“KNOWING THE GOD OF PEACE”
Philippians 4:2 – 4:9
Rev. Grady Davidson 052211
NOTE: The message as it was actually preached on May 22 was much shorter than this manuscript, the remainder of which was incorporated into the message of May 29.
As the airliner cruised at 40,000 feet, a passenger looked out his window to see an engine burst into flames. He screamed, “Help! The engine just blew up!” Other passengers pressed their faces against the windows to see the horrific sight of the flaming engine, and just then there was an explosion on the other side of the plane as a second engine blew up. The passengers were all in hysteria, but just then the captain emerged from the cockpit and with a broad smile and a calm, confident voice he said to the passengers, “Now settle down; there is nothing to worry about.” The screaming stopped, and the panicking passengers settled down. But as they did so the captain and the flight crew were seen harnessing in to parachutes. A passenger shouted from the back of the plane—“Hey, you said there’s nothing to worry about, so why are you putting on parachutes?!” Captain: “There is nothing for you to worry about. The crew and I are going to get help!”
Are you ever plagued by worries? Have you ever been paralyzed by anxiety or crippled by fear? If so, then you’re not alone!
Take a look at verse 6: “Do not be anxious.” How many times in the gospels does Jesus say things like, “Fear not… I tell you, do not worry… Peace I give unto thee… Do not be afraid, little flock….Why were you afraid? Do you have such little faith?”
I want to begin by stating a premise that it’s never in God’s will for His children to be consumed by worry. It’s never His design for us to fret or be anxious or fearful. I’ve been teaching that Paul’s epistle to the Philippians is about the Secret of Life; and folks, we’re deep into that message this morning. The Apostle Paul had discovered the secret of life – keeping his mind so filled with Christ and vigilantly maintaining moment-to-moment fellowship with Christ so that there was no place in his life for anxiety.
And yet, isn’t it true that in our culture that anxiety is literally killing us?
From WebMD: In the midst of excessive worrying, you may suffer with high anxiety -- even panic -- during waking hours. Many chronic worriers tell of feeling a sense of impending doom or unrealistic fears that only increase their worries. Ultra-sensitive to their environment and to the criticism of others, excessive worriers may see anything -- and anyone -- as a potential threat.
Chronic worrying affects your daily life so much that it interferes with your appetite, lifestyle habits, relationships, sleep, and job performance. Many people who worry excessively are so anxiety-ridden that they seek relief in harmful lifestyle habits such as overeating, cigarette smoking, or using alcohol and drugs.
The article goes on to make the case that worry can make us physically ill.
Chronic worry and emotional stress can trigger a host of health problems. The problem occurs when fight or flight is triggered daily by excessive worrying and anxiety. The fight or flight response causes the body’s sympathetic nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol. These hormones can boost blood sugar levels and triglycerides (blood fats) that can be used by the body for fuel. The hormones also cause physical reactions such as:
• difficulty swallowing
• dizziness
• dry mouth
• fast heartbeat
• fatigue
• headaches
• inability to concentrate
• irritability
• muscle aches
• muscle tension
• nausea
• nervous energy
• rapid breathing
• shortness of breath
• sweating
• trembling and twitching
When the excessive fuel in the blood isn’t used for physical activities, the chronic anxiety and outpouring of stress hormones can have serious physical consequences, including:
• suppression of the immune system
• digestive disorders
• muscle tension
• short-term memory loss
• premature coronary artery disease
• heart attack
But that’s nothing new. We know all that; the question is, “Does a relationship with Jesus Christ actually make a difference in the way we handle the stresses and uncertainties of life?” And our text says, “Yes, absolutely, it does!”
Go back to your text and look at verse 7 – “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (it’s a supernatural, transcendent, divine peace) will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The text promises that God’s peace will stand as a sentry keeping fearful thoughts and feelings from entering in to your heart (the center of your emotional life) and your mind (your thought life). But where do you get this “peace of God” (v. 7)? Well naturally to get the “peace of God” you have to go to the “God of peace” (v. 9). In relationship with Jesus Christ, the “God of peace,” we attain the “peace of God.” The text tells us that it happens in three ways: 1) through right thinking 2) through right praying and 3) through right living. Let’s look at each of those.
The God of peace frees us from anxiety through right thinking.
(v. 2) – We’ve talked about Euodia and Syntyche several times during this series through Philippians. They were two ladies in the Philippian congregation who had a disagreement that threatened to split the church. Paul waits till near the end of the letter to call them out by name; when he does, notice how he addresses it: “agree with each other in the LORD.” The key for them to get over their interpersonal problems is for their thought lives to be in agreement about Jesus. If Euodia insists, “Syntyche, you have to come around to my point of view,” and Syntyche says, “No, Euodia , I want you to conform yourself to me and my viewpoint,” they’ll never get anywhere. The Apostle comes at both of them – “Ladies, I plead with you to come to mental concurrence ‘in the LORD.’ Agree about Jesus, and the other stuff will iron itself out.” The God of peace frees us from interpersonal anxiety through right thinking about Jesus. Look also at verse 4.
(v. 4) -- This is one of the most frequently quoted verses in the epistle, but after studying it this week I’m convinced that a better rendering of the verse is, “Celebrate in the LORD always… I say it again, celebrate! Have an ongoing mental party in which you celebrate Jesus!” On a moment by moment by moment basis, we are to fill our minds with thoughts that celebrate Jesus!
I know a barber who, no matter what subject comes up, can turn the conversation to the subject of Alabama football. Mention the weather we’ve been having, or the war on terror, or the new VW plant – and three sentences later it will have something to do with Alabama football. The Apostle is saying that our minds should be so filled with Jesus, that no matter what is going on or what is being talked about, that our thoughts about the situation will automatically turn toward our wonderful Savior! God frees us from anxiety through right thinking.
(v. 8)—Here he spells out the power of the thought life. Input equals output. As Christians we’re not in denial that there’s plenty of ugliness in the world, but to the extent that Christ enables us by the Holy Spirit we don’t allow that stuff to consume our thinking.
Dr. Walter Cavert did a study on worry in which he found that only 8% of the things people worried about were legitimate matters of concern! When we invite worry into our thought lives, 92% of those thoughts are either imaginary, or never happened, or involve things for which we have no real control anyway. (Does anybody want to give a testimony about that?) So you’re worried that the world is going to come to an end on December 21, 2012….? What are you going to do about that?
It’s kind of like the lady who had trouble getting to sleep at night for many years because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. "Good evening," said the man of the house. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She’s been waiting 10 years to meet you." 92% of the things we worry about are either imaginary, or never happen, or we have no control over them!
Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), and ever since the Garden of Eden when he deceived Eve with regard to the forbidden fruit, his primary way of destroying us is by deceiving us, by getting us to think thoughts that are not true—about God, about ourselves, about others. The Apostle explicitly says that we have to be intentional about keeping lies and half truths out of our thinking, and in their place to fill our minds with whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. And then the God of peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we intentionally fill our thoughts with Christ.
In my experience I have found that when people struggle with anxiety, their thought lives are out of control in one of two directions. For convenience’s sake, I’m going to call them “tape players” and “AM radio players.”
First of all, the tape players. Here we’re talking about the situation in which you play a thought through in your mind; when it’s finished you rewind, and you play it again; and again, and again. We’re talking here about an obsessive thought that is not being guided by the Holy Spirit which you allow to play over and over again in your mind. “So-and-so hates me.” “I have to be perfect or God won’t love me.” Or it might be a memory of something that happened; you play it through in your mind, then you rewind, and play it again. Listen: When you’re playing tapes which fill your mind with thoughts that lead you away from Christ, or which leave your mind so cluttered that there’s no room for Christ, then your thought life is not under the gentle reign of the God of peace!
But some of us aren’t tape players; we’re more of AM radio players. Have you ever sat in a car at night with the radio tuned to AM, and you just sit there punching the “scan” button over and over again? Three seconds on this station, five seconds on the next, fifteen on the next, three seconds again… Some people allow their minds to work just like that. They flit from one “staticky,” noisy thought to the next, and in 24-hours’ time there’s not a single minute of focused attention on Jesus Christ.
We’re going to talk about this more next week when we talk about how the God of peace frees us from anxiety through prayer. But for now I just want to challenge you to pay serious attention this week to what you think about, and how you think about those things, and what tapes are playing in your mind, and what degree of focus and control you have over your thoughts. I’m not talking here about Normal Vincent Peale’s “power of positive thinking” hocus pocus. Self-control comes from God; self-control is the Fruit of the Spirit. And this means being able to bring your thoughts under the dominion of Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your thinking.
I want to suggest to you that whether you’re an AM radio person or a tape player, that the solution is one and the same. If your problem is that your thoughts run wild, then quit flipping up and down the dial, and put in a tape to play – but make sure it’s a good tape! And if you’re a tape player by nature, eject the old tape that the devil gave you and put in a good tape. What do I mean by that?
Let me give you an example. About a month ago my thought life was obsessed with a situation that was totally beyond my control, and I was waking up in the night with worry about it. In my obsessive-compulsive I would play out different scenarios and possible outcomes; and the short of it is that I was paralyzed with these overwhelming, obsessive thoughts over something beyond my control. So I prayed, “Lord, I can’t go on like this… help me.” And the Lord led me to one of the Psalms, a Psalm of David that was written at a time in David’s life when he was going through the same kind of thing. So in the morning, I read the Psalm, and claimed God’s promises in that Psalm. Then when I got in the car, before driving off I opened up the pocket Bible in the car and re-read the Psalm. I printed off that Psalm and kept it on my desk and read it over and over again throughout the day. So was I playing a tape? Yes, but it was God’s tape. And after a couple of days of that, there was a breakthrough in the situation that I’d been worried about; but the way it worked out I would not have recognized that it was God’s answer to my worries, except that I could see things worked out for me, the same way they worked out for David in the Psalm! I’ve recognized God’s answer to the problem, and I’ve let it go!
I have a gift for each of you today: The Bible Promise Book: One Thousand Promises from God’s Word. This little book takes around 70 topics, arranged alphabetically, and for each one lists about a dozen scriptures that tell you what God says about it. (give examples)
What will be the outcome? As you fill your mind with Christ and with His Word, then the God of peace will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boice, James Montgomery. Philippians: An Expositional Commentary. Brand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000. Print.
Hendriksen, William, and Simon Kistemaker. New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI.: BakerAcademic, 1973. Print
"Nothing to Worry about." Travel Jokes Humor and Satire. Web. 19 May 2011.
"Physical Effects of Worrying." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Web. 19 May 2011.
Rees, Paul S. Proclaiming the New Testament, Vol IV. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1964. Print.
Ridenour, Fritz. How to Be a Christian and Still Enjoy Life. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1988. Print.
Sermon Illustrations. Web. 19 May 2011.
Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Joyful. Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2004. Print.Wright, N.T. Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2004. Print.
