Live it Out
Notes
Transcript
Live it Out
Live it Out
It’s one thing to say we believe something. It’s yet another to live out what we believe.
We obsess over sound doctrine. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We certainly don’t want to fall prey to unsound doctrine.
We’re willing to battle over what we believe to be right doctrine. Not always so much a good thing.
The question is, “Are we willing to live out the clear teaching from God’s Word?
And it’s this question that we come to in Philippians 4:9. Let’s read it.
9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
You can't separate outward action from inward attitude.
The Apostle Paul begins chapter 4 by carrying on the idea of having a right attitude.
He presented Jesus as the example.
Paul then moves to the idea of worry. To conquer worry and experience the secure mind, we must meet certain conditions. Right praying, right thinking, and right living.
Right praying depends on the right kind of mind. The single mind of Philippians 1. The submissive mind of Philippians 2. The spiritual mind of Philippians 3. And the secure mind of Philippians 4.
Right thinking is necessary to combat worry. Wrong thinking leads to wrong feeling. And before long, the heart and mind are pulled apart and we are strangled with worry. Our thoughts are powerful.
We must bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5)
In verse 9 Paul provides himself as the example. And he says we are to engage in right living.
Paul’s been teaching about having the right attitude, the mind of Christ throughout this short letter.
And, the fact is, you can’t separate outward action and inward attitude.
Sin always results in unrest (unless the conscience is seared), and purity ought to result in peace. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and peace” (Isa. 32:17). “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable” (James 3:17). Right living is a necessary condition for experiencing the peace of God.
In verse 9 Paul balances four activities: “learned and received” and “heard and seen.” To live it out, we first need to...
Internalize What You Learn
Internalize What You Learn
It’s one thing to learn a truth, but quite another to receive it inwardly and make it a part of our inner being.
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Facts in the head are not enough; we must also have truths in the heart. In Paul’s ministry, he not only taught the Word but also lived it so that his listeners could see the truth in his life. Paul’s experience ought to be our experience. We must learn the Word, receive it, hear it, and do it.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
What happens often is we experience a disconnect. We learn something, but we don’t internalize it.
The Philippians had learned much from the Apostle Paul.
“Received” is similar but different to “learned.”
“Received” has a little nuance added. Before the Bible as we know it today was written and accepted as the “Word of God,” truth was something delivered by “tradition.”
In other words, early Christianity took over from rabbinic Judaism the idea of transmitting and safeguarding a tradition or “oral truth.”
What we’ve learned, have we in fact “received” it? Have we made it so much a part of our inner being and thinking that it comes out in right living?
Live Out What You Learn
Live Out What You Learn
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
It’s not enough to hear, we must do it.
9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
A better word for “do” is practice.
Paul could say something that would be arrogant if you or I said it: “Do what I do.”
We don’t want people to make the same mistakes we’ve made.
But Paul could make his life an example to other believers. Paul lived in that place of power because He had made Christ the very center and periphery of his life.
It's the state every one of us should live in, a state of being an example for all who observe us.
“Do” in the original language is a present, active, imperative. In other words it translates, “keep on practicing these things.”
The result of living out what we learn?...
Experience the Presence of God
Experience the Presence of God
9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
“The peace of God” from verse 7 is one test of whether or not we are in the will of God. Listen to what we’re told in Colossians...
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
If we are walking with the Lord, then the peace of God and the God of peace exercise their influence over our hearts. Whenever we disobey, we lose that peace and we know we have done something wrong. God’s peace is the “umpire” that calls us “out”!
Right praying, right thinking, and right living: these are the conditions for having the secure mind and victory over worry. As Philippians 4 is the “peace chapter” of the New Testament, James 4 is the “war chapter.”
It begins with a question: “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” James explains the causes of war: wrong praying (“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,” James 4:3), wrong thinking (“purify your hearts, ye double-minded,” James 4:8), and wrong living (“know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” James 4:4).
There is no middle ground. Either we yield heart and mind to the Spirit of God and practice right praying, thinking, and living; or we yield to the flesh and find ourselves torn apart by worry.
There is no need to worry! And, worry is a sin! (Have you read Matt. 6:24–34 lately?) With the peace of God to guard us and the God of peace to guide us—why worry?