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Does Joy Die in Sorrow · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: In this last session together on the theme of joy
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  Speaker 1: in Philippians, I want to underline one great truth, namely
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  Speaker 1: that Christian joy does not die when sorrows abound. And
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  Speaker 1: what I mean by that is joy and sorrow in
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life are not sequential, but simultaneous. We are
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  Speaker 1: called upon to rejoice always, and yet sorrow breaks like
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  Speaker 1: waves over our lives often. I'm aware when I say
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  Speaker 1: this that Psalm thirty verse five says weeping may tarry
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  Speaker 1: for the night, but joy comes in the morning, which
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  Speaker 1: is sequential. I'm aware of that. I don't think it's
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  Speaker 1: a contradiction, though, because there is a kind of joy
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  Speaker 1: that is pain free, sorrow free, without tears, and we
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  Speaker 1: want that, and weeping may last for a night, and
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  Speaker 1: that kind of joy may come in the morning. God
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  Speaker 1: does that all the time for us. He brings us
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  Speaker 1: through seasons of sorrow into only joy. We're not experiencing
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  Speaker 1: the pain because something happened to take away that pain
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  Speaker 1: in the morning. But that doesn't always happen. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: arguing that even that night before, when the weeping is abounding,
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  Speaker 1: joy has not gone. It has not disappeared. It doesn't die.
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  Speaker 1: And here's here's the reason I think from Philippians that
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  Speaker 1: that's true. Just take Chapter three, verse one, for example,
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  Speaker 1: where Paul commands us, finally, brothers, rejoice in the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: To write the same things to you. Is no trouble
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  Speaker 1: for me, and is safe for you. Watch out for
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  Speaker 1: the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out
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  Speaker 1: for those who mutilate the flesh. So what's going on
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  Speaker 1: right in the middle of conflict? Evil workers, those who
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  Speaker 1: mutilate the flesh. Dogs, watch out. And he didn't say
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  Speaker 1: rejoice and then stop rejoicing. Deal with the conflict when
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  Speaker 1: the convict is over, returned to rejoicing. No, no, rejoice
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  Speaker 1: in the Lord, watch out for the dogs. And so
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  Speaker 1: this is simultaneous the difficulty. It's the conflicts of our
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  Speaker 1: lives come and we are to be rejoicing in the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, over in chapter three, verse eighteen, Paul describes
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  Speaker 1: these folks again, and he says they are enemies of
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  Speaker 1: the Cross, of which I have told you before and
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  Speaker 1: now tell you again with tears. So Paul is modeling
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  Speaker 1: weeping over the dogs and the evil workers and the mutilators,
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  Speaker 1: even as he's commanding us to rejoice in those seasons
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  Speaker 1: and We know that's the case because just a few
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  Speaker 1: verses later, chapter four, verse four, he says, with repetition,
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  Speaker 1: lest we miss the point, rejoice always. And again I
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  Speaker 1: say rejoice, the repetition probably saying yes, I did mean
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  Speaker 1: to say always, because I have already modeled for you
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  Speaker 1: how you are to rejoice and weep at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: And you can remember, maybe if you've seen the other session,
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  Speaker 1: is that the key to this kind of joy in
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances where we're prone to murmur or grumble or cry,
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  Speaker 1: is possible because of the sovereignty of Christ and the
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  Speaker 1: sweetness of Christ. Maybe it would be helpful if I
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  Speaker 1: just jump out of Philippians for just a moment or
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  Speaker 1: two and give you a couple of other passages that
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  Speaker 1: support this simultaneous experience of sorrow and joy, not sequentially,
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  Speaker 1: but simultaneously. One Peter, Chapter one, verse three. Blessed be
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  Speaker 1: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
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  Speaker 1: has caused us to be born again to a living
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  Speaker 1: hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
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  Speaker 1: to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in
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  Speaker 1: heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded
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  Speaker 1: through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in
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  Speaker 1: the last time I'm in this, you rejoice and then
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  Speaker 1: without a period, he says, even though now, if necessary,
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  Speaker 1: you are being grieved through various trials which are refining
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  Speaker 1: your faith like fire. There's no sequence there in this
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  Speaker 1: you rejoice though you are grieved. Are simultaneous experiences. That's
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  Speaker 1: the nature of the Christian life. One other one, the
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  Speaker 1: one we use around desiring God most often, probably the
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  Speaker 1: one I bank on often, is Sewod Corinthians, chapter six,
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  Speaker 1: verse ten, which simply says sorrowful yet always rejoicing. There
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  Speaker 1: it's clear as day these are simultaneous events, and so
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  Speaker 1: know when sorrow's break over our lives as a Christian,
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  Speaker 1: which they do regularly under our father's providential and disciplinary care,
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  Speaker 1: our joy does not die. Now, Maybe would help if
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  Speaker 1: I just gave you a couple of little strations from
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  Speaker 1: my own life of this kind of experience of joy
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  Speaker 1: and sorrow happening, one when I was twenty eight years
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  Speaker 1: old and one from just three weeks ago. The first
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  Speaker 1: one is when my mother was killed. I was twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight years old, So I can't do the math. How
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  Speaker 1: long ago that was, but I remember just where I
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  Speaker 1: was standing at Foss Road in New Brighton, Minnesota when
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  Speaker 1: the phone rang. I remember my little two year old
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  Speaker 1: Carston first born, standing here, Noel sitting on the couch
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  Speaker 1: right there, and my brother in law saying, because my
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  Speaker 1: parents had just gone over to Israel to lead a tour,
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  Speaker 1: he said, Johnny, I've got bad news. Your mother was
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  Speaker 1: just killed in a bus accident, and we don't know
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  Speaker 1: if your dad's gonna make it. And I got the details,
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  Speaker 1: maintained my composure, and when I hung up, I remember
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  Speaker 1: Carston pulling on my leg and saying, Daddy sad. And
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  Speaker 1: I just quietly said to Noel those facts, went back
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  Speaker 1: and knelt down in the bedroom by my bed, cried
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  Speaker 1: for two hours. And what I know, beyond the shadow
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  Speaker 1: of doubt, is this. As I cried over the loss
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  Speaker 1: of one of the most important people in my life,
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  Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed with joy. I was overwhelmed with joy
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  Speaker 1: that she was a great mom. Number Two, God had
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  Speaker 1: given her to me for twenty eight years. Third, we
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  Speaker 1: had done some wonderful reconciliation about stuff where I had
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  Speaker 1: been a bad attitude kid. Whatever it is third or fourth.
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  Speaker 1: She didn't have to suffer a long time. It was
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  Speaker 1: so instant, just like that lastly she was with Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: These things were just tumbling to my mind. So that
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  Speaker 1: alongside loss, massive painful, heart wrenching, tear flowing loss, was joy. Joy.
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  Speaker 1: So I know that when I say to you, Christian,
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  Speaker 1: joy is not meant to be killed by the breaking
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  Speaker 1: of sorrows. I've tasted that. I know that's true. Here's
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  Speaker 1: another smaller example. About three weeks ago. I have one sibling,
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  Speaker 1: an older sister, and God has been good to us
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  Speaker 1: in our sixties and for her seventies. I'm almost there.
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  Speaker 1: She's just three years older than I am, to give
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  Speaker 1: us a kind of a renewed and sweet, deep relationship.
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  Speaker 1: I only see her once a year or so. She
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  Speaker 1: lives eleven hundred miles away. And we were on the phone,
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  Speaker 1: and mainly the conversation turned towards our sadness. She had
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  Speaker 1: some things in her life that were making her sad,
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  Speaker 1: and I have things in my life that were making
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  Speaker 1: me sad. We were sharing our sadnesses, and both of
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  Speaker 1: us were taken totally off guard by the emotions of
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  Speaker 1: that moment, and we had to take deep breaths, you know,
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  Speaker 1: be able to keep talking to each other. And when
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  Speaker 1: I hung up, I said to the Lord. And then
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  Speaker 1: I went downstairs later that evening and said to my wife,
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  Speaker 1: I said, that's the best conversation I've ever had with
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  Speaker 1: my sister. Well, what was that? I mean, it was
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  Speaker 1: totally dominated with tears, totally dominated with the sadness in
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  Speaker 1: our lives, But there was something else going on. There
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  Speaker 1: was a bonding, and there was an emotional camaraderie, there
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  Speaker 1: was a sweetness. There was just that personal something that
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  Speaker 1: made it also wonderfully joyful. And so my point is
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  Speaker 1: that Christian joy in Christ is not killed, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: die when sorrows abound. Let mean, let me leave you
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  Speaker 1: at the end of this series with just this personal
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  Speaker 1: exhortation from the Apostle Foil. You receive it as though
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  Speaker 1: the inspired Apostle in Christ himself is speaking to you.
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  Speaker 1: From chapter four. Rejoice in the Lord always and again,
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  Speaker 1: I say, let your gentleness be known to everyone. The
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  Speaker 1: Lord is at hand. Don't be anxious for anything, but
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  Speaker 1: in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be
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  Speaker 1: made known to God. And the peace of God that
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  Speaker 1: passes all understanding. Will guard your hearts and your minds
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  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus