Philippians: One Thing, One Person

Continuing our study in Philippians, you'll recall that Paul is in jail, and he's writing to the church at Philippi to encourage them.

He begins in verse 8 with the word finally.

So he's wrapping up his letter to the Philippians.

And what he wants to do in this passage and what he is doing is encouraging them.

And so I want us to look at this passage together to see how he does that.

But before we begin, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love for us.

Thank you for your word that you've given us your word to contemplate, to understand who you are, so that we can appreciate how much you love us.

And I pray this morning, even as we we study your word, that you would move me aside, use me as you see fit, but more importantly, that you would speak to our hearts and change us even today in Christ's name.

Amen.

So we've got uh just two verses this morning, but in these two verses we've got a to-do list.

I don't know if you noticed when Janine read, but there's a to-do list there.

So how many of you are list people?

And I'm not gonna make anybody come up here, so you can I see if you so how many of you like to-do lists?

There are a few.

And and I I'm gonna tell you I appreciate that because to-do lists are a nice way to organize or a nice way to kind of prioritize everything you need to do in the day.

You can check off, make progress.

I do not like to-do lists because they stress me out.

Um in fact, I was I was kind of thinking about this some this week, and I I found that there's actually uh something called the Zagarnik effect that explains this.

Anybody ever heard of that?

Which simply means if you've got a list, you're more likely to remember the things that you haven't done than the things that you have done.

And that's me at about 3 a.m.

I'm thinking about the things I haven't done, and it's it stresses me out.

Um so I would just as soon not have a to-do list.

In fact, I'm pretty passive about it.

I ignore lists.

And so if you want me to do something, don't put it on a list.

Um anyway, Paul gives a list of eight things, and there are two things in there that are imperatives, commands.

He says in verse eight to think.

Um let's look at that.

Um he goes through his list and he says, at the end of that, think about these things.

And then in verse nine, he says, What you have learned, received, and heard, and seen in me, practice these things.

So think and practice.

Um we're gonna look more closely at those and at the list, but first look at the end of verse 9.

He says, Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Um that's an important phrase.

The God of peace is used eight times in the New Testament, once here in Philippians, but peace, interestingly, is 85 times that word is used in the New Testament, 41 times by Paul, and three times in Philippians.

So this notion of peace is important, and here is the God of peace, and he says, it if you practice these things and think about these things, the God of peace will be with you.

And what does that mean?

Peace is something that, by the way, God invented.

So it's tranquility, it's serenity, it's it's relief and it's rest, rest from worry, rest from stress and anxiety.

I don't know about you, but I need that.

And I think our congregation, that's something that we talk about a lot.

So the God of peace being with us, that's important to me, and that's important to us.

Anyway, he says if we think about these things, if we practice these things, the God of peace will be with us.

So this let's look more closely at that.

Um, it's hard to think positive, at least for me, about a list of eight things.

Um I think list people will tell you that uh how do you get through a long list?

Well, you prioritize and something's got to be number one.

But I look at a list and it's just like stuff.

But but in this case, Paul says, think about this list, think about these words, so at least let's let's do this to give it to do it justice.

Let's let's think about some of these words.

He says to think, and that word think is an interesting one because it's not like think how to build a building or put a puzzle together.

It's think as in contemplate or muse over or just I think some versions say dwell.

The word I like is imagine.

Um imagine these things.

Imagine if we lived in a world where everything was true.

If we lived in a world where we could trust everyone.

So that means maybe when I go to the airport I could walk away from my bags and be there when I got back.

That would be nice.

Or maybe we don't have to have locks on our doors, our houses.

I don't have to have a key to crank up my car.

I never lose my keys again.

Umagine if everyone in the world were honorable and had the most honorable intentions.

Um that means I could get my car repaired anywhere and it would actually work.

That means maybe as I'm driving down the freeway I could leave more space between me and the car in front of me, and nobody's gonna pull in, which really bugs me.

Imagine that everyone in the world is just and fair.

That means there would be, we're standing in line, there are no line breaks.

That means all of the checkout lines finish at the same time.

That means no survivor television show.

Anyway, just had to throw that one in.

But but you get the idea.

And so we got we go through the list and we imagine, which I think is a good thing to do, but then we think, but this is not reality.

And I think that's uh that's kind of the world we live in.

Reality is is I'm gonna wake up at 3 a.m.

this morning in the morning and and remember, oh gosh, I forgot to be honorable today.

I can't check it off my list.

And so after a while that begins to get exhausting.

And and it's hard because for me anyway, it's a little bit easier to think about the negatives.

So if if you think, all of those words that we went through, what's true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, those are all positives.

I tend to be more comfortable, or at least I do it, do it more, think more about the negatives.

Um whatever is false, dishonorable, unjust, and pure, ugly, you get the idea.

Um and it's kind of the world we live in.

And even even this week, uh I'm thinking, you know, two sports figures.

Um one, well, both very admired, very respected, um, one in jail, um, another just kind of humiliated, really, at his own falling.

And and here I am, um, I don't know, maybe I have some kind of fascination with the morose, but here I am Googling, because I'm watching OJ videos.

Here he is in his parole hearing, and I'm watching to, or I'm I'm I'm Googling, trying to figure out well, what exactly did Hugh Freeze do?

And uh, you don't want to know.

Um and who who said what to whom?

And and I'm at the end of that, I'm thinking just about the the shame and the ugliness and the humiliation of it all.

And thinking, um, you know, that's kind of where we live.

And but we all know, I know I can do better than this, we can do better than this, and I want to.

Um I think we all have a desire for a better life.

We we desire something better.

In fact, we call that this is the way I wish it could be.

And we think about that.

Um C.S.

Lewis talks about this.

He talks about desire, um, desiring a better life.

He says, our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world.

When the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it.

Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world.

There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.

And Brian said this a couple of weeks ago.

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

I really like that quote because it begins to explain that the things that I really want in life.

I want a better life, but it's like I never quite get there.

We fix up our houses, we put pictures on the wall, we get everything just so, and it's not right.

I want a little bit more.

So it's it's a clear indication that I'm desiring something beyond what I can actually do for myself, and that's exactly what C.S.

Lewis is talking about.

Um, Elise Fitzpatrick, I think even more graphically says it this way embedded in the DNA of homesickness is surrendering to the reality that this is not home.

And once you surrender to that reality, you quit asking people, places, possessions, and experiences to be what they will never be.

You become liberated from unrealistic expectations and the resultant disappointments.

You are freed from being overly critical and unrealistically judgmental.

You are progressively freed from a life of grumbling and complaining.

You are freed from asking your spouse or your children to be the messiahs they will never be.

Um surrendering to the reality that this is not home.

And I ask myself, am I ready to do that?

And I think, you know, as we think on this list, eight things that are positive, eight things that are good, um, the eight things begin to sound really more like one thing.

They they begin to sound like the gospel.

The gospel of the good news is true, it's pure, it's lovely, it's excellent.

But even more so, that list begins to sound like one person, Jesus.

Jesus is true, honorable, just, fair, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

One thing, the gospel.

One person, Jesus.

That's what I need to hear.

In fact, that's the gospel message.

Um that's what I need to think about.

That's what I truly desire.

And I that's a little difficult for me because I I desire, I tend to desire, I think I desire what's in front of me, what I see, but that never quite meets the need.

Jesus is who I truly desire.

And I think for us to, um, for me anyway, to really begin to get my arms around that, it's it's what we're saying is it requires just a different way of thinking, a completely different perspective.

Um I found an illustration I think that does a pretty good job.

Don't know who wrote this, it's anonymous, um, but it's about a conversation between an unborn set of twins in the womb.

So if you've ever heard it, if you if you haven't, you'll enjoy it.

An unborn set of twins are having a conversation in their mother's womb.

Tell me, do you believe in life after birth?

asked one of the twins.

Yes, definitely.

In here we are growing and gaining strength for what will face us on the outside, answers the other.

That's nonsense, said the first.

There cannot be life after birth.

How is that supposed to work?

Well, I don't exactly know myself.

It will certainly be much lighter out there than in here.

And perhaps we'll actually be running around on our legs and eating with our mouths.

I've never heard of such nonsense.

Eating with your mouth?

What a crazy idea.

That's what we have umbilical cords for to fetus.

And you want to run around?

It would never work.

The umbilical cord is much too short.

It will work for sure.

It will all be a little different.

You are crazy.

Nobody has ever come back after birth.

Life ends with our birth.

That's it, period.

I must admit that no one knows what life will look like after birth, but I know that we will get to see our mother and that she will take care of us.

Mother, are you trying to tell me you believe in mother?

Well, um, where then is our mother?

Well, here, all around us.

We are alive and in her and through her, without her, we could not exist.

Rubbish.

I've never noticed anything of mother.

Therefore, mother cannot exist.

It's true.

Sometimes when you're really quiet, you can hear or you can hear her sing, or you can feel when she lovingly caresses our world.

So, perspective.

Surrender to the reality that is this is not our home.

Um, so maybe our perspective does need to shift.

Um, there's, we began to look at scripture.

There is much to look forward to.

The reality is that we're in the midst of a drama that has been playing out since the fall.

Um, God is determined to redeem mankind and to provide a place where he can be known and we can know him.

And we are the objects of his quest.

And against all odds, we have hit the biggest, the biggest lottery that can ever be imagined.

So, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there's going to be a better day.

No matter how good it is now, there is a day that is going to be infinitely better.

A day that is more real than we've ever experienced.

A day that will last forever.

Only Christ makes this possible.

It is his grace that we can know, and that while we are still living, even as aliens in a broken world, that this is the ultimate encouragement.

This is the hope that we have as believers.

So the next point is, he said, to think about these things or imagine these things, but also then how are we going to do that?

How are we going to think differently?

How are we going to think with a new perspective?

So the next point he says is practice.

And truly that is what it takes.

It takes practice.

It doesn't come naturally, I think, to think about one person, one thing.

It just, we've got too much going on around us.

But Paul says to practice, and I think if we practice one thing, the gospel, one person, Jesus, it begins to make sense.

A person by the name of Milton Vincent calls this preaching the gospel to yourself.

And he says this the gospel is so foolish according to my natural wisdom, so scandalous according to my conscience, and so incredible according to my timid heart, that it is a daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should.

There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemning of my heart, and the lies of the world than to overwhelm myself each day with the rehearsing of the gospel.

I think that is a very wise thing.

And I think that's something that we can tangibly do now.

Learn how to preach the gospel to ourselves, learn how to begin to get that different perspective so that we can see that this truly is not our home.

But at the same time, we've got something to look forward to that's beyond anything we can imagine.

And then the last point think one thing, one person, and experience the God of peace.

You know, our greatest desire, whether we acknowledge it or not, our greatest desire, our ultimate home, is Jesus.

And I think that's one of my challenges, is that I don't always actually recognize that or actually see that.

Um a woman by the name of Catherine Wolfe, 26 years old, had a stroke.

Six months earlier, she had uh just delivered a baby, a little baby boy.

And uh when she had this stroke, um pretty much paralyzed most of her body.

Um she was in a coma for like three months, and then when she came out of the coma, she couldn't speak, uh, she couldn't move, she could not even swallow.

And in the depths of her depression, um she was praying to Jesus that just take her because she was gonna be a burden on her husband, she couldn't be a wife to him anymore.

She was gonna be a burden to her child, she couldn't be a mother, um, and she was uh she was in the depths of the depression when she couldn't even swallow.

And she realized through prayer, it's like, do you want the things that Jesus gives you, or do you want Jesus?

And for her, that was a watershed moment in in her life where she's partially recovered.

She and her husband are still married, the little boy, I think he's about six years old now, maybe a little bit older.

But they they minister to people with with hope that it's it's not about the things in this world that are going to give us fulfillment.

That's that's not the desire that we truly want.

It's it's Jesus.

And what does that look like?

Um that's a little difficult, but I think it's I think it's somewhat simple.

It's a recognition that it's going to be okay.

Um, even in the worst of times, it's going to be okay simply because no matter what happens in our life, there's a certainty that God loves us beyond anything we can imagine.

And there's a certainty that he's in complete control.

And if those two things are true, that God loves us more than we could ever imagine, and that he's in complete control, we're in pretty good shape.

We're in pretty good shape.

Um, I think more than anything else, God takes us through difficult times or allows us, better said, to go through difficult times, um, if for no other reason, so that we can know him better.

Painful, but but glorious on that on the out on the backside.

John Harper, before he passed his six-year-old daughter to his sister-in-law for them both to climb aboard a raft on the Titanic, said this.

It will be beautiful in the morning.

And he didn't make it.

That was many years ago, but that's uh that's a quote that that uh I've come to love.

It will be beautiful in the morning.

I don't know exactly what that means, but but if God loves me to the degree that I know that he does, and if he's in control, and I know that he is, um, it will be beautiful in the morning.

So think one thing, one person.

Um it's going to be okay.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, um, thank you that you are a God of love, and thank you that you've accomplished more than we can possibly understand.

But you've accomplished um redemption for your glory, but also for our good.

And thank you that uh with your word we can begin to put that in perspective.

And with your word, we can begin to know you more and more, and um the uh the uh relationship and the intimacy that we have with you can become more real and real in Christ's name.

Amen.