Podcasts about philippians 4:19

What does it really mean to believe in Jesus—not just in your mind, but with your life? In this powerful message, Pastor James Wilson explores the depth of true belief in Jesus Christ, challenging us to move beyond intellectual agreement to a life of full trust and surrender. Drawing from John 4:39–42 and John 3:16, Pastor Wilson reminds us that real faith is rooted in personal encounter and testimony, not just what we've heard about Jesus. He further unpacks this truth through passages like Joshua 24:15, 1 Peter 1:15–16, Philippians 4:19, and Ephesians 1:13, calling believers to live set apart lives, grounded in holiness and bold trust in God's promises. Whether you're standing against the pressures of culture or seeking assurance in your walk, this message will stir your heart to trust the One who transforms and sustains more deeply. Faith is more than knowing about Jesus—it's choosing Him daily, living holy, and trusting Him fully even when it's uncomfortable. Sermon Scriptures: John 4:39-42   We stream live every Sunday at 11 am ET and every Wednesday at 8 pm ET.   Visit our website: https://perfectingfaithchurch.com    Connect with us on social media!  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerfectingFaithChurch/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectingfaithchurch/  X: https://x.com/PFCNY   Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectingfaithchurch      

Dave speaks to us from Philippians 4:1-9

Saturday is review day on The Daily Promise. Every Saturday, we review the promises of the week so we can allow them to go deep into our hearts and lives. Here are the promises we covered this week. Romans 8:28 – God is Working for Your Good. Proverbs 16:3 – Commit Your Plans to the Lord. Psalm 31:24 – There is Hope in the Lord Philippians 4:19 – My God Will Supply All My Needs. Psalm 34:29 – God Will Deliver You.

Sunday Evening 3/30/2025

"There is a power that happens when we connect with the Holy Spirit through prayer. There is a power that happens when we declare the truth of the kingdom over our lives through prayer." Pastor Matt Janzen

10.27.2024 | The Good Good Shepherd | Part 1: My Provider, Guide, and Restorer | Pastor Jeff Wickwire In this sermon, Pastor Jeff Wickwire emphasizes the comforting and guiding nature of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, as articulated in Psalm 23. He highlights that God is our faithful provider, ensuring we have all we need, which alleviates our worries about tomorrow. Pastor Jeff also discusses the importance of rest and spiritual nourishment, illustrating how Jesus leads us to green pastures and still waters, allowing for the restoration of our souls. Ultimately, he encourages the congregation to reflect on the path they are on and underscores that God desires to guide us in a direction that brings glory to His name.

In this episode, Pastor Dom continues teaching about the names of God. Genesis 1:11 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Exodus 20:77 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.Philippians 4:1919 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.Psalm 148:1313 Let them praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.Isaiah 14:1414 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'  Exodus 20:33 “You shall have no other gods before Me.Exodus 20:4-54 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God,Psalm 57:22 I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.1 John 5:2121 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.1 John 2:15-1615 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.Philippians 4:1919 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.Mark 10:2727 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”Psalm 147:55 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;  His understanding is infinite.Genesis 17:11 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.' Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.Genesis 17:22 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”Genesis 22:1717 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.Philippians 4:1313 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.2 Peter 1:33 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.Matthew 6:3333 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

In this episode, Pastor Dom teaches about the significance found in the names of God. Genesis 1:11 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Genesis 1:2626 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”Genesis 14:1818 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God (EL) Most High.Isaiah 7:1414 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (EL) Matthew 1:2323 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”Job 33:44 The Spirit of God (EL) has made me,  And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.John 8:5858 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”Exodus 34:66 And the Lord ( passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,Exodus 20:77 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.Psalm 23:1-61The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil;For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me  All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.Hebrews 13:55 …For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”John 10:1010 …I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Philippians 4:1919 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.2 Corinthians 9:88 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Week 7 of Think About What You Think About . A message by Max Lucado.

Week 7 of Think About What You Think About . A message by Max Lucado.

God shelters us by the power of His Word and the precious Holy Spirit! Christianity has been swept into the anxieties of the world. God is saying to major in spiritual things instead of the worldly things.

If we live by faith in God's promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

Lakeway Baptist Church

Lakeway Baptist Church

dealing with pride, mammon and unhealthy relationships

God will supply Separating the precious from the worthless Spokesman for the gospel

Proper 23 (28) Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A, 2022-2023)Scripture Readings: Exodus 32:1-14, Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23, Philippians 4:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14

If we live by faith in God's promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

Sunday, May 28, 2023 Sheridan Drive Baptist Church Muskegon, MI

Sunday, May 28, 2023 Sheridan Drive Baptist Church Muskegon, MI

May the God of Wonders Bless You!

If we live by faith in God's promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

Sunday, April 3, 2022 Latchkey Church Grand Rapids, MI

Sunday, April 3, 2022 Latchkey Church Grand Rapids, MI

Welcome to the audio podcast for Dogwood Church in Athens, TX.

Harvest Bible Fellowship's weekly Message.

In our final study in Philippians, the apostle Paul commends the Philippians for consistently partnering with him in the Gospel, through their prayers and giving. They are held forth for us as a classic example for how we should support those who are devoting their lives to preach Gospel and spread God's Word. Paul tells them that their partnership with him involved both giving and receiving (v15), which meant they would receive a great reward for their faithful giving, both eternal fruit that would abound to their account as treasures in Heaven (v17), and the promise that God would supply all their need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus in this life (v19).

In our final study in Philippians, the apostle Paul commends the Philippians for consistently partnering with him in the Gospel, through their prayers and giving. They are held forth for us as a classic example for how we should support those who are devoting their lives to preach Gospel and spread God's Word. Paul tells them that their partnership with him involved both giving and receiving (v15), which meant they would receive a great reward for their faithful giving, both eternal fruit that would abound to their account as treasures in Heaven (v17), and the promise that God would supply all their need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus in this life (v19).

In our final study in Philippians, the apostle Paul commends the Philippians for consistently partnering with him in the Gospel, through their prayers and giving. They are held forth for us as a classic example for how we should support those who are devoting their lives to preach Gospel and spread God's Word. Paul tells them that their partnership with him involved both giving and receiving (v15), which meant they would receive a great reward for their faithful giving, both eternal fruit that would abound to their account as treasures in Heaven (v17), and the promise that God would supply all their need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus in this life (v19).

If you put God and His kingdom first, you can trust Him to meet your needs.

If you put God and His kingdom first, you can trust Him to meet your needs.

Organization: Foundation Christian Ministries Speaker: Pastor Chris Pena City: Bastrop State: Tx

If we live by faith in God's promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

Organization: Foundation Christian Ministries Speaker: Pastor Chris Pena City: Bastrop State: Tx

Welcome to the audio podcast for Dogwood Church in Athens, TX.

Organization: Foundation Christian Ministries Speaker: Pastor Chris Pena City: Bastrop State: Tx

Organization: Foundation Christian Ministries Speaker: Pastor Chris Pena City: Bastrop State: Tx

Palestine Baptist Church

Palestine Baptist Church

Hey, y'all! Welcome to the Gary Church Podcast . . . from Gary Church, here in Wheaton, IL.  We are only able to gather 50 people a day in our sanctuary with masks on and social distanced for safety. However, we would love to have you worship with us. You may register for our next worship service at www.garychurch.org. This is the scripture and sermon by our Director of Youth Ministries, Pastor Dan Lee, from October 11th, 2020 the 19th Sunday After Pentecost Sunday. The sermon is called “Rejoice in the Lord Always” and our scripture is read by Anna Mathis. At Gary Church our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!Philippians 4:1-9Revised Common LectionaryVideo of the entire October 11th, 2020 Worship Service at Gary Church

If we live by faith in God’s promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

God's word is full of promises. Pastor Overton shows us several promises that we can be excited about.

God's word is full of promises. Pastor Overton shows us several promises that we can be excited about.

Welcome to the individual sermon page. On this page you can view a video of the sermon or you can ...

Christ City Church

Romans 6:13, Psalms 91, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 4:17

Pastor Jeff looks at Philippians 4:1-9 in his message, Steadfast. This is the final part of our November series, Check Yourself, which encourages us to check ourselves, to make sure we are postured in love, knowledge and depth with our gospel fluency.Support the show (https://tithe.ly/give?c=397080)

Proper 23 - Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Exodus 32:1-14, Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23, Philippians 4:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14

Philippians 4:19, Psalm 11, Exodus 16:15-16, 19, Philippians 4:6-7, 19, Hebrews 4:16

Theme: Christ enables us to live a life of joyful contentment, regardless of the circumstances of our present existence. Text: Philippians 4:10-23 Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

I. The Pinnacle of God’s Physical Creation: The Human Mind This morning we're looking again for the second time at Philippians 4:1-9, Standing Firm for Joy, and that's what this text is calling us to do. We live in a magnificent world, don't we? Magnificent creation from the complexity of God's mind, and it is complex, for who has known the mind of the Lord or ever been his counsel? From the complexity of his mind has come a complex universe, one beyond our understanding though we study it all the time. As we were driving in this morning, the children I were talking about the mind of the Lord, the mind of God. Who has ever stood in God's presence to give him advice, and when did he ever ask for it? Is there ever any a vote up in heaven on what course of action to take? Is God ever confused or brought to a pass and not know which direction to turn? No, this is the mind of the Lord, and he is absolutely perfect in wisdom, and from that complex mind has come a complex universe, a universe of burning stars, balls of gas on fire constantly, with the power of fusion sending off their light and their radiation. And the planets that are going around in perfect God-ordained order in our solar system, everything just where it needs to be, the complexity immeasurable. And the most complex planet of all is Earth, with all of its ecosystems. They can search for evidence of water at Mars all they want, but we live in a place where we don't need to search for evidence. There is life, there is water, there are ecosystems, there are little bacteria and fungi and all kinds of things mixing together in a way that we will never fully comprehend, all of it pointing toward life. You think of the amazing complexity of this world that we live in, and nothing's more complex than the human body, our bones and our nerves and our systems, all of them fitting together in a way that is so difficult for us to understand. Though we have here in this community and all over the world intelligent people studying it all the time, we'll never fully comprehend it. But the most complex part of the human body is the human mind. I really believe it's the pinnacle of God's physical creation. Nothing is more complex than that tangle of neurons that is between your ears right now. Now you may think your mind is not as complex as that of your spouse, for example, and you're working on that as you communicate, but the fact is every one of us has a complex mind. To put it in perspective, in the Amazon rainforest, there are... Approximately, it stretches about 2.7 million square miles, and there are 100 billion, they estimate 100 billion trees, in the Amazon rainforest. That's how many neurons you have in your brain. And the interconnections of each neuron are equal to the average tree in terms of its number of leaves. So if you had the leisure and the time to count the number of leaves in the Amazonian rain forest, that's how many interconnections there are in your brain. And that brain, the pinnacle of complexity of what God has created, that is the immense battlefield when it comes to the journey of sanctification. The devil focuses all his attention and his effort on how you think, what you think, what you are pondering, what you are considering. And God, for his part, through the power of the Holy Spirit, focusing all of his effort and his attention and his energy on your mind. It's a battle for the mind. You were created in the image of God, created to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, created to know the glory of God, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And God has given you a mind to do that. II. Context: Stability for Eternal Joy Now, we've been looking in Philippians at these two journeys, the infinite journeys that are before us, an internal journey of holiness, of sanctification, of growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and the external journey of worldwide evangelization and witness, the advance of the kingdom of God, both within and without. We've been saying here in Philippians 4:1, there is a need for stability, a need to stand firm while we make progress. We talked about that last time. The image I gave you was of a man or woman trying to make their way across a rushing mountain stream in a straight line, needing every footfall to be sure and strong, or a mountaineer on a icy, snowy ridge with wind blowing across and the crampons digging in so that there's a firm footing for progress. So we also need stability. And, in the journeys that are before us, the internal journey in which Paul says "forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead," you need sure footing, don't you? You need to build step by step in what you have come to know and believe and understand that is unshakable about God and about the Gospel, and move on into the new areas, those things that you don't understand yet, to make progress. And so also it is with the Gospel. To take the base that we have already of believers, those that love the Lord, and move out to those that do not know him yet and have not trusted in him. We need stability and strength as we move ahead in progress. III. Seven Steps to Spiritual Stability Now, last time I talked about three ways in Philippians 4:1-9 that Paul gives us for this kind of stability as a foundation for joy. 1) Cultivating Harmony in the Church Fellowship The first is cultivating harmony in the church fellowship. We talked about Euodia and Syntyche, two women who don't seem to get along, who don't like each other for some reason, they're having some conflict. And it's interesting how the Apostle Paul says, literally in the Greek, that they would be of one mind together, that they would be of one mind, that they would think the same thoughts about one another and about the Gospel. You've got to have unity in the church fellowship, you gotta have unity in the family and the people in your life or it's impossible to have stability and joy. It's impossible. It's one of the big attacks that the devil has, is creating and sowing discord, what the book of Hebrews calls the root of bitterness that defiles many after it grows up. And so there must be that. 2) Determining to Rejoice No Matter What And then there secondly, a determination to rejoice no matter what. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. A decision as an act of the will and of the mind that no matter what the circumstances, you're going to rejoice in Christ. You're going to rejoice in him and in his sovereign power and his majestic goodness and in his cross, the blood he shed on the cross. You're going to rejoice no matter what. A determination of the mind and of the heart, an attitude of joy no matter what. 3) Learning to be Gentle And thirdly learning to be gentle, kind of an interesting thing along the way, but this gentleness, this even mindedness, this reasonableness, a mild response, so that everyone who sees you would know you to be a gentle man or woman. That's what we looked at last time. Now, today we're going to look at four more. Developing first, a confident trust in the Lord, verse five and six. Secondly, learning to react to problems with thankful prayer in verse six and seven; controlling your thought life, verse eight; and then imitating godly examples briefly, verse nine. And you see that the control of the mind, the issue of the mind and heart is central to each one of these. It is with the mind and the heart that you are confident in your trust and are not anxious. It is with your mind and your heart that you learn to return everything to God in thankful prayer. Verse eight is clearly about mind control, in which it says you must think about these things and not their alternatives. Think about these things, controlling your thoughts, and then imitating godly example I think is more action than it is thinking. But it flows from right doctrine, right living flowing from right doctrine. These four examples. 4) Developing a Confident Trust in the Lord Let's look at the first one, developing a confident trust in the Lord, 4:5-6 say, "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything." Now, I know that the verse numbers are helpful to us, aren't they? But sometimes I think there can be a hindrance. I actually think, Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near, being one verse might give you the indication that the Lord is near goes more with the gentleness than it does with the anxiety issue. But I think it can go both ways, and that's fine with me. The Lord is near so be gentle, just like Christ was gentle, and that's fine, but I'm going to kind of look the other way in terms of the issue of the Lord being near. The Lord is near so don't be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about anything. Our confidence and trust is based on the fact that God is with us all the time. The beginning and the end of Matthew's Gospel make this very plain, don't they? The beginning, we have after the genealogy an account of the angel coming to Joseph and announcing the birth of Jesus, and the Scripture that Matthew chooses to focus on there is Matthew 1:23, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God with us.'" And then at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew, we have, "and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." And so at the beginning and the end of Matthew's Gospel, we have a promise that Jesus, the Lord, will be with us at all times. He is with us always. He is Immanuel, God with us. And therefore, we need not, in fact, we must not be anxious about anything because God is with us. To be anxious, the word here literally means to chop up the mind, to divide the mind into bits. Somewhat like part of your brain is wrestling in one way and the other part the other, and you go back and forth and you're torn, you're wrestling. You know what anxiety is like. To work over something intensely in your mind so that you're buffeted back and forth, like a piece of cork bobbing on a troubled sea, blown, tossed, to and fro in your thought life. Forgetting all the time the Sovereign God and his goodness towards you, and his wisdom. Forgetting that and instead focusing so much on the problem that you're anxious about. Now, I think there are two kinds of anxiety. Two kinds of anxiety. First is helpful anxiety, good anxiety. Now I don't use the word anxiety for these things but the Greek word's the same in these verses. I don't want you to think that care-taking or great concern is never appropriate for the Christian life. It actually is. For example, in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 it says, "An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs how he can please the Lord." So he's... The Greek word's the same. Anxious over how he can please the Lord today. He's concerned about that, it's on his mind, it weighs on him. How can I please Christ? How can I please him today? It says the same thing about an unmarried woman. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned or anxious about the Lord's affairs, her aim is to be devoted to the Lord both in body and spirit. Now the context there is talking about the superiority in that case of the single life over the married life and that if you're married, you're going to have a divided mind somewhat, and you're going to be concerned about your family and how to provide for those needs, but that itself is also commanded in other places. If you are a husband and a father, you should be concerned about how you are going to provide for your family. You must be concerned about that but not anxious. Or it could be a good concern, a good anxiety, it's just concern over the spiritual welfare of others. The Apostle Paul frequently shows us this. 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, he says, "Apart from other things, there's the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I do not feel weak, who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn." he is concerned over the spiritual welfare of the churches he planted. He's worried over them, to some degree. And why is that? Because there's no guarantees that those churches that he planted have genuine saving faith in Christ, they might get deluded or drawn away and so he is praying over them, concerned that some evil attack would come and destroy them. And so the same Greek word is used for these, but I would not use anxiety for that term, it'd be concern, focus, a concentrated effort of mind and will, so you're thinking about these things. But that's not what's in the view in this text, is it? And that's not what you think of when you think of anxiety. Anxiety is something else, there's the bad anxiety. Do you know what I'm talking about? We're talking about to fret and work over and be concerned over some earthly temporal matter that has no eternal consequence. And how much time do we spend wasting doing this exact thing? Concerned about whether you're going to be late to this or that meeting, right? Got a little bit of a late start, and the light is turning and you're not going to make it, you're just not going to make it, anxious and concerned over it. Or concerned about money. Are you going to have enough to pay the bills this month or next month? Concerned about health and welfare of people that you love, or yourself. Most of the stuff we're anxious over never really happens. Have you ever noticed that? We get anxious over things that never occur. I've said before, and I think it's true that this bad or evil anxiety is actually the taking of a good gift of God, and perverting it, and twisting it around. It is the gift of imagination gone bad, right? Imagination worst case scenario, what could happen to you? Well, we don't really want to go there in our minds. It's amazing how bad it can be up in here, right. I might slip on a puddle and break my neck and be a quadriplegic the rest of my life. The anxiety comes from an imagination. Now, imagination is a good thing, it's a gift of God to be able to think ahead in the future, and plan or to write children's stories, or poetry or to think of imaginative outreaches and ways to reach people for Christ or have an ambition to go and preach the Gospel in Spain, said Paul, and he's thinking about what that would be like. That's a good thing to have that kind of imagination, but anxiety is a bad use of imagination in which you're laying in bed at night pondering what might happen, working it over. Frankly, it's a great insult to Christ, isn't it? As you're laying there and anxious and concerned over many things in effect, it says to Christ. I don't trust what you're going to do with my life, I don't trust it. Either, you're going to lack power, or you're going to lack wisdom or you're going to lack goodness, one of those three. You may want to do something good for me, but not know what's good. Or you may lack the power to bring it about, in any case, I just don't trust you Christ and so I'm just going to sit here and marinate in my anxiety. I'm going to be concerned and anxious. Imagine if you were driving down the highway with your 10-year-old, let's say. And it's a rainstorm, it's windy, it's a tense time as you're driving. And all of a sudden your 10-year-old says to you, "Daddy, we're going to die, we're going to die. Oh no, what, what's going to happen? Oh, there's a curve. Do you see the... Do you see the truck? We're not going to make it. Daddy, daddy, can I drive? Will that be okay Would it be alright 'cause it's really rainy and windy. Would it be okay if I drove?" What would you think? I'd be offended. I'd say, "You know how many rainstorms I have driven in. We're going to be okay, we're going to be fine, okay." But yet, there we are with our lives, saying, "God, it's not going to work out. Oh, see that truck, what's going to happen?" And we're being anxious. And God's saying, I'm in control. I've done lots of these lives. I've gotten lots of people through Zero to 80 or so, and gotten them on into heaven, and I can do it with you too, so be at peace, I know what I'm doing. And there we are wanting that 10 years old to grab the wheel. This is a comprehensive command here. Be anxious for nothing, nothing. Not for cancer or AIDS or SARS, remember that one? We could have been anxious and not sent a mission team. It's amazing how practical this is. Big reports about SARS after the Iraq war was over. Everybody worried about it, concerned, should we go, should we not? We prayed through it, we found out what we could but anxiety could have derailed a very fruitful mission there because we didn't trust God. Be anxious for nothing, be anxious for nothing, don't be anxious. College students or high school students about grades, about what job you're going to get when you graduate, don't be anxious about anything. Single people about who you're going to marry or couples that would like to have children about whether you're going to be able to have children or older people about what's going to happen to your body. There's so many ways we can be anxious, this says, be anxious for none of it. Be anxious for nothing. How to Develop Confident Trust in the Lord Well, how do we do this, how do we develop a confident trust in the Lord? I think it starts with doctrine. It starts with the mind, it starts with retraining the thinking and the doctrine I have in mind is the doctrine of the providence of God. What do I mean by that? Well, it's a fancy word, an important word, an important doctrine, it's the idea that our God is a king who enjoys ruling over his universe. He doesn't just sit back and watch it go like he's watching a movie or something like that or like the passenger in a car on a rainy day. No, he is driving the car, he's in charge of the universe, he is running all things, he is a king who delights to work these things out. It says in Romans 8:28, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose." Psalm 115:3, "Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him." Now, is that an out of sorts, grumbly, irritable God? Or is it a God who sits serenely on the throne of power and who has never been troubled by anything. He's in-charge, he's ruling, he's sovereign, he's a king, and his rulership goes down to the smallest level. Proverbs 16:33, "The lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the Lord." He rules actively over his universe, and therefore anxiety has no place in the Christian life. We must renew our minds, by thinking and saying to ourselves, God is a king, he's a good king, he's a loving king who knows what he's doing. Jesus’ Teaching on Anxiety At the end of Matthew 6, take a minute and look there if you would, Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus works very hard on the issue of anxiety. In Matthew 6:25 and following it says there, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothing? Look at the birds in the air, they don't sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow, they don't labor or spin. Yet, I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. So do not worry saying, what should we eat or what should we drink or what should we wear for the pagans run after all these things. And your Heavenly father knows that you need them, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Do you realize how much the Lord is laboring on us there that we would not be anxious about anything? That we would not be concerned about anything? The basic idea is, you have a heavenly Father, he's very attentive, he's very alert, nothing escapes his attention. He knows what you need long before you ask, and he is ruling over all things for your good and your benefit so don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. 5) Reacting to Problems with Thankful Prayer Immediately, coupled with that is reacting to life's problems with thankful prayer. Look at verses six and seven, go back to Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything," it says there, "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." This is the flip side. We're not just going to be not anxious like we're somehow stoics, we're just not going to think about those bad things. No he's calling us to be very active. Whenever you're tempted to be anxious, return it back to God in prayer, whatever it might be that you're anxious about bring it to him in prayer, roll your burdens on him or cast them on the Lord in prayer, that's what he's calling you to do. We anticipate problems in the future not with anxiety, but with confident prayer. Now, it says, "Prayer and petition." These are just two words for the same thing. It results in diligent persistent prayer. Not just one time, but many times you're going again and again like the persistent widow. You're going to the Lord in prayer, you're going to bring it to him in everything it says. Entrust the matter to God, lay it before his throne for his wisdom and his disposal. Say "Lord, I'm tempted right now to be anxious about this health issue that I'm facing or that my wife is facing. I'm tempted to be anxious about where the money is going to come for school next semester. I'm tempted to be anxious concerning how old I am, and I'd like a spouse and God hasn't provided yet. I'm tempted to be anxious Lord, right now about these things, I want to present this to you. I want you to take the anxiety away and I want you to bring me peace. I want to trust in you." Prayer drives out anxiety. And you do it with thankfulness. Thankfulness as you look backward at God's faithfulness to you in the past. Thank you God, for all you've done to bring me this far. Thank you God, for all of the mercies you've shown me already, thank you. But even thankfulness, by faith concerning the future. Thank you God, that in this matter, you will do what's best for your glory and for me. I who am your child thank you. So we pray with faith and with thankfulness, ahead of time. We give him thanks. I think that thankfulness drives out anxiety, and it's greatly honoring to God. And the result of this, it says is the peace of God which passes all understanding. Now, I want to make a careful distinction here that has been helpful to me in my life. There is something called peace with God, and then there's something called the peace of God. I think they are two different but related things. Peace with God has to do with a status of peace between us and the eternal God. And I get this out of Romans 5:1. In which it says, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Can anything take that away? Can you ever be unjustified from God? Never. And therefore, you will always and forever as a child of God, be at peace with God and God at peace with you. Christ is our peace similar to the fact that we are not at war with Great Britain. There's a status of peace between our two nations governments, a status of peace, and a friendly relations. It is true that in the past we were at war with Great Britain, a long time ago, but we are not presently at war, and just in the same way we were in the past at war with God, though we did not know it that was part of the warfare. And God, also at war with us, because we were outside of Christ, but once we have come to faith in Christ, we have once and forever a status of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's one thing, but this is talking about, I believe, something else. The peace of God. Now the word "of" in greek is a little tricky. Can either be the peace that characterizes God or the peace that comes from God as a gift. I think it's hard to decide which of the two but let's start with the idea that it's the peace that characterizes God here. He's at peace. He is sitting on his throne right now and he's at peace. We don't know his kind of peace, that's how deep and rich it is. He's not flustered, he's not out of sorts, he's not anxious about anything, but he is at peace and that kind of peace qualitatively that God enjoys all the time, can be yours as a child of God. It is an experience of peace, a feeling of peace, a confident peace that comes over you because you have entrusted the matter to God in prayer. And you can lay in bed at night free from anxiety, free from concern with God's peace in you because you have prayed the matter through and entrusted it to God. The peace of God. Now the one you always have, peace with God, but the other you don't always have because sometimes we allow anxiety and other things to come in and we lose our peace. At that time, you must go back to God in prayer and get it back. Say, "Lord I want the peace of God right now. I want to experience that. I don't want to be anxious anymore. I want your peace to come over me." And God, who gives that kind of peace, the peace that's from God, he'll give it to you, as an experience. Now, it does say here, it is the peace that "passes all understanding." What do I mean by that? Well, in one sense you could say it's the peace that contradicts what makes sense in the situation, the peace that makes no sense, right? If your non-Christian friends were around you saying, "Hmm, how can you be at peace? Your spouse is facing a very serious operation tomorrow, and yet you're at peace, how can that be? She might die." Yes, but I prayed the matter through, and it seems to make no sense, but I am totally at peace right now. Just like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail singing in at peace, not concerned about anything. It's a peace that passes all understanding. But I actually take a different approach to this, I think it's a peace that passes understanding in that God doesn't always tell you everything, and yet you can be at peace. He's not going to tell you why it's all happening. Isn't that the thing we want? Why has this happened? What are you doing God? What's happening? How does this fit into your eternal plan? Is he going to tell you all that? No, he's not. And he hasn't promised to. There are some things that are secret that belong to him. And yet he will give you a peace that passes all understanding, so you're able to stand up in that moment of testing and be at peace. And so entrust all things to God in prayer. 6) Controlling Your Thought Life In verse eight, it says, controlling your thought life. Look with me at verse eight. It says, "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 those things." The implication is, don't think about those things that are not any of those things. Imagine if you had a friend, and he said, "Come here, I want to show you something. This is my prized possession." And he brings you into a room and there is a magnificent Queen Anne desk, the kind with all the little cubby holes and all that kind of thing. And it actually belonged to, he tells you, George Washington. It's been a family heirloom and it was given to him. You say, "Oh, it's magnificent, it's beautiful, it's spectacular. What's in there, in those little cubby holes?" "Mud, I keep mud in there. We have a little river that goes by, and I just go down to the bank and I scoop out river muck, and I put it in the cubby holes there." What would you think about your friend? You'd think he's nuts. Here's a magnificent desk with all these little cubby holes and he's filling it with muck. And that is the nature of your mind when you fill it with ungodly things. It is a magnificent gift of God, this interconnected brain which was meant for his glory, to know him and to know his glory, and we fill it with what? It's about the same. It's actually worse. Hollywood, the movie industry, the magazines, the books and all that. It's all part of a demonic plan to fill your mind with muck, that's what it's for. To get you to stop thinking about what's true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. That's what you should be thinking about. You shouldn't be neutral. We're not mystics in the Eastern Hindu thing or a Buddhist thing where we're trying to empty our minds, we don't want an empty mind. We want a mind filled with what's true, filled with what's noble, filled with what's right and pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. I want a mind filled with those things. Recently my family and I took a home school trip to Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg, they're all three in the same area. And it's an exciting place to go, it's so efficient. They're all real close together, and you can do lots of things, and we enjoy going there. And there are there at least three different battle fields you can go see. There was a battlefield in ancient Jamestown, one of the first sites where there was a battle about eight years after they landed there, with the Powhatans. And you can look at the artifacts, and the struggle that they had. And then, of course, there's the battle field of Yorktown, where you can see where the US won their independence from the British. And then there are some bulwarks that the Confederate soldiers put there. There was never a battle fought there, but you can see those erected along there as well, three different battlefields. Now, that's all in a little small area of land stretching out into the James River. Concentrated battle fields. But there's nothing, it's nothing compared to the Battlefield of the mind. It's exactly what the devil is working on, he wants you to think about certain things that are different than what God wants you to think. Romans 8:5-6, it says, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their mind set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." You are to control your thoughts. And the big difference between a Christian and a non-Christian has to do with what they think about, has to do with what's on their mind, how they control their thoughts. Now, I'm not going to go through each of these words. "Whatever is true..." Want to know what's true? Read the Bible. Want to know about noble things? Read the Bible. How about things that are pure or lovely or admirable? You know what advice I'm going to give you? I'm going to tell you to read the Bible. And how about some excellent or praiseworthy things? I can't think of anything better than the Bible. Now, a little while ago, I preached on why you, even you, should memorize Scripture. Do you remember that? I'm not going to ask each one of you how it's going, but we come again to the same issue. What are you filling your mind with? May I urge you to fill it with scripture? And if you made a resolution at that time that you're going to memorize the book of Philippians, and you have just now completed the third verse of Chapter One, I want to encourage you, good job! Keep going. Fill with verse four and verse five and verse six and keep on going until you get the whole book. Fill your mind with the word of God and not with the things that they want you to think about, which is the opposite of what's true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Psalm 1 says, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night, he is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf never withers." 7) Imitating Godly Examples Now verse nine, we have covered already in depth. And so I'm just going to allude to it again. It has to do with discipleship, you remember, and Paul's pattern of discipleship. He says, "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." Again, the idea is that right doctrine leads to right living, but you must put it into practice. And as you are doing these things, the God of peace will be with you. What an incredible statement. And so follow and imitate godly examples, and be yourself a godly example for somebody else to follow. Say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." IV. Summary and Application Now, what summary in application can we get from this? Well, we've looked at seven things, cultivating harmony in the church fellowship, determining to rejoice no matter what in verse four, learning to be gentle in verse five, developing a confident trust in the Lord, verse five and six, reacting to problems with thankful prayer, verse six and seven, and controlling your thought life, verse eight, imitating godly examples, verse nine. These sermons have been, these two sermons have been so practical that I don't think that I need to give you any targeted applications. But I want to make a few comments. First, harmony. If you know of anybody in this church fellowship or in your family that you are out of sorts with, that you're like Euodia and they're like Syntyche or vice versa, make it right. Resolve in your heart that you're not going to let the sun go down on your anger, restore fellowship with that individual. If there's somebody popping into your mind right now, that's a indication from the Spirit that you need to work on that relationship. In terms of joy, determine that you're going to rejoice in Christ, no matter what happens to you, today, or any time. Make up your mind to be joyful. Gentleness, if you're given a harshness especially with a spouse, make developing a general nature a key matter of prayer. Fourthly, trust. Learn to defeat anxiety by confident trust in the Lord, and I especially urge you to fill your mind with scripture so that you can do that. And finally, thought life. Control your thoughts. Don't put mud in your delicate antique desk, put godly things, beautiful things.

I. Mystery: Standing Firm While Making Progress We are in chapter four now in Philippians, and as we look at Philippians 4:1-9, specifically verse one, we come to a small mystery in the Christian faith. Now, there are a lot of deep mysteries in our faith. Christianity is a difficult religion to understand. We just got done in Sunday school, in International Sunday School, going through some of the deepest doctrines that there are in our faith. And so there are mysteries to Christianity, and there are some great and mighty ones, but then there are smaller ones too. And as I meditated on Philippians 4:1, I thought this is a mysterious passage, because it says there, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…" that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends." Do you see that? Stand firm. The Call to Stand Firm So the text is calling on us that we should stand firm. Paul here refers, I believe, to the great opposition that there is to the Christian life. We know, we Christians know, that this is not a pleasure cruise to heaven. We know it's much more like a battle, like a warfare, than it is like that. And so there's great opposition. We live out our faith every moment in a hostile, contrary environment. We have enemies of our soul. They're fighting against us at every moment, the world, the flesh, and the devil against us at every step, the world with its intricate system of allurements and enticements appealing to our fleshly nature, as we talked about last time, our bodily side. And to live out those drives, those sensual drives, is to make our stomach our God, the very thing Paul commands that we should not do. But we have an enemy in the world, and also in its persecution. And then there's the flesh, which is so greatly troubling to me. What is that that sinful nature, that part of me that is enticed by temptation, that actually responds favorably to it, the part that I despise the most, the part that wants to sin, to indulge in sensual pleasures, to have a comfortable and easy life free from trouble. And then there's the devil, an intelligent, vicious foe who never sleeps and is always scheming, through his minions as well, to bring us down. Who knows our weaknesses better than we do and seeks fiery arrows directed right to the chinks in our armor all the time. And so that's our situation. We are opposed all the time in our faith. And so there are in Scripture many such calls to stand firm, like this one here in verse one. For example, 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, "Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage, be strong." Or Galatians 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Or 2nd Thessalonians 2:15, "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." And the best of all, I think, is in Ephesians 6, extended passage on spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:9-15, listen to these verses. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm therefore with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." So Paul clearly there again and again saying we need to stand, we've got to stand firm, is implying there's a great battle swirling around us all the time, and our response to that must be stability, standing firm, not being moved. It is necessary, then, for us not to get swept away. And in order to do that, we must stand firm and not be moved in the day of temptation and persecution. But the entire Book of Philippians seems to be a call to make progress, that we should be advancing, that we should be growing, that we should be changing all the time. The Drive for Progress The interesting thing about this is that this call to stand firm here in verse one of chapter four, is intimately connected to the preceding verses of chapter three. It says, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…" That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. Well, "What is how?" Well, you have to read the preceding chapters to know what he's meaning, I think. The central message of Philippians three is, in effect, I press on. I'm not finished yet, I'm not perfect, I'm not done in my journey, and so therefore I must make progress. I've got to advance, I can't stay where I am. Look again at Philippians three, 12 through 14. He says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." That is a dynamic picture, isn't it? Forgetting what's behind, we're going to be moving, we got to move, we got to move in the Christian life. We got to make progress. We've already been told before that in Philippians 2:12-13, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We're supposed to make progress. And then the whole thing was set up in chapter one, in which we have two uses of a Greek word prokope, which means progress. And he says, "I want you to know that what has happened to me has turned out for the progress or advance of the gospel," that means worldwide advance of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We have to make progress in that journey, don't we? But, meanwhile, he talks about himself and their ministry and he says in Philippians 1:25, "I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith." So there's a dynamic picture here in the Book of Philippians of two great journeys that we've talked about again and again. The internal journey of sanctification, the external journey of worldwide evangelization. Now, how can we put these two together? How are we supposed to be standing firm in a static kind of way? Or are we supposed to be dynamically making progress? Well, both, of course. How can we do this, how do we make progress while we also stand firm? And I think it comes from the need for stability, in order to make progress. I meditated on this for a while and I tell you any time you just want to take any text or scripture and just think on it, God is going to show you things. The discipline of meditation, is so valuable. And as I was thinking I was saying, "Okay, we've got to stand firm, but we've got to make progress." Of course, it makes sense. Think about it, suppose you were on one side of a rushing mountain stream, it's spring, the snow has melted and the water is high, about waist high, and you've got to get across at that place. Got to move, you got to get across. And suppose there's a guide rope going to across, but you've got to walk across that stream. Now every step of the way, you need to have sure footing under you don't you? You've got to have a sure grip on the rope or else you're going to get swept downstream. In order to make progress there, you must stand firm step by step. Or take another analogy, one that we put on the cover of your bulletin there. Suppose you're a mountaineer. Look at that, go ahead and look at the picture. I think it's a great picture. I didn't pick it, but Jeremy picked it it's a great picture. I love it, thank him. Go and say Jeremy that's a great picture. I never want to be those mountaineers on that knife edge. But look at that, here's this mountain climber, and he is literally on the edge of eternity. I mean, really, he could slip left or he could slip right but either way he's history, he's gone. You got to stay right on that edge and it's icy and snowy. And don't you bet there's got to be a wind blowing up over that ridge as he makes progress. Now, I know enough about mountaineering I would never do that but I've read about it, I like to read about things. Okay. I wouldn't get up on the edge okay, but I like to read about it. And so this guy almost certainly has crampons on his boot there, there's steel teeth that are connected to his boots that give him a sure footing on that ridge without that stability, without that sure footing, he's going to die, no question about it, but he must make progress. He can't stay where he is. He's got to keep going. The Need for Stability in Order to Make Your Journey of Progress And so, the images come together, in order for you to make progress in the Christian life, you've got to have stability, you've got to have some things that don't move in your life, and that's what we're talking about here. Now the beauty is, God is sufficient for both the stability, the standing firm part and the progress, he's sufficient for both without that stability you're not going to make progress in your personal walk with Christ. Without that stability, you're not going to make progress as a witness for Christ, you must stand firm in order to make progress, but God is sufficient for both. Amen and amen. He is sufficient to make you strong, firm and established and he's sufficient to keep you moving in the Christian life. He's sufficient for standing. For example, I like this verse in Romans 14:4, it says there, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls and he will stand. For the Lord is able to make him stand." Isn't that a wonderful promise? God is able to make you stand so that you cannot be moved. Great Assurance: God Sufficient for Both Standing and Progressing Alright, well, God is also sufficient, for making progress in our own book that we're studying here, Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He is sufficient for stability, standing firm and he is sufficient for incredible progress where you are taken from wretched and wicked and sin all the way to glory in Christ. Now that is an incredible journey. He is sufficient for both. And so we look to him therefore we must not look to ourselves for the stability. I praise God for the scripture reading that Eric chose earlier, 1 Corinthians 10:12, it says, "So if you think you're standing firm, take heed, lest you fall." What's the warning there? The warning is not that you should not consider yourself to be standing firm. The question is, what is your source of stability? Is it your own ability to stand firm, or is it Christ himself? Now, if your focus is upward, if it's on Christ, then you're fine, but if you think you're standing firm of yourself, you're in big trouble. You're in big trouble. That's the warning there. We must never overestimate our own strength. Never. If left to your own devices this striving would be losing said, Luther. If you're left to yourself, you'll lose, but the right man is on our side, the Man of God's own choosing, it is Christ Jesus Himself, and He will enable us to stand firm in the day of battle. We must not have our eyes on ourselves for the stability in order to make progress. So therefore both the standing firm and the progress that we're making are gifts of God's grace. It's what he gives us in order that we may make progress. Now that's the little mystery but there's another mystery in this text, not just here with verse one, but as we continue on, it has to do with the mystery of joy. Philippians verse four, it's very famous verse, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice." The progress that we're making, the journey is a journey of joy, it's a journey that should be characterized by joy, step-by-step, and it's a journey in which eternal joy and pleasure and bliss are waiting for us at God's right hand, Psalm 16. So we're talking about a journey of joy. Well, what's the mystery? Well, how is it that a man could be in prison like Paul was or could be beaten like Paul and Silas were and languishing in prison, and be joyful? How can we have enough stability under us that no matter what is happening in our lives, we can be joyful, no matter what? I want that, don't you? Wouldn't you like to get to the point in your life where it does not matter what's happening around you, you're joyful in Christ? II. Yearning for Spiritual Stability as a Foundation for Joy And I think that's really what Paul's getting at, it's joy in the journey. It's joy with stability that can't be shaken. It's a permanent and lasting joy. And we need a foundation for that don't we? We need some kind of foundation, something that isn't going to move. Now, what is joy? If we're thinking about joy, what is it? I would think that there is a sense that all of us have that we have experienced joy before. We're not going to get joy from reading a dictionary definition. Most of us aren't, alright. Some of us are very literary in that sense and they'll enjoy doing that but we, we get joy or we learn what joy is by living. Just by living. We've had moments of joy and we know what it is. Now, some Christians make a distinction between happiness and joy. I have a hard time making that distinction. I think that there is an internal heavenly happiness and an earth-bound joy. Some people say joy is kind of permanent and not tied to circumstances, whereas happiness is. I don't find that distinction made biblically, but I think we all know that there is a happy, contented, joyful feeling that comes from having good earthly circumstances and there is a happy, joyful feeling that comes, even in the face of terrible earthly circumstances. And that's what we're talking about today. So I'm not making a fine distinction between happiness and joy. Our education in joy comes from living. That's how we learn what joy is. It comes from a mother's smile or a father's game of chase. Some of my kids enjoy that more than others. Some of them stand and cry and want the game to be over, so we don't do that with them anymore. But others really enjoy it. And they laugh and they run and they have a good time. And there's joy, and so they're learning at an early age, "I like this feeling. I like what's happening to me now. This is happy." Kids know how to laugh and run and play. They really do. And they know what joy is. They know the joy of their favorite ice cream, they know the joy of opening up the gift and it was inside, the toy they were hoping for. They know those joys. And so we learn joy by living, more than by anything. Now, the Bible gives us instruction about joy, interestingly, from earthly situations. We learn about joy by living and so the Bible says, "Okay, you know the kind of joy you feel when such and such happens, that's going to happen to you in heaven." You know the kind of joy you feel by living in this situation? Well, that's exactly what the kingdom of heaven is like. And so, it takes the earthly education we've all had in joy, and it just raises it up to that higher level. For example, God commanded the Israelites to rejoice and to celebrate and have a party at certain times, for example, the feast of booze in Deuteronomy 16, 15. For seven days, celebrate. That's the God we serve. God is not a killjoy. He's commanding, "I want you to have a good time." And if you don't, there's going to be problems. As a matter of fact, C. S. Lewis himself said, "God threatens terrible things if you will not be happy." Now meditate. That's deep and it is true. Biblical Instruction About Joy From Physical Things God wants you to be happy with what he provides. He wants you to be happy, and if you're not happy and you're not content, something's broken inside. You've lost your connection to the giver and you don't trust his promises. But God said, "For seven days, you must celebrate." You must have a good time. You must celebrate the feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands and your joy will be complete. I'm going to make you happy in the promised land, God says. Deuteronomy 16. There's the joy therefore of plenty to eat. Listen to 1 Chronicles 12:40. "There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, oil, cattle and sheep, for there was joy in Israel." Now that's about as earthy as it gets. Now most Christians say, "Now that's not joy, that's happiness." Well, it says joy in the text. You can have joy over a raisin cake, some of you. They enjoyed their raisin cakes. That was a time of celebration. Or a book of Ecclesiastes says in Ecclesiastes 9:7, "Go eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart." Baptists don't listen to that now but you understand what we mean. Drink your wine with a joyful heart for it is now that God favors what you do. Cheerful looks and good news bring joy. Proverbs 15:30. "A cheerful look brings joy to the heart and good news health to the bones." The joy of a good son. "The father of a righteous man." This is Proverbs 23:24, "The father of a righteous man has great joy, he who has a wise son delights in him." That's a joy of being a father or mother. That's a pleasure. The joy of perfume and incense and good friends, Proverbs 27:9. "Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart and the pleasantness of one's friends springs from his earnest counsel." So the Bible presents all these earthy, sensual things as good grounds for joy. But all it does is it says, "Okay, you know the joy you get when you're smelling a beautiful perfume? Lift it up now to the higher place. Think about heaven. Think about God." And so, it takes the earthy joys that we do know, that are good and raises them up so that we can understand spiritual joy. Isaiah 9 verse 3. Isaiah, when predicting the coming of the Messiah, likened it to a great earthly joy. He says, "You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy, they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder." Two different scenarios. Harvest time, lots of grain coming in, people are happy, like that. That's what it'll be like when Jesus comes. Or an army. You're going out, you've won the battle and there's huge plunder to divide. That's what it's going to be like when Jesus comes. The kingdom that Jesus brings is a kingdom of joy and so the joy of the harvest or the joy of the plunder, that's what it's like when Jesus comes. "For to unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Three verses later. That's the joy that will come when the Messiah is born. Isaiah also compared the joy of salvation to the joy of a delicious banquet. In Isaiah 55:1-2, "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor and what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me. And eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest affair." This is God speaking through his prophet Isaiah, saying, don't settle for lesser joy. I mean, come on into full joy. I know how to do joy, God is saying. I'm your source of joy and happiness. Don't settle for the other things. But what is he using to teach the lesson? A banquet, where there's plenty to eat and drink. It's an image, an earthly image that he raises up then to the spiritual heights. And Jesus himself did this, absolutely. In Matthew 13:44, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, when a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy, went and sold everything he had and bought it." Now, what a low analogy. Jesus is saying, going to heaven is like finding a box full of gold and jewels hidden in a field. Well, he knew that we couldn't understand except that he used this kind of earthy language. The kingdom of heaven's far better than finding a box of gold in a field somewhere. But you know what that would be like, how would you feel if, I guess the equivalent is you won the lottery? That's what he's saying. In effect, you found incredible wealth, that's what it's like, the kingdom of heaven, it's a matter of joy. And so he's using earthy things that we've been educated in so that we can know what the joy is. Now the question is, how can we get this kind of joy that survives everything we go through in life? Is that something you want? It's something I want. I want a kind of joy that is enduring, that isn't connected to earthly things that come and go. And Jesus is constantly telling us to do it, "Do not store up treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but store up treasure in heaven where no moth and rust destroy and no thief can break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be" and that's where your source of joy is going to be. "I want to give you a joy," Jesus says, that doesn't go away, a lasting joy. The kind of joy, the apostle Paul would say, that can survive and even thrive in imprisonment. The kind of joy that can survive and even thrive when you're starving. The kind of joy that can survive and even thrive when you're getting beaten for your faith, or when a child is sick with a terminal illness. The kind of joy that can survive and thrive no matter what happens to you in this world. That's the kind of joy. Now, if you're going to have that kind of a joy, you need stability, you need to learn doctrinally how you can even do this, this isn't natural, it's a mystery, isn't it? That we could have Jesus' view of suffering. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God." There was a joy in the cross, not in the actual physical suffering of the nails in the hands and feet, in the scourging, in the blood and all of that, no, but rather in what all of that would accomplish. For the joy set before him, he went through all that, that we could learn of joy like that. Now, that's worth learning and it's worth living. The ultimate joy, eternal pleasure at God's right hand forever more. That was what was in his mind. What's amazing though, is that it was Jesus' joy to give you joy that's love, isn't it? I get joy out of making you eternally joyful. I think beyond that, the addition of a bunch of people from every tribe and language and people and nation, eternally rejoicing in God, Jesus gained nothing from the cross. He had as much glory afterward as he did before. He got his eternal place back with his heavenly Father, but what he gained was us and our joy with him eternally, and he got great joy and glory out of that. And I think that's a marvelous thing, I want to learn that kind of joy. It's a joy that has no roots whatsoever, in our earthly circumstances, none. It doesn't get better or worse with any events in the newspaper or anything you could read or see in the television, no earthly gift can improve it, no terrorist can blow it up, no thief can mug you and take it from you, no artist could make it more beautiful, no PR guy could make it more appealing to the masses, no engineer can make it stronger. It's an eternal joy, Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." he also said in the high priestly prayer, John 17, "Protect them Father for they are not of this world any more than I am of this world." Well, I'm saying your joy isn't of this world either, and therefore nothing can touch it, and frankly, when you have a horrible external circumstance and you're singing and rejoicing it actually will greatly increase your joy as you say, "Wait, a minute, this is unnatural. No, no, this is supernatural. I am rejoicing while in prison, beaten for my faith. How could that be except that God's got his hand on me, I'm going to heaven." Oh, that's a beautiful thing, a joy that's not easily moved. So we need stability for that. The Great Kobe Earthquake When I was in Japan, my wife and I, we went through an earthquake. And I'll tell you, that experience is something I will never forget. The stability of everything around me was nothing, was gone. I'll never forget feeling the ground moving under my feet, even worse for the people of Kobe, 5,000 people died in that earthquake, a terrible tragedy. And at that point the stability of everything on earth was shown to be what it is, namely, it's not there. There will come a far greater shaking of the Earth. Once more it says in Hebrews 12, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." There is nothing earthly that will last eternally, nothing. And so therefore we need an unshakable foundation in Christ alone is that unshakable foundation. Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, like a wise man who built his house on the rock, rains came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who builds his house on sand, the rains came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and fell with a great crash." Well, that's people's joy if it's built on sand. And here this text is urging us to build on something stable. Now, stability, I believe, is a measure of spiritual maturity. The more stable you are, the more mature, the more mature you are, the more stable spiritually. It is a sign of great weakness and immaturity that you are easily moved by external circumstances. In James 1, it says, "He who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind, that man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man unstable in all he does." So our joy needs to be eternal and set. Mature people are unshakable, solid and immovable like Christ. It says, "God is our refuge and strength," Psalms 46, "An ever present help in trouble. Now therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though its waves roar and foam and the mountains quake with surging." III. Seven Steps to Spiritual Stability Now in this section here, Paul is giving us seven steps perhaps to stable joy. It's a series of injunctions or commands or recommendations that he gives in the Christian life. And I'd like to look at three of them today. Each one of them I think if taken and put into practice will give us a stable joy that that doesn't go away. Now what's amazing to me is that the apostle Paul so skillfully weaves these in with dealing with everyday life circumstances in the Philippian church. 1) Cultivating Harmony in the Church Fellowship Like the first one for example, cultivating harmony in the church fellowship. Look what he says in verse two and three, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life." Now, Paul has a tremendous love and affection for the Philippian church. He really loves them. He calls them his dear brothers. He says they're his joy and crown. There's a great deal of affection that he has for these people. Very much wants them to experience full joy. But I'll tell you something right now and you know what I'm talking about. Nothing destroys joy faster than human conflict. If you're in a marriage, if you're in a close relation with a friend or in a church, if there is conflict, if there's strife, if there's arguing, I don't know how there can be joy. And so he goes right to this issue right away here in chapter four dealing with these two ladies, Euodia and Syntyche. Now we've already talked about them. They are the case study, which was the whole reason for Philippians 2, the whole chapter in which he says we should put other's needs ahead of our own and that we should be like Christ and have this mind in us, which was also in Christ. That whole section of Philippians 2 I think is coming out of the conflict that there seems to be between Euodia and Syntyche. Now, I don't know what was going on with these ladies. I really have no idea. It seemed they just didn't like each other. Somebody had said something once that offended and the other person can't forgive. And then they say something that offends and you know how it goes and the relationship is ruptured. Is that okay? No, not at all. That kind of thing is like a cancer tumor in the body of Christ. And if it's not dealt with, it says in Hebrews that there's a root of bitterness that grows up defiles many and cause trouble. It's got to be cut out. There's got to be a way to get rid of this bitterness and this anger and this unforgiveness. And so he's pleading. There's a strength here of pleading concerning Euodia and Syntyche. I don't think the matter was doctrinal. I think they both loved Paul and loved his message and all that. If there had been a doctrinal side, I think he would've dealt with it there. Now Euodia believes such and such and we've got to refute that. That's not right or Syntyche was wrong about this. I think they just don't like each other. They agree about everything, but they just aren't getting along. And he asked this man, we don't know who it is. Calls him loyal yokefellow or in the notes "Syzygus" which is a tough name. Aren't you glad it's not in there if you have to do the public reading? Larry and I were talking about that, aren't you glad you don't have to say “Syzygus" this morning? But what it means is... The word literally means being yoked together with somebody. I think the NIV does right in saying that there's a man that Paul considered his yokefellow in the work of the church. And he's saying, "Please help these ladies." Sometimes two people can get themselves into a ruptured relationship where nobody but a third person could come in and as a mediator, talk it through, pray it through until they're united again. But he says, "Loyal yokefellow help these ladies because they're special or they've contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel. Their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. They're godly people other than this conflict," and so let's see what we can do to resolve the church conflict. I think it's so beautiful that he deals with them gently here. He says their names are written in the book of life. They've contended at my side, see if you can get them back together again. Shouldn't be too hard when you stop and think about it because there's one heaven we're going to, there's one Christ. We believe the same things. Can't we just forgive each other? And so he urges them. And so cultivating harmony in the church fellowship, it's more of a defensive of joy. It doesn't produce joy, but it protects from the great sapping of joy, the locust attack which the conflict does to your joy. It's so hard to have joy in a church or in a family or in any other society humanly if there are these conflicts and these arguments. 2) Determining to Rejoice No Matter What Secondly, determining to rejoice no matter what. Verse four, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice." Now this is a very famous verse, Philippians 4:4. But what's interesting to me is that Paul is appealing here to the will. I'm commanding you to rejoice, think about that. It's an interesting thing. You are commanded by God to be joyful today, to be happy. He wants you to be content in your circumstances, and so he's commanding your will. And so what that means is, if you're not joyful right now, if you're not content, you need to work on yourself. You need to think differently. And later in this little section, he's going to tell them what to think about whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, lovely or admirable. Think about these things. We'll get to that next week God willing. But he says, "Whatever you need to do to be joyful, rejoice as an act of the will." Abraham Lincoln said, and I've never forgotten this interesting statement, I don't usually quote him at sermon times, but I think this an interesting statement. He said, "When all is said and done, a man's about as happy as he makes up his mind to be." That is definitely true of a Christian. Why would we be discontent except that we've lost focus on what really matters if we're Christians. Our sins are forgiven. We have eternal life. God is working in and around and through us. Good things are happening. God is here. A man's about as happy as he makes up his mind to be. Do you ever find yourself in a gloomy irritable mood? Do you realize that it's your fault? It has nothing to do with your spouse, it that's nothing to do with your job or your financial situation. It has nothing to do with any of those things, it has to do with you. You're being disobedient to God. It says in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Now, those of you that are counseling a person who's not joyful, don't say, "God commanded you to be joyful." I don't think that's going to work at that moment, but it is true. God is commanding us at all times to rejoice. Now, look what it says a little more carefully, "Rejoice in the Lord always." There's such a focus on Joy in Philippians. Philippians is called the Epistle of Joy, this is the fourth and fifth time, he's commanded them to rejoice. Philippians 2:18, it says, "So you too should be glad and rejoice with me." Philippians 2:28, he says, "Therefore I have sent him [Epaphroditus] all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you." Philippians 3:1. "Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord." Now here, number four and five, "Rejoice in Lord always, and I'll say it again rejoice." But the focus has to be on Christ. Rejoice in timeless, changeless, unshakable things that are true of Christ. Let your focus be on him. Rejoice in Christ's birth in Bethlehem. Rejoice in Christ's sinless life resisting every temptation. Rejoice in his miracles, every one of them. Rejoice in his teachings, which are unlike any teachings that were ever given. Rejoice in his death on the cross. Rejoice that God's wrath was poured out on him and not on you. Rejoice in his mighty resurrection victory. Rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in his ascension. Rejoice in the fact that he is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty making intercession for his church. Rejoice that some day he's going to return in might and power, and all of his enemies will be put under his feet. Rejoice that there is a perfect kingdom that is coming. Rejoice in these things. And rejoice in the fact that he has begun a good work in you, and that he will carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus. There's so much to rejoice in that is absolutely untied to your circumstances. Rejoice in these things. Rejoice in the Lord always, and pattern your joy after Christ. Learn to focus on Christ and his kingdom and his joy, not so much on the present circumstance. I'm not telling you like a masochist, rejoice in the fact that someone you love was just diagnosed with cancer. That's not what I'm saying. Rejoice in what the Lord can do in that circumstance instead. Jesus didn't rejoice in the actual nails and wounds that were holding him to the cross, but he was rejoicing in what all of that would accomplish some day, learn to rejoice like that. Rejoice in the Lord always. 3) Learning to be Gentle And then third, learning to be gentle, look at Verse five, "Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near." We live, I think in an increasingly harsh and hostile age. Do you sense that, do you sense that people are angry a lot? I feel that. I think they're angry in the roads, they're even angry at Kroger. I'm not going to tell the story, but if you want to come and talk to me about my Kroger experience this week, with the checkout line where you're only supposed to have 12 in there. And I was in the wrong lane and I was... It's a harsh world we live in. And I didn't mean it. But it's a harsh world. People are angry and they're harsh. And sadly there's harshness even among those committed love relationships. Marriage, there's harshness between husbands and wives, and it's not honoring to God. And then there's a harshness that we might feel toward the outside world. Harshness toward our lot in life. We're commanded to be gentle. Because the Lord is near. This kind of gentleness I think was displayed beautifully by Paul and Silas, when they were beaten in Philippi and they're singing praise songs to God, and there's the earthquake, and the door flies open, and the Philippian jailer thinking he's lost all his prisoners has drawn his sword and is about to kill himself, and Paul and Silas call out and said, "Don't do yourself any harm. We're all here." And he's trembling, and he calls for lights, and rushes in and brings them out and ask, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They didn’t say, "Well don't ask us. You beat us earlier. I have no interest in talking to you. Alright, so just stay away from me. If somebody's going to preach the Gospel, it's somebody else other than me. Because I'm not doing it." Alright? That's a harsh, mean answer. They didn't have any feeling like that. They were delighted to preach the Gospel to this man. There was a gentleness there, and a willingness to preach and not be vindictive, and not hold that grudge against somebody. Let your gentleness be evident to all. As William Tyndale was being burned to death, he prayed, "Lord open the King of England's eyes." Such a gentleness there. Or even better, I love Jan Hus, he's singing a child Christian song, kind of like, "Jesus loves me," their version as he was dying on the cross. A child like sweet gentleness, no anger, no hostility, just gentleness. And this story I read, during the reign of communism in Romania, a pastor in Romania was sitting at the breakfast table with his wife and six small children, suddenly the police broke into his home to search the house and arrest him. The police asked him, "Don't you have anything to say? Have you no sorrow or regret?" Pastor said, "You are the answer to what we prayed for today. We just read Psalm 23, that God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We had a table but no enemies. And now you have come. If you would like anything that's on this table, it's yours. Please sit and eat with us." The man said, "You're crazy. How can you say such things? We will take you to prison and you will die there. You'll never see your children again." With gentleness and contentment, the man of God said, "We also read about that today: Though I pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." The officer shouted, "Everyone fears death. I know it, I've seen it on their faces." Pastor answered, "The shadow of a dog can't bite you, and a shadow of death can't kill you. You can kill our bodies, or put us in prison, but nothing bad ultimately can happen to us. We're in Christ, and if we die, he'll take us into his world." I'll tell you something, that kind of gentleness, "A gentle answer," it says, "Turns away wrath." That opens a door for witnessing. And it's very much patterned after Christ. The only description I ever find that Christ gives of himself, concerns this matter of gentleness. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light." Jesus is gentle. I had a wonderful conversation earlier with a church member, and we were talking about that passage that I preached on in Matthew, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, until he leads justice to victory." He is gentle in his touch with us, and so because the Lord is near, we can be gentle in our touch with others. I want to speak especially to husbands. It's a big temptation. I read it in scripture, "Husbands," in Colossians it says, "Husbands love your wives and don't be harsh with them." It's so easy for that manly strength to bubble over into anger and into harshness towards your wife. Don't do it. Because the scripture here says, "Let your gentleness be evident to everybody." Let everyone who knows you say of him or her, it's a gentle person there, gentle person. Now next week, God willing, we're going to look at four more ways that Paul talks about a stable, stable joy. If you walk with the Lord and allow him to work in you, he will give you a joy that cannot be shaken because it has its roots not on earth, but in Heaven.