“The Joy in the Journey” by Joakim Lundqvist

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Oh, so great to be back in the house again.

Every time Maria and I know that we're about to spend a weekend with y'all, we're just super excited.

Oh, praise God.

And a big Swedish hey, hey to everyone who's watching online.

We're so glad that you decided to join us to exalt the name of Jesus this weekend.

Now, before we go into the Word of God, let me just make a quick announcement.

There's something really, really special going on in this nation right now.

In the wake of a horrible tragedy, we are seeing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on campuses, universities, among young people and young adults.

And I do believe this is a powerful move of God.

And that's why I want to pause to say, if you're in that age category, especially if you're part of our Gateway family, if you're a young adult, don't miss the upcoming young adults retreat, October 10 to 12 at Sky Ranch.

Because I've at Sky Um Ranch, because I do believe that these few days will kind of connect to the overall national movement of the Spirit of God, and it might well be the most important young adults retreat that we've ever had.

So it's going to be powerful worship, preaching of the word of God, strong moments of encountering the presence of God, and you're going to lead back to your world more equipped and more passionate for Jesus than ever before.

Now, there's a price discount for this retreat right now.

So if you want to take make use of that, text retreat to 71010.

Retreat to 71010 to register today.

All right.

If you've been around Gateway lately, you know we're in the series called Happy But Hollow, studying the letter to the Philippians.

And Pastor Daniel's done such a great job in unlocking this letter for the past three weeks.

And now we're going to uh spend our time today looking at Philippians 4.

Lucky me.

That's one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament.

And I've gathered the thoughts I want to share with y'all under the headline The Joy in the Journey.

The joy in the journey, four choices that will guide us through life.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, we thank you so much for your presence in this room.

And now we ask that you will touch our eyes so we can see, that you will touch our ears so we can hear, and that you will touch our hearts so we can open them and fathom and embrace everything you want to teach us this moment in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you turn to your neighbor and tell them, I hope you're ready for the word of God?

And now turn to your other neighbor and tell them, I hope you're ready for some Swedish accent.

Right, we're gonna start out in the very first verse of Philippians chapter four, and already here we see the first choice that this precious chapter provides us with.

Verse number one, I'm reading from uh the New King James Version.

Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

The last few words here is what I want to focus on.

Stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

It might actually obviously read something different if you're using another translation, but the Greek original words that these words are translated from is are very interesting.

They're uh in Greek we read stekete and curio agape toi.

Let me break that down for you.

Stekete and Kyrio Agape toi.

Steketeen means stand fast in or hold on to.

Is the Greek word for Lord and agape toi.

Many of you will be familiar with the Greek word agape, which is the love of God.

Now the ending agape toi means it's plural.

So basically, agape toy is God's love for y'all, as we would say in Texas.

So basically, it reads stand fast in the Lord's love for y'all, stand fast in the love the Lord has for you.

Stand fast in being the beloved of the Lord.

And this is so important because we're talking about identity and a choice of identity here.

Paul says, stand fast in the identity of being the beloved of the Lord, of being curious why, because he knows that if you would live in the reality of being loved by the Lord, and if that would be your most foundational identity, then your life will change completely.

It will change everything about your life.

It will change the way you think, it will change the way you talk, it will change what you say and do not say, it will change the way you live, what you do and do not do, it will change your priorities, it will change your perspectives, it will change your attitudes, it will change everything.

And the devil knows this.

So that's why he works over time to try to snatch away from you the foundational identity of being loved by the Lord, and that's exactly why Paul writes hold on to it, stand fast in it, don't let anyone take this foundational identity away from you.

Now you will have many identities walking through life, and and many of them are great.

Many of you has have the identity of a husband or a wife, father or a mother, son or daughter.

You'll get an identity from your position at work, you'll get an identity from your friends, from society as a whole.

What I'm saying is the most foundational identity in your life needs to be acknowledging daily that you are the beloved of the Lord, that God's love is the most foundational force in your life.

And how I love the apostle John.

You know, John, one of the 12, the author of the Gospel of John, three letters and the book of Revelation.

I love how he talks about himself in his own gospel.

Because I mean, he's part of the story, so he has to write about himself sometimes, but when he does, he doesn't write about himself in first person like me or I.

He always names himself the disciple that Jesus loved.

What a way to talk about yourself, and and it always comes across like prideful, but you know what?

I'm a hundred percent convinced that he didn't use this expression to imply that Jesus loved the other eleven less.

It was just the identity of being the beloved of the Lord had consumed his entire being to the point that he named himself accordingly.

So when he says something to Peter, he doesn't write, I said to Peter, but the disciple that Jesus loved said to Peter, if this is your foundational identity, nothing is gonna stop you.

But if you choose another identity as your main one, it will create a weakness in your life.

Let me tell you, a person who is not living in the identity of the beloved of the Lord is more likely to constantly seek the approval of men, even be ready to do immoral things to gain it.

A person not living in this identity is more likely to lose sleep over a negative comment on social media.

A person not living in this identity is more likely to not encourage or lift up others because with light shining on them, there's less shining on you.

A person not living in this identity is more likely to stay in an abusive relationship because you believe the lie that you don't deserve better.

A person not living in the identity of being the beloved of the Lord is more likely to struggle to say you're sorry because you're afraid that admitting you're wrong could bring you down in another's eyes.

However, a person living actively daily in the identity of being the beloved of the Lord is more likely to forgive and not hold grudges because they live in the awareness of having been forgiven themselves.

They're more likely to not sin because you don't want to hurt the one who loves you more than anyone else.

You're more likely to be generous with praise of others since you know you're already affirmed yourself.

You're more likely to not care what people say about you or who canceled you.

Praise God.

You're more likely to be quick to meet the needs of others because you live in the awareness of how God has met yours.

Let me just go with you quickly also to Matthew chapter 3, verse 17.

Matthew 3:17

Matthew chapter 3, verse 17.

Matthew 3:17

The context here is the baptism of Jesus.

He's baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, and as he comes up from the water, the heavens open, and the voice of the Father is heard.

Matthew 3, 17.

God the Father says, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

He's not saying this is the savior of the world.

He's not saying this will be the world's greatest teacher.

He's not saying any of this.

This is gonna be an amazing miracle maker.

The first affirmation from heaven says that this is my beloved son.

And I want you all to realize not just what God is saying here, but when he is saying it.

This is the starting point of Jesus' ministry.

The baptism is the launch pad of his ministry.

Up until now, he has not preached a single sermon, he has not healed anyone, he's not raised anyone from the dead, he's not calmed a storm, he hasn't performed at all.

This means that this affirmation from the Father is not based on his performance, but it's based on the fact that he is the Son of God, and it's exactly the same with you.

God doesn't affirm you because of your performance, he affirms you because you are a daughter or a son of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the foundation of our affirmation, that is the foundation of our identity.

And I love this perspective.

You know, every other religion strives to get the affirmation of the deity.

You can study Islam, you can study Hinduism, you can study Buddhism.

They all strive to get that final affirmation, hopefully, at the end of their lives.

But you know what?

Their goal, the goal of any other religion, is the starting point of Christianity.

What they aspire and hope will be the final result, the affirmation of God for a good performance is given to you freely the first second you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

You are the beloved of the Lord.

This is your identity.

So, does this mean that holiness doesn't matter anymore?

Does this mean that no, there's no need to sanctify our lives anymore?

Of course not.

But it means that we're not striving for holiness and sanctification to get the affirmation of God.

We're striving for holiness and sanctification because we love God and we love Him because He first loved us.

Come on, can we say hallelujah in the house of the Lord?

This is the first choice.

Choose the right identity.

None should be more strong in your life than the identity of being the beloved of the Lord.

Okay, the second choice we find in this precious chapter, verse four.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again.

Rejoice.

I love how Paul realizes they won't get it the first time.

I'll just add another rejoice right there so they don't just pass this by.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Now, always means this is a matter of choice, not circumstance.

We know that there will be days where we are more likely to choose joy, and more other days where we are like more likely to not choose joy, but we will always have the ability to do so.

Number choice number two, choose joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Let me tell you, gateway, family.

Um, last week was my beautiful wife's birthday, and uh and we took a few days uh to go down to to Mexico and just the two of us to celebrate her, and we had an amazing time.

We had a great time, but at the same time, while we were there, we heard the news about a Ukrainian refugee called Irina Sarutzka, who was tragically, senselessly stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte.

And of course, we heard the news about the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk.

And both these things just left us with such a heaviness and such a burden, and it left us with tears in our eyes.

And you might wonder, you might ask yourself, how can we talk about rejoicing always?

How can we talk about choosing joy in these dark circumstances?

Well, let me tell you why.

Because the joy of the Lord isn't about ha ha ha, it's about hope, hope, hope.

It's not founded on temporary emotional experiences, it's founded on a hope that is more stable and stronger than any emotion you will ever experience.

And our hope in Jesus is that evil is temporary, but the kingdom of God is eternal.

Our hope is that God is still on the throne.

Our hope is that Jesus has won an eternal victory, and it's only a matter of time until every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

This is the foundation of our joy, and this is the reason we can rejoice in the Lord always.

I remember when I woke up to this fact for the first time.

Many of you know my testimony by now.

Um, I gave my heart to the Lord when I was 16, and about one year later, I had a very special experience.

I haven't told you about this yet.

I'm about to now.

So I had had one of those days where just everything went wrong.

You know, not just one thing, but everything.

And I remember I came back home to our house from school, and and I was so angry and so sad and so depressed and and so full of self-pity, and I was blaming everyone else because of course it was all their fault.

So I came to our back to our house.

My parents were away for a few days.

I was alone in the house.

I remember going into the kitchen and I didn't even bother to turn on the light because I thought that the darkness of the room reflected the state of my soul at that at that moment.

So here I am sitting in my kitchen, in the darkness of my kitchen, feeling so bad, I'm almost enjoying it.

Because when you're feeling bad and you feel it's everyone else's fault, there's a sense of entitlement to it.

You can almost feel good about the whole situation.

So I was just sitting there being depressed and angry and sad.

Right at that moment, the Lord spoke to me for the first time.

I had read about in the Bible and in Christian books about the still small voice and hearing the voice of the Lord inside my heart, and I've been so anxious to get that experience, to hear the voice of God, but I hadn't yet in that sense.

But here I am sitting in my dark kitchen, super angry, and God speaks to my heart for the first time.

Just one word, and it was the worst word he could possibly have spoken.

Dance, just that dance, and oh, how I rebelled and tried to convince him this was not a good idea at all.

First of all, I said to myself, Oh, that's just my thoughts.

That's not the Lord, though I had to admit that dance was the last thing on my mind at the time, and then followed about 15-20 minutes of debate.

It's never a good thing when your heart argues with your mind, and when you try to argue against God, and eventually, because the word just came back into my heart dance, dance, dance.

I tried, hey, I'm 17, I'm way too cool.

I I there was no music, I'm really, really sad and angry and and not in the mood for this.

Eventually, I just gave up, and reluctantly, unwillingly, I stood to my feet.

Now I'm still angry.

I'm still sad, I'm still super unwilling and super reluctant to do this.

This is just blind obedience.

But let me tell you, after about eight to ten minutes of reluctant dancing with no music in a dark kitchen, the glory of the Lord entered this room.

It was like a tsunami of the glory of the Lord that just hit me out of nowhere.

And I started praying and I started praising, and I kept dancing, but now I wasn't reluctant anymore.

And and I just I started prophesying, and I was on my knees, and I got up again to dance, and I danced out of the kitchen, I danced through every single one of our rooms in the house, just prayed and prophesied and praised Jesus, and for two hours I had the strongest experience of the Lord's manifested presence that I've ever had in my life.

God physically turned my morning into dancing, and I will never forget that.

It's been 40 years, and I still remember that.

That I went to bed that night, sweaty but with a big smile on my face.

But I could have gone to bed as depressed as I were minutes before.

It was all down to choosing joy, even when your emotions tell you not to.

Amen.

We always have that beautiful, blessed choice.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Okay, we're gonna drop down to verse eight.

Here comes the third choice that Philippians 4 presents to us.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Choice number three that guides us through life is choose the right thoughts.

Choose the right thoughts.

And this needs to be preached in our time because so many times we think that we are a slave to our thoughts, and we're living in the constant buzz of so many opinions, so many statements, so many loudspeakers speaking into our ears.

And we might think that because of this, we just can't control what's going on in our Minds, but the Bible says otherwise.

Yes, you can.

You can choose what you think about.

Now the great German reformer Martin Luther said, you can't keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can't keep him from making a nest in your hair.

You can't keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can't keep him from making a nest in your hair.

That's exactly what's going on.

We live in a broken world.

We live in a dark world.

We will get some thoughts sometimes daily that we know are not good, healthy Christian thoughts.

But then immediately we have the choice to either reject them or embrace them, meditate on them.

Don't ever let the devil tell you the lie that you can't control this process.

You might be exposed to a thought, but you can take authority over that thought in Jesus' name, and you can say, get away from me in Jesus' name, because this is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.

And I will not receive and I will not meditate on this thought.

2 Corinthians 10, 5 says, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Now, if you struggle with this, if you have a hard time controlling what's going on in your head, can I just give you an advice?

Don't spend so much time focusing on what not to think of.

Fill yourself with the right thoughts instead.

Read the Word of God, fill you with the beauty of the Word of God.

Spend time with people whose lives are dominated by the fruits of the Spirit.

And just that alone will help you so much.

Okay, we're gonna spend our last few minutes finding the fourth choice that Philippians 4 provides us with.

And that choice is oh, it's beautiful.

Choose not to worry, choose not to worry.

Verse 6 in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Do not be anxious about anything.

Let's read that again.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Maybe you're in this room and you're a professional warrior.

Not warrior, but warrior.

And your perspective is worrying is such an integral part of my being, I can't not worry.

Yes, you can.

It is a choice, otherwise, the Bible wouldn't have told us it is.

If not being anxious was not an option, then the Bible would have not would have would wouldn't have encouraged us not to be anxious.

You see, worry is not an attack that we can't escape, it's a chosen response to a problem.

Something happens, and we choose worry as a way to deal with it.

That is what needs to change.

We all have challenges, we all have problems, we all have difficulties.

Hear me out, Gaveway.

You are not a hundred percent responsible for everything that happens to you, but you are a hundred percent responsible to how you respond to whatever happens to you.

That's a big difference right there.

Some things will happen and they will be out of your control, but you always have a hundred percent responsibility and a choice in how you will respond to whatever happens to you.

You can choose to respond with worry and fear, or you can choose to respond with faith and trust in the promises of Jesus.

You know, Maria and I have this morning routine, we have a morning prayer time, and uh we always end it in the same way.

Uh we we hold out our hands together like this, and uh, I need to translate this now because we pray this in Swedish.

So I just need to find the right words.

And the way we end our morning prayer time is that we say, Lord, we surrender yesterday, the past, to your mercy.

We surrender the present today to your love, and we surrender tomorrow, the future, to your protection, the protection of our hearts, souls, and bodies.

We surrender the past to your mercy, the present to your love, and the future to your protection.

And this helps me so much on a daily basis before the day even starts, reminding myself that yes, we face problems, yes, there will be struggles, but there will always be mercy.

There will always be love, and there will always be protection.

And you might say, Well, Pastor, you don't know my circumstances, you don't know what I'm going through right now.

It's true, I don't.

But let me tell you a story that I hope blesses your heart.

You know me by now, I can't let you go without a story.

I want to tell you a story about a man who lived in China in the 1960s, his name was Chen.

And Chen gave his heart to Jesus at the age of 19, and then he started sharing the gospel with everyone he knew, and and quite soon he was pastoring an underground church of about 100 believers.

But after a few years, in 1968, the Communist Party found out about him and they arrested him, and they took him to court, and he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for being a Christian.

And they took Pastor Chen and they put him in a tiny little prison cell together with five other men.

And Pastor Chen spent 12 years inside that little tiny cell, and he would later say that his greatest struggle was that he had such a hard time to find the secret place of prayer and worship and fellowship with the Lord because of the constant noise.

24-7, noise, noise, noise, noise.

And he struggled so hard to find that inner place of communion with the Lord Jesus.

But after 12 long years in this tiny cell, the guards came and to come to humiliate him even further, they brought him down to the prison sewers.

And they said, From now on, it's gonna be your task to walk around in the prison sewers, waist deep in sewage water, to get the circulation of the sewers.

And they shut the door behind him, and he thought to himself, I'm not gonna survive the first day because the stench was completely unbearable.

And here he is wading around in sewage water, wasty.

Just wondering, can a person sink any lower than this?

But the second day, when the guards brought him down to the sewers again, shut the door behind him, at least he realized all of a sudden, well, at least I'm alone.

At least there is no noise anymore.

It's peaceful, it's quiet.

And as he waded out in the sewage water and started going around in this water waist deep, he raised his hands and he started to sing the praises of Jesus.

He sang, I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear calling to my ear, the Son of God is closest.

He speaks, and the sound of his voice is so sweet that the birds hush their singing, and the melody that he's given me within my heart is ringing.

And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.

And the joy we share as we tarry there.

None other has ever known.

And when he started to sing this song, he experienced that the stench of the sewers were transformed into the beautiful scent of roses all around him.

Pastor Chan walked these sewers every single day for six years.

Every day from morning to evening, waiting around in the sewage water, hands lifted, singing the same song of praise over and over again.

He walks with me, he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.

Finally, after 18 years in prison, he was released and he started his journey back to the little town that he used to live in.

Convinced that the group of people, the underground church, would have been scattered years ago.

But when he arrived, he was welcomed by 5,000 people.

And he asked, Who are you all?

And they said, We're your church, Pastor.

While you've been away, the Holy Spirit has been our pastor.

And under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we have grown and thrived, and the church is now 5,000 people strong.

So I respect the fact that I don't know your situation, but you haven't walked around in sewage water every day for six years.

And if someone who did that could still choose the right identity, could still choose joy, could still choose the right thoughts, and could still choose not to worry, then so can we in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Would you stand to your feet and pray with me as we come to the close of our time together?

Father, we come before your presence right now.

And we pray from the truths that we have looked into in Philippians 4.

Father, thank you for the choices you present to us, and in Jesus' name, we make the choice of choosing the right identity more than anything.

We are the beloved of the Lord, and nothing will change that identity in our lives.

Father, we make the choice to rejoice in the Lord always.

We choose joy, Lord, regardless of our circumstance, because with you there will always be hope.

Father, we thank you for the ability to choose the right thoughts.

Father, we we acknowledge that is a choice, and we make that choice in Jesus' name.

So help us, God.

And Father, right now we choose to place our worries and our anxieties in your hand.

We choose faith over fear, we choose dependency and peace, the peace of God over anxiety.

And we pray, Holy Spirit, that you will work in our lives as this upcoming week comes to us, Lord, and we will pray, we pray that you will help us to become a little bit more like Jesus for the glory of your holy name.

We pray in Jesus' name, and all the people said can we make some noise?

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.