Philippians 4:9

Alright, today we are going to be starting off in Philippians chapter 4. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand, and one of the ushers will get you one. If you're looking for Philippians chapter 4, it's about this close to the end.

I am going to approach with confidence today the things the Lord has laid out in His Word regarding how we can have joy in difficult circumstances and hard times. I have confidence in what He tells us, in His promises, and that He will do exactly what He says He will do. Do not mistake any of this for mastery on my part. I am not coming before you as someone who knows how to handle these situations or as an expert in all these things. I am here to share what God has told us and how He has laid these things out for us.

We will start in Philippians chapter 4, beginning in verse 4, which says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again: Rejoice. Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Heavenly Father, as we approach Your Word today, we pray that You would speak to us. Give us wisdom and discernment, Father God, and grant us a supernatural understanding of Your Word. We give You free reign to deal with us in whatever manner You choose. We pray that You would bring to mind the things we need to apply or change in our own lives, or the things You want us to understand. So, Father God, speak to Your people today through Your Word. We pray these things in Your name. Amen.

So, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. When we're facing difficult circumstances, sometimes it feels like that's an option.

But it's not presented as optional in Scripture. This is a command to be followed; it's a command, not a suggestion at this point. When God gives us a command, this is broadly applicable to anywhere in the Bible. We trust Him that it is possible. That doesn't mean it's easy. However, because it is a command from God, we know two things in particular.

The command is given for our good. God doesn't command things just to annoy us, break us, or for any other negative reason. He gives us commands because they are good for us. The second thing we know is that whenever God gives us a command, it is given because He loves us. If you are taking notes today, point one in your outline is that God's commands are given for our good and because He loves us.

So when He gives us the command to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, it's not optional. When things are mentioned like this in Scripture, when they are repeated, it's for the same reason that we repeat things for our own children. I often do this with my youngest, where I will look at him and say, "I want you to do this," and then I will ask, "What did I just say?" When he responds with "I don't know," I will say it again. God does the same thing for us. When there is a tendency for us to miss things, He will repeat it.

Here, He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice." Then He goes on to say, "Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near." We sometimes have a tendency, when we are dealing with difficult circumstances, to feel like God is far off from us. However, it tells us here that God is near.

We also have a tendency, when things are going well, to completely forget about God being near us. When life is good, we often think, "Life is great." But in times of tragedy, in times of difficult diagnoses, and in times when things are hard, that's when we need to understand that He is near most of all. It says in Proverbs 34:18 that God is near to the brokenhearted. Before it says "The Lord is near," it states, "Let your graciousness be known."

Let your graciousness be known to everyone; the Lord is near. How are people going to know our graciousness? Well, a couple of things. We have to be gracious in a way that is noticeable. For it to be noticeable, people have to see it.

We have a tendency, when times are difficult, to pull back, isolate, and keep to ourselves. Don't do that. Don't isolate. There are times when you just can't, and that's understandable. But you cannot be isolated all the time. We want to pull back; we want to lick our wounds. That's normally our first reaction. However, science has shown us that our first reaction is almost always wrong.

I audited a class at Yale, so you know they're truthful. It was on the science of happiness. They found a lot of things, but one of the things that really stuck out to me was that when we try to decide what is going to make us happy, we are overwhelmingly wrong. Most of the time, we get it completely wrong. We want to isolate when what brings us joy and happiness is to be in community. We want to be alone when what brings us the most comfort is the presence of others.

So, we need to make sure that we are not isolating ourselves. We need to remember that we're terrible at knowing what the best thing for us is. Let's look to the Word and see what God has for us. People need to know that our graciousness is genuine. False platitudes and imitation sunny demeanor help nobody. If your circumstances are difficult, just say that. Yes, you know what? This is awful. I hate this. I don't like this. But Jesus loves me. Those two things can coexist. We can be upset with our circumstances and love Jesus.

Jesus himself showed us this on the night when he was going to the cross. He was in the garden, praying and stressed to the point where it says he was sweating drops of blood. He said, "Lord, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me."

But not my will, but yours be done. This is what it means to be gracious in these things. Lord, not my will, but your will be done.

Then He says the simplest and easiest thing for all of us to follow, one that we really don't even have to mention because we're all masters of it: don't worry. If it were only as simple as Bobby McFerrin made it sound, right? Don't worry. Be happy. Like, okay, thanks, Bobby. That solved all my problems.

The call to not worry, once again, is a command, which we know is for our good and because God loves us. He says don't worry, but we know it's not intuitive. It's not instinctual. It's not normal. Our normal state is to worry. We generally are a people of worriers. We think about this and we think about that, planning and worrying about all these things, and it just builds up. But He says it's a command. It's for our own good. It's because God loves us.

So then, what do we do with the worry? He outlines it for us here. That's the fantastic part about Scripture: when it asks us something unreasonable, it often gives us the ways to tackle it reasonably. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice. Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

So He says prayer. We tell God about it: "God, this is my situation. I know you know, but I need to say it. This is terrible. I don't like this. This is awful." Then we get to petition: "Lord, could you please change this? Could you please fix this? Lord, I am begging you in this situation, please." That's petition. We ask God to remove it or we ask God to change it.

Then we get to thanksgiving. This is where things get very much counterintuitive. "Lord, I'm going to thank you for this situation. I'm going to thank you, Lord God, that you love me and that you are with me." And if I'm going to get really radical, "Lord, I'm going to thank you that I have the opportunity to learn from you as I go through this." We show gratitude even when it makes no earthly sense at all.

Finally, we need to bring our worries to God, bring them to God, and leave them with Him.

Once again, this is not a one-time thing. This is not something where it's like, "Okay, Lord, I'm not going to worry anymore." If you're anything like me, it takes about four seconds before I've picked that back up, and now I'm thinking about it again. It becomes a cycle; it becomes a routine. It’s like saying, "Lord, I'm going to give this to You. I don't want it. Please take it." And we go over and over and over.

Then it says the peace of God will guard our heart and mind. The peace of God—it's not our own peace. It's not a made-up peace. It's not, "I'm going to feel peace." It's the peace of God. It's the peace of knowing that God is at work in my life. It's the peace that comes from understanding that God knows what's best for me and that God loves me. I know that my future, my being, everything that I'm worrying about is in His hands anyway, and I'm going to leave it with Him.

The peace of God, which surpasses understanding—I love that. That's a nice scriptural way of saying it makes no sense at all. It surpasses understanding. I don't understand how I can have peace. I have seen people go through extreme trials and tribulations, and you look at them and see peace in them. You wonder, "How in the world are you having peace right now?" It passes understanding. It's not something we are made to understand. We were not given the burden of understanding. All the way back to the garden with Adam and Eve, God asked them for obedience. He never asked them to understand.

The peace of God will guard your heart and mind. The peace of God is what keeps us from going into complete and utter heartache. It's what keeps our minds from chasing deadly rabbits. What I mean by that is we often have a tendency, when we're facing hard things, to start trying to figure out how we're going to get out of it. A lot of times, if it's a health issue, we turn to Dr. Google and find out that the pain in my pinky toe means I'm dead. We have to be careful because we have tendencies.

I'm going to speak prophetically here because I know it's me, and I'm hoping somebody else goes through the same thing. We have tendencies to think, "I'm going to figure out a way out of this." I start trying to understand, and it's like I need to step back and trust that God is going to guard my heart and mind. But I have to let Him do that. I have to step back from the things that I want to control, the ways that I want to try to figure it all out.

It out and trust Him. I'm going to trust You instead of trusting in Google. It says the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. This is where the peace is found. This is where all of these things are found. This is where the ability to not worry is found because we are hiding ourselves within Jesus Christ. We are leaning into Him; we're pressing into Him. In these times, we are going to completely envelop ourselves in Him.

Yet, we're left with the question: how in the world do I pull this off? Lord, how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to not worry about things? How am I supposed to trust the peace of God? How am I supposed to allow You to guard my heart and mind when my heart and mind are all over the place right now?

It’s almost like the Holy Spirit knew that this would be difficult for us because, in His loving kindness, God put verse 8 after verse 7. In verse 8, it says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable; if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things."

We need to dwell in the whatevers. It's point 2 in your outline if you're taking notes: dwell in the whatevers. Now, we need to be careful about how we present the whatevers. For a lot of us who are parents with teenagers, "whatever" has a certain context, but this is not that same context. We need to dwell on the whatevers.

Whatever is true—the first one. Whatever is true means that if we're going to dwell on what's true, we need to fight against the different lies. We need to fight against the lies that are going to come against us. First and foremost, we're going to have lies from the enemy. Satan is going to want to lie to us in these things. He is going to want to send our minds to other places. We need to fight those lies.

We also need to fight the lies from well-wishers—people who want to come in and give us their wisdom that is contrary to God's wisdom. People very often want to do something, and when we don't have something that we do, sometimes we say things that might have been better left unsaid.

And then the most insidious lies that we have to face, the lies we have to fight against, are the lies from ourselves. We are the person who is most effective at lying to us anywhere. We know exactly the lies that we want to believe. We supply the lies that make us feel better or make us think we feel better. We have to watch those as well because we are experts in telling ourselves lies.

We need to consider whatever is true and whatever is honorable. Whatever is honorable means asking if it is worthy of respect. Does this bring respect and honor to the Lord and His people, or not? So, is this true? Is it honorable? Is it just? Just means innocent, holy, and righteous. Does what I'm thinking or expressing unjustly impugn God and His grace or others? Am I thinking unjustly about others? Sometimes, when we're having a hard time, we tend to look at other people and think, "I don't understand why they're having such a fine life." We need to be careful; that's not just. If it's not just, I am not going to let my mind dwell there.

Whatever is pure is pure from carnality, chaste, modest, and free from every fault—immaculate and clean. Our flesh has a tendency, when we are facing difficult times, when we're hurting or tired, to supply something to make us feel better. Unless you are a much better Christian than I am, it's usually not something godly. We will very often turn to Ben and Jerry's instead of turning to Jesus. We often turn to things that harm us, things that we look at that we shouldn't, things that we say that we shouldn't, drugs, drink, and all kinds of things. Our flesh wants to supply all kinds of things for us to make us feel better that ultimately do not make us feel better. When we turn to Ben and Jerry's to solve a problem, the problem is still there, and now I'm feeling sick.

Whatever is lovely—does this make loving God easier? Does this focus me on loving God and loving His people?

It's very easy to dwell on things that draw us away from God, making it more difficult to love Him. As we go through life's challenges, we should ask ourselves: Does this make loving God or others easier or harder? The phrase "whatever is commendable" refers to being kindhearted. We need to consider whether what we are thinking about, dwelling on, or pondering is kind. Am I showing kindness towards others? Am I showing kindness towards myself? We are called to focus on whatever is commendable.

If there is any moral excellence, we should reflect on whether our thoughts are virtuous. Is the way I'm thinking leading me closer to God, or is it taking me further away? Is this bringing me closer to God's people, or is it distancing me from them? If there is anything praiseworthy, am I praising God in these circumstances? Am I choosing, despite everything going on, to say, "Lord, I am going to praise You"? I may not understand it, I may not like it, and I may not want it, but Lord, I will praise You through it.

We are instructed to dwell on these praiseworthy things. However, this is a tall order; it is not a one-time task. It is not as simple as saying, "Okay, I will dwell on these things, and everything will be fine." No, this is something we must do repeatedly because we will often stray from the place we are meant to dwell and visit places that are not good for us. When we find ourselves in those places, we should make the visit short and return to dwelling on the "whatevers."

We must also give ourselves grace. When facing difficult times, we tend to be very hard on ourselves and on others. We should offer ourselves the same grace that God has offered us and extend that grace to those around us. James, in chapter 1, talks about rejoicing in adversity. In James 1:2, it says, "Consider it great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

And let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature, complete, lacking nothing. Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him.

In this passage in James chapter 1, he starts out saying to consider it a great joy. The word "consider" there is an accounting term. It's like when you face great trials; you take this and you put this in the joy column. Once again, God is asking us to do things that are not easy, that are difficult, and that require His help. So when He says to consider it a great joy, not just consider it, but to truly embrace it as great joy, we should say, "Lord, thank you that I get to face this." We may never hit that point, but that's the goal. "Lord, thank you for the privilege of walking with You through this."

He says to consider it great joy, brothers and sisters. He's very inclusive. We are all going to face trials. The thing to remember is that a trial in someone else's life does not have to seem significant to me for it to be significant to them. I learned this in youth ministry when dealing with junior hires. They go through a difficult breakup and are heartbroken, and you think, "Dude, you're 10. There was never a future here." But in their life, that is the most devastating thing they have dealt with. It doesn't have to be devastating to me for it to be devastating to them. So we need to be careful when we're facing those situations.

Whenever you experience various trials, there are many types and different kinds of trials. He says this because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. We know this because it has been revealed to us in Scripture. We see this pattern throughout creation, that testing your faith produces endurance. We see it in something as simple as high school boys. One of the great motivations for high school boys is high school girls.

We know this. Many of us have lived this. Like the males of many species, the high school boy will attempt to present himself in a way that he thinks is attractive. Males, like male goats, will urinate on themselves because they think it makes them attractive to females. Maybe it does; I don't know. I'm not a goat, and I don't get it. High school boys will get their pump on. They'll sit there and do some push-ups, and then they'll come out and show off. It's fun to watch; it's great.

We all want muscles, but not very many people want to do the work to build them. We don't build muscle without exercise, and we don't build endurance without testing and trial. The Bible says that the testing of your faith produces endurance. All of our trials, great and small, are opportunities to reveal where our faith lies. Am I able to trust God in this, because of this, or in spite of this? Am I willing to cling to Him when my faith is tested?

We know that when our faith is tested, it produces endurance. Endurance is built through testing and trial. Very few people are successful at running a marathon if they don't train. Endurance is built through testing.

Then it says, "Let endurance have its full effect." The thing that really blew me away there is that first word in that phrase: let. We have the option to let endurance have its effect or not. We can choose to grow through it, or we can crumble. The nature of the trials we face can be instructive or destructive. I can learn through what I'm facing, or I can be broken by it. Sometimes both happen at the same time. But if we choose to look at our trial as instructive, God will use it in our life to be constructive.

God will take what He is teaching us and build us into the person who looks more like Him, who acts more like Him, and who is a greater reflection of who He is. He does this through trials. The whole point of this, as James points out, is so that we may be mature, complete, lacking nothing.

Point three in your outline, if you're taking notes, is that God's purpose in trials is that we become mature, complete, and whole. Our trial will either break us or build us. Sometimes it builds us by breaking us. If we look at this and say, "Lord, this is really difficult. How in the world am I going to figure this out? I don't understand how I'm supposed to consider it great joy. I don't know how I'm supposed to let endurance have its full effect in my life," the Holy Spirit lovingly adds the next verse.

Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. If we lack wisdom, we should ask. While we're in the trial, we may not understand why this is happening to us. We may wonder how we can endure this. We might think, "Lord, I don't understand. I don't think I can bear this. I don't think I can carry this. What about the people that I love? What is going to happen to them as I walk through this?"

The answer to all of these questions, and the ones we don't even realize we're asking yet, will be found in the wisdom that God gives us. God wants to give us wisdom. It says He is not just generous but also ungrudgingly. He is not stingy; He wants to give it to us, and He wants to give us a ton of wisdom.

How then do we find that wisdom? That wisdom is going to be resident in the Word of God. As we spend time in the Word, God will reveal more and more of Himself to us. He will take us to greater depths as we are in His Word and as we walk through trials. There are times when I understand it is difficult to read. Sometimes our eyes are tired, and it feels like, "Lord, I just can't open a page."

We live in such a magnificent time. On my phone, I can listen to any one of about 200 Bible translations. I can listen to them in languages I don't know, though I don't recommend it; it's not really useful. However, when it hurts to read and my head is pounding, I can sit there and listen. I can just say, "Okay, Lord, I'm just going to listen." Try it sometime instead of just reading. It's kind of weird what happens. God speaks to us—He speaks to me differently sometimes when I just listen. When I listen, I'm not thinking about how I can tear this apart. Sometimes, I just sit and listen. It's great to fall asleep to His voice as I'm listening to His Word, and it's great to wake up to His Word.

He flat out tells us where to find wisdom. He says, "Come to me, and I will give it to you generously." But once again, it is a choice that we have to make. We have to come to Him. We have to approach Him and say, "Lord, I want this wisdom," and then He will generously give it to us. The same way we have to consider it all joy, the same way we have to let endurance have its full effect. Once again, this is a command: if you lack wisdom, ask me.

Romans chapter 5, as if the Bible wasn't challenging enough, says, "And not only that, we also rejoice in our afflictions." We rejoice in our afflictions because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The purpose of trials, as it tells us in Romans, is to build endurance, to build stamina, to develop the ability to move further, to develop character so we may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. It strengthens our faith and produces hope. Hope is amazing. Hope is incredibly powerful. It defies all logic and reason. There was a study that they did, I think it was in the 30s, and it's...

Like a lot of early psychological studies, it's pretty horrific what they did, but the results were absolutely amazing. This doctor, who was testing these things, took rats and dropped them in containers of water to chart how long they could swim. The average was 15 minutes. When they took some of the rats, rescued them, dried them off, and resuscitated them, then put them back in the water, they swam for 60 hours. That is the difference of hope.

When we know that there is a rescue, when we know that our Savior is there, when we know, "Lord, I can trust you; I know that you're going to be there for me," hope leads us to do absolutely insane things. It says hope will not disappoint us. We will never be hurt by hoping because God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Hope leads us to do unreasonable things, like loving Jesus through our trials. It leads us to do unreasonable things like loving Jesus even because of our trials. Hope can take us to the place where we can actually boast in our affliction.

Now, let's discuss some real practical applications. The first one is to reframe challenges as opportunities. Take what seems like a challenge and make it an opportunity. I started on Monday when I was praying and asking, "Lord, what are we going to talk about this week? What should we talk about?" It was like, "Okay, joy. We're going to talk about joy." Then on Tuesday, when everything came to light, I thought, "Okay, Lord, what are we teaching? Because it's probably not joy." And He said, "No, no, no, we're teaching joy."

So, on Monday, when Jason was blissfully ignorant of the things that were coming this week, I started to keep a growth and gratitude journal. It's great because I can do it on my phone, and my phone will remind me every time I get in my car to fill out my growth and gratitude journal. I will sit there before I move and mark down things.

At least three things that I'm grateful for and something that I'm learning. It's a great way to document your lessons; it's like a stone of remembrance. Reframing self-talk to replace my complaints with prayer and praise is essential. All the things we talked about in Philippians 4:8 remind us that whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, morally excellent, or praiseworthy, we should dwell on those things. So, when I have the temptation to complain, I substitute these positive thoughts.

During tough times, it's important to set small, achievable goals. When you are going through something difficult, now is not the time to say, "I'm going to read the Bible in a year." When things are hard, set small, achievable goals. For example, you might say, "I'm going to read a chapter or a verse tomorrow, Lord, and I'm going to do that one thing." Make them achievable and build off of them.

Probably the most practical guidance is laid out for us in Philippians 3:13-14. It says, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching toward what is ahead, I pursue my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus." Paul acknowledges that he hasn't made it yet, but he knows this: forgetting what is behind is crucial.

What is behind us? It includes past hurts, where we need to forgive others, and past failures of our own, where we need to forgive ourselves. It also encompasses past patterns and history, things we may have engaged in. We need to reach forward toward what is ahead. We can say, "Lord, I'm going to take those things in the past, leave them there, and move forward away from them. I'm going to reach toward what is ahead."

Reaching means intentionally striving toward our goals. I am going to push toward this. I will do whatever I can to go forward. But have you ever tried to go forward while looking backward? This always sticks out to me. One of my sons, who is stubborn—he's my kid, and we're all stubborn—was in trouble for something. He was not happy about it and was angry. As he started walking away, he was yelling and walked right into the wall.

First, if we are looking backwards, we are not going to be good at reaching forwards. Paul says, "Forgetting what is behind, reaching towards what is ahead." As we reach forward to what is ahead, we don't get to choose our future, but we do get to choose how we face it. We are reaching forward towards what is ahead, which is God's call in Christ Jesus. It's a call to be restored to a right relationship with God; it's to be righteous in His sight. That is the prize, and the prize is a promise. The prize is not a maybe.

As we close here shortly, the worship team is going to come up. A couple of things to think about when we talk about the prize in Christ: it is a promise, not a maybe. This is something that He says; this is the call in Christ Jesus. This is what is there; it's heavenly. We are not going to understand it most likely. It is the heavenly call in Christ Jesus, and we are called to pursue it, to chase it, and to go after it no matter what.

A closing thought for you comes from 2 Timothy 4:8, where Paul is writing to his young protégé. It is at the very end for him, and he knows his end is near. He says, "Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing." That call in Christ Jesus, that prize that Paul is striving for, is the crown of righteousness given to those who love the appearing of Jesus. Let's be those people.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, as I look at Your Word and see the things You have laid out, they are clear. They are right there in black and white, or red and white. They are laid out before us, and yet, Lord, they are not easy. It is not things...

That comes natural to us is not things that tend to be our default, Lord. It's things that are, Lord. Sometimes the things just seem overwhelming. I pray that you would give us wisdom, Lord, that you would help us to count it all joy, and that you would help us to reach forward, Lord, to forget what's behind.

I pray that you would help us to deal with the situations that we're in. Father God, you would help us to have joy. For those who are struggling today, Lord, for those that are facing difficulty, like the Childers and Hatch families, Lord, like Sharon Moody and her daughter Heather and her family, and the Katona family, Lord, and those who are struggling and that we are unaware of yet, I pray that you would, in each of their lives, give them that supernatural strength, Lord God, that wisdom that passes understanding, and the peace that passes understanding.

Lord, that you would bring comfort, that you would bring healing, Lord God, and that you would make yourself known to them and through them to us, Lord God, even more. Lord Jesus, we lift you in your presence.