Requests and Peace (Philippians 4:2-9)

Good afternoon.

My name is Pete Maskell.

I'm an elder at Abide Calvary.

This is a special recording of the sermon, normally from Sunday morning on November 16th, 2025.

And we're continuing through Philippians.

This week we're in Philippians 4.

So we'll start by reading through the passage, starting in verse 2 through verse 9.

I urge Yodia and I urge Cintike to agree in the Lord.

Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again.

Rejoice.

Let your graciousness be known to everyone.

The Lord is near.

Don't record don't don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence, and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell in these things.

Do what you have learned and received and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to go through your word.

Pray that you would bow our hearts and our minds, remove them from the distractions of the day.

That you would prepare us for what you desire to speak to us, that you would have our full attention to encourage, to admonish, to teach, to instruct, to speak to us in specific and meaningful ways.

Amen.

Well, this morning we're starting in verse 2, and we've been going through the book of Philippians.

This is this is Paul's uh we we call it the book of Philippians, but it's Paul's letter to the church that is in Philippi.

It's the first recorded church in Europe, and Paul uh arrived there after following the vision of the Macedonian man.

And this was a uh this is a Roman colony, so it was founded uh before Christ uh uh as a settlement of retired Roman soldiers.

Paul has an intense background here.

Uh we read in Acts 16 that he cast a uh a demon out of a girl, and those in the town didn't like that.

They threw him in prison.

Well, at midnight he was singing, he and Silas were singing uh songs, hymns in the jail, and they enter prison with Sy uh at midnight.

The earthquake came, the jailer got saved.

Paul has a a background in Philippi of service and sacrifice.

He starts in chapter one, and he's he we learn that he's writing to affirm his gratitude to the Philippians for their generosity for their fellowship in the gospel.

He he mentions he has a desire to be with Christ, but he uh but the fortitude to continue on to serve the needs of the people.

In chapter two, he focuses the Philippians on a mind of humility and of unity, reminding them to walk like Christ walked, to put others per to put others first, and to operate with the mind of Christ, which took the form of a servant, laid his life down for others.

He went to the cross, he sacrificed everything to be with us, to pay for our sin.

In chapter three, Paul says in a nutshell, all is rubbish, all is dung compared to knowing Christ.

Press on for the goal of Christ.

And our true citizenship is not in a town or a place, our true citizenship is in heaven.

Well, as we get into Philippians 4, we're starting in verse 2, and that's just about more about um the change in subject as we move on into the next topics.

And as we're getting into these, the way I kind of divide these things, if if I couldn't look at high level, the the whole thing is much interrelated, would divide chapter 4, or this first part of chapter 4, the first eight verses here, into a series of commands, um, exhortations, and some admonishment.

I divide it into disagreements and worries.

If we really look kind of big picture, these things, disagreement or disunity and worries, way one way I kind of have approached as we we look at it is that these are both things that collect debt.

They collect interest.

And they don't collect interest in a sort of a 401k sort of a way.

In a retirement, in a growing good kind of way, these things collect interest in a debt collection kind of a way.

The longer they go, the worse they get.

Time does not help either disagreements or worries, typically left unattended.

They just become problematic.

As we get into this, the first thing we read is that Paul is actually, in the themes of Philippians, by the way, is we we've heard we hear a lot of people say the book is the book of joy, and it is.

We see such a joyous Paul as he's writing to the Philippians.

He in chapter 1, he rejoices that Christ is preached.

He's rejoicing with the Philippians, verse uh 2.17.

He rejoices seeing uh Epaphras.

He commands here, rejoice.

He rejoices again.

The other themes, as we see through the book, is what I categorize as unity and selflessness.

And I put them together in that way because they're really interlinked.

Selflessness breeds unity.

And there seems to be an emphasis and a theme throughout the book about unity and others focused, others first.

Paul writes to address some division and disunity.

He says in chapter 1, verse 27, he encourages them to be in what of one spirit and mind together, of the same love and one mind, and 2 verse 2 and 2 verse 3, nothing without selfish ambition, and so on.

But as we get into chapter 4, he actually seems to address a real problem in the Philippian church.

But here we are in verse 2, and he faces it head on.

Now, whether the Philippians knew about this issue between Eodia and Cintica, we don't know, but whether or not they knew, they knew now.

And the two of these, uh two of these women, Paul doesn't say what the problem was.

He doesn't take sides, there's no mention of actual issues, we don't learn of specifics, right?

Other than they're disagreeing.

He actually urges them equally.

He says, I urge Yodia and I urge Centiche.

We also learn in verse 3 that these women, they're fellow workers, they're ministers, they actually work with Paul fighting and serving in the gospel.

Paul doesn't seem to address the issue head-on exactly, but what he does do is he says, agree and agree in the Lord.

What was this?

We don't know, we don't necessarily need to know, but these disagreements, it could be petty things, it could be their pride just pushing in, it could be personalities, distrust from past experiences, frustration, annoyances.

We don't know.

What we do know about disagreements is the flesh is so strong.

This is one of those things we can't leave unattended.

And so, really, this topic as a whole, this is the disagreements, though very a brief mention, really, we do know that they separate people and the church, not just those who are in disagreement, but it just starts to wedge its way in.

And it really puts the focus on man, not on Jesus.

So, what does Paul say?

One of his exhortations and requests here is to help these two.

He says true partner here.

Some would say that's a person based on the Greek name.

It means yoke fellow, but they some say this this could be the name of a person, Sudzugas.

But I really think that true partner is really just the Philippian church to come alongside them.

It's open, it's out, it's not like this is kept low at this point if it's if it's open publicly.

Paul is saying, okay, at this point, y'all know about it.

Please help them.

These are fellow ministers, these aren't unbelievers, they're not coming in as wolves.

Help them to work and to agree and not just agree on things they have in common, but to the one and main thing they have in common, which is agreeing in the Lord.

Going on, Paul says in verse 4, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice.

Well, tell me, have you been in a disagreement and found yourself joyful?

Disagreements and disunity suck the joy out of our lives.

Now, maybe it's possible, but I really but I really think that these disagreements often cause us to put our joy or look for our joy to be in the wrong places.

What would what do we need to rejoice in?

Paul says, in the Lord, and when, always.

That is a hard command.

It is practically impossible, really, outside of the Lord, to rejoice in everything and always.

What do we rejoice in?

What specifically?

Sometimes this is a feels a little nebulous, especially when we're in the moment and we really need practically to focus our mind in rejoicing and not on frustrations and on uh circumstances.

What do we rejoice in?

Here are a few things.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

He's prepared works beforehand that we should walk in them.

Though we are faithless, he is faithful.

He's given us his very spirit, the spirit of adoption.

He's made us sons.

And by sons, you know, that's not just um for us men or guys.

Being sons means we have authority, that we are that he's made us one and as though we are really part of his household and part of the uh rights and privileges of being uh his son.

What else?

He's bridged the gap.

That though we had offended and betrayed and abandoned him, he's brought us near by the blood of Christ.

Those are some of the things, those that is rejoicing.

We often have to do that intentionally.

It's not like it just comes.

Often, in the time we realize that our mind is not on the Lord and on the joy of our salvation and of the truth he brings, we have to set it there and be very intentional, or our flesh and our weakness will just drag us down.

Paul goes on.

He says, Verse 5, let your graciousness be known to everyone.

The Lord is near.

Now, what does this have to do with the preceding subject?

Well, this word gracious, in several translations, you may find in different translations, it's really a different word in many cases.

Well, it's because there's a lot of meaning and depth to it.

You may see it translated as gentleness, moderation, reasonableness.

The commentator Adam Clark wrote this.

He said the ro the word epi case is a very extensive signification.

It means the same as epi c which is mildness, patience, yieldness, gentleness, clemency, moderation, and unwillingness to litigate or contend.

And it's that last part that helps me understand so much.

The graciousness in the light of disagreement is that willing to back off and yield, to be kind, and even and so often we feel we're right, right?

You feel like you you don't want to give in.

But this is this graciousness is your your willingness to say, it doesn't matter.

I'm putting unity ahead of being right, uh ahead of my pride, uh ahead of what I think is true, whatever it would be.

Now, Paul specifically says, Let your graciousness be known.

And this is in the original language, this is what's in called the passive voice.

What's the passive voice?

Well, bear with me.

This is sort of an English lesson, but it really helps to draw the meaning out for me.

Paul says, Let your graciousness be known.

Well, if we said, for instance, uh, Johnny was hit by a ball, well, it doesn't say who threw the ball, right?

It says really the focus is on the action, on that that he was hit.

It's focused on the direct object.

It focused on, well, it's focused on Johnny.

It's not focused on us.

So it's not, Paul doesn't say be gracious.

It's not the the focus is not on us, it's on allowing this to come out.

It's not on our the attention that it brings us, it's on graciousness being imparted to others.

And sometimes that graciousness is there, but if we don't yield to the spirit, but we yield to the flesh, it does not, it is not made known.

So instead of your willingness to fight, your contempt, the disgust for another person, your disagreement, your desire for your opinion and needs above others, we let our graciousness known.

Really, uh Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, is better he says it better than I can.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Chapter 4, starting in verse 1, Paul says, Therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

And that is hard against the flesh, but we were all called one hope, one faith, one baptism.

That's one God.

And in here, as we walk in life, the other believers in our lives, they're all we're all going to the same place.

It can be very we can be very myopic and very focused on the issues, but we're all going to be with Jesus.

We'll be apart from these bodies of sin and death.

And the benefits are just not there.

God and his purposes, his moving and his instructing and his growing us are far more important than the body getting this wedge driven down into it.

We see Paul, you know, I think he speaks well to graciousness.

We see that he had a dispute in Acts 16.

The dispute didn't go so well.

It was, if you remember, Paul and Barnabas were in disagreement, heavy disagreement over Mark, based on some things Mark had done, went so poorly that Paul and Barnabas departed ways.

The Lord used it, but it was still a disagreement.

I don't know that I would think there was a lot of graciousness or gentleness from my read of the passage.

Well, in Paul, just after this statement, he says, The Lord is near.

The way I read this term is is that, well, the Lord is near as in He's returning.

He's coming soon.

And that this phrase to me says, Well, time is short.

God's coming and he'll set things in order.

I kind of look at it like this.

If you were if you remember, and and and I had some siblings, I was the youngest.

Maybe you're home alone, or home with homeless siblings, and things are are not going well, and well, you realize parents are coming home and there's a big mess.

And so you say, Well, shoot, mom and dad are coming home.

We gotta clean this place up.

They're gonna be really upset when they see the sink full of dishes and the house is trashed.

Well, you get together with your siblings and you make it happen.

You clean up.

Well, you're unified with your siblings, right?

Lord is coming, the Lord is near.

Get along and focus on his coming and getting things in order, focusing on Jesus.

Well, sometimes when you're in disagreement and there's an argument or a dispute, sometimes you get in that position, you're home with your siblings, and you're like, well, you know what?

I'm not gonna worry about that because mom and dad are coming home and they're gonna take care of things.

This sort of this statement puts things in perspective.

Time is short, it's not, we don't have time to argue.

We have to get to work.

Well, Paul transitions in this next section, and though it's though they're seemingly different uh subjects, really the some of the same themes and concepts are throughout this this uh eight or so verses.

Paul says, and in uh verse six, starting in verse six, he says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I I this is uh this set of verses, this coming set of verses through verse 9, I really look at them and I call this the remedy of anxiety, and not to make a acute thing of it, and not to make an equation out of it.

Because often we'll go through these things and follow Paul's instruction, and it doesn't mean anxiety is going to vanish.

Sometimes it doesn't.

And I'll say that I'm not positive that the Lord doesn't use that because he finds us closer to him when we're going through these struggles.

Sometimes I think that we're better in that anxiety.

Now I'm not saying we should be there, but he but he knows that the struggle is keeping us close, if we can put it that way.

And so as we get into section, verses four, uh chapter four, six through nine, we look at the way I look at it is sort of we've got these commands.

Paul says pray in verse six, and then he says in verse eight, dwell, and in verse nine, do.

If you like P words in the following passage, I'd kind of say pray, ponder, and perform, though I don't like the word perform really well.

Um Maybe it helps for to sort of keep the the commands a little straightened out, but um the P's do work out well.

We'll see Paul say pray and then petition, and here in the CSB we say it says present your requests, and then we'll say ponder, ponder these things and perform what you've learned and received.

Paul starts out by saying, Don't worry about anything.

This word worry, in some translations anxious, is the Greek miram naol, means troubled with cares.

You know, I I would say that I am almost a professional worrier.

Some of us are really good at worrying.

It just comes naturally.

Our flesh is good at it, and we just get wrapped around the axle worrying.

Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, he says you can't add one cubit to your to your height.

As in, do you think you could worry so much that your body would grow yourself taller because you were upset and worried about being tall enough or you're over your stature.

Well, Paul says uh he says, Don't worry, and in in the the Greek, what this is, if we look at the the original language, it says let uh be uh oh sorry, just uh just one hold I thought as Paul goes on.

He says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything.

There's two absolutes, that means don't worry, we don't have a reason or a condition which worry is okay.

And he says, in everything.

It means we don't want to miss a spot and let the worry creep in.

He says instead, he he says, through prayer and petition.

This word prayer, it's very straightforward.

It just means talking to God.

It's pros the Greek word is pros-yuke.

Petition, second word, is specifically, and this is from uh from Strong's, a seeking, asking, entreating, or entreaty to God.

Or in the case of just general use, entreaty to God or man.

Uh another translation would say supplicate, which is a pretty old school word.

But this word, but Paul's saying, okay, prayer and talk to God, verbalize to him, and in and in that asking or seeking or entreating, he says as well through prayer and petition to uh with thanksgiving.

What is thanksgiving?

Why thanksgiving?

I like to call this the attitude of gratitude.

Really, I think that what Paul's after in this sort of supernatural combination of uh in his direction, this remedy of anxiety is bringing alignment and perspective.

So often we could get into the mode of dumping our needs and dumping our desires, and yes, God knows our needs before we ask of them, but I think we often could get so focused on the request and the prayer that we forget to align our hearts upward on the Lord.

Thanking God as we go, it turns our heart to understand our blessings.

Even in crisis, we can we can thank the Lord.

This can look like just thanking him, and often often we have to start small when we are in the thick of worry and anxiety.

It may be that we just thank God for our breath.

We thank him for the roof over our head, we thank him for the good relationships we have, for our health, whatever it might be, we have to start cranking into these uh voicing our Thanksgiving, and that there's a momentum that comes as we get our mind trained on really what our blessings are, because in the set in the course of worry, we really forget that we are blessed.

Going on, Paul says, This is still verse six, present your request to God.

So don't worry about anything.

Everything with through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

What Paul's saying here is verbalize your desires.

Well, in the original Greek language, and some translations will say this, it says, Let your request be known to God.

But doesn't God already know our our needs and our desires?

Scripture says so.

Well, this is the second case, again, back to the English, back to the English lesson, is that this original text is in the passive voice.

This is not saying to let your request know to God just because he doesn't know yet.

It's saying let them let them be known.

And remember, the passive voice is putting emphasis on the action, not on, or in this case, on the uh entreating, not on the entreater.

Not on the person asking, but on but on uh letting that letting that need be known.

I think what God is really after here is that we are casting our cares, as Peter says.

In fact, Peter says, humble yourselves, therefore.

This is 1 Peter 5, verse 7.

1 Peter 5:7

He says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares for you.

I really think that what P what Paul's after in this wording, um, what he's after is that he wants us to verbalize our desires.

He wants us to sit before the Lord and let him know of what's in our heart and in our mind.

I think there is something about us in our human form, in our human weakness, the act of verbalizing and voicing our desires, we recognize what they are, and we're able to distinctly take that and cast that specific thing, because sometimes it sits so deep that we hang on to it.

Often we are not capable.

Often I think that we may not even know in the case of course of our worries what we're worrying about, but letting our desires know helps to pinpoint those things, helps to bring them out.

And Jesus, and we spend Jesus, we spend time with Jesus, sitting with him, communing with him, laying those things down, expressing thanksgiving, and humbling ourselves as we ask him our needs.

Well, Jesus says in uh as a good way of sort of summarizing some of this here, Matt in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, Jesus says, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.

Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake?

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

These are the things we can be even thankful that the Lord knows our needs.

We can be thankful that he doesn't give us contrary to our need, if we need bread, he won't give us something that's inedible edible.

Well, here's the result.

And not that I want to do an equation.

Again, just going through this doesn't mean your anxiety will vanish, but it what it will do is it'll it will put us in proper position with the Lord.

Paul says in verse 7, he says, and so the result.

Paul says peace here.

He says the peace of God.

There's a few different ways we see peace in the New Testament.

We see, let's just say high picture, we see, big picture, we see peace with God, and peace, the peace of God.

The peace with God is the joining that we have.

These are the same words as we see peace with, as we see the scripture describe peace with God.

It says joining with God.

Well, that's the that is Jesus' death on the cross, his blood spilled, and his death there to pay for our sins once and for all.

And when we surrender and say and ask him for forgiveness, we s we recognize that we need him as our Savior to cover our sins and to cover the infinite chasm of our separation with him.

That peace with him is the joining with him through the infinite separation of our sin.

This is the peace of God.

So Paul's not talking about suddenly we're saved.

This is saying the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

This word peace, if we you just look it up in Blue Letter Bible, you'd see it says the tranquil state of soul, assured of its salvation through Christ, so fearing nothing from God.

This is security in Christ, confidence in his power, his goodness of his leading, that he's in control.

This is sitting with your Abba Father, who knows your needs, he knows when you're hungry, he won't let a hair from your head fall.

He knows the end from the beginning and all that he has for us.

The whys and why nots.

Paul says this peace, it surpasses all understanding.

This is what I call the paradox of peace.

What is a paradox?

That's just a just a big word.

It just means something that doesn't seem true at first, but is not it seems true and doesn't seem evident or true, really, the initial looking, but really after examination, it is a truth.

The paradox of peace is that his peace does not come from understanding, and it doesn't lead to understanding.

Paul is saying here that it surpasses understanding.

Why is that important?

This isn't a logic thing.

It's often that God isn't telling us why it doesn't make sense.

He's not necessarily going to tell us why he's doing something or not doing something, but we can trust him that he is good and that he will lead us.

Sometimes we won't find out for years.

We may not find out for hours, we may never find out.

What we will know is that one day we will be apart from this body of sin and death, and that we will be with him forever, without sin, without illness, without pain, without disagreements and disunity.

And God wants that for us.

But often we seek peace from understanding.

We have peace once we understand.

It's that medical condition.

Why am I having these symptoms?

Or what is happening to my body?

Is this a disease?

Is this cancer?

Is this something serious?

And we have these questions, and we don't have peace because we want to know.

We want control.

Often we will continue to not have peace if we continue to expect that we are going to have an understanding or a knowledge.

When as children, when God of God's children, in our weakness, in our needs.

We don't need to know.

Paul, when he's in Acts 16, on his way to Philippi, uh Paul tried to go further into Asia.

This is um he tried to go into Ephesus and other places, and the that says the spirit forbade him.

Well, we could have a worry like, well, God, why won't you let me go?

This is a good thing.

Why won't you let me go?

Well, that spirit the forbating of the spirit to Paul and then the vision of the Macedonian man, it led to the founding of the church and the bringing of the gospel to Europe.

God knows.

Well, as we keep moving into verse 7, Paul says it's this peace which doesn't come from understanding, but surpasses understanding, surpasses comprehension.

It will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

This word is this word guard is not just like protect.

It's just not like keeping your car from getting scratched.

This is guarding or protecting by a military guard.

This is from uh strong, so either to prevent a hostile invasion or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight.

This guard is a military guarding, and it is both to keep something from escaping, but to keep something from entering.

I love this word so much because often it can go both ways.

In our worries and our anxiety, we need guarding to keep these worries and these external circumstances from coming into our minds and bombarding us.

Sometimes we need that guarding to keep those thoughts at bay and to keep them subdued.

We need him to keep our to keep us and to keep things from leaving us, to keep our worries and anxiety sort of bes to protect from that besieging of our worries.

And what does it protect?

It keeps it protects our hearts and our minds.

Our minds, our thoughts, those are so important, the thoughts that race and swirl.

Our hearts, and Strong would say this, um, this is out of Blue Letter Bible.

Our hearts, which is is that uh the seat of the sensibilities, the affections, the emotions, the desires, appetites, and passions.

The struggle and the war and the battle is not just in our thoughts, it's really the the the deep-seated places in our in our in our beings that get completely overwhelmed by worry.

Well, Paul goes on, and he he's talking about peace in verse six, letting casting our cares upon him in verse six, and the peace of God guarding our minds and our hearts.

And he's gonna go on, which is he's gonna further train our minds here in verse eight.

Verse eight says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any moral excellence, and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things.

So, Paul, verse six, he's saying, pray and petition.

He's saying, with thanksgiving, have thanksgiving, and then present your requests.

And now he's saying, Dwell or ponder on these things.

What are these things?

They're good things.

Tell me something.

When you're worried, or you're in disagreement, is your mind on good things?

Do we worry about good things?

Do we worry about having food on the table?

Do we worry um do we worry when about things that are pure or honorable, or do we worry about things that are reprehensible or unjust?

Does our mind project itself onto things that are untrue or that haven't occurred, or that we have no idea if they're even reality?

Well, disagreement and disunity and worry and anxiety, they're contrary to these good things.

So Paul says, dwell on these things.

I have a question for us.

Paul says, dwell on these things, and instead of ruminating on your worries of the unknown, things that make no sense, ponder on the good.

But what are our inputs?

The things that we need him to guard us against, and some of those things that can cause our thoughts to dwell on the bad, on the evil, they're social media.

They're my cell phone, they're right on my phone and f in my pocket.

News articles, headlines, even our friends and our influences.

Someone who's a friend, even in Christ, can even be a contribution to our thoughts going in the wrong place.

So, what is this thing?

This is like a filter.

It's saying, okay, does it does it pass the filter with one of these things?

So Paul's giving us something very practical.

When we have thoughts in our head, when we see something on a screen, we have something in a conversation, we can say, well, okay, is this honorable?

It's not honorable.

Is it just?

No, it's unjust.

Something that came to mind, and this is something that uh my wife and I were debating about here, is this concept, uh, the concept of a sieve.

And we have this place in our house, it's called the Dirt Pit.

We call it affectionately the dirt pit.

And this is a play a place for clean fun for the boys.

Outside, just playing in the dirt.

But when we moved in the house and the boys, Ryan grew up, um, you know, dirt's not perfect, and there were a handful of rocks, not the greatest place to have bare feet and and tender skin.

So I set out to to sieve out the bad.

And so I got a pair of uh I got a piece of hardware cloth that's just some wire screen, and I started shoveling dirt over this thing into a bucket, and I sieved out rock after rock, bucketful after bucketful of gravel, but not just gravel, with everything, everything that didn't fit through that half-inch hardware cloth, included glass and rusty nails, a couple hot wheel cars, but I'll tell you the stuff that I that that come out, the weeds, the pokies, none of them I wanted in dirt for playing in.

Similarly, Paul is Paul is giving us a sieve.

He's giving us a piece of hardware cloth.

He says, this is how we keep the stuff that we keep the good stuff coming in and we get rid of the bad.

We toss it aside, we say, this is not, this is does not belong in my mind.

Well, Paul wraps up here and he says, and remember, there's there's a series of commands here.

Starting in verse 6, it was was don't worry, but pray, right?

Pray in petition, and ponder in verse 8, and in verse 9, do or perform.

Paul says, Do what you have learned, this is verse 9, do what you have learned and received and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul's saying, Mimic me, follow me, like a discipler.

Not just do like I do.

He's actually saying, do it all.

If you've heard it from me, if you've seen me do it, or seen it in me, or if you've learned it in my instruction, you say, do that.

Put your time and your focus on these things.

And as we get in here to closing up, we'll see the doing is actually a big part of our responding to disagreements and to worry and anxiety.

Looking at the passage, we see kind of two scenarios.

We can find ourselves in disagreements, we can find ourselves in worry and others, but focusing here on ourselves, putting ourselves in this position, we could find ourselves in disagreement, in disunity.

Even in our minds, we can find ourselves in disagreement.

Battling it.

We can be battling it before it even occurs, which is great, because we can address it before it affects other people.

What does Paul say?

He says, seek agreement, not just agreement over your favorite sports teams, though that doesn't hurt.

But seek agreement in the Lord.

Things that are in and of him.

Center ourselves.

Center yourselves, ourselves with that party, that person in the Lord.

Things of him, his truth.

As he says, as Paul says in Ephesians, bearing with one another.

You know how that goes, bearing with each other and the challenging parts of them or the challenging things you're enduring with humility.

That means not pride, gentleness, and patience.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit.

If we're acting and doing like Paul, we've got to beware of our flesh.

It's so strong in disagreements.

We can be so bothered and so focused on ourselves and on the conflict that we lose focus of Christ.

In verse 9, Paul says, Do as I do, do what you've learned from me.

Well, what does Paul even talk about in this book?

But having the mind of Christ.

The mind that thought nothing of his own rights, but of laying his entire life down to suffer and die on a cross.

Paul served them and desired to be with Christ, he says in chapter 1.

But he said it's more important to be with you.

Even in disagreement, we put others first.

In this public issue, Paul even had the body coming around each other to help each other in agreement.

Well, as we look at the second component of this passage, if we look back, I wanted to introduce two other women.

We saw Eodia and Centike in the chap in verse 2.

These two women I thought are helpful in application.

Their names were Mary and Martha.

In Luke 10, starting in verse 38, we read, While they were traveling, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister who sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to what he said, but Martha was distracted by many tasks, and she came up and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

So tell her to give me a hand.

Sounds like a disagreement, doesn't it?

The Lord answered her, Mary, m sorry, the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things.

But one thing is necessary.

Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken from her.

So if you're finding yourself wrapped in anxiety, or even just seeing the hint of one, if you're finding yourself a Martha, not that this has to be a woman, because we all worry, but if you're finding yourself a Martha per se, and you're worried about many things, you're enveloped in anxiety and you're overwhelmed.

And we know even this is physiological.

This is your whole body becomes engaged in this.

If you're finding yourself a Martha, seek to be a Mary.

Sit at the feet of Jesus, shower him with praise and thanksgiving, and then pray, present your desires to him, lay them down, petition the Lord with your needs, and then look for his peace, not for an understanding, but look for his peace which will surpass it.

As Paul says in verse 9, he says, Do you do as you've learned and received and heard and seen in me.

Well Paul says Paul says, put your put your care let's compare this because in in closing our thoughts on worry and anxiety, this word worry is actually used in the book of Philippians.

It also means cares.

Paul says in chapter 2, verse 20, he says, I have no one like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests.

Well, Paul is using the same word, but what he's he's using it about caring about others.

The word can go both directions.

We can be full of cares over our worries, over our issues, but we can also have care for others in an outward sort of a way.

Yes, we can have care uh for many things, but Paul in the book of Philippians was so full of care for others.

He was care, he had care for the Philippians and their state, he had care for their growth and for their future.

As Paul says, to do as he did, often in the state of worry and anxiety, sometimes we need to do and to take action.

We can get depressed and overwhelmed, but sometimes we need to take action and serve others.

Just the practical caring and placing our cares outward, get our minds off of our own cares inwardly.

We can serve people, we can sacrifice, we can pray and intercede.

I think as if as we do what Paul has we heard from him and seen in him, those actions are very practical for resolving our anxiety.

Let me uh close with this passage.

Jesus in Matthew 11 says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus wants us to cast our cares upon him because he cares for us.

We can find rest in him, rest from our from the exhaustion of worry.

Some of us and other people in different state in different states here in our body, they are facing medical questions.

They don't know what the problems are.

We may have other questions, other worries or anxieties.

Jesus wants us to take those things and cast them upon him.

He doesn't expect us, he doesn't think we're strong.

We often think we do, or we we're proud and we don't want to surrender those things.

Jesus says, put those burdens on me.

Now placing our burdens on Jesus, having his peace, the peace of God, guard our hearts.

Well, this assumes that we're his.

The first step of having peace from God is first having peace with God.

Jesus doesn't want us to power up, but first and foremost, he doesn't want us to be separated from him.

He doesn't want our sin to stand in the way.

Jesus wants us right with him.

And right now our sin has earned us separation.

As in we're spiritually separated from Jesus.

We're stillborn.

We're not alive spiritually, we're dead.

But we can have that peace from God, and he desires that for us, but we need we first need to recognize that we need Jesus' death on the cross, his suffering, and his resurrection to pay for our sin and to reconcile us with God.

You and in this place can accept that that sacrifice, surrender your life, and this can be reality.

Taking our cares and concerns, casting them on Jesus, and letting his Spirit minister to our hearts in a supernatural way.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you so much for your word, that it is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, that you can you know exactly our needs and how to minister to us and work in us and grow us.

Father, I pray for for any sort of disagreement or disunity that you would bring that to our attention, that you would work on us.

Father, in humility, yielding to others, not making it a thing, and focusing on Jesus, rejoicing in him, for our worries that Father, you would we would not walk in a state of worry, that we would cast them quickly onto your shoulders, that you would guard our minds and our hearts, that you protect us, we thank you that you're so good to care for us, not just to save us, not just to have us power up and do things on our own, but that you know our every need.

You won't give us a rock if we ask for bread.

We thank you for all you provide, and we pray that you bury your your word deep in our heart and help us to walk it out.

In Jesus' name, Amen.