July 19th, 2026

Pastor Michael Crocker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Give them a high five and then sit down. So we are in the midst at the end, at the tail end of our sermon series on Philippians. This is our summer sermon series. That's a lot of S's, where we're walking through the letter Paul writes to the church of Philippi. We'll finish it next week, start something new in August. Can you believe that August is already here? That is crazy, and praise God for those of us that have kids in school. Hallelujah. So we've been walking through this letter, and this letter is, you know, it's a letter twofold, right? So Paul is writing this letter from prison, and he's writing it back to the church of Philippi for two reasons. One, out of gratitude, right? He's writing to them to thank them for the gift that they sent from Epaphrodites. Epaphrodites comes, he delivers this basket full of, I'm sure, smoked meats and cheeses or something like that to care for him while he is in prison. And then the other reason he's writing this letter is really one of the reasons why he writes most of his letters. It's a letter of encouragement. Well, in women, when I say encouragement, I also mean correction. Right? So he's writing back to these churches that he started, some of the churches he didn't, but he was connected to. But he's writing back to these churches to say, hey, I'm proud of you. You're doing awesome. Keep going the way that God taught us to go. Right? So there's these encouraging words that Paul sends out to these communities. And for the Church of Philippi, this was really important because the Church of Philippi was the first church that Paul starts in Europe. Right? And it's this Roman colony that's uh that's full of Roman citizens and Roman soldiers, especially. And because of that, it was an incredibly patriotic city. Very like, go Rome, yes, we're all about that. Um, and and Caesar is king. Caesar is king, and they would just stand on top of that. Well, if you're a believer in what Paul has taught you, and if you follow the way of Jesus, there is only one king, and that is Jesus. And so Paul is writing back to them to encourage them because when Paul was there, he was running into this, and now the church is running into this. Like they're running into this oppression, being told, no, no, no, you sit over in the corner and be quiet. Caesar is king. But the people of the church are like, no, no, no, no. There's one. See, this wasn't a common problem just to Philippi, it was to every one of these colonies. They lived in these oppressive terms where Christianity was not the main religion. That didn't happen until much, much later when Constantine was emperor. At this time, it was whatever religion the current Caesar deemed appropriate, or was the big religion of that town where you were. Wherever you went, there was a God that you had to bow down to. It was never the one true God, but it was a God. And if you were in that town and you didn't bow down to that God, things were difficult for you for a variety of reasons. Here's an example. In one of the towns in modern-day Asia, Smyrna, there was a huge temple that was dedicated to a goddess. And every time you went to go buy something or sell something at the marketplace, you had to first go by a table and get your goods stamped with, I dedicate all of this to this goddess. Well, if you're a believer in God, that becomes a problem. Because you're bowing down to something that is not God. In fact, God was pretty clear about that when he instituted his top ten. Thou shalt have no other God but me. Like, that's number one on the top ten list. And so if you're a believer in Jesus, you come into this place, and then all the things get a little bit dicey because how do you sell your goods, whatever it is, if you're a tent maker, if you're if you raise goats, whatever it is, how do you sell your wares and trades and earn a living? And then how do you buy the things that you need to buy in order to survive? If you have to operate out of that system. Now I know what a lot of you are thinking, like, ah, it's not that big a deal, but it was. It was and it is. What we bow down to, even little by little, becomes the ruler of us. And so the church of Philippi was dealing with these pressures. They were dealing with these pressures that were saying, you must bow down to this God, Caesar is king. Not this Jesus guy you talk about that we've never seen. Caesar. And so Paul's writing them this letter. Thank you for the gift that you've given me. And I want to encourage you on the path that I set before you. Right? Remember, he just comes out in chapter three, we just talked about this, that he talks about who Jesus is, what Jesus did for us, and the race that Jesus has given us to run. Like, run this race, press on towards the goal because of who Jesus is and who you are because of it. You have been called to lead your life differently. And oh, when you get it right throughout this letter, it's just full of joy. When we step into those places that God has for us, Paul keeps saying, it doesn't matter what your circumstances are, joy is available to you. And look, Paul had some credibility when saying this, right? Because he's writing from prison. He's writing from jail, and at the very beginning of this letter, he says, look, it doesn't matter what happens to me. If I die, great, I get to be with Jesus. If I don't, and they let me out, great. I get to go share about Jesus. When you have that mentality and there's a joy that exists inside of you that is separate from your circumstances, can I tell you the kingdom of the world can't touch you? There is nothing that can be thrown at you that can bring you down. It maybe can knock you down for a second, but you get back up and you keep, as we talked about last week, running the race. Because that's what God has asked us to do. So Paul comes out of this beautiful athletic illustration, which would have been so known in the Greco-Roman world. And you run this race and you and you reach on towards that prize, towards that coming of the new creation where we get to step into that power and that availability and just all those things that God has sent us on to and promised us. But that's big. Like that, I don't know if you live in the world, but I do. And there's a lot of darkness that's out there. There's a lot of things that come against the things that I believe in, the things that this book teaches me. In fact, the entirety of the ways of the world stand against the ways of the kingdom of God. And if you believe in this, then you can't go down the ways of the world. We have to go down the ways of God's kingdom. And Paul makes it sound kind of easy. Just keep running. He's like the dory of Christianity. Just keep running, running, running. Come on. You just keep going. You just keep going. That would have been better at the first service because there's a whole lot more younger kids. So, how do you do that? Paul's not going to leave you hanging because that's not what Paul does. Paul's going to give you the tools you need to step into that way of life. Chapter 4 is where we go. Verse 1 is kind of a throwaway verse. Throw verse 1 up there if you would, real quick. Because it really goes with chapter 3. It's a tag on to chapter 3. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you, and I long to see you, dear friends, for you're my joy and the crown I receive from my work. He's wrapping up what he's just said about the race, pressing on towards the goal, all those things. He's like, therefore, let me tell you and remind you that I love you. And I can't wait to see you. And then he gets into this there's there's five verses in here, verses four through nine. Hold on, don't show that one yet. Verses four through nine. That in them are packed some of the most significant verses in Scripture. In fact, I would reckon to say that these are some of the most recognizable to anyone who isn't even really familiar with the Bible verses that exist. In these short five verses, Paul throws in there so much wisdom and encouragement, it's like an entire series on its own. But before he gets there, he does something that is very uncharacteristic of Paul. See, when Paul writes these letters, oftentimes he mentions people by name. Like in every one of his letters, he's going to mention at least one person by name. And when he does so, if they are part of the family of God, it is almost without fail encouragement, or like going listen to this person, they know what they're talking about, they're amazing, they're doing a great job. It's always supportive and a positive comment, with the exception of right here. This is the only time that Paul goes off script and says something on the surface is uncharacteristic of him. He says this in verse 2. Now, I appeal to Euodia and Synticae. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. He calls him out by name and points out the fact that they're in conflict with one another, and it's so much conflict that it has traveled across the sea to meet Paul in prison. The only way he knows about this is because when Epaphroditus got there, he's like, Man, you should see what Eudodia and Syndicae are doing. They're blowing that place up, Paul. Right? It's this, it's this disagree. And Paul is calling them out by name and slapping them on the wrist. Figure it out, he says. Can you imagine being those two women? Those are women, by the way. Those are girls' names, those are women's female names. Couple of things to point out. One, Paul sees women as leaders in the church. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know Paul. And in fact, most of the time, when Paul would set up leaders of the church, he would run it through the women. By the way, things haven't changed in 2,000 years. And so there's these women that are clearly leaders or significant in the kingdom of God and in the work of the church of Philippi. And Paul calls them out. One of the things that is going to be a great joy for me in life is when I get to heaven one day and I'm meeting people and I'm pressing palms and slapping babies and doing all that kind of grass stuff and seeing great people. And I'm going to run into one time somebody, hey, what's your name? Euodia. Hey, Eodia, I'm Michael. Wait a minute. I know that name. What were y'all doing? Like, forever. They're the two. You know, they're like, oh great. Here it comes again. You know, what was it? Was it the color of the carpet in the sanctuary? I bet that's what it was. It totally was. Like y'all were knocked down, draw out. Pews or chairs? Synteckey was clearly a chairperson, right? And they just were blowing the church up over this stuff. Thankfully, that never happens anymore. Yodi and Syntique, they just, they're gone. You know, they're up in heaven looking down, all that stuff. And thankfully, this nothing to do with that. But Paul calls them out. He's like, figure it out. In verse 3, he says, this is why. Go to verse 3. And I ask you, my true partner, we don't know who that is, to help these two women. For they worked hard with me in telling others the good news. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers whose names are written in the book of life. Why do they need to work it out? Because they're important to the kingdom of God. When we get in conflict with one another in the church, it matters. And we need to figure it out. Because we're on the same team. We're working towards the same goal to introduce people to the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. So Paul points it out, he's like, they're dear to me, man. They worked hard with me. They were down there in the ditch with me. And they were running the race. They were running the race. And I'm reminding you once again to run the race. Because sometimes we get distracted. Sometimes the world is going to throw in that division. It's going to tear us apart from what we're trying to do. Don't fall to that. Don't fall to that. And then he gives us these five verses to tell us how to do that. Because quite honestly, I've been in ministry now for over 20 years. I've been at this church for over 10 years now. Ministry's hard. Because of you people. You just are. Some of you are amazing and glorious, and I'd love to see you. And some of you, I'm like, oh no, here she comes again. It's not true. There's only one person in this room, and it's Donna Lawson. Did I ever think that about? Yell at me during worship, will you? Yeah, she's like, Michael, it's hot in here. I'm like, I'm worshiping. Leave me alone. Thankfully, there's no disputes in Christendom anymore. But Paul's reminding us when there are, and when the ways of the world try to invade the ways of the kingdom of God, I don't want you to lose your joy. I want you to continue racing the race that God has given you. So here's how you do it. Verse 4 says this always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again. Rejoice. This is that verse. This is one of those verses. Rejoice in the Lord always. You might remember it. I'll say it again. Rejoice. Rejoice. Have joy in the Lord. Now, when we think of joy today, a lot of times we think inner joy. Right? We take joy and say, we put it inside. And it's like, oh, it's that inner joy. That's not what Paul's talking about. Paul's talking about an evident seen by the world joy. Because they live in a day and age when all of these uh all these temples and everything would have their festivals and they would celebrate their gods, and they would do so in lavish and crazy sometimes ways. And Paul's like, don't let them steal the joy, because we know what the true joy is. So walk around with the joy of the Lord on you. Because when you do that, someone may see you and go, man, I know your life. You shouldn't be joyful. Why are you? Well, let me tell you. Let me tell you where my joy comes from because my joy is not built on my circumstance, it's built on the cross. That's joy. And he wants us to say, hey, be joyful. I'll say it again. Like this is important. Rejoice. Let people see the joy of the Lord in you. The worst time. Scripture says, when you're when you're going through something bad, don't put on sackcloth and ashes. Walk around like you're not. Be joyful, he says. I'll say it again. Rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. It's like I don't want you to walk around joyful and just show it in people's faces because the kingdom of God leads with compassion. The kingdom of God leads with love, mercy, grace, forgiveness. That's what the cross is all about. And so Paul is reminding us that as we lead this life full of joy, we got to do so, being compassionate with one another. And don't wait for it, he says, because Jesus might be coming back right now. In fact, his call is to live as if Jesus is coming back right now. Don't wait for some time far away. Begin now. Rejoice, he says, in the Lord always. But boy, that's that can be hard in the world today. In the world where it seems like every time you turn something on, some sort of media device or some sort of whatever it is, it feels like they want to rob your joy. Because when they rob your joy, they grab control over you. Because what they're doing is they're trying to control your circumstances and the way you operate in them. And Paul's saying, no, no, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't do that. In fact, he says this, verse 6. You know what, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Don't be anxious. Don't worry. That's easy, isn't it? In a world of simpleness that we live in, this simplicity of life in today's world. Anxious. Man. Sandstorms, you go to Texas Tech? That's the only thing I can think of. Right? I mean, anxious for like and Paul calls it out don't be anxious for anything. Not anything, Paul. Anything. I don't know about you all. I got worries in my life. I try not to. I got worries. If you're new here, like we have a building project going on. When we started the building project, my beard was totally brown. I worry about it. The last this last week, there were three weather delays because conditions were too dangerous to work. I was here. I was in my office. I was like, you weren't on the roof. I was like, okay, fair point. But I worry. I was told, first service, we're still on track. Easter Sunday. Boom. But it's a big project. And there's a lot of moving parts around it. This past week, Jenna and I had a meeting with, because Grace in December is going to be 21. We're going to Vegas, baby. Who's coming with us? Yeah. And so her time in the high school program, the after school program, is coming to an end. What's next? I don't know. Man, I don't worry about that. I got another kid going off to college in a little bit. I got onto a parent portal for the first time this week and saw something that gave me great anxiety and worry. I'm like, holy cow, here we go. Let's go. Worry about that. You have worries. You have anxieties. And Paul's like, yeah, don't worry about that. The things you're anxious for, put it aside. Well, that's easy, Paul. For you, because you didn't have a lot going on. You were in jail. How do you do that? He gives us the answer, right? Pray. Pray. That's the answer. Pray. We'll pray about what? Everything. He says it right there. Everything. Well, Paul, but you know, I don't want to bother God with that. Yes! Bother God with that. He's not bothered by it. What father doesn't want to hear the needs of their child? And boy, he's a way better father than any of us ever are or have been or had. Everything. And sometimes we get into this mindset, this mentality that says, well, that's not big enough for me to take to God. Like, how many of you in this room pray for parking spots? Come on. Yeah, come on. Those are my people right there. The rest of you, how many of you would feel guilty for praying for a parking spot? Get over it. God cares about that stuff just as much as He cares. I mean, I've heard people tell me in all of my years of ministry, some people are like, well, I don't want to waste my prayers with God on that. You don't have a certain amount of prayers in your holster, right? It's like, you get cancer, and I'm like, God heal my cancer. I would, but I gave you that parking space. So, I mean, I hope it was worth it. It was shady that day, so that was great for you. That's not how God operates, right? God is sometimes we get into this mentality that we think, and those are two extremes, but we think that. I can't bother God with that prayer. And God says, Paul says, Bring everything. Bring the parking spot and bring the cancer to God. Because God can handle it. God is big enough for that. It's our idea of who God is. And then he says this don't just pray for everything. Pray for what you need. And he's very clear about that. And again, this is something that a lot of us recoil from. Some of us grew up in traditions and faiths and denominations that are like, well, that you can't pray for yourself. You have to pray for others. You have to intercede for other people. You can't pray for yourself. That's just selfish. It's not what Paul says. Paul says, bring me those prayers. I want to know what's going on in your life. I want to know those worries and anxieties. Yes, I want you to pray for other people too. But don't you think God wants to have that relationship with you? By the way, he already knows. And maybe it's about us coming to him rather than him hearing from us. Maybe we need to change our perception on what's actually going on there when we bring those, our prayers, to him. Pray for everything. Pray for what you need. And then the third thing he says in those passages is then thank him. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, for what you've done. A grateful heart. Thank you, God, for the ways you've moved. Thank you, God, for how you've interceded on this behalf. Thank you, God, for the ways that you've answered the prayers, even though I might not have gotten the answer that I wanted. The great theologian Garth Brooks taught us. I'm just going to let you feel that in yourself. If you don't get it, too bad. But sometimes. Sometimes, right? Because when we pray for something and it doesn't happen, what does that do to our faith? Do we lose the thankfulness? And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because it's a mindset about who God is. See, we can become thankful and we can receive this peace that Paul talks about, that we step into this peace when you get a mindset that says three things. One, the love of God desires what's best for me. The love of God says, oh man, I want what's best for Michael. The wisdom of God knows what is best for me. My wisdom doesn't. If my wisdom won what I wanted best for me, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be married to Jenna. I wouldn't have kids. I would have missed out on, you would have missed out on me if I got my desires instead of his. The love of God wants what's best for us. The wisdom of God knows what's best for us. And hey, the power of God can deliver what's best for us. When we take that mindset on, that's when that peace starts flowing. Hey, I give it all to God. I'm going to pray for what I'm going to pray for. I'm going to pray for the parking spot and I'm going to pray for the cancer. And I'm going to trust God with the answers because I know his love, wisdom, and power are greater than mine. And when you have that mentality, what can the world throw at you that you can't come through? What can the world throw at you that's going to tear you down? When you have that mentality, that peace that washes over you, allows you to say, you know what? But I'm joyful. And the world says, but why? Because of him. You're trying to base joy off the circumstances. I'm basing it off of the king. But how do you do that? How's the step to fall into that place where we trust God and all those things and we lean into that praying for everything and ourselves and thankfulness? He gives it in verse 8. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. You see what he's doing here? He's changing our mindset. Because our world's going to want us to focus on things that are bad and shame-filled and guilt-ridden and horrible. And he says, no, no, no, no. Don't focus on those things. Focus on the things of the kingdom of God. Focus on the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and worthy of praise. What we consume is what comes out of us, isn't it? It is. So much so. I've told this story many times in here, but y'all don't remember from week to week. So when I was in seminary, the way I would study is I would sit at our kitchen table and I'd have my books open and we had this little white tube television. Come on, somebody, remember tube televisions that sat in our kitchen and it played nonstop Law and Order.

unknown 26:00

Right?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

And I just watched Law and Order was on just repeat because Law and Order, if you it's on, it's on right now. Somewhere, some channel, you can find an episode of Law and Order. And I would just watch this. I don't know if you've ever seen this show, but every show begins with what? A murder. Right? Someone's dead, and then we're gonna spend an hour figuring out what happened and why and all those different things. So I'm just watching this, and I'm not even really watching it. It's just passive in the it's just noise as I'm paying so much attention to my studies and work and everything like that. I know, I don't believe that either. But um, and it was just on there. And I started having nightmares. Like I was just having nightmares. I couldn't sleep, I was waking up at night, I was in sweats and just all stuff, and it was all revolving around guess what? Murder. And I couldn't figure it out. Yeah, I don't know, it took me a little while. I'm not that smart. And I'm just sitting in this and I'm going, gosh, this is affecting everything. This is affecting my schoolwork. I was I was uh an associate pastor at a church, I was leading the youth ministry there and everything, and I'm just like, I'm angry, like all this, it's just affecting me, and I could feel it just affecting me. I'm like, God, what's going on? And he's like, seriously, stop watching Law and Order. Like every day you're seeing like 10 murders. What do you think you're gonna dream about? Oh. So I stopped. And guess what? Stopped the nightmares. Immediately. I took it out and they went away. Paul's like, hey, be careful what you focus on, because it's going to affect you. And if you want that peace that passes all understanding, it comes from a full life of prayer where you trust God in all things, regardless of what the answers are. And that's a hard discipline to achieve. And the only way Paul says we can get there is if we focus on Him. If we put into our lives the things that are worthy of praise, that are lovely, that are honorable. And then verse 9, I'm gonna go very quickly with verse 9. He says this keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Can I tell you that this is one of the most challenging verses in scripture to say? And it's one that every single one of us is called to live. We need to be people of verse 9. And look at the confidence of Paul. Hey, everything you've heard me say or do, do that. Because I'm awesome. Who's Paul always pointing to? Jesus. Always. He's pointing to his relationship with Jesus. He's pointing to the fact that he gets strength. In my weakness, he gets strength. He's always pointing to Jesus. What Paul is essentially saying is, Come follow me. It's exactly what Jesus said to the disciples when he called them originally, right? He said, Come follow me. And what did he mean by that? He meant, come be just like me. And Paul's given us that same challenge. And I'm giving myself and our church that same challenge. Are we living verse nine lives that someone looks at you and says, that's who I want to follow? Can I safely say that everything I say and that I do is worthy to be followed? For those of us who believe in Jesus, that's the kind of life we should aspire to. To live our life in such a way that someone notices him. Because of what we say, because of what we do, because we're rejoicing always, regardless of our circumstances. We're living a life full of prayer, followed by peace, and our life is immersed in his kingdom. And when we do that and walk around with a stupid, happy grin on our face, and the world stops us and says, Why? We get to say, Jesus. And that's the race Paul called us to. And that's the path every single one of us, despite your age or stage of life, or gifts, or talents, or abilities, has been asked to follow. So let's be uncharacteristically joyful in a world that's not, and show the reason why. Let us pray. Father, we thank you and praise you for your son Jesus, who lived our life, who died our death, and conquered it so that we might have life. God, I pray for those of us who know your peace and your hope in the name of Jesus, that we would feel the call of Paul to step into a life that glorifies your name. That we would take seriously what we say and what we do is marked by you and is seen by others. Let us, Lord, live our life in a way that people see our joy because of you. And Father, for those that don't know your peace, that have never accepted the gift of life that comes of saying yes to Jesus, let today be that day. Father, let today be the day they walk away from the anxieties and the worries of the world and step into the peace of the kingdom of God. We thank you, Lord, and we praise you for all the ways that you do, most especially through your son, Jesus. In his name we pray.