Philippians 4:8-23 - Peace Through Prayer and Contentment
Tom Shrader concludes his study of Philippians by examining Paul's teaching on anxiety, prayer, and contentment in chapter 4. He emphasizes that believers can experience God's peace that surpasses understanding through prayer and thanksgiving, learning contentment in all circumstances. The teaching explores how focusing on what is true, honorable, and pure transforms our thinking, while Paul's example shows how strength comes through Christ in both prosperity and need.
“I can live life where quote is exceeded or quote is missed. I've learned the secret to life that it's not circumstantial, it's relational.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Philippians
Recorded: December 08, 2016
Duration: 38 min
Themes: anxiety, peace, prayer, contentment, worry, thanksgiving, trust, gentleness, struggling with anxiety, facing uncertainty, learning contentment, dealing with worry, new believer, parent facing crisis, seeking peace, overwhelmed by circumstances
Scripture: Philippians 4:4-13, Philippians 1:21, Philippians 1:27, Philippians 2:3-5, Mark 4, Psalm 34:13, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Romans 1-3
Theological Themes: divine presence, god's nearness, philippians study, pauline teaching, biblical contentment, prayer life, spiritual peace, christian character
Full Transcript
Let's open our Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. I didn't think this was going to happen, but I did a little sprint yesterday, and we're going to finish the book of Philippians today along with a little summary, which has become a part of this study. There's just a wonderful thread that runs all through this book, and we'll see if today we can tie it together.
The Gentle Spirit and the Nearness of God
I want to go back to chapter 4 verse 5: "Let your gentle spirit be known to all men." Does anybody have a different translation for that phrase "gentle spirit"? Forbearance? Reasonable? It's a hard translation in the Greek. The phrase "gentle spirit" doesn't really have a one-for-one equivalent. The idea is reasonableness, generosity, goodwill, magnanimous charity—forbearance would be part of it. There's a gentleness, so He says I want this gentleness to be made known to all men. And then the operative key phrase: "The Lord is near."
The nearness of God is my good, Psalm 34 verse 13. Now here's the big picture from last week that carries over into this week. I want this gentleness to be evident in your life, and that would ring true with all we've looked at as we've studied this book, especially when we focused on chapter 2.
If we go all the way back to chapter 1 verse 27, when we spent some time on that verse, we said this kind of tees up the balance of the book: "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." Then we said the key to that in any relationship is chapter 2 verses 3, 4, 5: have the attitude in you that's also in Christ Jesus. Don't just look out for your own interest but for the interest of others.
Turning Inward While Maintaining Corporate Focus
As He wraps up this book, He's now turning a little bit, momentarily anyway, inwardly. So we've been talking a little bit about corporate interaction, now He focuses somewhat on the individual part of it. He said here's what I want you to understand: the Lord is near, His presence is here, He is with you. We don't think of God as a big ethereal wizard in the sky or a God who's removed or disconnected, a distant God. He's a God who's intimately engaged in our life—He is near.
And the text then says "be anxious for nothing." We talked about the universal addiction that we see, if you'll allow that term, which is this idea of anxiety. We almost institutionalize it. Somebody comes to you and says "I'm anxious about this," and we respond "Relax, I'm a natural-born worrier," and we seem oftentimes to kind of endorse that and say "I understand."
The Reality of Worry and God's Nearness
Well what He's saying here is that to worry is to deny what God is saying in the reality of it. Trust me, I get this. When things come into your life—let's say the birth we just went through on Monday—had it had a different ending, there was a little nervousness. Nobody said anything, but we're sitting around and the C-section is scheduled for 1:30 and they wheel her in at 1:30. The thought was within an hour they'll come out, they'll play the little bells they play at the hospital and we'll know there's a baby. At 1:51, so about 21 minutes into this, they play the bells. But no one comes out, no one comes out for almost an hour and a half.
And in my mind, though I'm not going to say anything there, but you know, to me every silver lining has a cloud. So to me, I'm going "there must be something wrong." And so I felt that nervousness. Their oldest daughter is Gracie and Gracie's six and autistic, functioning at a certain level but has never spoken, and I'm thinking "do we have this again, what do we have, what's going to go on?" And there's that little bit of anxiousness, not so much for me, but for Sarah and Timmy and the other kids.
And then I had to take a breath and settle down and say, "Listen, even if this is totally not what I would want, the Lord is near. God's good. God's in control." So that's what He's not saying—you won't have a reaction. He's just saying that when it comes and it catches your breath, you understand that God's here. Don't be anxious.
The Parable of the Sower and Life's Distractions
We looked last week at Mark chapter 4, the parable of the sower of the seeds, and Jesus is explaining the last seed. They're the ones where the seed is sown among the thorns. They're the ones who hear the word, and then all of a sudden the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke out the word. It becomes unfruitful.
I would say about every six months there's somebody who comes to one of the studies we do, or I'll see them at church, and they will be—here's the term we even use—on fire for the Lord. Oftentimes it's a consuming fire that burns out. They'll come in and say, "How long have you been doing this? I should have been in here a long time ago." They'll go home, they'll call a contractor, add a wing onto their house to get all the books they're buying in there, and they'll be so aggressive and so on fire in this.
And then all of a sudden, I'll notice—it's not something conscious, I don't take roll, I don't know who's there—I'll go "gosh I haven't seen him." I'll run into him at Costco, and then it's like a confessor. They'll go, "I haven't been to your thing in a while." And I'll say, "Well that's not really a—you know, that's okay. Are you all right?" And then they'll start to unpack things, and it almost always falls into this category of the worries of the world, or the deceitfulness of riches, or life begins to get in the way.
The Priority of Prayer Over Theology
And what Paul's saying is, "Be anxious for nothing. Worry about nothing." The second part of that verse, and this is where we left off last week, "but in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Those terms—prayer, supplication, request—they refer to a specific direct petition to God, pounding on God's door. The idea here is not so much a theology of prayer, but a priority of prayer.
God gives us, make those requests known. Go ahead and pray in a very specific way. Let me read you verse six and seven from the Living Bible. "Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God your needs, and don't forget to thank Him for your answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet, and at rest as you trust in Christ."
To take those prayers and to offer them in a specific way as we can. Sometimes, and I'm not sure we know why, I can suspect that sometimes just to guard God's reputation, I think we're afraid to ask and petition specifically for fear if He doesn't respond, it's a strike against Him. And this is not about manipulating God, right? We talked about that. This is about God really bringing me, if anything, into understanding.
Moving from Anxiety to Peace
Because I will ask and say, "God, can you remove this circumstance?" And He may or may not do this. It's not about God changing, it's about me aligning with Him. He says, be anxious for nothing, pray about everything. Do this with a sense, if you will, of thanksgiving in your heart. So verse four, rejoice. Verse five, relax. Verse six begin, or verse seven, begin to rest, and you will experience this peace that surpasses all comprehension.
I'm not sure how you teach about something that surpasses human understanding. One author writes, this peace will transcend human intellectual powers, human analysis, human insight, human understanding. It's superior to human scheming and devices and solutions. It's beyond comprehension. It doesn't mean that He'll eliminate it.
Peace in Difficult Circumstances
And some of you have experienced this, and almost all of you have been around somebody who's experienced this, who is in the midst of some circumstances we might even say are dreadful. And God doesn't remove the circumstances, but climbs in those circumstances with you. And all of a sudden, there is this sense of peace, the presence of God. Can't explain it. Happens at different times.
I was with a man who was up at Mayo Clinic, and he was very, very sick, near death. And I was there, and they said, he wants to meet with you, and we went in. He was a rough old contractor. I mean, take your stereotypical guy that's out there, and that was him. And he had the sweetest smile on his face, and he beamed. They had told him that when you go to sleep, you will not wake up now. The next time you go to sleep, you will just pass away.
So I left, I called up the next morning, and he had stayed up all night. He had stayed awake all night. And then that morning, about 10, he drifted off to sleep, and sure enough, an hour or two later, he passed away. And I was asking him, now we're there, this is kind of cool, it's all theory sitting in here. Now you're there, tell me what you're sensing, tell me what you're feeling. Are you afraid? And he said, "No, I know this is true, I'm gonna miss my wife, I'm gonna miss my kids, I might even miss you. But I'm gonna be with Christ. When I fall asleep, the next face I see will be His."
Well, that reality transcends all of the circumstances around us. He'll never leave me, He'll never forsake me, He won't test me beyond that which I can endure. There will be that peace that surpasses human comprehension and will guard your heart. That word guard is like a military sentry who's guarding a position. It will guard your heart, it will guard your heart from anxiousness, anxiety.
The Importance of Right Thinking
Verse eight becomes the transit, finally. Finally indicates really now he's coming to the climax of all of this, this discussion on spiritual stability. He says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is," and then he lists, I believe it's six things, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
He gives a list here. He says, I want you to dwell on them. It means to consider. Here's a word, we use it in here once in a while. It's one of my all-time favorite words, and the word is ponder. I just finished a book on the thinking life, and this book could have not just been a pamphlet, it could have been a paragraph. Here's what he said. It's important in life to think. Took him a long time to say it, but it's important in life to think.
The World's Switched Price Tags
Sandy and I are going to Houston tomorrow. I'm going to speak to two men's groups there on Monday and Tuesday, and those are always, whenever you parachute in and you drop your load, you're the pro from Dover, and then you go away, I question really the value of it. I try to get something that you can put an easy mark, you can tell if it's a win, it's something you leave.
There's a book that Tony Campolo wrote called "Who Switched the Price Tags?" It's somewhat of an obscure book. It's older, and here was Campolo. Campolo said, when I was a kid, my buddy and I used to go in the drugstore, and if there was a transistor, remember that, transistor radio, I had one like this. Well, it was about this size, a little white one, and we were in Davenport, and KMOX out of St. Louis was 50,000 watts, and we could get Jack Buck and Harry Carey and every night I'd be there with my, trying to get it just right to listen to the Cardinal game.
Well, he said, we'd go in, and there'd be a transistor radio that would sell for seven bucks, and then there'd be an ink pen that sold for a dollar, and I'd distract a clerk, my friend would switch the price tags, and we'd buy the radio for a buck. He said, well, here's what happened. I grew up, and I'm looking around at the world, and I'm going, somebody switched all the price tags here. What God says is really valuable is not of any value in the world system at all, and the things that God says are temporary, the world says are ultimate value.
Well, in this book, Campolo references
A study was done among 50 people who were at least 95 years old. They were asked, "If you had life to live over again, what would you do differently?" Three dominant themes emerged from all of these people.
First, they said they would do things that lasted beyond their life. That makes total sense - at the end of life, they wanted to live on through their legacy. Second, they said they would risk more. I don't think you would have guessed that one. They said they played it too safe and didn't take the chances. This isn't about jumping out of planes without parachutes - it's about how they waited and played it close to the vest when they should have stepped out more boldly. Third, they said they would have reflected more. This is the idea of pondering, thinking, considering - not just going through the motions, but being more analytical. What? Why? Why am I doing this? What am I doing? They wanted to reflect.
Paul wants us to reflect on specific things, and here's the list. These categories kind of overlap, but they're all things that are true. For us, this would include the Word of God.
Dwelling on What Is Honorable and Right
What's honorable means noble, dignified, worthy of respect. Here's an important sentence: believers must not think on what is trivial and temporal and mundane and common and earthly. One of the most popular games of all time is Trivial Pursuit, and we find ourselves dealing in trivial things. I don't think Paul is saying you can't play Trivial Pursuit. What he's saying is that my mind, as I begin to reflect, should not focus on the mundane, ordinary things, but should bring order to them, meaning to them, purpose to them.
What's true, what's honorable, what's right - this is righteousness, harmony with God. It begins to see the world as God sees it. Whatever's pure means holy, clean, undefiled. Whatever's lovely - this is the only time this word appears in the New Testament. It could also be translated sweet or gracious. It's pleasing, attractive.
What Is of Good Repute
Whatever is of good repute - again, this is the only time this word appears in the New Testament. It means to be highly thought of. Yesterday, I was speaking and got to this point and went to an illustration from Seinfeld. I thought, "I'm not supposed to think of those things that are temporal," but here's a Seinfeld illustration of good repute.
Susan has died, and George is now working on the foundation that has been established for her. He's in a meeting and it's driving him crazy because he's not sure what people are thinking about him. So he comes up with a plan to put a tape recorder in his briefcase, then leave the room with the recorder running, come back after a period of time, get the recorder, and find out what people are thinking about him. It all explodes around him, obviously.
Here's what Paul is saying about good repute: it's that you're highly thought of by the people around you. I was talking the other day to somebody and said, "Have you seen Duff Lawrence lately?" What came back - and I say this since Duff's not here, so we're not going to embarrass him - was what I hear every time I mention his name. The guy didn't say, "Yes, I saw him" or "No, I haven't." He said, "He is an amazing guy. He is a class act."
Duff is that old school gentleman who reminds me of my father. He's an Iowa guy, so there's a big, huge plus. Every year, I get a birthday card from him. Who sends birthday cards anymore? I met him at lunch at one of the great places in town, the Carson Golf Course, the other day. I don't know why I never saw it before, but I'm looking at the All-Americans and there's a 1957 All-American - there's Duff's name. He was the first guy to put together the skins game up at Desert Highlands. He's got all these accomplishments, but Duff is just this great guy.
Every time his name comes up, it is always led with, "He is a great guy." Not to do comparison, but I think when my name comes up, the first word isn't always, "He's a great guy." I mean, ultimately, they get there, but they don't start there. Here's what Paul is saying: of good repute - what do people say about you? It matters.
Dwelling on These Things
I want you to dwell on these things - those things that are good. The idea of dwell means to consider, to think. This is what should drive my mind. My mind shouldn't be filled up with junk. It's the old computer principle we don't use anymore: garbage in, garbage out. What's occupying my thoughts, my time? Where does my mind drift? I want you to think about these things. These are really important.
Verse nine says, "The things that you have learned, received, and heard, and seen in me, practice these things." Practice is a continual, repetitious action. The things you learned - this is the idea of teaching, instruction, personal instruction, the idea of discipleship. The things you received - this is a term that's sometimes used in the New Testament to speak of God's revelation.
First Thessalonians 2:13 says, "For this reason, we constantly thank God that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as Word of men, but what it really is, the Word of God, which performs its work in you who believe." You receive it.
Learning Through Relationship
The things you heard - this is part of the learning. It's the idea that you heard, not just from us but from others. The things you saw - this is firsthand experience. Think in terms of an apprentice.
Here's what Paul is giving us: a clue of what ought to be normative in our life. There are people who are around us - those of us who are followers of Christ - and it's the idea of discipleship, where people are learning and receiving and hearing and seeing. This implies contact. Think of an apprentice where you're coming alongside, like an apprentice to a carpenter. Maybe you get to carry lumber for a while, and then he brings you in and teaches you to use the tools. You learn to cut and measure and build.
this over here and somehow you learn and then finally one day he says, now you do it. It's what Joseph did with Jesus. It's what used to be the old idea of the electrician's apprentice. Well for us it's not apprentice, it's discipleship. This is what Paul's saying, this is what happened in our lives.
You were with me and I'm going to just go and make my pitch for mentoring and being a protege, for getting somebody who's teaching you. This is not age specific. I did a funeral for a lady, her husband was like 75 so she was up there too and one of the guys who spoke was the 75-year-old mentor and self-described mentor because the husband spoke and he said, I want to introduce my mentor who was a 29-year-old young man.
So it's not just older, younger for us, it's those of us who know Christ, who've walked with Him for a period of time. If you're dead average, this sometimes we lose it, if you're dead average, you're spot on average, nothing particularly exceptional about you either way, good or bad. If you're dead average, then 49 people out of 100 know less than you. You can make a difference in their life and that's what Paul's saying.
The Call to Mentor Others
I don't think it's a throwaway verse, I think he's saying, listen, this is what we did, this is how we live, this is to be. And I feel, I'll be too honest here, I feel a little condemned in my own life, in the last year, that has been something for me that has kind of drifted away. I still have these guys but I find myself not as dumping in as much as I could.
Years ago, everybody always comes and they'll say, why don't you write a book? And I'll go, well, number one, I don't write very well. It's interesting, we've reached a point in our culture where everybody thinks you ought to write a book, which is why these books that you read, you never get through them because they're not very good because the guy doesn't have much to say. Most books could be a pamphlet.
Why don't you write a book? I say, well, I'm not a very good writer, I don't write my mother, why would I write you? And I don't know that I have anything particularly unique to say. The idea is that you have something to say that you're passing on to people. And that should be normal in your life.
It's professionally true. Don't think just in terms of Christian. I was talking to a guy yesterday and he was running a semi-truck repair business. I don't know anything about it. But he was decided that he wanted out of this business and came to church one Sunday and I was saying, we need more people in business outside of church business. And I was grinding pretty hard on this. And he said, he walked out of church, his wife said to him, that message must have been for you.
A Real-Life Example of Impact
I didn't know obviously any of this was going on. And he said he stayed in that business six more years. Now here's what's cool. He said over those six years, three of the guys that worked for him came to know Christ. They saw it. They learned the interaction. That should be the norm in our life.
So He said to you and me, here's what I want you to do, the things you learned and received and heard and seen in me, you practice these things and the peace of God will be with you. It's the peace of God, much like verse seven, it's the peace of God that's available only to us who have first what? Peace with God. I'm never going to experience the peace of God until I have peace with God, the end of hostilities with Him.
The Foundation: Peace with God
We're teaching through the book of Romans at the redemption campuses and I'm teaching a week from Sunday. So I was in our collective. That's where all the guys that are teaching get together and we kind of work through the passage and we're in Romans chapter two. And what Paul's doing is in Romans chapter one, two, and three is a universal indictment against all mankind.
So His conclusion is all have sinned. Everyone needs a savior. Everyone needs to be delivered. Everyone is at war with God. All have sinned and are separated from God and the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, not through work.
Paul's Gratitude for Renewed Support
Here you go. And we build now toward the end, 10 minutes. And it looks like a lot, but Paul's winding down. He says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you've revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you lacked opportunity.
He reflects back over their 10 year history. They were involved in His ministry when he was there. He went away. He moves to Thessalonica, Berea. They continue to support him. And then after a period of time, it doesn't give us a reason, that support, I don't want to say dried up, but all of a sudden they just grew apart. That's life.
Whenever I do a funeral, especially if it's a gentleman who's died, I will say of the widow, listen, here's what you need to know. You all need to know because boy, you want to run and you want to help Betty a lot. And the next two or three weeks, everybody's going to do that. But after a month, it's not malicious. It's just life moves on.
And for whatever reason, Paul said, you were there and you were involved. It kind of drifted away. You lacked opportunity. Now there's this opportunity that's back. You've re-engaged with me. Thank you for that. Indeed, you were concerned before. You lacked opportunity.
Paul's Learned Contentment
Now Paul becomes autobiographical in verse 11, 12, 13. Maybe reflective. He said, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. The operative word, there's two of them in there, learned content. I've learned content. I learned this. It's not natural. Natural is to be discontent.
Now this is a bit of a tricky word. It's the only time it appears in the New Testament, the word that's translated content. It speaks in extra biblical Greek literature of a country that didn't import. I've learned a self-sufficiency. He's not saying I've learned I'm self-sufficient. He's saying I'm learned I'm sufficient because God has said to Him, my grace is sufficient for you.
He's not saying I've learned I can go this alone. He said, I've learned to be content. I understand that these basics are going to be taken care of. And then he expands on it. I know how to get along with humble means and how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret to being filled, going hungry, having abundance, suffering need.
It's kind of a rhythm there that Paul gives us. I've learned humble means. I've learned prosperity. I've learned being hungry, going filled. I've learned suffering need. I've learned abundance. I've learned that I'm going to live the best I can apart from circumstance, that my joy and satisfaction is not found in whether I'm prosperous and full and have abundance. My joy is found, verse 10, in Christ.
Life Is a Yo-Yo, But We Don't Have to Be
Here you go. Life is a yo-yo. It's just by definition. I watched an interview the other day, a YouTube interview with John Kennedy. It was David Brinkley, Chet Huntley interviewing John Kennedy. I can't imagine you'd see this now. They end the interview, and Kennedy said, I'd like to redo a couple of those questions. I don't think I gave sufficient answers. One was on Vietnam. The other was on taxes, because Kennedy, the deficits were rising to hundreds of millions of dollars. And Kennedy was lobbying for a tax cut. But Harry Truman had just said, I wouldn't give you a tax cut until we dealt with the deficit.
Kennedy was saying - John Kennedy, who were around now, he would not be invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention - he was saying, we have to cut taxes. We have to deal with regulation. We have to create an environment that allows business to prosper so we can do this. So he said, I'd like to be able to do this over. I want to go back and redo those questions. And one of his lines is, we've had unprecedented financial growth since the early 50s. His line was, it just simply can't continue that. The American people, you would not hear a guy talk like this in a million years. The American people can't expect this thing to continue to grow. There has to be a downslide. It's unbelievable.
Well, that's your life. Your time right now in your marriage, it's unbelievable. Sandy and I are on a high, we've been on a high. We married a year. You ought to be able to pull off a year anyway, I think. So I'm not saying this is Hall of Fame stuff. But I'm saying, we're on this incredible high, but there's a side of me that says, I know there has to be this relational part that won't be as good. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying it won't be as good.
There's time where business is unbelievable, right? You look at a deal and it closes itself. But then there's times that you bust your pick and you do everything and you got a year into this and for no reason at all, the buyer's sister's aunt's cat is stuck in a tree. So he can't make the close and he doesn't want to close it if he's not there and it's stupid and it's dumb, but he's not motivated other than just do this deal because he needs to do a deal so he can get back to you someday. Life is like this, right? It's a yo-yo.
Finding Stability in Christ
That's what Paul's saying. But Paul's saying that may indeed be life and circumstances but because of who I am in Christ, my life isn't like this. It's kind of like a lot of the golfers. I mean, I go back and forth with the golfers. I don't want a cookie cutter guy, but some of them, it's the same. They make an eagle, they make a double bogey, they rattle off to the next thing and hit it again, right? I don't like that, but then I get a guy like Ian Poulter. I don't like that, but I don't know if I don't like that or I don't like him and I'm schizophrenic.
Here's what he's saying is there should be a sense, cut me slack out, there should be a sense in your life in which I look at you that I can't tell if it's hunger or prosperity because there's a joy that transcends this. In fact, it's verse 13. He says, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
I was talking to a guy yesterday. He said, I've never run in a marathon where I did not have in front of me in the course of a race at least a half a dozen shirts that had that verse on there. This verse is not about running marathons or faster than a speeding bullet. Here's what he's saying is I can live life where quote is exceeded or quote is missed. I've learned to live this way. I've learned the secret to life that it's not circumstantial, it's relational.
The Source of Our Strength
I want to go back to chapter one. We did an exercise when we were in chapter one, verse 21, and I want to do the same thing here on chapter four, verse 13. We're in chapter one, verse 21. It said, for to me to live is, and we said, let's take the word Christ out of there and whatever else you put in there, it doesn't fit. For me to live is sex, money, food, power.
Well, let's do a similar exercise in chapter four, verse 13. I can do all things through education, money, success, friends, political power. I can do all things through Christ, through Him. I live in Him, I find my life in Him.
Nevertheless, you've done well to share with me in my afflictions. You yourselves know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving or receiving, but you were alone. They could have easily at this point thought that Paul was either angry at him because they were part of his team and then left him or they could have just got the message inadvertently that he didn't need him. I can do all this stuff, I survived, I've lived this long without you, I'll be fine. He said, no, you were the only ones that were with me.
Seeking the Profit That Increases to Their Account
For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit which increases to your account. We're in a building campaign at church. And in the midst of this, I have two things that I use always as my theme as building community. And you know it, good news, bad news. Good news,
God's Provision and Our Response
We have all the money we need. Bad news, it's in your pocket. That's step one. Step two is, I know you don't see it this way, but us giving you an opportunity to give benefits you. It's better to give than receive. Paul's saying, this isn't about me and my account and my benefit, this is for your own good.
But I've received everything in full and abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma and an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in the glory in Christ Jesus.
Now to our God and Father, the glory forever and ever, amen. He breaks into doxology. Doxology is born out of this idea of what God has done in our life. I begin to reflect on it. I begin to see it in its simplest terms.
Recognizing God's Daily Gifts
This'll sound so silly. We traveled, we're at St. Louis, and I know this is stupid, but I have this carry-on luggage. I hate traveling. And I have this carry-on luggage, and I'm going, there's not gonna be room in the overhead bin. There's not gonna be a seat. I got back to where I wanted to sit, because I wanted to sit in the back, simply because it's within short walking distance to the restroom. And I get back, and there's a spot in the overhead bin that is a small spot, but it perfectly fits my bag if I turn it a long ways.
Now I know it's dumb, but I found myself rejoicing in the goodness of God. We get all these big things, all of a sudden we're sick, and we're healed. We go to the doctor, and there's no spot on our lungs. I'm telling you, God gives us these little gifts all day long, and we miss them. And when I begin to think that God, and I know we could debate this, and I don't want to afterwards, but God provides a space for an overhead bag, and that's an amazing deal to me.
At that moment, what I needed more than anything else was a space for the overhead bag, and He provides it. How can you not give Him glory for that? That's what naturally happens, and then he closes the books.
Paul's Closing Words
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus, and the brethren. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. Remember, Philippi was a Roman colony. They would have known some of these people, and there's a greeting there. There's a personality, a relationship.
And then he closes, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. It's the same way he opened the book in chapter one, verse two.
A Living Example
I was gonna read you, I got an email yesterday. Let me see if I can find it real quickly. This was a guy who was in the study yesterday. "Just want to send you a quick note to say thanks for a great, you may not share this assessment, great just-in-time message today at PL. I'm in a very challenging season right now at work, and hit a circumstantial wall this week. Stress has really overtaken me, and I lost perspective. Thank you for helping me today begin to regain the eternal perspective. Philippians four gives us such a great image that God is near, right here with me. How easy it is to forget. So I'm back on my knees, praying and finding joy in my day."
That's the whole point of this. This is not to do this ethereal study that God is near and He's in control. He's in control, and doctrine's important for the way that we live every day.
Closing Prayer
Next week, something new. Father, help us learn, take these principles, apply them to our heart and our life. We pray these things to You. God, that it's not theoretical, but that it's real. For those that are hurting right now, give them comfort. Let us experience that peace that passes all understanding. God, please do that in our life. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.