If you are raising kids you might have a plan for their schooling and their activities.
Or if you’re going to school yourself, you might have a path for the courses you want to take in order to start a career.
Or if you are in business you might have a map for the sales and the growth that you want to get.
All of us have plans and tracks and maps.
But often we find ourselves with the wrong map, or what we think is the right map with the wrong destination.
Just ask the person next to you when was the last time you were lost. Did you look at the GPS? Did you ask for help?
Your answer to that question might depend on whether you’re male or female.
The Philippian Church thought that they had arrived. They were mature. They had a connection to an apostle. They were successfully Roman in a Roman World. But they had become discontent, divided, and despairing.
They had gotten off track. They thought they had arrived, but they still had a long way to go. They thought that their success, or their status, or their theology could make them happy.
Is that you this morning? Have you been tempted to think that you’ve arrived?
When we look to the Word of God, we may discover that some of us here have not arrived and are lost— horribly lost. Or we may find, that the destination we’ve mapped for our joy is totally wrong.
Instead, we need to map our joy— so that in the Lord, we rejoice— always (Phil 4:4)
The Start and Finish
Paul starts with this command: Rejoice. What is joy? Joy is the heart’s delight in the heart’s destination. As Augustine, the 5th Century North African theologian said:
You move us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.
Confessions and Letters of St Augustine, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1:1
Are you restless today? Maybe it is because you are not delighting in God, nor finding your rest in God. Maybe your heart’s delight is aimed at the wrong destination.
Remember how Jesus had joy and delight in doing the Father’s will? In the language of Psalm 40:8: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” On the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk 22:42). How could he say that? As Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus, it was, “for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Joy is Commanded
John Piper, has written more on Joy than any modern writer. He describes his awakening in 1968 to the importance of joy for the Christian. He said:
Perhaps most shocking to me in 1968 was the simple and obvious observation that this joy in God is commanded.
The Psalms are littered with joy in God commanded for us:
- Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
- Psalm 33:1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
- Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
So our joyless-ness is disobedience.
Are There Two Classes of Christian?
Now before you balk at that. Just let that sink for a minute. Paul’s command to rejoice always might tempt you to think that there are two classes of Christian. Joyful Christians and UnJoyful Ones.
But there are not two classes of Christian. Paul commands all believers to rejoice. Paul and James are in complete agreement here. James opens his letter with this command to rejoice, in trials even:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4
Where is the sphere of your joy? Where is it located? If you were to show me a map of where your joy is could you direct me there? For the Christian, they are always driving to the Lord, and their joy is located there.
The Happy Place
The Christian may not be always happy with circumstances, but they are happy in that location— in the Lord. Consider this “happy place” that is “in the Lord”
- In his love for you
- In his forgiveness for your sins
- In his cleansing of your guilt
- In his Holy Spirit, who is your Holy Spirit
- In his Father, who is Your Father
- In his Rule and Reign
- In his soon return.
The Puritan Thomas Watson made the observation that, “one smile from Christ’s face will make us forget all our afflictions.” This is why our joy is a fruit of the Spirit, as Galatians 5:22 says.
Our joy comes from God because our heart’s delight is our heart’s destination.
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