Sermon Cloud

When Will I Be Happy with My Life?

I’ll Be Happy When

the Government ______ (fill in the blank)

Philippians 1:1-11 

INTRODUCTION

When Will I be Happy?

Tough question.  Would you consider yourself happy?

 
Everyone wants to be happy.  It’s woven into the fabric of our society.  From the founding of our country, in the Declaration of Independence to the recent PIXAR movie UP!, we are surrounded by “the pursuit of happiness.”   

We’re going to look at this question this summer through this letter of Paul to the Philippians.  The goal of this series is that you all would be consistently, powerfully, unshakeably happy—with your life, with others, with God, and with yourself.  This is our aim.  I want you to be filled with happiness to the point that it spills out into all of your life and into those around you.  This first chapter of Philippians, the first three sermons, our theme is When Will I Be Happy With My Life? 

Happiness is one of those things that’s probably easier to recognize than it is to define.  Happiness is related to joy, and the two go hand in hand, but sometimes the more you try to focus on being happy, the more it escapes you.   

But it’s ironic, because it seems like it it’s this pursuit of happiness that keeps us from being happy.  We’re constantly trying to fill in sentence, “I’ll be happy when...” 

To gain the impact of this letter, we’ve got to know Paul’s situation:  Paul was writing from prison.  He was put there by a combination of a religious and secular government. The religious authorities of Paul’s day wanted him dead.  The secular Roman authorities didn’t treat him well in prison.   

He was in prison, chained to a Roman guard.  Practice back then was that they wouldn’t feed you, so you were dependent on friends to support you—completely.   

He was facing a trial before Caesar where he had been accused of claiming that there was another king, one that Caesar himself would have to bow to. 

He was called by God to preach the news of Jesus’ resurrection to all nations, but he was bound in chains, unable to deliver the message to anyone.   

Then he received a gift from the Church in Philippi. 

This letter is his response to their gift. 

What will he say?  What do you say when you are overwhelmed and frustrated and someone that you know well says, “Hey, how are you doing?”  You unload on them!  I could imagine Paul thinking, “Finally!  I’ve got someone I can complain to!  The government is evil!  It’s not fair.  I even have a call from God, and yet here I am, stuck so I can’t do it.  “I’ll be happy when I’m free.  I’ll be happy when God strikes the government down!  I’ll be happy when the church protests the government and changes things!   

How would you respond?  How do you respond?  I know of a group of older men who gather at a coffee shop where I work sometimes.  They talk about everything under the sun.  With two of the men, it doesn’t take very long before they say, “It’s the government!!  It’s the government’s fault!”  Many people have this constant supply of anger and frustration about the government—either local or national—that they feel justified in tapping into whenever they want to be angry at something.   

I identified this as the government because of Paul’s situation, and because it fits so many people today, who feel like they have an excuse for not being happy until “the government ________(fill in the blank).”   

But we can generalize this to include anything in our lives that we might call “the powers that be.”  It may be the government, but it may be some other force that you feel is keeping you down, making your life miserable.  Maybe it’s your employer, or a relationship.  “I’ll be happy with my life when my company…”   

I have a good friend who has spent 14 years playing minor league baseball.  He told me about a conversation he had with a guy who made it to the major leagues and had a pretty long career:  Mitch Webster.  He spent 7 ½ years in the minor leagues, trying to make it to the Majors. He said this:  

“When I finally made it, I really felt like I had arrived.  But it didn’t take long before the newness began to wear off… 

“I remember it so clearly.  I was stretching one night in Dodgers’ stadium before a game.  Under the lights getting ready, and I looked around and literally thought to myself:  ‘This is it?’  I had more money, brighter lights, but nothing had changed in my life.  With all my problems, nothing had changed.” 

I thought, “I spent 7 ½ years of my life trying to get to this?” 

This is the lie we are all tempted to believe:  a job, a position, a career, a marriage, a child—things will be good when… But we’re still stuck in our own skin.     

Going back to Paul.  Paul would have been tempted and justified in complaining, and we deal with life circumstances that are similar to his.  So how does Paul respond?  

V3—I thank my God in all my remembrance of you!  I’m so excited!  I’m full of joy.  My sense of happiness is bursting!  Whenever I think of you, I get lifted up all over again! 

Eugene Peterson said, “This is Paul’s happiest letter, and the happiness is infectious.  Before we’ve read a dozen lines we begin to feel the joy ourselves.  Paul doesn’t tell us that we can be happy or how to be happy.  He simply and unmistakably is happy.” 

We’re going to see Paul’s happiness with his life, and how it conquers frustration with the government and with “the powers that be”—the forces that push us.  We’ll see this in three points: 

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  1. Focus on Others and It’ll Bring Happiness
  2. Prayer Makes Your Happiness Grow
  3. Your Identity is the Well to Your Deeper Happiness

1. Focus on Others and It’ll Bring Happiness

Paul is moved by the family of God.  V5—Because of their partnership in the gospel.  They’re with him.  In it with him. They are partners—they shared something in common—faith in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of the world.  But also they were partners in that they shared responsibility for each other—spiritually and financially.

For Paul, this is proof to him that God is real.  They’re following God—even after he left and after he was imprisoned.  Their transformation is really God working in them.  This gave Paul joy and made him happy.   

Instead of focusing on the government, on the powers that were out of his control, he saw what God was doing in the lives of others and that made him happy.   

For us what does this mean?  Paul doesn’t focus on his circumstances, instead he focuses on others.  Don’t wait for something to get fixed, look and see what God is doing around you now.  We need each other to be partners with each other.    

Community groups—these are designed to build these kinds of partnerships.   

Mercy Ministries—these enable us to build partnerships with our community. 

There are times when we are dry, when our relationship with God is non-existent.  Deitrich Bonhoeffer said at those times, “We need the Christ in others.”  We need to see God working in others to give us assurance that he’s still working. 

So you—find SOMEONE to love and appreciate.  Love those around you.  See how God is working in others.  This is what made Paul happy. 

2. Prayer Makes Your Happiness Grow

Paul knows their challenges:  there is opposition, conflict, confusion in the church.  Paul’s response is to love them by praying for them.  His love drove him to the throne of God, to the one who can do something.   

Paul expresses his partnership to them.  By praying, he’s now part of what God is doing in their lives.  This makes him happy.  The key for our happiness is to see what God’s doing and be involved in it through prayer. 

What does he pray?  V9-11  Love more and more

In knowledge and discernment (v9):  this is a mature love that understands and meets needs.  This is the kind of love that brings us happiness because we’re making a real difference in someone else’s life.  How do you feel when you’ve done something for someone that really helps them out?  You feel happy!   

Approve the things that are superior (v10)—let your life be characterized by the best.  This kind of love takes prayer.  It takes wisdom—knowledge and discernment that God promises to give us when we pray. 

We’ve heard “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.”  It’s probably wisest for us to give a man a fish and teach him to fish.  The more we pray the wiser our love gets. 

Maybe we could show a man a better place to fish

Maybe we could increase the number of fishing places near the man

Maybe we could increase the health of the water to promote more fish in all fishing places

Maybe we could remove, destroy, or prosecute the factors that impinge on the man’s ability to fish

Maybe we could develop an eco-system that ensures the thriving of fish and the fishing industry so that all have access and skills to catch all that they need

This is the progressively wiser kind of love that leads to the things that are superior.  And it takes prayer. 

This love will fill your life with Righteousness.  Like fruits—it flows from within you.  Pure/Blameless—this doesn’t mean perfect, but it’s having a reputation that you do the right thing, and people trust you.  This means a life that shows that Jesus is your king.  He’s your emperor.  Instead of complaining about the government, or waiting for it to change, Paul’s focused prayer is that you would simply live out the change in your life.  You can do that now, even if the government never changes. That will make you happy. 

You don’t do this on your own, or by your own strength. It’s by the power of Jesus within you.  When you believe, you have the Holy Spirit, and this brings power. 

V11—the righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. 

V8—I yearn for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  It’s his righteousness and affection in us.   

V10—for the day of the Messiah—this gives you confidence because it’s how you experience God’s daily grace as you see him working in you.  To think that you’re walking on the road that leads to living in forever happiness will actually make you happy. 

3. Your Identity is the well to Your Deeper Happiness

He was a slave of Jesus v1.  One totally committed to Jesus as his master.  This meant that no matter where he was—out preaching the gospel or in prison chains, only one thing mattered to Paul—am I serving my master?   If so, then I’m happy. 

Jesus was his Lord v2.  This was a politically charged title, because in Rome there was one lord, and that was Caesar.  To claim that Jesus was lord was to challenge Caesar’s authority.  But why is Jesus’ Lord?  Because he came totally focused on others, not on himself.   

He was more than just arrested.  The government put Jesus to death.  “The powers that be”—in this case, it was God himself who was the power operating behind the scenes.  In Jesus’ case, even God himself had turned away from Jesus as he died.  He did this so that Jesus could suffer the death we deserved. 

But Jesus rose from the dead and passed through death into resurrection life.  Because he conquered death, he has been crowned lord of all—the lord of lords and the king of kings.   

And Paul was a follower of this Jesus.  That was his identity, and it’s the identity of all those who believe and follow Jesus.  It makes those who believe in him “saints” (v1).  Not perfect people, but people who have received grace and peace (v2).  Grace in the forgiveness of your sins, and peace in the assurance of God’s love when you believe.  Your life shows what it looks like when Jesus is in charge. 

Here’s how it works.  Paul is showing us that the key to our daily happiness is to focus on others and pray for them so our happiness will grow.  These activities will produce happiness and joy in us that is stronger than the powers that be. 

But when we fail to respond in these ways, there’s an even Deeper Well that we can return to.  When our obedience fails, we need to remember our identity—we belong to Jesus.  He is our savior.  And we have his forgiving grace and peace as a gift.   

Paul tells us that if you believe that, then God has begun to work in your heart.  And verse 6 says, if God has begun something in you, he’ll finish what he started.  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, your future is guaranteed.  And that provides the deepest sense of happiness imaginable.