had an outing as a church in quite a long time. Haven't just gotten together for the fun of it, to enjoy one another's company in quite some time. In fact, now I may be wrong, but if I recall, the last time was three years ago when we met over in Alvord. I remember playing that game with the balloons in the town. I think it's time we got together again sometime But we'll want to try to pick a time when as many as possible can be around. I'd just stick that in your mind so you can think about it and see what you've got on your schedule or what can be cleared out of the way. I imagine toward the end of August, something like that, or whenever it works out for everybody.

Now if you'll turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. I've entitled this message, A Recipe for Peace. A Recipe for Peace. Now the believer has peace with God. Period. That's just so. Paul wrote, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And by this, he means that we are no longer at war with God and God is not at war with us. God has no argument against us. We have no argument against him. He who is at war with God is as of yet unsaved, unregenerated, yet dead in trespasses and sins. But the peace which Paul speaks of here in these verses is peace of mind. Peace of mind.

He says, beginning in verse 4, 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 everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, 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.

Now, this book, Book of Philippians, was written fairly near the end of Paul's life. Of course, that period of history, you know, Paul didn't date his letters like we might, so we know the exact date, but in comparing The things that he writes here, he's evidently in prison at this point. And they believe that, most commentators believe this was during his imprisonment in Rome, not the last imprisonment, which was in awful conditions, but here for two years he lived in his own rented house. He couldn't leave the house, he's under house arrest, but people could come to him. And he would preach the gospel to them, and he wrote letters and carried on what ministry he could from within that house.

Now, Paul's life, so far as the natural eye would be able to discern, was mostly a failure. There wasn't much to show for it. Rather than climbing the ladder of success in his career, it looked like he'd gone downhill. Now, for a while, things looked good.

When he went around as Saul of Tarsus, that zealot for the law, Lord, without persecuting the church, he was climbing the ladder of success. He was becoming more and more highly esteemed in the eyes of all his peers. His name Saul meant sought after. And they did, they sought after Saul.

Those strict Jews, the Pharisees, if there was a problem that needed tending to, they'd say, get Saul, he'll take care of it. We got some lawbreakers over here? Get Saul, he'll take care of it. We got some Christians over here? Get Saul, he'll take care of it. You got a question about the law? Ask Saul, he'll give you the answer.

Saul the sought-after one. And he was just climbing higher and higher. In fact, he said, I was above my peers. And we mean, I figure by that he means that he had gone farther in his career than anybody else his age. There might be old Gamaliel who is still more highly esteemed than Saul, but then Gamaliel was 60 or 70 years old. There might be a few other rabbis or whatever that were more highly esteemed than Saul at that time, but nobody Saul's age was as highly esteemed as Saul was. And then from the viewpoint of the world and his career, something awful happened. The Lord met him and the Lord changed him.

And no longer was he Saul the sought after, he was Paul the little one. And that's what the word Paul means. and traditional descriptions of him say he was short, bow-legged, bald. And from then on, he was downhill. And Saul the Great ended his life as Paul, the condemned criminal, decapitated because of what he did for a living. And even when you just take out that segment of his life when he was a preacher of the gospel, you see even there that things did not start small and become big for Paul. But rather as the years went by, he became more and more despised, less and less respected, even as we've seen in the book of Corinthians, even among those who should have held him in high esteem for his ministry among them. It seemed as though big things were going to happen through this new apostle Paul when things started, but as it turns out, just nothing really big ever happened. Rather than climbing, he went downhill. Rather than things getting easier, they became harder. Rather than his trials decreasing, they increased. You know, most of us, I read this in a magazine. Of course, I've seen it by experience. There is what they say a general pattern in the careers of most men.

And what happens is you start in your 20s. And that's if you kind of stick with the same thing throughout your whole working life. In your 20s, you start out, you're energetic, you do a lot of work, but you don't get much for it. Because everybody's got to pay their dues. But then you hit your 30s.

And this is the time when you start really to make some progress in your career. People start to take notice of you. And you begin to climb the ladder to where you can make more and more. And then they say your 40s is the time when you make the most out of your career working. And then you go into your 50s and you become a little bit kind of an elder statesman. That is, you don't have to work as hard.

People come to you because they appreciate your wisdom and experience in the work that you do. And so you become valuable simply by your presence. And in the 60s, You start to pull away, so by the time you're 65, everything's in good order, you've got your nest egg, and you can back away from your career and retire and take it easy.

Now that's the standard pattern. that you say, well, I don't know anything about that. I've never had it that way. You know, that's news to me. That probably is more what it's like on the coasts and in urban areas and professional kinds of careers. But that's the kind of thing that people look for. And they're looking for that time when everything is settled, everything is taken care of, all the loose ends are tied, and they can spend the rest of their life coasting on the momentum that they generated throughout their life.

Paul went exactly the opposite direction. The older he got, the harder it got. And Paul never did experience anything like retirement. He never experienced, I'm not saying retirement's bad, I'm just telling you what happened with Paul. He never experienced any time when he could lean back and coast on the efforts of the past.

But despite all his troubles, he lived life with faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had learned a lot of things through those years. For example, he says in verse 11, I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret. Notice that, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Paul didn't always know how to do that. You see, believers grow in grace. When God regenerates them, gives them that grace of the new birth, they don't instantly possess a mind that has been completely converted to all those principles which have been created in the heart. They're still the same man. Believers must grow in grace. That grace which is given them must, if I can use this word, infect their mind and spread through their mind and become expressed in what they do. And this growing in grace comes about by experiencing trials and facing them with faith.

Paul did not learn to be contented. and at peace all at once. It'd have been a 20 or 30 year lesson. And I call this a recipe for peace, but don't think that you can go home and mix this up, put it in a cake pan and bake it in 45 minutes. These principles, and you may have learned them to some degree, you can learn them more, but I'm going to be honest, By experience, I don't know a whole lot about them. I know what the scriptures say here. I feel I haven't learned a whole lot about it. But I know this, I do want to.

Paul has laid out for us the path to reach that goal even in this life of peace and contentedness. He didn't get there all at once, we won't either. He had been an ambitious man and a troubled man. Everything bothered him. He was one of these guys, everything was black and white, right and wrong, virtuous or vile. He put everything in two categories. And therefore he either really liked you or despised you. He either agreed with what was going on or was all upset with what was going on and couldn't leave it go and leave it alone and so he's troubling heart and mind all the time and always going about making trouble for everybody else.

Of course the world thought he was great for doing it. But he was not a happy man. But by grace he learned the route to happiness and peace and contentedness. It is interesting that it is near the end of his life he writes about these things, and that's good. That means this isn't his theory on how to get there. It's his experience of how he got there. It's the tale of one who has learned. It's not a hypothesis. It's a tested and proven way.

He says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Now, let us note, first of all, that there's no way to avoid sorrow in this world, no way to avoid being unhappy at times, and Paul's not suggesting that we do so. In fact, you look over here at Philippians 3, verse 18, he says, For as I have often told you before, and now say again, even with tears, even with tears. So Paul had times that he was just bent over with sorrow, about down with sorrow. Look at 2 Corinthians 6,

9. Now here's an interesting thing. Probably only the believer knows what this is about, has experienced this. It's verse 10. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 10.

The first words, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Now there's an interesting conjunction. There's an interesting joining together of two sorrow and rejoicing. We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. How can that be? Because His rejoicing was not in things and circumstances and happenings. He says, Rejoice in the Lord. Despite the sorrow of our circumstances, we who believe have a reason and a cause to rejoice at all times.

Let me read to you from the book of Habakkuk chapter 3. Here is one of those scriptures. When you feel as though everything's gone bad, and you've got no reason to be happy, and you start to spiral downward, you read here what Habakkuk says in Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 17. Though the fig tree does not bud, And there are no grapes on the vines, Though the olive crop fails, And the fields produce no food, And there are no sheep in the pen, And no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Now, I can read that, and I'll just be honest with you. That's a whole lot harder to do than it is to read. But Paul says that's what we ought to do. Paul, look at his condition. He's kind of in jail. He's in house arrest. He's done nothing wrong. He's never hurt anyone. But he's locked up like a common criminal.

And that probably makes him feel like he can't do that which he would really love to do, which is go from place to place and preach. If he were to look at his situation with the eye of the flesh, he'd probably feel like he'd done something wrong and God was punishing him. God, as the old phrase goes, I used to hear, set him on the shelf. You know, you didn't do good enough, so I'm just going to stick you over here in this house for two years. I'm mad at you, Paul. That's what it would be easy to think.

But in the midst of that, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And I'll say it again, rejoice. Because you see, no matter what goes on around us, of this we can be certain. We who believe the Lord may be certain that He is still God our Savior, that all His blessings are still ours. We may be sick, and hurting and weep over that. We may be troubled about family matters and in distress over that. We might have financial concerns.

But those things do not alter the Lord Jesus Christ. He and all His spiritual blessings are the same yesterday, today, and forever. The world around us is in constant change, but the Lord is an unchanging constant. And I always have cause to rejoice in Him. I always have cause, that doesn't mean I always do, but I always have cause to rejoice in Him if I will Reflect on it. And there have been times when I have been distressed, when I've been enabled to follow this pattern and learn that there is joy in the hardest times.

Rejoice. What does he mean rejoice? Well, this word is also used as a greeting. When the angel came to Mary, I believe it was, I can't remember whether it was Mary or Elizabeth, but to announce that a child would be born, he said, Hail. And the word was the same one. These things, to rejoice in the Lord. One of the best ways, particularly in the hard times, the best thing to do is to verbally, out loud, rejoice in the Lord.

I know there's times we can't just say something. Maybe we're in a situation, you know, where you're supposed to be quiet. But when you can't, what's wrong? You're driving down the road. Start to get upset about things. Start to think about your life. You don't like the way it's going. Meaning, you know, things that you had planned are falling apart. Things that you hoped for aren't coming to fruition. And you start this downward spiral.

You know what you need to do? You need to start singing a song of rejoicing in the Lord. Say, I don't sing well. Well, that's fine. Roll up the windows, nobody else will hear, and it'll be okay. Say, I don't sing well, they can put you in a tape of somebody that can, that'll sing of the glories of the Lord. If you can't sing, then just recite it.

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that blood and lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Now, there may be a lot going on wrong in my life, but I'll tell you, there is a cause for joy. There may I, though just as vile as that thief who died on the cross, I may wash all my sins away in the Lord Jesus Christ. I may die today. but I'll die with no sin because my sins are gone in Jesus Christ.

Rejoice in the Lord. This rejoicing in the Lord is the same thing spoken of when it says the joy of the Lord shall be your strength. We can get so burdened with our difficulties that it takes the strength right out of us. And yet if we will reflect on the blessings of the Lord, And by faith rejoicing them, it'll give us strength. The believer may rejoice in the Lord at all times, even when he feels no cause to, no sense of his presence, no sense of his grace. When you feel the most lost, then it is most necessary that you begin to rejoice in the Lord and chase away those clouds of doubt. by songs of truth and declarations of faith. And I like this, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice. Rejoice again and again and again and again. And you make rejoicing your pattern.

Instead of this woe is me thinking that I know for me it's so easy to fall into. Woe is me. No, not woe is me. Blessed is me on the count of the Lord. Things are good. I've done that. This is the kind of thing I wrestle with quite a bit. Probably somebody could look at me and tell just exactly how I am. I bet you my wife could. But I'll be walking down the road and I'll walk with my head down. Why? I'm all wrapped up in my thoughts, and I'm usually thinking about problems, and thinking about this and that, thinking about how I don't like this, and so I'll look up and I'll say, no, things are good.

They're good. Because my Lord has ordained them. And He says all things work together for good. And I will rejoice in Him. You say, oh, it's just a Pollyanna attitude. No, it's not. It's based on truth. God said he'd work all things together for good. We may rejoice in his sovereign control of all things.

Then he goes on and here, like I said, this is a recipe to peace. He said, let your gentleness be evident to all. What's this word gentleness mean? Well, this Greek word, it can be translated gentleness, though I think that's more the effect of the principle rather than the principle itself. It means moderation. Let your moderation be known to all. What's that mean? Well, it signifies the patience and gentleness you're not easily provoked, but it speaks primarily of that attitude that does not demand perfection and complete agreement before you can get along with somebody.

Now see, Saul was not a moderate man when he was a Pharisee. He was a zealous man. He was a zealot. It was Paul's way or you're in the way. It was His way or the highway. Paul would say, this is how it is, and if you vary the least from what I have declared, you will incur my wrath. And you know something? Religion applauds that attitude. They like it when a preacher stands up and will lay out his feelings about how things ought to be and slam on the pulpits, you know, and take a stand.

Paul said, don't be so hard to get along with. There are some important things. Paul wouldn't back up on the gospel. He didn't say be a moderate on the gospel. But all about everything else, you can compromise. It's not going to hurt anything. It's not going to upset the apple cart.

One of the things that concerns me sometimes among preachers of grace is that they have no tolerance, no tolerance for others who do things a little bit differently. They preach the same message, but maybe they've got some of what we would consider excess baggage, and so we're ready to cut them off for the excess baggage. We think maybe they got too many rules. We think maybe they look a little bit like they're putting on too much. So they cut them off.

Paul said, now let your moderation be known to all. Learn to get along with all the brethren. This I know. I really don't have to make judgments about other people. I can just go out and preach the gospel and they'll make judgments about me. And if they really don't believe the gospel, they'll leave me. They will. Moderation. Learning to get along. Learning to be easy to get along with.

Then he says, the Lord is near. I didn't understand what that meant until we started the service. Because I thought when he said the Lord is near, he meant well the Lord's about to come back. But then we sang that song, Be Still My Soul. The Lord is at thy side.

Paul says, let your moderation be evident to all. The Lord is near. He's at your right hand. He'll take care of anything that needs taking care of. You don't have to go out there swinging your sword around, lopping off the head of everybody who's an inch too tall. The Lord is near. If vengeance needs taking, He'll take it. If things need changing, He'll change them. If you need vindicated, He'll vindicate you. Let Him handle it. The Lord is near.

Isn't that good to know? Oh, that calms my soul to know that. I suppose it'd be a trouble to those who think that they must please the Lord by the works of their own hands. But knowing that the Lord is near actually makes it easier on me because I realize that He's going to take care of these things. I can be easy, preach the truth, be patient and gentle and moderate knowing that the Lord is near and will deal with anything as it needs to be dealt with. Then he says in verse 6, do not be anxious about anything, but on everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. Now we cannot help but have reactions of care and concern and even worry. Things come up and they worry us. And this very same word is used back here in verse 20 of chapter 2.

Paul's talking about Timothy. He says, I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. The word is he worries about your welfare. He cares about what happens to you. And then Paul says don't be anxious about anything. What's he talking about here? He's simply saying there is a remedy for that anxiety.

Now, when we see things going in the direction that we think is not good, it's only natural that we react with anxiety about it. When we see our finances crumbling, when we see our children erring, when we see our parents growing old, when we see our fortunes diminishing, when I as a pastor see what I think is bad signs within the congregation or wherever, it's only natural and right that these things should produce a concern in us. Where we go wrong is when we just let that thing lay there and think that we have to do something to remedy it. Paul said, don't let that anxiety about anything just lay there, but in everything by prayer and petition and with thanksgiving present your request to God. And I like that. in everything. That opens a pretty big door.

Are you troubled about something in your life? Then with prayer and petition and thanksgiving, make your request known to God. Take the thing to Him. Well, I shouldn't be taking these small items to God. It says everything. If it's enough to concern you, take it to Him. Peter puts it this way, cast all your cares upon Him. He cares for you. Let Him do the caring. Let Him do the worrying.

Do circumstances weigh you down? Does your sin burden you? Then go to God. Don't sit there and think about it. Don't sit there and worry about your failure. Don't sit there and toy in your mind whether or not that sin proves you're not a child of God.

Remember, we have this enemy called the accuser of the brethren. And He loves to torment us with our sin. He will first tempt us into sin, and then He'll turn right around and say, ha ha, look what you did. You don't belong to God. If you belonged to God, you wouldn't do a thing like that. That's what such and such preacher said. Now, you can sit and argue with Him if you want, and I've done that. That's stupid. Don't argue with the devil. He's smarter than you. He is. By prayer and petition, just go to God and say, Lord God, You know what I did. I know what I did. Take that sin away.

Paul said that this prayer oughtn't to be this moaning, groaning, I don't really think God will do anything for me after all prayer. He said prayer and petition with thanksgiving. You don't give thanks for things that don't happen. So we go to Him and we say, Lord God, this, that, or the other. whether it be circumstances, or failures, or whatever it is that's troubling us, and we pray to Him, and we make known our request, Lord, take away my sin, and we thank Him for doing it, because we believe that He has.

Thankful heart. Present your request with thanksgiving, And you'll probably find that your requests have been answered. I do believe that thanksgiving is one of the most soul-uplifting things a man can do. Rejoice in the Lord's one of them and then thank the Lord. And they're related.

When I have been at some of my lowest times, in a turmoil, not knowing what to think, miserable and surrounded by my own depressed thoughts. I have often been able to come out of that state of thinking by starting to give thanks. You say, well, it's awful hard to think of something to give thanks to God for. Shouldn't be, but I know the feeling.

I've started out with things like, God, I thank you for my life. I am alive. And the Bible says that's a blessing, to be alive. I'm glad. Thank you for being alive. And usually, once you think of one thing, another thing will come up. Lord, I thank you for my wife. Thank you for my kids. I thank you for my church. Thank you for the folks that come. I thank you for my food. Thank you for my house.

Once that's on, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Pray with thanksgiving. I think that's the key. I think that's what makes prayer such a powerful thing in our state of mind, that we add thanksgiving to it.

And what is the promise attached to that? And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. It'll guard them. It won't let them fall away. Doesn't mean that you'll always be happy. that you'll always be able to kick up your heels and say the world is a great place to be in, but it'll keep you out of despair.

And then he says, verse 8, finally, brothers, and these are the things he's learned by experience, and I want to, by the grace of God, work on these things. He says, finally, brothers, whatever's 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 into practice and the God of peace will be with you. You want peace? Be careful what you think about and do what you know is right. It is impossible for us to avoid being bombarded with things that are contrary to God, certainly aren't true, certainly aren't noble, not right, not pure, not lovely, not admirable, not praiseworthy. We're surrounded by it.

So this does take a discipline. But to put our minds on that which is, and if I could put all those together into one thing, into one word, Wholesome. What a good word. Wholesome. There are good things to think about. Things that when you think about them, they strengthen you. Things that when you dwell upon them, they improve your state of mind and your feelings and just they're good for you.

I like to watch movies. I enjoy that kind of entertainment. You never know for sure what you're going to get though when you go see one. I go to some movies and I come out and I think, man, I wish I hadn't seen that. Boy, that one brought me down. I go to some and you come out feeling better than when you went in. Why? Because one dealt with wholesome things. I'm finding this, we have in our day, a form of entertainment now called talk radio. And I kind of like it, but you know what I'm noticing about it?

Brings me down. because they're not always talking about wholesome things. They're not talking about things tending to build you up, but things which of necessity bring about contention and stress within the mind, thinking maybe I'll just leave it go. I don't know if it's always wise to keep picking up the newspaper and reading about every rotten thing that's going on in the world.

All it does to me is make me mad, get me upset, I hear about injustice and I think it ought to be righted. And I tell you, the presses and the radios and the television are just pumping it out constantly. And that's the part of this stuff we're supposed to be able to watch, the news. It's supposed to be okay. It brings me down. I think it's not good for me to think about all that stuff.

What's it good to think about? Well, the things of God, for sure. Good to think about that. Good for man to To think about his wife and his family and rejoice in them. All kinds of things. Think about what's good. And it'll bring peace. And then do what you know is right. That's pretty simple. We spend a lot of our time trying to figure out a way to justify doing what's wrong. A whole lot easier to just do what's right. Be honest. Treat people decently. Love one another. Forgive one another. Forbear one another. Worship the Lord. And keep a singleness of mind and purpose towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the result will be that the God of peace will be with you. It's not as though God won't be with you if you don't do what's right, but you won't know His peace. You'll know only trouble. We sing a song once in a while, and I can't remember all the words to the verses, but there's a chorus line, and it says something pretty important if you pay attention to it closely.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Right away that might make us feel a little, you know, what do you mean trust and obey? We believe everything's by grace, you know. We're in Jesus by the grace of God. That's true. We're in Christ by his grace. Got nothing to do with our obedience or lack of it. But our happiness is much affected by what we do.

David was no more or less loved by God because of his sin with Bathsheba. He was no less in Christ because of his sin with Bathsheba, but he was absolutely miserable. You read some of the Psalms, the Psalmist even says they're sick, ill because of their sin. I remember reading one, it said my back is filled with searing pain because of my sin. We never bring ourselves anything good by sin. Nothing good has ever come of it. I would not only be in Jesus, I'd like to be happy in Jesus. And God loves us too much to allow us to be happy in sin.

So Paul says, so what I've told you, what I've taught you, what you've heard from me, what you've seen me do. You put that into practice and the God of peace shall be with you. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your Son who loved us and gave Himself for us. And as we now partake of the Lord's table and show forth in this symbol how that we have been forgiven and redeemed and made right with God. seal it to our hearts and bless us in Jesus name, amen. I'm going to get out your course books. Number 25. Number 25. See the table spread before you. feast of bread and wine.

These are symbols of our Savior, tokens of his love divine. Bread that's broken is his body, crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a reminder of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior, eat the bread and drink the wine.

Jesus came, the God incarnate, to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross He made atonement and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call us home to glory. Praise his name with this hope and expectation.