Winning the Battle of the Mind Pt 1

I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. And those of you online, we welcome you. Would you all stand with us? Would you join me in prayer as you stand? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come this morning to worship in song, Lord. To spend time as we worship, as we study your word, as we fellowship with you and one another, Lord. Would you be glorified, Lord?

Help us be real before you. Help us let go and worship. Trust. Look to you. We look to you, the author and finisher of our faith, Lord. And so we're going to worship by faith. We may feel different ways this morning. Maybe we feel tired. We may feel different things. But by faith, we come to you, Lord. You're worthy of our worship as we corporately worship together.

Lord, you may be seated. Father, we thank you for your grace, your love, the power of your love, the motive of your love to send your son, Jesus Christ, Lord. To die for us on the cross. We who are dead in our trespasses, you have made alive in you, Lord Jesus. We thank you. We thank you for the work, Lord, of the cross. And the resurrection and your ascension up into glory up at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

We thank you, Lord Jesus. You're worthy of our praise.

He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice. He will rest in his love and joy over thee with singing. We praise you, Lord Jesus, right now. Great are you. What a wonderful, good, good Father you are, Lord.

Such a good Father. For the foundations of the world, Lord, you planned our salvation. Jesus provided our salvation. The Holy Spirit seals our salvation. We thank you, Lord. We thank you so much, Lord. And all that we go through in life, we're never alone. We can trust you in every area of our life, Lord. You are. You are faithful, so faithful. And we thank you.

I'll save now. Thank you, Lord, for your salvation. Hosanna to you in the highest. We give you praise. And so, Father, as we continue our service, as we fellowship, and Pastor Ryan comes up to teach your word, would you anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring it forth with your power, Lord, that it would sink deep into our hearts, that you would fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit this morning.

Lord, that we would be being filled with the Holy Spirit as we yield ourselves to you, as we open our hearts to the things of you, Lord, this morning, as we yield our will to you, Lord, our willingness to serve you, our willingness to serve you, not because we have to, not because of being legalistic, but because you loved us. We first, we then loved you. It was because of your first loving us. And so we want to serve you out of love, Lord, for who you are.

And we give you thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you all. Let's have a little fellowship. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements here. Lord Chapel, I'm glad that you joined us this morning. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, going on throughout the week, so please take note of those and get involved.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, a handful of things to take note of. First of all, a reminder that this coming Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. Still says May 12th, should say May 2nd, from noon to 1 at the Wilson Park Rotunda. So come check that out with us. It'll be a great time. So the Guatemala missions trip, I'm going to have Jana make an announcement in just a moment.

Well, yeah, come on up, Jana, to make a quick announcement about the Guatemala missions trip.

Good morning. I did want to let you know that Jeff called me from Guatemala this week and said we needed to close the trip on Wednesday. So we are going with 10 people. We would like to ask you to pray for us. It's May 27th when we leave. And I think Ginger may be—is Ginger the only one here that's going? Ginger, wave at everybody. I'm going to pray for you as well.

Anybody else in here that's going? Oh, Alan's in the back. There he is. Alan and Marianne are joining us. So we would appreciate your prayer support on that. I did want to mention that he sent me a medication donation list. If any of you are interested in donating supplies that they specifically need, I put a little suitcase that we're going to take out there on the table,

and we would love to fill it with things like triple antibiotic cream. He mentioned that you can buy these things. Usually at the Dollar Tree for, you know, a buck and a quarter. And so if you'd like to help us fill that bag back there, there are more of these lists in the bag. Feel free to take one. But the most important things that they need right now are triple antibiotic cream,

hemorrhoid cream, and artificial tears, not the Visine type, he said. So there's a few other things like eight packs of crayons they can always use. Oh, he did tell me we will be doing a multitude of things. We will be doing some VBS. Ginger and Janice Richardson that are going will be doing some medical clinic work, and we're going to kind of split up and divide and conquer.

So anyway, that's all I have. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. So are you going to leave that suitcase out there for the next two or three weeks? Okay. Very good. And then there will be a list next to it that they can take with them. Okay. Perfect. There you go. All right. A couple of other things to take note of. We do. If you have an opportunity to serve, we are looking for a couple of folks to help out with our cleaning team.

Really, there's lots of places where you can serve if you want to get involved. This is one specific one that we're needing a couple of extra people on. So if you're interested in that, you can see Leah Abbey or Lauren Lewis. And if you're interested in any other ministry, you can come talk to me, and we can get you plugged in with the right people. And then last but certainly not least,

there is a new lady study that's going to be beginning on May the 8th. They will be meeting Wednesday morning. From 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Going over a book called None of These Things Move Me by Don McClure. All materials will be provided. And is there a sign-up sheet out there for that? And there's a sign-up sheet out there for that. So ladies, if you would like to get involved, take note of that.

And sign up out in the lobby. If you have any questions, you can talk with Anita. Okay. Those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 100. Psalm 148. Psalm 148. We'll be looking at the New American Standard for this part so that we sound the same.

If you need a copy, should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 148, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 148. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts. Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all stars of light. Praise him highest heavens and the waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created.

He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which will not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth. See monsters. And all deep fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged fowl, kings of the earth and all people's princes

and all judges of the earth, both young men and virgins, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above earth. And. And he has lifted up a horn for his people. Praise for all his godly ones, even for the sons of Israel, a people near to him. Praise the Lord. And father, we do praise you for who you are and for everything that you do.

And Lord, it is so good to know that even the thunderstorms praise you. And so, Lord, there was a lot of praise going on yesterday. And so, father, we thank you for the rain. But Lord, I pray that you would be with our time in your word. Lord, may you speak to us as only you can. And by the power of your Holy Spirit to each individual heart this morning in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter four, Philippians chapter four. It was quite the quite the day that we had yesterday. I had a first yesterday, so I did a wedding yesterday afternoon at two o'clock at Bible Christian Church. And we knew that weather was coming in, but we were like, OK, it's going to be.

Great. They were saying storms weren't supposed to start till after four. And I prayed, Lord, just just give us this window to be able to have this wedding. Well, we almost made it to four. It was we made it all the way through the wedding and we were in the middle of taking pictures. And all of a sudden we start hearing the rumbles of thunder and the and the rain coming down.

One rumble of thunder hit so hard that it actually it was like someone was shaking the doors. It was really, really wild. And so they're in the middle of taking all their pictures and everybody's happy and smiling. And all of a sudden the sirens go off. And we get to go find out where we're supposed to. I now know where to take shelter at Bible Christian Church.

If anything were to go wrong there, I know exactly where that would be. And so so I thought, well, this is another one for the for the storybooks. Now I can say I've done a wedding and a tornado. So it was it was an interesting day. And I'm glad it seems like most of us have escaped most of the damage from that. So but today we come to Philippians chapter four.

We're looking at the first five verses. And as we've said, each chapter will teach us a different lesson about joy. Because. That is the theme of the book. And as we come to chapter four, the lesson that we are going to look at is winning the battle of the mind, winning the battle of the mind. You know, many of our battles begin or at least maybe even sometimes completely take place in our minds.

If you think about it, this is where so many things begin. Doubt creeps in in our minds. Bitterness creeps in in our thoughts. Compromising thoughts begin in the mind. And temptation oftentimes begins with a thought. Anxiety, worry, all of those things take place in our minds. And they find themselves sometimes working themselves out in our actions. But so much of what we deal with is a battle of the mind.

Sometimes we have to get out of our own heads. And so that's what Paul deals with in chapter four is winning this battle of the mind. He's going to address a lot of these different concerns that I just mentioned in chapter four. As a matter of fact, he's going to give us seven different lessons. On winning the battle of the mind. We're going to look at the first three of those lessons today.

And so let's read verses one through five of chapter four. It says this. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see my joy and crown in this way, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge you, Odia, and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel.

Together with Clement, also in the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. And so in those first five verses, we will see the first three. Three lessons on winning the battle of the mind. Lesson number one that he gives to us is that if we are to win the battle of the mind, we must stand firm.

We must stand firm. I'd like to read verse one to you again. It says, therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see my joy and my crown in this way, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. As Paul begins this chapter, he uses the word therefore. And again, the logical thing to ask is always what's it there for? Because it always links us with what has come before.

And matter of fact, depending on who you read, some people think this first verse actually belongs at the end of chapter three. Other people think it belongs at the beginning of chapter four, which tells us that this verse is a great link between chapter three and chapter four. Right? And so he tells us therefore, because it's going to link us with the ideas that he taught to us in chapter three.

And I'll get to those in just a moment. But before I get to that, I want to point something out to you. And what I want to point out to you is Paul and the way that he describes these Philippian believers. Did you take note of the words that he used there? He says, therefore, my beloved brethren, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, who are my joy and my crown.

I point this out to you because there was a tenderness in the way that Paul addressed these Philippians. Philippian believers, a tenderness that not only reflects his heart as a pastor, his heart as a shepherd of the people, but it also reflects what true Christian fellowship is supposed to look like. It reflects what God truly intends for the church to feel about each other because he first of all refers to them, not just as his brethren, because that's what's actually true based upon the fact that they're believers in Jesus Christ. They are brethren.

But to him, they are more than just those who. They are his family in Christ. They are his beloved family in Christ. They are his dearly loved ones. Not only are they his dearly loved ones, but he can't wait to see them again. You can imagine Paul as he's sitting there chained to a Roman guard as he's sitting there in this house arrest, probably dictating this letter because that's what he usually did with his letter.

And as he's beginning to wrap up his thoughts of what he wants to speak to the Philippian people, he says, therefore, my beloved brethren. I can't wait. I can't wait to see you because you are my joy and my crown. He refers to them as his crown, which is an interesting term because it's in the Greek referring to the victor's crown. It's not speaking of the crown of a king.

It's speaking of a victor's crown. You see, when someone competed in the Olympic Games or any of the games that they had at that point in time, when they won, they received a garland wreath that they would put on their head and it was referred to as the victor's crown. It was their reward for completion. It was their reward for defeating their race, for winning their race.

And Paul said, that's kind of what you are to me. You represent the victory that I have in Christ because you are the fruit of my labors. And there is this tenderness in the way that he addresses them. And I point this out to us because I think it's so important, especially in the culture that we're living in now, that that's how we begin to view the brothers and sisters that we have around us today.

The brothers and sisters that we are allowed to fellowship with every day. Even some that aren't. They aren't with us anymore because perhaps they've gone to another church or they've moved to another place because they are our beloved brethren. They are our longed for brethren. And in some way, shape and form, if we've had an influence in their life, they're like our joy and our crown.

And I think that tenderness is one of the things that sometimes can be missing in what I would call a very disassociated culture that we live in today. Because in the culture that we live in today, we're more connected than ever technologically. But we are more disconnected. We are more connected than ever interpersonally. And there is a need in the church today for this kind of thinking and this kind of heart for each other.

That community that longs for each other and views each other as our greatest joy and greatest crown. Paul says, Therefore, my beloved brethren. Then he goes on to give the exhortation. In this way, stand firm in the Lord. My beloved. My beloved. Stand firm. That phrase stand firm means to persevere, to persist, or to keep one's standing. The idea is to be able to stand in the midst of somebody pushing against you.

To persevere through a difficulty. And so as usual, I began to ask myself, what does this look like? It's one thing to say stand firm. But it's another thing to think about how do we need to stand firm? In what ways do we need to stand firm? Well, remember we said the word therefore links us with everything that he had taught us in chapter three. And so therefore, if in this way we are to stand firm based upon what he taught us in chapter three,

I think there's three things that we need to persevere in. That we need to maintain our standing in. That we need to persist in. And so stand firm in these three things. Number one, stand firm in your salvation. Stand firm. Stand firm in your salvation. Do you remember what Paul told them? He says, have no confidence in the flesh. Instead, be found in him having a righteousness that is not your own through the works of the law,

but the righteousness which is by faith alone in the work of God. And in the world that we're living in today, we need to make sure that we are standing firm in the fact that our salvation, is through faith alone. It's not faith and the works of the Mosaic law. It's not faith and some sort of sacrament. It's not faith and some sort of faithfulness on our part.

It is simply through faith alone. Paul told us in Galatians that it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And I say this because while on one side, on one hand in the world today, it seems like licentiousness is reigning. And I'll get to that in just a moment. On the other hand,

there is a sect of people that have become so legalistic in the way that they live, that their response to the licentiousness is to become legalistic and think that their salvation is based upon their works, that they have completely forgotten about grace. But either end of the spectrum, either end of the extreme is wrong. And brothers and sisters, we need to stand firm in the fact that salvation is by faith alone. But also in our salvation, we stand firm in the fact that our salvation produces freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.

Remember how Paul said that there were those who were among them, that the reason why they needed to continue to seek the Lord, why they needed to, let me make sure I put this correctly, in following Paul's example, and the example of other godly men is because many walk as enemies of the cross. Their end is destruction. Their God is their appetite. And all they care about are the things of the world.

Friends, this is the other end of things that we're dealing with in our world today, is we're dealing with a set of teaching that says you can do whatever you want to because you have freedom. And you can do whatever you want to because you have freedom. And you do have freedom in Christ. And you do have freedom in Christ. But in Christ you have freedom from sin,

not freedom to sin. And so stand firm in your salvation, your salvation that has been given to you by faith alone, but your salvation that produces in you a purity and a freedom from sin. Number one, stand firm in your salvation. Number two, stand firm in your pursuit. Stand firm in your pursuit. Your pursuit of what? Well, first of all, of a deeper knowledge of God.

You remember what Paul said? He said, whatever things were gained to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And that pursuit of the knowledge of God is the thing that we cannot, we cannot deviate from because listen, we need to understand something.

Everything in the world right now wants you to be distracted from your pursuit of God. Everything in the world right now wants you to be distracted from your pursuit of him. It sometimes is your flesh, right? I deal with this that I deal with this as a runner. Like I try to stay in shape. I'm trying to be good. And the older I get, the harder it is to want to stay in shape.

You know, in my twenties and thirties, it was just like I went out and ran. It was the funnest thing I ever did in my life, right? I was just like, now I go out and run. I'm like, right? Cause it hurts more than it used to. And sometimes my, my flesh pulls me away and it says, wouldn't you rather take a nap? Wouldn't you rather eat a cheeseburger? And sometimes I'm like,

uh, right. And that's the way it is in our pursuit of God, right? Like some days we're like, man, this is the greatest thing ever. Remember when you first started walking with Jesus and you couldn't devour enough of God's word. You didn't understand what 90% of it meant, but all you knew was that's where Jesus was found and you wanted as much as you could possibly have.

But pretty soon you start growing old and your walk with the Lord and you're a little creakier than you used to be. Quite frankly, you're a little crankier than you used to be. And sometimes we can deviate from this. We can be distracted and we can say, wouldn't it be easier just to not read the Bible today? Wouldn't it be easier just to sleep in just to not read what God's word has to say?

It's going to convict me because I know the things I've been doing. Don't deviate from it. Don't deviate from it. Don't deviate from it. Don't deviate from it. Don't deviate from that deeper knowledge of God. Stand firm in your pursuit. And it reminds me that our pursuit is not a feeling. It's a commitment. But not only do we stand firm in our pursuit of a deeper knowledge of God,

but we stand firm in our pursuit of a more sanctified life. A more sanctified life. One of the things that I like to tell married couples, couples is that they should continue to pursue each other. Yes, you're, yes, you're married. It's wonderful that you're saying I do right now, but that doesn't mean the pursuit ends. I think sometimes in the world that we live in,

that's what takes place. And this isn't intended to be a talk on marriage, but I, Hey, if it's there, why not? Right? If the softball's lobbed up there, you might as well knock it out of the park. It's people stop pursuing their marriage. They're like, well, I mean, she married me. So do I really need to keep pursuing her? Absolutely. You need to keep pursuing her every day.

Give her another reason to fall in love with you ladies every day. Give him another reason to fall in love with you because that pursuit should never end. And it's the same way in our sanctification. We should continue to pursue being as holy as we can possibly be on this side of eternity. Another one of my favorite quotes out of Andrew Murray's book, absolute surrenders.

He says, Lord, make me as holy as a pardon center can be made. And that should be our desired. We should stand firm in that pursuit. We should never be satisfied. Satisfied with how close we've gotten to Jesus and how holy our life has gotten. There should always be something more because until we go home to be with Jesus, there are always going to be rough edges that he's going to be working off of us.

And the problem is, is that the older we get in the Lord, the more it takes to get those rough edges off because they're a little deeper than anything else ever was. And we should continue to pursue. A sanctified life in Christ. And so we stand firm. First of all, in our salvation, second of all, in your pursuit. And third, we stand firm in your hope and your hope and your hope in Christ,

your hope in Christ that he is the one who is ultimately working all of these things in you. But your hope in Christ that you are actually citizens of heaven, not citizens of earth. And so your hope, hope should continue to stand firm in the fact that you have a home beyond this place, that you have a home beyond here, and you can rest in whatever takes place on this side of eternity because you know that your hope is secured on the other side of eternity. And we should continue to stand firm in that hope because, listen, this world will make you hopeless, amen? This world,

when we start looking at it, will start to make you hopeless. I don't know if y'all have been watching the news lately or not, but it's pretty hopeless, right? Every college campus right now has protests for Hamas. Like, in what world did we ever think that terrorists would be the ones that would have protesters in favor of them? And yet, that's the world that we're living in right

now, is that the people are protesting against Israel and against the United States, and who would have thought that it would ever, ever be controversial that a group of frat boys, of all people, stood outside of a protest singing the national anthem, and that makes nothing. That's the national news, right? Sometimes you look at these things and you go, kind of feels hopeless right now. There's endless war going on in Ukraine. There seems to be an endless war going

on in Israel. And I don't know if you've bought groceries lately, but speaking of hopeless, right? And sometimes this world can make us feel that way. But when this world makes us feel that way, it's because we've stopped standing firm in our real hope. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you think the election at the end of this year is going to change anything, you need to stop

hoping. Because that's not where your hope needs to be. Your hope needs to be where it belongs in Christ and in your true citizenship. Stand firm in your hope. And so the first lesson that he teaches us about winning the battle of the mind is if you want to win the battle of the mind and live in joy, then listen, stand firm. Number two, the second lesson that he teaches,

is that if we want to win the battle of the mind, we have to start restoring relationships, restoring relationships. And so this is what he says in verse two, I urge you Odia and I urge sent to Chi to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion. I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement also and the rest of the world. And I urge you to live in harmony in the Lord. And I urge you to live in

harmony with the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Oh, excuse me. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice didn't mean to go that far. So he says that we need to restore relationships. Now there were these two ladies who apparently were in the midst of some sort of a conflict. Their names, of course, were

you Odia and sent to Chi. Now he describes these ladies in a pretty interesting way. First of all, we know that they are fellow believers because they are members of the church. They're in Philippi and he's going to explain what they did with him. They are fellow believers who are in the middle of a dispute, fellow believers who have found themselves at odds

with each other. But not only are they fellow believers, notice what else he refers to them as he says, these women middle of verse three have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel and together with Clement also in the rest of my fellow workers. They shared in my struggle. Some of your, um, some of your translations may say, may say they shared in my labor in the gospel. That word struggle or labor means to work

together as a team pursuing the same goal. Now let's explain exactly what's happened here. There were two ladies who are believers in Jesus Christ who listened at one time worked together, worked together as a team for the struggle of getting the gospel out to the rest of the city of Philippi and building up the church in Philippi. So these are two believers in Jesus Christ and they have a problem. The problem is a dispute has arisen between the two of them. And you know what the

dispute was mean either because it doesn't say, and I think it's good that it doesn't say because he has left this very open ended. First of all, Paul just name dropped in the middle of an epistle. One of the commentators that I read said, can you imagine somebody starting to nod off in the middle of someone reading this epistle? And all of a sudden Paul name drops and they went, Whoa, what, what did he just say? How did it would

be like if I was reading a letter here and I named two of you who were in the middle of a dispute? Can you imagine being those two people? They're just like, what's he talking about? Right? Well, clearly whoever brought the gift to him, because that's how this letter got, written as a gift was sent to Paul from Philippi. He said, listen, we do have one really big problem

in the church. It's not a major problem, but it is causing some issues. So these two ladies are in a dispute with, with each other. They're at odds with each other. And listen, the same thing happened there. It doesn't say it in scripture, but I know it happened because he has to tell them to settle it. The same thing happened here that happens in any other church. And that's it.

Each person started gathering people to their side. They started saying, you agree with me, don't you? You agree with me, don't you? And maybe they were even starting to be some people that wouldn't sit on the same side of the house or the same side of the building or wherever it was at that time that they met. They wouldn't even sit on the same side. They never

went to lunch together. They never ate together. They never talked to each other. And this understated dispute started to work its way into the church. And you know, as well as I do, what happens when bitterness starts to work into a church? It starts to cut off the flow of the Holy Spirit, right? It's called quenching the spirit. And pretty soon there's just not as much

spirit flowing through the services as there used to be. And yes, the work is still going on. Yes, people are still being fed. Maybe even the church is still growing, but there's a cancer in there that if it's not dealt with, will eventually infect the whole body and ultimately bring death. Kind of sound familiar? Kind of sound like things we've all seen before. Now, I don't know that we have any dispute like

this in our church right now, but I know human beings. And I know that if we don't have it now, we will at some point in time, because I know humanity and the nature of humanity is for there to be issues. Because believe it or not, you're not as lovable as you think you are, right? I remember the first time somebody really, really, really got mad at me when I was in college. And I

was like, but I'm so lovable. How can that be? Turns out I wasn't as lovable as I thought that I was. And so as we see these two ladies in the midst of this dispute, Paul gives two commands. The first thing he gives is an appeal to them. Notice what he says. I urge you to live in harmony in the Lord. Now again, Paul's writing this with apostolic authority, but he doesn't use his apostolic authority here. What does he do?

Instead, he appeals to, he says, I urge each of you. I urge you. The word urge means to beg or to implore you. It is a tender hearted appeal to each woman, not a heavy handed command. You can almost sense in his voice, the tears that are wanting to well up. These are probably ladies that he knew because remember Paul had spent time in Philippi. Maybe they were even two of the ladies who were gathered down by

the riverside. When Paul showed up to that very first meeting where Lydia was and some of the other ladies down there and the church in Philippi had begun. He says, I urge you. And I want you to notice the phraseology exactly that he uses. He says, I urge each of you. He didn't point one or the other out because here's what you need to know about disputes. There's always two people that are

wrong. Ryan, they started it, but you're perpetuating it. Because even though they were in the wrong in the beginning, you are responding to the wrong in an improper way. I read a great book called the Calvary road by Roy Hessian, an amazing book that will destroy your life in the best way possible. And one of the things that he points out is that behind every dispute or two wrong people, the one who committed the wrong and the one who responded

in the wrong way. And you know why you responded in the wrong way? Because of your pride. Because it hurts your pride. And the reason why it's continuing to perpetuate is because your pride will not allow you to let that wrong go. And the one that committed the wrong can't apologize for it because their pride won't let it happen. And so Paul says, I urge each of you. And what

does he urge them to do? Live in harmony in the Lord. That phrase live in harmony can also be translated. Be of the same mind. Agree in the Lord. And then of course the new living translation just went incredibly simple. And it said, settle your dispute, but he urges them to live in harmony, to agree in the Lord. Now, what does that mean? It means you may have a dispute, but your commonality in Christ

supersedes any dispute on this earth. And so you need to start looking at what you have in common, where you are in common with each other and start letting the little things go. And start overlooking the little things. Ryan, I can't let this wrong go. Why not? Jesus forgave you. Can't you just let it go? Can't you just move on? The fact that you can't move on is causing,

listen, a battle in your mind. You know why? Because people in the middle of a dispute don't think about anything but the dispute. You know how I know? Because I talk to people a lot. It's actually kind of like my job. And when I talk to people, I can tell you who they're in a dispute with. Usually after a lengthy conversation, I can know exactly what the dispute is. Listen,

whether they intended to tell me about it or not, because it's the one subject they always come back to because it's waging war in their mind. And if you want to win the battle of the mind, restore the relationship, set aside your dispute and remember, what you have in common. And I don't know who needs to come together on this. I don't know if anybody in this service or watching online needs to come together on this, but I don't think it's an accident that two weeks in a row now, I've talked about letting go of past hurts, that we're to leave past hurts behind. And now he tells us that we are to restore relationships.

And so the first thing he said does is he makes an appeal to each of them to live, live in harmony in the Lord. But there's a second command that he gives. Did you pick up on it? He says, indeed, true companion. I ask you to help these women. The word true companion. If you're reading the old King James, it says yoke fellow, which, which is a great word, right? And literally it means somebody that you have yoked up with

somebody that you have worked alongside. And again, there's been lots of conjecture as to who the yoke fellow is here. And I think it's someone, left untold to us because it simply means what it says. Those who I have worked alongside those who I have labored with in Philippi help these women. Do you know what that means? It means that sometimes when we're in the middle of a dispute, we need some outside counsel.

We need some outside help. And if you are someone who is hearing about all of the dispute, don't, perpetuate the dispute, give them the help that they need. And do you know what the help that they need is? Biblical counsel. Well, you know what the Bible says is, is that you need to forgive. What the Bible says is, is that you need to confess. Honestly, it comes down to those two

things. Am I right? Confess what you've done wrong, offer forgiveness to the one that's wronged you. And if we can start doing that, then you will find so much healing and restoration in churches. You will find so much healing and restoration, and you will find so much healing and restoration in churches. And if you can start doing that, then you will find so much healing and restoration in churches.

And if you can start doing that, then you will find so much healing and restoration in churches. Starting from young ages on up through older ages, we're great at doing this with two little kids, right? You see two little five-year-olds, what are they fighting over? The dinosaur toy, right? Or, or maybe the swing that both of them want, because everybody knows that the swing on the

right is the best swing, right? And so that's the one that everybody wants to be on and they fight over it and they get mad at each other. Then maybe they even start wrestling around on the ground and you kind of pick them both up by the shirts and you go, what are you doing? We both want the same swing. Okay, well, right now, neither one of you can have it. So let's solve it. Now you need to

apologize for not letting them be on the swing and you need to apologize for acting like a turd about the swing. And then we need to work out a system, right? It takes that adult to come alongside and help them settle the dispute. Listen, brothers and sisters, we're the adults. And sometimes when you see the dispute, rather than taking a side, you need to come alongside and say,

what's the problem here? Let's hear the whole thing out and offer a third party perspective that can bring some peace. He says, all of you, those of you that are my fellow laborers, those of you whose names are written in the book of life, help restore relationships. One of the things that I've come to in my understanding through my life, through working with people, through doing lots of funerals, even lots of weddings, is that ultimately life is made up of relationships.

Your relationship that you have with your creator and the relationship that you have with each other. And the one piece of advice that I give to everybody in the world is that life is too short for bad relationships. I cannot tell you how many times I've done a funeral where I've sat in a funeral meeting with somebody, and they have wept because they did not have a good relationship with that loved one. And they never settled it. And I tell them the same thing I would tell anybody else.

We can't do anything about that now. You have to confess that to the Lord. But I'm reminded that if there's people around you, you better make sure those relationships are right. Because life is too short for that. And if you want to win the battle of the mind, we need to be people who, restore relationships. Amen. And so number one, if we want to win the battle of the mind,

we need to stand firm in our salvation and our pursuit of God and in our hope. Number two, we need to restore relationships, even when it means sometimes somebody has to come alongside us and help, or you need to be the person that comes alongside and help. Number three, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Notice what it says in verse four, rejoice in the Lord always again.

And I will say, rejoice, let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Now, I don't know if you're keeping track, but this is the third time in the book of Philippians that Paul has said to rejoice. It cannot be overstated that Paul is writing this while he is chained to a Roman guard awaiting trial before Caesar, seeking whether or not he will keep his life or lose his life.

And as he is under house arrest, knowing all of the things that Paul has been through for the third time, now he says, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. And if you didn't catch it the first time around, he said, again, I will say rejoice. I don't know why, but that word has kind of been working on me here lately because I like to look deeper into words and find out what the meaning is. And, and I can't figure out what the exact meaning of the word rejoices other than rejoice.

It's like, well, there's gotta be something. The Amplified Bible translates it like this. It says, delight in him, take pleasure in him, or be joyful in the Lord, right? That's kind of the idea of what it means to rejoice. But, but what does that look like? How can we rejoice in the Lord always? Well, I had to point out two of those phrases. The first one is in the Lord, because no matter what's going on in your life, you can always

rejoice. It's in the Lord. And I'll address that a little bit more in just a moment. But the second word that he says is always. Again, I tried to look that up to see if there was any deeper meaning to always and always just means always at all times. I think the actual definition is at all times. And so we are to always be rejoicing in the Lord. Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a hard time with that, right?

Perhaps yesterday, if you were sitting in a storm shelter, you were going pretty hard to rejoice in the Lord right now. Right? If you were the person living out in Dexter that lost their barn, probably kind of hard to rejoice in the Lord about that, right? And there are some days where it's like, this is kind of a tough one to rejoice in the Lord. And yet it says to rejoice in the Lord always.

Well, Peter gives us a little bit of, a little bit of color on this. So why don't you go over to the book of first Peter and once you look at chapter one, verses three through six, it's a go past Hebrews, go past James. If you hit second, Peter, you went to first. First Peter, chapter one, verses three through six. And this is what it says.

It says, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you, you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Notice what it says in verse six in this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.

Now, wait, Paul, Peter, I don't know if you noticed this. It was not Paul. It wasn't Mary. It was Peter. I don't know if you noticed this gave us three reasons why we can rejoice no matter what's going on. Did you pick up on them? Let's go back and look at them. Three things that you can rejoice in the Lord in always. Again, I will say rejoice. Number one, he says, rejoice in the fact that you are born again, blessed be verse three,

the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Brothers and sisters, no matter what is going on in your life, you can always rejoice in the fact that you are born again. Now, I'm going to point something out to you about these three things. These three things all surpass anything that's going on on this earth, and they carry us into the spiritual realm and what's going on in heaven right now, and what you're going to find.

If you're going to rejoice in the Lord always, you have to take your eyes off this earth and put them on Jesus. And I find that interesting because if you know the story about Peter, Peter found himself sinking when he was walking on water. When what happened when he took his eyes off Jesus. So when do we have a hard time rejoicing when we take our eyes off of Jesus?

And so number one, Paul, Peter says, you can always rejoice because you have been born again. And up to a living hope through the work of Jesus Christ being resurrected from the dead, you've been born again. And listen, you can't change that. Some people ask me where I stand on, on eternal security. And I say, I don't know how you can become unborn again. Once you've been born again, I don't know how you go back and switch that.

Right? So you have been born again. You have been made spiritually alive. And now you have connection to the living. God, you have a relationship with the creator of the heavens and the earth. So no matter, no matter what's going on in your life, you can rejoice in the fact that you have been born again. Number two, you can always rejoice in the fact that you have an inheritance, an inheritance.

Notice what it says in verse four, that you have been born again to in, to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven. For you remember what Jesus said when he was on earth, he says, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust can corrupt and where thieves can break in and steal instead, lay up your treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there. Your heart will be also, you know why we have a hard time rejoicing because too many of us view our inheritance on this earth. We're all looking for wind.

The pot. The pot of gold is going to show up at the end of the rainbow. We're all looking for the end of the movie when everything works out perfect on this earth, but our inheritance is not here because our treasures are in heaven. Therefore, we can always rejoice because even though everything's falling apart here, nothing's falling apart there, even though everything's fading away here, there, it is undefiled and incorruptible reserved in heaven.

For you and you have an inheritance that nobody can change. You can take it all the way down here and it won't change what you have in eternity. And so you can always rejoice number one because you've been born again number two because you have obtained an inheritance number three because you are kept by the power of God through faith. You are kept by the power of God through faith.

That word kept is a military term. It literally means. To be garrisoned about imagine, if you will, a protective Fort being built all around you by God through faith. That means that you are secure in Christ because you are being protected by the living God. Because you are surrounded by the wings of the almighty God. He who hides himself in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow

of the almighty. There is so much security. And that and you are being kept by the power of God through faith. Sometimes you look and go, is he doing a very good job of keeping me? He is. I promise. Okay, because sometimes it seems like a lot's getting in, but he's still keeping you through it all. And brothers and sisters, we can rejoice in the Lord always.

It reminds me of a story from Corrie ten Boom. If you've never read the hiding place beginnings, a little bit boring gets really interesting at the end. But her family, she was. Uh, they were a Gentile family living in, uh, was it Austria, Germany, Holland. Thank you. And they, their family was, uh, understanding of God's word. And they knew that the Jews were God's chosen people and what, what the Nazis were doing

was wrong. So they hid Jews. Well, they got found out for hiding the Jews. And so they got sent to a concentration camp. So her and her sister got sent to this concentration camp. And while they were in this concentration camp, there were fleas. And she said, we learned to rejoice for the fleas. And somebody said, how could you do that? She said, well, because when there were fleas, the guards left us alone.

We learned to rejoice because of the fleas. She was being kept by the power of God through faith. And so no matter what's going on around us, if we keep our eyes on Jesus and these truths, we can rejoice always. And again, I will say rejoice. Back to Philippians chapter four, this idea of rejoicing is carried on in verse five. When he says, let your gentle spirit be known to all men.

The Lord is near your gentle spirit. That word gentle means graciousness or sweet reasonableness. I believe it was David Guzik and his commentary that defined it like this. The gentle spirit being spoken of here is a willingness to yield our personal rights. And show consideration and gentleness to others. It is the heart of a person who lets the Lord fight his battles.

R. Kent Hughes and his commentary said, your gentleness is the outworking of a spirit that is always rejoicing in the Lord. Because as you rejoice in the Lord, always, you understand that it is the Lord who fights your battles. When you rejoice in the Lord, always, you are willing to yield your personal rights and show consideration and gentleness to others.

Because after all, God is the one who is in charge. He says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. Why? Because the Lord is near. Some of your translations may say the Lord is at hand. Now, there's some conjecture. There's some conjecture again about what this means. Is he speaking of the fact that God is with us all the time?

Or is he speaking of the fact that Christ is about to return? And I agree with R. Kent Hughes on this. Yes. I think it speaks of both. Because it says the Lord is near. And that's what the word literally means. It means he's near. He's close by. And so, on one hand, we understand that the Lord is near. Because as believers in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

And as the church, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. The Holy Spirit dwells among us, right? Like God is among us right now. Through the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And so, why do we need to rejoice in the Lord and let our gentleness be known to all men? Because God is all around us all the time. And that gentle spirit should be what exemplifies who we are.

It should be not only what takes place within the church walls, but what takes place outside of the church walls. Because God is with us. God is in us. Right? Stopped in a place the other day to buy a gift certificate. And the girl said, Hey, we've been watching you online. I'm just going to tell you right now, that terrifies me when someone says that. Because I always think to myself,

Man, I hope I didn't say anything I wasn't supposed to. Not in the sermon, but in real life. Because I know me and sometimes I screw stuff up, right? Sometimes I say the wrong thing. Sometimes my humor gets away from me. And I say things I'm not supposed to say. You all know that, right? So, maybe I am a little concerned about what I say up here too. Anyway, I'm always like,

Oh, gosh, I hope I didn't say anything I wasn't supposed to say. Because the Lord is near. The Lord is who I carry around with me every day. And I need to make sure that my witness is good no matter what. That gentleness, that reasonableness, that willingness to let God fight my battles is with me all the time. But not only does it mean that the Lord is near because he's with us,

but the Lord is near meaning he's really at hand. And I think one of the things that we keep noticing is that Jesus could be coming back at any time. You know what I mean? We've been living in the last days for a really long time. With the things going on, Israel coming back together in the late 40s and everything that's happening right now, everybody says, well, we're living in the last days.

But what we have to understand is we've been living in the last days since Jesus ascended into heaven. Since the ascension, we've been living in the last days. But the labor pains keep getting deeper. The labor pains keep getting stronger, right? And it won't be long that we'll be like, hey, it's time to go because the labor's at hand. And we keep seeing these labor pains taking place

as we watch what's going on with Israel. And it oftentimes has less to do with what's going on in our nation, although some of what's going on in our nation, I think, comes into play as we see the spirit of man continue to turn against the things of God. But do you know, and I just want to point this out, because things, like I said, can sometimes seem hopeless, but it's not all bad. Bad stuff's what's getting reported all the time, and there is a lot of bad things going on.

But do you know that over Easter weekend, there was a huge, huge baptism that took place down in Florida. Just thousands of college kids came out and got baptized. Russell Brand, I don't know if you know who Russell Brand is. I just read this article about him yesterday. He used to just be this awful comedian, right? Awful meaning I'm sure he was funny, but he was very off color.

Dude's about to get baptized into his Christian faith. Now, I don't know very much about anything else about him, but the more interviews you hear with Russell Brand, the more you're like, dude, I think he gets it, man. I think he's starting to get this whole Jesus thing. And then I read this article about him getting baptized. Listen, the Holy Spirit's being poured out.

And while everything is seeming to turn against the things of God, there is that remnant that's coming to faith, that remnant that is coming to faith that we will see an even more explosion of during that tribulational period. We won't be here, but it'll take place because lots of people are going to get saved. And so as we look at all these things, we say the Lord is at hand. So brothers and sisters, it's not time to assert our rights.

It's not time to fight for our right. It's time to let our gentleness be known to all men because God's the one that ultimately fights our battle. You just keep standing firm on the truth. So brothers and sisters, if we want joy in our life, it starts with winning the battle of the mind. And winning the battle of the mind means I stand firm. Number two, it means I restore relationships.

And number three, it means I rejoice in the Lord. And so next week, we'll look at part two and talk a little bit more about winning the battle of the mind. So if we could all stand together.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you for who you are. And I thank you, Lord, that you have given us the opportunity to gather here. Lord, I thank you for a really good roof over our heads that has kept this building dry so that we can gather together and meet. Lord, I thank you that you have blessed us with more rain. And God, I pray that as we go out from this place

that we would not only see the physical rain that's come down, but we would see the raining down of your word and your Holy Spirit into our lives. And Father, continue to strengthen us. Strengthen us in you, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Jesus, Jesus, you can.

Oh, yes. And so, Lord, as we're living on topside this earth, Lord, oh, strengthen us and encourage us to be used of you. Help us be real before you, Lord.

Not pretend, but be real. And trust you in every area of our life. And love one another as you have first loved us. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week.