Thoughts / Based on Philippians 4:1-9 / Delivered on October 29, 2017 to CCH

Thoughts / Based on Philippians 4:1-9 / Delivered on October 29, 2017 to CCH

Hymns: His Eye Is on the Sparrow, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, May the Mind of Christ My Savior

Philippians 4:1-9

4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
4:2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
4:3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
4:6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
4:8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

4:9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Good morning.  I am Darci Strutt McQuiston, a Lay Speaker from the United Methodist Church up on the hill.  It’s my pleasure to be with you here today.  Since you encouraged me during my last visit when I shared a song based on the scripture I’m going to do it again today.  It is another children’s Christian song I wrote in 2011 that is based on the passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians we’re reading today.

The passage of scripture speaks to me.  The three ideas I’m pulling from the lesson are:

Relationships are important

Thoughts are powerful

God’s work comes first

Relationships are important

Paul’s closing statements to this church starts with a request.

4:2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
4:3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Paul doesn’t say it explicitly, but we can assume these two women are leaders within the congregation at Philippi.   Paul pleaded the members in Chapter 2:2 to be “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in one mind.”  His letter was general in his advice until now when he names names.  It is too important to the success of the church to let these two leaders argue. 

In the past year, in particular, I have seen people take a stand for what they feel is the right way to do something and fight with their friends and family until relationships break apart and they go their separate ways.  What breaks my heart is often the two people have the same goal, just not the same idea of process.  In the Philippian church they had “struggled beside” Paul in the work of the gospel.  They believed in the importance of sharing that good news.  Sadly it seems they had differing opinions on how that work should be done.  The problem was they raised their desire to be right higher than their desire to succeed in the work.

I have no doubt that there are times you do need to take a stand and that there are times relationships are not healthy.  However, the desire to be right, personal pride, and protecting the ego are not more important than acting loving toward others and protecting relationships.

Thoughts are powerful

Paul was not writing from a resort.  He was writing from prison.  He was writing to a church that was experiencing struggle.  Still his advice was to rejoice.

4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Rejoicing was a decision.  They were to rely on God for their strength.  One preacher called this to be in non-anxious prayer constantly.  Let the anxiety go.
4:6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I fall into anxiety traps.  This happens most often at 2:00 AM when I wake and can’t fall asleep.  Sometimes thoughts fill my head of what may happen in the future and my body responds as if it is happening now.  That would be lovely if they were happy thoughts, but in my case, they more often are anxious thoughts.  Then I go into a spiral worrying about worrying.

There are times when we need to think about future possibilities, so we can make plans to help prevent negative things from happening.  This is not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about letting a movie of a possible negative future run through your head.  Your body doesn’t know this isn’t true and so responds as if it was real not imagined.  Paul says – don’t do that!  Take it to God, even the little things, take everything to God in prayer.  Then look for God’s peace.

Watch your thoughts and that peace will stay with you.
4:8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Thoughts are powerful!  They run your body.  Your perception of reality makes your personal reality.  What you believe to be true dictates how you interact with others.  Guarding our thoughts is not easy but it is what brings us to God’s peace.

God’s work comes first

Paul was dealing with a church suffering from internal conflict.  Their members agreed with the end goal of sharing the gospel message and doing God’s work, but they took their focus off their goal and put it on their own ideas.

When I was in corporate life and there was a conflict, often the way to ease the tension was to bring both parties up a level to the greater goal.  In most cases they both agreed with the higher goal, just not with how it was being achieved.  Once they realized they both agreed they wanted the same outcome it became easier to partnership.

The work God calls us to do must be central in our minds.  The church at Philippi had been doing the work beside Paul.  He exhorted them:

4:9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

This passage speaks to my heart clearly today.  Maybe you can see part of your own struggles here too.  We long to do what is right, but sometimes forget the bigger picture when we’re feeling our pride has been hurt.  Relationships are worth more than our pride!

We spiral down an anxiety sinkhole often not because of real circumstances, but because of thoughts.  We forget that we are loved children of the creator of the universe.  His eye is on the sparrow, and we are valued more than many sparrows.

Remember to keep the goal your focus, and allow others to partner with you in different ways to reach that goal.  We have brothers and sisters with us on this journey and we each have an important part to play.

Finally, here is the song I promised.  It is a reminder of the power of our thoughts.

Think About the Good Things

Music and lyric by Darci Strutt, 2011 

I thought I saw a monster - it gave me quite a scare

My heart it went a thump thump thump but a monster wasn’t there

My face was flush my palms were wet just from a thought you see

It’s amazing what thoughts can do when they are inside me

Refrain

Think about the good things like God our Father’s love

Think about the good things like praising God above

I saw a real sad movie about a puppy who had died

I knew it was just a story but I sat in there and cried

Tears ran down I blew my nose it was even hard to see

It’s amazing what thoughts can do when they are inside me

Refrain

Be careful what you think about, the Bible says it’s true

‘cuz what you think on the inside comes on the outside too

When my thoughts are pure and lovely that’s the world I’ll see

It’s amazing what thoughts can do when they are inside me

Refrain