And had a prayer with her and left. Well, it really clutched her heart, and she wrote a little poem there in the hospital. The chorus line of this song is what she wrote:
Oh, the love of the Lord is a marvelous blend
Of the gift of the Son and the hand of a friend.
And she wrote a little poem about how the rose came to her from God through the hand of a friend, and so on. So I took those little two lines and added three verses regarding things that happened in the typical Christian life—like mine—where we find this wonderful blend of the gift of His Son and the hand of a friend.
Some of you know it, and some of you have never heard it before. So what I’d like for us to do is just learn a chorus together. And when we get to the chorus, if you’ll join in and sing. Okay?
Oh, the love of the Lord
Is a marvelous blend
Of the gift of His Son
And the hand of a friend.
I’ll try it one more time. I see there’s some people who snuck in here who know the song. Let’s try it.
When you really feel lonely,
You need a good friend.
There’s no one like Jesus;
He’s there to the end.
But His infinite wisdom includes in His plan
A brother or a sister to give you a hand.Oh, the love of the Lord
Is a marvelous blend
Of the gift of His Son
And the hand of a friend.
Sometimes we have problems we can’t understand.
We walk in a desert as dry as the sand.
We call out to Jesus and ask for some sign,
And the telephone rings, and our friend’s on the line.Oh, the love of the Lord
Is a marvelous blend
Of the gift of His Son
And the hand of a friend.
We thank You, Lord, that we come to the best Friend that we have. You have given us love when there was no one else. In a lonely place, we found that You were closer than any brother.
We come to You today to worship You and thank You for the marvelous and miraculous way that You reveal Yourself to us: directly from heaven, and sometimes through the hand of a brother or sister.
We realize that this is part of Your marvelous economy. It is beyond the understanding of human beings, but we accept this provision of love, and we thank You for it.
As we study the Word of God today and think of Your love, we pray that we would be touched again by the marvelous blend of the gift of Your Son and the hand of a friend. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would convince us of the beauty of Your plan. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Okay. I’d like for all of you to turn, please, to the epistle of Philippians. Philippians is always a good starting place. Today we will stay in Philippians.
If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ,
if there is any consolation of love,
if there is any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and compassion,
make my joy complete
by being of the same mind,
maintaining the same love,
united in spirit,
intent on one purpose.Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another
as more important than himself;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see,
my joy and crown,
so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche
to live in harmony in the Lord.
Indeed, true comrade,
I ask you also to help these women
who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel,
together with Clement also
and the rest of my fellow workers,
whose names are in the book of life.Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things again is no trouble to me,
and it is a safeguard for you.
There he is in Philippians 3:1 saying, “Finally, brethren.” He’s sort of like Ernie when he preaches: he gets to his last point, says, “Finally,” and there’s another half hour to go.
So Paul says in Philippians 3, “Finally, brethren,” and then he goes on and on talking about rejoicing in the Lord. He says, “This isn’t a tough thing for me to share with you, but I want to remind you: joy is a safeguard for us.”
A strange thought, isn’t it? I have been rummaging through the Book of Philippians this last month, reading it all the time. I’d like to share with you today just a few of the rummagings—the things I found in the attic as I read through this book of Philippians.
It’s a wonderful book. The city of Philippi really isn’t famous for much. It was named after Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, and it became a Roman city. That is to say, it was a little tiny Rome. Anybody who lived there belonged to the city of Rome. That’s why Paul talks about being a citizen; he has this in mind.
This little letter to the Philippians is a very human letter, a very beautiful letter. It is actually based upon the fact that Paul wanted to write a thank-you letter to the Philippians for their manifest love in sending an offering to him.
He writes a letter of thankfulness, updates them on things that have been going on in his life as he is in jail, and explains why he is sending back Epaphroditus, the young man sent by the Philippians to minister to Paul.
Paul also heard through the grapevine about Euodia and Syntyche—two sisters not getting along. Their names in Greek mean “sweet fragrance” and “fortunate.” I call them Sweetie and Lucky. They are two of the most precious sisters in the fellowship in Philippi, but they are not getting along.
And isn’t it strange? Of course, it is the Lord. In this very human, touching letter of love, we find two of the greatest passages in the New Testament: the passage concerning Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself; and Paul’s autobiographical passage in Philippians 3, where he leaves behind his pedigree and presses toward the goal of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
I love the letter to the Philippians. When I was in school, the first thing I translated completely in Greek was the Book of Philippians. Oh, yes, that was a really rich experience.
As a matter of fact, Philippians was involved with the first Christian joke I ever heard. I had been saved no less than two weeks when the man who ran a bakery in town, who was in the choir, came up to me and said, “Well, now you’re going to have to work with me in the bakery.”
I said, “How come?”
He said, “Well, what do you think Paul was?”
I said, “An apostle.”
He said, “No, a baker. It says in the Bible, ‘Paul went down to Philippi.’”
Well, up high, anyway. They always said Paul was actually a baker, not an apostle. I’ll leave that with you. I didn’t think it had grown quite so badly.
The amazing thing about this letter, when you think about its context, is this: sixteen times the word joy is used.
Now, let’s keep something in mind. This was a man in prison—not just a man in prison, but a man with an indefinite sentence. He had to wait until Caesar got around to seeing him. He could rot in jail. There was no time schedule. He just had to wait for the whim of Caesar. His life was truly in the hands of God.
There he was in jail, and the dogs, as he calls them in Philippians 3—the Judaizers—were still nipping at his heels and causing trouble among the people. He had heard about Sweetie and Lucky and the problem they were having. He writes about evangelists preaching Christ out of envy and strife to try to get at Paul. Can you imagine? In Jesus’ name.
He also describes in Philippians 2 how his fellow workers had all found excuses to leave and pursue their own personal interests, and only Timothy stayed by. And in all of that, sixteen times in this short little letter, joy comes out. That is really an amazing thing.
Some Bible scholars call this the Epistle of Joy. Others call it the Epistle of Love. Some call it the Epistle of Peace. Somehow that goes together, doesn’t it?
Let’s look at these passages. Let them minister to you themselves.
Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all.
—Philippians 1:4
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.
—Philippians 1:18
And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.
—Philippians 1:25
Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
—Philippians 2:2
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
—Philippians 2:17
And you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
—Philippians 2:18
Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, in order that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you.
—Philippians 2:28
Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard.
—Philippians 2:29
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
—Philippians 3:1
Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
—Philippians 4:1
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
—Philippians 4:4
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me.
—Philippians 4:10
Isn’t that an amazing little letter? Joy is all over the place. He is filled with joy. I’d like to talk today about the secrets of joy that we find in this letter.
What is this joy? I think the best way to define it simply and briefly is to compare it with happiness.
What is happiness? Happiness is an emotional state of gladness. Happiness is a wonderful thing, and you and I have been so blessed. There is nothing wrong with happiness. We should have it.
The trouble with happiness is that it is dependent upon hap. And you know what “hap” means? It is actually an old English word, not used much anymore. It means luck—your circumstances.
You are happy if your circumstances are good. If you are hapless, you are luckless. If you have a mishap, you have a misfortune. If you do something perhaps, it means, “If I’m lucky.” Happiness is dependent on hap.
When things are happy, we are happy. And we should be happy; there is nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong when we dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of happiness. Then we are going to chase rainbows.
If you chase after happiness, there are two things I know about you immediately. Number one: you are dedicated to avoiding pain. Number two: you only care about those things which are fun in the pursuit of pleasure.
Now, by contrast, we have joy. What is joy? Joy is an inner state of buoyancy and well-being, and it is not dependent on circumstances. That is the wonderful thing about joy.
Look at Paul. He has sixteen ounces of joy in jail. It is not dependent on circumstances.
Joy comes from inside. Happiness is like the moon: when the sun of fortune shines on it, it looks shiny. Joy comes from inside; it is like a light bulb. The light just shines out. Paul was all lit up, even though he was in jail.
Joy is dependent on two things: right relationships with other people and right actions.
You see, joy is not an end in itself; it is a derived byproduct. When a child is right with his parents, there is joy because the relationship is right. When things are out of joint between a husband and wife, there is no joy because something is not right in the relationship.
When somebody does a right action—something moral, something just, something beneficial to humanity—they have a sense of joy because they know they did something right.
When we bring this into our Christian experience, what is joy for the Christian? The old song says:
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy,
Let Jesus come into your heart.
Ah, there is a right relationship right there. There is a right action right there. If you want joy, dear guest here today, and for some reason you have never asked Jesus into your heart, there is joy.
When I was twenty years old, I had the privilege of asking Jesus into my heart. Ever since that day, the light bulb occasionally glows.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy—better than Disney World, better than doing some momentary right action that makes you feel good—let Jesus come into your heart.
I want us to look simply this morning at three different layers of joy. The first layer is what I am going to call the joy that comes from koinonia—the joy that comes from fellowship.
Do you know there is real joy waiting for Christians that is based on fellowship? The early Christians continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers.
In 1 John 1, John says:
What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also,
that you also may have fellowship with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father,
and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write,
so that our joy may be made complete.
—1 John 1:3-4
There is a fellowship that completes our joy. Koinonia is used four times in the Book of Philippians.
In Philippians 1:5, it is translated “participation in the gospel.” In Philippians 2:1, it is “fellowship of the Spirit.” In Philippians 3:10, it is “fellowship of His sufferings.” And in Philippians 4:15, Paul speaks of fellowship in “the matter of giving and receiving.”
Now, there is a good definition of fellowship: giving and receiving. When we come into Christ Jesus, we are suddenly related to a family of brothers and sisters. There should be give-and-take, a life inextricably intertwined. When you are a Christian, you are involved with one another. You just cannot help it.
As you participate and willingly involve yourself, you find joy as the byproduct. Dear brother, if you come to various meetings and go from place to place, but you are not involved anywhere, there is a certain fullness of joy that you will miss.
You may be a Bible scholar and a prayer warrior in your own closet, but if you do not fellowship, you will miss something. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together with the saints. There is joy in this precious fellowship.
In Philippians 1:3-4, Paul says:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always offering prayer with joy
in my every prayer for you all.
Paul says remembrance in fellowship brings joy—the fellowship of remembrances. When I see Donny over here, remembrance comes to my mind of fellowship we had together, and joy comes to my heart.
Paul thinks of the day he went down to the river and met Lydia and her household, preaching the gospel and leading Lydia to salvation. He thinks about the night of the jailhouse rock, when the jailer got saved with his whole family. He remembers the Greek slave girl, possessed by a demon, who was delivered and saved. These things bring joy to his heart.
Another basis of joy for Paul is the joy that comes from fellowship in what I am going to call “gospeling together.” When you share the gospel with people together, there is some kind of joy put into your heart that there is almost no comparison.
Paul appeals to Euodia and Syntyche by reminding them that they had shared his struggle in the cause of the gospel. “Come on, Sweetie and Lucky. You were soldiers together in the gospel. Remember that.”
In Philippians 1:5-7, Paul says:
In view of your participation in the gospel…
For I am confident of this very thing,
that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.It is only right for me to feel this way about you all
because I have you in my heart,
since both in my imprisonment
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,
you are all partakers of grace with me.
We are sharing it together, folks. I remember what we shared when we preached the gospel together. Now here I am in jail for the gospel, and you are sharing it with me. We are all partakers of grace together. I am not alone. We are together in it.
The joy of fellowship also includes suffering together. Nobody wants to suffer, full stop, isolated by itself. But Paul found the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ to be precious.
There is nothing more precious than the sweetness of Christ’s presence and fellowship with you in the midst of suffering. Paul says, “I have discovered that.”
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake,
not only to believe in Him,
but also to suffer for His sake,
experiencing the same conflict
which you saw in me
and now hear to be in me.
—Philippians 1:29-30
There is a collegiality in suffering. We find that we are together; we can handle it. We are together in the Lord in this matter.
Paul says:
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering
upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way
and share your joy with me.
—Philippians 2:17-18
There is your ministry and your life. You have placed your life as a living sacrifice on the altar. If my life is to be poured out as a drink offering on top of your offering, do not be sad. I love the sacrifice for the Lord. I rejoice in this offering. Rejoice with me in this.
We see the joy of fellowship—that life involved with one another and with our Lord Jesus Christ brings such joy. But there is something deeper yet. It is the joy of agape, the joy of love.
It is the love that enables fellowship together. In Philippians 1:9, Paul says:
And this I pray,
that your love may abound still more and more
in real knowledge and all discernment.
The secret of joy underneath fellowship is the joy of love. But by love, let us not just mean a nice little feeling in our heart. Agape love is not primarily emotional. Agape love is an action—an other-conscious action, a divinely supplied action toward another person.
It is selfless. It is other-conscious. The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, but it is not complete unless it is also spread from our hearts to one another. That is where the joy comes in: shed and spread.
Philippians 2:1-4 describes this kind of love. It does nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. With humility of mind, it regards one another as more important than itself. It does not merely look out for personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Brothers and sisters, this is right action and right relationship. People say, “My wife doesn’t make me happy.” Well, that is a shallow-level thing. Do you want joy? Love your wife. Love your husband. That loving, other-conscious action produces joy.
The great problem with Christians, as well as those in the world, is paralysis—where there are no right actions, and therefore there cannot be any full joy. But right actions and right relationships bring joy.
Agape love has the attitude that was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5-11 is about this:
Have this attitude in yourselves
which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a bond-servant,
and being made in the likeness of men.Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.Therefore also God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name
which is above every name.
Do you know what the main verb is in that passage? He emptied Himself. There is agape love. Have this mind in you: empty yourself.
Jesus had fellowship with the Father, though He was equal with God. Yet He emptied Himself. He humbled Himself and became a man. He was rightly related to the Father, rightly related to us, and there was joy in that submission.
Then becoming a man was bad enough, but He became a servant—the lowest kind of man—and He found joy in obedience.
I delight to do Thy will, O my God.
—Psalm 40:8
There is precious joy in obedience. And because of agape love, He even emptied Himself and died on the cross. You just cannot love someone more than that.
And as a result, He found the joy of exaltation. Those who give themselves in self-sacrificial love end up being lifted up, even as Jesus was. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus, “for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.”
We see the joy of fellowship, and then the joy of agape. But there is something underneath this agape spreading. It is the joy of a fixed resolution—the joy of a single intent of purpose, the joy that comes from simplicity.
Paul says in Philippians 3, “This one thing I do.” Now, that makes life simple, and that brings joy.
Paul narrowed life down to one essential resolution, one posture regarding all circumstances:
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
—Philippians 1:21
When somebody gets boiled down to that essential motivation in the heart, life is simplified to the point where joy will spring forth from anything.
Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If I go through a tough time of want, or if I go through a time of prosperity, it does not throw me off. I have a single resolution.
When all our good times and happiness are stripped away, and you are standing by the gates of hell, if you have this single resolve that sets your face toward the Lord like a flint, you will find joy even there.
Circumstances in life strip things away from you: loved ones, opportunities, your health. But as these things are stripped away, if your heart is filled with a single resolve, then joy overflows and cannot be snatched away.
David said, “My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed.” Jesus set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem. When we get it down to this single resolve and say, “To me, to live is Christ; to die is gain,” we have found the deepest secret of joy.
Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Phillips translates it, “Delight thyself in the Lord.” That brings us back to Psalm 37:
Do not fret…
Delight yourself in the Lord.
—Psalm 37:1, 4
Paul is not giving some flimsy religious statement, as if we mechanically turn around in a tough time and say, “Okay, thank God.” It is nothing like that. It is this: have this kind of resolve in your life. Whatever happens, delight yourself in the Lord.
Paul says this is a safeguard for you. Did you ever think that delighting in the Lord, this single resolve, could be your safeguard? It certainly is.
If you delight yourself in the Lord, the dogs will not get you—the legalists who want to put you under condemnation. You will know that His precious blood has forgiven you, that you live by His grace, and that He is completing you by His Spirit.
And the bellies will not get you—the people whose god is their appetite, who say, “You can live any way you want. Fulfill your appetite. Be happy. Do not worry.” Paul says, “Watch out.” Delight yourself in the Lord.
People who delight in the Lord are lean, mean, running machines—forgetting the things that are behind, pressing forward to the things that are in front, running for the goal. They do not have time for dog stuff and belly stuff.
And then, in Philippians 4, Paul says again, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” He goes on to talk about how this delighting in the Lord is the safeguard of your heart from anxieties, concerns, and problems.
Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God,
which surpasses all comprehension,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 4:6-7
Do not worry about anything; pray about everything. Let your forbearance be known by all men. Delight yourself in the Lord, and do not worry about Sweetie—pray for her with thanksgiving. The peace of God will guard your heart from precipitous action and reacting in the flesh.
There we are, rummaging around in joy. There is the joy of fellowship together. I hope you have that. Are you a participator?
I think there are some in this place this morning who did not participate in the worship time. You were on the outside looking in at the joy of the Lord. Too bad. There may be some here who do not really participate in the body of Christ.
Maybe you have a problem with the body of Christ. Maybe you have a good reason why you do not participate. All you are doing is missing out on joy.
Do not shut down in some kind of false isolation and independence. There is fullness of joy in that intricate relationship where we share with one another, bear one another’s burdens, and pray for one another. For the Lord’s sake, be a participant.
And then there is the joy that comes from agape love. Sometimes you have to unilaterally take the initiative. Other-conscious love, selfless love, spread out to other people even as the Lord has shed it into your heart.
This is the ointment of the body of Christ: love one for another. It is a joy to love one another. If you will do those other-conscious actions of loving—even your wife, even your parents, even your children—you will find joy, even in difficult times.
And then, of course, the secret: the joy of that fixed resolution. Nothing could get Paul off that resolution. Whether I live or die, the Lord will not be ashamed of me, because my whole purpose is to live for Him.
And once that is settled, there is joy. Thank God for the joy we have.
I’d like us to sing a song together, then have a few prayers. The song is “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” number 87 in the books. Let’s sing all the verses, then we’ll have a time of prayer—just a few prayers of joy to the Lord.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows