The Power to Calm Your Storms

Text: Philippians 4:1-9

• Philippians 4:2: Two women don’t get along. Both were saved, both loved Jesus, both loved Paul. The only problem is they didn’t love one another. They may have been founding members of the church. When Paul went to Philippi he found only women worshipping at the river.
• Philippians 4:3: Clement was a common name.
• Peace comes
• Philippians 4:6: Peace comes from God. You can go some places and just feel the Lord’s peace. It may be a church camp, your grandparents house; God’s peace just rests on that place. True of some people. They carry God’s peace with them.
• Philippians 4:7: God’s peace is beyond understanding. It will “guard” our hearts. gk “Garrison” like a solider standing post.
• How does God give peace?
• Philippians 4:9: The God of peace will be with you. Does not say God’s peace will be with us, as if God’s peace were something separate from God himself. IT says the God of peace. God doesn’t send his peace, he brings his peace.
• The bible emphasizes God is “omnipresent.” That mean God is everywhere. Also we should understand the “Manifest Presence” of God. Which is God’s intense presence with his people. Not only is God everywhere, but God is here.

How Does Gods Presence Give Peace?

1. He demands I work at

Philippians 4:2-3

Euodia means prosperous journey.

Syntyche means pleasant acquaintance.

=The problem was, prosperous journey and pleasant acquaintance couldn’t even have a pleasant car ride together.

The expectation is that they “agree in the Lord.” They don’t have to be best friends, but they do have to be kind to one another.

Paul gives the church a church project in Philippians 4:3. Clement and the rest of the workers are commanded to help these women. Before they do anything else as a church (have a workday, fix the plumbing, buy nursery equipment, vote on the budget) before anything else, they are to get these two women talking again.

What broken relationships do

• Wear me down emotionally.
• Stress my other relationships.
• Steal my joy
• Slow my spiritual progress.

2. God Directs

• Philippians 4:4 feels exciting at first. We are told to ‘rejoice” … which we are all very good at. You were already rejoicing in something. There are things you love to rejoice in. But Paul does something rather rude; he tells you what to rejoice in. “Rejoice in the Lord.”
• How do I rejoice in the Lord? I involve myself in the things that interest God.
• Augustine was born in North Africa. His mother Monica was a devout Christian, his father a pagan. As a young man, he was driven away from faith because of his intense need for sexual gratification. Augustine said, “The madness of lust held full sway in me.” He was interested in Christ but fought it because he loved sex so much. He prayed, “Give me chastity, but not yet.” When he finally came to Christ, his happiness changed. No longer seeking to gratify the flesh, he wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

3. God gives us

• Philippians 4:6 commands us not to be anxious about anything. No one starts there! We grow to get there. We learn to pray about everything.
• Philippians 4:8-9, Paul gives us some filters for our mind. It is divine censorsip.

The Power to Calm my Storms is

• Philippians 4:9 the God of peace will be with you.
• Isa. 9:6, “Prince of peace.”
• John 14:27, “My peace I give you.”
• John 16:33, “In me you have peace.”

Reflect:

–Any relationships need to mend?

–Need God guard your thoughts? Victory?

–Do you take delight things God?