Philippians #9

Imagine a very large lake, several people are in a boat trying to cross the lake. As they attempt to cross however, the wind picks up speed against them, and dark clouds begin rolling in overhead. The sea begins to get more and more choppy as they struggle to move against the wind. Then out of the increasing darkness, they see a figure coming toward them, seeming to float just above the surface of the water.

They begin shaking with fear and one of them cries out, ‘It’s a ghost!’

But the being responds instantly. ‘Take heart, it is I, Do not be afraid!

One of the men in the group calls out, “Lord, if it really is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come”

So the man slides himself over the side of the boat until his feet touch the water, then he stands up and begins walking toward the being.

But on his way the waves are still splashing around him and the wind is till howling and he begins to sink, and cries out again, “Lord save me!”

And the being reaches out his hand and pulls him up out of the water, walks him back to the boat, and immediately the sea becomes like glass.

Jesus walked on water.

- You probably remember the story of Jesus, Peter and the other disciples

How could an experienced fisherman, step out onto something he knows has never held him before. The surface of the water may have even taken captive a friend or family member. Yet he stepped out of the boat.

What gave him the courage to get out of the boat, and what did he loose when he began to sing?

Today we’re talking about Peace (and joy really)

How is it possible to have peace when walking on the waters of life?

Is it possible to cure anxiety?

Let me ask you a question:

How many of you have ever dealt with severe bouts of anxiety or depression?

We all want the medicine for our anxiety.

Think about the pressures of your life, or of your past, and think about the seeming impossibility of getting through those trials without anxiety.

It may even seem as impossible as placing your foot on the surface of a lake and taking steps across it.

In I want to see that you can

cure anxiety thinking about the strategies of our enemies and our nearness to God.

This section of the book is divided up into three sections, an encouragement to labor side-by-side in unity, an ex

As we read, see if you can see links to our working theme for the book of Philippians, in one mind, and in one spirit, partner side by side for the faith of the Gospel.

READ

Right at the beginning, Paul addresses two ladies with a theme we’ve heard before.

agree in the Lord - work together, stop fighting

True companion (possibly Luke)

reminds everyone to labor side by side

purpose is a focus on eternity

that all our conflict and struggle with one another

all our disagreement about paint color and moving furniture and carpet or tile or building or not building or connecting or freestanding

MUST be held in the context of eternity: this life, this stuff is only temporary. That nothing that we fight over today will stay in conflict when we get to glory.

He says ‘AGREE’ in the Lord, then he commands a few things that may seem impossible to us.

He first commands them in the Lord to REJOICE. v4

Then he turns his attention back to the church as a whole and commands them in the Lord to REJOICE. v4

first set is piety

second set is ethics

in the LORD Always

It’s easy to rejoice sometimes.

When we see a baby being born, its easy to rejoice

when we see little baby robins chirping with their big yellow mouths, its easy to rejoice

when we get a bit more income than expected or the doctor says we have a clean bill of health, we rejoice

But that isn’t ALWAYS

we raised our hands at the beginning saying that there have been moments, maybe seasons of darkness in our lives,

where the joy seems to have been sucked out of our lives.

Where sarcasm and anger come much more quickly than gentleness and patience.

He almost adds insult to injury in v5

let you’re reasonableness be know to everyone.

When does your gentleness shine brightest and is most vivid. When is it most evident that you’re showing leeway to someone?

In times of happiness and peace?

or times of stress and trouble?

He goes one step further with the command in v6

Do not be anxious about anything.

its a command - about anything.

OK Paul, that’s enough! You’re stressing me out by telling me not to stress out!

And we are often anxious about Nothing!

we are stressed out that we’re stressed out. Anxious that we are anxious. Depressed that we’re depressed. We feel like we should have come out of this already, we shouldn’t be like this. Life should be different.

We know life is challenging, so is it so easy for us to get anxious and worried and depressed?

The first thing we need to do to fight anxiety is to think about the strategies of the enemy.

pray, ask with thanksgiving :

v7 - God’s peace, beyond our ability to understand, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus

He will put a garrison of protection around his people.

The Lord of armies will provide an army to keep you at peace.

peace: total shalom (wholeness, wellbeing)

You may remember this completeness from when we talked about the humility of Christ, that we must imitate christ to be full.

totally transcends the mere human, unbelieving mind (which is full of anxiety)

it is the sense that you know deep down, everything will be ok, or that you know, deep down, you have the only thing that really matters.

Why do you need a garrison of protection?

There are three enemies that make direct attacks on our peace and joy.

The world, the flesh and the devil.

They are strategic, conniving, and close at hand. We’ve got to anticipate their schemes. We know they are already at work in our lives, and will not stop until we die. We Christians must not think we can face these enemies unprepared.

World - worldliness- mindset (secularism, nowism)

all that matters is what’s happening here, now on this planet. With no consideration of God, or eternal life.

When you click off the tv, and you go look at yourself in the mirror and you despise yourself because you don’t look like those people on tv. You’re not happy like they are.

Your house, your family, your car, your boat, your vacations aren’t what you wish they could be.

Or maybe you do have those things, but you find they didn’t make you happy.

The world manipulates your emotions so that you mothers believe you have to look just like this, that you use these products, that has her own business

The world demands that your a mom that looks just like this, that you use these products, that has her own business

go to a fancy restaurant

and that your kids dress in these brands, and that they eat this type of food, and they don’t every eat these types of foods, that they absolutely must be at every sporting opportunity and school activity offered to them.

someone scoffs at the metaphysical

And it is exhausting.

look at yourself in the mirror and feel disgusted

It’s all about the HERE, the today, the tomorrow, but never eternity.

It’s saying: This will make you happy. This will make your kids happy and grow up to be good kids, they need to be given EVERYTHING, and you are a terrible parent if you say no to a good opportunity.

The world whispers these subtle lies to us...

And it is so focused on the HERE, the today, the tomorrow, but never eternity.

Flesh - this is who you were before you became a Christian, and that part of still resides in you and subtly tries to take the place of God

The decisions of life are made by you and for you without asking God for wisdom or asking God, what will you have me do.

Your day to day activities are about your own glory

If you go the entire day without once talking to God about your stress, your hopes, your blessings, your flesh has succeeded in making your efforts in life focused exclusively on the here and now.

I’m not saying you have to pray to God every time you hit enter on you keyboard or put a spoon in the dishwasher or pull a weed up or take a bite of your cereal.

But we should be talking to God all throughout our day for the little things, and the big things.

When you watch the news, pray.

When you feel the sun on your face, pray.

When your air conditioning kicks on, pray.

The last is the deceiver, the accuser, the murder and destroyer.

The devil is our third enemy.

And he is serious. He wants to make your faith irrelevant.

the devil wants to make you feel guilty and depressed all the time

the devil wants you to sin deeply and terribly so that you think you are a worthless child of God. that God couldn’t possibly love someone who does this again and again and again.

That is a lie from hell. Jesus didn’t save you because you were a good person, or even a pretty good person. He didn’t start loving you because you loved him first, so what makes you think he’ll stop loving you when you sin against him.

The devil tells you that you are a horrible husband and father.

need everyone like you

And the strategy of the enemy works on us, and drives us deeper into despair and anxiety and deeper into sin.

power hungry, even in church, his flesh got religious

devil - evil supernatural intelligence

if you don’t believe in the supernatural, you’re in the minority of people in the world and history, and you need it to make sense of the Bible

Got to look like the people in commercials (world) start over spending money and living immorally (flesh) then the devil accuses you ‘you call yourself a Christian’ (devil)

So what is the cure? Where can you go to take the chemotherapy for the cancer of anxiety in you?

v6 - pray and ask

The two ingredients of the cure. To talk to God and petition him to help us.

We pray and ask, but prayer is not a bunch of magic words were chanting to get God to answer our prayers.

We don’t aim our wand of prayer at our problems and cast a spell of peace.

Prayer and asking God to act are the evidences of faith in your life.

You ask because you believe God can do something about it.

You won’t walk up to a 5 year old and ask him for advice about your marriage or how to refinance your home. You don’t go through the McDonalds drive through and order Filet Mignon.

You go somewhere that can provide those things.

That’s why you pray. You talk to God and ask him for things but don’t miss this very important thing.

Thankfulness is the catalyst for the cure.

We praying, we’re asking, but maybe we’re not asking in faith, and that’s where thankfulness comes in.

Thankfulness acknowledges that God is in control. That he gave you what is good, and that he allowed what is evil in your life for your salvation good.

It seems impossible to give thanks when your child dumps a gallon of milk on the floor.

Or your late for work and your car won’t start

It seems impossible to be thankful when your bills seem to be having baby bills and multiplying like rabbits

But remember the Bible doesn’t say give thanks FOR everything, but give thanks in EVERYTHING.

Thanking God means in WHATEVER God does in answer to your prayer is the very best.

We pour in prayer, and asking God for things, and we mix it together, and we add thanksgiving, and it turns a beautiful shade of peace and joy.

Look. don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by your enemies, but LOOK toward Jesus and see the good he’s brought into your life.

Remember that the accuser, even when he is truly pointing out the sin, is lying. He cannot condemn you.

WHO shall bring a charge against God’s elect? it is God who justifies. Who is to condemn, Christ Jesus is the one who died and rose again and is at the right hand of God interceding for us.

He has no authority to bring judgement on you. The guilt you feel, that tells you that you are worthy of punishment, worthy of death, purposely neglects the biggest part of your story.

That when you are a Christian, all those accusations and all that guilt and shame are put on Christ.

WHO shall bring a charge against God’s elect? it is God who justifies. Who is to condemn, Christ Jesus is the one who died and rose again and is at the right hand of God interceding for us. (romans)

But these commands, to agree, to rejoice, to not be anxious come with an awesome promise.

v7 - God’s peace, beyond our ability to understand, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus

v7 - God’s peace, beyond our ability to understand, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus

He will put a garrison of protection around his people.

The Lord of armies will provide an army to keep you at peace.

peace: shalom (wholeness, wellbeing) fullness

You may remember this completeness from when we talked about the humility of Christ, that we must imitate christ to be full.

totally transcends the mere human, unbelieving mind (which is full of anxiety)

This peace: is the sense that you know deep down, everything will be ok, or that you know, deep down, you have the only thing that really matters.

Now we’re commanded to rejoice and the have this peace, and Paul gives some practical ways to do this.

We set our minds: Look v8

TRUE

opposite of a lie, esp believing a lie about God - idolatry

Honorable : Noble

honorable

Just: Right - morally proper

righteous

Pure

not tainted by evil

lovely (loveable)

Beautiful piece of music, charitable acts of a good person

for all you puppy lovers or cat lovers, this may be the closest verse in the Bible to excuse those pictures of puppies.

commendable/admirable

virtue well spoken of by people in general

excellence and worthy of praise

These are all things that our culture may completely agree with. We should think about these things, but he puts it all in context

v9

not simply a self-help, check of the, but conduct in keeping with God’s own righteousness

not simply general ethical judgement, but conduct in keeping with God’s own righteousness

v9a - imitate

we can admire all the good things in our world in the context of the Gospel

Imitating Jesus

Doing our good things, in Jesus name.

But at the beginning I said we need to think about two things including the strategies of the enemy, but v8 says think about all these things.

One thought wraps them all together.

v9b God of PEACE will be ‘with you’

We need to think, not only of the strategies of the enemy, but of our nearness to the God of peace.

When we see God in this world. We see his hand working, and we know he is close to us, it will affect everything about our life.

v9b God of PEACE will be ‘with you’

Both Joy and peace are commanded in scripture. Here, joy is commanded and peace is promised.

Every situation, we know God loves us, God cares for us, and God CAN SEE us and is with us.

It was October of my first semester in college, I went out with a bunch of friends to a pickup roller hockey game. The puck shot out towards the goal and I raced after it. Their goalie scrambling to get to it first. He managed to reach the puck first and I tried to stop but slipped and slid into the boards, my kneecap striking the wood first.

I had shattered my kneecap and had to have two surgeries a year apart. In between the two surgeries, my family switched insurance companies, which caused for a few frightening moments and hours and hours of the phone with the agencies.

I remember coming home for Christmas one year and opening a letter from the hospital addressed to me.

The letter read, your account is past due, please pay the amount listed immediately.

Then it said, amount you owe, $150,000. Amount paid by insurance. $0.

My heart sank. You can imagine the fear.

So I took the letter, and calmly slid it at my fathers place setting at dinner.

Praise God that after several more hours on the phone, the insurance company did pay the amount.

But what was the cure for my anxiety of that letter?

That my dad was with me, and that he was powerful enough and loved me enough to take care of it in full.

Now we can’t literally slide our bills across the table to God,

but today I want to think about putting your anxieties in an envelope, or a box, or a crate...

long for the presence of God

Christianity is not merely a religion, it is devotion to our Creator and Savior.

and slide that anxiety at the feet of Jesus.

Both Joy and peace are commanded in scripture. Here, joy is commanded and peace is promised.

Casting all your anxiety on him for he cares for you ()

Casting all your anxiety on him for he cares for you ()

Psalm 145:18 ESV

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 1. A Call to Christian Piety—And Peace (4:4–7)

The truly godly person both longs for God’s presence, where one pours out his or her heart to God in joy, prayer, and thanksgiving, and lives in God’s presence by “doing” the righteousness of God. Otherwise piety is merely religion, not devotion.

Remember the context of eternity Paul put at the the end of v2?

God is not only near us now. In this very room. Inside every believer here, inside your trouble and anxiety.

But also, he will always be near to us. Now and forever.

The Holy Spirit lives inside us creating a garrison of peace around our thoughts and minds.

And you can have this promised peace.

peace is a fruit of the Spirit: when the Spirit is at work in you, it produces peace in our community.

Cast all your anxiety on him for he cares for you

Psalm 145:18 ESV

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Near not only presently close to use, but near to bringing his plan to completion.

now and to come

peace is a fruit of the Spirit: when the Spirit is at work in you, it produces peace.

We as a community are working together (in one Spirit)

The Spirit of Christ in our congregation producing shalom.

You may remember this completeness from when we talked about the humility of Christ, that we must imitate christ to be full.

totally transcends the mere human, unbelieving mind (which is full of anxiety)

it’s unexplainable

You don’t have to figure everything out.

So this week, as we have to step back out onto the waves of our troubles.

We don’t have to sink into our anxiety, but we take our medicine by THINKING

about two things:

the strategies of our enemies

so when you’re preparing your school schedule this year, remember the tactics of the enemy to make you so busy with good things, but rarely busy with the best things. Is God and your faith going to be the center of your home?

think about the nearness of God

if you’re lonely this week, or depressed, or anxious, don’t focus on the waves and storm,

THINK about the nearness of God

pray, ask and thank God in all circumstances.

So that we as a congregation gathering in this Red Brick Church

we can live worthy of the Gospel

that in the mind of unity and the Spirit of peace, we partner side-by-side for the faith of the Gospel.

opposite of a lie, esp believing a lie about God - idolatry

Noble

honorable

Right/just

righteous

pure

not tainted by evil

lovely (loveable)

Beautiful piece of music, charitable acts of a good person

commendable/admirable

virtue well spoken of by people in general

excellence and worthy of praise

not simply general ethical judgement, but conduct in keeping with God’s own righteousness

This is all in context of community- together we will experience the peace of God as we pray, ask and thank God.

Embrace what is good, wherever you find it, especially in your own culture, but do so in a discerning way by seeing everything through the lens that the Gospel is true.

As you prepare your school calendar, ask yourself how much of my schedule is demanded by the world, or my flesh. What am I saying no to, so that I can accomplish these things? Does my schedule reflect a conscious decision to make God the center of my life, and the Gospel the most important thing in my world?

As you make doctors visits this week, remember God

I remember coming home for Christmas one year and opening a letter from the hospital addressed to me.

The letter read, your account is past due, please pay the amount listed immediately.

Then it said, amount you owe, $150,000. Amount paid by insurance. $0.

You can imagine the fear I felt.

So I took the letter, and calmly slid it at my fathers place setting at dinner.

_______

peace:Down deep I’ve got the only thing that really matters.

Joy- we’re focusing on the blessings instead of the blessor

thank God ahead- that’s the secret

thankful before you make the request because you are saying, no matter what you give, I’m thankful for it

You

single mindedness

how do you cultivate it

‘do what i said’ peace and joy come from the same place-assurance of your salvation

talk to your heart or listen to your heart

David ‘why are you cast down o my soul

enemies - World, flesh, devil

go to a fancy restaurant

someone scoffs at the metaphysical

look at yourself in the mirror and feel disgusted

flesh - the part of yourself that wants to be God

call your own shots, live for your own glory

need to be in charge (seduces anyone he can see)

need everyone like you

power hungry, even in church, his flesh got religious

devil - evil supernatural intelligence

if you don’t believe in the supernatural, you’re in the minority of people in the world and history, and you need it to make sense of the Bible

Got to look like the people in commercials (world) start over spending money and living immorally (flesh) then the devil accuses you ‘you call yourself a Christian’ (devil)

Your feelings are not the BASIS for your salvation. They want you to look more at your sins than at your savior

the devil tries to poison our conscience so that he warns when there is no enemy and sleeps when the evil enters the gate.

keep preaching the gospel to yourself

the reason i feel bad today is because I think i have to do good things to be accepted by God.

dont be upset that you’re upset, or down that youre down

___

Fear/Anxiety = who is the sovereign rule in your life

if money is too important, enter fear/anx

when things increase in value, things become more important to us

helicopter parent - when you exalt them too much, your fear over them will consume you