Philippians 4:8-9

Good morning, this is Truth in Love. Time has slipped up on me this morning and I wanted to prepare just a little bit longer but I ran out of time. I wanted to get started at 730 and my clock says 732 so I'm just a little bit behind but I think it's okay.

We rely and trust on God and we will just rely and trust on Him and we want God to, we want Him to be glorified. We want God to show that it is Him working through us and not we ourselves. And so with that being said, good morning to you.

Thank you for watching. Thank you for joining me. I hope you are having a good morning so far. This is Truth in Love and we get Truth in Love from Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 and that verse says, but speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head even Christ.

That's our goal. That's our aim to not fall into either ditch but to speak truth and to speak it in love. You can't have one without the other or you will, you will fall, you will fall on your face. You'll be in one ditch or the other and it's just not what we're looking for, not what the Lord would have us to do.

So if I can pray for you, we're gonna pray at the end and I'd love to be able to pray for you. All you have to do is tighten me. If you have any questions, you want to talk about anything this morning, let me know.

Ask the question, chat with me, say hello, let me know that you're watching. I just enjoy spending time with you as we talk about God's Word. So with that being said, we're gonna look at, we're getting close to the end of Philippians.

We're just gonna look at two verses this morning and as we creep on closer to the end, I was thinking about, as I was making my coffee this morning, I was thinking about those times and maybe you've experienced these times.

I hope you have. I hope you've had these moments. When I was making my coffee this morning, it's so quiet in the house and I look out the window and it seems so still and so peaceful outside. It's one of those mornings where you want to take your cup of coffee and sit on the front porch and it kind of, it takes you to the mountains.

If you've ever been to the mountains and you've ever sat outside on a rocking chair or you've looked across the landscape and the hills and early in the morning, it's just very, very peaceful. I know deer hunters get a sense of this when they get up before dark, they get in the stand before dark and you have to sit really still.

You have to be really quiet and of course you want to hide your scent from the deer, but you have to be quiet. You have to be still and in that stillness, as you're looking over, you begin to hear, as the light begins to manifest itself in the woods, just slowly you begin to hear the woods come alive.

You hear, normally you'll hear the squirrels rustling around and in the leaves and still, just a little rustle of leaves from the squirrels and listening for that deer maybe to walk in and be crunching the leaves, but sitting in that deer stand, really, really still and noticing the peace and the stillness of the woods or sitting on your front porch with your coffee, looking over the landscape and just noticing the peacefulness of the moment.

That's what I felt this morning as I was making my coffee and everything was quiet and everything was still and I looked outside and everything seemed to be so still and peaceful. I really enjoy those moments and I know not everyone is enjoying those type of moments this morning, but I'm thankful for those moments of peace and I'm sure you are too.

So the question I want to ask you to get started this morning is that description, it kind of defines our expectations of peace. So what would be the opposite of peace? What do you think the opposite, what would you say the opposite of peace was?

If peace is those still moments where it's quiet and the trees are still, the house is quiet, you have your warm, your hot cup of coffee with you, if that's our sense of peace, that's our moment of peace that we're so grateful for, what's the opposite of that?

And I'm sure we've all experienced those moments to some different degrees than others, but what's the opposite of that peaceful moment? What do you think? I wish the interaction of the video was immediate, real-time, so that like face-to-face where you could give me your comment as soon as I asked the question so I didn't have to wait for it, but what do you think?

How do you feel or what do you think that the difference is or the opposite of that peace? I'll go ahead and give you what I think. In my mind, the opposite of peace is, of course, the opposite of peace, I think, would be chaos where you've got, in my opinion, there's good chaos and bad chaos.

You know, a good chaos is, you know, you've got a house full of family and children running around and so many people bustling around doing different things and it's crowded and it just seems like there's chaos.

Everybody's doing their own thing and but you have the, you have family there, you have children's laughter, you have playing or sometimes you have children fussing, sometimes you have adults fussing and so you have chaos or the chaos of a morning you wake up, you know, this is difficult but I think of the morning that I heard my grandmother passed away, you know, that would not be a morning of peace to wake up to, you know, going over to her house and how sad my grandfather was and how sad we all were that my grandmother had passed away, you know, that would not be a peaceful morning.

Philippians 4 in context is so powerful. Thank you, Steve. Absolutely. We have looked at Philippians 4, 1 through 7. This morning we're going to look at Philippians 4, 8 through 9 but I'm just talking about peace this morning and the opposite of peace now is those mornings where something unexpected or bad is happening or a storm outside, of course, is the opposite of enjoying that peaceful stillness.

So I'm thankful for those moments, for those cups of coffee when everything is still and everything is where you can just, it's not chaotic and everything doesn't feel like it is. It's coming upon you and you're being attacked from all sides or you're facing difficulties and your mind is just flooded with so many thoughts, so many decisions.

That's not a peaceful morning. You're just being attacked from all sides. So we're thankful and I'm thankful for those peaceful moments and the reason I'm talking about peace so much this morning is because that's where Philippians chapter 4, Paul addresses that.

He addresses peace and where peace comes from and I think what Paul would have us to know is that we can have that spiritual peace. Hey Roger, good morning to you brother. God would have us to know, Paul would have us know that we can have that peace at all times.

You know where Scripture teaches that if we're His, He's not going to lose. Jesus says, all that the Father gives me I will lose none. So we can have that security of being in Him forever. Jesus says in John also that if you believe in me you will have everlasting life.

You will live forever. So we can we can be sure that that will never end and I think Paul and Steve says Psalm 46 verse 10 absolutely. Paul would also have us to know that this peace, where it comes from and that we can experience it.

It's one of those things that are of God and it never ends and it reminded me before we get to Philippians chapter 4 and speak on those things, this subject reminded me of a Christmas verse that we use and that we quote often this time of year.

It's Isaiah chapter 9 verses 6 and 7. I'm just going to read it for us. It says for a child was born to us and this is a prophecy of course of the Messiah to come. Peace that passes all understanding.

Absolutely. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or what? You remember the second part of this verse? There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace. Wow. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

The zeal the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. He will accomplish this. We don't have to rely on our own strength. What's up, Jacob? How you doing? I hope everybody's doing well at your house, brother.

The Lord is going to accomplish this. We don't have to rely on our own strength and what is He going to accomplish? Well, the government's going to rest on his shoulders and the increase of it will never end.

There will be no end to the increase of His government and there will be no end to the increase of His peace. That's kind of been our theme this morning. There will be no end to the increase of His peace.

You know, you can think of kingdoms, you can think of nations and governments where there are times of peace but then there's times of friction. There have been kings that have defended the kingdom or conquered other kingdoms and they bring about times of peace.

We use that phrase times of peace but scripture tells us Isaiah 9 says that His government, His kingdom, the increase of His peace, there will be no end. So it is going to keep going and it is going to continue to increase.

So we can trust in this prophecy. We can rely on this prophecy that is going to increase and it's never going to stop. So we don't have to be concerned that the economy or the scale of God's kingdom is going to be like a rollercoaster.

It's going to continually grow and increase. The adjective that He used of the aspect of this kingdom is that of peace. So we can trust in that. We can rely on that. That is a wonderful thing for us to meditate on because we enjoy it.

We don't enjoy the chaos so much. So with that being said, that little introduction being said, let's jump right into Philippians and going to these last two verses that we're going to look at this morning.

I apologize it's early. So we looked at chapter 4 verses 1 through 7 last week and Paul tells us in verse 1, he tells us to stand firm in the Lord. Of course, he's speaking to his beloved brethren, those who he loved, his joy in his crown, the folks, the saints at the Philippian Church.

Of course, that's who this is originally addressed to. But of course, this has principles and instruction for all of us. He's speaking to them. He's speaking to us and he says to stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

And then in these next verses following, we talk about how this is how he would have them to stand firm in the Lord. I want us to remember that this action, he wants us to stand firm because he's going to give us another piece of direction in verses 8 and 9.

Here in these first verses of chapter 4, he's telling us to stand firm. And then he tells us how he wants us to do that or how we should do that. Of course, he gives us the example. He's being very personal with the church.

He's talking about these two women and he's wanting there to be reconciliation. He's wanting there to be peace with the relationship between these two women. And he's wanting the folks there to intervene, to be part of, not be standoffish.

But he wants us to be a part of each other's life when it comes to reconciliation, when it comes to peace and unity in the Spirit. And so he speaks to these two women and he speaks to these men like Clement who are to be a part of this reuniting, this reconciliation.

And whenever else it happens in the church, they are to be working towards reconciliation with each other. We aren't to be standoffish. We are to be a part of each other's life. And that's the first way in which we stand firm in the Lord.

We're not standing firm in the Lord if we greet each other at church and we don't have anything else to do with each other the rest of the week. We don't get involved in each other's lives. And it seems to be so foreign to us that God would have us to be involved in each other's life, especially conflict.

Especially conflict where, you know, this is my own business. I'm not getting along with such-and-such person, so mind your own business. God has a way for us to handle these situations, but He does want us to be a part of each other's life because He's desiring peace in us.

And that increase of His peace will have no end. So that's the first way the people and the church are to stand firm. And then the second was to rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. The third was having a forbearing spirit so that all men can see it.

And He says, the Lord is near. I think that's important. He adds that short little comment in there. He says, let your forbearing spirit be known to all men for the Lord is near. I thought about how I wanted to comment on that again.

To me, this speaks of Jesus coming. And the last video, if you've had a chance to watch the last video, I tried to explain a little bit of what I believe about eschatology, about end times, and what Jesus meant, what the New Testament meant, the end times, when things took place.

And here, Paul tells the people that the Lord is near. And of course, we could spiritualize that. You know, the Lord is near to us. He promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And that's absolutely true.

But so often, Paul speaks of the Lord coming or the Lord coming soon. The Lord is near, the Lord coming soon. If you have a chance, look up those words, near and soon, and see how often the the authors of the New Testament talk about near and soon.

Those who have a different end times view than me would agree that the authors of the New Testament, and this is this is the word that they use, it's a big word, but this is the word that they use, but the authors believed in the imminent return of Christ.

And of course, those that hold a different view than I do also believe in the imminent return of Christ. So they are they are looking for it. It is coming soon. It could happen any moment. It's near. That's what the authors of the New Testament believed in, the imminent return of Christ.

And this is an example of such a verse. The Lord is near. The Lord, and you know, obviously it could be could mean, you know, in a spiritual sense here, but so often he speaks of the Lord coming, the Lord is near, the Lord's coming soon, that we can we can possibly apply that here.

I could be wrong, and you know, if there's any Greek scholars, any any pastors out there that would like to correct me, I'm open to correction. You know, I think it could, has the potential to mean both.

I could be wrong. It could just mean one, and somebody is, anybody is welcome to let me know what you think. You know, but I'm, I'll go ahead and say it. Those that those that believe differently about end times than I do have a tendency to do it in a mocking type way.

They will speak of my view and say that we believe that we are in the millennium right now, which we do, and so that they mockingly say, well, we've already been through one millennium, and now we're in the second millennium.

What does that mean? So they say that kind of mockingly, and I don't want to be guilty of being mocking. I just, I want to be guilty of sharing facts from Scripture. So with that being said, here, I think they say it in such a way that for us to think about it, you know, do you have an answer for that?

You know, if we're in the millennium, you know, there's, we're already in a second millennium, so how do you answer that question? So here's a question in return. It's an agreement that, there's an agreement that the authors of the New Testament believed in the imminent return of Christ, and imminence means it's soon, it's going to happen, that they were looking for Christ to return, and yet it's been 2 ,000 years, and people still believe in the imminent return of Christ, that he's coming soon.

So soon and near are words that have meanings, right? So if they believed that he was coming soon, that he was near, and yet he didn't, and we're 2 ,000 years out, you know, those words really don't have meaning anymore.

So that's just some thoughts, something to think about as I was working through this in my mind, and of course this is a, this is just a conversation that I'm having with you guys, and I appreciate all the comments so far, and the participation, but it's just something to think about as we have this conversation, iron sharpening iron, but he was getting back on topic.

Paul was speaking to this church, the saints there, saying the Lord is near, and with the Lord being near, he can say that, you know, in a spiritual sense to comfort them, and we can use it in that way, because they were being attacked, you know, if you look in chapter 3, you had the Judaizers that were coming after them, that were mutilating the gospel, that wanted them to add keeping the law to the gospel.

So they wanted to tear down Paul's teaching, you know, of grace alone through faith alone, and then you had the Herodians who were trying to get their hands in the pot that Paul was warning them of, and you had Paul in jail, and you had other persecutions going on at the time, so life was not peaceful in our sense of the word.

It was not still. It was not sipping your coffee on the front porch kind of a morning for these folks. They had a lot of going on. They had a lot of chaos going on, so this spiritual idea of comfort where Paul would say the Lord is near, you know, that's very accurate and very true, and it's a wonderful pastoral thing to say that amidst the chaos, the Lord is near.

But then you also have the other aspect of it. The very next verse, he speaks of them being anxious for nothing. So this was, according to the original language, this was something that Paul had saw evidence of, that they were continually being anxious, and the part of the teaching was that, you know, the Lord is coming near.

Jesus tells them to flee Jerusalem. When you see Jerusalem being surrounded, flee Jerusalem and head to the it's going to be hope that you're not pregnant on that day because it's going to be hard for you.

So you have this time of persecution coming, this time of destruction coming, where Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, and the temple's going to be destroyed, and Paul is saying, you know, the Lord is near, that judgment is coming.

So you have that on top of all the other distresses that they were dealing with, and yet Paul tells them to be anxious for nothing, and that is another pillar of standing firm in the Lord. And I apologize for going back over verses 1 through 7.

I meant to just do a recap, but verses 2 through 6 is what is Paul's formula for them to stand firm in the Lord, and then he says, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, which is the verse that Steve quoted a few moments ago, the peace that passes all understanding, or the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, I'm reading from the New American Standard, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.

So Paul is speaking of this peace in the midst of their chaos, peace that passes all understanding, a peace which God is bringing to the earth that will have no end. That's the peace that comes from Christ, and it will guard your hearts and your minds, he says.

And so that's the first action, this verses 1 through 7, stand firm in the Lord, and here's how you do that. That's standing firm, that's the first action. Verses 8 and 9, Paul is going to speak of two more actions that he would have the church be doing, and he would have us as the church today to be doing as well, in line with first, standing firm.

So let's read verses 8 and 9, and I will try to quickly go over them and look at those two other things that we are to be doing as Christians, as we also stand firm. Verse 8, finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything excellent, if there's if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. And the God of peace shall be with you. And there's that recap again of his theme, his goal for these saints, is that peace.

He brings back that peace that he is longing for them to have. So what's the second thing? The first thing is standing firm. The second thing is, he wants them to exercise their mind, to meditate, to dwell, to think on certain things.

And what are these things, what are these things that he wants them to be meditating and dwelling on? Should we be meditating and thinking on the chaos that's around us? Should they be, they already had the formula for anxiety down pat.

They were focused on what was what's happening to them, what's attacking them, what's coming after them. They were focused on the chaos and how it was bad for them. Because Paul saw this anxiety in them and it was a practice for them, that they were anxious all the time.

And here's the formula to get out of that anxiety, the formula for peace, as opposed to the formula for anxiety. Did y 'all see that? The formula for anxiety is to focus on the chaos and how it's affecting us.

Here's the formula for peace and it starts here in our mind. He says, finally brethren, whatever is true. And the word true there, it does not simply mean something that is truthful. Dwell on what is truthful.

What it means there is, we use the term when we speak of something that is true or that is solid or pointed in the right direction. It is in a true state. And so that's what we want to focus on. That which is true, that is that steady and pointed in the right direction.

It holds true. That's the kind of truth that he's speaking here when he uses this word. And that's what we want to dwell and meditate on. Those things that are true, that are unwavering and are pointed in the right direction.

He says, whatever is honorable, those things that demand, I don't want to use the word demand, those things that you can't help but give respect to. Those things that deserve honor. And of course we're speaking of the Christian life here.

Those things in the Christian life that are deserving of respect and reverence and honor. Those things are the things that we should dwell on. Whatever is right. Of course that's pretty simple, but it's hard to do.

Sometimes we should focus on those things that are right thing to do. What is an example? How is that hard sometimes? Well, all you have to do is look up a few verses back to where we were. In verse 2 and verse 3, Paul wanted them to do what was right by being involved in each other's life, despite how hard it is.

The wrong thing to do would be to leave them in disunity, to leave them in a broken relationship. But the right thing to do would be to work towards unity, to come alongside them, to bear one another's burdens.

So whatever is right, no matter how hard it is, those are the things that we should meditate and dwell on. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, those things that bring up affection and love within us, of course for God and for one another.

Whatever is of good repute or good report, those things we should dwell on. If there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, of course these are spiritual things that point us to God. That's the direction that our minds should be focused on.

We are trying to give, how should I say it, our goal is excellence. When it comes to doing things for God, our goal is excellence because we reflect Him in who we are and what we do. So we want to reflect excellence.

We want to reflect God the best way that we can. So our goal and our aim and our meditation is on those things that are excellent and how we can do things in excellence and anything worthy of praise. And of course that's the things of God.

Our pastor just did a wonderful sermon on how our first inclination is to do things, to brag on ourselves. But in reality, the Holy Spirit begins to work in us when we receive Him, a transformation of that attitude for no longer wanting to brag on ourselves and to build ourselves up, but to boast in the Lord.

And we hear that biblical language, to boast in the Lord, to brag on Him. And those are the things that are worthy of praise, those things that brag on the Lord, those things that build Him up and make Him look good.

And so he says, let your mind dwell. This is where your mind should live on these things. This is the formula for this peace. The formula for anxiety is to dwell on the chaos. And then verse 9, the things you have learned and received.

So knowledge, teaching is not bad. Some people want to kind of shove the idea that we need knowledge, that we need head knowledge. They kind of want to push it to the side. Everything needs to be emotional.

We get our emotions and we get our correct emotions from what we learn from Scripture. So learning comes first and our learning then influences our emotions. And so we must learn things. And Paul was teaching them things, just as he did with all the other churches.

But they learned things. They were taught things and they learned them. And then they received them. They took them in. So those things that they learned and those things that they learned, when they received them, they took them in.

They made them their own. And then those things that they heard and seen in me. So they watched Paul and they listened to him as an example. Those things that they heard and saw from him as an example.

He says, practice these things. So what was the first thing that we're to do? Stand firm. And then this is how we do it. He says, dwell on, meditate on these things. And this is the things that you should meditate and dwell on.

This is where your thinking should be. And then he says, I want you to practice. I want you to live it out. Remember, he says in Philippians also, work out your own salvation. Let the salvation that's happened to you on the inside, let it manifest itself.

Let it come out in your everyday life. And so he says, practice these things. Those things that you have learned, that you have received, that you have heard and seen in me. He says, practice these things.

And the God of peace. So he brings up peace again. The God of peace shall be with you. So the Lord, the Lord is near you. The God of peace will be with you. And so we can be comforted in that. But he's not going to, we're not going to feel that.

We're not going to know that if we're not working towards that unity. We're not, we're not standing firm in the Lord and we're not working on that unity. We're not rejoicing. We're not letting our forbearing spirit be known to all men.

Our mind, if our mind is not dwelling on those things that are honorable, true and right and pure and lovely. If that's not where our mind is, if our mind is on the chaos, and if we're not practicing these things that we've been taught and seen and heard in Paul.

And Paul, I remember Paul says to, listen to verse 17 and 18. Brethren, join in following my example. So we're to look and listen at Paul and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

So he says, observe those other mature believers as well. And he says something similar when he's speaking in chapter four, verses two and three, when he's speaking to these two ladies. He's speaking to the person he's addressing, an indeed true comrade, which is probably a name of someone.

I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. So there's these folks within the church that are mature, that they are to look to as an example.

And we have that. God gives that to us as well in our church today. That we are to look to them as example, as they were to look to Paul as an example, and to the other mature believers in the church.

So stand firm, meditate and dwell on these things, and practice these things. And Paul says, despite the chaos, despite everything coming at us and going on, no matter what we wake up to the next morning, if this is where we anchor our lives, we stand firm, we dwell and meditate on these things, and we practice these things.

If that's where we're living, Paul says that peace of God, the God of peace, and the peace of God will be near to us. It will be with us. And it will increase in us as it will forever be increasing in the world.

I hope that was an encouragement to you. I hope that was helpful. If it was, if you want to join me in reaching our community, would you like the video and share the video? That's the only reason that I would ask you to do that is just so we can share Jesus Christ and we can share his word with our community.

If I can pray for you guys, all you have to do is let me know, type me and I'll see it and I'll pray for you whenever I see that you type me. If you ever have any questions or comments, just shoot me a line and I'll see how I can, I'll see if I can answer those questions and address those comments.

But I do hope this was encouraging to you and helpful to you. If you do not know Christ as your Lord and Savior, come to him today. We're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the mark. The scripture tells us that we must repent of our sins and we must put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

We've got to turn from the chaos from our sin. This is a picture of the gospel. Turn from meditating on the chaos and turn toward meditating on these things. And that's how the gospel works. Turn from your sin.

Turn from trusting in yourself. Apologize for that and then turn and rest in Christ. Submit to Christ and what he did for us to save us from the wrath of God. Believe in him and trust in him and he will save you.

If you need any further conversation about salvation in Christ, I would be glad to talk to you about that as well. So let's wrap things up and let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for allowing us to spend time together.

Thank you for speaking to us through your word. And Father, would you help in us and work in us this lesson that you've taught us of standing firm, meditating on such things and practicing these things that we've learned and received.

And not to be those that focus on the chaos, but dwell and focus on you and brag on you and build you up as we try to be an example to the world. Father, we pray for those who are battling sickness and COVID and those who did wake up to a circumstance that wasn't peaceful this morning.

We pray for those and pray for all those in our community who are serving, who are police or fire, EMTs, those who are in the medical field. Father, we thank you for their courage. We thank you for their service.

And we ask that you would watch over them and protect them today. And we Father, we just praise you and we worship you and we thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. I hope you guys have a good day.

Remember that Jesus is King. Go live in that victory and let's continue to get out there and proclaim the gospel. I hope to see you soon.