Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: So we rejoice in the Lord always. Not in our circumstances, not in the trial, not in the pain. That would not be understanding at all. We actually face the reality of saying, I know this is hard. I know this is tragic. My heart actually hurts for the pain of the weak in the moment, but I rejoice in the Lord.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace. The audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Brian Chapel. In today's episode, pastor Brian shares a lesson from Philippians chapter 4. In this lesson, Dr. Chapel asks the question, how are we to rejoice in the Lord always? Does God understand what we're going through? You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for the children's book Anyway and Always written by pastor Brian and his wife Kathy. Through this book, the Chapels present the promise of the covenants fulfilled by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand.

Let's hear now from Dr. Brian Chapel as he shares the lesson near joy.

Bryan Chapell: I warned you a few weeks ago that we were entering the uncomfortable portions of the book of Philippians. And perhaps as you see the opening words of today's passage, rejoice in the Lord, you think, glad we got out of the uncomfortable part. Well, we're not out of the woods. I mean, even though we've already talked about things like disputes in the church, of the example of woundedness touching other people. Even though we start with the word rejoice, the uncomfortableness comes with the word that follows. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now how could you possibly do that?

Rejoice in the Lord always. And so that we understand it's a command that we cannot escape, the apostle Paul doubles down and he says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Re joice. Now if you hadn't said always, I would get it. I understand you rejoice on special occasions. Birthdays and anniversaries and Christmas, I get it. But rejoice always. Is that real? Is that just sappy religiosity? Kathy's mother died unexpectedly this week. Rejoice always. Mr. Joy Wendy Parsons died a week ago. And sweet Rosemary Rammage. One after another gone. Rejoice always. Is that just bubbly hyperbole or is it actually biblical insensitivity?

How do we rejoice when we face what's real? Not just the loss of people, but every week in this church, people facing serious illness in the hospital. There are the pressures at at work and at school and in our families. You recognize that whenever we talk about rejoicing, we have to face the realities that this community goes through of companies that move, of families that split, of tornadoes that come, of politics that polarize, of nations that rage, of children that are suffering and dying in the Sudan even as pastor Carrie pray. Rejoice always. Does God understand what we're going through?

Does he care? Or are we just saying rejoice the way we teach kids the happy song? You know, I'm happy happy happy all the time. If that's it, you must think what we're actually doing to our children and to each other. I think of the recent book by Donna Freitas entitled the happiness effect. How social media is driving a generation to appear perfect at any cost. A generation ago, we only had to appear perfect once a year when we sent those annual Christmas cards, right? Now now you got to measure up every day on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat.

And that means you have to deal with hiding pain or weakness or self-doubt or envy every day. Rejoice always. We get to be like the apostles when we hear that. Lord, don't you understand? Don't you care? And to that, the Lord answers through his apostle, yes. And I have a plan of joy substituting for pain. And prayer substituting for worry. And peace substituting for pressure. And it is real and it can be yours always. Always. Really. Where does the joy come from? The apostles clear about that. He says in verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always.

The word is important. It's not rejoicing in our circumstances. It's not rejoicing in our situation. It's not rejoicing in our solution. Here is the phrase that the apostle has used so often in the book of Philippians. Roughly every third sentence sang again, you are in the Lord. Pray in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. It's his way of abbreviating the gospel just into one little half phrase. You are in the Lord. Again, that image of the Russian nesting dolls that we are in Christ Jesus surrounded by his affection. Beyond that, surrounded by his righteousness, his character made our own.

As he died on the cross to take the penalty for our sin, we now by faith receive his righteousness. And we are in him. And because he is in the heart of his father, not only do we have his righteousness around him, we have the love of the father for us. We are in the Lord and he is in the father. And that means not only do we have his love and righteousness, we have the power and the purposes of God the father working in our behalf. We are in the Lord. And recognizing that reality is what gives us the notion that we can even in the midst of great pain and heartache rejoice always in the Lord.

Not in the circumstances, but in the realities that are beyond the circumstances. Happiness after all just depends on what happens. But joy is about Jesus. It's about a relationship that doesn't come and go with earthly whims and winds. It is something deep and flowing and unchangeable, something the world cannot give or cannot take away because it is the profound nature of an eternal relationship that God is telling us is ours by his grace, but also carrying us through every trial no matter how hard. I think of the difference it makes just what may be an unlikely source.

The testimony of Tim Allen, the comedian of Tool Time and Last Man Standing. The circumstances of his life are not ones that he would rejoice over. His father killed when Tim was age 11. And in the absence of a father looking for what he called a father figure in his life, whoever made him, whoever built him would be close to him. He searched over and over again for some way to find way to fill the emptiness of relationship. So even as a teen, it became alcohol and drugs and sexual escapades. And the way he began to pay for all of that was by drug trafficking that put him in federal prison in which he lost everything.

When he wrote about that later, he said, I was a regular church attender. But at the same time, a church cynic. I just wanted to have a relationship with whoever built me. But when that was gone, when I could not find it, I lived in isolation. I could not tell others who I was. And so I made jokes. I tried to fill the gaps of my relationship with comedy, with being ones that others would love because I was funny. But I found even with friends and family, I could not be myself or share my pain.

I lived an isolated existence until I really found the one who built me. When he found that relationship, he described the change in his own life. He said, I recognized I was always searching for something. But when I found the one who had found me, I was able to stop fretting so much and find some peace. It's the message at some level we all understand that when you find the one who found you and he's the king of the universe. He's the one who not only is full of a heart for you, but full of the power that controls all things that you can you can relax a little bit.

And it's actually the key to confident living, this understanding that we have a caring father who is the king of all things. The consequences of finding that caring father, the Lord of all, is described in the verse itself. Verse 5, the apostle Paul says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Verse 6, do not be anxious about anything. If if you actually believe that you are held and loved by the king of the universe who is the father of all, then you have a reasonableness too you that the world cannot explain.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Brian Chapel.

Guest (Male): Raising children to love the Lord can sometimes feel like a daunting task. The physical, mental, and emotional energy needed to engage with the child can also lead to feelings of inadequacy and doubt for parents. How then can you effectively talk with children about Jesus or demonstrate to them he is love? Written by pastor Brian and his wife Kathy, Anyway and Always is a heartwarming children's book designed to help explain the love of Christ to a child. The Chapels present the promise of the covenants fulfilled by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand.

Page after page of beautiful illustrations complement Brian and Kathy's captivating storytelling. Whether you read this as a bedtime story or share it around the family dinner table, this book is sure to become a favorite of children and parents alike. You can request your copy of Anyway and Always when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-Grace. That's 844-414-7223. And now more from Brian Chapel on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: Now I will grant you, if what you say every day is I'm happy I'm happy I'm happy, people will not think you're reasonable. They'll think you're nuts. But what they will understand is if you even in the midst of tragedy and trial and pain say, I believe there's a heavenly father who still holds me. And despite my failings or circumstances I cannot explain, I believe he has purpose and future and holds me eternally. I believe I have a reason for hope. I have a reason for joy beyond the immediate. It's that joy that is not the happy of birthday candles that go out.

It is the joy of the deep river of faith that runs beyond our lives, beyond immediate circumstances, runs in ways that we cannot explain except speak so deeply and profoundly of the love of God. Pastor Carrie mentioned Kathy's mom passed away this week. And as we recounted her last hours, as much as we grieve her unexpected passing, we find some of those rivers of joy. She woke up in the morning, called her daughter and said, I'm feeling so good. I'm going to go to church early and play some hymns, play some hymns. Then she went to church, got home, called her daughter again.

It's a beautiful day. I'm going to go on a Sunday drive at 90 and did not make it to the end of her lane before the Lord called her home by stroke or heart attack. We're not sure which. But now think of it. You get up, you play a few hymns, you go to church, you go on a Sunday drive, you meet Jesus. When it's time for me to go, order that one up. We teased my wife Kathy about her love for ancestry.com. But as she was researching her family, us not knowing the appropriateness of this, she came across the account some months ago of Kathy's mother's grandmother.

Listen to this account that I read at the funeral service. This is from Little Rock, Iowa two generations ago. Funeral services will be held this afternoon for Mrs. RJ Roose. Again, that's Kathy's mother's grandmother who succumbed to a heart attack Saturday night at her home. Mrs. Roose is believed to have died as she prepared to retire Saturday night. She was found dead Sunday morning kneeling beside her bed as in prayer. Mrs. Roose had apparently been feeling as well as usual the previous evening and had visited with neighbors only a few hours before her death and went to meet the Lord in prayer.

Okay, let me get this. You have an evening with friends. You get ready for bed. You kneel down to pray. You see Jesus. You can order that one up for me too. But what we recognize is a family is this river of faith moving now for generations through a family. And I recognize as you would if you were to count from Kathy's mother's grandmother's time all the way to the moment, despite that river of faithfulness, there have been heartaches and tragedies, circumstances that we could not explain. But then we get to this very moment. And on the day of the funeral of Kathy's mom, my son and his wife announced the birth of her latest great grandchild, my mother's 19th great grandchild.

And we say, how good is God? Through it all, wind and storm as we just sang, he's the same. He maintains his goodness. He is working beyond what our struggles are for the moment to do what he knows is intended for eternity. Our God is at work doing far more than we could understand, maintaining far more than we could. So we rejoice in the Lord always. Not in our circumstances, not in the trial, not in the pain. That would not be understanding at all. We actually face the reality of saying, I know this is hard.

I know this is tragic. My heart actually hurts for the pain of the week in the moment, but I rejoice in the Lord who has shown his faithfulness not just through a family, but through making a heavenly family through provision of his son. He sent one to die for me when I did not deserve it. He sent one to provide his own life's blood when we were yet his enemies. If he so loved us, how shall he not also along with him graciously give us all things through Christ Jesus our Lord? It is reasonable to rejoice in that long hope in that eternal truth even when we face the immediate pain.

It is not insensitivity. It's not even unreasonable. It is actually taken to account the realities of the scriptural faith that God gives to his people that we face the pain, acknowledge the tragedy, say it's awful, weep the tears, and still rejoice always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Not only does it reason make us reasonable in our willingness to rejoice, it actually speaks of the confidence that we have and that we can face the world with. The apostle says in verse 6, do not be anxious about anything. Kevin already when he was doing the music earlier said, now that bothers us, doesn't it?

Do not be anxious about anything. And it's an imperative. It's a command. Don't worry. All right. Well, now I have to worry about worrying, right? I mean, I I I I can't do the very thing that you say unless I'm taken to account that what the apostle is not saying is don't be reasonable, don't be responsible, don't take things into concern into account. Actually, all those things are legit. But he's saying, don't live as though God is not real. Don't live as though this is not we're still within the plan and purposes of God as though God isn't still saying, I'm here.

I'm near. And I got this. So that when we face all the difficulties, we still know that we are held in the hand of a heavenly father. The Lord is at hand. He is near, says the apostle who is languishing in prison awaiting trial as he writes it. Not being unrealistic, not failing to face a real world, facing hardship that beyond most of us have ever experienced. And yet says, not only am I reasonable in my joy, I am confident in my God. So I'm I'm not anxious in the sense that my God is absent.

No, I believe he's at hand. And for that reason, I still rejoice. If your heart is full of joy, different things happen. It's not just kind of drowning worry in the ocean of God's love and power. It's also drowning anger, anger at God, anger at other people. You should not miss the fact that this passage is right in the chapter where Paul began talking about disputes among believers. And he goes right from talking about people who are disputing with one another to say, don't be anxious about anything because what drives our disputing is they're not taking care of their business or they're not taking care of me.

They're not doing all that they should. And when the apostle says, do you really believe the Lord has this? Then the disputing goes away and you begin to feel not only with joy, but with a generous spirit toward other people.

Bryan Chapell: Hi friend. This is pastor Brian Chapel. And I hope this message today has been a blessing to you. As we finish up, I would be honored to pray for you. Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us the grace of Jesus Christ through the conversations and interactions he had with all kinds of people, the anxious and the proud, the religious and the outcast. When we understand Jesus relationships with other people, we get to know his heart and understand his ministry was meant for people like us. So Lord, we ask, please forgive our sin, pardon our past, and love us for eternity.

We confess we don't deserve any of that, but you sent Jesus for the undeserving. So we rest our souls on his promised grace. Each of us now praise in our hearts. May the one who died for my sins now rescue me from my guilt. And may his love now live in my heart forever. As you pray that, you have Jesus assurance of his love. And so we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): That's pastor Brian Chapel and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for pastor Brian's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. While you're there, also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Brian Chapel and his wife Kathy called Anyway and Always. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-Grace.

That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his Unlimited Grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.