Hebrews so that we can be encouraged,
so that we can be encouraged. Let's go to Philippians chapter
4 and let's look at verses 4 through 13, 4 through 13. The Word of the Lord says this,
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let
your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus. 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. 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 rejoice in the Lord greatly
that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were
indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that
I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever
situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low,
and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance,
I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance
and need. I can do all things through Him
who strengthens me. Let's pray. Father, we are so
glad that you have allowed your apostles and ordained them to
speak your word through these letters. Father, that even in
that moment, they were writing by your spirit to encourage the
saints of Philippi, as Paul wrote this letter over 2,000 years
ago. And Lord, in his encouragement to them, we now still have it
here in our hands to read in our tongue, to hear with our
ears and mind. And Lord, by your mercy, we get
to hear with a true mind of Christ born again to a living hope in
him. And so, Father, I pray that this
would have been encouragement to us tonight, that as we look
at the world around us, as we see the circumstances that are
so troublesome and trial, Lord, that we would not lose heart,
but that we would rejoice. And again, as you say, we would
rejoice. Father, help us to see that our
joy is truly only in Christ and to understand and comprehend
with the rest of the saints the depth and the height and the
richness of your love for us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray,
amen. All right, I wanted to take a
break. I pulled this text out Monday. It was on my mind all
day Monday. It was on my mind Monday night.
It was on my mind all day yesterday. I taught it to some of my students
yesterday morning in conversation. They're all like, well, we're
stressed out, we're scared about this, worried about this. I'm
like, here's a good one. So we're gonna talk about it
tonight. Not that the rest of the scripture, not that where
we are in Hebrews isn't an encouragement to us, but sometimes I feel like
When we're completely overrun, it's good when the Lord shows
us encouragement to share it with each other, to share it
with each other. And if we were to put our finger
on our problems, I mean, if you think about that right now, what
does a good therapist do? Well, what's bothering you? What
are you thinking about? What's troubling you? Oh, nothing.
Well, let's find something. And it's easy to find something.
It's easy to find something that causes us suffering, something
that causes us discomfort, something that causes us stress, anxiety. If we weren't able to find that,
we probably aren't thinking very deeply at all. As a matter of
fact, we probably would lie. Anyone who would say, oh yeah,
everything's great, is probably just being cordial, being socially
nice. I don't believe there's any such
reality in the lives of a human being, and I don't believe there's
any such reality in the lives of a true saint, that they can
just walk day to day to day and go, que sera, sera. However,
we do have the promise of joy. We have the promise of joy and
the promise of peace. And so in this text, of course,
we know the occasion of the writing to the Philippians and that Paul
had been accused and indicted and convicted and imprisoned
for violating the law, which told him he could not speak in
the name of Christ and teach about the things of Christ because
as he taught, The flesh that hated the truth of Christ resisted
that. The culture resisted that, and
divisions arose, and problems arose, and the authorities were
like, no more of this. We're going to take care of the
problem. And they thought that Paul was the problem, but the
problem was the sinfulness of man. The problem was the fact
that we are divided in our minds until we're born again concerning
the truth of Christ. And that division rises up every
single time the flesh gives it opportunity And there's nothing
greater than to stir trials than when people get in the flesh. And so Paul in his flesh was
in prison. Paul in his flesh was in a place
where he found himself often unable to do that which he had
planned, unable to preach to those he had planned to see and
teach, unable to see church planning take place as he had hoped. But
all the while, we see the writing of Paul where he resolved, not
lying about his circumstances, but resolved to understand and
to know the peace of Christ. And so I believe that in today's
economy, of grace, we need to understand what it means to truly
rejoice. We need to understand that as
Paul wrote this letter, he starts off here in verse 4. Look what
he says. He commands the church. God has commanded us to rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. And he's
so emphatic, he says it again. But these people were not rejoicing. The Philippian church was not
rejoicing. It was laboring over the persecution of Paul. It was
laboring over the, oh gosh, what are they called? Those people
who were preaching in Paul's place for profit. The charlatans. They were labored over the fact
that nobody else was standing up and doing something about
it. And Paul's saying, listen, don't worry about me. Because
though my hands are bound, the Word of God is not bound, and
it shall do that which it was sent to do, and God gets all
the glory for it. And what I am suffering, as he
would say to the church of Colossae, is to fill up what is lacking
in the suffering of Christ. As he told the brothers in Acts,
he says, My hands are clean, for I've preached to you. The
life I have is not mine, but it's for you. And that's what
we need to keep in mind. By grace, we have been saved
through faith. Paul writes this letter, grace
to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. And he commends this church for
their love and for their comfort and for their ministry and for
their steadfastness under trial. He commends them for their affection
for him and their desire to help him and to provide financial
support for him. But he tells them, no, thank
you. He tells them, no, thank you. And in the culture, these
Christians saw a lot of things taking place that they did not
like. They saw things that were not so in the years before the
gospel had come to them. Everyone lived a life of what
seemed like unity and harmony, and everything was at peace in
some sense, but there was no true peace there, not until Christ's
gospel came. And then now that there was true
peace, it seemed like the world had turned upside down and there
was no peace. And beloved, I feel like that's
where we are today. I feel like that though we have the peace
of Christ, though we know that we are reconciled to God through
His merciful, eternal love toward us, His people, His elect, that
we look at the world today and the evangelical sense in which
we live in the culture, everyone's a Christian, don't believe me,
ask them. Everybody's up in arms about
everything but what the Bible says to be worried over. You
might think, well, what does the Bible say to be worried over?
Nothing. The Bible says to not be anxious
at all. The Bible commands us to rejoice.
But see, here is the misapplication of that. We think we're supposed
to rejoice by praying that God would do something to cause our
pain to cease. No, we are to rejoice not in
the painlessness, but in the Lord. So let's go there. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I will say rejoice. I don't even know if I have any
time to get past this command. Paul is saying don't worry about
these circumstances. Don't worry about a potato. Don't
worry about politics. Don't worry about book banning.
Don't worry about all these things. Don't worry about the Second
Amendment. Don't worry about this, that, and the other. Don't
worry about the cults. Don't worry about these people
causing trouble. Don't worry about these criminals.
Don't worry about this lifestyle. Don't worry! Why? Because God has ordained all
of it to be as it is. Newsflash Christian, God is in
his word has never promised that the world will submit in its
present state to the lordship of Christ our God. There's nowhere
in the Bible that teaches that the world is going to get better.
However, it is morally better today than it was 2000 years
ago. A lot of people don't realize
that. The things that take place. I
love history. I love history. I love to read
things that took place yesterday because it takes my mind off
of what might happen tomorrow. But ultimately, there are some
wicked, evil things that took place legally in the days of
Rome. Things that even the vilest of
wicked persons today in our country would never condone. Yet the
Bible is absent. The Bible doesn't say anything
about those things. Those topics are absent from
the Bible. The Bible is not absent. It's here. And yet in the midst
of all of that, in the midst of everything, God's word says
to rejoice. But we don't rejoice in and because
of the circumstances. We don't rejoice because the
Lord gets us out of the circumstances. We don't rejoice when we are
victorious over the circumstances. We rejoice in the Lord always
and only. Jesus in John 14 and later in
John 16 and then in John 17. As we see this last few hours
of his freedom before he was arrested and then tried and then
crucified. He says that I'm going to prepare a place for you. If
it were not so, I read it Sunday morning. I would not have told
you and where I'm going, there is a lot of room for you and
I'm going to be with the father and then I'm going to come back
and bring you to where I am so that you and I can be together.
This is what Jesus says to his apostles. And then they say, where are
you going? I'm going to the Father. You rejoice. No, don't leave,
don't leave. No, you don't understand. I'm getting out of this world
that belongs to me that I've created for this purpose. And
I'm going to the place where I am supposed to be that you
may know my joy. I'm going to give you my joy,
not the joy that the world gives. What is the joy of Christ? We
see it in Hebrews. We see it in other writings. We see it
in the Gospels. It looks beyond the cross and the world and everything
in it. He looks to his own glory. That's what gives him joy. You
want to understand that? Christ's joy manifests in the
vision of himself, in the satisfaction of himself with himself. That
means that the love that God has for himself, the joy that
God has in himself, the sufficiency of God by himself, he requires
nothing else but himself. And now that complete fullness
of self joy contained in the Godhead is ours to share. It's easy to say though, isn't
it? Just have joy in the Lord, and it sounds good at the grocery
store. Amen! Get in the car going, I hate
my life. I can't take this anymore. Well, there's some instruction.
So there's gospel truth here, the joy that comes who is the
Christ. Why would we have joy? Because
we are in Christ. Christ's life is our life, Christ's
death is our death, Christ's resurrection is our resurrection,
Christ's righteousness is our righteousness, and so on and
so forth. The promises of God to the Son
are ours in Him, and the list goes on. We could just go back
through Romans, go back through Galatians, go back through all
the writings of the New Testament to where we are tonight. But
Paul then commands, the Lord commands us to rejoice in the
Lord. And again, I'm going to say it
again, rejoice. Then he says, let your reasonableness
be known to everyone. And this is where we get into
trouble. I asked the question to some
youth. Do you know someone who's reasonable? I mean, if we were
all to write a name down on our hand tonight, we don't have If
we were to write a name on our hand of the person that we would
say, by definition, is reasonable, who would it be? Would it be
you? Most of us would not say that. Maybe some of us could.
I can see some of you as reasonable people, but what does it mean
to be reasonable? You know why it's so hard to
come up with someone? Because it's not natural to the human
nature. To be reasonable. What does a reasonable person
do? What is a reasonable person?
How do we define that? A reasonable person is someone
who is willing to listen. A reasonable person is someone
who is not considering how they might come back and get their
opinion known, but is someone who is willing to learn and observe
and absorb all sorts of ideas for the sake of hearing. That's
a reasonable person. And then in return, that reasonable
person would say, let us then, let's use the term in itself,
reason together and discuss things. So another attribute of someone
who is reasonable is someone who talks, someone who discusses,
someone who isn't looking to get to the end of the conversation,
but is willing to patiently endure it until the Lord sees it stopped. I mean, and this is not new.
I'm not making this stuff up. This is contextual. It's the
scripture telling us to be slow to speak, be quick to listen,
to be kind, to be generous, to endure evil, to love our enemies,
to not fight fire with fire, to not bring reproach upon ourselves
in the name of Christ, but to keep ourselves in a place of
humility and kindness. And when we are ruffled, just
to just let it roll. I'm not as reasonable as I want
to consider myself, am I? Neither are we. Some of us are
more reasonable than others, but the command is let our reasonableness
be known to everyone. So how do we do that? Well, Paul
tells us at the end of this little text here, he says in verse nine,
he says, what you have learned and what you've received and
what you've heard and seen in me practice these things. So
if we can look at Paul's suffering, we can learn what it means to
be reasonable. I mean, when Paul was wrongly
arrested and then whipped illegally, and they tried to scoot him out
the back door, remember, because they were not able to whip and,
you know, flog a Roman citizen. He goes, no, no, no, no, no,
no. I'm going to go out the front door. I want everybody to see
what has happened to me. Why? So that Paul could be vindicated?
No, so that people could understand the cost of the gospel. And you never heard another complaint
out of Paul's mouth about his flogging. He didn't stand there
and put his finger in the face of the guard. You're not going
to take me out the back door, sucker. I know my rights. Ah! No, he's
just like, no, I'm going to walk out the front door. I'm a free
man, right? Yeah, I'm going out the front. I'm going out the
front. Everybody saw it. He didn't make
a big deal, and it was over. After that moment, it was over.
He never talked about it again. He never brought it up again.
And when the Philippians was like, man, you've already been wrongly
accused, you've been wrongly arrested, you've been wrongly
flogged. We've got to do something. He said, preach the gospel and
be reasonable. This is about freeing me out
of prison. Stop worrying about pastors in prison. Praise God
for it. Keep them there, Lord. Put the pastors in prison. Most people who are in prison
now for ministry aren't preaching the truth anyway. They aggravating
the government. That's why they went to jail,
not for preaching truth, but for stirring trouble. We got
a long way to come before we realize the difference in gospel
persecution and just being a tailhole. I'm telling you. That's the second
time in four days I've said that word. Let your reason be known. How
do we do it? We mimic the reasonableness of the Lord. We mimic the reasonableness
of our brothers and sisters who are wiser in the faith. We mimic
the reasonableness of Paul during his afflictions. We do what Peter
says to do when Christ was reviled. He did not return with revile,
but he entrusted himself to the one who judges faithfully and
righteously. This is a blessing to my soul
to see these words and to share them with you. And you might
say, well, how is it that we can be so reasonable? Don't we
have to attack these cultural things? No, leave them alone.
God has ordained them for his purposes. And he is glorified
when we preach the truth in the midst of them. And then he says something amazing.
Verse five, the last phrase, which is really the first part
of verse six, the Lord is at hand. The Lord is at hand. What does it mean to be at hand?
Well, that little Bible is at hand. This microphone is at hand.
This jacket is at hand. My watch is at hand. It's right
there where I can put my hands on it. That's what it means to
be at hand. It's close by. Here it is. It's with me. The
Lord, he says, is at hand. The Lord is here. The Lord is
with us. This isn't new. Where there are
two or more gathered together, I am with you. We know that the
teaching of the presence of the Lord, Jesus Himself said He would
send the paraclete that I am with you. The Helper. Christ is the Helper. The Spirit
is the Helper. The Father is the Helper. The
God of Heaven is our Helper. He is present with us. The Lord
is at hand. So then the next part of that
is because this is true statement, the Lord is near, do not be anxious
about anything because isn't that the point? Isn't that the
point of the problem? We see the problems and we take
deep breaths and we do all this cool stuff of focusing our minds
on things but we still take our mind back to the problems and
we try to become the superhero to overcome the problems, but
the world is going to constantly be full of them, and the command
of God is that we rejoice in a reasonable way, the Lord is
at hand, so not to be anxious about anything. Now, beloved,
I've been working on this my entire life. And everybody that
I know is working on this. Everybody. Everybody, this is
not something that just believers are working on. Try not to be
anxious. Everybody's working on it. That's why liquor stores
are so profitable. That's why illegal narcotics
are so profitable. It's why all sorts of things are so profitable,
so active. We're all, every human being,
even children are looking, try to not be anxious. The only remedy
of our anxiety is the knowledge and the truth that the Lord is
at hand and the command to rejoice. It's almost like if everything
is going wrong and we get a call, Jesus is like, I'm on the way,
hold tight. Be there in 10 minutes. Man, we're rejoicing. What are
you smiling about? You'll see. The Lord's on the
way. He's coming. At least that's
what I'd hope he'd say. I got to get out of here. Jesus
is coming. I got to go. The Lord is at hand, so do not be anxious
about anything. How do I overcome my anxiety?
It says right there, but in everything, in everything. By prayer, what
is prayer? Talking to God honestly, according
to his will. Submitting in our hearts and
minds the fact that he is sovereign over these circumstances that
cause us anxiety. So by prayer that we talk to
God and supplication which is we pray for other people specifically
like pray for Paul who's suffering, pray for our brothers and sisters
who are suffering, pray for those who are suffering, pray for the
problems, pray for the division, pray for the resolution, pray
that the will of the Lord be done, it will be done. But we
do so with thanksgiving. So I believe joy, rejoicing in
the Lord who is at hand with thanksgiving is the remedy Paul
is prescribing here against anxiety. Not going on social media and
arguing your points. Not telling your neighbor where
to put it. Not cursing out your spouse.
Not showing everybody that you can handle it because you're
a man. See that's the problem with us men. We like to prove
we're men in some odd way. So we rejoice by praying with
thanksgiving and in that attitude we make our request known to
God. You think, really? This is what
the Lord has called us to? Yes. Why would he tell us to
do that? How's that going to help my anxiety? How is this
going to change my heart and my fear and my problems and my
stress? How is this going to resolve
all this stuff? Because unless he fixes all this, I'm going
to still be stressed out. You see what I'm saying? We're
there already, aren't we? It's easy. It's so easy. He's not
going to fix all that. He's going to remind us of something.
It says, if we do these things, verse seven, and the peace of
God. What is it? The peace of God.
Whose peace? The peace of God. Not James's peace, not your peace,
not our collective peace, not the peace of a sunset or the
peace of a mountain or the peace of a nice trip or the peace of
quiet or the peace of a bonus check. Not the peace of lack
of pain or the lack of aggravation or the peace of a clear mind
and a good cold ice water. No, the peace of God. That comes
only through the finished work of Jesus Christ, only to his
people, only when the spirit of God causes them to see the
truth of the gospel. The peace of God. It's not about
how we change our thinking. It's not about lining ourselves
up logically with the circumstances. It's not about therapeutic idealism
where we can walk around and think, okay, now I've got to
change the way I think, you know, the stinking thinking attitude that we often
hear on the radio. It's not about changing that.
Because the peace of God is not something that logically makes
sense. The peace of God is not something that's rationalized
internally. The peace of God, it says right
there, which surpasses all understanding. Now think about it for a second.
You think about the story of the gospel. And I remember conversations
on the campus of UC Berkeley and other places and college
campuses specifically. You know, people come up and
say, oh, you believe that Bible? Yes, I do. You know, downtown
San Francisco. Oh, you believe that Bible? Yes,
I do. You mean to tell me this big, Cosmic God put some flowers
in a garden, told these people not to eat it, and they did.
He had to kill them, and then he's just gonna kill his son in their place.
That's your story? Absolutely. That's the dumbest
thing I've ever heard. You know what I say to that?
You're absolutely right. That is the dumbest thing I've
ever heard, too. That makes no sense until you're born again. The peace of God, and I'm just
using that in a little simplistic, jovial way, But the peace of
God is not something that the human mind can arrest. The peace of God is not something
we can come to explain. The peace of God comes in the
mind that has been given the mind of Christ by the Spirit
of God. See, we've already seen that in this very text. Have
this mind among you. Have this mind among you. Christ, though he was God, did
not take equality with God, something to be grasped, made himself nothing.
Paul would go on to say, I will rejoice, I will rejoice when
Christ is proclaimed and for I know that through the prayers
of your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Christ Jesus,
this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation
and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But that with full
courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether
I live or die. For to me, to live is Christ
and to die is more. And if I'm to live in the flesh,
it means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot
tell. I'm hard-pressed, but I'll tell
you this. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that
is far, far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary
for you. Convinced of this, I know that
I will remain and continue with you all. Why? For your progress
and for your joy in the faith so that in me, in the work that
God has done through my suffering, you may have ample cause to glory
in Jesus Christ because of me coming to you again. So walk
in a manner worthy of this great gospel and be encouraged by the
love of God and the love of the saints. and obey and do everything
that you do without grumbling and complaining that you may
be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the
midst of a crooked and twisted generation. I'm hung whom you
shine as lights in the world as you are holding fast to the
word of life so that the day of Christ I may be proud that
I do not run worthlessly or labor worthlessly. Even if I'm poured
out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your
faith, I'm glad and I rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should
also be glad and rejoice with me." You see, this is not something
new. This is just Paul bringing the
summary of this encouragement to this church, and it's a summary
of encouragement that should encourage us today. The peace
of God surpasses all understanding. So it's not about us coming to
some conclusions about how our mind is going to be changed.
It's about God changing our mind as we focus on that which is
eternal, not temporal. See, this is similar to what
he says to the Corinthians. For this light momentary affliction,
what? Prepares us for an eternal weight
of glory that is beyond comparison as we look to that which is unseen
rather than that which is seen. For that which is seen is temporal,
but that which is unseen is eternal. and full of glory. Okay, we get
you Paul. What does it really look like?
What is this peace gonna really do? You don't understand what
I'm going through, God. You don't understand what my thoughts are. You don't
understand how my heart feels. But this is the promise. Rejoice
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness
be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand, so do not
be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God. And in doing so, the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts, and will
guard your minds in Jesus Christ. Now if I had a dollar for every
time I heard an adult tell me in my youth, guard your heart,
I'd have a lot of dollars. Guard your eyes, guard your ears,
guard your mouth. And for the longest time, when
you hear that as a young man, as a boy, as a child, you go,
what does that even mean? How am I supposed to guard my
mind? You gonna put a helmet on it? Yes, actually. How am
I supposed to guard my heart? Oh, get close to that young girl
now. Guard your heart. You walk up to her, she shakes
your hand. No, don't touch my heart. I mean, you know, get away from
me. What do you do? We don't do anything. God guards
our hearts. God guards our minds from what? Worrying about everything. Being fearful of everything,
being concerned about everything, thinking that we are going to
do something in the area of resolution about everything. God, if we
pray and we do that which we've been told to do, God and His
peace, which is beyond our mind, will guard our minds to better
things. And you might think, what's the
result of that look like? Here's what it looks like. And
this is a double-edged sword here. There's no pun in this,
but it's a double-edged sword because it is, you know, Hebrews
4.12. But it's a double-edged sword
because it is the word of God and it is talking about God's
sovereignty and his spirit doing the work of guarding our hearts
and minds against fear and anxiety and rejoicing in the midst of
all these circumstances because of the gospel of grace, because
we are in Christ, And then the outcome of that will be what
I'm about to read, but it's also the discipline required to stand
in it. So that as we've been learning
in 1 John, where we pray for our brothers and sisters who
aren't loving, and we pray for ourselves that God would cause
us to love, that we would then all walk together in a unified
love because of the gospel, and we would grow together in that
community. The same thing is true here when we find ourselves
laboring over the circumstances of life and the stress and the
trials of even small things or national things or larger things,
spiritual things or physical things or material things or
practical things. We're really going to learn right now in verse
eight and nine that there is a practical aspect to this promise. Listen to it. Finally, brothers,
and there's a whole list. Whatever is true. Whatever is
honorable. Whatever is just. Whatever is
pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever
is commendable. Excellent. Worthy of praise.
These things. Now this is not eight different
things that we need to parse out and exposit. What are these
things? And get a list of them. These
are just eight ways of saying focus on the Lord. Focus on the
gospel. And it reminds me of John's writing
in his first epistle where it says, Do not love the world or
the things of the world. For the things of the world,
the lust of the eyes, the pride of lice, the lust of the flesh,
all this stuff, pride of possessions, are not from the Lord, but are
from the world. And the world and everything
in it is passing away. See, we spend so much of our time worrying
about the sovereign God's activity over temporal things. and why
they aren't being resolved according to our ideals and our timeline,
that we labor to think that maybe God wants us to do something
else so that he'll answer our prayers. That's wrong. Instead
of focusing on all of these things, we are to focus on that which
is true and honorable, lovely, commendable. And that means we
should listen to what is true and lovely and commendable. Listen
to the encourager, not the naysayer. Listen to the gospel proclamation,
not the heresy. Listen to the truth. This is
what we're supposed to be hearing. This is where we're supposed
to put our focus. Where am I going to do that? We can do that with
the Word of God. We can do that with our conversations. We can
do that with our intimacy and our community and hanging out
with each other. And it's not an issue of legalism.
It's not an issue of a burden. It's not a burden to talk about
things that are positive and lovely and encouraging. It's
not a burden. As a matter of fact, it lifts your spirits.
You ever been the person you walk into a conversation, everybody's
smiling. Hey, how you doing? And you just dump everything.
And there's a whole room comes down. We've all been that person
before, right? We've all been that person. Imagine if that's
all we ever did. Where we would be? That's what
happens when we focus our mind on the world. When we focus our
mind on the problems, when we focus our mind on the news, when
we focus our mind on issues that are out of our control, and even
if they are in our control, when we're not trusting in God's purposes
and His sovereign power over them. What is honorable? What
is true? The Lord Jesus Christ is honorable
and true. And the things that He has put in His Word for our
instruction and our edification and our correction is what we
really need to be focusing on. And beloved, this is a sermon
for me that I preached to myself on Monday and then I shared again
yesterday and now I'm actually formulating it for you all tonight
because it is the truth of the Word of God and it is the gospel
of free and sovereign grace in its full effect that we have
the joy of the Lord. So woe is me who likes to dig
up dead bones and think I can make life out of them. Woe is
me who thinks I can bring resolution in the context of another man's
mind or heart. That's ridiculous. It's a fool's errand. Beloved,
we need to spend more time focusing on what Christ has done for us. He says, if there's anything
worthy of praise, that's a key element there. You want to know
if it's good and honorable and true. Is it worthy of praise?
If what we say with our mouths could be said before the Lord
as a praise. then it is worthy. If what we
listen to with our ears could be presented as an offering to
the God of heaven, it is worthy. If what we think in our mind
could be printed out and posted to the post office of glory,
it is worthy. If not, we need to move our thoughts
and minds away from these things and put it on that which is eternal.
And beloved, I know if it's up to you and up to me, it's not
going to work, but it is not up to us. It is the Spirit of
God Himself bringing this encouragement to us This is not the first time
we've read Philippians. It's not the first time we've
heard Philippians 4. As a matter of fact, 4.13 is probably one
of the most famous verses in the entirety of the world besides
John 3.16. Yet it is the most misapplied
text that I've ever seen. That I've ever seen in the midst
of trial or a sporting event. or any other time where we want
to climb a mountain that might be a little bit hard. This is
not about overcoming things that are hard through self-will and
determination. This is about overcoming things
that are impossible by the power of our sovereign Lord. It is
impossible to rejoice in a world that we live in. It is impossible
to overcome The darknesses that continue to swallow our hope,
our hope and our light. But the light shines in the darkness
and the darkness will not overcome it. And that light is Jesus Christ.
And we are those who shine also because we are found in him.
So the light we are is a reflection of the light of our Lord. And
this is what we should be doing every day. Excellent. Worthy of praise. Think about
these things. And what you've learned about
these things and what you've received, you've acknowledged
is the truth that you know Jesus Christ and heard and seen in
me practice these things and the God of peace will be with
you. So the Lord is at hand and he
is the God of peace. He's the God of peace. Friday, I was going down a dirt
road that was very troubling, that's the way you can put it,
and I tore up whatever kind of things keep the tires on on my
truck. And now, when I turn and drive, I go, it sounds like somebody
is grating cheese under there. So I have to have it in the shop
on Monday to get all that fixed. And all I can hear when I'm driving
is the squeaky, squeaky, squeaky, hoping it doesn't pop out and
I go crash into the ditch. Squeaky, squeaky, squeaky. The
squeaky wheel gets our attention. But the word says not to put
our attention on the squeaky wheels, to put our attention
on the soothing, smooth, glorious, peaceful whisper of grace. It's hard to hear it, isn't it?
Because the noise of the world just sort of takes it all out.
And see, Paul was going through his own disastrous experience. Look at verse 10 through 13 very
quickly. He commands them to do that which he is doing. That's
why he says, watch me, look at me, and do like I do. He's turned
his attention to them when they had turned their attention to
him. But their attention to him, while
beautiful and gospel centered, it was with great anxiety. And
so he turns around and instead of talking about how horrible
it is to be in his position, he says, I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly. Why? And now at great length. You have revived your concern
for me. He said, When I heard that you cared and you were concerned
for me, I rejoiced in the Lord. Not in you. I rejoiced in the
Lord. You were indeed concerned for
me and you wanted to help me, but you couldn't. See, you had
no opportunity. Verse 10. Then he says very clearly,
not that I'm speaking of being in need. Now listen, he had need. But he didn't want that, thank
you so much for being concerned for me. This is so easy for us,
isn't it? Be concerned for me, I'm suffering.
There's nothing wrong with that. But we have to grow into understanding
that the peace of Christ exercises our faith through trials. That we are growing and maturing
through the suffering so that one day we will be able to expressly
and honestly confess like Paul says here, I'm not in need. But we have needs, don't we?
But Paul had learned this. For I have learned in whatever
situation I am to be content Why would he say that? And why
did I have to read it? Because the next thing out of
my mind is, wow, Paul's a rock star and I'm a loser. Help me. I know how to be brought low
and I know how to abound in every in any circumstance I have learned
the secret of facing plenty and hunger and abundance and need."
Isn't that funny that Paul would couple good times and bad times
in the same thing? You know why? Because the peace
of the Lord is constant. The gospel never changes. The
Lord is immutable in all his ways and he is not causing different
circumstances in the midst of trying times because he's unable
to handle them. solid and stable, an immovable
rock, the foundation of our hope. And Paul's saying in the midst
of reflecting on the gospel, I need nothing. And we shouldn't
praise Paul for it. Because in verse 13 he says the
reason for his ability to do so. He says, I don't have the
ability. but it is Christ's strength in
me." Christ in me. I can endure all things because
of Christ who gives me strength. So beloved, let's imitate Paul. And I'm not saying we should
just pretend. But we should expect nothing
different than anxiety and fear if we do not practice trusting
in God's promises right here. And I think it starts with the
gospel and I think it ends with the gospel as we focus on it,
as we endure the cause of it, and as we rejoice And then every
now and again, when we look out at the world that we live in
and we see our life, there's many things to be discontent
about and scared about and fearful about, but it's not living. It's not living. As a matter
of fact, it destroys the very thing that we're supposed to
be doing, which is to serve one another in the Lord Jesus. So
let us recognize the strength of the Lord. In our weakness,
he is strong. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that you have helped us. Your word teaches us that you
help us in our time of need, that you help us when we're tempted.
And that's what all this is about. It's about temptation. It's about
being worried and wondering how we're going to make it through.
Father, your son has made it through. Let's look to him. Help us to look to Him, Father.
Cause us to look to Him. Lord, give each other a continual
desire to pray for one another, and to not look at our own lives
and worry about ourselves, but Father, to have a concern for
each other, rejoicing in the fact that You are going to affect
Your purposes in their lives, and that we have been called
to pray for them. And in like manner, Father, Your
Word teaches us that others will be praying for us. And Father,
we have many things to pray about and many people who are hurting,
many people who are scared, many people who are sick, people who
are financially uncertain, people who are concerned about everything. Lord, people who don't know the
truth, people who are very, their very faith has become a disaster. Lord, marriages that are falling
apart, friendships that are dividing. Lord, people are dying, yet you remain the same. And
our hope is not found in the resolution of these small temporary
things, though they are really important to us. They are just
part of your promise and part of your love and part of your
purpose for your people. So, Father, help us to look to
the cross and to the Christ who hung upon it. so that we might
know the joy that surpasses all understanding and teach us to
look at the things that are praiseworthy knowing that as we pray and as
we praise with thanksgiving that you the God of all peace will
be with us. Guard our minds and our hearts in Christ alone. Amen.