Philippians 4 verse 1 to 7.
Therefore my brothers and sisters,
you whom I love and long for,
my joy and crown,
stand firm in the Lord in this way,
dear friends.
I plead with you,
Audea, and I plead with
Sinterki to be of the same mind in the Lord.
Yes, and I ask you,
my true companion,
help these women since they have been
contended at my side in the cause of the gospel.
Along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers,
whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always,
I will say it again, rejoice.
Let your gentleness be evident to all.
The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving and present your request to God,
and the peace of God which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Good morning, church.
To state the obvious, it's quite warm.
So we can be thinking of our brothers and sisters
worshiping in Broome right now,
who are probably thinking that this is winter for them.
But before we get into our text this morning,
why don't we come to our father in prayer and ask for his help?
Don't you pray with me?
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you that it is true.
We thank you that it is good.
We ask that your spirit would help us this morning,
that you would give us ears to hear,
that you would hold Christ high in our midst,
and that you would transform us,
that we would leave this place this morning,
rejoicing in what you have done for us.
We ask for this in Jesus' name, amen.
I might ask, have you ever known people in your life
where they have been under absolute horrible pressure,
but seem to be walking through the whole thing
in absolute peace and joy in their lives?
I have, in fact, one of the great privileges
of being a pastor is getting to know people
and the personal struggles that they have,
yet watching how God works tangibly in their lives,
it's incredible, really.
Things that would crush and destroy the average person
are walked through in a whole different way
by these wonderful brothers and sisters in the faith.
It's sobering, really.
Well, church, this morning we turned to a passage of scripture
where Paul is talking to this congregation in Philippi
and by implication us two,
and he's encouraging Christians that there is a peace
that goes way beyond our own understanding.
And because of Christ Jesus, our Lord,
it actually already is ours,
yet we have to learn how to walk in it,
and he teaches us about these things in a surprising context.
You might remember that these Christians
have been under horrible persecution.
We've seen that over the months
as we've been working our way slowly through this book.
It seems that they had external pressures
from the pagan society around them to give up on the faith
and also internal pressure with cracks and divisions
starting to form,
which was threatening to rip apart the members of the congregation.
And so our apostle talks to his precious friends
about how to deal with real and present danger
and how to experience godly peace among themselves
that is supernatural,
and as we read here this morning, transcends all their understanding.
And we see that in the way that Paul has structured this part of his book.
Starting with a personal plea to his dear brothers and sisters
in verses one through to three,
he then moves on to three commands or exhortations
for the church to observe and practice.
Verse four, we're told to rejoice.
Verse five, we're told that we are to actively work out the fruit of the spirit
and then in verse six, we are to pray.
But notice this, and it's very important that we do so.
Notice what Paul tells us, and we find it there in verse seven.
There is a promise, and that promise is that God's peace
will flood our hearts, our minds, and our lives.
So I might ask you this morning, my dear brothers and sisters,
is that something that is important to you?
Is having the peace of God which transcends all understanding,
something that you want in your life and in our churches?
Well, if you do, and I certainly do,
let's listen to what the holy scriptures have to say to us this morning
and work our way together through this wonderful
and encouraging part of scripture.
If you have your bibles with you, we'll be in our text quite a bit this morning.
So let's start by looking at verses one through to three.
We read, therefore, my brothers and sisters,
you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends.
I plead with you, your dear, and I plead with Sintiki,
Sintiki to be of the same mind in the Lord.
Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women
since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel,
along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers
whose names are in the book of life.
Now, there's a lot that could be said on all the historical information
that Paul has given us here,
but I really want to focus in on verses two and three
and how Paul speaks about these two sisters in the church
because he urges them in the strongest possible terms.
Notice that Paul says he pleads with them.
In other words, he begs them to be of the same mind.
Now, we don't exactly know what's come between these two ladies
and separated them in their friendship,
but he urges them that they overcome it
and come back together in peace.
Now, church, let's think about this for a moment.
Imagine if you had a family friend that you spoke to about a problem
that you were having with someone else in your family,
and then that family friend then wrote an open letter
to your entire family pleading with you
to be reconciled to the one you've just fallen out with.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I would be absolutely mortified.
But I don't think we should take Paul here
as trying to cause embarrassment or shame
on his sisters within the family of God.
Now, I don't think that's happening at all, and I say that
because he seems to love and respect this church more than anything.
We see it in verse 1, don't we?
My brothers and sisters, you whom I love
and long for my joy and crown.
Here are our apostles' language here.
He loves this congregation to bits.
He respects this congregation, and by the looks of it,
he completely trusts this congregation
with this very real problem that's going on
within their spiritual family there in Philippi in his absence.
And so he knows by naming his sisters not their problem, mind you.
By naming his sisters, it's not so that they would be shamed
and outed by their church family,
but so that they would be helped by all those around them
who love them ever so much.
Yet in saying that, it does also show us
that our apostle takes division in the church
very seriously.
Brothers and sisters, we have to be aware that this is the nature of
any church anywhere in the world.
The church is filled with people like you
and me who are in varying degrees of works in progress,
which means any New Testament church that is faithful to the word of God
and preaching of the gospel is going to be full
of little construction sites that are still being worked on.
And so we must be aware of that reality.
The church is filled with saved sinners.
And I just want to say a couple of things that are encouraging that we can take note of that.
At first, Paul fully expects that Christians will struggle with
varying forms of relational difficulties.
And so no church should look at itself and think that there is something
utterly wrong when there is hardship going on.
But as we see in our passage this morning, that doesn't mean
we just ignore it. Now as we see here, divisions and disunity
needs to be worked on, but brothers and sisters, there is good news in all of
this. And that's the second thing that I want you to take note of.
Notice the language in these verses. Christians deal with relational issues
in light of who we are in the Lord. In other words, we deal with broken
relationships and hardships of all sorts in light of the gospel.
Verse one, stand firm in the Lord. Verse two, be of the same mind
in the Lord. Verse three, rejoice in the Lord. Notice the language running
through our text. We struggle and strive with one another
in our brokenness, not as strangers or members of a Jesus fan club,
but as spiritual siblings who have all been saved, redeemed, sanctified,
and are totally forgiven and loved by our heavenly
Father in the Lord. What am I trying to say here?
Well that because of Christ and what He has done
for us, His people, we can see every strained relationship,
every hurt, every personal offense as an opportunity to shine what we have been
shown in the Lord to others. In other words, because of who we are,
our status in Christ, in the Lord, we can approach every relational hardship
as an opportunity to display the love that we have been shown to others
in Christlike forgiveness. That is something that is so unique about
the church, that no football, knitting, or rowing
club can ever manifest. Simply said, we as the family of God
are in the unique position because of our position
in Christ to display the love of Christ to each other, to our brothers and
sisters where there has been an offense. And so I simply want to say that
however deep that hurt may be, well because of who we are
in the Lord, there is a unique opportunity for the grace of the gospel
to be manifested in that situation. For forgiveness and reconciliation to be
shown. Church, hear me this morning, because we are
human and because we are all sinful, we will all experience
uncomfortable relationships. That's life, unfortunately.
But dear ones, that doesn't mean that we have to fret or
spiral out of control when those things come because we don't have to look at
relational difficulties in the same way that the world does.
No, because of the gospel, because of who we are in the Lord with the
experience of utter and total forgiveness working in our lives, we can
see every difficulty and hardship in light of the
gospel. And there's a unique opportunity to
share that forgiveness and reconciliation with others.
That is a beautiful truth that every Christian has an opportunity to do.
Yet in saying that, we must recognize that sometimes this won't be
possible to work out just between two people and we see that in our passage
this morning, don't we? That's why Paul has asked the church
to get involved and to help his sisters in this reconciliation.
That's why Paul has named these precious women.
It's because he loves them and it's he loves them too much to watch their
division destroy one another. And so he calls on others.
He calls on the maturity and the experience of others
in the Lord to help their sisters. Also that they might cultivate a culture
of reconciliation where forgiveness is offered and relationships are restored.
In other words, Paul is calling the church to be gospel centric.
He is calling the church to live in light of who we are in the Lord so that
there might be really real godly peace in the church.
So by way of application, to experience this peace
among themselves, this supernatural peace that transcends all their
understanding, he then exhorts the church. He commands the church. Verse 4
Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again, rejoice. Now if you're anything
like me, I think that's a really odd place to put something like this.
I mean he's just told the church of an internal division.
Now I want you to rejoice. But if we think about what Paul is saying here,
this actually hasn't come out of the blue and it's something that we've noticed
before in this book. In fact, it's been a concern of Paul all
throughout this letter to the Philippians. He wants them to, he doesn't
want them to rejoice in their circumstances. Now remember the context
that the letter has been written into. They are under persecution from the
outside and from the inside there's division.
And so with that said, we can see that Paul doesn't want these beloved people
to fixate all their attention on their circumstances,
but to turn their minds towards the Lord. That's the exhortation here.
Rejoice. Rejoice how? Rejoice in the Lord.
A few months ago, Haley and I had the opportunity to visit
a church in another town and they were an absolutely
beautiful congregation. But in saying that, they were a very
small congregation with only about 15 people.
So after the service, I got speaking to the minister and I told,
and he told me that he was only there in the last couple of months because the
last pastor left over a church split. And then he went on to tell me that the
church actually used to be quite large, but that they had an
argument over something to do with some new laws coming in at the federal level
of state government and the people became so
fixated on their external what-ifs and hows that they eventually turned
on each other. And what was a thriving Christian community and one of the most
pagan towns in Western Australia was torn to shreds in public view.
A burnt-out pastor, a divided community and a sign to that town that
Christian community can be just as horror to place to be in
than a Mackers in Northbridge on a Friday night.
Brothers and sisters, do you hear what our apostle is telling us here?
He's saying that if we fixate on our circumstances, if we are fixated on the
externals of the world and the internals of the church to
find our joy, then when pressures and hardships come in those
areas and they will come, then we are going to be in serious trouble.
Church, if we don't remember the Lord and if we forget to look to Him
and to rejoice in all that He has done, all that He is and all that He is going
to do for His people, if we take our eyes off Him and
forget who we are to each other in the Lord,
then we too run the risk of being torn to shreds.
Church, it's little wonder that Paul commands one of the most persecuted
churches in the New Testament to not fixate on their
situations, but to always look to the Lord and rejoice.
Second, he wants them to put into practice the fruit of the spirit.
Every born-again believer in the Lord has the spirit of God
in them and with that there will be evidence
in their lives of this work. When we look at Paul's letter to the
Galatians, he talks about that evidence by way of fruit and
gentleness is right there in that list. That's what he says in verse 5.
Let your gentleness be evident to all. In other words, let the work of God
so permeate your lives that it's evident not to just those in the church
but to everyone around you. I love what Paul does here actually
because it reminds us of just who we are in light of everything.
He says the Lord is near. Now that's not to scare us,
but to remind us of just who is in our lives
and to whom we will give an account one day.
I remember many moons ago that Haley and I were
having a disagreement over my lack of gifting of being able to pick up
items of clothing off the floor and we were having a bit of a
squabble and speaking pretty directly to each other.
When all of a sudden there was a knock on the door from our friends who had
arrived early for dinner and just like that I realized how
stubborn I was being and that our friends didn't need to be subject to my
justification of leaving my socks in the kitchen
at once again. So I humbly apologize to my dearly beloved and I'm sure I'm not
alone in this right man that when we are together with our loved ones
maybe in the midst of an argument with family members
we forget who is actually present in our lives and who's watching.
We forget to whom we will give an account
of every word we speak. So we might ask the question
if Jesus walks through the door, well do you think the disagreements that you're
having are worth having in light of the Lord?
Are you exuding the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of conflict?
First church we are to rejoice not in our circumstances but in the Lord.
Second we're to put into practice the fruit of the Spirit knowing that our Lord
is near. Third we're to pray. Verse 6 don't be anxious about anything but in
every situation by prayer and petition with
thanksgiving present your requests to God. In other words our apostle reminds us
that we're to rely on God in every single area of our lives. How do we know
that we're really relying on Him? It's because we take things to Him.
We take our anxiety to the throne of grace. Now don't mishear me this morning church.
This isn't Paul saying that you're not going to have any issues if you just pray.
That's not what he's saying here. I mean this isn't the inspiration for the song
don't worry be happy. As we've already seen through this series we see it again
this morning. Christians will go through different and horrible
circumstances in this life and there will be things that crawl into our hearts
and minds that will cause us to stress out and fret. But this is the thing.
Our apostle tells us here, plainly in our text,
that we don't have to be anxious because in every situation
we have a God who is in charge who loves us more than we could possibly
imagine. A Father that we can go to because we are in the Lord
and because of what he's done for us we will be heard.
I don't know about you my brothers and sisters but real anxiety
tends to grip my heart when I want to be in control of a situation but I'm just
not. And you know what the sad thing is about
that? None of us are actually in control of the
things around us anyway. And so by being anxious about a situation
that you're not in control of actually doesn't do a single thing except stress
you out and discourage others around you.
Church, worrying and fretting, well it doesn't actually
give you more control over the situation that you're out of control of
in the first place. Now all it does is causes you to feel more
anxious and to not be able to sleep at night.
So our dear apostle says, he says, brothers and sisters,
instead of worrying about the things you can't change
go and speak to the one who is in control of everything in your situation.
And because he loves you and because he is promised to take care of you
he will listen to any and everything that you bring to him.
That is our promise brothers and sisters. If you are in the Lord, if you trust him
with all that you are then you actually have nothing
to worry about in this life. We have nothing to worry about because
our loving Heavenly Father knows us, he knows our needs and he will take care
of us. So this invitation is open to all his
beloved children to go before the throne of grace
to find mercy, to find undeserved favor, to help us in our time of need.
And so the invitation is open to all of his children, all of us, to ask our
loving Heavenly Father to practice what he has told us to do,
to be at peace with one another, to rejoice in all circumstances,
to be gentle towards all, to pray about everything.
Because as we seek to obey what God would
really have us to do, that we will really experience his peace that surpasses
anything we have ever known. And just with that understanding that Paul
ends this part of scripture by pointing us to that very thing verse seven.
And the peace of God which transcends all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
See what our apostle is telling us? He's essentially telling us that when we
make it a practice of turning from what is right in front of us with all its
what ifs and maybes to the Lord in all circumstances, when we remember who we
are in the Lord and how God has shown us such
incredible grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ,
when we run to and not from our Heavenly Father in our crippling anxieties,
then there will be a peace that transcends
and surpasses all our understanding. In other words, Paul says when we make a
practice of turning to the Lord through any and everything,
when we make it a practice to rejoice in the Lord no matter what the
circumstance says, when we make it a practice to
live in gentleness with all those around us, even those we may struggle with,
when we're tempted to worry but again make it a practice to pray so that we
might trust ourselves and remind ourselves of God's sovereignty
in our lives, then there will be peace beyond our
comprehension and it will be known through and through.
Church, the promise here is simple. When the circumstances are screaming
to you, despair and hopelessness, if we turn to the Lord time and time and
time and time and time again, we'll experience
His peace that is already ours in Him. So church, as we end our time in this
wonderful and encouraging part of Scripture, I want to again ask that
question that we started with, is having the peace of God which
transcends all understanding, something that you want in your life
and in our churches, then might I encourage you to put into practice
what we've heard this morning? The promise is there for every single
born-again believer, but might I also encourage you in something else?
Might I encourage you to go to your Heavenly Father
and ask Him for His help in putting into practice what we have heard this morning?
We live in a world that is fallen. We live in a world where relationships
are hard. We live in a world where things just don't seem to work out.
So we must pray so that we might put into practice what God
wants us to do, because if we don't practice these things that we've heard
this morning, well we won't really experience the
promise that is being held out to us. And I don't know about you my brothers and
sisters, but I need that peace that goes beyond
anything that I could ever produce in and of myself.
We need that peace in our own lives. We need it
in our churches, but experiencing that peace begins with our own obedience
as to what God has told us to do. But let's end on this promise.
We have a God that we know loves and cares for us.
He sent us the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in the Lord
together. We have a God who has given us His Holy
Spirit as a helper. So when hard times come and they will come without and
within the church, we have a testimony
that we are doing none of it by ourselves in our own strength,
but we do all things in the Lord. Would you pray with me?
Father, we began our time by asking for your ministry in our midst to hold
Christ high among us this morning. Father, you know each and every
single one of us. You have told us through the Lord Jesus that not
where you know the very hairs on our head. Father, you know everything that is
going on in our lives right now that is out for people to see and in private.
Father, we want to experience this peace. We want this peace that goes beyond
that transcends surpasses our own understanding.
We want to be a people who love you, know you, and talk and share
the good news of you. We ask for your work in our lives, in this church, and the
churches around us. And we ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.