Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.
How do we know where to find answers to the toughest questions in life?
While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search and how do we discover
this truth?
Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, takes a
specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life we're searching for.
So glad to see you this morning.
Cannot wait to give you this message today because I think it's so important for us
in this time and what we deal with from day to day.
Philippians chapter 4.
Before I dive into this, let me just share with you some news that you may or may not
have heard yet.
And that is that Dr. Bill Anderson, a previous pastor of this church from 1965 to 1975, and
then he came back after his retirement from a church in Florida and was interim pastor
in 2004, 2005 until I arrived in 2006, a great man of God, passed away on a Saturday morning
at 8 o'clock in the morning and is in heaven today.
And we will celebrate his home going on Thursday at 10 o'clock right here in this worship center.
And it will be an incredible time of remembering the life of someone that God used in such
a great way.
How many of you knew Bill Anderson?
Would you raise your hand if you knew him?
There's a lot of us in this room that did and what an incredible family, what an incredible
pastor.
You know, in this world where so many news stories about pastors that failed, didn't
finish strong, somehow betrayed someone or a congregation, you've got these other stories
of people like Bill Anderson who lived the life and who ran the race and finished the
course in the amazing way that he did.
And I, for one, am very grateful.
I've always said, when I grow up, I want to be like Bill Anderson.
And I still feel like that is true.
And we will celebrate his life on Thursday.
Thank you for praying for his family and as they come in from different parts across the
country.
Well, let's stand together as we look in Philippians chapter four.
Today's title is called The Great Perspective, The Great Perspective.
You may have been with us earlier this year when we went into the book of Philippians
and I walked through chapters one, two, and three with us as a congregation.
Week by week we were going through those first three chapters and then summer happened and
we're coming back and finishing up with chapter four today.
The Great Perspective, one of the series of chapter two and three was the series that
we called perspectives, plural.
All the perspectives of how we best view the Christian life.
Because quite frankly, we view life different than anyone else on the planet and we should
because of who we have as God, because of what we have in regard of the scriptures.
So today, this message caps a little bit about what we looked at in chapters two and three
but also gives an amazing prescription for how we view life when it's most under stress.
All right, Paul's in prison, right to the church of Philippi, first church in Europe,
not a large church but very influential.
The cause of the church of Philippi, the gospel went west and north, the Great Britain and
across to America today.
You are in part as a believer in Jesus, in part because this church was faithful to do
what they were called to do and sharing the gospel.
So Philippi has a big place in our heart.
Paul's riding from prison to his church that he planted and here's what he says as he rides.
He says, therefore my beloved brethren, whom I long to see my joy and crown in this way
stand firm in the Lord my beloved.
You can see the love between a pastor or a planter and his people.
I urge Iodia and I urge Senteke to live in harmony in the Lord.
Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle
in the cause of the gospel together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose
names are in the book of life.
And then in verse four, rejoice in the Lord always and again, I will say rejoice.
How many of you are familiar with that?
Amen.
You know that one well.
I'm going to read verse four again.
Read it out loud with me.
Would you rejoice in the Lord always?
Again, I will say rejoice.
Verse five goes on.
Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.
The Lord is near.
Be anxious for nothing 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 comprehension
will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And that's an incredible promise.
Finally, brethren, verse eight, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is ever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any
excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
The things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things
and the God of peace will be with you.
Let's pray again.
Father, thank you so much for this text and speak to us today in a personal way, in a
way that's powerful enough to break through our present habits and the way we think about
things and begin to think the way you've called us to think and believe and trust.
We ask this in Jesus' name and everybody said amen.
Please be seated if you would.
So Philippians 4 is kind of the capstone of an incredible book and we've talked through
the first three chapters really focusing on the who of the Christian life, who our tribe
is, who the church is, and what we ought to be looking at life through, the lens or the
perspective that we are to look through in life.
So let me just open up with this question.
What do you say if you're an apostle and a church planter and you're writing a letter
to the church you planted and while in prison you're giving them the best advice you can
possibly give them, not knowing whether you'll ever see them again?
What do you say to your church family from a prison cell?
That's what Paul is faced with here.
And so in response to that situation he writes about who they are and what they ought to
look at through the lens of perspective in life.
And in the latter part of this chapter he's going to deal with generosity.
This series of three brief messages in Philippians chapter 4 deals with the subject of generosity
and we'll get there as we cover first of all the basics of this chapter 4 and then move
into the second part and third part which are all about generosity.
In fact, this train will arrive at verse 19 at some point and here's what it says, and
my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
How many times have you prayed that?
I've prayed it all the time through all kinds of circumstances, all kinds of situations
personally and corporately in church life, God will meet all of our needs.
The church of Philippi is the one church that supported Paul financially while he was in
prison.
If you were in prison in Rome you didn't get three meals a day, you got whatever your friends
sent you from the outside.
And so the church sent back to him everything he needed and he refers to those gifts and
that generosity and he refers to this verse I mentioned in verse 19 that will arrive at
at some point.
So here's what the chapter opens up with, a plea for harmony.
Two women in the church are at odds.
It's kind of interesting so there must have been leaders, it must have been already a
visible and public dispute so how would you like your name to be mentioned by the apostle
for 2,000 years?
People are reading about these two ladies' names because they weren't in harmony.
He says get in harmony.
There's so many things that depend on us moving forward together in the gospel.
And after that really quick kind of reprimand he gives us a way of looking at life that
allows you to be content in Christ.
A way of looking at life that allows you to be content in Christ.
You know that's one thing that our western world doesn't seem to have, it doesn't seem
to have contentment.
It doesn't seem to be at a place where we're at peace with who we are, with what we have.
We always seem to be wanting more.
We want another experience, we want another possession, we want something else in life.
We always think we're going to miss out on something because we lack contentment.
So here's Paul in a prison in Rome fully content right into his church and saying look you
need to have a way of looking at life that allows you to be content with Christ and in
Christ.
So there's two big things I'm going to look at today.
First of all a perspective for life.
A perspective for life.
So I'm going to give you this lens that Paul is giving all of us and we've read it, we've
repeated it already once.
It says in verse 4, rejoice and the Lord always again I will say rejoice.
So this phrase couldn't possibly be any stronger.
It's a present, passive or active imperative.
It means that you are commanded, it's an imperative to rejoice no matter what your circumstances
are.
He doesn't say it just once, he says it twice.
Rejoice and the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
He said I don't want you to miss this because this perspective is going to guide your life.
Another phrase that we can use to describe this word rejoice is this one, choose joy.
Choose joy.
Make a choice about what you're going to believe and what you're going to see and the way you're
going to view things.
I know of no other human philosophy, no other religion, I know of no other way of thinking,
way of living that has this kind of admonition, has this kind of prescription for how we view
life, this kind of perspective.
Take the lens of joy, take the lens of rejoicing, take the lens of being glad and look at all
of life through that.
Now the reason I want you to know this today is because I know that sometimes we don't
have healthy ways of thinking and healthy ways of thinking.
We live in a world that's mentally unhealthy, don't we?
We live in a world and during an era where people are emotionally unhealthy, they're
mentally unhealthy, so much mental health issue all around us.
So in contrast to all that, we have the Bible telling us here is a healthy way to look at
God and look at life that will not let you down.
I love this.
So look at verse four with me again and verse five.
Rejoice in the Lord always again, I say rejoice and then he says, let your gentle spirit be
known to all men, the Lord is near.
Now I want to summarize those three admonitions in this way.
Paul says, be glad, be gentle, be patient.
Be glad, be gentle, be patient.
Paul is going to give us a perspective, a way to view life that goes against the natural
man, goes against your feelings, goes against your emotions, sometimes against the circumstances.
And there are times when things happened to us like they were happening to Paul in prison.
No real understanding if he was going to get out anytime soon or if he would die in prison
and he's telling people, here's how I've learned to live life.
Be glad, be gentle, be patient.
Now let's look at those three phrases for just a moment.
We've already said that be glad or rejoice means to choose to be in a state of joy or
gladness even when things are difficult.
When we talk about joy, we often refer to the book of James.
James chapter one, it has that great line in it that says consider it all joy or frame
it that way in your mind.
Consider reckon it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that
the testing of your faith produces endurance.
In other words, consider it joy because God's doing something with your life when you're
going through the hard times.
When you go through trials and temptations and all those things that we sometimes seem
to go through, consider it joy.
When I did some research for the book I wrote a couple of years ago, I interviewed four
ladies that had been through breast cancer and they had formed a little group and they
talked about their faith experiences and some of them had gone through this more than 20
years ago and one of them said this when I asked the question, what did you first think
about when you learned that you had cancer and had to have some radical treatment?
She said, my first words that God gave me were choose joy.
And she said, that's what I did as I walked through the whole experience of cancer.
Now 20 years later she says it's framed everything about how I view life now.
Choose joy, when it doesn't seem like that's a good choice, choose joy.
The great Bill Anderson used to say we would be in conversation with somebody that was
pretty upset about something and he said, well they just need to take a happy pill.
That's what Bill said.
It said all the time.
I wish there was a pill for that.
Now I know there's not a pill to make people happy but there is a perspective that will
help someone learn to be glad.
And that's what Paul's talking about right here.
You don't need a happy pill, you need a perspective and that is to rejoice, to be glad.
Now the opposite of that is that you would be sorrowful, disheartened.
You'd be down about everything.
When things happen, conflict takes place, challenges face you, then all of a sudden
you have the most pessimistic perspective you can possibly have about it instead of
choosing joy.
But in doing so, you flavor the whole experience and you actually distrust the God who says
you can be glad through this trial.
You can choose joy instead of anything else.
When I was in college, there were a lot of things I wanted to do in college with my life.
Almost all of them had to do with athletics and basketball.
I was a basketball player in college.
I wanted to go on and play in the NBA of course and if I couldn't play in the NBA then I wanted
to be a college basketball coach.
I just had so many ideals that I wanted to pursue like that and then God started speaking
to me as I was growing spiritually about being called into the ministry.
This is when I was a young girl, 19 or 20 years old, read the Bible for the first time
through, was growing rapidly as a believer and God said, I'm calling you to ministry.
He began to speak to me that way and I told God there's no way that can happen.
My dad was a Baptist pastor and I'd known some experiences he'd gone through that weren't
cool and then I had all kinds of reasons why God probably didn't want me to do that.
And I actually developed a very rational, pro and con less.
Here are all the bad things about me going into ministry and here are all the good things
that were going into ministry and all the bad things outnumbered all the good things
like way, way bigger than the other less.
Like for example, I hated to speak in public.
I was terrified to share with anybody about anything.
And then of course I had a hearing issue.
I couldn't even speak on the phone back in that day and time.
I couldn't even hear somebody on the phone and sometimes I couldn't pick up what conversations
were going on around.
There's so many reasons I can think of that God should not be calling me into ministry
and now 40 some years later my perspective is completely different because God has helped
me through every one of those things and I look back and think, what was I thinking?
So I use that as an illustration that when we are first confronted with something we
can think of all the negative things.
And we don't see what God is doing in us and we don't see what God will do through us and
we don't see how God will use us in some way.
Paul had already been through those experiences in a variety of ways and he knew being in
prison wasn't the best place to be but he was in the middle of God's will.
He wrote, he said, I'm in prison but the word of God is not in prison.
The gospel still keeps going out and in another place he said, I'm sharing the message of
the gospel with the whole Praetorian Guard.
Every one of those Roman soldiers are going to hear about the gospel because I'm there
when they're guarding me.
What a way to live life.
Be glad even when you don't understand how to be glad in tough, tough times.
One day you'll see it different.
And then be gentle.
Let others see your calmness, your trust, your confidence.
Let them see your love and your concern and your love for God.
That he would allow you to be in whatever circumstance you're in, to show your anger,
your frustration instead of your trust and confidence in God is not the prescription
that will be given.
Now this is jail talk.
You're in jail.
Your jailers are not kind to you.
They're rough with you.
They probably would beat you if they had an opportunity.
They're not going to feed you.
They're not going to keep you warm.
They're not going to do anything you need.
And yet Paul writes to the church, here's the way you live life.
Be glad and be gentle.
Be kind to the people around you.
If you dive into James chapter three, which we seem to be doing a lot of this morning,
James chapter three talks about the kind of wisdom we live life with.
And in chapter three, verse 17, he says, the wisdom that comes down from above is first
pure than peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy.
In other words, if you're living with God's perspective, you're going to have those qualities
going on in your life like Paul did.
The opposite of that is also listed in James three, jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder.
It's natural, it's earthy, it's demonic.
That's not the way you want to live.
But we can be meek, gentle and kind in every kind of circumstance.
We can still speak the truth.
We can still represent Christ well.
But the command is let your gentle spirit be made known to all men.
We ought to be known by the meekness of Christ.
Now, how do you apply that in a tough situation like the culture wars we're in today?
Listen, Christianity is in the middle of culture wars that we didn't start.
Or what about a tough political season where you don't really know exactly what to do
and you have all kinds of heated arguments going back and forth.
You've got to learn to speak the truth with gentleness, with kindness.
You don't back up and dance, but you also don't run over people with anger.
Be gentle.
It's such an important thing for us to do that.
The third thing is be patient.
It says the Lord is near.
Now there's two ways you can take that phrase.
First of all, He's near in proximity.
Let me tell you and remind you if you don't already have a handy reminder that once you
come to faith in Jesus, Jesus is more than near you.
He's in you.
Amen.
Aren't you glad you have the presence of the Holy Spirit that no matter what happens, He
will never be removed from your life.
He will be with you forever.
It's the seal of redemption, the seal, the promise, the guarantee of salvation once we
put our faith in Christ.
He's near me in that way.
But also comes alongside us when we go through trials in life.
So the Lord is near could be referring somewhat to that, but I think Paul's intent was more
than that.
Paul's intent was Jesus is near, the Lord is near, He's coming back.
And the reason I think that is because of the context.
Look at Philippians 4 and then backtrack to chapter 3 verse 20.
Before he gets to chapter 4 where he says the Lord is near, he says in verse 20, for
our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
He's saying this, I know this world is tough.
I know it's hard to keep perspective.
It's hard to be glad.
It's hard to be gentle.
It's hard to be patient.
But let me remind you that Jesus is coming back and He will change everything when He
comes back.
There will be no more hard times, no more difficulty, no more hunger, no more cold,
no more injustice when He comes back.
That's what you're waiting for.
Be patient for the return of the Lord.
Paul could have been saying, is this house going to end for me in prison?
Like John the Baptist, getting beheaded for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
He could have been saying something like, well, if that's what it's in it for me, if
that's what God is going to allow, then I'm going to remember and remind everybody that
the Lord is near.
He's coming back.
And in the new kingdom, when He comes back, everything will be different.
No injustice, no wicked ruler, no awful choices.
We have Christ and Christ on the throne.
He'll make everything new.
He'll bring all the justice you yearn for, all the fairness.
He'll settle all the account.
Live like you know this.
If my perspective is, yes, I know the world is wicked, but I also know that He will overcome
the world, that I'm living with the kind of perspective that I'm commanded to live.
Paul knew he wouldn't always be in persecution, wouldn't always be in pain, wouldn't always
be in prison, but he knew that he could look forward to the coming of the Lord.
So pastor, it's great to be able to say these three little phrases, be glad, be gentle,
be patient.
But what happens when my world is disrupted by circumstances that are so awful that I
can't be glad and I can't be gentle and I can't be patient?
Well, that's when we come to the next verse, verse six.
I call this the prescription for anxiety.
Now I believe this passionately.
If I get riled up in a couple of minutes, it's because I'm passionate about it.
And you ought to be too.
Here's what he says.
Here's the prescription for anxiety.
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God.
Now I love the practicality and the reality of Scripture.
I love the fact that it's almost as though the Holy Spirit realizes we're going to say,
yeah, rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I say rejoice.
That's a really cool song.
That's a really cool line.
But what happens when it gets tough?
And be anxious for nothing is the command.
But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known to God.
So I'm going to give you, or within the rest of this message, three keys for how to get
and keep peace in life.
These are valuable.
So valuable because that's what Paul gives us.
How to get and keep peace in life.
Are you ready?
Number one is refuse anxious thoughts by directing them towards prayer.
Refuse anxious thoughts by directing them towards prayer.
And there is the command, the negative command in this verse, be anxious for nothing.
But in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.
So here's the direct negative command.
Do not be anxious.
It bookends the previous comment.
The previous command imperative is rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I say rejoice.
And then the other side of that bookmark, that bookend is don't be anxious.
Now, within those two frameworks is how we live life.
Rejoice in the Lord always until we're challenged in that and then don't be anxious, but give
it to prayer.
It's another present active imperative.
It's on you to not be anxious, to refuse anxious thoughts.
And yet we live in an anxious, fearful world.
Let's just talk about the world we live in for just a moment.
So real.
Anxiety disorders affect more than 20% of Americans over 18 today and it's increasing
by the day.
And when I say anxiety disorders, I mean more than just feeling anxious, more than just
emotional feelings.
I'm talking about it's inhibiting their behavior to some degree.
It's a disorder that they deal with.
More than a third of teenagers today, get this, more than a third of teenagers are confused,
angry and have emotional and mental issues today.
Disorders of the same kind.
More than 40% of adults in America say they're more anxious than ever before.
Whether they have disorders or not, they're just more anxious.
More things to create anxiety in their life.
Literally we have a mental health crisis in our nation today and there is no human solution.
No human solution.
And then we have the Bible, the letter of Philippians written to Christians saying,
be anxious for nothing.
So hear me out.
It is never God's will for believers to allow anxiety, fear and troubled thinking to dominate
your thoughts.
It is not His will.
If it's happening in your life, then He would want you to not let that happen and He gives
you command, be anxious for nothing.
And then the prescription that we'll talk about in a moment, that will help you be able
to respond.
Now remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, He says, for this reason I say to you,
speaking about clothing and food, He said, for this reason I say to you, do not be worried
about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall put on.
The rest of the world is so worried about that, but don't you know that your Father
knows all the needs you have.
Don't be anxious for all these things.
He'll take care of you.
Now let me just acknowledge there are many reasons today as to be anxious, like everybody
else seems to be, but it's not His plan for your life, for you to be anxious and panicky
like everybody else has.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't reflect the faith that we're called to live and it tears you down day in and day
out.
It wears you out.
So here you have this command, refuse anxious thoughts by directing them towards prayer.
Let me point you this way.
We can trust God for a better way of handling our circumstances instead of overthinking,
over analyzing, being overwhelmed with all the things that are happening, the things
we experience, the things people do to us, the things that we're facing.
Instead of that, we need to ask ourselves, what am I not trusting about God that lets
me be so anxious in this moment?
Is He not trustworthy?
Is He not sovereign?
Is He not able?
Does He not have all wisdom?
What am I not trusting God for in this?
And then you have to come to the place where you say, I can trust Him.
I can trust Him with my possessions.
I can trust Him with my gifts, with my job, with my calling.
I can trust Him with my relationships.
I can trust Him with everything.
So I want you to do a little exercise with me over these next few seconds.
Think of something that you're facing that troubles you.
Think of how it eats away at your mind, how it affects your reasoning and your words and
your nerves.
Think of how it affects your prayer life or your conversation.
Think of how it aggravates you, how it sometimes weakens you.
It can even make you physically ill when you think about something like that.
Then let me ask you this pointed question.
Is your approach to this working?
Is your way of dealing with all this helping you or not?
See, what Paul is warning us to see is that there's no way that we can humanly solve the
things that we face day in and day out.
But there is a supernatural way to do that.
My natural instinct seeks me every time.
But instead of being troubled in mind, I am called to be trusting in mind.
And that's a hard thing to do.
But it's a war.
We're equipped to win.
God would not send us into this battle without giving us the weapons we need.
One of my favorite passages is 2 Corinthians chapter 5 or chapter 10 and verse 5.
And I'm just going to quote one little part of this very detailed passage about the weapons
that we have in the battle we have for our mind and for our beliefs.
And in chapter 10 verse 5 of 2 Corinthians, Paul says this, we are taking every thought
captive to the obedience of Christ.
Now that is just what he said when he said be anxious for nothing, but rather give it
to God in prayer.
Take the thoughts captive.
And in the Greek, that's one long word in the Greek that we take several English words
to articulate.
But it means basically to captivate at sword point or spear point.
It's an illustration.
The way he words this is an illustration of Roman warfare.
They always used the sword, of course, to captivate the enemy.
And he basically says, I've given you the sword of the spirit.
I've given you everything you need.
Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
And most of us don't take our Bible seriously enough to actually know what to think about
certain circumstances.
But if we did, oh man, we would take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
I've told this story before because I love to tell it because it also illustrates so
much about what I'm trying to say today.
A number of years ago, I think it was 2003, 2004, eBay was starting to sell things on
the internet.
Some of you have heard of eBay, and eBay was the Amazon of its day.
You could buy just about anything from just about anybody.
And I have a son named Joe who was a knife collector, and I like to get little trinkets
like that, like knives that he could put in his collection.
We were looking at the internet one day and saw something on eBay that looked like kind
of a letter opener.
It was a knife-like thing that didn't give the dimensions of it, or we completely missed
it and it was $9.95 to our bid, and we got it.
Now what I was thinking we would get in was something like this.
I don't know if the camera even picks this up.
This is a letter opener in the shape of a knife, and I thought this is probably appropriate
for a nine-year-old boy.
A few weeks later, I'd almost forgotten we'd ordered it.
A few weeks later, my assistant at the church I was pastoring at the time called me and
she said, you need to come down here.
There's a big box here for you.
Your sword has arrived.
And I said, I didn't order a sword.
She goes, well, there's something big in this box, and it comes from a knife company, so
your sword has arrived.
And I was very curious about it because this is what I thought I was getting, and so I
ran down to the office, and sure enough, it was in a big box, and as I went to get it,
I opened it up, and I could not believe what I saw when I opened it up.
This is the sword that had arrived.
This is what I ordered.
This is what I got.
She made a little smart aleck remark.
She goes, well, it's bigger than what you thought it was.
I said, yes, it is.
You'll notice that my son who's now 30 still does not have this sword.
I'm keeping it.
You've got a Bible.
It's bigger than you think it is.
Much bigger.
It is.
And if you do not use what God has given you to take every thought captive to the obedience
of Christ, if you do not use what God has given you to be anxious for nothing but in
everything by prayer and supplication, if you don't do that, it's on you to walk through
the difficulty of that moment.
He's done everything that's necessary.
And aren't you glad we have a God that gives us every tool, every weapon we could possibly
need in order to deal with life?
A few years ago, I talked through a series.
It's been almost 30 years ago now.
I talked through a series called The Prospering Soul.
Ten messages on taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
I recently podcasted that.
It's on the website, johnmetter.com, and you can find it at that address and find it under
podcasts.
If you want to dig into that a little bit more, we talk about how to do that.
God has given us a way for us to have mental health and peace.
Take every thought captive.
We refuse anxious thoughts.
Here's step number two.
Look for peace that only He gives.
Peace that only He gives.
Verse seven.
Have the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension and will guard your heart and minds in Christ
Jesus.
Now this is a conditional promise of a supernatural peace.
If you refuse the anxious thoughts, instead give them to God in prayer, the peace of God
that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds.
We've talked about this at various times.
Sometimes Christians have conversations about this.
How many of you know what it means to say the peace of God guards your hearts and minds?
But you raise your hand if you've experienced that or talked about that.
Do you understand that today?
This many people in the room can't be wrong about that subject.
There are times when we go through hardship, we give it to God, and He brings what we could
never bring to ourself.
He promises to give us this peace.
He gave it to the disciples on the way to the cross.
He said this in John 16, 33, these things I've spoken to you that in me you may have
peace in the world.
You have tribulation, but take courage.
I've overcome the world.
Jesus has done everything necessary for us to have peace.
I can't tell you how He gives that peace.
I can just promise that He gives that peace.
I couldn't really break down exactly how it came over me when I needed it the most time
and time again, but I can tell you it did come over me and it did help me walk through
every dilemma I've been through.
The peace of God is beyond explanation.
It's just not beyond praising Him for it.
Amen.
Trust Him for that.
Don't trust your anxious mind to analyze it so perfectly you find the right solution.
You will never find the right solution.
The right solution is Him.
It's this peace that enables people to give their lives for the gospel in faraway lands.
This peace comes when we make bold, convictional decisions and no one else understands.
This peace comes when we share the gospel and are rejected.
This peace comes when we face physical health challenges that are daunting, and trust God
anyway.
It comes when we face the death of loved ones.
And even if we face death ourselves, we will have dying grace for dying days.
We'll have the peace that we need for everything that we deal with.
It doesn't make sense, but it's a promise that God gives us.
He gives us sight.
Receive it from Him.
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication.
Let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Him.
Isaiah says, the steadfast mind of you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in
you.
He will be the Lord forever for the God, the Lord.
In Him we have an everlasting rock.
That needs to be your watchword.
And then finally, dwell on the right things.
Look at verse eight with me.
Finally, brethren, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute, if there's any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell
on these things.
I'm going to take a walk back here.
I want to look at the screen with you for just a few moments because this screen, this
verse, this passage is something that needs to permeate you and your thoughts.
Notice how Paul says this.
He knows they're in the heat of battle.
He's already been through the battle.
He's writing to them about how to keep the right perspective and the prescription for
getting back to where you need with the peace of God.
And he says, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute, that's a lot of whatevers.
He says there's so many things on the landscape of thoughts that you should be thinking of
instead of your anxiety.
Whatever those are, go that way.
And then he says, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on those
things.
I mean, that's the apostle saying, look, I've given you so many things that you can talk
about, so many things you can think about, so many things that God has done that are
excellent, worthy of reputation and worthy of praise, things that are excellent, things
that are pure, things that are lovely, so much is around you.
Why are you not thinking of those things?
Why do you consistently go back to what creates the anxiety in your life?
He says, no, dwell on these things, virtually anything other than those things, these things.
You know how to do it.
Now when I say you know how to do it, I say it because we do it in so many other ways.
How many people watch TV with a remote in their hand?
Would you raise your hand if you have the remote in your hands?
And you know how to channel surf, don't you?
And you land somewhere that you don't want to be, and you just quickly click and you
go to something else, right?
How many of you are on the internet?
Maybe social media, and you know how to scroll.
How many of you know how to scroll?
And you land in one spot and you just keep going because you don't want to stay there
and you go find something good.
How many of you are driving on a highway and you see a traffic jam up ahead and you divert,
you take an exit, you go somewhere else?
You know how to avoid the things that create anxiety.
You know how to do this.
Instead of anxiety, tell God, accept the peace that passes understanding and then dwell on
these things.
Refuse anxious thoughts, look for his peace, dwell on the good.
God has given this for us.
You say, well will that work like in 30 minutes?
My response is it'll work like a live practice works.
You'll get better at it as you practice exercising your spiritual muscles and the spiritual tools
he's giving you to battle with.
It's not like I don't face anxiety.
It's not like I don't face struggling, discouraging situations.
I can let them overwhelm me or I can rise up and just obey God and do the battle and
let my mind dwell on the things that he's called me to dwell on.
Today you have something to work with.
You have an assignment.
Take the anxious thoughts, push them away, give them to God and instead of those anxious
thoughts, look for the peace of God and dwell on the things he's called you to dwell on.
I think you can trust the God of the universe, whom you trust for your eternal security to
give you security of mind in the toughest of times.
These few moments, I'm gonna leave this in a closing word of prayer.
I'm gonna invite you to stop at our decision stations because really the peace that you
can have from God first has a stopping plate called the peace with God.
As you know, you can be at peace with God by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior.
That's how you have peace with God.
We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He secured it on the cross.
He paid for our sins and you need to put your faith and trust in what he did on the cross.
You can have peace with God and once you have peace with God, you learn to have peace from
God day in and day out and I want you to have it.
He wants you to have it.
Stop by the decision station, talk to someone and say, I need peace with God, from God.
I wanna invite you to our guest reception room just outside the center exit doors across
the hallway.
If you're visiting here, maybe this is the first few times you've been here, maybe the
first time, please let me meet you and say thank you for coming to our services today.
Thirdly, I want you to come back next week because we're gonna take another step in this
direction in Philippians 4.
It's amazing.
This text is amazing.
You don't wanna miss it.
Let's stand together and have a word of prayer.
Father, I thank you so much today that you care for us even what we think about, even
what causes us anxiety.
You care for us.
I pray today that you'll allow us to put this to work in our life and Lord, honor your promise
of the peace of God that passes all comprehension guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
In Jesus' name, amen.