What if the peace you're desperately searching for
isn't something you find, but something you practice?
Paul ends his instructions in Philippians with a
powerful promise. The God of peace will be with
you. But there's a condition attached that most of us
miss. Today we're uncovering what it really
takes to experience the presence of
the God of peace in your daily life.
Have you ever noticed how everyone talks about wanting peace,
Peace of mind, peace in relationships, peace
in our world? Yet peace seems more
elusive than ever. Anxiety disorders affect
nearly 20% of American adults. Our
phones constantly alert us to the next crisis.
Even Christian communities are marked by division
and discord. We're a people
desperately in need of peace.
Welcome to the Noble Bereans Video Channel. I'm your host,
Steve Sanders. As a lifelong Bible student
and teacher who spent years studying Paul's letters,
he's frankly one of my favorite authors in the Bible. I've
read those letters in the historical and the cultural context,
and I found that some of the most powerful biblical insights
are often hiding in plain sight. The passage we're
exploring today contains one of those hidden gems.
Today we're diving deep into Philippians 4:4-9,
where Paul outlines a spiritual practice that leads to
the presence of the God of peace. We'll explore the
original context, unpack the instruction and examine
connections to Old Testament wisdom literature and discover
how to apply these practices in our anxiety
filled world. Join with me now as we read
Philippians 4:4-9.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.
Let your gentleness be made known to all people.
The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
God, and the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus. Finally,
brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are
honorable, whatever things are right, whatever
things are pure, whatever things are pleasing,
whatever things are commendable, if there is any
excellence of character, and if anything
praiseworthy, think about these things and the
things which you have learned and received and heard about and
seen in me. Practice these things
and the God of peace will be with you. Before
we dive into the hidden treasures of this passage, let's understand
the context behind it. Paul's writing this letter from
prison, likely somewhere in Rome around 62 AD.
The Philippian Church was one of Paul's favorites. They
had a special relationship and they happened to be the only
church that consistently supported his ministry
financially. But the church wasn't without
problems. We see in chapter four, if we go back to the beginning,
verses two and three, that two prominent women in
the church were in conflict. This discord
threatened the unity of the entire community.
Paul's instructions in verses 4-9 aren't
abstract theology. They're really practical guidance for
a community that was experiencing tension and. And they were
living in a hostile Roman environment where Christians were
facing persecution. Paul himself writes from
a prison cell, yet he speaks repeatedly
of joy and peace. Before we get into
this, there's a few things I want to point out. So let's go back over
to the computer within the Logos software. I love the ability
to go up here and to search for things.
And so we're going to search for Philippi,
and that pulls Philippi up in the factbook over
here. Now we're going to scroll down. We see right away that it's
a city in East Macedonia, northeast Greece. The letter to the
Philippians was addressed to the church here. Now, this is what I really
enjoy. I like opening up the media. And so this is
going to pull up a map and it's going to show us where Philippi is.
So you see it right here in the middle. If we scroll out, this is
really interesting because we see a lot of things that are going on.
So we see. Let's scroll back in just a little bit. We
see Thessalonica over here. We see Berea
here. We go down and we see Corinth. So these are
all these places that we read about Paul visiting. So we
see somewhat of the relationship of where that's at. Now,
Philippi was up here near Neopolis, but look,
he is a long way from home. By the way, there's Ephesus. So all these
churches that we're used to. But this
would have been Paul's home area. So a long way from these
churches. He probably took a ship to some of these
locations. I don't believe he would have walked this entire
way. But still, we're a long way from where Paul lives. And
there's a lot more that we could read through here and learn about
Philippi or any other location that we wanted to. It's one of my
favorite features within the Logos Bible app.
So let's close out of that. You could go on, by the way, and you
could read more about that. And if you wanted to read about these two ladies,
you may have seen that I had that open a moment ago where I was
studying up on Euodia. And so you can go and you can learn about
the different People within the passage that we're reading about.
Okay, so back to what we're doing in today's study.
We've got a few points I want to make about this. Number one is the
movement from anxiety to peace. Now, you can go back
and reference verses 4 through 7 for this. So Paul
begins in the beginning of this passage we're reading today
with the command to rejoice in the Lord always.
Now, he thinks this is so important, he repeats it a second
time. Now, this isn't shallow positivity.
You could think of it as a radical reorientation towards
joy that's grounded in the Lord, not in the
circumstances you're in. Remember, Paul's in prison when he's
writing this. I don't know about you, but I think I would struggle
to have joy while I was in prison. But Paul is
telling people, this is how you have joy. Now, notice the
connection in this passage to the phrase the Lord is
near. This particular phrase has a double meaning
in Greek. It refers both to the Lord's imminent
return and his present nearness to
believers. When we truly grasp God's presence
with us, anxiety begins to transform into
joy. Paul then provides a practical
anecdote to anxiety. Be anxious for
nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God. Now, the Greek word there for
anxiety literally means to be divided
into parts. I don't know about you, but that's how I feel
when I experience anxiety. When I've gone through times in my life
where anxiety has taken hold of me, it
fragmented my mind. Prayer
reunifies us by bringing everything before
God. The outcome is that the peace
of God will guard our hearts and our minds like a
military sentinel. Now, this Greek word here for
guardians was used for soldiers protecting a
city. God's peace stands watch over us, over
our inner life. Point number two. As we move into verse eight, we get
into this peace, producing thought life, if you will.
Paul moves into the context of our thought life.
The list in verse 8 bears striking resemblance to
virtues that were celebrated in Greek philosophical
tradition, particularly Stoicism, which I'm sure you've heard
of. Now, this was popular in Philippi as a Roman
colony, but Paul transforms these concepts.
For example, the Greek concept of virtue
appears in this list. But for Paul, these virtues aren't
abstract ideals. They're embodied in Christ
and the Gospel community. This verse connects deeply with Old
Testament wisdom literature. Proverbs 23:7, for
example, says, as a person thinks in their heart, so they
Are. Now Paul understood that our thoughts in
our lives shape our being. Peace isn't just
an emotional state. It's cultivated through
intentional, disciplined thinking.
Point number three. This is the missing link.
Here's where we find the hidden treasure that's often
overlooked. After discussing thinking in verse eight,
Paul moves to doing in verse nine. And the
things which you have learned and received and heard about
and seen in me. Practice these things.
Now, the word practice here in Greek means a
continuous habitual action. Paul
says that peace comes through the regular practice
of a way of life that has been modeled,
observed and taught. And notice the
shift. Verse seven promises the peace of God. But
verse nine promises the God of
peace will be with you. Now this is really
profound. Through spiritual practice, we move from
experiencing God's peace as a gift to
experiencing the very presence of the
peace giving God himself. So how do
we practically apply this in our life? First we need to
identify peace robbing thought patterns.
Okay, take an inventory of your thought
life. What anxious patterns do you notice?
What media that could be social media, it could
be traditional media. Whatever it is you're consuming,
the relationships you're around, the habits that you have,
how do these feed these thoughts? Practice
becoming aware of what shapes your internal world,
your mind, and frankly affects your spirit.
Then intentional input filtering is the next
practical application. So using Paul's criteria in
verse 8 to evaluate what you allow into your
mind. This isn't about ignoring reality, but
choosing to dwell on what's true, what's noble,
what's right, what's pure and lovely and
admirable. Now this might mean you have to adjust
your social media consumption, your news intake, or even
your entertainment choices, but it will make a profound difference
in your life. 3. Find
living examples. Paul emphasized not just his
teaching, but his lived example. Who do
you know that embodies peace around you? What can
you learn from observing them? Consider
seeking out a mentor, someone who demonstrates the peace
that you desire. 4.
Create practice rhythms. Peace comes through
practice, not passive wishing. You can't just
assume it's going to take hold in your life. It takes work and Paul
talks about that here. Create daily rhythms that
include rejoicing. That's intentional gratitude
and celebration. Many people keep a gratitude
journal or they keep a list of things that they want to celebrate.
For me, in my daily journal, I keep a gratitude
list that I focus on when I'm going through prayer daily. Which takes
us to our second point, and that's prayer bringing our
anxieties to God. Now sometimes we can be asking
God to Help us with those anxieties. But I believe that it's
beneficial just to talk to God about the anxious things in your life,
the things causing anxiety for you. Number
three, thought discipline. Now, that's
meditation on what is excellent in your
life. And Paul gives us a great list to begin with there and
then community. We've talked about this already. Learning from
and with others. All right, Our fifth major point
here is to start small and to be
consistent. You can't expect to
really transform your life, at least not all of it all at
once. So choose one practice from this passage,
this lesson that we're talking about, and commit it to daily
life for two weeks. These small,
consistent steps will lead to profound
transformation. This insight we've talked about here from
Philippians 4:4-9, is that peace
isn't just something that God gives us, it's
someone God is. And experiencing
the presence of the God of Peace comes through
practice, not just belief or knowledge.
Paul understood this. He understood what? Modern
neuroscience confirms that our brains are shaped by what
we repeatedly do and think. Stop and think about that
a minute. Our brains are shaped by what we
repeatedly do and think. The pathway to peace
is paved with practice. So
today I encourage you to move beyond just admiring
these verses to embodying them. Choose one
practice from this passage and commit to it daily
as you do. You're going to discover that the God of
peace doesn't just give you temporary relief from
anxiety. He dwells with you. He
transforms you from the inside out.
And remember Paul's powerful promise, the
God of Peace be with you. Not just his peace, but,
but his very presence and friends.
That changes everything. Join with me now
as we close in prayer. God,
thank you. Thank you, Father, for you and thank you for
Jesus. We're going to take a moment, God, now in silence,
just to get our minds aligned with you, get our
spirits aligned with you, get our thoughts
aligned with you.
God, we live in such an anxious world.
It only takes moments on the Internet, on social media
to have our minds just clouded with
chaos. God, you're a God of peace and
you are with us as your children. Your
spirit fills us, God, help us to turn to
you, to turn away from these feeds in our life
that take the peace away from us
and turn our eyes and our hearts toward you. Be with us and protect
us, God, in this week ahead, help us to demonstrate you well
in our lives. Help us, God,
to be good ambassadors for you. It's in
Jesus name we pray. Amen.
If you've enjoyed what you've seen here today. Be sure to
leave a comment to like the video and to share it with others. And if
you haven't already subscribed to the channel, do that now hit the
subscription button below and don't forget to hit the notification button.
And as well, that will help you be aware of Every time we put a
new video out now you can find everything we're
doing@nobleberians.com we link
to all of our social media there. We link to all the
activities that we're going through with noblebriands.com One
last thing, I'm going to put a link into the description for
Logos Bible Software. If you like using a great Bible
tool to help you in your studies. I think you would enjoy Logos and I
have a special offer there where you can use Logos for free for a period
of time. I think it's a great way to determine if it would fit into
your life. Now that is an affiliate link and if you choose to
subscribe there, I'm going to get a little commission that helps to
support this channel. Of course, I would appreciate that. As you go out
there into this world this week, remember,
reflect him well.
God bless.