Completed Joy

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We're getting today to the heart of this letter, this poem, this hymn, this song. Either Paul composes it or he picks up something already the early church was singing and celebrating about Jesus. And it's an amazing thing. In fact, this passage is something that was studied by, and has been studied, and continually, constantly studied by theologians and scholars and others to try to figure out what's what, and every little word. I had actually a class at seminary, an entire three-credit class, that just spent and focused on this little passage for one whole semester. So, can you imagine that? Yeah. That's a lot. So we're not going to be able to get into all of that today, but we're going to try to hit it with our theme today on joy. And the word joy comes up in this passage again, as it runs through the whole book of Philippians. So we're going to start reading from Philippians 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy. See that word? Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself to become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Complete my joy, Paul says in this passage, and we've talked already about joy in this series. First of all, the word joy comes up 16 times in this short letter of 104 verses. Just think of that, 16 times the word to rejoice or to be filled with joy comes up that often. And this is from a person who's in prison while he's writing this letter, right? It's a big deal. Joy is not about circumstances. Joy is actually that long-term perspective. It is a farsighted view of what God is doing in this world, that God has a purpose and a direction for everything, including your life. Even in the midst of what might look like a messy time, you've got a goal and a direction. And in fact, joy is the climate, you could say, of heaven. Do you realize Jesus says that when just one sinner repents, when the lost are found, heaven celebrates and rejoices. God is rejoicing over you. That's what's in front of you. That's the long-term perspective. So it's something as well, if you can't tell, Jesus talking about the kingdom of God as a party, as a celebration, it's something that you can't hold onto yourself and keep it all inside. No, it's got to be let. It's something that you experience and celebrate with others. It's always. Joy is an invitation to be a part of community. And we see that in this section, this whole letter, but in this section about Paul talking about how joy and community go together. So we're going to actually kind of just skim the surface again of this passage. I mean, we don't have 15 weeks of a semester, three hours a week to get through it. But we're going to look at these three points. What gets in the way of joy? What increases joy and how God actually ensures your joy? OK, so what gets in the way of joy? Have you ever been around someone and you thought they were talking to you, but then you see those air pad pods in and you realize they're on the phone with somebody and then you go like, oh, and then you go like this has happened with me, with my wife a couple of times. And I'm like, OK, who's she talking to? What is she talking about? And you try to piece it together just by the things that she's saying. Right. And you finally can get some clues. Oh, it's Aunt Paula out in California. You know, oh, it's about, you know, what she's doing there. And you can kind of figure it out. You can ask afterwards, you know, but it's always kind of a funny thing. Epistles are like that. These letters of Paul are the one side of the communication we've got. But the other side of the conversation we don't have. And so what has to happen often is what's called mirror reading. That is, you have to kind of go like, huh. So Paul brings this up. I wonder why. Oh, I bet this is what was going on. And you put it into the context. So we're going to have to look at a little mirror reading of what Paul's getting at here in this lett...