Joy in His Love

Well, first I have to say congratulations, daylight savings time, and you're here.

We almost missed it this morning.

It was only a short panic at 8 o'clock when I realized it was 8 o'clock and not 7 o'clock.

But um good to be here.

Isn't it wonderful that we have a pastor who recognizes just times to be a dad?

He's out of state.

He's with, of course, Liam and basketball.

But I thought I ought to mention that word just because we're used to it every Sunday, but um I just I've been in ministry, I've been in ordained ministry for over 41 years.

And um I've run across a lot of pastors who think their church is more important than their family and has cost them dearly.

We have a pastor who loves his family deeply.

And uh so I'm grateful he takes these rare occasions, those special occasions, to make memories with his kids as well as with Megan.

So let's celebrate that.

Uh yeah, it's that it's amazing.

Now we are in the sea of the the the series on Philippians, and as Justin has pointed out, this is a remarkable and actually unusual letter from Paul.

And there's a couple reasons for that.

And I'm finding, like Justin, I don't know where to put communion, so I hope it doesn't explode when I have there.

Okay.

Um Philippians is remarkable because of the circumstances and setting.

Um Paul was in the area we would call Turkey doing ministry, what he was familiar with.

He had a vision to go to Macedonia.

That's the area where Philippi isn't the major city, up in the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea.

That is, to travel to Europe.

He goes to Philippi, and we know a lot about it because of the book of Acts, and a lot of details are given about his visit.

And he was given a warm welcome.

The church was started, he eventually ended up in jail.

The jailers then gave his his life to his life to the Lord, and I mean all sorts of amazing, wondrous things happened there.

And those folks became very precious to him.

And so this letter is really the sharing of his heart.

Um, you know, when one example uh in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he specifically mentions the Macedonians, that is the folks in Philippi, to the Corinthians and says, try to be like them in your generosity before the Lord.

And he describes them, they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us.

As far as we know, Philippi was the only of the many church plants that Paul and his team handled that financially supported him for the rest of his ministry.

If any of you have been in ministry, you know that when someone is supporting you and you don't even ask them to, you just feel a closeness in your heart.

Most of you know I'm part of a board that does a lot of work now in the last couple years in India.

And what Pastor Andrew in India is doing and what we have the privilege of being part of is amazing.

And his hands is a part of that.

You're a part we're a part you're a partner church in this ministry.

We're seeing the ministry explode, and a big part of that is the support of this community.

You can imagine what that does to Jill and me and to our and to our board.

Uh we we can't help but have joy when we're with you.

We can't help but have joy when we think about his hands because you're there.

It's the same thing with Paul and Philippi.

Uh, these are dear people, and therefore, with dear people, you do trust them and you're you're willing to share your heart, right?

I mean, that's how you get you gotta try them out first.

Can you trust this person?

Can you trust this community?

And he found the Philippians were.

This is not the letter to the Galatians when he's really upset with them.

This is not the letter to the Corinthians, the couple letters that we've got, that he has to correct them on a number of different things.

These are dear folks to him.

And what he talks about throughout the letter is the depth of joy that he wants them to have in the Lord.

That's the priority.

And it's interesting that Paul would pick that because that's exactly what Jesus emphasizes in the upper room on the last night with his disciples.

Those of you who've known me know that I'm convinced that portion that we get in the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 17, the last night that he has with the disciples, is among the most important teachings in Scripture.

John 13 · chapter mention

He's sharing with those who he's been with for years now, and he's going to be leaving them to go to the cross.

I think the last words of someone are pretty significant, don't you think?

So, so what he that's where we get Jesus saying, love one another as I have loved you.

That's different than what the Hebrew men have heard before and women.

Of course, they were given ten laws, and and uh then they added 600 some odd to them, trying to figure out how to be faithful to God.

And when Jesus had been asked in the crowds, what's a summary of the law, he said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, right?

So, what's the standard for love that he gives to the world?

Yourself.

Love others as you want to be treated, the golden rule, right?

But when he's with the disciples, he ramps it up even more.

He says, he gives not a summary with two laws, he gives one.

Love one another as I love you.

You see, when we become a Jesus follower, a disciple, we have a new standard for living now.

It's Jesus' love for us manifest on the cross.

And now available to us in the Spirit working within us.

That's why he can tell Nicodemus, the religious leader, you have to be born again.

This is a whole new transformation.

It's a whole new set of priorities in life.

We're no longer trying to figure out the world, you're not going to figure it out.

It's not driven by our feelings, it's something much, much deeper.

The love of God that we experience through the Holy Spirit.

But once he names that with the disciples in the upper room, Jesus goes further, and yes, this is just a little part of the introduction, because in the upper room in chapter 15 of John, we're told he says this.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

What's Jesus' commandment?

Like he loves us.

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

Now think about that.

The last night of Jesus' life, with all the things he has to teach us, he says, If you will dwell in my love, you're going to experience my joy in you, and it's going to be full.

Some translation is complete.

What's interesting is he says it again.

In chapter 16, he's he's quoted as saying this, So you also have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.

Now let's pause for a moment because he he connects two realities together, which are very important in the understanding of joy.

We're gonna have sorrow.

We're gonna experience pain.

We're gonna be hurt in the depth of our being.

We're gonna be rejected, we're gonna have to deal with death, we're gonna have to deal with physical issues, we're gonna have to deal with loved ones and all the yes.

A lot of new believers think that if God really loved me, I wouldn't have so much pain.

It doesn't work that way.

Jesus says, I've got something deeper for you.

You've got to go through the struggles of being a human on this planet.

But I'm with you.

I love you, and no one will take away that joy that you have as a result.

That's a promise.

Jill and I have been at this trying to live daily for uh for Jesus for nearly 50 years now.

It's true.

He really loves you.

He really wants to walk with you in the darkness until you come out in the light and realize he has redeemed all of it.

He really wants you to have joy in the midst of the darkness as well as in the celebrations.

Let me just pause and give you a little tip that we've learned over the years.

It's not the greatest of theology, but it has worked for us.

I find it very helpful to differentiate between what the Bible says about a topic and what the world says.

And I found it's vastly different joy and happiness.

Happiness seems to us to be, well, it's just dependent on the circumstances.

We were very happy yesterday.

We were working outside in that beautiful day.

Wasn't it wonderful yesterday?

It makes us happy, right?

Or we're with our family, or we're with loved ones, or we have a great meal, then we're happy.

Happiness is based on circumstances most of the time.

Joy is something vastly different.

Joy is in the depth of our being, knowing that we're loved by the Lord.

And no one can take away that joy.

No one.

But Jesus goes on and says something else.

He says in verse 24, ask, and you will receive, and your joy will be full.

The Lord of the universe, who died for you and me and rose to give us a new life, says, Just ask me.

I want to give you that joy within.

Whoa.

And then what's remarkable is even as he's praying to the Father about us, chapter 17, he says, I am coming to you, Father, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Now think about that.

Jesus' joy.

Because of his walk with you, his hunger to live within, that you might grow in that joy every day of your life.

The joy of the Lord, complete, full, abiding.

Because he loves you and me.

And he does not take it away.

His character never changes.

He's not so upset with you or me that he's taking away the joy.

That isn't how our Holy One works.

Now, what Justin has been mentioning and helping us to understand as we get into Philippians is the first sense of an expression and a deepening of joy comes as we pray for others.

As we risk believing that life is not about ourselves, not about making a name for ourselves, getting a big retirement plan put together, maintaining good health, and look at me, look at what I've accomplished.

That's gone when you accept Jesus.

There's an entirely different set of priorities now.

It's abiding in his love.

And one of the things that Paul first mentions to the Philippians is when you pray for others and you get involved in others' lives, something happens in us.

And the love goes deeper, and there gets to be a joy, and we can't wait to hear how Tommy is doing or Jonathan is doing.

We can't wait to hear what's going to happen with David, and we can't wait to hear what's going to happen with Andrew.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

It just we're just connected in the spirit.

It's an amazing way to live.

It's a wondrous way to live.

I never learned that in this world.

I never learned that in the military.

Oh, I appreciated my brothers who I was flying with, but this is much deeper.

Much deeper.

As we pray for our family and pray for our friends and pray for our church leadership each day, we find there's more and more joy.

Maybe why I can't wait to be here with you.

I can't wait to come in the building because I know this is going to be a place of love and joy.

Even if there's only one person I'm meeting with.

Home.

Because of the love and joy that's here and there.

Does that make sense?

So that's what that's what Justin taught us two weeks ago.

Last week, he talked about that that joy of progress.

The fancy word is sanctification.

Um, the the growing up in God.

And that we have to find joy in the little growth that we have.

Those little things that happen and we go, hmm, I didn't lose my cool.

Hmm, I didn't swear this time.

Hmm, I didn't rage.

I guess he's doing something in me.

And to take a moment and give thanks to God for that transformation.

That's what he challenged us about last week.

This week, when he asked me to bring the word, he gave me three verses.

And I went, you're giving me three verses?

How can I find enough to say on three verses?

And then as I got into it, I went, oh yeah, I could have a day conference on this.

Yeah.

Look at uh Philippians chapter one.

I'm gonna read verses just nine through eleven.

Listen to what Paul is saying to the people he loves.

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

There's a whole lot there, as Justin reminded me when I started to lament.

Listen again, it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Let me give you an image to help you to understand what I believe Paul is getting at here.

And yes, it's a picture of my wife Jill's garden.

And yeah, it's not like the last picture I showed you a couple years ago, which is the bounty.

This is early March, and she looked at me and said, You've got to be kidding me.

You're taking a picture of the garden now.

And because, yes, it's early March, of course, very little is growing.

Uh, but it's a remarkable garden.

Yeah, we've had it for 25 years.

So I do the building stuff, she does, she's the gardener.

Guys, you understand that, right?

When the poles break, I fix the pole, but otherwise I try to stay out of her way so I don't step on anything.

So you first start with flowers and all those beds and right in front of us before the arbor and the fence.

That's just color everywhere.

Uh, then you walk past, uh, there's just behind that azalea bush, there's some bushes that are just starting to turn a little red buds.

Though those are blueberries, they've been there for 25 years.

Um, you go further, there's her herb garden.

You go further, and there's grapes that she grows, and a dear friend of ours has uh turned them into wine.

Amazing.

Um she's got vegetables on the left side, she's got all sorts of stuff.

The fish pond is a little bit further back.

I mean, she has all this stuff going on.

And to be honest, I get so excited about the blueberries because we get so many blueberries most years that they last us for the whole year.

Which is my excuse to have pancakes more often than I probably should.

But um, that's no, can I have the picture back again?

Uh because for me, that's what's most important.

Everything else is kind of extra.

But I had, I guess I was led by the spirit to actually ask the gardener what she thought was most important.

And she said, it's the green tea plant.

And I try to act cool and try to know what she was talking about.

The green tea plant.

It's that little green bush over in the left corner.

You can just see it past the pole of the fence.

I said, What?

She said, Fred, that's that plant is more valuable than everything else in the garden.

That's why I wrap it with a frost blanket whenever a frost is coming to keep it safe.

So with my knowledgeable, cool attitude, I said, Oh, why is that?

She said, Hun, that's what I use to make tea for us every day.

That's the basis for everything else.

I went, oh, of course.

Oh.

Now hear what I'm saying.

Looking from the outside, I I look in and say, Oh, it must be the blueberries.

The gardener herself said, Well, it's this bush over in the corner.

That's what's most important.

What Paul is writing to us, writing to the Philippians and then to us, because it's the living word of God.

He says, I pray that your love may abound more and more.

Paul, looking at Jesus, says, You gotta get in touch with this love that transforms your life.

And when you do, there's gonna be a joy that just keeps bursting out.

I heard an African missionary, described the fruit of the Spirit, which we'll get to in a few minutes.

He said, it starts with love, but everything else is an expression of love.

Joy is the first one, right next to love, and that's love expressed.

When you allow the love of God to be on the inside, you can't help but have joy.

Because you just find yourself wanting to love other people, help them, and and this joy just abounds.

And and Paul says, this is what's most important.

Now, I gotta admit, when I'm teaching classes or otherwise, asking folks that I'm meeting with, what how would you describe your relationship with God?

Often I hear, well, I'm forgiven.

I go, Yes, you are.

That's that's a good answer.

Or salvation.

I have salvation, I was baptized.

Okay, but what else?

See, I think many times we we look at kind of the outside at what God has done and say, Oh yeah, he died on the cross, I'm forgiven.

And we forget that what's behind that, the gardener himself says, It's because I love you.

I forgive you, I set you free to live the life I want you to live, and I'm gonna fill it with joy.

Paul gets it, and that's what he wants to share in his heart to his dear friends, the Philippians.

But those of you who do any gardening at all are probably familiar with uh the Mexo American gardening technique or growing technique called the Three Sisters.

Anybody here know what the three sisters are in gardening?

Where's Jill?

Honey, put your hand up.

I see you.

The three sisters, come on.

It's why they are so much healthier than we are.

Corn, but alongside corn, they they grow beans because the beans grow around the corn and they they grow squash.

And and those three, isn't that right?

Let me look at my notes.

Corn, beans, and squash, yeah.

See, I looked it up.

They grow those three together, and that's the primary basis of their meal.

And yes, that's why they're so much healthier than we are who are always eating our burgers.

I kid you not, that's many places in the world, they are the healthiest.

And they all grow together.

The three sisters.

Paul recognizes there's two other realities in this love that have to grow at the same time.

And it's in these verses.

He says, that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment.

Now consider what would happen if all those three are growing together.

In the Bible, the word knowledge is used most often.

To refer to biblical knowledge.

It is not knowledge of your job, knowledge how to raise your kids.

It's not that.

It's what does the Bible say about life?

What is God speaking to us about?

Some of you heard me say before, there have been studies that have shown if we're in the Bible four times a week, we have a biblical worldview.

We're looking at the world through the lens of the Bible.

If you're not in the Bible that much, you're looking at life like unbelievers.

Because the noise of the world shouts too much, whether from Hollywood or Washington or the news sources or anywhere.

But if you're taking time to let the word of God show you how to live, that word is knowledge.

Now imagine what happens to your love, or we say God's love quotient, God's garden in you.

If you're letting it grow even more because you're growing in the word.

It's phenomenal.

As an old guy who's done it most our entire adult life, it never stops.

New revelations, new insights, whether you use commentaries or not, whether you call somebody or text somebody or get on chat GPT and go, what does this mean?

You're growing in that knowledge.

But there's a third sister.

He says, Knowledge and all discernment.

That is, you can discern what God is saying.

You can discern what God is doing in the growth of his love in your life so that you can experience that real joy.

Most of the time, that word is translated as wisdom.

And often those two in scripture go together: knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge and wisdom.

Because wisdom is the application of that knowledge.

Does that make sense?

It's good to know things, but when you put it into practice, that's wisdom.

That's the application.

When I was first being taught how to study the word, I was taught FMA.

Facts meaning application.

What are the facts?

What's being said?

What's the situation of that day?

What's the culture hearing?

What are believers hearing?

What are the facts?

Truth.

Second, what does it mean?

What did it mean to them?

What does it mean to us?

That's all knowledge.

But FMA is the application.

How do I apply it to my life today?

That's wisdom.

Paul says, I pray that your love is gonna just abound more and more.

That is God's love.

And with it, knowledge and wisdom.

And you're gonna experience the love of God each day in a way that you can't imagine.

And it's gonna be expressed as joy.

But stuff gets in the way of the garden, doesn't it?

Sometimes she gets, Jill will get a critter in her garden, and that's when I have to go back out.

Sometimes a branch will fall from the nearby woods.

Stuff happens.

Storms come, winds come.

And the garden needs tending.

And so too the garden in your heart and your life.

And it would that will rob you of your joy because you let it.

Let me give you some examples.

Your boss rejects you, even fires you.

And that becomes the all-consuming thing you see.

And you've just given up your joy.

Oh, he hasn't robbed you of your joy.

You've given that up.

No one can rob you of your joy, and God says that.

Jesus says that.

No one can rob you of this kind of joy.

But you can give it up.

Sometimes you make a decision that you know you shouldn't.

You're looking at something online or on TV, you know you shouldn't be.

It doesn't edify you in the spirit.

And you feel guilty about it afterwards and you realize the joy isn't there anymore.

Because you've turned away.

We all do that.

Part of the human experience.

Sometimes we experience a horrific sorrow, a loss of a love and one otherwise, and we're we're blinded.

And if we're not really careful, we give up the joy that can be ours.

Remember what Jesus said?

We're gonna suffer in this world.

But it's not meant to rob you of the joy.

The joy is meant to be with us every single day.

Yes, sure, we get sick.

Our loved ones get sick.

We have to deal with realities.

And yes, sometimes they they shout loudly and the joy seems real deep.

So what do we need to do?

Get in the word more.

Process in the spirit more.

Find that joy again so you are more than a conqueror through him who loves us.

Does that make sense?

It's a different way of living than most of us were taught.

And certainly, if we went through broken childhoods, dysfunctional families, as most of us have, it's hard.

You gotta erase that whole scenario in order to enter into this kind of life or this kind of marriage or this way of raising kids or this way of dealing with that crazy neighbor.

It's learning a different way.

Because if you don't have that joy, you're out of touch with the Lord.

You've given that up.

Nobody's robbed you of that.

Your spouse can't give it to you.

Your kids and grandkids, they can't give it to you.

You may experience happiness, but the joy only comes from the Lord.

Listen again to what the consequences are of this love, knowledge, and discernment or wisdom.

Back to the verse again.

He says, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

What's he saying there?

He's saying we're all on an eternal path.

It's not about getting through the day, it's about experiencing the love and joy of the Lord each day, so we're ready for whatever he gives us, so we're ready to meet him.

When the day of the Lord comes, and we're standing in his presence, and he's wiping away our tears, and we're filled with more joy than we can imagine because we're in his presence, finally.

It's clear, and all the pain and brokenness is washed away.

It's a different way to live.

And Paul says to his dear friends in Philippi, I want you to get this.

This is really important.

It's a different way to live.

Let the love of God get deep.

Ask for that love, ask for that joy.

And then you're gonna have a confidence to face all the challenges the world throws at you.

And not be afraid.

You're not gonna run away, and you're not gonna get angry at fight.

You're just gonna stand in faith and say, Yes, Lord, I'm ready.

But there's something else, and yeah, we've we've bounced around it a bit.

It's um that whole mystery of the fruit of the spirit, and I want to go back to that for just a moment, because in Galatians, Paul lays out what this fruit is, this fruit of righteousness, this fruit of living with the Lord.

And uh it's it's quoted a lot.

It's remarkable because he says the fruit of the spirit, that is, what happens when the spirit, when you allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, in our minds, in our hearts, and even deeper, we experience then a fruit, and we actually produce fruit for others.

And it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

It's kind of sad that self-control is at the end, but it's true, it takes a whole lot of time.

That's spirit control, actually.

He could have said spirit control.

But isn't it interesting that the very first thing it said as we grow in the love of the Lord is that there's gonna be joy.

Can't contain it.

It's just the fruit of what it means to live with the Lord.

There's gonna be joy.

And yes, there's gonna be the rest of the fruit, joy, peace, patience, and so on.

Our lives get to be different as we continue to grow in the love of the Lord, in our scriptural understanding, and the application of it in life.

We begin realizing God really has a plan and purpose for us, for every one of us.

Finally, let me close, and then uh the mus uh our musicians can come out.

Paul writes a similar thing to the Ephesians, and this is what he says.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, there it is again, his love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ.

There it is again, that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Isn't it interesting?

He says, if each day you seek to let the love of God work in you, there's going to be a joy, there's going to be a life that is more than we could ask or think.

As we continually allow the Spirit to guide us, and not our feelings and our emotions, not our ability to figure out what's going on in the world and what's wrong with it.

If we could fix it, if anybody asked, it's none of that stuff.

It's the recognition that we're on call, we have a purpose in life, and the first thing we need is to receive that blessing from the Lord so we can then live the life we're called to more than we could ask or imagine.

As Jill and I were coming in this morning, we were saying, just look at our lives.

We start laughing.

We're in our 70s, and we're enjoying such blessings.

Being part of this community, being in this country in the midst of all the chaos, still in this country.

To for now have our health, to be close to our family, to have more friends than we've ever had in our lives, to see this growing phenomenal ministry in India more than we could have ever asked or imagined.

Yes.

But you've got to believe He really loves you.

If you forget that.