Where Is Christ In A Time Of Crisis? Session 3

Prayer for the Speaker and the Final Session

Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you so far for your servant, Lance, for his exposition of your word and for his devotion to your word. I pray that as we come into this final session for today, I pray that you would help give Lance strength where he is weak and that you would use your word as you said you have used it, that it would edify the saints, build up the body.

I pray that to what you will, we would remember it as much as you plan for us to remember. I pray that it would be applied in our lives. I pray that it would not just be an intellectual head knowledge.

I pray that it would be an active, obedient knowledge, and I pray that you would be given praise in all of it on Thanksgiving, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen. The scripture reading, again, is Philippians 4, verses 4 through 9.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

I hope that you have found this to be a really helpful time in the Word of God, and I know over the last few years that, because I've, you know, walked somewhat with my friend here as we've talked, and we come to board meetings, and Lance would say, hey, can you pray for Beth and me, and so forth, and so I can tell you, none of this is coming from a theoretical standpoint for him, and he's been a man that has walked this path that he's telling us to walk, and I appreciate that.

And so I'm anticipating that God would really use his Word again here today, and then tomorrow at Sunday school, Lance is going to be speaking and in the morning service, so Lance, come and minister the Word of God for us.

Thank you, dear brother.

Thinking and Practicing the Commands of Philippians 4:8-9

If you would, please turn back in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4, where we pick up after these previous commands, two final commands that are given to us, though they may not at first reading look like commands, but the commands are embedded in these two verses of verses 8 and 9 of Philippians 4.

The two commands that are listed in those two verses are at the end of each verse. The first, which in addition to the other commands we are given as we've studied them, is think about these things, verse 8, and practice these things, verse 9.

Think about these things and practice these things. So here are these seven commands. Rejoice in the Lord always. I command you again, rejoice. Show your forbearing spirit to everyone. Do not be anxious about anything.

Pray about everything. Think about these things and practice these things. Now, I think these two final commands are incredibly important because even as Pastor Tim just said, the Christian life is not to be lived theoretically.

In fact, it cannot. It cannot be lived theoretically. You cannot merely call yourself a Christian without living as a Christian. Now, even if you're living as a Christian is somewhat stilted and it's three steps forward, two steps back at times, but you are making progress.

That's the whole point. And this is why I think Paul ends this section with these two verbal commands, think about these things and practice these things, because he's summing up the first commands that he's giving here in these staccato like commands, because he's saying with all the previous commands, I want you to be thinking about these things and I want you to be practicing these things.

And he gives us a lot to think about and a lot to practice. And what I did when I was thinking through these two commands, think about these things and practice these things, my mind kept going to the interrelationship between thinking and doing.

And I came to the place where I realized, not just from studying this passage, but studying the Bible as a whole for many, many years now, that you and I don't really know things in the truest sense of the word, unless we're practicing them.

And if we're not practicing those things, we don't really know them. We may think we know them or we may know it on some surface cognitive level, but if we're not doing them, we don't really know them.

Here's what I mean, I wrote this out that might be helpful to you and I'm going to give it to you in about three different ways that'll emphasize and support the point that I'm just making right now. Here's the first and the more longer sense of what I'm trying to get across.

There is no such thing as effective godly thinking in the Christian life without the aggressive habitual practice of that thinking. I'll say that again. There is no such thing as effective godly thinking in the Christian life without the aggressive habitual practice of that thinking.

Likewise, there is no such thing as the successful execution of such practice in Christian living without the diligent pursuit of sustained sanctified thinking. In other words, anything that you're trying to think about, you ought to practice it as best you can, even if your thinking is a little bit of a challenge initially to practice such.

Things.

But you ought to work on thinking and practicing wherever you are in the Christian life. And if you think things without practicing them, you don't really know them. If you try to practice things that you don't really know, you will be frustrated.

Let me give it to you in a more simple version because that's a lot for you to write down. Maybe you could think of it this way. With no sustained biblical thinking, there will be no practical long-term effect of that thinking.

With no sustained biblical thinking, there will be no practical long-term effect of that thinking. And likewise, with no sustained effort in the practice of biblical thinking, there is no real understanding of that truth.

I'll even bring it down to one sentence. No real truth thinking, no actual truth practice. And no real truth practice means no actual truth grasping. I know that's a lot, but I think what Paul is trying to tell us here in verses 8 and 9 of Philippians 4 is this, if you don't do a great job of grasping the truth, you will have a great deal of thinking about the scripture and what it says that we are to be and to do, you're not really a practicing Christian.

In fact, you may not be a Christian at all. Because if you're not availing yourself of the scripture and what it says and how it explains the Christian life to us, if you're not availing yourself of the word of God, you're obviously not practicing.

Because you will not practice what you do not know. But if you are attempting to practice the Christian life as best you know how, you still must continue to think deeply in the progressive nature of your Christian life.

In other words, don't rely on trying to practice spiritual truth that you learned 30 years.

Ago.

You and I must be ever and onward on the road of thinking deeply about the word of God every day of our lives. We have to be on the path of reading and studying the scripture so as to comprehend it and also to practice it.

That's really the essence of what it means to live the Christian life, to read God's word and obey its truths. Not just a little bit, but as a lifestyle. Not just for a while, but for the lifelong of your Christianity.

And that's why I think Paul says, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice again I say, be gentle toward everyone, don't worry about anything, pray about everything and understand and practice those things. You see, if you take those first five commands that we've already gone over and you commit yourself as a Christian to thinking more deeply about every one of those five things, you will inevitably be much stronger and better as a practicing Christian at those things than you would be if you only thought about them at a conference like this and you never thought about them again.

In other words, you have to take from this conference and take from your continual reading of God's word like the book of Philippians and you must continue ever and always to think about these things.

Think about them. What are the implications of rejoicing in the Lord? How do I rejoice in the Lord? In what ways am I to rejoice in the Lord? How do I link up rejoicing in the Lord with my circumstances?

How do I allow my gentleness, my forbearing spirit to be manifested to all people? How do I do that? In what ways do I do that? In what ways am I not doing that as I know I ought to do in a more progressive understanding in a greater way?

How can I look at my prayer life if I'm anxious and I'm only concerned about being worried and not praying? How can I eschew or jettison my worrisome life in favor of having a prayer devoted life? How can I do that?

What are the components of that? And I think Paul answers that question in verses 8 and 9. Here's how you do all of these things. And when he says that, he gives us a number of words that are incredibly important to us to understand.

And I want to go over them with you right now. And the first word that he says in verse 8 is finally, brothers, whatever is... And what's that next word? True. True. Let's do some thinking about the word true.

What is he saying? Whatever is true. I think it means something like this. You're both seeing in Scripture, which is the truth, those principles of that which is accurate, accurate, or factual, or honest, or genuine about who God is, about what life is, about what right is, about what wrong is, about what life is, about what death is, about what heaven is, about what hell is, about what judgment is, about what glory is.

You can go on and on and on and on. What Paul's saying is, all of these commands that I'm giving to you Philippians are all bound up in what the Scripture says about all these things because the Scripture is true.

Notice what he says, whatever is true, and then link it up to the verb, think about these things. Whatever is true, think about them. Now that's hard in our day. It's very hard in our day.

Why?

Because we have the kind of media presence, social media included, that challenges, competes with our minds, particularly about what we read in Scripture. I would say it like this, you can almost read the Scripture every day and once you've read it and your eyes move off the printed page, we have a tendency to forget about what we just read.

Isn't that true? I can do that, even as a pastor. I could be reading a passage and going through my duty of Bible reading and I finish what I've read and if you were to ask me in five minutes or less, what did you just read and what does it mean?

I myself would be in that category of saying, oh dear, I mean, okay, first of all, what was it that I just read? Oh, yeah, yeah, it was X, Y, Z. All right, what does it mean? Well, let me think about that for a minute because I forgot.

It's so easy and it's easy to do this because of two things. Number one, forgetfulness.

We just forgot. We forgot what we just read.

You know, you do your Bible reading in a year and you're reading and it's January 1 and you're going gangbusters and you read it and then it becomes more of a drudgery in the sense of, well, I got to do February 23.

I got to do June 11 and you read it and you're reading it in a more perfunctory, mechanical way instead of thinking deeply about it. And so, it's so easy to forget, forget what we're reading. And it's not just so easy to forget, there's another thing that mitigates against our reading for comprehension and that is familiarity, familiarity.

I'm so familiar with the Bible because I've been reading it since I'm a little boy, a.

Little girl.

And because I've read it so often, I wrongly assume that I know what it's talking about because I read it so many times. So Satan's got us coming and going. He's got us when we read and forget and he's got us when we are so familiar with what we read it becomes ho-hum.

Yeah, I did that.

Got that.

Check the list. June 11th, check. September 21st, check. December 31st, check. Read the Bible in a year, okay. What did you get out of it? What are the main points that stuck out to you this year? How were you different this year when you read the Bible than you were last year when.

You read the Bible?

You see, that's why Paul says here by way of a command, think about these things. Think about them. And by the way, that word, logizomai, it means think deeply about these things. Think deeply about rejoicing.

Think deeply about not being anxious. Think deeply about praying about everything. Think deeply about all the things that Paul is commanding us to do.

Why?

Because if we don't think deeply about something, we're not going to be in the habit of practicing the deep things of God. So, whatever is true, and remember that whatever is true has its negative corollary, that which is false, which Satan wants to propound and pulverize Christians with when he says, that's not true.

Has God said, do you think you're really better than so and so? Do you think that's really the right thing to do? Your conscience smites you because you know you're not living what you just told that person to do.

And all of those falsehoods and all of those untruths are competing with whatever is true. So just link it up. Whatever is true, think about these things. Just link those two phrases up. Whatever is true, think about these things.

And then add verse 9, practice these things. So know the truth, think deeply about the truth, and then seek to practice the truth. Now I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying you can do that by just falling out of the bed in the morning.

You have to have a battle plan, and the battle plan is smitten with opposition from Satan himself and from the world and from your own laziness, and mine too, and from sloppy, superficial thinking. And so Paul says, I commend you to think deeply about these things.

And whatever is true, better think about it, and you better think hard about it. And then notice what he says, secondly, whatever is honorable. Whatever is honorable. A couple of other translations, which I happen to like, one of those, the NIV, whatever is noble.

Whatever is noble. So whatever is true, but also what is honorable or noble or that which brings respect and.

Dignity.

Is our world a world of frivolity and the lack of dignity? Of course it is. All you have to do is just turn around and someone is doing some very undignified thing. Like going up and slapping somebody at an award ceremony.

Just because you were ticked off. Whatever is honorable, Paul says, think deeply about the concept of honor and honorability and respectfulness and nobility and being dignified. Think about these things.

And not only think about them deeply, but practice them regularly. That's what he's telling us. Thirdly, whatever is just. Whatever is just. Some of the English translations might have chosen to translate this as right.

Whatever is right.

Whatever is right.

Whatever is just. That's true. All of those things that you and I ought to think deeply about have to do with justness and rightness.

Whatever is just.

Whatever is right. And, of course, not just things that are just, things that are right, but also the one who is just, Jesus Christ. The only one who was totally and flawlessly and sinlessly just. We ought to be thinking a lot about him.

The just one. Romans 3, the just one and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Whatever is just. You've got to think about justness. You've got to think about rightness. And then, of course, its opposite is that which is unjust, which is unrightness, unrighteous.

Then he says, whatever is pure. Whatever is pure. This has to do with purity, holiness, being undefiled, or perhaps even this, being sincere. Having a sincerity of life, a purity of life. You know, in order to be a pure Christian, you have to think deeply about what it means to be pure.

Not just figuring out by happenstance every morning the choices you're going to make that day, but actually being ready for the day by thinking deeply in the morning before you put your clothes on, before you get out in the watching world and say, I want to be just.

Today.

I want to be pure today. How can I do that? How can I fight against the things that come up against purity? And then whatever is lovely. Whatever is lovely. Paul doesn't use, by the way, this word anywhere else in his writings, and no other New Testament writer uses this particular Greek word either.

You know what I mean by that? That means it's probably really, really important because it stands out, because it's only listed here. So what does it mean, this idea of whatever is lovely? Well, it could be something like this.

Whatever is amiable. Whatever is amiable. Or whatever is agreeable. Or perhaps even this. Whatever is pleasing. Whatever is pleasing. And if you notice, it isn't necessarily a word which speaks of a kind of virtue you possess yourself, but a concept that you as a Christian want to see in those around you or in things around you.

I want to look outside of my eyes to the watching world, to people and things, and I want to say, whatever is lovely, I want to think about those things. I want to contemplate those things. You want, with those things, to be pleasing and delightful to the Lord and to appreciate whatever that is.

Perhaps you're already doing it. I'll give you an example. When my kids were younger, and we would drive down the road to a family trip of some kind, and I was trying to be very intentional about what I wanted to say to the children.

And so I would use, then, creation. You've done that. You look out, you're driving, and there are these beautiful mountains, or this beautiful field of green grass, or whatever it might be, and your kids are back in the back, and.

One of them is saying, how long is it going to be until we get there? Daddy, I'm hungry. Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom.

I don't know. And in the midst of all of that, you say, wait a minute, kids, wait, wait, wait, look at that out there. What do you see? Oh, I see these beautiful clouds. I see this high mountain. I see this beautiful green grass.

That's right. God made that. God did that. God's in charge of that. God created that. Who is God to you, children? Who is God to you? Is he creator to you? You see, you're looking at things that are profound.

You're looking at things that are creative. You're looking at things that are pleasing to the sight, and you want to think about those things. You want to think about your creator, God, because you don't know, but that at some point, that unbelieving child has now grown up, and they are driving with their children in their car, and they see that same scene, and it reverts in their minds right back to when they were that kid, and their father was telling them about that, and it makes them think about God their creator, or perhaps it could.

That's what I think he's talking about. Maybe you're hearing about or listening to the beautiful singing of music, which God's created for his honor and glory, or you're thinking about worshiping God for his creative gifts and his beauty, or maybe it stuns you, the majesty of his creation, and that's just the physical world.

And by the way, all the creativity and beauty that we see as we go on those long hikes or those long trips, or as we see things that are stunning, that is post-fall. Think about what it looked like prior to the fall.

Think about God as this pleasing agent to bring creativity and beauty into the world. Oh, that's so lovely. Oh, that's so pleasing to the eye. Think on those things. Think about them deeply. Here's another, what is commendable?

Whatever is commendable. This is also interesting because this word appears in the Greek text nowhere else in the New Testament than right here. So what does it mean? Some of the translations may say admirable or of good repute, like good reputation.

It's very interesting, the etymology of this particular word. It has the concept spoken of or sounded, and when you combine them in one word, it becomes the description of a person who is well-spoken of or fair-sounding.

In other words, whoever that person is or whatever that thing is, it has such an admirable quality about it or about them that you just speak well of that person. They are fair-sounding. You just want to be around them.

You want to commend them. That's what he means, whatever is commendable. If there's something out there to commend, commend it. If a person is well-thought of, well-spoken of, commend them to others.

And then yet another, if there is any excellence, excellence. That's the noun here that Paul has translated. The others are adjectives. This is a noun. The noun which Paul uses here is translated excellent.

And while Paul doesn't use it anywhere else, Peter does. When he says in 1 Peter 2, 9, we are to proclaim God's excellencies. Whatever is excellent, you know, you hear somebody playing a musical instrument and it's seemingly flawlessly done.

And you're saying, boy, that's so excellent. I've had a three or four decade relationship with one of the world's greatest classical guitarists. And this brother practices all the time, of course. But when he's on stage and when he's doing it around the world, and you're in the audience and you're hearing this, you hear it and you say, that is so excellent because it is.

And you are mesmerized by the excellence of not only the music but the one playing it. That's what Paul means here. And then sort of at the end here, if there is anything worthy of praise, anything worthy of praise, it has to do with something in a person, in a being, or a thing that's worthy of admiration or approval.

Something like this, boy, the way they carry themselves, the way they do this, it's so admirable. I so admire the way they're doing this. It's worthy of commending and praising what they're doing. So can you imagine all of these things are what we are supposed to be thinking deeply about, whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

And then he says this, think deeply about these things. Now, if you're like me, you would often, especially at the end of a day, a hard day, a taxing day, a physically stretching day, I don't want to think about anything.

I want to go and sit in front of the television, turn it on, and not even know what's on the television so that I can veg. The Bible says that wherever you are and whatever you are doing, think deeply about him.

Think deeply about who he is, his character, his honor, his glory, his salvation, his purpose, his plan, his providence, and think deeply about how thankful you and I are because he is that kind of God.

Think deeply about my relationship to him. Think deeply about all of these things as they relate to God himself, and to be so very thankful that God has given you salvation in Jesus Christ, that he's given you an opportunity to glorify him, to even think about him, as over against the non-Christians who think more about themselves than God if they think about God at all.

You see, the Christian life is all about your thinking. It's all about your meditating on scripture and what it says about God, and yourself, and the world, and what's true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and excellent and praiseworthy.

You've got to think about these things. Christianity, if it's anything, my friends, is a thinking man's religion. If you're not prone to thinking deeply about God, perhaps you're not a Christian because you have to think about salvation.

You have to think about repentance. You have to think about faith. You have to think about confessing your sins. You have to think about loving others as over against yourself. You have to think about doing good deeds.

You have to think about God. You have to think about his creation. You have to think about his word. You have to think about his glory. You have to think about his judgment. You have to think about the hereafter.

You have to think about the here and now. Now, you have to think about these things because God is honored when you put thoughts about him in your mind each and every day. But it doesn't even stop there.

It's not just your thinking. It's the practice of such thinking. Do you see verse 9, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Now this is very important. We've got about 15 minutes left, and I want to show you what you might not be seeing at first glance in this passage. And it's the key to both thinking and practicing all these things.

Notice, let's break this verse apart. Practice these things. That's the verb. That's the command. Prostate, it means to do or to act upon something or to practice it. So the thinking, think deeply, this, to seriously practice.

And how do you do that? What's the key to that? Notice the four things that Paul gives us here. Notice what you've learned, one. What you've received, two. What you've heard, three. What you've seen, four.

You see that? You know what he's doing? He's closing every loop. He's giving us four venues of practice, four places, four areas, four ways. I like to call them venues, four venues for the practicing of all of these commands that he's given us.

And he gives us four of them. The first one I call the venue of learning, the venue of learning. What is the venue of learning? I tell you the venue of learning, as Paul says, follow me, the venue of learning is the heart.

The venue of learning is the heart. Because it's in the heart, not the red blood pumping thing, the heart as it is the mission control center of the mind. You see, mankind is only siphoned into two areas, and only two, the material aspects of man and the immaterial aspects of man.

The physicality of the person and the mentality of a person, or the spirituality of the person. And so the first venue that Paul gives is the venue of learning, and that learning starts in the heart, in the heart.

What you have learned in me, practice these things, he says. And notice, and if you do practice these things, the God of peace will be with you. And he's just talked about peace, hasn't he? The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

Here he's talking about the God of peace will be with you, and perhaps with this collective nature of the Philippian church, he's saying you'll not only have the absence of conflict, but this peace of God will give you joy, he will give you laughter, he will give you contentedness, he will give you all that peace affords, even by that Hebrew word, shalom.

He says this peace, this irene in Greek, this peace is all that you would have hoped for, if you practiced these things. And the venue for practicing these things first starts with the heart. The venue of learning starts with the heart.

That's why he says, when or what you have learned, and then secondly, what you have received. What you have received. What's the venue for receiving? I think it's the hands. If the venue for learning is the heart, the venue for receiving are the hands.

Because what do you, what do you do when you receive something? You place your hands out. If your young child is there waiting so desperately for that Christmas gift to be placed in their hands, what do they do?

What do they do? If that little baby wants mommy's milk, what does she do? They want to receive. And how do you receive? You receive with your hands. So Paul's using very common and very obvious practicalities.

If you're going to receive something, you've got to receive it by placing your hands out. You have to take the initiative. I want this. I want this. I want to receive it. And Paul says, well then follow me.

Follow me as I follow Christ, 1 Corinthians 11 .1. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. How do you do that, Paul? What's the practicality of that, Paul? How can I do that in a daily way? How can I do it? Paul, help me.

He says, what you've learned from and in the heart, practice these things. What you've received by placing your hands out. I am wanting to receive this truth. I'm wanting to practice these things, Paul.

He says, what you've received in me, practice these things. And then thirdly, he says, what you have heard. Now this is way too easy. What's the venue for hearing? What's the venue for hearing? Your ears, your ears, your heart, your hands, your ears.

You know what Paul is doing? He's going full circle with every avenue of learning by practice.

You got to know it in your heart.

In other words, you got to understand it. You got to think about it. You have to apprehend it. You have to comprehend it. And you have to comprehend it with your whole heart.

But you have to do more than that.

You also have to receive it. You have to receive all of these truths. And that's what you're doing by coming to this Bible conference. You're saying, I want to receive the Bible instruction that helps my heart comprehend the truth so that I may practice it.

But it's not just that. It's also, I've got to hear it. You've come for hearing purposes. And Paul knows that. He says, in order for you to practice these things, you got to hear it with your heart. You got to hear it by receiving the truth.

And you have to hear it by having the kinds of ears that are open attentively to the truth. And then he says, and seeing in me. That's the venue for seeing. And what is that? That's so obvious.

Your eyeballs.

What you're seeing. You know, if someone is seeing someone do it, you're really learning how to do it too. Because you're watching. Paul says, how many times have you seen me? Just follow the pattern.

Jesus says to his disciples, how long have I been with you that you do not know that I am the exact representation of my heavenly father? Just follow me. That's why Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.

Got to have the heart to do it. You have to have the hands to do it. You have to have the ears to do it. And you have to have the eyes to do it. Do you see what he's saying to us? What you've learned, what you've received, what you've heard, what you've seen in me are the heart, the hands, the ears, and the eyes of practicing the truth.

And when you have that, inspired scripture says you've got it all. You've got everything you need. I don't suppose if I asked for a show of hands about how many of you would want the peace of God to be with you that not every hand would go up, right?

Every hand would go up.

Of course, I want the peace of God to be with me. I don't want conflict. I want peace. I want the peace in relationships. I want the peace that I have settled subjectively in my heart. And Paul says, you can have it.

You can have it. How can you have it? By listening, by opening your heart, by holding out your hands, by hearing and seeing the truth and practicing it as a result. Isn't that what parenting is? Isn't that what discipleship is?

Isn't this what the local church is for? Why do you think the Lord Jesus through the pen of Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 says that you and I must meet every Lord's Day? Every Sunday.

Why?

Because we need so much practice. We need so much repetition so that we are doing the things that God commands by practice. And that's why we have to have teaching every Lord's Day. Because it's the teaching of the truth that burrows into our lives to such a degree that we are then practicing the truth that we've heard.

There's no premium on hearing a message and walking out and saying, I have no intention of following that truth. None of us would probably say that, but some of us live that way. Well, what did the pastor preach this morning?

It was something about the Bible. Was it in Philippians or 1 Peter or Matthew?

I don't know.

Boy, he kind of jumped around. There's a lot of cross-referencing passages. I am not totally sure. Okay, well give the one takeaway. And this is what you ought to do with yourselves, maybe with your spouse if you have no kids or you have the kids and they're of age where you can talk about it and you're now at the lunch table and you're talking about it and you just say, what do you think is the one takeaway from Pastor Tim's message this morning?

When Andrew Beebe preached, what was the one takeaway that... Be a better Christian? I mean, you and I ought to be training our children and training ourselves to say, there were a lot of things that were said and that we could talk about it for a long time, but here's the number one thing.

Here was the thesis of the message. Here was the main point. I would be aghast if you walked away from this Bible conference and said, he said a lot of things, but I think what he was saying is we have to think deeply about Christian things and we need to put such Christian things in practice.