The Mind of Joy

Basic Opening Statement: We are glad that you are here with us at bcsm and we want you to know, more than anything, that you have a community of people here that love and care about you, you have a purpose or a place within this community which means we are better off with you than without you and you have a mission outside of this community. All of that rests on this one foundational truth that we want you to hear and want you to share: God wants to have a relationship with you.

I am _______________ and before we start, let me pray.”

*Pray for God to use what you have to say to move someone further along in their journey towards Jesus.*

We are continuing on in our series today based on a letter that a guy named Paul wrote to a church he started in Philippi. He is writing to them while being under house arrest, probably in Rome, because it seems like the Philippians are having a couple of problems. They are worried about Paul and his well being, and they are not really getting along with one another. So Paul is writing to them with the solution to all of their problems. We kind of introduced that solution last week and it all revolves around adopting an upside down mind. It is all about forming your mind around the world that Jesus lays the foundation for with his death, burial and resurrection. A mind that can process what it means that the first shall be last, where death is life, and where the king is a slave. Throughout this series we are exploring the results of forming this New Mind.

Teaching

This is the main point/ story of your lesson. Everything you want your students to Know should be covered here.

Now we talked about this a little bit last week, but most Bible scholars , when they look at the book of Philippians, they characterize it as a book filled with joy, for good reason. The Greek words for joy and rejoice occur 19 times in the book. Just for perspective, the word Jesus occurs 21 times in this book. So as much as you can say this is a book about Jesus, just under that, this is a book about joy.

So what exactly is joy?

When I was growing up in the church, people would be talking about Philippians or James 1:2.

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

And when faced with this combination of joy and suffering, they would say things like, “Well, joy is different than happiness. Because you can’t be happy when you are suffering. So it is not an emotion it is more like a state of being.” Which made me even more confused as to what joy was. Because I know what it means to feel an emotion. But I am not sure what it means to live within the state of being of joy.

And this is kind of an abstract concept, so we are going to answer this question in steps. Step one. Joy is an emotion. You feel it. So joy is like happiness in that way. Easy enough, right? But it is not just happiness because it is tied to something more reliable and foundational than your immediate circumstances or what is going on around you at any given moment.

Alright, you with me? Joy is an emotion. Step Two. Joy, in the mind of New Testament writers like Paul, is the emotion you feel when you experience the gospel, the good news of Jesus. Joy is the result of this upside down mind that Paul wants you to form, that we talked about last week. When you are focused on that, nothing can take away your joy. So you can experience joy in good times and in bad times. But we aren’t quite there yet.

Because it is not just that you have your head in the clouds. You are walking around in a daze not noticing anything around you, like nothing in the world matters because you are happy!!! We are not talking escaping your problems here.

I think that a lot of times we think that the point of being a Christian is that you get to escape. You get to go to heaven one day when you die. But that is not really the story of the gospel. That is not the full picture and if we don’t get the full picture the kind of joy we are talking about, that Paul is talking about, doesn’t make sense.

So as we take step three, I want you to do something for me. For the rest of our talk here, when I say heaven, don’t think babies playing harps on clouds, think God space or the place where God lives. When I say earth, don’t think the globe, think human space, where we live. Alright so step three. Joy is an emotion you feel when you experience the gospel. The gospel or good news is that through Jesus, God is working to reestablish a hybrid heaven/ earth where God space and human space overlap completely. So we aren’t talking about escaping to heaven, its not about us going up into the sky or something. WE are talking about the fact that heaven exists, there is a God-space where God is, and it is filled with Perfect Beauty and Perfect Truth and Perfect Justice and, one day, it is coming here to overlap with human space.

Are you with me so far? Ok here is where it gets a little complicated. Step Four. Because of Jesus, we have the opportunity to have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Which means we can experience the hybrid heaven/earth, what the Bible calls New Creation in some limited ways now. Not just when we die. Because, remember, heaven is where God lives. And if God lives in us, we become God space. We get to work alongside of the Creator of this Universe and other Christians to fill earth, human space, with as much Beauty and Truth and Justice as we can so other people can experience a piece of heaven in and through us.

Which brings us back to where we started. Joy is the natural result, the emotion we feel when we realize that we have access to this hybrid heaven and earth space, what the Bible calls the Kingdom of Heaven, if we just submit our lives to Jesus. Being a Christian is about experiencing and sharing that joy with others.

Tension

What is the rub? Create some questions and feeling.

That was a fire hose of information. Why does any of this matter? What is so joy inducing about any of that? Well, There is this story in Genesis about a guy named Joseph. He is sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, but through a series of events, he somehow becomes the second in command next to the Pharoah. When he meets up with his brothers later in the story they are thinking he might get back at them for selling him into slavery, but Joseph says in Genesis 50:20 (ESV)

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

That is the story of the Bible. We had the hybrid heaven/earth thing happening in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve. We chose to rebel against God. And ever since then, God has been working in and through people to turn that upside down. He will do that completely and finally when Jesus returns, on a day called the Day of the Lord.

It is the day that God makes everything that was wrong and broken in the world, right. Where the evil of the world, the destruction, the pain that we have caused one another, the broken relationships, diseases and suffering, gets remade, reformed, turned upside down. But here is the thing. The suffering we have had to endure, the pain and the hurt we have experienced does not just get thrown in the trash. Paul again and again says, “our suffering is not in vain.” “the work will be completed” The things we experience and do now, they still mean something then.

We have this idea that when Jesus comes back no one will cry anymore. But I think that short circuits the actual picture of Jesus. Revelation, the last book of the Bible describes Jesus as the great Tear Wiper. He will wipe the tears from our eyes. There will be comfort and relief from our suffering, but we won’t just lose our battle scars. Our battles matter. Our scars will be remade into beauty. Just like Jesus’ hands and feet. That is the good news. The gospel. That is happening now.

Philippians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Our citizenship IS in heaven, but we still AWAIT Jesus coming down and all of heaven coming with him.

You see both things there? That is the source of our joy as Christians, both the future hope and the Kingdom that is coming on earth (human space) as it is in heaven (God space) right now as we speak. When we can form our mind around that concept, when we find ourselves participating in that work, we will feel joy.

And the premise here is, the more we form our mind around that concept, the more we participate, the more joy we will feel.

Response

This is the response portion. Everything you want your students to Do should be touched on here, but you should have at least one immediate action that can be taken.

But, like we talked about last week, Paul does not just give us this ideal and tell us, “Ok go form your minds.” He gives us a practice that will help us to form our mind around the reality of the gospel of Jesus. In Philippians 4:8-9 he says,

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. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

So if you are a believer in Jesus, if you want to turn your mind upside down and start to form your mind around the gospel that Paul has told us about through out the book of Philippians, where slavery, suffering, imprisonment and death become badges of honor and hope and peace and life, where you can experience joy in all situations, it is all about using the time you have here on earth to contemplate the things that come from God. Truth, Justice, Honor, Integrity or Purity, Beauty, Goodness, Things that we like… spend time thinking about those things. But it is not just about forming neural pathways. Paul says that we need to practice these things as well.

So what does truth look like in God space or heaven? How can I put that truth into practice. What is Justice in light of who Jesus is and what he has done? I need to be an agent of that kind of Justice in this broken world. And if you are like, I am not sure, we will talk more about some practical ways taht you can do this in the next couple weeks. So stick with us.

But just thinking about these things is not enough. We need to practice them. And the good news is that the things we do now, are part of that New Earth. We are working alongside of God to bring his Kingdom here in some small way, and that effort is not in vain. Look at this.

Philippians 2:12–18 ESV

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

When we do these things, we get to see a little piece of the world flip over, if just for a second. And the more we see that happen, the more we begin to believe that Jesus, who has a habit of doing the impossible, can do the impossible in and through our lives if we just let him. And that will give us an unsinkable joy.

Maybe you have just started to form your mind around this idea of the gospel and you need to commit. You need to say today, I am a citizen of the upside down kingdom. Jesus is the king of my life. If that is you, the way to make that commitment, to mark yourself as a follower of Jesus is to be baptized, to, in a way, participate in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. We can do that today.

Maybe you are not there yet. That is ok too. You don’t have to believe to belong here. We are better off with you than without you. But obviously, if this is true, if there is truth, justice, peace, unity, beauty, freedom from death through Jesus, we don’t want you to miss out. We want you to experience it too. We want to help you to see the world flip upside down. So, if that is you, stick with us for the rest of this series. Maybe try and think about the things Paul mentions in Philippians 4:8- 9. See what happens. Try to practice them in your life. Experiment.

But right now I am going to play a song as we go into our time of Communion. This is something we do every week to remember the event that turned the world as we know it upside down. Feel free to move during the song. If you want to take eat the bread and drink the juice to remember Christ’s broken body and spilled blood, just make your way up here to do that. If you need prayer or want to make a decision today, let one of us adults know. If you want to listen to the words of the song or pray or read Scripture, you can do that too.

Song

Rejoice- Dustin Kensrue

Discussion

Start with Prayer

Tell us about a time where you felt really happy. What was going on? Why were you so happy?

Eric kind of hit you with a fire hose of information today. Does any of this make sense to you? What are your questions?

Paul’s premise is, if we can form our minds around the upside down reality of the good news of Jesus, we can rejoice in any situation. As we discussed this today, was there anything that stuck out to you as something that, if it were actually true, would cause you to feel joy even when things in your life were bad?

Read Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We talked last week how Paul was saying that he still had not completely attained the perfect new mind, but he has enough of a picture of what the gospel means that he knows that what he is doing here on earth is in some way interacting with heaven (God-space) and that someday, on the day of the Lord, all the things he had done for Jesus sake, all the striving and straining would be made perfect. That is the source of joy in suffering.

Eric said that to form this new mind we must do what Paul said in Philippians 4:8-9.

Pick one. How can you think about it all week, this week? How could you put it into practice?

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