Where is Your Joy?

So today we're kicking off this series, Philippians, a colony of heaven.

And as you start a new book, it's always beneficial, it's always good to get some background to what has taken place to lead to this point in time.

Because when you come to this, this is the letter of Paul to the Philippians.

This is a real letter that was actually written.

And sometimes it's a good reminder for us to understand that.

That this was actually written by an individual to a group of people at a current period of time in history.

And so to understand this letter a little bit more, it is helpful for us to jump back to actually Acts 16, where we understand the foundation of the church in Philippi, how it was started, how it came about.

And while Paul was on his second missionary journey in Troaz, he had a vision from God.

And in this vision, there was a man standing and urging him to come to Macedonia because they needed help.

And so Paul concluded that God was actually physically calling him to go to Macedonia to preach the gospel.

So they set sail to Troaz and ultimately arriving in Philippi.

In Philippi, we would know that today, because if you open up a map, you pulled up Google Maps, you probably wouldn't really find Philippi per se.

But we would know as today as northeastern Greece is where this would have been taking place.

It was the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and it was a Roman colony.

And in this Roman colony, the majority of people living there would have been Gentiles, so not Jewish people.

It would have been Gentiles.

And this was also the beginning of the gospel making its way into Europe at this point in time.

So here we have from Matthew 28 the Great Commission where Jesus commanded his followers and us today to take the gospel to the nations.

We see this now time in that time frame.

So this was around a little bit less than two.

We could read in Acts with three different people, very different people.

We have a Philippian jailer, so kind of a wealthy, middle class, and poor person.

Listen to Acts 16, 14 through 15.

You can follow along on the screen as well.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

And she prevailed upon us.

Now Lydia was a seller of purple goods, and we would understand that if we were to go back into that time period, that that meant that she was a wealthy woman.

She would have been wealthy enough to also have servants in her home.

So she is someone who had means, she had wealth, and eventually her house would become the gathering place for the church.

The Lord opened Lydia's heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul, verse 14.

We get a glimpse a little bit here of the role that man plays in evangelism and the role that God plays in this situation.

God saves people through the hearing of the gospel that people hear as a result of us proclaiming the gospel.

God uses us to share the gospel as a means to bring people to saving faith.

But we must remember it is God who saves.

These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation.

And this she kept going doing for many days.

Paul, having become greatly annoyed, I love that that we read that.

He's annoyed by this.

He's on a mission, but he's annoyed by this individual.

Turn and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And it came out that very hour.

Here was a slave girl who was demon-possessed, and as a result of a demon, her owners would profit off of her.

They would make much money as a result of this.

Now you can imagine the anger of these individuals when Paul cast this demon out of her in the name of Jesus Christ.

It'd literally be like a business owner having his business wiped out from underneath him.

Now, whether it was a good business or not.

But we are reminded here of the power God has over demons.

God does save people who sometimes we believe could never be saved.

Have you ever found yourself saying, well, that person will never believe the gospel?

Well, it's not up to you.

Our responsibility is to share the gospel.

Once again, we share the gospel.

God is the one who brings that person to saving faith through Jesus Christ.

And what is interesting here in this situation is that when God saves the demon-possessed girl, the outcome actually is not good for Paul and Silas because then they are imprisoned.

It's a terrible situation for them.

Which brings us strategically to our third person that they meet, and the third person who is the foundation of the church in Philippi.

We can sometimes believe our circumstances are the worst, and we can begin to get frustrated with where we are at in life, what is taking place in our lives.

For example, here is Paul and Silas, who are now imprisoned for sharing the gospel.

God literally told them to do this, and now they're dealing with this imprisonment.

And it would have been very easy for Paul and Silas to sit there after being beaten with rods.

We skipped over that part.

They were beaten.

Then their feet are put into stocks and they're shackled and they're put in the inner part of the prison.

It would have been very easy for them to begin to blame God, become angry at him, to reject God, but they don't.

How does Paul and Silas respond to their circumstances?

Listen and follow along to Acts 16.25 on the screen.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Later on in Philippians 4.4, Paul says, Rejoice always.

Again I say rejoice.

Paul here in this moment is actively rejoicing in God in a situation where the majority of us would be angry.

We would be frustrated.

We would be trying to figure out why this is taking place in our lives.

Why would God do this to us?

And then we read in Acts 16, 26 about an earthquake that takes place.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

Such an earthquake, I mean, imagine this for a moment.

I don't know if you've ever been in an earthquake.

I've been in a couple of them, but they were very minor, where I felt the building shake, but no one died, nothing happened, the building didn't crumble around me or anything like that.

That the prison is shaken, the doors are opened, and their shackles, their chains are unbound.

What does Paul and Silas do?

Do they escape?

No, they actually stay, and the prison guard here assumes that everyone has escaped and he's about to kill himself because if they would have escaped, it would have meant death for him.

He would have been executed.

Paul calls out to the prison guard, knowing what would have taken place, and he tells them not to harm himself.

The prison guard comes down, helps them.

So it's a pretty incredible story here that God takes a wealthy woman, a demon-possessed people as the foundation of the church.

Then around ten years later, it's the same, he is in prison.

He's writing to the church in Philippi from prison here.

And he writes to them, prompted partly from a gift that they had sent to him, to help him, to take care of him, and also because Paul was wanting to encourage Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we come to verse one.

Here is our summary for verse one.

Our identity is in Christ.

Our identity is in Christ.

Now, typically, all letters written during a Greco-Roman period would include a threefold greeting.

It would have who the writers were, who they were writing to, and then the formal greeting in this situation.

And here in verse one, we're introduced to who were the authors of this letter.

And Paul mentions himself and Timothy.

And it's interesting that he mentions Timothy here in this situation when we know that Paul is actually the author of this letter.

Timothy is mentioned early on in Acts 16 that he joined them in their missionary journey.

So the people here in Philippi would not have been shocked to hear Timothy's name, to read his name.

They would have been familiar with him.

It's also believed that Timothy was serving as a secretary to Paul.

So we actually believe it was Timothy who was actually pinning these words for Paul as Paul told him what to say from God.

Then Paul mentions that they are servants of Christ Jesus.

Paul doesn't label himself like he typically does as an apostle.

He mentions he leaves it as a servant of Christ, and he does this very intentionally because later on, when we get to Philippians 2, and Paul writes in verses 6 and 7, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Also in 1 Corinthians 11 1, Paul says, Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

Paul is intentional here in his greeting to the church in Philippi.

If Christ is a servant, so am I.

If Jesus Christ can humble himself by taking on human flesh as a servant, then I'm a servant as well.

Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ.

Christ is a servant, so am I.

I'm in Christ.

And being in Christ is something that Paul will emphasize over and over and over again throughout this letter.

Philippians 2.1, in Christ.

Philippians 2.5, in Christ.

Philippians 3.9, being found in him.

Philippians 3.9, through faith in Christ.

Philippians 3.14 in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4.7 in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4.19 in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4.21 in Christ Jesus.

And we see the same thing here in verse 1.

To all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

Paul is writing to the church in Philippi when he states to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.

But he also throws on this following phrase, with the overseers and deacons.

When Paul says overseers, he would have been referring to what we know today as sacred mission and what we would call the elders, those who are charged with spiritual oversight, the teaching, the leading of the church.

Paul also mentions the deacons, those who are charged with leading as servants to serve the church.

And when we read this, it's a great reminder that in a matter of about ten years, a wealthy woman, a demon-possessed slave girl, and a Philippian jailer confess faith in Jesus Christ, there is now a church established.

A church who's giving gifts to Paul.

A church who is encouraged by him, a church who needs encouragement.

Paul is writing to this church when he says to all the saints who are in Christ Jesus at Philippi.

And let's ask the question: what does Paul mean when he brings up this word saint?

And when you consider the word saint here, we can see a vertical and a horizontal relationship taking place.

The vertical is what God has done for us through Christ Jesus.

Listen to Colossians 1, 12 to 13.

Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints and light.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

Then the horizontal, so you have the vertical, what God has done for us in Christ, and then the horizontal, how we now live that out as a result of being a saint.

Listen to Colossians 3:12.

Colossians 3:12

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

This is a result of our identity being in Christ.

Because of what Jesus Christ did through his life, death, and resurrection, we can now be considered, we can now be called, we can be identified as saints.

So when Paul calls the church here in Philippi saints, he's not calling them away from something.

He's not calling them apart from something, he's actually calling them to something.

This is what Paul says in Philippians 3.20.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your citizenship is in heaven with Christ, not in a Roman colony where you are physically located.

So as a result of this vertical relationship with God, then your horizontal relationship should be different.

Your horizontal relationship with the world should be different.

Why?

Because your identity is in Christ.

It is God, we have to understand this.

It is God who gives us our identity.

It's not this world, it's not the culture around us, but if you watch the news or you scroll through any social media feed today, you will be inundated with the idea that your identity can be literally whatever you want.

And I'm not even like like stretching that.

Literally, your identity can be whatever you want.

You are how you feel.

More specifically, culturally, we believe our identities are based upon our feelings.

In a new book that was released this year called A Strange New World by Carl Truman, who's a professor of theology and philosophy at Westminster Theological Seminary, he defines this situation that we're currently in as expressive individualism.

Each person, and he says this, each person has a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized.

Now, what happens is this leads to a culture where identity is then achieved when a person's inward feelings are expressed publicly and then are praised for them.

Truman goes on to say, the modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to the same.

The modern self also assumes that society at large will recognize and affirm this behavior.

Now, what Truman does is he goes on to show how this is all wrong, how this doesn't make sense, how this doesn't work.

But when we come to Philippians 1, Paul makes it clear that your identity is not based on your feelings at all, but on who God has made you and defined you as, which is a saint in Christ Jesus.

So not only is our identity secured in Christ, but there are also blessings in Christ, and we see this in our summary of verse 2.

The blessings of being in Christ.

It says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As a result of grace, there is peace, and both come from God.

But I want us to grasp how good God really is when we talk about grace.

It's one thing to talk about grace, it's another thing to have the basis of why grace is so valuable, why it's so important.

Romans 5, 12.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

If we go back to Genesis 3, where we see sin enter the world as a result of Adam and Eve's rejection of God, we also learn that not only has mankind been impacted by sin, but also the earth, everything around us.

Genesis 3, 17.

And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you, in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Listen to Romans and eighteen uh Romans eight, nineteen through twenty-one.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Everything around us has been affected by sin.

So if this is the case, then how do we understand how good God really is?

It's grace.

Now to understand grace, we need to understand what grace is.

Grace is what we don't deserve.

And there are two types of grace when we talk about grace.

There is common grace and there is saving grace.

Now, what is common grace?

Matthew 5, 45, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes the Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

The reason it is called common grace is because it extends to all people everywhere, no matter their relationship with God or not.

It would be anything outside of saving grace.

Every single person, every single thing, blessing that a person experiences, whether they are a follower of Christ or not, is a result of common grace.

Take a farmer, for example.

If you have a farmer who loves God and a farmer who hates God and both have a flourishing farm, that's common grace.

If you have a business owner, one who loves God and one who hates God and they both have success, that is common grace.

If you have a person who loves God and a person who hates God and their hearts are beating and they have breath in their lungs, that's common grace.

If you ever want to sit there, try to try to think to yourself, well, how does my heart really beat?

Why does it beat?

Why does my brain function?

That's God working and sustaining you.

And that's common grace.

Why do we know that?

Because we know that there are unbelievers who are also breathing and living, right?

They experience this common grace as well.

If you have a person who loves God and a person who hates God, and together they walk to the edge of the Grand Canyon, they experience the magnitude and the beauty, and just that massive hole in the ground that looks unlike anything else anywhere in the world, that's common grace.

Because they're experiencing God's good creation.

Common grace are the blessings that every single person experiences, whether they love God or whether they hate God.

But then on the flip side, there's something completely opposite of that.

There's saving grace.

Listen to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Saving grace is the grace that extends to God's people, to those who have been called by God and saved by God.

And grace is a free gift to us.

We did not earn it.

But here's the thing: even though grace cost us nothing, it came at the sacrifice of God giving up his Son Jesus Christ, who was tortured, beaten, mocked, ridiculed, and crucified in a terrible death of suffocation on a cross.

Cost us nothing, but it costs God everything.

And if that is not a blessing to you and me, then I don't know what is.

But the thing is, grace is not a one-time transaction either, and then it's done.

It doesn't just come one time and then it's done, and you just go on with your life, and I got my grace and I'm done.

It's a continual gift that God gives to his people over and over and over again.

That's why when we come to verse 2, Paul writes, Grace to you.

Remember, he's writing the church in Philippi.

He's writing to followers of Christ, those who have been saved.

Paul wants the church in Philippi to continue to experience the grace of God every single day in their lives.

When you are reminded, when I am reminded, when we are reminded every day of how good God is because he has shown us grace, it will change our hearts.

It will change how we think about ourselves and others.

It will change our attitude.

It will change our actions, it will change how grateful we are each and every day.

I think if we could all experience something a little more, it'd be gratefulness, myself included.

It's easy to start believing that we deserve things.

We're owed something.

And we adults can hide this very well.

We've been trained to hide this.

But you spend time with any children or your own, and you will quickly understand from your children's actions how ungrateful they can be.

They just don't hide it.

They're just not as good as we are at hiding that.

Let's be honest, that's a reality that we all experience.

When we see children act out in ungrateful ways, those are just examples of what is actually taking place in our own hearts.

But do you know what the cure for ungratefulness is?

It's the blessing of God's grace.

Remember, we don't deserve it.

Grace is a gift through redemption that is only found in Christ.

Romans 3 24, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Now, Paul does something interesting here in verse 2 that could be very easy to miss.

And a lot of times when we start a new book in the Bible or we're reading through the Bible and we start, we blow right through the beginning.

Oh, who's writing it?

Okay, let me just keep going.

Let me get to the good stuff, right?

We just blow right through it.

But Paul says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul doesn't say grace and peace to you from God.

Paul is showing us that as a result of grace, then there is peace.

Grace is what we don't deserve, peace is what we all long for.

Every single person.

Peace comes because of God's grace.

Romans 5 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, since that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice and hope of the glory of God.

Peace is the fruit from God we experience through the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Peace is the fruit from God as a result of God showing us grace.

If we look for peace in anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will always be restless.

Continually, over and over and over again.

We've all heard the pageant answer, right?

If you could have anything, one thing, what would it be?

World peace, right?

Everyone believes they have the answer for peace.

You can have a more peaceful life if you just take time for yourself, if you meditate more.

Maybe you need to do some breathing exercises.

Do them in the morning, right after you wake up.

Before you go to bed.

If you work out more, if you make more money, if you marry the perfect person, oh, you don't have peace because of your marriage?

Well then you probably should marry someone else.

But that's not true.

The only way you have and experience peace in this life is through Jesus Christ.

How can I say that?

Because Paul, who is writing this letter, who says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, is saying this as he sits in a prison.

Talk about a time, I don't know about for you, but for me, if I'm sitting in prison, I'm not at peace.

From an earthly perspective, this would be no time for peace.

Later on in Philippians 4, 4 through 7, Paul says, Rejoice and the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A couple of weeks ago, we were less than 48 hours from closing on our home, and our loan officer, the loan agent, calls me on that 5.30 p.m.

on Tuesday night, and he needs more information.

Then he confesses to me that it was his fault.

He didn't get the application out on time, made some mistakes on it.

So as a result, our closing is going to be delayed two, three, four, maybe seven days, he told me, just nonchalantly.

In the midst of we're supposed to be closing on Thursday, moving out on Friday, and moving into our home that afternoon, having to be out of our home by Monday morning.

Now we might not even close till Wednesday or Thursday the following week and have no home.

And the rest of the night, I'm on the phone with multiple people.

Our agent, the selling agent, the company.

Like I'm even asking questions like, is there like legal recourse?

Like, like, what, like, how can we get this solved so I can still close on?

And they're like, literally, you can't do anything.

Like it's you're you're stuck.

And I'm angry, I'm frustrated, I'm not happy.

This is the like in my mind, this is the worst thing that can ever happen to anyone, right?

And so that night, as we're putting the kids to bed and I start to pray, in my prayer, I randomly say, God, thank you for today.

And I caught myself in my mind.

As I'm continuing to pray, I'm having a conversation now in my head.

I'm just going on with the prayer.

I'm going, God, am I thankful for today?

Like, this seemed pretty frustrating.

And as I'm praying, I'm remembering because I'm preparing this message and I'm thinking through Philippians, and I remember, oh yeah, remember when Paul's sitting in prison in his life, like seems like things are really bad?

And he says, Rejoice always.

Again, I say, rejoice.

And that moment then, in the midst of the prayer, as I continued to pray, I then thanked God that we could rejoice in that moment.

None of our kids had died.

No one had cancer.

No one, like, we weren't out of a home yet.

Like, life was not over, things were going to be okay, and I could even rejoice in that moment.

But the problem is we've been led to believe that we can only have peace, or we can only rejoice when our lives are perfect.

When everything is going the exact way we hoped or we've planned.

The truth is, you can only have peace when you've experienced grace.

And both grace and peace come from God, but please peace flows out of grace.

Why can we only experience peace after we have experienced the grace of God, though?

Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 1:21 and 22.

Colossians 1:21

And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

So why can we only experience peace after we've experienced the grace of God?

Because until we've experienced the grace of God, and we have been reconciled to God through Christ, because of his death and resurrection, we are alienated from God.

We are enemies of God.

We want nothing to do with God.

We have rejected God.

We're hostile towards him.

And if we are not in a right relationship with God through the gospel, then we will look for peace in everything that the world continues to say you can have peace in.

We will look to lesser things for peace.

We will get caught up in the if-only cycle of our lives.

If only I had a better job.

If only I had more money.

If only I had a better husband or wife.

If only my kids behave better, if only I was younger, if only my health was better, if only I was skinnier.

If only, if only, if only, if only, then I would have peace.

Then I would be happy.

But that's a lie that will never lead to peace.

The only way we have to remember, the only way we will ever experience peace is through grace, being reconciled by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is God who gives us peace.

So stop looking to where the world says will give you peace.

Stop listening to the voice that Adam and Eve listened to in the garden that led to death.

Start listening to the voice that leads to life, which leads us to our main idea today.

And it's this true joy is found in Christ.

First, let's understand what joy is.

Joy means to experience great pleasure or delight.

True joy is to experience great pleasure and delight in Jesus Christ.

Joy is not a feeling.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5, 22 through 24, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And when you belong to Christ, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.

And something that should jump out at us is the fact that we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us who raised Jesus from the dead.

Romans 8, 9 through 11.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

How do you know if you have the Holy Spirit in your life?

There will be fruit.

Specifically, we're talking about one of the fruits of the Spirit, which is joy.

Remember, Philippians 4, 4.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice.

When does Paul say to rejoice in the Lord?

Is when things are going well, when when life is great, when when you just got that promotion.

No, he says always.

Not just when things are going well for you or when things are happy.

He says, always.

Remember, where is Paul writing this letter from prison.

In prison, Paul is saying, rejoice in the Lord always.

In prison, Paul is saying, grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul's circumstance does not determine his joy.

Why?

Because his joy is found in the Lord.

Paul's joy is found in Jesus Christ.

Here is a reality we all face, though.

Beneath all of our sin is a lack of joy found in Christ.

At the foundation of all of our sin is a lack of joy found in Christ.

Think about it.

The reason you reject God and choose that sinful desire, whatever that may be, is because you don't believe Jesus is good enough.

You don't believe Jesus will satisfy enough.

Remember what I said joy means?

Joy means to experience great pleasure and delight.

True joy is to experience great pleasure and delight in Jesus Christ.

Here's our problem.

We don't experience pleasure in Christ.

When we don't, we look to be pleasured.

When we don't delight in Christ, we look to be delighted.

We flip the focus that we should have on Christ to focusing on ourselves.

We become passive.

One of the ways we see this is that we look for joy outside of Christ.

We look for joy outside of Christ.

When we take what I said earlier, that joy means to experience great pleasure and delight.

Pleasure and delight, remember, are momentary feelings.

You are not constantly delighted all day long.

We look for momentary pleasure or delight as if it will satisfy us forever.

Take the example of a misting water bottle.

You missed out and you see the mist and then it's gone.

And we treat pleasure and delight this way, but we actually believe that pleasure and delight will hang out there and that mist will just hang forever, and it's going to be there forever, but it's gone.

And then guess what?

We have to look for more.

And then that one item of pleasure or delight that you found such satisfaction in in that brief second, you need more and more, and it doesn't satisfy, and you need to fulfill it deeper and in a different way.

And that's the problem.

It won't satisfy us forever.

And how do we know this?

Because we've all experienced momentary pleasure and delight and then it vanishes.

It's there and it's gone.

We can go back to the beginning of time with Adam and Eve because what we find with them is they weren't satisfied with all that God had given them in the Garden of Eden.

They weren't satisfied with walking with God in the cool of the day.

Instead of pleasure and delight in their relationship with God, they looked to be pleasured.

They looked to be delighted.

They listened to the voice of the serpent that they could be like God, knowing good and evil.

They no longer found joy in God, but shame and guilt in the rejection of God.

So much so that they even try to hide from God when He comes in to walk with them in the cool of the day.

Imagine that.

You have the blessing of walking with God and experiencing Him fully in the cool of the day, and you run, you hide, you flee.

You want nothing to do with Him.

The problem is we do the exact same thing in our own lives when we look for joy outside of Christ.

We believe we know better than God.

We believe what God has promised isn't good enough.

We believe we deserve better.

How do we know that?

Because you read in what is clear, what God has said is good, and what is bad, and we go, well, maybe.

You believe you know better than God.

When we look to anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ, we will never be satisfied, but we will find misery.

Let's be honest with ourselves.

Some of the areas we look for joy apart from Christ are actually good things.

The problem is if we look to those areas though, those things that God has given us apart from Christ, then they won't actually satisfy us.

Maybe you look for joy in your financial security.

If I can just make more money, or if I can have a certain amount of money saved, or I can have my investment portfolio right where I need it, right now, at this point in life.

It's not where I need it to be in 20 years, but it's good now, then I'll have joy.

Maybe it's joy in friendships.

If I just have more relationships or deeper relationships with people, then I will have joy.

I need better friends.

Or comfort.

If I didn't have these responsibilities in my life, then I would have more joy.

The way you look.

If I just had the body I really wanted, or I looked a certain way, or I worked out more, or I lost some weight, then I'd be happy.

Then I would have joy.

And the problem is all of these are idols that take our eyes off of Christ.

They divert our attention to a lesser God we have created in our minds that we believe will bring us joy, but they won't.

Look at what David wrote in Psalms 16, 4 through 11.

You can follow along on the screen.

He says, This the sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply.

Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion in my cup, you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

At the right hand of God are pleasures forevermore.

Hear that again.

At the right hand of God are pleasures foremore.

Now hold that thought and follow along as I read Hebrews 10, 11 through 14.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified.

Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father.

Our pleasures, or more specifically, our joy, is found in Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God the Father.

How did Jesus accomplish this?

And we see this in our gospel conviction today.

Jesus sacrificed his life so our joy would be full.

Hebrews 12, 2.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus could endure one of the most painful ways to die when he went to the cross, and he did it because there was joy set before him.

He endured the cross because of the joy to come.

The joy of sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father.

But not only did Jesus look forward to such joy that he was willing to go through torture, pain, and death, but he offers us this same joy as well.

Listen to what he said in John 15, 11.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

So is your joy full this morning?

If not, then why?

Jonathan Edwards, who was a theologian and then pastor from the 1700s, he said this the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.

To go to heaven fully to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.

Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but God is the substance.

These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun.

These are but streams, but God is the ocean.

Everything points back to God.

All the good things you experience are what comes from God.

He is the substance.

And if you continue, though, to look apart from God, to look apart from Christ, to earthly goods for joy, even great blessings like parents, spouses, children, and friends, you will never find true joy.

At some point, all of these people, all of these earthly goods, will let you down.

So what does this mean for us today?

How does this impact the way we live as a result of living in a colony of heaven, as a result of a Philippian colony or a Roman colony or an earthly colony?

It's this in our gospel vision.

Look to Christ for joy now and forevermore.

How does that statement impact you and me?

How does this impact us?

Look to Christ for joy now and forevermore.

If Christ could look past his upcoming death on a cross and have joy in what was to come, then we can look past our current circumstances, whatever they might be, and we can look to the future hope we have in Christ, which leads us to our joy here and now.

So if life is going well, guess what?

You can have joy.

But if your life is not going well and you are struggling and you are frustrated, you also can have joy.

This is why Paul could sit in chains and say, rejoice in the Lord always again.

I say rejoice.

Why?

Because your joy is rooted in Jesus Christ.

Remember that in the same way the Philippian church was reminded that they now lived as a colony of heaven instead of a colony of Rome, we too are reminded that we live in a colony of heaven because in Christ our citizenship is not here.

But in heaven.

It impacts not only our future, but our here and now.

Depending on what type of church maybe you grew up in, if you grew up in the church, it was always pretty, just believe in the gospel, just confess faith, just say this prayer, and then you'll go to heaven one day.

And you were left going, what does that mean now?

How does that impact my life now?

The gospel of Jesus Christ does impact our life now because it impacts our joy.

No matter our circumstances, our circumstances don't determine our joy.

Christ determines our joy.

So what should we do?

Look to Christ, and we will have joy now and forevermore.

Let's pray.