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Sep 03, 2023

Unless You Become Like a Little Child…

Unless You Become Like a Little Child…

Passage: Philippians 4:2-9

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

What Jesus locates in close proximity to each other Paul nearly fuses together in a single closing of a letter–namely, the Spirit’s fruit of joy and peace. They are two sides of the same coin, or in keeping with Paul’s metaphor, adjacent slices of the same fruit. But what are they, really? How do they hold up in a world adept at conspiring against both? And moreover, how can they be experienced if we (if we’re honest) find them so elusive?

 

Readings & Scripture

PRE SERVICE TEXT: Philippians. 4:4
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

PREPARATION: Isaiah 55:10-12

LEADER: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

ALL: so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

LEADER: “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;

ALL: the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: John 14:27; 15:10, 11; 16:31-33; Romans 14:17
LEADER: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.. . . .John 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. . . . John 16:31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

CENTRAL TEXT: Philippians 4:2-9
I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Phil. 4:4   Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 4:8   Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

BENEDICTION: Romans 15:13
LEADER: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

POST SERVICE TEXT: Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Isaiah 55:10-12
  • Matthew 6:25-34
  • Luke 10:20
  • 2 Corinthians 6:2-10
  • Romans 12:12; 14:17; Romans 15:13
  • Hebrews 6:19-20
  • 1 Peter 5:5-7

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Don’t think–just answer: who’s the most joyous person you know? Why them? Now, think a little longer: what does your choice say about what you believe joy to be? What do you think joy is? And how might it be related to peace?
  2. The text offers us no context as to why Euodia and Syntyche are at odds. Imagine reasons why given their apparent importance to the vitality of the church. Why is unity both so crucial to and also so elusive in the life of the church, do you think?
  3. There’s a wonderful scene from the miniseries John Adams we’ve often shown with the elder statesman telling his son to “rejoice evermore,” quoting Paul here in our passage. [If you can view it together, do so!] But (and we’ve only noticed it until just now) that “Adams,” via Tom Hooper’s direction, doesn’t quite quote precisely what Paul says. What’s…missing, and why would recovering that omission change something significant in the meaning of what’s said?
  4. In the sermon we employed the image of a buoy–more specifically of swimming to one–as a metaphor for following Paul’s urging us to “rejoice in the Lord.” Joy is not insulated from sorrow; it in fact rides, like a buoy, some of the violent waves of sorrow. But because it is anchored to what is stronger, those fastened to it may ride those waves…differently than those in the storm. So, in keeping with the metaphor, what are all the ways we “swim to the buoy”--fasten ourselves to what is anchored even if we are not insulated from the waves? This, we think, is a clearer sense of what rejoicing is (cf. 2 Corinthians 6: 9-10)
  5. From joy comes our peace. What mainly steals your peace? What assaults you these days with anxious thoughts? Many things provoke anxiety–some of them we can’t quite ascertain. But what do you make of the idea shared in the sermon that often our anxieties stem from the fear of loss–and that our attempts to prevent such loss actually multiplies our anxiety (cf. the references to Curtis Chang’s book). More importantly, why would Paul speak so confidently of the act of praying (note well what he couples prayer with) as an answer to our anxieties? What experiences do you have of following that recommendation?
  6. When our moods are darkened, some of us take refuge in the darkened experiences of others (cf. Walker Percy: “Why does it make a man feel better to read a book about a man like himself feeling bad?”) Why do you think we’re tempted in that direction? Why might it serve to instead fill our minds with what speaks of goodness–of what we find on prominent display in Jesus? And why might Paul be so bold as to encourage them to follow his example– “Chief of sinners” as he might style himself?

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

 

Quotes:


© Bill Watterson, Source: https://www.gocomics.com/comics/lists/1625933/calvin-and-hobbes-back-to-school-comics

 

© Bill Watterson, Source: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2012/03/06

  • I was in a black despair. I was absolutely frantic. I had to publish everything I thought of, no matter what it was, and I found that idea almost unbearable. . . . I would go through these cycles of despair and elation based on the perceived quality of the strip—things that I doubt anyone else could see in either direction. It was all a bit manic. Bill Watterson
  • We suffer anxiety because we are vulnerable to losing what we most love. This further explains why anxiety is unavoidable for anyone who is truly human. To be free of anxiety is to be free of any love (which is capable of being lost), which in turn would mean becoming inhuman. Curtis Chang, The Anxiety Opportunity
  • Anxiety itself is not sin. It is an inevitable part of what it means to be humans living in the Now and Not Yet. And most avoidance habits—as dysfunctional as they are—are more accurately understood as “bad habits” than as outright sin. However, it is possible in some cases that the sin of idolatry can be lurking underneath anxious thoughts. This is precisely why the author of Psalm 139 asks God to “search my anxious thoughts” in order to ascertain if there is “any idolatrous way in me.” Curtis Chang, The Anxiety Opportunity

  • Cartoon by Robert Leighton, Source: https://www.newyorker.com/gallery/cartoons-from-the-march-13-2023-issue
  • you have as much laughter as you have faith. Martin Luther
  • Meticulous, absorbed, skilled, he displayed such as pride in his work that the newly turned furrows looked as finely executed as the paint strokes on an artist’s canvas. Jane Lucretia D’Esterre, from The Call by Os Guinness
  • For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I thank God, who seems to have willed it. … And also you, my last-minute friend, who will not have known what you were doing: Yes, I want this thank you and this goodbye to be a “God bless” for you, too, because in God’s face I see yours. May we meet again as happy thieves in paradise, if it please, God, the Father of us both. Christian de Cherge (more on his life here)

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS

 “The gospel of peace,” Tim Keller