On Sunday evening Pastor Devon Ortiz continued the series on joy, moving from the command of Philippians 4:4 to verse 5: "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." Last week's point was that joy is a command rooted in God's grace, not in luck or circumstance. This week he turned to what joy should show from our lives, titling the message joy does not defend its rights. He reminded the church that "rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice" is so emphatic that even when our running line of rejoicing dies out, we are to find it again, because God's grace is never tapped out.

The hinge word is moderation, which has no clean English equivalent and is translated forbearance, gentleness, or reasonableness. Pastor Ortiz explained the Greek epikeia as virtue higher than justice, or simply living right rather than insisting on being right. He set it against the culture of Philippi, a Roman colony where people prized fighting for their rights; that mindset corrupted their Christian walk, so that when someone owed them money or an apology they grew sour and stopped treating people the way a Christian should. Joy, he said, is visible long before it is felt: your face reflects your heart, and no one will want the help of a Christian who lives like they "eat their Wheat Thins with lemon juice." Paul never commands a feeling, which is impossible to summon; he commands actions and character that then breed the right attitude. In fact joy is not even an attitude, it is fruit of the Spirit, so the more we abide in Christ the more this fruit is seen.

Pastor Ortiz illustrated it from Acts 16 in that same city of Philippi. Paul and Silas were doing the work of the ministry, leading Lydia's household to Christ and casting a spirit out of a slave girl, when her masters, seeing their profit gone, dragged them to the magistrates and had them beaten and thrown into the innermost cell with their feet in stocks. They had every right to be angry and to complain, but instead they prayed, and prayer led to singing, and their voices carried up from the lowest chamber until the other prisoners heard them. Their moderation was made known, not as a performance but as genuine praise to God.

When the earthquake threw the prison doors open and loosed every band, Paul and Silas had every right to walk out free. But seeing the jailer about to kill himself, Paul cried, "Do nothing to harm thyself, for we are all here." They gave up their rights and stayed, and the trembling jailer fell down and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Pastor Ortiz pointed out how those "rights" kept turning destructive, while surrendering them opened the door to the easiest salvation there ever was. "The Lord is at hand" means God stands near and uses such joy, because the fruit is not for the people, it is for God, and He works through it.

He closed with three takeaways. Joy is not the reward you collect after winning an argument; it is the ground you stand on when you decide winning does not matter. Even a Christian who hates to lose can afford to lose, having already gained the greatest victory. Joy is gentle, because grace has already supplied us. Gentleness, an overlooked fruit, is applying the right pressure, like holding an egg firmly enough not to drop it but softly enough not to crush it, and it belongs in parenting and in how we treat those who owe us. Joy preaches before a word is spoken. Our lifestyle should reveal Christ. He warned that what most often robs our joy is what we feel we are owed, and gave the familiar acrostic for JOY: Jesus first, Others next, You last, noting that those who refuse to serve others will always struggle with joy. Just as God gave up His own right and gave His Son for us, we will find far more joy when we give up some of our rights to serve Him.