New Peace

Philippians 4:1-21

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long
to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.
Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord,
settle your disagreement.
And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard
with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest
of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.
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.
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.
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.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me–everything you
heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have
always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I
was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.
I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or
empty, with plenty or little.
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help
when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other
church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once.

I don’t say this because I want a gift from you.
Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment I have all I
need–and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus.
They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God.
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his
glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen.
Give my greetings to each of God’s holy people–all who belong to Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me send you their greetings.
And all the rest of God’s people send you greetings, too, especially those in
Caesar’s household.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

New Peace

I want you to picture yourself this morning in a couple of different situations: Imagine
1st of all, that you are still back in high school, if you can remember back that far.
And you arrive at school one Monday morning, and you suddenly find out that you have a big
History test that you forgot all about, and you don’t have a clue what’s going to be on it!
How do you think that would make you feel?
Or imagine that you arrive at work one day and you find out that your company has been bought
out by another corporation, and you are being laid off, effective immediately!
Or imagine you are driving along the QEW, and all of a sudden you look in your rear-view
mirror, and there ís a police cruiser with its lights flashing right behind you!
I think it would be safe to say that in all of the above scenarios, our anxiety level would
probably go up immediately about 70 points. None of us like to find ourselves in those kinds of
situations, but the reality is that there are always going to be circumstances that come into our
lives, that may cause us a great deal of stress and anxiety.
As we have been making our way through Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we have seen some
of the changes that Jesus can make in our lives: how he gives us a new Heart, a new Destiny,
new Values, new Confidence, new Purpose.

And now as he comes to the conclusion of his letter, Paul assures his readers that
God also wants to give them new sense of Peace. A new ability to deal with whatever anxiety-
producing challenges may yet come into their lives in the future.
“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” (Phil 4:7)
As he brings this letter to the end, Paul sets out a number of ways that we can experience
God’s peace, even when the world around us seems to be filled with stress and anxiety.
1. Striving for peace in our relationships with one another. There are few things
in life that cause us more stress and anxiety, than when we are facing conflict with other people
around us. Evidently in the church in Philippi, there was a disagreement of some sort going on
between these two women, Euodia & Syntyche.
Evidently they were key leaders in the church, who had worked alongside of Paul, but for
some reason they had had a falling out, they were just not getting along.
So Paul addresses this issue in 4:2: ” Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because
you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.” Paul recognized that these kinds of
personality conflicts could potentially cause a great deal of harm.
I believe that the main reason that churches experience division and even end up splitting, is
not necessarily over doctrinal differences, but because of personality conflicts within their
fellowship.
Notice Paul doesn’t take sides here, he simply says to both parties, “Listen, please settle this
matter, so that it does not hurt the advance of the gospel.”
So if you have a conflict with another brother or sister in our church. If you’re not speaking to
one another, because they have offended you or done something to hurt you, you are obligated
to go to that person and make things right with them. Don’t let it fester.
So we need to be careful to our relationships with one another.
2 nd If we are going to experience peace we must learn to

Find our Joy in the Lord. 4:4 “Always be full of joy in the Lord.
I say it again- Rejoice!” Paul uses the words “joy” and “rejoice” 16 times throughout this letter,
twice here in this one verse.
Paul never denies that we are going to go through difficulties in life, that we are going to have
painful experiences, and problems. And I don’t think he’s saying that we should necessarily
rejoice in those things themselves. There will be situations in your life that you simply cannot be
happy about, and it would be silly to try to do so. Sometimes I’ve even heard Christians say
something like this: “You know I was driving on my way to work and I hit a patch of ice, and
slammed my car into a telephone pole. And I just praise God, that that happened to me!” I’m not
sure how genuine that response is.
But however bad our circumstances may be, there is one place that we can always find joy.
Paul says “Rejoice… in the Lord!”
The one solid foundation we can always rejoice in, is our rel’ship with the Lord. Because
nothing can separate us from God’s love and care for us. Certainly there are many other things
we can rejoice in as well. But if our primary source of joy is in our circumstances, our family, our
friends, then we are on pretty thin ice. Because those things can all be taken away from us. But
if our joy is in the Lord, no one can take that away from us, and it will serve as an anchor for us
thru all the storms of life. No matter what we go through we must never forget that. We need to
cultivate a close, abiding relationship with God if we are going to be able to experience real joy,
real peace
A 3rd key strategy to finding peace, of course, is to bring all thoSE stressful situations
to the Lord in Prayer.
It’s when we try to handle things on our own that we can become overcome by anxiety. Instead
we need to take all the stressful situations in our life, and turn them over to God. 4:6
“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”

I like what someone put on a sign outside of a church one time. It said “Why pray, when you
can worry and take tranquilizers?”
Paul says don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. It’s much harder to worry
about something, at the same time we are praying about it. I would encourage you to make a list
of all the things that are causing anxiety and stress in your life right now.
And then commit those things to the Lord in prayer.
“Lord I am entrusting these things to you”
Paul also says, “Pray with thanksgiving.” You may think you have a lot to worry about, but I
suspect that you have much more that you can be thankful for. Acknowledge the blessings in
your life, before you bring to God all of your problems.
In the next verse we have this wonderful promise:
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus.”
The Hebrew word is “Shalom” means much more than simply a lack of anxiety or stress. On the
positive side, it includes a sense of wholeness, well-being and harmony, that only God can give
to us.
It is a peace that transcends our human understanding, because even though we may be
going thru major crises on the outside, even though normally we might be a basket case under
the circumstances, God is able to give us his peace, which can guard our hearts and our minds
as we go thru that crisis, and protect us from the attacks of despair and doubt and depression
which might otherwise overwhelm us.
I remember a few years ago, a good friend of ours, who was an elder in the church we were
ministering in, passed away quite suddenly. And it was a very stressful time, trying to minister to
the family and friends, making all the arrangements for the funeral, and dealing with a hundred
things that had to be taken care of.
But in the midst of all that was going on, I sensed the Lord saying “Jim, you need to let my
peace reign in your heart right now.

Don’t worry because i’m going to take care of it.”
And it just seemed that from that point on the peace of God came over things, and I could
sense God’s peace and assurance ruling in my heart throughout that situation.
You see, God’s peace is not dependant on everything in our lives going just the way we want
it to go. God wants to bring his peace into whatever situation you’re finding particularly stressful
right now.
Another key strategy if we are going to experience God’s peace, is that we guard our
minds, our inner thought life. 4:8:
“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.”
You see if you don’t manage your mind, if you just let your thoughts go all over the place:
“What if this happens, what if that happens?!” that will lead to stress, and anxiety, and tension,
and conflict.
A lot of people think you can’t control your thoughts, but that’s not true! Paul says make sure
you guard what you allow your mind to think about. Think about those things that are true and
pure and excellent and praise-worthy.Now we all know that, living in the kind of world we live in today, it’s not always so easy to do
that. All you have to do is turn on the news, and you are inundated with reports about war and
financial crisis and natural disasters and mass shootings. We’re surrounded by it. And
sometimes it can feel overwhelming.
But Paul says don’t allow your mind to be focused on those things
Instead we need to fill our minds with God’s thoughts. On of the best way to do that is by
beginning the day with an intentional time of Bible reading and prayer. Try to set aside some
time each day that you can spend alone with God, and allow him to fill your minds and your
thinking with his thoughts.
A final key to finding peace, Paul says is to

Learn to be content in whatever situation you find yourself in.
“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (4:12) Many people are under the illusion that the
secret of contentment lies in getting what you want. “If only I was making more money, then I
would be happy. If only I had a bigger house… If only I had a better marriage…” But
unfortunately when they finally get whatever it is they thought they wanted, they find that they
are no more content than before.
But Paul says that the secret to true contentment does not depend on whether I am rich or
poor, whether I have a lot or I have a little.
No, the secret to being content, according to Paul, lies in knowing that God is my
strength and trusting Him as the one who ultimately provides for everything I will ever need.
Here Paul gives us this wonderful promises in v19: “And my God will meet all your needs
according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
True contentment and peace comes from knowing this, that whatever happens in your life, God
is going to supply all of your needs. And so because of that “I can do everything through him
who gives me strength.” (4:13)
And so if you are going thru a stressful time right now, and I suspect that many of us are, these
are some strategies that you can work on, to help you find God’s peace in the midst of even the
most difficult circumstances.
As we close in prayer, why don’t you come to him with all those things that seem to be
causing stress and anxiety in your life right now. God wants to give you his peace. He promises
it to us right here in his word, if we will come to him.