Take the Stand
Philippians 4:1-9

INTRO:
Good Morning. Our text for today is Philippians 4:1-9. We are starting in the last chapter of the book of Philippians with today’s lesson.

There was a boxer in a championship match, and he was getting fairly beat up, his eyes were puffy, his lip was cut and his cheeks were swollen. He staggered over to his trainer at the end of the round and said, “Throw in the towel man, I’m getting killed out there”. His trainer trying to encourage him, said, “Oh, no, you’re doing great, that guy is not laying a glove on you.” The boxer looked past his bloody nose and said, “Then, keep an eye on the referee because somebody is hitting me out there.”

There are some people who want to say that Satan isn’t around anymore, but I want you to know that that’s not what the Bible says. Satan maybe a defeated foe, but he still has a lot of fight left in him. We saw the last week that our citizenship is in heaven, and we’re eagerly awaiting our savior Jesus Christ who will come to take us home to heaven where we belong. While we wait we need to watch for what God wants of us, and walk the walk of a Christian.

I. However, right now, we are aliens in the world where Satan is still very real. We are going to have to walk off our wait with great opposition from the forces of spiritual darkness. After saying, “Hey you live like people going to heaven.” Paul says in chapter 4:1 – “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.”
A. In other words Paul is admonishing the brethren in Philippi, whom he loves and longs to see, to “stand fast in the Lord.” Paul has told them, “You wait for Jesus Christ to come back as you show the world where your citizenship lies”. He then tells them, “You’re going to have to stand firm to do it.” Why does Paul tell them this? Because he knows that they can expect opposition, Satan is going to come after them, and they need to stand firm in the Lord.
B. That is our question for this morning. Are we standing firm, taking a stand for Jesus Christ? We must withstand Satan’s efforts to have us deny our citizenship. Paul has told the Philippians, “to live the life of the future right now”.
C. We’re supposed to walk in this world in such a way as to reflect our true citizenship, and there is going to be opposition. The Bible portrays the Christian life as a great cosmic struggle.
II. When I read Paul telling the Philippians to stand firm in the Lord, my mind goes back to Ephesians 6 where Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms.” Then in Ephesians 6:10-11 Paul says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole amour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Paul is saying, “I want you to take a stand against Satan, but when you take that stand, I want you to fight intelligently”. A soldier needs to be trained.
A. Paul wants us to engage in intelligent combat. He says, “I want you to know what Satan is up to, I want you to see how he is attacking.” We often treat Satan like he’s an invisible foe, and we don’t even acknowledge his presence. It’s really hard to fight an enemy you never see.
B. Back in 1984 there was a terrible tragedy in city of Bhopal (bo-paul) India. Some of you might remember that in the Union Carbide plant there was an accident that leaked poisonous gas over the city. The gas, methyl isocyanate, was odorless, and it was unable to be detected by sight. The gas drifted over the densely populated neighborhoods around the plant, killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee Bhopal. The final death toll was estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000. Some half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation or blindness, and other maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas.
C. That’s how it is today. You can’t see Satan with the physical eye. He often disguises himself as an angel of light. Some people even say, “He’s not around anymore” but people are still dying.
D. Paul says, “I want you to be aware of what is going on. I want you to take a stand against his schemes. I want you to combat him intelligently.”
1. One of Satan’s most effective schemes is to neutralize a church’s witness by robbing Christians of their joy.
2. Paul tells us, “You rejoice in the Lord always”. That’s how you stand firm in the Lord, you rejoice always in the Lord. Satan is going to do everything he can to keep that from happening, but Paul says, “That’s your strategy, that’s how you stand firm.”
E. Verse 4 is saying, “Celebrate God all day, every day, I mean revel in him.” Joy is not to be an occasional experience for Christians. You hear it said about some people, “He was just born with a happy personality, and I wasn’t. It’s just not my nature to be joyful all the time.” Folks, to rejoice is a scriptural command, and to ignore it is disobedience. If you’re going to obey Gods commands, you’re going to have to take stand against satanic assault.
F. Paul is going to show us today, 3 areas where we’re going to have to stand firm against Satan’s attempts to rob us of joy. The first Paul mentions in Philippians 4:2-3 – “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.”
G. Paul has just said, “You had better stand firm in the Lord”. Here’s the 1st thing that needs to be done. Paul shows, “We need to take a stand against disunity.” Notice Paul thinks that preaching the gospel, the work of the gospel is a co-head task. Women were helping him spread the gospel in Philippi, and these two ladies had labored with him in his ministry.
H. These two sisters have become estranged. Paul felt their disagreement was serious enough to mention their names. I don’t think their dispute was over a point of doctrine because Paul doesn’t say, “One is wrong and one is right”. We see, in his other letters, that Paul is not bashful about giving his instruction when doctrine is at stake. Whatever was upsetting these two ladies was likely not about doctrine. We don’t know what the problem was.
I. But what ever the problem was, there was a bigger problem. The bigger problem was these two ladies were not “putting the interest of the others first”, like Paul said to do back in chapter 2:3. They needed to be reminded that their common love for the Lord was more important than their present conflict. Satan wants us to live in such a way as to deny our citizenship in heaven.
III. How can we claim to the world that we’re people on our way to heaven, that we’re people whose citizenship is in heaven, when they look at us and see that we can’t get along with each other? People will see if we become disagreeable when we have differences that need to be worked out. Here is an illustration.
A. Charles Spurgeon had a friend in London named Newman Hall. Dr. Newman Hall was the author of the immensely popular book Come to Jesus. He was sharply ridiculed in a volume that was published anonymously. Though he knew who the author was, Hall patiently bore the ridicule for a time. But as the caustic volume began to circulate more widely, Hall wrote a letter of protest which was even more insulting than the book that had attacked him.
B. Hall took the letter to Spurgeon and asked his opinion of it. Having carefully read the correspondence, Spurgeon handed it back, declared it was excellent, agreed that the book’s author deserved it all, but then added that the letter lacked one thing. Hall, being quite gratified with Spurgeon’s response, was all ears to his further suggestion.
C. “Underneath the signature, ‘Newman Hall’,” coached Spurgeon, “you ought to put the words, ‘Author of Come to Jesus’.” Newman Hall thought a moment then picked up the letter and tore it to shreds.
D. Satan had made a quite cunning attack. How can we say to a world, “Come to Jesus”, when we talk to each other like we sometimes do? Instead of taking sides, Paul mobilizes the church to address the conflict. How do we deal with controversy in the church? Privately don’t we? Paul didn’t deal with this privately, because he knows it’s going to take the church to help with the healing and the church is apparently already involved.
E. We want conflict to just go away, so we ignore it, but conflict is not going to go away. Conflict is like an infection. If you don’t do something about it, it’s just going to spread, and it’s going to suck the joy right out of a congregation. Paul is not going to ignore it. Paul is not going to pretend everything is ok when it’s not. For Paul the health of the body was more important than the appearance of health.
F. It is a complement to the Philippians, that he thinks that they are mature enough to handle it. I’m so impressed because this is not how I see congregations handling conflict. We tend to ignore conflict. We don’t like to deal with conflict, and we hope it goes away. Paul says, “That’s not how the church ought to deal with conflict”.
G. Do you have a couple of brothers not getting along? Do you have a couple of sisters not getting along? Do you have a couple of saints fussing? Somebody that is mature enough needs to step in and take a stand against that disunity before it sucks the joy out of the assembly. If the church is a colony of heaven, and if there are no divisions in heaven, then why do we stand for disunity in the church? Do we have a problem like that here folks? Do we have people who firmly believe, that their view of something that occurred is more “right”, more important: and do I dare say it—more righteous than their relationship with their brothers and sisters?
H. Let’s do something before Satan robs us of joy through fractured relationships. It’s going to mean someone has to make the first move. Someone’s has to do something—and take a stand.
I. It’s not going to be easy, but whoever said, “Taking a stand against Satan is going to be easy.” If it was easy then what is the armor for? It wasn’t easy for Jesus to humble himself, and take on a cross when we had offended Him, but He made the first move, now we must do the same thing.
IV. I’ll relate here a story I read about Corrie ten Boom and a talk in Munich, Germany she gave about forgiveness. For those that don’t recall Cornelia ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who with her father helped many Jews during WWII. She and her sister Betsy were thrown in a prison camp by the Nazis for concealing Jews in their home and Betsy died a very horrible and tragic death because of the cruelty in Ravensbruck. Corrie after the war in 1946 was speaking in Munich.
A. After the talk a man made his way through the crowd and stuck out his hand. She recognized the face of the very guard that had been so cruel to her sister. The man said, “I am now a Christian and I ask your forgiveness”.
B. Everything within Corrie wanted to curse that man, but she remembered Matthew 6:15, “and if you do not forgive men their sins against you, your father will not forgive your trespasses.” She put out her hand and forgave that man.
C. No--it’s not going to be easy to be a peacemaker, to make the first move, to humble yourself. Peacemakers are not appreciated in the body like they ought to be, but do you know what? The Bible says, “Their names are written in the book of life.” Paul says, “Listen, don’t let Satan disguise himself and suck joy out of your congregation, be aware of what he’s doing and if you see people in your assembly that are upset with one another, step in there and deal with it.”
V. That’s one way we can fight Satan, and the second way we can take a stand is shown in Philippians 4:4-7 – “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
A. Paul says, “I want you to take a stand against disunity. I also want you to know about another way Satan will try to rob you of joy, and you won’t even see him doing it—it is through worry.” “I want you to take a stand against anxiety”. I think worry is our greatest joy stealer. How many people do you know that allow worry and anxiety to steal their joy in Jesus Christ? Satan knows our witness as citizens of heaven is rendered absolutely impotent when our lives are dominated by anxiety.
B. What is a worry? A worry is anything that’s draining your tank of joy. Anything that is making it hard for you to rejoice in the Lord is a worry and you better take a stand against it. Well, what are we supposed to do about worry? Paul tells us two things. The first is “remember the Lord is near”.
1. Anxiety is usually caused by an uncertain future. For the Christian the future has already been secured. We know what’s going to happen in the future. We can rejoice in our circumstances because our circumstances don’t have the final word—the Lord Jesus has the final word and He’s coming back soon. Worrying will just drain away when we remember Jesus is coming. That is one thing we can do about our worry, remember the Lord is near.
2. The second thing Paul says we can do about worry is we can pray. We should pray about everything. If we spent the time praying, that we spend worrying, we would have a lot less to worry about. Remember Paul said, “You take a stand against the devils schemes” in Ephesians 6. “Your struggle is not against flesh and blood, its spiritual forces.” And he talks about whole amour we are supposed to put on. In verse 18 of chapter 6 he says the most important thing, “And pray in the spirit on all occasions.”
3. I’ve noticed people do the exact opposite. The more we have to worry about, the less we pray. We’re a little bit like the man I heard about who once was active in the church, but fell away from the Lord for 15 years. He lived a wild and sinful life. Then he had a heart attack. As they put him in the ambulance to rush him to the hospital, he realized he’s in a desperate situation. He started to pray. He said, “God I know I haven’t talked to you in a long time, but I’m desperate and I’m asking you to spare my life, please give me my life back. God, I promise you, if you answer this prayer, I won’t bother you again for another 15 years.” That person needed an improvement in his understanding; I think he missed some bible classes.
C. They say that when Christianity first came to Africa, the Christians there were great prayer warriors. Their habit was for each to go off into the bush every morning and find a spot that was their own spot and pour out their heart to God in prayer.
D. You would know where the spot was because they would wear a path with their constant trips. According to the story I heard, if one brother began to get negligent in his prayer, you could always tell. The others would come up beside him and say, “Friend, the grass grows on your path” as a way to remind him to get back to praying.
VI. Here is Paul’s prescription, “worry about nothing, pray about everything, and give thanks for it.”
A. I know what some of us are thinking. We think, “I do pray about the big stuff.” People are like that. Like that woman who told G. Campbell Morgan. “I pray about the big stuff, but I don’t bother God with the little stuff”. Morgan replied, “Madame, everything you talk to God about is little.” There’s nothing you can ask God about that is too big for His power or too little for His concern.”
B. And then I wonder, why do we put up with anxiety? We get headaches and ulcers and high blood pressure and work ourselves into early graves. We become miserable, and we snap at people when our tempers are high. All because of the stuff we’re worrying about. Then we say, “Why does God let this happen to me”? Do you know what God, who is up heaven, is probably thinking? “Why are they letting this happen to them?” “Why don’t they talk to me, why don’t they pray?”
C. I want you to notice that the very act of praying is recognition of the sovereignty of God and His control over tomorrow. Just the act of praying will help us with our worry, but there is something else that is going to happen.
D. Paul doesn’t say, “Now if you pray about everything God will always give you what you ask for”. What Paul does say is, “When you start regularly praying to God, you are going to get what you need most of all. You are going to get the experience of God’s touch in your life”.
E. Paul says, “You are going to get a peace that will flood life, that you can’t even explain, but you cannot explain it away either.” This is hard to talk about because some of us may never have felt that peace and might think that sounds crazy. There have been times in my life however when I have poured out my heart to God, and that the peace that God sent was so present, I literally felt it. Anyone here that has felt it will know what I’m talking about. I can’t explain it, the Bible says, “It’s beyond understanding”
F. It’s God’s gift to us to take away our worry. Paul says, “That’s what you can do, to take a stand against Satan trying to use anxiety to steal your joy. You can pray.” The Bible says again in verse 7 “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” The Bible says, “It will keep your hearts and minds”
G. The Greek word the King James translates as “keep” literally was a military term. Other translations use the term “guard”. In other words, God’s peace is going to set up like a guard around your mind, to keep all that worry away. One more thing though. God wants you to help Him in guarding your mind.
VII. The third thing Paul says to the church in verses 8-9 – What brother Dale has been teaching in class the past few weeks; “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” .
A. Paul tells us, “Satan will try to steal your joy without you knowing it, with critical, cynical, negative thinking.” “Take a stand against negativity.” In the book of Philippians there are 16 references to a persons mind or thoughts.
B. I believe that joy, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. I also believe that our thoughts can quench the Holy Spirit or spur the Holy Spirit to fill us with joy as His desire is. I believe that most Christians are much too indiscriminate about what they allow into their minds. This is not a call to insulate ourselves from all the ugly truth in the world or even in the church. It’s a call for us to go on the offensive in our minds. Don’t let Satan decide what’s going to dominate our thinking. We are to choose what we are going to focus on.
C. What then ought to dominate the thoughts of people who are on their way to heaven? Paul says, “You train your mind to look for all the reasons around you to rejoice.” Proverbs 4:23 has some strong words to say. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Saying it another way, “Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life.”
D. What the Bible is telling us, “None of us is going to be the exception to the reap-and-sow principle.” If we sow negative thoughts and gossip and criticize, if that’s what we sow in our mind, we’re going to reap a negative and bitter spirit. Have you ever watched Satan attack a church through negative and critical thinkers? Oh beware of so called “critical” thinking folks. That’s one of his favorite strategies and we don’t even think its Satan. We don’t even know he’s doing it.
E. Satan loves to plant negative, critical thinkers in the church. They suck the joy right out of the assemblies.
F. During the Boer war, in South Africa in the 1800’s, I heard about a man who got arrested for an interesting crime. He was arrested for being a discourager. The town of Ladysmith was under attack and this man was walking through town and saying, “We can’t beat these guys. They will over-run the town. They’re going to whip us. We better just surrender and give up”. They arrested him and threw him in jail, for being a discourager.
G. Now Paul says, “You need to take action against that kind of thinking, you need to stand firm against negativity.”

CONCLUSION:
I suppose it is possible that right now some may be thinking, “I wonder, who in this church, he is trying to talk to.” I’ll just go ahead and lay your mind at rest. I’m trying to talk to all of us, because it applies to each of us.

The Living Bible says this in verse 8. “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right, think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others.” We could all think something ugly about somebody else in this room, but that’s not what we are going to do if we are going to stand firm in the Lord. This is exactly what we have been studying in bible class with Dale.

We’re going to dwell on what is good and fine about other people and think about all we can praise God for.

Let me relate to us some advice about how we can battle against Satan on this. Don’t let our mind be a vacuum. Don’t let Satan decide what we’re going to think about. We need to start our day in the word, and put the scripture in our heart. Start our day, praying to God asking for his Spirit to control our thoughts. When we find our self tempted and listening to some gossip or are tempted to think something ugly about somebody, say a prayer for that person at that very moment and God will start to work on our heart.

Let’s look at what Paul says in verse 9 – “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” The key word here is in the middle of the verse, “do”. “Put it into practice, do it, don’t just talk about it, don’t just think about it, don’t just nod your head and say, “the preachers right”, put it into practice, take a stand against these things of Satan.” We must understand that standing firm does not mean standing still. In other words, the goal of the sermon today is not to get you to nod your head and say, “That’s right”.

The goal of the sermon is to get you to find which one of these 3 areas is your struggle and do something about it. If you are estranged today from somebody, if your relationship is not strong, it could be a husband and wife, father and son, mother and daughter, brother or sister, do something about it. If there’s someone you’re estranged from and you’ve heard this word from God and you don’t make a move today to humble yourself and fix that relationship... that’s disobedience.

If your life is dominated by a worry, if you don’t cast that worry on God and pray and thank Him for all the good things He’s done for you and ask for His peace to take over your heart, if you continue just to let that worry be the center of your life... that’s disobedience. If you allow gossip and bitterness and negative thinking about people to control your mind instead of going on the offensive to put different things in your mind... that’s disobedience.

Standing firm doesn’t mean standing still. It means, you make some peace today, you get on your knees today, you get your thinking right today and then you will watch the joy return. You know what saddens me about this passage of scripture? Even though Euodia and Syntyche stood side by side with Paul and helped him preach the gospel, they are remembered for having a fuss and they wouldn’t make up.

When we die, what will people remember us by? Let our choice be: “they prayed”. Let’s practice what we preach.
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There may be someone here this morning who recognizes that Satan has been active in their life and they have never been buried with Christ in baptism. Perhaps there is someone who recognizes that even though they have been joined with Christ, Satan has hit them with a sneak attack and they are slipping away from the body.
We invite you to consider your state. If you are not a Christian this morning, know that the New Testament tells us how to be saved. First hear the word of God; believe in Jesus; repent of your sins; confess your belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of sins... If you do those things, the Lord adds you to His church.
If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

# 227—Stand Up For Jesus
Reference Sermon
Mike Glover