Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:4-8 NIV)
This past week, I asked a man in Bixby what he’s doing for Thanksgiving. I expected a happy conversation. Just small talk, right? You know what he’s doing? Going to funerals. As in more than one funeral. He’s had five relatives die in the past few weeks. Close relatives! His wife’s mother died from COVID, and 40 minutes later on the same day, his wife’s step-sister died from COVID too. Then the man’s own father died of other causes. So they’re going to one funeral in one state and driving to another state for two more. And there’s two more funerals that they can’t even make it to. Some Thanksgiving! If you were that family, what would you be thankful for?
That makes me think of a Lutheran pastor who lived long ago. His name was Martin Rinkart. Have you heard that name before? Pastor Rinkart lived in the early 1600s in Germany. It was probably one of the worst places and times to live in world history. Know why? The Thirty Years War was going on. Do you know how long it lasted? Thirty years! That war left eight million people dead. As if that weren’t bad enough, a plague swept through his town.
Here’s how bad it got: At the height of the plague, Pastor Rinkart’s church sometimes had 50 funerals a day. Can you imagine that? 50 funerals a day. His Lutheran church started with four pastors, but one fled, and Pastor Rinkart did the funerals for the other two. On top of all that, his own wife died from the plague too. If you were Pastor Rinkart, what would you have done? I probably would have cried a lot. And found a new job. And questioned my faith in God.
But do you know what Pastor Rinkart did? At some point during those years of war and pandemic, he wrote a song. Can you guess which one? “Now Thank We All Our God.” Can you sing the first verse with me? “Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices: Who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices. Who, from our mother’s arms, has blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.” How could he write that at that time? It boggles my mind. How could he be thankful in the middle of so much death?
That’s not me. I doubt you’re like that either. Sure, I rejoice sometimes. I rejoice when my team wins, but not when they lose. I rejoice when I feel good, but not when I’m sick. I rejoice when I get to eat a big Thanksgiving meal, but not when it’s time to return to real life. I rejoice when people like me, but not when they criticize me. Are you the same? There is rejoicing in my life, but it always comes with an “if.” If it’s going well, then I’ll rejoice. But if it’s not, I’m often the first to complain. “Now Thank We All Our God” in the middle of war and death? That’s not me.
But there was someone else like Martin Rinkart: Paul. Did you hear what he wrote? “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” What did Paul write? “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Maybe you object, “That’s easy for you to say, Paul. You didn’t face what I’m facing.” And Paul would say, “Oh, yeah?” Do you know where Paul was when he wrote that? In jail. In chains. Yet, he could say, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Even in chains, Paul found joy in Jesus.
We’re not in chains, and yet we so often don’t rejoice. We have a big problem: Discontentment. Know what I’m talking about? Being discontent might sound innocent, but discontentment is really a terrible thing. Have you realized that? I’m afraid I can speak from personal experience. Discontentment is a cancer that if left unchecked grows little by little in your soul. It starts small. A complaint here. A criticism there. But then that one complaint turns into another. One criticism turns into another. It becomes a downward spiral into darkness. “This is wrong and that’s wrong and he’s wrong and she’s wrong…” I’ve been there. Have you? Discontentment is a dark place.
What’s scariest is that a day comes when you wake up and can’t see God’s blessings at all. Have you been there? When you let discontentment fester inside for too long, the day comes when you look at your life, and you know God is good, you know you should be thankful, but you aren’t, because that cancer of discontentment has eaten away at your soul. That is an awful place to be. Have you been there? When discontentment so pervades your soul that nothing seems to go right. It’s scary. It’s dark. It’s sinful. Discontentment robs us of joy in Jesus. Can you see that?
How do we break free? Only by God’s grace. I heard someone put it like this: “The opposite of discontentment is gratitude.” Think about that. “The opposite of discontentment is gratitude.” That’s one reason why we need days like Thanksgiving. Gratitude is a good thing! I visited a man in the hospital this week—a WELS member from Texas. He was going hunting here in Oklahoma, but he fell fifteen feet out of a deer stand and broke his back. When I saw him, do you know what he said? “I’m thankful.” What? He’s thankful to be alive. Are you? He’s thankful to be able to move his legs. Are you? A broken back and thankful. “Rejoice in the Lord always.”
Maybe Paul was on to something. He was sitting in jail. You’d think that’s the last place a great missionary would want to be—chained up. But do you know how Paul felt? Thankful. Earlier in Philippians, he wrote, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ” (Philippians 1:12-13). Paul’s chains gave him a captive audience to share the gospel. And that led him to be thankful, even in chains. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Is that starting to make sense?
Paul had learned the secret of contentment. Later in this book of Philippians, he explains: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13). What was the secret? “Him who gives me strength.” Jesus. Jesus was the secret! Paul learned that if he had Jesus, he could be content.
I need to hear this! Listen to how Paul put it earlier in Philippians, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).
Rejoice in the Lord always! Can you see how that’s possible? Through Jesus. Maybe you don’t have the perfect house. But you have God’s forgiveness. May you don’t have the perfect health. But you have the resurrection from the dead waiting for you. Maybe you don’t have perfect relationships, but you do with God, because of Jesus. You have Jesus Christ as your Savior, and that means that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Jesus’ salvation and Jesus’ presence fill our souls with a peace and a joy that surpass all understanding. So rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice!
Here’s the thing: I know that. I know what the Bible says. I know that Jesus is my Savior. But I still don’t always rejoice. I still let discontent sneak into my thoughts every single day. It gets me down. Maybe that’s why Paul added: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Think about what’s good.
This isn’t about the power of positive thinking. It’s about taking your thoughts and making them captive to Christ. Your thoughts say, “This is awful.” Christ says, “I know the plans I have for you” (Jeremiah 29:11). Your thoughts say, “I can’t.” Christ says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Your thoughts say, “I’ve earned all this for myself.” Christ says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Your thoughts say, “Nobody loves me.” Christ says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). Think about what’s good. Take every thought and make it captive to Christ.
These verses have a special place in my life. This was the sermon text for our wedding. We told the pastor who preached the sermon that he could chose whatever text he wanted. This is what he chose. I think he knew us better that we knew ourselves. “Rejoice in the Lord always.” We need that encouragement every day in our marriage. If you’re married, think about this today: Are you bringing thankfulness into your marriage or complaining? Are you cultivating joy or discontent? Are you encouraging your spouse to think about what’s good in Jesus or filling them with criticism? Lay your sins at the foot of Jesus’ cross every day, and learn to rejoice in the Lord.
Because Thanksgiving is not a day to say “Everything is great.” Thanksgiving is a day to say, “Even though everything isn’t great, God is! God is great! I’m going to rejoice in his salvation.” In that way, Thanksgiving is like a shout of defiance against the devil. “Satan, you think a pandemic can take away our joy? No way! We are going to rejoice in the Lord always.” “Devil, you think that death can take away our joy? No way! We are going to rejoice in the Lord always.” “Satan, you think that political strife or troubles in relationships or worries about money can take away our joy? No way! We are going to rejoice in the Lord always.” See what I mean? Do you want to punch the devil in the face? Try this: “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
I started by telling you about this man with all the funerals over Thanksgiving. Here’s what amazed me: He didn’t complain. When I said I was sorry for his loss, he said, “It’s okay. I don’t look at death the way most people do. I see it as the start of new life with Jesus in heaven. We’re thankful, because we know that our loved ones are home with Jesus.” Wow! Take that, devil. Five funerals over Thanksgiving and still thankful? That man learned the secret to contentment. Just like Martin Rinkart did. It’s Jesus. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
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