Daily Devotional

When we came in the auditorium. So as we entered the auditorium this is what we encountered. We just saw the backs of all these heads and of course coming around we could see what some ingenious individuals have done in inviting the congregation to come even when they shouldn't have done so.

Well I'm glad they did at least in spirit. There there is one person though that you'll notice it didn't take them long after the service started just simply fall asleep. Yeah some people some people do that but that's all good.

I also noticed and maybe you do too as you look at these different individuals that they've obviously been stuck inside for quite some time. They're looking a little pale, need to get out and get some sun.

Another observation somebody noticed is that it's just like regular Sunday, everybody congregating toward the back. Of course I pointed out well after all this is a Baptist Church isn't it? So yeah you know Bap grow Baptists and all that.

Philippians 4 and the Search for Peace in a Crisis

So here we are in the auditorium and I'm gonna try to do this in this way today and hope it works out. I've got this nice little sign behind me that says we're with you in spirit and I hope you are. I hope things are going well for you this week.

Beautiful day today so far, sun shining, a little warmer, kind of nice to get outside and not even have to have a jacket today, at least where we are. And I hope that's hope that's the way it is for you too.

So I've been taking the last couple of days and looking at Philippians chapter 4 and this passage of Scripture in verses 4 through 9 where Paul is writing to the church at Philippi. And just as a reminder he's written this in AD 62.

He's under house arrest and he's going to spend two years in that situation of being under house arrest. And during that whole time he's very limited in what he can do. He's allowed to have people come in and visit with him so maybe he's got a little more flexibility than we do under these stay-at-home rules.

But anyway, he's nevertheless constantly living with the potential that this house arrest could result in his execution and it's all up to the whim of Caesar when he eventually has a trial. So his life is very uncertain and precarious.

I drew the analogy the other day that it'd be like Paul is confined to an apartment in New York City right now in the middle of the virus crisis and several of people on his floor in his apartment building have already been diagnosed with COVID and one or two people in the building have died from the disease.

And so here he is stuck there in those circumstances. And yet he writes this. He says, 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's 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. Now you will notice, didn't you, did you already notice that it's kind of like a central idea in this passage is that of peace.

He says the peace of God will guard your hearts and at the end he says the God of peace will be with you. And so again Paul is writing in under circumstances that could easily rob him of peace, just like we are under circumstances that can very easily rob us of peace.

So what do we do about that? Paul addresses, I think, four different scenarios or four different problems that destroy our peace during these kinds of times. And we've mentioned three of them already.

We dealt with the problem of negative obsession. We can develop that obsession over the negative and Paul's antidote to negative obsession is to rejoice in the Lord and to do so always. We can also develop the problem of angry agitation, angry agitation.

And the answer to that is to let your reasonableness be known to everyone. A third problem we looked at yesterday is the the problem of anxious speculation, where we're constantly thinking about what might happen or what could be and that just creates a sense of anxiety.

And the antidote or the corrective to anxious speculation is prayerful supplication with thanksgiving. Well today there's a fourth problem and there's this really lengthy verse, it's verse 8, that has a lot of different things in it.

And we won't break it all down, but I think the problem that Paul could be addressing here we could describe as irrational diversion. Irrational diversion. Now what do I mean by that? It's similar to that anxious speculation that we talked about yesterday, but here's the difference.

When we're speculating about something, we're focusing on what might be, what might happen, what could come to pass. Speculation. And that speculation creates a great deal of anxiety. But the irrational diversion that I'm referring to is not thinking so much about what might be, but thinking about what actually is.

That is, what we're told is true, or perhaps what I perceive to be true, or my acceptance of someone else's opinion of what is true. So I'm thinking about what is perceived to be true anyway, rather than the speculative or the uncertain, what might be.

Now I say it's a diversion because my focus on these things that seem to be true, or actually may be true, it's a diversion because my mind and my heart are diverted away from other, better, more helpful occupations.

It's like the person who's wearing an Apple Watch, and he's got the notifications turned on on his Apple Watch, and he can be at work where he's supposed to be focusing on his job, and you know, here he is working away on his computer, doing his job, but every few seconds his Apple Watch is vibrating and turning on, and the light comes on on his watch, and that calls for his attention.

It diverts his attention away from the work that he's supposed to be working on, so he can see what's the text message that came in, or what's the email that came in. So it's a diversion away from something that he ought to be focused on, or something that would be better for him to give his mind and his attention to.

And so it is in times like this that our mind can be diverted away from things that are helpful to think about, or that are helpful and are better occupations for our mind and heart. And I say it's irrational, and these are irrational diversions, because I'm not, maybe because I'm not thinking through what I'm being told is the truth, or more likely, it's irrational because I'm not thinking on things that promote peace, and therefore my mind and heart are filled with fear and dread and anxiety.

And it's not, it's like, would I really choose that? Do I really want to be filled with fear and dread and anxiety if I were thinking straight? Well, no, nobody would choose to be filled with fear and dread and anxiety, and yet here I am.

My mind is diverted away to these other things in this time of a crisis, and next thing you know, I'm filled with fear and dread and anxiety. So what's the corrective to this? These irrational diversions.

Paul says in verse 8, think about these things. What things? What things? He gives us a list of things, and let me put it, let me put it to you this way. I think first of all, we need to filter our thinking.

Filter our thinking. Think about these things. What things? Things that are true. Is this true? Is this honorable? Is this just? You say, well, wait a minute. Well, yeah, it is true. It is true. Look at all these things I'm hearing on the news, these things that are true.

These are true. Okay, it's true, but is it also honorable? Is it just? Is it pure and lovely and commendable? Is it praiseworthy? Is it helpful? You see, we can filter our thinking and what is true or what claims to be true by these other, these other qualifiers, if you will, and by doing so it helps us to redirect our thinking.

So let me give you an example of this. Last week sometime I read an article, I saw an article, I didn't read it because I just didn't want to fill my mind with it, but I saw this article that was lamenting that during this pandemic and the lockdowns and all that kind of stuff it is highlighting the great divide between the rich and the poor, between those who have and those who have not, because the rich can do so much more, they can have so much more, they can live more easily, etc. etc. than the poor.

And then today in the newspaper I saw a letter to an advice column where this woman wrote, asking for advice because of this very thing. She says, I live in New York City, I'm feeling like we're really poor, even though we're middle-class people, because all my friends, as soon as they heard about this pandemic coming, they all took off and went to their homes in the Hampton, their home in the Hamptons or somewhere else, and they're living in nice luxury and we're locked down here in the city.

And she was lamenting that she did not have. And the reason that those two things stuck out in my mind is, I remembered reading recently in that book The Vile and the Splendid that I've talked about, that in London in 1941 when the Germans were bombing the Puddin out of the city, there were a couple of luxury hotels, and those luxury hotels could afford to reinforce the building and all of this kind of thing, and have those hotels serve as bomb shelters for the rich and the famous.

And they did, they went there, they went to these places, and they still had, you know, things being equal, while everybody else is going to bomb shelters that are down deep in the subways or down underground somewhere.

And yet there wasn't a whole lot of complaining and lamentation about those who had to be in the bomb shelters against those who were in the luxurious hotel. All a matter of what you're thinking about.

So filter your thinking. And then the other point here is to focus your thinking. Paul says, think on these things. And it's not that you're being totally ignorant of the lies, the half-truths, the negative, the dishonorable, and so on and so forth.

It's not that you're ignorant of those things, and we're not called to live with our heads in the sand and pretend like a bunch of things that are true don't exist. The issue is, what am I focusing on?

What is occupying my mind? See, that's the key. So let me encourage you to focus on the true things that are also honorable and just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy. These are the things that will make for peace.

Peace Through God’s Word and Prayer

Let me leave you today with this from Psalm 119, and I think it's appropriate to this idea that we've just been talking about. Verses 163 to 65, the psalmist says, I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.

Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. Great peace have those who love your law. Nothing can make them stumble. Our Heavenly Father, I pray, help us to filter our thinking, and so filtered may we focus on those things that pass through the filter.

This we pray in Jesus name, Amen. All right, well, Lord bless you. Have a good rest of your day, and may he give you peace.