The Power of Gratefulness in Prayer

6 · Exegesis of 'rejoice in the Lord always' from Philippians 4:4

What does he say when he starts here? Rejoice in the Lord. That rejoice in the Lord is not just a suggestion, it's not an invitation, it's not a suggestion. It's Actually, in the imperative, which means it's a command. Does that seem odd that we would be commanded to have joy and rejoice? Because that's what he's saying. What if I don't feel like it? What if I don't feel joyful? What if I just feel like grumpy dwarf? I'm not digging it. What then? Do I just fake it? You know, life. I might be going through something that's really hard. You know, maybe you're going through cancer. You've got a loved one who's suffering. Maybe you've got a child who's sick and in the hospital. Are you supposed to, you know, just look at that situation and paste on a smile and say, yeah. Oh, how this is a great joy? You see, that's not what he's saying. He is not asking us to be joyful about the circumstances, because look what he says. Rejoice in what? In the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Not in your circumstances. They may really, really be hard. They might be tempting you every moment of every day to just go down into the grumpy dwarf mode and just be miserable. He's saying, no, no, rejoice in the Lord. And just to make sure we don't miss it, he says it again. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice always is the other piece of this that we've got to see. How can we rejoice always? You mean really, Paul? You know, in every circumstance? Exactly.

7 · Doctrinal clarification distinguishing biblical joy from superficial optimism or willpower

Now, here's what we need to understand. Rejoice is an attitude or an outward expression of. Of joy. And it's not in the sense of, you know, don't worry, be happy. It's not even positive thinking. This is not something we try to paste on top of our struggles that we're going through. This is something else altogether. It's not even a matter of our will, because again, it's rejoice in the Lord. He's calling us to rejoice in something that is always worth rejoicing in, no matter what we're going through. Paul is commanding us to a joy that's not based at all in our circumstances. It doesn't matter what's going on. He's saying, rejoice in it.

8 · Extended personal narrative illustrating the sermon's central claim through the pastor's granddaughter's Crohn's diagnosis

There's some of you aware that know me of the story of my granddaughter Avery. About three years ago, we were actually in Florida meeting or being with family, and we got this call from my daughter that they were taking Avery to the hospital, and she had always had some digestive issues. And she'd get migraines, which was strange for a little kid, but she got these abdominal pains that were just overwhelming. They rush her to the hospital and they're running all kinds of tests. And one of the tests showed there's a mass in her abdomen, I think in her colon area. They could tell. They ran more tests every. Every time we got a piece of news. At first it was from worse to worse. They started giving you all the what if scenarios, and they were all bad. Is this a tumor? Are we going to operate? And then one doctor decided to test for Crohn's, and it turns out she has like the most severe case of Crohn's. And here she is. She's like 9 years old at this moment. And so again, here comes the bad news. She's got severe Crohn's and we might have to operate. And if we do, we're probably going to remove this whole section of her colon. And in fact, in worst case scenario would be she could die from this because it could explode and get out into her body. And if they do successfully remove it, then the possibility is the rest of her life she'll just have section after section with colon until some days she's on a bag. I mean, goes from bad to worse to worse. Thankfully, there was this newer, at least I don't know how new it is, but up there in Canada, where they live, it was a newer treatment, a genetically engineered antibiotic that could survive through the stomach and get into the colon. They said this is the only thing. If this works, then we may not need surgery. Praise God it did. But every month now, she has to get these infusions to keep just constantly fighting. Her body wants to keep creating these infections, and one of these days it's possible that this thing could overtake her. She's got to eat different. She's got to. But can you imagine as we were getting these news, there's about a 48 hour period where our emotions are going all over the place. We wanted to hop on a plane and get right up there, though there's nothing that we could do if we did. So this was not a happy circumstance. There was no joy in hearing this about my granddaughter. Mary and I were struggling for joy, fighting for joy during those days. See, Paul, when he's commanding us to rejoice, is not detached somehow from the reality of real suffering. In fact, Paul is not writing this epistle from a beach on the Mediterranean drinking a Mai Tai. Paul is actually imprisoned while he writes this. He's in chains. He speaks of that at one point. So Paul knows suffering. He has. He's been stoned. He's been beaten three times with rods. He has had through his life of ministry. He has been through it. He's now an old man in basically some kind of prison. Cold, hard slabs. Every part of his body probably aches. He's not happy about being in prison. He wants to be out there sharing the gospel to his last dying breath. But he's stuck here in this prison. He's doing exactly what he's commanding us to do, what the Lord is commanding us to do through his writing, to rejoice. And what does he add in there? Again, he says, rejoice always. Here's a little inside point in the Greek, the word translated always. It actually means always. There's no secret hidden meaning there. It actually literally means in every circumstance. Karl Barth and I love this quote from Karl Barth on this topic. He says joy in Philippians because it's a major theme throughout this epistle. Joy, he says, is a defiance nevertheless. So Paul in essence himself could be saying, yes, I'm in prison and I don't like it here. I don't want to be here. But nevertheless, I will rejoice in the Lord for Mary and I working this out and God's kindness helping us to do that. Our granddaughter was suffering, and during those days it was difficult. We were crying out, sometimes in tears, praying for her, Lord, spare her. She's nine years old. This is what her life's going to be like. Lord, have mercy. And yet at the same time we could say, nevertheless, Lord, we rejoice in you. Not because I'm happy about what's going on with her, no, I'm happy about something else. There's something else firing off joy in my heart, despite what's going on, that I hate happening to my granddaughter.

9 · Doctrinal assertion defining the source of biblical joy: not getting what we want, but being grateful for what we have in Christ (salvation instead of deserved judgment)

Friends, joy in the Lord flows from our relationship with Jesus, fueled by our knowledge of who he is and what he's done to save us, in essence, the gospel, real joy. This is from Tony Moretta. In his commentary, he says, real joy comes when you realize that what you deserve, judgment and what you received instead, salvation leads you to great joy. Listen to this. He says, it's not about getting what you want. I'm not digging that part. It's not about what you want, he says, it's about being grateful for all that you have in Christ.

10 · The pastor returns to the grumpy dwarf mug motif, now reinterpreted through gospel lenses

So this is just so counterintuitive to how we think as human beings. We're so in Tune to just. Well, right now I feel this. Right now I feel that this is what's going on in my life. I don't like this. I don't like that that's where we would go, left to ourself. Paul is calling us to something else as believers in Jesus that transcends our feelings and our circumstances. So do you see why being grumpy dwarf is contrary to who you are in Christ? This is not who we were created to be in Jesus. And this is why I love my grumpy dwarf mug. Every time I use this mug, pretty much every morning, I've even at times found it in the dishwasher dirty. And I've gotten it out and hand washed it so I can drink my coffee out of it. Cause every time I have my coffee in the grumpy dwarf mug, I see that phrase not digging it and it reminds me, this is who I would be apart from Jesus. This would be my natural inclination in my old nature, who I am apart from Jesus, who I used to be before I became a new creation in Christ. My natural inclination would be not digging that, not digging that. There's not much actually in life that I wouldn't be critical about. There's not much that I am truly, truly happy about. There are some happy moments. Don't get me wrong. I was very happy when I learned that my granddaughter was recovering. She's now a very good soccer player. She's learned to become very disciplined about what she eats. And she is so. What a great attitude she has every month when she goes in for hours for these transfusions that she gets. Otherwise she looks just normal. You would never recognize and know that behind the scenes there's this thing going on. And she'll deal with it. Short of a miracle all of her life. But I am happy with knowing that she's okay. But that's not what I'm called to. This isn't the kind of happiness and joy that Paul's talking about. See, that's a happiness and it's good. We enjoy those kind of things. We enjoy happy moments, birthday parties, you know, getting together, seeing long lost friends. Happy moments. But if that's what we're basing our joy on, they're gonna come and go. I'm happy today, tomorrow, I'm not digging it, it's up and down. But Paul's calling us to a joy that transcends all that. And so when I get my happy, my grumpy mug, it's actually my happy mug. Cause I'm like, praise God. Cause, yeah, I'm not digging this, but nevertheless, I rejoice in Jesus.

11 · Exegesis of Philippians 4:5

The second Command in verse 5, at first it's harder to understand. He just says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. This word reasonableness, the Greek word for it, is difficult to translate into English. It actually carries a compound sense of gentleness, being gracious, kind and considerate towards others. So whereas the first command is vertical, rejoice in the Lord always. This is horizontal in our relationship with others. And essentially what it's about is living out who we are in Christ and being transformed by the Gospel and the truths of the Gospel has an effect that others actually will experience from us. Douglas Fee summarizes it this way. He says, you could translate this instead of reasonableness as gentle forbearance. I like that. Gentle forbearance. And if the Gospel is functioning in our life, producing joy in Christ for who he is and what he's done, then there will be an outcome to that that even others will experience. We're more gracious with them. There's a joy that is overtaking us that's totally separate from our experience in life. It. It can't be taken away. Nothing that happens to you in life can affect the joy in the Lord. And others will see that in you, but they'll also experience that from you in this way. And then in verse 5, he does something else very interesting. We've got these commands, but Also in verse 5, Paul makes this declaration. He says, the Lord is at hand. If you look at it, if you pull that phrase out of that verse, the verse would read the line of thought would just read perfectly right. It's like, you don't need that. But Paul was intentional in doing it. And this is something that Paul does in a lot of his letters. And one that really sticks in my mind is from Ephesians, chapter 2. You might recall the beginning of Ephesians, chapter 2, where pulse telling us who we once were before Christ, all of us. He's saying all of humanity were dead in our sins, and we were following after the prince of the power of the air, who's the devil. And we were all, like all of humanity. We were all following after the passions of our flesh. And so therefore, by nature, he says, we were all objects of God's wrath, or children of wrath. In other words, this is who you were. You were dead in sin, deserving of nothing but the wrath of God. And then in verse four, he says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ. And then he inserts something just like he does here and there. He says, by grace, you've been saved. Just this boom statement there. You could pull that statement out and follow his train of thought perfectly. It flows. Paul wanted us as he's just recounting this glorious truth, the but God, because of his mercy and love, has made us alive with Christ. And he's going to go on and say, and he has raised us with Christ, seated us with him in the heavenly places, but he inserts right in there, by grace, you've been saved. Because we need to know that we didn't get all this benefit from God with this glorious truth by our own doing. It was the grace of God, a gift. In a similar way, Paul's doing that right here. In the midst of these commands, he inserts this phrase, you know, the Lord is at hand. Because we need to have this focus of the Lord at hand as we begin to engage with these commands, rejoicing in the Lord and the commands that follow after that. So this is foundational to all the commands he's giving. And in essence, this word or this phrase, the Lord is at hand, carries two meanings. One, certainly he has in mind the return of the Lord. The Lord's going to return. And the early church, the apostles, they lived as though the Lord could return at any moment. We're thousands of years beyond that, so we're even closer to that day. And we're to live as well. The scripture tells us in many places to live today in light of that day is the way we live the Christian life. So it has that as well. But it also carries the sense of the Lord being at hand in the sense that his presence is near us. His nearness is with us. The Lord promised, you know, I'll always be with you. I'll never leave you or forsake you. The Lord is near. And at times, when we go through hard times, sometimes we experience, don't we, that manifest presence of the Lord. Have you ever, ever felt the Lord's presence is more near for some reason, at certain times in your life, that's a gift. If the Lord allows you to experience that, what a gift. But all we're getting there is a taste. Ultimately, the Lord is the hand. Praise God. He's near. But. But, oh, he's coming again, friends. And when he does, we will see him face to face. The Scripture says when that happens, we will be changed. In a moment we'll see him. So the one we Love, we won't be just sensing his presence. We'll be in his presence. And so we have both of those right now. And Paul wants us to be aware. The Lord is near, but his coming is soon. The Lord is at hand in all that that means, and we need to know that as we engage with these commands. It's comforting, but it's also a transforming gospel truth that we are to lay hold of and hold fast to. It's our hope throughout life.

12 · Exegesis of Philippians 4:6a establishing the third command: do not be anxious about anything

The third command then, in verse six, is this. Do not be anxious, he says, about anything. All right? We were called to rejoice always. That means in everything, no matter what's going on. And now we're not to be anxious in anything, no matter what is going on. You see the pattern there? Don't be anxious for anything. Why? Anxiety, my friends, is a joy killer and a peace destroyer. In fact, you will not experience the fullness of joy in the Lord that He's calling us to and commanding us to express while being anxious, worried, and fearful. Those things just don't go together. You're either focused on your circumstances and how you're feeling about it right this moment, looking inward, or you're focused on Christ and who he is and what he's done for you. And that is stirring up fresh joy and faith. It doesn't. You can't do both of those. You're either going to go one place or you're going to go the other place.

13 · Hypothetical scenario (financial anxiety) used to clarify the distinction between wisdom and worry

So you might be deeply worried, for instance, that, you know, at the end of the month it looks like you're not going to be able to pay all your bills and increased costs have. And your salary hasn't gone up. But my costs have gone up 20%. I'm gonna be short this month, next month, and the month after. Oh, my gosh, in three months, I'll be $2,000 in the hole. Now, you do not want to. If that's your situation, you don't want to just bury your head in the sand, paste on a happy face and speak positively. No, what you want to be doing is you got to put some strategies in place. You might need help and counsel to look at your budget and see, where can I cut. I've got to get my expenses down. I can't continue on this way or real trouble will be coming, See? So I need to be wise about how I'm handling my finances. But what I must not do if I'm in that circumstance is to worry. See, I could exercise wisdom and engage with real problems with our Granddaughter. We were praying, you know, we were. We were struggling with what was going on and what we were doing. We're praying to the Lord about it, and at the same time, we're fighting, not giving in to fear and worry and anxiety. The Lord is helping us to rejoice in him and focus there.

14 · Pastoral observation about anticipatory anxiety—the tendency to become anxious about scenarios that haven't happened yet

Another thing that we can do is we can be anxious about things that haven't even happened yet. I don't know if you're like me, but when. When I start to see something going on, my mind immediately goes like. Within seconds, I'm playing out several different scenarios. Oh, my gosh, if this happens and this doesn't happen, then this is the outcome. And this is. Oh, man, that's really. But if it goes like this, it'll be like that. And next I can find myself just in a matter of seconds, thinking about something like that, getting anxious. I could feel my heart rate going up. I'm getting anxious. There are symptoms beginning to manifest, and I'm not even actually going through the circumstances yet. They may not even happen. Anybody else do that?

15 · Cross-reference to Matthew 6:25-27 establishing Jesus as the source of Paul's teaching

See, Paul is really, in this passage, applying what Jesus taught in Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25. He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. There it is again, and it's a command. Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you put on. A couple verses later, verse 27, he says, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to the span of his life? I mean, basically he's saying, you know, if you can't add an hour to your life by worry, what are you wasting your time worrying about? In other words, what does your worrying and your anxiety accomplish? Think about it. Most of the time we don't think about it. When we start engaging, going down that spiral of anxiety and worry, we don't think about, wait a minute. This practice, this exercise of worry, it is doing nothing but maybe making me sick or causing other problems, but it is not doing anything good. It's not going to change my present circumstances, nor will it change the outcome of the things I'm worried about that might happen, right? See, only God knows what's actually going on right now. And only God has the sovereign power, to affect what might happen. We don't.

16 · Sharp pivot from the problem (anxiety's futility) to the solution (prayer and trust)

So instead, what are we called to do? We're called to pray and to trust God.

17 · Cross-reference to Proverbs 12:25 adding the image of anxiety as a weight that burdens the heart

Proverbs 12:25, speaking to anxiety adds this to it. He says, anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down. So not only is anxiety something that is robbing us of joy, but it's weighing us down. And the sense here is like carrying a heavy backpack full of all the things you're worried about, and then when it's full, you keep adding more to it. Next thing you know, you've got, you know, five or ten foot on top of that backpack. You're all weighed down with all this care and worry and life. You're looking like grumpy dwarf. And it's not accomplishing anything. Some of it's not even real.

18 · Pastoral observation cataloging the symptoms of anxiety across multiple domains (mental, emotional, spiritual, physical)

Anxiety and fear often start very subtle. Sometimes we don't even know that we are being anxious. It's the symptoms of anxiety in our heart that we begin to notice things like affecting us mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Like I said, you know, sometimes you can almost feel like you're having a panic attack. Maybe some of you experienced that. Symptoms can include mood swings, irritability, anger, just being unhappy, and generally a grumpy dwarf. But even physical symptoms begin to. If you don't deal with this, physical symptoms can actually also begin to be a part of that.

19 · Major structural hinge transitioning from the three commands (rejoice, forbearance, don't be anxious) to the pathway for obeying them

So what do we do about this joy killer, this peace destroyer called anxiety? This is my second point now. The pathway to peace and joy.

20 · Exegetical observation highlighting the parallel structure between 'rejoice always' (affirmative) and 'do not be anxious about anything' (negative)

In verse six, he says, do not be anxious about anything. So we have rejoice always. Right now we have in everything. So we've got always in everything, all the time. I mean, basically it's all the same idea. No matter what the circumstances of life are, these are the things that we're to be doing. And in this one it's kind of a negative. It's what we're not to do. And everything again means everything regardless. Small things, big things, whatever it might be, don't be anxious about it.

21 · Spurgeon quotation providing a memorable summary of the pathway: turn every care into prayer

Spurgeon says cares and worries are manifold. Therefore let your prayers be manifold. Then he says this. Turn everything that is a care into prayer. And I'm pretty sure that's on a mug somewhere, right? Turn everything that's a care into prayer. Actually, that's a really simplistic way and a good way to think about what Paul's saying here. Take everything to God in prayer.

22 · Application of the Spurgeon principle to daily life

So the pathway to joy and to peace in our hearts and minds is first and foremost to take every worry, every temptation to be anxious or fearful. Everything that we're going through, no matter how small or big, whatever's going on. Take everything to God in prayer. If we could cultivate that in our life as just almost a knee jerk reaction, the first thing we do, I just hear Some news. Okay, Lord, I'm going right to God with this thing. I'm not even gonna let this thing have a chance to get in there and get me thinking in a way that I'm gonna be anxious, fearful, unhappy. No, I'm going right to the Lord with this thing. The pathway to joy and the peace starts there.

23 · Extended analogy comparing prayer to breathing, sourced from Spurgeon

So if we were to cultivate this kind of lifestyle, we would be like Jesus, who Spurgeon says of him in a. A book on prayer. I have by Spurgeon, that prayer was as natural to Jesus as breathing. Think about that. Anybody count how many times you breathed out and breathed in this morning? No. Anybody thinking about right now? Okay, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in. No, no, you're not thinking about it. You know what? We don't even think about it, do we? We just do it. And that's what the kind of heart about prayer that God's wanting us to cultivate is that we don't even think about it. We're just talking to Jesus all the time. We have all kinds of ways that we're praying. There's times you get alone with God, but there's times you're just taking a walk, I'm talking to God, I hear bad news, and immediately, lord, I'm going to God with this thing. And prayer just becomes natural.

24 · Critical exegesis of 'with thanksgiving' in Philippians 4:6b

So in verse six, though, he adds this because it's not just about prayer and supplication. Look again with what he says. Do not be anxious about anything. But. And he's making a contrast here in everything by prayer and supplication. And then look what he says with thanksgiving, let your request be made. See, he could have just said, you know, in everything with prayer and supplication, make your request known. Paul's very intentional here, inserting with thanksgiving, I don't know about you, but I've read this verse many times over the years and just kind of glossed over that, almost like, you know, I'm praying for my granddaughter and oh, yeah, Lord, thank you. I know you're in control. I just slap on a grateful phrase. That's not what he's talking about here. He's saying we're to be praying with thankfulness. And this word, thankfulness, carries a lot more meaning than what we might initially think of. Because thankfulness that he's talking about here isn't just a feeling. You could define it this way. It's gratefulness to God expressed and flowing from a grateful heart, and that informing and empowering our prayers, fueling our worship to God for who he is and what he's done. And so as we do that, that also stirs faith in us as we do pray. That's why Paul's inserting there's other places call us to be grateful, to be thankful. Old and New Testament passages. So this is common for the people of God. We're to be a grateful, happy people. But Paul is specifically including that in with prayer, with our prayers, gratefulness.

25 · Transition framing verses 8-9 as Paul's answer to the question: how do we cultivate a grateful heart? The pastor signals he's about to connect the 'with thanksgiving' instruction to the 'think on these things' command

So how do we do this? If what this requires is being, having a grateful heart, how do we cultivate that? And I think that's why he tacked on verses eight and nine.

26 · Exegesis of Philippians 4:8 correcting a common misreading

Look what he says in verse eight again, finally, brothers. And this is a conclusion to what he's just been saying, but also really to this whole Epistle. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise. Think on these things. Now, I've heard this passage taken out of context, preached to, almost sound like we're supposed to be like Peter Pan. Just think happy thoughts and you'll just fly over your troubles again. That is not what he's saying. When we put this back in his context in this passage and in this book, which is such a gospel rich epistle, it takes on a whole different meaning. And so what we have to ask, the question then is, you know, he says whatever is true, whatever is honorable. Who or what fits all the descriptions here in verse eight? Honorable, just pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. Is there a person that comes to mind that fits this? Jesus. Jesus and what he's done to save us is the things he's calling us to. To me, it reminds me of what Paul does in Colossians 2, telling us to set our minds on the things that are above, that is on Christ, on who he's done. And so what he's talking about here is us being focused on and transformed by the gospel and the truths of the gospel.

27 · Gospel exposition defining the core content believers are to meditate on

And I don't want to assume here this morning that everybody knows what the Gospel is. Hopefully most of you do. The gospel is about the person and saving work of Jesus. And I think Paul gets to the core of the gospel in First Corinthians 15, verse 3 and, and 4. There he says, this is of first importance, that Jesus died for our sins, that he was buried and he rose from the dead on the third day. You could boil it down to this, if you only understand or grasp this right now. Jesus died for my sins and he rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death. You have, therefore, the core of the gospel itself, which, which Paul says in Romans, Chapter one, is the power of God for complete salvation all the way to glory. So this is the most powerful thing that we have. This is a weapon more powerful than anything that we can fight for joy with. It's the gospel. So the gospel, again, is about what Jesus has done. And because of what he's done, we could start off with that by grace, through faith in Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. We have new life in him. There's so much more than that that we have to be grateful for, because through the blood of Jesus, we have a new identity, we have new status as citizens of heaven, children of God. We have the grace of God constantly, continually being poured out upon us. There's so many things we have to be grateful for in Jesus. And so that's what he's telling us. Focus on that. That is going to transform your mind and transform your heart.

28 · Summary claim linking the entire argument: gospel meditation → transformed heart → grateful heart → empowered prayer → transformation

And then he's saying this, bring all your requests to God with a grateful heart. And I believe he's saying, a heart that's transformed by the Gospel. Do that, and this is going to change everything. Real gratefulness, friends, is the result of being continually transformed by the Gospel. And the truths of the Gospel as revealed in Scripture, we have them all right here in our Bibles. All of this points to Jesus and brings us more and more insight to who he is and what he's done to save us.

29 · Worked example demonstrating the pathway in action

Now, how does this work in prayer? So let's say you're struggling with persistent sin. I know as a parent, one of the things that my wife and I would struggle with is our kids just keep doing the same thing that we've corrected them for 100 times, and here they do it again. And here again, I'm responding in anger. It's like, lord, when am I? I want them to learn. But wait, what about me? What am I gonna learn? I get frustrated with this and frustrated with that, and sometimes you get discouraged. And there may be other kinds of sins that keep becoming a reoccurring issue that you're fighting with. And you can become condemned, discouraged. So what do we do? We bring that. Just like every other care. We bring that to the Lord in prayer. But what does it look like? How do we get grateful to bring that to the Lord with gratefulness, not, not for the sin, but for who Jesus is and what he's done? I would think of maybe Philippians 1, verse 6, earlier in this Epistle where Paul says this, I am sure of this. He who began a good work in you will bring it to pass. Not might will bring it to pass or bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. In other words, he's pointing us to when the Lord returns and he's promised it. This is a promise of God to us. The moment you came to saving faith in Jesus, you have the spirit of God indwelling in you, and a work began, conforming you to be like Christ. So in a moment where you're feeling discouraged, to be reminded. I mean, imagine what that can do for you in that moment to be reminded. Wait a minute. It's not my power and my ability that matters. What matters is Christ and what he's already done. And because of that, this work has begun. And he will complete it. It's not all on me. He's gonna complete it. He's gonna get me through this. He's gonna get me through being a parent, no matter how difficult I'm struggling with or through this situation or that. So the word of God is powerful. The truths of the gospel are powerful to transform our minds, our hearts. And when you bring that into the. Into prayer, suddenly I am praying with faith. Lord, thank you for my salvation again. Thank you that you're with me, that you're the one working in me. Lord, I repent of my feeling condemned. That's not from you. But Lord, help me now as I deal with this situation again. And now I begin to pray very differently than if I just started complaining to the Lord. You can go through that with everything that you might bring to God again.

30 · Summary statement recapitulating the entire argument in one sentence

Gratefulness to God flowing from minds, being transformed by gospel truth frees us from anxiety. It transforms us from being grumpy dwarf to being grateful happy Christians and empowering our prayers, giving us faith to pray even more.

31 · Structural transition signaling the move into the conclusion

As the worship group comes up, I have just a couple closing thoughts coming right out of this, particularly verse seven, because Paul makes it clear that this kind of prayer, rejoicing in the Lord, taking everything to God, to prayer with gratefulness, with thanksgiving, there's a promise that's attached here.

32 · Exegesis of Philippians 4:7 unpacking the promised outcome

Look at the end of verse seven or just verse seven, he says, and do this, and here's what will happen. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard not might, but will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Friends, this is not a superficial, circumstantial piece that he's talking about here. That just comes and goes as my circumstances change. I feel good about this circumstance. I'm bummed about this circumstance. No, this transcends that. It's the peace of God himself. It's the peace that's rooted in the finished saving work of Jesus. And it's a peace, he says, that passes human understanding. So therefore, it doesn't make sense that I should be peaceful right now. It didn't make sense when we came to a place of feeling peaceful. As my granddaughter, before we knew even what was happening. We felt the peace of God as we cried out to him, not knowing what the outcome would be. But there are things we reminded ourselves. We knew who was in control. We knew that we belonged to Him. We knew that she belonged to Him. Cause she has come to saving. Faith in Him, Lord, we trust you and the only way. And so peace of God transforms our experience in one of our darkest moments in that part of our life. I think he can do that for anyone here this morning.

33 · Doxological conclusion grounding the entire sermon in God's character and desire

God, my friends, desires us to know, to experience his joy and his peace. God wants us to be happy people because he is a happy God. And we are in Him. We are in Christ. So again, gratefulness empowers our prayers, transforming anxiety and joy into the peace of God.