Thoughts From Philippians 4 - Part 7

  To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.21 Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. 22 All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.  Phil. 4:20-23

        Paul has focused a lot on rejoicing, contentment, unity and not being discouraged or discontent in this chapter even while writing from prison. He has said over and over that the key to being joyful and content and looking past the stressors of the day is not to be secure financially, go shopping, get drunk, go on vacation, go to therapy, read books on the power of positive thinking, but rather focus on Heaven. Jesus is coming back soon to get you and you're going to live forever with all the benefits of a child of the King. If you live in that frame of mind, how can anything bring you down as Satan attempts to make you the typical Christian who is surviving, not thriving. I just saw that a kid in Texas led 895 of his classmates to the Lord. If that's true, I bet he didn't go around anxious about acne.

       Paul ends that "the grace of Christ might be with their spirit." What's grace? Getting what we don't deserve. So instead of punishment for our sins, we get adoption into the family of God. Friends of God! Co-heirs with Christ. He's saying, let that elevate your spirit even though you may be going through trials. He starts out with "To our God and Father..." We belong to God! And we belong to each other. We never need to feel alone. Paul says that we now have "brothers and sisters" that love us even though we've never met them. I was at a University of Memphis vs. Arkansas football game sitting in the Arkansas section and when Arkansas scored the woman next to me hugged me and her husband was sitting right behind her. Just imagine the hugs we will get from belonging to team Jesus! As I walked to my place in Memphis, I was greeted cordially by an immigrant picking up trash and then walked past a $350,000 Bentley convertible in a driveway. Imagine for a moment that in one block both of these people were my brothers in Christ. Paul says that his fellowship there consisted of prisoners all the way to the household of Ceasar. That's how diverse the kingdom is. I'm about to go to a Forrest Frank concert in Nashville and there will be 75,000 family members I get to hug, sing with dance with, worship with and these are all brothers and sisters - I never need to feel alone.

      Loneliness, anxiety, depression - Satan, we're on to your game and you can't have us!