1. The first preparation for peace is looking to the right source (6-7)
2. The second preparation for peace is living with the right mind (8)
3. The third preparation for peace is learning from the right man (9)
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-9
Have you ever just had one of those days? Maybe you can relate to the kind of day this guy had. Here’s a letter he wrote to his insurance company that tells about his bad day. “I am writing in response to your request for additional information. In block number 3 of the accident reporting form, I put “Poor planning” as the cause of my accident. You said in your letter that I should explain more fully, and I trust that the following details will be sufficient. I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a ten-story building. When I completed my work, I discovered I had about 500 pounds of bricks left over. Rather than carry them down by hand, I decided to lower them to the ground in a barrel by using a pulley, which, fortunately, was attached to the side of the building at the tenth floor. Securing the rope at ground level, I went to the roof, loaded the 500 pounds of bricks, then went back down to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to insure the slow descent of the 500 pounds of bricks. (You will note in block 11 of the accident reporting form that I weigh 165 pounds.) Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rapid rate up the side of the building. In the vicinity of the fifth floor, I met the barrel coming down. This explains the fractured skull and broken collarbone. I continued by rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley. Fortunately, by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground, and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Devoid of the weight of the bricks, the barrel now weighed approximately 30 pounds. I refer you again to my weight in block number 11 of the accident reporting form. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the fifth floor, I met the barrel coming up again! This accounts for the two fractured ankles and lacerations to my legs and lower body. The second encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell into the pile of bricks, and fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the bricks – in pain and unable to stand – watching the empty barrel ten stories above me – I again lost my presence of mind – I LET GO OF THE ROPE.” That’s a bad day. But we all have bad days sometimes, don’t we? Sometimes, just like that bricklayer, it seems like one thing hits us after another until all we can do is lay there and watch the next thing come. But is that all there is? Is that what life’s all about? When you look around the world, you see conflict and war and terrorism. When you look in our own community, you see drugs and crime and broken homes and abuse. Sometimes it can seem as if everything in our world is in turmoil. Sometimes that feeling of chaos even spills into our home lives, doesn’t it? Everything is rush, rush and busy, busy. The chaos of competing interests and schedules seems to have completely taken over. Especially at this time of year. And that’s in homes where things are fairly stable. What about when you add all of the other problems that plague our families today. Chaos and confusion in the world. Chaos and confusion in our country. Chaos and confusion in our community. Chaos and confusion in our homes. Chaos and confusion in our lives. Bricks and barrels and ropes and pulleys can seem like they’re coming at us from every direction at the same time. But is that the way it’s supposed to be? Is that the life that God desires for us? Of course not. While he was talking about orderliness in church, Paul reminded us about the nature of our God. In 1 Corinthians 14:33, he wrote, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” One thing you can be certain of—if there’s confusion and chaos happening in your life—that’s not what God desires for you. His desire is for you to experience peace. Now, does that mean everything’s going to come up roses around you? No—what it means is that the Lord has made peace available to you despite all the chaos and confusion that’s going on around you. Are you interested? Well, it doesn’t come in a bottle. It doesn’t come in a box. It doesn’t even come for 3 easy payments when you call a 1-800 number. In our passage this morning, Paul is closing out his letter to the church at Philippi. And as he does so, he wants to leave them with some encouragement. Their lives weren’t that much different that ours are. Their lives were busy, chaotic and confusing. But Paul knew that wasn’t God’s desire for them. His desire was for their joy and peace. The entire letter pointed them to the joy of their salvation. Now, in these closing verses, Paul gives them encouraging ways to experience true God-given peace. That’s what I want for us here today. As we enter this week of Thanksgiving, I want us to overcome the chaos and busy-ness of the season and experience the true peace of God. But that isn’t something that will just happen on its own. Just like your Thanksgiving dinner won’t prepare itself, true peace in your life won’t prepare itself. So what do we have to do? We have to prepare for peace in three ways. The first preparation for peace is to look to the right source. Look at verses 6-7:
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7
The first preparation for peace is to look to the right source. What a wonderfully familiar verse. It is a wonderful thing when a verse is so familiar to us that it just rolls off the tongue when we read it. Many of you might even have memorized it. If you have, that’s great. If you haven’t, I’d encourage you to. But there is a danger with familiarity. It’s like the hymns that we know so well. We know them so well and have sung them so many times that the words have no impact on us. They have become so familiar to us that we are in danger of not even paying attention to the words we sing any more. Like driving the same stretch of road everyday. The newness wears off. It’s almost like your brain shuts off when you travel it. If you’re not careful, that can happen with familiar Scripture passages. The thing is, in all of our familiarity with this verse, most of the time, the focus is in the wrong place. Yes, Paul is telling us the importance of prayer, supplication, and giving thanks. But His focus here is on Who, not what. We pray to God because He is the source of the peace we’re looking for. As a matter of fact, He’s the only source of the peace we’re looking for. But that’s not what the world says, is it? People on one side of the political world will tell you that the only hope for peace in the world is through military strength. People on the other side will tell you that the only hope for peace is through appeasement and giving in to our enemy’s demands. But what does the Bible say? The Bible says that our only hope for peace is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:20 says, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” The only source of peace in the world is God through the blood of His son Jesus Christ. But, the world’s a big place. It’s a lot bigger than my life. And it’s a lot farther away. When you’re in the middle of all the chaos and confusion of day-to-day life, peace in the Middle East doesn’t seem quite so important, does it? Remember who Paul is talking to here. He’s not talking to Caesar. He’s not talking to government leaders. He’s not talking to military people. Even though everything he said can apply to them as well. But that’s not who he’s talking to. He’s talking to ordinary, everyday people. Ordinary everyday people like you and me. And he says that even for us, there’s only one source for peace. He doesn’t say peace is found on Oprah or Dr. Phil. He doesn’t say peace is found in the psychologist’s office. He doesn’t say peace is found in self-help books. He doesn’t say peace is found in a better job or more money or a bigger house. He doesn’t say peace is found in things or people or places. Where does he say is the only place to find peace? From God through His son Jesus Christ. See, all those other things might be able to give you a taste of peace. They might be able to give you some temporary relief to all the chaos and confusion in your life. Kind of like Pepto-Bismol. Ugly, tastes bad and only provides temporary relief. But if you’ve got the choice between temporary relief of symptoms and complete, total healing, which one are you going to take? I believe I’ll take the one that passes all understanding. The one that only comes from one source. The one that only comes from God through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. True peace only comes from that one source. So, the first preparation for peace is to look to the right source. The second is to live with the right mind. Look with me at verse 8:
PHILIPPIANS 4:8
The second preparation for peace is to live with the right mind. Before we get into each of the words in the list, I want you to notice something. Notice that this is a positive command to DO something. It’s a positive command about how we are supposed to think. About the things we are to think about. And make no mistake about it—the way you think will determine the way you act. When Paul talks about thinking here, he’s not just talking about thinking in terms of casual book knowledge. He’s talking about the kind of thinking that drives your actions. That’s the kind of thinking that he was interested in. Like I said, this list is positive—not negative. Paul says, “think on these things.” He doesn’t say “don’t think on these things.” Why? Because if somebody tells you to not think about something, you can’t help but think about it. That’s called the power of suggestion. If I stand up here and tell you not to think about how hot it is in here, several of you will start thinking about how hot it is in here. Even if it’s not hot in here and you were perfectly comfortable before I said anything. That’s why Paul doesn’t say, “don’t think like this.” The Holy Spirit inspired him to give a list of positive commands. Positive commands about the ways we’re supposed to think. First, he lists six characteristics of how we’re supposed to think. Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and things of a good report. Notice what leads the list—truth. The first thing we need to intentionally fill our minds with is truth. And where do we find truth? Scripture. Read it. Study it. Learn it. Meditate on it. Pray through it. Without the truth of Scripture as the foundation of your thinking, you have no hope of getting any of the rest of this list right. But if you start with the foundation of God’s Word, it will shape the way you think about everything else. Think on things that are true and honest. Is there a difference there? I thought if something was true, it was honest. Well, it is in today’s English. A better translation in today’s English would be honorable or noble or worthy of respect. It basically means that you are to think about things that are respectable. Things that are noble, not things that are trivial and trashy. Things that have merit, not things that are worthless. Think on things that are true, honest and just. The word translated just, means righteous. Thinking that is righteous is in perfect harmony with God’s righteousness that He shows us in Scripture. It sees sin the way that He does. Not just the sin that’s outside of us, but also the sin that’s inside of us. And it also sees sinners the way that He does. Righteous thinking sees lost sinners as people that Jesus died for who need to hear the gospel. And righteous thinking sees saved sinners as people who Jesus died for and is working on just like me. Think on things that are true, honest, just, and pure. Pure thoughts are holy thoughts. Thoughts that reflect the nature and character of God, rather than reflecting on impure words, impure pictures and impure images. Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure and lovely. What mental images that word carries with it! It’s interesting that this is the only place this original word is used in the New Testament. It is a compound word with the word for what we think of as brotherly love. It basically means to think about the things that make you pleasing. That make you attractive. Think about the things that bring out the beauty of your inner self. Actively think about the things that will make you pleasing to be around. Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. Here’s another word that this is the only place the original is used. It carries the idea of praiseworthy thoughts. Not the kind of thoughts that are praised by men. The kind of thoughts that would be praised by God Himself. Paul wraps up those six kinds of thoughts by summarizing them. He wraps them up in two overarching categories. You can think of them as two thought filters. The first one is virtue. That word literally means moral excellence. Filter your thinking through the first filter by asking yourself: is this thought morally excellent? The second filter is praise. Before, we talked about thoughts that would be praised by God. This filter is different. Filter your thinking through this filter by asking yourself: does this thought bring praise and honor and glory to the Lord? Now, what happens when you have a thought that doesn’t make it through one of those filters? What do you do with it? How can you not think about it? The only way to not think about it is to think about the things Paul listed before. Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. That’s pretty abstract, isn’t it? That’s not going to do me a whole lot of good when my kids are driving me crazy or the boss is treating me bad, is it? How can all of those abstract things help me? Because they’re not really abstract. Who is the only person that is truth? Who is the most honorable person to ever walk the face of this earth? Who is the only righteous and pure and truly lovely one? Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that’s who. So when bad thoughts are getting caught up in your virtue and praise filter, think on Jesus. Having a mind that’s focused on Jesus is living with the right mind. Prepare for peace by looking to the right source and living with the right mind. Finally, prepare for peace by learning from the right man. Look at verse 9.
PHILIPPIANS 4:9
The third preparation for peace is to learn from the right man. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippian church from prison. He probably wrote it while he was in prison in Rome. It was fairly late in his ministry, probably around AD 61. We do know that Paul had spent considerable face-to-face time with these people. He was the one who planted the church during his second missionary journey. He visited there at least twice during his third missionary journey. People from Philippi came to visit him in prison in Rome. They knew him. They saw him in all sorts of situations. He wasn’t plastic to them. He was real. He was genuine. They saw how he acted when things were going great. And they saw how he acted when things were bad. It seems like you learn more about a person when things are at their worst, don’t you? You find out what’s really important to them. You find out where their focus is. You find out if their beliefs are just words or if they’re really who they are. They knew that about Paul. They saw his words tested and tried in the crucible of his life. So when Paul said, “I want you to be like me” he wasn’t boasting in himself. He was boasting in Christ. Paul had poured out every ounce of his life for Jesus. In the last letter he ever wrote, he told his son in the faith, Timothy that his life was being poured out as a drink offering. Paul was empty of himself. So, when he told them to follow his example, he was telling them in the clearest way possible to follow Christ. Oh that I may one day be empty of myself to the point that I could confidently tell you the same. What I can do is point you to the Word. And in that Word you can see Jesus Christ—the God of peace. And the things which you learn and receive and hear from His Word—do those things. Do you want peace in your life? Look to the right source. The only source of true peace is Christ. Do you want peace in you life? Live with the right mind. The right mind thinks thoughts that are always focused on Christ. Do you want peace in your life? Learn from the right man. The right man is the one who follows Christ. Who does as Christ did. Who walked as Christ walked. How do you prepare for peace this Thanksgiving week? Look to Jesus. Think on Jesus. And follow Jesus. It’s that simple. Where are your eyes this morning? Are they on Jesus or are they on chaos and confusion? Where are your thoughts this morning? Are they on Jesus or are they on busy-ness and frantic activity? Where is your walk this morning? Is it following Him or chasing after the vain things of the world? Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Turn to Jesus for peace today.
