Phillipians 4:1-9 Paul's Challenge to Phillipians

Good morning, everybody. And as Zach mentioned, I'm Rob Canold. I'm an elder here at Recast, and it is Father's Day, and I thought today I'd introduce the sermon and just start off with a quick tribute to my own father.

So bear with me as I just share a few thoughts. My dad was born in 1941, and he was born right at the beginning of World War II, and his dad was actually serving in the Army, and so he didn't see much of his dad in his early years.

And he tells me stories about when he was young, there were not many toys, and there wasn't many trikes and bikes. The metal was all going to the military efforts. So there's a lot of sacrifice that he grew up with in his really early years.

He grew up in Indianapolis in a home and eventually decided to go to the Naval Academy and serve in the military in the United States Navy. And that's an example and something that I looked up to as I grew up and something that I chose to emulate and followed in his footsteps in that.

After serving in the military and actually during his service in the military, he became a Christian. It was through a Bible study, and another guy kept bugging him until he just had to say yes, and he went to a Bible study and learned about Christ and accepted Christ as his Savior.

And when my parents left the military, they became missionaries, and as a kid, I grew up in South Korea. I don't know if very many of you know that, but I did. And as a missionary kid, I grew up there because my dad felt that serving God, sharing the good news of the gospel was important enough to leave family and friends and a lot of really nice things to go serve him halfway around the world.

And I do remember those years as a missionary kid. I remember them very vividly. We didn't have a lot, let's just say. We lived in a very, very old small home, and the heating was suspect, and it was pretty rustic.

But I never felt unlucky in any way. I felt very fortunate, and I felt very blessed. And I never realized the financial difficulties my parents faced. I saw my dad get up every morning, and he preached at a church next door, and he served there as a pastor, and I watched him with a good attitude, just preparing for the regular daily things.

I remember when he would leave our home in the morning, a memory I have is no matter where my mom was in the house, my dad would be walking out the door, and he would always say goodbye to her, and he had this strange kissing noise that he would make that would alert her to his departure, and they would say goodbye across the house.

And I just remember that. It stands out to me in my memories as a kid. I watched him faithfully preach each Sunday. I saw him learn the language, a very difficult language, and he speaks better Korean than I do today.

So, I mean, he really did a good job studying the language. I felt the love and approval of my dad as a kid. I grew up, and, you know, whatever it was I was doing, I wanted to run track. I had never trained or prepared, and I just wanted to sign up for this track meet, and he did that for me, and he went with me, and he kind of helped me and coached me.

I remember many, many hours in the driveway just shooting baskets and just connecting with my dad that way. Something I really remember that stands out to me is as a child, if I ever wanted to talk to my dad, and it was around 9 o 'clock at night, he was always in his bedroom, and typically they were going to bed around that time, and he was always reading his Bible.

I can remember many, many times interrupting him, and he was just always faithfully reading his Bible. And so as a kid, I just kept watching that pattern, and it's something that I want to emulate today, is just daily reading Scripture and reading God's word.

The consistency of love for God that my parents had and that my dad had, putting his faith into action and actually going and following God's call, and then serving others, whatever that meant, serving people around him, that's the example that I still want to follow and live up to.

So I just want to say thanks to my dad this morning, even though he's not here. And right now I'd just like to acknowledge all the dads. It was mentioned earlier, but this morning I'd just like to recognize them for the important work, for the important role that they serve in their families.

So I'd just like for all the dads to stand up briefly, and I'd just like to recognize you this morning. Thank you, dads. I do appreciate that. And as a way of introduction to the sermon this morning in Philippians, Paul was a father to the church in Philippi.

He started the church about 10 years prior to writing the letter to the Philippians, and as a father he wrote back to challenge and to exhort the Philippians toward godliness. We know that God saves us by grace.

We know this. The Bible is very clear. God saves us through faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. There's nothing we do in that. But he doesn't expect us to just sit around after we're saved. He saves us from sin, but then he calls us to something.

He calls us to love and to good works. So just like a father who loves his child unconditionally, and we do, right, dads, I think, we love our kids, but we desire and expect them to grow up and to mature and to live in a godly way.

We desire that for our kids as well. I believe God feels the same way toward us, toward us today as his children. So I'd like now to turn, and we're going to open up Philippians chapter 4, and we're going to find out what it is that Paul has to say to his children in the faith.

So if you would turn with me to Philippians chapter 4. By the way, if you don't have a Bible, there are extra copies of God's Word. Just lift up your hand if you need a copy of God's Word today. They're on the back table back here, and we can get a copy to you.

We'd love for you to be reading along with us as we study God's Word. The translation back there is ESV, and that's what I'll be reading from this morning, English Standard Version. You're welcome to keep the Bible, by the way.

We'd love to give you that as a gift this morning. So read with me Philippians chapter 4. We're going to read verses 1 to 9. Verses 1 through 9. ...who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

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, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about those 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. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this morning.

I thank you for this chance to hear your word, to consider fathers, as we've talked about, and the role of fathers in the family, and as we seek to honor them this morning. God, we recognize that you are our Heavenly Father, and we want to honor and praise you.

Lord, you give us all good gifts. Everything we have that's good comes from you, and we just want to recognize that this morning. So, Father, as we come to worship you in song and to praise your name, Lord, I just pray you'd, by your spirit in us, just help us to exalt and praise and worship as we consider the words of these songs.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning, I am excited to get into Philippians, and I have preached before. If you haven't heard me, I've been preaching in Philippians, and it's been a while. So I'd like to just review briefly what we've covered in Philippians.

Paul has been writing a letter, and this is really a loving, encouraging letter, to be honest. If you haven't read Philippians, just in part of your personal devotions so far, I would just encourage you to pick it up and read the book.

It's fantastic. He writes about, after a brief intro, he writes about his own condition, and the amazing thing is Paul is facing, really, he's appealed to Caesar. He's in probably Rome, most likely imprisoned, under guard, and he's awaiting this decision of fate.

His fate is going to be decided by Caesar, a potential death sentence. And yet, in the middle of that, he is rejoicing, and it doesn't seem to make much sense. How can someone like that in that situation rejoice?

But he's excited that the gospel is spreading throughout the palace guard. He's excited that God's word is not hindered by his chains and that it's proceeding forward. So he's rejoicing in all of that.

At the end of Philippians chapter 1, we see Paul exhort the Philippians, and he says to the Philippians, I want you to live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel now, in your situation, where you are in Philippi.

And then in chapter 2, he moves into a theme of exhortation around the topic of unity. He says, be of one mind, have the same love, be one in spirit and in purpose. And so there's this idea of unity, and it flows right into a discussion on humility.

You may remember the famous verses in Philippians chapter 2, where it says, consider others' needs more important than your own. And don't look only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

And then Paul talks briefly about Christ and Christ's own example of humility to us. In chapter 2, he also mentions Timothy and Epaphroditus, two fellow workers, and he commends them. And then he talks about, in chapter 3, his own personal testimony.

If you want a brief testimony of Paul, it's in chapter 3, the very first few verses there, and he talks about his background as a Pharisee, and he says, I worked so hard to be perfect, basically. I strove, I did everything in the law, I did it to perfection.

But he says, all that self-righteousness that I worked for, it's garbage, it's just rubbish compared to Jesus Christ, compared to having Christ, to being in Christ. He talks about Jesus as being the ultimate prize worth pursuing our whole lives.

And he ends chapter 3 in really a beautiful place, and that is just this glorious future that we have, the glorious reality that our bodies are going to be replaced someday with glorious bodies, and that someday we're going to be in God's presence permanently.

We sang about it this morning as I was singing these songs, I kept thinking about the reality of the words we're singing. We are going to be one day singing praises with the saints and with the angels in heaven, and we're going to be rejoicing someday on a new earth, and the reality is exciting.

And it's on that, it's in that reality of end times that Paul then launches into chapter 4, the passage we're studying today. So I have a brief outline that kind of came out of the passage that we read earlier, verses 1 through 9, and it's seven exhortations, or seven challenges that Paul gives to the Philippians.

So I just want to list those off. If you're taking notes or if you just want to track along, I'll be hitting these seven things today in the message. First of all, number one, it's stand firm in the Lord, stand firm in the Lord.

Number two, agree in the Lord. Number three, it's rejoice in the Lord. Number four, he says put up with other people.

Basically, put up with them.

Number five, don't be anxious. Number six, think about good things. And number seven, practice those good things. So that's a really brief outline of what we'll be covering today as we dig in. So verse 1, I'd just like to start off there.

It says,.

So it's pretty clear this is the first of the seven exhortations or challenges, stand firm. So why is Paul telling them to stand firm? I think it's clear to us that when you have opposition, sometimes you have to stand firm.

It's a difficult thing to do. Paul had faced a lot of opposition. If we think back on Paul's own life, you may remember he was saved on the road to Damascus. And then when he was in Damascus, newly converted, he started immediately proclaiming the gospel.

And suddenly he was the persecutor and he turned into the persecuted. And the believers in Damascus, I don't know if you remember this story. It's kind of crazy. They plotted to kill him at the gate of the city.

And so the disciples there dropped him in a basket and lowered him from the wall of the city. I mean, he was facing persecution from day one. But we know throughout Paul's life and the missionary journeys, he faced all kinds of persecutions, beatings and being stoned and being left for dead.

In Philippi, he had been jailed and whipped. So we know all kinds of persecutions had followed Paul. And he knew they needed to stand firm. He knew the Philippians may face some similar persecutions. I think of another passage on standing firm, and it's in Ephesians 6.

Some of you may know the spiritual armor that we're commanded to put on, the breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit. In that passage in Ephesians 6, Paul says the same thing.

He says, stand firm. So why doesn't he say advance? Why isn't he saying attack, conquer? Why is he saying stand firm? Have you ever thought about that? Well, I believe it's because Jesus Christ has already won the victory.

He went to the cross. He died. He conquered sin. He conquered death. He defeated Satan on the cross. All that's left for us to do as believers is to just stand in that reality, to stand firm in that, not be moved.

We know the truth. And that's important to do. I think one of the things that is hard for us to relate to is maybe the level of persecution that Paul faced, and there's believers in other parts of the world that face that.

But here today, we do face opposition at times. What kind of opposition do we face? I think maybe one thing is temptation. That came to my mind. We do face temptation, don't we, as believers we're tempted to sin in different areas.

And you need to stand firm in your faith, stand firm on what you know is right. That's a key area. Another one is just identifying and taking a stand in your faith in the middle of maybe awkwardness or uncomfortableness.

Culturally, it's maybe acceptable to speak about religion generically or maybe make a reference to God. But have you ever noticed if you're in a conversation with someone and you mention the name Jesus, suddenly it just gets a little bit awkward?

Have you felt that before? I know I have. It can be tempting to kind of avoid. I don't want to ruffle feathers. I don't want to offend people. But are you willing to take a stand for your faith and be honest about what you believe and mention the name Jesus in a conversation with a friend?

You know, Romans 1 .16 comes to mind, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And so we need to not be ashamed of that gospel, and we need to stand firm in our faith.

I want to point out one more thing in verse 1, and that is the language that Paul is using. So many references to love in this first verse.

Take a look at it.

He says,.

Therefore, my brothers, and that my is just an affectionate term he's using. And by the way, he speaks directly to women in this passage. We see the names Judea and Syntyche, and he's clearly speaking to both men and women.

So this term is really a generic term in that culture used to describe both brothers and sisters in Christ. He's saying, My brothers and sisters. Then he says, Whom I love and long for, my joy and crown.

And then he ends it with, My beloved. It's almost over the top, you know? It's like, why is Paul using all of this love language? What's going on here? And I believe that it's because he's setting the stage for and preparing the Philippian church for what he's going to say next, which is he's going to take on a very difficult issue.

It's the issue of division in the Philippian church. So let's read verse 2. I entreat Judea, I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. So that's challenge number two, agree in the Lord. Paul is taking this head on.

You may have noticed. It's interesting. He's not taking sides. It doesn't say Judea is right or Syntyche is right. No sides are taken. He also doesn't even mention the conflict. Like, what is the conflict about?

We don't even know. We don't know the nature. We can guess, but there's no specific details. He simply entreats them. This word for entreat, it means that he begs them. He urges them to agree or be of the same mind in the Lord.

And I believe, again, this is a repeating of the same thought he talked about in chapter 2 verse 2. You may remember his exhortation to them at that point was be of the same mind, have the same purpose and have the same love.

And so he's he's telling them there in very general terms. Now he's getting real specific. Judea and Syntyche agree. Work it out. You may also remember the passage following that is Christ's example of humility.

And I just want to dwell on that for just a moment. The humility that God showed is phenomenal. And I continue to be amazed by what I read in Philippians chapter 2 verses like five or six there through through 11.

It says God himself, Jesus Christ, who was in the very nature God, basically became a man, took on flesh in the form of a human. And then didn't just do that. He humbled himself to the point of death and not just any death, but death on the cross.

And so when you think about how God condescended to man and to humble himself to even the point of that humiliating, stripped, beating and and bloody death that he had on the cross. I am I don't know about you, but I am just humbled to the core.

And I believe it's that kind of humility that we need to have as Christians. And that serves as a sort of the groundwork or the foundation for unity in the church. Because when we're approaching each other in humility.

The unity just happens. It's just natural. It's the attitude of humility leads to a unified church. So why is unity so important? So I've talked about how humility undergirds unity and how how we're being exhorted to unity here.

But but why is it important? I would just submit a simple reason. When we're when when there's discord, when there's fighting, when there's arguments and disagreements in the church, it is a terrible testimony to the world.

Terrible. I mean, the whole point of the church is to be the light in the world, to be the representatives of Christ and to be his ambassadors and to share the gospel. And and so it's clear that discord within the church is is undermining the gospel message.

Verse three. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who've labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life.

So who are these women who are mentioned here, Yudia and Sintike? It's clear from this passage that they labored side by side with Paul. They are coworkers with Paul. And it's interesting when you think about the starting of the Philippian church.

The first convert was Lydia, a God fearing Jew who who was there outside the city worshiping God. And Paul came in and shared with her and a bunch of other women. So perhaps these two women were there, too.

We don't know. Maybe they came to Christ later. But clearly they were involved with this church. They were co-laboring with Paul. And they were they were significant folks here at this early church. We also see that they're clearly believers.

He's not he's not addressing unbelievers.

He is addressing believers.

He says your names are in the Book of Life. And that's that means that they're citizens of heaven. Washed in the blood of the Lamb, redeemed and forgiven. So the next the next thing I want to clarify in this verse is that Paul says, I ask also you true companion help these women.

So who is the you that he's talking about here? Who is the true companion of Paul? There's a debate about this. I read a bunch of different commentaries and it's not clear. This is one of those where different commentators disagree.

He says the word true companion. Some believe that that's translated to Greek. That's a name and that's the name of somebody in the church. But we don't know that. Others think it might be Luke. Paul had left Luke potentially left Luke in in Philippi.

And when he was on his mystery journey he may have left him there and he might be writing back to Luke who who might be the person that he's talking true companion. The last thought is it might be Epaphroditus.

He is the guy who's carrying the message back. Paul's already commended him and he might be saying true fellow true companion Epaphroditus. But regardless of who it is this is a singular word you. It's not you plural in the Greek.

It's it's you singular. And he's telling one particular individual to help these women through their conflict and help them find agreement in the Lord. So we at Recast how do we handle conflict? How do we handle disagreements?

I don't think we should ignore them. I believe we should seek to restore broken relationships when we see them around us. And I'm sure that they do occur here. We're sinners in a sinful world. But I want to ask you a question.

What is your natural tendency when you see conflict? What do you tend to do? How do you respond? Do you tend to talk to someone about it other than the people involved? Maybe you just go chat on the side or or maybe you get a little bit.

I don't know. Maybe it bothers you and you get a little bit upset and bitter about it or angry or frustrated. I would submit that that sometimes our natural tendencies are not right. And obviously gossiping and and talking about things behind people's back is not the right response.

We need to restore relationships. We need to encourage people to talk directly to the other person involved in that issue. And we need to be willing to mediate when necessary. I believe different people in this church can certainly mediate.

And Matthew 18 gives us sort of a conflict resolution plan. But we need to get the disagreeing parties to talk directly to each other and to work the issue out. That's that's the right answer. Ultimately we want truth to be spoken.

We want grace. God's grace to be administered and we want forgiveness to be extended. And that's that's how we resolve those conflicts. Number first for rejoice in the Lord always. And again I'm going to say it.

Rejoice. Paul is emphasizing joy. And that's the challenge. Number three this morning in the outline rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice by the way is a plural command. So Paul started off with a singular command to you didn't seem to agree in the Lord.

And then a singular command to his true companion to help these women through the agreement disagreement. And now he's saying he's broadening this to the whole church in Philippi. And he's saying rejoice.

Have joy.

Where does your joy come from. Where does it come from. Honestly I guess another way to ask that question is what makes you happy. Truly what makes you happy. I mean I think we all know the right answers but I do want you to reflect on how you really feel and what you see in your own life.

Do circumstances make you happy. Maybe how well things are going for you. Whether you're doing the fun things that you want to do. Maybe a big bowl of ice cream. That makes me pretty happy. I'll be honest.

We know that our joy should be found in the Lord. And I just want to emphasize this is a very important concept. Finding your joy in the Lord. Whatever you derive happiness from other outside of God and outside of your relationship with the Lord.

I am telling you that there's a lot of good things and God gives many good gifts in this life. But this this world and everything in it is short lived. And I just want to emphasize this. Accomplishments.

Pursuits.

Maybe fame or popularity or success of some kind.

Wealth.

Maybe it's your work or maybe it's leisure.

Pursuits.

I personally enjoy basketball. I can't deny it. Maybe it's the abilities you have. But everything around us. Everything that we find joy in temporarily is going to come to an end. And I believe sometimes God strips these things away from us.

And painfully so. In order to help us focus on him. And to realize that God is really the only stable thing. The only solid foundation. And the most worthy being in the universe. The thing that should bring us the most joy.

Is God. And to be honest. Sometimes the hardships we face are the best things in life. Because they point us back to God. And they force us to rely on God. Who we should rely on for our joy. So contrary to popular belief.

God is not a kill joy.

He's not.

He commands us to rejoice. It's the exact opposite. But the source of that joy ought to be from our relationship with the Lord. I want to point out a recurring set of words that you'll see in the first four verses.

It says in the Lord. Three times in the first four verses. And you'll see it repeated there. It specifically says in verse one. Stand firm in the Lord.

Agree in the Lord.

And now rejoice in the Lord. Paul's not just throwing those words out there for no reason. It's clear that that's a point of emphasis. These tasks. The things that he's asking the Philippians to do. Come from our relationship with God.

We have to be connected to God. In order to do these things. You may remember Bill Smith's sermon last week. And he emphasized the fact that we need to have a quiet time with God. And that we need to build that relationship with God.

And I believe that that is crucial. In everything I'm talking about today. At the end of verse five. If I can point this out. It says the Lord is at hand. The Lord is at hand. So what does that mean? I just want to explain that briefly.

Two possible explanations. The Lord with us. We know that God is present in every day. Everywhere we go. We know God is omnipresent. We also know that the scripture says where two or more are gathered.

Then God is there with them. But there's also another interpretation of this section here. And that is that the Lord's return is imminent. So it could mean Christ is coming back. Either way you translate it.

The Lord with us or the Lord's coming back soon. The same meaning or conclusion can be derived. And that is we should be mindful of that. And that should drive us.

Toward.

Thinking of realizing that the Lord is at hand. I'm sorry I skipped forward a little bit in the end of verse five. Let me let me back up. Verse five. Let me read that just for a second. Verse five. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. So I want to just interpret this word reasonableness for just a moment. I think when I first read this I looked in different translations and looked at the Greek meaning of the word.

It's epic.

Yes.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. But the basic meaning of this word is a gentle forbearance. The uncomplaining readiness to accept others as they are and to submit oneself to their demands just as Christ did.

As we read about in Philippians 2. So this is I think a really difficult challenge. Are you willing to give yourself up for others. Are you willing to put up with the demands of others. I think it's easy to be a quick at critiquing others to have a quick.

I don't know. See the weakness in others. You know we all have weaknesses and it's easy to find those and identify those and point those out.

But are you.

Are you quick to put up with others. Is that your natural tendency.

Just quick.

My first response I'm just going to put up with them. I hope that that's our natural response that we're quick to put up with others and that we're willing to sacrifice and do what Christ asks us to do.

So then I just previously mentioned the Lord is near at the end of that verse and that's that's what I was referring to. The reality that the Lord is at hand. He is present with us and his return is imminent.

It's at any time and we should be mindful of that as we. And that should motivate us to be willing to put up with others. So I'd like to move on to verse six now. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God. So this is challenge number five. Don't be anxious. So who here. Quick show of hands. Who here doesn't worry about anything. Doesn't worry about anything. I better put my hand down.

Yeah there.

I was going to identify you as liars if if you had raised your hand so glad nobody did. We all worry about things don't we. But you just read it here. It says don't do not be anxious about anything. So I guess we're all not following God's word.

Guilty right.

We're all guilty of this one. This is a really tall order. I just want to point that out. We can read breeze right through this verse. We can read it and say oh yeah of course. But no we can't do this.

This is impossible. So what does he go on to say. He commands us then to pray so we can see that we should pray. And the apostle is pretty clear. He says but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let requests be made known to God. He's telling us to pray. So we're told we're not to be anxious. We can we can strive to do that. But then he couples that with this command to pray. And I think that that's the key to focus on is prayer.

How many of us take prayer seriously. I think a lot of people pray.

I do.

And I think it's quite easy to pray. And we can throw up prayers when a convenient we can throw up prayers when we're desperate when we really need help. That's nothing wrong with any of those things.

But how many of us take it so seriously that we spend a concerted amount of time focused in prayer. And I'm convicting myself as I talk. I know it's it's hard. We're busy. We got lots of things going on.

But if prayer is important. I just I just want to ask each of us to reflect on this. How much time do you spend in your day. Typically in prayer focused on God. If we really believe in God and I hope we do.

And if we really believe he hears us when we pray. And he acts in response to our request that we ought to be praying. We ought to be praying right. And even in the midst of what you're doing throughout your day when you're not able to focus and spend time concerted time focused in prayer.

We should have an attitude of prayer. So when things come up whether it's good or bad whether it's a hard thing or easy thing we should be just continually offering up prayers throughout.

Our day.

And I think that's the attitude of prayer we should have when it says pray continually in other places in scripture. I think that's referring to that constant attitude of prayer. The clause with Thanksgiving is stuck in here.

I don't want to miss that. With Thanksgiving. Our attitude as we pray should be a thankful heart. We should have gratitude to God. You know every good and perfect gift comes from above from the father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.

You know God gives us the good things in life and we need to recognize that and acknowledge that and thank him. I would say that most of the time when we bring our problems to God we probably don't have a thankful heart.

So verse 7 the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. First of all I just like to talk about what is what is this heart and mind that we're talking about.

Scripture refers to the heart and mind quite a bit and it's not referring to the organ pumping in your chest and the brain gray matter up here. You know all the synapses. I think it's it's tied into some of the synapses but it's the heart is is really the core the essence of who you are.

It's it's your inner thoughts it's your inner feelings it's your inner desires. That's that's what we mean by heart and in the scriptures we see a lot of times the heart and the mind are referenced together.