I want to start today in Philippians 4:4, and I'm reading in the New King James.
"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice." — Philippians 4:4 (NKJV)
Not rejoice every now and then. Not rejoice when everything is going right. Always. So let me ask you honestly, how would you grade yourself on following that instruction?
If anybody was qualified to tell us to rejoice, it was the Apostle Paul. He had a lot of reasons not to, and yet he did. Why? Because he saw the victory. He knew the outcome.
In every situation you go through in life, you need to find a reason to rejoice. There is always one. And it will almost always boil down to this: God is going to turn it around.
He takes everything the enemy meant for evil and works it for good. He is going to turn your mistakes into something good. You should believe that.
The Father is not threatened by your mistakes. There are no "oh no" moments in heaven, no scrambling for a plan. Every time you make a mistake, the Father says, "I know exactly what to do. Come here."
But what do we do instead? We run from Him. Run to His throne instead, because He knows what to do.
How many of you have done something and then prayed, "God, I'm so sorry"? He already knew you were going to do that. How many of you have taken way longer to learn something from the Lord than it should have taken? I have too.
I always find myself praying, "Lord, I'm so sorry it took me so long." And every time, I sense the Lord saying, "I knew it would take you that long. That's why I started working on you two years ago."
If you can get a revelation of His mercy, it will change everything. We need a revelation of His mercy toward us so that we are merciful to each other. It flows from how we understand Him.
Philippians 4:5 tells us, "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." So now we are grading ourselves on a second thing: not just rejoicing, but being gentle.
"Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." — Philippians 4:5 (NKJV)
We're measuring ourselves not to beat ourselves up, but to do an honest evaluation. He is not looking for me to work it up on my own. He is going to help me measure up because I am coming up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
That phrase at the end, "the Lord is at hand," is one of the reasons I was crying last night looking at the moon. Everything going on in the earth right now, and I just kept thinking: He is almost here. Thinking about the end times was never meant to cause arguments. It was always meant to cause excitement.
Then we get to Philippians 4:6, and I love how clear this is. Not "be anxious for a few select things." No exceptions, no outs.
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." — Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)
Be anxious for nothing. Why? Because anxiety is outside of His kingdom. When you are anxious, you are consulting with the wrong kingdom and drawing on the world's wisdom.
When you get into a hard situation, the first thing that tries to pull you out of God's kingdom is the urge to worry. You start turning the problem over in your head, and then you get to the end of it and turn it over again. As you keep turning it, it gets worse.
You sit in bed thinking you are going to arrive at a solution, and you act like you haven't been alive long enough to know that this has never worked. So here is the good news: the scripture has the answer. When anxiety comes, you say, "Nope. Not here."
You will never get to the prayer if you let anxiety win. And if you are praying while still anxious, it is not going to work because you are praying from the wrong place. Those are worried prayers, not faith prayers.
So here is the order: get rid of the anxiety, then pray, then make it specific. That is what supplication means. And do not forget, because it is easy to skip: with thanksgiving.
You know your prayers are off when there is no thanksgiving in them. When you are praying from victory, you are thankful because you already know what is about to happen. If there is no thankfulness, stop, reset, and ask the Lord to help you pray again.
God wants to hear you. He wants to hear your requests. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." — Matthew 7:7 (NKJV)
When peace goes missing, here is your road map. First, rejoice. That means choosing to rejoice when you least want to, which is exactly when you have lost peace.
So you can either sit around and say, "I don't want to," or you can do what the scripture says. "Thank You, Lord. Your mercy endures forever. You have the answer." It does not take long when there is faith behind it.
Then get gentle. When anxiety comes knocking, say, "Not here." Then pray the most bold, effective prayers, because now you are standing in His kingdom, rejoicing, thankful, and no longer holding bitterness toward that person who hurt you.
"...and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." — Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)
You are still in the middle of your problem, but now you have peace. People look at you and say, "How can you be peaceful when that is going on in your life?" And you tell them, "Because I know the outcome."
Notice the scripture does not say to go find someone to pray peace back over you. It is up to you, my friends. Rejoice. Start there.
For several years, I fully scripted my messages. I had a laptop up front and read word for word. Then one day the Lord said, "Don't do that anymore."
I said, "But what will I say?" I am a quiet person. Beth will tell you. I walk through a room, say nothing, leave, say nothing.
But I learned to trust what He was doing. At first He would give me an outline, a few things to guide me. Then it came down to one verse, and I thought, "This is going to be a quick church service." It just kept unfolding.
This is an anointing thing, not my skill. I am yielded to Him, and there is literally no pressure on my life because of it. I did not know what I was going to speak on today until the second song in worship.
Last Saturday night I was sitting outside, and I got so overwhelmed with the goodness of God that I looked up at the moon and started crying for about 20 minutes. Just thinking, "You made that." One of those childlike moments of being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, not worried about performing.
Alright, we made it. Verse eight.
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things." — Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)
I love that word: meditate. Meditating is that thing you turn over and over and over. He is saying, "Stop meditating on the problem and meditate on this instead."
We are all probably pretty skilled at yielding our thoughts to the enemy because anxiety is the way of this world. But we are not nearly as skilled at yielding our thoughts to the Lord. And we know this is true because there is a lot of opposition to thinking good things.
People call it being an optimist like it is a bad thing. They say you are just living in a cloud. But the optimist has something we all need and all have the ability to walk in.
We have a direct instruction to fix our thoughts on the things of heaven, on what is pure and lovely and just. Basically, we are fixing our thoughts on Him instead of the problem. If your thoughts are fixed on the problem, your thoughts are in the wrong place.
This is the way into joy. If we fix our thoughts on the good things, we will find ourselves in a place of joy. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and all three matter equally.
I was telling Beth this last week: I think this is going to be what I stay on repeat about for a while. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. If you are missing any one of them, you are outside of the kingdom.
Christ is in you. That is settled. But the question is, are you in Him? You can have Christ in you and not be walking in Christ.
We got the righteousness message. I have been talking about holy living for five years. But we belittle peace and joy and treat them like lesser concerns.
If you are not in peace, you are not in Christ, because Christ is the Prince of Peace. I know there is opposition rising up in some of you right now, thinking, "There are situations that qualify for not being peaceful." You have to resolve that wrong thinking.
Since God said His kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy, you have to decide: I refuse not to have it. You are dead to the power of sin and alive to God. You receive freedom by faith, not by trying. When sin shows up, you look at it and say, "You are dead to me."
Some of you just need to start dancing. Smith Wigglesworth was a great man of God from the late 1800s with a documented record of around 12 people raised from the dead. A young minister once asked him, "What is the first thing you do every morning?"
He said, "I get up and I dance for 10 minutes." He was choosing his direction for the day. He knew the flesh is not cooperative first thing in the morning, so he danced before the Lord.
A man you would probably expect to be stiff and serious, and he just got up and danced every day. Those habits were keys to his fruitfulness. We could all take a tip from that.
We have been listening to Forest Frank a lot in our house lately. The kids love him and I have come around. He doesn't have the most polished vocals, but you can tell that man knows the Lord because he is full of joy and peace, and you turn on his songs and that atmosphere just comes right into the room.
Whenever peace is missing, whenever joy is missing, all you have to read is four verses. Philippians 4:4 through 4:8. You will find your way back to peace, and then all the way to joy, because your thoughts get fixed back on the right things.
It is not complicated. I just read the answer, and I am going to expect it to work. And if it fades, I will get right back to it, because I do not give up on what God told me to do.
I see by faith a people full of joy. You know you have arrived at His kingdom when you just have joy and cannot fully explain where it came from. Why do you have it? Because you trust Him. Your Father is going to work it all out.
If you are not in His kingdom, you cannot hear Him clearly. His specific instructions for your life are heard over there, where He is. So you have to be in Christ.
Christ is already in you. I am not trying to make anyone question their salvation. But the question is, are you going to be in Him?
Stay in Him. Rejoice, be gentle, push back on anxiety, pray with thanksgiving, fix your thoughts on what is true and pure and lovely. His kingdom is available to you right now, today, in the middle of whatever is going on in your life. He is going to work it all out.
