Welcome back to the podcast on this holiday week. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving for us here in the States and in Canada, and we'd like to take these moments to take up the theme of Thanksgiving in the Apostle Paul's letters, which is a major theme for him. Last Thanksgiving, a year ago, I mentioned that the Apostle Paul mentions thanks about 50 times in his epistles, leading to one of my favorite quotes, a claim by New Testament scholar David Powell, who once wrote, and he's quoting Paul Schubert here, "The Apostle Paul mentions the subject of Thanksgiving more frequently per page than any other Hellenistic author, pagan, or Christian." Thanksgiving was always on Paul's lips, and it was on his lips when he was talking about prayer and anxiety, too.

In Philippians 4, verse 6, Paul writes this, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." In other words, pray your way past anxiety and pray your way into Thanksgiving. Here's Pastor John to explain. Let's go to chapter 4, verses 6 and 7.

Very famous, very precious, and more embedded in the big picture of this letter than you may have thought. I want to draw out from verses 6 and 7 of chapter 4 how it relates to the big things Paul is trying to do in this letter. So now, finally, for the first time, he exhorts them to pray.

I think that's been implicit so far, but now it's explicit. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, that's a big word. Do you pray about everything? Everything? I mean, when Paul says, "Pray without ceasing," that probably is connected to praying everything. Do you walk in a spirit of communion with God that sometimes consciously, sometimes less so, is constantly offering up thanks, but especially sending up need?

I need help in this conversation. I can barely understand that person's accent, and my hearing is bad. I need help right now at the dining room table. You live like that? Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

In one sense, this command to pray is all-encompassing because of the words, "In everything." Do not be anxious about anything, anything, but in everything, pray. See the connection there? Don't be anxious in anything because in everything, you're praying for what you need in the anxious moment, and you're trusting God because of his promise to be there and help, and so anxiety lifts.

That's the way prayer is supposed to work, take away anxiety. In another sense, it's not broad and all-encompassing. It's very narrow and very focused because instead of saying the hundred things that God does in answer to prayer, he simply focuses on two things, which are really two sides of the same coin.

Do not be anxious is one result of prayer. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. So the first thing that happens when you pray about everything is anxiety is lifted. Cast all your anxieties on me because I care for you.

That's Peter's way of saying it in 1 Peter 5. And the second thing is the peace of God, which is the opposite of anxiety, right? The peace of God that passes all understanding comes in and takes over and protects, guards your hearts and minds. So negatively, aim by prayer to be done with anxiety and positively, aim by prayer in everything to enjoy constant peace.

Walk through the world of trouble, ministry troubles, family troubles, European troubles, refugee troubles, political troubles, financial troubles. Walk in the protection of the peace of God that cannot be accounted for by human reason. Cannot. It goes beyond. It surpasses what human reasoning can do. When Paul is saying, "Enjoy peace through prayer," if somebody says, "Yeah, but how can you have peace when that's happening?" Well, that word "how" has no answer humanly.

That's why it says, "Beyond human understanding." Human understanding will not be able to come up with an answer to how you enjoy peace in this circumstance. It is supra-rational. Reasoning doesn't make the peace happen. God makes the peace happen. And he does it in answer to prayer. It's a wonderful experience.

Now let's ask this. How do those two halves of verse 6 and 7, "Get rid of anxiety by prayer, enjoy peace with God by prayer," how do those two results of praying in everything relate to the big picture of Philippians, which we've been seeing? So the first day I argued from chapter 1, verse 20, "My eager expectation and hope is that I might not at all be ashamed, but that Christ might be magnified in my body, whether I live or whether I die, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." That's the big goal of this letter.

Christ magnified in your bodily existence, living or dying. Make him look great. That's the reason you're on the planet. That's the reason your family exists, your ministry exists. Make Christ look magnificent because that's what he is. That's what this big picture is in Philippians. And we saw that Paul gets very specific.

Another way of describing "make Christ look great" is "lead lives worthy of the gospel." Chapter 1, verse 27. That is, "A life that is fearless before the adversary and united arm in arm in love with other believers." Unity in love and fearlessness, he says, "become a sign," verse 28, "a sign to the world of their destruction and of your salvation." In other words, when you are fearless before your adversary and you are full of love, driven by humility, counting others more significant than yourself, putting others' interests before your own, when that's the source of the loving unity and the fearlessness, it's a sign.

It's a sign to the world that Christ is all satisfying to these people. Christ will meet every need that they have. Christ is all they need. I want to know about this because I don't get it. That's the big picture. How does that relate to the praying of chapter 4, verse 6?

Can you put it together? Pretty obvious now, I think. If I were teaching you a class, I would make you write the answer. The answer is, "Do not be anxious about anything," is the fearlessness of 127 and 28. The fearlessness of chapter 1, verse 28, before the adversary is another word for "toad be anxious." When you stand before the authorities in the university or the authorities in the capital, when you stand before people who don't like your position on this or that, don't be afraid.

Or to use the words of chapter 4, verse 6, "Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, let him know what you need." All of which goes to say, "Prayer is the key to this book." Yeah, interesting to see prayer all over the book. So don't be anxious. Pray thanksgiving to God.

That's a connection I had not seen previously, and it was made in a sermon Pastor John preached on May 25, 2016, in Wysla, Poland, of all places. Wysla, Poland. It's titled "Prayer, How to Do the Humanly Impossible." The whole thing is online. Well, on behalf of Pastor John and the staff at Desiring God, we pray that you have a day full of gratitude to God for his abundant mercies to us.

We have a lot to be thankful for, not least of which for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for our forgiveness and our life that we have in union with him. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you Friday. Amen.