Those out and turn to Philippians,
chapter 4,
in the new testament at Philippians, chapter 4.
Also in your pro grams, there's an outline
if you're a note taking person,
you're welcome to pull that out if that's
helpful to you as well. Grams And
we are in the the final message of
a series entitled what's
on your mind? What's on your mind? Well
Bob Wi
came in dead last in
New York City marathon.
He came in 19400
and third eighteenth place.
That's dead last.
His time, 4 days,
2 hours
47 minutes and 17 seconds. That's about 4
days longer than the the fastest guy. Now
here's the thing though. Wi
has no legs.
Bob is a Vietnam veteran. His legs were
blown off by a land mine during the
war.
A leather saddle strap beneath his torso, knuckles
padded.
He used his arms to propel himself forward.
At over a rate of less than 1
mile per hour to the finish line.
I lost my legs. He said, but I
did not lose my heart.
He was the first person ever
to run a marathon
with his arms.
Instead of his legs.
And when he was being interviewed, asked why
he ran the race, he gave 3 reasons.
He said,
I want people to know that I'm a
follower of Jesus Christ.
I wanted to test my conditioning.
And I wanna encourage others to pursue physical
fitness.
And then he went on said success is
not based on where you start.
It's where you finish,
and I finished.
That's a remarkable attitude. Isn't it? And, you
know, in life,
in life, the the greater challenges prove to
be not so much
how to succeed, but how
to last,
how to endure.
And the course that we choose is critical,
but so is the strength to stay on
that course. And that's true of our walk
as a follower of Jesus as well. We
come to recognize,
Christ and who he is
and what he is calling us to be.
We may decide to follow him.
But then so much so much can draw
us away,
distract us, dis us.
And the apostle Paul knew this, and he
spoke and he wrote about it numerous times.
As I mentioned, we're concluding this message. Series
entitled What's on your mind. And throughout this
series, we have considered numerous
teachings from Paul,
Concerning our
spiritual mind
and what we call our mindset,
the direction that we're moving. What it is,
what it does, what it impacts,
how we can serve god more effectively and
please him with our mind and with our
mindset.
We have explored
the truth that we are when we're born
again that we literally receive the mind of
Christ.
That is the ability to think in new
ways
influenced
by his holy spirit. We looked at the
process of setting our mind or our life
direction
toward the things of god as we grow
in Christian maturity, We emphasize the importance of
renewing
our mind regularly
so that we can discern God's will for
us, And then finally,
we were reminded of the spiritual vitality
that comes from losing our mind. We talked
about that couple of weeks ago. Have y'all
lost your mind? No.
But we are losing our mind. That is
we are giving up our way more and
more. Couple to pursue
Christ's way. Following his example, his mindset
of humility
of obedience
of service.
So I ask you once again, what's on
your mind
today
If the mind
represents our spiritual choices,
then we must make sure to guard our
mind,
from the myriad of false or ignorant or
skewed patterns of thinking
that are so prevalent
in our culture today. And so this morning,
we're gonna consider 1 final teaching from the
Great Apostle Paul on how we can live
with extraordinary strength as we
protect
our minds.
And this mind
protection begins from a position from a place
from a preference
for living in peace.
Wanna invite you to read together with me
a portion of Paul's teaching. Comes from his
concluding remarks to the Philippians church in Philippians
chapter 4,
we're gonna look at versus 4 through 9.
The words are on the screen. So let's
read this
together.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say, rejoice.
Let your reasonable
be known to everyone. The Lord is at
hand.
Do not be anxious about anything.
But in everything
by prayer and sup simplification 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.
Amen.
Amen. God's word.
Well, for troubled followers of Jesus,
peace
is a divine
process.
I don't suppose any of you would admit
to ever being troubled from time to time.
Is that just me? Thank you, Tim. 1
of our elders raised his hand. I appreciate
that.
Yes. We're all troubled from time to time
aren't we.
Anxiety.
It's a buzz word today. Isn't it? It's
everywhere. Anxiety. And do you know that anxiety
is the opponent. It is the enemy
of peaceful living.
Well, the peace of god is the guardian,
the protector of our hearts and minds. Look
again at verse 7.
The image here is of a soldier,
standing guard guarding. That's what that means. A
soldier,
standing guard and that would be a a
really relevant
picture as Paul wrote this letter to the
city of Flip eye and the Christians that
were living there. That was a city that
was...
Protected
by a Roman garrison
full of of
of Roman soldiers.
It was a retirement community
for retired Roman soldiers.
Soldiers,
people that had lived the soldier life lived
in Philip pie, And so Paul takes that
word from their life and their lifestyle, and
he says,
God wants to be our guard.
The peace of god is our guard, like
a soldier
standing guard. You see friends,
anxiety really is the opponent.
It really is the enemy
of peaceful living. It attacks
our hearts.
It attacks our minds.
With false
information with erratic
emotions
with
unreasonable
demands
but the peace of god
is the guardian
of our hearts and minds. The soldier standing
guard over our hearts and minds, which indicates
what? Our hearts and minds, our entire
inner person, including
our emotions,
our rational thinking,
and our supernatural
thinking,
which we sometimes call wisdom.
So for the remainder of our time this
morning, I wanna consider together the process
of
spiritual mind
protection.
We're gonna look at 3 different things that
help to protect our mind. And first of
all, we see that protecting our mind includes
having a diverse
offense, a diverse offense, You know, some years
ago,
in the sport of football your football fan,
you'll be very familiar with this. There arose,
somewhat new, creative,
diverse philosophy. If of play that came to
be known as the spread offense.
And 1 of the most well known and
prolific p petition of this style of play
was right here in Eugene Oregon at the
University of Oregon, the Oregon Ducks, then coached
by Chip Kelly. Who was a guru of
the spread offense.
And this diverse offense and football uses a
multitude of different
formations and personnel grouping, it relies on speed
and accuracy to keep the opponents off balance.
And take take advantage of their weak spots.
Well, I share that with you because in
this text
Paul
presents for us a diverse offense, if you
will a spread offense.
In order to keep our opponent,
Satan, off balance,
so that our spiritual minds
can be protected by God's guardian of peace.
Are creative,
spiritual
offense includes
a number of things. And the first 1
that I wanna look at is joy.
Joy. In fact, Joy is so important that
our coach, Paul said it twice. 2 times
in a row.
Rejoice
in the Lord.
And again, I say it, rejoice. It's like
he's the coach riding on the on the
board and under lining it.
Rejoice.
Paul wants us to know how important that
is. Friends,
joy,
joy does not come from our circumstances.
Oh, it's a sunny day. I'm joyful. Oh,
it's raining. I'm bum.
My bank account is full. I'm joyful.
I'm running on empty.
I'm bomb. No. Joy doesn't come from our
circumstances.
Joy is a gift
from God
himself.
In fact, the word,
for joy in the original language
is closely related with the same word that
we translate as grace.
Grace.
Joy is both a gift from God,
and
it is our response,
to the gift of God.
That interesting.
And so we experienced joy, you when... Not
only when we receive from God, joy, but
when we recognize and are thankful
in
using that joy, and allowing that joy to
per and infiltrate and live, recognize in our
life.
So joy comes when we are aware
of God's grace
when we just re his favor.
We just desire to live within god's plan
and purpose for our life. And so with
that in mind, it's evident that 1 way
to experience joy is just to to focus
on god.
And we do that
instead of dwelling
on our difficulties.
On those things that are robbing our contentment
instead,
we dwell on God. Now, this is not
to say that we should, you know, deny
hard times or discontent.
Or difficult
negative
emotions. I'm not saying just think positively and
everything will be fine. Don't get me wrong
here.
I love the psalms, and and I would
just commend you to spend some time in
the psalms because the psalm writers
in the old testament.
They're so good at pouring out their hearts
to God,
including when they're mad at God and frustrated
with God and confused and don't understand But
what I love so much about the psalms
is they might start with that negative stuff,
but they always come around at the end.
To recognize, okay, God.
You've got me,
and I've got you, and we're gonna be
okay.
And that's where joy comes into play.
That's where it comes into play. And so
following the example of those psalm, we can
pour our hearts out to god, we can
tell him
We can be blunt about it. We might
as well be because he already knows what
we're thinking it's not secret.
So go ahead and tell God, all the
things that ey, all the things bug you.
But then
work through it to that point where you
could submit those things to him,
Release them to him
Remember who he is.
And that is when you will find rest
and joy
in
God.
But it's not just joy. In addition to
re the next offensive tool that Paul offers
to us is this interesting word reasonable
Reasonable.
Your version might translate it as gentle
or patient.
Followers of Jesus ought to be gentle
and patient
and reasonable.
In our dialogue in our conversations with 1
another
with the people that we work with,
people we go to school with, people we
live in the community with, We need to
be known as reasonable
people.
That means
we don't wanna have a reputation of somebody
that's easily angered
or foolish
buying into things that are obviously not true,
but rather as reasonable.
Wise people who can handle
difficulties and even disagreements
with maturity.
This is a a most
important tool
It's such an important tool available to us
because
it allows that guardian of peace.
To dwell at our doorstep,
providing us the protection.
And it is an especially useful trait in
this culture in which we find ourselves living,
full of
polarization,
full of harsh words,
d meaning
attitudes,
resentment towards anybody who thinks differently
or looks differently
than we think they might not.
When we reveal a gentle
reasonable
spirit,
we can often diffuse the anger.
And the rage
that's so prevalent
in our culture,
and we'll find ourselves
dwelling more in the arena of peace
and peace is the guardian
that allows us
to represent the Lord well.
And then finally, Paul offers a third offensive
weapon in our battle against our enemy of
anxiety and stress that seeks to just dis
derail our peace. And that tool is prayer.
Prayer, rather than succumb to anxiety, we are
called to practice
a
lifestyle of prayer. And I want us to
really understand this. It's not just a quick
throw up prayer and not said, oh, I
prayed. You no, a lifestyle an ongoing practice,
or of living in prayer. It's so important
that Paul uses 4
distinct worst to describe bringing
our problems, bringing our stuff to the lord.
He uses the the generic word prayer,
He uses another word sup,
another word request and a fourth word thanksgiving.
And so we might see it as is
this. Prayer is coming to God.
Sup simplification or your version might say petition
is admitting to see your need
for his help. That's a big 1 isn't
it,
especially for us that, yeah, and we can
do it on our own. No.
We need to come with sup dislocation with
petition, with prayer, and then requesting
requesting,
give gives an idea of a specific
intervention. It identifies how you need god to
help.
Well, what doesn't god already know how he
needs to help me.
It's for us, folks.
When we make the request, We are identifying.
We're verbal.
We're thinking through what is that I'm requesting
of God. Is it reasonable.
Is this something within his clear, spoken, word
and will.
We wanna make good requests, not arrogant requests,
not ridiculous requests.
Right?
And then finally, each of these things, Paul
says, should be done with thanksgiving.
That is we should be thankful.
That God knows best,
that he is in control and even when
our requests
perhaps aren't granted.
We're okay with that.
Because we understand God
is in control.
And so it might sound something like this.
Father God,
I'm hurting.
I'm hurting because my friend is rejecting me
and Lord. I don't know. I don't know
if other people are putting pressure on my
friend or if they're influencing my friend negatively,
but that's sure how it feels, Lord.
And so father help me not to worry.
Not to get angry
about this situation, please, Lord help me to
think rightly.
And clearly.
And God, I thank you for your love
and your faithfulness to me, and I thank
you for the good that I've experienced
in the past with my friend,
and father as I I look for ways
to reconcile
with my friend I trust in your ways,
Lord.
Amen.
Little model for you. You can adjust it.
Just it to your circumstances
to your events to your situation, but I
want you to think about how your prayer
life is formed through these 4
specific
what we call maybe facets of prayer.
As we learn
to use this diverse set of tools in
our spiritual life,
we will find a growing sense of peace.
Guarding our hearts and minds from the negative
thoughts
and ideas
that are so prevalent in our world today.
But as useful as a a diverse offenses,
our coach Paul
believes in a well rounded approach.
Alright?
And so next, we see that protecting our
minds includes a strong
defense.
A strong defense. Now, in football,
left tackle
are arguably the most important of the 5
offensive line. The left tackle
is the guy that protects the quarterback
blind side from the oncoming pass rush. So
they're they're responsible
for protecting the quarterback from the people he
can't see.
Sometimes they're even called the quarterback best friend.
Because they're constantly
guarding
the quarterback
in vulnerable
situations.
And friends that is what the peace of
God
can do for you.
God's holy spirit, the spirit of peace is
like our left tackle.
He's on the lookout constantly
to protect us from the onslaught.
He is our strong
defense.
But you know what? We have to play
a part. In that strong defense as well.
To fully
experience the peace from god that Paul says
surpasses our own understanding. Isn't that a great
phrase.
It it means we can't even fully verbal
it. I can't even fully tell you about
it this morning. You just have to experience
it when you do, you'll know it.
But it surpasses
our own
understanding. And to get that to experience that,
we need to readjust our thought pattern.
Like a a quarterback
and his Line,
we need to be on the same page
of the playbook.
We need to work in concert
with god's holy spirit of peace, and how
do we do that?
We do that when we adjust our thought
patterns, and Paul tells us
exactly how
In verse 8. What does he say? 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's anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Now I don't need to spend a lot
of time.
Identifying what these words mean for you. Do
I? They're pretty self explanatory.
True,
pure,
lovely,
commendable. You know what those things are excellent.
Think about these things. That's what Paul says
is the recipe,
The rest of he for being on the
same page
as
our left tackle,
our guardian of peace. You know, recently, there
was some research done. They asked a thousand
adults in the United States between the ages
of 25 and 54.
They ask them what they think about
while they're taking a shower.
Alright. Now here are the top 3 reasons
or 3 3 things, 3 responses that they
think about in the shower. Number 1,
To do lists.
To do lists. Number 2,
problems and worries,
and number 3,
work.
It's a top 3.
I'm taking a shower. That's what I think
about. And what an interesting glimpse I think
into what we kind of ob over?
When we wake up in the morning or
when we wind down in the evening, those
are the 2 times that most of us
take a shower.
And I just to thinking, you know, while
we clean ourselves to start the day,
at the same time, we're already soil ourselves
with stress,
and disappointment and worry.
Think about that. When we try our best
to to clear the clutter from our minds,
maybe with a nice long shower or a
bath in the evening.
What happens instead?
We fill our minds.
To overflowing with what thoughts about places to
go and people to see and task to
accomplish and things I'm worried about
We are people who can barely go 1
minute without pondering
the many things that we feel we need
to do. We must stu. We should do.
We we should not be doing oh, on
and on it goes.
And instead,
instead friends, what if
what if in those times of
relaxation
and slowing down
in refocus, I don't care where it happens
if it happens in the shower somewhere else.
But what if in those times?
What if we thought instead about the goodness
of God.
God, you are so good to me.
Thank you for the goodness I've experienced today.
What if instead,
we thought about the beauty of God's
creation, Lord, thank you for this glorious beautiful
shiny day. I'm looking forward to living in
it.
What if we just thought about the power
of God's grace.
God your grace is overwhelming and awesome and
powerful.
Thank you, Lord,
that I walk in your grace and not
in your judgment.
What if we instead of thinking about what
we needed to do. We thought about the
promise of heaven.
What if instead of ob about our to
do list, We celebrated God's already done list.
That's an awesome list. Isn't it?
God's already done list. Think about these. Things.
What if instead of our anxiety over current
events and politics
and wars and the things that are going
on in this world What if instead of
focusing on those things?
What if instead we ponder the power.
Of the peace that is to come
in the life that is to come that
god promises for us. Friends, the antidote
the divine promise, the strong defense of God's
peace is available
to you and to me right now,
All we have to do is think about
it. Think about these things.
And here's the thing.
These minds can only do so much. And
so to think about these things, we've got
to clear out some of the junk. Right?
So that there's room to think about these
things.
So there's some homework for the week. Alright?
Don't think about...
Those things.
Whatever's is on your list.
Think about these things.
A diverse offense.
A strong defense. And then finally, we see
that protecting our mind
requires
and abundance of practice.
Just a whole bunch of practice.
Have you ever wondered why a house cat
can climb up a tree
but sometimes they just don't know how to
get back down.
I I read about this. This animal expert,
doctor Temple Grand has theory. She claims that
at some point, mother cats teach kittens how
to climb and descend from high places, the
just as they teach their young great many
other things
that were once thought to be innate cat
behavior.
They teach them out to hunt, how to
bury their waste, how to deal with live
prey, how to approach an unknown person or
a dog and so forth. These are things
that the mother teaches
to the kitten.
And so doctor Grand speculate that cats that
get in stuck in trees according to her
theory, are cats
that were perhaps taken from their mothers
before the lessons about getting out of the
tree, was taught.
Now, that's just a theory, but we know
from scientific studies that a great deal of
animal behavior is learned behavior. It's not just
instinct.
Scientific studies have been done on all kinds
of animals.
Tigers and wolves and c and lizards and
fish, even even ants. And those studies show
that animals,
learn how to be a particular kind of
animal by watching,
observing and I,
their mothers or other members
of their animal group. They learn by
imitation.
And in the same way friends, we learn
how to follow Jesus
by watching
and I
other followers
of Jesus.
And this is both brilliant
and scary
Because sometimes
we don't act the way we ought to.
Right?
And we don't want other people I us.
And so I'm talking about when we see
these traits being lived out, carried out. People
of wisdom, people of peace.
People that are walking in God's spirit. When
you see those people,
watch them.
Learn from them,
imitate them.
In the closing verse of our text in
in verse 9,
Paul says to the Philippians church and to
us.
That's why these words have been preserved for
2000 years carefully.
What you have learned
and received
and heard
and seen in me.
What does he say?
Practice
these things.
And the God of peace will be with
you.
Do you see the abundance of practice?
You know, the football team with a diverse
offense and a strong defense,
That doesn't just happen. Right?
They spend all week
practicing and preparing for the game on Saturday.
And you know what? The game of life
is no different friends.
Paul says, follow my example.
Watch me. Observe me. Listen to me. Follow
me, And then you too will have the
guardian peace standing outside your door.
And you know what's so interesting to me
and so humbling to me about and I
read that.
It's this that is Paul right these words
to the Philippians church. These deep and meaningful
words about protecting their minds in their hearts
and experiencing supernatural
peace as Paul writes these words,
he is in prison,
He is chained
to a Roman guard.
And friends that guard was not there
to bring Paul to a place of peace.
Is that right? That guard was not there
to assist Paul in his times of anxiety
or stress or fear or disappointment. Do you
think that guard cared anything about any of
that?
Absolutely not.
And yet,
because Paul has spent years
practicing these deep, deep truths, he knows
that his readers can experience these truths as
well
if they will follow the pattern.
And he knows that because
unseen by that Roman guard that is chained
to Paul is another guard.
A more powerful guard, a guard who does
seek what is best for Paul, who has
his back, who is protecting his mind and
his heart
and who is there to encourage him,
especially in the difficult moments.
Like being in prison.
The guardian
of peace,
run a little football theme today.
Aaron Rogers
is 1 of the more well known
and more controversial football players in the Nfl.
He was a first round draft pick.
He is a herald throw with a rifle
arm.
It's currently quarterback back for the New York
jets
But for many years, he was the quarterback
for the Green bay packers.
Aaron Rogers was raised.
In an evangelical Christian household.
But soon after winning the Super Bowl
The greatest achievement of football player can can
get to.
He won the Super Bowl in 2011.
And soon after that, he began questioning his
Christian faith.
In an interview with Espn,
Roger says he no longer identifies. Their religious
affiliation. He now believes that organize religion can
have a a mind debilitating
effect with
because there's an exclusive visit
exclusivity that can shut you out from being
open to the world to people to energy
to love and to accept.
That's Aaron Rogers take.
On the life of faith.
Oh wanna contrast that though.
Contrast Aaron Rogers with a far lesser known
football player. Probably nobody here. Has heard of
this football player, but you've heard of Aaron
Rogers.
This football player's name is Ryan Su,
He's a field goal kicker,
and he was the last, the very last
overall pick.
Number 256.
In the Nfl draft that he participated in
out of college.
Now, the media famously labeled the very last
picked
mister irrelevant
because the last picks rarely
make the team
Su though,
not only made the team.
He played for 14 seasons,
in the Nfl.
And he has ranked as 1 of the
top 20 all time in career field goal
percentage.
Could say he's at the top of his
game.
In fact,
he was the first mister or irrelevant to
play and win
a super Bowl.
He won a Super Bowl just like Aaron
Rogers.
The first 1 to win as a starter
and an active player.
A being the last
chosen.
Su up,
thanks God for his success,
in an interview.
He said this.
Every gift and ability I have obviously comes
from the lord.
Kicking field goals
is a high stress
occupation
He goes on and he says, when your
perform before 75000
fans out there and you mess up
every single 1 of them knows it.
And you're all alone.
Su
said this in his interview. He says I
read
Philippians philippians 4
6 through 8
before every game.
And I recite some of the words in
my head before every single kick.
Every time I read that scripture and pray
that prayer. The Lord has blessed me with
peace.
In connection with my ability.
God makes clear
that he doesn't want us to be anxious.
Every time we're anxious about something,
we're not trusting
in him.
Friends, it seems to me like Aaron Rogers
has made a decision to trust in his
own understanding
of how things work in this world.
While Ryan Su has chosen to have his
mind
and his heart protected.
By the guardian
of peace.
And this morning, I wanna say that that
choice
is available
for each of us. As well. Friends, the
guardian of peace can be there for you.
No matter the location
No matter the situation you find yourself in,
He is just waiting for you.
To call.
Practice
these things,
and the God of peace
will be with you.
That's a promise
from the the apostle Paul.
Let's pray together.
Father we thank you for the power of
your spirit that is available
to each person who would choose
to follow you.
Father, we thank you that we can live
in peace
despite
contentious times,
Despite confusion and uncertainty even in our own
lives father, we can live in peace.
When we trust in you.
Father my prayers for each person in this
building
each person that's listening to this message today,
Lord that they would find their way to
that place of peace
as they come to understand what it means.
To follow Jesus as Lord and savior.
What it means to receive the gift
of the holy spirit
when we are born again
into the family of God.
Guide us today, Lord we pray
in Jesus name.
Amen.
Well not only am I on,