What if the peace you're desperately searching for

isn't something you find, but something you practice?

Paul ends his instructions in Philippians with a

powerful promise. The God of peace will be with

you. But there's a condition attached that most of us

miss. Today we're uncovering what it really

takes to experience the presence of

the God of peace in your daily life.

Have you ever noticed how everyone talks about wanting peace,

Peace of mind, peace in relationships, peace

in our world? Yet peace seems more

elusive than ever. Anxiety disorders affect

nearly 20% of American adults. Our

phones constantly alert us to the next crisis.

Even Christian communities are marked by division

and discord. We're a people

desperately in need of peace.

Welcome to the Noble Bereans Video Channel. I'm your host,

Steve Sanders. As a lifelong Bible student

and teacher who spent years studying Paul's letters,

he's frankly one of my favorite authors in the Bible. I've

read those letters in the historical and the cultural context,

and I found that some of the most powerful biblical insights

are often hiding in plain sight. The passage we're

exploring today contains one of those hidden gems.

Today we're diving deep into Philippians 4:4-9,

where Paul outlines a spiritual practice that leads to

the presence of the God of peace. We'll explore the

original context, unpack the instruction and examine

connections to Old Testament wisdom literature and discover

how to apply these practices in our anxiety

filled world. Join with me now as we read

Philippians 4:4-9.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.

Let your gentleness be made known to all people.

The Lord is near. 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 that surpasses all

understanding will guard your hearts and your

minds in Christ Jesus. Finally,

brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are

honorable, whatever things are right, whatever

things are pure, whatever things are pleasing,

whatever things are commendable, if there is any

excellence of character, and if anything

praiseworthy, think about these things and the

things which you have learned and received and heard about and

seen in me. Practice these things

and the God of peace will be with you. Before

we dive into the hidden treasures of this passage, let's understand

the context behind it. Paul's writing this letter from

prison, likely somewhere in Rome around 62 AD.

The Philippian Church was one of Paul's favorites. They

had a special relationship and they happened to be the only

church that consistently supported his ministry

financially. But the church wasn't without

problems. We see in chapter four, if we go back to the beginning,

verses two and three, that two prominent women in

the church were in conflict. This discord

threatened the unity of the entire community.

Paul's instructions in verses 4-9 aren't

abstract theology. They're really practical guidance for

a community that was experiencing tension and. And they were

living in a hostile Roman environment where Christians were

facing persecution. Paul himself writes from

a prison cell, yet he speaks repeatedly

of joy and peace. Before we get into

this, there's a few things I want to point out. So let's go back over

to the computer within the Logos software. I love the ability

to go up here and to search for things.

And so we're going to search for Philippi,

and that pulls Philippi up in the factbook over

here. Now we're going to scroll down. We see right away that it's

a city in East Macedonia, northeast Greece. The letter to the

Philippians was addressed to the church here. Now, this is what I really

enjoy. I like opening up the media. And so this is

going to pull up a map and it's going to show us where Philippi is.

So you see it right here in the middle. If we scroll out, this is

really interesting because we see a lot of things that are going on.

So we see. Let's scroll back in just a little bit. We

see Thessalonica over here. We see Berea

here. We go down and we see Corinth. So these are

all these places that we read about Paul visiting. So we

see somewhat of the relationship of where that's at. Now,

Philippi was up here near Neopolis, but look,

he is a long way from home. By the way, there's Ephesus. So all these

churches that we're used to. But this

would have been Paul's home area. So a long way from these

churches. He probably took a ship to some of these

locations. I don't believe he would have walked this entire

way. But still, we're a long way from where Paul lives. And

there's a lot more that we could read through here and learn about

Philippi or any other location that we wanted to. It's one of my

favorite features within the Logos Bible app.

So let's close out of that. You could go on, by the way, and you

could read more about that. And if you wanted to read about these two ladies,

you may have seen that I had that open a moment ago where I was

studying up on Euodia. And so you can go and you can learn about

the different People within the passage that we're reading about.

Okay, so back to what we're doing in today's study.

We've got a few points I want to make about this. Number one is the

movement from anxiety to peace. Now, you can go back

and reference verses 4 through 7 for this. So Paul

begins in the beginning of this passage we're reading today

with the command to rejoice in the Lord always.

Now, he thinks this is so important, he repeats it a second

time. Now, this isn't shallow positivity.

You could think of it as a radical reorientation towards

joy that's grounded in the Lord, not in the

circumstances you're in. Remember, Paul's in prison when he's

writing this. I don't know about you, but I think I would struggle

to have joy while I was in prison. But Paul is

telling people, this is how you have joy. Now, notice the

connection in this passage to the phrase the Lord is

near. This particular phrase has a double meaning

in Greek. It refers both to the Lord's imminent

return and his present nearness to

believers. When we truly grasp God's presence

with us, anxiety begins to transform into

joy. Paul then provides a practical

anecdote to anxiety. Be anxious for

nothing, but in everything by prayer and

supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be

made known to God. Now, the Greek word there for

anxiety literally means to be divided

into parts. I don't know about you, but that's how I feel

when I experience anxiety. When I've gone through times in my life

where anxiety has taken hold of me, it

fragmented my mind. Prayer

reunifies us by bringing everything before

God. The outcome is that the peace

of God will guard our hearts and our minds like a

military sentinel. Now, this Greek word here for

guardians was used for soldiers protecting a

city. God's peace stands watch over us, over

our inner life. Point number two. As we move into verse eight, we get

into this peace, producing thought life, if you will.

Paul moves into the context of our thought life.

The list in verse 8 bears striking resemblance to

virtues that were celebrated in Greek philosophical

tradition, particularly Stoicism, which I'm sure you've heard

of. Now, this was popular in Philippi as a Roman

colony, but Paul transforms these concepts.

For example, the Greek concept of virtue

appears in this list. But for Paul, these virtues aren't

abstract ideals. They're embodied in Christ

and the Gospel community. This verse connects deeply with Old

Testament wisdom literature. Proverbs 23:7, for

example, says, as a person thinks in their heart, so they

Are. Now Paul understood that our thoughts in

our lives shape our being. Peace isn't just

an emotional state. It's cultivated through

intentional, disciplined thinking.

Point number three. This is the missing link.

Here's where we find the hidden treasure that's often

overlooked. After discussing thinking in verse eight,

Paul moves to doing in verse nine. And the

things which you have learned and received and heard about

and seen in me. Practice these things.

Now, the word practice here in Greek means a

continuous habitual action. Paul

says that peace comes through the regular practice

of a way of life that has been modeled,

observed and taught. And notice the

shift. Verse seven promises the peace of God. But

verse nine promises the God of

peace will be with you. Now this is really

profound. Through spiritual practice, we move from

experiencing God's peace as a gift to

experiencing the very presence of the

peace giving God himself. So how do

we practically apply this in our life? First we need to

identify peace robbing thought patterns.

Okay, take an inventory of your thought

life. What anxious patterns do you notice?

What media that could be social media, it could

be traditional media. Whatever it is you're consuming,

the relationships you're around, the habits that you have,

how do these feed these thoughts? Practice

becoming aware of what shapes your internal world,

your mind, and frankly affects your spirit.

Then intentional input filtering is the next

practical application. So using Paul's criteria in

verse 8 to evaluate what you allow into your

mind. This isn't about ignoring reality, but

choosing to dwell on what's true, what's noble,

what's right, what's pure and lovely and

admirable. Now this might mean you have to adjust

your social media consumption, your news intake, or even

your entertainment choices, but it will make a profound difference

in your life. 3. Find

living examples. Paul emphasized not just his

teaching, but his lived example. Who do

you know that embodies peace around you? What can

you learn from observing them? Consider

seeking out a mentor, someone who demonstrates the peace

that you desire. 4.

Create practice rhythms. Peace comes through

practice, not passive wishing. You can't just

assume it's going to take hold in your life. It takes work and Paul

talks about that here. Create daily rhythms that

include rejoicing. That's intentional gratitude

and celebration. Many people keep a gratitude

journal or they keep a list of things that they want to celebrate.

For me, in my daily journal, I keep a gratitude

list that I focus on when I'm going through prayer daily. Which takes

us to our second point, and that's prayer bringing our

anxieties to God. Now sometimes we can be asking

God to Help us with those anxieties. But I believe that it's

beneficial just to talk to God about the anxious things in your life,

the things causing anxiety for you. Number

three, thought discipline. Now, that's

meditation on what is excellent in your

life. And Paul gives us a great list to begin with there and

then community. We've talked about this already. Learning from

and with others. All right, Our fifth major point

here is to start small and to be

consistent. You can't expect to

really transform your life, at least not all of it all at

once. So choose one practice from this passage,

this lesson that we're talking about, and commit it to daily

life for two weeks. These small,

consistent steps will lead to profound

transformation. This insight we've talked about here from

Philippians 4:4-9, is that peace

isn't just something that God gives us, it's

someone God is. And experiencing

the presence of the God of Peace comes through

practice, not just belief or knowledge.

Paul understood this. He understood what? Modern

neuroscience confirms that our brains are shaped by what

we repeatedly do and think. Stop and think about that

a minute. Our brains are shaped by what we

repeatedly do and think. The pathway to peace

is paved with practice. So

today I encourage you to move beyond just admiring

these verses to embodying them. Choose one

practice from this passage and commit to it daily

as you do. You're going to discover that the God of

peace doesn't just give you temporary relief from

anxiety. He dwells with you. He

transforms you from the inside out.

And remember Paul's powerful promise, the

God of Peace be with you. Not just his peace, but,

but his very presence and friends.

That changes everything. Join with me now

as we close in prayer. God,

thank you. Thank you, Father, for you and thank you for

Jesus. We're going to take a moment, God, now in silence,

just to get our minds aligned with you, get our

spirits aligned with you, get our thoughts

aligned with you.

God, we live in such an anxious world.

It only takes moments on the Internet, on social media

to have our minds just clouded with

chaos. God, you're a God of peace and

you are with us as your children. Your

spirit fills us, God, help us to turn to

you, to turn away from these feeds in our life

that take the peace away from us

and turn our eyes and our hearts toward you. Be with us and protect

us, God, in this week ahead, help us to demonstrate you well

in our lives. Help us, God,

to be good ambassadors for you. It's in

Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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reflect him well.

God bless.