Peace, Part 1 - Rejoice!

Story - I have a problem with heights.

The real problems are internal

This should also mean, the REAL goal here, if we’re honest, is the internal life. The externals are great - but if the internals aren’t there, then it doesn’t matter.

Philippians 4:4–7 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now, I’m gonna interpret this verse bottom up.

God promises to guard our hearts

This is more than, you got an answer to THIS source of worry - but wait until the next one comes!

This word that paul uses, guard, it’s a military term. It means ‘to surround or protect a garrison or city’.

This is what God is promising us. A guard posted around our hearts, to protect us from those things that come in to steal our peace and our joy.

Here’s the thing. To Paul, “answers to our questions” or “understanding everything” isn’t the antidote to worry.

Our minds don’t provide peace - they just provide a temporary excuse to keep not having to trust God completely.

STORY - saw a dinner theater play once, and one guy just seemed super shifty. ever had a situation where your preconceptions about someone or something totally changed how you see it? If you think someone is mean, everything they do seems suspicious? Our understanding is easily changed - and easily broken.

And paul REALLY believes this.He says, this peace of God, it goes way beyond our understanding. And paul could understand a lot about God.

And to be clear - this isn’t ‘don’t try and understand anything’. That’s ridiculous. Paul supports the idea of training, study, and understanding.

But he knows the limits. And he knows the real problem - it’s our hearts.

So paul is saying, if you want joy, if you want peace. Don’t rely on your mind. Rely on the overwhelming and majestic presence of God. Trust God, and just BE with God. And the more you stand in his presence - the peace will just come.

We can’t have real peace or real joy without being in a trusting relationship with God

It just doesn’t exist. But this word here, trust, it carries a lot of weight.

So how can we ACTIVELY practice this idea of being in a trusting relationship with God?

Pray all the time, about every situation

Now, I want to put in a disclaimer. I think that this verse really is the crux of understanding the others. And next week, I’m gonna spend a lot more time on this verse, and later verses in Philippians 4. But I’ll go over a bit of this now anyways.

You would think this one goes without saying. But if we’re honest with ourselves - do we do this?

STORY - We challenged the youth group about this a few weeks ago. We were talking about Jonah. And how, in this story of Jonah (Tell it) - but then, even after Jonah KNOWS that God put him in this fish, he STILL prays to God and asks for help out of it.

So we challenged them. What are some things in your life, that you haven’t prayed about, because it just seems like that’s not something you talk to God about? And that night, they had a lot more prayer requests than they usually did.

You pray to God when you’re having health problems. When’s the last time you prayed,

‘Hey God, I have some gardening i’m doing this afternoon, and I’d like you to help me out with it, help me to actually manage them well so they don’t all die’?

‘Hey God, my wife and I want to do an in-house date tonight, I want help to find the best snacks at the grocery store, those ones that she really loves’.

‘Hey God, I’m having trouble understanding making a budget. Could you help me out?’

Paul ISN’T saying, ‘God’s peace only comes when you ask him about that specific situation, so pray a lot.’ God loves us so much, much much more than that.

Paul IS saying,

God’s peace comes when we make it a habit in every situation to say “I want God in this”

STORY - Whenever I see a great set of stars at night, I want to go get my son Caleb

They say, the different between being in a religion and being in a relationship with God is, religion says THIS, relationship says THIS.

But it’s that choice to say, ‘I TRUST GOD, I NEED TO TALK TO HIM’. and to ALSO say, ‘I know there’s a need here - I obviously have to talk to God’. AND, ‘I had something good today - I’m gonna go thank God for that good thing’.

That’s what paul means when he says, ‘in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving’.

Things went well, I want to praise God. They went bad, I want to talk to God and bring a request. Things are big, I want to thank God. Things are small, I still want to tell God.

And the secret is - the more we do this,

The more we practice this - the closer we are to God

STORY - FACEBOOK BLUR

And that’s the goal, closeness with God directly. Because, remember - the point isn’t answers, it’s closeness to God.

But paul doesn’t let us off the hook. he says - if you’re doing this, if this is your honest-to-goodness practice, something in your life will change.

Be Gentle

To be clear, he doesn’t say, ‘Be gentle’. He says, ‘let the gentless you HAVE be evident’. He just assumes it’s a given.

Now, this word gentle here. It’s a loaded word.

It could also mean things like ‘be lenient’ or ‘be charitable’. We think, ‘don’t lash out’. It goes way beyond that.

The sense is, ‘someone willing to yield their own rights to show gentleness and consideration to others’.

now, when is it when we’re most willing to flex our rights? When we want something or need something.

Paul is saying, this closeness with God, it should be so powerful, so fulfilling, that other needs just pale in comparison.

When God truly is everything we need, other things just seem less

STORY - two missionaries coming home after decades. No parade, no welcome committee. ‘That’s OK, we’re not home yet.’

This peace that guards our hearts, it’s supposed to be so powerful that the governing perspective in our life is gentleness, not anxiety or worry or fighting over our rights.

It’s like having access to this infinite, amazing buffet for food and fighting other people over scraps on the ground.

But again, this ties back to trust. We TRUST God when he says that he’s everything we need. And the discipline of constant prayer reminds us of this, and it also gives us plenty of opportunities to see God prove Himself true.

So when we face hardships in life, if we have these things as a foundation:

The idea that God is actively guarding our hearts, protecting us from things that could steal our peace and our joy

That we have an active and constant prayer life with god, and we can TRULY say that He is part of everything we do

We actively live gentle lives, not pushing our own rights our ‘needs’ but showing everyone in what we do that God is everything to us.

… then what are we going to feel like doing?

Rejoice!

now, if we read this backwards, I think we understand the WHY behind paul saying ‘rejoice’. This is the end game. This is the big victory.

That God’s peace, god’s joy is so big, so powerful, that in every situation, we’re not just content. we’re not just ‘ya, i get it, it’ll be ok’. That we can straight up rejoice.

Doesn’t that sound like a wonderful thing? So let’s pray.

Study notes:

Our inner attitudes don’t have to reflect our outer circumstances. To Paul, he had Jesus with him - so he had reason to rejoice

This isn’t a ‘put on a show’ happiness - this is a genuine joy, that’s only possible in the Lord

The word for ‘gentleness’, epiekes, is a tough word. It COULD mean

forbearance

leniency

magnamity

charitable

The sense is, someone willing to yield his or her own rights to show consideration and gentleness to others

To Paul, a combinatoin of an attitude of joy / gentleness, and a constant awareness of both Christ’s proximity and imminent return, dispelled worry

But for Paul, the antidote to worry isn’t ‘right circumstances to life’ - it’s prayer. Don’t worry, but in everything, pray.

Prayer helps because it’s a release, it’s an offload to God - present all our requests to Him

The approach is the crux - in every situation (constantly) , with petition (need), with thanksgiving (gratefulness)

Prayer doesn’t always mean the answer we want. But it DOES always mean the connection with God that we need.

True peace doesn’t come from absence of conflict, good feelings, or positive thinking - it comes from knowing God is in control.

Believers are GIVEN peace by God, and it’s beyond our ability to comprehend.

This peace OF God is found having peace WITH God (Romans 5:1)

As much as it’s something that we can’t understand on our own - we also can’t do it on our own.

If we’re only aiming for a peace that we can understand - i feel peaceful because I have the answers I want - we’re aiming at an inferior peace.

We should examine our hearts. How much are we asking God for peace - and how much are we asking God for an explanation or an answer so that our thoughts give us peace?

Paul, the guy who can be so utterly confusing in his depth of knowledge and understanding, simply says - this idea of God’s peace goes beyond understanding.

The goal of this peace is to protect our hearts. The greek word used for guard is a military term that means ‘to surround and protect a garrison or city’.

The philippians lived in a garrison town, so they were familiar with the Roman guards who watched over the town, kept the peace, and protected it from outside attack

Real problems don’t simply take away our outside circumstances - they take away our inside stability. Real solutions don’t simply deal with our outside circumstances - they deal with our inside stability.

If something doesn’t bother us internally - is it really that big of a problem?