Philippians 4:4-9

And um just do an update in regards to the turkeys and all of that stuff.

So um we're jumping back in.

If you weren't with us last week, you didn't miss anything.

So we're back into Philippians chapter four.

And um starting in verse four says this rejoice in the Lord always.

I say it again, rejoice, let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things.

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

Amen.

Lord, bless, bless your word.

Open up our eyes to see things out of your word tonight.

So as we've looked through Philippians chapter uh throughout the book, we've seen some big stuff.

And one of those is that what we think can translate into how we act.

And so Paul has really been hammering the thought life of a Christian.

He's talking to Christians.

He wrote this letter ten years after he first church after he first planted this church in a Roman city far, far away from Jerusalem.

And now Paul, he's sitting imprisoned in Rome, writing this letter back to a church that he loves so much.

He's talked about joy in this letter more than any other letter and rejoicing.

And then in chapter 3, we saw Paul really make a warning.

One of the most strongest warnings that Paul gave was be careful of the Judaizers.

And those were those people that taught that to really live out the true Christian life, you need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to act like a Jew by following the Old Testament commandments.

So it wasn't just legalism relating to God, but it was Judaism, and it was acting as if you were a Jew.

And so Paul had to warn the church and say, this is not, this is a cancer that you need to be on guard against.

You do not want these types of people in your church influencing you, because the truth is that God is the one who makes us righteous through Jesus Christ's work on the cross.

Right?

So as we place our faith in Jesus, he makes us righteous.

We're not righteous because of what we do.

If we could be righteous based off what we do, then Jesus wouldn't need to die on the cross, right?

So we place our faith in Christ, he makes us righteous.

And that's what was chapter three.

And then chapter four, we talked briefly about gender roles in the church, with these women that were a part of the team, a part of Paul's team, doing ministry in this church in Philippi, and Paul pleads with them to be unified.

It seems like maybe there were two women in the church that were butting heads with one another.

And um and so Paul addresses them directly, saying, You guys need to get along.

You need to be um cooperating.

So in the text um that we're looking at this evening, um, there are five commands and there are two mandates, which are slightly different.

A mandate is an expectation that you'll act.

A command is it as a uh a statement that, excuse me, that you must act.

Right?

So overall, there's there's seven of these that come out, either commands or mandates.

And so we're gonna look at the first two.

The first two are to rejoice.

He says, rejoice.

And he says, I'll say it to you again, rejoice.

So this this word, um, rejoice is found more times in Philippians than any other letter that Paul writes.

So the surprising thing is here's Paul sitting in jail or under house arrest, in chains, restricted from doing what he's most passionate about.

He can't carry it out, and yet here he is talking about joy.

And again, he's telling this church, who's facing obstacles and opposition, and and there's some things that are definitely going on for them, and he's commanding them to rejoice, to joy again.

And he says, and so he says, rejoice, and then he says, I say to you again, rejoice.

Um and and just in passing, some of the other times he mentioned rejoicing through this book.

In Philippians 1 4, Paul talked about his prayer life.

When he would pray for this church, it was a source of joy for him, making requests for you with all joy.

In Philippians 1.18, he talks about how Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

So Paul rejoiced about the fact that that Jesus, the message of the gospel, was being preached.

In Philippians 1.25, he says, I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and your joy.

So Paul was kind of questioning his own future.

What's going to happen?

Because he was in jail waiting for his final sentence.

And it was either a death sentence or a life sentence.

It wasn't like, am I going to get 25 years or am I going to get 10 years?

It was like death or life were the two options.

And he says he came to the point where he was confident that he would continue and that he would live, he would get a life sentence, uh, or a sentence that was towards life, so that they could uh rejoice.

So all throughout this book, over and over again, Paul is referencing joy.

And here at the end of the book, he commands, he says, rejoice.

That's an act that you need to do.

Now, as we look, it's really important to understand that when the Bible commands us to do things, for those of us that are past the cross, we are in a new covenant with God.

So our relationship with God is different from Israel and how they had a relationship with God.

Israel in the Old Testament had a relationship with God based off of a covenant that God made, a promise that God made, or not a promise, an agreement that God made with Israel through Moses.

Remember, Moses went up to the mount, burning bush.

And at that point, God made a covenant with Israel.

And that covenant had all these commands that Israel had to do, and if they did, then remember all the ifs?

If you do this, I will bless you.

If you do this, if you don't do this, I will curse you.

That was the way that God covenanted with Israel.

But then Jesus, when he took the bread and the cup at the Last Supper, he held up the cup and he said, This is the cov this is the new covenant in my blood.

Do you remember that statement?

We say it every time we do communion.

This is the new covenant.

What's the new covenant?

Well, it's a covenant that replaced God's covenant with Israel in the Old Testament.

It's a covenant, it's a it's a new covenant that God made with his people, where, and it's described in Jeremiah chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

So let me just show you this really quickly.

It's very important to understand this, because this goes back to chapter 3 a little bit.

Um, so many Christians think that we relate to God in the same way that Israel related to God.

And in in in one sense we do, but in many other senses we do not.

So in Jeremiah 31 31, Jeremiah 31, 31.

It's like in the middle of the Old Testament.

This is a prophet talking about this coming new covenant.

He says, Look, the days are coming.

This is the Lord's declaration, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

This one, it will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.

My covenant that they broke, even though I am their master, the Lord's the Lord's declaration.

Verse 33 Instead, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, uh, says the Lord.

I will put my teaching within them, I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least to the greatest.

This is the Lord's declaration, I will forgive their iniquities and never again remember their sins.

So this is this is the new covenant being spoken of.

In Jeremiah 31, it's a covenant that God says, I'm gonna have this covenant with you personally.

No longer is a priest gonna have to tell you how to relate to God, but you will each individually know me.

So today in the church we talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That language, that lingo goes back to this covenant here where God is telling the people of Israel through Jeremiah, I'm gonna make this new covenant with you where you will know me.

And you see that the law is no longer spoken of being written on tablets of stone like God did with Moses.

Now the law he says is gonna be internal, it's gonna be written on your hearts.

So there's a whole lot that goes with this new covenant that God has made with us, but the primary is that it's personal, it's internal, and um it's individual, right?

So God's working inside of me.

So so just because I'm the pastor of Haven City Church doesn't give me an up on God's will.

Right?

If you ever have a pastor that tells you, God spoke to me, this is his will for your life, then he's operating according to the old covenant.

We each now, it's this is kind of in theological terms, this is called the the priesthood of the believers.

We each individually relate to God the same way.

I'm no better than you, you're no better than me.

We each have this personal relationship with God.

He wants to speak to us, he wants to forgive our sins, and he wants to empower us to do what he commands.

Now, this covenant is completely contingent upon God.

The work that Jesus did on the cross, because there's no new coven, there's no covenant created without the shedding of blood.

So this this covenant was started by Jesus Christ, it was started by Jesus dying on the cross, and it's not contingent on our actions, which is good, because the old covenant with the with Israel was contingent on Israel.

God would only bless Israel if they obeyed.

Under the new covenant, God has blessed us through Jesus Christ.

His grace is perpetually towards us.

Whether you obey or you disobey, God's love.

If you've received Christ, you've placed your faith in him, his love is perpetually towards you.

There's nothing that you can do to remove yourself from the love of God.

This is what Romans 8 teaches.

There's that nothing can separate us from the love of God according to the new covenant.

That's why, that's why taking communion is so important to us.

That's why we're going to do it tonight, is we want to remember this important covenant that Jesus made with us, that we have the love of God towards us.

So all of that, well, the reason I'm saying that is because we're looking at commands tonight, instructions to act.

It's important to know though where those commands fit in its proper place according to this covenant.

We do not obey these commands so that we can be righteous.

We do these commands because we love God.

He's already loved us, he's already done the work.

We are demonstrating our love for Him.

We're demonstrating our faith and belief in Him as we obey these commands.

Now, the first two commands don't seem like they're all that hard, although I would tell you there's some days where they're harder than others, but the first two commands are rejoice.

We've got a king who commands us, his commands aren't too hard, right?

I mean, he wants for us to rejoice.

And this is the thing.

When God tells us to do something, he never tells us to do anything that he's not going to work in us to do.

So it's when he says to you, Josh, you need to rejoice.

What he's saying is, at the same time, my spirit is going to be at work in you, helping you to rejoice.

That's what that's my expectation for you.

That's what I want for you.

That's how you demonstrate your love for me, is as you rejoice in the Lord.

So that's the first command in the text.

The second command comes up in verse 5, where he says, Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near.

Actually, this is the first mandate.

This is a mandate.

And what the word gentleness means, it means being tolerant or lenient towards the deviations of others from moral rectitude.

It is a graciousness.

So when people screw up around us and we give them a pass, that's called being gentle.

That's the word here that Paul has used.

And he says, Let your gentleness be evident to all.

Now he also says this to Timothy.

Timothy was his protege, the guy that he was raising up to also do ministry.

And he told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3 3, he says, um, not to be given to drunkenness, not to be drunk, not violent, but gentle.

Not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

So the context here in 1 Timothy 3 is he's talking about the leadership of the church.

And this is should this is what should characterize leaders of the church.

They're not a people that are getting drunk.

They're not violent, but instead they're gentle.

They're not quarrelsome, they're not a lover of money.

Same word, being gentle.

Putting up with people's mistakes, basically.

Titus, a similar book to that of Timothy.

Again, Titus 3, 1 and 2.

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and then always be gentle towards everyone.

So Paul here, as he's training this church, you know, imagine this church that is ten years old, he's listing out the qualities that he really wants to be evident in them.

And one of them is this gentleness.

What this can I can I just read quickly from John?

Because um because one, God doesn't command us to do things or expect things of us that he's not going to work in us, but he also doesn't command us to do things that Jesus didn't demonstrate.

So Jesus demonstrated gentleness.

Let me give you one example in John chapter, John chapter 8, actually starting in 753.

John 8 · chapter mention

It says, Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and at dawn he appeared in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who was caught in adultery, and they made her stand before the group, and they said to Jesus, Jesus, or teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

In the law of in the law of Moses commanded us to stone such a woman.

Now what do you say?

They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis to accuse Jesus.

But Jesus bent down and he started to write on the ground with his finger.

And when they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and he said to them, Let any of one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

Again he stooped down and he wrote on the ground.

At this those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left.

With the woman still standing there, Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they?

No one has condemned you?

No one, sir, she said.

Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared.

Go now and leave your life of sin.

You couldn't I mean didn't Jesus deal with this woman in a gentle way?

Here she is, she's caught in sin, right in the act of adultery, and yet the way that Jesus, and it's a trap.

It's a trap.

They're trying to they're trying to trap Jesus.

And yet the way that Jesus deals with her is in such a gentle way.

And that's what Paul wants.

He wants for us to be a people as we engage life and the um what was the definition here earlier?

When we see the deviations from moral rectitude, that's what the de that's what the the the uh dictionary says.

Deviation, people are deviating away from what is good and right, that we're being tolerant, right?

That we're putting up with people's mistakes.

Now you'll also notice it didn't mean that Jesus didn't deal with her sin, right?

Because he called her.

Oh good, my friend Matthew is here with his whole tribe.

Hey, what's going on?

Come on in.

Hey, buddy.

Hey guys, hey Chris, what's up?

Come on in.

The kids are upstairs already.

Adriel.

You're older, so make sure you're doing the right thing when you get up there.

You're older than the other kids up there.

Welcome.

Hey Matt.

Hey, how are you going?

Matt, Matt?

What's up, buddy?

Come on in.

You guys brave the cold.

You made it.

Ariel, how are you?

Good to see you.

Okay, so we're in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

And we're just about to get into anxiety, but we're finishing up gentleness.

So just in closing, this one of the things my dad always taught me, one of the things that my dad taught me about life, is that when other people make mistakes, it's a beautiful gift, it's a beautiful opportunity for you to demonstrate the work of God in your life.

Right?

I just went through a thing, a church dispute last year, where it was kind of like a church split or like people parting ways.

And I watched time and time again as there was this kind of fight unfolding, I watched one side continually being hostile.

And it I was just like, man, you had the beautiful opportunity to be gentle and kind of be above, uh hit above the belt, right?

So there's times there's times where like people are doing the wrong thing, but it's an opportunity for you to do the right thing.

And that's what Paul here is pleading for.

He's saying, be a people that are gentle, that are gracious.

Okay, so that was the first mandate.

Now the third command in the text here, and the second mandate is found in Philippians 4, 6 and 7.

This is a huge passage, right?

We're going to camp out here for just a second.

Philippians 4, 6 through 7 says this do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So again, this is a command.

So God is telling us, do not be anxious about anything.

Right?

The mandate here is this is to make your requests known.

In the New King James Version, it's to present your request or let your request be made known to God.

So the command is do not be an anxious, do not be anxious.

Don't be an anxious person.

So this this situation or event, uh, this is situational anxiety.

Okay, so this is this is really important.

Sorry, I'm going back to my notes, and I'm going to be glued here a little bit in my notes because I want to make sure we we get this right.

There is anxiety that people experience that is based in biology.

Okay?

That means you get thyroid issue, hormonal issue, um, something is not chemically right, right?

And we're still scientifically, we're even still trying to understand all of that stuff.

Okay?

That's not what Paul is talking about here.

He's talking about situational anxiety, circumstances in your life that cause anxiety.

If you have ever had any of those, raise your hand.

I know, I have.

Yes, yes?

And so he's saying he's commanding you as a follower of Jesus to not be anxious, but instead to uh pray about it.

Basically, make your request known to God.

So the anxiety here is it's an uneasy feeling of uncertainty, agitation, dread, or fear.

There's very few.

People that need a definition for anxiety, but just in case you did, that's it, right?

In the Bible, anxiety is frequently depicted as a common human reaction to stressful circumstances.

Saul's father, remember King Saul, the first king of Israel, his father was anxious about his lost donkeys.

Then about Saul's failure to return from looking for them.

In Psalms, the psalmist confesses that anxiety is great within him.

Anxiety is portrayed in Scripture as being inconsistent with trust in God.

That comes from the evangelical dictionary of biblical theology.

So anxiety is a it's a biblical theme.

You could go from Genesis through Revelation and you could see anxiety or its symptoms popping up.

It is a common experience.

Let me give you some scriptures.

You may want to write these down to just go back and meditate on them.

The first one is Psalm 94.19.

Psalm 94.19 says this in the multitude of my anxieties within me, your comforts delight my soul.

That's the psalmist.

Right?

That's David writing a song, just worshiping God, saying, As I have a multitude of anxieties, it's your comfort that delights my soul.

In Psalm 127, too, it says, It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep.

In Proverbs 12, 25, Proverbs 12, 25, it says this anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.

Just quickly, and as observation, a good word, right?

So we we have the ability to influence one another as we speak.

Would you like a pen?

Yes, we are.

Thank you.

And there's always pens on that counter up there, too, if you want to jump in there.

Do you need this pen something?

I don't need it.

I I won't.

But I love that pen, so if you give it back to me at the end.

No, no, you can use it.

You can use it.

Just don't just just uh try not to leave with it or bring it back next week if you do.

Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 17, 7 through 8.

Jeremiah 17, 7 through 8.

It says, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when the heat comes.

But its leaf will be green, and it will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Wow, that's that's who we want to be, right?

That is a good person, right?

So Jeremiah 17, 7 through 8.

Write that one down, memorize that one.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord, right?

Um Matthew 6.

Matthew 6, 25 through 34.

Matthew 6, 25 through 34 is ground zero for the anxious heart.

Matthew chapter 6, 25 through 34, these ten verses, let me read them all to you, okay?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

It says this, therefore I say to you, this is Jesus speaking.

He says, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they don't sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet their heavenly father he feeds them.

Are you of not more are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Verse thirty one, therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Isn't that great?

Isn't that amazing?

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Now, um one other verse, one other verse.

You can look up first Peter five, six through seven.

It says, Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

God's word makes it clear that it's not his will for us to be an anxious people.

We engage with anxiety, I think, on a daily basis.

Paul said that because he believed in the God of the resurrection, because Jesus was raised from the dead, he took a lot of risks in his life in order to share the gospel.

He put his life into risky situations.

Um we're not to be when when when he when God says to us, do not be anxious, when he commands us that, commands that for us, he's not saying run away from the circumstances that cause anxiety.

He's saying look those circumstances head on, but be a prayerful person who is praying, praying and praying and praying.

So you so you ask, well, what does that mean?

What does it mean to, and notice he doesn't just say pray.

If you look back in Philippians, um Philippians 4, 6 and 7, he says, present your request to God.

But but before he says it, he says it's by prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

So there's like three, he's like hammering prayer.

He's saying that it's not just make your request known, but you need to be a person who's praying, who's making petition, who's grateful before the Lord.

Okay, so we we deal with anxiety.

I'll just openly confess, buying that this house that we bought this last um uh back on November 2nd, I have not gone through a more anxiety-causing circumstance.

And I don't know why I was so anxious.

Isn't that a part of the frustration with anxiety?

Is like you can almost kind of have this outer body experience where you're talking to your heart, like saying, Stop being so anxious, but yet you are, right?

So, but you know, as as I was personally going through that season, Matthew 6.33, that seek first the kingdom of heaven was what God was just speaking into my life.

And so when when if on one side you have anxiety, and on the other hand, in contrast, you have the life of prayer, what do you pray?

Besides asking to get out of it, to being delivered, which is the petition, right?

What do you pray?

I would go back to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So it says here in Matthew 6, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life.

Stop right there and say, God, I feel worried about my life.

This is how we pray Scripture, right?

If you if you feel like I don't know how to pray, you go back to Scripture, right?

It says, He Jesus says, I say to you, do not worry about your life.

Then you talk to God about it and say, But God, I do.

I feel worried about my life.

Then he says, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your or about your body, what you will put on.

Well, here Jesus is giving three examples of what we often are anxious about, but you may turn that into your own prayer and say, God, I'm not anxious about that, I'm not worried about that, but I'm worried about all this other stuff, right?

Then he goes on, he says, Is not life more than food and body more than clothing?

Jesus is asking that question in this statement.

And so you say, you say back to God, God, you're asking me this question in a rhetorical way, where I should know, I should know that life is more than food and body and more than clothing.

So that's that's what prayer looks like.

That's what prayer looks like with those um with those things.

Okay, we got to hustle here a little bit.

So anxiety.

If your life is racked with anxiety, first of all, God is commanding you, God is commanding you, don't be anxious.

That's his command to you.

It's not a suggestion, it's his command.

What we set up at the front was that God doesn't command us to do anything that he will not equip us to do.

So he places his spirit inside of us when we trust in him.

His spirit wants to work in us so that we can obey this command.

And then he's giving us the alternative action, which is to pray, supplicate, be thankful, be grateful.

So we're in this position where we have to surrender our lives to God's truth.

When God commands us to do stuff, we say, God, I am willing to do what you're saying.

May we be that kind of person.

Okay, let's go on to this next part here where he talks about just the thought life.

This is command number four, where he's talking about here's what you need to meditate on.

Alright?

He says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure.

He goes through this whole list, but here's where the command is.

He says, right at the end, he says, think on these things, or think about such things.

So the list is this.

Here's the things that we're supposed to be thinking about.

Alright?

Where is my list here?

Okay.

The things that are true, right?

In the Greek, that word is the things that are um unconcealed, the things that are real.

Right?

There's a lot of things that we want to think about that are not real yet.

Specifically about the future.

Right?

So he's saying, No, you need to think about the things that are real and the things that are true.

I think it's 95% of the things that we're worried about do not actually come to pass.

The second thing is things that are noble.

Right?

Noble is those things that are honorable, those things that deserve respect and honor.

The third thing here is the things that are just.

Think about things that are just.

Um, this is stuff that's in conformity with justice, law, and morality.

Fourth is that which is pure.

The things that are innocent, chastity, holiness.

That's what that word pure means.

Fifth is the things that are lovely.

Think about things that are lovely, which is pleasing, agreeable things.

And number six is things of good report, worthy of praise, or commendable.

Um, if it has virtue, if it is excellent, this is the idea of things that are good, uh, that are of have valor.

And eighth is things that are praiseworthy.

It is important for us as Christians, as we follow Jesus, that we're a follower of Jesus in our minds.

Right?

It's amazing how big, and I say this personally, how big a discrepancy there can be between my allegiance to Jesus and what I think about.

Even just entertainment-wise, you know, I I I've I've in the past I've gone through seasons where I love politics, right?

And I'll just nerd out about politics.

Or um I'll nerd out on, you know, sports, right?

But here I'm using my mind to think about things that don't necessarily line up with who God's called me to be.

Now, we're we have great freedom in Christ, right?

There's there's great things that we can think about.

Sports isn't necessarily bad.

But it's worth considering as we read a text like this: God, what am I spending my time thinking about?

Elizabeth Elliot Elliott, Elizabeth Elliott wrote about the disciplined mind, the mind that is engaged in the things that God wants it to be engaged in.

One good use of your mind, other than the things that are listed out here, is to think, God, how do you want to use me in other people's life?

How do you want to use me in my neighbor's life?

I sat on my porch a couple months ago just brainstorming.

What does it mean for me to be a loving neighbor?

And I thought, and I came up with this great list of like ten things, but I thought, man, why haven't I done this before?

You know, why why how come it took me this long to list out these types of things?

So, so Paul lists out like this is what you need to be thinking, these are the things that you need to be thinking about.

And then finally, he says, Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice.

This is the final command.

This is what you need to put into practice.

And he says, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul has said this before.

He said, Look at the examples you have around you of godly people and imitate them.

He holds himself up.

He says, I am worthy of imitation.

I'm worthy of imitation.

And um and so sure enough, they uh and oh, and then so he's he also says, look at the other examples of what I've spoken of.

Other people that are acting this out, look to them as well.

So this section, it it with all these just kind of it's it's in a sense, these commands are disjointed.

You might find some unity between these commands, between like the the piety of the individual Christian.

So, like the whole idea of being gentle and rejoicing, you don't need all the rest of us as Christians to be there with you in order to do it.

Right?

So, so the first half of the commands that Paul's making here can relate to your personal just expression of faith in your life.

And then the second half relates to thinking, and and that's a theme in the book of Philippians is you're the way you think has great results in how you live.

Now, believe me, I'm I'm only reading this, but I'm preaching this to me as well.

This is tough stuff for me, you know.

The older I get, the further I go in life, it seems like I deal with anxiety more, not less, right?

I'm more tempted to wake up at four in the morning and just sit there and muse on stuff.

You got your world of stuff, but yet hear Jesus, look at Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus is speaking to us as Christians, and he's saying, Let's seek first the kingdom of heaven.

Seek God's kingdom.

And so, and he he says, you know what?

The the the gentile, those who do not know God are the ones who are worried.

Their minds are taken up with what am I gonna wear?

What am I gonna eat?

What you know, um, how am I gonna take care of myself, my family?

Jesus somehow calls us to this greater sense of humanity to mind his kingdom.

Not not to um check out, not to be so, I think that the phrase is so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good.

That's not a biblical phrase, right?

But he's asking us to first make a priority out of out of loving Jesus first, right?

And then allowing everything else to flow out of our relationship with Christ.

It's not like a pie chart where 33% goes to Jesus and then 33% goes to my family, and 33% goes to work.

No, Jesus is the whole pie, right?

We're seeking Jesus first, but he authors our life.

So he works in us to do all the life that he's called us into.

So he wants to give us wisdom on where our clothes are gonna come from and where our job is gonna be, what our job should be, and how we can love the people around us.

But he wants us to seek him first, right?

He wants to be the Lord of our life.

And this is a chief, it's a what we think about in the privacy of our lives marks who we are.

The story we tell ourselves, what we talk to ourselves about, what we think about.

You gotta mean look at this list of eight different things here that Paul lists out.

These are the things to think about.

So let's pray.

Let's pray for a second.

Um, in fact, let's actually let's pass out.

Let's pass out the element.

We're gonna take it together.

Take one more.

Good for him.

I got more cars for him if he wants 'em.

So once a month, last last Sunday of the month, this is a good Sunday.

If you're gonna be here any Sunday, be here for communion.

Um, because it's a command, it's another command that Jesus commanded the church to do together.

Um to take to take the elements, and there's three R's that go with um communion.

The first is remembering, right?

We're remembering what Jesus did on the cross, that he died for us.

Just the just remembering.

The second R is repentance.

So in a minute, I'm gonna just pause.

We're gonna be quiet in our own seats.

If if we need to confess stuff and just repent in our own hearts, we just want to repent and say, God, I'm sorry, right?

And the third R is rejoice, right?

We rejoice in what he accomplished for us.

Um the the wafer, the bread, this is a matza cracker.

This is kind of how the Jews did Passover, and it resembles the the um cracker that that the Jews would eat at Passover uh together.

And Jesus held it up and said, At Passover, this is my body that's broken, for you do this in remembrance of me.

And he he held it up um at this point when they were having this meal together where it was symbolic.

For us, it's it's it's removed from the context of the Passover service where we do this kind of as a ritual.

But for the for Israel, this was a significant meal for them.

And the meal isn't done.

We're gonna eat the meal together with Jesus when we're with him in heaven.

So even as we eat this, we're anticipating a work ahead.

So, Jesus, we thank you for your body being broken for us.

Um God, we just want to pause for a second and just repent.

And we're just gonna be quiet before you, Lord, just for a second and just repent of our sins.

Jesus, thank you for your forgiveness of our sins, that you wash us thoroughly from our guilt.

That you, your body was broken.

Just like this cracker was broken upstairs when I put it into the container, and it's gonna be broken when it goes into our mouth.

Your body was broken on our behalf, and we are so grateful.

You did it so that we, our body didn't have to be broken.

Um so thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus, for being broken on our behalf.

Let's take the uh cracker together.

And the cup.

Lord, we thank you for the cup of the new covenant.

That covenant that you made with us as a people, that your your blood was shed so that we could have this new covenant where you do all the work and we just get to love you back.

And God, even in that we fall short.

So, Lord, we just pray that part of this part of what this cup would symbolize is that your work in us, as we drink the juice, that That it would be a cup that resembles just the work of God in our lives.

So thank you.

Thank you for shedding your blood so that we could be in this new covenant with you.

Let's take the cup together.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, what I want to do next is.