All right, let's come into Philippians once again, where I left off last week, this time in Philippians chapter 4. So last week we were in Philippians 2. This week we'll be in Philippians 4. Ah, muscle memory. I know where everything else is in the other Bible, and I'm remembering the location of everything here. All right, Philippians 4. And I'm going to begin reading in verse four and we'll go through verse nine. We'll start with our reading here and then come to our lesson. Philippians 4, beginning in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. 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 is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. I mentioned last week that one of the hardest verses it is for me to apply is that passage that we read in Philippians 2.14, to do all things without grumbling or disputing. that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you are to shine as lights in the world. It is our natural tendency to want to complain about our circumstances or want to complain whenever we see somebody else's circumstances. We think, well, that person's circumstances should be my circumstances. If I had the opportunities that that person had, what great things I would be able to do with my life and we express jealousy and envy when that becomes the attitude of our hearts. We are not grateful to God. We are not grateful for what He has given to us, and so therefore that creates disputing with others, causes us to look at others with a downcast gaze, to think less of others, to want to envy and be greedy for what it is that they have, rather than being content with everything that the Lord has given to us. As we are currently in Romans 1 in our Sunday morning series, soon we're going to get to a little bit further there in the first chapter where it mentions that the sins that mankind are guilty of come from or flow from basically an ungrateful heart. Romans 1.18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, it says, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." And this all flows from a heart that is ungrateful. And really, when you think about it, any sin that we ever do comes from an ungrateful heart. We are unsatisfied with God. We don't think that God or His will or His way for us is enough. And so we essentially want to say to God, Lord, I know what's better for me than you do. And we go after those things that are displeasing to the Lord, that he has said for us not to do. But in our rebellious hearts, we go after that, for it is from a heart that is ungrateful to God. When we are not thankful for him, when we are not satisfied in him, when he is not our sufficiency, then our minds and our hearts go after those things that are pleasing to ourselves but displeasing to God. You think about what David says at the beginning of the 23rd Psalm. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not what? Want. I shall not want because I'm fully satisfied in God. He gives me all good things. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. He leads me beside quiet waters. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And knowing that, that I have the path of righteousness in God, that He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies, which you also have there in Psalm 23. We know all of this has been given to us by God and we're satisfied in all the good things that he gives to us. And that is the attitude of a grateful heart. That is a heart that is filled with thanksgiving toward God. And as I had mentioned to you last week, how readily we are to complain when especially we as Americans in the United States of America have very little to complain about compared with the rest of the world. But you will probably go places where there are people that don't have as much, and you will find more grateful people than you will find. even next door in America or down the street or something like that. It seems that all of our technology and all of our advances in medicine, all of the luxuries that we enjoy in a free trade society have made us spoiled and likely to complain about our circumstances, make us soft rather than grateful to the Lord. But here the Apostle Paul encourages the Philippians to be thankful. And this is a letter that is regularly convicting to me. It's one that I often come back to. I can't remember if I've shared this before about Philippians, but the very first book that I preached all the way through was Philippians. The very first time that I was invited was Horn Creek, Colorado, which is now owned by a different camp group. At the time, it was kind of an independent camp. Any church can book their time there and have retreats there and things like that. It's a little bit different now. Sky Ranch owns it, so it actually is a little more expensive. But at the time, there was a church that was going out there to do a retreat, and they invited me to come and be their guest speaker. They said, we're going to do four sessions, so can you come up with four sessions for us to take us through the Word? And I thought, well, Philippians has four chapters. So why don't we do that? I'll just do a chapter a session. So this has always been a meaningful book to me, but it is probably the one that I think convicts me the most because I don't naturally have that tendency and none of us really do. I don't naturally have that tendency to be thankful. I want to complain about my circumstances, and Philippians reminds me not to, especially when I think about that all of this is written by a man who is currently in prison. He's in jail. He's tied to a Roman guard, one of the praetorian guard that he is chained to, though Paul is under house arrest. He can't go anywhere else. People can come to him, but to ensure that he stays under house arrest, how do we do it today? You have that little, yeah, the ankle bracelet with the alarm on it. You go outside your door, and it's going to call the FBI on you or something. They're going to swarm your house, whatever is going to happen. But with house arrest in the Roman Empire, you're chained to a Roman guard. And so that's what Paul's condition is. But of course, he talks about in the first chapter, in Philippians chapter 1, this has actually served to be a good thing. The gospel is being spoken about among the whole Praetorian guard. There are some of them who have come to know the Lord. That guard has to be chained to Paul, but he has to listen to Paul preach the gospel the whole time when people come to his house and want to be taught by him. And Paul is not complaining about his circumstances. When we were starting in Romans, I said every letter you could probably summarize by a single word. And Philippians would be summarized as being the joyful letter. 1 Peter is the suffering letter, because that's what Peter talks about the most, suffering well as a Christian. Paul reminds Christians to have joy. It doesn't supersede or cancel out the suffering. We still have to suffer, but have joy even in the midst of that suffering, as the Apostle Paul does here. So we have something like 15 or 16 times over the course of this letter, the short letter, about 800 words or something like that, four chapters. And over the course of this letter, Paul mentions that word joy about 15 times. And so this is a very joyful letter. Saying even here twice in the same verse look at Philippians 4 for again Rejoice in the Lord always and I will say it again rejoice Now we need to be careful even with verses like this not to turn it into something. That's kind of empty-handed I had a friend one time who she said that when troubled times came, or when somebody would frustrate her or something like that, this was the verse that she would recite in her head every time. Whenever somebody would do something to her or something, in her head she's going, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. But she realized that just saying it wasn't a magic word enough to make her have joy. Because sometimes it's coming into her head going, rejoice in the Lord always. And that's not the attitude of rejoicing. So we can take something like that and we can try to turn it into some sort of platitude or this thing that we would recite and then maybe it's going to make us have joy. But we have to understand this is an instruction, it is a command. We are always to have joy in our hearts. But that doesn't come under our ability to try to force joy to come out of us. Remember that previously in Philippians 2, 12, the Apostle Paul had said there, we looked at this last week, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And so even here, desiring to have the joy of the Lord, if we understand the command from the Old Testament, the joy of the Lord is my strength. then we would look to God and rely upon Him to be the provider of even our joy. We're not trying to manifest joy. It's really not a human work that we can force out of ourselves, but it is something that the Lord gives to us when we trust in God, when we put our faith in Him, when we rely upon Him, and we are grateful to Him, then what can come out of us but the joy of the Lord? Rejoice in the Lord always and I will say it again rejoice always even when that guy cuts you off in traffic Even when you burn a turkey this week Whatever ends up not going well in your life even even the the simple mundane things yet we are to have a continuous joy in the Lord and Paul emphasizes this so much that he says it again rejoice Let your reasonableness, he says, be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Remember, I had asked this question last week. If you have this continuous attitude of complaining about your circumstances, yet from the same mouth and the same heart you proclaim that God is sovereign, is somebody going to believe you? When you're constantly complaining about your circumstances, does somebody see that, oh, no, you believe that God is actually in control and holds all things in your hand if you're continually complaining? And remember, it was Dave, the guy in the wheelchair, who in the back was the one that spoke up and said, people aren't going to believe you. That's right. If we are constantly complaining about our circumstances, does it really look like we believe that God is sovereign and God is in control? And so that's behind this instruction that Paul gives here. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. in other words God is sovereign he is in this he's in this situation this scenario this circumstance he is upholding you with his mighty right hand and so let your attitude about this be reasonable you are able to to reason through this what is promised in Romans 8 28 for God works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose there in Christ Jesus there's really no such thing as a bad circumstance it can certainly be unpleasant We may not necessarily like to go through it, but yet we know that God is using these conditions and these circumstances ultimately to shape us into something else, to sanctify us, to make us more into the image of Christ. God is doing that even through the midst of our circumstances if we trust Him and we know that He is working in these things ultimately for our good and for His glory. And so we can reasonably conclude that there is nothing really that is a bad circumstance for a believer. Again, it might be unpleasant. but all things are working together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus so with that in mind and knowing that about the work that God is doing in our lives we let our reasonableness be known to everyone for the Lord is at hand and in light of this Paul goes on do not be anxious about anything But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now it's easier said than done not to be anxious about anything. I think we've all experienced some amount of stress or depression or something like that. And even as I talked about this morning with regard to the Apostle Paul, how much he wept over the heartache and the grief sometimes that he would experience as an apostle. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. And so he wept for a people who were his kin. though he knew that they were not going to repent and God's judgment was going to come upon them. And so that's not though what the Lord is talking about here when he says not to be anxious about anything. To be anxious about anything is to be uncertain about the future and not thinking that this is actually going to work out well. To even have doubt going into this circumstance when James 1 5 tells us to ask of the Lord, but to do so without doubting, because the person who doubts is a double-minded man, tossed to and fro, and he should not expect anything from the Lord. So we are certain and we are confident that this situation is in God's hand. We may have sorrow in the midst of that circumstance, losing a loved one, for example, receiving bad news, word from a doctor about your health that you were not expecting. Something like that may cause sadness, it may cause grief, but let it not cause us to despair or doubt the future or that God is in control of this situation. So not to be anxious about anything, not to wring our hands, Not to have this attitude of we're only really good Christians whenever things are going good. But especially when things are bad, that's when the Lord is trying us. That's when he's really putting us to the test and wanting us to rely upon him. Remember the word that Jesus gave to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 9. Paul is begging for that thorn in his flesh to be taken from him. And the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Paul says three times I pleaded for this that it would be taken away from me and yet Christ replied to him is my grace is sufficient That's to me. That's the prosperity gospel killer that one right there those that think that you know You shouldn't ever have anything bad happen in your life. I had a a friend who was a co-worker at a Christian radio station that I worked for, and he was a little bit more on the Pentecostal side of things. But he really thought that any sort of ailment or sickness or whatever that you experienced in your body must be some sort of punishment from God. And that must have been truly trying for him because he had MS. So he was constantly in pain and dealing with different things and trying to talk to him and say, how could you think that this is a curse upon you because of something bad that you did when there's nothing you're going to be able to do to get over this? You're probably going to be struggling with this for the rest of your life. And so he constantly had different people that would come in and lay hands on him and pray healing for him and want to say that his sins are forgiven and all these kinds of things. Nothing ever really alleviated the symptoms that he experienced as somebody who was struggling with MS. But while we will struggle with these things, it doesn't mean that God is not there. It may be that we go through this so that we would learn to rely more on the Lord. We're not depending upon good circumstances. We're not depending upon good health to be thankful to God. We know that God is working even in the midst of difficult and trying times. And so we have in everything, through prayer and supplication, a thankful heart. We let our requests be made known to God. Paul says, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known. So even having a thankful heart, though things may be hard, though you may be struggling through your circumstance, yet you are still thankful to God even in the midst of all of this. One of my favorite Psalms to go to as a reminder, especially when things are feeling burdensome and hard. And it might be a personal struggle that is happening because somebody else is doing something to me, or maybe I'm struggling with a relationship in my life, or something like that. Something is not going well with another person. And so the psalm that I'm continually coming back to in those circumstances is Psalm 13. It's a short psalm. It's six verses. But even here in this circumstance, David says, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? That's quite a way to start a prayer. Like, God, I don't even feel like you're there. And if David can pray that, and it ends up in the Psalms, it's a psalter. It's in the psalter. So it's a song that we can sing to God, and the Word of God actually encourages us to do so. Then it's perfectly fine to pray this. to ask God and say, God, I don't see you in this circumstance. I don't know what you're doing. Where are you in the midst of this? That's fine to ask that question, as long as asking that question is not causing you to despair. It's not being asked losing hope. You're asking that question because you want to see God in the midst of all of this. How long will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say, I've prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice, because I am shaken. And here's the last two verses of this psalm, verses five and six. But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall, what? Rejoice. in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me." And so even in the midst of sorrow, what does David express here? He expresses thanksgiving. And with thanksgiving, letting his request be made known to God. Even in the midst of this prayer, where he starts off on such a sorrowful note, and that's a good point there, because when we read this here, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, you might be burdened or pressured to feel like, okay, when I come and pray, I gotta think of something thankful first, and I'm gonna say that, and then I can say the rest of my prayer. So it puts me in a good mindset. Well, that's not the way David begins this prayer. He begins by going, where are you? Have you forgotten me? How long are you going to forget me? But yet it's while he is seeking God, he is appealing to the Lord, and in the midst of that he comes to the end of his prayer and he is reminded in his heart of all of the good and wonderful faithful things that God has done for him. And so that becomes his expression at the end of the prayer. I have trusted in your steadfast love. I don't know what you're doing in the midst of this situation right now, but I trust you. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. What do we have to be thankful for, first and foremost, any day? The salvation that we have from the Lord, from Christ. And so David says, I will sing to the Lord. because he has dealt bountifully with me I remember the good bounty the great things that God has done for me so that even in this circumstance though I don't see it I don't understand now I trust God because he's delivered me in the past I know he's going to deliver me now and in the future there's a song by Stephen Curtis Chapman that was called moment made for worshiping and it was a Song that really hit me at a particular time in my life, when I was trying to look for things to be thankful for. I was trying to have a more cheerful heart than I had. And this is one of those songs that is not really in, if you're familiar with Stephen Curtis Chapman and how many number one hits in contemporary Christian music he's had for 40 years almost. I mean, he's been making music for a long time. This is not one of those songs that probably pops up in his top 20. I don't think this really ended up becoming a major hit for him. But it's still a song that I'm continually remembering. Here's the first verse. 6.30 Monday morning. I'm here hiding in my bed. A song plays on my alarm clock as I cover up my head. But somewhere in the distance I remember yesterday singing hallelujah, full of wonder, awe, and grace. But now I'm just wondering why I don't feel anything at all. That's the end of the first verse. And then the chorus starts like this. This is a moment made for worshiping. When I'm at a moment where I don't even feel anything at all, and yet right here is where I'm supposed to worship God, this is a moment that is made for worshiping. Because, as he goes on to say, this is a moment I'm alive. And this is a moment I was made to sing a song of living sacrifice. For every moment that I live and breathe, this is a moment made for worshiping." So the thanksgiving that we should give unto the Lord when we make our requests known to God. And it is a command that we would make our requests known to God. In 1 Peter chapter 5, we are told to cast our cares upon Him because he cares for us. And that might be a verse that you've memorized. Could be, you know, one of those pithy Christian things that come up every once in a while. Cast your cares upon him because he cares for us. Well, right before that it says, humble yourself before the Lord and cast your anxieties upon him because he cares for you. When we think to ourselves, oh, I need to fix myself first. I need to have a better attitude first. Let me take care of all of this and then I'll come to the Lord. That's actually very prideful. To think that you can handle it, and you can take care of it on your own, and I can make myself right. I've got to do that before I come to God. We don't make ourselves right. God makes us right. And so especially in those moments, we come before the Lord. We humble ourselves before God to say to God, I can't handle this. And we make our requests known to God. He knows what's on our heart anyway. Remember Jesus' instruction in the Sermon on the Mount. that before there's even a word on your tongue, he knows exactly what you're going to ask before you ask it. And so, Paul says, concluding this section, with supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, verse 7, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Why does the peace of God surpass all understanding? And why is it something that guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus? Peace, very simply, the way that we kind of understand peace is the absence of conflict. If there's no conflict, we're at peace. And what would we generally think of the American ideal peace being? Maybe peace for an American is not having a mortgage, not having a car payment, living in a house that's fully paid off. All of your kids are taken care of. Maybe they've even got college scholarships, and they're all grown and gone. And you're able to sit in your backyard with freshly cut grass, nice cool breeze, lemonade in your hand, sitting under the shade. Hard to find out here in Southern Arizona, but it's there. And you're able to sit there and think to yourself, ah, I'm at peace. I don't have any extenuating circumstances going on that's making me feel anxious or in some sort of conflict. Everything is good right now. That's generally our idea of peace. That's a very external peace, though, when you think about it. It's a very conditional peace. Whereas this peace that's being talked about here is something so incredible, Paul says, that it surpasses understanding. And how is this a peace of God that surpasses all understanding? Because it's not dependent upon worldly circumstances, but it is our eternal condition with God through Christ who has satisfied God's wrath and reconciled us to him because of his death on the cross for us and his resurrection from the grave. And having peace with God is the greatest peace that anyone could ever have. It's better than having all your bills paid off. Because God is not holding anything against us. And when we die, praise the Lord, my friends, when we die, we don't have to worry about bills anymore. Somebody else is taking care of that paperwork, we're gone. And when we go to be with the Lord forever, He holds our life in His hands. We go to dwell with Him. There's nothing we have to fear of the judgment of God. There's nothing in front of us but glory. I think it was R.C. Sproul that said, the only thing death can do to us is put us in front of God. Bring us into his kingdom that we may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And it's knowing this. It's knowing that though our body may give way, though the world may come down around us, maybe our circumstances will actually kill us. But yet I have peace about it because I have peace with God. and that's a peace that surpasses all understanding and it guards our hearts and our minds and that we're not consumed with anxiety or the cares and concerns of this world but our trust and our sufficiency is in Christ Jesus guarding our hearts and our minds in Christ and so as we come into this week which is reserved for a Thanksgiving holiday. I think it's because of the nature of the season we feel so inclined to be thankful. It's good to have these reminders like this annually as we have our Thanksgiving holiday, but it's something that we should have within our hearts as Christians all the time. Continually trusting in God, not being anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. with Thanksgiving, letting our requests be made known to God. I'm grateful that as a church, we've been a praying church. We've spent time in prayer this evening. We have a prayer breakfast that we do once a month on a Saturday. There's prayer in our worship services on Sunday morning. We pray for each other at our men's and women's gatherings and in our small groups and things of that nature as well. It is good to be a praying people. But even beyond these things, remember one another in prayer, lift each other up. And especially in your prayers, express unto the Lord how grateful and thankful we are for Him and everything that He has done for us. If there is anywhere that we can start with our thanksgiving, it is God. Thank you. I am saved through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Let's finish there with prayer.