“Joyful Work” Series, Wk 9 - Pastor Seth Martin

Father, we thank you for your sweet promise which says that, Lord, you strengthen those who wait on you. And, Father, if we could just endure for another moment, if we could just breathe past another second. Father, your promise, your guarantee is that, Father, you will strengthen us. God, we thank you today because you've given us, in this room, staying power. Somehow, Lord, we're here today. God, somehow we were able to get out of bed with all that we're going through, with all that are on people's hearts and minds. Somehow, we were able to press our way into your presence. So, Father, for that and many other things, we just say thank you. God, now our prayer is that you would continue to give us endurance for the days ahead. God help us to remember that weeping may endure for a night. And joy is coming in the morning, God. Help us to hold on until morning. God, we thank you because we know that our days ahead are better than our days behind us. And, Father, you have endured, indeed, reserved your best for last, God. So, Lord, in the name of Jesus, would you just give us strength? Would you encourage our hearts today? Would you lift up our bowed-down heads that you may be glorified? Father, now, as we turn our attention to your holy word, we pray your rebuke against any distractions, Lord, anything that would get in the way of us hearing from you. God, would you give us consecrated minds? Would you arrest our tensions? Give us receptive hearts, but most importantly, give us responsive lives. And, Father, as we wait, we can do so joyfully. God, I pray for myself now. You know the state in which I stand. So, Father, you know how desperately I need you. Please look upon your servant and breathe one more time. God, hide me behind Calvary's cross. I pray that, Father, no person would celebrate any humanity other than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when our time is concluded, you and you alone will get the glory. Thank you for being our God. Thank you for loving us. We ask these things and many others in the holy and righteous name of Jesus our Christ that we do pray. And all of us that agree together, say it, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Today is Election Day. It's the day that Americans will decide who's going to sit that Oval Office at that house there on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's an important week and hear me friends, you all have an important choice to make. You've got a choice to make and I want to do something bold here from the pulpit today. I want to tell you exactly the choice that you should make. I know you're grown and I know I'm not supposed to tell grown people what to choose. But I'm just telling you what the Bible says your choice should be. You ready? You should choose joy. I know. You thought I was talking about the choice you should make on Tuesday. No that's between you and your God. I'm talking about the choice that you should make regardless of what happens on Tuesday. I'm telling you it's the choice you should make when it's election season and when it's just another day. It's the choice you should make when you're up and when you're down. It's the choice you should make when you're healthy and when you are battling sickness. It's the choice you should make when you're working the job that you always dreamed about and the choice you should make when you're working a job that you have to endure from day to day. It's the choice you should make when you have friends and it's the choice you should make when your company is few. Hear me brothers and sisters, you should choose joy. And I came to tell somebody it's not just the choice that you should make, it is also the choice that you can make. This is the main central truth of our text today brothers and sisters. It's that Christ's followers can choose joy in any and every circumstance. That's the whole sermon right there. If y'all would have said amen I would have let y'all go home and get back in the bed but you looked at me funny so now I got to talk a little longer. Hear me brothers and sisters, this text ultimately teaches us of this reality that Christ's followers can choose joy in any and every circumstance. It does not matter what is going on around you and I, the reality is as followers of Jesus, as people that have been bought with a price, as people that have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as people that have God working on their behalf, you and I can choose joy in every and any circumstance. This is what the Apostle Paul is ultimately getting at here in these verses today. This isn't the end of the book but it's the conclusion of Paul's primary point that he's been making in the book of Philippians. He's been making this point about joy all throughout this book and he's going to reiterate his intended message finally in these moments with a command. We've been talking about joy as we walk through the book of Philippians the entire time. In fact, that's why we call it the series Joyful Work because it's one of the prevailing themes which Paul is presenting in the book of Philippians. Chapter one, he talks about how he's praying with joy for the people of Philippi and he also talks about how he's got joy even while he's in a jail cell. Chapter two, he talks about having joyful purpose, the fact that he is being poured out as a drink offering but he still takes joy in the fact that God is using and working in his life. He also talks about the fact that he's got joyful friendships, people that he can lean on and depend on. He talks about that in chapter two. Then in chapter three, he talks about how the people are his joy and his crown, that the work that he's done as an apostle, the people he's poured into, they've given him in a sense a crown that he can take joy in as he stands before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talked about joy in chapter one. He's talked about joy in chapter two. He's talked about joy in chapter three and now he gets to chapter four and he wants to put an exclamation point on this idea and he says, here's what I want to tell you, have joy. Rejoice. Rejoice. It's this idea of taking joy. And then he doubles down and he says, I'm going to tell you again, rejoice. Y'all see it there in your Bible? I'm not making it up. Verse four, he says, rejoice in the Lord always, I'm going to say it again, rejoice. I done said it twice now, y'all sit there and look at me funny. Rejoice. And he says, I'll say it again, rejoice. Now when Paul says rejoice, when he says take joy and then doubles down on it and says, I say it again, rejoice. He's saying rejoice, but he's saying, I'm also telling you again that you can rejoice in any circumstance, meaning that your joy isn't contingent upon what's happening around you. But hear me, watch this. Can I give you a definition for joy? This shouted me when I was sitting down studying for this. Here it is y'all. Joy is a predetermined disposition toward peace and contentment that is unchanged by my surrounding circumstances. Can I say it again? Joy is a predetermined disposition toward peace and contentment that is unchanged by my surrounding circumstances. It's predetermined. That means I've already decided. It's a disposition. It means that's my attitude. It's a predetermined disposition. I've already decided what my attitude is going to be. I'm going to have an attitude of peace and I'm going to have an attitude of contentment. That means I'm going to walk around unbothered by what's happening in the world and I'm going to walk around grateful for all in which God has given me. I'm going to have peace and I'm going to have contentment and I like it y'all. He's saying I've already made up my mind that I'm going to have peace and I'm going to be content no matter what's going on around me. Doesn't matter how things shift and shake. I'm going to be full of joy. Don't matter who wins on Tuesday night. I'm not going to wake up Wednesday with my head bowed down. I'm going to be full of joy. Doesn't matter what tragedies are going on in the world. I'm still going to be full of joy and joy is not faking it and saying I'm happy all the time. Joy is being honest but saying I still got peace and I'm still content no matter what I'm facing. Here it is. I like it y'all. You ought to look at somebody. You ought to go home to everybody that's anxious and bringing that anxious energy around you. You ought to say listen, you can be worried and you can be frustrated and you can be upset but I'm going to have joy and you ain't going to mess with my joy. I'm going to have peace. I know you're worried about what tomorrow holds and I know you're worried about the week that you're going to have in the job but I'm not going to let you make me anxious because I've already predetermined. I wish I had a witness in here. I've already made up my mind. I've already decided. I've cut off the other option, the other option of anxiety and the other option of fear. I've already determined that I'm going to have joy and this joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me. I wish I had some folks who knew that Him and the world can't take it away. I've already got joy. Here it is. When you leave for the day y'all, this is your homework, choose joy. You can choose to have joy. That raises the question though of how can I choose joy? Here it is. I'm going to give you these three things. I'm going to let you go. How can you choose joy when you recognize the proximity of God? I'm in the Bible. Verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice, let your graciousness, that's another word he's going to use, gentleness be known to everybody. If I could, I'd pull over to the side of the road and say that if you are a joyful Christian, you ought to be a gentle one. That means, I'm tired of mean Christians. I don't got time. I ain't got time. Let your graciousness be known to everyone, but watch this, how? He says in verse five, for the Lord is near. I need to recognize the proximity of God. The Lord is near. This phrase that Paul is going to use and this idea that he's getting at when he talks about the Lord is near, it actually has a dual meaning. He's speaking, first of all, to this idea of the indwelling presence of Christ's spirit inside every believer that is available to empower, instruct, and encourage at a moment's notice, but it is also speaking to the impending return of the resurrected Christ on that day when the trumpet's going to sound and the dead in Christ shall rise. Paul and others, hear me, as they are writing, as Paul is writing this and as other believers are living here in this first century, they are fully expecting that Christ's return was imminent. They fully expected that Christ was coming back sooner than later. So when Paul writes this, he talks about the Lord is near. It's actually got this dual meaning. In one sense, it is a reminder for me about the proximity of God, meaning that the Holy Spirit lives inside of me and so I can have joy because of that reality. But it is also a reminder that the Lord is near, that Jesus is indeed coming back again one day. The Lord is near. I can have joy because of the proximity of God, the fact that he is here, watch this, and he is near. Y'all catch it? He's here and he's near. I can have joy because he has come and he's coming. I know it's early, but some of y'all done already started playing your Christian music, but that's all right. It's early, Christmas is around the corner, and you and I, we're going to gather together and we're going to sing songs about Emmanuel. Emmanuel simply means God with us, God who is with us in our circumstances and situations. It's a reminder as we approach this Christmas season that God came to dwell among us. But hear me, we don't just celebrate this holiday because he came, we celebrate the holiday in anticipation that he's coming again. Hear me? And so I can have joy because he is near to me, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and because one day Jesus is indeed coming back. So he's near to me in my sorrow, come on, talk back to me in here. He's near to me in my sickness. He's near to me with my broken heart. He's near to me in my frustration. He's near to me when the marriage is falling apart. He's near to me when my mind feels like it's falling apart. He's near to me when my friends are few. And so I can have joy because he's near to me, and it is evidenced by the fact that he has come and he's coming again. Am I making any sense in here? I was traveling this week, I went to go preach in Virginia back at Hampton University, my alma mater. I went back to preach in Virginia. And when I got home, y'all, the kids, I got three kids, if you don't know, I got three little ones, Zoe, Simone, little Seth, five, three, and two. Let the church say pray, pastor, pray, pray. Got three kids, and I came home from my trip, from preaching on Friday, and my oldest baby girl, Zoe, she ran to me, she rushed to me, and her face lit up, and she was so happy. Daddy, I'm happy that you're home. But then yesterday, Saturday morning, I had to come to the church, I had to come and get some stuff done. So I'm walking out the door yesterday morning, and Zoe catches me as I'm trying to sneak out the door, and she says, Daddy, where you going? I said, well, baby, I got to run to church for a couple of hours, and she got sad for a second. And I said, don't worry, baby, it's all right, I'll be right back, I'm not leaving, I'm not going out of town again, I'll be back in a couple of hours. And so she hugged me, and she was fine. So I came back home, and she rushed to me again, and she hugged me, and she said, I knew you'd be back. I like you, child. And Zoe understood I would come home because I've come home before. So she knew that if he has come before, and he tells me he's coming back, I can trust that when he tells me he's coming back, he's coming back home. Listen to me, brothers and sisters, if Zoe trusts in me, somebody who is failed and frail and fickle, how much more can you and I trust in a God who has come and said, I'm coming back? You hear me? You can have joy because of the proximity of God, that God is living inside of you, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You got the Holy Ghost living inside of you that is there to empower you and there to encourage you and there to remind you of what the Holy Scripture has said. You can have joy because God is near, but God is also coming near, he's coming, he's coming back again. But can I give you the second thing? I can have joy when I recognize the proximity of God, but I can also have joy, watch this, when I remember the power of prayer. I'm in the text, somebody talking back to me, I'm in the text, verse 6 says, don't worry about anything, but in everything, watch this, through prayer and petition and thanksgiving, you will present your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Hear me? You can have joy when you remember the power of prayer, watch this, that it brings peace to your life and protects you from anxiety's attack. Note what Paul says, he says, do not be anxious about anything. Y'all, the English doesn't even give us the strong sense in which Paul is communicating. He's actually not making it as a suggestion, this in the original language is an imperative command. He's commanding you, he's saying, stop being anxious. Stop being anxious, anxiety, watch this, or being anxious is an obsessive worry over often what is beyond my control. It's an obsessive worry of what is often beyond my control and Proverbs is gonna tell you about anxiety, that worry is actually a weight to the heart, that worry weighs you down and so Paul here, he actually gives you and I the antidote for anxiety. In a play on words, he says, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. I like it, y'all don't see the words, but I'm a wordsmith, I like the play on words Paul is giving. I like the play on words because Paul, he's covering the length and the breadth of human concerns. He says, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. This means, watch this, that prayer is a sufficient answer to any and every problem that I face. Any and every, no matter what I'm going through. Any and every, no matter what they said about me. Any and every, no matter how low the bank account is. Any and every, no matter what the doctor report was. Any and every, no matter what they said on my job. Any and every, no matter how crazy my family acts around the holiday. Any and every, Paul says prayer is a sufficient response to any and every human concern that you face. Lied on, well, prayer covers that. Frustrated by life, well, prayer can cover that. Friends walked away, well, prayer can cover that. Worried about the outcome of the election, hear me, prayer can cover that. Kids acting like you didn't raise them to have some good home training and some common sense, well, prayer can cover that. Worried about getting that job, well, prayer can cover that. He says you're worried about anything and every, you're worried about any and every problem can be solved through prayer. Watch this, because prayer is taking what's worrying my head and my heart and putting it in God's hands. Y'all hear me? Prayer is taking what's worrying my head and my heart and putting it in God's hands and I like this because what Paul is going to say, he's going to say, pray, he's going to make your petition, give Thanksgiving there. He's not talking about different types of prayers, he's talking about the components of prayer. Prayer has components, it's a petitioning thing, it's an asking thing, it should include some thanksgiving, it should include you giving your or submitting yourself to Lord Jesus Christ. He talks about the components of prayer, he says prayer covers any and every human problem that you may face. And he says, watch this, I like this, he's going to say, and prayer protects me from anxieties attack. I'm not making it up. Verse 7, he says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He says prayer brings peace. Prayer has a way of bringing the peace, can I put a little by the way, because as I'm marching my way through the year, I'm recognizing as I reflect now over the last 11 months that one of the reoccurring themes of my life this year has been God has been reminding me and emphasizing prayer. Can I tell you, he says prayer brings you peace. Not because, watch this, when I pray my circumstances change, but when I pray who's holding my circumstances change. He says pray, pray, and the peace of God, watch this, which surpasses all understanding, I wish I had time at the 9 o'clock. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, meaning it surpasses what you know. It surpasses what you know about your circumstance and your situation. He says his word will guard your heart and your mind. That word guard in the original language is literally this idea of putting up a garrison around. That God, when I pray, sets up a guard around my heart and my head. That when I put it in God's hands, he puts shields up around me, around my heart and around my head from worrying or being overcome with what is bothering me, y'all. I like this. He says, God, that when you pray, he will guard your heart and guard your mind. I don't know about you, but my testimony is I need a guard sometimes around my heart and my mind. I need God to guard my head from wandering into worry. I need God to guard my heart from being overcome with fear and anxiety because I don't know about you. I don't know if you know this, but anxiety will keep you up. Anxiety will have you overeating. Anxiety will have you triangulating from person to person over a situation that none of them can solve. Anxiety will have you watching what you shouldn't. Talk back to me in here. Anxiety will have you drinking more than you should, y'all. Anxiety will mess you up and have you spiraling out of control, but prayer, prayer will help you go to sleep at night. Prayer will help you to be unbothered by what he said and what she said. Prayer will help you to be all right in your body even though you don't feel all right all the time, y'all. Prayer will help you to walk away from the job and say, I'm leaving the work there because I'm not taking that home with me, y'all. Prayer will have you looking at your spouse and say, well, the Lord will deal with them and open their eyes to see what I can't say. Prayer will have you look at your children and say, God's going to turn their heart after a while, y'all. Prayer has a way of bringing peace in your life. Hear me? I can have joy when I recognize the proximity of God. I can have joy when I remember the power of prayer. That prayer brings the peace of God into my life. It ushers in the peace of God into my life. It allows God to put up a garrison, a guard around my heart and my mind. It allows anxiety to have to give way to what God's peace is. It allows me to be covered and kept even in the moments that I'm frustrated by life. But can I give you this last thing and then we'll go? I can have joy when I recognize the proximity of God. I can have joy when I remember the power of prayer. But here's the final thing. You can have joy when you recalibrate your perspectives. Last verse, verse 8, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things, y'all see it? The words of the translation say, think on these things. Y'all hear me? Paul says you can have joy when you recalibrate your perspective because distracted focus will always bring distorted feelings. Distracted focus will always bring distorted feelings. I can tell somebody, you can fix your feelings if you fix your focus. If you're focused on what you feel like you're missing, you'll feel like something is always missing. If you focus on the drama around the election, you'll forget that you're already a part of the elected. If you focus on where you wish you were, you'll forget and feel like today isn't good enough and you'll forget to thank God for the everyday common blessings. The fact that he woke you up this morning, the fact that he got you here safely, the fact that you had food on your table, the fact that you're clothed in your right mind, the fact that you got a job that's paying most of your bills, the fact that you got friends and people that love you and care about you, you'll forget how good God has been. Hear me? But he says if you shift your focus, if you shift your perspective, here's the promise God gives, you'll feel his presence. Watch this. Prayer brings the peace of God, but the right perspective ushers in the presence of the God of peace. Paul's doing a play on words here again. He says when you pray, then you shall experience the peace of God. But then here at the end of these verse, verse 9, he says, and the God of peace. Y'all see it? Prayer brings in the peace of God, but when I have the right perspective, it allows and gives way for the presence of the God of peace to be in my life. It reminds me that you've got to focus on the right thing. He says whatever's honorable, whatever's just, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, he's giving the list of things that you ought to fix your focus on. You ought to fix your focus on the goodness of God. You ought to fix your focus when honorable things happen in life. You ought to fix your focus on the purity that you see in life sometimes, in children or in people or in a kind deed or in a kind gesture. You ought to focus when justice is done and not only focus on when justice is not done. You ought to focus on when God is moving and not just focus on how you wish God would move. You ought to focus on the growth you have experienced and not just focus on how many failures you still have in your life. He says when you fix your perspective, it ushers in the presence of God into your life for him to bring you peace. I'm done, but it reminds me of a story that my father, Pastor Ken Martin there in Little Rock, Arkansas, it reminds me of a story my dad, I heard him tell when I was growing up listening to dad preach. There was a time dad went to hang out with one of his friends on a farm and he went to hang out with one of his friends on a farm and they had to get up and they had to go do chores on the farm. My dad is from Lawrence, Kansas. He's not a farm guy like that, but he went with his friend home one day for college and they had to get up and do some chores on the farm. My dad's friend puts him on a tractor and tells him, I want you to cover this part of the field. And he tells him, he gives him some advice, he says, just find a point down the road and drive toward that. So my dad, he does it, he tries, he gives his best attempt and his friend comes back later from doing his side of the field and Pastor Rose, my dad's lines are all kind of crooked. Dad has driven all across the field and my dad's friend is freaking out, Ken, what did you do? I told you to fix your eyes, to find a point and drive toward that and my dad said, I did. You see that cow right there? I drove toward that cow. And the problem though is, brothers and sisters, is that the cow kept moving. And I tell you brothers and sisters, when I fix my eyes on things that are always moving, things that are always shaking and shifting, things that are always up and that are always down, when I fix my eyes on those things, then my life will be shaking and moving. When I fix my eyes on an economy that's up and that's down, then I'll always be up and I'll be down. When I fix my mind on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, then I'll always be shaking and moved by who's going in and who's going out. When I fix my mind on how many times my boss applauds me or how many times my boss says something negative, then I'll be at the mercy of their applause or of their negativity. When I fix my eyes on things that are shifting and moving, then I'll always be shifting and moving. When I fix my eyes on what's fixed, I don't got to have it now. When I fix my eyes on what's steady, when I fix my eyes on that which is unchanging and unmovable, when I fix my eyes on the one who never changes, who's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. When I fix my eyes and set my affections on things that are above, I can have joy no matter what's going on because my eyes are fixed. They talking about me, but my eyes are fixed. The job is changing, but my eyes are fixed. The election's coming, but my eyes are fixed. The economy's up and down, but my eyes are fixed. People talking about me behind my back, but my eyes are fixed. They decided they don't love me no more. Well, my eyes are fixed. They decided that I was wrong, but my eyes are fixed. People doing me dirty, but my eyes are fixed. It means that no matter what's going on around me, my eyes are fixed on God. That's why I can look to the hills from which cometh my help. That's why I can have joy in my life, no matter what's going on around me. That's why I got peace in my life, no matter what's happening. That's why I'm not sweating it, because I know that joy is in front of me. I can't tell somebody at 9 o'clock, be not dismayed. Whatever you may go through, because God will take care of you. You can have joy in your life. You can have peace in your life. You can have happiness in your life, because joy is predicated on what's going on. Joy is predicated on Jesus. I can't tell somebody here, be not dismayed. Take courage. Have joy. Have peace. Let me pray for you. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you, Lord, that our joy is not contingent upon what's going around, but our joy is predicated, Father, on who you are. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that this week we will make the right choice, that we will choose joy. I pray that next week we will choose joy. I pray in December we'll choose joy. I pray that in 2025 we'll choose joy. I pray that no matter what's going around, God, we will decide that we can have joy. God, I pray you rebuke against anxiety and worry, Father, in my brother and my sister's hearts. God, help us fix our eyes on you. Help us to cast our cares on you, knowing that you care for us, and that, Father, you are indeed near to us. We honor you. We love you. We thank you. In the holy and righteous name of Jesus, our Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen. Can we put our hands together and thank God one more time for the preacher's words?