chose to leave or are a part of another denomination. We should be praying for them and their ministry. We should desire to have them be successful in helping people make the decision to become followers of Jesus.

It is through how we act and react during times of conflict both within and outside of the church that can allow those around us to receive a greater understanding of our relationship with God and how God can help us rejoice even when things are not going as we would like.

Our first reading from Isaiah gives us a glimpse of what that can look like. Those around us can see our righteousness. I knowI might be overusing the phrase, but it is important that those around us see us as living in the world but not of the world.

The world is full of conflict. It is when we make the decision not to seek revenge or to not act out after a conflict with someone that we can show that we are different. We can express our love for others through God instead of the distrust and mistreatment that the world would expect.

This leads to us being called a “crown of beauty in the eyes of the Lord.” God sees us being who he desires for us to be. He seesthat we are doing all in our power to resolve conflict instead of keeping the conflict going. It is when we fulfill this expectation that we have God rejoicing in the way we follow him.

This leads to the Lord delighting in us and our willingness to choose to follow his ways instead of the ways of the world. We can be viewed as someone who will rejoice in the Lord and will do what God desires no matter the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

This sounds great and is the goal, but what we also know is that we will fail. We will react negatively instead of correctly at times. This will often lead to further conflict and division. This will be us failing to be who God desires for us to be.

This maybe the situation that these two women find themselves in. One or both of them reacted wrongly, which furthered the conflict, which has now possibly led to division within the church and has caused Paul to have to step in and attempt to create peace.

We areblessed that even in our times of failure we have a God that loves us as we are. A God that has witnessed society fail him over and over again. A God that is always willing to forgive and forget the wrong we have done against him and against those around us.

The forgivenessof God should be a reminder to us that we are first and foremost to choose to love and forgive. We are to decide that we are not going to continue on with this division. We are going to seek to be peacemakers.

This may mean that we are going to have to take the first step. We are going to have to seek forgiveness for the true or perceived wrongs that we have done to the person or group that we are in conflict.

This may be what Paul is hoping will happen among these two women. One of them if not both of them will decide that they are not following the will of God. They willdecide to do what they can to bring peace to the situation. Making this decision will cause God to rejoice.

We rejoicein the Lord when we remember that “The Lord is at hand.” God is with us always. God is not controlled by time or space. He can be in all places at all times. He is with us during the good and bad times we are facing just as he is with those on the other side of the world during the good and bad times they are facing.

Rememberingthat the “Lord is at hand” should help us too not be anxious. It is whenwe get wrapped up in the troubles of the world that we will sometimes forget that the Lord is with us. It is forgetting that can lead us to forget that we are to rejoice in the Lord always.

I am not saying this is easy. I am not saying that there won’t be times we will have anxiety, when we will have doubts about what is happening around us. But let us try to always keep in mind that “the Lord is at hand.”

One way we may be able to do this is through a breath prayer. A breath prayer is a short prayer or reminder. We may use this method to remind us “God is with us” by repeating over and over to ourselves or out loud “The Lord is with me,” “The Lord is with me,” The Lord is with me.”

The goal is that this becomes so engrained in your mind that you no longer physically have to even remember to say it. You are able to remember that God is with you subconsciously which can hopefully lessen any anxiety that you may face which will allow you to remember the peace of God which passes all understanding.

Let God bring peace into your life. Let God help you to remove the negative thoughts and emotions that have taken control of your life. Let God remind you that you are a child of God loved by God no matter what you have done to those around you or to God. Let this reminder lead you to rejoice in the Lord always.

We show that we are rejoicing in the Lord when we attempt to focus on the positive attributes that were shown by Jesus and should be lived out in our lives. Paul pointsthis out to the people of Phillipi and tells us and them to focus on…

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The thoughtsthat come to mind when I look at these traits is that if those of us in the world would look towards attempting to live out these traits in unity with each other, we would not have to worry about conflict in our lives.

We would find ourselves always thinking about the interests of those around us instead of the interest of ourselves. We would end up having our conflicts arise from everyone trying to do good for each other instead of attempting to tear each other down.

That may be the point that Paul is attempting to make to the women that he started out attempting to lead back into fellowship instead of conflict with one another. He is givingthem and us an alternative on where we should turn our focus.

This can return us to verse four, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” Living livesconnected to God and attempting to follow the ways of God, and choosing to worship God should not be an occasional action.

Paul endsthis scripture by telling us that we need to live lives for God. We needto spend time with God. We need to follow the attributes of God. And ifwe do these things than the God of peace will be with us.

We will be able to rejoice in the Lord always because we will be able to always feel the presence of God in us and around us. Our focus will not be on the anxieties of the world. Our focus will be on the love, grace, and peace of our God.

Our God wants to be with us during our time on earth. He desires to help us during our earthly journey. This is why we should rejoice in the Lord always.

Please pray with me…