The Road Best Traveled -- A Peaceful Life -- Philippians 4:1-9

Introduction
Are any of you familiar with the great American Chicken Track? If you were a child of the 70’s, I am sure that you are. Some people called it the peace sign.
Peace means many things we think about the word.
It could mean well being or it could mean personal contentment; it could mean coexistence between nations; it could mean an unhindered relationship with God.
Even the new bumper stickers are declaring things like creating a department of peace and my personal favorite “visualize whirled peas.”

Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at the text this morning, we see Paul is winding up his letter to the Philippians by offering them some final instructions.

Narrate the Contextual application
These instructions were to help believers in Jesus to pursue peace: peace in the body, peace in life and peace with God.
As they followed these instructions, the church would be a better witness for Christ because the people in the church would certainly be getting along, life would be a testimony to the power of God and followers of Jesus would be keeping their testimonies consistent with the God they profess to follow.

Life Application (thesis)
The key in this passage is trusting God.
Jesus said in Matthew that if we seek God and his kingdom first, all the necessities of life will be given to us.
If we want to have peace, then we must seek after God’s face.
We must pursue vital fellowship with Him.
Our life in church with outher followers of Jesus, in our circumstances, and in the pursuit of holiness is a function of our faith.
It is a function of trusting God.
Therefore all of life revolves around trusting God.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we study this text this morning, let’s examine three traffic lights that we see here in order to live the peaceful life.
The red light – Disunity – We can never accomplish all that the Lord has for us when we quarrel about petit things.
In his book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer compares unity to tuned pianos. Listen to how he described unity.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

Look if you will to verse 2.
Notice that Euodia and Syntyche are told to agree in the Lord.
I wish this passage elaborated more on what their disagreement was over but one thing can be certain.
It was over some petit and unimportant matter.
I laughed out loud in my office this past week when I wondered if it was over music.
The worship wars of the 1990’s did a lot to damage the cause of Christ but disunity over non issues always hurts the church.
Disunity in the body of Christ is so destructive that it is called one of the things that is an abomination to God.
There are six things the Lord hates; seven are an abomination to Him.
One who sows discord among brothers is on that list in Proverbs 6 along with lying and pursuing evil plans.

I have been in churches where that was a common practice.
I even had a secretary at one point who would secretly call a committee chairman in the church if she did not like a decision that I made regarding something in the church.
I have seen disunity right in the pastor’s office and let me tell you it was a terrible situation trying to maintain ministry in that church.
That situation finally resolved when she lost her job for lying about the calls she made.
But, as far as my ministry was concerned there, permanent damage was done to the ministry.

Disunity will destroy a congregation
I believe that is why Jesus prayed for us the way He did.
Notice his prayer in John 17
Listen to these words of Jesus High Priestly prayer form John 17:20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus prayed for unity but is not for unity in a vacuum for earlier in 17 He prayed this, “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.”
This what Paul was demanding from Euodia and Syntyche – to agree in the Lord.
They had labored together in the Gospel before with some very significant church fathers like Clement and Paul and doing some important work in the gospel.
Yet neither one was willing to relent.
Look at verse 5 let your gentleness or your reasonableness or your yielding spirit be seen by all.
When it is not an issue of Doctrinal necessity, it is okay to say, “let’s do it your way.”
These women had previously been responsible for bringing people to Jesus and now they were tearing the church apart.
They were unreasonable, not gentle and unyielding and the gospel suffered because of it.
Let’s not let that be our legacy.

We have seen the red light of disunity.
Now we will examine the yellow light of anxiety – Worry will inhibit our ability to trust God in our circumstances.
Do you know what lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A nervous wreck
I love my rocking chair at home because I love to rock. I bought it for Valerie as a gift when we were expecting Alyson and I have kind of taken it over. I read somewhere that worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

That is pretty much true.
All too often, followers of Christ rock in their worries rather than trusting God to deal with their circumstances.
Look at verse 6
Do not be anxious.
When we see this, we might be inclined to see it as a suggestion but Paul wrote thin in the imperative mode.
IOW, this is a command to followers of Christ.
Don’t lose yourself in worry.
God is fully aware of your circumstances and By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, God will deal with them and with your attitude toward them.
Prayer and supplication are essentially synonyms which enjoin us to ask God to work in our circumstances.
It requests that He take an active role in determining the outcome of where we are in life.

And, we thank Him.
We thank him for what he has done because that keeps us mindful of His mighty working hand.
We thank Him for what He is doing because that keeps us looking for what He is doing.
We thank Him for what He will do because that is the exercising of our faith in what He is going to do.
Look what happens when we commit these things to prayer and to thanksgiving.
The peace of God which is beyond our ability to comprehend guards our hearts and minds in Christ.

The word guard is a military word that means to prevent invasion or escape.
You think about a city being guarded. The spoils of war are protected from those in the city from leaving with the victor’s winnings, hence no escape.
Or, the guarded city is protected from a hostile army coming in and taking over.
Think about what the peace of God is doing in our lives.
It is keeping the security of God’s love, care and concern in our lives and in our hearts while at the same time turning back the enemy’s darts of doubt and despair.
That is why it is so very important to commit our lives and our circumstances to the Lord.
Worry is a killer but peace keeps our lives secure in Christ.

Now, let’s take a look at our green light – fixing our minds on Godly things – fixing our minds on Godly things will keep them off ungodly things.
That simply goes back to the old computer adage – garbage in, garbage out.
Look at verse 8
Think about these things; dwell on these things.
The idea is that we are giving them careful consideration like we do when we are going over that financing contract or that contract extension for next season.
There are just some things that we weigh very heavily.
The price of gas is causing many of us right now to reconsider vacations and travel plans.
But this text tells us to dwell on the things of God.
These things described in verse 8 are the Excellencies of life, the beauties of living.
These are things that make you take notice of just how wonderfully excellent God is in the richness of His blessing toward us.

All too often we get lost in thoughts that just don’t honor God.
We get lost in workplace gossip, in getting in good with the boss, in making excuses for not doing our best, in cliques and popularity, and in floods of bad and ungodly actions and attitudes that he world throws at us every day.
But, the way we think affects the way we live
Our actions pour out of our thoughts.
That is Why Jesus said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out of his mouth because that comes from his heart.
What we think about is what we do and it determines how we live.
Minds fixed on holy things live lives that are pleasing to God but minds that are fixed on the ungodly do not produce godly behavior.
They produce just the opposite, sinful attitudes and sinful actions that cannot be associated with God.
Look at verse 9.
That is about the actions coming from the thoughts of verse 8.
Paul declares that he has taught and shown how followers of Jesus should live and notice the reward.
The God of peace will be with you.

A peaceful life is the Life that the God of Peace inhabits.
That is the life focused on Him and His ways in our thoughts and in our actions.
We have an opportunity to refocus our lives today.
If we are living lives that lack peace it might be because our thinking is all wrong.
That can fixed through a relationship with Jesus Christ as He leads you down the road best traveled without worry, with Peace through knowing the God and Prince of peace.