Lord, we thank you for your grace. God, we are so grateful, Lord, that your mercy continues to abound. God, because of your infinite character, Lord, we can continue to draw our life from you. And God, as we even evaluate even just this week, perhaps we have had many failures, perhaps we've even sinned, and perhaps, Father God, we feel discouraged by various things going on in our lives.

But in the midst of that, God, we can look to you no matter the circumstance. And we want to thank you. And we pray that as we hear the exhortation from Scripture to rejoice in the Lord, I pray, God, all the more that we would truly learn what that means and what's more to experience that in our day.

God, we thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. All right. So I will read this passage for us first. Looking at chapter 4, 1 through 9, and it says, "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 Eurydice 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 and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. 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, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

Okay? Now, as usual what I like to do is kind of break down the passage for you in four segments. And this is the way that I broke it down. As I look at this passage, there is a strong, emphatic command in verse one, saying, "Therefore," right? "In this way stand firm in the Lord." Okay?

"Stand firm in the Lord" is the major command that's introducing this next section. It's the transition from the last. And then in verse two and three, Paul calls for the harmony between these two ladies. And then in verse four through seven, it's really interesting because there's this rapid fire commandments that come at you.

Rejoice, there's the let your gentle spirit be known, be anxious for nothing, and then let your request be made known, right? But the way that I've kind of summarized those together, I'd summarize that as commands of peace. Because, yes, although the emphatic command is "Stand firm," I saw that there was quite a theme related to peace, right?

That's given there. And then, verse eight through nine, he gives two commands, which is dwell on these things and practice these things, right? So again, outlines aren't set in stone. This isn't "Thus says the Lord, thou shalt outline my verse this way." This is just me looking at the flow of thought, and I hope you guys are getting the pattern of doing that.

It makes, it forces you to read and reread the passage over and over, and then just to think like, "What is this train of thought here?" Okay? So, as an introductory remark, there's like way too much stuff to cover in today's lesson. I set the major outline of the book in terms of my teaching outline for this session, and I realized, man, when we're going over nine verses together, it's pretty tough, okay?

Now what I'd like to say is this, is a remark of, kind of some preliminary remarks. Remember that in the last session, we took a look at verse 20 and 21, chapter three, and Apostle Paul talked about, "For our citizenship," as in contrast to those who are enemies of the cross.

And he emphatically talked about our perspective that we belong in heaven, essentially. And from heaven, we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory. God, in his work in this current generation, he is sanctifying us, and then we know by what the scripture teaches, we're going to be perfected, glorified, right?

And then he says he's going to do that by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. So clearly, Apostle Paul's mind is currently future-oriented, right? It's heavenly. He's got the eternal perspective going on, and when he's calling the church, you need to stand firm in this fashion, right?

The exhortation to think that way about your identity in heaven, and then these next commands that'll come, it all builds to this exhortation that we need to stand firm in these things, right? So, it fits well in terms of the transition of thought. And what's really interesting is if the major command in verse one is "Stand firm," the following commands, I'm not sure if you saw like a similarity in all the commands.

You know, I'm sure you guys noticed, yeah, they have a lot to do with harmony and peace and things like that. But if you think of it one way, I'm not saying, again, this is 100% correct, but if you think of it one way, he's saying, "Stand firm," and then he gives you these various attitudes, these various conditions of heart, these various things that actually support you standing firm because if any one of those things were jettisoned, if any one of those things were struggling, you would not be able to stand.

You would be really, really weak and feeble and wavering all sorts of different fashions. So again, I saw it as here's this command in transition of thought, here's the perspective Apostle Paul gave, starting even from chapter one, there's perspective, perspective, perspective, right? Christ needs to be exalted, Christ is the most value.

If I'm, you know, we need to have the attitude of Jesus, perspective, perspective, and he says, "Stand firm," and then this is how you stand firm, okay? Now what I'd like to do is then, oh, here's the diagram of the way. You know what? Sorry, give me a moment here.

It's because I have this in a different view. I'm going to put it into a view where I can see what's coming up next so I know to show you the slide. Okay. So in the next, in this next section then, in section one, let's talk about this command.

Now again, there's a lot of things to cover, Apostle Paul's perspective on the church, his love for them, all that kind of stuff. I leave that to your just meditation. But I want us to think about this idea of standing firm. And one of the things that I challenged you was as we do Bible study, there are times when you dig deep and you ask the questions, "How do I interpret this?

What does this mean?" There are times when you're digging deep to think about what we're doing right now. It's like he has certain perspectives and teachings and you're looking for deep insight. But then if you recall the previous time I said sometimes when the Bible, the passage is coming at you not with theology but it's coming at you with direct commands, you should be thinking application.

And then at other times, I believe it is so important for us to stop and meditate. Because when he says stand firm, is that oh so confusing? Is that so nebulous? What we should be thinking is just starting to ruminate around, "Hmm, why? Why is he challenging us to stand firm in this?" And then yes, definitely you should start meditating how.

But in a more personal way, if the scripture is telling you stand firm, one easy way to meditate for yourself is why do I need to stand firm, right? Because are you currently experiencing the same exact circumstance that the Philippians are? Are you being persecuted? Now clearly, one of the things that we can relate to is not necessarily just the persecution but we talked about how the onslaught of false teaching, the onslaught of difficult circumstances, the many varieties of trials that come, you could relate to that, right?

Why is it that we need to stand firm? Because there is never a season in your life where there's something to or there's nothing to complain about, right? There's always something coming at you. We definitely need to stand firm. Are there dangers of grumbling? Are there dangers of false teachers?

Are there dangers of enticements and lurements of the world? Absolutely. But another way to meditate about this is one of the things I start doing is I start thinking how am I not standing firm, right? Not just simply, "Well, how do I stand firm?" But how am I not?

As an evaluation and meditation of myself, how am I not standing firm? How are these people not standing firm? Are there any indications in the passage that I've already read that tells me that these individuals too, even though they were a model church, even though in many ways they're so noble and commendable, how are they not?

And we notice that Apostle Paul highly emphasizes the topics of unity. Could it be that even yes, godly individuals serving, doing ministry, that there could be discord, disagreement, and rifts? Yeah, right? Could that be seen as not standing firm? Yes, absolutely. And so again, that was just an encouragement and challenge to you to think about standing firm and meditating on just the whys and the hows, and not only in this passage, but even in reflecting upon your life as well, okay?

Now I do want to share with you that that theme of standing firm, the exhortation for us to stand firm, you know it's just riddled throughout so many of the teachings through the New Testament, and I wanted to share a couple with you, and here's one from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 15 through 17.

"So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught." So in one method of standing firm is just make sure, am I staying true and consistent to the patterns that have been taught, right? "Whether by word or by mouth or by letter from us, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, God of our Father who has loved us, given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strength in your hearts in every good work and word." Here's another passage, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58.

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord." Is it not the case? When we feel like we've done enough, and then we seek to just veg, we seek to turn off our brains, we seek to come home and just relax.

A lot of times, actually, it's better to stay in motion, right? Kind of like what he's saying here. Here's another passage, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11. It says, "Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Verse 13, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, having done everything to stand firm.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with preparation of the gospel of peace." Now again, because there's so much to cover in today's lesson, I'm going to pause there, but I just want to challenge you. There are some of you who, you know, in recent, let's say like the last six months or so, I feel like our church has talked a lot about drifting.

I just recently asked the people who are planning for BAM retreat in the winter, "Hey, what was the last retreat, previous two?" And they were like, "Oh, it was about drifting." We talked about drifting on Sunday. We talked about drifting on the couples retreat and all this kind of stuff.

And then there are some people who are just so frustrated. I feel like drifting is just natural pattern of life because we're so inundated with distractions, right? Now, I just want to encourage you, remember that feeling of like, "Oh, I'm standing firm." You know there's no one trick to that.

You know there's no one tip advice, but you know what I do on Wednesday nights? I do Bible study and I'm firm, right? There is no one shortcut to standing firm. Clearly, the past tells you there is such a danger that the devil is scheming in multiple fashions to trip you up.

And the reason why you feel like, "Oh my goodness, is every season drifting season?" You know, it's like, it's partially because there's always constantly attack on you. I think we have to be sober and realize that, amen? But the other part is, remember, the fruit of being able to stand firm comes from such investment of desiring to put on not just pieces, not just the one important part, but the full armor of the Lord.

Desiring to have everything God has afforded you, the community, the word, the prayer, the work he's given you, all of that God desires for you to take advantage of. And so I want to give you that admonition encouragement. Like, so much of scripture desires for you to stand firm, not just for a season, but until the Lord.

Okay? Point two. In the next section, we have the desire for harmony, the command for harmony. And I want to read this verse, two verses. It says, "I urge Yodia and I urge Sintike 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 my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life." So when we look at this, the first thing I want to talk about is just like, wow, how important is this topic?

The topic of harmony. I mean, you realize that clearly just from observation, you have, I urge twice. I urge Yodia, I urge Sintike. What else is you have this admonition where in other passages, even talking about some of those false teachers, it may have been that those false teachers existed in the church, but he didn't name them.

But you notice here, wow, he calls them out. I mean, can you imagine having your name be called out in a public square like this? Can you imagine if I pointed, actually like directed my attention and I said, "Dude, Lindsay, can you, I urge you. Can you live with harmony with Sam?

Where's Sam? Where are you? I saw you just a moment ago. There you are. Can you sisters just get along?" And then I tell the whole table, "Hey, girls, can you please help her?" I mean, but that's kind of like the sentiment here, right? Like if you take a moment to think like, oh shoot, he named them.

And now for the rest of history, it's like written in the word. That's kind of intense, right? So now you have to start thinking like, why did Apostle Paul see it necessary to do that, right? And just don't worry, I asked him for the permission to use their names before.

Because some of you guys, if I called attention to you in a room this big, I mean, the weight of the pressure would be pretty heavy, right? So if you think about it, we know already it's like, the topic of unity is huge. He's talked about it at length.

If you remember in chapter two, when Paul talked about it, he gave both the like explicit command and the example of Christ, and he commanded every single one of them, "You need to be one," right? And we know from other passages of the scripture that the topic of unity is so important because the ministry, the whole like agenda of what we're doing has to exist in the context of unity.

We are proclaiming the name of Christ. We are upholding the gospel with the very character of the church together, right? Scripture says that Christ is going to reveal the manifold wisdom of God by joining together impossible people, by building this church of individuals so far, so wide, and then drawing everybody to a certain degree, not that you're just simply in one room, but that you would be made one.

And that incredible mystery is going to glorify the power that makes us one, which is Christ himself, right? Every single one of us being found in Christ is going to be the power that is revealed. And so scripture says it's so important for us to be united. Thank you.

Okay. So that being said, I want to kind of mention here a little bit, what can we observe about Yoria and Sintike? I know that's maybe one of the questions that you guys were kind of thinking about. And what's really interesting is they were true companions. It says that they shared in the struggle.

Clearly they're like numbered with the fellow workers, and clearly they're numbered with those who are in the book of life, meaning they are genuine Christians. Paul was convinced that there are individuals who bore those kind of qualities. And so that, I just want to quickly make mention of this idea that then, you know, what's very interesting is, A, you could have individuals who are good and godly.

You could have individuals who are active, working hard, and participating. They are present in the ministry of the church. And perhaps then they were actually quite well known. I mean, to be labeled or I guess named within this letter, then perhaps they were quite well known. Now the reason why I say this is because then number one, even when we're doing fine, I want you to understand that because our enemy schemes, one of the things that he will do is he's going to conquer to divide.

Sorry, I said that totally backwards. He's going to divide to conquer. Okay, but you guys know what I mean. All right. So that being the case, have, you know, have you seen, have we seen, is it totally possible that sometimes there is even amongst individuals who have been working and laboring that these rifts and strifes may happen?

It is not permissible for us to be like, "Ah, you know what? You do your own thing. I do mine." Within the church, it is not permissible to say, "Ah, you know what? Then I'm not going to talk to you." Right? No. So this kind of disunity is incredibly dangerous and the conflicts must be resolved to the degree that in your packet, I highlighted this, we can't ignore the fact that Paul called upon the members of the church to go help.

Right? So remember, number one, even good and godly Christians can be susceptible to divisions, but what's more, even personal relational conflict does not just reside in its privacy, it affects the church. And it's a responsibility, therefore, of the church to come alongside and help. And so I'm going to leave that to your discussion.

In what way are you supposed to help be a peacemaker? Now there are some people who operate by the, "If it's not your business, don't stick your nose in it." Right? There are a lot of people who don't want to get involved in that because if you do, you're going to get dirty.

But the fact of the matter is scripture calls us to a higher, I guess, calling for us to provide that level of context of harmony within the body. A cross-reference to that is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 2 through 6, "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, there is one body, one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." So you see the concept that we were talking about earlier, joined together.

Your unity is reflective of the nature of the gospel and of our God. So therefore, no, to be okay with just dysfunctional, like divide and this, you know, this discord and conflict, that is not permissible within the church. All right. We're going to move to the next section, which is verse 4 through 7.

Okay. Sorry about the... All right. So here in verse 4 through 7, it says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. 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." Okay.

What I did here is just like, you know, I mentioned in previous lessons, whenever I see this list, I start numbering them. I start asking, do I see any kind of similarity? Is there a flow of thought? And sometimes it's hard to answer, right? And sometimes you're just trying to see like, hmm, is there some kind of sequence?

Does one build on the other? Is this building blocks? Is this cause and effect? You should try to think about the relationships between these things. The way that I'm going to talk about it is, remember, I saw it as, man, if you can't do these things, you can't stand firm.

Okay. That's the way I saw it. But they definitely feed to each other, right? That the rejoicing is going to be your source of power for your gentleness. And that those things combined is going to produce in you such a steadfast firmness that you won't be anxious because you have a resource to turn to, which is your God, your heavenly Father, and making your request be known.

Okay. Now again, I try to connect those things. A lot of times you'll sit there and wrestle with, hmm, how do these things link together? Now again, for the sake of time, I'm not going to be able to go over everything, but I'm going to lump it all together and talk about one really important thing, which is this.

Every one of those things, rejoice, being gentle, not being anxious, and making requests, to me have an emphatic arrow pointing to God. Right? It is, you are to rejoice in the Lord. The gentle spirit, you letting that know, is the outflow of your rejoicing. It's the outflow of you knowing that the Lord is near.