Hey, good morning, everyone. Welcome to another morning devotion with Brother Mark, where we are walking with you on your walk with Christ. Today is July the 24th, 2020. Well, you know, yesterday I said happy birthday to someone and I said 26 years ago, I became a father. What does it mean if your daughter turned 26 yesterday? It means I'm old. That's what it means. It's hard to believe. It seems like I should be 26, not 55. But anyway, today we're going to continue looking at encouragement in our walk with Christ from Philippians 4. Today we're gonna look at verse number four, and it's really a simple verse where Paul tells the Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Those of you who went to church camp with me when I was a boy, Camp Tarhee, you will remember us singing that song. But anyway, it was kind of a men sing first, women sing second. Well, Paul encourages the Philippians to rejoice throughout this letter. Rejoicing is important in our walk with Christ. Rejoicing is important in our walk because it keeps us from becoming downhearted. It is difficult to frown when you're smiling, so it is difficult to be downhearted when you are rejoicing. If you can focus on rejoicing, it will strengthen your walk because your walk will be in happiness. MacArthur says in his introduction to the book of Philippians, in spite of Paul's imprisonment, the dominant tone of the letter is joyful. Paul's sitting in her own prison, yet he encourages the recipients of this letter to be joyful. It kind of puts our own life in perspective, doesn't it? If Paul can encourage others to be joyful while he sits in jail, we should be able to be joyful. Paul points us to why we should be joyful in this passage. Again, MacArthur says, rejoicing in the Lord, Paul tells us is the source of our rejoicing. MacArthur says, in the Lord signifies the sphere in which the believer's joy exists. a sphere unrelated to the circumstances of life, but relatable to an unassailable, unchanging relationship to the sovereign Lord. So the source of your joy is not your circumstances, but who you are in Christ Jesus. Why does Paul remind the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord? Well, what did Jesus tell his disciples about the world? He told them in John 16, 33, these things have I spoken unto you that in me, you might have peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So Jesus reminded his disciples that in the world, you will have tribulation. And so what we learn from that is if we look at the circumstances of our life, you'll find sorrow, you'll not find joy. In the world, you'll have tribulation. If you look at the world and the circumstances of life many times, you'll find sorrow, you'll find heartache and pain. And focusing on the circumstances of life will steal your joy. When we rejoice in the Lord always, we'll not be looking at the world. We will not be looking at our circumstances. We'll be focusing on the Lord. And that will bring rejoicing to our hearts. Why can we rejoice in the Lord? What does he have to offer? Listen to what John Gill has to say about why we can rejoice in Christ Jesus. With the addition always, For there is always cause and matter for rejoicing in Christ, even in times of affliction, distress, and persecution, since he is always the same. His grace is always sufficient. His blood has a continual virtue in it, and always speaks for peace and pardon. His righteousness is an everlasting one, and so is his salvation, and such is his love. This is what was continually inculcated by him and being of great importance and use for the comfort of believers and the honor of Christ. you know, if we would take the time to look at each one of those points shared by Gil, we would see many reasons that we have to rejoice. Like his grace is always sufficient. He's always looking for peace and pardon. His righteousness that he gives us is everlasting and we can go on and on. We'd have many reasons to rejoice. So we think, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. In our Christian walk, we need to focus on rejoicing. I wanted even to include in this little devotion about Peter's instruction to those that he wrote to in 1 Peter about rejoicing in manifold temptations, but it's already six minutes. I'm running out of time. So if you want to know more about that, go to my Facebook page and watch that message or on the church website, which is embcsayersville.org, which means Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, sayersville.org. You can listen to the message I preached last night about rejoicing in manifold temptations. But anyway, it's important for us to rejoice in the Lord, to keep our focus on him. Rejoice in the Lord. You see, my rejoicing is in the Lord. It's not in myself. It's not in my circumstances. It's not in this world. My rejoicing is in the Lord. So as you are walking, walk in rejoicing, rejoicing in who Christ is and what he's done for you and how he's working in your life and so many things. Be thankful for rejoicing. Let's pray. Lord, today as we conclude this week of devotions, we just want to rejoice in who you are and what you've done for us. Lord, I pray that your people would focus on the reasons they have to rejoice in you. I pray they will not focus on temporary circumstances of this world, but on the eternal spiritual blessings which you provide. Help us to rejoice in you. Lord, as we think about the eternal blessings which we have in Christ, we think of those who do not enjoy them. Lord, we think of the Brawi in Pakistan. 2.7 million people, not one Christian. They are unreached. Lord, we pray that you will send laborers in the harvest. Lord, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We thank you that you are the Lord of the harvest. Send laborers to the Brawee. Lord, it's what a blessing to be your child today. I pray that you bless your people as they walk with you. It is in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Have a good weekend. Worship the Lord together and we'll see you on Monday. Until then, Brother Mark signing off.