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Welcome. Thank you for being here. We are continuing our walk through the book of Philippians, and if you have your Bible this morning, I want to encourage you to get that out and open up to Philippians chapter four. That’s where we’re going to be hanging out today and God’s Word. Uh, we’re going to be covering a passage of text that, uh, is very familiar to those of us who’ve been walking for a while. And so the the danger is, is that we’re so familiar with it, we kind of tend to just skip over it, uh, when we read it. But I just want to encourage you guys to, to really walk with me through these, uh, passages. There’s just so much, uh, amazing. Uh, it’s just an amazing gift that God has given us. And I just want to try to open that up for us and, uh, sort of to rest, and and God only has done so. Puddings chapter four. We’re going to start in verse verse four. It says rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be made known to all men. The Lord is at hand. And this is where we’re going to be spending most of our time today. As as the passage is here, Paul goes on to write, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
What an amazing text we have here! It says be anxious for nothing. What is anxiety? What is fear? What is worry? The dictionary tells us experiencing worry, unease or nervousness, typically about an imminent or something with an uncertain outcome. And so we have all kinds of things we can have anxiety over in life. You know, we have finances and our jobs, relationships. It can cause a lot of anxiety in the family or just with our spouses or significant others. Global conflicts, societal unrest and all of that going on in the news right now. All these things can can cause us to be anxious. And the word anxiety comes in is we should have concern about all these things. But anxiety is when our folks become so focused on the thing at hand that we lose focus on everything else. Most importantly, focus on our Lord. And so Paul’s telling us here we are not to be anxious for anything. We’re not supposed to carry that anxiety or that fear. The goal our God wants us to do is to be concerned for these things. But instead of taking those things on ourselves and walking in our own power and worrying about them and trying to figure it all out, the first thing we need to do is take them to our father and to our Lord, and allow him to work in us and give us the grace and the mercy and the wisdom to overcome these things.
Jesus Himself said, this is in John chapter 14. The context of this verse is he’s getting ready to to go to, to the cross, and he’s in the upper room, and he’s telling his disciples that he was going to come go with me to go and die on the cross. But he did not want them to be afraid of fear because he was going to come. And although he was going, he said he was going to send got the spirit. The comforter sends well them and to give them his peace and God’s peace and God’s joy and all those things. And and so that’s the context. We see him saying this peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I? Uh, not as the world gives. Do I give to you. Uh. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. I think I need glasses, that’s the thing. All right, so Christ, our Lord says he doesn’t want us to be troubled or afraid or fearful. And again, this context is in. He says, I’m going, but I’m going so that another may come, that God, the spirit may come, and that he would provide us a comfort that no longer the Old Testament, that the representation of God here on earth is no longer there in walls and sticks built with man’s hands, but that God’s Spirit dwells inside the believer.
Now we are the temple of God. And so it’s within that context. He says, I’m going, but I’m coming. I’m sending the spirit to be with you, to give you my peace. And again in Galatians 522, this is the passage of the fruit of the spirit, the Spirit of God. The spirit dwells inside the believer. And as we learn to walk with him and yield to him in every aspect of our life, what happens is the fruit of the spirit begins to demonstrate itself in our lives. I think the majority of people want to focus on the fruits and say, I want love, I want joy, but the goal is, is to walk with the Lord. And as we learn to walk with the Lord and yield to him, that fruit is given to us by the spirit. And so we can see very plainly here that anxiety shouldn’t be in our lives as believers. It is not the case. Who here can say, I don’t have anxiety? I’ve never had anxiety in the Lord. It’s in your hands. Okay, but I’m not alone. Um. Just to share a personal testimony with you. You know, anxiety can be crippling. In 2010, my wife and I was an assistant pastor at a small church in Carmel. And, uh, my wife and I felt really felt the desire to be to go to college and to be trained further, um, and to be able to help God’s people more.
And we felt we needed some formal training to do that. And so we set out to find a college that kind of. Biblical counseling and house discipleship and stuff like degree in that regard. We found one in LA. All places LA, California. And so for nine months I we started to make the plan to go. And the number one thing on my list was to find a job before I got there, so I could just walk right into that job and, and everything, you know, have to be smooth. And so I set out and I was sending an application and an application down to LA, and southern Utah wasn’t hearing anything. So I had this broad idea I was going to drive down there to where the college was. I was going to get a post office box, and I did so I could put my a local address there. So they thought I was in state, you know. And so I sent more applications and time came and I set the date with the college as far as when I was going to start. And uh, uh, still no job, so no job. And so I went down there for I had one interview, I went down there, didn’t get the job, uh, found the church that was a large Christian church and ended up actually going there.
And there was a job fair that day. I’m like, great. I’m going to network of believers, you know, go get some encouragement for what we what I wanted to do, maybe find a job with one of those guys. So it was a Wednesday night at this church. And I go in there and I give them this story, and this guy looks at me and goes, so what you’re telling me is you have a family of five, you don’t have a job. You’re going to come here in a few months with no job in a county that has 12.5% unemployment. And you call that wise? Like, wow, that’s not encouraged, right? All these things, as I’ve been doing this and just battling this anxiety, my family don’t know the Lord. They’re looking in and going, what is this guy doing? Why is he doing this extravagance sitting on this big step? What’s going on here? And so I’m feeling all this and honestly, it was looking back on it, it was the best thing because all I had was God and his promises. That’s all I had to lean on. So I’m driving to LA or driving back with no job. I told my employer that I was going to go, so they hired my replacement three months prior to me leaving so I could train them right? So I had three months. No job, no job. All I had was God and his promises.
And the one thing I kept going to was I wasn’t doing this for self gain. I wasn’t trying to do it to make my life better. I was trying to do it to serve him and his people better. And so we just kept going towards that direction. And I had to preach Philippians four to myself all the time, because the fear and anxiety of moving to a very expensive place with no job was very hard for me. I moved in, we got a U-Haul, we packed our stuff. It was time to go see them, have a job, drove down there. Uh, my family stayed up in Utah. They were putting up some loose ends. And so I was unloading the U-Haul by myself into this rental. This Christian lady gave me the apartment, even though I didn’t have a job. She said, well, it sounds like you’re trying to pursue God’s will, so I’m just going to step by faith and let you move in. So that was good. That was another sovereign hope from God. Right? For that to happen, I’m moving my stuff in and then I get the call. She says, you’ve been hired from this company that I was hoping to be hired on. And so as I was unloading after I made the trip, I get this call that I was hired and I had a job and it was the. Our neighbors there didn’t really engage with us much, I’m pretty sure certain it was because of what was going on when I got that call.
After all those months of anxiety and battling the fear and doubt and questioning myself, and I heard that man, I was on my knees on the U-Haul ramp on the, you know, outside, just praising Jesus. So thankful was just I call him sovereign host, where God just comes in and says, I love you. You know, I’m going to take care of you. My promises are sure. And so I know what it’s like to have crippling anxiety. But according to the passage of Scripture here, we’re not supposed to have concern. I had a very different experience. She was walking a little more with her sights, a little more on the Lord, and we were talking about it this week as we were preparing for the last night, she was saying, you know, I kept thinking to myself, I should be really scared now because she wasn’t. And she had God’s peace with her. She was communicating and communing with the Lord a little more effectively than I was, and she was able to experience that. And that’s a great thing. You know, in the in the Old Testament, when Joshua, uh, leads the children of Israel across the river Jordan into the Promised Land, God had them stop and build a monument there on the other side. And he told the leaders.
He said, I want you to take your children back here to this monument. And you tell them, explain to them how God has delivered you and brought you up out of the land of, you know, out of the wilderness and crossed into the land of promise, and remind them that my promises are true in effect. And so my family has one of those, you know, have a little stone bearing thing, but it has brought up often what God did for us during that time, moving all that waste into a very expensive place with no job, not knowing if you’re going to be on the street. I had no idea what was going to happen, and he delivered us. And that’s great and that’s wonderful. And that’s something that my family can look back on now. But I asked him today, what about the small things? And I guess as I was preparing for the lesson, this is where God kind of convicted me. Some of you might be able to sympathize with this. So today I’m probably going to go home and eventually get on the computer and check my budget. How much money I have left in my account. I’m trying to figure out how to pay all the bills this week and the mortgage. And then Christmas is coming up. So how do we do that without, you know, going into debt? Right. And I’m probably going to do all that without taking anything about all of those things, all those concerns and worries with the Lord.
This kind of all right, here we go. And I’m going to start pulling screens and swapping the shell game around. Right. And then probably tomorrow morning I’m going to sleep in that extra half hour that I promised the Lord that I was going to give him every morning to be with him in his word. And I’m praying and all that stuff. I’m probably going to sleep in, probably leave a little late because I like hanging out with my kids, and I’m probably going to drive like a bad man, a couple of people off, um, and be bored. I’m going to be late to work, right? And then when I get to work, I’m probably going to have a hard job, get frustrated, and know that I’m going to be behind the rest of the day. My boss is going to want to know why I have done so little in so much time. So I’ll be worrying about that. And so instead of taking my mandated 15 minute breaks that I get paid for, uh, and take those and spend some time with the Lord and pray and go to him and seek his grace and mercy and and help and his peace in my life. I’ll probably just work through those 15 minute breaks so I can catch up a little bit, but all the time not paying any attention to my Lord and the teachings of Scripture.
It says anxious for nothing, but in everything and everything, the little things, not just the big things, the big trials and surgeries and sickness and the little things and everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I thought the book of Hebrews, it’s just I would say it’s my favorite book, but then I’ll get another book. And this book, even I love it because it’s the perfect. It explains to us how the Old Testament and the New Testament are perfectly dovetail together. And the Hebrew, the letter written to the Hebrews is writing to Jesus, that is, the writers explaining to them that all those Old Testament temple works, all those Old Testament sacrifices, all those the priesthood ordinances, all those things that that occurred in the Old Testament were, are, were all a foreshadow of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were to point the Old Testament saints to the Messiah is to come. Messiah has come. The New Testament says, and he’s fulfilled all those things perfectly. And so the letter written to the Hebrews explains that, that the high priest in the in the Old Testament, most of you know that there was a temple or tabernacle later a temple. And inside, inside the inner inner sanctuary was a place called the Holy of Holies. And that was meant to be where God dwelt. That was God’s dwelling place, and it was blocked off by a really thick veil, and no one was allowed in there.
And that was to demonstrate to us that because of our sin, because of our sin, God’s people was separated from God’s presence because of sin. And one on one day a year, the high priest would go in and he would offer a sacrifice inside of the Holy of Holies one time a year. That was one person that was allowed in that room because sin blocked him or blocked us, kept us from that, from the presence of God. And the amazing thing, it’s so great that, as the Gospels tell us, as Jesus was dying and taking his last breath, crying out to his father, the Gospels tell us that as he was doing that, that veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, right? And so the book of Hebrews is telling us that because Jesus. As Christ, as our great High Priest who is without beginning or end. He is forever at the right hand of the father, forever making intercession for us. And that because he’s doing that, because his sacrifice was sufficient. Because what he his love for us and what he demonstrated for us on the cross was acceptable to the father, to the father, and we have access to his throne. Hebrews 414 says this, seeing that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. I need to stop and hold that the trials and tribulations that we’re going through. Please don’t think that our father, our Savior, is far off and hold to that, to what we’re experiencing and the anxiety and the worry and the fear and the things that hound us daily from this world. Christ came into his creation. He experienced those things in all points. He was tempted, but yet because he was God, he was without sin. So he’s the High priest, without beginning or end, who is forever making intercession for us, has allowed us to check this out in verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. All through the Old Testament, God’s presence is separated because of sin, because of what Jesus has done. The throne has been opened to us where the creator God for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. He’s our father. The Scripture tells us that we can go to the throne. The creator of the universe, any time we want. When Paul gives us permission, even in the little things, in everything, by prayer. So we have multiple, multiple, multiple facets of prayer here.
The prayers. I think what we’re referring to is the set times when we get dinner here at church, we have an opening and closing prayer, and we say prayers with our kids. Um, and then supplication. Supplications have deep meaning. If you have a worry and anxiety or something’s going on in your life. Supplication is where you just fall before the throne and say, I can’t shake this fear. I have this anxiety. I have this problem, and I’m coming to you, Lord, for help, for your grace. Because it’s the grace that is within us that enables us to be transformed. It’s not about power. And the supplication is that. And then with thanksgiving. Right. We just finished with Thanksgiving holiday. Um, the Book of Psalms is just an amazing, amazing book. And most of that was written by King David. And I honestly think that he would be classified as like manic depressive if you read the Psalms because he he, the Psalms has all, he just pours his heart out to God. It’s just a perfect picture of the Book of Psalms is how we bring everything before God. And a lot of the times he’s coming out and he’s just like, I feel like you’ve abandoned me. I don’t know what’s going on. My enemies are surrounding me. I feel all these things. And then most of the time it’s patterns. Pretty normal. As he’s doing that, as he’s he’s bringing these requests before his God, he begins to lift his eyes off of the problem at hand, the enemies or the worry that he has.
And he begins to look at God and who God is and who God what did God had done, and delivering him, and maybe fulfilling this promise and all of these things. And his eyes got off the problem and started looking to God. And then the next thing you know, most of the Psalms just go in and burst into thanksgiving who God is. How wonderful he is. And he’s made himself known to us and how we can have relationship with him. He’s not far off. He’s not in the distance. He desires a relational limit, is personally offended by us last week. So I guess my question to myself was why don’t I do that? Why don’t I come before the throne and everything? Shame on me. You know, my prayer is I don’t want no longer want to have make God the last resort because Scripture is clearly telling us that God should be our first resort. And the wonderful thing is, is we have a promise here. As we do that, as we begin to figure out how to bring our every little thing before, every little concern and worry before God’s first, and prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, that those requests be made known to him. Look at the promise and then and the peace of God.
Which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. An amazing thing. So the how. Is prayer. First and foremost. Right. Taking everything before the father. And then this next part of the passage, the text that we’re in today gives us a practical illustration on how to renew the mind. Right. In Romans chapter 12 we have offers. Again. The apostle Paul says in Philippians, he’s writing to the church up there, and he’s, uh, exhorting them, beseeching them to make their lives a living sacrifice, right along with the sacrifices in the temple. That’s all done with making our bodies, our lives, our living sacrifice. That’s what he desired. But God desires of us. And he goes on here and says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How does that work? What does that look like? I think Paul provides the Philippians here a very practical illustration of what renewing the mind to the believer looks like. He says, 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’s any virtue and if there’s anything praiseworthy meditate on these things. I think all of you will agree with me that this world will largest of information all the time.
I’ve been doing a lot of flying lately, but I sit hanging out, waiting for the plane to arrive in the big town and, you know, all these people around. And I just caught this picture. Like everybody, they were either sitting in the chair looking at their phones. The people were walking, you know, like zombies drooling and coming down, you know, looking at their phone. And I’m one of them, right? All that, all those people were giving information about into their into their minds and their their hearts. Some of it might be good. Some of them might be on the world. A lot of it. You know, I must check Facebook. Really unhelpful, right? We’re getting bombarded all the time. And so the apostle Paul is telling us we need to renew our minds. We need to take the things that are pure and lovely and of good report. The things that are good are given this new heart. When we are converted and regenerated in the Lord Jesus, we must be given the nutrients in which that new heart can flourish, and the fruits of the spirit can manifest themselves. And it happens by prayer and all things, and our willingness and discipline to renew our minds faithfully. Now there’s a long list there. We don’t have enough time to rebels. Okay, okay, okay. But if you are serious about this, this would be a great verse to take home with today.
And look up each one of those words and see what that means. When I was Scripture and some of the things are of good report, some of things are lovely. There’s one I do want to focus on though. What’s your first? Choose the first one out of the gate. Whatsoever is true, and the reason why I want to focus on this is because in the society we live in today, the majority of the population says they get to define truth the way they want to define truth. Whatever is true to them is true. Right? And then there’s religions abound all over this world that claim that they have the truth of God. Okay. We have this amazing gift that the creator has manifested truth to us, and that’s unchanging. It’s miraculously preserved and we have his truth contained for us. Christ here in John chapter eight is talking about the believers that he’s following his disciples. And Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in me, in my word, ye are my disciples indeed. So if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And what’s in the word? And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I’ll never forget when I was released of the bondage of the law was made free in Christ, because of the truth that’s revealed in His Word.
The truth shall make you free. We have God’s absolute truth, and that truth is found in His word, his high priestly prayer. Jesus is praying here in John 17. He’s praying to the father for his disciples and all those that would come to believe through the gospel the message, the good news, that Jesus was going to be the complete sacrifice and sufficient sacrifice for our sins, that we may no longer be sinful, but have Christ’s righteousness applied to our account through sheer trust and faith and belief. What Christ has done on the cross. He’s praying this prayer to the father, and he’s. He’s asking the father to do these things for his disciples and for the believers that would follow them. He says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Whatsoever things are true. We must use God’s Word as the tool in which we renew our mind. The Bible is clear. God’s word is used also called the sword of the spirit. The spirit that as well as the believer. It is his tool. The word is his tool, which he uses to clean up these things out of their life. They’re no good. And we we learn to walk with them and grow closer to him. And as it says, sanctify. Be cut apart in the world. Set aside for God. It’s true. God, the God, the spirit, using the word of truth that those things happen. So as we commit and try to renew our mind, it’s so important that we take time and not just read the Bible to make a check mark on their to do list.
But you go and you find God’s love for you to be renewed in the promises of this wonderful promise in Philippians or everywhere that you begin to see yourself as the person in which those things were purchased for you. That you grow closer and you experience God’s love for you, as he’s demonstrated that on the cross, every time you go to the word, the spirit desires to do a work. And it’s only if we allow that, if only we understand that we must free renew our mind. It’s not enough just to pray. We must take an active approach into going into God’s Word and allowing the spirit to renew our mind. And then finally, in closing, Paul finishes up this passage in Philippians chapter four with a section of it anyway, with, uh, this the things that you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do, and the God of peace will be with you. There’s another promise. So isn’t it great that the Apostle Paul knew as he’s praying this, he says, the things that you’ve seen in me, you received and heard and saw in me the things that I’m doing right. He knows he’s he’s not only talking the talk. Paul is walking along. He’s modeling godly behavior.
People that know Paul knew that. And it’s the same with us. We have Paul as an example. We all know Paul personally. We just haven’t heard you know him through his writings. But what we do have is a picture of him. I love this church. One of the many of the things that I love about this church is that it’s multigenerational. We have a bunch of kids in the back, and now they’re learning about Jesus. We have the teenagers down in the front row who were cringing as I was off key. And some of the songs that we have. Make a joyful noise. We have middle of the road, guys, happy little gray hair. We have the older generation. They’re all in this church, so thankful for those people that have been walking with the Lord far longer than I have your value here. We need you. Because that trial. And I told you about those Bible colleges. I’m sure it doesn’t compare to some of the trials that some of you are going through pregnancy and delivery and all those promises to be true to near modeling gothy behavior to me. But at the same time, I know I’m responsible to model godly behavior to my children and to my fellow brothers and sisters in the body. So it’s not just enough to pray. Although it’s important to bring everything before God. We must make our just a new conviction to renew our minds in God’s Word and the things that are true, because we know the world is attacking us with things that are not of God.
They’re not beneficial. We must stand against that allowed the spirit to work in our in our, in our in our minds and bodies and soul. There’s returning to the things that are truly pure. On this list that we’re talking about. And you must be with one another. You know, we have men’s groups and we have women’s groups. We have small groups, and they’re not here, I promise you. But just to be a social function, it’s so that we can be with one another that we can model these things. I have a I know of a girl who was raised in the West. California girl. She went to Bob Acosta, got a teaching credential. She got a job in Georgia. She was in her church down south. She got a job in Georgia. She came back six months later. And what was coming out of her? Well, how are you? All right. And it was true. It was genuine. And she picked it up because she was in the midst of a people that used that word. Right. So who are you surrounding yourself with as far as spiritually speaking? What people are you inserting yourself in the midst of? Those things, those habits begin to just pick up on the agenda, just automatically spewing them out. Whoever you’re hanging out with, that’s what I’m trying to get at.
Because men’s groups, ladies groups, small groups, all design that. We come together and we love God and worship and be around fellow believers so that the fruit of the spirit may be evident in our lives. And we may all of our families that they are model that for our co-workers all together. That’s what God doesn’t want us to be anxious. He doesn’t want us to be fearful. Not in a small group on Wednesday nights. And I love Mrs. in the back. She goes to our small group occasionally when we got prayer requests. I love to hear her pray. I can tell she has spent a lot of time on her knees. I can just tell she’s had a lot of time praying with the father, to the father, to the son, and I love hearing him. So good for my soul. So glad there’s people here that have walked the walk before me so I can model that in my life. And so let’s recommit to these things, these wonderful things. It’s not let anxiety cripple us. Let’s turn to God in prayer and everything, even the little things. Let’s renew our minds to rededication, to seeking God and the love of Jesus in the scriptures. And that’s me with one another. Make an attempt. Even though sometimes it’s hard to get together so we can surround ourselves with other believers, that we might model that godly behavior and the fruit of the spirit may be manifested to the glory of God.