Phil 4:8-9
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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 moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Today we are going to talk about anxiety.
Which no one here has ever experienced so we can all just tune out.
No in reality, we are very prone to being anxious.
Last week’s text covered this passage.
6 Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
John made the point last week that to view the symptoms of anxiety as being the sin in itself is wrong.
He also quoted us some John Chrysostom.
So I will too
In commenting on our very passage from today. This old church father made this statement.
“Cut out the root, and their will be no fruit.”
What is the root of your anxiety?
If anxiety is the fruit of something, where is the root?
In order to address this topic today I think we need to build a quick theology of Christian living.
Christian Oikos and Paidea
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:17-24
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” Philippians 2:12-18
“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.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”: Philippians 4:4-9
“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.” Colossians 1:10-11
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:5-6
“As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Read through verses encouraging Christian living.
So the question after reading these is,
“is this legalism?”
Just like the confused anime guy meme where a butterfly is flying right next to him and he is asking, “Is this a pigeon?”,
We do the same thing with God’s word and God’s laws.
We are offered a beautiful treasure in the reality that God has afforded us his very word.
And our inheritance in the Holy Spirit as sons and daughters of God is the ability to understand and live in accordance to this word.
But we have a disjointed view of our faith.
Not only are we often out of touch with our own history as Christians in church history,
but we are woefully out of touch with our own heritage and history that we find in Scripture.
If you are a Christian, your faith is the faith of Israel.
If you have been baptized into Christ, then you have been baptized into Christ’s body. Christ’s family.
And this family has history.
This family has roots.
There was a man in our family who was a king.
David.
David wrote much of the prayerbook of Israel.
The prayerbook of the Church.
Psalms.
And right in the middle of this prayer book is one of the greatest literary achievements of all time.
Psalm 119.
One of these days we’ll spend time in this Psalm as a community,
but for now,
understand that this Psalm, (the longest one),
spends every single verse highlighting and praising the immense value and supremacy of the law of God.
So tell me, how can that be true for us, if the law is done away with, only to be replaced by grace?
Because it hasn’t.
Jesus himself said, I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
Now it helps for me to see these sorts of things.
So let’s draw it out:
Law/God’s Requirement
Death Deserved
Dead in Adam
Unable to Obey
Justice required
Disjointed Humanity
_________________ THROUGH CHRIST
Obedience through Christ
Inheritance through Christ
New Life Through Christ
Able to obey through Christ
Justice has been met through Christ
New Humanity
All of this could be described as the new humanity.
A better humanity
1st Adam --- 2nd Adam
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,
Paul, who is writing this letter, knows all this.
And has patterned his life after Christ.
And now encourages His churches to do the same.
We see him make this command to the Corinthian church.
1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.
This was a church that badly needed role models.
They didn’t have 2000 years of church history to look back into to see what authentic Christian living looked like.
So what did they have?
Well, they had the Torah, the prophets, the Psalms, wisdom literature like Proverbs...
And they had the apostles.
Apostles like Paul who had their lives upended by Christ and set aright.
So now we have Paul, writing to a church full of people.
People with minds.
People who are very prone to get trapped in their minds.
To experience the effects of their own sin, and other people’s sin, in their minds.
Paul most assuredly had to deal with the affects of bad thoughts and anxiety, depression just like the rest of us.
And so he gives them an apostolic example:
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 moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Problem: Anxiety disorders affect 40 million US Adults. 1/5 of the population.
The key is not to view the things that we are anxious about as the problem.
The key is to make the real root for anxiousness go away.
What we see from scripture is that what you fill your mind with has an effect on your mind and your action.
Remedy:
Gospel
But more than that, the true story of the whole world.
The Gospel orients us both in history, and cosmically to God.
What do I mean by that?
Well let’s talk about history.
What is the history of the world?
The real history of the world?
Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration.
The Gospel tells us true things about ourselves, rooted in this history.
A deep knowing of who we are and why we are in this giant universe is grounding in a way that relieves us from anxiety.
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. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
An understanding of where we fit in the biblical story, a deep rooted knowledge of the good news that God cares immensely for you. He will not only clothe you and feed you daily. But has already clothed you in the righteousness of his son and He feeds you His grace daily as you wake up and live in a new day that he has made.
2. Be Lovers of beauty
You can’t say “Yes” to everything that is true about the Gospel,
and then turn around and fill your mind with things that are antithetical to the Gospel.
To things that do not bear witness to the true story of the world.
Now, this does not mean that we become monks who remove ourselves from all exposure to the world so that the only thing we are experiencing is seclusion and the word of God.
No.
God made his people to be salt and light.
Salt has to be actually in the recipe for it to taste good.
Have you ever cooked without salt?
Don’t.
Christians must be in the world in order to help make it taste good.
Light actually has to be in the dark room to illuminate it.
How absurd would it be if the power went out and you heard your child crying in the next room over, so you turned on a flashlight in your room and then left it there.
Christians can’t just make their own rooms and not engage with the darkness.
But we are fooling ourselves if we take the world around us wholesale.
I have noticed a trend amongst people who grew up in church environments.
What I see is a tendency to start with a grain of truth which says
“The legalism which my parents fed to me, or my church fed to me, was not good.”
But then what follows could only be described by an utter lack of discernment.
And we can safely assume that this same lack of discernment was present in the Philippian church.
After all, the early church was tempted by the gnostic heresy that said what you did with your body didn’t matter.
We are really tempted by the same heresy today, it just takes a different form.
We have an incredible capacity to fill our minds with anything we want, unlike any time in history.
You can unlock your phone with your face,
and then read, watch, and listen to literally anything.
Now, if we were following in the footsteps of that old gnostic heresy,
we would say something to ourselves like
“It really doesn’t matter what I’m watching on HBOMax tonight, because I’m just watching it.”
This isn’t just a gnostic heresy, this lie goes back to the garden.
A lie whispered through the corridors of time from the lips of a human hating serpent that says
“Did God really say?”
“He’s just keeping you from something good.”
The interesting thing that happens when we hold up the mirror of the gospel to this lie is this:
God doesn’t forbid us to live a certain way because creation is bad, because sex is bad, because food is bad, because play is bad, because art is bad, and he just wants us to be little spiritual vegetables who never have fun.
On the contrary, what the gospel shows us is that all of these things are inherently good.
The story starts with creation.
God said it was all good.
All of those things I just listed are inherently good.
And not just that, they are inherently delightful.
And not only that, they are powerful.
God has built power into creation.
You can use food in powerful ways.
Either for good or for evil.
You can use sex in unbelievably powerful ways.
It’s why scripture in multiple locations refers to sexuality like a fire.
When the fire is the hearth where it is designed to be, that fire can be stoked burning hot for the enjoyment of those in the room.
But as soon as you lay a 10 foot beam with one end in the hearth and the other end in your living room, the whole house will burn down.
Creation is powerful.
But God did not make us to live in fear of creation.
He actually gave us dominion over it.
That word doesn’t mean dominate, it’s talking about authority.
And in God’s economy, authority is given for the sake of others.
God has made you more cunning than all of the animal kingdom, so that you may care for them.
God has given you a mind that can develop scientific theories so that you can draw out the good of creation through farming, technology, medicine, air quality control, and on and on.
God has given you a body that is by design, sexual.
Not so that you can feed every sexual craving with endless partners whether they be virtual or physical, but so that you can love, serve, and enjoy the person that God has bound you to in the covenant of marriage.
God has given us minds that have the capacity for art.
This is perhaps one of the clearest signs that humans are made in the image of God, set apart from the rest of animal kingdom.
Did you know that the very first song or poem recorded in human history is from Genesis 4, where a man composes a tune declaring his independence from God and his ability to kill a man.
From then on in human history there has been a great choice laid before every man and woman.
Will you use this imago dei (image of God) status to create beauty, or to create evil?
Sometimes it seems like the ugliness outweighs the evil.
But we have good examples of both throughout time.
David’s composition of the Psalms is probably the great pinnacle in the middle of history of how you can use your creative power to create good.
The funny thing is that humans created in the image of God can’t help but glorify him in their creating, even if they hate him.
I think the best examples of this are in music.
The song comfortably numb has arguably the best guitar solo of all time in it.
Lyrically the song is about numbing your pain with drugs,
but the artist who composed this song, who would not turn to God for comfort in pain,
used his God given creative ability to write something beautiful.
And I think that brings us to the crux of the issue here right?
Can we consume or enjoy something that has elements of truth in it and be ok?
Or are we just supposed to only listen to KLOVE while we drive around town until we go crazy and drive our car off a cliff.
This isn’t supposed to be all that hard actually.
Why?
Because we have been given freedom AND discernment.
And to aid in our discernment, we have excellent apostolic wisdom like Philippians 4:8 and 9 to help us.
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 moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
When I was growing up, my parents had a method to the madness of parenting.
Analogy of plants.
As we got older, freedom increased.
The tool, or rubric that my Dad gave us was “Does that pass the Philippians 4:8 test?
Does that song, does that movie, does that activity pass that test?
This tool is a gift.
Because if we don’t use this God given discernment, than we are like people walking around with funnels on our heads that pour right into our brain.
And when we don’t filter what goes into our brain there are consequences.
Social Media frequently does not pass the Philippians 4:8 test.
You probably have friends whose content does not pass the test.
Your content might not pass the test.
But not only is the content of social media often problematic, but the form is as well.
Have you heard of doom scrolling?
Slot machine design.
Young girls brains on Instagram.
The grace of God however, is that there is also consequences for dwelling on the true, the honorable, and the lovely.
And that consequence is peace.
“If inner peace is to be enjoyed continually and it’s influence spread abroad, certain steps must be taken.”
Peace never happens by accident.
We are highly liturgical creatures.
Which just means we are highly worshipful creatures.
“Liturgy,” as I’m using the word, is a shorthand term for those rituals that are loaded with an ultimate Story about who we are and what we’re for. They carry within them a kind of ultimate orientation. To return to our metaphor above, think of these liturgies as calibration technologies: they bend the needle of our hearts.” James K.A. Smith
The question is just, what is your liturgy?
How do you worship?
Your entire life is oriented towards worship whether you like it or not.
“In short, liturgies make us certain kinds of people, and what defines us is what we love.” -James K.A. Smith
What do you love?
Nick - Camino
“Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand “the kingdom of God.” James K.A. Smith
Living out the gospel involves orienting our love and thoughts towards God so that our actions would be oriented that way as well.
“I think therefore I am.”
“I think therefore I act.”
How can we form ourselves and our kids in such a way so that we are filling our minds with thoughts that bring about the action we desire.
Think about what our kids are up against.
What should we offer them?
"Kids want to be a part of something bigger and older than they are. Something that has a kind of ancient stability and endurance about it that testifies to God's faithfulness. But if children are traditional animals, they are also ritual animals. And the sad fact is that our youth ministries treated them as thinking things that needed to be entertained, when in fact, what they really crave is not liberation from ritual, but rather liberating rituals. Have we failed to realize that while we are trying to entertain them, our young people are waiting for us to form them?" -James K.A. Smith in "You Are What You Love"
We need new liturgies.
New liturgies that expose you (and your kids) to the true, the honorable, the just, the pure, the lovely, and the commendable.
Pray about things a certain way: Peace of God will be with you.
Act them out: God of peace will be with you.
8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!
This isn’t name calling.
This is truth telling.
We have dirty hands and dirty hearts.
It is by Christ’s gospel, that we are purified.
Purified that we might enjoy the good the true and the beautiful in the best way that God has designed us to.