Click Here to Read Philippians 3:1-11

“My beloved ones, don’t ever limit your joy or fail to rejoice in the wonderful experience of knowing our Lord Jesus!” (Phil. 3:1 TPT).  Once again, Paul is speaking to us about the importance of joy and rejoicing.  But I noticed that he doesn’t say that we are to rejoice in our perfect life, or in the temporal experiences of this world.  It isn’t just in the times of celebration or an occasional feeling that we are to have when things are going right.  We are to rejoice in the wonderful experience of knowing Jesus.  Nothing else is required, according to Paul that should be all it takes for us to be in a continuous state of joy.  In every moment of every day, we have the great advantage of experiencing Jesus.  Every moment!  And no matter what else in the world we are experiencing, our simultaneous experience of Jesus is something we can rejoice in!

This really has been the consistent theme throughout this letter.  Even from the beginning Paul is rejoicing despite his imprisonment because he understands that his circumstances can’t take Jesus away from him.  Nothing can!  When we really grab hold of the fact that this world is temporal, and Jesus is eternal I think that makes a big difference in how we look at things.  No circumstance we have in life will last forever, and while it may not always be a joy to go through, we know that we are already eternally joined with Jesus now and he is with us in it.  He will be with us when we come out of it.  He will be with us next week, in 5 years, and every moment of every day now and into eternity.  That is what Paul wants us to rejoice about!  Paul also gives us a warning here not to limit our joy.  If he is telling us that, it must mean that we have a choice in joy.  That’s a hard one because we so often equate joy with happiness, we see it as circumstantial.  The kind of joy we are talking about here I think must be a state of being that we get in our spirit.  It is intentional and comes from being connected to His Spirit.  His joy is a strengthening agent to us regardless of circumstance.

I was at a Bible study one evening listening to a teaching on joy and God’s value of it.  I don’t really remember much of the teaching to be honest, but it must have made an imprint on my spirit.  I remember waking up at least 5 times that night with only one thought on my mind, “joy is so very important to God.”  I understood that this was not just for my benefit.  For the next week I was committed to being intentionally joyful regardless of anything going on around me and I really paid attention to how that affected people I interacted with.  I noticed two things: for some, my joy was contagious.  For some, my joy was offensive.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this showed me those whose hearts were opened to receive something from the Lord and those who were operating under an opposing spirit.  This can be quite helpful when praying for people in your sphere of influence.  We are supposed to be rivers with living water flowing through us (John 7:38 MSG).  We are like containers that are so full of His Spirit that He is spilling out of us and flowing out to others.  This is how the Kingdom of Heaven is spread, how it touches people, how it makes an impression on others who don’t yet know Jesus.  Joy makes a big impression on people, especially when they look at us and see that our joy is constant even if our life circumstances are not.  As it fills us, it spills out of us and touches them.  They will want to know where our joy comes from and how they can get it.  Let’s look at a few other scriptures on joy:

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11 NKJV). 

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5 NKJV). 

“Then I will go to the alter of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” (Psalm 43:4 NKJV). 

“You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.” (Isa. 9:3 NKJV). 

“Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” (Isa. 12:3 NKJV). 

“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” (Isa. 61:3 NKJV). 

“Behold My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit.” (Isa. 65:14 NKJV). 

“Your words to me were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jer. 15:16 NKJV). 

Now, that was only some of what I found in Old Testament but notice that all references of joy have to do with God.  We have access to joy when we are found in Him because He is joy.  Joy is present in His fullness, in His presence, in His spoken word, in His Spirit, in His name.  Joy is an attribute of His nature, and it is expressed through the essence of Him that we experience when we are made one with Him.  Note also that joy is a fruit of the Spirit.  We learned in Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is what is produced in us when we choose to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  Our connection to Him through our relationship with Jesus and following Holy Spirit is our connection to eternal joy that we can have now.  Paul also explains to us how living by the flesh can sever that connection and therefore, limit our joy.  He uses religion, or Jewish Law, as his example of this but we can say that anything we can claim we did on our own merit that brings us joy is going to be short lived and worth nothing when stacked up against what Christ Jesus did for us and the eternal joy that we have because of Him. 

One thing I noticed when Paul is going through his list of accomplishments in his life prior to his encounter with Jesus is that it all led him to be at opposition with God’s will.  He was a persecutor of the Church, a persecutor of Jesus (Acts 9:4-5 NKJV).  Like Paul, I saw in my own life just how far I could get myself.  It wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted to be; I too was living a life in opposition to God’s will.  Only He can get us where He intends for us to be.  Paul states now that all accomplishments of his own merit are like garbage compared to the accomplishments of Christ in Him.  Whatever we do in our own strength, for our own pleasure is worthless compared to what we can do in His strength, for His glory.

“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Neh. 8:10 NKJV). 

Let’s pray.

Father, you alone are our source of eternal joy.  Our union with Jesus allows us to be infused with this eternal joy.  As we grow and walk with Your Spirit, we pray this joy would rise up in us and become the strength from which we live.  No matter what phase of life we are in, what trials we face, or what lies up ahead, we can be rooted in your joy and overcome anything.  Train us daily in following Holy Spirit’s leading so that this joy can be produced in us to the fullest; so that just like Paul we can say even in our sufferings we have cause to rejoice.  Increase the measure of Your presence within us so that Your joy spills out of us and reaches others around us who don’t yet know You.   As you change us into the likeness of Jesus, we can effectively change the world around us.  Help us to be carriers of Your eternal joy on this earth, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.