Choosing Him over the World is choosing Joy and Peace over chaos

I’ll be preaching from Philippians today. Philippians, as some of you may already know, is a letter written by Paul to the church in Philippi after learning the secret of being content in any situation, about finding Joy in any situation. Paul give us plenty of examples of when and how to find joy but I’ll be focusing specifically on finding Joy over negativity today, something talked about towards the end of Paul’s letter. This seems apt because there’s a lot going on in the world today. Amarillo has just gone through a couple of, thankfully, minor earthquakes, the political state of our country is something that has never been seen before, and not so long ago the Panhandle went through a devastating fire that many are still trying to recover from. With everything going on we have a choice to make. And that’s our big idea today: We have a choice to make. We have to choose between God or the World. And what we choice dictates who we are and how we feel. We can choose to focus on God’s Kingdom or the world. However, if we want peace and joy in our lives, regardless of the the circumstances of the world, we must choose to focus on His Kingdom. Philippians 4:8-9 says

Philippians 4:8–9 ESV

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.

Pray -> For the filling of our minds and hearts with His word and His message, that His truth be revealed to us today in exactly the way He intends it.

> For those of you that are taking notes or trying to follow along in your Bibles the scriptures I’ll be using today are

Proverbs 23:7 Luke 21:34 Philippians 4:8 Romans 12:2 Proverbs 4:23 and Philippians 4:9 in that order but I’ve brought some slides with me today so you’ll be able to see what verse I’m referencing as we go.

Point 1 - How we think defines what choice we’re making

Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve told your kids, nieces, nephews, grand kids, or even those that you’ve mentored something like “you are who your friends are” or “your friends define you”. While I believe that this is true to an extent, those we choose to have close to us certainly have a formational impact on the way we act, I’m talking about the defining of us before even our friendships. How we think, defines who we are choosing to be.

French Philosopher Rene Descartes said, “I think therefore I am” and while he used this as a justification to prove his existence I believe that this quotation can have other meanings. For example, if I think that I’m an eloquent speaker, I’ll act like I am. Even though you can clearly see that I am not. My point though, is that as people we tend towards the things we think about ourselves first. The beliefs that we hold in our heart are foundational in defining who we are. And these thoughts are something that we must actively control.

Luke 21:34 (ESV)

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life”

We must choose what things we keep in our hearts. We must choose what we think about Jesus is telling us here that we need to be cautions because by becoming wrapped up in the trappings of the world we are adding burden to our hearts. This can be true in many ways; physical drunkeness, the emotional drunkeness we feel when we are receiving worldly praises and accolades for the things we done, and even the mental drunken stupor that we can find ourselves in when we spend all our time focusing on the latest news cycle (which seems like it’s always terrible lately) or how much better (or even just more interesting) the lives of people on social media are than our own. When we’re drunk, in any of these ways, it impairs our judgment. It clouds our vision. And it takes our focus off of things that really matter. But there are also many things in the world that can seem wonderful and worth choosing to focus on, things that can cloud our judgment and focus just as much as the negative. It can be hard to know where to anchor our thoughts sometimes.

Thankfully, the scriptures give us guidance on this. Going back to our original verses for the day 4:8 says

Philippians 4:8 ESV

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.

I could easily spend more time that we have looking at each of these things individually and looking at the biblical application of them, but I promise I won’t. I would however, say that if you’re looking for your next study session in the bible, this is a great place to start. We’re going to look at just a couple of them together today. Namely just, pure, and worthy of praise. The word just comes from the Greek word dikaios meaning, in a wide sense, to keeping with the commandments of God; pure comes from the hagnos from clean or pure but also sacred or venerable. Now venerable is a big churchy word, but what it means is to indicate something, or someone , worthy of being revered or respected specifically due to religious weight. Personally, and I think that most of you would agree with me here, but I struggle to find anything earthly deserving of being venerated outside of the bible itself, much less anything that could be considered pure.

The word praise used here is the Greek word epainos, which comes from epi and aineo. aineo means to praise specifically to praise or extol God, and epi is a superimposition. Taken together this means that things that are worthy of praise are worthy because the praises they bring are specifically directed towards God. This goes back to those false positives that can lead to the types of drunkeness we talked about. The only thing truly worth of praise is God himself all worldly things fall short of short of His Grace and perfection. If we’re going to heap praises on something, shouldn’t we put them towards something worth being praised in the first place?

Now I do want to be clear here, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t tell people they’re doing a good job or that other forms of positive reinforcement is a bad thing. People like to hear that they’re doing a good job, we like to know that we’re appreciated and that our efforts aren’t being wasted, that we’re having a positive impact on those around us. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this things but the kind of praise we’re talking about here, the kind of praise we should be filling our heart with, is a praise that elevates something beyond a simply atta boy. This is the kind of praise that we give to something we are seeking to emulate and to live in pursuit of.

Thinking about these things isn’t a suggestion, Paul isn’t saying that we should consider thinking about this things or that we might think about these things. Remember, this letter is Paul’s explanation of how to find joy and contentment in all situations and here he is telling us to think about these things. Remember we talked about the things we think about defining who we are and the choice that we are making, so when we’re thinking about things that are just, pure, and worthy of praise, we are choosing Him over the world.

Point 2 - The more we choose him the easier the choice becomes

This choice of God over the world can be difficult, but once we make the choice it gets easier to choose Him again the next time. There are a lot of things in this world that can, and probably are, put here to tempt us away from choosing him and these things range from the good the bad and the ugly. And choosing to go against the will of the world is uncomfortable. The Gospel isn’t meant to be comfortable, it isn’t meant to fit into the mold of the world, to conform to the lie that the world is telling us. Thankfully, God gives us help in even this. Romans 12:2 tells us,

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

If we choose Him and His ways we are to be transformed, made into something different, by the renewal, or the replenishing and refreshment, of our minds that will allow us to test, or examine, what the will of God actually is and what is good for and acceptable for us.

Pastor Jeremy has said it, and I couldn’t agree more, faith is like a muscle. The more we use it the stronger it becomes.

Point 3 - If we chose Him over the world, His Joy and Peace are with us

So we know that we have a choice to make, that it’s up to us, and we know that if we choose Christ he makes it easier for us to continue choosing him going forward but why choose him in the first place? The biggest answer to this is that it’s because the only pathway to Salvation is through Christ alone, that the only way we can escape the permanent death and separation from God that we deserve is by choosing Christ. This should be reason enough, especially since the scriptures make clear to us that we have no hope of getting there without Christ. But because God is such a loving God, he takes this one step further. If we choose Him, and keep choosing Him, the scriptures also tell us that we will have peace and joy and life not just in the next life, but in this one as well. Proverbs 4:23 tells us

Proverbs 4:23 ESV

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

and Paul tells us in Philippians 4:9,

Philippians 4:9 ESV

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Something I want to bring attention to in both of these verses is that they place an emphasis on our effort. Proverbs tells us to keep our heart, the very place where we’ve said that our identity flows, with all vigilance and Paul tells us to practice these things. Let me be clear here, Christ is our only pathway to salvation and there is nothing we can do apart from Him to change this but choosing Him once just isn’t the end of the story. We must continue to choose him. We must practice the things the Scriptures teach us, we must live our faith out loud, and we must keep our hearts, the very place where we’ve talked about that our identity flows from, with all vigilance ensuring that it is Him we are pursing. That we are choosing Christ over the world. Yes the choice is ours, and yes He makes the choosing easier for us the more we choose Him, but we still have to choose Him.

We get so wrapped up in the daily grind of this world that we have a tendency to forget that we are children of a God who loves us. Everyone in this room does it, me being equally guilty of it. But He is a God that loves us so much that even though we made the world what it is, even though we are born in sin and we live in sin, and if we aren’t intentional in our actions we will continue to choose sin over Him, that despite all of that He still wants us with Him. A God that loves us so much that he made a way through Jesus Christ for us to be forgiven for all. Through the sacrifice of Christ, His righteousness replaces our brokenness so that God sees us through the lens of His perfection and we can be granted eternal life instead of the eternal death we deserve.

And all he asks in return is that we chose Him just as he chose us. That we make the choice to follow Him instead of the world and, even though he already knows that we are going to continue messing up and falling short, we make our best effort to be like Him. God chooses us, we just have to choose Him back.

If you’ve never chosen Christ in your life as your ruler and savior you can today. Or if you’ve fallen short one to many times and feel like you’ve lost your way, you can choose to get back up and follow Him again today. Or if you’ve just forgotten to choose Him first in your life and gotten bogged down in the weeds of this life, you can make the shift today and think of Him and His ways in your heart first again. If any of these things sound like they fit you, I’d be more than happy to talk to you more after the service, or put you in touch with one of the other Pastors here at Paramount that would be just as honored to have that conversation with you.

Life is about choices, and we have a God that is hoping we choose Him so that He can welcome us home with love and open arms.

Let’s pray - Thank you for choosing us, especially when we don’t choose you. Thank you for gracing us with the freedoms we have and the ability to choose. Thank you for sending your Son to die so that His grace could replace our failings. We pray that the truth of your Scriptures have been felt today, that your message has been received, and that we carry it with us through the upcoming week so that we can better choose you and be better examples of how and why others should choose you.