SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: And during this Advent season, we're focusing on the once and future comings of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Advent means arrival or appearance.
SPEAKER_00: And so we look back in time to the fact that Christ has already come once.
SPEAKER_00: He laid down his life as a servant when he came the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And then we also look forward with great joy to that great day when he will come back and return and set the world to rights.
SPEAKER_00: Our four themes for the Advent season have been the unbounded love of God in Christ, the unquenchable joy of God in Christ, the inextinguishable hope of God in Christ, and the unshakable peace of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you are interested in any of those, the love, the joy, the hope, or the peace that is on offer to you in the person and work of Jesus Christ, I invite you to either, if you haven't seen the other Bible studies, go back and check those out.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to focus on peace.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but I'm going to myself sit up straight, pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: I need a little bit more of that in my life.
SPEAKER_00: It was about 2,000 years ago when one angel shows up in the heavenly realm, up in the skies, and a bunch of shepherds were out on the side of the hillside.
SPEAKER_00: They're watching over their sheep by night, we're told.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke 2, 10 through 14 says this: The angel said to the shepherds, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And this will be a sign for you.
SPEAKER_00: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly there was with that angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, and you can just hear all these voices, right?
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
SPEAKER_00: This had to come as good news.
SPEAKER_00: Because for so many people in the world back then, life was anything but peaceful.
SPEAKER_00: Political unrest, they were an occupied territory.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman Empire was, you know, in power there in Israel, which back then was just a pass-through nation.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Roman, oppressive Roman Empire was their government sort of context, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: They had economic hardship.
SPEAKER_00: They had religious, racial, and international tensions.
SPEAKER_00: They had all kinds of uh shakeable items in their lives, things that just seemed to be shaken, and uncertainty of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: And there was little peace to be found back then.
SPEAKER_00: What had gone wrong with the world?
SPEAKER_00: What were the possible ways that it might be remedied?
SPEAKER_00: This was a group of people that were longing, pining away, hoping that God might come to their rescue at some point.
SPEAKER_00: When I think about it, we might ask the same kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_00: What's gone wrong with our world?
SPEAKER_00: Why is there so much chaos, discontent, and despair?
SPEAKER_00: And why is there so little peace on a personal level for individuals, but also just in our culture here in the West, especially in America, with the political tensions, especially with all of the uh world international uh tension that we have, uh not only in the cyber world, but just also in the economic world and the sociological world as well?
SPEAKER_00: How can so many people feel so chronically dissatisfied, habitually frustrated, and filled with so much unrest?
SPEAKER_00: How can those who've acquired and achieved so much, who have amassed so much apparent control, still end up feeling that life is lacking, meaningless, hopeless, unsettled, and be so unfulfilled?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of being peaceful, why are so many of us falling to pieces?
SPEAKER_00: Good question to ask.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, as we sing our Christmas carols and read the Christmas story each year, does the Bible, does the Christian gospel that springs from the Bible offer any realistic solutions to these difficult and disconcerting incongruities in the world?
SPEAKER_00: We all want peace, we've pursued peace in a lot of different directions and areas, we've acquired much and achieved much, yet we don't have peace.
SPEAKER_00: What's the answer?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I believe the Bible and the Christian gospel have a lot to offer us when it comes to those kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_00: And I seek to persuade you that this is precisely why Jesus Christ came into the world.
SPEAKER_00: He, the Prince of Peace, as the prophet Isaiah called him.
SPEAKER_00: We need outside help, and if it's any kind of religion at all, the Christian faith is a rescue religion.
SPEAKER_00: That is, God in the person of Jesus Christ came on a rescue mission into this world to bring us this unbounded love of God, to bring us this unquenchable joy, the inextinguishable hope, and the unshakable peace of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, today our text is going to be Philippians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll get your Bible or swipe there on your device so that you can look at the text with me.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk about the Apostle Paul as he writes to one of the churches that he founded, probably around somewhere around 52 A.D., he founded this church, the first one really in what we would properly call Europe, as the gospel spread out from Israel, first century Israel, and it spread around the Mediterranean and literally throughout the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Um, when in when the Apostle Paul came to Philippi, um there he met a successful businesswoman, Lydia, uh, and together with Lydia and a formerly demon-possessed little teenage girl who we don't know her name, but but uh the book of Acts tells us this story.
SPEAKER_00: And they also met uh Paul and his companions met uh a Philippian jailer, a Roman jailer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so it's from that trio of people that the Apostle Paul sort of planted this church in Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's all that goes all the way back to 52, and this letter was probably written somewhere around 62.
SPEAKER_00: So about 10 years later, the Apostle Paul writing back to this beloved group of people who have become now a church, started with a very uh quirky core group and church planning group there, but he's writing to them from prison, which is fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_00: And two of his biggest themes in this letter are two things that we talk about at Christmas time a lot: joy and peace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I were writing a letter while in prison, and all of my creature comfort's gone, all of my freedoms taken away from me, I'd probably be writing a pretty difficult letter that would sound pretty dark.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Philippi, can talk about the joy and peace that we find in Christ, this one whose arrival, whose advent, if you will, we celebrate at this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to focus in on what he says about peace here in chapter four, and we'll read the uh let's let's take the first nine verses, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So let me read those, and then I've got a few comments for you.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, and I love that.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great image.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word is Stephanos, and it's uh uh some of you will remember the name of Stephen, the one of the first Christian martyrs in the early chapters of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this is the victor's crown.
SPEAKER_00: This is an amazing term to use.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Apostle Paul uh writing much more sounding like a pastor than you know, some people cast the Apostle Paul as more Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Doctrine and Mr.
SPEAKER_00: kind of stern and harsh, you know, with a lot of his uh uh rebuke and that sort of thing, that exhortation that comes from some of his other letters.
SPEAKER_00: But in this letter, man, you can tell he loves these people so much.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you have to speak a stern word when you love people, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But here he's just got that pastoral tone, and he's calling them his joy and his crown.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what he says to him stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
SPEAKER_00: I urge Euodia and I urge Syndechy to live in harmony in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say that phrase in the Lord three times, and he's gonna talk about being in Christ an additional fourth time.
SPEAKER_00: So the idea of our lives being united with Christ four different times mentioned here just in these nine verses.
SPEAKER_00: A big important theme to the Apostle Paul, and I think a secret to the peace that we are all longing for and hoping for in this world as well.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 2, he's urging Euodia and Syntheci to the women that were a part of this church, and uh he's urging them to live in harmony.
SPEAKER_00: They must have come to some place where there wasn't peace between them.
SPEAKER_00: There was some reconciliation that was needed.
SPEAKER_00: And so he urges them to live in harmony in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, true comrade, I ask also to help these, the that you would help these women who have shared my struggle and the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.
SPEAKER_00: And there's just so much there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I I love the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: We we took we've talked through it here at the village chapel a couple times, and uh this really is one of my very, very favorite passages from the book.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much live-body detail there, real names, real people, real life, real life struggles, and pointing them in the direction of real life answers that will really work.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you have this probably on a plaque at your house, either embroidered or carved in wood or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a great verse.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I will say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us remember, you know, back in the days of youth group singing that, uh, rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: And again I say, rejoice, go.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you got it.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: And you can do it in a round, you just your family, just keep going.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's great.
SPEAKER_00: I love to think that you might be out there doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But I love this verse, rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There it is again, the third time.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, again I say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: And why does he say it twice?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because we probably need to be told to do that twice.
SPEAKER_00: Our proclivity, our tendency is to drift back into grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: Uh our tendency is to be like curmudgeons, even at Christmas time, uh, to be like Grinches, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Apostle Paul reminding the folks at Philippi, even though you, especially you two ladies, are having this kind of conflict, and throughout his letters, we read of all kinds of different people having different kinds of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: But in this particular case, Euodia, Syntheci, and also Clement, uh, who was helpful, and all of them were helpful to Paul in the preaching of the gospel and the cause of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And they all need verse four to learn to rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: And again, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Let your forbearing or reasonable spirit be known to all men.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: I love that for word sentence.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: Let your forbearing, your reasonable spirit be known to all men.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you think of when you think of Christians in our day and time?
SPEAKER_00: Their reasonable spirit, their forbearing spirit, their bearing with, you know, what might be a negative context or a negative consequence of some kind.
SPEAKER_00: Uh their reasonable spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's a rich word there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But the idea that the way to do that is to be reminded of those four words.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Apostle Paul's talking about near in at least two different ways.
SPEAKER_00: One, he's near right now, because he's never leaving or forsaking those who belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's always in and amongst the presence of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the same time, the Lord's return is near.
SPEAKER_00: And again, at Advent, we look back on his first arrival and appearance, and we look forward to his second arrival or appearance, his second coming, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: That day is near.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, as time proceeds and progresses, we're, you know, just that much closer to his return.
SPEAKER_00: When is he going to return?
SPEAKER_00: I actually don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I don't think we know.
SPEAKER_00: It'll probably be two o'clock somewhere on the planet, because somewhere on the planet, it's two o'clock all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And but when exactly is he coming?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus even said, no man knows the day or the hour, and that only the Father knows that appointed day and hour.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so important that we know when, it's important that we know that he's promised to arrive, to come, to come a second time and to set the world right.
SPEAKER_00: And that should fill us with hope, with joy, and with peace.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord is near the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near wherever you may be, whatever condition you may find yourself in, whether in plenty or in want, whether in sickness or in health, the Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: So beautiful of a promise here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says in verse 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite phrases there, one of the favorite ways to describe the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: It passes or surpasses all comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same thing as saying the peace of God will sometimes simply be unexplained.
SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: It will blow your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You will look back often in the rearview mirror and see how God preserved you and gave you peace at a time when it would not have made sense for you to have any peace at all.
SPEAKER_00: Is that you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, i i if we were all together in the same room and I said, show of hands, everybody who can look back on a time when, at least in the rearview mirror, they could see how God preserved them and gave them peace in a very difficult time, in a chaotic time or in a time of great uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if that's you, and I know a lot of hands would go up.
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, look at what it does.
SPEAKER_00: Will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's the fourth in.
SPEAKER_00: In the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Another way of saying in the Lord, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 8, just this one's so rich, and I just because of the list that's here, and I love the way Paul does lists sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: 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 any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, see now.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much here about peace.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple things, though, that I want to point out before I summarize just a couple of points and amplify how Advent peace can come to you by faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But look here with me, if you will, at verse 8 again.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever's true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, whatever's of good repute, any excellence, anything worthy of praise.
SPEAKER_00: Let your mind dwell on these things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we were to just run a clock on how much time I give every day to dwelling on social media or dwelling on the television or dwelling on the computer online, and then how much time I dwell on this list of things.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'm I'm convicted.
SPEAKER_00: That stirs me a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to be stirred, and you probably do too.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, never afraid to remind us of things that we need to be stirred up about.
SPEAKER_00: And as we read this New Testament, we need to be stirred as well.
SPEAKER_00: Because we let our minds dwell on a host of things that just, it's like eating junk food, man.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that great for us.
SPEAKER_00: I actually posted a picture of some of my very favorite, not healthy food last week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a, you know, and listen, nothing against this company, but I'm the company that makes those little, I'm not gonna say the name, but they make those really tiny little hamburgers, you know, slider type hamburgers.
SPEAKER_00: And they got those, and I hate onions, but they got those little diced onions on them.
SPEAKER_00: And you can buy them now at the grocery store.
SPEAKER_00: And in a minute's time, just cut open the little pack that'll that they come in, the little little plastic wrapper, and in a minute's time you've got hot white caps, I mean hot little mini sliders.
SPEAKER_00: They're so good.
SPEAKER_00: I love those.
SPEAKER_00: Dip them in mustard, right?
SPEAKER_00: But if I were to only eat those all the time and never had any vegetables or salad and never anything with good nutritional value to me, that wouldn't be good for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is like, in like manner, he is reminding us what our mind needs to feed in, what our hearts need to feed upon, especially if we're interested in peace.
SPEAKER_00: The things you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, the Apostle Paul, says, practice these things.
SPEAKER_00: And the God of peace shall be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Is Paul saying, copy him in everything?
SPEAKER_00: Always imitate whatever he does.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He's careful elsewhere to always say, what you, as I'm an imitator of Christ, then you imitate that part of me.
SPEAKER_00: That part of Jesus that you see.
SPEAKER_00: See, I think with discipleship, um, we need to recognize that we need to be disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we might be trained, we might be taught by others whom God has appointed in His church to be teachers, to be encouragers, to be exhorters.
SPEAKER_00: And there's lots of different kinds of Bible teachers and lots of different kinds of pastor teachers, lots of different gifts in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to be encouraged, I really do, and so do you, I know.
SPEAKER_00: But I also need to be exhorted.
SPEAKER_00: And I know people that are really good at encouragement, but they're a little shy to exhort.
SPEAKER_00: I know other people that are way too good at exhorting, and you probably know some as well, and not very good at encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: And may the Lord uh give us that proper balance of uh healthy uh amount of teaching in both directions that that is encouraging for us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do we learn here about Advent?
SPEAKER_00: Let me throw this up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: Three things.
SPEAKER_00: There are some prescriptions for peace, there are some proscriptions for peace, and there's promises of peace, all in this yes, passage.
SPEAKER_00: I hope my alliteration isn't distracting you too much from the point of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: But when we're looking, if we are interested in Advent peace, and I am, and I'm gonna assume I can I I think I can imagine that you might be as well.
SPEAKER_00: That all of us, especially after this year, will see how much we need outside help if we're ever gonna get to a place of peace.
SPEAKER_00: That sort of settled res resolution that that God has everything under control and we can rest.
SPEAKER_00: In his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: And I got news for you.
SPEAKER_00: The turning of the year isn't going to be what does it.
SPEAKER_00: I hear a lot of people talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't wait for 2020 to be over.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the end of 2020 isn't really the answer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just need a new year.
SPEAKER_00: We need a renewed vision of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We need renewed and refreshed faith and hope and confidence in God and not in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And if I've learned anything this year, it's that we need outside help.
SPEAKER_00: We can try really hard and we can get some things accomplished, but man, do we need outside help when it comes to finding lasting peace, unshakable peace.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the prescriptions first.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put these up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many of them.
SPEAKER_00: They're really great.
SPEAKER_00: Begins in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not just stand firm, not just assert yourself, not just be into, you know, sort of getting back up in everybody else's grill.
SPEAKER_00: No, stand firm in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That means stand in unwavering trust that God knows what he's doing, that God is sovereign, and that his purposes will be accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And some of those purposes, we have to be honest, as we are New Testament Christians, and we look back through the New Testament, and even this guy who's writing this letter, the Apostle Paul, some of God's purposes are accomplished through Paul suffering, through Jesus going to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the glorious thing is that this God of the Bible, the one that is inviting us now, exhorting us to stand firm in the Lord, is the one who can turn crucifixions into resurrections.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that can take somebody named Saul, the Hebrew name for the Apostle Paul, and turn him into Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, who was a violent persecutor of Christians at one point, and then enter Jesus into his life.
SPEAKER_00: And everything changed on that, and that Damascus Road experience that you can read about in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And now he goes from being a persecutor of Christians to be an apostle of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And now here he is, 2,000 years later, uh encouraging you and me to stand firm in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not stand, again, not stand firm in your rights and your, you know, your right not to be bothered or inconvenienced by the No, stand firm in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then I love the second one.
SPEAKER_00: Live in harmony in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it that we got two names of two people right here, Yodia and Syntheci.
SPEAKER_00: And the Apostle Paul calls them out by name and urges them.
SPEAKER_00: He's exhorting them, isn't he?
SPEAKER_00: To live together in harmony.
SPEAKER_00: And how's that going to be found?
SPEAKER_00: Once again, in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: True reconciliation, true peace between persons that can really only last and can really only become unshakable peace when it's in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Both parties committed to, surrendered to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse 4, I love this, rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So it's again, it's not just rejoicing, just laughing for laughter's sake.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, listen, get this.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just saying, don't worry, be happy.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just saying, and nothing wrong with that song, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I have to tell myself all the time to, you know, ask myself what kind of day I'm going to have, ask myself what the disposition of my heart is, what the set of my sales will be, and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so I've got to find what that means.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to look and get on my knees when I read my Bible, lift up the empty hands of faith and say, Holy Spirit, please teach me what it means to rejoice in, to delight in you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in the way you're rolling things out, not just in the things you've given me, not just in the blessings and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's all wonderful to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to count your blessings.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all about that.
SPEAKER_00: But to rejoice in the Lord Himself.
SPEAKER_00: How much time have we spent doing that?
SPEAKER_00: Great question to ask ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I know I need to do more of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so even as I'm studying this this week, I'm reminded this week to spend more time rejoicing in him, not just in his provision, not just what he gives me with his hand, but in him.
SPEAKER_00: Look to him.
SPEAKER_00: In my prayers, be going before him.
SPEAKER_00: And not only just giving him my list of things for him to do today, but listening.
SPEAKER_00: Listening to him remind me that I'm his son.
SPEAKER_00: You reminding him reminding you that you're his son or daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Listening in your prayer life for him to remind you how much he loves you with an unbounded love that's been revealed in the person and work of Jesus in his first advent, coming to die on the cross for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because we connect the cradle to the cross, to the empty tomb, to the ascension of Christ back to heaven, and to his promised return.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is the same person, you see.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just leave, it's not just the sweet little baby Jesus in the manger.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: The cradle is so that he could go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the cross turns into that empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons we can rejoice too.
SPEAKER_00: This is a God we can rejoice in because he has defeated our last and greatest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes on and says, be known as reasonable people.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the prescription for peace, right?
SPEAKER_00: Be known as reasonable people, forbearing spirit people.
SPEAKER_00: You are the people who have some tenacity in your spirits, and the reason is because you're in the Lord and in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Be known for that.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're known for?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have a shorter fuse than some of the rest of you, and I know some of us have shorter fuses about different things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't drive on the highway without the shortness of my fuse, you know, being evident to all.
SPEAKER_00: Because people drive like nuts down here in the South.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is that is unreasonable in your life, pray that God will transform and change you.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to place that before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to throw it on the altar.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to let it be that part of you that is crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And nevertheless, you live.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you live in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, pray about everything.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say there?
SPEAKER_00: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that kind of prayer, that connection of prayer and supplication.
SPEAKER_00: What is this supplicant doing?
SPEAKER_00: A supplicant is presenting a request.
SPEAKER_00: It's approaching God with our desires, with our anxieties, with our prayer requests, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that great about our God, the God of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Not going to shame you or shun you because you present to him the things that are eating at you, the things that are frustrating you, the things that have caused you anxiety or the things that are chaotic in your world.
SPEAKER_00: No, he wants you to have peace, and he knows that part of that is allowing you, just like in the book of Psalms, every human emotion on full display in the book of Psalms, including frustration with God, including impatience with God, but also great joy in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Also great joy in God's creation and his glory being seen in creation.
SPEAKER_00: But pray about everything, verse 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with thanksgiving, everything says verse 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: And here we just come through our holiday that we call thanksgiving here in the States.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so important to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we have that marker.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that we're reminded that it keeps coming up.
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded to be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: And I sure hope that you know the Lord and you have him to turn to, because I honestly don't understand what people who don't believe in God are people that don't believe God is personal, if they think God is just a battery, the energy that the universe runs on.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who they're thanking.
SPEAKER_00: Who is it?
SPEAKER_00: And how can that complete the experience of being grateful if there's no one to thank?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the God that's revealed himself in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There's the God that's actually come in the person and work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we can turn to him and pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: I love that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 9, uh part of the prescriptions for Advent peace, uh discipleship with discipline is the way we've got it worded there on the slide.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying there in verse 9 is the things that you've learned and received and heard and seen, and I love the way he filters all of that out.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what you've seen in me and heard in me, where my walk matches my talk as I follow Jesus, practice these things, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Practice these things.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, do those things too.
SPEAKER_00: And the Apostle Paul's not shy in his exhortation.
SPEAKER_00: He's not shy about telling us what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I like that about him.
SPEAKER_00: I, again, I it's this isn't all just theory.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all just concepts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all just warm fuzzies.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus looks like something.
SPEAKER_00: It actually does look like something, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It means I go where Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_00: It means when Jesus turns right, I turn right.
SPEAKER_00: It means when Jesus speeds up, I speed up.
SPEAKER_00: It means when Jesus slows down or stops, or when Jesus weeps, I weep.
SPEAKER_00: It means when Jesus rejoices, I rejoice, and you rejoice as well.
SPEAKER_00: May our eyes see like his, may our hearts break like his.
SPEAKER_00: May we be drawn to join him in his mission in this world, just like Jesus did, just like the Apostle Paul did in verse 9 is so good at reminding that with discipleship it will require discipline.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the way that those two words are so close.
SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, the prescriptions for peace also come with a direction for our minds, for the way we think or our worldview, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us what to let our minds dwell on.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and excellent.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Reverse all of that just for a second, right?
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is don't let your minds dwell on whatever is false, whatever is dishonorable, whatever is wrong, whatever is impure, whatever is ugly in life, or whatever is just poor and shabby and lazy.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now that starts to make some sense to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's given direction for us, and we have to sort of evaluate again how we spend our time, what we allow our minds to dwell on in life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, whether that's through the media that we take in social media or or or movies or television shows or whatever it might be, games, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself the question if you've if you need more peace in your life, maybe I'm dwelling on the wrong list of things here.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm not, or maybe I'm refraining from, maybe I'm I'm taking away from stuff my soul really needs, my mind really needs, those things which are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and excellent.
SPEAKER_00: I just so appreciate the practicality of that list from verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, we also have here some proscriptions for peace, at least the category, and I'll say this.
SPEAKER_00: The category is in the plural, but there's really just one thing on it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Be anxious for nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe in your translation it might say, don't be anxious for anything.
SPEAKER_00: That's another way of saying it as well.
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's not just another version of don't worry, be happy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that.
SPEAKER_00: It's much deeper than that.
SPEAKER_00: For disciples of Jesus who believe in the sovereignty of God, brooding anger is believing that God got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're just brooding and you're looping in anger all the time, just stop for just a second or two and just ask yourself the question: what is it you think that God may have gotten wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Now I realize there's some things in the world that it's proper and right to be angry about.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about those.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm talking about those parts of our lives that so often it's just a matter of our preference, our desiring things to go our way, our uh idle worship of something somebody else has, and so we try to get it.
SPEAKER_00: So we're coveting at that point.
SPEAKER_00: But what in life are you so angry about all the time that it eclipses your peace or your joy?
SPEAKER_00: You've got, we've all got to learn to see that though, as a bit of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Because my brooding anger is really just a bit of me saying, God, you got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: In like manner, I would say that brewing anxiety is believing that God might get it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's about something that's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm anxious over something that's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I think God's not going to get it right, and so I'm anxious.
SPEAKER_00: And here the Apostle Paul says, don't be anxious about anything.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're in the Lord, because you're in Christ, because the Lord is near, because this is the same Lord that has defeated your last and greatest enemy, death itself.
SPEAKER_00: And because he is with you, he hasn't left you alone.
SPEAKER_00: And he's even equipped you.
SPEAKER_00: So what's the antidote to anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: Certainly the comfort of good friends can help.
SPEAKER_00: I think there are helpful resources available from the counseling realm.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and when needed, medically prescribed pharmaceuticals have proven to be helpful for some people.
SPEAKER_00: But over the long haul and in the deepest part of who you are and who I am, I think when it gets down into our souls and our spirits, there's nothing like taking a look at the things that have moved to the center for us, the things that we think really matter, the things that we've put as first in our lives, and to ask ourselves the question: have they displaced Christ in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: What does this passage teach us about God and his promises to us in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at the prescriptions and the one proscription of don't be anxious about anything, and the antidote to that is to pray and pray with thanksgiving and to dwell on certain things, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are the promises?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll put these up on the screen for you too.
SPEAKER_00: There is a book of life, isn't that good news?
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, we're not just one of billions and billions of people on a dust ball-sized planet that we call Earth in the middle of a vast and huge Milky Way galaxy that's just one of millions and billions of galaxies in the perceivable universe.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we're not so small as to be so insignificant that God doesn't know what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: When we say God is sovereign over his creation, what we think the Bible is telling us is that God has not misplaced one single atom or molecule in his universe, including the atoms and molecules that make up you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus even said it this way, he said, not even a hair of your head will fall to the ground without the Lord knowing about it.
SPEAKER_00: He's numbered the hairs on your head.
SPEAKER_00: So when you take the next shower and towel dry your hair, he's gonna have an angel right there to recount, take new inventory on that, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome to think about.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what infinity means when we talk about the infinitude of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's all his.
SPEAKER_00: He owns it all, he hasn't misplaced any of it, and he's sovereign over all of it.
SPEAKER_00: So there is a book of life.
SPEAKER_00: He is keeping track.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, if the Holy Spirit has called you and drawn you into a believing, trusting relationship with Jesus, your name is in the book of life.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's mind-blowing to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And that he could know my name among all of the other people that are currently alive as Christians, and all the other people that have been alive as Christians, and before that, all of the people before that, that God counted their faith to them as righteousness, as the book of Hebrews tells us.
SPEAKER_00: That's mind-blowing to me.
SPEAKER_00: He knows all their names.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to study the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to read some of the begats, some of the list of names.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons there are those lists of names is to remind us that every name is important to God.
SPEAKER_00: This God who can know every name.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that your name is written in the book of life.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near, is another promise that we find here.
SPEAKER_00: How powerful that is.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Just talked about that a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God results from being at peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God will surpass your understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, this will be a mind blower from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things about my relationship with God, and perhaps yours as well, that continues to fill me with wonder and astonishment from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Part of what I'm wondering and astonished about is what God has done and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, just a few minutes later, usually the realization comes to me that I'm astonished at how I'm surprised at the fact that God is still active.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I surprised about that?
SPEAKER_00: I should be trusting that he's the God who created everything out of nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He's the God that knows my name.
SPEAKER_00: He's the God that hasn't misplaced anything in his universe.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't be surprised that he's actually involved.
SPEAKER_00: He's made all these promises.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't be surprised at all of that, and yet I am.
SPEAKER_00: And so I laugh a little because it's better than crying about my own, the state of my own faith.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm so glad that he can blow my mind every now and then with his peace.
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God will guard your heart and your mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's so important as well.
SPEAKER_00: What a great promise here in Philippians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because sometimes I've dropped my guard.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I've left my heart vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And so my affections have been misdirected or misguided in some way.
SPEAKER_00: My mind has slipped away from believing what is true about God.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, because of my heart and mind combination not being guarded, I fabricate different concepts of who I think God is and what God's plan for my life is.
SPEAKER_00: And my ambition takes over instead of his will.
SPEAKER_00: It becomes my will be done.
SPEAKER_00: And I should be praying, thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: May the peace of God guard your heart and mine.
SPEAKER_00: May the peace of God for you and for me, as we've seen here four different times.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, and in Christ Jesus, may we all discover that rich union with Christ that makes the Christian faith so different from every other kind of religion you can think of.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other faith I know of where the object of our faith, where we're united with the object of our faith like this.
SPEAKER_00: So this union with Christ, that's what He's looking for from you and from me.
SPEAKER_00: That we would dwell, like we talked about a few weeks ago, like branches dwelling in the vine, finding our life in him.
SPEAKER_00: And then the last promise is the peace of God will be with you, and that's at the end of verse 9, which I think is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So we're reminded in verse 7, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded in verse 9, the things that you've learned and received and heard and seen in me.
SPEAKER_00: Practice these things, and the peace of God will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the birth and life and teaching and death and resurrection, and all of the promises He made and His promise to return, because all of this is wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus, we can rejoice with the psalmist who so many years ago.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 91, verse 1 said this He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide under the shadows.
SPEAKER_00: Of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God.
SPEAKER_00: In him will I trust.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see those images?
SPEAKER_00: Refuge, my fortress.
SPEAKER_00: He is both my defensive habitat and even my offensive habit.
SPEAKER_00: He's the place from which I am safe from those things that would assail me, and where I am able to withstand, to fight against them as well.
SPEAKER_00: He's my refuge and my fortress.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just the absence of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what peace is in a biblical sense.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the absence of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: But it is even in the midst of conflict, be able to trust and hope in God.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Isaiah years later would say this you keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
SPEAKER_00: And so here the eighth century BC prophet in Judea, who served under four different kings, I believe, Uzziah, Jotham Ahaz, and Hezekiah, repeatedly reminding the children of Israel and us by extension to keep our minds stayed on the Lord, much like the Apostle Paul here says in chapter 4 of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself would say in John 14, 27, Peace, I leave with you my peace, I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And when he told his disciples this, when he said this to them, this was right before it was during the what we call the Last Supper, the last Passover meal that Jesus eats.
SPEAKER_00: And it's right before he takes them, they walk down into the Kedron Valley, across and over into the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives, there, where Jesus will be arrested, where Jesus will then be scourged and whipped and put on a cross and die.
SPEAKER_00: And during that last supper, what he's thinking about with his disciples is how to encourage them and prepare them, not for the coming, you know, Pollyanna world of what it means to be a Christian, how everything goes your way, and all of a sudden your wallet's full and you never get sick, and you're you're, you know, all of these sort of precious sort of promises that are not really real.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just not the way that it is in this broken world.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he prepares them, he says things like, In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, because I've overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: And in the in in chapter uh 14 there, he tells them uh that he has peace that he wants to leave with them.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the kind of peace the world gives.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the kind of peace the world has is shakeable because it's peace based on how the circumstances are going.
SPEAKER_00: And the circumstances just don't always go perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: I know people in our church that at right now are suffering greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And if they were putting their confidence, their hope, their looking for peace in their circumstances, they don't have peace right now.
SPEAKER_00: But if they turn to the Lord, that's a different source of peace.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the kind of peace the world gives.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different kind altogether.
SPEAKER_00: They know that their lives, both in this world and in the next, belong to Jesus, that He holds them fast, and that they don't have to be fearful or troubled or in any way afraid.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what is going on in our world, we are an Advent people.
SPEAKER_00: And we can look for these four things in Christ: unbounded love of God, unquenchable joy of God, inextinguishable hope of God in Christ, and the unshakable peace of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'll close with these two quotes from John Piper.
SPEAKER_00: These are the great purposes for the coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Glory ever ascending from man, peace ever descending from God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you turn to him today?
SPEAKER_00: If your heart is hungry for more peace, if your soul is troubled, if your mind is confused, would you turn to him for peace that passes understanding?
SPEAKER_00: And from that great theologian and Bible scholar, J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer, who's gone home to be with the Lord now, there's no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God's favor to them in life, through death, and on forever.
SPEAKER_00: Ah.
SPEAKER_00: I love that word forever.
SPEAKER_00: I love to read it in the Bible, and I love it when guys like J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer quote it.
SPEAKER_00: And as he wrote this, uh, obviously well before he passed on into glory himself, reminding us and reminding himself as well that it's all wrapped up in our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Advent peace of Christ is an unshakable peace because it's in Christ.