The Foundation For A Peaceful Life

Philippians 4:4-9

The Foundation For a Peaceful Life

Introduction

A. I don’t like War

B. Nobody likes war

C. I am not sure where this whole Iraq thing is going to end up

D. I don’t want to have to live in fear of a terrorist attack by Saddaam Husain

E. However, I really don’t want to go into war

F. So I am torn

G. I want what everybody wants, I want peace

H. We live in a day and age were peace is not that common

I. However we are going to see today how the bible gives us a foundation for a peaceful life

J. Now, what is the first thing you build when building a building?

K. A foundation

L. Now on this foundation the entire building is going to rest

M. Therefore when you are building the foundation you had better make sure that it is capable of holding the entire building

N. You do not want to take any short cuts. You want to make sure that it is firm and secure, without any week spots or else your building is going to collapse

O. We need to have a foundation in our lives too

P. Something that we know will hold up when we are experiencing tornado’s in our lives

Q. Well the Bible gives us a formula for a very strong foundation

R. The formula is

a. One Part Praise

b. One Part Prayer

c. And One Part Pondering

I. Praise (4-5)

A. Explanation

1. Praise, What does that mean?

2. Praise is an expression of Love towards God

3. Now in VS. 4 Paul tells us when we are suppose to do this praise thing

4. (Read 4) ALWAYS!

5. Vs. 5 has caused some people problems

6. Let your gentleness be evident to all. Does this mean I have be gentle

7. What about guys like Jason Gildon, a very solid Christian man, however if you ever watched him played I would not say that he is gentle

8. Gentleness is problem a bad translation, if you are using a different version I am sure it does not use Gentleness, moderation is a common word used their but again that does not do justice.

9. Now this word, epeeikiah, which means, mild, gentle, moderation, patient, is only used once in the whole Bible and many scholars believed that Paul himself coined it.

10. A proper interpretation then would be, Let everyone see your consideration, your care for, your appreciation your respect, in all you do

11. Now we are not talking about matter of doctrinal issues, we are talking about polite and considerate of others

12. We do this because Christ is coming back, and we want to show them Christ

B. Application

1. How do we apply this to our lives?

2. We are commanded to praise the Lord

3. That is something there should be no question about

4. By praise the Lord there will be some difference in your life

5. People will see the joy, they will see you rejoicing

6. That will instantly draw them closer to you

7. Because of the rejoicing and people seeing a difference in you, you then have to continue to live a Godly example

8. That is why vs. 5 is there.

9. By showing that joy, and being kind and considerate

10. People will want to know what you have and want it for themselves

C. Illustration

1. When I see something that I like I want it. For example, on Monday I went to my sister’s house. Zack, my oldest nephew, got a play station 2 for Christmas. Of course I was playing it, and now I want one!

2. Before I played it, I had no desire to get one, but now that I have I want one

3. That is what we can do for people that do not have Christ; we can create that same desire.

4. That is why we praise him

II. Prayer (6-7)

A. Explanation

1. What prayer you ask? Simple, communication with God

2. This next couple of verses if we could only put into practice, it would be amazing

3. Paul knew the Philippians well

4. He had been ministering to them for a long time

5. Being around them so much he realized that they had a tendency to get a little worried and exited about things

6. Therefore, Paul has a solution

7. This solution may not seem that earth shattering but it was what the Philippians needed

8. He told them to Pray, to give everything over to God and pray

9. To let God handle it.

10. By doing so get this, (Read vs. 7)

11. The peace of God will protect them J

B. Application