Sermon: Developing the Habit of Joy

December 17, 2000

Developing the Habit of Joy

A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice."

Is the Apostle Paul crazy or what? You are tempted to laugh when you hear the words. "Rejoice in the Lord always."? "Let's be reasonable," we say. "I can be joyful sometimes, but sometimes I find it awfully difficult. It is impossible to do what he asks."

But is it? Let's humor Paul for awhile, and see if there is any substance to what he says. How does he encourage us to develop this habit of joy? What can we do that will enable us to rejoice always? Paul gives us a three-part formula.

In verse five he says that in order to have joy we must cultivate the expectation that the Lord is coming soon. He says that we need to remember that " the Lord is near." There is a lot packed into that one short phrase. The early Christians fervently believed that the one who had overcome death and sin, the one who would put all life into perfect order, was going to return soon. This connection provided joy and a sense of peace in even the most trying of circumstances.

In contrast, many people in our time live with this attitude: "this life is all we have." They believe that you only go around once, and they compete and squabble for every advantage and every pleasure that they can get. They make themselves the center of attention, and they live as if this life is all there is. There is little sense of the eternal or anticipation that God has something better in store.

But it wasn't that way for Paul and the early Christians. For them everything was seen under the aspect of eternity. They believed that this life pales in comparison to what God will give. Paul is really serious when elsewhere in this letter he says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as garbage, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him."

All the self-centered, materialistic, pleasure-oriented things that meant so much to everyone else meant little to Paul and the early Christians. In Christ they had all they needed, and one day they would know the joy of living in his presence. To use Paul's words, "Their gentleness was known to all." They didn't squabble about their rights. There was a willingness to surrender privilege. There was a willingness to give, because they knew how much Christ had given them.

How can we describe the attitude that they had? It is probably best compared to the realization that comes over us when we lose someone dear to us. As a pastor you experience these moments frequently as you minister to the grieving and feel the feelings they feel. I remember one such experience. It is some time ago now, but there are certain experiences that remain fixed in your memory. At that time in our denomination we had a system where you would help pastor a neighboring congregation when they were looking for a new pastor. You would make hospital calls, do some visitation, and whatever else was necessary to keep them going in the interim. We didn't have interim pastors as we do today.

Well, it was the first time I helped out this way ,and I thought it would be pretty simple. Wouldn't you know that within the first week of that relationship I got an early morning phone call telling me that a young girl in the congregation had died, and the family was in need of a pastor. This teenager had been walking to a friend's house late at night. She was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. She was hit and knocked into a ditch, and the family was unable to find her until early the next morning. You can imagine the grief that settled over that family as they discovered the circumstances under which their daughter had died.

Somehow an event like that trivializes everything else in life. What was so overwhelmingly preoccupying yesterday seems hardly worth paying attention to today. Whatever arguments or conflicts took place yesterday seem of no significance today. All that energy, all that emotion we poured out to establish our personal security seems foolish.

This family realized what Paul and these early Christians knew so well-the only permanent sense of peace and joy we can have comes from the one who has overcome death and all the evils this world can visit on us. To treat this life as preeminent or permanent is to set ourselves us for depression and disappointment. Now don't get me wrong. Life is precious. It is good, but it is flawed by sin, and it is not permanent. This life is only a training ground for eternity, and we are pilgrims on our way to something better and lasting.

How to cultivate a sense of joy? Keep an eye on eternity. Remember we are pilgrims. Remember that we have a Lord who is victorious over sin and death, and in him that victory is ours also.

And verse six gives us another clue to developing the habit of joy. Paul says, "Don't worry about anything but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Here Paul reminds us that the central reason we experience so much anxiety is that we don't place our problems in perspective. We bottle them up inside. That's the world's way of dealing with problems -keep your problems bottled up inside you. We don't share them with God or anyone else. As we do this, our problems grow and consume even more of our energy. But when we share our problems with God, we are able to vent our emotions. We are able to put our problems into words, and that sharing helps. More important, God promises to help us when we pray.

I remember the greatest comfort that family got as they mourned the death of their teenage daughter. During the last year of her life she began to center her life in God. She had a drug problem that started in middle school. But through the help of God and Alcoholics Anonymous she had gotten her life under control.

As she lay in her casket, the family placed in her hand the prayer that she credited with turning her life around. It is written by one of the greatest Christian scholars of our time, Reinhold Niebuhr. I'm sure many of you have heard the prayer before. It is called the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference."

The world can scoff at the sharing a Christian does in prayer and at our trust that God will help as he promises. But they scoff because they do not know the joy that comes from drawing close to God.

How do we develop a habit of joy? We remember that the Lord is near, we share our lives in prayer, and we occupy our minds with all that is positive in life. Paul shares that advice in verse eight which is just beyond the words we read today. I'm sure you remember the words: "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Pastor Dennis Becker tells of a weekend he spent with kids at church camp. That evening the line to make calls home was long. He was standing in line behind a third-grader named Megan. As they stood in line shivering, she asked, "Do you ever get scared?" "Sure I do. Everyone gets a little afraid about things," he replied. Making small talk, she continued, "Can you get un-scared?" "Unscared? Well, I guess I try to remember that I'm not alone. God is there. I thank him for remembering me. God doesn't forget us, you know, Megan." "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. He recited the words from our Philippian's passage today. She was impressed. She said that she didn't think that she could ever do that. He told her that she should just try to remember the main words like rejoice, don't worry, God is near. That alone would help her with her fear.

Later Megan printed out the entire passage on her father's business card and actually did memorize it before Bible camp was over. Megan learned that joy does really begin to come into our lives when we meditate on the good things that God gives us, especially the gift of his word.

"Rejoice in the Lord always." You know, maybe Paul isn't as crazy as he sounds. Maybe it is really possible to develop habits that produce joy. Of course, there is only one way to find out.

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