Resting In Peace

 

Text: Philippians 4:4-9

Focus: Thanksgiving

Function: to help us see the way of peace

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

Good morning to the beloved Children of God!

May Christ’s peace fill your heart and mind as we study the scriptures.

Joy, peace, gentleness, confidence and beauty, these are the themes of the scripture this morning.

It seems to me that Brother Paul is sharing with the Philippian church part of his own spiritual practices. He ends the passage with the admonition that they imitate him in the way they live their lives.

When I think of the history of Paul the Missionary, I see him as a very bold preacher who was willing to endure a lot of hardship in order to plant the churches across the Western world.

That appears to be Paul in his public life. This passage appears to me to be glimpse into his private life and the source of the power that kept him going.

Again, this sermon reminds me of my Kairos sermon in two weeks where it is my job to give the men some spiritual tools to continue in the faith in the difficult prison environment.

Jesus was meek, but not weak. And it takes strength and faith to be meek and not weak. I believe he got that from the Holy Spirit also because he spent a lot of time away in prayer.

He first calls us to allow our joy to flow. Even going beyond allowing it in, he calls us to rejoice in God and to have joy in God.

I believe that part of our worship, the singing, is a direct response to the command to rejoice. When we are singing, we are reminding ourselves of the goodness of God and our obligation to please God with our lives by loving others.

But beyond signing, we have the choice to allow ourselves to be joyful, or we have the choice to allow ourselves to be bitter. Now, I’m not talking about people who are depressed. God heals depression in God’s way and time. I found it through a combination of prayer, contemplation, medication and therapy.

But beyond depression, Paul is telling us not to resist joy, but to let it flow. I find joy to be a part of my relationship with the Spirit. Sometimes, as God gently speaks to me, I feel that joy well up inside of me. Let it flow, it comes from God.

The next command is to be gentle.

I believe this is an offshoot of living by faith. We trust that God is loving us and caring for us, so we don’t have to react with anger, malice or fear. God loves us and wants what their best for us.

I once preached a whole sermon on cussing based on this verse. We shouldn’t need to swear when things go bad because God is in control and swearing might indicate we don’t believe that.

Now, I’m not trying to get you hung up on saying or not saying curse words. Don’t be sin focused. Be faith focused. When bad things happen, take it to God in prayer and then the anger and fear that we feel reside inside will diminish and perhaps we will be able to respond in faith instead of fear.

I am reminded that this is a process in our lives.

But it sure makes a difference when I am rideshare driving and somebody cuts me off to remind myself that God is still watching out for me and to let it go.

I am learning to allow that peace to control me.

And Paul is not flippant about the solution. He says take it all to the Lord in prayer.

Jesus went away all the time to pray.

In the garden of Gethsemane, we get a rare glimpse into his prayer as he prays that God will give him the strength to endure.

Jesus succeeded I n h is mission, we may not because we are not perfect. But let God’s grace forgive and sustain you by remembering that we are now the beloved Children of God and God loves it when we pray to Them.

And Paul gives is a promise that might happen when we pray sincerely. God’s peace will work supernaturally. I love the Hymn “It is well with my soul.” My family always sings it at the deathside of loved ones and at funerals as well as other times.

I remember experiencing supernatural peace when my Grandmother died and while everyone was sitting at the wake, before the funeral started, someone started singing that song and the congregation joined in and I remember as we were singing that peace of God just flooded me in my heart and the sorrow at her death was transformed into the hope of the resurrection.

Paul admonishes us to rest in God instead of fear. Fear is opposed to faith, or better yet, faith conquers fear and this is a function of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Faith comes to us from God and like Joy, we allow it to give us hope or we can reject it.

So, that is the first paragraph of our text and it is basically about prayer. Paul then moves on to worship in the next paragraph.

Let your mind focus on beauty and the arts. Let your mind focus on the glory of nature and the wonder of what God has given humans to do.

I remember sitting in the theater opening night of the movie Chicago in our small town. I remember being fascinated by the music and the stage performance and enjoying it so thoroughly that I wept for joy. And this scripture verse came to mind as I appreciated the beauty that we can experience in the arts.

And we experience it in creation. For billions of years God has been testifying to their glory through the wonder of nature. When we are in nature, we are connected to the source of life that God has given us and as the scriptures say, we witness God’s glory.

Prayer and worship in our personal lives is a path for us to live out the peace that Christ has for us.