Monday Night @ Frist B Oct 10th First B Jackson 2023-10-11 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Alright. Welcome, everybody. How are we doing tonight? I get to talk a little bit around the tables, and there are some challenges in life right now, aren't there? But I am glad to be here, and I'm glad to be in the word too because right here, we get tonight's scripture is is where we find peace. It is so good, and it's great relationship advice too. It's conversation style. Keep that in mind at the end. But before we get there, how about we worship in song together? Would you join me? Fall fresh from Psalm one zero three. Praise the Lord, my soul, my inmost being. Praise his holy name. God, thank you for the opportunity to worship. May we be worshiping our way through life in song, in constant communication with you, in prayer, rejoicing, being recognizing the grace that you give us. Amen. Living Come wake me from my sleep. Lord, through the caverns of my soul. Lord, be he to overflow. Lord, thank you. And we do want to hear from your spirit. Would you do what only you can do? Speak to us in a way only that you can. Do your good work. Teach. Correct. Train us. Convict us of what's wrong, of sin in our life. Convince us of your righteousness. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for working and moving. Amen. Living hope. Here's a a good word from Hebrews. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. That's the expectation of what is sure and certain hope. For he who promised is faithful. I'll greet the that live its sweet I'll hide the mountain I could not climb Then came the mourn that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe out of the sides. Here's a, I think, a good song right before right before we hear the word, and it's it's saying, speak, o Lord. But this is this is really good from Matthew four because we just shared a meal together, and it was wonderful. And thank you, Mike and JJ, by the way, for for feeding us tonight. But I wanna let's be reminded of this. In Matthew four, Jesus says, people don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Glory. Of This we go, Lord, and renew our minds. Help us grasp the heights of your purposes plans for for us. Truths on change from the dawn of time that we let go down through eternity. That is such a great song. You can have a seat here for a moment. What do you say we we get into the word? Blake, is it okay if I give you finger points like this to advance slides? Little finger pistols? Double guns. Alright. So we're up to Philippians four verses two through nine tonight. Heading in my Bible is words of encouragement, and that is exactly what this is, and I think it's exactly what we need. For a church that was in that day having conflict and disagreement, and churches still do today. It's inevitable. This is a very, very encouraging word. So Paul gives some instructions, then he shows the results as the church carries out these instructions in the Lord. And here's one of the results right here in a key verse that I see is then after they're carrying out these instructions, you'll experience God's peace, God's gift of wholeness, which exceeds anything that we can understand, or some translation says, a peace that passes understanding. Man, that's good. And his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. A very, very good word right there. Very good word. So I wanna approach it this way. First, I'd like to look at what those instructions are and then the results as they carry out these instructions in the Lord. And then, of course, application for today. Disagreements happen. Conflict happens everywhere, all the time, and we are all looking for peace. That is something I know about us. We're looking for peace. And I believe this right here is great relational wisdom, relationship wisdom that leads to peace. I feel like this is fantastic scripture for tonight. So that being said, let's read through it. It's Philippians four two through nine. I'll share a few thoughts, and then I'll I'll open it up at the end if you've got some, thoughts to share as well, a favorite verse, a little word of encouragement, a prayer. I mean, let's encourage and edify one another. But here's here's what the scripture say. So now I appeal to to Euodia and Syntyche. So Syntyche, Syntyche, I'm gonna say Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. And I ask you, my true partner, help these women for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news, and they worked along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are written in the book of life. Okay. Here we go. Verse four. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again. Rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all that you do. Remember, the Lord's coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all that he's done. Then, here's the result, you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. I think that is so key right there. As you live in Christ Jesus. Verse eight. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Verse nine. Keep putting into practice all that you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you. So I'm gonna stop there for now. Let's pray first and then just comb over it again. God, thank you for this word to us tonight. I feel that this is so timely, and it is great relationship wisdom. And it leads to peace, A peace that passes understanding. God, that we would be longing and looking for that peace. It is found in you. God, would we be filled by your love, by your spirit, by your peace, and that we would be working to settle our disagreements, rejoicing, being considerate, praying rather than worrying, giving thanks, and fixing our thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable, excellent and worthy of praise, putting into practice all that we have learned. In Jesus' name. Amen. So, again, here's the way I wanna approach it. Instructions, results, and application. And I know I'm oversimplifying here. I tend to do that. I tend to do that. But I'm gonna do it anyway. And here are the instructions. Here's a neat little list right here. Blake, And it is if you'd like to see them that way, here they are. Settle your disagreements, rejoice, be considerate, don't worry, pray, thank him, and fix your thoughts on what's true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, worthy of praise, and then put those into practice, all that you've learned. And then the results, here they are. As these things are being done, the God of peace will be with you, and you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything that we can understand, and his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. So here we go. Euodia and Syntyche. We're gonna we're gonna start there in verse two and three. Don't know exactly what the disagreement was there. Don't need to know. But what we do know this is this. They're believers in Christ. They're they go to the same church. They worked alongside Paul. Paul loves them to pieces because he they they help share the gospel. We also don't know who this true partner is, but Paul is asking them, whoever that person is, hey. Would you help would you help them through this? And isn't that such a great sign of love to go, you know what? I'm not gonna ignore this here. It is an issue, and and so we're gonna address it. And I know just the guy to do it, my true partner, whatever his name is, I I want him in there with you to help settle this agreement, to be of one mind. I think that's the loving and wonderful thing to do in the church. Help them work through it. Settle that disagreement. I believe these verses that follow help them even more so to get there. So beginning with, verse four here. There it is. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again. Rejoice. Let's look at that word one more time. Joy keeps just coming up again and again and again in Philippians. Means to delight in God's favor, be conscious of it, recognize it, be glad for it. God's given us favor that we don't deserve. We can all agree on that. And I believe that Paul starts here because if God has indeed done that for us, which he has, he's extending favor in our direction all the time, then we ought to to do that for one another. And so I think he's saying rejoice going, hey. Recognize the favor that you're getting right now because when you do, then you can share that with other people. I think that's huge in settling a disagreement, don't you? So he begins with joy. And then next, look at this one. Let everyone see that you're considerate in all that you do. So just deacon, drilling deeper, looking at the word. Considerate means a generous spirit that rises above offenses. Can I say that again? Considerate means a generous spirit that rises above offenses. It takes the high road. I think a good question to ask ourselves when, and it's not just if, but when we're in a conflict or disagreement is, am I being considerate? Am I displaying a generous spirit that rises above offenses? Being considerate. Here's the next one. Don't worry. Pray. I'm gonna share a little poem to illustrate this one. Ray's mom and dad have this poem in their home. Hanging on the fridge, and, I just love it. Here here it is. There's two slides for this one. So the first one is worry. Why worry? What can worry do? It never keeps a trouble from overtaking you. It gives you indigestion and sleepless hours at night and fills the days with gloom, however fair and bright. It puts a frown upon the face and sharpness to the tone. We're unfit to live with others, unfit to live alone. Worry. Why worry? What can worry do? It never keeps a trouble from overtaking you. Okay. How about prayer? There's a slide for this one. Pray why pray. What can praying do? Praying really changes things, arranges life anew. It's good for your digestion and gives you peaceful sleep at night and fills the grayest gloomiest days with rays of glowing light. It puts a smile upon your face, the love note in your tone, makes you fit to live with others and fit to live alone. Pray. Why pray? What can praying do? It brings God down from heaven to live and work with you. I like that. That's good stuff. Worry or pray. Here's what here's what Jesus says about about worry in Matthew six. Real short, here's the abbreviated version. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? That is a very good question. And you know something? We all know the answer to that question because we've tried it. Am I wrong? It doesn't. It really doesn't. Prayer is the better option by far all the time. Our default is worry first, pray later. He's saying, would you pray first? Right when that worry comes up, pray first on it. Prayer. So there it is again. I'm gonna put it in front of us. We know it to be true. We don't always practice it, but let's begin to think in this direction. Don't worry. Pray. Pray first. Here's another in verse six. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done. There are a lot of studies on gratitude. A lot of studies. But they all point to the same thing, and that is great grateful people are happier people. They just are, and we can be grateful even in hard circumstances. That is the major theme in Philippians. Even in conflict. Even in conflict, when we are thankful for the grace that God has extended to us, it helps us to extend that grace to other people. Thankfulness. It's key. It's absolutely key. And here's the result in verse seven. Then you'll experience God's peace. That's God's gift of wholeness, which exceeds anything that we can understand. It passes understanding. And his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. So that word guard really caught my attention this week because the question that comes to my mind is, well, what would our hearts and minds needed to be need to be guarded from? Can you think of anything? Especially in a conflict, what would our hearts and minds need to be guarded from? I wanna name a couple because there's a lot of them. Yes. Anger Self righteousness. Pride Impatience. Impatience, bitterness, envy, resentment, revenge. I mean, we that that we could we've already started to make a long list. But it's God's peace, God's gift of wholeness that he gives to us that guards our hearts and minds from that, that list that we just named. We can experience this. It's available to us. Check this verse out. This is just a reminder from Jesus in John. He says, I'm I'm leaving you with a gift, my friends, my followers, and that is peace of mind and heart. And the peace that I give, it's a different brand of peace. I understand your world gives a certain brand of peace, and it usually comes with you're probably acquiring stuff and my peace is different, Jesus says. It's a gift the world can't give. And so don't don't be troubled and don't be afraid. Isn't that good? And it's true. And it's available to us. If we would ask God, in fact, may I just pause and pray for a moment? God, that we would be asking for and longing for a peace that the world cannot give that only you can give. Your brand of peace, God. Your gift of wholeness, completeness that guards our hearts and minds in you. That guards our hearts and minds from anger, resentment, bitterness, self righteousness, and on and on and on, the things that bring chaos and turmoil in our lives. God, may your peace permeate every bit of our being so that what we actually experience is wholeness, completeness in you. Thank you for your gift of peace. In Jesus' name. Amen. Can I just go back to a few of the the things that say lead to peace here so far? He says, joy, being considerate, prayer, and gratitude, that all of those things lead to peace. So if I may, can we ask ourselves? I'll ask me, you ask you. Am I practicing joy? Recognize the recognition of God's grace. Do I practice that? Am I practicing being considerate, a generous spirit that rises above offenses? Am I practicing this? How about prayer over worry? Do I practice this? Because these things lead to peace. How about thankfulness? Am I practicing being an attitude of gratitude? That leads to peace. And there's even more. Look at this. So on to verse eight, more instructions. Fix your thoughts on what's true. So I'm just bringing it back into the context of relationships. We're asking, what's true? What is reality here? Not what do I think or what do I assume, but what is actually true? That's huge in settling arguments and disagreements. Next, whatever is honorable. That's something that's deeply respected in a relationship. How about we put it this way? Can both parties agree? Can you zoom out of the problem for a second? And can both parties agree on what is the honorable thing? The deeply respected thing. Rather than just the problem itself, can we zoom out and go, what's the honorable thing to do here? This is great. Okay. How about this next one? What's right? Now specifically, means what's right in God's eyes. Not what's right in Carl's eyes or or your eyes. What is right through God's eyes? What is it? What God actually says is right. So that's great relational wisdom. What what does God say is right here in this? Whatever we're going through. Alright? And how about pure? The next one. Uncontaminated, free from the influence of sin, holy, other. That's what we're to set our minds on. And then lovely, That's what's pleasing and acceptable in a relationship. What can I say? Put yourself in this situation. Alright? K. Imagine that you are having an argument or conflict with someone. Right? What could you say that is pleasing and acceptable to that other person? What is pleasing and and acceptable? It may change what comes out of our mouth next. Here's and then the next the other, admirable. That's what's well spoken of. So the kinds of actions in a relationship that would be well spoken of. Here's more. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. It's an enthusiastic acknowledgment of what is good and deserves praise. He's saying, here it is, verse nine, keep putting these things into practice. You have seen them and you've learned them, and now do them. And as a result, the God of peace will be with you. There it is again. A second time. And so what I'm seeing here are instructions and results that as they do these things right here, settle your disagreements, Rejoice. Be considerate. Don't worry. Pray. Thank him. Fix your thoughts on what's true and horrible and right and pure and lovely, admirable, excellent, worthy of praise. Practice what you learn, the results as they do these things, as we do these things, is that, here they are, the God of peace will be with you. And you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. And his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. As far as application goes, I've got one more slide there for that. To me, this is great relationship wisdom. Disagreements happen all the time. Ray, you'd probably say that how much of our of what we do revolves around just relationships. Right? So much. And we're all looking for peace. Every single one of us want peace. We all do. And I believe this right here is what leads to it. And even and I would say this for a takeaway. Even if we were to focus on just one of these this week because they're a lot. Right? If you ask me right now, Carl, what are they? I'll go, I have to look again. But let's just say thankfulness, for example. Just one. Thankfulness. What if we would resolve this week to be grateful? You know, some people do the journal or however it is that you recognize what's good and be thankful for it no matter what, even in even even if it's a hard week, we can still recognize that God has extended his grace and his favor to us even in the hard stuff. There's always something to be thankful for. I say it because this can radically improve relationships, radically improve relationships, all the while filling us with peace. It just seems like why wouldn't we? You know? Why wouldn't we? So that's what I've got from Philippians four two through nine, and I'd like to open it up to conversation. So maybe I'll put some some of the verses back there on there too. Maybe the list or something like that of instructions. But before before we we open it up for conversation, can I can I pray one more time? God, I am I'm very, very grateful for this word tonight. Very grateful. You say, my peace, I leave you. My peace, I give to you, and I don't give as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. God, that we would be filled with your peace because we are actively seeking and looking for it in you, in you. God, that we would do what's being asked here because we can do these things too. We can rejoice. We can be considerate and pray rather than worthy. Worry. We can be thankful. We can fix our thoughts on what is true and honorable and right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. And we can put these things into practice. God, we need your need your help. Holy Spirit, be our guide throughout this week. Teach us, correct us, train us. In Jesus' name, amen. So, I mean, the word has obviously spoken for itself, but if there is a a word in here, a little word of encouragement, a favorite verse you just wanna repeat again, I'd love to hear it. Or a or a prayer. Florian, you've prayed before where you just thought, I'd like to pray on this, and I love that. I love that. But would anybody have any thoughts from Philippians four two through nine? A generous spirit that rises above offenses. Yep. And so what I see in there is it it does take the it takes the high road. What I like reading through Philippians four, and it's one of my favorite chapters, I think. And I think I like my translation a lot better than the one that you used. Do you have the NIV? I do. Verse four. Don't underline many things in my Bible. Like, I'll do notes on my phone or on my Bible app. But in my actual Bible, I have verse four underlined. Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. And I like that it says gentleness in this translation. It doesn't say, let your righteousness or your judgment. It says, gentleness. Let your gentleness. They'll know we're Christians by our love. So I like that word gentleness a lot. And then the verse right after that, I'm also a big fan of. The first time I walked into first b, it was James, and it was b slow to speak. Quick to listen. Quick to listen. I messed that up, but you know what verse I'm talking about. And so, I'm often not doing that. That's why it spoke to me so much. I'm so quick to speak. Or, give advice to friends. Like, hey hey, Carl, tell me what's going on. Oh, here's what I think. He didn't ask for advice, but I'll go ahead and give it anyways. It's true. It's true. Yeah. And and that's not good. Like, I think I think about Job and like all the things that he was going through and his friends at the time, they had a lot of good advice, didn't they? But they they that's what his friends did is give advice. And it's and it I picture myself when I give advice. But that being said, I think this next verse is the one sage advice that's always good to give, even if it's not solicited. It's good. Do not be anxious and if anybody's ever having a hard time, this is the one thing that I can say that I think is is solid and and without doubt. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition and thanksgiving, present your request to God. So good. Mhmm. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts. So somebody's having a hard time and, you know, the your immediate thing is to give them advice or this is divorce them. Oh, do this or whatever. It's like, well, just pray about it. Turn over all that stuff to God. Like, I think that's the one safe piece of advice to give. Don't be like Job's friend friends. That is good advice. Thanks, Blake. Anybody else? Yeah. Anybody else have a word from Philippians? I'll just start walking back towards this table. Or something? What? Just standing out. Hold on. I think that to start to start off with, ShamWow. To start off with, it says, I urge you, Odya, and I urge Sentiki. I've got even a third version. But, when he starts with that, you get a you almost gasp because he mentioned two people. And and then he says, to be like calling somebody out from the pulpit. To live in harmony. Yeah. To live in harmony in the Lord. And then but when he goes, he says, I I ask you true companion. Ask you. Help em. Help these ladies who have shared my struggle. He is thinking on things that are noble and good and just and admirable. Yeah, they're not getting along great right now. But he doesn't concentrate on the disagreement. He says, your sisters in Christ and you're helpful. You have been helpful to me and it's really, it's moving. Especially that this is a part of a letter. It's not disjointed. You know, we we don't have a week between reading the chapters. When you read the letter and it starts off and says, hey, is there any, is there any consolation in love? Is there any fellowship in the spirit? And both of them know that there is. And so, they're starting to think on how great it is, you know, how great it is for people to live in unity and so, through the whole letter, it's it's Chuck Swindoll's book about Philippians is called Laugh Again. It's been so long since you've had a good laugh together but rejoice. Rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. He says it over and over. Recognize the grace that you've been given. It is easy to focus on the negative stuff and he gives a list that as you go down, he sees some other ugliness that you want to avoid. In Colossians, it's put on these good things and and take off these other things but I I really, this one is, this one is just great. But I love that he's doing that. He's already doing it. He says, hey, y'all. I urge you to get along. It's much better, when you're and and you're very, very helpful. And you're you're you're lovely and admirable and excellent. And he's actually kinda praising them in the letter. It's like, that's really it's really, really good. He's saying, y'all, you know better than this. Just let's live in it. It's a little different than than the fear of, like, church discipline and getting kicked out or something like that, isn't it? Yeah. It is. Because he is truly focusing on on things that are true and honorable, right, and pure and lovely. These are my friends. These are my partners. And, yeah, they're having a disagreement right now. And we're not Let's love them through it. We're we're not to it yet, but in verse 13, we know that it's I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You're the things. That's a yeah. These are the things. These are the things that we can do by Christ. It's not like the power team used to rip phone books in half and you know, that that that kind of campy circus like atmosphere. We can do all things and they wear it on a T shirt. Yeah. But these are the things we can do through Christ who strengthens us. So, pretty good. Other thing I was gonna say is to settle in your disagreements. A difficult conversation is better had. It's better having that conversation. Now, you wanna be prayed up before you go into it and let go of all the self righteousness and anger and everything else but when a difficult conversation needs to be had, it's better had, you know. So, I I like that. Well, I'm gonna bring us down to the real world. I've got these things going on between family members All the time. Right? And trying to to coax at least one of them to kinda go along in this direction. The reality is, wow. Not so easy. Mhmm. Of course, you know, they're not reading a Bible or, you know, being guided by it. Yep. But if you are, then they can see that in you. Yeah. Yeah. Because I can get a text from someone with a tirade that's as long as my arm. Mhmm. My response is usually just one or two sentences, You know, just to keep it, just to bring it down and let all that go so they can see that. But, you know yeah. No. It's I mean, if you can get people to see some of it, you might make some headway. You know? So, yeah. The real world is is is the challenge. It is. It's hard. Yeah. Yep. And this makes it easier. Yep. You know, we we studied some verses in the last several weeks about holding your tongue. And I think a lot of these things you know, if we think before we speak and we've prayed about something but but really think about what's the purpose of your words? You know, are your are your words encouraging? Are are your what are you trying what are you trying to accomplish here? So I see real crossover between these instructions and this concept of you you can't control what other people say Yeah. But you can you actually can it's difficult, but you can always control what you say. Yep. And sometimes it's the like, if you haven't had a chance to really kinda think about it, it maybe not, you know, maybe not maybe not say it. Mhmm. Mhmm. That's a good word. Yep. Oh, there's so much gold. Right now, first be of the Bible, it is we're in James. And and one of Ray Blake's favorite verses, quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Man, that's good. Well, you know, a year ago now, I ended up in the hospital with COVID and My guys love you. COVID and and numerous things and found out I was full blooded diabetic. My my numbers were over 500. And over this last year, we've been trying to figure out how to deal with this with a diet and and insulin. Well, I can't couldn't take insulin because I didn't have insurance. And and finally, my doctor said, well, I don't wanna see you going to the hospital. So he says, I'm gonna give you samples of what I've got, which is insulin and pill form. And I said, okay. And a week ago, he took my blood not my blood pressure, my blood draw and let me know the next day that my numbers of 500 finally had went down to a 7.5. Wow. And I am so thankful. Mhmm. So grateful. Because it's been hard this last year trying to have to cut out sweets and have to try to find different things to replace foods that I couldn't can't have. And and I'm so thankful to the Lord that he's brought me through this and and has taken care of me. Amen. Us too. Us too. Anybody else? Thank you for sharing what you did tonight. Appreciate it. And should we stand and we'll, sing one more song together too? A prayer song, Christ be all around me. As I rise, strength of God. Hold the floor. Lift me up. As I wake eyes of God. Look upon in my side. As I wait, heart of God, satisfied my God. Be my God. Before and behind me. In every eye of the season, And let me leave you with this verse here before we part. And this one final thing. Let's be fixing our thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Let's be thinking about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise. And may God, you bring your peace as we are doing these things. Your peace you leave us. Your peace your peace you give to us. It's not a peace that the world gives. May we not be troubled or afraid. In Jesus' name, amen.