Tag: Rejoice

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Rejoice Always!- 1 Thessalonians 5:16

The passage we will be looking at today is 1 Thessalonians 5:16 and the verse simply says

“Rejoice Always”

1 Thessalonians 5:16

Always Rejoice – meaning to feel or show great joy or delight…. Always

At this point you must be thinking, that’s absolutely impossible.

How can someone rejoice always?

I can rejoice sometimes, but definitely not always.

Why?

You might say…

“Because life is tough.”

“You don’t know what I’ve gone through in the past, I’m still dealing with it”

“You don’t know what I am going through right now, its unbearable sometimes”

“My job is the worst job in the world, during this lockdown they make me work like a donkey”

“My company is least caring, they asked me to sit at home without paying a penny.”

“My marriage is breaking apart, we are struggling”

“My education is at a standstill, I don’t know when I will finish my course and get a job, I don’t even know if I will get a job”

” In such a circumstance, if God is expecting me to Rejoice, that too not sometimes but always, how is that even possible? “

“It’s easy for Paul to write that, and it’s easy for Saju to say that, but they don’t know what I’m going through. My present circumstances are so tough that even thinking about Rejoicing in any manner is absolutely impossible.”

Brothers & sisters, if those are the thoughts running through your mind when you read today’s passage, or maybe I brought it out and reminded you of your hard life.

In this sermon, I want to leave you with a couple of thoughts to ponder upon which I believe will help you see the possibility of choosing to Rejoice Always.

I believe it is possible, I’ve met people in real life who I’ve seen rejoicing in the Lord at all times.

I’ve read stories of missionaries and martyrs who’ve endured suffering, sickness, pain and even death with everlasting joy in their heart. I’ve heard of men lying on their death beds and yet rejoicing in their heart.

This morning, instead of giving you long statements as pointers to remember, I want to give you three words to ponder upon.

1. The first word is PERSPECTIVE

Perspective means to have a point of view, to have a particular attitude towards or way of thinking regarding our present hard circumstances, since most of the time it is our present suffering and pain that is the greatest hurdle for us to rejoice always.

Here’s the perspective we need to cultivate regarding the context of the passage we just read. If we think our situation is the worst then I want us to look and ponder what’s going on with Paul and the Thessalonian church.

Paul is not writing to a church located in a city like us where the Christians have the freedom to practise their beliefs, where they are allowed to worship in open spaces and have the liberty to openly speak about Christ on an online public platform like Facebook or YouTube, where life is tough but not to the extent where believers are dragged out of their houses and killed and murdered for their faith in Jesus.

Instead, he is writing to a group of Christians who are being tortured, persecuted & killed by the worst punishment they could think of.

On the other hand, Paul is not writing this letter sitting on a beautiful balcony or a beachside hotel with a nice cool breeze hitting his face, but he is writing the letter from Corinth where he is labouring for the Gospel alongside Aquila and Pricilla, as was his ministry in other places.

I suppose he was making and repairing tents to protect the people from the hot Mediterranean sun and also preaching the Gospel, discipling the people and building the church, risking his life by putting himself in a dangerous position with Romans.

Even after Paul writing them to “Rejoice Always”, their circumstances are not going to get better, history tells us that some of them are going to be brutally killed and murdered for their faith in Jesus.

And yet he is writing to the church “Rejoice Always”.

Brothers & sisters, if we are waiting and hoping for our circumstances to look better so that we can rejoice always then that is not going to happen. The two reasons it won’t happen is firstly because as long as we are living on this earth we are living in a world that is broken and tarred by Sin.

When God created the world he did not mean to create it this way. The Bible tells us that he made it beautiful and meant it for good.

When he made the first man and woman, he wanted them to enjoy and be fruitful under the authority & dominion of His Majesty, primarily by walking in obedience to God’s instructions in humility and in complete surrender. But instead of walking in obedience, Adam & Eve disobeyed God and sinned in their hearts.

Romans 5:12 says

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”.

Romans 5:12

Because of our sins, the Bible says God’s righteous judgement is upon this earth. Here’s how Isaiah describes the effects of Sin on the earth in Isaiah 24:5

5 The earth is polluted by its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned [under the curse of God’s wrath]

Isaiah 24:5-6

Brothers & sisters, as long as we live on this earth we are living under the curse that is upon this earth, and even though our spirit and soul is liberated in Christ.

Our body here on earth will continue to experience the pain of this broken world. We will always be walking on broken glasses under our feet as long as we live on this earth.

Even Jesus, being the perfect man who ever lived on the earth had to suffer and experience the effect of this broken world in a much more brutal way than any of us will ever suffer.

The second perspective I want us to have about our present circumstances is that God uses our sufferings to perfect us and make us mature in Him.

Do you know that our saviour Jesus was made perfect through sufferings. In Hebrews 5:8-9 it says

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”

Hebrews 5:8-9

Brothers & Sisters, I urge you to look at your present pain & sufferings as a means by which God is perfecting you in Christ.

And if you can develop a right perspective towards your present circumstances then ‘rejoicing always’ can definitely look like a possibility.

2. The second word is BELIEVE

As we just learnt that it is not our present circumstances that enables us to Rejoice always, but what should rather enable us to rejoice always is the prospects of the eternal life we have in heaven because of what Jesus did for us.

Even though we sinned and rebelled against God, instead of pouring His wrath on us and destroying our existence forever, our loving, gracious and merciful Father sent Jesus to bear our punishment and die for our sake and declare justice over us.

Isaiah 53:6 says,

“The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,”

Hebrews 9:26 says,

“He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

Hebrews 2:17 says that Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people” and 1 John 4:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Brothers & sisters, we rejoice in the fact that Jesus died for our sins and has reunited our broken hearts with our Heavenly Father once and forever.

And we receive this gift and stand justified when we repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ our saviour.

Therefore friends, if we are failing today to rejoice always in the Lord, it is not because of our circumstances but because of UNBELIEF in our heart.

Unbelief is the root cause of all our habitual sins, troubles and lack of joy. We are failing to believe that God’s grace, mercy and love expressed through the sacrifice of his Son is enough.

In Isaiah 45:22 the Lord says,

“Look to me and be saved”

Isaiah 53:6

Instead of looking at the Son, Jesus, we are all the time looking at ourselves and our circumstances, we are trying to make our life look better on our strength and ability so that we can someday arrive at the destination we have planned where we will find fulfilment and our joy will be complete.

We work hard, put in extra hours in office, slog and break our bones.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that its wrong to work hard. In fact, God’s word clearly says that we should and that work is a gift. But our attitude is what matters.

Thinking that our efforts is what will sustain us and looking for joy apart from Christ is what is harmful.

We do good works, sometimes beyond our capacities and hope & expect that God will return the favour someday in hundredfold and then we will be happy.

Instead, what we ought to be doing is looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our Faith, trust in him and not in our strength and ability to make this imperfect life on earth perfect.

In Christ, we are totally 100% perfect for heaven, and that is what should make us rejoice always.

Brothers & sisters, as long as we nurture UNBELIEF in our hearts with regards to struggles, trials & temptations we go through in life, we will never be able to truly Rejoice always.

As long as we live on this earth, we need to live believing that his grace is sufficient for us, sufficient to justify us, to sanctify us, and take us to heaven with him.

Allow your heart to be filled with that Joy.

3. The last and the final word I want to leave with you is REST.

Now, that we have the right PERSPECTIVE and BELIEF, I want us to think of the word REST.

Rest, not just as a state of mind, where we are resting in God’s sovereignty over our lives, his provision of abundant and sufficient grace for us to live joyfully in his presence. But I want to talk about REST which is also a command from the Lord – The Sabbath Rest.

Sabbath rest is not just a suggestion from God, its a Holy command from Him.

It is as important as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul”, It is one of the 10 commandments God gave to Moses, Exodus 20:8-11 God said

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

To obey the Sabbath literally means to cease from all our human efforts and to look to God in prayer and devotion. As I understand the Sabbath, I’ve come to believe that Sabbath rest is the providence from God, not just for the sake of physical rest, but also to help us realign our perspectives and refocus our belief on Him.

When we take rest from our human efforts we are reaffirming the fact that in God we trust, as our ultimate source of provision, peace and joy.

If you are struggling to Rejoice at the moment, I want to ask when was the last time you rested in God from all your strivings and efforts and hard work.

I know it is difficult and there are many excuses we can think of, our work responsibilities, our family commitments, etc.

But if working on our perspectives and dealing with our unbelief is important for us so that we can Rejoice always, we will have to give importance to the Sabbath rest, for some of you, it might require you to take drastic steps to say NO to extra work, maybe close yourself up in a room, maybe disconnect the phone for the day, say to NO to entertainment, etc.

A Restful heart will always be a joy-full heart.

Even in our busy schedules if we can find ways to soak ourself in scripture, devote ourself in prayer, sing songs of hope and thanksgiving, remembering the Gospel, looking at Jesus, resting in Him, then, brothers and sisters, the joy of the Lord will surely fill our hearts and keep us going.

We can become just like a small child who runs along the riverside with a stick in his hand and laughter in his mouth.

Though there is so much more I want to say but time is limited, I hope I have stirred something in your heart this morning and given you enough reasons to Rejoice always.

Please do remember the three words .. PERSPECTIVE, BELIEVE & REST.

Let’s pray.

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Philippians Sermon

Believers life in Christ : Philippians 4:4-7

Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ, I am delighted to stand before you to share this good news, I am thankful to God and to our pastors for this opportunity. last Sunday we have listen and encouraging sermon on a topic “Finding joy in imperfection” today we will continue from Philippians 4:4-7, under a topic “Believers life’s in Christ”

Read The text: Philippians 4:4-7.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

1. Believer always Rejoice in the Lord. (4) 

When we look around the world we see brokenness everywhere, we see women being rape, women and children are molested, we see divorce, we see broken family, we see corruption everywhere, people killing each other, people suicide out of depression, we see and hear natural calamities all around, we see sickness and diseases everywhere, we see poverty and hunger everywhere, We see brokenness everywhere. Paul Himself is in painful Jail but he is encouraging Philippians believers to rejoice in the Lord. let us see Why Paul is saying to rejoice in the Lord always? 

1. Because of who Christ is? He is God, the second person of Trinity, He is the wonderful counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting father and the prince of peace. Isaiah 9:6. He is our risen saviour, our redeemer, our King, our High Priest, our Chief Shepherd, our Advocate. psalm 23. the Lord is mine. 

2. Because of what He has done? * He sacrifice His life for the sin of the whole Humanity. * He was punished for our sin. * He forgave us our sin. * He is redeemed us. * He gave us the peace of God * He gave us eternal life. * Our name are written in the book of life. Isaiah 53. 

3. Because of what He will do? *He is preparing a place for us * one day He will wipe away all our tears. *He will give us a reward *We will receive the glorified body. *We will be with Him eternally with our saviour. Rev. 21. John 14. My Question Are you rejoicing in the Lord? Or are you rejoicing in something else? It can be your family, it can be your husband or wife, or boyfriend or girls friend It can be money, it can be success it can be pleasures of this world. all this will give us a temporary joy, but the real Joy which Christ offer us is everlasting Joy. 

Illustration: Jim Carey says “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they are not the answer.” 

JESUS IS THE ANSWER Illustration: Paul life was such an inspiring life In his suffering He rejoice in the Lord. His success and prestigious means nothing compare to knowing Christ. His satisfaction and joy is in Christ alone. 2 Cor. 11:24-31. 5 time he received lashes, He was beaten with rods, pelted with stones, 3 times in a ship wrecked, many sleepless night. experience hunger and cold, often without food. often lock up in jail and humiliated. 

Application: Remember as a believers our real joy is in Christ alone and we should rejoice in Him everyday because He love us and He delight in us. We should be happy like apostle Paul in the midst of all pain and sorrow because God has an amazing hope and amazing future for our life. Turn to your neighbour and encourage him/her by saying: 2. Believer live their life in gentle spirit. (5) Gentleness also refers to meekness, humility, modesty, calmness. Illustration: when a adultery woman was brought to Jesus, He deal with gentleness. Jesus was not angry with her but genteelly He correct her and tell her your sin are forgiven go and sin no more. 

Philippians 2. 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Application: 

Are you gentle in spirit? Let Christ be our perfect model, let us be like him in our everyday life. 

Colossians 3:12. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 4:6. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Galatians 5:22-23. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. James 1:19. Know this, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Proverb 25:28. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. 

3. Believer live a prayerful life. (6) # My life Wedding testimony 

Be Anxious / worry for nothing. But in everything By Prayer / Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made know to God. 

Worry is sin and worry is doubting the work of God. many people worry so much about life, about their future. about their children life, about their health, about their financial security, about their Job, about their life partner, they worried for so many things in life. but the good news is God doesn’t want us to be worry of life. He want us to totally depend and totally trust in Him. and He want to take care of our life and our problem. 

Matthew 6. Jesus said, not to worry of what you will eat or drink or wear. Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. But Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you” Instead of being worried scripture reminds us that we should pray. Believers should live a prayerful life because 1) Prayer help us to connect God. John 15:5. (Phone charging example) 2) Prayer is a command. Phil.4:6. 1 Thess 5:17. (prayerlessness is sin.) 3) Prayer help us to overcome temptation. (Daniel life) 4) Prayer is the antidote to anxiety. phil.4:6. not (world counsellors) 5) Prayer is the greatest weapon against devil. (Christ temptation) Matt 4. (Eph 6.) 

# Christ is our great model, He himself is God but he spent most of His time spending with prayer. if He live a prayer life how much more do we need to pray. # Martin Luther says “I have so much to do that i shall have to spent the first 3 hours in prayer.” 

Do you know what will happen when we don’t pray. 1. You will have less and less desire of God. 2. Stress and anxiety rule over your life. 3. Loss of ongoing sanctification. 4. More Crisis and confusion in life. 5. God doesn’t bring joy to your heart and Go far away from God. 6. Other things fill Gods place. 7. Experience emptiness in heart. 8. We make wrong decision in life. 9. We are easily deceived / easily defeated. 10. Become a stumbling block to others. 11. Fail to share good news to others. 

Application. How is your prayer life? Are you seriously a praying Christian? Are you satisfy with your prayer life? or do you think you need to pray more. I think I need to pray more, You need to pray more, My family / your family need to pray more. We as a church need to pray more. When an individual start praying, when a church start praying, God do wonder works. We should remember a Prayer less christian is a powerless Christian. Let us begin 

Everyday with prayer Spend everyday with prayer Close everyday with prayer. When you are confused pray, when you are weak pray, when you are sad pray, when you lose pray, when you face all kind of hardship pray, when you are happy pray, when you succeed pray, prayer is the powerful weapon where we can reach God. Without prayer we can do nothing, but with prayer we can conquer everything. 

4. Believers have peace of God in their heart. (7) 

Every believers have peace in their life and this peace of God guard their heart and mind. Beloved we are in the christmas season, we know God love us so much that He send His only begotten Son, to bring reconciliation and peace to mankind. 

Isaiah 9:6. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

He is the prince of peace. 

Romans 5:1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. John 14:27. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 

The peace that Christ offer is not like the peace of the world, the world give temporary. For example. we see UN peace mission, we saw peace treaty in second world war between Allied and Axis, but the war is still going on in different part of the world, this is the best example of peace offer by the world. 

But Christ gave us the real and eternal peace, you can received His peace by Repenting all your sin and accepting Him as your Lord and Saviour. 

Illustration : Have you any room for Jesus. “Room for thee” 

Application: If you are having hard time trying to find the real inner peace, Taste the real peace of Christ today, don’t wait for another moment received the peace in His name. Matthew 11:28-31. 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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Philippians Sermon

Are we really Obedient? – Philippians 2:14-18

Last Sunday, we spoke about obedience, and obedience is a hard thing. 

To walk in obedience to God’s word in the culture and surrounding we live in is not that easy. At times we have to push ourselves to walk in obedience to God, but if we are not careful there is another tendency in us that is equally sinful than all other sins from which we are trying to run away.

While doing the right things, we also have a natural tendency to lean towards grumbling in our heart and/or arguing with others to prove our point or show others how superior we are.

Probably that’s the reason why Paul, immediately after talking about obedience, in verse 14 says “Do everything without grumbling or arguing”

Imagine pursuing holiness and purity by keeping away from adultery, fornication or pornography when everyone around us seems to be enjoying it without guilt or shame – in college, in offices, in our society. And when they see us taking a stance against such lifestyle, we are mocked and made fun of. 

In such scenarios, we can quickly get into a complaining mode with God when we treated badly for our righteous actions, saying why is it that they get to enjoy all the fleshly pleasures and not me. 

Or we can get into an arguing mode where we bring in our righteous SELF and start pointing fingers and correcting others, showing them how superior we are from them because we do everything right.

The same kind of attitudes also manifests in other situations. When we see people in the office do all the wrong things and yet are promoted to higher positions, when people adopt unethical ways to do business and make money for themselves.

Often when complaining, we forget that we are living amidst “the wicked & crooked people” of this world as pointed in verse 15. We cannot stop anyone, and we cannot change anyone. The only thing we can change is the way we look at our situation and react to it.

Brothers & sisters, complaining, grumbling & arguing is not the right way to do it & as I pointed out earlier is equally sinful as other sins.

Here are a couple of things to remember from our passage today that can help us in such scenarios.

What God thinks about us is more important than what people think.

V15a – “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”

What Paul is saying is that when we obey God without complaining and disrupting in such manner, we present ourselves blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.

Often, we are too worried about what others think about us, how others will treat us. And we forget that ultimately we all are accountable to God for the kind of lives we live on this earth. We are either living as children of God or as children of the devil; however, we chose to live will decide what our eternal destiny will be, whether heaven or hell.

What God is doing in us & through us is more glorious.

V15b – “Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.”

As we live holy and obedient lives without complaining and arguing, God is using us as shining stars in this dark generation. God’s ultimate goal is to save this wretched world from the hands of satan. He is saving the world through our obedience in Christ.

One day we will all die, and in our last days, all this wealth & pleasures will seem meaningless. And when we are in our death beds, the greatest joy in our hearts will be to cherish all the beautiful gifts God has given to us, whether our salvation, our family, our friends, the joy, and the peace.

Like how Paul puts it in verse16 “as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain.”

Another thing that can help us in our struggle is when we remember the high price Christ had to pay to set us free from Sin and death. While we were sinners, Christ died for us, paid the penalty of our sins on the cross of Calvary. Nothing we go through in life for living an obedience life can be compared to the shame, mocking, beating, insult our Lord Jesus had to go through. 

Our repentance and belief in the Gospel have given us this new life, and unlike what the world thinks, this new life is far more glorious than what the world has to offer us.

And finally …

We ought to rejoice and be glad as we walk in obedience to God’s commandments.

v18 – “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”

Paul ends this conversation in verse 18, saying “Rejoice & be glad”. But why do we rejoice?

We rejoice because we know that God is pleased with us. He is not pleased because of our obedience, he is pleased in the obedience of his son Jesus, who lived a fully obedience life on our behalf. He is pleased with us for excepting Christ as our saviour and Lord; he is pleased with us because of our love for Jesus.

We rejoice, because, greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world. 

We rejoice, in the fact that God, the creator of the universe, is using us as instruments in his hands for his glory. What is a privilege it is?

We rejoice, because, in the end, we will be rewarded for our love and obedience.

Therefore, brothers & sisters, let us continue to walk in obedience to God but without complaining and without arguing, which is an acceptable sacrifice unto our God.