SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grant Parkway Patrick.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people to know and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God, you are the name that is above all names.
SPEAKER_01: And you sit on your throne.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, God, we don't have to be scared.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be freaked out.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be anxious.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to live in dread.
SPEAKER_01: Because you sit on your throne.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing catches you off guard.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is too shocking or wild that you go, oh man, I didn't see that coming.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we can have peace.
SPEAKER_01: We can settle our souls and have a non-anxiousness in us because we know who we serve.
SPEAKER_01: We know who's really in control.
SPEAKER_01: We know who has all the power and authority forever.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, be with us.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_01: It was a roulette as to what was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: If I was just going to ball on stage with the dedication and then be here and preach, and then you guys are going to see me look like Chris Brooks, it was going to be a whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: But thankfully, uh I was able to hold this together.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward to this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you would do me a favor and turn your Bibles to Philippians 4.
SPEAKER_01: And while you do that, I'll tell a little story.
SPEAKER_01: When I was about 10 years old, there was just a whole lot of life changes going on in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just really starting to get freaked out.
SPEAKER_01: I was starting to get in my head.
SPEAKER_01: My oldest brother was going to college.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I was never going to see him again.
SPEAKER_01: Turned out he came back like every single weekend.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, why are you here again?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, go back to college.
SPEAKER_01: But there was just a lot going on, and I was getting really freaked out.
SPEAKER_01: I ended up having some really serious stomach pain that felt like a knife going through my stomach.
SPEAKER_01: And so my parents took me to doctors, I got scans, all this stuff, but nothing was wrong with me.
SPEAKER_01: I ended up just realizing that I was causing my physical body harm by being so entrenched in false ways of thinking, in lies, and in fear.
SPEAKER_01: It was causing a psychosomatic response.
SPEAKER_01: My mind was physically hurting my body just because of all the lies that I was telling myself.
SPEAKER_01: There was definitely no peace.
SPEAKER_01: It was a lot more anxiety and fear.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I've learned is that is something that is absolutely prevalent in all ages, and it's also prevalent amongst Christians.
SPEAKER_01: We do the same thing in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: We get so fixated on lies that we tell ourselves that we start painting the world around us through this false lens that we're believing.
SPEAKER_01: We start painting people, we start painting world events through this false pretense, and it leads to men and women being consumed in anxiety and fear.
SPEAKER_01: As all of us would much rather experience peace, something that God does indeed offer to the believer, it is worth us asking the question: well, how do we experience peace?
SPEAKER_01: To find the answer to that question, we're going to be looking at six verses this morning, manageable.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you would turn to Philippians chapter 4, verses 4 through 9 and read with me.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I will say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: What you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to break this passage down into three kind of chunks.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about what to do when peace is lacking.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're going to talk about the mindset a believer should have.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm going to talk about some practical application steps to go with this passage as we head out those doors.
SPEAKER_01: So, first and foremost, what to do when peace is lacking.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go back to verses four through seven.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I will say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Let your reasonableness be known to everyone, the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This passage tends to tell us that when peace is lacking, it has nothing to do with our circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: According to this passage, but honestly, all of Philippians, peace has way more to do with our thought process and our prayer life than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: So let's break these verses down just a little bit by bit.
SPEAKER_01: And so it says at the very beginning, rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I will say rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, up to this point in Philippians, has said the word rejoice seven times, and he's also said the word joy five times.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians is actually known as the letter of joy.
SPEAKER_01: But if you read through the whole book of Philippians, you actually see that it's kind of hard to see where he's finding such joy, because uh his life has been pretty difficult up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: I brought a list of examples of things that he has endured just in Philippians alone, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: If not, there it is.
SPEAKER_01: Haha! All right, so he has expressed that he is in prison, that some of his peers are only preaching Jesus out of rivalry with Paul in order to make him feel bad, that his own execution is a very real possibility, that he has endured different forms of suffering, he has endured a near death of a close friend, he has left behind his former life of prestige, that loved ones have abandoned the faith to satiate their worldly appetites, and he has been dealing with two friends, bickering at one another.
SPEAKER_01: That last one cracks me up.
SPEAKER_01: Yet after all of this, he still has the ability to end his letter with rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, a double command, rejoice, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say, let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Some of your translations might have uh gentleness or maybe consideration instead of the word reasonable, but Paul wants this church and Philippi to be known well in their culture for being reasonable, for being uh for not having a over-self-importance, but rather uh one of service, one of being even-tempered, one not of being obsessed with their own self and their own rights.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's exactly what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did not have an over-obsession with himself.
SPEAKER_01: He served others.
SPEAKER_01: If anybody deserved to be served always nonstop and never have to serve anybody else, it was him.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he lived a model, he modeled a lifestyle of service, of loving others, even those that were actively against him.
SPEAKER_01: And so, uh, that's what that little phrase, the Lord is at hand, is trying to say.
SPEAKER_01: This little phrase serves two purposes.
SPEAKER_01: The first is a reminder to the reader that Jesus is indeed the perfect judge.
SPEAKER_01: And someday, when he sets everything right, he's going to have a hard conversation with those who thought a little too highly of themselves, who uh said, It's all about me and my preferences, and if you're not on board, then you're the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: But second, it's also to remind us that this is exactly how Jesus lived.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is not asking his audience to do anything that Jesus himself wasn't willing to do.
SPEAKER_01: But now let's talk about where peace really comes from.
SPEAKER_01: Look back at verse six, and it says that the peace of God comes from having a lot of money and a lack of problems.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait.
SPEAKER_01: Shoot, that's not what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it says, uh Yeah, it's not that.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say the right relationship, it doesn't say a job.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, it says that the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, maybe said a different way, the the one that's able to just not make any sense, that somebody goes, How are you so peaceful right now?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not understand what the diagnosis you just received means?
SPEAKER_01: How do you have peace right now?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not understand that that you have an estranged kid that's that's abandoned the faith and has left his relationship or her relationship with you?
SPEAKER_01: How do you have peace?
SPEAKER_01: The peace that transcends all understanding comes by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention to those little words when you're reading scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Those little words will tell you a lot.
SPEAKER_01: By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests, not demands, your requests, and the peace of God will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you might be thinking, well, I've prayed for peace and I didn't receive it, so what gives?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's clarify with what that means.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, to pray the peace of God, we in order to receive the peace of God, we have to pray right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do we pray right?
SPEAKER_01: We we do we don't pray in order to show God our list of demands and then say, hey, you need to follow everything that I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're either not good or you're not real.
SPEAKER_01: No, the reason we pray is because we're acknowledging to ourselves and to God, hey, I'm not in control.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have the ability to fix this problem, I don't have the ability to change how I want it to.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm trusting that you have a plan and that you're in charge and I'm gonna be okay with that.
SPEAKER_01: We pray to humble ourselves, not to just try to get something out of God like a vending machine.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that word supplication is an interesting one.
SPEAKER_01: It means an urgent request or an excessive address to God.
SPEAKER_01: When our prayers of crying out to God for help are filtered through this lens of confessing his power and his control, his wisdom and plan, we start to think right about God's power, and our situation starts to get a little less hazy and starts to have focus.
SPEAKER_01: That is what will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus is a thought life and a prayer life that is focused on the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, verse 4 through 7 tells us what to do when peace is lacking, but these verses also challenge our understanding of uh peace.
SPEAKER_01: Peace does not come from our change of circumstances, it is not a self-help thing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Philippians is written towards the end of Paul's life.
SPEAKER_01: So, Philippians, there's there's just one or two more letters that he writes after Philippians, and he gave that list that I showed earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Early on in Paul's life, before he's in prison, he writes first and 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 25 through 28, he gives a different list of things that he's gone through.
SPEAKER_01: I think I have it up here.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure of me, of my anxiety for all the churches.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's life has been anything but easy.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, he still is able to write Philippians as a letter of joy, of peace.
SPEAKER_01: So that makes me want to ask a question right here.
SPEAKER_01: Take a quick pause for a question.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you find peace?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us might believe the lie.
SPEAKER_01: If I could just go on another vacation, then I would have peace.
SPEAKER_01: If I could just get that promotion or raise, I'd have peace.
SPEAKER_01: If my kids would just act the way I wanted to, then I would have peace.
SPEAKER_01: Students, some of you might be thinking, if I could just get into my dream college, if I could just get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, if I could just get married or have kids or a white picket fence, then I would have peace.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians doesn't say any of that.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament doesn't say any of that.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, as verse 7 says, the peace of God, the one that transcends all understanding, that guards our heart and minds in Christ Jesus, comes from a consistent prayer life of thanksgiving, one of gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: I like that with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just pray, but pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And it also says, be anxious, but in all circumstances, by prayer, not just when it's awesome, not just when it's terrible, in every situation that we're to pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: What would change in our lives if we were to have a mindset that is just saturated in thanksgiving, in gratitude in our prayers for what's going on, what God has done up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: This is the peace that everybody wants, but very few people ever have.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Our right thinking should lead to right action.
SPEAKER_01: Why do so people have that peace?
SPEAKER_01: It's because uh we actually find the answer in the second half of our passage.
SPEAKER_01: Look back to Philippians for uh chapter 4, verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever's just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.
SPEAKER_01: If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, and practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: There are two very important phrases found in these verses.
SPEAKER_01: Think about such things, practice such things.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if the reason why so many people are filled with anxiety and fear is because we practice what we actually think about.
SPEAKER_01: Say that again, a little spicy.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if the reason that there's so much fear in our culture is because we practice what we actually think about, what actually fills our minds, right?
SPEAKER_01: What we need is a mind filled with the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: And this list in verse eight tells us exactly what that thing what that list should be.
SPEAKER_01: Despite our circumstances, we need to think about these things.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to make something abundantly clear.
SPEAKER_01: We do not get to set the standard of the words that Paul has written here.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we set the standard of it, then it gives us permission to continue to live and think the exact same way that we have been, uh, which is where we got ourselves in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: We let scripture dictate these words.
SPEAKER_01: And so, with all of these words that you're about to see, we need to filter these through how would God think about that?
SPEAKER_01: So look at me and these definitions.
SPEAKER_01: I like to study these, I think they're helpful to study.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever's true in accordance with fact, what would be fact in God's mind?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever is honorable, worthy, holy, above reproach, whatever's just, right, equitable, whatever's pure, an attribute of divinity and everything belonging to it, whatever is lovely, causing pleasure or delight, pleasing, amiable.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder what God finds delightful, pleasing, and amiable.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever's commendable, praiseworthy, what would God praise?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever's excellent, uh excellence in character, exceptional civic virtue, what kind of virtue does God find excellent?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever, uh if there's anything worthy of praise, admiration or approval, what does God admire?
SPEAKER_01: What does He approve?
SPEAKER_01: These are the things that should saturate, fill our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and when they do, we're told that the God of peace will be with us.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna look at those two important passages from verses eight and nine.
SPEAKER_01: The first one, think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: Think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: In order to practice right or to live right, we need to think right.
SPEAKER_01: Sadly, few people ever learn to think right.
SPEAKER_01: If I was to ask you what fills your mind on a daily basis, I wonder what you would say.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes in student ministry, uh, many, I mean, through my near decade of youth ministry now, which is wild, uh, I've had a conversation with students many, many times of I feel lonely, I feel isolated, I feel like people don't care.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I just I I don't feel like there's anybody that really knows that I'm even around.
SPEAKER_01: My goal in that kind of a conversation is not to try to change how they feel, but to change how they think.
SPEAKER_01: I like to ask a question like, if I was to zoom 30,000, if you were to zoom 30,000 feet out of your life, you were an outsider looking in, do you think that statement would be true?
SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes you'll hear, well, no, not really.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have some friends and my parents are all right.
SPEAKER_01: This church is cool.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: When you in there, they're starting to acknowledge, I'm trying to shift their thinking from what they feel to what's true.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's exactly what Paul is trying to get his audience to do.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I want you to stop thinking about falsehoods like nobody cares, because that's not true, that's a falsehood.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to stop thinking about that, and I want you to start thinking about this list, these things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I uh that's students, but hey, let's pick on one of the uh golden calves in our American culture.
SPEAKER_01: What about those of us that watch CNN or Fox News every single night?
SPEAKER_01: And we fill our minds with the falsehoods that they're spewing over and over and over again, to where we start thinking everybody on the opposite side of the political aisle from me is at best a moron or at worst evil.
SPEAKER_01: Hey oh.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh maybe they deserve to be in jail or heck execution?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us might talk this way.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us might know somebody that talks this way.
SPEAKER_01: If you know somebody that talks this way, their mind, that is evidence that their mind has been filled with falsehoods, with lies.
SPEAKER_01: What makes me say that?
SPEAKER_01: Put a pin in that.
SPEAKER_01: Here at Grand Parkway, we like to talk about gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: We like to talk about this idea that we should be able to understand the scripture, to know how God thinks, so that we can take kind of any thought, plop it in the decoder, and go, oh, I see it clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Said another way, like a 3D glasses.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever seen a 3D movie without the glasses, it's blurry, and you're like, I can't really see what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And then you put the glasses on and you see it clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture needs to be our 3D glasses that we go, that's true, I can see it crystal clear, that's false, I can see it crystal clear.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do I say that if we believe anybody on the opposite side of the political aisle than us evil?
SPEAKER_01: Is because I look at verses like Ephesians 6, 12.
SPEAKER_01: And it reads, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Those are not like four different things.
SPEAKER_01: It's that's not talking about physical rulers.
SPEAKER_01: All of those are talking about the spiritual forces of darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So our enemies are not the Democrats.
SPEAKER_01: Our enemy is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That is the person who is at war with us.
SPEAKER_01: If you can touch it, it is not your enemy ultimately.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what is crazy is Paul is writing that letter, Ephesians, to people who are currently getting persecuted and physically killed for their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he is still saying, they're not the bad guys, they're not the enemy, they're not the ultimate, the ultimate bad guy.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual forces of darkness are.
SPEAKER_01: That is what we need to be fighting against.
SPEAKER_01: But for those who are on the opposite side of the political aisle or persecuting us or whatever, we actually need to be like Jesus and love them.
SPEAKER_01: So my last little whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Believe it or not, every Republican and every Democrat is made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
SPEAKER_01: And as that is the case, we should not be spending our mental energy and dinner conversations lamenting about how much we can't stand them.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, we should act like Christ did.
SPEAKER_01: Christ showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: Christ was willing to die for the people who said, You're the bad guy, you're the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: He was willing to die for them.
SPEAKER_01: And yet some of us would go, I would never have a Democrat in my house for a meal.
SPEAKER_01: That is a problem.
SPEAKER_01: That is a mind filled with falsehoods, with absolute lies in comparison to the truths of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So, last part on Think Different, and we'll move on.
SPEAKER_01: Think different.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when we think about this list, it should also bring up the idea of abstinence from the things that are not in this list.
SPEAKER_01: We should also go, hey, if it doesn't fall under the categories here, maybe it's not in my best interest to pay attention to it.
SPEAKER_01: I've I've had many conversations with people of all different ages, uh, and I just I have a hard time understanding uh why we can't be more selective with our music, with what the TV shows and the movies that we watch, with the books that we read.
SPEAKER_01: If it flies in the face of the this list, how does it benefit my soul to uh ingest that stuff?
SPEAKER_01: And I've heard many, many times, well, I don't listen to the lyrics, it's just got a good beat.
SPEAKER_01: It's catchy.
SPEAKER_01: Look, look, look, I know that there's a whole lot of inappropriate scenes in that TV show, but it's really well written.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't sin always catchy?
SPEAKER_01: If sin wasn't catchy, I wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01: The stuff that flies in the face of this list is attractive.
SPEAKER_01: It naturally pulls on our sinful desires.
SPEAKER_01: We need to have the wisdom to go, hey, maybe not.
SPEAKER_01: I find that the more mature a believer gets, the more they're a-okay going, I'm good on missing out on that show that everybody's watching.
SPEAKER_01: I'm okay not listening to that music anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't miss it much anymore.
SPEAKER_01: So that's think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: But as Paul starts uh kind of moving from thinking about such things to practice such things, he has this little uh this little uh connecting piece.
SPEAKER_01: He says, What you have learned and received are both words of teaching, and what you've heard and seen are both words of experience.
SPEAKER_01: Practice such things.
SPEAKER_01: Practicing our faith is absolutely crucial to our experiencing the peace of God.
SPEAKER_01: I think back to just a couple weeks ago, Hurricane Barrel came through.
SPEAKER_01: I had about 50, our the student ministry had about 55-ish students go into Rosenberg, help out at Neary's Promise, and we were originally going to just do like a VBS, but instead Neary was like, pivot, let's just make a whole lot of food and feed a whole lot of people that don't have any.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, heck yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_01: So I took 50, we took 50 plus students into Rosenberg, and we were able to meet people's physical needs and people's spiritual needs.
SPEAKER_01: Every time we handed a meal, we said, could we pray with you?
SPEAKER_01: And I, as far as I'm aware, I don't think anybody said no.
SPEAKER_01: Every single person accepted that, that, that food, and every single person accepted that uh that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And now what was really cool was on Thursday night, which was or Friday night, which is our last night, I had a whole lot of students be like, This is the closest I felt to God in a long, long time.
SPEAKER_01: This this has produced this was a next step for my whole like faith journey was going and being the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't another sermon, it wasn't a really cool podcast from some really cool preacher that wears skinny jeans.
SPEAKER_01: I can't fit in skinny jeans, sadly.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was serving, it was being the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so action is crucial for a fulfilled life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In Christian circles, one of the traps that we can fall into is just intellectualism of just I'm gonna learn a whole bunch of information, I'm gonna know a whole lot of stuff, and then God's pleased with me.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I have a hard time with that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see that anywhere in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think of that like a professional football player who knows every play, who knows every stat, but who's never gotten on the field and actually helped their team like make a touchdown.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what's the point of that football player?
SPEAKER_01: Here, I think that it is critical.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is telling us, hey, you need to think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: You need to understand how to have a gospel fluency.
SPEAKER_01: But now let's put it into practice.
SPEAKER_01: Here at Grand Parkway, one of our Sunday mornings during the second service, uh, our small groups is called Dudes in Doctrine, led by one of our elders, Jeff Wood.
SPEAKER_01: I called him in preparation for this, I'm not just throwing him under the bus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I called him in order to say, uh, to ask if it was cool if I used this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Of course, we've been tang, we've been saying this for months.
SPEAKER_01: If all the guys who went to Dudes in Doctrine, and they're learning like nitty-gritty hardcore theology, like stuff that I learned like my third year of seminary, if all of them were leaving, but none of them were thinking, how can I use this to be a better husband, to be a better father, to be a better coworker, to love more like Jesus, then it that class shouldn't exist.
SPEAKER_01: That class shouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_01: It's not helpful.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of them should be going, how do I use this to bless other people, to look more like Jesus and help others that don't know him see him more clearly?
SPEAKER_01: Uh as First Corinthians says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, right?
SPEAKER_01: Love produces action.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul says, think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Do that, it's important, but also do something with it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Put your faith into practice.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, and the God of peace will be upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Peace is not a thing that just happens.
SPEAKER_01: It's not something we can buy, it's not a self-help ritual, right?
SPEAKER_01: It is an attribute of God, it is a part of his character, one of the many gifts he believes he gives to the believer.
SPEAKER_01: And with a proper understanding, that peace infiltrates every part of the believer so that even when we receive really scary news, it's not to say that we don't feel that fear, but we're also able to go, hey, I feel it, but I have a peace that supersedes it.
SPEAKER_01: I know who's in control.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: So my next question for us to ponder is this How does what you think about impact your life?
SPEAKER_01: If you constantly think about what other people have, you're doom scrolling on social media and you're only thinking, man, I wish I could get to go on those trips, I wish I had a family like that, I wish I looked like that, you're naturally going to start practicing envy, jealousy, contempt, making you a far less enjoyable person.
SPEAKER_01: If you're constantly filling your head with awful TV shows, The Bachelor, you will naturally find yourself, sorry, I had a little tickle in my throat, you will naturally find yourself twisting and contorting what actual romance is, what a healthy marriage ought to be, what people of character look like.
SPEAKER_01: But if you find yourself filling your mind with scripture, I use this phrase in student ministry all the time, capital T truth, the truth of scripture, with honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy things, I promise you a life of consequence and a life of peace will flow from a thought life like that, even if your circumstances are not peaceful.
SPEAKER_01: So that's some application, some homework.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it'd be pretty ridiculous if I was to say all this and then I didn't give you anything to go try to do this week, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the whole point of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: So, some homework.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I want you to think uh with these two phrases, think about such things, practice such things.
SPEAKER_01: I have an ho I have a homework for both of them.
SPEAKER_01: For think about such things.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I want you guys this week uh to practice saying no to another night in front of the news or video games or doom scrolling on TikTok, whatever your vice is.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to practice this idea of prayer uh with Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Go find a loved one.
SPEAKER_01: It could be a spouse, a parent, a kid, a friend, whomever.
SPEAKER_01: Find a loved one.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to have a night where you're praying just about Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: All the things that I know that we're praying about, the fears that we have, the troubles we're going through, totally understandable.
SPEAKER_01: God knows those things and he's in control.
SPEAKER_01: Sometime this week, I want you to have a prayer just of Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm so thankful for what you've done so far in my life.
SPEAKER_01: That I'm here, that I've got breath in my lungs.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for my family, thank you for a roof over my head, thank you for food in my fridge, whatever it is, pray for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Fill your mind with gratitude for what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: My second piece of homework uh is this uh with the practice such things.
SPEAKER_01: This one is a little bit more ambiguous because it's gonna be a little different for each one of us in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us, this one might be a small shift, others, this might be a massive cataclysmic shift in our life.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to think about where do I need to practice what I know to be true about God?
SPEAKER_01: For some of us, it might be like hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: Um, man, I've got a I've got a home, I've got food, uh, I need to be more open with what I have, inviting people, inviting coworkers, friends, loved ones, strangers, not maybe strangers, maybe crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Um, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite them in, I want to love them like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: For others of you, uh, I want you to think about what would it look like?
SPEAKER_01: Is there something that I need to get plugged in and serve at?
SPEAKER_01: Um, a third one, a repentance is a practice.
SPEAKER_01: Repentance is absolutely a practice.
SPEAKER_01: There might be something that you need to repent from.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're building, you've had contempt in your mind for somebody, maybe for a group.
SPEAKER_01: Shout out shout out to the political zealots in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And there needs to be a repentance of the falsehoods you've been believing and acting out of and turning towards the truth of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, I want to do a reminder to all of us that peace is not something uh it's not something that we can just get or master or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I've said it, I think, three times now because I wanted to sit in.
SPEAKER_01: It is not a self-help ritual, it comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us are going through extremely difficult seasons with sleepless nights.
SPEAKER_01: I know Paul was in the same boat.
SPEAKER_01: This passage gives us hope that we can experience peace in the midst of those circumstances, not just when they're done and over.
SPEAKER_01: So, our two major thoughts for the morning were this uh when peace is lacking, pray with gratitude, remembering that God is in control.
SPEAKER_01: And then uh the second was fill your minds with the things of God, uh, think right, and then act right.
SPEAKER_01: Practice those things.
SPEAKER_01: I started off this morning talking about a stomach pain I had when I was real young.
SPEAKER_01: To this day, when I get overly anxious or freaked out, I actually still get that exact same stabbing stomach pain.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a great physical reminder.
SPEAKER_01: Ian, I think you're taking yourself too seriously.
SPEAKER_01: I think, I think you need to chill out.
SPEAKER_01: I think you need to realign your thoughts and your actions with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a fun feeling, but it is a helpful feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I am saying this to you guys: how do we realign our thoughts and our actions towards God?
SPEAKER_01: So let me say, uh, well, actually, I we oh, hey yo.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we like to give you guys a little bit of time at the end of service to contemplate a little bit of what you've heard here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so there's going to be some worship music in the background, but then we're gonna give you all a couple of minutes to just read through uh some mental worship questions.
SPEAKER_01: In a couple of minutes, I'll come back out and close us out.
SPEAKER_01: While ascending back there, another thought came to my mind when it comes to the application of practice such things and repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Um, something just came to my mind of hey, there's probably some people that have repentance with that they need to have some repentance with somebody else in the room.
SPEAKER_01: If there's somebody else that you've just been harboring resentment, contempt, thinking about conversations you had and how you would have just obliterated them if you had it, if you could do it over again.
SPEAKER_01: I think that your practice this week needs to be to go have a conversation, ask for forgiveness about the way you've been thinking about them in your mind, punishing them in your mind, and trying to restore that relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say a prayer for us.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you so much for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the privilege of getting to open up your word, gathering in public.
SPEAKER_01: This is something that not everybody gets to do around the world.
SPEAKER_01: There are several, several countries that they have to meet in secret, but here we are, beautiful building, getting to have worship, getting to meet with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and hear the goodness of Jesus Christ poured out for us.
SPEAKER_01: God, be with us.
SPEAKER_01: Continue to shape our minds to think like you think, and continue to shape our hands and our feet to serve, to act, to do as you do, to live in love like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I've got a couple of quick announcements for you guys, uh, and then I will get y'all out of here.
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, if you are a guest with us, hello.
SPEAKER_01: It's so good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I am not the senior pastor, I'm too young for that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but hey, uh, I'm the youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you, uh we would love for you to text welcome to the number on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: It would just let us know that you made it, uh, that we are able to follow up with you and just see if there's any way that we could uh be a blessing to you and on your journey.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, second, if today is the day that you worship God through obedience or generosity in the form of giving, you'll see some really cool wooden boxes at each of the exits.
SPEAKER_01: You're more than welcome to hand in uh whatever your tithe is there, but there's also giving online.
SPEAKER_01: So that's also uh an option there.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, there is a whole lot going on in the life of our church, uh, and we like to keep you guys up to date on that in the form of video.
SPEAKER_01: So if you guys would please direct your attention to the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Join us for men's breakfast on August 6th from 6 to 7 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the student building, where we'll enjoy great food, a brief message, and wonderful fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: It's a perfect opportunity to connect with other men and start your day on a positive note.
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to seeing you there.
SPEAKER_01: Come and learn why church membership matters and how you can get connected at Grand Parkway Baptist Church on August 18th during the second service in the Fellowship Hall.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, Ross King will be leading our full service on August 18th.
SPEAKER_01: If you've heard Ross before, you know we are in for a wonderful experience.
SPEAKER_01: If Ross is new to you, you will be introduced to a songwriting theologian that is a passionate Christ follower, a devoted husband, and adoptive dad.
SPEAKER_01: He knows about heartache, anguish, joy, and a deep abiding peace.
SPEAKER_01: For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at gramparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions or want somebody to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: I heard Neil say he's everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I didn't know they were gonna use my voice over today.
SPEAKER_01: Who knew?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you would do me a favor, would you all stand to your feet?
SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'd hold out your hands like you're gonna receive a big old gift.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we like to conclude our services with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so, hey, life can be hard and it can be scary.
SPEAKER_01: But the beautiful thing is that the Christian does not look to circumstances for peace.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian looks to the Almighty, powerful God in control of everything, who will never be shaken from his throne.
SPEAKER_01: And so, this week, go and have your minds be filled with the things of God and practice living the life of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.