You pray as we come before you this morning. We do so in a spirit of humility, an acknowledgement, Father, that we will only hear your word if you anoint what is said this morning. So, Father, I pray, enlighten us all by your Holy Spirit and true understanding of your word. Enable me, Father, as a messenger to handle it faithfully, and that we would all receive it in true fear and humility. May the words of my mouth be acceptable in your sight this morning, and it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Philippians chapter four, beginning at verse four, the Apostle Paul says, 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. This is the word of the Lord. And you may be seated. Well, this morning, as we just barely broach verse 9, Paul speaks of the things that they have learned. And this is going to be so important for our understanding of how the apostle Paul is explaining the experience of joy and peace in the life of the Christian. Because without doubt, the Christian life is filled with trials and temptations. pains and afflictions, griefs and sorrows. Not only do we live in a corrupt world of sin, which is hard on everyone, by the way, not just Christians, but as God's people, in addition to this, we find ourselves as strangers and pilgrims in a world under the sway of the evil one. And in such a world, belonging to Christ is a call to battle. To be a Christian is to be engaged in spiritual warfare against the powers of darkness. And what's more, God is using the trials and the troubles of this life to conform us to Christ's image. Now while all of this is true, God's wondrous blessings far surpass whatever temporal troubles of this life we might face. In fact, here and now, inexpressible joy and transcendent peace are privileges that belong to all who are in Christ. These blessings are ours freely to enjoy. It doesn't mean we do, but they are ours freely to enjoy. And this is one of Paul's major concerns for the Philippian congregation. Joy and peace, as we've said so many times, is an objective reality if you are in Christ. We who were once God's enemies have been reconciled to Christ by his redeeming work. And since we are at peace with the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, we have every reason to rejoice. We have a new identity in Christ. We're the adopted children of God. We are citizens of heaven. However, just because we are God's children doesn't always mean we behave that way. If any of you were parents here this morning, you know just because your children bear your name doesn't always mean that they act accordingly, right? And the same is true that just because this joy and peace are objective realities doesn't mean we subjectively experience that joy and peace in our day-to-day lives. It's not automatic. It's true, isn't it? I mean, we struggle with living a life of rejoicing. I don't think there's anyone here that would say, you know what? I've really got this one. We struggle with living a life of rejoicing. We know we should. We know it's commanded. Rejoice in the Lord always. He says, I'm going to say it again. We're a dense people, right? I'm going to say it again. Rejoice in the Lord. So we struggle with that. Many times we are overwhelmed with anxiety. How often do we find ourselves living far below our privilege in Christ? Well, the Philippians, they had known joy, joy unspeakable. They had known peace in a world of intense opposition. But as of late, when Paul is writing this letter, those blessings seem to have waned. They had lost perspective and they needed to be reminded of who they are, of who they serve, and why they're here. And this is a lesson for all of us as well. You know, a major problem for us as Christians is the fact that we belong to the human race born in sin, shaped with iniquity. And as such, we are an incredibly distractible creature. And we live in a hectic and chaotic world that constantly vies for our attention. And so we're constantly being pulled this way and that. Attention being demanded by the world in which we live. And we are not mature enough to say no. Too often we listen. Because the daily struggles and surprises of life often blindside us and they begin to consume our thoughts. And in those moments, we end up sacrificing essential things on the altar of apparent urgency. I say apparent urgency because after the dust settles, most of the time, those things that seemed so urgent in the moment turn out to be quite insignificant in the scheme of things. Isn't it true? And I'll give you just one example of this constant vying for our attention today in this world in which we live. The telephone, right? They're demanding little devices, aren't they? I think it was bad enough when we all had landlines. You know, because no matter how important the task you were doing, when that telephone rang, there was a moment of anxiety that overwhelmed you, right? And you were driven by a sense of urgency to answer that phone. Should I drop what I'm doing? Should I run to the beck and call of the ring? Well, it's much worse today, because that little technological tyrant no longer has a leash, right? Oh, I mean, it's still tethered, but it's tethered to us. And unfortunately, we're on the wrong end of an invisible leash. Oh, the phone masters us most of the time. And what's more, it's no longer just the ring that demands our attention, right? It's all of those little pings and chimes and vibrations. And yet, if you're objective, you know that 99.9% of the time, it's either trivial or it can wait. That's something the younger generation of our day needs to learn, is that it can wait. Patience is no longer a virtue. I remember a professor saying that one of the things that troubled him most in his college class was that he had a no phones policy, so everybody had to turn them off when they came in. But immediately after class, the very first thing that they did was pull out their phones and turn them on and find out what world shattering events had occurred in the last hour. not nearly as important as we think it is. And so how often do we allow these little anxiety-producing dictators to distract us from what's really important? That's just one example. You know, if it's truly important, they'll leave a message or they'll call back. If they don't, it wasn't that important after all, right? And the point is, is these things can distract us. And I'm not saying that some of these earthly distractions aren't worthy of some of our attention. It's just a matter of priority. It's a matter of remembering whose we are, why we're here, and where we're going. It's a matter of remembering what's most important. You know, that's the lesson of Martha and Mary, remember? Oh, Martha, she was consumed with making sure everybody had enough to eat and drink while Jesus was teaching. And there's Mary not doing anything except sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing the words of spirit and life. So Martha thinks, oh, well, you know, she's just taking a break. She's, you know, living the life of leisure. Jesus, tell her to get up and help me. And Jesus said, she's chosen the better part. It's not gonna be taken away from her. It's a matter of priorities, you see. And as God's children, we need to learn to choose the better part. You see, we live in this world with so many diversions and such loud voices all clamoring for our attention that we do have a difficult time laying hold of the big picture. Right? We have a hard time laying hold of it, a hard time keeping our minds disciplined and our hearts set on things above. We mustn't let the world distract us from whose we are, from why we're here, and from the glory that awaits us in the presence of our Savior whenever our race has finally run. So joy in the Lord and comprehensive peace are ours in Christ, but here is what we have to remember. Those blessings belong to our new identity as God's children, as citizens of heaven. And they can only be experienced when we learn to see the world around us as God would have us see it. To live in this world as those who are, as Jesus would say, in the world, but not of this world. You see, as Christians, we are called to look at the world in a completely different way. We are to evaluate things differently. But here's the rub, it doesn't happen automatically. As Paul says in verse 9, we must learn what it means to live as God's people in this rebellious world of sin. We need a godly worldview, a God-centered worldview. And we learn this God-centered worldview by learning who God is, by learning who he says we are, by learning what he's already done, by learning what he's doing right now, and learning what he has promised is yet to come. This is how we gain a Christian worldview. But such knowledge of God and his purposes isn't something we can ever learn on our own. It doesn't come from human reason. It doesn't come from earthly investigation. Do you remember what Paul says in Romans 11, 33? I love it. Oh, the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. Oh, how his ways are past finding out. And in the Greek, there is quite a picture there. unsearchable judgments. It's as if you can't sic the blood hounds on his judgments and never find them. No, they can't be found on our own. A God-centered worldview is a perspective that is available to us only through divine revelation. You want to learn how you are to live as a Christian in this world, you don't need books on psychology, you don't need books on critical thinking, you don't need books on self-help, you need the Word of God. And so the point is this morning, apart from a godly worldview, the admonition to rejoice in the Lord at all times and in all situations simply doesn't make any sense. If you don't have a worldview, people will say, what are you talking about? Rejoicing in the Lord always under every circumstance and situation. It only makes sense from the transcendent perspective of God's revelation. If we're thinking as we should, if our minds are renewed on God's word, we will learn to see the world in a way that others cannot. we'll come to know that God is in control, that he is good and all that he does is good. And we rejoice then because our God is working all things together for our good and for his glory. And in the same way, peace in a stormy world of toil and trouble makes absolutely no sense from an ungodly worldview. If we don't have a God-centered worldview, how can you say you have peace? Look at this world in which we live. If you've watched the news at all this last week, you realize this world has no peace to give, none whatsoever. But if as Christians we're thinking as we should, if we are trusting everything's into the hands of our sovereign, gracious, heavenly father, then we will have a peace that the world just cannot understand. True peace is peace with the God who holds us in his hand, the God who works all things according to the counsel of his will. This is a God-centered worldview. And if we would enjoy the blessings of inexpressible joy, the blessings of transcendent peace, we must maintain a God-centered worldview. We mustn't allow ourselves to be distracted by the things of this present evil age. Of course, to maintain a God-centered worldview, we have to, first of all, know what it is, right? You can't maintain what you don't know or what you've never had. And sadly, too many professing Christians today have no idea of a Christian worldview. And that's why they don't enjoy the blessings that are ours in Christ. They live below their privilege. They've never learned to think like a Christian. And so they're trying to live the Christian life with the worldview of this present evil age. It doesn't work. And there are others who expect those blessings, though they think that they're Christians, they can't expect them because they're not. That's a hard one, you know. There are plenty of people, especially in this country, who think that they're Christians, but according to scripture, they're not. It's important. Oh, they may have answered an altar call. They may have said the sinner's prayer. But as someone once said, the gospel too often in our day is presented so poorly that even the non-elect don't know enough to reject it. The Christian life is not about having your best life now. Our best life is yet to come whenever we are finally glorified and we are in the presence dwelling forever in the glorious unveiled wonder of the God who created us, redeemed us, and has made us his own. That's our best life. This is a pitiful life. If you had every privilege and every blessing, as Jesus said, if you could gain the whole world, this would be the worst possible case because you would lose your own soul. No, this isn't our best life now. But it can be a life of joy that the world doesn't know. It can be a life of peace that the world can't understand. That is the blessing, but it's not because of the circumstances that surround us. It's not because of what we have or what we don't have. It's because of whose we are. And so the gospel, unfortunately today, is so often presented as a self-help program, but that's not the gospel. The gospel is not about being a better person or looking for God to fill your lives with all of the creature comforts that you would desire to have here and now. It's not about your happiness that comes from self-gratification. No, the salvation that God has provided, the salvation that is ours in the gospel is all about Christ crucified and risen from the dead that he may redeem us from our sin and death and wretchedness and then conform us to the image of himself that we might glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's the gospel. The gospel is not man-centered, the gospel is God-centered. And that's the foundation of a biblical worldview. You know, I was saddened recently whenever I read about a survey that was just finished. And the survey says that 51% of Americans not only professed to be Christians, they claim to actually hold to a Christian worldview. However, When asked specific questions, it turns out they have no idea what a Christian worldview is. Only 6%, we're told, could reasonably make that claim. Now, I'm a skeptic by nature, and so I wondered whether the results were so poor because the pollsters were requiring some high level of theological sophistication. But as I continued reading, I found that, if anything, those numbers are too generous. The pollsters' questions were very basic, things that anyone familiar with the scripture should know. For example, of those who claim to hold to a biblical worldview, almost one half of them believe that reincarnation is a possibility. It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. That's what the Word of God says. And that's simple, that's basic. You should be hearing that in the gospel, that you need to receive Christ here and now. Today is the day of salvation. You will not have multiple chances over and over again. And then, To me, even more shocking was the fact that two-thirds of those who claim to hold to a biblical worldview didn't believe that human beings were born sinful, with a sinful nature, and in conjunction with that, then, did not believe that the only way of salvation from eternal judgment was trusting in the saving work of Christ. You can't call yourself a Christian if you don't believe that. There is only one way of salvation. Jesus himself said so. And so this is important. And so after sifting through the answers to these very basic questions and more, the sad result is 51% claim to have a biblical worldview, only 6% actually did. Of course, then I wondered, being the skeptic that I am, was this just a fluke? Perhaps they had simply sampled a particularly illiterate group of people claiming to be Christians. Well, sadly no, because as I looked into it further, there have been other surveys taken over the last four years confirming those findings. One recent survey of millennials found that 61% claimed that they held a biblical worldview, but only 2% could answer basic questions about what it means to hold a Christian worldview. And then earlier in 2017, the American Culture Faith Institute took a similar survey, and their findings were only slightly better. At that time, they had 46% who claimed to hold to a biblical worldview, but only 10% they thought could justify the claim. So whichever numbers you take, it's a sad commentary on the state of the church in America. So my point is, again, you can't maintain what you never had. If you didn't have a biblical worldview to begin with, you certainly can't maintain it. You certainly can't hold to it. You have to know what it is first. Because a biblical worldview isn't automatic. God doesn't perform a data dump into your brain when you come to Christ. No. Now it's true that our Christian life begins with the call of God, which he grants to us then the gifts of repentance and faith. It is all of God. That's something that happens to us, right? We didn't have anything to do with our new birth, just as you didn't have anything to do with your natural birth, right? Had nothing to do with us. However, our growth in Christ begins with the mind as we learn who God is and what he ordains. And that's what living the Christian life is about. The Philippian saints had been taught well. They knew the basics of a Christian worldview. But again, the world provides endless distractions and diversions, doesn't it? And this is why Paul is emphasizing to this particular group of saints that they need to be of one mind to think like Christ, to adopt his attitude of humility. This is why Paul told them to dwell on godly things. Let your mind be taken with things that are like Christ. We must meditate upon the truth of the gospel. We must meditate upon the wonder of his saving love. We must meditate upon the truth of his word. And that's what determines our worldview. Yes, joy in the Lord and transcendent peace are ours in Christ, but we can't expect to enjoy those blessings in the Christian life if we don't maintain a Christian worldview. In our passage, Paul is describing to us, I think, in one respect, what it looks like to live a disciplined life according to a Christian worldview. You have to discipline your mind. It's a way of living then, in which we can experience the joy of the Lord, that we can experience the surpassing peace of Christ. And these disciplines that he lists there, actually beginning all throughout the book, but especially we've been looking at verses four through nine. As we look at these, we find that him, we find him explaining disciplines of living the Christian life. And they all begin and end with the thought life. That's where they start, that's where they end. It begins and ends with how we see the world. It begins with our worldview. And the first, of course, then, the first discipline is oneness of mind. And by this, Paul means a way of thinking that is united by our knowledge of the Savior. Again, how is it that we all come to have one mind? It can't be because we're all coming together and finding out what thoughts we all have in common and then we just dwell on those. No, how we come to think the same thing, how we come to have one mind is we begin to think like Christ. Everyone conforming their thoughts to him. And so if we would experience the joy of the Lord in this life, if we would experience this world-confounding peace in this life, we must be of one mind. And while Paul has been emphasizing this unity of mind throughout the letter, beginning in chapter four, if you'll remember, he gets quite personal. We talked about this. He cites a specific problem with two particular ladies in the church that had disrupted the unity of the saints. And he urges them to be of one mind, to come to agreement in the Lord and with the whole body to do the same. And this is why he reminded them that as God's people, we have to stop giving place to selfish ambition. That's a worldly, earthly worldview. We have to stop giving way to empty conceit. That's the way the world thinks. That's a sinful worldview. Instead, we are to think of others in the body of Christ ahead of ourselves. We are to look to their interests, not just our own. And it's an admonition then to think like Christ and adopt his attitude of humility so beautifully expressed in the song of Christ in chapter 2. And this is how we are to think. This is how to hold a biblical worldview. And this admonition was necessary because this body of Christ needed reminding. This division had risen among them. And why? Well, they've gotten caught up in pride. Right? That's how it happens. They had let their minds run amok. You know, our minds can be like wild dogs. They're hard to restrain. And so they were thinking of themselves more highly than they ought, more highly obviously than warranted. And that's what Paul is warning against. And it's a warning to us as well. Whenever we get caught up in pride, we lose sight of who we're called to be. That's not the way Christ walked. And we become so distracted with ourselves. You know, earlier I talked about all the distractions the world offers, but one of those distractions they offer is the temptation to look at yourself as number one. Right? That's what everything's about. That's how they sell you products on TV. You deserve it. You know what you deserve, right? Just as I know what I deserve. And praise be to God. I'm going to receive it because Christ has stood in my place. But you see, we have to think this way. And we have to give up this godhood that we try to hold on to ourselves, making ourselves so special, so high and mighty. And so, this is the problem. We become so distracted with ourselves, so occupied with our own self-interest, so obsessed with being right or getting what we think we deserve that we forget who we are and why we're here. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. You know, I felt like saying this in Sunday school this morning, but to quote that eminent theologian, Bob Dylan, you've got to serve somebody. Right? There is no other choice. You're either serving sin and Satan when you serve yourself, or you're serving God. That's it. And Jesus said the same thing. There's only a way to serve. There's nothing else. You serve one or the other. And so we are not our own. We're bought with a price. We've been redeemed from slavery. We've been redeemed from the work of the devil. We've been set free that we might be what we were meant to be. And so God admonishes them. It's an admonition to us as well. If they'll simply humble themselves and submit to their thinking to a gospel way of thinking, then they'll be able to recover their experience of joy that they once knew. They'll be able to experience that peace that used to keep them through all opposition while they were losing earthly possessions, while people were coming against them for the holding to the truth of the gospel. They had once known that peace and that joy. And Paul is saying, remember, get your worldview back on track. Think where you need to think. The second discipline that characterizes a biblical worldview is living reasonably before all people. That's what he says in the text. Listen, we can't expect to experience joy and peace unless we learn to live in light of the fact that the Lord is at hand. That's what he says in the text. He is always with us right now by the Spirit, and he is surely coming again as he went away, and then he will set all things aright. And understanding this then should give us great confidence and assurance, because if we remember this, we can live a life free of panic, an even-tempered life of moderation. We can live a life of forbearance, even with those who are our enemies. To live reasonably is to live like we believe that God is God and he is truly in control. And that's a biblical way of thinking. The third discipline that he mentions that characterizes a biblical worldview is refusing to let anxiety overwhelm us. And this is simply a matter of trust. Worry robs us of joy and peace. And so the question we have to ask ourselves, do we believe God's promises? And if we do, then there's no need to worry because he is in control and the scripture tells us he cares for us. We have to keep this truth in the forefront of our thinking. The fourth discipline that he mentions that characterizes a biblical worldview is bringing everything to God in thankful, humble prayer. We can only experience true joy and peace if we have the confidence that God is working all things together for our good in his glory. We are to bring every anxious thought, Paul says, every worrisome concern to the Lord in prayer. We are to come before him humbly asking for his will to prevail in every situation. And then if we do, when we're tempted to worry, when anxiety beckons us, we have to remember God is in control, not us. And if we keep this in mind, we can rejoice in the Lord always. We can rest in the peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that he says forms that garrison around our hearts and minds. And with the fifth discipline that characterizes a biblical worldview, Paul returns explicitly then to the activity of our minds. He started with the activity of our minds and he's come back to it because all of it has to do with how we're thinking. We have to meditate, he says, dwell on, fill our minds with godly virtues and attributes. And as we've seen, Paul's list of attributes is not exhaustive, but it does provide a sketch of all that is truly good. And what we think about works itself out in our words and deeds. Put another way, as we heard in Sunday school this morning, What we do will never change what we believe, but what we believe will change what we do. And so indeed, what we think about, what we truly believe, what we meditate upon, that finds expression in our words and deeds. And so the question is, is it any wonder that filling our minds with depressing thoughts results in depression? Right? Garbage in, garbage out. Should we be surprised if bitterness takes a stranglehold over our hearts if we dwell on perceived offenses and injustices? What else did you expect? And we shouldn't be shocked whenever an overwhelming sense of anxiety comes over us if we're filling our minds with demoralizing news of a world that's in rebellion against God. That's why I said, if you have to watch the evening news, make it a practice to open your Bible afterwards and spend twice, three times, four times as much time in the Word of God as you did listening to the nonsense pouring forth from the microphone of this age. Now, as Paul lists, these qualities that ought to captivate our thoughts, you just don't find them on the evening news, right? We don't find them usually in the workplace where we rub shoulders with the people who are our fellow co-laborers. You don't find this, sadly, too often in our own families. No. We need to be thinking about the things he says we should think about. That should captivate our thoughts, the attributes that we are to emulate ourselves, characteristics that ought to be shaping our thinking and finding expression in the way we live. As we've noted, meditating on Paul's godly list of virtues is really tantamount to dwelling on Christ, meditating on him. It amounts to proclamation of the gospel being the forethought. in your mind, the revelation of God in his word being that which fills your thoughts. Such godly qualities should become the standard by which we evaluate our thoughts, those qualities that determine the things that we ruminate upon. So where to meditate, Paul says, on these things, and these are the characteristics that ought to captivate our gaze, that should shape our thinking. And Paul is engaging us then and encouraging us to be gospel-minded, to think like Christ, to remember who we are and how we're called to live. And this transformation of thought, word, and deed takes place when we focus on who Christ is and the things he commands. That's what's most important. Everything else pales in comparison. A godly worldview, folks, comes from knowing Christ in the fullness of his redemptive work, and that's what Paul said earlier. That's how we grow in grace. As Paul says in chapter 3, remember he sacrificed everything simply that he might know Christ, not only in the power of his resurrection, we like that one, but also in the fellowship of his sufferings. that he might know him, the apostle realized that nothing can compare with knowing the God who humbled himself, who left the glories of heaven, who took on flesh as a lowly servant, sacrificed himself to death for our salvation. And this is why Paul then could rejoice in the Lord always, even though he was currently in chains awaiting a trial where his life hanged in the balance. It's how he could be perfectly at peace, chained to an empirical guard 24-7. It's because he knew that his life wasn't in the hands of Caesar. It wasn't in the hands of those guards. It was in the hands of God. And he knew that even if he were sentenced to death, it wouldn't be a loss. It would be a glorious gain. We're running out of time. I need to close. I just want to share with you then something that the late J.I. Packer said. He had a very poignant observation about this in his book, Knowing God. If you haven't read it, it's certainly worth your time. And he basically says this, that how few of us would ever naturally say then that in light of the knowledge of God that we enjoy, that past disappointments and present heartbreaks simply don't matter. Did you get that? How many of us would just naturally say this, that in light of the knowledge of God that we enjoy now, that all of those past disappointments and present heartbreaks just don't matter? Whenever we reflect on such things, if we find ourselves slipping into bitterness or apathy or gloom, then we need to ask ourselves, how well do we really know our Savior? Where is the joy unspeakable and the peace that passes understanding? Whenever a man truly knows God, The losses and the crosses don't seem to matter to him. Why? Because what he has gained in Christ banishes all of those things from his mind. When you are so blessed, all of those other things fade. And this is the blessing of maintaining a biblical worldview, the blessing of truly knowing God, the blessing of keeping our eyes on Christ as we await the blessed hope when Christ will return and God will finish the good work he has begun in us. And so my prayer this morning is, may the Lord grant us the grace and the strength to see the world around us as we should, to hold fast to a God-centered worldview as we run our race with patience, For then we can enjoy the blessings of His mercy and His grace, His joy and His peace, even here and now. And that is our privilege as those who are in Christ. And to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.