Joy Maintained | 30 Days of Joy - Philippians 4:4-9 | Travis Jones (4/18/2026)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Love you, church. I'm glad you're here. Um, if you're joining us on the app or online, I want to thank you for being with us as well. At this time, church, I'd like to begin in this manner. If you have your Bible with you or a Bible app, I want you to get it out. You can also get out your Bible or your worship guide. And we're going to be in Philippians chapter 4, verse 4. We left off last week in verse 3, so we're picking up in verse 4, and we've just been walking through the book of Philippians in this series specifically. We've entitled 30 Days of Joy. And we're just going to jump right into it. Today we are talking, when we're building on what we talked about last week, but we're going to look at specifically maintaining joy. We want to maintain it. You get, you know, we talked about it last week, you get things coming at you. I mean, well, let's just look at this. Let's look at, let's just look at some, let's look at some of the facts that we've learned, just a few facts about this church in Philippi. Last week we saw, we discovered, that there was some division in the church. That's a fact. You got two church leaders. These two church leaders have a disagreement. It's causing conflict, anxiety in the church. So we know that about the church. In addition to that, another fact, this church and all the churches at that time, they were experiencing persecution. So you got a church that has some internal strife, some division, you have external persecution going on. In addition to that, we know that Paul, you know, he planted the church. He was the first pastor of the church, and he is in prison, and he soon may be killed. We could go through just a list of the things that are going on in that church, but you look at those three facts, you would say, don't look good. You know, maybe the house is on fire, man. It doesn't take a rocket science scientist to, you know, look at all these facts and say, hey, you know, it don't look good, man. Well, what should we do, man? The house is on fire, we got all these things going on. Now we come to chapter 4, verse 4, and you're gonna see Paul doesn't say that. Paul doesn't say, you know, sound the alarms, man. He doesn't say, buy a gun, head for the hills, build a fort, kind of protect yourself. He's going to say, Don't worry, don't be fearful, right? Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't have anxiety ruling over you. Don't let these things take your joy from you. Instead, Paul's going to say, and this is interesting, and this is what we're going to look at, continue looking at, he's going to say, rejoice. Now, I don't know. You think about those facts, you think about all that's really going on there, and all this conflict, all this persecution, all this going on, and you want to look, or I want to look at Paul, and I want to say, hey, Paul, what part of this equation are you not seeing? You know, you look at these circumstances, right? How, how are we? You could do this in your own life. You're sitting there and you're looking at all these different things going on in your life, and you can sit there and you can say, How am I one to have joy? And even if I do have joy, how am I to maintain that joy when things are, you know, going? It's so easy, man. I can tell you right now, by the way, rabbit trail, look, I can tell you right now, last week I have I still have joy, but last week everything, I knew stuff. Five days transpire, different things occur, and now I'm like thinking about things, and I have anxiety today that I didn't have yesterday, all because in a day or two you get new information, and you're sitting there and you're like, how am I to maintain the joy I had last week in light of things that may be going on right now? Well, Paul's going to help us out. Paul's going to show us, I believe, really, um, five truths. Five truths that if we employ them, we use them, we follow them, it will help us maintain this joy. And we can rejoice. And so we're just going to walk through the text. We're going to let the text teach us. All right. Let's just let's just get in. It's just six verses. Let's walk through them. Chapter 4, verse 4. He's going to say, I know the world's chaotic. I know all this stuff is going on. Here's how you maintain your joy. First, he's going to say, Rejoice in the Lord always. And you'll say, Well, let me just read the verse. Rejoice. This is verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice. All right. So Paul begins by saying, Rejoice in the Lord. You know, rejoice in the Lord. That's for four words. Now, when I read that and I thought about this, you know, all year long, Paul's been saying this over and over again. Like, this is not a new command that he's telling us, man. He's been saying it for three chapters, going into four chapters, but in this rejoice in the Lord, he adds an extra word. A word that he hasn't used before. He uses this word always, right? That's an interesting word, um, pontate in the Greek, but it means, well, you know what it means? It means always. I know, I know. Sometimes you wonder why you spent so much time learning Greek. It means it means what the Bible always, man. Even if the house seems to be on fire, if the roof is got all this stuff, always there is not a time that exists on your calendar, in your phone, out on your clock. There isn't a time that exists for the believer that we should not be rejoicing in the Lord. And right here, it's a it's a command. Now, kind of unpacking that word always, when I look at it, I think that seems like a lot, don't it? Always? Always? And it kind of led me on thinking about this. You know, there's not really a lot of things that I always do. And I sat down and I was sitting there, and I started writing a list of things that I always do. In fact, I text some of the men in this, in this, in this service and ask them, what are some things that you always do? Because there's really not a lot of things that I always do, but yet Paul is sitting here saying, Travis, you need to always be rejoicing in the Lord. And so, you know, the guys wrote several things. I don't know. I was trying to make a list. My list was this. It's a lame list. I don't even know if it's accurate, but I I know it's it's good. I always breathe. Like I'm I'm always breathing, you know. Um I always, I always, okay, this is I always drink coffee in the morning. I don't know. Uh I eat oatmeal, always eat oatmeal in the morning. That's what I do. I think I always put hot sauce on my tacos, okay? So you get that's four four things that I always do, right? But outside of that, there's seldom anything I always do. So when I come to that word always, I start thinking this, Paul, are you talking about always, always? You know, like really always, you want me to be doing this. Well, we know that he means always, always, because he repeats it a second time. Like for in case I didn't get it, right? He says, again, once again, Travis, I'm gonna tell you this, I will say, rejoice, right? Paul is saying, in case you are tempted to forget this command, I'm going to repeat it back to back, right? Rejoice. Travis, believer, Christian, there is not a time that exists that you are not to be rejoicing in the Lord. All right, I get the command. It's always, always, like for a real, always, always, always, I'm to be doing this. And it comes to my mind, once again, that almost seems like an impossibility when I'm thinking about joy. But then you've got to go back and understand everything that he has taught us because he's not talking about a general kind of joy. The joy that we are commanded to always have is joy in the Lord. This is a specific type of joy. And there is not a time that a Christian cannot always be rejoicing in the Lord. And you go back, and for three chapters, he's been telling us, he's been teaching us what is rejoicing in the Lord. Three chapters. He's been, this is what joy in the Lord is. This is what I always want you to be doing. One, the joy of the Lord is not, he told us already, we studied it, it's not situational. It's not situational. It's based in, I hope you remember this, a position in Jesus Christ. And I am to always be joyful for that, that I am rightly related to the living God based upon the works of Jesus Christ. And there is not a time in my life, don't matter if the roof's on fire, don't matter if things have gone, I don't know, right or left, and I didn't expect it, man. I can at all times be rejoicing in the fact that I'm rightly related to the God Most High. Rejoice in that. Rejoice in that. In addition, he taught us this. Biblical rejoicing in the Lord is not a human emotion. It's more than that. It's this, it's based in Jesus, but it's a deep-down confidence that God is in control. Here's the deal, man. I hadn't thought on this too much, so I'm gonna be careful. God was in control, I know this. God was in control last week. God's in control this week. So no matter what information I've learned in the last six days or whatever, you know I'm saying, he's still in control. I can rejoice in that. I can rejoice in that. And I do, I rejoice. He's sovereign. So we can. It is not an impossibility for you and I as a believer to always be rejoicing in the Lord, perpetually rejoicing in the Lord. You want to maintain your joy, Christian, perpetually rejoice in the fact that you're rightly related to the living God because of what Christ Jesus has accomplished on the cross, and there is nothing that he is not currently or ever will be sovereign over. Rejoice. Rejoice. All right. Okay, thank you, Paul. I needed that. I needed that. But he's gonna give us another piece of information to help us keep and maintain our joy. I just I love the I love the Bible. I love it. Look at this. Reveal your reasonableness. Reasonableness, that's a cool word. Here's what he says Let your reasonableness be known to everyone that the Lord is at hand. Now, I read that and I was thinking about that. It's interesting because as a lot, you know, Christians are not necessarily marked by being reasonable, you know. But Paul connects maintaining our joy to the word reasonable, and it kind of carries this meaning, it does carry the meaning. Some translations may translate it in this manner, it means humble graciousness, right? All right, so I'm just working out some questions here. How is my humble graciousness working out in front of everyone? How does that maintain my joy? And I think it works out a little bit like this. This is the way I thought about it, right? Walking in humble graciousness is like it's kind of like shock absorbers on a car, but it's shock absorbers for joy, you know. You know, shock absorber, absorber in a car. When you hit a bump, it kind of takes kind of that that that off, man. Like, like I got an old car. You know, I got an old car. My car's got like 215,000 miles on it, and it's got very old shock absorbers. So you can be riding down a really nice road if you can find one around here, and they're hard to come by. But if you find one, my my car, you're gonna hit a little bitty pebble, you're gonna you're gonna rattle. It'll rattle you. I got old shock absorbers. I'm gonna tell you something. Um, about, I don't know, it was about, I don't know, three weeks ago, four weeks ago, my aunt in Texas asked me to baptize her. So after the services on Sunday, that was Monday morning, I flew out there and um I rented me a car. Now that's fun because when you rent a car, you get a new car. This was a new car, it had new shock absorbers on it. All right. So, you know, I'm out there. I'm not saying I did this, but if I did, you know, you're going down dirt country roads and they got the potholes, and you're like, it's got new shock absorbers. You once again, not saying I did that, all right? Don't want to be liable for anything. But anyway, you don't feel it because you got those shock absorbers. I think humble graciousness and walking in it kind of works that way. Like you, you, you, you walking in humble graciousness, your reasonableness, right? You're gonna hit some bumps and they're not gonna rattle you. It's not gonna rattle you like that. Every disagreement won't shake you, every offense is not gonna throw you off, right? When you walk in humble graciousness, you don't react to everything. You're not trying to escalate kind of things. You're not trying to personalize stuff, man. Once again, you know that sometimes you can get into a situation. There's some individuals, they just try to personalize everything. You know, you're like, have a nice day. They're like, what do you mean? You think have a bad day? No, man, I'm just trying to have a good day, you know? You got those shots. You want this humble graciousness. Paul doesn't, church. Look, Paul does not say, let your knowledge be known. He doesn't say let your opinion be known. He says, let your humble graciousness, your reasonableness be known to key word. Everyone. Why everyone? I'll tell you why everyone. Because everyone has the potential to mess with your joy, man. And if you want to maintain it, man, you got to have a spirit that ain't gonna get rattled all the time, you know. You gotta have that humble graciousness, right? And then he ties it to, it's a reminder. The Lord is at hand. In other words, going back to what he's already taught us, God is involved. Like you ain't, you, me, we ain't got to be people overreacting on everything, you know? When you know, you understand the sovereignty of God, you understand nothing takes him by surprise. God is handling everything, so you and I ain't gotta get rattled about handling everything ourselves, man. When you, when you, when I stop trying to handle everything, we stop losing our joy over everything. All right. So if you want to maintain your joy, let your reasonableness be known. Look at that. Humble graciousness. All right. Once again, this is all. I don't know if this is helpful to you. I'll tell you what, it's been very helpful to me. But he's not done. Got a few more steps, truths you want to teach us, right? Next, he's gonna say this. Replace anxiety with prayer. All right, all right. Look at this, look at six, six. Commands church. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. All right, so Paul just he's gonna move, he told us how to handle people, humble graciousness. Now he's gonna tell us how to handle pressure. Because even if relationships are handled correctly, life's still gonna come at you. Life's still gonna come at you, right? How do you replace, how do you maintain your joy when that life, you know, gets on you, man? He says, replace anxiety with prayer. Look what he says. Command. Church, do not be anxious about anything. Now, what I'm just I'm just speaking for myself. Once again, I come to this and I'm like, that, you know, sounds unrealistic. Anything like you want to say once again. I want to say, don't know the man, but I want to say to sometimes I talk to Paul, I know, because I read his writings, and I'm like, Paul, let me read in the Bible. I'm just like, Paul, you seen my life? Like, like, if you have you seen my situation. You writing, you writing by God the Spirit 2,000 years ago, and you're telling me not to be anxious about anything 2,000 years ago. Did you know what I'd be going through today? The answer is yes, he did. He absolutely did. You remember, Paul's even in prison, man. He's facing possible execution, and he says, do not be anxious about anything. Anything. I'm anxious about anything. Sometimes, okay, confession, times, listen, time, look. That's true, man. Sometimes my anxieties got anxiety. You know what I'm saying? You're laughing because it's true. You know? What e okay, okay. Made me think. What exactly is anxiety? And I kind of boil it down to this to help me understand it better. I believe anxiety is fixating on what you cannot control while simultaneously forgetting about who is actually in control. That produces anxiety. You get anxiety, man. Your mind keeps on running. You think these, what if this happens? What if this goes wrong? What if this doesn't work out? And you and I you guys all know this because you've all experienced it. It starts kind of just spiraling, right? Many times it's right before you go to Betty bed and it just keeps you up, man. And that anxiety grows, man. Anxiety grows when you carry what God never asks you to carry because you were never meant to carry the weight of outcomes. That's not your job, Christian. That's God. God's job. He is sovereign, okay? Don't be anxious, right? That's what he says. But now he's going to contrast it. We know that because this little word B-U-T, but, right? It's a replacement, man. God never tells you just what to stop. He's going to tell you what to start doing. But don't be anxious, but in everything, not some things, in everything, exchange that anxiety that you have with two things, prayer and supplication. That is a beautiful exchange. Prayer. I won't get into it deeply, but what is prayer? It's a general communication with God. You're going to talk to God about it. You can bring it to God. Supplication. That's going to be a specific request, right? That means you talk to God about it. You can be specific about it. You're to take it to God. Whatever anxiety, don't be anxious. Talk to God. Tell him exactly about it. But he's going to connect it with another word that's really key. Do all of that with Thanksgiving. So you so you just don't bring your problems to the Lord, you also bring your praise. Thanksgiving is so important for so many reasons, but I'll tell you one of the biggest reasons that Thanksgiving is important, because you see, I'll be sitting there in bed and I got my little anxiety, anxiety, whatever, and I'm sitting there, I'm going to replace it with prayer and supplication. Maybe anxiety is still there. I attach thanksgiving to it. Thanksgiving reminds me of all the things God has done previously to all of this. And when I think about all that he has done while I'm giving thanksgiving to him, it builds confidence in me that even though I may not know exactly how these things are going to turn out, I know because of the past or the thanksgiving that I'm giving, this all gonna be for his glory and it's all gonna be good. And I can go to bedie bed. You know what I'm saying? Is this not practical, man? I need this. I don't focus on the problem, I focus on the provider. And then he says, just point blank, it's there again. He re listen, every time Paul repeats himself, I'm pretty sure he's doing it because he knew I'd be reading it 2,000 years later. I need it repeated. He's like, I'll tell you again, Travis, let your request be known to God. Let me know. No, now you're not informing God. God knows everything. So why pray? Well, prayer is not about informing God, it's about aligning me, right? Prayer doesn't change God first, it changes me. Bottom line, if you don't replace anxiety with prayer, anxiety is gonna replace your joy. You gotta learn to replace anxiety with prayer. All right. Getting somewhere, getting somewhere, ma'am, because I want to maintain this joy, even though sometimes the house and the roof may be burning down, man. You know, he's gonna give us a fourth thing to do. He's gonna say, Rest in the peace of God. Now we get a promise attached, but the promise is attached to what He's already said. Let's work it out. And. That means if you do the previous things, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts, your hearts, and your minds in Christ Jesus. All right. That's a promise. It's a promise, church, the peace of God. Key word and. It means it's connected to these last verses. Okay. It means this. If you desire the peace of God, then you need to be one, rejoicing in the Lord always. Two, displaying humble graciousness to all. Three, replacing anxiety with prayer. You do that, and you will receive this promise, the peace of God. And that's what we want. That's what I need, right? Not peace from my circumstances. Not peace maybe from everything working out, but the peace of God that comes from the living God. I want that. And then he describes it. He says, it surpasses all understanding. You know? Like the peace he gives you when you're walking through this is a peace that doesn't make sense. It's not a logical piece. You know, maybe things aren't lining up with your situation. People may look at your life and say, how do you possess peace in the situation you're in? How are you holding it together? And the answer is, it don't make sense. It don't make sense, man, because it's not from me. It's a promise from God to the individual, rejoicing in the Lord, letting the reasonableness be known to all, and replacing anxiety with prayer, right? You can't explain it. Oh, you can experience it. Some of you can come up here right now, you give a testimony. You can give a testimony about how the roof maybe was burning down in your life, man, but you were in it and you had this peace, right? You don't figure it out, you you you you you live in it, man. Now, he says, look what this peace does. This is so helpful. Let me just give you an equation, you know. You rejoice in the Lord always. You let your reason be known to all. You replace um anxiety with prayer. You get the peace of God. It's a gift from him, and it will, it will, it will, not maybe, it will, guard your hearts and your minds. Now you look at that word guards. It means to protect, it means to secure. You can picture a soldier standing at the gate, and nothing that's unauthorized is allowed to come in. So if you're doing those things, the peace of God shows up and stands guard. And where's this where specifically does the peace of God show up in guard? Specifically, it shows up in your heart. That's where you get the the anxiety. It protects your mind. That's these feelings of fear and stress and emotional overload. God, the word of God says the peace of God comes, stands guard at both of those places, and says, No, you don't come in here. This individual is a possessor of the peace of God that was gifted to them. It is beyond all understanding, but they have it. They have it because why? Once again, work it out. They rejoice in the Lord always, they let their reasonableness and graciousness be known to all, and they are replacing anxiety with prayer. Therefore, this promise is theirs to have, and this guard is on their hearts and their minds, and says, nope, anxiety ain't getting in here, right? Come on, man. And then it's found. He tells us most beautiful name I ever seen in Christ Jesus. That's where it's located. That's where it's located. Not a general peace, but a gospel peace. Alright. Once again, the first person I always preach to is myself. And um this has been very helpful to me. He's going to say a fifth thing with these final two verses, and this is very this is where the rubber meets the road. Respond and practice these things. Verse 8. Finally, you're gonna bring it home. Finally, brothers, the word is really brothers, sisters, church. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellency, if there is anything worthy of praise, here's the command. Think about these things. All right, I want you to notice this, okay? The very first word is finally, man. He's saying, I'm gonna bring it home now. You get the last four words, think about these things, all right? So you get these two bookends. Finally, think about these things. Now, in between those two words, he gives us eight, I think these are what I would call mind filters. He gives us eight things that we are to be thinking on, filters for the mind, okay? In other words, anything, everything that comes at you, use these mind filters. If it does not fit through these mind filters, you need to know it is a joy stealer. Anything that doesn't fit through these filters, don't let it come in, because if it don't fit through these eight filters, then it's not gonna it's gonna be it's gonna take joy. If it fits through these eight filters, well then you can think about these things all day long. What are they? Well, we we'll just look at whatever is true. If it's true, think on it, it's good. Whatever is honorable, right? Whatever is just, whatever is pure, that's whatever's good. Think on that. Whatever's lovely, if it's commendable, it can come through. We got that filter if it's excellent. Come on. You're welcome in my mind. If it's worthy of praise, think on those things. You see, joy is maintained when your mind is managed, and I know that is true. Whatever's dominating this is gonna dominate your experience. You cannot have a joyful life with a negative mind. We have these eight filters, man. He says it's active. You gotta think on these things. If it doesn't fit through these filters, don't think on it. But think on these things. Think on these things. Final verse to help us maintain joy. Verse 9. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, key word, practice these things, do them. And the God of peace will be with you, even if the roof on fire, you know what I'm saying? He's with you. Practice these things. What things? These things that he's been telling us telling us, do them. Do it, do it. Rejoice in the Lord always. You're rightly related. You know what I'm saying? Be practice reasonableness, humbleness, graciousness with all people. When an anxiety comes, man, when you're gonna you're gonna just lay it, you're gonna pray, pray, bring it to God. Let everything filter, and the peace of God will come and let everything else that comes is this filter through these filters, man. But you gotta practice it. Repetition, consistency, application, right? Thinking fuels right living, right, living sustains biblical joy. What you have learned, what you have received, what you have heard, what you've seen in others. Well, Paul, do it, practice it. And then he says this, and little play on words here, because of what he've already said, and the God of peace will be with whom? You earlier he said the peace of God will be with you. Now he's saying the God of peace will be with you. You'll the peace of God will guard you. Now he says he's gonna be with you. That's what we want. And I need that. I don't just need it today, I need it every day. I need it in the morning, I need it at lunch, I need it at dinner, and I need it in between all those three times. Even when I'm eating the good ice cream, you know what I'm saying? God shows up where his word is lived out. Some people, I think, I know this is true. Some people they want the joy of the Lord kind of like a download, you know? No effort, no change, no consistency. But God says it doesn't come that way. It doesn't come that way. It's practice, it's it's learned. All right. And by wrap up, I mean I'm pausing until next week because we get to the next verse next week. So, yes, the church and Philippi. There's a lot going on. You got some division, you got some persecution, you got the founding pastor in jail. But Paul is saying, you can still in all of this maintain joy in the Lord. One. Rejoice, Christian, rejoice always in the Lord, the joy of the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. Display humble graciousness, replace anxiety with prayer. Rest in the peace of God, that is a promise, and practice what you've learned. You do these things, and your joy will be maintained. We're gonna pick up next week. I love you guys. I thank God for you. Let's pray. Father God in heaven, we thank you for these tremendous verses and how practical and real they are. We all live in this world, and there are so many things that come against us that might rob us of joy. I pray that you would sustain us. I pray, Father, that we would be a people who always rejoice in the Lord, always rejoice in the Lord, that we'd be marked as people who are humble and graciousness to everyone, Father. That when we do have anxiety, we would take it to you, and that we would receive the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. And I pray that we would be a people who practice these things. And we ask this all in Christ's name, our Savior. Amen.