Joyful Peace

Everyone open to Philippians 4 this morning for us. We are past halfway. In fact, we're in the last chapter of the book of Philippians. We'll be wrapping it up next week. Philippians chapter 4.

We're gonna start from verse 1 in Philippians 4 as Paul writes to the church in Philippi. Therefore, my brothers and my sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes. I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have laboured side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, 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 and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, 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 and seen in me, practise these things, and the God of peace will be with you. So far, our reading. We started this series a few weeks ago by introducing the theme of the series, which is capturing joy.

And we talked about that butterfly. Remember that butterfly as kids that we always used to chase. And then once we caught the butterfly, once we put it in a jar, or once we had it in the net, so often that butterfly just wilted and died. And in a way, our experience of joy can be like that as well. Our pursuit of joy, our chasing after it.

And I mean, whether you are a Christian or not a Christian, this is a common desire in the human heart, chasing for joy, chasing that pursuit of happiness. And yet, we come to this passage in Philippians 4, and Paul is again talking about joy. He says, rejoice. He gives it as a command to be joyful. But we see that there is something happening here that is perhaps the opposite of joy.

There is anxiety here as well because Paul says don't be anxious. So how does joy and this anxiety fit into the picture here? Well, the first thing we see in our passage is that there is tension in this church, and this tension causes anxiety in the heart. Two ladies in particular are mentioned by name, Euodia and Syntyche. Now these are ladies who probably represent two sides of an argument.

They are having a disagreement. But notice that Paul doesn't write to say that he's taking sides with one of the ladies and saying, she's right. You're wrong. He writes to them and simply says, I entreat you to agree in the Lord. Now as we've worked through this letter to the Philippians, we've noticed that the idea of church unity is another big theme in the book.

In chapter 2, Paul says to the church, make my joy complete. I am so thankful to God for who you are, what you have done for me here in jail, but make my joy complete by being of the same mind, being like-minded. But it seems that now we're officially starting to deal with some of the specific details of that disunity, some stakeholders, role players in that. Verse 1 asks for the Philippians to stand firm in the Lord as the tension rises. Now standing firm means not to cave in, not to give over to the temptation of slander, or gossip, or backbiting, or power plays, to stand firm in the Lord and not to do these things.

That happens when Christians disagree. That happens when there is disunity in the church. Stand firm, Paul says. Be of one mind and agree in the Lord. Now there's that phrase again, in the Lord, and we looked at that also in chapter 2.

Remember two weeks ago when Paul also used that phrase when he sends out Timothy and Epaphroditus back to the Philippians. He's saying that he's going to send them. He's planning in the Lord to send them, and that they are to receive them also in the Lord. What does that mean, we asked two weeks ago? It's sort of just a Christian throwaway line almost when we use it.

What does it mean? It means that these actions are grounded in and sourced from Jesus Christ himself. If there's ever a defeatist attitude in people's hearts, if there's ever a moment where people say, it's just too hard, it's about the issue of a disagreement. A really tough, hard disagreement. You've seen it before, haven't you?

They'll never change. There's no point in going on with these discussions and these debates. We'll never see eye to eye. Something in us wants to give up and we want to give up pretty quickly. And yet, God says here, you, I don't care how much you are disagreeing with one another.

Get on with it. Agree in the Lord. How often are we not tempted to give up and say, it's impossible. It's just too hard. I can't, I can't deal with this.

And so I will not change. I cannot move from my position, and they will not move from their position, and so we're never gonna reach an agreement. The Bible says it is possible. Bible says we can strive to agree in the Lord. There is some third way.

There is some solution. It's not a foregone conclusion. The question is, rather this morning, are we willing to find it? Are we willing to pursue it? It takes incredible patience.

Yes. It takes character, actually, more so. And as we read this passage, it also takes supernatural help. But this is what Paul has been saying all along. A church of genuine Christians can actually decide to agree in the Lord.

Do we believe that? I think our churches and how many there are and the movement of people between churches says that we haven't been doing this very well. Now if you think that you can harbour disagreement and that it's better to stay quiet and resentful instead of having an honest yet patient discussion and sorting out that disagreement. If you think there's no harm in holding on to disagreement between believers, well, then you're wrong as well. Because Paul is indicating here that this type of disagreement, this kind of tension actually produces anxiety.

It is this word anxiety, this do not be anxious that Paul is talking about is inner turmoil. It's stress. And the passage verses 4 to 6, we know really well. It's a famous one, isn't it? Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I say rejoice. I always think of that hymn. Rejoice in the Lord always. I won't think it. Then in verse 6, Paul says, and do not be anxious about anything.

Rejoice, but do not be anxious about anything. And in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now that's a great verse that we pull out every now and then when we're anxious, when we're scared, when we're stressed, but we don't realise the context in which it was placed, which is church disunity, disagreements. These are the things that are causing anxiety in the Philippian church. And I wanna tell you this morning, if you think you're harbouring bitterness or you're harbouring disagreement, and I'm not talking about it, but I'm not sorting it out either, is okay, is neutral, it's not.

It is producing anxiety. It is producing in you turmoil, and it's a tension that lingers. If you think it will go away by itself, you're wrong. And how about this? How about this?

If you think that it is better to leave the church, then never see that person again, that does not solve the anxiety. It lingers. It stays. So God is telling us this morning, whatever the tension is, whatever disagreement we may have sensed, and perhaps we're in a good season where we're getting along with everyone, whatever disagreement we may have, even whether that person is now in our church or not, if they are a Christian brother or a Christian sister, you have an obligation to work towards agreement in the Lord. Otherwise, your struggle will keep going.

You'll never be free from it. And so the question that is sort of ramping up here for us is how? How do we do this? How do we begin to even feel compelled to go and make it right? How are we compelled to agree in the Lord when everything in us is screaming that we are right, they are wrong?

They are the most pig-headed people in the world. They will never change. How do we overcome this anxiety, this stress, this bitterness? Amazingly, it's joy. It's rejoicing that is the solution to overcoming this anxiety.

In verse 4, Paul underlines joy. He underlines it. If he was writing his letter in Microsoft Word, he would have put it in size 20 font, bold, double underlined, rejoice. Again, this verse is so well known by many Christians that we kind of lose the significance of which it was written to. There's a disagreement.

There is a tension between sisters in the Lord, but this disagreement, Paul says, is solved with joy, by joy. And this joy is combined with the characteristic that he adds in verse 5, reasonableness. And in the face of disagreement, reasonableness is part of the solution. Why? Because reasonableness maintains unity.

Reasonableness is the disposition that seeks what is best, not just for oneself, but for everyone. Reasonableness is the disposition that seeks what is best, not for oneself, but for everyone. And so to be reasonable means that you are a person who is willing to reason. A person who can put aside their position for a while to hear and to evaluate the position of someone else. And we've all experienced this, haven't we?

We've been involved in an argument. We've witnessed an argument. We know how it goes. Everyone draws their defensive lines and says, I will not move from this. And they say, I will not move from this, and we just have a screaming session at one another.

We dig in to our positions, hold our line, but then, stunningly, someone does something unusual. They're almost supernatural, and they say, I see your point. I understand where you're coming from. Yes. I actually think you might be right about that.

And all of a sudden, there's just a change in the dynamics. All of a sudden, that reasonableness causes this tension to start breaking down, and the way people start or continue interacting from that point onwards turns for the better. But it is so rare that it is almost shocking. When it happens, you'll just have to take a double take and be like, oh, did that just happen? I saw this happen last night.

Now this is a very small, petty example, but it just reminded me. I'm playing a volleyball tournament over this weekend. I told the boys, actually, I'll give a shout out to Gold Coast Volleyball Club, the Storm, we're called. I'll be really chuffed to know this afternoon when I see them that I've mentioned them. But last night, after one of our games, one of the boys, with a lot of frustration and emotion after we, while we were having our team debrief about a game, told me in front of everyone, singled me out and said, I played in a wrong defensive position throughout the game.

He was frustrated because I was edging into his space, and he felt like he couldn't do his job. Now he said this emphatically. He said it without pulling punches. And the tension, mind you, is between two of the most senior players, myself and this guy. Two of the most senior.

So it's you could hear a pin drop. Everyone's holding their breath just watching the drama unfold. What's gonna happen? And so my teammate brings out this complaint, and he's starting to really build up a head of steam. He's knowing that I might push back on this.

And then all of a sudden, I say, I see your point. And like, I asked a few questions just to sort it out, and I think that was probably what he thought is, like, I'm pushing back against this. But then I said, I understand how you could have been affected by my decision to do that. And whoosh, the steam is released. The everyone sort of just takes a breath and it just becomes normal again.

The pressure valve is released. The team goes on with the team chat normally after that, but you know what? Ten minutes later, he comes and he sits right next to me. He pulls out a pen and paper and he draws up the court, and he draws where he was standing, where I was standing. He's just saying, explain to me what you were thinking.

Like, why you were moving into that position. Maybe there's something we can work out where your understanding and my understanding can sort of work together. Now if I had kept my position and we sort of just let it sort of just hang in the air there and I say, I will agree to disagree, that wouldn't have happened. That's a third way. That is reasonableness in a way.

Now that is a really petty thing. It's such a small thing. This is not as complex as some of the disagreements we have with people in our lives, over big things, family things. But can you understand how that reasonableness is so powerful? Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

Let it be a marker of your character. Now, of course, like I said, this is not a big deal, but this again brings us to the concept of joy. I think we can only be truly reasonable, truly willing to listen, willing to change and adapt if we are saturated in joy with the Lord. How? Why?

Because if we are permeated with joy, then a flipping volleyball game becomes such a non-issue. If we are so consumed and we are so satisfied in the God we love, the destiny we know is sealed for us, protected and guarded by the unchanging God himself for us. The tension just leaves. The disagreements just become so nothing. These disagreements fade into obscurity when we are truly satisfied, truly contented by the joy that we have as Christians because we have a Saviour who loves us.

We have a destiny that is so glorious. We have an existence waiting for us where no disagreements will ever exist again. Why does Paul tell the Philippians to always rejoice in the face of tension in the church? Because joy changes our perspective. Joy changes us.

So those things we thought were important to fight over, well, they don't seem so important now. C.S. Lewis in his famous sermon, I guess you would call it, "The Weight of Glory", memorably said this: "Our Lord finds our desires, our passions not too strong, but rather too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is what is offered to us. Like ignorant children who want to go on making mud pies in a slum because they cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea." In other words, what Lewis is saying, we choose to fight when we think we can be content with that, satisfied by that, when the one thing that gives satisfaction in every situation is the joy of God, the joy of knowing Him, the joy of being known by Him.

And that is the joy that God wants to give us. It is not something we have to fight and claw for. This is something that God is holding out to us. Lewis is saying, but we choose control over that joy. We choose my rights over that joy.

We choose unforgiveness and resentment and bitterness over that joy. It's the mud pies in the slum. How ironic is that? How shortsighted is that? We choose to build our little kingdom of worry and stress over an existence in the kingdom of God marked with joy.

But there's a specific way we can receive this joy. There's a specific way we tap into it, and that is what Paul moves on into to talk about in verse 6, prayer. Prayer is the method by which we reach this joy or at least access it. Paul writes, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And we won't spend too much time on this point because we all know it.

We all know it. We know we should be praying more. We all understand it. Our problem isn't so much with the understanding that prayer is important. Our problem is in the implementation of it, the regular habit of it.

That's the problem. But see what happens here. Paul says, we don't have to be anxious about anything when we bring everything to God through joyful prayer. Prayer is a sign of trust. Prayer is a sign of trust.

Prayer is a habit of saying to ourselves, I'm not the one that's gonna fix this. No amount of arguing or being angry or holding on to bitterness is going to solve this. God needs to help me here. God needs to change me. God needs to change the situation.

But notice how joy is infiltrating this moment. Even when we make our supplications, which just means our requests. Even as we make these requests known to God, they are marked with thanksgiving, Paul says. Marked with giving thanks. Now if you think that this is some cold formula that you have to remember, like a two to one ratio, two things to pray for, one thing to be thankful for, or whatever, you're missing the point.

The joy in the law that Paul is emphatically underlining for us is finding its way into our prayer life so much so that we can't help but ask God for help and rejoice that He will do it and rejoice that He's already started. We can't help but be thankful when we come to God in joy for all the thousands of blessings we have already received from His gracious hand. If you think that it's impossible to change the situation of your tension, your disagreement, you should ask yourself this: Have I really prayed about this? Like, really prayed about this.

Not the arrow prayers that we shoot up to heaven. Have I sat down and spoken to God and laid these requests with joy and thankfulness to God? Even if you doubt that anything can be done about the situation, prayer is a signal to your heart that you are not in control, that God is in control, that He is the one able to bring about change, both in you and in those around us. Prayer is a reminder to our hearts to trust in God alone, not to trust in your ability to sort it out. Times where I realise I haven't prayed very much is the times where I think, I've got this, God.

I'll sort it out. Thankfully, by His grace, He makes me fall on my face often to realise that I don't got this. It's like a story of a family who had put their grandma on her first plane flight ever. She wasn't very happy about the experience. She wasn't sure about the thought of leaving the ground in this contraption of a device.

But when they came to pick her up from the airport on her return, one of the family members cheekily asked her, well, did the plane hold you up okay? She grudgingly replied, well, yes, but then quickly added, but I never put my full weight down on it. Regular prayer is putting all our weight on God. Sporadic, infrequent praying is saying to ourselves, I can handle this. We have to remember who God is, and we have to remember who we are.

He is the one that empowers us. He is the one that changes our hearts to find agreement in the Lord. And then lastly, notice what happens when we pray. Peace is the result of that prayer. Verse 7, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

And what the Bible is talking about here is a peace that comes from God who is never subject to anxiety. It's coming from God, this peace, who doesn't understand, or He understands, who doesn't experience this tension or this anxiety because He is the all-powerful God, God, the Lord of the universe. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing makes Him bite His nails. This is the peace that Jesus pointed to when He gave that promise to His disciples, I give you peace, not as the world gives it.

And every child, every true child of God has felt that peace at one point. And every child of God knows that this peace is a peace that can only come from Him. It doesn't come with cognitive behaviour therapy. Even though that might be good, but that peace doesn't come from that. This peace doesn't come from positive self talk.

There is something supernatural about this peace. It altogether surpasses natural understanding. And this peace stands guard like a sentry over our inner person, our heart and our mind, Paul says. We are in an intimate, permanent union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And in order to get to us, anxiety must first get through Jesus.

That's the image we're given here. It guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Prayer, habitually going to God in joy with gratitude, laying before Him our needs, in a peace that cannot be shaken, results in a peace that doesn't fit the norm of someone in your position. Recently, I received news about one of our lecturers at the RTC, the college that I work for, part time. We heard that one of our lecturers has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he has months to live.

And it was an incredible shock. He is the healthiest man in the faculty. And without God's direct intervention, he said to us, we'll be burying soon. And yet he wrote the most amazing email to the faculty members when he shared the news with us. He said, after hearing the outcome from the doctor, the prognosis, how far the cancer had spread, he says, this is what he writes:

It was a grim meeting, and we were shaken up by it. But still, I know that the Lord is good, that He never does anything wrong, and that even this news is part of His good dealings with me. He says, some have said that I shouldn't trivialise or theologise this situation. But for me, it's not a false theologising. It's a matter of worldview.

God is who He is, and this is how the world works. Because of Jesus Christ, he says, our heavenly Father knows us better than we know ourselves, and He loves us more than we can love ourselves. He finishes, why wouldn't I trust Him? This is the reality for us as Christians. In all the hardships we face, in all the struggles, the tensions of our relationships, the reality is, the truth is, our heavenly Father knows us better than we know ourselves.

He loves us more than even the most egomaniac person amongst us. And this produces the peace that surpasses all understanding. This is the peace that allows us to do what Paul then adds in verses 8 and 9, to think about whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, to think about such things. These are the things that we will be freed to do once that anxiety is removed, once that bitterness has evaporated. These are the things that will take up our heart space now, our head space, all that is commendable, all that is good, all that is lovely once we rest in the peace of God and our joy in Him.

So rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer, with thanksgiving, bring your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we thank you for these words. We thank you for the access we have to peace and joy that surpasses natural understanding, natural circumstances. Lord God, we rest in that this morning. Where there is disagreement, disunity, tension between us, Father, help us to identify that.

Even now as we leave this place to know that, to see that, and convict us, Holy Spirit, to do something about it. Help us to agree in the Lord. And then, Father, help us to reclaim habitually the joy of knowing you, the joy of a life grounded in the hope that we will one day be free from all pain, from all hardship, from all disunity. Help us to find our joy in that, that it is guarded for us, protected for us, and that in turn guards our hearts and our minds. We praise you, God, lastly, because you have made this possible for us by your incredible grace for us in Jesus Christ.

And, Lord, I wanna pray for anyone here who has not known this, who has never tasted this, has never experienced this, perhaps has never believed that this could be for them. Lord, I pray that this morning, they may put up their hands. They may open their hearts to receive the love, the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness of our unbelief, of our rebellion against your will, of disappointing our great heavenly Father's heart, and, Lord, that we may be reconciled, restored back with you. We thank you for this truth. We claim it for our own again this morning, and we walk out of this place with your peace and your joy in our hearts.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.