Dwell On These... Philippians, 4:8-9

This is a time of year, of course, when we have lots of companies coming to visit and we're going to visit people and things like that. My son, Randy, and his wife, Jessica, are here with our granddaughter. Make sure you introduce yourselves to them four or five times, okay? Yeah.

And anyway, we're going to proceed here with the book of Philippians, chapter 4, 8 and 9. And as we look at this passage, one of the things that we find, because Paul is continuing on with almost kind of brief thoughts that are not, unlike a lot of what Paul writes, that are not kind of like logical progression, this, this, this, therefore this. Instead he's giving brief thoughts, some of them are almost proverbs in a way. And so he's doing that here in verses 8 and 9. Actually, eight and nine are each sort of a separate thought, certainly related in that they're both spiritual things, true things, revealed things, and yet not immediately connected logically.

In looking at Philippians 4.8, some of our translations vary in this respect, and that is, in fact, that there's a number of Greek words there that are plural, that don't come across in all the English translations.

As a matter of fact, if I was a translator, I'd be scratching my head over this one. And here's why. Because, for example, whatever is true, the Greek comes across like this, whatever's our trues. Now, if they said whatever's our trues, we would be a little confused, right?

But the idea is that there's a number of things, Plural. There are a number of things that are true. He's not saying it from a point of doubt, but rather a point of statement. A number of things that are true. Those things that are true. Some of the translations will have it, whatever things are true, in order to convey that idea. And that's a good way to do it. The other point is that I have places in here where I put in brackets.

The is is actually not in the original Greek. Paul has done again here like he did earlier in Philippians, and so a lot of our translations carry it over by inserting it for smooth English. But what he has done, similar to what he did, remember when we went through the passage, for me to live as Christ, to die as gain? He's done something similar here. Remember when we did that, the effect of the Greek came across like this. For me to live Christ, to die, He's done that similarly here. Whatever is true, and then from then on, whatever honourable, whatever right, whatever pure. See that? So he's giving it... Why is he leaving out the is? He's giving it the idea for emphasis, the emphasis of pause, if you will, in order to underscore those things.

Even dwell, speaking to the... to the people, believers in plural. There's in plural there. So a great many plurals in that verse. If you look at it, he's set these things up like this. He's got six things, whatever is, and then he has true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, and then follows that with two things, if there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise. And that's how he sets up verse 8. That's his set up, if you will. Let's take a look at each one of those words. The first one there is true, alethes. It's an adjective, okay? And this word refers to truth in character, okay? Truth in character. Now, here's an interesting connection.

And these verses that I'll be having kind of at the end of each one of these word studies, if you will, Don't lose track of that fact. The idea is I'm trying to sew something together here that I think we'll find to be real valuable once we get the insight. The first one here, John 14, 6. Christ tells his disciples, I am the way, the truth, and this is basically the noun form of the same word, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me. So what we begin to see here is a connection. What's true? It's truth related to Christ. Now, let's look at the next one. Whatever is honorable. We think we know what that means. This is a word here that the related verb thebomai means to worship. So it is a word that's more than just simply like an address that you would write to your senator or to a judge. The word means it invites reverence or is worthy of reverence. Invites reverence or is worthy of reverence.

Dr. Luke, as he's writing in the book of Acts 16-14, he uses this same word to say that Lydia, the first believer in Philippi, worshipped God. See that? Here's the connection again. I'm not speaking honorable just in terms of an exalted human position, but instead this is honorable that it has to do with worship, worthy of honor in that sense.

Here's the next one. Right. Dikaios. The King James has this as just. You'd see it similarly as the related word justified. Just. 1 John 2, 1 and 2, he says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Same word. Dikaios. And He Himself is the propitiation, is the payment or satisfaction for our sins. Not ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

So look at it, here's this word again, so when Paul is making this list, have you started to notice this? He is not simply making a list of nice words, he is making a list of words that describe the character of Jesus Christ. Now, we'll see that as we continue along here. The next one, pure, hagnos, is the word undefiled.

It should be see, see also Philippians 1.17.

And then the verse where this is drawn straight out of scripture, 1 John 3.1, and everyone who has this hope, excuse me, it should be 3.3, on him purifies himself, just as he is pure. And that same word, hagnos, it's pure, undefiled, related to this word that we talked about earlier, hagios. That's the word translated saints, holy, undefiled. Next word that Paul lays out is lovely.

Prosphileos. Prosphileo is the compound there. It means toward, brotherly love. Love toward, brotherly love toward. So in 1 Corinthians 16.22, Paul uses this word phileo about the believer's love for the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in John 16, 27, the same word gets used again, of the love between the Father and the Son, and of our love for Christ. So again, you see Paul's using these series of words, he connects them up, having to do not just nice words, he doesn't just say whatever is sort of nice, he's saying these are words that have the character and are related to Jesus Christ. Finally, as this last one, good repute, or in the King James, good report.

Euphemos. He's not saying, hey, you famous. No, it's euphemos. Well spoken. Well spoken of. These are words of good report or good acclamation. Praiseworthy. There's a related noun in 2 Corinthians 6. uses a related noun there, and it shows up here, Christ is proclaimed to be praiseworthy.

Remember when we were going through the book of Revelation, Revelation 5.12, what do the heavenly creatures say? They say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Now, is He praiseworthy? Yes. Praiseworthy.

So as we look at these words, these words are not just Paul saying, think of some nice things. He's not just saying, think of nice things. He is instead giving words that relate to the very character of Jesus Christ. See that? These aren't just, think positively. but think spiritually in relationship to Jesus Christ.

And then he continues on that verse and he says, if there is any excellence, the King James there has virtue, or anything worthy of praise, that word excellence, there's arete, moral excellence. One of the things that we look at when we think of Jesus Christ, we don't say, Jesus Christ was just a real special guy because he was born at a special time and to a special lady or something of that sort. He had characteristics. It was his character and who he was. And one of those characteristics that is characteristic of God himself is this moral excellence. God is holy. He is morally excellent. So here's Peter. He uses this very same word. Here's 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10.

It says, you are a chosen race. He's writing to who? The believers. He says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies, same word in the plural form, the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you were once not a people, but now you are a people of God, You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Who from? Him who has these excellencies, these moral excellencies.

The next word that shows up there is worthy of praise. Epinos. It's a compound word. Upon praise. Praise upon. Praise upon is the idea. That word in Ephesians 1, 6 through 11 is used four times. One of the things we pointed out in the past, and I'm sure the ladies looked at when they were beginning in the book of Ephesians in the Tuesday night study, is when Paul finishes saying in Ephesians 1, 3, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, verses 4 through 14, we have broken up in English into separate sentences. In the Greek, it's all one. Okay? It is the longest sentence in all of Greek literature.

Paul gets through saying, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, and then his pen goes into turbo mode. He just can't quit talking about how the Lord has blessed us. And then he finally puts a period there and starts the next sentence from 15 to the end of the chapter is the second longest sentence in all of Greek literature. He is so taken with the character of Christ and how we have been blessed that his pen has a hard time stopping. In that first sentence, this longest sentence, he uses this word, epinos, four times. And why?

He goes on, and if you read that you will be amazed, if you look at the detail, Expression of praise for the Lord. Immense expression of praise for the Lord. And that's what he's pointing to here. He draws from that same word and he says, Praise upon, worthy of praise is the Lord for all the blessings that He has given us. Immense praise, riches of glory for Him.

Okay. One more thing. Important thing. It knows that whatever clock up there. One of the things we have to think of, Paul uses this word, and we translate it in English, whatever. And then we got this word if. And I think there's something we've got to remember here. And that is, in our language, we use whatever as a sort of a who knows kind of a statement.

If you're in some situation, and this clock illustrates it, if somebody says something that doesn't make sense, what do we say? It's a common phrase, whatever. And that's not what he's saying, okay? That's not what he's saying. And then, if, kind of, if you're a little skeptical, might mean it doesn't exist, right? That's not what he's saying here either. We have to be careful we don't take our cultural sense of these words and carry it too far, because that's not at all what Paul's intending to communicate.

His intent is to be inclusive of all that has the character of Jesus Christ, and that's why he used so many words, okay? You notice we've been through a bunch of word studies here. Why are we looking at all those words, so many words? It's because Paul is wanting to convey the very character of Jesus Christ, word by word by word by word by word.

And the whatevers are not intended to say, who knows? Or, let's get on to what counts. It's not the way we sometimes use it culturally or the way it's been adopted in our culture. in this case, is a fulfilled condition. Paul was not intending to convey doubt, but assuming it as reality.

Now, finally, this dwell on. This is logitsimae, and it's a word that was frequently used in those times in an accounting sense. Paul uses it in Romans, in which translated, reckon, where he says, reckon yourselves dead to sin. So it's not sort of casually and without form kind of mull this over. Instead, it's a word that has a specific meaning.

It was used for things that you did very carefully. Calculate. Believe me, you don't want to do any kind of vague calculations in your checkbook, right? You don't want to do any vague thinking on these things. You want to think very carefully about what these are.

That's the word that he used. He's very careful with due consideration, and considering the impact and the value of what's being thought out. That's what he's pointing to here. It isn't just sort of mull it over and meditate on it in a vague way, but think very specifically and think carefully what are the consequences. That's the word that he picks out.

Legitimize. He uses it a lot in Romans an epistle that has lots of logical sequence, and one thing is founded upon another. It fits here, because remember we've been going through the phroneo words that have to do with your perspective, your mindedness, and this has to do with mindedness. Thinking very carefully upon the character of Christ. That's what he's zeroing in on.

It's also a present imperative. And you know, sometimes our English translators have a hard time getting that idea across, Because in English, we don't have an imperative mood. What do we do when we write? We'll underscore, or we'll write in italics, or bold, or big print. When we're speaking, we'll speak more loudly, or use gestures, facial gestures. But what does he do here? He writes in the imperative.

It means it's a must. He doesn't say, if you happen to think of it, if you happen to think about these things, it's kind of nice. He says you must think on these things, and the must is not a, you'd better think on it, or you're in trouble. You'd better think about it, because I've got a test coming. Instead, it's a logical must.

Based on your position in Christ, thinking about these things, the very character of Christ, makes perfect sense. Your position in Christ is founded and fixed eternally, irreversibly. And he's saying, based on your position, thinking carefully on these things makes perfect sense. That's the reason for his using the imperative, the must. You must, based on these things. So, we need to ask the question here. Why is Paul saying this? Why is he saying this? Why does he say it here? Why does he put it here?

We talked about these phroneo words. These are words that he has woven as a thread throughout the whole book of Philippians. As a matter of fact, he's going to use it one more time next Sunday. For him it's not next Sunday, but for us it is. Next Sunday he's going to use it one more time. This phroneo set of words he's woven as a golden thread throughout the whole book of Philippians. Now he is going to sandwich what he has just said between these two usages. So what is he talking about?

Mindset. Phaneo means, how are you minded? The King James brings it across well when it says, being minded. That's what he keeps reinforcing with them. What is your perspective on things? That's what's going to impact what you do, how you live. Instead of just laying out a bunch of rules, do this, do this, don't do that, what does he say goes back to how you are minded. What is your mindset? How do you see things? What's your perspective? How do you view things? So he's continuing on with that and putting this right in the middle, focused right on the very subject that he's talked about. Mindedness is all about Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 2.16b, Paul gave us a positional truth. That is, when we say a positional truth, it's a truth that is true of every believer, God did it, not us. We have nothing to do with enhancing our positional truth. It is irreversible. Positional truth, for example. You have been seated with Christ. You've been crucified with Christ. Those are positional truths. This is a positional truth.

We have the mind of Christ. And that makes me think about something. Has anybody ever told you that you're out of your mind? Ever had that happen? Well, it might be a good thing. Here's why. Think about this for a minute. If we have the mind of Christ, before we were believers, we didn't have the mind of Christ. So we're out of our minds, and that's a good thing. You got that? Remember that. So what does he say?

Philippians 2.5, we read this not too many weeks ago.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. When he says, let this mind, he's talking about, that's your condition, right? Your daily condition. There is no issue, if you're a believer here this morning, you have the mind of Christ. Yes, you're out of your mind. Okay?

And that's good. But, there is a day by day walking with Christ. And that's a conditional truth. That's a conditional truth issue. We can walk in our position. We can then walk in the mind that we have in Christ. or not, right? And that's his focus here. Mideness is all about Christ.

And that's what he's focusing on here in Philippians 4.8. Think carefully on these things. These things that are a character of the Lord Himself.

Be anxious for nothing. We mentioned that last week, okay? You see, with focusing on the negative possibilities doesn't have any value at all. but fixing our thoughts on the character of Christ will not sow seeds of anxiety. Anxiety comes from the flesh. It's not what the Lord intended, okay? So even what he is spelling out here in these, think on these things, it's quite the opposite of thinking on the things that make you anxious, right? If you're thinking about the character of Christ, is that going to make you anxious? Most certainly not. And that's what he's spelling out here.

How about dealing with conflict in life? He has just gotten through telling Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind. See that issue coming up again? Be of the same mind in the Lord. This mindedness. These are principles of discernment that he's just laid out. Do you see that? These are principles of discernment. I can be in a situation, I can be in any circumstance, and I can look at these and use these as discernment principles for the situation that I'm in. What's right? What's true? Ultimately, the character of Christ is the primary principle of discernment. Do you see that?

The character of Christ is the cutting edge that allows us to discern and say, this is not right, this is not true. That is why, even love, you look at 1 Corinthians 13, what does Paul say about truth? Love rejoices in the truth. Love rejoices in the truth.

It's all about citizenship. He's three times laid out for them their citizenship. Chapter 1, verse 27, conduct yourselves, and he uses that word there, here in your condition, right here and right now. Okay? You have a citizenship. Live according to your citizenship, is what he told them. Okay? What is your citizenship about? Citizenship is in heaven.

Philippians 3.20. With Christ. What is the character of Christ? So these things that he's told us to think about, since they are the very character of Christ, is also a reminder to look back about our citizenship. And finally, Your names are in the Book of Life. The Book of Life in the cities of those times was the list of citizens. Again, it goes back to your thinking on the place that is where your citizenship is because Christ is there.

In Galatians 2.20 that we looked at last week, I've been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. His life has His character in me. See that? It's not, here's all the Christian things to do, now really work hard and do them. Okay? That's not what he's saying here. You have been crucified. I'm done. Are you done? I'm done. Okay? That's what it says. I'm done. I'm through. It's Christ's life.

I went through a horrible project about five years ago where the Lord just underscored this verse to me. It was very clear that the Lord was making it known to me, hey, there's no way you're going to live through this project on your own. I happened to be in the middle of Randy and Jessica getting married. But this verse came through.

I could not live through that project the way things were going. It was a project from the pit. And I couldn't live through the project on my own strength. The only way that I could make it through was Christ's life, not mine. Mine was not going to be adequate for the task. It isn't now.

This is a song written, oh, probably 30 years ago, by a lady by the name of Pem Mark Hall. Nancy and I, after we got married, And while I was going to engineering school, we attended a Bible study where we were fortunate. We would sing before the Bible study time. And there were three recording artists who were at the Bible study. And one of them was Pam Mark Hall, and this was a song that she sang.

Whatever is right, whatever is just, whatever is found to be excellent, Whatever is pure, whatever is true, whatever is lovely and worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. Let your mind dwell on these things. Let your mind dwell on these things. And that is another application for this verse, nightmares. This is the song that my wife used to sing to the kids every time they had a nightmare. Young moms, you might try it. Anyway.

Let's take a look at verse 9, okay? Now, verse 9, he is somewhat changing subjects here, not entirely. He's saying, however, the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Now, let's kind of break this down. What is he talking about? The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, so far so good. Now, what do I do with that? Practice them. Do them. And the God of peace will be with you. Sounds simple enough. Let's take a look at it. This Greek word for learned is Manfano. It's the root word for the word disciple. So what does that tell us?

Paul had spent time with these Philippian believers and had also had others that he had worked alongside and left there in order to teach them. Paul had spent enough time with them that it wasn't a matter of saying, do good things and think of some nice things and have a good time. Instead, he's saying, look, You've been very specifically taught. And we've taught you these things. I myself have been involved with it. He didn't just throw them little tidbits and say, grow on it. That's enough. Instead, He gave them truth to grow on.

They could grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ because they had learned. They had been disciples. If you're in a church situation and you aren't getting fed, You can't grow. And he starts off, you've learned, you've been disciples, and you have learned what's been taught.

The next one here is received. Now, this is interesting because he didn't just say, the things that you've learned, practice them. Notice how he keeps coming back with these different words. Paralambano is this next one here. It's a word Paul used to refer to his teaching or his being taught. There are places where Paul writes about his being taught directly by the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he uses that word for teaching, it's this word right here. He's received them. Paralimbano.

He also uses that same word for what he conveyed to the other believers. That's why in Acts 20 he could stand before the Philippian elders and say, I have given you the whole word of God. I've given you everything. The whole thing. Here's all these places here where he talks about either his being taught or his teaching others, and he uses exactly that same word. In each use, there is a sense of completeness. Paul often spoke in terms of this receiving or teaching. He often spoke in terms of it being complete, just like he spoke with the elders. I've given you the whole Word of God. He didn't say, OK, here's a little tidbit, grow on it, see you next year. He gave them the whole thing. Now, the next one is amazing. Here he goes on again.

What you have heard is given as the receiving of what has been taught by the Lord himself in Ephesians 4.21.

So Ephesians 1.13 and 14. Remember, this is a really long passage. in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard Akuo, the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, and ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." He used that word, heard, again.

And then, seen in me. Now this changes the corner, doesn't it? This turns the corner and changes because the others are learning and receiving and hearing, and now he's saying, this is different, you've seen it in me. And there's a big difference there. Paul wasn't saying, look, I've taught you all the right stuff, now do it.

He's saying, you've seen it lived out in my life. You've seen it lived out in my life. It isn't just theory, it's reality. It was real. And that's important, isn't it? Finally, something else here, we look at these words learned and received and heard and seen, they're all connected with and. Isn't that kind of repetitive? I mean, that's bad English. I don't know if it's bad Greek, but it's bad English.

Except, why does he do it? Ordinarily, we would list and then the last thing would be an and. He does it for emphasis. He does it for emphasis. This and this and this and this, okay? The other thing is, if you think about this, what is he doing? He's linking the ways that we learn.

Some of you are people, when you see something, that clicks. Have you noticed that? You may be someone, if you see something, it sticks with you. Somebody tells you something and you don't know. It's in one ear, out the other. But you see something and then that sticks. Somebody else, if they hear it, that sticks with them. What does he do?

He puts that all together, written, spoken, lived out. Put them all together and you've got all the different methods that people learn. You ever know somebody, maybe you're that way, you learn by example? Going through math classes, they always had to do examples. Then I got it. Give me the theory, I still don't understand. Show me an example, I got it.

So what does he do? He puts them all together, all the ways that people learn He puts them together. That's one of the reasons why we try to use multiple means of communicating here. We've got something in writing. We get something on the screen. I show pictures. Some of them make you laugh. Some of them make you cry. Some of them make you turn your head, but at least you've seen something, right? And what are we doing? We're communicating in different ways.

One of the things that was underscored by both Peter, 1 Peter 5, and Paul, Acts 20, as they address the elders, which is your elders among the flock, Keep underscoring among, at least once if not twice in each passage. Among. Why? Because example. Because seeing it lived out is critical. Absolutely essential. Same thing here. Something else. All four of those are in the active voice. How about that?

You would think received is passive, right? No. Active voice. coming here to learn these principles from Scripture is not so you can just sort of show up. We've talked in the past about how you don't go into the garage and turn into a car. You don't go into the kitchen and turn into a turkey, thank heaven. So, what's this talking about?

Our learning, our hearing, our receiving, our seeing are all things that are actively done. The Lord's intent is not that we just come here and saw them off. but that we learn actively. It's not a spectator sport. Christianity is not a spectator sport. We are every one of us to be involved. Every one of us to be involved in learning. It is active on your part to receive. How about that?

Now, in Philippians 3.17 we saw before, Brethren, join in following my example. Observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. Remember the examples that he gave? Four of them in chapter 2. In Christ, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus were all given as examples that they could see and learn from. And so he makes the same point here.

How about this one, practice these things, or in the King James, do. This Greek word proso is a present active imperative. So practice is not a Hey, if you think about it, you might try doing some of this stuff. Check it out. Experiment with it. No. It's an imperative. Present active means right now you must be continuing. Present active imperative. Right now, based on your position in Christ, you must be continuing to practice these things.

You've learned it. You've received it. You've heard it. You've seen it in me. I've used all the different methods of teaching. It's reality in my life. And so he says, now, put it into practice, not because I'm going to hold this over your head and beat you over the head until you do it, but because based on your position in Christ, it is the logical thing to do. The logical thing to do.

There's absolutely no guilt in it. Sorry. If you wanted some, I'm not going to hand that out today. No guilt. It is all on grace. Based on your position, your position is entirely not of you. If you want to feel guilty, go somewhere else. We're not going to help you. Now, let's take a look here.

The God of peace will be with you. We have a very important question to ask. If you do all this stuff, will the God of peace be with you? Then, because you did all this stuff, is God going to wait and say, okay, I'm going to wait and see. They've learned it. They've received it. They've heard it. They've seen it. Paul's told them to practice. And I'm going to watch. And if they do it, then I'll be with them.

Is that what God's saying? No. Try again. Alright? The God of peace will be with you, he's saying, and as you do these things, the God of peace will be with you. You can count upon his presence. You can count upon his presence. So don't worry about it. He's there. Okay? You don't have to sweat it. You don't have to earn his presence or plead for it. He's there.

Here you are right in the middle of daily life, tying shoes, getting in the car, putting gas in the car, going to work, shopping for clothes, food, whatever daily life holds. In the middle of that, practice these things, you can count upon the God of peace being with you. Period.

In Philippians 4.7, he talked about the peace of God. Now he flips it. He writes about the God of peace. And what's interesting is he has done this as well as the author of Hebrews at the end of a few different letters, and he does it here as well. And why is that? Think about that. Here's the Philippians.

They were in a place where there were a whole bunch of different gods, right? Lots of gods. Pick gods of everything. One study of the city of Ephesus, for example, a major city of the time, 50 gods known that were worshipped in Ephesus. Lots of gods. God's of this, God's of that. He says, no, not a whole bunch of them. The God of peace. The gods that the pagans were encouraged to worship, those were gods where you went and did something to try to please the God and the God would make your circumstances nice and then you hope to have peace.

This is different. This is a God of peace And that peace is expected not because of the circumstances, but in spite of the circumstances and in the midst of the circumstances. See the difference? Huge difference. What he was telling them when he said the God of peace was a radical change from everything else that they had been learning about what, in the pagan world, a God was about.

Okay, Philippians expanded and explained. This is 4, 8 and 9 here. On the back side of your handout you have this. Finally, all of you, being spiritually related by reason of your mutual relationship to Christ, all those things that are true, all things honourable, all things right, all things pure, all things lovely, all things of good repute, since there is moral excellence and since there is worthiness of praise, carefully consider and reckon upon these things. The things you have learned as a disciple and received from me, your teacher, and heard from me and seen as reality in me, you must put into practice by reason of your eternal position in Christ.

And as you do so, the God of peace will be with you so as to provide every resource, His life, for doing so. The Lord never asks us to do something for which He has not already provided the resources. He himself is the source of every resource we need. And that's his reason for adding this in, the God of Peace will be with you. We can count upon the Lord for every resource we need in the midst of that situation, whatever it is.

Have you got a tough spot? Do you think you might have one this next week? The God of Peace will be with you. In the midst of that, you can count upon the Lord every resource in the midst of those circumstances, whatever they are. As we look at this passage, Paul's trying to give them things that will help them out in the middle of their circumstances.

And in one way, we look at it and we say, these Philippians were living things quite differently from us. In another way, there's lots of similarity to what we're dealing with. They were going through trial, they were going through difficulties, and being a Christian made them Very different from the rest of the culture. Very different from the rest of the culture. And truthfully, the very life of Christ is going to be in contrast with the culture. It is going to be tough.

And that's why his word of comfort here, that God of peace will be with you in the midst of that, not just the normal circumstances that everybody goes through a flat tire on a you know, an illness like Mike's, you know, wrestling with or whatever other trouble is coming your way. Not only that, but the difficulties that come along your way because you're a Christian. Things that you have to say, no, that's not consistent with the life of Christ. That doesn't fit with my position. Difficulties of that kind. Difficulties that put even families at odds at times because of the fact one is a Christian and another not. We need to be able to count upon the Lord for these things. Let's pray. Lord, how marvelous to see in these verses your character.

You are a God of truth. You are a God that is lovely. You are a God worthy of praise. You are a God that is right and true. And Lord, you're also one who is with us, and we give you thanks for that. We praise you, Lord, for your faithfulness, just as we sang earlier this morning. Thank you for all of who you are. We need all of who you are for all of what and who we are. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.