Joy vs. Worry
Study in Philippians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Joy vs. Worry
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Rejoice: to be glad
The Apostle Paul uses the word joy or rejoice 16 times in the four chapters of Philippians.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
From a human perspective, it doesn’t make sense. And yet the path to joy is this. Rejoice is a choice.
Worldly happiness is not the same as godly happiness.
Godly happiness is called joy. In the Bible, the word joy is a celebration term. Thus, Paul is calling for celebration.
The difference between joy and secular happiness is that the latter depends on what happens; it is circumstantially driven.
So, if things are going in an upward direction in life, you feel up, but if things are going down, you feel down.
This keeps you on an emotional rollercoaster.
Biblical joy, by contrast, has to do with stability and celebration on the inside regardless of circumstances on the outside. We must choose to rejoice in order to experience the joy God promises us.
In his book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb wrote,
“People who insist on happiness never find joy.” Happiness is a result of favorable circumstances and is transient in nature, but joy remains, even during unfavorable circumstances. Joy is a calmness that runs beneath life’s storms, it is a delight that stills the heart and anchors the soul. - Larry Crabb
So we rejoice in who?
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Jesus Christ had joy, and He prays this to the Father.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
Fruit of the Spirit:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
How often should we have this joy?
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
When life sucker punches you can you rejoice? If rejoice is a choice - Yes!
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
That is impossible. Tell that to one of my hero’s of the faith - Joni Eareckson Tada.
At the age of 17, while diving into the Chesapeake Bay, she misjudged the depth and broke her neck, becoming a quadriplegic. This accident left her paralyzed from the shoulders down.
She became a prominent author, speaker, and advocate who has lived as a quadriplegic for over five decades.
Joy is Not Happiness: Joni emphasizes that joy is different from happiness, which is often dependent again, on favorable circumstances.
Joy, in her view, is a deeper, more stable state that can coexist with pain and sorrow.
She often refers to the biblical concept of being "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing"
10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Sorrowful: feeling or showing grief.
Suffering as a Pathway to Joy: Counterintuitively, Joni teaches that suffering is often the very context in which true joy is found.
She describes her paralysis as an "ugly field" that, through the "pick and shovel of prayer and Scripture," has yielded immense spiritual riches and a "thunderous, full-throttled joy."
She believes that suffering increases one's capacity for God and can make a person "hypersensitive to God's joys."
Joy Rooted in Christ: The foundation of Joni’s understanding of joy is her relationship with Jesus Christ. She speaks of finding a "sweetness with Jesus that made my paralysis pale in comparison."
Her joy is not self-generated but is a fruit of her faith and reliance on God's strength in her weakness. She has said, "Jesus went without comfort so that you might have it. He postponed joy so that you might share in it."
Resilient Joy: Joni speaks of a "resilient joy" that "makes hope come alive." This type of joy isn't defeated by disappointment but has the "elasticity to spring back into shape." It is a joy that looks forward to a future hope in heaven, where all suffering will end.
Joy as a Command and a Choice: Joni views joy not merely as an emotion but as a command to be obeyed for the sake of Christ.
She acknowledges that it can be a struggle to rejoice, especially in pain, but it is a choice to focus on the hope and truth of God's promises.
She has said, "I make myself smile, even when (no, especially when) I don't feel like it."
On finding treasure in hardship: "In my great joy, I went out and sold everything, trading in my resentment and self-pity to buy the ugly field nobody else would want. And I struck gold."
On the source of her joy: "He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace."
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
gentleness: This refers to contentment with and generosity toward others. It can also refer to mercy or leniency toward the faults and failures of others. It can even refer to patience in someone who submits to injustice or mistreatment without retaliating.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Anxious: Worry - means “to be pulled in different directions.” Our hopes pull us in one direction; our fears pull us the opposite direction; and we are pulled apart! The Old English root from which we get our word “worry” means “to strangle.”
If you have ever really worried, you know how it does strangle a person! In fact, worry has definite physical consequences: headaches, neck pains, ulcers, even back pains. Worry affects our thinking, our digestion, and even our coordination.
These are the facts about worry:
40% of the things people worry about never happen.
30% of our worries are related to past matters, which are beyond our control.
12% of our worries have to do with our health, even when we are not actually ill.
Only 8% of our worries have some basis in reality, which means that over 90% of the things we worry about never happen.
Worry is the greatest thief of joy. It is not enough for us, however, to tell ourselves to “quit worrying” because that will never capture the thief.
Worry is an “inside job,” and it takes more than good intentions to get the victory.
If we are to conquer worry and experience joy, we must meet the conditions that God has laid down.
There are three: right praying (Phil. 4:6–7), right thinking (Phil. 4:8), and right living (Phil. 4:9).
Right praying
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Paul does not write, “Pray about it!”
He uses three different words to describe “right praying”: prayer, petition, and thanksgiving.
Prayer is the general word for making requests known to the Lord. It carries the idea of adoration, devotion, and worship.
Whenever we find ourselves worrying, our first action ought to be to get alone with God and worship Him. Adoration is what is needed. We must see the greatness and majesty of God! We must realize that He is big enough to solve our problems.
Too often we rush into His presence and hastily tell Him our needs, when we ought to approach His throne calmly and in deepest reverence. The first step in “right praying” is adoration.
The second is petition, an earnest sharing of our needs and problems. There is no place for halfhearted, insincere prayer.
The third is thanksgiving. Certainly the Father enjoys hearing His children say, “Thank You!” When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one of the ten returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11–19). We are eager to ask but slow to appreciate.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The antidote to worry is the peace of God … will guard like a soldier your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. With that kind of protection—why worry?
2. Right thinking
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Replace your stinking thinking.
3. Right Living
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
There is no middle ground. Either we yield heart and mind to the Spirit of God and practice right praying, thinking, and living; or we yield to the flesh and find ourselves torn apart by worry.
There is no need to worry! With the peace of God to guard us and the God of peace to guide us—why worry?
