Philippians 4:6-7 | Trust the Guard

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

We've been working through this text together.

This morning I want to read verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 if you have your Bible and would like to follow along.

Beginning in chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 4, the text says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

And 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.

Amen.

Before we get started here, I want to clarify some distinctions.

First, this message in Philippians chapter 4 is directed toward Christians.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

We have to keep that in mind in a world that is often driven by worry and anxiety.

This text is written to Christians.

And so it assumes that the people who are receiving it have the Holy Spirit living within them, providing a power that is beyond your own.

Non-Christians do not possess the power to fulfill this passage and to walk in this light.

Second distinction is that this is not a let go and let God kind of teach.

It requires active effort from the believer in Christ.

And that effort begins with five key words.

Five small words.

They are the key to understanding our text in Philippians this morning.

You won't see them, though, hanging on walls in homes.

You won't see them plastered across social media.

You won't see them stitched into pillows on couches.

Although maybe they should be.

But they are the hinge upon which everything in Philippians chapter 4, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 swing.

Philippians 4:4

And they are five small words that can change your life.

Now a hinge is a small part, right?

I meant to bring one this morning.

I forgot all about it.

A hinge doesn't draw much attention.

It isn't the door itself.

It's not the frame that the door hangs on.

The hinge is a pivot point that gets forgotten as long as everything else works properly.

But if you remove it, or if it gets pulled out of the wall, if it gets loosened, then everything swings free or stays in place, and you get frustrated and disconcerted.

The hinge is what holds everything together and makes it work.

Now last week we focused on what comes before the hinge, which is the command to rejoice always, and to let our reasonableness or our our gentleness, our controlled strength to be evident to everyone.

This morning we're going to shift to the other side of the hinge.

So we transition from rejoicing and gentleness to one of the most natural human struggles: anxiety.

And we're going to see that the Lord's nearness is not just background music for Christian living.

It's the reason that we can be free from the grip of anxiety.

The main message that the Apostle Paul emphasizes in these verses is that the Lord's closeness should protect your heart and your mind.

The clear, very strong and pointed element here that stems from all of this is that we shouldn't be anxious because the Lord is near.

So let's spend this morning understanding what that means and why it matters.

We're going to briefly study, revisit the core of this message, then we're going to consider the command to not be anxious.

Then we'll move to explore God's way to combat anxiety before trusting the divine guard of our hearts and minds.

So as we begin that process, let's revisit a little bit the hinge.

What does that sentence, the Lord is at hand, mean?

That is the hinge.

That sentence, the end of verse 5, is our hinge.

The Lord is at hand.

What does that mean?

I suggested last week that it functions as that hinge that ties together, on the one hand, rejoicing in gentleness, and on the other hand, do not be anxious.

That statement seems to echo the language of the Psalms.

We learned that Psalm 145, verse 8, reminds all of Israel that Yahweh is near to all who call on him, to all who come to him in truth.

Psalms 145:8

We looked at Psalm 34, verse 18.

Psalms 34:18

It says, Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

So these are clearly Old Testament realities that God's covenant people were singing and praying to remind themselves of God's presence.

And all of that was rooted in God's law.

We saw in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 7.

Deuteronomy 4:7

The reminder, what nation is there?

What great nation even that has a God so near, so close to it as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call on him.

So the closeness of God was a source of great comfort and encouragement to God's people in the Old Testament.

Their God was not far off.

He was near.

He was not an indifferent God.

He listened.

He responded.

He saved.

He's relational.

He hears.

He sees his people.

He's capable of meeting their needs and saving them.

We also observe that in the New Testament, nearness has a forward-looking aspect.

So James and James chapter 5, verse 8, says that the coming of the Lord is near.

James 5:8

Hebrews mentions that the day is drawing near, the day of Christ.

Romans 13 says that salvation, the completion of all that God is doing in us, is closer, is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

So there's this anticipation that Christ is returning, and that return is near.

We've seen that in our text in Philippians, in chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ.

So the nearness of the Lord is both present now.

And it's future.

It's coming.

It's close to us in the time.

He's near to us now.

He's listening.

He's attending to us.

He's watching.

He's present in us and with us in his spirit.

And his return is approaching.

The moment that marks the culmination of everything.

That day when he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious resurrection body.

Both of these aspects, present and future, are together in this statement that the Lord is near.

That's our hinge.

And it is the basis, then, for verse six.

Don't be anxious.

Matthew six, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explicitly tells us not to be anxious three times in one paragraph.

He must mean it.

Right?

Here in Philippians 4, verse 6, the Apostle Paul repeats this command: do not be anxious about anything.

Philippians 4:6

The word for anxious is the same as Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount.

The scope is the same.

And the command remains just as strong and just as clear.

Do not be anxious.

But before we can truly embrace that command, we need to be honest with ourselves.

It's difficult for us to accept that command at face value, isn't it?

Be honest.

You don't understand, Pastor.

I don't bring home enough money to pay the bills.

Sometimes I have to skip a meal or two to make ends meet.

Or it's not about my faith.

I trust God.

It's something physical.

I can't control it.

It's just there.

The worry is just, my mind just can't stop.

It just goes places that I can't control it.

We have to be honest with ourselves.

This command, if we take it honestly, hits us hard.

And Jesus' answer to all of those objections is not to soften his expectations.

It's to sharpen the diagnosis.

The root of anxiety, he said, is little faith.

Not no faith.

Going back to the gospel accounts, we find this over and over again, especially in Matthew's gospel.

Jesus says, Oh, you of little faith.

That's why we have to remember in Philippians chapter 4 that we are talking about Christians.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

This is not unbelief, but faith that is smaller than it should be.

And Jesus made those statements to his disciples not to condemn them, but to identify the actual problem so that it can be addressed.

Worry and anxiety take hold of us when we face real, genuine life with insufficient faith.

Our hearts and our minds become anxious when we focus only on what we can see.

When we listen to only what we think we can hear.

And so we then forget what God says to be true.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that anxiety invades when we fail to understand the theology that He's embedded in creation.

I'm sure you remember the Lord's word pictures, right?

He reminds us of the birds.

He says they don't they don't plant crops and raise them and water them and weed them and then harvest the seed.

They don't do that.

God feeds them.

Look at the flowers of the field.

They're clothed in greater beauty than Solomon could ever imagine.

And then Jesus ends with the punchline.

Aren't you of greater value than they?

Anxiety takes over our hearts and minds when we replace God's value system with our own.

Even temporarily.

It sneaks in when we try to take God's place, as if our anxiety, Jesus said, could add a single hour to our lifespan.

To increase our own comfort.

Ah, this just has to change because this is too stressful.

I've got to worry about this because if I worry about it, the stress will go away.

What?

Worry is like termites that eat away at the supports of our lives.

We open the door to those worry mites when we doubt our Father's care, when we doubt his knowledge of our needs, and we don't trust his loving provision.

And all of these elements reveal a very harsh truth.

Anxiety takes over when we trust ourselves more than we trust our Father.

That is exactly why the only cure, the only true and lasting cure for anxiety and worry is greater faith, not harder effort.

That doesn't mean.

That doesn't mean that physical or worldly realities don't influence worry and anxiety.

We're not discounting what's real.

Life can be rough.

We live in a sin-cursed world.

We feel anxious.

We worry about providing, we worry about health, we worry about all kinds of things.

But the question is, what do we do with the realities that make us anxious?

Are we entrusting them to God or are we trying to control them ourselves?

This command, verse six, was directed to the church in Philippi.

They had reasons to worry.

Opponents of the gospel were intimidating them, frightening them.

There was internal disagreement amongst the believers.

They faced enemies of the cross in chapter three.

Paul himself, their champion, was imprisoned.

His outcome was uncertain.

Their beloved Epaphroditus was sick and near death.

The pressures are real, friends.

And into that context, the apostle says, do not be anxious.

The word anything is added in our English translations to give us the sense of the command.

The command is simply, do not be anxious.

Period.

Not only be anxious about some things, not merely small things or big things, not just manageable worries.

Nothing.

The command encompasses everything.

Just as we are to rejoice when always the same implication is here.

We are not to be anxious, period.

Some of us will find it easier to hear and obey that command.

While others are already feeling stressed about it, right?

Because you feel it's impossible.

At least most of you are, because we believe that the scriptures are true when they say that all things are possible with God.

Or you do you disbelieve the scriptures?

No.

All things are possible with God.

So if God commands it, it must be possible.

So we need to consider how it's possible to not be anxious.

Here's the answer.

If you don't get anything today, please get this.

The answer is we can live without worry and anxiety because the Lord is near.

That's more than just a platitude.

It's the theological foundation that makes obedience possible.

We're not told to manufacture a false peace in our hearts through positive thinking or told to push down anxiety through more willpower.

We're not told to be anxious.

Because we can fix our world.

No, we're told don't be anxious.

Because the God who hears, who sees, who saves, and who provides is near.

And he's returning.

He's not far away.

He's not indifferent.

He knows what you need before you ask it.

And he's coming.

But we're human beings, aren't we?

And that pull to anxiety will always exist.

So what do we do with it?

Well, we remember, first of all, that the Lord is near.

And so we talk to him.

What does it say?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to him.

The command not to be anxious does not stand alone.

It comes with a specific way to combat anxiety as a Christian.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Notice the structure.

The command tells us what to avoid.

Right?

Avoid anxiety.

Great.

How do I do that?

Glad you asked.

By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

It's a deliberate contrast.

Not this, but that.

That's how you do it.

He doesn't say, don't be anxious, just relax.

He says, don't be anxious.

Pray.

Talk to the God who is near.

The combination of terms here, I think, is important.

Prayer is that posture that we need to adopt.

Not pacing back and forth because we're stressed and worrying.

It's a posture of humility that acknowledges God's in control.

I'm not.

I can't even control my life.

Much less everything that impacts my life.

But he can.

And so I should talk to him about it.

Supplication is that prayer of need that has a sense of urgency to it.

It's the way we present our request to God.

We need help urgently.

And thanksgiving is that attitude of prayer, or the way we present ourselves to God.

We're to be thankful, remembering what God has done and giving thanks to Him for it.

Together, these actions express our coming before our Father.

They are our way of showing complete trust in our God who is near to us.

Peter says something similar, right?

He says, cast all your cares on him.

All your anxieties.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

Friends, you don't passively let your anxieties drift toward God.

That ain't happening.

Because you're going to pull them back.

It says, throw them.

Deliberately place it in the hands of God.

Leave it there.

And the reason for doing so, Peter says, is because he cares for you.

This isn't a magical way to make things disappear just by saying the right words.

Instead, it's a continual, daily, sometimes moment by moment, act of faith by someone who has learned to trust their father.

The alternative to anxiety isn't denial.

It's not saying that I'm just not thinking right about it, or it's not real.

It's not pretending that everything is fine.

Instead, it's actively taking, actively making the choice.

I'm going to give this burden to the Lord who is near because he hears, he sees, he cares.

And I do it with thanksgiving for his faithful care all of my life.

Then you leave it there and you walk away.

Because you trust him to handle it better than you can.

The result of this kind of prayer is described in verse 7.

And the peace of God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

Who guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?

So we need to remember then that the Lord is near and trust the guard.

Every phrase here matters.

But let's think about them in order.

First, the peace of God.

That's not just a feeling of calm.

It's the peace that God Himself possesses.

It's the shalom, if you will, of the eternal God, who has never worried and never been anxious a single moment, as if God dwells in moments.

It's the complete wholeness that belongs to him.

He is never unsettled.

He is never shaken.

He is never uncertain.

He has never been without peace.

This is the peace that Jesus promised his disciples in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Before going to the cross, he says, peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

It's the peace that, according to verse 9 here in Philippians 4, will be in the presence of the God of peace himself.

So listen, if God Himself is peace and he is near to you, doesn't it make sense that his peace will guard you?

Second, second phrase is, which surpasses all understanding.

The peace that God gives doesn't make good logical sense.

But it does make spiritual sense.

It is not the peace of somebody who has everything figured out and who has resolved every problem, and so there are no stresses.

No, it's not that kind of peace.

It's the peace of someone who remains in the middle of the storm but trusts the God who is near.

It's the peace of someone whose world is turned upside down like a snow globe and everything's going crazy, but you're okay.

That's why it exceeds, it surpasses, it goes beyond understanding.

Because from the outside, and sometimes even from the inside, it's unexplainable.

We can't explain why there's a settled peace.

It defies analysis, especially for those who don't realize that the Lord is near.

The unsaved world should look at Christians and think, boy, you're strange.

How do you do that?

How can you be okay?

This is the peace that Jesus intended the disciples to have in the boat on the Sea of Galilee.

You remember that, right?

The creator of the wind and the one who walks on the waves was with them in the boat.

Taking a nap while a storm was raging.

I love the image.

The disciples are there with whatever they can use to bail out water.

Well, Jesus is just snoring away.

And finally they they shake him and they wake him and they say, Lord, we're gonna perish.

I just imagine, close your eyes and imagine the Lord Jesus just kind of looking around.

What's wrong with you guys?

And then he says, peace.

Be still.

And everything's calm.

And then he says to the disciples, why did you have little faith?

Did they really believe that they would perish when the Lord was so close to them?

Our next phrase says that the peace of God will guard our hearts.

He will guard.

It's a military term.

It pictures garrisons of soldiers posted at a border or around a city to prevent hostile invasion.

It pictures guards on duty at a prison to prevent escape.

The peace of God, friends, does not merely rest on you like a calm feeling.

It actively stands guard.

It keeps out what would otherwise breach your defenses.

Those fearful thoughts, those catastrophizing imaginations, the spiral of what ifs that you get drawn into.

This is not a passive thing.

This guard is active.

The guard is on duty.

And Christ's peace is the guardian of your heart and your mind.

That's what he says next.

Will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

In biblical thought, the heart is the seat of our will, of our affections, of our desires.

It's really the deepest center of a person.

And the mind is thought to be the faculty of thinking and understanding, and anxiety invades both.

Worry invades the emotions and the intellect.

It eats at feelings and thinking until all of it malfunctions.

It's like short circuiting in your heart and your mind.

The peace of God guards both.

But there's a fifth phrase.

In Christ Jesus.

This entire section, friends, is rooted in union with Christ.

Verse 4, it's in the Lord that we always rejoice.

It's in the Lord, verse 2, that Yodia and Syntachi agree.

And it's in Christ Jesus that the peace of God keeps watch over your heart and mind.

This isn't a generic weird kind of spiritual calm available to anyone who meditates deeply enough.

This is the specific covenantal peace of the living God who is near to his people in the person of Jesus Christ.

That's why anyone who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ does not have access to this peace.

So what does this mean for us?

Well, the reality is we all carry burdens.

If I handed each of you a sheet of paper, you could probably fill it up with burdens that you carry.

Some of us fear financial uncertainty.

Some bear lingering health concerns.

Some bear a grief that just won't lift.

Some bear fractured relationships that just won't heal.

Some fear what's coming.

The uncertainties of what tomorrow might bring.

Or uncertainties about our families, the unknowns about our country or our church.

And for some, there's just a low-grade, kind of unspecified anxiety that just seems to be a part of life, a background noise that never seems to quiet.

Friends, the Apostle Paul never downplays any of that.

I think he assumes that those are realities.

Because it's life in a fallen world.

He understands suffering and difficult circumstances that may never be resolved.

He was in prison when he wrote these words.

He knows that humanity comes, being human comes with built-in cares.

He loves these people and he knows they're struggling.

And yet he still writes, don't be anxious.

So are those empty words?

No, of course not.

They are inspired words given by Christ Himself through His Spirit to the Apostle for us.

So how do we obey the command to not be anxious?

Well, we don't do it by pretending that circumstances are different than what they really are.

We don't do that.

We can't obey this command by relying on some inner reserve of strength to force ourselves to be calm.

No, we obey the command by knowing, trusting, and resting in the truth that our Lord is near.

If you can go back to the time when you were a child and you knew that you could do whatever you wanted when your dad was there.

Because he would protect you.

You could do hard things.

So we remember with gratitude that our God is the Lord who hears.

So we pour out our hearts to him as the Lord who listens to the brokenhearted and saves the Christian spirit.

We bow in humility and praise and anticipation of the Lord's return being near.

And so when worry creeps in, we recognize that we are viewing life without faith or with little faith.

We need to remember that when anxiety overtakes, we are relying more on our own perception of reality than on the word of our true Father.

The solution isn't trying harder or simply not worrying.

It's building greater trust in the God who's near.

Faith grows by bringing our burdens to the God who is near, by recalling his faithfulness to us in the past, and by allowing his word and character to shape the lens through which we see our circumstances.

And then we consciously surrender what we carry to the Lord.

Don't just manage it.

We're good at that, right?

Don't just work hard to manage your life better.

No.

Hand it over.

And then you'll find yourself taking it right back.

Hand it over.

Keep doing that.

Because each time you do it, you'll be able to let go of it a little bit longer.

And your trust will increase a little bit more as you're able to recognize I can trust my Father with this.

Make your request known to God through prayer and supplication.

Be sincere and urgent in your giving and your asking because you truly need help.

And along the way, show your genuine gratitude by telling the Lord how you've seen his faithfulness in your life.

And then trust the God.

You may not feel the peace of God right away.

Your circumstances might not change.

But the God who is near will stand watch over your heart and mind.

And his peace, the peace that confuses the world, the peace that goes beyond understanding, will guard your heart and mind.

My friends, if I may be so bold, test him in this.

Test him in this.

He will show himself faithful to you.

Now, he might choose to deliver you from the trial.

He might choose to rescue, he might choose to heal, but he also might decide that the best thing for your anxiety is to take you through the fire, like he did with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The key is to trust him to hold your anxiety through it all.

Because the Lord is near.

Don't be anxious about anything.

Bring everything to him.

And the peace of God, that surpassing, inexplicable, militant kind of peace, will stand guard over you.

Amen.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.