Philippians 4:7

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0:00 We have these four key values, story, piece, lineage, and life, and we've been talking about first several weeks ago what it means to be church, why we are church together, and then we're looking at these four core values that we laid out as a church. Last week we finished two weeks looking at story. First we talked about the story of scripture, how this is not a compendium of doctrine, a guidebook for life. It's not a map or a

0:30 list of do's and don'ts, it's a story of what God has done in the world. And the most important version of the story isn't, or most important point of the story, isn't that we know the answers, it's that we know the characters, that we get to know who God is and be known by God. The key character trait of God is that He comes to save. God creates and comes to save. And then we looked at our story last week and the power of the uniqueness of our story, that the gospel is not an abstract idea, but it's a specific aid. And to the degree that we allow

1:08 the gospel to be pretty cross-stitch words, it's less helpful than if we drive in to figure out what it means that we are loved, that we are valuable, that we have purpose and meaning. The gospel is for us specifically in our story uniquely, not for us generically. And today I want to start two weeks looking at this virtue that we, or this value that we set up for ourselves of peace. And this one, specifically I remember, it's been almost 15 years ago now,

1:39 maybe not quite that many, maybe 12 or 13, but more than 10 that we pulled the group of people who were calling the cross Orlando their home, which some of the people are still in the room and many are not, and asked them, what are the key words that come up? And the top word that came up when they wanted to describe the cross Orlando was peace, that they felt like they encountered the peace of God when we gathered together. That was pretty cool for me. And so we made it one of the core values that we would encounter the peace of God. And always for me, the verse that comes

2:14 to mind when I think about the peace of God is in Philippians chapter 4, if you want to look there with me, it's a nice little section by Paul to the church in Philippi. And it's interesting Philippians as a letter. I got this Bible five or ten years ago when my other one started to fall apart. I had had this, I'd been using one

2:48 Bible that I got when I got confirmed, I got confirmed in seventh grade. And I had been using that Bible until about five or ten years ago. And I noticed that it was starting to fall apart, and I didn't want to completely fall apart. So I bought this one. And this one then in like three years started to fall apart and sweet Beverly noticed it and had it rebound for me. But I like it because I've roomed the right notes in it. And Philippians easily has the most notes of all of Paul's letters. I don't know why. It's predominantly known to be a letter about love where he's

3:21 encouraging the Philippians to know that the faith, that the way they live out the faith is bound up in the way that they love one another. And in Philippians chapter 4, he has some concluding thoughts for the church in Philippi before he concludes his letter. And he says, starting at verse 2, chapter 4 verse 2 of Philippians, I entreat, you don't,

3:53 I can't even say that word, but it's a lady's name. Okay, what is it? Oh, Edith. Beverly said his pronounced Edith. I entreat Edith and I entreat Sylvia to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored by my side,

4:28 side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. It's so fun, these little moments. Paul's writing a letter to a group of Christians gathered. What we know about these churches in the, these first churches in these Roman and Greek towns is that they gathered in small places, in homes, in hidden places, probably in Edith or Sylvia's home. Right? And so the groups that, that form our scriptures,

5:06 the groups in Philippi and Corinth are probably not much larger than this group of Christians gathers here. Right? And Paul is writing a letter back to them and he mentions some by name who have been working with them, side by side for the gospel, these women and Clement, Edith and Sylvia and Clement. And he says, he says that they would, that they are his true companions. Verse

5:37 for them, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, expecting in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will

6:08 guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Whatever I think about peace, that's the first verse I think about, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And I was looking back at that and I've like, I've thought several times about how he makes peace the actor in that sentence. So peace is not a descriptor but an actor somehow.

6:41 So peace will do the guarding which is interesting. I've also thought before then I've compared that to when Jesus says that he didn't come to bring a peace but a sword. Right? And this idea that Christ is about some work and accomplishing something meaningful. And so that peace is this active force. And we've talked about that in past years that peace isn't the absence of something but the presence of something when we're talking about the peace of God. And this is confirmed by

7:15 the way that Paul uses the idea of peace in his letter to the Philippians. He says that peace will do the work of guarding your heart. But today when I or this week when I read this passage and was sitting with it, a different part can't stuck out to me. It says, rejoice in the Lord always and again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything. That's what stuck out to me first this time. Coming to this idea of peace

7:53 is that Paul assumes that the Philippians might have something to be anxious about. Do not be anxious about anything. What might they have to be anxious about? Well, there was like a weird thing. It comes up a couple times in the letters. But remember that several of the different emperors in the Roman world thought that they were gods. You know?

8:28 This is actually the first person you know that the phrase like son of God was like a, not the first. But one of the emperors started claiming this title for himself as son of God, son of light also. And often to engage in the marketplaces, especially in these big trade cities, you had to agree to acknowledge the emperors of son of God in the way that you exchanged money. And so one of the big questions for people as they come under the reign of Jesus in the Roman world is can we engage in the marketplaces at all? Can we conduct business at all? Because it's like

9:06 confirming this like divinity of Caesar, which we don't think is true anymore. They had to figure out actually it's funny to think about, but first century, they started to figure out how they make money. How they put food on the table. And it wasn't obvious how to do that. And of course, you know, they had like, they had problems because they were not always accepted.

9:44 Sometimes they were even persecuted. So they had, you know, in addition to putting food on the table, they had like life safety issues that might warrant a bit of anxiety. You know, it's not quite as completely present as the disciples in the boat, but the principle is the same. Paul is saying a similar thing that Jesus said to the disciples, no matter the situation,

10:18 whether the water is flat or rocky, don't carry anxiety. What if he said it to you? How would that go? Meghan read that book, The Anxious Generation. Anybody else read that book? It's not us. It's the younger generation. It's our kids. They're the ones.

10:57 I never really was like a particularly anxious kid, really. Even through college and actually through school in the start, I could always just fall asleep whenever. So I wouldn't describe myself as an anxious person, but I have been through enough now that I know what it, I have had periods of higher anxiety.

11:29 And I can remember like the irrational fear, like it felt like a, well, the problem, of course, is that in one way it's irrational and in another way it's perfectly rational. Like when I think about, I can think about some specific moments. I can think about some fears in the middle of the night. I can remember some experiences that caused like,

12:03 made it hard to breathe. I can remember some periods, like extended times of like inability to focus and constant tracks running in the back of my mind about scenarios. And in each of those cases, there is truth there.

12:36 I'll give you just one example just to make it concrete so you under we can follow along. I had one period, one little story for me where randomly smack in the middle of the night. Somebody called me out of the blue and without thinking or like I didn't even, I picked up the phone, looked at the name, took the call, right? Middle of the night.

13:09 And inside of 10 minutes, I'm in my car driving to get somebody out of a dramatic situation, right? It was traumatic. And it was a situation where I turned my back on somebody that I care about or I go straight into trauma and drama. In the middle of the night, I had to make the decision. Okay, we made the decision, handled the situation. Everybody survives and is fine.

13:44 And I come back, it's a Saturday night, I come back, it's now like four o'clock in the morning. What do I do with myself? Like, I'm sitting outside of bed, I should probably get a little bit more sleep before I get up and preach to a room of people. But like this, I can't, my, I'm still ready, I can't go for a run, but that's what I feel like I need to do. And then like randomly for weeks, I would wake up afraid to go look at the front door,

14:20 pretty sure somebody's going to be there knocking and need me, right? With the same feeling as I was sitting on the side of the bed at four o'clock in the morning. You know, then it would be like I go take the dog for a walk at night and I'm pretty sure somebody's going to come up behind me and need my help because it's nighttime. About then is when I figured I got to solve this problem. What I'm saying is the anxiety I earned,

14:54 it's not false. It actually happened. And what I find is like the longer term anxiety, the tracks that are running in my mind, like the scenarios that I'm playing out, the responsibilities that I'm trying to handle that are ramping up my heart rate and making it hard to focus, are not false. If you experience anxiety, you probably earned it

15:39 through pain or hardship or abuse, exposure. You probably, Paul just like throws this out, do not be anxious about anything to people who legitimately have a lot of things to be anxious about. He could throw it out to you and I might as

16:12 well, the beauty of the scriptures is that they're written in context to specific people, but through the reality of the Spirit and the wisdom of God, they apply throughout time so the same thing can apply to you today. Do not be anxious about anything. So you have a lot to be anxious about.

16:43 Good luck. No, not good luck. How can Paul say that? How could he say it to the Philippians? How could he say it to you? Do not be anxious about anything. I tell you one thing, understanding in my head in the middle of the night or when I'm walking in the dog in the dark,

17:28 that the fear is connected to that one experience, the anxiety is connected to that one experience, which will probably not repeat itself. For one reason, I just started turning off my phone at night. I couldn't sleep. I just turned off my phone. It made it a little bit better. But the knowledge that the emotion was connected to the past reality didn't disarm it.

17:59 It helped, but it didn't disarm it. In thinking about this, I thought about the work of Christ a little bit. Remember the situation that Israel is in? Jesus says he came first to the lost sheep of Israel and then to the Gentiles and then to the rest of the world, right? It comes first to the lost sheep of Israel.

18:30 Now think about the situation that Israel is in. They are and have been a nation of people collected under a king. But when Jesus comes, they're an occupied country, being extorted and physically controlled by Rome. They're an occupied country. Their sovereignty is gone. They have brutal governors who enforce, like what is it? Apathy or just keep quiet. They enforce the status quo brutally.

19:06 Everyone's afraid of Herod and Pilate because they kill people if things get wrong. Israel's in a bad situation. They're putting up with it just enough so that they allow their religious authority to continue to operate. But their religious authority is run by a bunch of legalist hypocrites. So think about the situation that Jesus comes into. Israel's in when Jesus walks into the world. They're an occupied country by a tyrant king and they're controlled religiously by hypocrites who are

19:39 legalistic and exclude to protect their own power. That's bad on bad. Problem on problem that Jesus comes into. And when the liberating king arrives and he comes into the world through Mary, comes anointed by John the Baptist surpasses the test in the desert, walks in and says that God has anointed me to preach freedom to the captives,

20:12 sight to the blind, good news to the poor, and what does he do? Does he kick off the Roman authority? Does he usurp the hypocrite priests? No. Dang it. Jesus. Yes. Deliberating king takes the punishment from both of them, takes the worst they have to offer,

20:51 lets them abuse. I mean, that goes a lot of, that has a lot of tentacles, but what it means for us this morning is that if Christ brings a peace in the place of legitimate anxiety, earned real anxiety, his peace does not, will not, look like ease.

21:30 It will not, does not, look like the absence of problem or hardship. For the disciples he calmed the storm. But he was frustrated that he had to. They ought to have known, storm or no, if Jesus is in the boat, will be fine.

22:07 With Jesus, peace doesn't look like ease. It looks more like, feels more like hope. The best for me in that anxiety was when friends whom I trusted looked me in the eye and told me,

22:44 hey, if they call or if they don't, you'll be able to handle it. You can do it. It wasn't that the idea came. It was that the idea was connected to the spirit.

23:16 This is important. Christ comes not with rescue first, but with solidarity. He comes to stand with you in the boat, with you in the subjugation, with you in the occupation, with you in the hypocrisy, with you in the accusation, with you in the injustice. Jesus comes first in solidarity. And how he comes to us today is in that the solidarity of God is in the word of God.

23:50 This is an important truth. When God wants to create, he speaks. When God wants to save, he sends the person of Christ, the word of God incarnate in the flesh. When he wants to come to you, he'll come to you in the promises of his people, in the words of his gospel. The encouragement of the church brings the spirit of God to be with you in the midst of the storm. And this is where the peace that guards your hearts and minds comes from.

24:21 Do you find yourself anxious today? Find someone to remind you of the good news. In calm and in storm, you are not alone. In calm and in storm, you are not alone. Create it on purpose, destined for future.

24:52 Navigating the way with the church, and with the God until he calls us home. The good news for you today, the hope for you today, is that no matter where you find yourself, God does not leave you. This is why Paul says what he does. He says, the Lord is at hand with you.

25:28 Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. He knows that your anxiety is rational, but he says the peace of God transcends rationality.

25:58 And then he says, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. When you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. I love that peace is one of our core values because we need it now as much as ever.

26:36 We don't know what to do or what will happen, but we know we are not left alone. Let's pray that we could believe it. Hey Lord, thank you for the gift of your Son and his word. Teach us how to engage both well, that in the midst of our storms and our well-earned anxieties, we would welcome your solidarity that brings us peace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.