A Joy Unexpected

You see, a joyful believer is a beautiful believer. It's attractive when somebody has joy, authentic, real joy, not the fake plastered on stuff that so many people carry around, but the real stuff.

It's attractive and people want to know, where'd you get that? I want to get me some of that. It's been said that a gloomy Christian is a contradiction. Today on Connect with Skip Heintin, Skip shares how God brings color to the most black and white moments of life, and why you can always live joyfully in Christ. But first, did you know that Skip shares important updates and biblical encouragement on social media?

Just follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the latest from him and this ministry. That's at Skip Heintin, at Skip H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Now, we're in Philippians chapter one, as we dive into today's teaching with Skip Heintin. One of the most infallible signs of the presence of God is joy. It is an unmistakable badge of divine ownership.

But now take and flip that coin. A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms. I don't think anything has hurt the church over a period of history more so than the idea that a sour, sullen, serious believer is in order. Somebody in church history came up with the idea that clergymen ought to wear black and look like gravediggers.

In fact, one of the great judges of our country in times past, Oliver Wendell Holmes, he was an American jurist appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States under Roosevelt. He said, I would have entered the ministry if clergymen I know didn't look and act so much like undertakers. A man who was a brilliant mind who thought of entering the ministry, but he said, no, thank you.

Then there's Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author and poet, who wrote in his journal these words as if it were extraordinary. I went to church today and I'm not depressed. I don't know who came up with the idea that to be sanctified means to be sad, but I reject that. I reject that because after all, we are called to preach what's called the gospel, which means the good news.

It's not called the badspel. It's not the mediocre news. It's not just, oh yeah, I've heard that. It's the good news, and it should be done with authentic joy. William Berkeley said this, the Christian is a man or a woman of joy. The Christian is the laughing cavalier of Christ. You see, a joyful believer is a beautiful believer.

It's attractive. When somebody has joy, authentic, real joy, not the fake plastered on stuff that so many people carry around, but the real stuff, it's attractive and people want to know, where'd you get that? I want to get me some of that. I want to have what you have.

I want to experience what you've experienced. A joyful Christian is a good representative of the good news, the gospel. Nehemiah, when the people of his town, Jerusalem, were rebuilding the walls that have been broken down, there was a period of discouragement and sadness. He said to them, don't be dejected and sad for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

I love that. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, it needs to be said, and we'll be able to develop it over the next several weeks, but there should be noted that there's a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is vacillating.

Joy is fixed. You can be going through horrible, unhappy circumstances and yet have joy. Because happiness goes up and down depending on the happenings. Happiness depends on the happenings. Happiness depends on the happenstance. Happiness is all about the hap.

You may know that the word hap is an old word for chance, and so when the chance falls favorably toward you, you're happy. When it doesn't, you're unhappy. Did you know that two-thirds of Americans claim to be unhappy? Two-thirds of Americans claim to be discontented with life. Well, we're doing a series in the book of Philippians.

We're starting today. It's called Technicolor Joy. You say, why are you calling it that, and what does that have to do with the book of Philippians? It's a fair question, especially when you understand how the church of Philippi started and the conditions that the author who wrote this book faced. The book of Philippians was penned in 62 A.D. by Paul the Apostle, who was a jailbird. He was incarcerated in a Roman prison when he wrote this book.

How did he get there? Well, he had been in Jerusalem, was falsely accused and arrested. He was taken to a place called Caesarea, where he stood before several trials that went on for two years. Finally, he had had enough, and he said, I appeal my case to Caesar. He was a Roman citizen, and he had the right to do that, so he said, I appeal to Caesar.

So the procurator said, you appeal to Caesar, so to Caesar you will go. So Paul was put eventually on a ship that was going to Rome. The ship sunk, and another ship was afforded him, and he finally made it to Rome, where he is in jail, and from prison he writes this letter. Now, Paul had always wanted to go to Rome.

It was on his bucket list. He said, I don't want to go to Rome, and I don't want to preach the gospel there, but he expected to go to Rome as a preacher. He ended up going as a prisoner, and I just got to say, I appreciate the humor of God's will, because God also wanted Paul to get to Rome, but he didn't want Paul to have to pay for it, so the Roman government paid for it. He was able to get arrested and get sentenced and try to stand trial and appeal to Caesar, so the Roman government put him on a ship and took him to Rome, where he writes this letter. There he is chained to soldiers who will be his companions. He will mention them in this letter. Now, Paul knows that as a prisoner, his case before Caesar Nero would come up very shortly, and he did not know which way it was going to fall. He didn't know which way the hap would fall. It could be that he would be acquitted.

It could be that he would be beheaded, and he knows that, and he mentions that. However, running through the fabric of all of that knowledge is the unmistakable quality of joy. Joy is in every portion of this letter. Now, every commentator that I have read, and I've read several on this book. Here's just a smattering of probably 30 books that I have on Philippians. These are commentaries written by scholars on the book of Philippians, and they have noted that the theme of this book is joy, authentic Christian joy. So here's one, a study in Philippians, how to be happy in difficult situations. Another one, Philippians, the believer's joy in Christ. Another one, Philippians, life at its best. The classic D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the life of peace and joy, a study in Philippians. Swindoll's classic Laugh Again, The Joy of Living by Dwight Pentecost, and then the classic Be Joyful by Warren Wiersbe.

All of these authors have made the discovery that this book is about authentic joy. We've called it technicolor joy. Technicolor joy.

Why? Because when color was introduced into the cinema, up to that point it had been shades of gray, black and white. 1939 rolled around, and the first movie to be pushed in color was The Wizard of Oz.

And the corporate American response was, wow. There's just something about having color spring to life on the screen when before there were shades of gray. So this is an appropriate title, we thought. It's technicolor joy. It takes you out of the shadows of grays of just blacks and whites, and God colors your life with his joy. Even in the worst possible circumstances, we'll discover that this man Paul had the joy of the Lord. I love what a little country boy said. He was asked, what difference has Jesus Christ made in your life? And that little country boy said, I feel better now when I feel bad than I used to when I felt good.

I thought that was pretty good. It's sort of like saying the worst that God has to give me is better than the best the world gave me. The joy of the Lord. If you want to have joy, and I would I would venture to say everybody in this room does, if you want to have joy, master the principles of the book of Philippians, and it will be yours. Now we're studying this book, and this morning we're going to cover one verse.

If you know me, that shouldn't surprise you, but we just want to lay the foundation. I want to give you a little bit of background and foundational truth, but in so doing in verse one of chapter one, I want to show you three ingredients that form a recipe of unexpected joy. We're going to begin with the authors, but let's read a couple verses. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.

He continues, grace verse two, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We begin with the pair, the dynamic pair, Paul and Timothy. Now, Paul is the author of this book. Timothy is an associate of Paul.

He's with him. He's an assistant, but Paul is the author of this book. Now, you wouldn't have associated the emotion of joy with the person of Paul before he met Christ. You see, before Paul the Apostle met Christ, what was his name? Saul of Tarsus, and Saul of Tarsus was a very religious, exacting, narrow-minded, legalistic Pharisee.

Hardly anyone you would associate with being joyful. In fact, in this letter of Philippians, Paul gives his background, his pedigree, so to speak, in chapter three. I'm going to read chapter three, verse five and six in the New Living Translation. He says, I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So, I am a real Jew if there ever was one. What's more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. And zealous?

Yes. In fact, I harshly persecuted the church, and I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully I was never accused of any fault. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot of joy is going on in Saul. It sounds like a lot of judgment is going on in Saul, a lot of jostling, a lot of jabbing, even a lot of jihad, but not a lot of joy. In Acts chapter nine, Luke, the author, says this about Saul. Saul, breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

Do you get that language? It was the very breath, the very air he took in. He was fixated on a preoccupied with damaging God's people. Same section of Scripture says, and Saul made havoc of the church, entering every house, dragging off both men and women.

The word made havoc was a word that was often used of an animal like a wild boar who would trample a vineyard or a garden. So, this guy did damage. Doesn't sound like he's the ambassador of Jesus, but he did damage. It sounds like he's the ambassador of joy. He sounds like a terrorist, but something happened to Saul of Tarsus.

Remember what it was? Something happened to him, and subsequently something happened in him. We know what happened to him. He got saved. He's on the Damascus road.

He gets knocked off his horse. He's a light from heaven. Jesus talks to him.

Saul, Saul, why are you kidding me? He has an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. He eventually surrenders his life to him, saying, Lord, what do you want me to do?

He meets Christ. That's what happened to him. Because of that, something happened in him. What happened in him is a joy seed was planted in his heart that day, and it grew, and it grew, and it blossomed, and it continued to blossom, and it permeated his entire life. East Stanley Jones, the missionary to India, said, when I met Jesus Christ, I felt that I had swallowed sunshine. I love that. Paul, how do you feel?

Like I swallowed sunshine. He was different. He was changed, and joy began to grow in him, so he went out on three missionary journeys throughout Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. On his first missionary journey, he goes to a place called Antioch of Pisidia, and the whole town rejects him, rejects his missionary team. They get kicked out of town, and Paul the apostle now, along with the others, it says they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

For getting kicked out of town, it's because their joy, that emotion that they had, was tethered to something different, not the fluctuating up and down of worldly happiness. They were filled with joy, and this Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the apostle, God changes him, and he changes from legalism to lightheartedness. So when he's talking about the world, he's talking about this. So when he's talking about keeping the laws and rules and regulations, like eating and drinking, you know, you would not drink certain things or you would not eat certain things, he finally says in Romans 14, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy. As C.S. Lewis put it so well, joy is the serious heaven.

Paul started getting really serious about joy, making it a part of his life. So much so that when he is on his way to Jerusalem where he gets arrested before he gets into prison that we talked about, on his way to Jerusalem, you know what everybody tells him? Don't go. Don't go to Jerusalem. They don't like you there. They're going to arrest you there. They're going to bind you up and it's going to be bad if you go to Jerusalem.

So he meets with the elders of the church of Ephesus and he says to them, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things which will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me. Nor do I count my own life dear to myself that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry that has been given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ. How's that for living your life? I want to finish this thing up with joy.

I don't care if they arrest me and kill me. I've got joy that cannot be taken away. He writes to the Galatians and he says, the fruit of the Spirit, he is now, that seed has grown.

He's experienced it. The fruit of the Spirit, he says, is love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, kindness, gentleness. Now we get to the book of Philippians and there is more joy in this letter than any of Paul's 13 epistles that he writes. Joy is dripping out of every verse in this book. At least 19 times in four chapters of Philippians, Paul mentions joy, rejoicing, or gladness.

19 times. That's Paul. Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the apostle, the apostle of joy. Now we come to Timothy.

He's the second name, the third word of verse one, Paul and Timothy. And let me just say, Timothy is another one you would not naturally associate the emotion of joy with. Timothy came from a tough home situation. He had mixed parentage. One parent was Jewish. That was his mother, religious gal. But his dad was an unbeliever from Lystra in Asia Minor. Now his mother and grandmother are both named, 2 Timothy chapter one. His mother was named Eunice. His grandmother was named Lois. They were both Jewish ladies who raised him in the Jewish faith. But there was this division at home because dad was not a religious guy.

He was an unbelieving Greek. Then something happened. Paul the apostle came through town and he preached the good news, the gospel. And Lois and Eunice, mom and grandma, heard it and they received Jesus Christ. And by the way, so did young Timothy, probably about 15 years of age.

15 years of age. But even at 15 years of age, he was allowed to follow Paul on his missionary journeys. And so he did. We're not told that his father came to know Christ, just his mother and his grandmother. But he becomes a part of Paul's team. He goes on his second missionary journey.

He goes to Jerusalem carrying money that they collected from churches to give to the church of Jerusalem. And for years, Paul the apostle is able to be his tutor, his mentor, his discipler, and show him the joy of the Lord in the most difficult of circumstances. He becomes so important to Paul that Paul calls him my son in the faith. And he's the guy that Paul will send back to the Philippians to represent him. He says in chapter 2, Philippians 2, verse 20, I have no one who is isapsukas, that's the word he uses, like-minded. I'm going to send you Timothy because in sending you Timothy, I'm thinking, I'm sending you somebody who thinks like I think, values what I value, and sending Timothy is as good as sending me.

I have no one on my staff or that I know who is like-minded except this young man. That's Timothy. We'll read more about him. Consider him more as we go. But these guys have been changed.

But here's what I want you to see. The real reason for the joy in the lives of Paul and Timothy is described by the very next word in verse 1. Paul and Timothy, what's the next word? Bond servants of Jesus Christ. The reason they were joyful is because they decided I'm going to serve the Lord.

That brought them joy. The word bond servants, douloi, describes a person owned by someone else. It's a slave. You say, how do you get happy being a slave?

Where does joy come from? Being a slave of Jesus Christ. Bond servants, a person owned by someone else who lives to serve someone else. When it's used in the New Testament, it usually refers to somebody who serves another willingly, voluntarily.

They are voluntarily devoted and surrendered to Jesus Christ as their master. Now joy is a funny thing. It's elusive to so many people. And that is because joy is never found by direct pursuit. You might look for joy all day long. You won't find it. Joy isn't found by direct pursuit.

It's a byproduct. You know, in our Declaration of Independence, we have a few guarantees. You're guaranteed life. You're guaranteed liberty. And you're guaranteed, tell me, the pursuit of happiness. We have a country where people are pursuing happiness. The problem is nobody's finding it.

Two-thirds of Americans claim to be unhappy. They're out looking for happiness, but they are not finding it. Because real happiness, true joy is a better term, is not found by direct pursuit.

It's a byproduct of pursuing Christ and His will. As long as you live for yourself and try to find peace and happiness and joy for yourself, you'll never find it. You'll be miserable.

You'll be hard to live with. It's when you turn from yourself to an alien will who takes over your life and you're living for Him that you find joy. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Technicolor Joy. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, we want to share about a resource that strengthens your faith with abundant Bible knowledge and helps you draw even closer to the Lord. Skip often has the privilege of hosting guest speakers, guests like Franklin Graham and Lee Strobel. Who've become great friends to Pastor Skip Heitzig in this Bible teaching ministry.

Here's another, our friend Levi Lusko. What's life with Jesus like? It's life not without storms, but going through storms with an anchor, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. An anchor for the soul.

What a wonderful thing. Skip and Friends is a CD or digital package of messages from five friends, plus five special teachings by Skip. It is yours as our thank you gift for your gift of $50 or more to help connect others to the hope and truth found only in God's word.

With your gift of $50 or more, we'll send you the Skip and Friends collection of 10 messages on CD or give you digital access. For example, here's our friend Eric Metaxas. The evidence for God is astonishing. The evidence from science has piled up so dramatically that I'm here to tell you it's absolutely no contest. Science points to the existence of God utterly dramatically in a way that it is as open and shut as any open and shut question ever could be. And we're talking about science.

Get your copy of Skip and Friends when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig explores the problem of anxiety and shares how you can find peace for your soul through the truth of scripture. If you don't live with an anchor of faith, you're going to drift in a sea of anxiety. And most people in the world, they don't have anything to anchor. They have no real grand scheme or purpose in life.

So if you just think that you're dangling in some inexplicable universe with no rhyme, no reason, no design, no plan, no God, so all we are are fortuitous occurrences of accidental circumstance, we're here by chance. Well, that's a very lonely place to be, isn't it? You're going to feel very isolated. Very lonely. And that's a scary place to be. If you don't know why you're here or where you're going, if you don't know why you're here or where you're going, that's scary. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.