Merredin Uniting Church

TEXT: Philippians 4:1-9  (Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)

As we continue in this series on Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi, we come today to reflect on the resources which we have which will enable us to stand firm in this life in Christ. We need a good foundation from which we can draw our steadfastness.

When I left school I was done with church. For 10 years I had been to church every day – twice on Wednesdays and Thursdays, three times on Sundays and sometimes twice on Saturdays. It was enough, so I didn’t go to church for a long time after that – for a further ten years in fact, except for the time when Margie and I were married.

When I came to the Lord in 1977, I looked back on those years of going to church and I realized just how important they were in building a Christian foundation in my life. I didn’t know it at the time – I thought I was just there for the money (as a choir boy and altar boy we were paid a tickey for going to church and two shillings for singing at weddings).

I also looked back on the ten years that I didn’t go to church and regretted that it took me so long to find my way back. I had been sidetracked by peer pressure, a life of trying to have fun and sheer laziness.

I realized the importance of laying a firm foundation as early as possible in life – if my foundation during my school years had been better, more focussed on Jesus, I possibly would not have even have wasted the subsequent ten years. I give thanks to God for the past thirty or so years and I had a little private celebration with God in 2004 when I crossed the line to become one who had followed of Jesus for more years than I had not.

Over the past couple of weeks the significance of laying a good and early Christian foundation in our lives, and the lives of our children has been strong in my mind. I shared a little of this with the elders on Thursday evening and I am going to devote a lot of my holiday to thinking out the relevance of this in our situation here in this Parish.

Back to our text. Paul tells us that we must “stand firm in the Lord”. And then he tells us how!

The word that he uses for “stand firm” is the same as that of a soldier in the middle of a battle, or of a gladiator in the Roman arena. Standing poised against the enemy, firm and resolute, pumped with adrenalin, positive of victory!

He shows how we can not only hold off the enemy but come through victorious, full of joy, peace and a sense of the presence of God. And this is so vitally important for us today.

The first thing is the need for us to watch our relationships with each other. “Standing firm”, as we have seen is used in the context of battle – it describes a phalanx, soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder. When they stood like that they were virtually invincible –provided they did not break rank. In a modern context we could use the term to describe a scrum in rugby union.

The enemy is always looking for cracks and divisions to exploit in the church. When the church breaks ranks, when the soldiers of Christ’s army are no longer shoulder to shoulder, the Evil One has a field day.

In our text we see a personality clash between two women, Euodia and Syntyche. In dealing with them, Paul does not take sides; rather he urges both of them to take the initiative in order to reach agreement and he appeals to others to help bring them together.

He doesn’t criticise them; rather he concentrates on their good points to build them up –they have contended by his side, and their names are written in the book of life.

Even trivial personality clashes can lead people away from the Lord. I once read a story of a woman who despite having been a faithful Christian and churchgoer stopped going to church for over 15 years. The reason –at a church fete she bought a cake at the cake stall. Seeing another cake she wanted, she said, “I’ll have that one as well”. The woman behind the stall said, “Oh no, you can’t have two”. Deeply offended by the remark, the woman concluded that the church was full of hypocrites and never went back.

It was silly, and we can laugh at it, but the example may not be far from us all. We must watch our relationships with other Christians. Disagreements, disunity, unnecessary remarks and unforgiveness can weaken then church and destroy our faith. One of the vital secrets of standing firm in the Lord is to work at our Christian friendships in the church.

From taking care about our relationships with each other, Paul now tells us that we can “stand firm in the Lord” by watching our relationship with the Lord, and he gives us three invaluable tips.

First, Enjoy the Lord

Sixteen times in Philippians, Paul tells us to “rejoice in the Lord”. However bad our circumstances, we need to find our joy in the Lord. The Westminster Confession tells us that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”. John Piper, one of my favourite authors and pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, calls himself a Christian hedonist –almost a contradiction in terms if we look at many Christians today. He finds absolute pleasure and delight in the Lord –not one sermon is preached, not one word is written without calling people to enjoy God. He was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer –it has not changed his joyful outlook because he is standing firm in the Lord.

Second, Expect the Lord

Immediately following the call to “rejoice in the Lord”, Paul says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near”.

Because the Lord is near –near to those who walk with Him, and because it is near to the Day when He shall return –we can, and must be gentle people. We don’t need to be contentious, abrasive and driven by self-seeking desires. Retaliation is not part of our vocabulary because we are abiding in His presence.

We can “stand firm in the Lord” because it is the Lord who is near who will vindicate us. We have no need to stand up to fight for our own position –God has it all in the palm  of His hand.

Third, Entreat the Lord

He says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.

Prayer and worry are not easy bedfellows. And living a life weighed down with worries is not really living. Prayer takes care of worries –a sign outside a church read “Why pray, when you can worry and take tranquilizers?”

If we want to lift ourselves above the troubles which threaten to pull us down, then we need to be a people of prayer, bringing our prayers, petitions and requests to God. It helps us to keep a journal or prayer diary so that when prayers are answered we can pray with thanksgiving. This is another matter which has been on my mind and when we return from our holidays, I want to focus on prayer as the primary foundation of our relationship with God.

The extraordinary and wonderful promise is that when we pray out our worries and anxieties, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.”

Peace for the Christian means far more than the absence of hostility –The word Paul uses is “shalom”: it means wholeness, soundness, well-being, oneness with God, every kind of blessing and good. It surpasses all our hopes and expectations and it transcends the understanding of others because they do not understand how we can be so peaceful in the face of major worries and anxieties.

Back to the focus on how we stand firm in the Lord. First, he said that we must watch our relationships with each other. Then he said that we must watch our relationship with the Lord. Paul now goes on to tell us that “standing firm in the Lord” needs us to be thinking right thoughts – He tells us to think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—the excellent and praiseworthy things.

It has been said that “a man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.”

And Jesus said that the things that enter our body through our mouth are not to be worried over because will eventually they leave our bodies. However that which comes out of our mouth is important because it comes from the heart and “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander. It is these things, Jesus says, which make a man unclean.

These are the thoughts of our mind and so we need to be careful about what we think about.

In today’s world its hard to do this because we are surrounded by images and words from television, newspapers, movies and so on which easily lead us in a wrong direction. Our thoughts are then not on true and pure things. We are angered by the politicians on the news, we are sidetracked by the easy sex in the movies, we are misled by false advertising claims.

But, while we may be tempted daily by wrong thoughts we don’t have to succumb to them. Martin Luther said that you can’t stop a bird from flying over your head but you can stop it nesting in your hair.

The way to get wrong thoughts out is to put right thoughts in –occupy your mind with good thoughts and the enemy will find no place to put any bad ones!

One way to do this is to start first thing in the morning with prayer and Bible reading. Memorising scripture verses is a great exercise, as does reading Christian books.

What we think about is not something which can be seen by others. It is part of our secret life but it is vital to standing firm in the Lord. Our unseen life is like the roots of a tree or the foundation of a building –our ability to withstand the storms of life depends on the strength of the unseen parts.

And then finally, Paul says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.” It’s a challenge for us to build our Christian stability by following the example of the lives of outstanding Christians.

Paul is not afraid to put himself forward as an example of the life to be followed – he has no fear of the “tall poppy” syndrome. He encourages his readers not only to follow his teaching but also his lifestyle –his words and his actions!

In Robert Anderson’s book, “The Effective Pastor” he makes the telling point that the pastor needs to be an outstanding example to the congregation of how to know Jesus, how to pray and how to live. He has little time for professional pastors and those who just want to be “one of the boys”.

And let me tell you that the world watches the Christians. They expect us to be above the things of the world, and we are, and we must be.

It is not so easy however to do all these things. Paul encourages his readers to put into practice what he has taught them –practice is the only way.

We must practice avoiding quarrels.

We must practice being united with other Christians.

We must practice avoiding worry and anxiety by bringing it to the Lord in prayer.

We must practice thinking about good things.

We must practice what we see in the lives of godly men and women.

And remember ….

Unforgiveness cuts us off from God.

Quarreling cuts us off from God.

Sinful thoughts cut us off from God.

Following bad examples cuts us off from God.

But forgiveness, unity, prayer, thankfulness, right thinking and following good examples keep us close to the God of peace.

And then we can stand firm in the Lord, not be sidetracked and so rejoice in living the life that is worthy.

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