Sermon Series: “Whatever Happened to Joy” | Sermon: “Say It Again!”

Good morning everybody.

Friends welcome to Rev, not a Methodist church.

My name is Bio Body, and I'm 1

of the associate pastors here. I'm so so

glad to see all of you here today

whether you're in person or if you're online,

I'm glad you're here.

I do wanna share before we get started

with worship this more than a couple of

announcements that are important for you to know.

The first is that today, we will be

kick starting a brand new sermon series called

whatever happened to joy. We're gonna spend the

next couple of weeks talking about all the

things that I'm making it challenging for us

to experience joy in the season that we're

in, and the reverend doctor Pete Moon, our

lead pastor will be leading us with this

first sermon about how we can choose joy

in the midst of hard seasons.

I also wanna extend a hello to our

vacation bible school friend, They've got an exciting,

I'm trying to figure out how I wanna

say it. An exciting thing

to an exciting event for you, for, our

children's messages this morning and I promise you

you will absolutely love it.

And thirdly, I also wanna direct your attention.

We have, at the 09:30 hour here at

our church. We have what's called mission in

the middle. It's an opportunity for us at

lovely church to be in mission and service

together for our community. And I wanna direct

your particular attention, in your bulletin to August

fourth. It'll be a time for us to

work with rise of rise on ride of

hunger. Excuse me.

And we will together work to make sure

that we can ensure making meals, and all

things good for those people. We hope if

an all hands on debt kind of deal,

and we hope you all will be able

to come out and join us.

With all things being said, my dear friends

made a lord be with you.

Friend ben invite rise with me and body

your spirit for our call to worship.

Make a joyful noise to the lord all

the lands.

Know that the Lord who made us is

god.

Enter God's gate with thanksgiving and god's courts

with praise.

For the Lord of good.

That fast love

endure forever.

His faithfulness

to all

generations.

With joy, let us adore the Lord by

singing together him number 89,

joyful, joyful, we adore.

And now my dear friends let him join

together in our prayer of common confession.

Gracious Lord,

we thank you for the freedom.

You have given us through the life, death

and resurrection of your son.

As we gather,

we confess at all too often,

we dismiss your joy.

Our sour

dispositions

represent our culture,

instead of your character,

by your grace,

remind us of your goodness

that we may reflect your light and hope

forgive us,

embrace us

cleanse us,

heal us.

We have this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Friends is here, the good news. By God

grace, we have been forgiven.

We I have been embraced

We have been cleansed and we have been

healed.

In the name of Jesus Christ, my dear

friends, you are forgiven.

Glory to god.

Amen. Friends, I wanna invite you all Shane

signs the piece of 1 another, and I'd

love to invite our vacation bible school up

to the front.

Well, good morning, Rum United Methodist church.

My name is Karen Rios, the Director of

children's

ministries.

And if any of you are joining us

online, we would like for you to move

a little bit forward and enjoy this

presentation with our V children.

And if you watch closely, you may be

able to do

all of the motions with us.

Roughly, this past week was vacation bible school,

and it was a pleasure seeing 65

children from kindergarten

through rising second graders come to learn about

about God, and ent him. Do any of

you remember your scripture? Whenever,

I'm afraid.

That's it. Psalm,

abs absolutely. Whenever I'm afraid I put my

trust in use some 56 3.

And so we enjoyed having a wonderful time,

not just learning about up, but doing some

singing and some moving, and we wanted to

present this piece for you today. So Welcome

to Vacation Bible school.

CAMP,

fire red like G.

Come on now See hey, m pete fire,

and like.

Let me here now see hey deep fire.

Break down.

Alrighty.

Oh, no. Thank you so much for enjoying

that wonderful

presentation. Children, you guys can go back and

sit with your parents.

And we thank you so much for allowing

your children to be with us past week.

Please join me in praying the prayer for

illumination.

Lord

open our hearts and minds

by the power of your holy spirit

that as the scriptures are read

and your word proclaimed.

Hear you with joy what you say it

to us today.

Ami amen.

Today's first scripture reading is from the book

of Philippians,

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 versus 1 through 11.

This may be found on page 953

of your pew Bible.

Paul expresses love to the church at Philip

in Greece.

The first congregation he founded on the European

continent.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who

are in Philip high

with the bishop and dea.

Grace to you, and peace from God, our

father in the lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my god every time I remember

you, constantly praying with joy. In every 1

of my prayers for all of you because

of your sharing in the gospel from the

first day until now.

I am confident of this.

That the 1 who began a good work

among you will bring it to completion by

the day of Jesus Christ.

It is right for me to think this

way about all of you because you hold

me in your heart. For all of you

share in god's grace with me, both in

my imprisonment,

and in the defense and

confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness,

how I long for all of you with

the compassion of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer that your love

may overflow, more and more with knowledge and

full insight to help you determine what is

best.

So that on the day of Christ, you

may be pure and blame.

Having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes

through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise

of God.

The word of God for the people of

god.

Thanks speed to god.

You know, as we mentioned earlier, today, we

are beginning the Sermon series on joy, and

I'm I'm half tempted to say after those

kids saying. And after Daniel, you'd led us

in that joe, we could just kinda drop

the microphone at this point.

But where there's more to be said, And

we're gonna turn to the fourth chapter, of,

the book of Philippians as we listen to

Paul's words speaking to us

about the wonder and the power and the

possibility

of joy even today. Invite you to hear

these words starting in the fourth verse.

Rejoice in the lord always. Again, I will

say

rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The

Lord is near.

Do not worry about anything, but in everything

by prayer and sup simplification and with Thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all

understanding will guard your hearts in your minds.

In Christ Jesus.

Finally, beloved.

Whatever is true.

Whatever is honorable.

Whatever is just,

whatever is pure,

whatever is pleasing, whatever's is commendable, if there

is any excellence and if there is anything

worthy of praise,

Think

about these things.

Keep on doing the things you have learned

and received and heard and seen in me,

and the god of peace will be with

you.

This is the word of God for the

people of God.

Thanks speed to God.

Will you pray with me?

Lord God, we give you thanks this, Dave

for our vacation bible school for their smiles,

for their laughter or for the joy that

radiates from their souls.

And it is our prayer that as your

word is open and pro proclaimed that we

can continue this testimony that there is yet

possibility in a challenging world.

That we can be living vessels of this

joy of which we speak. Open your word

to us today and speak to each and

every 1 of us.

Before we ask it through Christ Jesus our

Lord.

I'm amen.

Well, like we said, we're beginning this summer

sir... The second part of our summer sermon

series on joy, on this Sunday as we

begin the week. This is also the week

where we will be beginning the 20 24

summer

Olympics. And to kinda bring all that together,

I was reading a story this week

about Jim Caitlin Or.

And I think she can help us get

started with us. Now, Caitlyn is not going

to be in the upcoming

Olympics. Though at 1 point, Caitlyn, was considered

the best gym ness in the world, finishing

even ahead of simone bile.

It's a fascinating story which I saw on

Npr this week or heard on Npr this

week.

She started out very young,

but she got caught up sort of in

the gym

machine. It was all work and pain in

progress and

evaluation and competition. So she just pulled out

for a season.

But then she encountered the gym coach from

Ucla,

Valerie Condos field or better known as Coach

Val.

And Coach fell approached her, and she asked

her when was the last time

you actually loved gymnastics.

And Caitlyn went back and basically said, I

think that was back when I was 11

years old.

It's been... And since that point, she had

just been kinda grinding it out. So Coach

Val decided she need to treat her as

a human being, recognize your value as a

human before being an athlete.

And the result was,

several years later, she went to Us ucla.

She worked with Coach val. And in 20

19,

Caitlin scored a perfect 10

on a floor

routine.

And it was all on a video is

on a Youtube video that went viral. I

checked it this week. 245000000

views on this on this

floor routine.

And you could just look at a couple

of the comments and you can realize why

it scored a perfect tent. When she is

out there, you can see this joy.

Just radiating

out for her from her as she dance

as she did her routine. And you get

those the feeling that the reason for her

10 was not just because of the precision

of her movement

is more the joy that radiate out of

her soul as she did it.

Well, I'm not sure how many recovering gym

we have in the room this morning, but

I'm pretty sure most of us.

Can relate to Caitlyn.

So the next couple weeks we're going gonna

be asking this question together is a church.

Whatever happened to joy

Whatever happened to joy. I mean, given all

the events, particularly of the last couple of

weeks,

We have been drinking out of the fire

hose of breaking news.

It would not be surprising. If you and

I find ourselves in the same place as

Caitlin,

or biblical speaking as the widow searching for

the lost coin of what we could call

joy. Same and at the risk of overs?

Doesn't it feel sometimes in our day,

like joy,

joy has just been sucked out of the

room.

You know, years ago, when I flew for

the navy, you need to know that we

You sort of... When you flew for the

navy, you sort of lost your first name.

Everybody just called you by your call sign.

And when I think of our contemporary state

of affairs. I think of 1 particular man

I flew with for a couple years. His

call sign was

black cloud.

Black cloud. I know I tell you what

Black Cloud on every bit of his name

when he walked into the room Everything was

wrong. Everything could go south. This could have

yeah, but have you thought about...

And I think about him many years ago

and I can't picture a smile on his

face.

And here's the thing. Every single 1 of

us today,

We know a black cloud. And if we're

honest,

We may recognize that we may be seeing

black cloud

in the mirror.

But see, the good news literally

is that there is hope

See, we're open up the the book of

Philippians for these next couple of weeks.

And 1 of the primary themes of the

book

is joy.

And we see it right out of the

gate this morning

when we open up the fourth chapter

Paul says to his church in Philip or

to the church in Philip, and he says

to us today these words.

Rejoice in the lord always.

I say it again, rejoice.

And,

I think these kids who are up here

for bible will do they not help us

to think about joy. In fact, this week

earlier, I met with all the kids 1

day, and I said, yeah, I'm gonna talk

about joy in my sermon this week, can

you help me?

So I put them all together in front

of the the fireside side setting. I said,

give me a picture of joy. You can

see that picture in your bulletin right now.

Raised hands. And. I wish you could see

some of the kids funny faces or making

funny faces in there. And if you can't

see that look on the email, but the

it's a great picture to get us thinking

about it.

Well, Philippians is this beautiful book. This powerful

book. And this fourth chapter brings it all

home with I think some of Paul's most

inspiring words.

And we could preach an entire sermon series

on the fourth chapter of Philippians, but this

morning, I would like to focus on 1

verse, more particularly.

4 words

in 1 verse.

You did hear it where Paul said,

the lord is near.

In fact, let's say that together. The Lord

is

near 1 more time. The Lord is near.

Paul reminds us that's why you and I

can yet have joy, but I don't wanna

leave this. Let's not leave this as some

nice bumper sticker.

Dive into this little bit.

Because what Paul has set up for us

with these words

are several layers, several

foundations that build up to those wonderful

4

words.

So let's unpack the layers a bit.

See, first of all, Paul is reminding us.

We can rejoice in the Lord

because God is still running the universe.

We can rejoice in the Lord because God

is still on the throne. God is still

in charge.

You know, earlier this week, Lin and, my

wife Lin and, were sitting down, we having

dinner, and we were watching the news and

Like I said earlier, it was just like,

drinking out of this frustrating fire hose. I

was trying to drink out of it take

it all. It just wasn't working. And 1

of the things I do and I don't

have a church meeting during the week because

I often do some work workout in the

garage, and I I, Like, turn up the

music. Well, years ago, my son law, Gave

me a subscription to spotify.

You all have Spotify others. It it to

me, it's says what you type in a

song. It's there right away. You type in,

anything and you get a playlist right away.

So I walked out of this frustrating night

with the news and walked out of my

garage. I typed into my spotify,

our God reign.

Now instantly, about 30 songs came up and

now I need to listen to that. So

I sat there working in the garage. Our

god rains by about the fifth or sixth

song. Okay. I got it.

Right?

I got it.

But I need that reminder.

That no matter what

our god reign.

You know, in a deeper way earlier this

week, I had that reminder with Pastor Keith.

We're we're gonna be talking about that in

the prayer concerns, but pastor Keith Ed,

pastor of our partner church

died this past week. I had the privilege

of being with him. Just a few days

before his death.

And together, as pastors, we remembered the words

of Psalm 46.

God is it's our refuge and our strength,

and ever present help in trouble.

Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth

give and the mountains fall into the heart

of the sea.

There's a river who streams make glad the

city of God. God is within or she

will not fall. God will help her it

break day. And then the famous words in

verse 10,

be still

and know that I'm God.

I needed that reminder, and I certainly found

it in psalm 46.

But there is the first layer that we

all need to hold to. In all the

events of the world are, God rings. And

if we could hold on to that somehow,

There's a foundation upon which

we can yet build

a living testimony to the joy of which

we speak.

But it keeps going. That's first layer. Our

God rains,

but there's another part of it. Our God

rains and

our God is

Good.

We're gonna speak a lot more about this

next week.

But in important detail to the book of

Philippians is that when Paul wrote these words,

when Paul tells you and me to rejoice,

he is in miserable circumstances. He's he's in

prison.

And yet he's writing about joy.

Now, Paul is there in part

because of bad

leadership.

He's dealing with leaders of the local synagogue.

Who have likely ins indicated his imprisonment.

He's dealing with roman authorities at the beginning

of seasons of persecution of the church

He's dealing with leaders in his individual church

that have are fighting against him.

So the point is he's surrounded by bad

leadership.

And yet, he calls us to rejoice. And

what he does, is he says,

put your perspective meditate upon different things.

Because those good things are of God.

Did hear this wonderful words.

He says, whatever is true.

Whatever's noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.

Think of these things.

With the implicit reminder

that we think about these things,

because these things are of God,

Our god is good, lovely,

true,

admirable,

lovely, praise worthy noble.

You see we can rejoice because at the

foundation, it is true.

Our God rains.

But on top of that,

our god is good,

and our god is love.

And now on these 2 layers, we can

place those beautiful 4 words.

The Lord is near.

It's a beautiful and inspiring aspiring thing.

That hopefully inspires joy in you

that this God

who reign as God who is good. That

god knows your name.

In my name. He knows everything you're dealing

with.

Every struggle, every sin, every doubt, all of

it is all there

and yet. He's not going anywhere.

He knows your name. He has called you

by name. This says come to be all

who labor and every. I will give you

rest.

See, the lord

of which we speak today is not an

imp force of the universe,

but a personal 1.

Who has come to you and to me

through the person of Jesus Christ.

And as such,

the lord is near.

That's what he Jesus meant when he said

the kingdom of God is near.

He's reminding you that the resources of the

living and loving and all powerful god are

abundantly available

to you.

And to me, despite what our I see

in the world

But let's not overlook 1 of the most

beautiful resources for joy

that we so often overlook.

God himself.

You know Dallas Willard

spoke a lot about this with a reminder,

He puts it kind of simply,

but offers a reminder that we often forget...

We often forget God really is happy.

God is full of contagious

joy.

The God didn't send up there on the

throne with his stern look upon you and

upon this creation. That God isn't coiled in

the kingdom as a snake ready to strike

those who do wrong.

But god,

exists certainly in h.

God certainly

existed all that glory.

But in all of that God exists

enjoy.

Do you remember what Jesus said in the

book of John, spoke about the father's love.

And then he said, I have told you

this so my joy may be in you.

And your joy may be complete.

Do you see that friends?

The God who's running the universe

is good.

The god who knows your name is running

the universe is good.

And the god who knows your name is

a God of cons joy.

I to confess that my take on joy

over the years

has changed a bit. In the past, I

I thought about joy, I've taken inspiration and

still take inspiration.

From a great poem written years ago

by Ella Wi hitchcock Will, and She embraces

the sailing

imagery

as we think about our lives. She says

this and I quote.

1 ship drives east

and another drives west,

with the self same winds that blow.

Tis the set of the sales

and not the gale

which tell us the way to go,

Like the winds of the seas are the

ways of fate as we voyage along through

the life

tis the set of a soul

that decides its goal

and not the calm of the... Or the

strife.

Do you see the imagery she's offering?

We can't control the storms. We can't control

the winds. We can't control the circumstances that

come our way, but we can set our

sails. Right?

We can set our sales for joy. It

reminds us that you and I do have

some

agency in our lives.

Dare we say for joy.

I can make forward progress

even if I can't control the storms.

And there is so much truth to that.

But here's the other part of it. Years

of life and ministry have reminded me that

sometimes.

There are seasons of life for you and

for me, where we can't even get to

the mas

to set the sales.

I love the phrase I choose joy, but

the reality of lying for reminded me and

others, how often We just can't bring it.

We can't choose joy at that point.

We can't get to that love in that

wonder.

We can't just rejoice. I say again rejoice.

But he... There's the beauty of Paul.

He doesn't just command us to have joy.

He invites us

to cast our gaze upon who god is.

We may not have the strength

to raise our sails up on the mas,

but see we can look to Jesus.

The author and the perfect of our faith,

so that his joy may be raised up

in us to do what we cannot do

on our own.

And you see, Paul brings all this together

with that beautiful verse

and a closing image.

He says this and I quote.

Do not be anxious about anything,

but in every situation by prayer and petition

with Thanksgiving presenter your requests to God.

And the peace of god which transcend all

understanding will guard, hold that will guard your

hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Say, Paul tells us to rejoice.

And Paul says do not be anxious about

anything.

But then he gathers all of this power

these words

under an image.

Actually, it's a military image.

He speaks of the peace of god,

guarding you, guarding our hearts.

Guarding our minds in Christ Jesus.

It's almost as if he's saying the peace

of god is a century

standing watch over us, guarding over us as

we live as we deal with the challenges

of life that the peace of God is

avail, to stand over us as we sleep

standing guard watching.

I find that to be an incredibly helpful

image.

Could Paul says don't be anxious about anything.

But what do you do

when it's 10:11

o'clock a night midnight in and in your

mind is just

spinning.

Can't get to sleep. What do when you

wake up at 2 in the morning 3

in the morning,

and your thoughts are just off to the

races.

Maybe it's not a Pan,

but I tell you what it's better and

count sheep.

What if this image could be true?

What if it's true?

That in my sleep,

in my anxiety,

in my worries,

in my anxious spirit. In my spinning thoughts,

there is god's peace.

Standing guard over my soul.

Even though it feels like my life is

in a spin cycle.

God's peace standing guard over you and me.

Well, friends, so what has happened to joy?

Can you relate to our Gym miss Caitlin

No?

With all the news you've seen in the

last couple weeks does it feel like you're

turning into black cloud.

Well, let's spend some time together with Paul

and joy Philippians summer because you know what?

Good news is joy hadn't gone anywhere.

In fact, Paul says joy in the Lord

is near

And our God is still a god of

cons joy.

Our God reign. Our God is good, and

our God knows your name.

But as you go forth this week and

turn on another week of breaking news and

as you also look at the Olympics this

week.

Let's remember this lesson.

And let's claim God's peace as it stands

guard over you and me.

In the name of the father and the

son and the holy spirit.

I'm amen.

In response to the word proclaimed, I invite

you to stand and sing together these words

from Philippians 4 that you'll find in the

middle of your bulletin.

Please stand and join in singing rejoice in

the Lord.

As we remain standing let's together, say what

we believe using number 887

in your him.

Let's offer these words together from the eighth

chapter of Romans.

Who shall separate us from the love of

Christ.

Cell tribulation or distress or persecution or famine

or naked or peril or sword.

No.

In all these things, we are more than

conquer

through the 1 who loved us.

We are sure that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principal municipalities,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the

love of god.

In Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks speak to god.

Amen.

Let us please be seated.

Perfect

needs

on

as Pete mentioned, we have 2 pastor concerns

to share,

pastor Key from Coin,

community church did die this past week. I

know there's been some information that has been

going around about his funeral plans, but

they are still not set fully yet. So,

stay tuned for more information

about that,

also, as you'll see in your Bulletin Carolyn

Mitchell, another member of our church also died

this past week.

So we pray for

for her and for her family as well

as the family of,

Pastor Keith.

Please join me now in prayer.

Oh gracious and

joyful God.

We come to you

this day.

First with 2

sorrow,

sorrow

inter intersections that we lift up to you

this day.

We pray for

Michelle Edmunds

We pray for her family.

We pray for the family

of Carolyn

Mitchell.

Especially for Ryan Mitchell and all of his

family during this day

as they all grieve losses,

and deaths and their families.

We pray for their comfort

and for their peace during this time.

We remember this day, o lord that you

are indeed near.

You are near as we walk through the

valley of the shadow of death

and you are near each of us

throughout our lives,

and we thank you.

And praise you

that you are always near and that we

can never be separated

from your great love

in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We are reminded this day, oh god that

you are also a God of joy.

And we pray that you would help fill

each of us

with your divine

joy.

And we acknowledge that there are circumstances

in life

and in the world around us that can

take our joy away from us, but we

pray that you would help each of us

to choose joy.

No matter what circumstances

that we may face.

We pray for our world.

We pray for peace in the midst of

conflict.

We pray for anyone who is suffering in

any way and mind, body or spirit for

their healing and for their strength.

And now in the silence of our hearts,

we also lift up to you.

Any personal concerns that we may have this

day.

Here our prayers o God.

In the midst of whatever circumstances

we may face in the midst of whatever

anxieties we may have. We present our

petitions to you this day oh God and

pray that you would hear them,

and that you would guard our hearts and

minds and fill us always with your joy,

and with your peace.

We praise you, we glorify you always o

god.

Re that you are always the year.

As we ask all of this in the

name of Jesus Christ our Lord who taught

us to pray together,

our father,

who are in heaven.

Hall it b thy.

Thy kingdom of home,

thy will be.

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us the stay our daily bread

and forgive us our tres

as we forgive those who tres against us

and lead us not to temptation,

but deliver us from you,

for thy is a kingdom

and the power

and the glory forever.

Ami amen.

And now I'd like to invite our usher

to come forward that we may continue to

respond to the word read and pro proclaimed

with the giving of our ties and our

offerings.

Let us pray.

Oh, god, we give you thanks for this

day.

We remember this day that you are the

ruler and the king of all

creation.

We remember this day that you are good,

and that you are close and near to

each 1 of us You know us by

name, You are our God, and we are

your people, and we rejoice

and praise you this day.

We give you thanks for

vacation Bible school this past week. We give

you thanks for all of the adults who

served our children this past week. And for

all the children that were in our midst

and for the joy that they shared with

all of us. Us.

We thank you for all of our many

gifts and blessings,

especially those that remind us of your joy,

and your peace that is always with us.

Bless these gifts that we return back to

you bless them and use them that they

make instruments of your joy and peace in

the world around us. We ask all of

this in the name of Jesus Christ, our

lord.

A amen.

Our final Ham is number 07:15

rejoice. The Lord is king. We will sing

verses 1 free 3.

Well, friends, Sunday is here, but Monday's is

coming.

And on Monday, the breaking news will be

there all the challenges of life will be

there, and all of it, it will come

your way, but I invite you to remember

that which we have pro proclaimed this day.

The Lord is near,

and the lord who is near is good,

and the Lord who is near who is

good is overall.

And this god is a God of joy.

Let us hold on to that truth as

we meet the challenges and joys to come

our way and go now in the name

of the father, and the sun and the

holy spirit as all god's people say.

Amen.