The Peace of Christ

Scripture Reading

Well, you turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Philippians, not the book of Mark. To be honest with you, I was reading and reading and reading and reading and reading and reading and reading Mark chapter 13, and I still have a ton of reading to do before I can preach that passage to you.

And so instead, we're going to do a topical sermon today from Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 through 9. Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 through 9, and you can find that on your pew bibles on page 1044. Philippians chapter 4 beginning at verse 6. Brothers and sisters, hear now God's holy and perfect word. Philippians chapter 4 beginning at verse 6.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. And the God of peace will be with you.

Prayer for Illumination

The grass withers. The flower fades, but brothers and sisters, the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And we pray now that as we have it preached, Lord, we need your spirit. Father, I desperately plead with you for the spirit to be working in my heart as a weak and broken vessel to preach this with the comfort that is demanded in it. and that Your Spirit would be working in our hearts, that we each of all would receive it with joy, for it truly is from You. We thank You for Your Word, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Well, as I was thinking about how there was no way I was going to preach Mark 13 to you until next week, hopefully, I started thinking about what I would come to you today with, and the idea of thankfulness kept hitting me. And I had preached this passage to you a number of years ago when I first got here to share an RP, but a number of you weren't here at that time. And so I thought, well, we'll revamp it and we'll do it again.

And I know some of you this week, it has been a wonderful week. It's been a week where you've been on a high from your family being around, you've been filled with joy as you've been able to be thankful for the things in your life. Some of you have gone from that high to a calorie crash after that, and I know that happens too. But some of you, some of you have also struggled with deep mourning. Some of you despair, some of you depression. as Thanksgiving this year didn't look like Thanksgiving other years, and there was difficulty in your life.

And this passage today gives us a pathway for thankfulness and for peace, and that's where I want to take us this morning, is to look toward thankfulness and peace. So first, we need to recognize that anxiety is the wrong normal. Anxiety is the wrong normal, verse 6. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. There's a reason why Paul needed to write those first words. Be anxious about nothing.

Because anxiety is our norm. Right? We like to think about things. We like to chew over things. We like to be concerned about things. The stuff that's going on in our lives can consume us often. And so anxiety comes natural to us because life is difficult often. And so we stew over things, we mull it over in our minds, our finances, our friendships, our family, the lack of things, the lack of security, the lack of what's going to happen tomorrow sometimes can weigh like a ton of bricks on our hearts and minds.

And I'm not going to lie to you today that if you just Memorize this passage and just do these things. All those problems are just going to fizzle away. I love you too much to lie to you like that. I love you all too much to say, well, if you just pray like Paul prays here, all your problems will just go away. You'll have the perfect job, the wonderful family, no cares in life whatsoever. That's not what this passage is getting at. And so I need to warn you up front that the path away from anxiety doesn't look like getting away from all your problems. Life isn't all puppy dogs and rainbows.

And Jesus knew this Himself. The sister passage to this is what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, on Matthew chapter 7, when He Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, don't worry about what you're going to eat, or what you're going to drink, or what you're going to wear. Look at the flowers of the field, I tell you, not even in Solomon, and all of His glory was arrayed as such of these, and yet the grass is here today, and tomorrow it dies, it's cut down, and it's thrown into the fire. Look at the birds of the air, they don't sow, or reap, or store away in barns.

And yet your Heavenly Father cares for you. Are you not much more valuable than they? So don't worry about your life, what you'll eat, or what you'll drink, or what you're going to wear tomorrow. The pagans chase after all these things, but your Father knows you need them and provides them for you. So Jesus Himself just gives a command. He says, God knows you need clothes. God knows you need finances. God knows you need a place to live. That's not a surprise for Him. And so it's kind of pointless to be anxious about it.

Actually, there's a paradox, and this is kind of a sad irony with anxiety, as we worry about those things, because we think we're going to add something to our lives, whether we're going to add days, or add quality, or add whatever measure to our lives.

As you continue to fill your life with anxiety, holding on to your sense of being able to control everything, your blood pressure goes up. Hypertension sets in. Headaches come on. Rapid heart breathing. Your central nervous system literally suffers under the weight of your own anxiety.

And so, Paul here, through the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 6 says, there's a better way. Don't be anxious about those things. Why do we have anxiety though? We have anxiety because, well, we want our control. Sometimes we're anxious because we want things our way.

I mean, we're here as good Reformed people, and yet I gotta tell you, nothing betrays your confession to believing in a high view of God's sovereignty more than our anxiety. Nothing betrays Reformed people's high view of God's sovereignty more than our anxiety. Because we might be the type of people who say, no, I believe Romans 8, 28, all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to His purposes. We can say that, but then in our hearts and our lives, as we're overwhelmed by the tidal waves of anxiety, we don't actually believe that what God wants for us is for our good. And we want to control the path for our lives.

And so, put away anxiety. Now some of you are going to say, well aren't there legitimate concerns? Yeah, there are legitimate concerns. What's the difference between a legitimate concern and anxiety? Matthew Henry, a Puritan commentator on anxiety, writes about a five-fold test for whether something is a legitimate concern or anxiety. And so you might want to write these down as you're wrestling with things. Five different tests, whether this is a concern or anxiety.

Number one, is this robbing you of sleep? The Lord tells us in Psalm 127, the Lord gives his loved one sleep. So if your mind is being so wrapped up in whatever it is that you're concerned about, that you can't even go to sleep or get a good night of sleep, you've moved from a realm of legitimate concern into a realm of anxiety. Give it over to the Lord. Test number two.

Does it toss your mind about? Does this concern of yours make it so that you cannot concentrate anymore? Does this concern of yours make it that when you're reading your Bible or doing a task, the only thing you can think about is this issue in your life? It's like it's got you in a prison in your mind and you cannot get out of thinking of this issue. That's moved you from a legitimate concern into a sphere of anxiety. Give it to the Lord. Test number three.

Does it rob you from rejoicing in God? Does it rob you from rejoicing in God? Does this thing, the concern that you have, mean that when you come to the scriptures, you can't see anything other than your problem? When you go to prayer, you can't think about God, you can't think about anything, anything higher than your concern, because in your mind at that time, your world is consumed by this concern. You can't even think about God. It's moved into a realm of anxiety, and you need to give it over to the Lord.

Worse than that though, number four, does it distract you from God's goodness and love? More than just this concern stopping you from even thinking about God, has this concern started to actually twist your heart and turn it away from rejoicing in who God says He is.

Rejoicing in the goodness and love and kindness and gentleness and mercy of God. Instead, is this concern so dictating, ruling your life, that you actually start to question, is God actually good to me? Does God actually love me? Does God actually provide for me? If that concern is moving your heart in that direction away from the Lord, that is a sinful anxiety.

You need to give that to the Lord and confess that to Him. Test number five. You can't enjoy the good things God has given you. Some of us, we get so wrapped up in what might seem like a legitimate concern, that as we're working on this problem of our finances, of what we're gonna eat, or what we're gonna drink, or what we're gonna wear, or this problem with people, whatever it might be, that it's like we become blind. We got kids, we got grandkids, we got food, we got shoes, we got coats, we got cars, we have heaters, we have so many amazingly good things that God has given us, But it's like none of that matters. Doesn't matter that your wife loves you. Doesn't matter that your husband loves you. Doesn't matter that you have a church that loves you. None of that matters because you know what's wrong?

My problem in my life. If this concern of yours is robbing you of enjoying the good things that God has given you right now in your life, that's a sinful anxiety. You need to give it to the Lord. So give those anxieties to the Lord. But what do you do? You have legitimate anxieties, you have concerns that you need to do something with. What do you do? Well, how do you give it over to the Lord? Verse 6, you pour out your heart to God. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication.

There's a lady during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. The Rwandan genocide in Africa, there were two groups of people in Rwanda. The majority group, the Hutus, and the minority group, the Tutsis. The Hutus went on a rampage and tried to kill every single Tutsi they could find. There was massacre with machetes in the streets, literally butchering people to death.

And one of the ladies who was a Christian at that time, she found herself hiding in a Hutu pastor's bathroom. A tiny little room, the size just enough for like a half bath. And he shut a whole bunch of Tutsi ladies in there and put a dresser or wardrobe in front of the door so people couldn't tell that there was a bathroom there. And hid them in there to try to protect them.

And this lady wrote, when the killers were out of earshot, my thoughts drifted away from God, and then negative energy rushed in. Yet whenever I prayed, I immediately felt His love around me, and the anxiety left. As she would hear the voices of the Hutu murderers going away, she would start to be concerned, what if they come back? What if they come back? What if they come back? The only thing she could do in that cramped room was pray to God. And that's where she found peace. This is what 1 Thessalonians is telling us about praying always and without ceasing.

But some of you are going to say, how do I even know God is listening? Because He's told us He is. Because He's the one who has said, come enter boldly into His throne room of grace. Because He is the one that tells us that He is near to us. We are able to go to God no matter how we feel, whether He feels distant from us or whether it seems like the ceiling is made of iron and there's no way our prayers could ever get up to heaven. It doesn't matter how you feel. Has He adopted you as His child? If He has adopted you as His child, He says that we are welcome to come into His throne room.

He's not too busy for you, but He's poured out His Spirit in you, crying out, Abba, Father. And He's not a cruel dad. He doesn't hear your crying and say, get away from me, kid. I don't want to hear you. I don't care about your problems. No, He cares about you. He knows and He loves So pour out your heart to God.

Some of you are going to say, but I'm so anxious, all right, I've prayed, I've prayed, and I've prayed, and I've prayed, and I've prayed, and I've prayed. I've been praying so much, I think I'm prayed out. What do I do? I can't keep asking God for the same thing. What do I do? Well, notice that the verse goes on. It's not just our prayers and petitions in verse six. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. I told you before that the answer to this isn't removing all of your problems, but it's what you do with your problems, or better yet, who you go to with your problems that matters. I'd like to give you seven different examples in the scriptures of when this happens.

The first of which is Daniel himself. You remember that story of Daniel in the lion's den, right? Well, Daniel makes it out of the lion's den, but what happened before that? He found out that they had written this decree, if anybody prays to anybody else other than the king, he should be thrown into the pit. And so what does David do? Or what does Daniel do?

Daniel goes to his room, like he had his entire life, he opens a window towards Jerusalem, he gets down on his knees, and notice what Daniel 6.10 says.

Three times a day, he prayed and gave thanks to God, as he had done previously. He knows that there's a decree of death over his head if he prays, and what does he still do? It doesn't matter that the problem is right there in front of him. It matters that he still needs to give thanks to God.

Example number two, David himself in Psalm 69. Now we don't know in Psalm 69 whether David is being hunted by King Saul, or whether David is on the run because of his son Absalom, who's trying to kill him during the civil war. But in Psalm 69 verse 30, listen to what David says. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

David is in the desert, running like a hunted man. His problems haven't gone away, but what does he say? He says, I'm still going to praise with thanksgiving. And then verses 32 and 33, The humble shall see this and be glad, and you who seek God, your hearts will live. For the Lord hears the poor and does not despise the prisoner. The Lord is near to those who draw near to Him. Give thanks in the midst of your problems.

But maybe you say, OK, well, I'm not a hunted man, but is there a worse situation? Well, yeah. What about Jonah? Jonah, as he ran away from God, found himself in the belly of a fish. And in the ocean, or in the sea, as he's in the belly of a fish, he learns repentance.

But notice what Jonah 2.9 says. Give thanks to the Lord. What does Jonah have to give thanks for? He's in the belly of a fish. Dark, stinky. He's going to come out reeking like vomit. And there he still knows that the Lord is good despite the circumstances he put himself in. There is a blessing even after repentance. Hannah. Hannah in 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.

If you remember 1 Samuel, she's a woman who's old in age. She's wanted a child. No child, no child. She goes to the tabernacle. She's pleading with God for a child. The high priest thinks that she's drunk. She's like, I'm not drunk. I'm praying to God.

God answers her, gives her a child, and she makes a promise. I'm going to give this child to the Lord. He's given me this child, I'm going to give this child to the Lord. And in 1 Samuel 2, verses 1 and 2, she sings a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord. Because she loves God more than the gift. She makes a vow to give her only son to the Lord as a servant forever. She goes and visits him every birthday with a new ephod that she makes him. But she thanks God.

Many of us have this problem where we love the gift more than the giver. Hannah shows us that there is a blessing in loving the giver more than the gift. There's another example. I'm just trying to show you that this is thoroughly biblical. The circumstances don't dictate our thankfulness. But the thankfulness goes beyond our circumstances.

Paul, when he's shipwrecked on a boat, people haven't eaten for 14 days. This is in Acts chapter 27. God tells him through an angel, it's gonna be okay. Nobody believes him. They throw stuff off the boat. Everybody looks like they're about to die. And he says, guys, I'm telling you, we're gonna be okay. They don't believe him, and so what does Paul do? Nobody's eating again for two weeks. He takes his bread and he breaks it. And he gives thanks. He gives thanks, and literally, they're about to die is what everybody thinks, and he says, it's going to be okay, just sit down, have some bread, let's give thanks to the Lord. The situations don't dictate his thankfulness.

Jesus himself shows us this two different times. Before feeding the 5,000, what does Jesus do? He takes the bread, he breaks it, and he gives thanks. The miracle is not even done yet. Most of us would think that Jesus would thank the Lord after the miracle happened. Jesus thanks the Lord when the problem is still there. At the very beginning He has faith in His Father's goodness and trust and breaks the bread and gives thanks.

Jesus gives thanks even in the darkest hours of His life. He knows that the cross is coming and yet at the Last Supper He says He's eagerly anticipated eating this meal with His disciples. He breaks the bread and He what? Gives thanks. Jesus knows that the cross is coming, and yet he's able to give thanks.

In the darkest hours of your life, it is not an excuse to say, oh, it's too hard, there's too much going on, I can't give thanks right now. No, that's when our Christianity is the most. Not when things are going best, but when the days are dark and the struggles are real. And we're still able to turn to the Lord and say, thank you, Lord. That's when our Christianity is proved.

And that's when Paul is writing this letter. Paul writes Philippians chapter six, or Philippians chapter four, verses six through seven, when he's in a Roman prison chained to a wall, he tells them, go to God with thanks. That's his pastoral concern for them. He's chained, he's prisoned, he's in a hole in Rome and his concern for the people is, hey guys, you know what you need to do more?

You need to pray to the Lord and you need to be thankful for the Lord hears you. If Paul can say that while he's in prison, can't we say that now? with all the freedoms that we enjoy and all the blessings God has poured down out upon us. So how often do you thank God? When you go to God, is it a God I want, I want, I want list? Or do you go to the Lord with a thank you list?

Some of you might say, well, I don't know how to do that. Well, let me make a suggestion to you. Start a gratitude journal. Just get a spiral-bound piece of... I don't know, you don't even need to do that. Go to the copy room here, get a white piece of paper, get a few white pieces of paper, and every day write two things you're thankful for.

If you have a family and you do family worship, I'd encourage you, this is something that one of the deacons of a previous church taught us how to do. Everybody around the table at family worship, when you pray as a family, thank God for one thing and ask God for one thing. So you teach your children that we don't just come to God like a giant Santa Claus in the sky, but we come to God with thanksgiving. Thank God for one thing and pray for one thing. Pray with your spouse. Thank God for your spouse.

If you need to cultivate a heart of thankfulness, start thinking about the big things in your life first. Think about your family members. Think about the things you can physically see. And then move to smaller things. And then move to mundane things you take for granted. We were just with a family yesterday, and as we were sitting there praying, and we were going through the room, and each of us were going around the table saying one thing we were thinking before.

My friend, who's also named Brian, he said, I'm thankful for air. We take it for granted. But every breath is a gift from God. I mean, coming out of COVID, I never thought I would ever thank the Lord for the gift of taste, right? But many of us, as we struggled, when we lost our sense of smell and we lost our taste, it was like, ugh, texture is just texture without taste. It almost seems meaningless. Thank God for even the mundane things in your life. But why do this, though? Am I just being an evangelical Pharisee laying on you, precept upon precept, law upon law? You're not thankful enough, so just be thankful! That's what this is about.

So we might enjoy the peace of God. Look at me at verse 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. See, we find peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding when we recognize that we are in Christ Jesus and we are thankful for the good things that he has given us through Christ Jesus. When we trust His plan and we trust His love for us, we find peace and we find tranquility. Many people in this life, in this world around us, are on a quest, trying to find some type of peace and rest for their heart. But Augustine was right when he wrote in the 400s that our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God. We find peace that surpasses understanding when we go to our citadel, when we go to God as our refuge. And so go there. Go to the Lord and find peace. Go to the Lord through Jesus Christ and find comfort for your soul.

Because I promise you, as you think more and more through faithfulness and through prayer and as you fix your mind on Jesus, verses 8 and 9 flow. And as we think about verses 8 and 9, we find that we are fixing our mind on Jesus and that we do have that peace. Verses eight and nine, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw and made, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Isaiah chapter 26 verse three promises us You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you for he trusts in you.

What is your mind fixed on? Is your mind fixed on God and his goodness? Or on the cares and concerns of this life? Because I can promise you the cares and concerns of this life are never going to go away. I can promise you that. Now that's something I will promise you.

Even if you fix the problem that's consuming your heart today, guess what's going to happen tomorrow? There's going to be a new problem. There's going to be a new circumstance. There's going to be a new issue. There's going to be more food that needs eaten, because guess what? You digest food and you need more food. You have to live, so you spend more money, so guess what you're always going to need? Money.

So if your mind is fixed on, if I just get these things down, then I'll finally have peace. I can promise you, you're never going to actually have peace. But if we fix our mind on God, He's the one who doesn't change. He's the one who says he is love. He's the one who says he's not like a fleeting cloud or a shadow that is one way one day and another way another day. No, he doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So part of the renewing of our minds is learning to think upon those things that are praiseworthy, true, honorable, just. I think about those things that are noble. You can think all... I just need to stop, right? We're going to just pull back for a second. You live in a world that makes a lot of money off of you in advertisement by selling you the worst news possible. Do you know why? And this isn't just like legacy media. I'm even talking about online. If you go online and you look at thumbnails just on some place like YouTube, do you know how they get you to click? Controversy or bad news. If you put a positive title, churches even do this with sermons. A title that says, God loves you, will get 5% of the clicks of a title that says, God's judging the world tomorrow.

Because sensationalism and concern grabs on to people's hearts, but we as Christians are called here to know we think about those things that are true, not the things that are false. We meditate on God's Word, we trust His commandments, we hold to Him. We are those who do not think about those things. We don't have them just constantly in our hearts and minds of what are innoble, right? The world wants you to know about all the people who are just scandalous. But when do you rejoice?

One of the things I used to love doing before Virginia Johnson went to be with the Lord is, and she was just like this noble woman, right? Like you walked in and you got to meet Virginia and she was the type of person, right? She walked in the room and you just wanted to hear from her, right? You just wanted to know her, right?

There are people like that that we come into in our lives. Do you honor those people? Do you think about those people? Or do you just look at the train wrecks of people in society? I think about those people and those things that are noble. Think most of all about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ himself, who has all nobility. Think upon those things that are just. I mean, the world gets all up in arms about somebody or someone who has some injustice done to them, whether it's a perceived injustice or a real injustice in our day, you never know. But when's the last time we've thanked the Lord for righteous judges?

I got to tell you, when I was in India, I was just surprised. We were in the car with a guy, and we were talking about this land dispute, and this taxi driver we're with, and this lady's like, yeah, you know, somebody came, they built a house on our family's land, we went to the judge for four years, we tried to fight against this, and we lost the case. We had the deeds, we had the paperwork, we had everything, and he still won the case. And the taxi driver said, well, why didn't you bribe the judge? When's the last time you've had to think, you know, maybe if I want this to go my way, I need to bribe a judge? Or bribe a civil magistrate?

We live in a land where we take these things for granted. But justice, when it's administered well, is something to be thinking about. And we know justice administered best is through Jesus Christ. Because we know that it's He who has paid for all of our sins. Again, we think about those things that are impure. But do you fix your mind on those things that are pure? Do you think about those things that bring you awe in life, make your jaw drop because of the beauty of God's creation? How often do you think of the Lord Himself as pure and meditate on how there's no wrong in Him? Again, we like to think about ugly things, but what about the lovely things?

We have an entire book of the Bible just on a man and wife who love each other and are just doting on one another in the song of songs. It's not wrong to just love your wife or love your husband. It's not wrong to see your children and say, man, the Lord has given us beautiful kids. This is something to be thankful for. We get a taste of the things that are lovely in our relationships when they're going well with each other. And children, man, this is a blessing, right? We can think all the time that our lives are horrible because our kids might be fighting or our grandkids might make so much noise. But when do you just think about how wonderful it is when they're getting along?

And when siblings are loving each other? and caring for each other and are sacrificial towards one another. Do you praise them for that? Is that the type of thing that you focus your mind on? Or is your mind always focused on the ugly things? And we get a taste of heaven when we see a functioning team or a home in harmony. The most beautiful thing is what theologians call the beatific vision.

I can't wait. I cannot wait for the day that I get to see Jesus Christ face to face. When we get to behold God, the Lamb who was slain, and we get to see Him on His throne. Every funeral we go to, do we long to see that most lovely person in that most wonderful place? Or we get to enjoy God forever? These are the types of commendable and excellent things that the Lord wants you to fix your eyes on.

Because if it's always down here, if it's always on the problems, you're never gonna have peace for your soul. But in Christ Jesus, we have hope. And in Him, we can meditate on those things that are beautiful and holy and lovely and pure and praiseworthy and of good report, what are noble and just. And so resolve in your heart, I pray, that you would put away that anxiety. Put away that man who would have his inner person or her inner person just constantly in turmoil. And let the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus. Because as you cultivate a heart of thankfulness and as you point your eyes up to heaven, you behold your God, there is a peace that surpasses all understanding. And that's where the Lord wants you to live your life, rejoicing in Him always, filled with thanks.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for all that you have given us, which is lovely and good. We thank you for the joy of your salvation, the promise of eternity, and the blessings we enjoy in this life. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit might do these things in us. It's easy to say, easy to hear, but hard to do. So Lord, we pray that you would turn us to you and give us the peace that surpasses all understanding. We pray in Jesus's name.