Unlock Unstoppable Inner Peace!

Introduction

Great. Thank you, Nigel. Good morning, everyone. It is good that you are here at church. It’s preaching time. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you that in a world of imperfect fathers, you are our good and perfect father. As we look at your word now, would you please refresh our tired hearts and minds? Would you please refix our eyes on the Lord Jesus? And would you please strengthen us to go out this week and live lives worthy of him? We pray especially again for those who are struggling, who are suffering on Father’s Day. Would you help them hand their burdens to the Lord Jesus who is willing and able to help us? Amen.

This morning I was given a classic Father’s Day gift. Anyone want to guess what I might have got? A classic gift. Socks? That’s a great answer, but incorrect. Didn’t get socks. Underwear? Pancakes? Hopefully separately. Not the correct answer. One more. KFC? A tie? Imagine a KFC tie. Coriander? Coriander is of the devil. None of you got it. I’m surprised no one said it. It’s a very standard Father’s Day gift. I got tickets to go and see the Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons. Didn’t anyone else get that? It’s the classic Father’s Day present. If you don’t know, Stardew Valley is a video game that Morgan and I play together. The story is that you are an overworked, soul-crushed corporate worker, and you get a letter that your grandfather has passed away and left you his farm in Pelican Town. So you quit your job and move to this little town and you start your adventure as a farmer. Now that might not sound very fun to you. It’s brilliant. It’s a very popular game. It’s very well loved and the music is amazing. There’s an orchestra doing a world tour right now and in November they’re coming to Australia and I’ve got tickets. That is a good Father’s Day gift. I’m very excited for it.

But it’s not the best gift that I’ve received today. In fact, every follower of Jesus here, whether you’re a father or not, has received a better gift today. As we look at Philippians chapter 4, what we’re going to see is that God has gifted to us joy and peace, not like temporary happiness or relaxation, not like a massage or a fancy meal, but deep enduring joy and peace. I asked Nigel to read the whole chapter because there’s so much good stuff in here, so much for you to notice, lots for you to perhaps reread and reflect on during the week. Today, we’re just going to focus on verses 4 to 7 because they are challenging verses to understand and apply. When misunderstood, verses 4 to 7 can be weaponized, unlovingly quoted at someone who is really struggling, who is really suffering, or they can be carelessly quoted at someone who has clinical anxiety, or they can unnecessarily pile on guilt and shame in a season where restoration and healing is needed. That’s a real shame because verses 4 to 7 are stunning. They’ve been written to draw us, to drag us toward God’s gift of deep enduring joy and peace.

Here’s how we’re going to unpack these verses. I have a table on the screen. It’s very exciting. For each gift, for joy and peace, we’ll talk about the gift. We’ll talk about the barrier that our enemies have put up between the gift and us. And we’ll talk about the hammer that God has given us to smash that barrier down. The gift, the barrier, the hammer. That’s the plan. And we’ll start with joy. You got your Bibles there? Let’s have a look again at verse four and five. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Deep Enduring Joy

Always Be Full of Joy in the Lord

When you’re arguing with someone, there’s two swear words to avoid. I mean, there’s lots of swear words you should avoid, of course, but there’s two swear words that you should avoid when you’re arguing with someone. They are always and never. You’re always on your phone. You never submit your work on time. You always interrupt me. You never put your clothes in the washing basket. It’s not a good idea to use these words because they’re extreme. They leave no nuance and they often make the other person feel defensive. What about this time? What about the time that I did do it? And yet Paul here uses one of those words. Always be full of joy in the Lord. That is an extreme command that leaves no room for nuance and maybe makes us feel a bit defensive. What about this time? What about when this happens? What about when this happened? And just to make sure that no one misunderstands, that no one thinks he spilt some ink and accidentally formed this sentence, like Tom Riddle’s diary or something, he repeats himself. I say it again, rejoice. How can he say this? He’s in prison right now. He’s just faced beatings and shipwrecks and unjust trials and now he’s in prison and he writes always be full of joy in the Lord. How can he possibly write that?

The answer is joy is not the same thing as happiness. That’s the answer. The opposite of joy isn’t sadness. You can be sad and joyful at the same time. If you want an example, just go read the Psalms. You’ll find one pretty quick where the author is describing how sad their circumstances are and yet is rejoicing in the Lord. Happiness is reactive, a feeling that goes up and down along with life’s circumstances. Joy is proactive. It’s a choice that you make regardless of life’s circumstances. In the roaring ocean of life with all its waves and all its currents and all its storms, joy is buoyancy, staying above the surface, riding the storms. Paul can be joyful in prison. He can always be joyful. The source of his joy is right here in the verse. Be full of joy in the Lord. Last week you remember we looked at Philippians chapter 3 where Paul says that in comparison everything is rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. Everything is scubalon when compared to the infinite value of knowing and trusting that Jesus is Lord, that his death and resurrection has counted for you, that you have been fully forgiven, you have a secure place in heaven. That reality is always true and the source of that reality, Jesus himself is always near. Therefore, we can always be full of joy. The first gift is deep enduring joy.

The Barrier: Clinging to Injustice

What’s the barrier to this joy? What do our enemies do to try and separate us from this joy? Followers of Jesus have enemies. I hope that you know that the world, the flesh, the devil are our enemies. The world is the culture that stands against Jesus. The flesh is our own sinful bodies, our own sinful hearts, and the devil is the devil. What barrier do they put up between us and enduring joy? Any of you who know me well will know that I am easily distracted. Perhaps Morgan knows this. I mean definitely Morgan knows this better than any of you. A very common question in our household is so Miles, how’s that cup of tea going? Because of course I’m a very loving husband, of course. So I’ve offered to make tea and I’ve got the cup out. I’ve put the tea bag in. I’ve boiled the kettle and that’s as far as I got about half an hour ago. Or maybe even I’ve got the kettle, it’s boiled, I’ve put the water in, and now the tea bag’s been in there for 20 minutes and it tastes a bit bitter and now it’s a bit of a shame. That’s as far as I got. I’m sure I’m the only one here that does that. By the way, don’t look at someone if you know that they do that.

As I was preparing for this sermon, it really struck me that verse 4 and verses 6 and 7 are two of the hardest commands given in the whole New Testament. At first it seems like verse 5 is unrelated. Seems like a distraction that Paul’s making some tea and then he walked past the washing machine and noticed that the cycle was done and so off he went and then I got to go back to this thing. That is not what is happening here. Paul is in prison. He’s facing persecution and injustice. He’s writing to a church that’s facing persecution and injustice. He knows better than most that rejoicing in the Lord always is not an easy thing to do. He doesn’t just say, “Hey everyone, rejoice in the Lord always. Tick. Let’s talk about the next thing.” Instead, he writes verse 5 to help us with verse four. That might sound obvious, but when we read it, it doesn’t quite make sense. But this is how it works. It’s in verse 5 that we’re going to find the barrier to joy and the hammer to smash it. Here’s verse five. It’s going to be on the screen with a Greek word in it. Let everyone see that you are epieikees, that you’re considerate in all that you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

That Greek word there, epieikees, it means gentle, not argumentative, tolerant, kind, that kind of vibe. Here it is in 1 Timothy chapter 3 talking about the qualifications for a church overseer. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be epieikees, gentle, not quarrelsome and not love money. That word kind of sits between not quarrelsome and not violent. Here it is in Titus chapter 3 talking to all followers of Jesus. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be epieikees, gentle and show true humility to everyone. That’s the word. It means gentle, relenting, slow to argue, slow to complain, tolerant. An epieikees football player who disagrees with the referee’s call will not chase them down to argue. An epieikees driver won’t hold the horn when they’re cut off. Jesus shows his epieikees when he teaches his disciples in Matthew chapter 5 that if a soldier asks you to carry their gear for one mile, go with them for two. When an epieikees person is treated unjustly, they respond with gentleness. They’re slow to argue. They’re relenting. They’re gracious, not because injustice doesn’t matter, but because it does matter. When Jesus returns, all injustice will be dealt with and made right. What Paul’s saying here is that even though I’m in prison, Paul’s in prison, and I’ve been treated unfairly and I’ve faced persecution and injustice, I’m going to be epieikees, and you should be too. We can hand that injustice over to Jesus. We can entrust it to him. Any desire for revenge or retribution can just melt away with the certainty that Jesus, the all knowing, all seeing judge, will one day open the books.

We know that we’re on the right track here because verse 5 isn’t over yet. The verse finishes with, “Remember the Lord is coming soon. Remember that injustice will be dealt with. Remember that you can hand your revenge over to Jesus. Remember, Paul says that those who unfairly threw me in prison will face the perfect judge who knows all and sees all. I’m just going to leave that judgment over to Jesus.” Paul says that the barrier to deep enduring joy is clinging to the injustice that I have faced, noticing, remembering, dwelling on the times that I’ve been treated unfairly, pursuing revenge, seeking retribution. Those who face injustice with epieikees, who hand it forward to Jesus, will then be able to find and embrace joy. Those who cling to injustice done to them, who argue and complain and who demand fairness and payment will find that joy is just out of reach behind the barrier that they’ve put up themselves. It’s right to tread carefully here because many of us have been deeply hurt by others in a way that has left a mark in a way that seems impossible to not notice, to not remember, to not dwell on. Paul isn’t saying forget about it. He’s not saying it doesn’t matter. He’s saying the opposite. He’s saying it does matter. Injustice does matter. God cares about you. He cares about what you think and what you say and how you feel and about what happens to you. He promises to deal with it. The most satisfying and fulfilling way for us to move forward when injustice is done to us is to just entrust it to the perfect judge.

Our enemies, the world, the flesh, the devil, they want us to cling to injustice that I’ve faced. They want us to remember and dwell on it. They want us to remember and hold on to what they all did to me. Paul wants us to remember what Jesus has done for me. Paul says, “The barrier to deep enduring joy is clinging to the injustice that I’ve faced.”

The Hammer: Remembering the Lord is Coming Soon

We need a hammer. We’ve already mentioned it. The hammer that we need to break down this barrier is to remember the Lord is coming soon. Just pause and consider. Maybe even close your eyes if it helps. Just pause and consider one day soon the Lord Jesus is going to return. Maybe it’ll be in your lifetime, maybe not. He’s going to return as king. There’s going to be no more corruption, no more frustration, no more cheating, no more exploitation. Oppression is going to end. Wickedness will disintegrate. Sickness will be forgotten. As Jesus opens the books, every cry for help will be remembered. All evidence will be addressed. All injustice will be punished accordingly. We who are guilty of our own injustice that we’ve caused, we’ve been fully forgiven by Jesus. We will enjoy being with him in his presence for all eternity. That is a good truth. That is a good hammer. As we reflect more on that truth and as we understand it more deeply and preach it more to ourselves, our grip on the injustice we’ve faced will loosen as we entrust it to Jesus. As our muscles relax, joy will come in. The first gift is deep enduring joy. The barrier to that gift is clinging to the injustice that I’ve faced. The hammer to smash it is remembering that Jesus will come soon.

Peace With God

God’s Incomprehensible Guarding Peace

Second gift, peace with God. Let’s read verse six and seven again. Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you’ll experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. This gift, God’s peace, is a very special kind of peace. Anything that you can imagine about the most peaceful moment, sitting by a deck chair with a cold beer at the pool, a cup of tea in the garden with your favorite book, or like a massage with whale noises in the background or something, none of that comes close to God’s peace. It exceeds anything we can understand. It’s going to guard our hearts and minds as we live in Jesus. It can’t be taken away. It doesn’t have an expiry date. God’s peace will protect our hearts and shield our mind. This is God’s incomprehensible guarding peace. That’s the gift. How does God give it to us? He says, “Don’t worry about anything.”

The Barrier: Anxiety Out of a Lack of Control

The barrier to God’s incomprehensible guarding peace is worry, is anxiety. Imagine you’re on a roller coaster and one of the legit ones with loops and upside downs and all the things. Imagine you get on there and the bar comes down and everything’s happy and you go up the hill really slowly click click click click click as you go up and then you realize that your bar is loose and so you panic of course and you turn to your friend and you frantically show them the problem and your friend says one of the most useless lines that can ever be said to anyone when they’re worried about anything. Don’t worry. What a stupid thing to say. Oh, I just flicked the switch on the back of my head. Thank you. As I’m launched into the sun by a roller coaster. Don’t worry is not a clever sentence. It’s not transformative. It’s not encouraging. It doesn’t have the weight to do what it’s trying to do. It’s more just like filler and chaff. Just don’t worry about it. Yet again, Paul surprises us here with his choice of words. He says, “Don’t worry about anything.” He says that the barrier to God’s peace is anxiety.

This is a really good time for us to be really clear about the kind of worry that Paul has in his mind. I’m going to give you three kinds of worry that I think Paul isn’t talking about before we talk about what he is talking about. First one, the kind of worry that Paul’s talking about isn’t momentary worry. You’re looking in the review mirror and that car behind me is just a little bit close. I’ll just keep an eye on them. Or I’ve opened the fridge and oh, the mints that I just used for dinner actually expired today. I hope the family’s going to be okay. Or, my child is sick and so I’ll just check that temperature. Okay, I’ll just remember that number. He’s not talking about our brain’s initial chemical response when something happens in our unpredictable world. Second, the kind of worry that Paul’s talking about isn’t healthy concern for others. He himself is concerned about other people. That’s very clear in his letters. Jesus is concerned about other people. Remember what happens on the day where the 5,000 come to him and Jesus says, “Man, these guys haven’t eaten anything. Let’s find them something to eat.” He’s concerned about them. It is good and healthy for us to want to care for others. We want them to know and love and cling to Jesus and we want them to flourish and be safe in life. He’s not talking about that. Number three, the kind of worry that Paul has in mind isn’t clinical diagnosed anxiety. This isn’t directed toward the person whose brain is wired differently to feel anxiety more frequently and more sharply.

Just yesterday, Roger and I went to MTS conference in Coutumba. MTS is a ministry training strategy and the idea is that it’s ministry apprenticeships for people to consider doing for two years to think through whether they might want to go into full-time ministry. It’s brilliant. One aspect of the conference is that everyone considering MTS is given one-on-one time with a mentor to think through where they’re at and what their next step might be. I got to mentor two young guys. One of them shared with me that his main hesitation for doing MTS, for doing an apprenticeship, is that he suffers from clinical anxiety and he’s not sure how that will affect his ministry. We talked about that for a long time and we talked about this verse and what it is and what it isn’t saying. It was so helpful to hear him articulate what it’s going to look like for him, to take this verse seriously alongside the way that God has wired his brain, alongside the good medication that he is using. By the way, he’s pretty sure he’s going to do an apprenticeship, which is awesome. Praise God. We want more apprenticeships happening. Paul’s not talking about that. He’s not talking about momentary worry. He’s not talking about healthy concern for others. He’s not talking about clinical diagnosed anxiety. The kind of worry that Paul has in mind is the constant undercurrent stemming from the lack of control that we have in our own lives. That’s what he’s talking about.

Our enemies love this. They lap it up. Our world loves this. They love to pretend that you can be in control, that there’s such a thing as financial security, that life should be, let’s do maximum pleasure and minimum suffering. You’ll climb the career ladder if you work really hard. Our world loves it. It’s dead wrong. Our flesh wants to be in control. I’ve heard what God says. My mind knows what God wants, but I’m just going to do what I want. Actually, I think I know better. The devil, he loves this. His lie is that being in control is desirable. Adam and Eve believed him and that didn’t go so well for them. The kind of worry that Paul has in mind is this constant undercurrent stemming from a lack of control.

The Hammer: Prayer With Blank Check Thankfulness

The way that we know we’re on the right track with that is because of what the hammer is that we need to smash that barrier. It’s prayer. It’s coming to God with childlike faith. It’s handing everything over to him. It’s telling the God of the universe, “This is what I need. You are in control of everything.” That’s what it is. Actually, it’s a little bit more than that. It’s a little bit more specific than that. It’s a special kind of prayer. The NLT version we use here at church is brilliant, and we love it. In trying to simplify verse six, it’s just missed a part of the meaning which really unlocks this verse for us. When you read verse six in the NLT, it sounds like the way to smash the anxiety barrier is to pray and ask God for some things that we need and then thank God for some other things. That’s what it sounds like. Something like, “God, I’m feeling really anxious about teaching scripture at Riverson High School this week. So, please help me to prepare and teach the students well. Please bring all my students to me. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for what he’s done for me. Thank you that I can go into the school. Amen.” It’s a good prayer. Fantastic prayer. It’s just not quite what Paul means here.

Paul is encouraging us to ask and thank God for the same thing. He’s commanding us to ask God for something and then thank him for however he’s going to answer that prayer. Here’s that same example with the tweak. God, I’m feeling anxious about teaching scripture at Riverson High School this week. Please help me to prepare and teach well and please bring all my students to class. However it goes, whichever students that you bring, thank you for what you’re going to do today. This is prayer with blank check thankfulness. You’ve heard of a blank check? You’ve heard of a check? That was a rep that was around when I was a young boy. I’m old now. I’m 32. I’ve just offended lots of you. Blank check where you would sign the check without putting the numbers in, how much the check’s for, and then hand it to the person. Not a good idea. Good idea here. That’s what this is. It’s asking God for something and then saying thank you before you even know how he’s going to answer it. It’s saying thank you if you say yes. Thank you if you say not yet. Thank you if you say no. However you answer this, God, I love you and I trust you and thank you for what you’re gonna do. You can see how this shatters the barrier of anxiety, right? You can see how this fights back of the illusion that we can be in control because whatever happens, I’m just thankful to the God who is in control and what he’s doing in my life. However God answers my prayer about scripture, I’m already thankful that he’s going to do what he thinks is best.

This week at our connect group, we looked at this passage and we did something crazy. We decided that one at a time, we would go around our circle and everyone would share what we’re worried about. I shared that I was worried about some stuff that’s happening at Riverson High School. Urisa prayed for me and thanked God for whatever’s going to happen there. Laura shared and I prayed for her. Dre shared and Laura prayed for him. Shannon and Dave and Roger and Yah and Morgan and Jen and then back to Urisa. It was so good. It was so relieving. It was so peaceful. The next day I went to Riverson High School and I taught there and my year eight class was good. My year 10 class was awesome. My year seven class happened and I was so thankful for what God did that day. That afternoon I called my brother Kevin. He’s a minister in a church in the city and we pray on the phone on Wednesday afternoons and I was talking with him about this. We prayed together and for the first time in term three I felt energized on a Wednesday evening. For the first time, I felt peaceful and thankful after a big hard day of teaching at that school. This works. Of course, it works. It’s God’s design to help push us back against enemies. The second gift is God’s incomprehensible guarding peace. The barrier to that gift is anxiety out of a lack of control. The hammer to smash it is prayer with blank check thankfulness.

With all that in mind, I’m going to read Philippians 4:4-7 again and then we’d better pray. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again. Rejoice. Let everyone see that you are epieikees in all you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.