Rooted in Joy & Peace
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· 8 viewsRooting ourselves in the Lord through Joy and Peace which come from the Spiritual Disciplines.
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Turn to Phil 4:4-9 in your bibles
Turn to Phil 4:4-9 in your bibles
In this section of Phil 4:4-9, Paul uses seven exhortations: (the following list and explanation of the exhortations from: Benjamin L. Merkle et al., Ephesians–Philemon, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. XI, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 185.)
Each of these words is an imperative, a command, Paul is calling the Philippians to action!
He calls the Philippians to rejoice—twice,
let everyone know them as gentle/gracious people,
be anxious about nothing,
pray about everything,
think about the right kinds of things,
and imitate his teaching and lifestyle
Paul has already commanded them to “behave as citizens worthy of the gospel”
the first imperative of the book of Philippians is in Phil 1:27
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
and Paul also commanded them that each Christians must “work out your own salvation”
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
And this is exactly what most “GOOD” Christians do
We grit our teeth and we try to do better than the last time where we totally messed it up
But don’t miss what Paul says in the next verse:
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
So as we look at the passage in Phil 4:4-9
We must realize that although we are the ones:
interacting with people and dealing with circumstances
praying and reading Scripture;
God is the One using these things to work out our salvation
toward His will and toward his good pleasure.
So what ways does God use to grow us? It breaks down into three groups:
Three Catalysts of Growing Deep
Three Catalysts of Growing Deep
There are three catalyst God uses to Grow us deeper.
A catalyst is something that speeds up a reaction, in our life we would stay the same is God wasn’t actively growing us!
1. God uses circumstances to grow our joy.
1. God uses circumstances to grow our joy.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
We think this world is it—its not! Its only the beginning.
You spent 9 months in your mother to equip you for life in this world,
you spend, on average 80 years, in this world to equip you for eternal life in the world to come.
Our response should be joy
The word Paul uses is a present imperative. This means it is a command for us to do something over and over again.
Whatever the circumstance, in all situations continually REJOICE!
Joy is an attitude not just an emotion.
We can choose how we respond in circumstances, in fact, all we can control is our response, many of the circumstances we face in this life we have little to no control to change.
Its easy for us to say, “I know Paul, I should rejoice, but you don’t understand what I’m going through!”
We each face real struggles in life, I’m not discounting those.
Paul starts this letter by living out this very command:
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
These are not empty words that Paul is using, he is in prison, not sure whether they will kill him or let him go.
He is focused not on the circumstance but the joyous impact his imprisonment is having on others.
Through the book of Acts we can see that one of the Jailers that was in this church came to faith because of the testimony of Paul.
You can read about that whole episode in Acts 16.
For Christians Joy can exist in any circumstance we can be as Paul tells the Corinthians
10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Joy and sorrow can coexist, we can rejoice always because we rejoice in the Lord.
We rejoice because of what God has done
because of who God is
and because He is the One who supplies us with joy!
But circumstances are not the only thing God uses to grow us, He also uses people:
2. God uses people to grow our patient self-control.
2. God uses people to grow our patient self-control.
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
To be completely honest this has been one verse I have skipped over.
I’ve read it probably 20 times never giving it much thought.
That changed this week as I was studying it out.
The ESV makes this verse a little hard to understand.
Reasonableness seems to mean something like fairness, but that isn’t what I think Paul is saying.
All the other modern translations use the word “gentleness” which is a great word but we’re Americans, ‘MERICA!
SHOW Merica Slide
SHOW Merica Slide
Gentleness doesn’t work, it just doesn’t have the same meaning for us, we think weak when we hear gentle, but this word is far from weak
The CSB gives us a good alternative:
5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Graciousness is a good translation
The idea of this word is not insisting on your own rights
(which is also hard for us Americans)
yielding, courteous, the best translation I found was
Patient, Self-Control
I think Paul sums this up in another use of the word in Titus 3:1-2
1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
The ESV uses gentle here, so read gracious
Paul has the same idea in Philippians 2:3
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
So we let our reasonableness, graciousness be known to everyone
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
Everyone
The rude guy at the gym? everyone
The woman who just cut me off to wait at the same light as me one car closer? everyone
My annoying sibling? everyone
Even my Spouse? everyone
You get the idea!
We show grace to everyone because… The Lord is near
We know Jesus is coming back to set all things right (see Rev 1-22)
More than that God has told us how to act towards other, that He will repay, not us
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Ouch! This is why we have to have the Lord’s Help.
So far we’ve seen that God use Circumstances and People as Catalyst to grow us deeper and we have very little control over these things.
The next thing we have a lot of control over:
3. God use Spiritual Disciplines to grow our peace.
3. God use Spiritual Disciplines to grow our peace.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Do not be anxious, the word means unduly concerned.
It is fine to be concerned about things, but not overly concerned,
this word is in the present tense which means continually being concerned with it, consumed
Look at what Jesus said when he was teaching about not being anxious:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
So what do we do when we are need and we’re tempted to be anxious?
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
We take it to the Lord in prayer
SHOW What a Friend We Have in Jesus Slides
SHOW What a Friend We Have in Jesus Slides
Listen to the words of this song we will sing in just a bit:
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer
We don’t take it to the Lord beacuse He doesn’t know
We just read Matthew 6:32
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
We take it to the Lord so that we don’t worry about it
We also pray expecting Him to meet our needs
We pray with thanksgiving!
With thanksgiving prayer becomes a means of appreciating, honor, and glorifying God,
without thanksgiving it can become complaining or just a list of demands
As we bring everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The word surpasses can mean transcends, is better than
God’s peace is greater than the human mind can understand
This is how I have always understood this verse, but there’s more
Don’t miss this:
Having God’s peace is better than understanding the circumstance you’re in
The peace God gives us is better than if we understood why something is happening
His peace doesn’t just help you understand why its happening but it actually guards your heart and thoughts in Christ
When we are anxious, we are placing our trust in our own understanding and ability to fix the situation we are in
We have to learn little by little to trust that God is working all things, even the hard things, to our good
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
So prayer is the first Spiritual Discipline but how will we know what to pray?
8 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.
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
I remember when I was in college I heard Phil 4:8 called “The Filter” if you start to think of something see if it can make it through the filter
If it’s not true throw it out,
honorable but not just? it’s gone
lovely but not pure? don’t think about it
It is important to remember that these attributes listed above are not defined by culture but by the Word of God,
something is only excellent and praiseworthy as it lines up with Christ
As it lines up with what Scripture calls true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.
We are not only to think of these things, the word λογίζεσθε has the idea of “giving careful thought, consider, ponder, let one’s mind dwell on” (BDAG)
we are to think carefully how to put these in practice—meditate
Biblical vs. Transcendental Meditation
Biblical vs. Transcendental Meditation
I am talking about Biblical Meditation not Transcendental Meditation.
Biblical meditation seeks not to empty your mind but to fill it with Scripture
Biblical meditation seeks not to try and not think but to focus on the meaning of the text and how to apply it to your life
Biblical meditation seeks not to visualize or create your own reality, but letting prayer, meditation, and application change your false reality to God’s true reality for your life
It is not enough to simply read the Scriptures we have have to put them into practice
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
We may not have learned from Paul in the same way the Philippians did but we have his letters, and the other Apostles
We have the words of Jesus and how He put them into practice
We have all the OT Prophets as they spoke the very words of God and lived lives of Godliness
All three actions actions prayer, meditation, and application lead to peace.
And they lead to the very presence of the God of peace active and strong in our lives.
This is the place where I would sit where you are sitting in my teens and into college.
I would be frustrated because the pastor or youth speaker would have told me all the things I needed to do
and I was convinced
I wanted to do what the Bible said but I had no idea how
I will not leave you there I want to share two simple things:
Spiritual Disciplines for Living Strong
Spiritual Disciplines for Living Strong
4. Pray the Psalms Daily. (6-7)
4. Pray the Psalms Daily. (6-7)
I know what you are thinking: I’m too busy to pray!
1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 560: Too Busy to Pray
The top ten reasons you are too busy to pray today:
1. You wake up feeling rested, then realize your alarm should have gone off an hour ago.
2. Your spouse is away on a two-day business trip that has lasted all week.
3. None of the clean clothes you were able to find match.
4. Your teenager shaved … the left half of his head.
5. Your bills are due and your toddler hid the checkbook.
6. A strange fluid is dripping from your car.
7. You accidentally delete your quarterly report ten minutes before meeting with your boss.
8. You’re in charge of games for the church youth night tonight.
9. Your dog is throwing up.
10. Your toilet’s overflowing, but at least you found the checkbook.
Ten reasons you really should pray today:
(See list above.)
—“The Top Ten Reasons You Are Too Busy to Pray Today,” Marriage Partnership (1996)
I get frustrated in prayer and when I finally get to pray sometimes I don’t know what to pray for and my mind goes blank.
My wife is a prayer warrior she is gifted when it comes to praying.
I talk to God all day long, but when it comes to dedicated prayer I needed help.
This is where the Psalms come in:
You can download this app for free.
It gives you Five Psalms every day which you can use to pray.
You don’t have to use the app
You can use the day of the month as the first psalm:
Today is the 3rd so you’d use Psalm 3
then add 30, Psalm 33
And 30 Psalm 63 and so on
Today’s Psalms are Psalm 3, 33, 63, 93, 123
You can Proverbs 3 into the mix as well.
On the 31st you use Psalm 119 by itself.
For me the app is much easier.
You can also find a plan in the YouVersion Bible App
Psalms and Proverbs in 31 Days
I’ll put links on Facebook too so you can find it easier.
So how does this help you pray?
So you skim over the first Psalm, if nothing jumps out go to the next, until you feel your soul resonate with one of them
Then pray so I’ll use Psalm 63
I didn’t practice this is really what I do
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
You don’t have to do the whole Psalm and you don’t have to stop when the Psalm does.
You read a verse and use that to guide your prayer. When you run out of something to pray read the next verse.
You may find you still pray for things you pray for regularly but you do it a new, fresh way and you will also find you’ll pray things you might never have though of
Now let’s look at Meditation
Have you ever read the Bible for 20 minutes and closed the book and thought, “I have no idea what I read.” Or later in the day you don’t remember a single verse?
Its not enough to read Scripture we need to meditate on it.
5. Use Phil 4:8-9 to meditate on Scripture. (8-9)
5. Use Phil 4:8-9 to meditate on Scripture. (8-9)
One method is to use Phil 4:8-9
8 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.
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
As you read see if there is something true you can think more deeply about, or something honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent or praiseworthy.
See if there is an action that someone learned. A command to follow. Something you see in a Biblical person to imitate, or something that your shouldn’t imitate.
You may also be thinking that you don’t have time to add one more thing to your plate.
You may barely be able to squeeze 10 minutes a day to read your Bible and now I’m asking you to do more.
I’m not asking for more, I’m asking you to change how you use the time.
If you truly only have 10 minutes then read the Scripture for 5 minutes and meditate on it for 5 minutes.
If you have 30 minutes, then read for 20 and think about it for 10 minutes.
How ever long you read the Scriptures, just pick a small section, a verse or maybe a small passage and meditate on it.
Bonus points if you write it down on a piece of paper or a journal. The simple act of thinking through a small section of what you read will help you come away with a part of Scripture embedded in your brain.
If you write it down you’ll remember it even longer and you can go back and see what you’ve learned. Or if you forget where a certain verse you read was you can go back to that day in your journal and read it again.
In all these things Godliness is the goal!
Look at the last line of the verses we’ve meditated on today:
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
The God of peace will be with you!
That’s my prayer today.
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