Overcoming the Thieves of Joy
A Desire for Unity
"Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." - Philippians 4:1-9 (ESV)
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” - Psalm 133:1 (ESV)
As we get started, let’s start with verse 2 of Philippians 4, Paul says, “I entreat (or in some translations it says "beseech" – meaning to address or speak to) Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”
So what this is saying here, at the foundational level, is that these two women in the church in Philippi were not getting along. And that’s surprising, right? People not getting along in a church? I bet that was the first and last time that ever happened.
“To dwell in love with saints above— Oh that will be glory! But to dwell below with saints we know— Ah! That’s a different story!”
- Christopher J. H. Wright
But what the Lord wants is for us to maintain the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace. For example, in John 17 Jesus prays. A great high priestly prayer.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one…” - John 17:20-22 (ESV)
Has that prayer been answered? I believe so.
I believe that it has been answered in that we are one body in Christ. But the desire that Christ has here is that we live out that unity in a world that is lost. He wants us to live out that unity before a lost, watching, world. So let’s return to these two women mentioned here:
Euodia
Syntyche
Again, they were arguing. But what’s more is that we know from the text that they were believers, members of the church of Philippi. And they had labored with Paul in the Gospel. Here’s what we don’t know, and honestly it kind of drives me crazy. There’s a few things that I want to ask God one day:
“What was Jesus writing in the sand before the Pharisees brought the adulterous woman before him?”
“What were Moses and Elijah saying to Jesus during the Transfiguration?”
And here’s what we don’t know from our text today: “What were these two women fighting about? What were they arguing about? What were they divided over?”
But the Bible doesn’t tell us. Paul doesn’t mention it. So first I thought, maybe a doctrinal issue? But then you’d think that Paul would have addressed that, right? He didn’t hesitate to deal with those issues and correct them. But you know, here’s my guess – my guess is that it was personal, and maybe even petty. That’s why we have Paul basically telling them, “You guys need to get together in the Lord.”
See, one of the reasons that I think the Church could experience disunity is that our focus drifts from the heavens, and down to the horizon. We begin to look at one another. What’s sad to me is how often, as Christians, not New Hope specifically, we let things like personal and petty issues divide us. People will argue, bicker, fight, and ultimately divide over, what is most often, the most ridiculous issues.
Reasons for Conflict
Thom Rainer, who runs a popular Christian blog actually conducted a survey, pretty informal survey in which he asked for people to send him reasons for conflicts in their congregation. He had a lot of responses, and shared a few on his blog, and I’d like to share with you some of what he received. He said that among the absurd ones, there were the ones we’ve all heard before: temperature in the worship center, volume of the music, color of carpet, order of worship, and color of walls.
But here are some of the absurd ones that congregations argued over:
A dispute in the church because the Lord’s Supper had cranberry juice instead of grape juice.
Two different churches reported fights over the type of coffee. In one of the churches, they moved from Folgers to a stronger Starbucks brand. In the other church, they simply moved to a stronger blend. Members left the church in the latter example.
Some church members left the church because one church member hid the vacuum cleaner from them. It resulted in a major fight and split.
An argument over whether the fake plants should be removed from either side of the podium.
And yeah, these are all kind of silly to go through, but you know what? These types of disputes all distractions from what the Church should really be doing. There’s a lost and dying world out there that wants and needs to know about Jesus and churches are fighting about the brand of free coffee in the lobby. And again, the problem arises when we look at ourselves as a source of unity when we need to keep our focus and our gaze upon the Lord. We’re just people, sinful and imperfect. We may get offended sometimes, our feelings might get hurt. But here’s the wonderful thing: we’re a family. We need to work together, forgive each other, and love one another.
To have the peace of God.
And whatever the argument was between Euodia and Syntyche, ultimately the point is that they had a falling out and were not of the same mind. And we see in v.3 that Paul asks for an intervention by a third party.
“Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women…” - Philippians 4:3 (ESV)
There’s been speculation for centuries as to whom “true companion” is, but my belief is that he was a leader in the church to whom the letter was sent as the designated reader. The church would have known who the “true companion” was, but we don’t. And here’s where I find hope in this disunity and where we too can look at this as an example. The fact that Paul says, “Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women…” indicates, with that word “help” or assist “these women” – that they may have already taken steps toward mending their argument. And what was clear, was that Paul expected the church and its leadership to help Euodia and Syntyche.
Their church family.
Their unity.
The Redwoods
Have you stood amongst the Redwoods before?
Trees reaching over 350 feet. These trees have endured storms for over 1,000 years. The surprising thing is that their roots are very shallow—only about 10 to 12 feet deep. How does the root system sustain these giant trees? The secret is their interconnectedness. The roots spread outward to one another 60 to 80 feet so that they are holding one another up.
The secret of their success is their interconnectedness. And so it is with us. That’s why Satan works hard to divide and conquer those in the Church, and that’s why Church unity is particularly important, like we see here with Euodia and Syntyche.
What follows in the next section is quite possibly one of the most memorized texts in the entire Bible, containing arguably one of the most precious promises in all of the Bible.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)
Experiencing the Peace of God
Every time I read this passage, I think about this, and it gives me chills. So think about this with me this morning:
Paul wrote these words with chains on his wrists. Picture him writing this words, hearing the metal chains clanging against themselves as he’s writing, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.” It gives me chills.
And that’s because if anyone had cause to worry, it’s Paul. Keep in mind the things we’ve covered in this series so far:
Chapter 4: The argument between Euodia and Syntyche. Believers in the church now divided.
Chapter 3: False teachers had invaded the fellowship. When Paul told them to beware of the evil workers, the concision? If anything could cause worry to a pastor’s heart, it would be false teachers entering into the church.
Chapter 1: And what we talked about at the very beginning of this series, Paul is in prison and his future is uncertain.
And yet Paul, amongst all these things, one thing after another, was experiencing the Peace of God. I’ll say this, our God isn’t a God of confusion. He’s not a riddle to figure out. Paul gives us the recipe to experience the Peace of God – it’s not something that he kept hidden for himself.
So what is it? In every Chapter we see a piece of it.
Chapter 1: He had a single-mindedness. “It doesn’t matter whether I live or whether I die, as long as Christ is preached. I will rejoice and I will continue to rejoice.”
Chapter 2: Paul had a submissive mind. “I want you to consider others more important than yourself. Don’t look at your own things or interests, but look at the interests of others.”
Chapter 3: Paul had a spiritual mind. Writing about the false teachers. “Our conversation and citizenship is in Heaven. It’s in Heaven that we look for our Lord Jesus Christ to come back and change our bodies of humiliation.”
Paul had peace because he had a single-mindedness, a submissive mind, a spiritual mind, and today we in see in Chapter 4 that Paul had a secure mind. And that’s really the theme running through the rest of the chapter.
“When you have a secure mind, the peace of God guards you and the God of peace guides you.”
- John Miller
I love this quote. I love the contrast there.
The Peace of God
Let’s now look at two verses:
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:7 (ESV)
“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” - Philippians 4:9 (ESV)
v. 7: The peace of God
v. 9: The God of peace.
What an interesting contrast there, right?
We can also think of it like this: applying what we’ve discussed so far, when you have the God of peace in your life, then the peace of God will guide your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
And what I love about this section of our text today, is that we get a list of 5 ingredients to look at – a prescription for the peace of God if you will.
v. 4 – Paul says to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.
v. 5 – Let your reasonableness (or in other translations the word there is “moderation”) to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
v. 6 – do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
There it is. In these three verses we get 5 things for the peace of God. 5 prescriptions for the peace of God.
So what are these?
Ingredient #1: Be Joyful, Always
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” - Philippians 4:4 (ESV)
I wouldn’t blame you at all if you’re sitting there right now thinking, “That’s way easier said than done, Austin.” And my response to you would be this, “I know. I’m just as human as you are.” But again, we have an imperative here. Paul doesn’t give us an option. There’s no qualifier there of something like, “If everything in life seems to be going well, go ahead and rejoice in the Lord.” It doesn’t matter if things are down and you think, “I don’t feel like rejoicing. You don’t know what’s going on in my life. It’s easy for you just sit up there and tell me to be happy. Preacher boy.” Well – it’s not my words.
Here’s how to think about it: rejoice in the Lord – not your circumstances. One more thing to remember: don’t confuse joy with happiness. Happiness is circumstantial. Remember the verse where Jesus promises that all believers will no longer experience sorrow? Yeah, me either. Christianity doesn’t immune us from the hardships of life. If anything, it’s the opposite. So again, happiness is circumstantial. Joy, however, is the fruit of the Spirit, it’s a well springing up from within. Joy isn’t based on external, outward, and fleeting circumstances. It springs up from within by the God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And thank God for that, because that means that nothing in this world can give that joy to you – and therefore nothing in this world can take that joy away.
Remember, these words of joy and rejoicing come from Paul while he’s in chains.
Ingredient #2: Be Gentle
“Let your reasonableness (or in other translations the word there is “moderation”) be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.” - Philippians 4:5 (ESV)
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Let’s stop right there. The word “reasonableness” in the Greek is the word ἐπιεικής (epieikēs) means gentleness, patience, or moderation. Be gentle. Be reasonable. Be patient. Do you see what Paul is saying here? These things, reasonableness, gentleness, patience, are all closely related to joy. And that’s because it’s when we have joy, when our hearts are singing God’s praise, we’re so much less likely to be harsh and quick-tempered. Have you ever had to deal with someone and thought, “they’re just so unreasonable. Don’t look at the person next to you right now. I know some of you are probably reading thinking, "My husband! He’s like playing tennis against a wall. So stubborn.”
But you’re not stubborn, right?
Let's get back to Paul. He’s saying, you want to have the peace of God in your heart? Be reasonable. Be gentle. Be sympathetic. Don’t be so harsh. Or another word, be flexible. I love John Wooden (basketball coach for UCLA winning 7 national championships in a row, 10 in total) his quote, or proverb, if you will:
“Flexibility is the key to stability.”
- John Wooden, Basketball Coach
We see further in verse 5, we are to be reasonable, gentle, and patient with who? Everyone.And that’s not easy when we deal with people who are unreasonable. And I’m sure all of us have, currently do, or will.
Don’t make majors out of minors. Be flexible. Or the classic cliche, don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
Ingredient #3: Be Watchful
The third ingredient of the prescription for the peace of God: we are to Be Watchful. We see this at the end of verse 5. “The Lord is At Hand.”
I love this, because as we see in the list of imperatives, this list of commands – we get an amazing promise. An amazing truth. If you’re here this morning, or watching online whenever and wherever you are and you’re passing through a time of deep darkness. In the valley of weeping, remember this promise. God’s with you. You’re not alone. He will never leave you. Trust in that, trust that the Lord will be with you through those times. It will bring you a sense of God’s peace.
Ingredient #4: Do Not Worry
As we move to verse 6, we see the fourth ingredient in the prescription of the peace of God: Do Not Worry. “Do not be anxious for anything.”
What an amazing verse. Widely memorized and talked about and for good reason. We’ve been in the ESV this morning, but I love the way that the NLT translates this verse:
“Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” - Philippians 4:6 (NLT)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Again this is an imperative, a command. Let me ask you this, what does it mean to be worrisome, or anxious? Well the word for worry in our English language, comes from Old English word, wyrgan, literally meaning to strangle or throttle.
And isn’t that just a perfect description of that word? “Worry.” Feeling strangled?
Maybe you come home from a tough day. You get worried about homework, a test, your day at work was just terrible. Maybe you’re fighting with your spouse or family members. Maybe you received a diagnosis you hoped and needed be different. You’re worried to the point that you can’t eat dinner. Then you get ready for bed. Lie down, and your mind races. Now you’re worried to the point you can’t sleep, worried to the point you can’t function. Maybe you get worried to the point that you’re worried about worrying. You’re worried that if you worry too much you’ll get sick, then you worry that you won’t be able to work, and then if you can’t work you won’t be able to pay the bills. And so on, and so on…
See how quickly this enemy of worry can reach out and strangle?
Do you see how our minds can spiral into these scenarios, and our hearts race?
How appropriate then that verse 7 says that, "...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Our hearts and our minds.
Let’s look at Matthew 6:25:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” - Matthew 6:25-27 (ESV)
When I was preparing this message I heard this story. It’s about a man, Bill, that worried all the time. Everyone at work knew him as a worrier, one of his personality traits. Didn’t matter what it was going on, he would spiral into that mindset of worry. “I know that the client is going to hate this presentation.” “Do you think that I’m going to get fired? They let Janice go, why not me?” The guy who’s up all night, skips a meal here and there. Just a nervous, worried guy.
Well, one day he comes into the office and he’s whistling. Not only that, but the secretary, she’s pretty sure that she saw him park across the street, get out of his car with a smile on his face, and start to cross. The guy nearly got hit by a car. Unphased.
Goes about his day, they have a meeting. It’s like a different person is in attendance. He’s confident, jovial.
So in the hall a couple of his coworkers stop him and ask, “Bill, what’s the deal man? You used to worry about everything, what’s going on?”
He replies, “Oh, I decided to just hire someone to worry for me. It’s great.”
They said, “You hired someone? To worry for you? How much is that running you?”
“Oh, about $1,200 a week.”
“That’s pretty expensive, are you sure that you’re able to pay for that?”
He responds, “I don’t know, that’s his problem to worry about now.”
“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but never gets you anywhere.”
- Erma Bombeck, American Humorist
But see, on a more serious note, as Christians, we do have someone that we can cast our worries on. We have someone that we can cast our fears upon. Christ cares for us.
My prayer for all of us this morning is that if you’ve come here with a burden, with a worry, leave it here. And leave with the peace of God. And the way to do that is with the fifth ingredient:
Ingredient #5: Be Prayerful
“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” - Philippians 4:6 (ESV)
Notice Paul says here, that we are to pray about everything.
The solution for worry is prayer.
Thursday morning of this week, Cassy lost her keys. And she knows that I’m telling this story this morning. So, she called me from our house in south Murfreesboro as I was up here in my office preparing for this morning, and she told me that she couldn’t find them, but that it was all good because she was going to grab the spare, but mainly to just be on the lookout for them. All good, right? Well it would have been had I not been looking at the spare key sitting on my desk. It was in my pocket because I used her car the day before, and it was in my pocket when I came up here on Thursday and sat my keys on my desk.
So, I pretty frustratedly drive back all the way to Murfreesboro. And I’m not really exaggerating when I say that when I arrived, she was positive where she put them the night before, and we did just about everything short of tearing the drywall off of the studs to find those keys.
And I’ll tell you, I prayed at least 20 times over the coarse of that morning for me to find them. For some reason it was important to me that I was the one to find them, because I wanted to be able to say, “Here they were all along! Right by the dresser.” To be right, and the hero. That was the dream.
But you know, in hindsight, maybe the prayer should have been to just simply find the keys. Maybe lay off of the me finding them part.
Because I’m convinced God has a sense of humor.
See, when I had made it home, for lack of a better term, we’ll just call it a discussion, about who was responsible for losing the keys. Sounds productive, right? Because when keys are lost that’s the conversation that needs to be happening. Yet there we were. I was adamant that she lost the keys. And I had some pretty valid points, that to be honest were probably delivered not as gently as they should have been, but those points being:
They’re her keys.
Why would I touch her keys?
And on her side, she was adamant that I had to have moved them or something along those lines, because she placed them on the dresser next to her watch like she does every night.
But I think the exact phrase she decided to deliver was, “if you didn’t move them, then Sasquatch came in here and left with them.” She said that in a pretty serious moment, but to be honest it was a little hard not to laugh at that line.
Well, we just eventually resolve to this: we have no idea how they’re missing. We just agree to the fact that even though neither of us misplaced them, that I lost them. And that she’ll just use the spare keys and that the main one will hopefully turn up. I drive back up here to my office. Still though, I just know that I need to find the keys. So I keep asking, “Lord, help me find these keys.”
That night Cassy was house-sitting, and so I woke up having full-run of the place. And I decide, “I’m clearing everything out of this bedroom until I find the keys.” And again, “Lord, help me find these keys.”
So I start on my side because at least then the room will be pretty clean over there, and I can just scratch it off the list. I pick up my jeans from a couple of days ago off of this kind of hutch-thing where I placed them to put them in the laundry, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a prayer answered so blatantly as in that moment. Because right there underneath them. The keys.
I think to myself, almost simultaneously if that’s possible, “Oh yes! Thank you, God!” and “Oh, no. That ‘discussion.'”
God answered that prayer – I was the one to find them. I was also the one to have my pride lowered a few notches. I was also the one who was given the gift of calling my wife and delivering the wonderful news that I found the keys, and for her, probably, the even better news that they were on my side of the bedroom.
It turns out I had forgotten that I got something out of her car late the night before they went missing. Grabbing them off of the night stand, and not putting them back.
But the point is, pray for everything. It would be easy to sit there thinking, “Austin prayed for keys? For car keys? That’s not really that big of a deal.” In my story that I shared, God answered my prayer on what was honestly, a small, trivial thing. Missing car keys. But He did much more than just that – placing my ego in check and giving me a dose of some much needed humility as well. And I apologized for misplacing the car keys. But see, God cares about what’s in our heart, even if we don’t realize everything that’s on our heart. And in my case it was something that needed correcting, I can admit that.
But I say all of that to encourage you, pray about everything. Little things can pile up and become a big thing. All our burdens can begin to weigh us down. Cast your cares upon the Lord, He cares for you.
So the five ingredients for experiencing the peace of God are:
Be Joyful
Be Gentle
Be Watchful
Do Not Worry
Be Prayerful
The God of Peace
Our last two verses today continue from having the peace of God in our lives, to having the God of peace in our lives. Read with me:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” - Philippians 4:8-9 (ESV)
The Bible leaves no doubt that people’s lives are the product of their thoughts. Along with this, Paul had given them his personal example, which they had “heard and seen” in him. Both when Paul was with them and when he was away, the Philippians heard about Paul’s character and conduct—his bravery, how he faced trials, his devotion, his prayer, his patient suffering, his resiliency. Like we’ve discussed during this series. And so the simple, even childlike, message of the familiar hymn captures quite accurately Paul’s words:
“Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.”
We all have the magnificent opportunity to have the God of peace in our lives. And it’s through the peace of God that our hearts and minds are guarded from anxiety and worry. When we pursue a conscious rejection of all that is not consistent with the mind of Christ, we begin to experience more exalted thoughts. It's then only a matter of time before we progress beyond just thinking exalted thoughts, but putting them into practice day after day so that the mind, hope, peace, truth, and salvation the Christ brings shines out to a lost, watching, world.