Philippians chapter four, beginning at verse four. 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. You can be seated. Joy and peace are prominent themes in the book of Philippians. The joy of the Lord and the peace of God are eternal objective realities for all who are in Christ. Of course, The world isn't so sure that there is such a thing as enduring joy and lasting peace. I'm not saying they don't long for it, but to the world it's like the elusive butterfly, always just outside their grasp. And they spend their lives chasing things they think will make them happy, things they hope will calm their troubled souls. But alas, Any happiness that they might find turns out to be fleeting, and any sense of peace soon vanishes as if they were trying to hold sand in their hand. Some simply then resign themselves to despair, and they settle into lives of quiet desperation. For others, the quest continues ad nauseum. They never give up, always looking around that next corner, for there is happiness, there is joy, But for everyone in the world, the inevitability of death puts an end to any hope of lasting joy and peace. But the objective, unchanging, eternal reality of joy and peace, that's the state of grace in which the Christian lives. That's the very sphere of our existence. You know, the world can't find lasting happiness and peace because Quite frankly, they're at war with the God of joy and peace. They're at enmity with the one who created them and sustains them. And as Romans 1 says, they're ungrateful rebels who refuse to honor the very God who gives them life and breath and everything else. You know, that is a dreadfully miserable way to live, to be at war with the very one in whom you live and move and have your being. There can be nothing more miserable than that, and it is absolute insanity. So true joy and peace is being reconciled to the God from whom and through whom and unto whom are all things. And that's the joy and the peace that belongs to all those who trust in the saving work of Christ. It's the eternal state of grace Jesus secured for all who put their trust in him. The eternal son of God, as we are told in chapter two. Oh, he humbled himself and left the glories of heaven. He became a man that he might live the righteous life that we could never live and serve us. He died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. He rose again that we might have eternal life. And that's the gospel, the good news of saving grace. Christ calls us to repent and to believe, to trust in his redeeming work by which we're adopted into his family and made citizens of heaven. Christ ends our warfare with God. He is our peace. And since we now have peace with God through Christ, we have every reason to rejoice. I mean, regardless of what happens in this life, think of this, an eternal home in God's glorious presence awaits us. That's what we have to look forward to. We are truly blessed beyond measure. And such joy and peace is something that the world simply cannot fathom. We shouldn't expect them to. And we shouldn't find it surprising because after all, it's astounding to us as well, isn't it? This joy and peace promised to us, it's the result of a truly amazing grace. Peter says this joy is gloriously inexpressible. There just aren't words for this wondrous joy. And Paul describes this peace as peace that surpasses all understanding. Now that doesn't mean that this joy and peace is something mysterious and indefinable. That's not why this joy is inexpressible. It's not why this peace surpasses understanding. No, this joy and peace is real, it is discernible, but it is something that the wisdom of man can't explain, nor can he explain it away. Mankind looks at us and the lives that we live and they wonder, why do they have joy? Why do they have peace? Can you imagine those who saw the Apostle Paul and the kind of life he led after that Damascus Road experience? The Apostle Paul, who was shipwrecked on multiple occasions, beaten, left for dead, stoned, rejected, cast out, often in need, often hungry, often without sufficient clothes. Oh, and yet it's the Apostle Paul who is saying rejoice in the Lord always, always. And there was such peace with the Apostle Paul. He knew of what he speaks. And so it's an otherworldly peace, an otherworldly joy that is ours. The world can't explain it, but they can't explain it away either, because it's real. Jesus says some strange things about happiness, doesn't he? Do you remember the Beatitudes? Happy are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's a head-scratcher for this world. The world says, happy are the self-assured, for the world is their oyster, right? Oh, is it? They're going to leave all of it here when they take their last breath. Jesus says, happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. The world says, happy are the self-assertive, for they take what they want. But take all that you want, what profit is it to you if you gain the whole world and then you lose your own soul? You know, the world says happy are those who are celebrated by the world. If the world accepts you, if the world affirms you, Jesus says happy are those who are persecuted for my sake and for the gospel. Why? Because they have no reward. The world has no reward, but those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ have great reward awaiting them in heaven. And so this is why we can have a joy that the world simply cannot understand. And this peace is likewise inexplicable to the world. It's inner peace that we experience even through trials and troubles. It is that peace that anchors us through the storms of life. And it's also, and this is important for the book of Philippians and for us, it's a relational peace that unites God's people despite the diversity that once divided us. Listen, the body of Christ, Paul says, is composed of Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians and Scythians, slaves and free, male and female. There is no distinction in Christ. And, you know, we live in a culture so obsessed with racism. Let me tell you, they don't know racism. Be transported back into the first century and experience racism. And that's when Jew against Gentile, Jew against the rest of the world, and then among the rest of the world, among the Gentiles, there were the Greeks who were so intelligent, and there were the Romans who were so orderly, and they were so perceptive concerning the law and keeping peace among the world. And then you have the barbarians and the Scythians, and that's basically the uncivilized from the most uncivilized to the least uncivilized. And all of these people hated each other. None of these groups could stand one another. They tolerated one another, but they couldn't stand one another. And there was great division in the world at that time. And so can you imagine the picture of the church where coming in through the doors is Jew and Gentile? There is circumcised and uncircumcised. There is barbarian and Scythian. And there is slave and master, male and female, and all of them side by side, shoulder to shoulder. There was no longer the master who is over his slave. They were equal in Christ as they were worshipping before our God. That is the answer to the world's prejudice and bias that they call racism today. There is no solution that anyone in this world can come up with. The peace of God is the only thing that will bring about true unity and an end to the biasness and the hatred that is between race and race, or between those who have and have not, or those who are of education and those who are not. No, the only thing that equalizes all of us is being right with God. the peace that passes all understanding. And so only when we have peace with God can we love one another and embrace one another without partiality. Only whenever we have peace with God can we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Only whenever we have peace with God can we prefer one another without selfish ambition or empty conceit. And this is surely a peace that is beyond the range of human understanding. A peace that transcends the storms of this life and unites all kinds of people who are at peace with the God of peace. And of course, as we've seen, this peace that is ours objectively, this joy that is ours objectively, just because it is objectively true doesn't mean we always experience it in our daily lives. The experience of these blessings are tied directly to our pursuit of God's purpose for our lives. And this is what Paul's concerned with in this passage. As he says, we must surrender every worry, every anxious thought, every concern to him in humble, thankful prayer, trusting that he is working all things together for his glory and for our good. And whenever we truly trust God, whenever we seek to obey him, his peace, which surpasses all understanding, will preserve us, says the text. Like an impenetrable garrison, his peace will stand guard over our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Well, despite the fact that the Philippian saints were the recipients of God's saving grace, they were finding it hard to rejoice in the Lord under their present circumstances. Their experience of God's peace was not at this time what it had been. I mean, yes, they were living in difficult days. Opposition from the world was intensifying against them, and there were threats of false doctrine that were rising up in various locations. But that really wasn't the root of the problem. They had endured such things before in unity and had had the joy and the peace of God. No, the problem was they had allowed selfish ambition and empty conceit to foster dissension within their ranks, and that made them more vulnerable to the attacks of the evil one. They were allowing arrogance to divide them. They were rallying around personal opinions and protecting their selfish pride. And so, Paul urges them to stop thinking like that. Stop thinking like the world. That's what you're doing, thinking like the world. Come to agreement in the Lord. And as I've said so many times, the answer is never, you must think more like me or I must think more like you. The answer is all of us thinking more like Christ. And so Paul urges us to be of one mind, to be gospel-minded, to be thinking like Christ. And as Paul tells us in chapter 2, we have been enabled to think like Christ. We have the mind of Christ. It is ours because we have been saved by His grace. God has revealed Himself in His word, and we've been given the Holy Spirit to enlighten our eyes that we might understand. And so when we hear the gospel, we hear the voice of Christ. We see him in scripture. And it's wondrous indeed. By God's grace, we're able to see what the world cannot see. And by the work of the spirit, we're able to understand what the world cannot comprehend. We need to fill our minds then with the truth of who God is and what God has revealed about what he is doing. I can guarantee you that we will not feel like rejoicing in the Lord if we are not thinking rightly. And we won't experience his peace if we're not keeping the truth of his word in the forefront of our thoughts. And so as Paul continues his admonition, he addresses the thought life. He tells us to watch what we give our minds to, what we What we think about, what occupies our minds, what captivates our thoughts, that has a direct bearing on our experience of the divine joy that is ours and the peace of God that keeps us. Whenever we come to Christ, we're rescued from this corrupt world of sin. And the scripture says all things become new. We have a new identity. We're not who we once were. We're new in Christ. We're the adopted children of God. And we belong to a new kingdom, a heavenly kingdom, a kingdom of grace and peace and righteousness. And we're called, therefore, to a new way of thinking. But of course, as everyone here can testify, myself included, As the Apostle Paul can testify, as we glean from his writings, the world just doesn't give up. We may be new in Christ, we may have a new identity, we may belong to a new kingdom, and we may be called to a new way of thinking, but the world will try to cling to us. They will not give up. The enemy is constantly vying for our attention. He wants to conform us to that futile way of thinking that belongs to this present evil age. And that's what Paul says to the Romans in chapter 2. Don't be conformed to this world. That's in the present tense. That means it was a threat at that moment to those Christians. Don't allow yourself to be conformed to this world. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so for the Christian, the mind becomes the battlefield. And this is why scripture says so much about renewing our minds. As Paul says in Ephesians chapter four, the way we think determines how we live. So he urges us to stop living like we once did, blindly guided by the futility of our minds. That's the way he puts it. Listen, before we came to Christ, our understanding was darkened and our hearts hardened by sin. And this futile way of thinking resulted in a futile way of living. Another way of translating that, this worthless way of thinking translated into a worthless way of living. We were dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from the life of God. We were insane, out of our minds because we were living a fantasy. We were living that which wasn't real. We had convinced ourselves that our lives meant something when without Christ they mean nothing. But all of that changed. Now that we're in Christ, Paul says, therefore, put off that old way of thinking. Put off that old way of living and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That's the command. And this new way of thinking then leads to a new way of living. We are to set our minds on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. And so here's an important thing to remember. When we find it impossible to rejoice in the Lord, whenever our thinking is tainted by the world, that's what happens. If we're finding it impossible to rejoice in the Lord, our thinking is being conformed to this world. We're forgetting that our Lord is in control. We're forgetting that our light and momentary afflictions are working in us a far greater weight of glory. Whenever our hearts and minds are overwhelmed with anxiety, our minds are set not on the things of heaven, but the things of earth. Think of that. When our hearts are overwhelmed with anxiety, it's not because you know securely you are seated with Christ in heavenly places, it's because you can't get your eyes off of your immediate circumstances. And so indeed, this is the thing we need to realize, is that when anxiety is overwhelming us, as we've heard so many times, it is a call to prayer, but it's also a call to renew the mind. We find ourselves fretting over things God says, bring to me, leave them in my hand, trust them to me, and I will work it all out. We must come to Him and lay them before Him, believing that He is working all things together for our good and His glory. And so if how we think determines how we live, then we really can't overestimate the importance of our thought life. Listen, you can't expect to grow in grace if you continue to fill your mind with the ideas and the agendas of this present evil age. Listen, in Galatians, the Apostle Paul says there's a battle for our souls between the flesh and the spirit. Which will grow stronger, the flesh or the spirit? Which will win out? Well, the answer is quite simple, whichever one you feed. Whichever one you feed. We need a mental diet of godliness, not worldliness. You know, I know we just can't leave this world. The Bible doesn't call us to be monks, to go out into the wilderness somewhere and live in isolation. No, we are called to be light and salt, and we have to be among those places that are decaying and are dark if we're going to fulfill our purpose. So we have to be in the world, but we need to engage the world with discernment. We need to be aware of the worldview behind the news that we hear. In recent times, I found myself, I used to religiously watch the news. I found myself as of late, very quickly, either muting or turning it off altogether. It's hard to know what to believe, and the world is telling you lies. Now, I'm not saying that they don't reflect certain realities. Who knows? But they are telling you lies, because the worldview behind that is that this is all up to us. And if we just do what, no, if you just do what I'm telling you to do, that's what the talking heads say, if you just obey and do what I tell you to do, everything's gonna be fine, right? It is not. This is a world of sin, it crumbles, it decays, it is passing away. And yet if we fill our minds with such garbage, and so much of it is today, we get depressed. You know, I found myself turning it off because I had a hard time after that 30 minutes had passed being able to rejoice in the Lord. And that same thing goes for all the things that we see. What kind of diet are we putting into this mind? What kind of music do we listen to? And Be aware of the people with whom we interact. We need to be aware of the worldview that stands behind all of this. We need to measure everything we encounter according to Scripture. Let me tell you something. There is no one or no thing in this world that is neutral. That is a lie. There may be matters of indifference, things that aren't necessarily right or wrong in themselves, but Let me tell you this, how we interact with those things is anything but neutral. It's either good or bad, righteous or unrighteous, it's of faith or it's sin. And this is why, folks, we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day. That's the rule, that's the standard by which I'm going to measure my encounters today. the way I'm going to look at the world around me, the way I'm going to discern the truth from error. And so Paul says to us, and I love this list, 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. And again, let me remind you, to think about is more than simply entertaining certain ideas. In the Greek, this particular word means to consider, to calculate. It's an accounting term. It means to evaluate, to assess what you're thinking so that you will arrive at sound conclusions, conclusions that require some corresponding action. You know, in accounting, you have your debit column and your credit column. And so it's not good enough just to record your expenses in your debit column. You have to now deduct them from your credit column, right? One, understanding that, evaluating that, necessitates action. And the other, and this is what he's saying here, is that we are to think about these things not as musings, not as simply theories, wonderful things to contemplate, but no, the end result is practice. In other words, it's dwelling on something and reflecting carefully on it so that it begins to shape what we do and what we say. It's hiding God's word in our hearts that we might not sin against him. And this is what the scripture often refers to in the Old Testament as meditation. You know, I'm always careful to use that term because most people today, when they think of meditation, their mind goes to those practices of Eastern mysticism, right? You know, it's an attempt to deal with anxiety by emptying your head of rational thought and thinking as little as possible. If you listen to what they tell you to do, get in your cross-legged position and now concentrate your thoughts on a single word, or just visualize a single color, or start humming and concentrate on that monotonous tone, right? That's how they try to deal with stress. That's how they try to address anxiety, by trying not to think. But that doesn't solve anything, does it? Whenever you're through meditating, I guarantee you the problems will still be there. Well, biblical meditation is altogether different. It's not emptying your mind, it's filling your mind with the right thoughts, the true thoughts, the godly thoughts. Paul is telling us to confront stress with truth. He's telling us to deal with anxieties by casting our cares upon God in humble and thankful prayer, and then meditating, pondering, setting our minds upon the truth of God's Word and letting that transform our behavior. We're to train our minds to think like Christ. You know, as I've said before, we never do what doesn't occur to us, right? That's a simple premise. So that means we need to fill our minds with God's word so that whenever we're faced with depressing moments or anxiety-provoking people or situations, that what occurs to us at that time is to address God in prayer and trust ourselves to his righteous purpose. That's what needs to occur to us. That's when we'll be able to rejoice in the Lord in the face of adversity. That's when we'll be able to rest in the peace of God that protects our hearts and minds from the futile anxiety that threatens to undo us. And Paul gives us some guidelines for training our thoughts in the right direction. That's what he does here. He provides a list of attributes and characteristics that ought to occupy our minds. You want to know what you ought to be thinking about? Paul gives us a really good list. And so for our remaining time this morning, I want to simply introduce us to these profound list of qualities, these characteristics, these attributes that Paul says should occupy our thinking. And the language is quite broad. He says, whatever is true, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything that is excellent, if there is anything that is praiseworthy, this is what you need to meditate upon, this is what you need to think about, this is what should occupy your minds, this should fill your thoughts. In other words, we are to look for these traits in whoever displays them, Whenever they are seen and wherever we find them, we are to set our minds on them, to meditate on them, to ponder them, that we might follow this particular pattern of godliness. Paul is directing us to focus our attention to that which is righteous. And as we consider these attributes, I'm gonna ask you, very simply, Who more than anyone else who has ever lived on the face of this earth exemplifies these characteristics more perfectly? It's our Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? What I see here is the Apostle Paul drawing our attention to those attributes, to those characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ. And which worldview fully embodies every one of these qualities? Well, it's the gospel, isn't it? And you know, this makes perfect sense in the context of this epistle, because throughout this letter, Paul has been urging the saints to think like Christ, to adopt his attitude of service and humility, to be gospel-minded in everything they do and say. He's encouraging God's people, fill your minds with who Christ is and what he has done, and that you might follow him and reflect that virtue and purpose of the God you were made to image. So, we don't have much time left this morning. As we close, I just simply want to look at the first of these qualities. Lord willing, we'll consider the others next week. But there is a sense in which this very first character trait that he mentions, this very first attribute that he mentions, all the others flow from it. And so Paul tells us, first of all, to fill our minds with whatever is true. Whatever is true. I want you to think about that. It's a broad and rich term in the scripture. In the scripture we find that in addition to what we normally think of as true versus false, it certainly does include that, it refers to substance rather than shadow. Something that is true rather than a facsimile of it, you see. It refers to that which is genuine and not counterfeit. It refers to that which is transparent, not obscure. It refers to reality, not fantasy. integrity over against hypocrisy. It is that trait which shows us one is reliable rather than undependable, sincere rather than disingenuous. That which is true is solid and reliable and trustworthy. It's what's sure, it's what can be counted on. And I can't think of anyone or anything who embodies that ideal more than Christ himself. I can't think of any message that meets all of that criteria other than the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. And so Jesus forms the pattern of life we are to follow. He is the fulfillment of all that was promised, so he is the substance of which the shadow merely addressed. You know, there have been many messianic pretenders, but he's the genuine son of God, the only one, the only begotten of the Father. The Pharisees were hypocrites and whitewashed sepulchers, but Christ lived a transparent life of integrity. The Pharisees invented loopholes for themselves, right? But Christ was reliable, he was dependable, he was and is everything he claimed to be. And then let's talk about the truth for just a moment. The world today tells us that the truth is relative. They say there's no absolute objective truth. Have you heard that? It's everywhere. You have your truth and I have mine, popularized by Oprah, right? Your truth, live your truth, be authentic. Let me tell you something. If you're not in Christ, being authentic means you are just going to stink up the world with your sin. Be the authentic sinner you are, right? No. You see, this is not true. It's not your truth and I have mine. Because they could be blatantly contradictory truths, beliefs that actually cancel one another out. But that doesn't matter to the world because they don't think, right? And so we're told that these are both equally valid points of view. Listen, that is postmodern claptrap. That is unadulterated nonsense. Listen, the truth is the truth. It is objective, it is absolute, it is unchanging. And as Paul says, that truth is in Jesus. And so the world has their conjectures about what's true. But let me tell you, the gospel says all that we need, it says all that needs to be said. The gospel is reality, not fantasy. The world will tell you, just live your life as you want to, be as good as you can, and if there is a God when you get there, he'll just welcome you. That's a fantasy. The gospel tells you the truth. As Paul says to Timothy, the gospel is a trustworthy message. And Peter says it contains everything that is essential for life and godliness. And so Jesus is true and God's word is truth. And as Jesus says in his high priestly prayer, it is the truth that sanctifies us. And this is why we must renew our minds with God's word. This is why we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. It's why we must keep our eyes on Christ because it is by beholding his glory that we ourselves are transformed. from one degree of glory to another, 2 Corinthians 3.18. And so this is the only way we will ever be able to learn to discern truth from error. It's how we learn to live as children of God and citizens of heaven. It's how we live our lives free of anxiety and able to rejoice in the Lord always and to enjoy the wondrous peace that surpasses all understanding. That peace that we are promised will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is the promise given to us. And may we do as the Apostle Paul says, and give our thoughts to the truth, to that which is true. To rely upon the word of God, for it is all that we need. He supplies everything necessary for life and godliness. It's ours, a gracious gift from our Lord Jesus Christ. And to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.