Rejoice in the Lord always, I’ll say it again, rejoice! With these words Paul points us in a different direction that the rest of the world. We don’t need to chase after things that make us happy. (I spend some time with the greased pig of happiness in this Sunday’s sermon.) Joy is different. This joy isn’t reliant on your mood or even then circumstances that surround you.
For this post what I want to focus on is verse 5 of our Philippians 4 text. Let your gentleness be evident to all. This isn’t an easy word – gentle. It can mean everything from reasonable, yielding, gracious, forbearing, or considerate. The heart of the word gentle is that it is the opposite of a self-centered contentious world. You think of other first and would gladly be wronged than ever wrong someone else. This isn’t someone forcing you to act this way – this is the spiritual maturity that comes from being in the Lord. You place yourself into the service of others – and why? The Lord is near.
My weather app tells me that a storm is approaching. It will rain right where I’m standing in 13 minutes. That’s kind of cool, but this is you knowing when the anvil will fall on your head. That’s not how Christians view the end of the world. This is your time is short – enjoy it. What you do with your time and how you spend it IS your choice. Your family is home for the holidays and – I’m telling you – that doesn’t happen all that often, getting all five of my children under one roof. So how can you spend the last few moments together because that time is precious.
Want to hear more? Watch this Sunday’s message taken from Philippians 4 – Christmas in Real Life – Joy.
To learn more about this Advent sermon series you can find the event page HERE.
Book(s): Philippians
Series: Christmas in Real Life
Tag(s): Advent
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg