Philippians | Chapter 4 – Scripture Supply

“Living above the Clouds”

Main Teaching:4:1-19 Joy in spite of anxiety

4:1-9 God’s peace

4:1-5 “Don’t Worry Be Happy”

Vs. 1-5 People

Intro.

Having already spoken to us about:

Joy in spite of circumstance
Joy in spite of people
Joy in spite of things (religion)

Paul now tackles the fourth and final thing that can rob us of our joy in Christ, ANXIETY. The word for “anxious” means to be pulled in different directions. The English root for the word “worry” means to strangle. Worry and anxiety is a great thief of joy but it does little good to tell a person not to worry because for the most part anxiety as a thief is an inside job!

Dr. Walter Cavert reported a survey on worry that indicated that only 8 percent of the things people worried about were legitimate matters of concern! The other 92 percent were imaginary, never happened, or involved matters over which the people had no control anyway. Worry is the interest we pay on the debt of unbelief with which we have mortgaged life! The antidote is to “Turn your cares to prayers and your problems to praise!” Thus the antidote to anxiety is a secure mind!

Vs. 1-People

Vs. 1 The use of the word “therefore” is a transitional word that is used to link two thoughts. We must run to lose our religion but we must stand fast if we are to rid ourselves of anxiety but both are done in a relationship with Christ. One of the secrets of maintaining our joy in spite of anxiety is learning to stand still in your relationship while everything within you is screaming at you to RUN! The Christian life is like a cable car that is running up and down hills all day long but without any power of their own. Hidden under the street is a cable which the “Grip Man” with his levers must pull back to take hold of the cable in order to be moving. The car without the cable “stands firm” as it is the cable that is mobile. The Christian life is victoriously able to move forward as well as stand still all because invisibly it remains resting upon our cable in Jesus. Our race is gripping Jesus as we conquer the hill of religion and resting as we face the obstacles of anxiety. I believe Paul speaks of three things that can cause the believer anxiety in our life and he gives us how our standing in Christ will deliver us from anxiety:

Vs. 2-5 People

Vs. 6-7 Personality

Vs. 8-9 Perspective

Vs. 2-5 PEOPLE:

In the Church at Philippi there were two great ladies named Euodia and Syntyche . We know these were special gals as their names mean “fragrance” and “fortunate”. We aren’t told what the situation was but something had happened in their relationship that caused a “stink” in their fragrance and made them “less fortunate” to be around. The fact that Paul is mentioning this suggests that the spat between these two threatened the unity of the body of Christ in Philippi. It hadn’t caused a church split yet but folks were picking sides and anxiety and tension was in the air. So Paul offers them two things they need to do in order to rid themselves of the stinky odor of anxiety between people.

1. Vs. 2-3 “Be of the same mind in the Lord”: If Paul only had said, “Be of the same mind” this passage would have been impossible as both of these ladies could have said, “We aren’t going to see eye to eye on this subject”. Paul isn’t suggesting compromise on our viewpoint, instead he is telling them that they need to seek unity on what they have in common instead of focusing on what they disagree on. You may be thinking that with that brother or sister in Christ you have nothing in common but that isn’t true as in Christ we always have Jesus in common. So when anxiety arises in our church relationships we must agree to get together in Christ and give our differences to Jesus. How can we accomplish this? Paul offers three things in verse 3:

Mediation: As Paul was dictating this letter he must have turned and spoke to someone in the room as we read “I urge you also, true companion, help these women”. We aren’t told the identity of “true companion” but seeing that Paul was writing this letter to be sent back by Epaphroditus (2:25) I personally believe that it was him that Paul was speaking too when he said those words.

At any rate Paul is suggesting that there was a need for “mediation” to come to these two ladies and get them together to settle this issue. I think that can be of great help in the body of Christ as we are to take Jesus’ side instead of picking sides of two people that should be coming together in Jesus, instead of dividing over their differences. There will be times when though we should be able to come together in Christ we will need the help of our fellow brothers and sisters.

Service: Next Paul reminds them that they had forgotten that they were serving Christ not their differences. Division always has as its first casualty, “service”! Paul says to them, “Ladies,… have you forgotten that you were involved with me and Clement and the rest of the team in sharing the Good News about Jesus?”

When people are causing you anxiety you can bet that Satan is behind it as he wants to put a halt to the work of sharing Jesus with those who need to hear about him. So he plants some division, a disagreement about something minor then feeds it in our minds until it consumes us and we stop the work of the gospel because we just can’t work with that person. In Nehemiah 6:3, Nehemiah responded to a request by Sanballat and Tobiah who were attempting to stop the work of rebuilding the wall at Jerusalem with the words, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” Dear ones never let something so small stop something so great!

Big picture: Finally notice that Paul says that all those believers who these two ladies knew along with themselves are in the “Book of Life.” Here they were participating in division that wasn’t going to exist in heaven, they weren’t going to be able to avoid each other in eternity, divide over some little issue while standing before the throne of God. Paul is subtly letting them know that their anxiety over each other has blinded them to the “bigger picture” that Jesus has broken down all the walls that we erect to keep folks from us.

So while we may be tempted to build our house of sticks and stones it won’t be going with us in heaven, so why not tear down those walls now? I can’t wait to get to heaven and see all those folks that through our church history were divided and separated, together holding hands singing united in praise to Jesus. The tragic truth is many would rather wait to experience this when they could be enjoying it now!

Vs. 4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice”: The 2nd thing Paul tells them to do to rid themselves of the stinky odor of anxiety between people to “rejoice in the Lord”. Joy is a choice and no one can steal your joy, only you can give it up! Everything and everyone that comes into your life, (even those irritating folks and unpleasant disagreements) are allowed by the Lord to reveal something to you about your own heart and give you an opportunity to grab hold of Jesus! Notice that Paul isn’t saying that you need to “rejoice in the situation” or “rejoice in the unpleasantness of disagreements”; no he is saying that you can always “rejoice in the Lord”. Ok pastor what about when you get angry with this person and they continue to harass you over and over.

Well remember that underneath you undergirding your life is Jesus, He is holding you together so grab hold of Him and allow Him to move you off of anger to the place of peace and joy and remain standing fast upon Him. I’m saying that you can’t but I am saying that Jesus can so take a grip and stand firm. Now notice that Paul says, “Again I say rejoice”! I think Paul understood that even after we do this when people are causing us anxiety that we can begin to “slip” back into this very quickly so we will need to be resetting ourselves back into joy. Paul doesn’t say, “Well if rejoicing in the Lord doesn’t work try_____________.” Instead he says, “When you begin to slip back into anxiety because of people, repeat the first step as often as needed!”

Vs. 5 Paul gives one final exhortation to these two ladies in verse 5 by letting them know two important things:

“Let your gentleness be known to all men”: The first thing Paul wanted to remind these two was that what was going to show that they were right on an issue was NOT the force of their words but the love in their character. Oh how many times the Church has made this error thinking that the force of our argument is to be found in our division instead of the love that ought to be demonstrated through our actions. Saint’s any opinion, doctrine or teaching that makes Jesus greater and me less and more dependent upon Him, more loving towards all things that He loves is a right one to be passionate about!
“The Lord is at hand”: The second thing that Paul wants these two ladies to realize is that they need to deal with this now, not later as the Lord is at hand. Procrastination often links with pride to keep us in anxiety over people and Paul admonishes these two to deal with it now as the Lord is coming back soon!

Worry and anxiety from the time of the fall of Adam and Eve have found a home in human hearts. Anxiety is powerful to disintegrate human life and rob us of joy in Christ. Certainly there are outside circumstances that feed our fears but we also have the Word of God that is a constant reminder for us followers of Christ to stop worrying. Though the song made popular by Bob Marley taken from the Indian mystic Meher Baba phrase “Don’t Worry Be Happy” seeks to lay claim on this admonishment it originated right here in Philippians as Paul not only admonishes Christians he gives them the reason why this is possible.

Philippians

“Living above the Clouds”

Main Teaching: 4:1-19 Joy in spite of anxiety

Vs. 6-7 Personality

4:6-9 God’s peace

4:6-9 “Lost in the garden of worry”

Vs. 8-9 Perspective

Intro.

Paul now tackles the fourth and final thing that can rob us of our joy in Christ, ANXIETY. Teaching us how to “Turn our cares to prayers and our problems to praise!” He speaks of three things that can cause the believer anxiety in our life and he gives us how our standing in Christ will deliver us from anxiety:

Vs. 6-7 Personality

Vs. 8-9 Perspective

There are over 19 million in the US with some form of anxiety and I don’t believe Paul is speaking to those that suffer from some form of mental health issue. What he is addressing is that with many a Christian we have a tendency to be preoccupied with worry and anxiety. Though most of us go through times of worry we need to see it for what it is, not trusting in God’s word. Notice that the antidote for worry and anxiety isn’t the removal of the circumstances that we think are creating the anxiety. Neither is it to become Australian and join the “No worries club”.

Vs. 6-7 Personality

Vs. 6 The very mention by Paul of being “anxious for nothing” suggests that he understands that people have a proclivity to worry and anxiety. The reason we ought to be anxious for nothing, is because in everything we are making are requests known to God! The use of the word “everything” by Paul suggests that there is nothing too small to God because there is nothing to God that looks BIG! Prayer is our expression of our complete dependence upon His promises, our leaning upon His grace and power is already at work within our lives.

You could say humans after the fall were born worriers! Yet with that said Paul doesn’t serve up the platitude of “Ah just pray about it.” Instead Paul uses three different words to illustrate right communication! Anxiety and worry are not best served by bottling them up; no they are best defeated by right communication. And right communication has three aspects to it:

Adoration: The first thing we see in right communication is that it needs to be directed to the right person if you are going to defeat anxiety and worry. Not only does our communication need to be to the right person (God) but this word carries with it the idea of communication adoration, devotion and worship. In other words our communication to God is extremely personal and we are communicating to Him out of love knowing His greatness and willingness to hear what is troubling us. I’ve noticed something about this type of communication in my grandkids, when something has caused them to be anxious or worried they don’t come to me with a laundry list they come and throw themselves in my arms just to hold them. To Nater’s and Hani the list will come later. What they need immediately is to run to Ganpee who they believe is big enough to solve their problems. I’m afraid that too often when we are consumed with worry and anxiety we run to God shouting out our needs when what we need the most is just to run into His loving arms and by still!
Supplication: The second aspect of our communication is the honest sharing of our worry and anxiety. And it carries with it the idea of continuance, keeping it up over and over. You would think this is obvious but a lot of the time folks spend all their time telling God what to do instead of telling God where they are at. In Genesis 3:9 immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed, the first question God asks them is “Where are you”?

Folks, remember God is all knowing so the question wasn’t a hide and seek question. The question was what God wanted them to tell Him in verse 10 “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” As such our communication should not be a laundry list of what we want God to do but rather a time of honest confession to the question of, “Where are you?” “Lord, I’ve hid myself in worry and covered myself with the fig leave of anxiety because I lost my job. Lord right now I’m consumed in doubt and fear and because of this I’m not able to hear your voice as I’ve become lost in the garden of worry.” Supplication is not about human energy, it’s about honest confession to “Where are you?” God doesn’t require from us the knowledge of how to fix the problem He requires from us the honesty to admit we have a problem that only He can fix!

Appreciation: The final aspect of right communication is thanksgiving but it isn’t about God hearing a thank you after we have been given what we have asked for. No, the thank you comes before we have seen or heard the answer because it has already found the answer in the Lord! Again most of the time we come to the Lord with our shopping list and a stop watch and both of those have to come out towards our expectation before we offer (if we even do) a thank you.

The right communication that Paul is suggesting is long on worship, confession and thanksgiving but missing telling God what the problem is and what to do to fix it to our expectations. The reason for this is according to Jesus in Matthew 6:8 our heavenly “Father knows the things we need before we ask Him.” I’m afraid that a lot of us act as if God is incompetent and forgetful as we tell Him over and over what our problem is and how we want it fixed.

Here is the great thing Paul says that we are to apply these three aspects of communication “every time” we are anxious or worried! We don’t have to save it for just the “big things” or wait until the “little things” have become big things. Instead, we can communicate with God in those three things in everything that causes us worry and anxiety. This is not some sort of “blab it grab it” prayer that is suggesting that we should ask God for everything we want.

Vs. 7 The result of this threefold type of communication will be that the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” Paul isn’t saying that you will avoid the trial or circumstance that has taken your heart and mind captive to worry and anxiety; he is saying that the “peace of God” will stand guard over your heart and mind so that worry and anxiety won’t be able to cause paralysis. Notice that this peace isn’t based upon us understanding why we have peace and as such it is outside of our understanding the outcome. What makes this great is that we don’t have to wait for the outcome to experience the “peace of God” we can enjoy the peace of God right now! How is that possible you ask? Well it is because the “peace of God” is “through Jesus Christ” and not through the understanding of the outcome.

Vs. 8-9 Perspective

Vs. 8-9 Paul finishes with the third and final thing that will cause you worry and anxiety which is a loss of perspective. The first thing we note here that having the right perspective involves two things the:

Vs. 8 Right heart: Paul says first we need to search our heart with regards to 8 things: True, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, of virtue and praiseworthy. Oftentimes our worry and anxiety is because we have not placed our lives within those 8 things and because of it we have lost perspective on life. Refuse the negativity and choose to think about the positive relationship you have with Jesus.

True: As Dr. Cavert pointed out a week ago 92% of our anxiety and worry is on things that aren’t true. Satan will try to rip us off of our joy in Christ by causing us to focus on the 92% of things that aren’t true.
Noble and just: Things that are not worthy of respect and are not right will cause us anxiety and worry. Paul is saying don’t make your focus the things that are unpleasant as they can control your heart and your head.
Pure, Lovely and of good report: “Pure” means moral purity, and “lovely” means beautiful and attractive whereas “good report” means worthy of talking about. Paul is saying that when our mind is in the gutter our heart will be filled with anxiety and worry, so don’t let your heart go to those places or even engage in talking about those things.
Virtue and praiseworthy: If something has “virtue” it will motivate us to do better and if it has “praise” it will be worthy of commending to others. Anxiety and worry will control our lives when what our heart is set on are things that don’t make us better and we can’t commend others.

Vs. 9 Right head: Then we are to meditate or think on those things. Paul mentions the balance between four things:

Learned and received: Perhaps you have experienced that it is one thing to have “learned” something a quite another thing to “receive” it and make it a part of your life. “Facts in the head” are not the same as “truths in the heart”.
Heard and saw: James said in chapter 1 verse 22 that we must be doers of the word and not hearers only. Effective teaching isn’t just in what a person says, it’s also visible in the way they live their lives.

How do you know if you have the right perspective in having the right heart and right head? Well you’re well since the peace of God being with you. Conversely if you aren’t experiencing the peace of God then your perspective may be off. God’s peace is the “umpire” that calls us out! Our faith in Christ was meant for life! When you read the words of Jesus while here on earth you never see Him speak about theology and religion,

He spoke to people about living and enjoying what God attended. Jesus demonstrated the victorious life He desires to give each person. There was no sense of anxiety in Him, He wasn’t concerned about where His next meal was coming from or where He was going to lay His head. Instead He said, look My Father knows your needs before you ask, He sees every bird and we are worth more than that to Him.

Philippians

“Living above the Clouds”

Main Teaching: 4:1-19 Joy in spite of anxiety

4:1-9 God’s peace

4:6-7 “Lost in the garden of worry”

Intro.

Philippians

“Living above the Clouds”

Main Teaching: 4:1-19 Joy in spite of anxiety

Closing: 4:20-23

4:9-23 “Climate Change”

10-23 What state am I in?

Intro.

Throughout Philippians Paul has been challenging his readers not to allow anything to rip us off of our joy in Christ. At times my life has looked more like a thermometer instead of a thermostat! These two devices both work in the same arena but with very different results:

Thermometers: Register temperatures going up and down with the rise and fall of the climate.
Thermostats: Regulate the temperature by changing the surroundings to make them more enjoyable.

You and I are either going to “register” the climate change in our life or we are in Christ going to “regulate” it! We don’t need to settle for the “rise and fall” being changed by circumstances, people, things or anxiety. Instead, we can regulate those things by setting our temperature to JOY and making the room pleasant to all. Looking at this letter and Paul’s statements we can clearly see that he was a “thermostat” as three times in this closing section he says:

4:11 I am Content
4:13 I Can do all things
4:18 I Have all things, abound and am full

Vs 10-23 What state am I in?

Vs. 10 Paul starts with some financial information as clearly this church had been supporting Paul while he had been imprisoned in Rome but something had stopped their ability to do so but it had regained so Paul praises the Lord. There was no mail service or banks and getting funds to Paul was left up to someone willing to travel on foot to Rome from Philippi and apparently no one had been able to make the trip for a while. Paul says that the circumstance created an opportunity for joy to overcome anxiety when things got tight. We must never mistake contentment with complacency. Contentment is not escape from the battle, it’s peace in the midst of the battle.

Vs. 11-20 Paul says his joy was not lessened as his wallet emptied; his peace in Christ had not diminished as his checking account was drained. Paul is going to give the secret of how to maintain your joy no matter what’s happening to you financially. I think this verse might also handle our joy with regards to our geographical location as well. Paul says, “I have learned in whatever STATE I am, to be content!” No matter where you find yourself geographically you can maintain your joy in Christ.

Such a climate change is a learned experience as Paul had to go through many a rise and fall on the thermometer before he understood that in Christ he could permanently get out of the element’s and enjoy life. There are three things about this statement “I have learned in whatever STATE I am, to be content!” that we need to look at:

Vs. 11 Define what we mean by the word “content”: Most folks I think would define contentment as, “Having everything you want” but Paul defines true contentment as “Wanting only what you have!” The story is told of a fellow that put a sign in his front yard with an offer of his house for free if any person could come forward and prove that they were content.

A few days later a very expensive car pulled up and a well-dressed man came to the door and told the man, “I’ve come to claim your house. I have everything I want, all the money I need and everything in life that can satisfy me. I am perfectly content!” The wise home owner answered, “You say your content then why do you want my house?” Saint’s God has created us to “Love Him and people and use things”. But somewhere over the course of life many have reversed this to thinking that we have been created to “Love things and use God and people.”

Vs. 12-13 Poverty and wealth are equal trials: Most folks would say, “I know how to be abased and I’d like to know how to abound!” Paul didn’t see only poverty as a trial while viewing wealth as a blessing, he saw both poverty and wealth have the ability to distort a person and their view on life. Paul goes on to say that he has learned in Christ how to deal with both of these trials of poverty and wealth as he says in verse 13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Throughout this letter Paul has said that the secret was that He saw himself as nothing, could do nothing of his own power and his sole source of joy was living in Christ’s identity and sufficiency! The specific application of this is that he didn’t see himself as defined by poverty or wealth, he saw himself only in Christ! Paul chose to go with God and recognize that what mattered was not what he wanted for his life but what God wanted for his life. What God wanted was that Paul would use things to love people!

Vs. 14-20 Finally Paul addresses how we are supplied during our contentment: Paul’s perspective with regards to joy is that it doesn’t come from others meeting our need but rather from us reaching out and meeting their need. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Paul said that such loving concern for him seen in their financial sacrifice was to be added to their account and that it was a “sweet-smelling aroma” to God. The word “fruit” in verse 17 is a word that we get from our English word for “interest”.

Our joy is increased not by what we receive but rather by what we give. Furthermore in verse 18 he wants them to know that their joy has abounded further than they knew as Paul had taken their gift to him and sent it on to others so that he could have more joy. Notice in verse 19 three things about this supply of joy:

The source of the supply: “My God” not just God, but my God, which implies a personal relationship. Not God as in some cosmic force running here and there but a personal Father who is giving to his children. According to Paul this is a family matter!
The limits of the supply: “All your need” the promise is not “all your wants” as our wants are sometimes way beyond our needs. I have noticed that there are far more wants in my life than there are needs! It was reported that at the beginning of 1900’s the average American wanted 72 things, 18 of which they regarded as necessary. By 1950, the list of American wants had grown to 496 things, 96 of which they regarded as absolute necessities. I’m not certain what that would be today but I’m guessing it would be substantially higher.
The method of the supply: “by Jesus Christ” thus joy is available everywhere to everyone in Christ.

So Paul concludes this great letter by taking the pen in his own hand and writing “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Paul found that he could be content in spite of any circumstance but he could never be content in spite of Christ regardless of how favorable the circumstance.