Title: “Spiritual Stability” Script: Phil. 4:1-6
Type: Series Where: GNBC 8-17-25
Intro: The Church of Jesus Christ is under attack. We should not be surprised. Our Lord said it would be. In Jn. 16:33 He said: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” To Timothy he wrote: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The assault on the Church consistently comes from three sources. The first source is the world with all of its allurements, which endeavor s to entice believers. The world also openly and subtly persecutes the church. The Church dares not to compromise with the world. The “flesh”, or the believer’s unredeemed humanness is a second source of attack. Jesus told us to “Keep watching and praying so that you may not enter into temptation.” (Mt. 26:41). The 3rd source of assault is the devil. The devil energizes both the world and the flesh, and he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (I Pet. 5:8). The world is tempting, the flesh is vulnerable, and the devil is lionlike in his ferocity. As a result church:
Prop: Exam. Phil. 4:1-6 we’ll notice 4 elements required for spiritual stability.
BG: 1. Spiritual instability leads to disappointment, doubt, discouragement, and ineffective witness. 2. Written by Paul during 2nd Roman imprisonment, 59-61 AD.
3.Church was 1st European Church, founded by Paul, both Jews and Greeks.
Prop: Let’s look to Phil. 4:1-6 to realize 4 elements required for spiritual stability in a congregation.
I. 1st Element for Congregational Stability: Confront Conflict.
A. Cultivate Harmony in the Church Fellowship.
1. What was the issue of conflict that needed confrontation at Philippi?
a. What do you suppose was the most serious threat facing the Philippian congregation? Judaizers and other false teachers? Persecution? Doctrinal error? Lack of unity? Possibly, but the most serious threat facing the congregation was a dispute between two prominent women in the church: Euodia and Syntyche. These two influential women posed one of the greatest threats to the unity and stability of the church. There was a real possibility that the Philippians would become critical, vengeful, hostile, unforgiving, and proud. Unless decisive action was taken, the church could dissolve into divisive factions. It was absolutely essential that the Philippians be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:14) (Illust: Have you ever thrown a rock into a pond? Water is still and smooth. Rock hits and is a splash. Ripples go out from that splash. Ripple effect. Draws and or alienates all sorts of individuals.)
b. What do we know about these two women? Actually, we know that they were church members and not outside troublemakers. Second, we know the matter was not doctrinal in nature. Had it been, Paul would have sided with the one that was correct and rebuked the one who was in error. Third, these were prominent women in the church. Well respected. It’s possible they were part of the original group who heard Paul preach on the river banks (Acts 16:13).
2. Sometimes we need outside help to mediate a conflict.
a. v.3 – We see that Paul appeals to an unnamed individual to help mediate the differences between these two women. “Indeed, true comrade” (NASB). Not writing to a Soviet officer. Rather, the word means “yokefellow”, or someone sharing a common burden, Illust: a team of oxen pulling the same load. Some scholars believe was an individual’s actual name that was a play on words. Whoever he was, Paul was asking him to help resolve conflict.
b. Mt. 18:15ff – The Bible gives us a very clear pattern for dealing with offenses. First, we are to go to the one who has sinned against us in private. There, we are to privately and with humility, reprove. If he or she will not listen, take another witness or two with you. If the individual listens, you have won your brother. If not…then need to take it to the church body. If listens and is restored…praise God. If will not even listen to the church, then treat as an outsider. There is virtually no discipline in the American Church today and it is our greatest weakness. If people become offended, they simply go to another, usually bigger, congregation, where can hide out. If contact is made with those leaders, usually will not do anything for fear of alienating people and losing attendance.
B. The Gospel calls us to live in harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
1. Personal conflicts must be resolved and harmony must be restored. So, Paul commands Euodia and Syntyche to “live in harmony”. Pretty simple and pretty direct. You and I need to ask ourselves if we are doing anything knowingly or unknowingly to undermine the fellowship of the assembly. Do we have an ongoing conflict with a brother or a sister? One man has said: “"When we minimize friction we create harmony.” You can get friction for nothing, but harmony costs courage and self-control."
2. We all need to oppose conflict within a congregation.
a. The strength of the fellowship becomes the strength of the individual. The more isolated a believer is from other Christians, the more spiritually unstable he or she is likely to be. The church should be a place where people support each other, hold each other accountable, and care for each other. The Church is to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. (I Thes. 5:14)
b. Illust: The story is told of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The other brother stayed on the family farm. One day the lawyer came and visited his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself and hold your head up high in the world as I do?” The brother pointed and said, “See that field of wheat over there? Look closely. Only the empty heads stand up. Those that are well filled always bow low.” Said differently, “The branch that bears the most fruit is bent the lowest to the ground.” An old ditty goes, “It needs more skill than I can tell/ To play the second fiddle well.” Leonard Bernstein was once asked which instrument was the most difficult to play. He thought for a moment, then replied, “The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second violin with enthusiasm – that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.”
C. Applic: If you have played any part in creating conflict go and be reconciled.
II. 2nd Essential Element for Congregational Stability: “Maintain Joy” v. 4
A. This one verse expresses the entire theme of the letter to the Philippians: “Be joyful!”
1. Christians are to be marked by consistent joy in their lives.
a. Joy is such a vitally important element in both the believer and the congregation’s stability that Paul repeats the command! (Read v. 4). Now the reason Paul repeats the command is probably because of the presupposition that it is neither easy nor normal to be joyful! Illust: Years ago I heard famous preacher who told story of a man who came to him for counsel. Man was going through a rough time. Pastor asked: “So how are you doing, brother?” “I guess I am doing ok, under the circumstances.” The pastor looked at man and said: “Then get out from under those circumstances!” Wasn’t telling the man to absolve self of his responsibilities, but rather, needed to not allow troubles of life to hold him down.
b. Joy is not merely a purely human emotion. Some people, making this mistake, look at Paul’s admonition here and say that’s impossible! “How am I supposed to create an emotion in my life when I don’t feel like it?” Well, I am convinced that joy is more than simply an emotion. Joy is not merely a feeling, it is also a deep-seated confidence that God is in control of everything and that no matter what it looks like on the outside, He is working this for the believer’s good and His own glory, and so regardless of the circumstances, we can “rejoice!”.
2. Being “Joyful” is a choice of the will.
a. So many things are out of reach as well as out of our ability to control, but our behavior, is not one of those things. When we are choosing joy, we need to realize that what we say, think, do as well as how we treat ourselves matters.
b. Illust: Story about Nathaniel Hawthorne. One day he came home heartbroken, feeling like a failure because he had been fired from his job. His wife made this response: “Now you can write your book!” “What are we going to live on in the meantime?” asked her husband. Then she pulled out a substantial amount of money, and said, “I have always known you were a man of genius. I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. Here is enough to last us for a whole year.” Greeted her husband’s apparent defeat with joy, optimism and expectancy, the door was opened for him to write one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter! Jesus serves this function in the lives of believers. He greets us with surprising resources to cope when our own reservoirs are empty. We can do anything God wants us to do through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).
B. The Knowledge of God is the Key to Rejoicing.
1. Knowing God is key to knowing how to Rejoice in the Lord.
a. Look again at the passage: “Rejoice in the Lord” – “In the Lord” introduces an important spiritual principle: Spiritual stability is directly related to how a person thinks about God. AW Towzer has said this as well as anyone in Church history when he said: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Do you know God loves you? Wants best for you? Rejoice!
b. Christian, you and I need to be rooted and engrained in the Word of God. If we do not read His Word or study His word or apply His Word, we are not going to grow in the Lord. We are not going to be stable in the Lord or in life, and we are going to become easily discouraged.
2. Those who know the great truths of God find it easier to rejoice whereas those with little knowledge of Him can find it more difficult to rejoice.
-You may ask: “How can you say that, Chris?” Well, the first 3 verses of Psalms teaches that. (Read). 2nd: Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro “rejoiced over all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel..” 3rd: Believers rejoice in the contemplation of God’s redemption. “Hannah prayed: “My heart exults in the Lord”. Another reason to rejoice is that God has promised to meet all of your needs (Phil. 4:19). Paul rejoiced in the privilege it was to serve the Lord. (I Tim. 1:12)
C. Applic: A joy-filled congregation is a defense against conflict.
III. 3rd Essential Element for Congregational Stability: Learn Contentment. V. 5a
A. God’s people are to be a contented people.
1. The Apostle encourages his readers to demonstrate gentle spirit to all.
a. “gentle spirit” has a richer meaning than any one English word can convey. Translators have rendered it reasonableness, generosity, goodwill, friendliness, magnanimity, charity, mercy.
b. John Wesley said in commentary on this verse: “Let your gentleness” - Yieldingness, sweetness of temper, the result of joy in the Lord. Be known - By your whole behavior. To all men - Good and bad, gentle and froward. Those of the roughest tempers are good natured to some, from natural sympathy and various motives; a Christian, to all. The Lord - The judge, the rewarder, the avenger. Is at hand - Standeth at the door.” To modernize this we might say: “Be kind and loving to everyone. Don’t be a self-centered jerk who seeks to glorify self while putting others down.”
2. Beware, the enemy specializes in attacking us in the area of contentment.
a. Illust: Gen. 3:1-6 - The first thing the serpent did was to call into the question the goodness of God and his provision for Adam and Eve. It’s the oldest trick in the book, literally. Never mind that God had created an entire heavenly playground just for them, he was still mean. He was keeping something from them. He was withholding. Why would God do that? Didn’t he want them to be happy? Why would he keep such a beautiful tree from people he claimed to love? At the heart of this Satanic attack on God’s character was also an attack on the nature of his provision for Adam and Eve. Satan attacked their contentment. Now get this: Satan lured these first two humans by tempting them to take their eyes off of what God had given them and to focus on what He hadn’t. That’s the root of discontentment. You stop focusing on what God has done and start looking at what he hasn’t done (or, at what you think he hasn’t.). When we start longing for what you don’t have, we run the risk of losing everything. It’s this age-old temptation that causes a man or woman to betray his or her spouse and have an affair. It’s this same temptation that entices couples to uproot from family, friends, church and community and move across the country, all in the name of making more money. And, it’s this same lie of the devil that leads men and women to work a ridiculous number of hours a week in the pursuit of something that, once they get it, only sets them up to want something else. It never ends. Satisfaction never comes. When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, not only did they not get what Satan promised (remember, all he does is lie), they lost what they had…all in the name of “having more”.
b. Do you recognize how the enemy is attempting to attack you in the area of contentment? Don’t fall victim to his schemes.
B. Humility and Contentment go hand in hand in the Christian life.
1. Gracious humility runs counter to the cult of self-love that was rampant in the ancient city of Philippi and is rampant in the cities of America today.
a. Illust: Focusing on self-love, self-esteem, self-fulfillment leads only to greater and greater anxiety, selfishness, and instability. Most of our Christian bookstores today are filled with trinkets and music. If there are books, most are psychologized Christianity. Few are theological in nature. Too much appeals to the “self”. Become arrogant and self-absorbed and look down on others.
b. Illust: A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.' That laundry is not very clean', she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better soap or washer' Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 'Look, Lizzie’s wash has gotten whiter. I wonder what she did differently?' Her husband sheepishly said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.' And so it is with life. What we see when watching others, depends on the purity of the window through which we look.
2. Fight against a discontented spirit.
a. Discontentment can destroy your confidence in what God has revealed as His best, and result in your retreat to more familiar territory. Kent Crocket says, “God leads you into His will. Discontentment drives you out of His will.” If discontentment can lead you away from God’s best then you need to be very careful about falling into its clutches. Discontentment is defined as, “A restless desire or craving for something that one does not have.” Some synonyms include uneasiness, restlessness, displeasure and dissatisfaction. Discontentment can result in you becoming distracted from God’s best by roads that appear easier, possessions you can have now, and locations that are more comfortable, familiar or appealing. Western society is fueled by discontentment, for commercialism says you need the latest and greatest products to be complete and “updated.” You are told that you need more stuff to be happy and whole. The average American’s credit card balance is often a testament to our discontentment.
b. Illust: The Bible shows how discontentment led the Israelites to becoming distracted by Egypt, and blinded to their former oppression: So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried: “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-4). The scene which unfolds occurred immediately after the 10 spies brought back a negative report about Canaan, which resulted in the people fearing to take possession the land. When faced with the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of giants, fortified cities, and inhabitants, the people looked back at Egypt reminiscing on the “good life” (of slavery!) They had forgotten reality. “The grass is always greener on the other side…because it’s over the septic tank.” The Israelites went so far against God’s will as to suggest finding another leader to take them there. Joshua and Caleb encouraged the people how they had actually seen the Promised Land with their own eyes, and had spied it out and found it to be a place flowing with milk and honey; but the people cried out that they should stone God’s leaders, for they wanted to silence the voice of conviction. The Israelites were on the verge of reaching God’s best. It was in plain sight, and so close they could almost taste it, but they were blinded by Egypt. They could not see beyond the familiar things of the past to the blessings that lie ahead; and this was not the first time this scenario occurred! In their journey to the Promised Land the Israelites were frequently distracted by the improved memory of Egypt.
C. Applic: Is your past distracting you from securing God’s best in your life? Is your discontentment rooted in fear?
IV. 4th Essential Element for Congregational Stability: Rest in Faith vv 5b-6
A. There is no greater source of spiritual stability than the confidence of knowing God is near.
1. The Lord is near! “engus” – near – can mean either near in space or near in time. God is near and hears the cry of the believer. Because God is near, believers should not be fearful, anxious or wavering. Unfortunately, when believers face trials we often forget what we know about God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out (The Life of Peace [Baker], pp. 142-143) that in Philippians 4, Paul is implicitly speaking about the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). In verses 2 and 3 we have an exhortation to love; in verse 4, to joy; verse 6 to peace; and here, in verse 5, to patience and, I would add, kindness, goodness, and gentleness, all rolled into the one word variously translated “forbearance” (NASB),
2. The verses in Philippians 4 are not disjointed; there is a connection between having God’s joy (4:4) and being forbearing people (4:5). Often our joy is disrupted by people who wrong us or irritate us. If we respond by saying, “He has no right to treat me that way! I have my pride! I have my rights! I’m not going to let him get away with that!”--if we go that route, we’ll lose our joy in the Lord. If we respond that way, it reveals something about us, namely, our selfishness! So we need to confront it and confess to the Lord our love of self. And then, just absorb the offense. The Lord is near, both in the sense that He knows what happened and is able to deal with the one who wronged you; and, that His coming is near, when He will right all wrongs. Trust God to deal with the other person’s sinfulness.
B. If the Lord is near we are to be “Anxious for Nothing”
1. What causes you and me anxiety? Relationships? Job? Bills? School? Health? (“Be anxious for nothing.” ) Illust: Several years ago one of the astronauts who walked on the moon was interviewed and asked, "What did you think about as you stood on the moon and looked back at the earth?" The astronaut replied, "I remembered how the spacecraft was built by the lowest bidder."
2. Illust: We go to great lengths to prove that we won’t allow anyone to push us around. When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, a wealthy man asked him to take a lawsuit against a poor man who owed him $2.50. At first Lincoln hesitated to take the case, but on second thought he agreed--if the wealthy man would pay him a fee of $10 cash up front. The man quickly agreed and handed over the money. Lincoln went to the poor man and offered him $5 if he would settle the debt. So Lincoln got $5 for himself; the poor man made $2.50; and the rich man got his $2.50 debt settled at a cost of $10! But, he got his rights!
C. Applic: Congregational stability requires faithful knowing that Christ is near and being willing to surrender our rights for the blessing of others.
