review

Well, I thought it would be appropriate if I could get someone... Oh, there's actually something right here. It's a pencil. I hope it works. Well, actually, you can have mine. Well, I'd like to read all of Chapter 4. So maybe we could divide it up. Would someone like to read the first half of Flipping's Chapter 4 and then someone the second half? I can read part of it. Okay, thanks, Roy. I guess there's what, maybe the first 12? Yeah, okay, that sounds good.

Therefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Iodia and Syncate, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I betread also thee, with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God. Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatever thing is honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which you have learned and received and heard and seen and peace will be with you.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, and now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, of which ye were also mindful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatever state I am, in this to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. For even Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.

But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Thank you. OK.

Well, today we're going to, as I mentioned, we're going to do the impossible. We're going to try to review Chapter 4. So what I've chosen to do is what I've done in the past. Well actually maybe before I just kind of show you where we're headed. This is the last chapter in Philippians and we're going to start in this section for the rest of the year where we kind of go back through and kind of pick up topics. There are five topics. The next week I'm going to talk about those five topics and take a couple of weeks on each of those topics. Some of the main themes that we've seen in Philippians.

And so we'll do that for the rest of the year. So that's kind of the plan. So I listed the beginning of that part. But for today we're going to look at chapter four. So basically what I did is, and I've done in the past, is just the sections we covered, the verses we covered, I just have that in each of the charts.

And I looked at those and said, well, what are some things that come to mind? And sometimes I wrote the questions down not knowing the answer necessarily, and I had to try to answer my own question. And sometimes I actually need your help in some of them. Obviously, you need the Lord's help in all of them. So this is the first section. One thing that comes across when you look at this, look how personal he's talking here. He says, therefore, my beloved brethren, my joy, my crown. There's all these my's in here. It's personal to Paul.

He's really excited about these believers and what the Lord is doing there in Philippi. And he wants them to be of one mind and wants them to be striving together for the gospel. And so he's kind of sharing, and he's so excited that they seem to be the exceptional church. You know, if you look through at the other churches in Colossae, in Ephesus, in Rome, this church just stands out head and shoulders above. They were so in sync with Paul. They so understood what he was trying to do in spreading the gospel. It's really kind of exceptional.

And that's why I think he says, my joy and my crown. So basically, I would sit down and I just put some questions down. Now we're going to try to answer these questions. And most of them, I didn't try to make it too hard. So OK, first of all, why are Paul's brethren his joy and crown? And maybe I've already kind of answered that.

Any thoughts on that? We just read that section and he was really encouraging them to trust the Lord, but not be anxious, not be upset, and thanking them, praising them, not praising them, praising the Lord for them. So why are they his joy and crown? This doesn't have to be a deep theological... Is it because he was personally involved? Well, I think that's part of it, certainly. And he was joyful when he saw what the Lord was doing there and how they were responding, how they were walking with the Lord, it seems like.

And the word for crown, one thing that helps a lot, the word for crown, there's several words for crown in the New Testament. That's the one for the victor's crown. So I think he saw, wow, look at the fruits that the Lord has allowed us to have in Philippi. Look at what's happening here. He says, my crown, it focuses back on the Lord. But he just identified so strongly with those believers. Other thoughts about that? Don't you think they were kind of an example of how the body should function? Exactly. No, I agree with you. As has been pointed out, there's very little condemnation for the believers in Philippi. Very little, if any. So it's all encouragement and about walking with the Lord. Any more thoughts on that? 50 questions here. Like I said, we probably won't get there.

So the next one was, he tells them, right after he says, you're my joy and my crown, he says, what does it mean, so I have a question, what does it mean to stand firm? So they're supposed to go out and they've got to get on their military boots and we're going to do this guys, we're going to stand firm here. The guys come around here, we're going to take care of them. Is that what he means?

Stand firm in the Lord? It helps if you, and for people who just walked in, we're summarizing chapter 4, which we spent the last two months looking into. So you're a little bit at a disadvantage because we've been through this. This is, we're going back through it again. The word stand firm is the idea, meaning to stand fast in the faith.

And there's actually, you know, he's It's a very similar expression like he says basically in verse 1. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Let's look back in chapter 1. He said a very similar thing in chapter 1 and verse 27. If I get someone to read that chapter 1 verse 27.

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So I think that verse really kind of amplifies this verse. I mean, it kind of expands that and says, you know, the idea is to stand firm in one spirit, so there is unity in one spirit. and one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. So this standing firm is all that God would have them to do there at Philippi. So number three, what does it mean to live in harmony in the Lord?

So he's told them to stand firm and then he kind of maybe switches a little bit, talks about these I believe they're ladies, right? Eudaiche and Syndiche? Eudaia and Syndiche? I think they're ladies. Anyway, so he says, I urge you to live in harmony in the Lord. So what does it mean to live in harmony in the Lord?

And actually, this is kind of a, this is one that, this word kind of hidden in there. Actually, does someone else have a King James? They can read what it says in the King James. For this verse, it would be verse 2. Chapter 4? Yeah, in verse 2. If you have the King James, that would be great. No, it's chapter 4, verse 2. I implore Iodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Okay, alright.

So that's kind of, so when it says live in harmony, kind of hidden in that word, and this is where the translators, you know, this is what's great about kind of looking at other versions, kind of kind of hidden in that word harmony is this idea of mindedness. And it's this word phaneo. And when Verne taught this, he taught this back in 2003, he spent a long time on this word phaneo.

It's this idea of mindedness, to have a mind, ultimately the mind of Christ. So he's saying basically, as the King James says, be of the same mind. He wants those believers to think like the Lord thinks and be in harmony in that, not to be contentious. so harmony kind of hides that a little bit i mean i like harmony in a way but then after you start looking at you say boy he's saying be of the same mind boy that's a Harmony and mindedness seem like they're different levels. Harmony sounds like, oh yeah, you slap each other in the back, okay, good buds. The same mind is totally different. We're on the same page, and we're focused on that. It really helps, and that's that word for neo. There's actually two parts.

This statement here, is he talking about something they have in Christ, that they have harmony in Christ, or is he urging them as they walk, in the Christian walk, to walk in harmony? Maybe I'm kind of giving away why I'm saying that. And as we say, is that a positional statement or is that a conditional statement?

This shouldn't be too hard. The fact that he is urging them, if you have something in Christ, it basically says we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. That's a fact, right? He doesn't say I think, you know, try to live in heavenly places. I don't know what that even means, but what that would even mean. We are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So in this case, as was pointed out, in position we have the mind of Christ. And he's telling him here, you know, be of the same mind. Be minded Let your position you are you have the mind of Christ let your in your condition be of the same mind as believers other comments in this one And we're going to see a lot of this, you know Paul's epistles many times he'll give he'll give statements about the believers position in the early chapters and then later on he will give a encouragement or exhortation for them to live in light of that.

So that's one of those examples here. Okay, so now we're going to kind of switch here, and I have just a few questions. We covered this before, but so what's at the very end here? He makes a statement about He says, verse 3, Indeed, true companions, I ask you to help these women who have shared in my struggle and the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers. And then, so he talks to all that group of people, and he says, whose names are in the Book of Life. So what's the Book of Life? We covered this before, but I'm just seeing, this is a... Is that the Lamb's Book of Life?

Okay. I think it's related to that, but the verses that typically have that... I'm trying to think what verse that is. I don't remember that. That's Revelation. Okay. Actually, it's in Revelation. I believe it is. So what does that mean if your name's in the Book of Life? Is that a good thing? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That you believe in Christ. Okay. And is there... What typically would you think about that? What does that mean in terms of eternity? It's kind of secure and safe. Right. Good. Okay. Okay. Basically, I put down a list of names of all those who have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Okay, well what I wanted to cover is, I'll just put both of them up here, 5 and 6 are basically how is the Book of Life used in the Old Testament, how is the Book of Life used in the New Testament. We didn't exactly cover this before, so I wanted to just, and let me just tell you where I'm going here. If you look in the Old Testament, The Book of Life actually sometimes with just a very common statement about they would have in a Jewish town, they would have a role of all the living souls in that town. A birth record, you could say. And if a person died or left that town, they would blot his name out.

He's no longer on this role of people. So that's one one connection, many times in the Old Testament. Well, in the New Testament it's never used that way. It's always used that we are eternally with the Lord. It's a statement of the fact that we are, because of our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are eternally, we have eternal life basically.

So it's used a slight bit differently. And there's some verses we can look at here. And I didn't want to make a... Vern had this neat chart, which I didn't actually put in the handouts here, but it's available if you're interested in that. Just kind of showing, kind of tracking through the Old and New Testament, showing the usage of the word Book of Life. So let's look here at Exodus chapter 32. I don't want to spend a long time on this, but I just wanted to clarify that it's used differently in the Old and New Testament, and sometimes in the Old Testament it's actually used referring to eternal life, but many times referring to the Millennial Kingdom too. Exodus 32, and could someone read verses 32 and 33 in Exodus 32? 32 and 33.

But now he will forgive their sin. And if not, please blot me out from your book, which you have written. The Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Right. So here, you know, if you look at that and you think, well, you know what you could you could say, well, is that is that talking about having eternal life with the Lord? And of course, this is Israel. So some of these are not, and this one I picked actually was not necessarily an easy one. So it looks like you could argue that my book could be talking about having eternal life.

Or... You could argue the other way too. Yeah, you could. His book is empty. What's that? His book is empty. Right. Right, okay, that's a good point. So this one here, you can argue either way, possibly. Let's look at, a lot of them have the idea of being removed from the Book of Life. Let's look at Psalm 69. Psalm 69 verse 20. Let's read 26 through 28. Psalm 69, 26 through 28. Can I get someone to read that?

For they persecute the ones you have struck, and talk of the grief of those you have wounded, and iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

OK. Now, the book of the living, So there it might be a little clearer that there's a list of the Book of the Living, currently living, possibly. OK, so that's a few in the Old Testament. So let's look at the ones, probably more importantly, Paul's talking here, I believe, about what's presented in the New Testament about eternal life in the Lord. So let's look at a couple of those. Let's look in Hebrews, chapter 12. The first one doesn't actually use the word Book of Life, but I think it alludes to it. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 23. Hebrews 12, 23. And how about we read 22 and 23 in Hebrews 12.

You are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. And to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. Okay. And your translation has written in heaven or mine has enrolled in heaven. So it's the idea that God has records.

And then the one that comes to mind often about the Book of Life is in the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20. Revelation 20, verse 15. This is the one that you typically think of when you talk about the Book of Life, because it's a pretty, for those who are in the Great White Throne Judgment, the Lord's going to not find their names there. So I'll go ahead and read that one. Revelation 20 verse 15. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

So that's not the situation you want. And that's actually not going to, for believers, that's not the judgment. We're already in Christ, and we're judged for rewards. So that's not our judgment. That's for unbelievers. So what he's going to show them is, their name is not there. It seems like it has the idea of belonging or not belonging. Right, exactly. The Book of Life records those who belong to the Lord. And actually, I think he filled that book out for the believers. He knows who they are before the foundation of the world. He already had their names there. He already knew that.

And so what he's going to show in the White Throne Judgment, he's going to show them that their names are not there. It's kind of confusing though when it says blotted out. So it sounded like a name was there and then removed. And I was thinking could it be put back in again?

Yeah, I know. Don't go there, but I don't know. I don't know. All those questions. And over the years, I've thought about some of those things. What's interesting is you don't really find exact verses that talk about being blotted out, but in terms of the believer, his name, well actually, this is one of the verses we have that show the believer's name is in the Book of Life. This verse right here is a positive statement. Most of them have, that your name was blotted out, was removed. I mean, much in the Old Testament.

I'm sorry, Juan, I was like... Couldn't the blotted out be maybe referring to the reward, though? In the sense of like, you know, because if someone's name was in the book, even in the physical sense, and then they moved or whatever, you know, It may have not been like an erasing completely, but maybe like you said, they put lines through it. But if you needed to go back to the record and say, you know, someone was wanted for murder or someone's been looking for him. You know what I mean? I hear what you're saying. So they have a record that he was there. Right, that he was there.

So it's not like you, in the spiritual sense, like you've lost your salvation. But maybe now the blotting is like, you know, you're no longer eligible for certain rewards. Well, the way the Book of Life is used in the New Testament is, it are those who are truly the Lords, they're the elect. So, in the Old Testament we find kind of a mixture of some, some are just a record that were written, and some allude to the fact that they will have eternal life. Maybe that's just a model more of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is, you know, that's not the church age.

So you have to be careful when you go in there and start looking at that. But it's used that way in terms of just a record that was given. And I think your idea is interesting about where you say, well, maybe if they want to go back and did, you know, John Doe lived here in this city 10 years ago. His name's been blotted out. But it showed that he lived there.

I don't think in this sense it's talking about eternity. Eternal life in the Lord Jesus Could you say that everybody's name starts out being written in the book of life and that has to be taken out? Well, you don't believe yeah I know that we've talked about that. That's actually been taught for a while. I've kind of gone back and forth on that, but it seems, after going through this, I think it looks more like that the Lord, he knows who's in the book.

He knows, it says we're chosen, we're elected. That in itself is a hard thing to grasp. But that's actually who we are in Christ. That's one of the riches we have in Christ Jesus, that we're the elect. and you can go back and free will an election, you can spend days and hours on that. But that's actually an attribute of the believer.

So, would a person's name that he knows is not the elect, would that be in there? And it seems like it's, you know, why would he have to do that? I don't know, go ahead. I just, off the top of my head, I was thinking too, it seems like we're trapped in this time continuum, you know, where that doesn't really apply. with the ward, so maybe that's part of it. And I know we've gone to that path, we think, well, were they all there and then they've wadded out.

That's not a discussion that scripture has. Scripture never has that discussion. We can have that discussion, but scripture doesn't have that discussion. It has a discussion, your name's not there. And Paul says that these believers, including himself, they were in the book of life. So it seems like that's a That's an attribute of a believer in the Lord Jesus. His name is in the Book of Life. It's a non-attribute of unbelievers. Their names are not in the Book of Life.

Alright, I hope that was helpful. Maybe that was unhelpful. Hopefully not. Okay, let's go on here. OK. So now, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. So a couple of questions. Some of them are, what does it mean to rejoice? And let me just put the other question up here too. We're running out of time here real quick. And then along with that question, is rejoicing the same as happiness? Nope. Good answer, good answer.

So what's rejoicing? What does it mean to rejoice? At the core of that word is to be glad. That's kind of the core meaning to be glad. And the focus on rejoicing is, we're going to see that, rejoice in the Lord always. It's always connected with the Lord Jesus. Rejoicing outside of Him, what would we have to be joyful about in a sense? So it's always rejoicing in the Lord, be glad in the Lord. Now happiness, well what's happiness? Define happiness. Happiness is more connected with circumstances. Happiness is an emotion. Right. You know what's cool is you can go on your computer, type in happiness. New American Standard.

There's only one verse, and I think it's not the best translation, there's only one verse in the New Testament that uses the word happiness. And actually, the core word is being blessed. So happiness is not a concept, and that's kind of a shock to some people. The Lord doesn't want me to be happy?

He has a much better thing. He has a much better thing, is kind of the bottom line. Could you say that rejoicing has to do with our position, where happiness has to do a lot with our condition? Exactly. A lot of self-focus. I was just going to say that this verse encourages us to focus on the right thing, which is the Lord Jesus. Because when we don't focus on that, we are focused on our own happiness, which is there or not sometimes. You know what I mean? You could be sure, but you're not. Isn't there a book called Happiness is a Choice?

And for a believer, really, we should be ecstatically, in the world sense, we should be ecstatically happy. We're in the book of life. We're in the book of life. We're seed with Christ in the heavenlies. We have eternal life. Our salvation is secure. We ought to be just jumping around. Really. We should just be bouncing all over the place. We are eternally blessed and so on.

So the scripture doesn't talk about happiness. Happiness is kind of a trap, because you say, well, I'm not happy today, then the Lord is not blessing me. And you can just go on this circle of. People have turmoil about, I'm not happy, so what's the Lord's will for my life so that I can be happy.

The focus is upon self. Exactly. Good. OK. How can we rejoice in the Lord always? All these questions are not real deep. I think it has to be by thinking on the things which are True and honest and pure and so forth. Right. Exactly. We're going to get to that. That's coming. You have to know who the Lord is. Right. And then who, and that's why I say who we are in Him. What is our position? Once you realize... I was going to say resting in what we know. Exactly.

If you don't know who Christ is, if you don't know your relationship to Christ, I mean, that's a whole basis. That's a whole basis for rejoicing. always go to church to get what I need, not go to church to enjoy God's company among those who he's working in mutually. I mean, we're all being informed to the image of Christ. And it's such a joy in the Lord to see that in others and experience him, that he loves us, that he wants us to know him. In other words, looking at ourselves as he looks at us, rather than just going for our needs.

No, that's excellent, excellent. And I think that's what Paul's chapter 4 is all about, how he's so excited about the Philippians, and how they've been partners in the gospel, and he just has a great joy from them, and he just cares for them, and what the Lord is doing in your life, and it's just neat.

What is the source of your gentle spirit? Some of these are not, like I said, not real. So you say, I'm going to be real gentle with that, I'm going to be real, I think I'll say that. Let's look at the, actually what's interesting is the word gentleness, does someone know what the root word there is for gentleness? Does someone have a different translation of this one?

It's like patience. Okay. Moderation. Okay. Reasonableness. I can't say that. Reasonableness. Reasonable. Gentle. Well, if you look, there are several verses where it talks about gentle and peaceable. And the source of that, there only can be one source, that can't be our gentleness. Maybe you're a gentle person, maybe you're a type A and you're all over the map. Is that really right? So maybe you have a character trait. I don't think it's, a gentle spirit is basically Christ's spirit. something comes for who you are in Christ.

So the source of that would be Christ himself. And then lastly, what does it mean that the Lord is near? Does that mean that when he wrote this he said the Lord is near and now we've gone 2,000 years? Is he still near? Yeah. I think that's the point. It's imminent, right? Sometimes it's translated at hand. The Lord is at hand. Actually there's a verse in James that says, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Very similar to this. So that's talking about the rapture? Because that was written a long time ago, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Keep in mind that God is outside of time. Yeah, I know. That's true, that's true. Looking at it from his perspective. Yeah, oh yeah, no, I totally agree with that. The question about being, is that talking about the rapture? I think a hand is better. Well, that's interesting. I don't know.

For the coming of the Lord. In James, we could turn that, but it basically says the coming of the Lord. So that's speaking more of his coming. In this case, he's saying the Lord is near. I think it implies his coming. I guess I would lean toward this talking about his returning for his saints.

I was thinking of it in light of the next verse which is be anxious for nothing, which has to do with the aspect that we're in him and not ours to worry about. How should we live our life versus, I don't know. Yeah, okay. Interesting. That's interesting. I came up with one idea, and then I thought, well, that'll be exercise for the student here. That's interesting, actually. I'll have to think about that a little bit. That's good, because actually we're going to go right into the, you know, in terms of worry and anxiety and things like that.

Well, and Roger, it made me think of not just the rapture, but also the fact, Hebrews 13.5, I will never leave thee. So if God never leaves us, once we're saved, then that gentle spirit is going to be evident. And we're not going to be anxious, which the coming verses are going to talk about. Because the Lord is with us. He's near. He's close. I don't know. No, I like that. Actually, I went down the other path thinking about, you know, and that's good. That's good. I can't, you know. Okay, good. Let's look at these verses.

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, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Okay, so how can we be anxious for nothing? And actually, literally that word nothing is not at all in no respect. So how is that possible? That's Paul's instruction for Philippians. He says, be anxious for nothing.

I think it's like you said, it's having an understanding of what our position is in Him and the fact that because He is in us, we are in Him and He is in the Father and there's nothing that can separate that or combine that. I know when we went through our issue with Titus that these verses, these were our verses. because it was unexplainable how there was so much peace and of course there was prayer for healing and all that but it was also the flip side of but Lord if it's not your will to heal Titus then we're not anxious and we're not concerned because we know that this is your will and that you have him and that you have us so it was exactly this that there wasn't any anxiety because we knew who he was and what he was able to do but we knew he wasn't going to do that but he was also going to equip us and Titus with everything we needed to get through that. Great, great. That's good, that's good. Actually, you know, there's kind of a parallel verse to this in 1 Peter. Let's look at 1 Peter 5. And it kind of shows you, I think this is just what you were talking about. 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. Let's read 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So that word for care, or actually anxiety, is the same word for be anxious. It's a noun, this is a verb form, this is a noun form. It's the same word. So the idea is that we take our anxiety and we don't hold on to it.

We say, Lord, it's yours. There's this beautiful picture in the Old Testament where, I can't think who it was, he presented He presented it to the Lord. Here's all the issues he had, and he put it on the altar before he laid it out. He said, here are my issues. And he laid it down on the altar before the Lord. And he says, they're yours, Lord, in a sense.

I think that's really the right perspective. Because we cannot handle, if you think about it, the anxiety of this age is overwhelming. I mean, there's this issue upon issue. I mean, have you ever thought As God looks out across, this always just boggles my mind. He's able to handle all the anxiety of this entire world. I mean, you look at the Middle East, you look at America, you look at just about any place, and there's just, just right here in Denton, right here with Jessica. I mean, you think, man is just, he's hopeless. And that's why we need a Savior. He's just so, you know, So that anxiety, God can handle that anxiety. We cannot. He can look at all the anxiety and He doesn't get overwhelmed.

We do. Well, I was thinking on the flip side of that too, is that our view is from a finished work, right? We already know the end of the story. We know where we live, right? So that path, although we may not understand it, we know the goal. So we can relax about it. There may be this turn and that turn that goes off the cliff in our estimation. But we know the end. And that's so important.

In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19, having therefore a brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh. And then verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Isn't that a parallel passage to this? We are in Him. can't get much nearer than that.

That's good. And drawing near to Him. Do we really believe that? Right. Do we really believe, I think it was expressed, do we really believe that that was God's will? You think, wow, I thought God's will was going to be this. It was going to be this path. I had this path in my life. It's going to go like this and it's going to turn. And it goes a different way and you think, what's going on here? Go ahead. Well, you're probably going to get there, but what's great about these verses is that We don't get his peace. We don't get better service. He doesn't fix it up. It's so wonderful.

So going into a difficult situation, we need to remind ourselves, well, okay, Lord, this is your will. Who am I to argue with you and say, well, I wanted a different path. I wanted it to be this way. Why is it important that our request be made known in everything? This kind of struck me.

He says, in everything, and that's that idea that you don't hold anything back. It's that word pas, which is nothing excluded. So why does he want everything? This is not a deep theological answer either. I think it's because he wants a relationship with us. He wants us to communicate with him. I think that's what prayer is for. Our prayers do make a difference. but primarily I think it's for relationships.

He doesn't want you to hold back and say, well, this little set, I can take care of this set. These are the easy ones, Lord. And some people will kind of, they operate, well, I have to pray now. It's like, OK, I'm doing just fine, and I was handling a lot, but now I have to pray. It must really be getting serious. No, we want you to start over here with prayer for all the things, for every day, for the easy things, what we consider easy. We want you to start there because it's a relationship.

What is the difference between prayer and supplication? Actually, the word supplication sometimes is translated petition. Maybe not to drag this out because we're totally going to run out of time here. Prayer is kind of the general term. Supplication is more specific. It's more for a particular need.

So there's a general prayer. You might pray and thank the Lord for this beautiful day. Whereas supplication, you might have a specific prayer about a particular need. So it's prayer and petition, prayer and supplication. And there's just many verses that talk about that. Why is the attitude of Thanksgiving important as we make our request? So why does he want us to be thankful?

Like I said, I sat down and I just started writing his questions down. This is pretty simple, but if he grants us, we have nothing to do with what he's doing in our lives. Exactly. It takes total sense. Why wouldn't we be ecstatically thankful? Thank you Lord, that you even have this I don't have to be anxious. Thanksgiving is also the grace response to grace. That's one thing we can say, right? Thank you, Lord. How about the fact that we can actually do that? We can actually go to the God of the universe with prayers and traditions. Oh, wow. Absolutely. You think, wait a minute, does he have time for me? Is he kind of busy? How many people on the planet? What's the number? Six billion. Okay, six billion. I'm one out of six billion. When we remember And I'd call to mind the things that he's done in the past.

Doesn't that bolster our confidence? Absolutely. And help us to rest. Absolutely. You say, Lord, you know, it took me through that situation. In fact, actually, there's a whole section in Corinthians that talks about that. How we learn and we encourage others. By the Lord showed me this and took me through this. Now I can encourage another believer. Well, look what the Lord's done here. He's faithful. He's not going to forget. He's not going to be too busy.

In passing, you know, you just think, in passing, man, I wish this would have happened or that. And then it comes to pass, and it's like, oh, thank you, Lord. You don't really pray about it, you just kind of wish for it. And it's granted, and you know it's the Lord. And then that causes more thanksgiving and thank you for who you are. Right, right, I know.

Sometimes at home, mine would just be the simple things like trying to find our car keys. It's like you're missing a little love that's on the floor that you can't find. And it's like, oh, you know, our God is great. He's so concerned with the little things in our lives.

It's just amazing. It is. I was going to say, too, the idea of prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving is really prayer as a focus on who God is and what he's going to do. Supplication is our request. Thanksgiving is thanking him for how he's going to act. Great. No, that's very good. Very good. OK, so now let me get down to, hopefully we'll finish this verse before time runs out.

OK, so it actually says here, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So what's the peace of God? It's not like I said once again, this is not. Now, just for later on, he's going to say the God of Peace. So he has the God of Peace. And I'll tell you, the God of Peace is a title, the God of Peace. But here, it's kind of flipped around. He says the Peace of God, or the Peace that comes from God. Isn't peace almost the opposite of being anxious?

I think that's good. So as we interact with the Lord and we cast all our cares upon Him, what we receive back is His peace. His peace says, I'm going to take care of it. I'm going to take care of it. Now, it's going to be His will, not my will, so we have to be in sync with Him.

And then basically, how are our minds and hearts guarded? If you read that carefully, it answers this question. It says, and the peace of God will guard your heart. So the peace of God is It's the one that's marching around, guarding you. Isn't that kind of cool? And it's a military term, like you have guards. So his piece is guarding you. And it's defined as, which surpasses all comprehension. So I was just wondering, anxiety isn't necessarily a sin then, in realizing that we're going to be anxious. And it sounds like, you know, he just assumes that, that we're going to be anxious.

And that's actually the tense there. It actually should be literally translated, stop being anxious. Actually, some translations like the Weiss will have it, stop being anxious. You can see we're all the way to verse 7. The verb tense there assumes the action is already in process. Stop being anxious for even one little thing. That's one translation. That's a weak translation.

Stop being anxious for even one little thing. Then he tells us how to stop. He tells us. He doesn't say, Don't you be anxious. Stand up there. He says he wants a relationship. And you bring everything. You also bring some. This verse we could spend, I'm not sure we're going to get much beyond this one. We're out of time here. Any last thoughts on this one here? Any last thoughts? More thoughts?

Well, it's such a contrast, isn't it, to the power of positive thinking that is presented in the world so much today. I think it's so poignant, too, because I think, in general, I think even though they don't recognize it yet, I think this is what non-believers are looking for.

They're looking for real joy and real peace that, you know, my version says, passes all understanding. I was talking to my neighbor about this yesterday, because they search for it in all these worldly things. And some think counseling, drugs, whatever, may suffice for a little while, but then it's gone again. And then they are searching again.

It's so neat that this is how the Lord sets it up. It's like, not only is it free, but this is everything you're looking for. It's all right here. It's all in me. So you just got to come over here. So it's so interesting that this is not offered anywhere in the world. And there's nowhere else that you can get this. This kind of peace and this kind of not be anxious.

All those other things work for a time. But then it's over and everything's going to come back. That's good. That's good. OK, let's see here. OK, we'll try to close on this one right here. I didn't want to miss this one. Finally, Paul does these finally several times. He has finally back in chapter three. So it reminds me of, I can't think. There's a joke there somewhere. I can't remember exactly.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good repute, if there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things, and the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Why are we to dwell on things in verse 8? Let me just give you a little insight. This word dwell is a really important word. It's this word logizimae and it's the idea of to reckon, to consider.

Actually Verne just covered this recently back in Romans 6.11. It says reckon yourself dead to sin. It's so interesting. He's using that same word. It's an accounting term. It's sort of like, you know, you look in your...

We don't do checkbooks anymore. We used to have checkbooks, right? You look online and checkbooks are sitting in the desk drawer anymore. But you look in your checkbook... What are checks? Yeah, actually, kids can't write checks anymore. That's another story. You look in your checkbook and you say, Do I have the, is my account full here?

So what the Lord wants us to do, once again, counting upon Him, we count upon what He has. And so, you know, we're dwelling on, really, who we are in Christ. Whatever is true, honorable, pure, all those things are not something that we can generate. that only can be generated as Christ is in me. And so he's saying focus on those things, dwell on those things, count those things up.

And this if statement is just, there's a couple of ifs in there and they're not questionable, they're just a statement of, they're for argument's sake. If there's any excellence, and there is, is there anything worthy of praise? And there is. Dwell on these things.

And what's interesting here in verse 9, it says, there are four things that Paul says, he says, the things you have learned, received, heard, and seen. And I think that's kind of cool. You may have learned something, you may have received something, you may have heard something, you may have seen something. And I actually, when this was taught before, they kind of went in detail into those four things.

But that's kind of neat. He says, practice those things, or literally do those things, and the God of peace will be with you. And I had a question here. This is a position and condition question, but we'll close on this one. Will the God of peace still be with you if you don't practice these things? This is kind of a trick question. Yes. Yes. Why is that true?

I will never leave you or forsake you. So what I think is being said here, this is a fellowship verse, or a conditional verse. We have God with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. But as we walk with him, as we learn, receive, hear, and see in me, Paul is talking about himself, but he is implying God basically. The God of Peace will have this fellowship, this relationship. And that's what over and over again, in so many different ways, the Lord is telling us He wants us to have a relationship with Him. It looks like the God of Peace may not be with me.

I'm in trouble here. Do I have to worry? I don't. He wants a relationship. This is a conditional kind of statement. So there's another four or five pages here of stuff. And I only have a lot in one week for this. Actually, maybe next week I might come to think of it. I'm not sure I have enough to do next week. So maybe we'll do some more of this next week. We're going to do that. I like that. We'll finish some of these here, and then we're going to do the overview for the remaining weeks.

Like I mentioned, you guys weren't here, but let me just go back here. Can I go back fast? Starting on October 28th, we're going to go through just some topics that are in Philippians, and we're going to talk about those topics. We're going to pull out about, actually this is the word phaneo, attitude and mindedness, and then joy and rejoicing. So we're going to see some of these themes again.

So I was going to give a little overview of that. So we all include some of the part we didn't get to today in that. Well, great class. Thanks for all the participation. I like to listen to you guys. This is good. Okay. Dear Father, thanks so much for this day, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have for our Savior who loves us and gave his life for us, Lord. And thank you that we can be anxious for nothing, not one thing, not by our own efforts, Lord, but by simple faith and trust in what you've done and trusting you in all things. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.