We're going to be looking at the famous passage
from Philippians 4 this afternoon. I mean, we
all pretty much have this passage memorized,
right? And it's not terribly difficult to make
sense out of, but it's been increasingly meaningful
for me as the years have gone by. So I'd like
to consider it with you. Just verses 4 through
7 of Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be
evident to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't
worry, but in everything, by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, make your requests known to
God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus. This is God's word. Friends,
that last verse, verse seven, the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding. I'm sure I'm
not the only one in this room. When I read that
for the first time as a Christian, it just stuck
in my mind. The way it's phrased is so beautiful.
And the thing it's talking about is so amazing.
And yet I'm sure I'm not the only person when
I read that. I've never read that and thought,
yep, I'm doing good on that one. I'm all topped
up on peace that passes understanding. I don't
need any more of that. You all are so godly and
sanctified. You're all way out ahead of me, you
know? It can be easy to look at verse 7, and
that can feel like an abstract ideal that might
apply to the really spiritual Christians, but
for normal Christians, not so much. The peace
of God that passes understanding does not characterize
very much of my experience. But what I think
is, and my thesis today with you, if you look
at the structure of the passage, verses 4 through
7, Paul gives three commands. and then a promise
about peace. Verses 8 and 9, he gives two commands,
and then the God of peace will be with you. My
idea, my crazy hypothesis I want to test out
with you, is that the more we follow the commands
that Paul gives in context, the more we're going
to find this peace being ours. In other words,
the passage unlocks itself for us. It tells us
how to get at this deeply precious thing. We're
not going to look at verses 8 and 9. Paul says,
think. certain things, and do the stuff you were
told to do, and the God of peace will be with
you. I think it's continuing the thought. You're
all perfectly smart. You can figure that out
on your own. I just want to look at verses four
through seven. He says rejoice, and then in verses
five and six, I translated it as be evident.
I should have just said rejoice, and then let
it be known, and let another thing be known,
and the peace of God. that passes understanding
so that i think as we rejoice and let these two
things be known more and more what feel a peace
that feels impossible will actually be ours so
that's what we're going to consider but before
we do we all know verse 7 i'm not going to tell
you anything you don't already know this verse
is amazing real quickly in verse 7 does everyone
see see paul says the peace of god That's a genitive
of possession and of source. That's God's peace
and a gift from him. This is not you trying to
convince yourself that everything's going to
be okay. This is not an abstract Zen ideal. This
is not even God bringing you up to your own fullest
potential for a calm state of mind on your own.
This is a gift from the throne outside of yourself.
It's something heavenly and divine, the kind
of blessed peace that God himself experiences.
He gives to those who have been united from his
son. And it's a gift from God from outside. Notice
he goes on to say that transcends comprehension
or that transcends knowing. Luke, what does the
NIV have there in verse seven? No, it's fine.
It's fine. Say again. Understanding. Yeah. Notice
verse seven would make sense without that little
phrase, which transcends understanding. Why is
that phrase there? If you're like me and you
have it, I don't know if it's obvious or not.
I have a tendency to worry about stuff. I'm just
irrationally selective about what I worry about.
And it's funny because my wife and I are both
worriers, but we both worry about totally different
things. Early in our marriage, she'd be like,
our finance is going to be okay. And I'd be like,
I can always get a job. Don't worry about it.
I'd be like, is the teaching going to be okay?
And she's like, well, it goes well most of the
time, Eric. Quit worrying about it, right? So
my experience of anxiety, tell me if this fits
with you. My experience, when I get anxious,
I'm thinking about the future and trying to plan
what I'm going to do to avoid bad stuff. Does
that resonate with it? It's that bad thing might
happen, and so I can do this and this. Oh, but
it might have these consequences down there,
and then maybe I can do that. I'm fretting and
worrying and wondering about what will happen
in the future, and I have no idea what's going
to happen in the future and what I can do. Now,
Paul says the peace that passes understanding.
In other words, this gift from the throne is
not something that you have to independently
verify is really worth trusting. You don't have
to let yourself wonder, can I really give myself
to this if I don't know if the future is going
to be okay? You have a piece that grips you that
you don't fully understand yourself. And instead
of that irritating worrying in your mind as I
go on and on, what about this, what about this,
what about... I just quit having to understand
everything, quit having to anticipate everything,
quit having to control everything. And I give
myself to a piece that doesn't make sense to
me, and it doesn't have to. He says the peace
that passes understanding will guard your hearts
and your minds. That is to say, your total person.
There's no part of your being that will be left
unaffected. It's not like part of you will be
at war with yourself and part of you will be
peace. Through and through you're going to be
in this peace. And he says it will guard you.
He could just say the peace of God will be with
you. That would make sense. But guard. That's
interesting. Guard from what? Well, I assume
at the least it means guarding me from making
dumb decisions because I'm listening to my fears
and not God, right? Or snapping at other people
and being unkind to other people because I'm
really stressed out. I am not pointing the finger
at anyone. I'm very guilty of that myself, okay?
At least it will guard me from that. But I wonder
if in a deeper way, it just protects you. It
takes care of you. It guards you. You don't have
to guard it. As you start to experience this,
it's not like a precious vase that you have to
worry might fall onto the floor and shatter.
You don't have to nourish it. It takes care of
you. And it comes for your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. That is to say, the Son of God
who dwells with us more intimately than we are.
This beautiful phrase from Augustine. He says,
you are closer to us than we are to ourselves.
You never have to worry about the peace getting
interrupted on the way down from the throne.
because it's in Jesus Christ to whom you're united
by faith. What a great verse, right? Now, how
do we get in on this? Okay, we're going to rejoice
and let two things be known, but real quickly,
in case this still feels like an extra add -on
for the super spiritual, if you don't know this
already, you and I are going to need this piece
this semester. Is anyone starting to feel the
press and the push and the stress of the academic
work across the semester? Is anyone starting
to think like, I'm not sure I can do all of this?
Is anyone being like Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew?
I'll give it 15 minutes and I'll pass the final
exam right away. Anyone feeling that way? I very
much sympathize with that. Every semester I had
at Trinity in Chicago, I was like, I don't know
how I'm going to get this all done. I managed
to somehow. We are engaged in a significant labor.
It is absolutely worth it. Consider how many
Christians across the world have the privilege
of coming. Look, I'm not trying to big up my
own ministry here, but how many Christians across
the world have access to theological education
like this? Maybe one in 10 ,000? I don't know.
But this is a significant labor. When I get to
the end of the semester, I am shot. It takes
everything I have to get through it. And friends,
I find studying depresses me. You should not
be surprised, especially the first years, if
you feel a dip spiritually. And Ecclesiastes
says studying is much weariness to the flesh.
There's something about human beings. Studying
is good, and you will need to keep doing it in
your life. But it's not necessarily automatically
life -giving, and especially not in November
when it's cold and rainy, and we've been at this
for 12 weeks, right? We're going to, and you're
stressed out and grouchy like I will be. And
friends, you're going to need this after you
leave Oak Hill. I have not talked to a single
graduate of Oak Hill who has said, after I left
Oak Hill and went into ministry, my life got
easier. Consistently, the testimony is, Oak Hill
was challenging and stressful, and it pushed
me, and then I got more challenged and stressed
out and pushed when I was in ministry. With all
due allowance for self -care and not burning
out, God has not called you to a stressful, easy
life. So this precious, seemingly unattainable
gift of Philippians 4 .7, this is a necessity
for all of us. Sorry, can't even speak English.
Okay, how do we get it? First, rejoice in the
Lord. And we all know this already. Most of the
Philippians are going, yeah, right, Paul. Do
you know the Wednesday morning I've had or the
year I've had or how little sleep I've gotten
this month? And Paul really lovingly and gently
looks us in the eyes and said, I am talking to
you. Again, I say rejoice in the Lord. How many
of us naturally just rejoice in God? I don't
tend to wander into that on my own. And notice
he says rejoice in the Lord always. Christians
never let their circumstances dictate how much
joy they find in their Savior. And friends, biblically,
joy in the Lord does not exclude profound grief
as well. Paul is not saying have a positive mental
attitude. He says rejoice in the Lord. And that
doesn't mean it excludes all grief, okay? Okay,
so how do we do this? Especially if it's not
natural for me, how do we do this? The simplest
way I know is to tell God the stuff you like
about him. Notice it doesn't say think about
God. It's You consciously direct your mind and
your affections to that invisible presence there
in the room with you, and you list for him the
things you like about him. And I find when I
do that, it begins, it's very artificial and
stilted, and I just kind of don't want to be
there. And it takes time for my heart to warm
up before I'm actually rejoicing. It's not natural
for me. But if I'm not rejoicing in the Lord,
I shouldn't be surprised if I'm not experiencing
the peace of God, if I can't rejoice in him,
right? Okay, so that this doesn't remain too
abstract, I'm going to rejoice in God in front
of you all for the next three hours, okay? And
we can get—no, I'm kidding. I'm going to say
two things about God that I really like, okay?
His providence and his happiness. Okay, so first
of all, God's providence for me. Across my 49
years, according to my calculator, I've had a
little over 2 ,500 Wednesdays. Guess how many
of them I remember? Not very many. Across the
thousands of seconds I had, for the millions
of atoms that are in my body, there has not been
a single instant of my existence that God's presence
and alert, careful, attentive care and awareness
and protection has not been with me. Not a single
second. Not a single second. In my best moments,
in my worst moments, in my most bored moments.
In the chapters of my life where I didn't really
know what was going on, in every single instant,
God is providentially ordering all things to
serve his purpose for me. His purpose being,
turn Eric into an actual Christian, someone who
can actually be happy in heaven and God's holiness.
Turn Eric into someone who can actually stop
thinking about himself so much and be a blessing
to other people, and turn Eric into someone who
can glorify God. Everything in my life is serving
that purpose. The horrible stuff in my life is
serving that purpose. We all have those times
where life is tough, but you're kind of thinking,
this is okay, I'm doing okay, I'm going to get
through this. And you have those times where
life is tough, and you're genuinely and without
self -pity thinking, I really don't know how
much more I can stand to that. That stuff is
serving God's purpose to make me wildly happy
in his presence forever in the resurrection.
even the boring stuff and the stuff that doesn't
make sense to me, that's also serving God's purpose.
Like a master artist, God never wastes any of
his materials. And if everything in my life is
serving God's purpose to make me a living fountain
of joy in the resurrection before him forever,
then everything in my life serves me. I have
a divine friend. Do I sound like I'm bragging?
I guess I kind of am. I have a divine friend
who is more committed to my eternal happiness
than I am. And everything in my life serves that.
And it's not just that. It's the happiness with
which God does that. I told my kids when they
were little, you think you're having fun on Christmas
morning? I'm having way more fun than you. And
they didn't believe me, and they were totally
wrong. One Christmas, my daughter, my wife sent
up this cute, not an obstacle course, but like
she left notes around the house. to where to
find a present. Like, go look in the kitchen
now. And then eventually she found the dollhouse.
My little daughter's jumping up and off the ground.
It's a dollhouse. It's a dollhouse. And she thought
she was the happiest person in the room. Her
mother and I were way happier in that moment.
My son is five years old. He opens a present.
It's a Captain America costume. His quote, word
for word, wow. Now this is a Captain America
costume. Wow. And five minutes later, he's on,
and he's got the shield, and him and I are like
play fighting on my bed and stuff. And he thought
he was having the most fun that day, and he wasn't.
Friends, if it's going to be an unspeakable joy
for us to be before the Lord Jesus in the new
creation, it's going to be a deeper joy for him
because of his love for us. There is no lack
in God. We don't feel any need in God, and yet
he's able to love us in such a way that you are
a real cause for happiness with God, even though
you give nothing to him. In the resurrection,
the Lord Jesus is going to come up to every single
one of you, and he's going to take your hands
and hug you and look you in the eye, and the
voice that spoke the Sermon on the Mount is going
to look at you and say, I am so happy you are
here. There is no way we were going to get this
party started without you. Now, we all could
say more, and if you were speaking, you could
rejoice in the Lord in a way that I can't quite,
okay? Just those two things, God's providence
and his happiness in that providence. I, and
I'm saying this more for me than for anyone,
I have to make a continual practice of rejoicing
in the Lord. I've got, or I shouldn't be surprised
when I don't experience the peace of God. Okay,
second command, let your gentleness be known
to everyone. So when he said the NIV has reasonableness,
I think perfectly good translation. When he says
gentleness be known, that is, it should be obvious.
It should be evident. And when he says to everyone,
that means no exceptions. It doesn't matter whether
they're Christian or not. It doesn't matter whether
they annoy you or not. It doesn't matter whether
they've wronged you or not. There's no exceptions
here. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
Now, quick nuance. The same Paul who said this
dragged Peter over the coals in Galatians 2 for
hypocrisy because he's not even with Gentiles.
And I get the sense he said that in front of
everyone. He grabs the head of the church and
says, you're a hypocrite. I imagine that would
have made for an awkward lunch, right? The same
Jesus who says he is gentle and lowly will excoriate
the Pharisees and say, woe to you. Gentleness
does not mean weakness, passivity, people -pleasing,
and spinelessness. Okay. And you know this already,
but in ministry, you're going to need to have
the capacity to have those really blunt conversations
where you say things you wouldn't normally say.
At the same time, what Paul says here in this
passage must deeply characterize our lives. If
I'm not being gentle to everyone I meet, I have
no right to expect the peace of God to be mine
because I'm not representing who God is. There's
a bi -form. The word for this in Matthew 11,
when Jesus says, I am gentle and lowly, we're
reflecting Jesus when we do this. It's a meekness.
It's a non -reactiveness, not easily irritated.
It's a non -defensiveness. It's a calm, level
-headed, kind, considerateness of other people.
We've all had those conversations with other
Christians where you just think there's just
no talking to you. I can't convince you. You've
made up your mind. It's not abrasive. It's not
pushy. It doesn't wear people down. It's not
overly argumentative. It's reasonable. It's the
same word in 1 Timothy 3 .3 for the elder being
gentle and not argumentative, right? James 3
.17 has the same word. peaceable, our word, gentle,
open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits,
impartial and sincere, open to reason, full of
mercy. If that doesn't deeply characterize my
life to everyone, whether they deserve it or
not, I shouldn't be surprised if I'm not experiencing
the peace of God, because I'm not reflecting
who Jesus is. Third thing, okay, and Paul says,
let that be known. Third thing he says, let it
be known, is your prayers to God. They're not
the same word in Greek, but they're related forms
and they sound similar. So if you had heard this
at Philippi, you would have put the two together.
Paul says, you make one thing known to human
beings and another to God. You make your gentleness
known to everyone and you make your requests
known to God. I often flip it and I make all
my annoying requests known to people. I don't
say anything to God. He says, do not worry, but
in everything by prayer and supplication, make
your requests known to God. Worry. When you feel
that surge of anxiety, worry is an intense sort
of urgent feeling. It's not calm. As you go through
the day, he says, don't worry, but in everything,
as you go through the day, every time you are
feeling that worry, every time you're thinking,
what if that happens? Or, oh no, here comes that
other person. Or you see that thing inside yourself
and you think, oh my goodness, not this again.
You continually direct the energy toward God
and you start pestering your Heavenly Father
about it. When my kids are little, if they were
tired of their food, I'd have them just shovel
it off onto my plate. Everything on your plate
that you don't want, you just shovel it off onto
God's. And you continually say, Lord, I'm worried
about this. Will you please attend to that? You
do not have to pray long, complicated prayers.
Please can I ask everyone to remember, Jesus
himself says, don't think you're heard because
of your many words. You don't have to explain
the problem to God. It can be short, brief, and
repeated. It can be just, Lord, have mercy. Or
Lord, please help. Or Lord, fix this. Or whatever
it is. Every surge of worry, you keep passing
it on to God. And guess what starts to happen?
The peace of God that surpasses understanding
is yours more and more. Now, what if, and guys,
I need to give credit. I'm going to embarrass
him. Mark Sterling, who's here for this week,
really helped me with this passage and helped
me with some of the connections and this crucial
phrase right in the middle that I'm going to
talk about. So credit where credit is due. Thank
you, Mark. Do you see I skipped something in
the middle? What if you find yourself saying,
I don't want to be gentle to people. I'm too
tired and too frustrated. Or I don't quite trust
myself to be gentle. Or what if you find yourself
saying, I can't stop worrying. It's got a hold
of me. Does everyone see right there in the middle,
the Lord is near? That stands as the reason and
the ground, and it makes it possible for me actually
to be gentle and non -anxious. The Lord is near
means he is present and he sees and he cares.
There's nothing that happens in your life or
in your church that he's distantly aware of,
and it's like 18th on his agenda, and he'll get
to it when he can. And when it says the Lord
is near, that means he is active. If you could
see how busy heaven was each day with the divine
sovereign commanding his divine servants to bring
about his kingdom in the world, it would be quite
something. Friends, if the Lord is near, that
means present, caring, alert, active, then you
can be chilled out with other people. You don't
have to feel like I need to fix this problem
or I need to fix this person. You don't have
to grind people into the dust trying to get them
to be better Christians or something like that.
You can be chilled out with other people, and
you can keep passing stuff off to God and just
say, please take care of this, and you be the
Savior instead of me. And again, friends, that
doesn't mean you're silent or passive. In Galatians
2, Paul said something really blunt to Peter.
But my experience is whenever I speak or act
outside of this deep peace, I usually get it
wrong. And I'm not a blessing to other people.
That's it. Rejoice, gentleness known to other
people, your requests known to God. And the peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
May that be ours this day and this week and this
semester. Amen. Let's take a moment to reflect
on what we've just heard.