Wednesday, November 2, 2022 PM

Father in heaven, blessed be your name, we thank you Lord for your loving kindness, your compassion, your mercies Lord which renew every morning. Thank you Lord for the comfort that you bring and the deliverance that you bring Lord.

Thank you for this text tonight Lord. We pray that we would listen to you as we read it Lord and as we think on Christ Lord may your spirit open our eyes to help us to see and to live out your word tonight.

Father please bless our pastor and please bless his family during this time. Please bring healing and peace to him. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. So we're in the book of Philippians tonight.

It's one of the epistles of the Apostle Paul and he writes the Philippians very thankful for them. He is confident that the Lord will complete the work that he has begun in them and he's also confident that the Lord will supply all of their needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

I think his main exhortation of the letter is found in chapter 1 verse 27. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. He then goes on to encourage them to be united in mind, to have the same mind in Christ, to not complain, to avoid false teachers, and to think heavenly thoughts as they are citizens of heaven.

And at chapter 4 near the end of his epistle he gives a set of instructions and inside that set of instructions we have our text for tonight verses 6 and 7. So let's go ahead and read that and think on this text.

Philippians 4 6 and 7. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

So the first thing we notice about our text is be anxious for nothing. Worry and anxiety is not a characteristic of the Christian faith. It's not a part of our Christian walk, but it's contrary to our walk.

It's not anything we should hold on to or give any space for our minds or our lives. We should put it off and continue to put on Christ. Matthew Henry had a really good quote because when we talk about be anxious for nothing when we consider that in the Christian life we kind of like ask ourselves well does that mean we be completely carefree and not really have any concern for anything?

Is that what this phrase means? And Matthew Henry had a great quote and bear with me here guys. There is a care of diligence which is our duty and consists in a wise forecast and due concern but there is a care of diffidence and distrust which is our sin and folly which only perplexes and distracts the mind.

That's what Matthew Henry wrote and he brings up a good point in that there's a difference between godly concern and sinful worry. And we think about Paul himself as he's writing to all these different churches in the New Testament times and he's seeing all these false teachers come into a bunch of these churches and he's not like I'm not gonna worry about it they'll be fine I'll just you know pray and trust the Lord but no he's he's concerned about them and he writes to them to address these concerns.

However we must not let our gaze and our focus be lost from Christ and upon the cares of this world around us. And I think that's the line we cross when we go from godly concern into sinful worries when we take our focus and our eyes off of Christ and rather put them on the cares of this world around us and let that be our first and foremost thought.

So focusing on the cares of this life rather than on our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. So we saw Paul's concern for the churches that's godly concern we also have the story of Martha when Jesus comes to Martha's household and is enjoying time with Martha and with Mary and Mary sits at the feet of Christ and hears his word.

But then Martha is off serving and she comes to the Lord with her complaint speaking to speaking about her sister and why isn't she helping? And Jesus' response is very interesting. He says to Martha, Martha, Martha you are troubled and worried about many things.

Those many things seem to be not really sinful acts or anything of bad reputation but Martha lost her focus off of Christ and decided to put it on serving on the cares around her. And so Jesus says that she was troubled and worried about many things.

So I think that's a great example of when we shift our focus off of Christ and rather put upon the cares of this world and that's our main focus. And that leads into ungodly fear, anxiety, and worry. And we see in Philippians be anxious for nothing.

The Apostle Paul is very good to give us lists a lot of times in his epistles. And we can think about Galatians when he gives us the list of the works of the flesh and the list of the fruit of the Spirit.

And here he gives us a very complete and exhaustive list for believers to be worried about. What things to be worried about for a believer? Things to be worried about? It's a blank list. The believer is not to be worried or not to be anxious about anything in life whether big or small.

We're to keep our focus on Christ and move forward focusing on him. And it's Jesus himself spoke on worry during his earthly ministry. He talked about don't worry about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear.

He said look at the birds, look at the flowers of the fields. God takes care of them. And God knows your needs. He knows your needs better than you know them yourself. He knows all of our needs more than we do.

So Jesus says don't worry about tomorrow. Rather seek first the kingdom of heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So he says, Jesus says don't worry but rather have a kingdom focus.

And to have a kingdom focus we should have a focus on the King. For where the King is there is the kingdom. So Jesus our captain, our Savior, the author and finisher of our faith says do not worry. And here we see it again by the hand through the ministry of the Holy Spirit by the hand of Paul.

So be anxious for nothing. Our Lord commands it and that's the direction we've been given. And this text also in Philippians 4 says but in everything. And that's a really huge contrast, a really huge switch isn't it?

From don't be anxious about anything but in everything. In every situation, in every life happenstance you find yourself in, with whatever you face, in everything pray. And the Apostle Paul gives us some aspects of prayer on how to pray when we're tempted to be worried or to be anxious about the life and the cares around us.

So he first says but in everything by prayer. Isn't that what we're talking about though? Isn't prayer prayer? Aren't we talking about that here? Well the word actually means to come before the Lord in prayer with worship.

And so to pray to the Lord with with worship when we're tempted to be anxious or to be worried. Worship our intended state as human beings created in the image of God. How are we to best deliver lives in a state of worship to Him?

And the Apostle Paul says when you're tempted to be anxious or worried about stuff rather come back to your intended state as a human being and worship. That's what we were made for. And I appreciate the quote by Martin Lloyd Jones.

He says before you make your requests known unto God, pray, worship, adore. Come into the presence of God and for the time being forget your problems. Focus on the Lord. Have a orientation toward the Lord, toward God in your prayer.

Not on the problems, not on the cares around you at first. Speak to God about those things but have your focus be on the Lord and worship in prayer. The Apostle Paul also says and supplication. And I for the longest time never knew what that word meant.

So what does supplication mean? Well it's a earnest petition that you give to God for your heartfelt needs. Your heartfelt needs. An earnest petition to God for your heartfelt needs. It's being honest and transparent with the Lord and talking to Him about what is on your mind.

What is tempting you to be anxious and to be worried. To be honest with the Lord and transparent. And we have an example in the Old Testament of that when Hannah, the mother of Samuel, is she's stricken by these fierce words of the other wife of her husband.

And she's provoked by this other wife. And she goes to the Lord in prayer and she says, Lord please give me a son. Her heartfelt need was expressed and she pours out her heart to the Lord. Pouring out the heart to the Lord.

There is supplication. Being honest and open with the Lord and letting Him know what is your heartfelt needs at the moment. What's on your mind. What's troubling you. He wants us to bring everything to Him.

Everything that's on our minds. Everything that might tempt us to be troubled or to be worried. To bring it all to Him. And to give it to Him. To cast all of our cares upon Him for He cares for us. He cares for us.

Another aspect of prayer the Apostle Paul talks about with thanksgiving. That's something we oftentimes neglect when we pray, isn't it? Especially when we're tempted to be worried or anxious. Is we don't really stop and think about what the Lord has done.

We don't stop and counter blessings. We don't stop and think about how the Lord has brought us through many trials and how He will still deliver us. But it's good to continue to keep an orientation on God and to be thankful.

And to remember, yeah, the Lord helped me through those times. The Lord has given me all these blessings and even though I'm faced with something that I'm tempted to be worried or anxious about, I can be thankful to the Lord and count my blessings.

And I could remember the faithfulness of the Lord and how He's brought me through all the days long. So we can be thankful in our prayers. And we can, again, this will help us keep an orientation to God and to keep our focus on Him rather than on ourselves and our own problems.

So a couple of, I guess, encouragements to you guys is when you go to the Lord in prayer and you seek to enter into worship. Sometimes it can be difficult when you're tempted to be worried or anxious.

And so how exactly do you stir up your heart to worship? Well, one thing that can help you is to pray God's Word back to Him. To use God's Word to stir up your heart to worship. And some passages I really enjoy, some that come to mind, is Romans 11 verses 35 through 36.

After the Apostle Paul is talking about the sovereignty of God and considering that in his writings, he says in that passage, "...for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor, or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to Him.

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.". That passage is a great job of thinking on the majesty of God and how He's so big we can't comprehend His sovereignty, who He is, His character.

Another passage I think about is the very end of Job, and we won't read all of that because it's a lengthy passage, but it's a great one, in that the Lord responds to some of Job's comments. And He basically reveals Himself to Job and talks about His greatness and His glory.

And remembering these passages and praying them back to the Lord can stir our hearts to worship and warm our heart to the affection of toward God, affection toward God. And we shouldn't use the Word of God in like a very strict ritualistic kind of formula, like pray up the the Word of God and therefore get the blessings of God.

But we should rather use these, relying upon the Holy Spirit, to stir up, to fan the flame of worship within us. So that's something to help us as we seek to worship in prayer, is to remember God's Word and pray it back to Him.

When we go to the, excuse me, when we go to God with our supplication and we talk to Him about everything that's on our minds, we have to be careful and cautious that we don't enter into complaining to the Lord.

And that's one thing that the Apostle Paul went over with the Philippians in chapter 2 verse 14. He says, do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

We should never complain as Christians and we should never complain to the Lord our God about what we are dealing with or what we're faced. Even though there might be hard situations that we might be tempted to be anxious or worried, we should never complain to our God about the situations we find ourselves in.

It's good to be honest with the Lord and to pour out our heart to Him, but never to complain. And to continue to be thankful to God with thanksgiving. And so let your requests be made known to Him. To let your specific requests be made known to Him.

And to give Him, again, all of our cares to cast all of them upon Him. And every one of our requests, every one of our requests that we have throughout our week, to give those to God. Even though they might be very specific or very general, give those requests unto the Lord.

And again, He wants us to bring all of this stuff to Him as a loving Father. He wishes that we would come to Him as His children and talk to Him about everything that we go through in life. And so we can offer up all of our requests to God.

So, be anxious for nothing but in everything to pray. With worship, with supplication, and with thanksgiving. Letting all of our requests be made known to God. And now in verse 7, there's a blessed promise, there's a blessed hope that God gives to His people.

When we're tempted to be anxious and to be worried, but we choose rather to keep our focus on Christ and to pray, God says that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

And yes, this is a blessed hope. And the biblical sense of hope, at least for the most part, as far as I've seen it, isn't like a wishful type of hope like, I hope this is going to happen, it might happen.

The best illustration I've ever heard of biblical hope is it's like a sunrise. You know it's going to happen the next day. If I ask you, will the sun rise tomorrow? Yeah, I know it's going to happen. Now, we as believers know that the Lord is coming back.

And even something like the next sunrise is not 100 in His sovereignty and His will. But we know 100 though, that God's promises are sure, even more so than the next sunrise. And we have the blessed hope, the blessed promise that the peace of God, which is supernatural, which is divine, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

It will garrison the inner man, which is where anxiety and worry attacks, isn't it? It's not an outward struggle, it's an inward struggle that comes to us. And the peace of God seeks to enter into the inner man and to cast out worry, cast out anxiety, and then edge around the inner man, protect it, garrison around it, so that worry and anxiety don't come back.

The peace of God that can keep a believer going in any situation, however hard it is, and the believer's response, it is well with my soul. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. So, Philippians 4, 6, and 7.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything pray, with worship, with supplication, with thanksgiving, letting all of your requests be made known unto God, casting all of your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.

And God promises the peace of God will be with you throughout all of our days. And we can let the peace of God rule in our hearts through Christ Jesus. And now at this point I'm going to pass it on to Brian.

Thank you brother for taking care of the prayers. Thanks guys.