Pastor Dan Eddy
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord Always?
11-24-10
Thanksgiving Eve at LCC, Hanover
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours this Thanksgiving from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Tonight’s sermon meditation text comes from Paul’s letter to the Church at Philippi the 4th Chapter, verses 4-7 (NIV): The Apostle writes:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
“Rejoice in the Lord always!!!” Hmm. How many of you when you hear those words, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” say, “Yeah, right!!! What do I really have to rejoice about?”
I know what you mean. This past year hasn’t been that great for me. Let me tell you about it for a moment.
First, my mother-in-law fell in her home, got a massive infection and had to have part of her leg amputated. She was close to dying. And my wife left to go back to Wisconsin and I was here without her for Christmas. Although we saw each other at New Years, my wife was supposed to return with me but didn’t and she missed being here for my birthday in January.
Rejoice in the Lord always? Let’s stop kidding ourselves.
Then this past spring my wife and I woke up to water fast coming into our basement and over a two month period it flooded not once but twice.
Then this past July…while coming back from visiting a parishioner in a Boston Hospital, I got into an auto accident with a Semi in the middle of Boston rush hour traffic on one of the hottest days of the year.
And this past August, CLC closed our pre-school of 11 years.
Rejoice in the Lord always? It just isn’t coming.
And every Christmas Berta and I have been here in Massachusetts…some family crisis has hit my wife’s or my family.
Our first Christmas Berta’s dad was in the hospital close to death, only to die the next spring.
Then the next Christmas her grandma died. I had my brother’s mother-in-law passed away. My dad had cancer surgery for a tumor on his esophagus. My brother-in-law also had cancer, and died the next spring. My wife’s aunt Connie was brutally murdered and my mother-in-law had a stroke. All that happened in a three week period. And my dog of 11 years was got liver cancer and died six weeks later.
And I know that past year has been tough you here at LCC and I’m sure you have events in your life that could easily top mine.
Rejoice in the Lord always? Please.
Well thank you for letting me get that off my chest, because it’s exactly the attitude Paul did not want me to have in this text I just read from Philippians 4. It certainly doesn’t represent the thankful attitude David had after defeating the Philistines, as was spoken from our Old Testament reading. It doesn’t sound like any of the thankful blessings Jesus talked about with the beatitudes from Matthew 5.
And for this text, I was not allowing my gentleness be evident to you. I was not considerate to you. I was not mild in my temperament and I certainly didn’t exhibit a patient attitude. Please forgive me. It’s this type of rhetoric that causes divisions, dissentions, and anxieties among believers in congregations.
In fact in the verses preceding this text, Paul makes mention of a conflict in the church between two women: Euodia and Syntyche; two Christian believers who were bringing down the rest of the congregation.
Paul here isn’t just saying rejoice in the Lord. He’s saying keep on rejoicing in the Lord, always, because the sharp alternative to this is being anxious, worrying, and fretting. That attitude never solves any problems and will eventually get you to stop rejoicing in the Lord.
We see the results of being anxious: Headaches, back pains, depression, lack of focus, lack of appreciation, being self-centered, and no peace.
Now if anyone had any reason to be mad and anxious, it’s Paul. He wrote these Spirit-inspired words to the Philippians while sitting in prison, fighting for his life, because he dared share his faith in Christ to others.
But just a chapter and a few verses past our Gospel reading in Matthew 6:27 ESV, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” It’s fruitless. It’s worthless.
Paul states that in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Why?
The Apostle Peter had the best answer in 1 Peter 5:7 NIV: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he (God) cares for you.” Even when you don’t think so.
So, a change of heart and mind is needed by you and me.
You see the more you are anxious, the less you pray. The more you pray, the less you are anxious. And it will show in the way you think and act.
Anxiety and prayer are polar opposites….they work against each other. Prayer defeats worrying and worrying can defeat prayer. It’s all about direction and priority.
And in this text, the promised result of prayer is peace. That’s a Spirit-driven power-packed blessing from God that offers us real security, today, no matter what’s going on around us. No matter how things turn out.
The full understanding of the Lord’s Peace is incomprehensible to our humble, fray, and sin-infested human hearts and minds.
But it’s the peace that will guard your heart and mind, and that keeps you from falling away from the faith in which you were baptized.
This imagery of guarding and keeping was familiar to the Philippians since a number of them were retired Roman military officials. Paul is saying that those who have faith in Christ are in His protective custody by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not in control. God is. We can not get out of our own troubles. The Lord delivers us from them.
Christ Jesus took your anxieties, wiped out all your worries, eliminated all your lack of gentleness when He was nailed to the Cross 2000 years ago…so that He could be as near to you as your heart today, offering you true peace at this moment.
Because you know while I was dealing with all the events of my life…do you know what happened to me on dates like…January 17 and the 24th of this year and also on February 21, March 28, July 11, September 12 to just name a few dates? Do you know what happen on those Sunday dates and more? The Lord God in Christ Jesus forgave my sins, and assured me that in the life to come there will be only rejoicing and no anxiety. He did through the power of His Word as I literally tasted it in the bread and wine of His true body and blood. I’m sure He did something similar to you, too.
That’s what it means to have a thankful heart and keep receiving the peace of forgiveness, and life eternal.
In fact, I know there will be a lot of rejoicing going here in just a few moments at this Communion rail.
Believing and living this peace from God yields much benefit for our lives today.
You see this peace I receive through God’s Word and Sacrament helps me to realize that the Lord Jesus does deliver you and me from our anxieties and troubles.
The result is a changed heart and mind for which to be thankful always: Let me use the situations in my life as an example:
With this peace, I thank God that my father-in-law, brother-in-law, Berta’s grandma, and Aunt Connie are no longer on this Earth suffering. They had faith in Christ and we will be reunited with them in the life to come. Berta and I will introduce them to you.
With this peace, I thank God my dad’s cancer of the esophagus is in total remission.
With this peace, I thank God our basement has been repainted and restored, paid for by insurance. And Berta and I lost very few valuables in the flood, but did get rid of a lot of junk.
With this peace, I thank God my car was repaired and looks better than ever, and that I was not injured in the accident.
With this peace, I thank God my mother-in-law is in a nursing care facilities and getting the help she needs to live
And even though our Herring Brook pre-school closed…with this peace, I thank God we are more focused at CLC on outreach than we have been before. We have totally remodeled our downstairs area and it has been a needed boost to fellowship in our congregation, and is generating more outreach ideas.
That’s what it means to live by rejoicing in the Lord always, to have a thankful heart and live this peace that can only come from our Lord.
Years ago, I worked for a boss. Her name was Roanna. And if I or another co-worker were having a really bad day, she’s tell us it wouldn’t matter in 100, 50 or even 10 years. The bad would be forgotten. Christ has done that for you today. He has forgotten your sin.
Brothers and sisters in Christ…the good, the peace, you are given here will matter today, tomorrow, and for eternity. Now that’s a reason to give thanks…that’s the reason to keep-rejoicing in the Lord, always.
So keep-praying, always giving thanks, and leave your anxieties at the foot of the cross and walk away with the power of God’s peace He gives you here for today and always. Amen.