”When Joy is Far Away” // Philippians 2:1-11 // Lakeview Bible Church

Um, couple things, uh, as we get going.

Um,

do you have the Yeah, there you go.

Thanks, Rod. Um, if you need help, if

you need to reach out,

uh, please

do that. Um, that's there uh for us 247.

If uh you need prayer for anything,

anything, uh, please send it. Um we love

to be able to uh to lift all of it up

and uh ask God to do and only he can do.

So uh connect cards there. Uh next thing

is uh we've started a a rhythm of the

second or sorry the first Tuesday of the

month which happens to be June 2nd um as

a prayer night for our church. Uh so um

June 2nd is here. So we're going to

gather to pray on Tuesday night. uh

those um environment that this

environment is a combination of

um uh together like praying for some

things we feel like the Lord has placed

in our hearts and things that we feel

like he's leading us in. Uh but also we

have time to pray for one another

uh for the things that we're personally

needing God to touch and to do and all

that. So, um, invite you to come uh on

June on June 2nd,

Tuesday night, right here, uh, in this

room. And just logistically, we do have

child care for littles, like preschool

age, uh, with that if you need it. Uh,

okay.

Just go back to Yeah, thanks, Rod. Uh so

so this week

uh with Tai's passing

uh I found out Tuesday morning and I was

actually in New Mexico with my boys up

on a mountain in a storm and uh we were

supposed to come back that afternoon and

through the delays we eventually did as

we tried to orient and come alongside

the family and and all of that. And then

Wednesday morning, I'm here. We got

we're able to make it back uh Tuesday

night through the storms. And Wednesday

morning

sitting getting oriented and I'm talking

to God. Uh we are in uh a sermon series

uh through the book of Philippians and

the subtitle is made for joy. And when I

had that thought, I'm like that sounds

tonedeaf.

that sounds like almost wrong.

Like like that's what I'm going to do

this week, Lord. Uh given what has

happened. And I'm wrestling with I'm

like what gifts?

Because he knew back in the fall when

I'm lining out all this because I all

these sermons and the passages are lined

out like six months in advance.

Like I put this in a Excel spreadsheet.

Philippians 2 1-11 back in the fall. I'm

like, you knew why?

Why this passage, this why this series?

And I didn't know. I didn't know. And as

I sat there and I wrestled with him,

um, and he was very kind. The Lord is

always very kind.

He's like, "No." cuz I thought, here's

what I thought when I was driving in on

that Wednesday morning. I was like, I'm

going to find a lament psalm.

Um, this is a time for lament. We we

don't do that well as a culture. We

don't like to be sad. Uh, we avoid it at

all cost generally. Um, so I was like,

okay, I'm going to find a

a little less than half the psalms are

lament psalms. Lament psalms are like,

"God, how could you? God, where were

you?" Those kinds of psalms. Uh, but God

didn't give me a green light on that.

He's like, "No, Philippians 2." I was

like, "What?"

And so, um, I think as I wrestled with

him that morning,

I think I know why.

Because what I felt like he said was

there will be times in your life. There

are times like right now

where you know like joy is still true.

Being made for joy is still true

but it's just not here

and joy is far off.

And so what do you do when you're in a

season of hard

and joy ain't nowhere around you?

But you know

like it's up there somewhere.

What do you do?

That's what I want us to unpack. So open

please Philippians 2

verse one.

And let me let me just pray as we as we

open God's word.

Father, again we come to before you as a

a needy people who need to hear your

spirit speak to us. And Father, we need

to hear your voice, Jesus. We need you

present. Um we need you to make the book

alive to us today.

Father, you are the author. You are

alive, which means the word is alive.

And so I ask that you would make it live

to us and help us by your word. You

speak.

You speak, Father, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

What do you do when you're made for joy

and joy is far away?

You lean into the grace of being a

family.

You lean into the grace of being a

family. So look at verse one.

God's word says, "So if there is any

encouragement in Christ, any comfort

from love, any participation in the

spirit, any affection and sympathy,

complete my joy." Let's just stop there.

He starts this transition

with the word so which means he's

leveraging he's unpacking further. He's

what Paul is doing what God is doing

he's he's taking the next step from what

he said previously in chapter 1 in order

to continue to fill it out. So if you

look back at verse 27 the so is tied to

verse 27 right only let your manner of

life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So, as we wrestle down what it looks

like to live a life worthy of the gospel

in light of what Jesus has done for us

in his life, death, and resurrection,

that when we come to him in faith and

we're saved and we're made new, we're a

new creation. Heaven is secure. We know

we're going there. Our lives should be

different because of that foundational

fundamental truth, capital T, above all

truths. There's nothing more important

that should revolutionize everything

about us. How so, God? How so, Paul? The

so of verse one.

What you and I have is encouragement in

Christ.

that on this day, on every day, um

the gospel is the is the truth that you

know that God loves you,

that every time you think of what the

Lord Jesus has done for you, even on the

hardest days, you can be encouraged in

him because it proves I laid my life

down for you. I have not left you. I

have not forsaken you. If here's the

here's the argument. If I did that for

you, then am I going to leave you now?

No.

No. Be encouraged.

He is on the throne. He is king. He has

not abdicated. He still Romans 8 prays

for you, intercedes for you to the

father every day. Be encouraged.

And then it says any comfort from love.

It's not just love, like what we said a

second ago. It's like, "Oh, yes, I know

Jesus loves you." But the depth of that,

the depth of that,

that he loves you more than you can

fathom.

Like even even you like me on my worst

days where I don't feel very lovable,

he loves you.

He loves you so much.

And the third thing he mentions

any participation in the spirit. Here's

like one of the amazing things among an

infinite number that we could list. But

when Jesus

comes in his incarnation, he lives, he

dies, he's resurrected. We're not left

alone.

That you and I have been given God the

Holy Spirit to indwell us. That we can

participate with God every day. There's

not a day that God is not very near.

I can tell you this week like I have

felt the Lord carry me.

And as I looked around at the people who

were shattered, I'm like, "Oh my gosh,

the Lord is carrying us." Why? Because

his spirit is in us.

And then the fourth

uh piece he mentions any affection and

sympathy.

Um this is I just love the depth of how

this all works. And like

we this is why heaven is going to be a

long time

because he you we're going to need

eternity to unpack all of this. Um, this

affection word is it's not like God sent

you an email and said, "Hey, remember I

still love you."

This affection word is as if you're

sitting

and Jesus is sitting right next to you

with his arm around you.

It's that picture.

It's that picture and it's sympathy.

How? Because when Jesus looks at you and

you lock eyes with him,

he knows.

He knows. He knows the depth of your

grief every time. Why? Well, among other

places like John 11 where he stands

outside the tomb of his best friend,

family to him.

And what does he do?

He weeps.

He weeps. Even though, this is what

blows my mind, even though he knows

within an hour he's going to raise him

from the dead,

and he still weeps.

And here's our challenge, right?

Tai knew Jesus, which means since he's

absent from the body, he's present with

the Lord. He's his race is run.

No more battle.

And if you're in Jesus, you will see him

one day.

Like you know that.

But right now, it's just hard and it's

just pain. And what you and I need is

sympathy.

Here's the other sympathy that most

people miss in the gospel. Because when

we think about the cross of Jesus

Christ, we rightly think about Jesus

being

nailed to it, crown of thorns,

spear in the side.

And Jesus gives up his life in that

moment. You know what else was happening

in that moment?

The father was losing the son.

Why is that a sympathy?

Because if you are a parent

who loses a child, only in the gospel do

you have a God who can look at you and

say, "I know.

I know."

Why? Because not only was the son losing

the father, but the father was losing

the son.

Where else are you going to go?

There is no other message that makes

sense

of what makes no sense.

Only the gospel has the depth and breath

so that we can live worthy of it.

Paul goes on verse two,

he says, "Complete my joy." How?

By being of the same mind, having the

same love, being in full accord and of

one mind.

Doing nothing from selfish ambition or

conceit, but in humility count others

more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own

interests, but also to the interests of

others.

Here's one of the things I find really

interesting about what Paul says here,

what God says, because he could have

said anything. What he could have said

after verse one is like since we have

all this in the gospel, right? Complete

my joy. Paul, how do we complete your

joy? What would make Paul, the founding

pastor of the Philippian church, what

would make God, it's God's word. What

would make God joyful? You know where my

brain tends to go? Like he would have

said next, continue to advance,

plant more churches, reach the city, see

more people come to Christ, complete my

joy by be after everything that the

kingdom calls us to be about. He says

none of that.

You know what he says? He says, "You

know how you complete my joy? Be a

family."

Be a family. That's what he describes.

Being of the same mind.

Y'all be on the same page.

Be unified.

Have the same love. Love for God. Love

for one another.

being in full accord and of one mind.

And then the these three

phrases that he uses. First he says

verse three, do nothing from selfish

ambition or conceit.

He doesn't say don't have ambition.

He says have ambition but have it for

others.

Have your ambition be the ambition that

you have. man, this is what I want to

see in you. Here's what I hope God does

for you. Here's man, my ambition. Like,

I am so fired up that God would do this

in you, man. I can't wait to see that

happen. Man, that'd be encouraging.

And then he says,

um, but in humility, count others more

significant than yourselves. The word

count there, it it literally means do

the math. Do the math. And what's

interesting is he also doesn't say don't

think of yourself as insignificant.

You're significant. You absolutely are.

Every one of you are significant.

But what God says is here's I want you

to do some math. And when you compare

your significance to someone else's,

just put yourself

beneath them and see their significance

more than yours.

Put your significance aside. You have

it.

Again, it's proved in the gospel. You

don't have to fight for your

significance. The Lord of heaven has

already come for you. He already thought

you were valuable enough that he's like,

I'm leaving heaven for you.

You have significance.

So you can lay it aside

and point to encourage someone else's

significance.

Could you imagine if our world was like

this? It's like the opposite of our

world. Is it not?

What's everyone else doing? I'm about my

ambition.

I'm about my significance.

Not here.

And then the last one,

uh, verse four,

let each of you look not only to his own

interests, but to the interests of

others. Again, you and I have interests.

We have stuff to do. We have stuff we

need to do. We have stuff that we have

that we're accountable for. And so, we

should do that. But that's not all we

should do. We should look to the

interests of others.

And so basically these three phrases

that he uses where the world does it one

way the complete opposite of what

Philippians 2 is saying in a family

in a family

you flip it.

You flip it.

That's how we live worth of the gospel.

Um,

and I saw it this week

on Tuesday. There were people who

love the workman's

in their front yard praying all day,

crying out for the Lord on their behalf,

all their other interests set aside.

this week. I saw it

as people completely took all the things

that they had to do this week and those

will get done some other time.

Right now, the family needs them.

It's beautiful.

That's how you live worthy of the

gospel.

Um,

one of the reasons

that I adopted and I speak over us

family language

is because I want us to live it out.

It's a bit prophetic.

Our words matter.

Um, not in some new age weird way.

It's not abracadabra hocus pocus,

but in a biblical prophetic sense.

I'm speaking over us what we actually

are

in hopes that we would live into it.

If you are in Jesus,

we have the same heavenly father and you

are brothers and sisters.

So much so that one time when Jesus is

um

preaching and healing, his family comes,

his biological family comes and people

are like, "Hey Jesus, your family's

looking for you."

And he says, he goes, "This is my

family."

The implication being

that you are actually, this is how

heaven works. You are actually closer

familially

with your brothers and sisters in Jesus

than you are your own flesh and blood.

There will be a day

where you will need the family.

I pray that you have them.

So I ask us please,

Sunday morning's great. It's where we

gather, we orient, praise Jesus

together.

I needed to hear you all sing this

morning.

And you need to be in spaces where

people know you

and you know them.

It's not optional.

We need it.

I think just

just so you know, I don't know what

words are going to come out this

morning. We're just going to trust God.

Um

I think God has given us a great gift in

this season that we're in as technology

absorbs more and more of life and more

and more of life is mitigated through

screens.

Um,

you need we need flesh and blood people

who are flesh and blood present.

And I think the best days of the church

are ahead

because I'm going get in room with

people.

If it's a small group, if it's a men's

group, if it's a women's group,

we need it.

The other thing um is also our serving

teams. I just want to highlight this and

point this out. Um usually when we talk

about serving, take the tack that you've

been gifted by God. You have a place and

you have a contribution to make and

that's all true, but you know what else

is just so lifegiving is that you're on

a team.

Um

uh verse 27 of chapter 1 says that with

one mind striving side by side for the

faith of the gospel.

You and I need to be on teams because we

need to strive side by side.

So those folks that you're serving with

are your friends.

On days when um joy feels far off, we

lean into family.

We leaned into family.

Second, we lean into our selfmping

savior. Our self-mping savior. Look at

verse five.

says have this mind among yourselves.

It's interesting this mind comes up over

and over this word. It's like you have

to think this way. You have to we have

to re reshape how we think. Romans 12

says um by the renewing of our mind

that's how transformation happens.

Have this mind among yourselves, which

is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he

was in the form of God, did not count

equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Verse seven, but emptied himself by

taking the form of a servant, being born

in the likeness of men, and being found

in human form, he humbled himself by

becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Um,

go back up to verse five. The mind that

we're supposed to have, notice, among

yourselves, plural. This is a mind that

we have individually and collectively

that we actually have access to. Notice

which is yours present tense in Christ

Jesus. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is

in you helping you and us collectively

think like Jesus. Okay. How did Jesus

think? What was in his mind that we are

supposed to embody and embrace? Verse

six,

who though he was in the form of God did

not count equality with God a thing to

be grasped. Now there has be like big

books written on this one verse. What

does this mean? Okay, a couple things I

want to point out. One of the things

that heretics do is they say, "Oh, Jesus

was just in the form of God. He wasn't

actually God." That's heresy. That's

wrong. Jesus has eternally existed as

the second member of the Trinity. All

over the Bible, you can go to John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. The word was God. The word

was with God. Uh the word is God.

Colossians chapter 1, another place

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

where he declares like Jesus is fully

divine, right? Um what it's saying when

it says that Jesus was in the form of

God is when he showed up, he was

actually fully God.

But he emptied himself of the fullness

of that in the sense of his rights or

prerogatives to assert that fullness.

What I mean is, okay, Jesus shows up.

He's in his incarnation. He could have

kind of released the veil and had all of

his godness

come out. And what would have happened

to humanity?

They would have like everyone fallen

right on their faces. Depart from me.

Right? It's what we see in the Old

Testament. God says to Moses, "You can't

see me otherwise you die."

So what does Jesus have to do? He has to

empty himself

of that so that his inherent godness

doesn't straight kill us.

The other thing he emptied himself was

his right to be fully obeyed at all

times. What Jesus could have done is

everything he said, "Oh no, you're going

to do this or judgment right there." He

doesn't do that.

You see this during his trial with the

Pharisees. He even makes mention of it.

He goes, "You don't have any authority.

The only authority you have has been

given to you from heaven. What I could

do is I can call about 10 I don't know

million angels right down here lay waste

to all y'all.

But he doesn't.

He empties himself

of all the prerogatives that he has as

God.

Why? So that he can save us and serve

us.

That's what he's doing.

But at no point, please, this is the

error that the Mormons make. This is the

error the Jehovah's Witness makes. This

is the error that every heretic makes.

They either say that he wasn't God or he

wasn't man. He was both fully

100% both at the same time. It wasn't

like a Dr. Jackekal and Mr. Hyde where

oh, sometimes the God comes out and

sometimes the man comes out. Nope.

Here's like all the first councils of

the church up into the fifth century was

fighting this battle. Who was he in his

incarnation?

Fully God, fully man. He has to be fully

God because he has to live a perfect

life and only God can forgive sin. He

has to be fully man. Why? Because it's a

human debt that needs to be paid.

He has to be fully human so that he can

experience everything that you and I

experience. so that he can look you in

the eye and say, "I know."

And what we're supposed to see in these

verses is like, "Jesus,

you left heaven

to get into the dirt with us.

You emptied yourself of all your rights.

Like, it's right that everyone just

straight obey you and bow before you,

and you became killable.

He just emptied himself of all that so

he could come for us.

How? Look at verse 7. By taking the form

of a servant, being born in human

likeness and being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death, even death on the

cross.

So again, what happens is when we are in

a horrible season, we are in the valley

and joy is far off, we go, "Okay, I'm

going to take my focus and I'm going to

put it right on Jesus. I'm going to put

it right on the cross because that is

the only way that you and I can see joy

out in the distance even though it's not

here and make progress in it.

And here's the other thing that you and

I need to know. The self-mping of Jesus

is also a model for the self-mping that

you and I will go through.

the selfmping

that you and I will go through.

What do I mean? I mean the Lord is going

to take every if he loves you,

he is going to empty you of all the

things that you think make you somebody

so that he can replace them with him.

All those things that we want to put on

our resume and say, "I'm I'm a great

whatever. I'm a big shot because of

whatever. I did this and I did that."

Empty.

We're going to get to Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 in a couple weeks and Paul's

going to say, "You know, my resume, it's

all and the word literally is poop."

Like this one place where he literally

he says excrement.

He goes, "That's my res." That's how I

look at my resume now. All those things

that Paul, I used to be this. I used to

be a big shot.

Nope. Empty.

Empty. How do you know that's true?

Because you and I are not going to get

to heaven and and sit in front of Jesus

and he's going to be like, "Man, you

were something special, huh?"

And you're going to be like, "I kind of

was."

No. You know what we're going to do when

we get to heaven? We're going to weep

and cry and hug his neck for a long

time.

That's what we're going to do.

And we're just going to say thank you.

Nothing I did.

Um

I'll tell you this story because you're

we're all going to go through it.

Um,

I got out of the military, went to

Dallas Seminary, and then wife and I

planted a church up in the Dallas area.

And part of planting a church, you guys,

many of you who are part of um, Hill

Country campus, meeting in Laura Bush,

you set up and tore down church every

week. Special place in heaven for you.

Um,

because it's just hard. It's a lot of

Sundays. You pour yourself in there,

you're like, I don't want to do this.

And I can remember many Sundays

in Kriswell Elementary School

setting up, you know, those multicolored

uh mats in kids spaces that have like

the interlocking teeth,

right? Here's what the Lord did to me.

I'm putting these together Sunday after

Sunday.

I used to fly a $40 million airplane.

I've led men in combat,

weapons galore,

stuff that mattered, and I'm putting

together mats.

I had a lot of wrestling matches with

the Lord.

And he very, again, very kind. He's

always very kind. Hey, Eric, do you

think you're better than that?

No, I'm not.

I'm not.

You're going to have to empty yourself

and have him replace it

with what he has.

But here, like he's brilliant. He knows.

It's like when you do that, you're like,

"Oh, now I'm free. I don't have to be a

big shot anymore.

Being a big shot so exhausting.

Jesus is like, I'm the big shot. Yes and

amen.

He's He's the only one big enough to

handle it.

You can't. I can't.

And you know that you hate being around

big shots that think they're big shots.

But that's when joy starts to come

because then you'd be like, "Oh man, I'm

getting to put together these little

mats."

Why? Well, so a little boy or a little

girl doesn't hurt their knee. That's

worth it.

You're made for joy. Sometimes joy is

far off.

So you lean into the grace of family and

you turn to your self-mping savior.

And third, you wait for the promised

glory and joy to come.

You wait for the promised glory and joy

to come. Verse N.

Therefore,

God has highly exalted him and bestowed

on him the name that is above every

name, so that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow in heaven and on

earth and under the earth, and every

tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

Um,

our God wins.

Our God wins.

How the story ends is Jesus will be

exalted.

One of the things that's difficult this

side of heaven is we have the gospels

and in the gospels and in the New

Testament uh Jesus is spit upon beaten

crown of thorns nailed in his self-mping

he allowed himself to be treated that

way

when he comes back.

That's not happening.

He is king of kings

and he is lord of lords

and all will bow.

And either you will bow in horror

at his glory or you will bow rejoicing.

The king has come.

Just got to wait for it.

You just got to wait for it.

And all the hard days and weeks like

this week,

he will show us what he was doing.

We will understand fully when we see him

and joy will come.

A joy that'll never end.

CS Lewis

uh 20th century British profess

professor,

author, essaist, thinker.

Um he wrote some pretty important books

that I would highly recommend to you. Uh

but he was also a prolific letter writer

and um there's collections of his

letters correspondence uh with his

friends and he gets this one letter from

a lady who was in the midst of a valley.

We don't know what the valley was, but

she was in a tough spot.

And Lewis writes back to her uh from the

perspective of just having come out of a

valley uh or feeling like he was coming

out. He wasn't sure.

Um

but he he writes this to encourage um

his friend because she was wavering. She

was having a tough time.

And he writes, "No amount of falls

will really undo us if we keep picking

ourselves up each time." And I would

insert by grace.

He goes on, "We shall of course be very

muddy and tattered children by the time

we reach home,

but the bathrooms are all ready. The

towels are put out and the clean clothes

are are airing in the cupboard."

The only fatal thing is to lose one's

temper and give it up.

It is when we notice the dirt. That is

when God is most present to us. It is

the very sign of his presence.

On those days when you feel tattered and

muddy,

it's when he's most present.

And because of the gospel, joy is

coming.

even though right now it may be far

away.

So here's what I how I want to end

with the end of the story.

I just want to remind us with these

words.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth

had passed away. and the sea was no

more. And I saw the holy city, New

Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven

from God, prepared as a bride adorned

for her husband. And I heard a loud

voice from the throne, saying, "Behold,

the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will

be his people, and God himself will be

with them as their God. He will wipe

away every tear

from their eyes. And death shall be no

more. Neither shall there be mourning,

nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the

former things have passed away.

And he who is seated on the throne said,

"Behold, I am making all things new."

Also, he said, "Write it down, for these

words are trustworthy and true." And he

said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha

and the Omega, the beginning and the

end. To the thirsty, I will give from

the spring of the water of life without

payment.

The one who conquers will have his have

this heritage and I will be his God and

he will be my son. But as for the

cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,

as for murderers, the sexually immoral,

sorcerers, idoltors, and all liars,

their portion will be in the lake that

burns with fire and sulfur, which is the

second death.

Then the angel showed me the river of

the water of life, bright as crystal,

flowing from the throne of God and of

the Lamb through the middle of the

street of the city. Also on either side

of the river, the tree of life with its

12 kinds of fruit, yielding each

yielding its fruit each month. The

leaves of the tree were for the healing

of the nations. No longer will be there

any will there be anything a cursed but

the throne of God and of the lamb will

be in it and his servants will worship

him. They will see his face and his name

will be on their foreheads and night

will be no more. They will no they will

need no light or lamp or sun for the

Lord God will be their light and they

will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me,

"These words are trustworthy and true.

And the Lord, the God of of the spirits

of the prophets, has sent his angel to

show his servants what soon must take

place.

And behold,

I am coming soon.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words

of the prophecy of this book."

And we say,

Come quickly Lord Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father,

you are God alone. There is no other.

Father, Son, and Spirit.

We are your people.

We declare that you are good

and we look to the joy to come.

knowing that Jesus has already purchased

our future

and it is secure.

Would you surround each of our hearts

wherever they're at?

And would you continue to mold and shape

us to the image of him

who we can't wait to see.

Be with the workman.

Fill them with your grace.

Help us to help them

and help our hearts

in Jesus name. Amen.

Um the prayer team will be down front.

If you would like to pray with someone,

they're going to be here. You are loved

and Jesus is with you. Go in his peace.