Joy In The journey

Introduction

Well, it is good to be here with you this morning. I decided to step away from Revelation this week because well frankly I was scared of getting the emails Josh keeps talking about! In all seriousness though, I believe God was calling me to present. different message this morning.

Church, this is an incredible time in our family, for many reasons. We have had an incredible influx of babies, and we are also blessed to have many wonderful weddings amongst us in our congregation. There are many young people in our congregation that have either just had, or are anxiously waiting the arrival date of their wedding ceremony. As I just mentioned, what comes with the this life changing event? The wait. The wait comes with this major life event . Anticipation is high, there is stress in the planning ,prepping, and getting things ready for the wedding date. I know looking back at my own experience, especially the last month or so leading to the ceremony was one stressful moment in our young lives. However, with some wonderful words of advice from a close friend came some clarity to the situation. My friend said to me, “at the end of the day, if you are still married, what does the rest matter? The planning, prepping...it is all just a temporary situation, your marriage however...thats life lasting importance.” He was right, as long as I got to marry Grace at the end of the day...what else that had gone into the planning really mattered? Beyond that epiphany, came another one...where was my joy in the waiting? The stress of everything dampened what was truly a special time in our lives. All the time and focus was spent on the end goal, which of course was an important part to everything, but what saddened me was that I had missed the true love of the experience to get to that point. The waiting time is also supposed to be special.

This morning we will spending time in Philippians 4:4-7 please turn with me there. As youu do so, I think it is quite important to understand the context of Paul’s situation here. Paul was sitting in prison for preaching God’s word faithfully. So while in prison he says,

Philippians 4:4–7 LEB

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be made known to all people. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Joy is Commanded, Not Optional.

Paul says here not once but twice to Rejoice. It is very evident that this is not just a suggestion but a command. He is doing so by again, sitting in prison! How is that possible? Personally prison does not seem to fun to me, I think it would be quite hard to rejoice in that situation. But here is the important distinction, I belive Paul is not rejoicing in his circumstance but he is rejoicing in the Lord. That’s a very important thing to note. You know, growing up there was nothing more I liked to do than to go with my dad to the rec center. For those of you that don’t know, my father was the rec director in Ashland for 31 years. It’s a little funny to think back on but the rec department used to sit on a tall hill in ashland, and was repurposed church. In fact it was one of the oldest buildings still standing in town. You would walk in, and go through a very small hallway to enter into what used to be the sanctuary. The floor was not carpted, but hardwood with 60s and 70s paneling covering the walls. It only had one basketball hoop, and it dodn’t even have a backboard! just a metal rim drilled into the wall. You couldn’t put too much arch on your shot either, or it was going to hi the ceiling. It was not much at all, but man was it special to me. There was nothing that brought more happiness to me as a kid than for dad and I to go up there alone while he finished work and I got to play with anything I could find. I tell you this story because I know it must bring out a similar feeling of happiness in you. There was something or there is something in this world that truly brings you so much happiness. The question is what do you call it, happiness or joy? Happiness is much different than joy. Happiness is situational, Joy is spiritual. Only true joy can be found when we trust in the Lord. That is what Paul is talking about here, he is saying he is able to rejoice always, because no matter what situation he is in, no matter what anxiety inducing journey is ahead of you, your joy can be found in Christ. Let’s take a look at James 1:2-4

James 1:2–4 LEB

Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

Again, take joy my brothers and sisters, your tirals and tests of you faith in providing endurance to run the race of our journey. In all the trials, we still must find joy.

Joy is Rooted in the Nearness of God

How do we locate this Joy though? How can we access it. If we continue on back in our Philippians verses.