Stand United - Philippians 4:1-3

Welcome to God's Word for You from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Please open your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4 and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 3. You can find Philippians chapter 4 verses 1 through 3 on page 1044 of your Pew Bibles. And just as a note, if you hear the words pronounced a little different in the names, I'm just going to say them in Greek because it's easier than English. So just go with it. Philippians chapter 4 verses 1 through 3.

Hear now the reading of God's Word. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore you, Odia, and I implore Suntike, to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's Word. The grass withers, the flower fades. But the Word of our God endures forever. Well, I was listening to the radio one time and they were talking about the importance of family dinners and all the benefits that happen when the family gets together every evening to eat dinner together.

But they were saying this is becoming a bygone idea in America. People eat at different times. There's busy schedules. And they talked about one family that they went in and they interviewed because this one family thinks it's really important to still have family dinners. And they were recording what the family dinner was like and how they do it. And I was amazed because they said, now don't let you be confused. Even though they're trying to do it, family dinners aren't the same as they used to be.

And this family, the man was a lawyer, and so he came home, and they went right into family dinner, and he felt like he needed to decompress, so he sat there while the children were eating and had his iPad, and he kind of did his thing on his iPad while the children were supposed to be eating.

And as his wife was frustrated working with the children, one child was sitting there, and he wouldn't say a single word. He was eating his food with a scowl on his face. And the interviewer talked about the second child who was sitting there, talking loudly and angrily towards everyone in the room and wasn't listening. And then the third child who is chatting away with a smile on her face going a million miles per minute and nobody knew what she was so happy about. And the mother sitting there pulling her hair out at the same time.

I'm not sure how this might look for your family dinner, but this is a dysfunctional family dinner. This is a family who's getting together, who's not communing with one another, who's not talking with one another. There's been a communication breakdown, and there's not unity in the family.

But in a similar way, the church can be that way. In a similar way, a lot of churches can get together every single week for our weekly time together and People aren't talking to each other. Other people are angry at each other. Other people are happy and we don't even know what they're happy about. Other people are just distracted.

And your call today, your call today is to live in unity with one another. Live in unity with one another. And so the first place we go for that is, well, the simple reality that God's commanded you to live in unity with each other. God has commanded you to be united. Look with me at verse 1. Therefore, my beloved, and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. So stand fast in the Lord. This is written as an imperative. This is written in a command.

But I'm not sure about you, but some people in our cultures, even a lot of Christians, they think of commands and they think, you know, mom and dad looking down at them, tsk, tsk, tsk, you know, no, no, no, don't do that. And somehow commands are bad. Somehow you're not supposed to look good on commands, but that's not the way the scripture works. God's commands are good for you. God gives us commands that are meant to build us up.

But when you're a child, you have to learn this from your parents, right? When you were a kid, did you like when your parents gave you rules, when they set boundaries, when you had a curfew? When your parents told you, don't hit your brother and sister, did you like that command? I'm sure you like it now because you're not in jail for beating people up. Or when your parents said, you need to eat all your vegetables before you can have dessert.

Well, our doctors would tell us that's still a command. And we still need to keep those commands. And why? Because they're good for us. They're good to build us up. God's commands are the same way. In Genesis chapter 2, God told Adam and Eve, He said, there's a buffet out here. You can eat of any tree, of any of the trees of the garden. They're all good for you. You can eat any of them. It was a good command. Go and eat. But there's one command you can't do. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you're going to die. The day you eat of it, you shall surely die." And that command was not given to them because God wanted them to be an overlord, but because God wanted them to have a good life. God wanted them to flourish and to have a good life of communion with Him.

This is the same thing we find in the Ten Commandments. We often don't think hard about do not murder. Well, that's not hard for most of us to keep, not murdering. It might be hard for us to not be angry at people, but we don't murder people outright.

But yet when it comes to the fourth commandment, when God tells us to honor and keep the Sabbath day, a lot of times we feel like this is... like a weight on our shoulders and we don't know, is this any good or is this just burdensome and God being overlord? But remember, even that commandment, why did God give us the Sabbath? Were you made for the Sabbath or was the Sabbath made for you? God gives you a command.

Think about how good this would be if your boss, you walked into your workplace and your boss said, you know what, don't work today. No, no, no, no. Stop. Stop. Go be with the people you love. Don't lift up a shovel today. Don't put the keys in the tractor. No, just stop. That'd be a good boss.

God knows that we can't work 24-7 without getting worn out. His commands are good for us, and same with this command here. God commands us, stand firm in the Lord, or be united, is how verse 1 says, so stand fast in the Lord. And listen to the pastoral tone that Paul has here as he gives us command. Does he say, come on, get along together? No, that's not what he does. Look at verse 1. Look at what he says.

Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, My joy, my crown, beloved. Paul loves the people of Philippi. God loves you and when he gives you this command to stand firm, he's saying it in his love for you. You need to stand united together. And the tone of the letter here is that Paul, it's somewhat striking, we miss it a little bit in the English, but this idea that My joy and my crown, that's what Paul was just telling you, you were supposed to seek in Christ. And yet Paul is saying it's like he's been running a race and his race has been to get a wreath, a crown, something that he can wear around with pride. And his pride and his joy is a Philippian church. When he goes around, he goes, you know the people in Philippi?

Man, they really love the Lord and are racing after the Lord well. They're his joy, they're his crown, they're his longed-for ones. Remember in chapter 1 when he said that he longs for them with all the compassions or all the bowels of Jesus Christ? It's like down in his kidneys, he loves them. He wants them to be united. God desires for you to live in unity. We're to stand together in the face of temptations. We're to stand side by side with one another as we face the onslaughts and the suffering that we find in this world.

This is the same idea. Paul has this idea of stand fast multiple times, at least six times in this letter of Philippians. And when he says this, it's that idea that you are in a line, and you are a soldier, with other people at your right and at your left, and you have a shield in front of you, and you have your shield up, and the person next to you has their shield, and as the waves of the attack come against you, and against you, and against you, you as a team are able to hold back the onslaught. But there's a hole in that line. That phalanx, that shield-by-shield line has two holes in it.

Second Point

And that's what we find in verse 2. you odia and I implore soon to K to be of the same mind in the Lord your second point is here the plea for unity here the plea for unity see Paul is Paul is like the senior officer in a military battalion. Paul is the one who has trained them. Paul is the one who has demonstrated how they're supposed to walk, how they're supposed to fight, how they're supposed to defend. Paul is the one who has given them, he's equipped them with all the armor that they need. He's shown them what the Holy Spirit has given them. And now Paul is on the backside of the battle.

They're on the front lines. And Paul is the general looking forward and saying, there is something wrong. Hold on. There's holes in the line. The team is going to fail. Two key soldiers have lost sight of who the actual enemy is and what the battle is about. Euodia and Sunteke are fighting each other rather than supporting each other. But I want to stop.

Some of you might think, is this a little harsh? I mean, this letter is being read to the whole Philippian church. This letter is being read 2,000 years later today about a conflict in the church. Pastor Paul, did you really need to pull out the shotgun here? I mean, this is kind of right in their face, isn't it?

But listen to the tone that Paul has in verse 2. I implore you, Odeo." This can also be translated, I beg you, Odeo, and I beg Sunteke. I am begging them to be of the same mind in the Lord. Paul is telling them, you're going to have your eyes fixed on the same thing and I am begging you, put away the petty thing that's fighting between the two of you. Put away whatever disagreement it might be and chase towards the right goal.

Paul has a pastoral tone, but Paul also has a pastoral confidence here as well. When Paul is addressing Euodia and Syntyche in this really kind of public way, we might think, oh, bad Paul, but realize Paul is the pastor who knows and loves these people. And when Paul is calling them out, he knows that they can handle it. A shepherd doesn't put a burden on a sheep that can't bear the weight of it.

One of the things I loved was seeing pastors who would look men straight in the eyes and they would know that this man can handle a straight up rebuke. They can say, you're being dumb, knock it off. And they knew that they were mature enough to know that this man loves me and I need to knock it off. I've also seen other pastors who knew that this, that's going to cripple the sheep.

So I need to bring it along. And Paul knows that there's there's a maturity between Euodia and Sunteke that he can tell them in a public address, guys, you're missing the goal. Remember what you're fighting for. But Paul, beside his pastoral tone and his pastoral confidence and their maturity, is also being obedient as a pastor. Paul is being obedient as a minister, as a member of the church of Christ.

Turn over in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, and let's hear the words of our Lord Himself. Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 17. In Matthew chapter 18, He says, this is the Lord, this is Jesus Christ speaking here, He says, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. alone.

So if you're going to have conflict with someone, if somebody has sinned against you, you don't go gossiping, you don't go doing stuff, you go right away and you try to reconcile with them. If he hears you, you have gained your brother, verse 16. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." So if your brother doesn't listen to you, if your brother has sinned against you or your sister has done something wrong to you, bring along a couple other people and address this fault, address this sin. Because then they might still change. This does happen, by the way, If this pattern is followed, I have seen the joy of being one of these two or three go and having to go into a brother's house and say, what you're doing is sin. You're not leading your family well or loving your wife well. and seeing that man repent.

Nobody else in the church needed to know about it, but working with him and working with him and working with him and seeing this man repent was one of the greatest joys of my life. So you take someone with you, one or two more, and then verse 17, and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. Paul knows the words of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Paul This is a public dispute that's going on between Euodia and Syntyche. There is public fighting that's going on. This isn't something hidden. Paul is in Rome. That means the rumors of this fight have reached hundreds of miles away. And this hasn't been able to get resolved. And so Paul is being an obedient pastor to his Lord. And he tells it to the church. This needs to happen. But Pastor Paul understands something we still have to struggle within the church. And that's communication is key. That's your third point. Communication is key to unity. Communication is key to unity. Look with me at verse 3.

And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. battles are lost because of bad communication lines. Real-life wars, real-life battles can be lost if there's a break in communication lines. It used to be that if two armies were fighting, there was one main piece of communication you had. These people are around that flag, and these people are around the other flag, and you kill all the people around that flag, and you protect this flag. And that was your main communication, was the flag.

Well, as things got more and more progressed in Western history, then people decided, oh, we might be killing our own people because we're just coming out here dressed like everybody else. And so what did they start doing? People would start wearing uniforms. In Scotland, this meant they were wearing that kilt, and I'm wearing this kilt, and I kill everybody with that kilt.

Or in the American Revolution, all the British, what were they called? redcoats, you could identify the enemy right away because that's who they were. They were the British redcoats or they were the Hessians who were coming in as mercenaries. You knew what they were.

But one of the interesting and hard things that happens in the heat of battle that commanders fear is that in that heat of battle, and it's dark, and all the light you have is from the end of the muzzle, You can't see the uniform. Who's on what side? Are we shooting at the right people? Do we know who the enemy is? To know that, you have to keep open lines of communication between your own side.

But here, here there's a breakdown of communication in the Philippian church. And there's things that happen when any church or any group or any relationship has a breakdown of communication. One way is that people just stop talking. They just lock it up. They don't talk at all anymore. Another breakdown of communication is when in a group when people don't stop talking, but instead they're talking at the other person instead of with the other person. It's attack, attack, attack, not reconciliation, not building up, not holding each other accountable and lifting each other up.

This is nothing new to you. I learned a new word a few months ago. Iowa nice. You can have some real big beef against someone in the neighborhood, real big beef against someone in the church, but you don't want to kind of disturb the water, so you're just Iowa nice.

You just kind of smile and act like everything's okay, when in reality, underneath, there's a storm a-brewing, and it's only a matter of time until the thunder starts. We can't just be those who are acting nice and in all reality there's roots of bitterness being deeply plunged into our hearts when we start having grudges towards other people in the church and there starts to be factions, this group against that group. It's a breakdown of communication is one of the things that happens that leads to that, but there's a reality here.

Paul can't just tell Sunteke and Uodia, hey, you two, get along. Have you ever told two kids that? Hey, you two, just stop fighting. That might last for about half a second. What do you typically have to do as a parent? You have to step into the situation and say, okay, what happened? Who wronged who? Who hit each other first? Was this right?

And you have to act as a go-between, a mediator, someone who steps into the situation and who helps resolve it. Well, this is what Paul does. He gives a mediator. He gives a go-between. Look again at verse 3. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel.

We don't know who this mediator is, who this yoke fellow is, who this comrade is of Paul's who's in Philippi. Some people have suggested it might be Luke. Others have said, well, maybe it's Timothy or Epaphroditus who have gone there. There's been a whole bunch of wild speculation. We don't know exactly who he's talking about.

But we know that there's someone mature enough in the church who's able to step into the lives of these two women and who's able to bring reconciliation about. And you know, sometimes in our lives, sometimes in the church, we need that. We need someone to just come in and to keep heads cool. Someone who's able to walk in and say, well, you said this happened. Is that how you remember it? Someone who's able to ask kind of some clarifying questions and to bring light into a topic. Someone who's able to say, I don't think you guys understand. That's not really what was happening. There was all this other stuff that I think was going on in this situation, and they're able to bring light, or they're able to say, you know, person X, Scripture says that that's wrong, and that person's right.

And sometimes they need another person to come along and to help them see that. In your life, Christian, sometimes for unity, sometimes for good communication, we need an intermediary to step in between us. But that involves that somehow we know each other, and we trust each other enough to have those open communication lines, doesn't it? And see, that's the reality, is that in the family of God, we need each other. And that's your fourth point. We need each other.

Look with me at verse 3. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel. with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Paul is not, we often think of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul, the great missionary on his three or four missionary journeys, going everywhere. Paul was never by himself. Did you realize that?

Go read the book of Acts, and Paul is always surrounded with other Christians. Even when he's in prison, he's desperate to get other Christians near him. He's always writing to the other Christians. He's always praying for other Christians. He's always remembering other Christians. And here we hear that again in Paul's voice. What does he call the people in the church?

Yoke fellows, comrades, companions. co-laborers or co-workers in the gospel. This is not a one-man show. The church is a body with Jesus Christ as our head. Ephesians is clear that we are a family of God and we need each other. You need your grandmas and your grandpas in the faith. You need the children in the faith. We need the young people in the faith. We need the old people in the faith. We need our aunts, we need our uncles, we need our nephews in the faith. We need each other. That's what a family is. Fathers who are teaching their sons and their grandsons. Grandmothers who are discipling their daughters and their granddaughters. The church is a family.

The church is a body. We operate together. When one person in the church hurts, we all hurt. When somebody in the church mourns, we get together to mourn. When somebody in the church is struggling with sickness, we struggle with them in that sickness. The church is a living, active communion. We're a fellowship.

We need each other, we grow together, we rejoice with each other, we pray for each other. Sunteke needs Uodia, and Uodia needs Sunteke. They both need Clement, and Clement needs them. I need you, and you need each other. Even that person in the other side of the pews, who you might not really like. You have that brother or sister. That brother or sister you don't, well let's just say they're not your closest sibling, but you love them and you need them. Sometimes they give balance, sometimes they give flavor to the conversation. You need that brother and sister. You need each other. We need each other's prayers. We need each other's fellowship. We have communion. We're going to, in a second, when we come to the Lord's Table, be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And the book of 1 Corinthians is largely about what we're talking about here.

They had lost fellowship. There were people coming to the Lord's Supper and some of them were drunk. There were other people coming to the Lord's Supper and they were starving while other people were full and feasting. There was faction and there was division.

And they didn't understand that in chapter 11, in the midst of all this turmoil that Paul is showing this isn't supposed to be going on in the church, there's not supposed to be this disunity, Paul says this, is where we find communion with God and with each other. We have fellowship with one another because each of us are blood-bought sons and daughters of the same Father. We have communion with each other and we need one another. This doesn't mean that everyone is the exact same. Not everybody is going to be able to bear their same load or do the same thing.

One of the key things when I would go on hiking trips with groups is you never equally distribute the weight of all your packing gear amongst everyone. You do not give the 100-pound, 5'3 girl the same amount of weight as you give the 275-pound linebacker. It doesn't make any sense. She can't load as much as he can. You don't give everybody the same responsibilities. Some people are built differently and they're equipped in different ways. Sometimes we get frustrated and we get upset because we feel like, well, we're carrying more than the other person.

Why shouldn't they be part of that team as well? Why shouldn't they be carrying that same amount of weight? Well, God might not have equipped them to do that. God might have given you a special ability to work harder than others. God might have given you a special ability to be on your knees and praying for other members more than other people have. And when we seek unity in the church, it isn't looking at other people.

Closing Prayer

It isn't saying, well, why aren't they doing their fair share? But it's looking at our own hearts and saying, how can I support and care for my brothers and sisters, because as we stand together in unity, as we stand together with our shields together, when somebody next to us gets tired and weary, we're able to say, go ahead and take a break. We'll close in the ranks. When somebody falls and they're downtrodden for a moment, those of us who are strong at that time can reach down and help bring them back up. We need each other. The church is meant to dwell in unity. to love one another, to care for one another. Brothers and sisters, stand fast in the Lord. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have loved us and cared for us. And Father, we pray that you would pour out your Spirit upon us. Lord, these are high and lofty ideals, but unless your Spirit is with us, enabling us Lord, to actually be unified. Lord, we could build the house, but unless you're the builder, we're going to build in vain. Lord, we pray that you would build up this church, Sharon.

Lord, you would care for us, Lord, and that we would be truly united by your spirit in your name. We pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.