Philippians 4:2-9 (2)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good afternoon, i’m glad to be presenting the word to you today, our text of the day is going to be Philippians 4:2-9, so if you aren’t there, go ahead and flip that way.
As I was writing these last two weeks I had to keep coming back and forth to this text as it’s magnitude was great, and there just weren’t enough hours in a few short sessions to unpack everything involved. So this was a labor of love writing this. Now if you could lets join together in prayer, and we’ll begin
I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
So as we are introduced into chapter 4, Paul begins with exhortation to the recipient of this letter to help aid in the dispute between the two sisters in Christ, Euodia and Syntyche. It is not disclosed as to what they are disputing over, but Paul emphasizes their need to agree in the Lord. They have both labored alongside Paul for the pursuit of the gospel, and he understands the importance of unity among believers in Christ.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
A fact so true, Paul said it twice.
It is true and especially in the context of the text, instead of discourse and disagreement, we need to be rejoicing. Rejoice, because we are unified in Christ. Rejoice, because we are reborn in Christ. Rejoice, because of Christ!
Rejoice! Because of Christ, through rebirth in the spirit, the Holy spirit now dwells within us, so now we are members of a holy and extraordinary gift that is going to endure forever. So since it WILL endure forever, we need to rejoice forever, leaving petty discourse and irrational disagreements behind, and being in pursuit of that which brings joy, which is Christ.
This emphasis on the Lord is essential, because it is the stasis chamber for the whole faith. We are to do this in the Lord. Not outside of. Not for. But in.
When we have Joy it should be in the Lord, because it is the Lord in which that Joy derives from. When we look to God it should be in resounding Joy, because he is God.
Again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again! He proves his worth.
And again, and again, and again, and again, and again he shows us his Glory!
And again, and again, and again, and again, and again he gives us reason to be filled with Joy.
So when these sisters are disillusioned in their disagreement Paul is not worried about whatever the disagreement is, he doesn’t even mention it, but what he does worry about is that it does not come at the cost of their unity, and more so it doesn’t come at the cost of their Joy in the Lord.
Joy is important, because Joy is the product of satisfaction in the Lord. If we are satisfied in the Lord, we should be Jovial. And if we are Jovial because of the Lord, we need to be satisfied.
So in this instance these women are disputing, and it is disrupting their unity in the Lord, hence Pauls direction for them to come back and agree in the Lord. If they are currently not ion agreement in the Lord, they are currently residing outside the Lord, and that is coming at the cost of the unity and Joy in which the Lord provides.
Continuing in the prospect of Joy, the great Preacher Charles Spurgeon also viewed this verse in a similar light, that our Joy needs to reside in the “Sphere of the Lord”, and what he means is that if what we are finding Joy in is not pleasing to the Lord or that which the Lord wishes for his children, that what our Joy brings about is evil, or that which does not bear fruit, it should be cut from the record.
So in our two manners of view on this verse, we have the pursuit of the Lord for our Joy and relying on him for our Joy, and then in a similar and equal light, if our Joy is not coming from the Lord or what the Lord hath provided, then it is not worthwhile and should therefore should be neglected in favor of better fruit. With enmity, strife, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions, being 5 of the 15 named works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-20 and those being that which will not be inherit the Kingdom of God.
But as we read and know these women are to be found in the book of life and are proven children of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since they are to inherit the Kingdom of God, then how are they to be partaking in the things that will prevent that inheritance from coming to fruition? So Paul emphasizes their need to move forward.
Much like in our modern Church experience we see churches fall apart every year, because of disputes.
“Oh, I don’t like that the Pastor did this”
“Oh, I wish that we did more contemporary music instead of Hymns”
“Oh, I wish the younger people would come to church with more reverence and wear proper attire”
“Oh, I wish the older people would stop talking about my attire and be accepting”
And we hear these things and we can almost all look at these arguments and say, THEY ARE STUPID! But every year things like this get focused on, and people fall out of the cycle, and people stop coming, and people badmouth eachother, and people get so focused on what everyone else did, and what they want, and why everyone else is wrong, and they lose sight of what Christ did, what Christ wants, and why Christ is right.
We should be rejoicing, we should be looking to God and praising his Glory and Majesty and Worthiness. And we should be overflowing in Joy because of who God is and if you are a fellow believer, you know who God is, and you know his nature, because he has revealed his nature in the word. And if you think that isn’t a God worth rejoicing in I don’t know what is.
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.
Reeling back a slight bit, now that Christ dwells in us, we are to begin showing signs of that, we have a resounding Joy, but now we should have a resounding reasonableness. When we are looked at, people should notice that we aren’t swift to anger or dispute.
That when we are approached, we will look at the situation in a redeeming manner and not a descending manner.
And not just to fellow believers, but everyone.
Brief interjection,
Recently I had a conversation with an old friend from highschool who is an atheist, but I love him dearly almost like a brother. But he feels the need every time we speak to unknowingly become condescending of the faith, so much so that it begins to frustrate one. Now in many of our older conversations, I have resorted to arguing, and giving in to goading and losing my cool and delving into caverns I myself had no answer for and therefore cataclysmically crushing my argument.
But as of recent I have learned that there are times where the most reasonable way to defend the faith is to leave it be, now of course I am not making the argument at all that we should avoid discussion about the faith, but what I am saying is that each situation is different and there are times where the best combat for an attack is to let them strike, and you just move out of the way and let them trip, wether they know it or not.
But why do I include this excerpt? Because I had to learn to reason within myself if it was worth it to argue. Which at that time it was not. Because if I continued on, I myself would have descended into anger and fallen on my own sword.
So reasonableness is important, not every dispute is essential, and not every dispute is beneficial, but likewise not every dispute is harmful. And that is where the call for reasonableness comes from, because we must reason as to what is important, and not just what is important, but what is right, what is righteous, and or right with God.
The Lord is at hand, he is with us, so when we enter into times of question, we should use him as our sounding board. A lot of us, myself included, will a lot of time view the Holy Spirit as a back seat passenger who we can drown out with the radio when they’re being pesty. But no, that is God indwelling in us, that is the ‘still small voice’(1 Kings 19:13) as many of us like to refer to it, the Holy Spirit doesn’t only need to be moved up front, but in complete and humble honesty, he needs to be given the driver seat. We need to listen to that voice of reason, and we within ourselves need to analyze and assure it is in accordance to the will of God.
And because of this instruction is once again given from Paul in this letter of, “because we are rejoicing in God, and we are using reason due to the presence of the Lord indwelling in us as the Holy Spirit, DO NOT be anxious.” And do not be anxious in general, but do not be anxious at all, about anything. Don’t throw reason out the window, don’t let anxiety crowd your mind. God is now indwelling in you, so calm down. Take a deep breath.
Easier said than done.
I myself am what one would call a stress monster. You give me one thing to worry about, and I promise you that if you give me 20 minutes, I can find a way to correlate it to the equivalent of all out World War. It is not something i’m proud to admit, but I will admit it, because I am most definitely sure it affects loads more people than who would care to admit.
But as I can relate to the feeling of overwhelming anxiety, I can also testify the truth behind the claim, in the second half of verse 6.
, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Let’s reread that one more time.
Through,
Prayer(with Thanksgiving)
Supplication(with Thanksgiving)
Let your requests be made known to God.
Now I don’t like to talk to much about the Greek and Hebrew of the original text in my sermons, as it can often lose people, so i’ll keep it short.
But in the original Greek of verse 6, the words used for Prayer and Supplication, though different words, add context to the verse where what Paul is saying is,
“Through Petitioning to the Lord in Thanksgiving, let your request be made known”
Which we could’ve gathered from context clues, but I own a concordance, so I may as well use the concordance, and it adds an extra layer of insight to the text.
Back to it, we shouldn’t be anxious about anything, because in everything we should petition to God in an air of thanksgiving, so that what we petition should be made known to God.
So what is Paul saying when he says we should petition in thanksgiving? What does Thanksgiving mean? And no it doesn’t mean turkey and stuffing.
What it means is in thankfulness petition.
When we partake in communion, we partake and give thanks.
When we pray at the end of our day, we thank Christ for the day.
And when we go to God in prayer, we go with thankfulness in our hearts. We go in thanksgiving.
So we offer our petition to God with Thankfulness.
But it poses the question of, “well what if God doesn’t give me what I want?”
And that is a great question, God giving us what we want is not the reason for which we are to have thanks, if God gives you what you want, then amazing, praise him! But why we give thanks is because of dominion.
When we offer our petitions to God, we are not to be doing so in a sense of want, but in a sense of surrender. “God, I surrender this up to you, your will be done.”
But, and I keep saying but and I apologize, but what we often do is we pray like this instead, “Dear gracious and heavenly father, hollowed be thy name, Highest God and all other titles, I really need that promotion at work, can you please give it to me?”
We pray in a sense of want, we pray in grandiose way, and we pray in a way where we think if we butter up God, he’ll give us what we want, and if he doesn’t he’s mean and we don’t want to ask him for anything anymore.
Now I will ease up the tension a little bit, I know YOU don’t do that, of course not, no one would ever think that. But I promise to you that is most definitely a way of thinking among many Christians, and I don’t say it to antagonize, I swear I don’t, but I say it to point out a thought,
“When you pray, are you surrendering your needs to the Lord? Or when you Pray are you hoping he comes through?” Because those are two very different thought processes. And only one gives God the Glory. And only one minimizes him to a simple task fulfiller.
But when we surrender in our petitions in and air of thanksgiving, so that our request may be heard, we are given peace in knowing that whatever the outcome of our submission, we have surrender to his will, not our own, and because it is his will, we are given a peace surpassing all understanding.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we surrender to the creator and master of the universe, the first and the last, the alpha and omega, we are given a peace beyond understanding, because we are giving our will over to the one who can understand beyond understanding.
When God is Given the Glory.
When God is Given Dominion.
When God is Given Faith.
We can have Peace in knowing that our path is in accordance to his will, and his way, not our own. Our path that is covered in fog is now given a light in which to see. The light of Christ. And that is a Peace Beyond All Understanding. And it will guard us in heart and in mind, through Christ Jesus. All anxiety is given away, God has it handled. All disputes are pointless, God has it handled. And what is left is Joy, Joy in him, and who he is, and he should be glorified.
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.
So brothers,
What is true?
What is honorable?
What is just?
What is pure?
What is lovely?
What is commendable?
Is it excellent and is worthy of Praise?
And Paul instructs us to think? And I want to do what he says here, and I want us to think for a moment. So I’ll re-list these things, or if you have your copy of the word open you can read them, but i’ll slowly re-list them while we all think.
What is true?
What is honorable?
What is just?
What is pure?
What is lovely?
What is commendable?
Is it excellent and is worthy of Praise?
(Pause Briefly)
Do all these questions turn you to God? To Christ? Because that is the only answer Brothers.
God or Christ?
That is the only acceptable answer, because they are the same thing.
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
