Philippians 4:4-7 - Thanksgiving - Rejoice In The Lord Always

Paul is excited. His exuberance is overflowing through his pen as he writes. His thoughts are flying fast, his heart is bursting with joy and out comes this explosion of joy and thanksgiving. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. In case you missed it, I’ll say it again, Rejoice!

The words, the thoughts, build on each other. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. There’s a progression, growing deeper, building on the last phrase until we’re always giving thanks and rejoicing.

Which is the only way we will ever rejoice always. Unless we follow this sentence in the order that Paul writes it, we will be very frustrated. And for many people, this is how we read this verse. We begin with the "always", and we hear this horrible expectation that somehow, in some way, we’ve got to figure out how to be thankful and joyful all the time. That if we’re not being thankful and joyful, that we’ve sinned somehow. So get your act together, put on your happy face, and rejoice. You hear me? Rejoice!

Doesn’t really install gratitude in your heart, does it? We can’t be told to be grateful. Being thankful is an attitude that happens in response to an action. Someone does something and we are grateful if we recognize the value of the gift, the action, the person giving the gift or doing the action. We don’t have to be told to be thankful or to rejoice.

We don’t have to be told, unless we miss Who is giving the gift, unless we miss the value of the gift. If we can’t see what the Lord is doing, if we can’t grasp the value of His care, His protection, His blessings that He has poured out, how could we possibly give thanks? How could we possibly rejoice?

So, we’re called to rejoice, but we’re called to rejoice...in the Lord. In the presence of the Lord. In the awareness of His Person near us, watching us, holding us, guiding us, strengthening us. His hand constantly on our shoulder. His eye lovingly fixed on us. We stop rejoicing when we forget this. We stop our thanksgiving when we move on to other things, when our responsibilities push this awareness of our Lord out of our minds. When we’re too busy to stop and talk with Him, why would we be thankful? What we would be thankful for?

But when we are in the Lord, in His presence, in awareness of Him, when our lives are connected to His, when we spend regular time focused only on Him, and when we go about the rest of our duties knowing we do them near Him, with Him near us, we will rejoice, and we will rejoice always. We won’t be able to stop. Nehemiah 8:10 says:

And when you’re working and resting and laughing and playing and living your days and nights in the strength and presence of the Lord, you will be rejoicing, always. It’s not that you have to. It’s that you won’t be able to stop. You will rejoice...in the Lord...always.

And then Paul repeats himself. Again, I’ll say it, rejoice. Paul has to repeat it, considering how easy it is to forget, how easy it is to miss the Lord, to forget His real and loving presence. And the minute we forget Him, we instantly stop rejoicing. So, we’re reminded to think of our Lord, think of who He is, think of what He’s like, think of His nature, His characteristics, His Person. Think of the Lord, dwell in Him, and rejoice. Rejoice always!

Congregation - What is it about the Lord that you are thankful, His nature, His characteristics

Part 2 - Thankful and watching for the Lord’s actions

Now, living in the joy of the presence of the Lord, never leaving this safe, blessed existence, verse 5:

We become forceful, we become rough, we push to get our way, we walk over the next guy, when we are threatened, when we are afraid, when we’re not sure we’re going to have our needs met. A harsh, angry person is usually scared, uncertain person.

Which is why the joy of the presence of the Lord allows us to be gentle. There’s no need to push, there’s no need to yell, there’s no need to worry. The Lord is near. And when the Lord is near, we are safe. We are certain. We know everything’s going to be okay.

But everything doesn’t look okay all the time, does it? On this Thanksgiving Day, and I would suspect on pretty much any other day, we could find more things that are going wrong with this world than are going right. It’s easier to think of things to complain about than to be thankful for. There seems to be more brokenness, more need, more sorrow, more threat than there is wholeness and healing, satisfaction and joy.

And when that’s our perspective, we won’t be gentle. We’ll go throw ourselves around trying to make sure we get what we want. Things are not happening fast enough to suit us, so we try to shove things along. We are rough, not gentle.

Or, we are anxious. We’re nervous. We’re jittery. We wonder what’s going to hit next, who’s going to get sick next, who’s going to lose their job next, what tragedy is going to hit where. We’re jumpy.

But that’s just because we stopped rejoicing in the Lord always. We forget Who’s next to us. We forget His determination to set things right, to make things whole, to make things holy. We forgot our Lord’s love for us, that drives Him to do what He does, that drove Him to die on a cross for us, and that drives Him to provide and protect us, His family, His children.

When we remember His presence, His goodness, then Paul can say, in verse 6:

We’re giving thanks today, because we have this holiday to remind us to give thanks. But God sees thanksgiving in an interesting way. Not only can we be thankful for what God has given to us. We can also present our requests to Him in thanksgiving. That seems backwards, doesn’t it? It almost seems rude to say to God, "Thanks for what You’ve given to me. I’d like something more please."

And yet, that’s exactly what He’s telling us. With thanksgiving, present your requests to God. There’s no need to be harsh. Be gentle and present your requests to God. There’s no need to be anxious. Be calm, trust His goodness, and present your requests to God. It’s not like we’re stretching God’s resources. Our Lord is the one Person who doesn’t mind our asking. He encourages us to ask. He even commands us to ask. Because the more we ask, the more we give thanks.

Congregation - What has God done that we’re thankful for, and what requests to we bring to Him with thanksgiving.

Part 3 - Thanksgiving’s Results -

When we are in the Lord, when we know that the Lord is near, we can be gentle, we can be calm, and, verse 7:

We’ve just named several things that the Lord has done for us. We’ve just given thanks for His care, His gifts, His strength, His healing. We know, we know that He is here, and that He’s not going away, ever. We know that His faithfulness has been constant and will remain a constant.

And in His presence, with that certainty, the peace of God comes down around us and creates a wall, a castle, a fortress around us. The peace of God. The Hebrew word for this is Shalom. This is such a special word if you know it. It’s an utter sense of well-being. It’s the complete understanding that everything is OK. Total safety.

Today is a good day. Most of us are going to spend time resting, relaxing, maybe with family, maybe with friends. There’ll be some football to watch, some good food to munch. The afternoon will melt into the evening and we’ll have a wonderful sense of satisfaction. It’s a good day.

But in the back of our minds, and maybe not too far back, there might be a "yeah, but." Yeah, this is a good day, but what about tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to work. Tomorrow I have to pay for today. Tomorrow, something might happen that I’m not sure about. Yeah, I’ll give thanks today, but I’m not so certain about tomorrow.

Shalom is a life without "yeah, buts". It’s a life of rejoicing in the Lord always, regardless of tomorrow. Shalom is being thankful for the food and the rest and knowing that the same sense of safety today is possible tomorrow. Even if you have to work, even if you’re not sure where the money’s going to come from, even if there are health concerns, the peace of God pushes out all of those worries.

The peace of God, that transcends all understanding. In a sense, this is a peace that we can’t really comprehend, that is more wonderful, more beautiful than we can grasp. But this peace transcends even further. It goes beyond our reasoning. Our minds play tricks on us. We can imagine all kinds of things happening. We should be thankful, and instead, we’re worrying. We ARE thankful for some thing, for many things. It’s just these nagging thoughts that keep flying at us.

And we hear that God’s peace is bigger than all that. God’s peace cancels out those runaway thoughts. The worries, the fears come into contact with the peace, and they just fizzle. The peace of God transcends our thoughts, all the junk that rattles around inside there, the stuff that keeps us from giving thanks and rejoicing in the Lord always.

Now, if you’re hearing that you need to do all this, that you need to be peaceful, that you need to be gentle, that you need to rejoice, you’re feeling like you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. That’s an incredibly hard burden. But listen to this. These things, the joy, the peace, the thanksgiving, these are the results of the Lord being near. This peace that transcends our understanding, that’s from God. That doesn’t come from you. It comes from Him, and surrounds you and protects you. It’s the peace of God creating a safe place in this world.

And wherever you go, this fortress of peace moves with you. It’s easy to know it today, Thanksgiving Day, the day we remember and acknowledge the good things from God. But it will be there tomorrow when you go back to work. It will be there tonight when the thoughts start flying again. It will be there when it’s hard to give thanks. The peace of God, overpowering all our thoughts, will guard your hearts and your minds.

In Christ Jesus. Because the Lord is near. Because you are in the Lord. So, this morning, we give thanks, in the Lord. This afternoon, we’ll celebrate our thanks, because the Lord is near. And tomorrow, and every day, we will live our lives in gratitude and peace, rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Rejoicing. Always rejoicing. I’ll say it one more time. Rejoice.