I assume everyone here, as well as everyone
who’ll watch our livestream, would say you’re a Christian. Now, if
anyone’s not, that’s okay. You’re still welcome. But my assumption
is that everyone is. So, let me ask you this: why? Why are
you a Christian?
For most of us, the answer would probably be “Because I
believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior.” And of course, that’s pretty much
the definition of a Christian. So let me ask it another way. What
does being a Christian do for you? What do you really get out of being a
Christian?
Well, there might be a lot of answers to that
questions. Salvation. Eternal life. Peace. Hope.
Love. And those are all good answers. But one other answer that
should show up someplace is joy. Our Christian faith should give us joy.
We’ve been looking at Paul’s letter to the
Philippians. In that letter, which is only four chapters long, he uses
the word “rejoice” eight times. He uses the word “joy” five more
times. Paul is making it clear that one thing our faith in Jesus Christ
should do for us is give us joy.
Do you feel that? Do you feel joy at your Christian
faith? I’m not talking about just kind of feeling good. I’m not
talking about being fairly satisfied. I’m talking about real joy.
Feeling great pleasure. Great happiness. Synonyms of joy are
delight. Jubilation. Triumph. Exultation.
Exhilaration. Ebullience.
Does your Christian faith make you feel that? Does it
happen all the time? Often? Once in a while? Rarely?
Does it happen--never?
I think most of us, if we’re
really honest, would fall into one of those last categories. Now, that
does not mean that we’re not good Christians. It does not mean that we’re
not sincere about our faith. It does not even mean that we’re not trying
hard to serve God and be faithful and show love the way God told us to. I
don’t think we’re sinning if we don’t feel joy from our Christian faith.
We’re not sinning, but we are missing out. We’re
missing out on the joy God wants us to feel from our Christian faith. And
that’s too bad. Again, God does not hold it against us when we don’t feel
joy from our faith. God’s not mad at us about it or anything. But I
think God is sad. God did not give us our Christian faith as a
burden. God did not give it to us to make us feel guilty or to give us
more stuff to do. God gave us our Christian faith as a gift. And
God wants us to enjoy that gift. And so, God wants us to feel joy from
our Christian faith.
How can we do that? Well, Paul tells us. He
says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Anxiety, fear, worry--whatever you want to call it, those
things can keep us from feeling joy in our faith. It’s not that we don’t
believe in God--we do. It’s not that we don’t believe in God’s power or
God’s love--we believe in that, too. It’s just that, well, we’ve known a
lot of good, faithful Christians in our time. And we’ve seen bad things
happen to them. You can think of people you’ve known, good faithful
Christian people, who’ve have cancer. Who’ve been in bad car
accidents. Who’ve been cheated. Who, through no fault of their own,
have had awful things happen to them.
And we look at that, and we think, well, if God let that
happen to them, God may let it happen to me, too. I certainly don’t have
any guarantee that God won’t let it happen to me. And so we get
anxious. We get scared. We worry. It’s a natural thing to do,
really.
Paul tells us that we can take all that stuff to God.
All are worries. All our fears. All our anxiety. Anything
that’s on our mind, anything that’s in our heart. We can tell it all to
God. God will listen. And God will understand.
And Paul tells us what will happen when we do. He
says “the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Now, notice, Paul does not say God will solve our
problems. Paul does not say that if we give our anxiety, our worries, our
fears to God, God will take away whatever it is that we’re anxious about or
worried about. I mean, God might, but God might not, too.
And we think, well, why not? If God wants me to feel
joy, why does God not take care of all these concerns I have? Why does
God not resolve whatever I’m worried about, so I don’t have to worry about it
anymore?
Because God wants us to feel joy and peace, and just
solving whatever problem we may have at the moment will probably not accomplish
that. Think of it this way. Have you ever had a time when you were
really worried about something, and then it all worked out all right? How
did you feel? Probably pretty good, for a little while. But then,
after a longer while, other things started happening. You started
thinking of other things to worry about. Other things made you
anxious. You had other concerns. And you were right back where
you’d been before, weighed down with worries and fears and concerns.
God does not want to take away our fears only to have us
replace them with other fears. God does not want to take away our
concerns only to have us replace them with other concerns. God wants us
to feel joy and peace. And so, while God may or may not solve our
problems, God will do something better. God will “guard our hearts and our
minds in Christ Jesus.”
What’s that mean? It means that, when we take these
things to God, when we “by prayer and petition...present our requests to God”,
we can let them go. We can put them in God’s hands. We can trust
that God will not necessarily do what we want God to do, but God will do what
is right. We can trust that God will make things happen in God’s way and
at God’s time.
And what happens then? When we trust God in that way,
we can be at peace. That’s why Paul says it is “the peace of God” that
will guard our hearts and our minds.
When you think about it, that’s better than having God
solve our problems. Because again, problems come and problems go.
There has never been a time that human beings did not face problems, at least
not since Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden. If we’re looking for
things to worry about, if we’re looking for things to be scared of or anxious
about, we will always find them. Always. It’s just the way life is.
But Paul gives us the formula for getting rid of that
anxiety. Paul gives us the formula for getting rid of our worries and
fears. Present your requests to God. And note, we’re supposed to do
that with thanksgiving. We’re thankful, not that God will magically solve
our problems, but we’re thankful because we know God will hear, God will
listen, and God will act in God’s way and at God’s time. And we know
God’s ways and God’s timing are always best.
And after we present our requests to God with thanksgiving,
we can relax. We can be at peace. We don’t need to be scared or
worried or anxious about anything. We know everything is in God’s hands,
and we know God’s hands are the best hands for things to be in. And that
can give us God’s peace.
And when we have that peace, God’s peace, we will feel
joy. How could we not? Having the peace of God guard our hearts and
our minds has to give us joy. Remember those synonyms for joy?
Delight. Jubilation. Triumph. Exhilaration. All those
things are what we can feel when we take our worries and put them in God’s
hands. All those things are what we cannot help but feel when we let go
of our problems and turn them over to God.
God wants us to feel that joy. God wants us to feel
that peace. Again, I’m not saying that we’re sinning when we don’t feel
it. I don’t think God holds it against us when we worry, when we’re
scared, when we feel anxious. God does not get mad at us for feeling
those things. But God wants to take those things away from us. God
did not give us life on earth for us to be scared of it or anxious about
it. God gave us life on earth as a gift. And God gave us our
Christian faith as another gift. God gave us these gifts so we can live
our lives without fear, trusting Him to do what needs to be done and trusting
that, in the end, God’s ways are always the best.
So when you’re worried, when you’re anxious, when you’re
scared, go to God. Present your problems to Him. Then, leave your
problems with Him. Trust that God will handle them. Then, just do
your best, and feel the joy and peace that comes from trusting God.
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