Joy Junkies
Sermon Notes
Well Happy Birthday City Awakening! Happy Birthday! It’s our official birthday as a new church, which means we’ll be meeting every week from this point on. Can we just celebrate that this morning?...There’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifices that’s gone into this, and we’re very excited to finally kick things off today. We’d love for you to help us spread the word, by taking some of the invite cards we put on your seat, invite a friend to come with you next week, and help us spread the word so we can continue to expand and grow as a new church.
We also have another big day coming up on October 9th. It’s gonna be October 9th and we’re gonna do some baptisms that day. For those of you who aren’t familiar with baptisms, baptisms are an outward expression of what God’s done in our lives through the Gospel. The Gospel is that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins, and baptism’s an outward expression of that message. It’s our way of saying, “God I believe in that message, I receive that message, I’m not ashamed of that message, and it’s because of that message that I’m a new person, a new creation in Jesus,” and why do we do this? Why do we get baptized? It’s because Jesus commanded it. Jesus commanded it. He commanded us to get baptized and because we love Jesus, we want to follow what Jesus says, so we get baptized. We get baptized. So if you’re new to the faith, returning to the faith, or your parents baptized you as a child and you want to make that decision for yourself, then go ahead and fill out the info card on your seat, mark the box that says baptism, return it to our guest services tent, and we’ll get you some more information about baptism Sunday. It’s gonna be another great day of celebration on October 9th.
That being said let’s get into today’s message. Today we’re starting a new series called “Rebel.” It’s called “Rebel: pursuing another joy,” and it’s all about pursuing another joy, a different joy, a much better joy than our culture’s joy which is hedonism. If you don’t know what hedonism is, I’ll explain it to you in a bit. But for now just know that’s where we’re going in this series. It’s that we want you to be a Rebel...We want you to be a Rebel, we want you to pursue a different kind of joy than hedonism, and in our culture that’ll make you a Rebel. If you pursue a different joy than hedonism it’ll make you a Rebel, and that’s what we’re gonna be talking about as we study the entire book of Philippians. So let’s go ahead and turn our bibles to Philippians 1:1-11. It’s Philippians 1:1-11 and the title of today’s message is “Joy Junkies.” It’s Joy Junkies. We’re like a bunch of joy junkies who are in constant pursuit of joy, but our greatest joys won’t be found in hedonism, they’ll be found in Jesus! Let’s get after it.
Context:
Here’s your context. Philippians was written by a guy named Paul, and Paul was a bit of a tough guy. He was an intelligent guy, but a tough guy, and he hated Christians. He hated Christians, he hated Jesus, he hated them so much that he literally persecuted and murdered Christians for their faith, but then he became one. He became one, he became a Christian after meeting Jesus, and his life was changed forever. At one point he used to kill Christians for their faith, but after meeting Jesus he was willing to die for the faith, which he did. Tradition tells us he died by decapitation, and he wrote Philippians while sitting in prison, most likely a Roman prison, and he’s in prison not for a crime, but for his faith. So he’s innocent, but in prison...he’s thirsty...he’s hungry...he’s separated from those he loves, and he’s facing the death penalty...Yet he writes a book about joy...He writes a book about joy...Man that doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense, especially in our Western Americanized culture where we think joy’s about Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That’s the Declaration of Independence. It’s about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and notice it’s “the pursuit” of happiness, meaning happiness is something you need to pursue. You can’t just have it, you need to pursue it. Life, we’ll help you with. Liberty, well help you with. Happiness, good luck!
So we live in a culture that says you need to “pursue happiness,” and it seems like every talk show, infomercial, magazine, and politician has something to say about it. They all have something to say about what’ll bring you happiness. We’ll build a wall, we won’t build a wall, here’s 3 steps to joy, here’s 10 steps to joy, and Men’s Health had one titled “759 Ways To Live A Perfect Life.” Man how in the world am I gonna remember that! I can’t remember 759 rules! The only thing perfect about that article is it’s perfectly imperfect because nobody’s gonna be perfect enough to remember 759 ways to be perfect!...I mean that’s more rules than the Bible... The bible has basically 2 rules love God, love your neighbor. That I can remember, but 759 rules really?...Yet in our desperate attempts to pursue joy we’ll pick these things up hoping it’ll bring us the joy our hearts long for and when it doesn’t, we’ll get the new edition. It’s a new edition, new infomercial, new talk show because the first ones didn’t work so we need new ones. And we’ll buy those too because we’re like a bunch of crack addicts constantly pursuing crack except our crack, is joy. It’s joy. We’re a bunch of joy junkies constantly pursuing after the next hit that’ll bring us joy. Yet Paul’s in prison saying, “I’ve got joy...I’ve got joy. I lost my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness but I’ve still got joy.” In our Western American culture this doesn’t make sense, which intrigues me to want to hear what he has to say about joy. So let’s hear it.
The Word:
Philippians 1:1-11 states, “Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons. 2 Grace to you and peace from God...” Okay so there’s one of the reasons Paul has joy. Its because of “grace” and “peace.” It’s because he has grace and peace, and who it’s from? It’s “from God.” He says it’s “from God,” meaning he’s not just talking about any grace and peace, he’s talking about the grace and peace that comes from God, which is a big deal for Paul considering he was at war with Jesus. But he receives grace from Jesus and now he’s at peace with Jesus. Listen there’s so much doctrinal meaning in Paul’s salutations, yet too often we skip over it thinking it’s just another greeting when it’s not. He’s literally saying we’ve received grace FROM God, and we’re at peace WITH God. At one point we were at war with God, we were sinful, rebellious, joy junkies who pursued other things than God but through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we’re forgiven of our sins and we’re now at peace with God. Through Jesus we’ve been given both grace and peace so we have much to be joyful about. We have so much to be joyful about. Paul’s like “I’m innocent, in prison, and facing the death penalty but I still have joy because I’ve received grace and peace from God.” It’s not that he isn’t suffering, because he is. We’ll talk about that next week. So it’s not that he isn’t suffering, it’s just the grace and peace he received from God far outweighs his suffering. But we’re like a bunch of joy junkies who are never satisfied. We’re constantly pursuing the next greatest joy, but our greatest joys won’t be found in hedonism, they’ll be found in Jesus. Paul says it’ll be found in the grace and peace that comes from Jesus.
Again vs. 2 states, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy…” Alright there’s our word of the day, there’s our word for this series. It’s joy. It’s joy, and Paul uses this word “joy” or “rejoicing” over 14 times in Philippians. The entire book of Philippians is only 4 chapters long, but he uses “joy” or “rejoicing” over 14 different times, which tells us it’s a major theme of his book. So let me ask you this. What brings you joy?...What brings you joy?...Is it money?...Is it sex?...Is it graduating or being successful?... Is it your marriage, your kids, or if you’re single do you think getting married and having kids will bring you joy?...What are you pursuing after that you think will bring you the greatest joy?... Here’s another question. Do you believe people should be able to do whatever makes them feel good, whatever makes them happy, whatever brings them the greatest joy?...Do you believe people should be able to do whatever makes them feel good, whatever makes them happy, whatever brings them the greatest joy?...If you believe that, then it means you believe in something called hedonism. It’s called Hedonism, and it’s the dominant belief in Orlando. It’s the belief that you should be able to do whatever makes you feel good, whatever makes you happy, whatever brings you the greatest JOY. I mean “Who am I to judge right?” That’s the classic response of a hedonist. It’s “Who am I to judge? Who am I to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do? If it makes you happy, if it makes you feel good, then go for it, because who am I to judge?” Some of you believe that, some of you say that, some of you’ve digested that, and I want to show you why it’s flawed. I want to show you why that belief’s flawed and how it’ll never produce the joy your heart longs for. So let me press a bit. Let me press on hedonism a bit.
If you’re like the majority of Orlando, if you believe in hedonism, then you believe that people should do whatever makes them feel good, whatever makes them happy, whatever will bring them the greatest joy. But would you say that same thing to Hitler?......Would you say that same thing to Hitler? Would you say that same thing to ISIS?......I mean killing Jews made Hitler feel good, beheading people makes ISIS happy, are you gonna say to them, “Whatever makes you feel good Hitler. Whatever makes you happy ISIS. I mean who am I to judge right? If you like killing Jews and beheading people then go for it! So long as it makes you happy.” You’re not gonna say that right? Of course not, because deep down inside you know it’s wrong. You see the flaw in hedonism? It’s that we’ll embrace hedonism only when it’s convenient, only when it doesn’t affect our own joys. But as soon as it starts to affect our joy, we’ll hit the breaks on it. I mean we’ll run around saying everybody should do whatever makes them feel good, but as soon as it affects our own joy we’re like, “Hold on a minute. You can’t do that!” Why not? “Because it’s not right. Killing people isn’t right,” and we hit the breaks. We hit the breaks. Now why is it okay for us to do that to people, but it’s not okay for God to do that with us?...I mean when God sets limits, when God makes laws we get all angry with Him calling Him a joy killer, but when you do it’s okay? That doesn’t make any sense. I mean why is it okay for us to set limits on what others do, but when God does it suddenly He’s a joy killer?...
Look there’s so much hypocrisy in hedonism which is why I’m saying get rid of it. Get rid of that belief because at the end of the day you’re not actually willing to let people do whatever makes them feel good, whatever makes them happy especially when it comes to people like Hitler and ISIS. With people like Hitler and ISIS you’ll hit the breaks which means you’re not a hedonist, you’re a judge. You’re a judge. You’re constantly judging between what’s good and not good for humanity and that makes you not a hedonist, but a judge. So the question is who gets to play judge? Who gets to play judge, who gets to determine what’s actually good and not good for us? Who gets to determine what’ll bring us the most JOY?...Is it Hitler?..Is it ISIS?.. Is it you, me?...Man forget humanities view of joy because our view’s tainted by selfishness and sin, but God’s never been tainted by sin so I’m gonna trust Him as a joy giver, I’m gonna trust Him as a joy judge, I’m gonna trust that what He says is good, actually is good for me. See part of the flaw of hedonism is that it makes you a joy judge, and you’re not a very good judge. You’re not. We’re like a bunch of little toddlers telling our parents we know what’s best, but we don’t. From our limited perspective we don’t. A toddler’s not a good joy judge. They’ll eat Twistee Treat all day ending up with diabetes or diarrhea and it’s not good. It’s not gonna be good, so as a loving parent I have to place some limitations on them. It’s because I know what’s best for them, and in the same way God knows what’s best for us, so He’ll put limitations on us not to be a joy killer, but to be a joy saver. He’s a better joy judge than us. But we’re like a bunch of joy junkies who are never satisfied. We’re constantly pursuing the next greatest joy, and our greatest joys won’t be found in hedonism, they’ll be found in Jesus! Paul’s joy is from Jesus.
Again vs. 3, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Notice Paul gives another reason for his joy. First it’s because of the grace and peace he’s received from God, now it’s because of gospel partnerships, gospel friendships. So let’s press a bit more on hedonism. I mean if Paul’s saying gospel relationships are bringing him joy, then let’s compare that with a hedonistic relationship. Let’s compare a hedonistic relationship with a gospel relationship, and you play judge. You get to play judge, you get to decide which relationship you’d rather have. You decide which one will produce more joy.
So here’s how a hedonist will view relationships, and by relationships I mean any relationship. I’m talking marital, dating, sibling, friendship, employee, any relationship. I’m talking about any relationship, and here’s how a hedonist views relationships. It’s all about me... It’s all about me...Remember hedonism is all about you. It’s all about whatever makes YOU feel good, whatever makes YOU happy, whatever brings YOU joy. It’s you, you, you, you! It’s all about you. Hedonism is selfish. It’s very selfish, because it’s all about you, and what happens when you put two selfish hedonists together? It produces war. It produces war. A relationship that’s grounded in hedonism isn’t gonna produce joy, it’ll produce war. It’s because both people have their own views on what’ll bring them joy, and when those views clash, when they don’t get their way, it’ll produce war. Some of us will get aggressive, some will get passive aggressive, but both are acts of aggression that’ll produce war. Anyone want to be in a relationship like that? Anyone want a relationship, a marriage, a friendship where the person in that relationship says, “Forget about you, because it’s all about me. It’s all about whatever makes ME feel good, whatever makes ME happy. I can care less about you, because it’s all about ME.” Anyone want to be in a relationship like that? Didn’t think so. Let’s compare that with a gospel relationship.
See a gospel relationship isn’t all about you, it’s about laying your life down for the person that’s in front of you. Why? Because it’s what Jesus did for us. It would’ve been much easier for Jesus to be a hedonist and avoid the cross, but instead he was willing to lay his life down for us so we could have grace, peace, and joy...and once you experience that grace, peace, and joy from Jesus, you desire to share that same grace, peace, and joy to the person in front of you. That’s what a gospel relationship is about. It’s about us treating others the same way God treated us. Jesus gave us grace, peace, and joy, so we want to give others grace, peace, and joy. It’s not about you, it’s about laying your life down for the person in front of you. So play judge. Play judge…which relationship would you rather have? A selfish hedonist one where it’s all about you...or a gospel one where it’s all about sharing grace, peace, and joy to the person that’s in front of you?...Which relationship do you think will produce the greatest joy hedonism...or the Gospel?...Paul’s joy comes from the grace and peace of God, and from gospel relationships not hedonistic ones. And I love what he says next. Check it out.
Vs. 6 states this, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Well that’s a relief. It’s a huge relief, because what Paul’s saying is despite our sin God’s gonna finish the work He began in us. He’s gonna finish it. He says there’s a beginning date and a completion date, and what’s in the middle? Progression. It’s progression. It’s not perfection, it’s progression, and so let’s not run around acting like a bunch of perfect Christians that have perfect relationships because we don’t. I mean my wife and I still fight over which way to put the toilet paper...Does it go this way or this way? “No! It goes this way! It’s supposed to go down so you can just pull and let it spin.” Listen we have our issues too so let’s not run around acting like we’re perfect Christians with perfect relationships because we’re not. None of us are, and it’s because we all have a bit of selfish hedonism in us. We do, and if you’re in a relationship long enough sooner or later that selfish hedonism will come out. It’ll come out and it’ll rob you of joy. But the gospel helps to restore whatever joys been lost from sin, because what leads the way is grace and peace, not war. The gospel is so much better than hedonism, and Paul says despite our sin, God’s gonna finish the joyful work He began in us.
Again vs. 6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace…” There it is again. His joy comes from grace and gospel relationships. “It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Paul tells us to be pure and blameless, but notice that it’s not gonna happen by our works, but through the works of Jesus. The text literally states it “comes through Jesus,” meaning he’ll see our lives and gospel relationships through to completion. Hedonism? No promises. Gospel lives and relationships, Jesus will see it through to through to completion giving us an everlasting grace, peace, and joy.
The Big Idea:
Alright so let’s get to the big idea. Let’s have the worship team come on up and let’s get to the big idea...Our greatest joys won’t be found in hedonism, they’ll be found in Jesus!...Our greatest joys won’t be found in hedonism, they’ll be found in Jesus, and I want you walking away knowing that there’s so many flaws in hedonism, but also knowing that our God’s not a joy killer, he’s a joy giver. He’s a joy giver. He gives us so many things to be joyful about. In fact the bible uses the words joy, rejoice, and happiness over 450 times. Over 450 times the bible talks about “joy,” which tells us God’s not a joy killer, He’s a joy giver. But in our hedonistic culture we don’t want God telling us what will bring us joy, because we’d rather play joy judge. We’d rather reject God as our judge, run off as hedonists, and do whatever we think will bring us the greatest joy but none of it ever does. It may satisfy us for a while, but it won’t long term, and so we’ll run off like a bunch of joy junkies pursuing the next greatest hit, the next greatest joy. If you pursue joy in money, it’ll fail you. You’ll never have enough or you’ll lose it all when you go 6 feet under, and it’s back to the pursuit. So you turn to sex, you pursue joy in sex, but even that wears off. It feels good in the moment, but even that comes to an end, and it’s back to the pursuit. So you try pursuing joy in drugs or alcohol, but even that wears off. So you pursue joy in marriage, kids, career, yoga, 4Rivers, pumpkin spice lattes which will be gone in a month and it’s back to the pursuit. It’s so tiring pursuing after things to satisfy our thirsty souls, but nothing in this world was meant to give us eternal joy, it was meant to point us to the one who can give us eternal joy. It was meant to point us to Jesus.
C.S. Lewis said it like this, “If I find in myself a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, the best argument is that I was created for another world.”
If you find in yourself a desire that nothing in this world can ever seem to satisfy, then it means you were created for another world, you were created for another joy, you were created for a much greater joy than what this world has to offer. So if you’ve lost your joy, then maybe it’s because you’ve misplaced it...Maybe it’s because you’ve misplaced it, maybe it’s because you put it in something that’s temporal, rather than in that which is eternal. Maybe it’s because you’ve put it in something or someone, other than Jesus. But you can get it back today! You can get that joy back! You can it back by being a Rebel, by pursuing another joy than hedonism! You can get it back by being a Rebel who pursues not hedonism, but Jesus. You can get that joy back by repenting of your joy junkie sins, repenting for placing other joys above Jesus, and then believe that he died for your sins so he can give you an everlasting grace, peace, and joy. Paul knew that joy, but the question is do you?