Choosing Joy

This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Sunday, March 15, 2026, as a part of our Winter series through Philippians titled “Resilient Joy” This is our third sermon in our series “Philippians: Resilient Joy.” The book of Philippians, a letter written in prison by the Apostle Paul, encourages us to locate our deepest joy in Jesus — not in our circumstances. This week we considered our freedom to choose joy as we meditated on Philippians 4:4-9. You can listen to a recording of the sermon on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

If I were to back up ten years and put myself where you’re sitting, I don’t know if I would have been able to hear this sermon. I would have been standing up to go walk the halls for half an hour, because the things this passage commands would have felt so utterly infeasible. Ten years ago, my life was marked by unmanageability and powerlessness. I wasn’t joyful, I was miserable! And I could not have imagined a world where I was capable of choosing joy. 

That’s what Paul calls us to today: choose joy. Actively cultivate joy in your own heart and mind. Don’t just wait on it. Take control. That’s what “rejoice” means. It turns joy into a verb—a verb with you as the present, active subject.

Does that sound impossible for you? It would have for me. My life used to be dominated by two enemies of joy—two things this passage tackles head on. Paul himself is well acquainted with them. Honestly we all have to deal with them. You might not feel as trapped by them as I did. If so, great! This sermon will be a delight for you! If you do, though, stay with me. Embedded in these commands are the keys to unlocking your agency, unlocking freedom, the ability to choose joy and to do what Paul calls us to do. 

Four points this morning: two enemies, and two keys. First, we’ll name the two enemies of joy and the way we fight them. Last, we’ll look for the two keys that unlock our ability to rejoice 

Enemy #1: An anxious heart 

A heart consumed by worry. If you’ve got a Bible on you go ahead and flip to Philippians 4. Let’s jump to verse 6; we’ll come back to verse 5 later. I’m actually kind of encouraged when Paul writes “Do not be anxious in anything” because that means I’m not the only one who needed to hear this. We’re not the first “anxious generation” in human history. 

The Philippians had the same heart struggles we face. These early Christians in the first century were worried about war and geopolitics. Rome was constantly engaged in conquest. They were worried about their job security and their reputations, especially because their faith made them social and religious outcasts. They were worried about their health and their children and their love life just like all of us. 

Our hearts are so easily swayed in the face of a future we can’t see and a world we can’t control, and all that anxiety stifles our capacity for joy. So Paul tells us “Don’t be anxious about any of that.” Don’t let it stew, don’t let it fester in your heart, don’t be paralyzed by anxiety. Instead, he writes, “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” 

Let’s break that down piece-by-piece. First, “in everything.” That includes every part of your life which induces anxiety, big or small. So what’s causing you anxiety? Do you have a loved one who is sick? Pray about it! Are you in the process of looking for a new job? Pray about it! Do you have a test coming up? Do you have friend drama? Are you worried this sermon will go too long? Start praying now! God invites—even more strongly, God as your loving Father commands you to bring all your worries to him. 

Next, “by prayer and supplication.” Prayer is the more general term here. That just means talking to God. Supplication carries the more specific meaning of an urgent request for a specific need. So whether you have a general angst or a very specific request, God wants you to bring it to him. 

Finally, “with thanksgiving.” The word for thanksgiving in Greek has the exact same root for the word “joy.” It’s a helpful reminder for us that as Christians we have a reason for joy in everything, even in the midst of what causes us anxiety. Paul is modeling this as he writes this letter from prison—even on death row, Paul is finding reasons to thank God. Paul tells us, as often as we tell God about what makes us anxious, we should also thank him for all our reasons for joy. 

So, the first enemy of our joy is an anxious heart, which we can overcome with prayer.

Enemy #2: A darkened mind 

We can see this in what Paul addresses in verses 7-8. Paul says that when we pray, Jesus will guard our hearts and our minds. In verse 8, the command is for us to think. So there’s a shift from our hearts (our emotions) to our mind (our thoughts). And look at all the things Paul lists! If he has to instruct his church to think about all these good things, the assumption is that their minds are preoccupied with the opposite: whatever is false, dishonorable, unjust, corrupted, shameful, wicked, heavy, dark.

Does that resonate with you? Isn’t it so easy to focus on the bad in life? I was chatting with another pastor this week about a book titled Switch which says this: 

Across the board, we seem wired to focus on the negative. A group of psychologists reviewed over two hundred articles and concluded that, for a wide range of human behavior and perception, a general principle holds true: “Bad is stronger than good.”¹

The study gives a number of examples of where they saw this. Here’s just one:

When people learn bad stuff about someone else, it’s stickier than good stuff. People pay closer attention to the bad stuff, reflect on it more, remember it longer, and weigh it more heavily in assessing the person overall. This pattern is so robust that researchers…have a label for it—“positive-negative asymmetry.”²

There were several other examples, but the study concluded with this: “When we began this review we anticipated finding some exceptions that would demarcate the limits of the phenomenon … [but] we were unable to locate any significant spheres in which good was consistently stronger than bad.”³

Friends, you need to be aware of this. This is the default wiring of a sinful, fallen mind. When you come home from work, it will be easier to linger on all that went wrong in the office. When it comes to your roommates, or your spouse, or your kids, it’ll be easier to focus on the negative. Especially when news media and TV shows and algorithms make their profit off of what keeps you engaged the longest, there is a strong financial incentive to feed you whatever is false, dishonorable, unjust, corrupted, shameful, dark. A mind so consumed by darkness has no appetite for joy. 

How do we fight this enemy? The book’s proposed solution is what the authors call a “solution focus” where you intentionally choose to set your mind on the successes, the wins, the good.³ That’s pretty much the same thing Paul is calling us to do! Verse 8 “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” The solution to a darkened mind is to set your mind on the light. 

Keys to unlocking freedom 

So there you go, Paul’s made it simple. Anxious heart? Pray. Darkened mind? Think about the light. 

Here’s why this sermon would have been really hard for me to listen to: it kind of feels like Paul is just saying “get over it.” There’s an old MADtv sketch⁴ of a therapist saying to his client “I’m going to say two words to you right now—I want you to listen to them very carefully and take them out of the office with you and incorporate them into your life. Are you ready? Here they are…Stop it!” He just yells that over and over. 

We all know that doesn’t work, you can’t just tell an anxious person to stop being anxious. That’s what I would be thinking right about now: “You want me to pray? Well guess what, preacher. I have been praying! You want me to stop thinking about all this dark stuff? I wish I could, but I can’t! I can’t just stop being anxious. I can’t just stop thinking about the bad.” 

Let me fill out the picture a bit more for you. When I was a teenager, I struggled a lot with looking at certain things online…you understand what I mean? That did a whole lot to darken my mind. And actually, my darkened mind and anxious heart fueled each other. I was anxious about a lot of things: school, friends, girls; I was especially anxious about my health. And in an attempt to escape my anxiety I’d try to distract myself with what I watched. But because it was so dark and corrupted, and I knew it was wrong, that only made me more anxious—I worried “What if people find out? Am I even really a Christian if I’m doing this?”

That spiraled to a point where I started to believe I was totally powerless to do what Paul calls us to do. You might not have the same struggles I had, but all of us can probably resonate with a sense of “Oh, this is actually harder than I thought, to not be anxious and to think about these things.” We need something to give us the power to fight these enemies. Where can we find that in our passage? Two keys to agency and freedom. 

Key #1: the gospel 

The only source of power we can find to fight against the enemies of our joy is the gospel. It is the historical, simple fact that Jesus the Son of God loves you and died for you. Look back to verse 4, Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord.” All of Paul’s commands in Philippians include that phrase. 

That’s significant! That’s everything! You gotta remember we’re at the end of Paul’s letter. That phrase “in the Lord” hyperlinks to everything he’s already written. And what is that? 

Jesus lived and died for me, so “for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21)

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (3:8–9a)

“I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (3:12)

He keeps it up in this passage. “The Lord is at hand” is actually a little more ambiguous, other translations say “The Lord is near” (NIV, NASB). That could be time—Christ will return soon!—but it could be spacial—he is close! God draws near to you, he is with you standing firm for you. 

In verse 7 when it says “the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds”? The word Paul is using is a military term, it describes how a soldier would stand firm at his post even in the face of conflict. Remember Paul calls the church in Philippi to “stand firm” but in reality, we can only hope to do that because Jesus is “standing firm” for you. And our passage ends “The God of peace will be with you.” The reason we can have the peace of God is because we have the God of peace near to us. 

There is no other reason Paul can choose to rejoice. We need to hear this, in a culture so infatuated with the “power of positive thinking.” From a secular perspective, positive thinking can’t actually save you from your worst case scenario. If the truth is you’re all alone in the universe, nothing can stop the hands of fate, death comes for us all; If Hamlet is right that “[life] is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Then there is no foundation to counter an anxious heart. 

And there’s no real power behind a “solution focus,” to cure a darkened mind; no real foundation, just a pragmatic belief that “It’s better to be happy than to be sad.” For Christians, we have an unshakeable foundation! Why? Because the gospel proves that good is stronger than bad. Christ won at the cross. He took our dishonor upon himself and has been given the name above all names. His purity has cleansed our corruption. His victory has freed our darkened minds. We can say with Paul “The God of the universe loved me and died for me! Jesus Christ has made me his own! To live is Christ and to die is gain! The Lord is near!” So for believers, focusing on the light isn’t just pragmatic, it’s actually the most consistent outworking of our identity in Christ. 

That transforms our relationship with our anxious hearts and darkened minds. The things we’re anxious about, even our worst case scenario, means we get to share in Christ’s sufferings and ultimately, we die and go to Jesus in eternal paradise. And the things our darkened mind used to be drawn to begin to lose their appeal when we behold the beauty and truth of the gospel. 

That was true for Paul; that was true for me, too. At my absolute lowest point when I didn’t see any way out, the only thing that saved me was hearing the Lord say to my heart “I love you.” That was the key that unlocked my ability to choose joy. To be clear, I was still very weak. That wasn’t a magic switch that gave me the power to stop being anxious and fix my darkened mind. It pretty much only gave me the strength to do one thing: ask for help. That brings us to the second key in our passage. 

Key #2: each other 

Again, there is nothing new here. Verse 5 “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone,” that word “reasonableness” points us back to Philippians 2. It communicates the idea of not demanding your rights at the cost of others, of considering others more significant than yourself just like Jesus did. And in verse 9, Paul again emphasizes good role models in the church; people we can look to for examples and encouragement. In short, Paul is exhorting us to build a community where we cultivate joy together—where we choose joy for one another. 

Let me give you a picture of what this looks like. Let me take you back to the summer of 2009 for a minute. I was 13 years old. A lot of my struggles had started maybe a year before that—my dark night of the soul was about eight years. There were glimpses of joy in the midst of that, but for the most part, lots of darkness. Early in that dark night one bright moment was the first time I went to YoungLife Camp in the summer of 2009. 

One of my favorite memories from camp was the night the whole camp had a huge pool party. Imagine with me: this full sized pool—six lanes wide, 25m long, close to 400 middle schoolers going nuts. At one point, the leaders quiet the crowd and give us a plan: everyone start swimming in the same direction. That current quickly became so strong you couldn’t push against it. It was a literal whirlpool; you could see the bowing of the water. I could pick up my feet and float the entire length of the pool without swimming at all. 

Why do I share that? When people talk about joy, it’s easy to think of it as a passive experience. There will certainly be moments when joy overwhelms you—you did nothing to invite it or spur it on, it just hits you like a current and sweeps you off your feet. Those moments are sweet gifts, but they’re just moments. The Christian call to joy isn’t a call to chase more and more of those unique moments. It isn’t even a call to put yourself in a position where you might get swept up in that current. It is a call to create the current, to actively cultivate joy in your own heart and mind. 

You can only do this by God’s grace, but if you are a Christian, you can do this. That’s what “rejoice” means. Remember from the start? “Rejoice” turns joy into a verb with you as the present, active subject. And that “you” is plural. This is a current we have to create together. 

If I had gone back to the pool the next day and said “I wanna do that whirlpool again!” and started swimming by myself, nothing would have happened. And in my journey of fighting for joy, I was completely dead in the water until I reached out for help. I would not be here today if it weren’t for my church—for some of the people in this room. God has given us one another to swim together so we can choose joy. 

Conclusion 

What does all this look like in practice? Here are eight quick suggestions for how to live this passage out. 

1. Try this prayer flowchart

Here are three questions for an anxious heart: What are you anxious about? Have you talked with God about it? How can you remind yourself of the gospel in it? Do those three things, come to him in prayer, and God promises to stand firm in guarding your heart. You might say, “Patrick, I have prayed, and I’m still anxious!” That puts you in the perfect position to keep praying! It’s almost as if God is giving you an ongoing opportunity to stay in relationship with him, to practice daily dependence, to choose to seek his face and ask for his help and look to his provision. Maybe that’s the real point of prayer—not just getting what you want from God, but actually getting God himself! And when God does give you peace, maybe that’s not the time to stop praying—maybe that’s the time to lean in just as much, but now with more thanksgiving! 

2. Keep a prayer journal 

This is something I’ve only recently begun, and it’s been so helpful. Be brave enough to write down specific prayer requests and commit to praying over those regularly. Then, as God answers your prayers, keep a record of those too! Use that to fuel your thanksgiving. 

3. Submit prayer requests

Friends, please, ask for prayer. I need your help. I need you to pray for me. I might not put it in the Flock Notes (our church’s prayer bulletin). I could. Every single Sunday. And you need us to pray for you. Please let us know how we can pray. As a church, let’s make sure there’s never another Sunday with nothing in the Flock Notes. 

4. Meditate on God’s word 

I was struck at how the things Paul lists in Phil 4:8 echo Psalm 19:7-11. What is more true and honorable and just and pure than God’s word? Nothing! Saturate yourself with Scripture. Fill your mind with God’s story of redemption, of steadfast love for you. The more you feed your heart and mind God’s word, the hungrier you grow for God’s joy. Join a Community Group where you meditate on God’s word together. Start a Bible study. Ask your family to join you in a devotional time. 

5. Limit your exposure to anxiety-inducing content

I wonder how Paul would have responded to a 24-hour news cycle constantly drowning us in tragedy, rage, and discord—much of it we have absolutely no connection to and no power over. Paul was certainly engaged in the communities he was a part of, and even stayed engaged with his churches all across the world. When he heard about bad news in those circles, he cared deeply and jumped into action. But I think Paul would have recognized that not every bad news story was necessary for him to know about and respond to. 

I’d encourage you to tune out some of the noise for the sake of focusing on things you do have an immediate connection to, and may have some degree of power to change. It doesn’t make you calloused to tune out some of the bad news from around the world. It’s worth asking, “who benefits from me knowing this news?” Often, the answer is “only the website or TV channel that got my attention.” 

I know some people in this church work in a job where you are constantly inundated with darkness. Don’t hear this as a rebuke. For therapists, for social workers, for those in the military and in civilian casualty mitigation, hear this: press on. Let us pray for you as you seek to shine as light in darkness. And be intentional about pulling your head up out of the darkness when you come home from work. If your 9-5 plunges you in darkness, be intentional about focusing on the light when you’re not at work. 

6. Delete social media 

The past twenty years of human history have introduced a brand new experiment on the human psyche and relationships through social media. First mySpace, then Facebook, and now everything: TikTok, YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, SnapChat, on and on. Enough time has passed for research to explore the effects. The studies are nigh unanimous. This is killing us.⁵

Sometimes the only winning move is to not play. I genuinely believe that with social media. High schoolers and young adults, I just want to encourage you: you do have a choice here. You are free to choose to not engage. You have the power to delete your Instagram account and your TikTok app. 

I’m not saying there is nothing good with social media. There are certainly great things you can find there, and there are ways to use it well. But think about it like this. I love Costco. There’s a lot of awesome stuff there, the prices are pretty good, there’s lots of benefits. But if my local Costco decided to turn their parking lot into a literal minefield with hidden explosives all over the place, I would need a really, really good reason to go to Costco. And I would be extremely cautious on my way in. 

I still have a Facebook account, although Facebook is almost always blocked by CovenantEyes and I only access it for short periods of time while supervised. I don’t have access to Twitter or Reddit or Instagram. CovenantEyes helps filter content on YouTube. That’s what this looks like for me. I’d encourage you to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider how you engage with social media. 

6. Stop watching that show, or reading that book, or listening to that podcast which darkens your mind

This is the one that hits closest to home for me, as you might imagine from my story. I hope that gives me permission to be a bit blunt here. I don’t care how good the story is. I don’t care how high the production value is. I don’t care who the lead actor or the author is. I don’t care how funny the comedian might be. If the content is pornographic, or gory, or if it celebrates evil and sin, it is not worth it. Do not justify it. 

Is there room for some nuance here? Maybe. Both “Game of Thrones” and the Lord of the Rings movies are violent, but you know there’s a difference. Maybe it’d be wise to not watch either. We can at least draw the line at one of them. Search your heart and question your motives. Ask yourself, “Is what I am consuming here helping me focus on what is true, honorable, just, etc.?” If the answer is “No,” make the choice to not consume that media. Cut off the hand and gouge out the eye. Jesus says that is better than the alternative. 

7. CovenantEyes or parental controls 

Another one that hits close to home for me. I had gotten to a point where I had no strength of will to overcome my addictive patterns. Guardrails like CovenantEyes helped me break those patterns. Now I am ruthless with my devices. Every laptop, cell phone, and smart TV I own have content restrictions. Every old device is either sold or destroyed to close any loopholes. My wife holds the keys to updating or downloading new apps. My dad is my CovenantEyes admin. I’ve got an elder of our church as one of my allies who receives reports on my online activity. It’s a strong incentive to not go back to old habits when my boss finds out when I do. And for me, I have never felt more free than when I have my guardrails up. No single moment of weakness, or sudden temptation, or morbid curiosity can throw me back into the darkness. Not having the choice to look at porn gives me the freedom to choose joy. 

8. Come to a church leader if you need help with your anxious heart or darkened mind 

Maybe you’re like how I was ten years ago. All the strength I had was to ask for help. I leaned heavily on my pastor, and my campus minister. They pointed me to trusted, Christian therapists. Let us do the same for you if you need it. Please reach out. Don’t believe the lies of the enemies of your joy. Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, if you have been found in the Lord: You have agency. You have a choice. And you are not alone. You can choose to bring your anxious heart to God in prayer. You can choose to turn away from whatever darkens your mind and focus on what’s true and pure and good. If nothing else, you can choose to ask for help. 

________________

¹ Chip and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (London, UK: Random House Business Books, 2010), 46. 

² Heath, Switch, 46-47.

³ Heath, Switch, 47. 

⁴ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsNgQf-DaGU

⁵ Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (London, UK: Penguin Press, 2024)