Rejoice Church!
Notes
Transcript
ME
ME
Help me feel excited this morning! Rejoice with me…what I want you to do is after I read Philippians 4:4 “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” I want you to shout AMEN!
Read it again.
Do you ever forget to spend some time rejoicing…
Romans 12:15 “15 Rejoice with those who rejoice;”
This world can weigh us down so much that there are times we forget to rejoice. That is why I love so much what Paul does here in this verse.
He tells this church to rejoice. Praise God!
One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 117 “1 Praise Yahweh, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples! 2 For His lovingkindness prevails over us, And the truth of Yahweh is everlasting. Praise Yah!”
The smallest Psalm in the Psalm book has one of the loudest messages that everyone needs to Praise God for being God!
Think about the circumstances Paul is in when he tells the church to do this. He is prison. He is having to tell this church fix the issues that they have between them. But he makes sure to also remind them to REJOICE…
Whether we are celebrating a mountain top moment in our life or waling through the lowest valley we have been in can i remind us to do as paul says…REJOICE.
Next verse!
Philippians 4:5 “5 Let your considerate spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.”
This joy that we directly connects with how we treat others. The next thing Paul commands them to do after he says rejoice is to let their gentle spirit be know to all men.
The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians Paul Summarizes the Whole Christian Spirit and Life
Many angles converge in “yieldingness” such as clementia, aequitas, modestia. Even the Latin lacks a real equivalent. God and Christ exhibit what is meant. God deals so leniently with men, he remembers that we are dust, he withholds justice so long. Christ is gentle, kind, patient, more than only fair.
Gentleness is how we express our faith to those who are Christian and not Christian. We introduce Jesus to non believers by being Gentle.
We preach the truth but we do it with love
We live out our faith but we don’t do it with a prideful spirit.
ILLUSTRATION
Imagine you and your family go out to eat after church one Sunday afternoon.
The restaurant is crowded. You’ve already waited thirty minutes just to get a table. When you finally sit down, it takes another fifteen minutes before a server even comes over.
When the food finally arrives… your order is wrong.
You asked for grilled chicken, but they bring fried. The drink you ordered never came. The fries are cold.
Now everyone in the restaurant is watching how you respond.
Your kids are watching.
Your wife is watching.
The server is watching.
The people at the next table are listening.
At that moment, most people in the world react the same way.
They get frustrated.
They raise their voice.
They treat the server like the problem instead of a person.
But Paul says the disciple has a different mindset.
Instead of irritation, you respond with gentleness.
You calmly say, “Hey, I think there might have been a small mix-up with my order. Would it be possible to switch this out?”
You thank the server.
You show patience.
You treat them with dignity.
And when you leave, you still tip well.
Now imagine that server goes to the back and says:
“Table 14… those church people… they were the nicest people I waited on today.”
That is exactly what Paul is talking about.
“Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.”
Not just to the people in the pew next to you.
Paul gives the reason for this gentleness. He lets us know that THE LORD IS NEAR
The Epistle to the Philippians 3. Rejoice, Be Gentle, Do Not Be Anxious (4:4–7)
Jesus is the ever-present Lord whose personal return may occur at any time. To know this is a powerful incentive to godly living and a right response to the surrounding injunctions.
NEXT VERSES
Philippians 4:6–7 “6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
— The next imperative is probably one that is talked about so much in our culture today with the amount of mental health struggles we find people having today.
— Merimnaō refers to a state of anxious concern or mental preoccupation. The noun merimna is related to merizo (“to divide”), suggesting the idea of distraction or being pulled in different directions by cares.
The remedy to anxiety is prayer. How fascinating is that. Also, what you are going to notice is that this Paul commands prayer especially in this time of anxiousness. When our mind seems to be preoccupied with worried Paul says hey petition God for help. Cast those cares on HIM
1 Peter 5:7 “7 Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 3. μέριμνα and μεριμνᾶν in Primitive Christian Literature.
This would not be so if the admonitions not to care, but to cast one’s care on God, were based on the idea that God guarantees the fulfilment of all striving.
