Overcoming anxiety and depression: Phil. 4:6-9

I’ve titled today’s message “overcoming anxiety and depression.”  The Lord gave me the outline for today’s message about 30 years ago, quite some time before I was actually a pastor. During that time, I had a fairly successful antique business.   I thought I was living for the Lord, and I also thought that my job, my family and my finances were indicative of God’s blessings on my life and were the result of the fact that I was a born again Christian who was trying to serve God.  I had begun to get more involved in my church and was teaching Sunday School and participating in various ministries the church was doing. I built a home in Harford County Maryland and loved raising my kids there.

At the peak of my career though I began to have a series of health issues that seemed to be unrelated at first, but over time had a cumulative disastrous affect on my health. The end result was that after several months of being sick and taking one medical test after another, I started experiencing extreme panic attacks.  At that time, panic or anxiety attacks were not very well known. I didn’t know they were anxiety attacks, I just felt like I had some mysterious disease.  If you have never had a panic attack then it is kind of hard to imagine what it was like.  Sometimes it may feel as if you are having a heart attack.  It might be combined with other symptoms like  shortness of breath, difficulty swallowing, feeling dizzy, blacking out,  claustrophobia, headaches, rashes and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.  I had all those symptoms and more and it seemed to get worse day after day.  After several months I became more or less completely traumatized.  I lost a lot of weight.  I developed a severe rash all over my body.  My toenails at one point turned black and fell off.  I reached a point where I couldn’t function, couldn’t work, and could hardly drive a car or fly in an airplane or even be alone.

My primary care physician finally determined that in addition to a string of illnesses I was suffering from a form of depression.  I was surprised to find out that in the medical profession they considered panic attacks a form of depression.  The doctor prescribed an anti-depressant drug that he assured me would help my condition.  Initially, I was very relieved. But when I told my wife about the medicine, she expressed concern about the possible side effects.  She has a sister that had been bipolar for many years, and so she had first hand experience in how certain psychiatric medicines can cause both short term and long term adverse side effects. 

 So after much prayer and deliberation, we decided not to use medicine to deal with my condition but would attempt to deal with it holistically, with a great emphasis on the holy part.  The long and short of it was that over next few years I immersed myself in the Word of God and prayer.  I also began eating better and exercising regularly, but my primary prescription was found in the Word of God.   In particular, this passage that we are looking at today in Philippians was one of the principal scriptures that God most effectively used to get me through that time.  But let me stress that it was a process.  I would have loved to have been instantly healed but it did not happen.  After about 3 years of suffering from  this illness I ended up losing my career, losing my house, my cars, all my antiques. During those years it was all I could do to keep food on the table. And during that time the genuineness of my faith was tested to the very limit.  I didn’t understand why God allowed all that to happen in my life. I thought that God was supposed to bless you if you were a Christian, and I couldn’t reconcile that with what was happening in my life.  And on top of all that,  I seriously began to fear that I was losing my sanity. 

Now I tell you all of this reluctantly, with more than a little embarrassment, in the hope that my story will help you realize that if there was hope for me, then there is hope for you.  You may not be going through anything similar to what I went through.  You may not ever have had a panic attack.  But I will say that it is very likely that at some point in your life you are going to come to the point like the old hymn says, “when all around my soul gives way.”  Things you thought you could count on fell apart.  People you count on fall away.  Stress becomes overwhelming.  Sickness or even death comes knocking on your door in a way that completely tears your world apart.  And when that day comes, then maybe this message will have helped to prepare you. Some of you, however, know exactly what I’m talking about today and have been looking for answers.  And the first place most of us go is to the medical profession looking for help.

Depression and anxiety in America has reached epidemic proportions. According to the CDC 1 in 6 Americans regularly take antidepressant medication.   Another government study revealed that antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. They're prescribed more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, or headaches.  Unfortunately, these drugs don’t cure a person of these disorders, they merely mask the symptoms, and in many cases are putting a band aid on a condition that will continue and in many cases get worse.  Often we try to self medicate ourselves with alcohol or drugs in an attempt to calm our anxieties or make ourselves feel more comfortable or just to be able to go to sleep.  And yet, sooner or later that backfires.  We end up addicted to substances on top of the psychological problems that we have and it just exacerbates the whole problem.

But regardless of what type of fear or stress or anxiety or depression that you may be suffering from,  this message today is for you.  I can tell you with all confidence that these principles in this passage we are looking at today will work because they get at the root of the problem and just don’t treat the symptoms.  They probably won’t produce an instantaneous healing, or an instantaneous correction of all your circumstances, but if you apply these principles in your life, as if your life depends upon them (which they do) then God will not fail to perform according to His promises.  This passage offers us hope for true deliverance.

Now let’s look at the passage.  It says in vs. 6, “Be anxious for nothing.”  That is the principle.  You could even say that is the command.  It is certainly the ideal pattern for the Christian walk, to have no fear, whatever the circumstances may be. The Bible says “do not fear” or some form of that over 500 times.  And Paul speaks from his own lifetime of experience, which by contrast puts my experience to shame.  He suffered so much, from shipwrecks to prisons, to beatings, to even being stoned and left for dead, and in fact he was writing from prison at the time of this letter.  He knew what he was talking about.  And so the principle is overcoming anxiety.  Overcoming fear.  Overcoming depression, stress and a whole host of  related circumstances you may find yourself in. 

But thankfully he doesn’t just leave us with the statement “Don’t be anxious.”  Nothing used to tick me off like someone that would just glibly dismiss my anxieties with the advice “don’t worry, it will all work out.”  But rather, Paul gives us 4 steps to overcoming fear, overcoming anxiety and depression.  And they are found right here in this passage.  Number one, the first step is to pray, in vs. 6.  Number 2, is to ponder, or to contemplate, and that is found in vs. 8.  Number 3, those things you have pondered, Paul says you now need to practice, vs. 9.  And number 4, after you have prayed, pondered and practiced, God promises peace, in vs. 9. 

So let’s look at number one, prayer.  Vs. 6; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  The first thing needed is prayer.  From a human standpoint, we don’t understand prayer.  It is one of those mysteries of our faith that requires just that – faith.   Faith in believing that God hears you and that He loves you and wants what is best for you.  Some people want to approach prayer with some sort of formula. If you say it in just the right way, with just the right amount of thanksgiving in it, and by all means be sure to say, “In Jesus name Amen” at the end, and if you muster up all your will power and believe without a doubt that God will do what you want Him to do, then God will give you exactly what you asked for.  They think prayer is a formula by which we tell God what to do and if we do it correctly, God is obligated to do it.  It’s an attempt to manipulate God from a position of control.  But the correct posture of prayer is that of a supplicant, realizing God is sovereign.

This verse shows three ingredients of prayer; supplication, thanksgiving, and requests or petitions.  But Paul isn’t giving us a formula here.  He is merely telling us that in everything we should pray to our Heavenly Father.  We have instant access to the Creator of the Universe.  I’ll tell you the secret to effective prayer.  It’s found in James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  The reason your prayer is effective is predicated by the fact that you are made righteous by the shed blood of Christ.  Be sure that there is no sin in your life that is hindering your prayers.  But once you have cleansed  your conscience of unconfessed sin in your life, then it says be fervent about your prayers.  Energeo is the Greek word, and you can hear how that sounds like energize.  Listen, I can tell you how I learned to pray in those days of my meltdown, and I still pray that way a lot of times today.  I go to a place where I can pray aloud, and I get on my knees before the throne of grace and I grab on to the legs of the throne and I begin to call out to God with all my might.  I hold onto that throne and I say like Jacob “Lord, I am not going to let go until you bless me.”  I remind the Lord of all His promises that He has written in His Word, and I recount every aspect of my situation, and I talk to Him like He is literally standing in front of me.  I beseech Him.  I cry out to Him.  And I don’t stop until I can’t pray anymore or until He answers me.  Many, many nights during that time in my life I was up until 3am praying, freaking out, holding onto that throne with all my grip, pleading with God to help me. 

Folks, we need to learn to pray like that.  God isn’t interested in us making speeches. We need to pray like our lives depended upon it.  We need to pray for the salvation of our loved ones like that. We need to pray for revival like that. When I was going through that period in my life I began running.  And most of the time I was running through this long road that goes through a wooded area.  And while I ran I would just pray out loud.  Sometimes I yelled, sometimes I cried out loud to God, sometimes I was angry about something that I didn’t understand and I let God and the squirrels and the deer and everything else that is out there in the woods know about it.  But folks, I believe that is how we should pray.  Fervently.  There isn’t some formula.  Just pray with all your might. 

Jesus gave a parable in Luke 18 about a king and a widow that kept coming to him asking him to help her with her opponent.  And I like what the King said. “Yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  Listen, we need to pray until the cows come home.  We don’t pray to an unrighteous judge, we pray to the righteous King Eternal, who also happens to be our heavenly Father. Jesus prayed all night on several occasions. So much more should we. Let’s be fervent about prayer. Praying at all times, night and day, in all situations, consistently praying, constantly praying.

Number 2,  after praying, we need to ponder. Vs. 8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”  These disorders that we are talking about today are all disorders of the mind, aren’t they?  These disorders are the result of wrong thinking.  And so what Paul is saying here is that we need to reprogram our minds with the truth.  When I was suffering from panic attacks, the constant refrain that my mind was stuck on was “what if…what if…”  It was like an old 33 rpm record that had a deep scratch in it.  And once the needle got stuck in that scratch, it would play the same thing over and over and over again. 

There are a lot of things that can contribute to that scratch if you will, in our minds.  This rut of wrong thinking is many times the result of the kind of garbage we are feeding our minds on hour after hour, day after day.  The world is constantly shoving it’s propaganda to us, via our televisions, our computers,  the music on our phones, our car radios.  We are plugged into the polluted message of the world all day long.  Some people even sleep with it on.  And then we wonder why we  are overwhelmed by these negative thoughts.  But folks, the answer is not just a good dose of positive thinking, but proper thinking.  And proper thinking is found in God’s word. 

Paul starts off with we should think about “whatever things are true,”  and he ends up the verse with if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  Ponder these things.   You know, before I developed this disorder, I went to church twice a week, tithed 10% and I read my Bible every morning before I went to work.  I read at least a chapter every morning.  Man, I thought I was killing the whole Christian thing. But let me tell you something.  After I found myself in the throes of never ending panic attacks, I started to really read the Bible.  I read multiple books of the Bible in a single day.  Sometimes I read most of the New Testament in one day.  Did you know that it only takes about 18 hours to read the NT?  At night when the anxiety attacks got really bad, I would sometimes read the entire book of Psalms out loud, crying and praying each verse out loud to God.  By the way, I believe King David, a great warrior, a man after God’s own heart, who wrote most of the Psalms, I believe that David suffered from depression.  I believe he suffered from anxiety attacks.  And so I would encourage you to read the Psalms.  Read them aloud and deliberately reprogram your mind. 

Listen, you have to start telling yourself the truth. The mind is the battleground between the spirit and the flesh, did you know that?  Man was made at creation in the image of God who was a triune being and so we were made spirit, soul and body.   The spirit of man is the divine spark that God gave us originally that allowed man to have fellowship with God.  It was what made us alive spiritually, able to commune with God.  But the soul is the essence of man, the mind, the will, the seat of the emotions.  And of course, we know what our body is.  Now at the fall, the spirit of man died because of sin.  And our fellowship with God was broken.  We could not know God through our mind (our soul) or through any actions of our body.  So in our fallen state, the order of creation was reversed, and we became governed by the passions of our bodies, which controlled our minds.  We became enslaved to our fleshly passions.  Our spirit was dead.  But salvation  resulted in being born again, reborn, not of the flesh, but of the spirit.  We are made righteous through faith in Christ, and made alive in our spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

Now though the spirit is born again, we are alive in Christ, yet our minds, our soul, is still in our body.  And our fleshly body is still corrupted.  However, that is why Romans 12 tells us that we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”  And  the will of God is that we are to present our bodies as a living  sacrifice to  God.  So, in the new order of becoming a Christian, I submit my mind to the Spirit of Christ,  renewing my mind by what the Spirit teaches me through the Word, and I discipline my body, sacrifice the desires of my body, crucify  the passions of my body and make it my slave.  No longer am I to be a slave of my body.  But I am to make my body the slave of my mind, my mind being obedient to the Spirit. 

But the battleground continues to be the mind.  Even once you are a Christian Satan is going to attack you in the flesh, and try to deceive your mind through your flesh once again.  And so our defense is the truth of God’s Word. Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  The truth is found in God’s Word.  His promises are sure and will not fail.  And you need to deliberately,  constantly be putting God’s word, this truth into your mind.

When I was under attack, I took note cards and wrote down on each card a verse of scripture that was a promise from God to keep me and protect me.  I had about 30 of them wrapped in a rubber band that I carried all the time in my pocket.  I can remember many times while driving having to pull over on the side of the road and read through my cards a few times until I was able to go on.  I remember  after I had become sick that I tried to fly in an airplane.  I was wearing those cards out, I can tell you.  Every phobia I had was in full alert but I fought back with the truth, which is the Word of God. 

The third step is practice.  Vs. 9; “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.”  Listen, faith isn’t just Bible knowledge, faith is not positive thinking, it’s obedience to step out and do what is commanded of you to do.  The scripture is not meant to be a bunch of words we say like hocus pocus, and poof, magic happens.  No, the Word of God is instructions.  It tells us how to act, what to say, how to think.  It tells us promises of God that we are to believe in and act upon.  Before your mind is in a rut.  Now we have to reprogram our minds through practice, going over and over again the truths of God.

You know, if you want to get good at playing basketball, you go to the gym and practice.  You work on your foul shot.  You dribble.  But you do all this stuff before the game.  You don’t just show up to the game and expect to play well.  You practice whether you feel like it or not.  You rehearse how you should think.  You act out how you are supposed to act.  In other words, you don’t wait till you feel like it.  You begin with actions, and the feelings will eventually catch up.  You begin to act in faith to what God has promised in His word.  It may be small steps at first.  You might be frightened half out of your mind.  But believing in what God has promised, armed with your verses in your pocket, you begin to step out in faith regardless of how you feel. 

 Let me tell you something.   Feelings lie.  Don’t listen to your feelings.  Listen to the truth of God’s Word and then act in faith as if you felt like it, and soon enough you will find that you will have faith.  I’m not telling you to believe you can jump off a 5 story building or something foolish.  I’m telling you that you have to act on the promises of God that are written in His word.  Don’t act on what some well meaning friend may have counseled you.  Act on what God has promised to you and written down so that you might  know His instructions. And by acting on God’s promises, we cut a new groove in our minds of proper thinking according to what God has said.

Finally, number four, if you pray, ponder and practice then you will know peace.  And listen folks, this isn’t just some peace found in a sleeping pill, or bottle of whiskey, or even the peace that comes through a prescription, this is so much better than that.  This is the peace of God, he says in vs. 7; “which surpasses all comprehension, which will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  I love that verse.  Because what it says is that He will give you a peace that passes understanding.  You can’t understand it, but there is a sense of peace that God gives to those that really put their trust in Him.  You may have to learn to trust in Him.  Learning to trust in Him is a process that sometimes can take a long time.  We learn to trust Him when we pray, we read His Word, we ponder His Word, then we obey His Word,  and we practice His Word, then we get peace because we have proven His Word.  See, it’s one thing to say something is true, and intellectually believe it, but it is another thing to prove something is true.  And in these kinds of distresses, as we go through them we end up proving that God is true, that He can be trusted.  And that equips us for tomorrow.  Because more difficulties are going to come again tomorrow.  Jesus said, everyday has difficulties.  But what you have proven to be true today will make tomorrow’s difficulties easier to go through. 

James 1:2 says  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” When you run, you increase your endurance by pushing through the pain, stretching yourself.  And the next day you find you can run further.  One of the reasons that I think we have such an increase in psychological disorders today is because we somehow have been taught to think that life is supposed to be free of trials.  Everything is supposed to be easy, everything is supposed to work out. Especially if you are a Christian. The prosperity gospel is very appealing, and I think many of us subconsciously believe it to be true.  But the truth is, life is difficult. The Christian life is difficult.  We don’t always know why, or the source of our difficulties.  We sometimes don’t even know if God is doing it to us, or if Satan is doing it.  

James 1:13 says “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But it goes on to say we are tempted by our own lust. In other words, it goes back to our fallen nature again, that is pulling at us, tempting us, calling us.  And remember Satan is called the Tempter in scripture, isn’t he?  Satan tempts us, and sometimes he is given liberty to test us.  Job went through a great deal of trials that were brought about through no fault of his own, but through Satan.  However, one thing we can know  is that God promises to use even evil for our good. Rom. 8:28, “And we know that God causes ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  And what is God’s purpose in calling us?  The next verse says He predestined us to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. God is using these circumstances to prove you, to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ. 

Listen, I’ll say it again.  Your mind is the battleground between the Spirit and the flesh.  You are going to have to choose who you will listen to. Are you going to submit to the lies of the flesh or the truth of the Spirit? There is an interesting word that is found in vs. 7, in the Greek it’s phroureo, which means kept in a garrison.  God will guard your mind and heart in a fort, a garrison.  Your mind is a fort.  And the Holy Spirit stands watch over it.  But  you have control over the gate.  You can either open it to the Spirit or to the flesh. Every bad thought that comes we are to take  captive to Christ.  Listen to 2 Cor. 10: 3 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” 

Well, I must close.  There is so much here that I feel that I could go on for another hour.  But I will just close by saying that here in Phil. 4 God confirms to us twice that He is able to give us peace that passes all understanding if we are obedient to the instructions that He provides in His Word. In vs. 7 we see the peace of God, and in vs. 9 we see the God of peace.  It’s like two pieces of bread that make up the sandwich. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of mental disorders and fears and phobias.  I know the seriousness of them.  But I also know the peace of God that comes from having proven God to be faithful to the promises found in His Word as I walk in obedience to those promises.  One day Jesus is coming back for those that are His, and He is going to wipe away all tears, and dispel forever all fears.  He is going to replace this fallen body with a body that cannot be broken, that is no longer fallen, but remade in His likeness.  That’s the ultimate purpose of God, to make us into His likeness, and restore our fellowship with Him the way it was originally intended in the garden.  Until then, let us pray like our lives depended upon it, and let the Spirit guard the garrison of our hearts and minds, let’s take every thought captive in obedience to what Christ has promised us, and let’s destroy those speculations that undermine our faith.  And the peace of God will encircle the garrison of our minds like a moat surrounds the castle. 

Perseverance; Phil. 4: 1-9

Paul says in verse one that the Philippians were his joy and crown.  And what he is referring to here with word crown is the crown of achievement, or the wreath that was given to the victor in a race.  This sentiment is the true passion of the pastor.  A pastor is crowned by his congregation.  If he is a true shepherd of the flock then their spiritual well being is his joy and crown.  Their spiritual maturity is what he is working for.  To see them mature, to come to completion, as we looked at last week.  To see them still standing firm for the faith some years down the road.

I’ve said before that one of my biggest disappointments and discouragements in the ministry is to see members of the fellowship fall away.  To see them become less than they should be.  To see them fall back into sin, to wander back into the world.  Or to see them opt out of our fellowship for a more socially palatable gospel.  They come so far with you, and then maybe they get their feathers ruffled over something or another, and leave to find another fellowship where they can have their ears tickled.  That is very discouraging for a pastor and it was the great fear of Paul for the church at Philippi as well.

And so Paul is going to finish up this last chapter of his letter to the church at Philippi by encouraging them to stand firm.  He wants nothing more than to hear a report that they are still standing firm in the faith.  That goal may be expressed in many ways, but no matter how you say it, it all comes down to perseverance.  It is a common theme in all Paul’s epistles.  Because Paul realized that just because you became saved does not mean that the enemy gives up on you.  No, if anything, the enemy redoubles his efforts on the person that commits to live for Jesus Christ as Lord.  Satan wants to undermine your faith, ruin your testimony, hinder your witness, deceive you by false doctrine, and ultimately destroy your life.  He may not be able to destroy your spirit anymore, but he can definitely destroy your life, and in the process perhaps do more to hinder the kingdom of heaven through you than he did when you were unsaved.

Paul realizes that is a very real danger for every Christian.  That’s why he started out the epistle in 1:27 urging the church to  “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”    In chapter 2:16 Paul adds, “hold fast the word of life,” so that he would not have run in vain or toiled in vain in his leadership of them. 

This admonition to hold fast, to stand firm, to persevere is often repeated in all his letters to the churches because it is such an essential concern for all Christians.  To the church in Rome Paul speaks “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” In 1Cor. 15:58 he pleads with the Corinthian church to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”  And again in 1Cor. 16:13 he warns them to “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”  To the church in Galatia Paul commands that  “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” To the church at Ephesus Paul admonishes that they should “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might,” and that they should “put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

And I would submit to you here this morning, to this church at Bethany Beach, Paul says to stand firm in the Lord.  Having done everything, to stand firm.  To persevere unto the end.  You’re going to be attacked.  You’re going to be knocked down from time to time.  You’re going to stumble from time to time.  You’re going to be discouraged from time to time.  But, I urge you, persevere.  Stand fast.  Keep on keeping on.  You will get tired following the Lord, but don’t ever quit.  The prize of the upward call of Christ Jesus that we looked at in chapter 3 is coming soon.  It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.

So I urge you, I encourage you to persevere in the faith.  And in today’s text we will look at how Paul encourages us to persevere.  There are going to be attacks by the devil, there are going to be discouragements and distractions that will come.  But persevere.  And there is a secret to perseverance that Paul wants to share, and it’s found in three little words.  Those three words are “in the Lord.”  Verse one, Paul says “stand firm in the Lord.”  In verse 2, Paul says, “live in harmony in the Lord.”  In verse 4, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord.”  And in verse 6, he says “trust in the Lord.”  And if we can learn these principles, then we can learn the secret of perseverance. 

First, let’s consider “stand firm in the Lord.”   There is a little Greek word that is almost overlooked in vs.  1 which is houtō.  It may be interpreted in your Bible as “so”, or “in this way.”  I like “in this way” because I think it is more descriptive.  The NIV renders it “that is how you should stand firm in the Lord.”  And I think that what is being said here is a reference to all that has come before this verse, and all that follows this verse.  This letter to the church at Philippi  containing these admonitions by Paul, these warnings, is instructive about how you are to stand firm in the Lord.  He is referring back to chapter 3, saying that perseverance encompasses forgetting what lies behind, and pressing forward to what lies ahead, being conformed to the image of Christ, being conformed to the sufferings of Christ, being conformed to the death of Christ, all of which is part of truly knowing Christ.  Not just knowing only one narrow element about Christ, but knowing all that Christ was and came to do. 

I think many people fall away from Christ because they refuse to accept all that Christ is.  They may like the “Jesus loves me” part, but they refuse to accept the rest of what it means to know Christ.  That we are to be conformed to His death.  In other words, we die to sin.  We consider ourselves dead to sin.  And to know Christ means we need to be conformed to the power of his resurrection.  That means we need to live a new life in Christ.  Romans 6 says we aren’t to continue in sin so that grace may abound, but we are to live in the power of a new life.  Old things are passed away and all things become new.  So standing firm means standing firm in the knowledge of Christ.

And that brings us to the phrase, in the Lord. Standing firm in the knowledge of the truth about Christ. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.”  John 14:6.  Standing firm in the Lord is nothing less than standing firm in the truth.  Ephesians 6:13 talks about putting on the armor of God and says, “and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  The truth of God undergirds our faith. It supports our faith.  It is the most essential part of our armor.  If we are to stand firm, then we need to know what the Bible teaches about Christ.

If you were required to give testimony in a court of law and you left out some things, but other things you testified to fully, then that would not be telling the whole truth, would it? In court you swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  To leave anything out is false testimony.  Well, the church is tasked with telling the whole truth of Christ. Paul said to the church in Ephesus that “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” In 1 Timothy it says at the end of chapter 3 that the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. Knowing the truth of Christ gives us the strength to persevere in Christ.

And please understand this; standing firm in the Lord means persevering in obedience to the truth of His Word.  It means deliberately, strategically, systematically putting yourself under the teaching of sound doctrine.  It means studying for yourself to find out what the Bible says concerning our faith.  It means being obedient to what God shows you in the Bible.  And it means being diligent about it.  

You know, you can’t be a good athlete or a good business man, or a good salesperson, or whatever it is that you might aspire to be, you can’t be good at it without applying yourself to it diligently.  What makes you think that you can grow in the Lord and mature in the Lord, to be found faithful in the Lord unless you are also diligent about studying His word?  Far too many Christians come to  faith by taking a little bit of something that they have heard from a radio preacher, and a little of this they saw in a movie, and a little of that they read in a book, and a dash or two of verses taken out of context from the Bible, and throw them all in a blender and that is their faith.  That’s not going to be the kind of faith that will persevere, that will stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The devil loves to come across those sort of blender Christians.  They aren’t committed to anything.  They  go here and there like Paul warned in Ephesians 4, they are tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine, and when the storm hits, they fall apart because their doctrine wasn’t founded upon the truth, but rather upon speculation and ear tickling false doctrine.  So to stand firm in the Lord we need to know the truth about Christ by knowing what the Bible teaches about the gospel of Christ.

Secondly, verse 2 teaches that in order to persevere, we must live in harmony in the Lord.  The word in the Greek for harmony is phroneo;  it means harmonious, of the same mind.  We don’t know who Euodia and Syntyche were.  What we do know is they were two women in the church at Philippi, and the implication is that there was a disagreement between them that had become so well known that it was disrupting the church.  It wasn’t a secret anymore.  In fact, there were probably others that had started to take up sides.  Clement is mentioned, as well as others that had been fellow workers there with Paul.  And it was tearing the church apart.

But rather than speculate about what might have been the problem between these two factions, let’s just focus on the solution to disagreements in the body.  There are going to be disagreements in the body of Christ, did you know that?  We may have been made righteous before God positionally, but practically, we are all still in the flesh.  And if we’re not careful, that old fleshly nature that we were supposed to daily put to death will come back with a vengeance and take us away from unity in the Spirit.  Sometimes the solution is to agree to disagree.  When there are disagreements over peripheral doctrines, or some side issue, or you somehow felt as if someone slighted you, or whatever the problem may have been, you need to submit to one another as unto the Lord and continue to persevere. 

Paul says in 1 Corinthians in regards to people in the church arguing with one another and even taking one another to court, he says, “Why not rather be wronged?”  “Why not rather be defrauded?”  I know that’s not easy - there is no wound that cuts deeper than that of a friend.  But Philippians told us in chapter 3 that we are to be conformed to the sufferings of Jesus, didn’t it?  Was Jesus slandered?  Yes.  Was Jesus insulted?  Yes.  Was Jesus taken for granted?  Yes.  So then, if you have gotten your feathers ruffled, then rather than defend your rights, be conformed to the image of Jesus.  Suffer in silence with Jesus.  Love those who mistreat you.  Forgive those who mistreat you.  Pray for them.   And above all, get the chip off of your shoulder.  Be sure you’re not going around looking for trouble or you will find it. 

At the end of verse three Paul says, “whose names are written in the Book of Life.”  Listen, if your name is written in the Book of Life and my name is written in the Book of Life, if God has accepted us, and put us together in that way, then we need to be more accepting of one another.  None of us are perfect yet.  3:12: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”  Christ Jesus laid hold of you to become part of his body, the local fellowship.  None of us are perfect yet.  But let’s press on together recognizing that God has saved each of us.  Perseverance requires getting along and not being distracted by petty grievances.

And then in verse 4 Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord.”  Some have said that rejoice or joy is the theme of this letter because Paul says it over and over again.  But discouragement is the opposite of joy.  Nothing will deter you from persevering like discouragement.  However, the secret to joy, the secret to rejoicing, is not in our circumstances, but our Lord. This is another reason why we need to stay in the Word and in the fellowship of others in the Word.  So we don’t get discouraged in our circumstances, but focus on the greatness of our God.

I think one of the most encouraging stories in the Bible is the story of the prodigal son.  I’m sure you are familiar with it. And as I think of this story, it reminds me of how great is our heavenly Father, how wonderful is our Heavenly Father who pursued us, who never stopped loving us, who in spite of our sinfulness and willfulness continued to work in us until one day the Holy Spirit overwhelmed us in conviction and we responded in faith.  And when we responded in faith, God responded even more. Not only did the Father rejoice that his son had come home, but I believe the prodigal son rejoiced because he knew that his Father loved him and had accepted him and restored him.  How wonderful that God loves us even when we are running away from Him and cursing Him and spurning that love.   And when we really see that then we have joy. When we are down and out, we need to get our eyes off our circumstances and back on the Lord and rejoice in all that He is.  Rejoice that in spite of how fallen we were that we were chosen to be a part of His family.

Vs. 5 says, “Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men.”  That word is epieikēs; and it means forbearing, or gentle or seemly, suitable, or equitable.   I think that is referring to our response when those difficult circumstances come that are going to come upon us all from time to time.  When things don’t seem to go right.  When life doesn’t seem fair.  When it seems we have been slighted or overlooked or taken advantage of.  Instead of being known as the guy that you better not mess with, or the woman that you better not cross, or the person that you better watch out for their temper,  instead you are known for being even tempered, for not letting things upset you, for not flying off the handle.  You have a settled quality about you.  You can rejoice in perseverance because your joy is not in your circumstances but in your Savior.

And the last phrase in vs. 5 is probably my favorite.  “The Lord is near.”  That can  have two meanings and either one of them may be applicable depending on the situation.  One is it’s referring to the day of the Lord being near. 2Pet. 3:10 speaks of the day of the Lord being near, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Peter says we are to be living in such a way as those that are looking for that day to come and hastening for that day to come.  And this is in keeping with the context of what Paul is talking about in Philippians at the end of chapter 3.  This is the goal that we are to be pressing of towards; the upward call of Christ Jesus when He will come back to earth for us and judge the earth and it’s works.  We should rejoice in perseverance because the Lord could come back today.  There is nothing necessary to be done before He can come back.  He could come right now, and we should live in expectation of that day. That expectation should cause us to rejoice.

And then the other way of looking at that phrase is “the Lord is at hand”  I remember my own situation when I was in my 20’s and I had left my home and tried to get as far away from the Lord as possible.  I ended up in California and I did the full prodigal son experience and wasted my life in riotous living.   And yet when I came to his senses and called upon the Lord, God was near.  God was right at hand.  God is as close as a prayer, no matter where on earth you might go. Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.”  Your hand will lay hold of me.  That was echoed in  chapter 3 of Philippians verse 12 wasn’t it?  God laid hold of us.  That should make you rejoice.  That no matter where you are, God is near, He’s right at hand.  You can persevere because the Lord is near, the Lord is at hand, ready to help you in time of need.  He’s always with you.  The Lord is as near as a prayer.

And then the last one, and I’ll only just mention it today.  Perseverance is found by trusting in the Lord.  Next Sunday I’m going to preach on verses 6-9 particularly in regards to dealing with anxiety.  Those of you that know my testimony, know that about 30 years ago I started suffering from extreme anxiety attacks which lasted for several years.  It was so bad and lasted so long that I ended up losing my career, my home, my health, my cars and all my possessions.  I almost ended up losing my sanity through it as well.  And through all those years there was one passage of scripture in particular that I held onto, sometimes feeling like I was at the edge of insanity, and it was this passage.  God’s word kept me sane.  So if you know of anyone that is dealing with anxiety, depression, or any other type of psychological disorder that you think might benefit from this message next week, I encourage you to invite them to church. 

But let me tell you the short meaning of these verses here this morning.  Perseverance depends upon you coming to the point of complete trust in the Lord; complete dependence upon Jesus Christ for everything.  When I thought I was losing my mind at one point, when I had reached the end of my rope, I imagined tying an knot to the end of it so to speak.  I had heard someone say that when you reach the end of your rope, just tie a knot and hang on.  And I had been hanging on for about a year or so fighting for my sanity and finally one night I couldn’t hold on anymore, I felt I was losing my grip on reality.  I felt myself letting go and for a few moments before I blacked out I seemed to feel myself flipping over backwards into this bottomless chasm of insanity.  I couldn’t hang on any more.  And yet, when I woke up from that blackness, from that moment of abject terror, I found that Jesus Christ had laid hold of me.  I wasn’t responsible for holding onto Jesus.  Jesus was responsible for holding onto me.  And He would never let me go.

Jesus said in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.  I and the Father are one."

Perseverance requires having that confidence which comes from proving that Jesus is faithful.  No matter what the circumstances.  No matter how much things don’t make sense.  Jesus is mine and I am His.  Knowing what Romans 8:28 really means:  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  That doesn’t mean that God is going to work everything out according to my desires, according to my plans.  What that means is that when my plans become aligned with God’s plans, when my purpose is to glorify Him by my life, then God is going to use everything that happens in my life to work out for the purpose of glorifying God.  This is the perseverance of the saints.  Those that are called according to HIS purpose.  And when you get that perspective right, then God is going to work things out right and I’m going to be all right with it.

Folks, I pray that you will stand fast.  Having done everything to stand firm, persevere.  Don’t be taken in by the deceit of Satan.  Don’t allow yourself to become offended.  Don’t allow petty grievances to grieve the Holy Spirit. But rather rejoice in the Lord.  Trust in the Lord.  Don’t be anxious for anything, and let the peace of God rule your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  And having done all, stand firm in the Lord.