Transcript
Speaker: Greetings and welcome to yet another episode of this Sunday podcast with Pastor Hardaway. That's me and Dr. Brandt. You'll see him in just a second. Every week we take a look at one of the upcoming readings for a Sunday in the church year.
Speaker: We are wrapping up our little four -week excursus on Philippians this morning. and this will be for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost or October 11th on your calendars.
Speaker: As usual, I'll open us up with the college of the day and then let Dr. Brandt kick us off with our reading and our discussion. We pray. almighty god you invite us to trust in you for our salvation deal with us not in the severity of your judgment but by the greatness of your mercy Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
Speaker: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen. I'm in.
Speaker: Trust in God. You know, that's... Uh, that That actually is hard. Um... uh, yeah know it It doesn't get easier.
Speaker: When you say. there is a God. Yeah, I mean, the the the great... The great debate today in culturally outside of Christian circles is.
Speaker: um is is really... It's a debate between um is there a God or is it simply ah a material world? whether it's a Just. a reductively material world. and but But even for the person who...
Speaker: acknowledges that there is a God. Boy, sometimes. trusting him can be really hard. Because... uh, uh, it It doesn't feel like sometimes trusting him.
Speaker: you know, that that he's always. I guess trustworthy, um or would be maybe the word is, is that sometimes it feels like... like He's kind of got it in for you. No. It's like, how do you steam where you want? What are you doing to me here? Why are you doing this? and you know i'm I'm sure Paul must have felt that way.
Speaker: a little bit, you know, I mean, he's sitting in prison Um, He's facing a capital charge. there's There's a good chance they're going to chop his head off, ah as would be the Roman execution method for him. And in fact, tradition says that's what what they did. Um, yeah.
Speaker: you You have to... You have to... acknowledge that. Yeah. you know, As we're going to read in just a minute here in Paul, boy. That is just such an amazing thing that that the Holy Spirit worked in Paul.
Speaker: that That in the face of this... this This death. and and really the injustice of the whole thing. What had Paul actually done that was so bad? You know, he he he did some miracles. he he He preached Jesus. He... you know he he was quite open about the fact that You should be a good citizen of the Roman Empire. He really wasn't fomenting.
Speaker: a rebellion against the Roman Empire. And yet.
Speaker: and and And as Luke talks about it, it's because of reasons of jealousy and of fear and of of all these kind of... non -issues He's sitting in a prison cell and and they're gonna kill him Yeah, you you have to you have to just really admire Paul for...
Speaker: or throughout this entire little letter. saying, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice always. you know, and uh, and encouraging his his his people in Philippi to rejoice with him because In all things, Christ is... is Proclaimed.
Speaker: And. ah Well that's just such an amazing trust. Such an amazing trust. Let's let's listen to this this reading we have this week. It's from Philippians chapter 4. We begin at verse 4.
Speaker: Um... Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
Speaker: Do not be anxious about anything. but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker: But there is so much right there. And just that. It's two sentences, one little paragraph in in my text here. Um, We, you.
Speaker: yeah I just want to stop and unpack that just a little bit with us. you know um Notice how Paul says that that his rejoicing... he connects rejoicing the lord always and again i say rejoice um Aww.
Speaker: I don't hear that as a command even though it's it's actually couched as a command. i really I really hear Paul saying, you you can rejoice. you're a lot it's that That is... ah that is that is a gift given to you to rejoice.
Speaker: Um, You know, it's sort of in that that sense of... of of no matter what the world throws at you, they can't take this away.
Speaker: um But then I think in verse 5, He says something. That's a reasonable thing to do.
Speaker: That lets your reasonable reasonableness be known to everyone. you go Book. Isn't your joy? in the face of your execution and all of these things going on.
Speaker: I mean, isn't that... Isn't that... a Uh, Isn't that irrational?
Speaker: And yet, Paul... Paul believes it's... reasonable.
Speaker: I think that's really interesting. that That Paul thinks that that to have joy in the face of what he's facing right now. is yeah That's reasonable.
Speaker: It doesn't fit with any part of... our human existence. well yeah Or or it's certainly not our cultural understanding of death and of all of it. All of these, you know, of suffering and all of these things. I mean, suffering has really become for us the great evil.
Speaker: You know, um I mean, I live in a in a right to die state where where we tell people, well, suffering is worse than dying. So you can... Uh, Ah. ah you You can get a doctor's prescription. and drugs and the like, and you can you can hasten your own death.
Speaker: Um, Uh, You know, that I mean, that that is. That is for whatever whatever you may think about that. and And I know there's a lot of different opinions about that. um But...
Speaker: One of the things that's sitting at the root of that is this this notion that suffering is... is is the worst.
Speaker: Um, It's worse than death. And that is actually a really... relatively recent Um. It's phenomenal. Um,
Speaker: uh Until the advent of modern painkillers. Everybody simply expected to suffer. You know, because there was no, I mean...
Speaker: Even... There was no real way to deal with it, the to to ah alleviate suffering. You could chew on willow bark, you know. yeah yeah that our our Our folk remedies were... We're...
Speaker: Uh, of limited value and effect you know we just couldn't really Really. Um, take away pain. In the same way that... They're the...
Speaker: you know, that we can do today with things like morphine and fentanyl and all of the ah all of the drugs that that have been developed medically. and And by the way, I thank God for. Okay. Having had a couple surgeries, I thank God that I was able to be, I wasn't in pain. when those things were happening. And... um But yet at the same time, I think that's really changed our relationship to pain and to suffering in know in a really profound way.
Speaker: you know that That Paul actually believes that... Um, that that his joy in the face of his suffering is reasonable. It's not around me.
Speaker: Yeah, no it's... You're talking about how recent this is. How many? eons. Okay, eon might not be the right word, but for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.
Speaker: In childbirth, you did not have epidurals and things of that nature. And yet now... Any, for the most part, any...
Speaker: mom who is pregnant with child goes to her doctor That is the automatic approach. It is just naturally assumed that you are going to do this medicine and this medicine and this medicine and that.
Speaker: And... to alleviate suffering. Right, right. you know And oh, sure, there's going to be so potential side effects. And sure, there's going to be this or that. But it's so much better than the pain.
Speaker: Yeah. that yeah you go through, yet on the flip side, and and again, I'm not saying this is necessarily wrong. Personally, our first child was born this way. Second child and third child were born without medicine, not because of.
Speaker: of anything drastic so much as far as except a side effect. with with With our first child, the epidural wear wore off. Halfway through.
Speaker: So you had to get another one. And then the second epidural only halfway wore off. So for like the first 10 hours. of our firstborn child's life, mom couldn't just hold her by herself.
Speaker: It was insane. Oh. Oh, yeah. You know, and so, again, she didn't she still experienced suffering. and That's the part that gets me. Now that I think about it, my wife is here. She's probably going, yeah, it still hurts. What are you talking about?
Speaker: But that that's our natural approach in medicine now. is automatically do something to alleviate the suffering. yeah No matter what the consequences might be.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. And I mean, i mean You're absolutely right. Two guys sitting on the on the on on a podcast talking about women and childbirth. Bad idea, Matt. but um What?
Speaker: i I get what you mean. I mean, that... that that that you have this sort of default. position we have. to to say this is it's obviously going to be better if we can.
Speaker: ameliorate this pain. And, in and. And I don't want to. You know, i I really want to take, you know, the advances in medicine and um and technology and, you know, learning and things like that. Those are gifts from God. That is God working through that providential care of his world to make life better for people.
Speaker: And I got to say that in in large part, it really has. because because we have you know Just so many... so many things that You know, we can...
Speaker: We can... Ah. we we can we can do to help you. I mean, right now we are... We are. ah legitimately concerned because there's I think there's a measles outbreak. i think I know it's bad in Pennsylvania or something like that. and um And the... ah Uh,
Speaker: but we're talking about you know, um an outbreak that and has hundreds of people in it. and And there have been a handful of deaths. you know you think about prior to those to those vaccines and the things like that.
Speaker: How many people? It was just, we were we were at the mercy of of those things and we had no way. to to do that. And i I remember the cemetery that I was in when I was a kid. I mowed my dad's cemetery where my father's parish was that he served. and um you know the back rows of that cemetery.
Speaker: back in when the congregation was founded in the 1860s. It was just row after row of kids. These short little graves. and these tiny little stones and it was just, there was just like four rows of them.
Speaker: And. and And you just look at how many. How many heartbroken... parents didn't stand in those rows. and and grieve the death of a child from a disease that today...
Speaker: We are. We are not. where We... We... We don't see anything like. you know you know if if ah if that many children died in the United States.
Speaker: from this disease. We would be up in arms. You know, and and here this was one little community was just burying child after child because of these cholera outbreaks, because of these various. um various diseases that were coming in and just just destroying young children.
Speaker: But so Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. Let that reasonableness, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. So. What is the reasonableness of Paul's joy? I think is in the very next.
Speaker: Set phrase. The Lord is in hand.
Speaker: Um, that that what paul is that the reasonableness of Paul's statement really resides in his confident faith that the Lord is at hand.
Speaker: and And I think... I think that... that for Paul, Um, I mean, there's there's two ways to understand that at handness of the Lord. It could mean that Paul believes that the end of the world is...
Speaker: imminent. You know, the Lord is at hand. yeah yeah the The last day is here. The day of resurrection, all of that stuff is right here. um But I tend to read it more as Paul is saying, no, Jesus is with me.
Speaker: you know Jesus is right here beside me. He is he is he is in everything. and and i have right beside me in my prison cell. says Paul, the one who can edit.
Speaker: At a moment, break the bars. You know, we'll open the locks. Get me out of here. Right. And that is we see that with Peter. paul That's happened to Paul himself in Philippi.
Speaker: He's not afraid of of those. He's not constrained by those bars and those. those The locks on those doors? That guy who is right there is... kept fully capable of you know putting the guards to sleep and we walk out right now. If that is what is good.
Speaker: for Christ and his kingdom, that's what's going to happen. um But... Paul also can therefore say, can look at that that grave, you know, his execution, death, burial, all of those things, and he can say,
Speaker: he Jesus can break those bounds too. he can he can he can He can open that door. And because he's already done it. He's here standing beside me because he rose from the dead.
Speaker: And so Paul says that's an utterly reasonable thing. to Have joy. Because... Because... There's nothing here that that believes it is kind of my joy sucker, you know, this thing that's going to...
Speaker: make me afraid and you know ah and destroy my joy none of those things are bigger than the guy who is in the chair next to me. None of them have an ability to to to thwart his.
Speaker: Loving desire. for my life. All right. And now Paul is is is going to say, and he says it in all things. yeah Paul acknowledges and and elsewhere he acknowledges that that that doesn't mean he doesn't.
Speaker: you know. uh, He doesn't get his head chopped off. Right? That may simply be part of it, but by this this complete displacement of himself that he talked about in the first chapter, now that isn't really even such a big deal for Paul anymore.
Speaker: It's all about. the guy who was sitting next to him. The Lord who is. At hand. And so. If for him it is reasonable, so that he is then not anxious about anything.
Speaker: I'm not afraid of that. You know? I'm not afraid. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. And... I'm not. I'm not afraid of it They're only going to do what Jesus.
Speaker: You know, Jesus is sitting by me. They're they're not going to do anything. that that that he isn't saying that is the best way.
Speaker: In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. What's nice is God's right there. It ain't a long distance goal. You know? um Jesus is right there.
Speaker: Yeah, so... Ask him. Talk to him. but Paul also says in all of it, with Thanksgiving. You know, that that even in the midst of of that.
Speaker: that that moment he can Um... is Just a second. I got it. Somebody calling me up here.
Speaker: That was my son. Um,
Speaker: But then we get this wonderful last verse.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: the peace of God. which surpasses all understanding. will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker: That's the way my father ended all of his sermons every time he preached. And I don't know if that's your practice. It's it's mine. I inherited it from him. um ah Are you?
Speaker: you know Those words are just... amazing to me. You know it when when God has spoken to me those have been the words that encompass that.
Speaker: Um, The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Notice he said, let your reasonableness be known. But this peace of God, that's that's totally ah unreasonable. That surpasses all understanding. the um guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker: Ah. Yeah, Paul paul is... Paul is able to face this this this terror. that Um, that you know would unhinge most of the world.
Speaker: And. and be utterly reasonable. in the face of it he can be utterly calm he's not anxious he's not worried about it I... Um, One of my favorite stories of... ah of of this is that that talk about the talks this way is the Now I'm going to. I'm going to forget his name. It's right was right on the tip of my tongue. um he was the ah He was the bishop of Norway.
Speaker: OK, the Lutheran bishop in Norway um at the outbreak of World War Two. Of course, you know, the the Germans invaded Norway. and took over Norway. they they They are.
Speaker: ah they They set up a public government in Norway, and they were in control there. But the bishop... the Lutheran bishop there, he, uh, He resisted. And he was part of the resistance movement that was that was working against that. And so the the Nazis didn't really think they could just...
Speaker: Often. because he was very popular. And so they locked him into a prison and stuck him out in the woods somewhere. And even there, he was still able to communicate and things like that. he was still a ah paper And supposedly, the... the the the SS officer who was you know,
Speaker: interrogating him and all these things. kind of hissed at him and said, don't you realize I have the power to put you to death? And. And the bishop looked at me and said, well, what are you going to do to me then? So...
Speaker: and um yeah it that That he was just able to able to face that. And not be. Um...
Speaker: And not be. ah utterly terrified of that and just, you know, just caving in and bow and and bending to whatever the... the, uh, Uh... the the the the SS officer wanted him to do.
Speaker: Um, I think that's that should... that's a really cool story of of how what faith does. to a person in the face of in the face of death. And I've seen that repeated, I don't know how many times in my ministry, you know, somebody gets that.
Speaker: Gets that cancer diagnosis or they get the... They get the... ah ah you know, the the bad news from their doctor that, you know, this is untreatable.
Speaker: And... um they end up in the face of that. You know. never losing their joy. Never losing there. never losing their, uh, this amazing Peace of God.
Speaker: That surpasses all understanding. End. It does. and living that. I just think those are. Those are some of the most powerful, beautiful testimonies to the...
Speaker: to the to the work of the Holy Spirit in our life today. Yeah. I just think of this. I got this. I'm sure you do too, Matt. And I'm sure every every Christian does. You got this kind of catalog of faces and names of people.
Speaker: that have Dead. that have faced death this way. And and it's been just been absolutely beautiful.
Speaker: But Paul says that isn't just for that moment. that you face your mortality and you face the grave. Paul says that this that this presence of Christ at hand, this this Jesus who's right here,
Speaker: also does something to us. In this moment.
Speaker: Finally, brothers, 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 is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Speaker: You see that now that... that I've been removed from this focus on my mortality and on the things that terrify me. But what... What do I think about?
Speaker: If I'm not fixated on my on on on all of these things that give me anxiety. you know, that that that are causing my anxiousness. what do i think paul says no what this does is this liberates us now to this different kind of life This liberates us to a life that pursues these... these honorable, just, pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. um How do you think that?
Speaker: there there is There is something. Um, The depth that that that that what Paul is really talking about is this is what the Christian life is like. Because now that Jesus is right here beside me,
Speaker: And he's beside me in my office right now? He's beside Paul in that prison cell. He's beside you. and in in your church right now where you're sitting, he's beside everybody who's listening to this podcast.
Speaker: Well... That means I don't have to be afraid of all these things, the terrors of grave and sin and death and devil. um What do I do? That means... I can actually say. Thank you. I can ask another set of questions. What is good?
Speaker: What is pure and just and memorable?
Speaker: There's a... Well...
Speaker: um I happen to be recording this with you on my iPhone. I don't know if you if you are a an Apple or an Android. um Apple, yeah. i sure my apple do yeah And one of the things i I have always really appreciated about my Apple products is that that they're really well built.
Speaker: Okay, they're well designed, they're well built. My kids are Android people. And and and I use their phone sometimes and it's just like, it feels. different.
Speaker: Um, What's maybe not as well known is that, ah I don't know if you knew that, Steve Jobs was confirmed a Missouri Synod Lutheran. I think I've read that somewhere once. yeah Yeah, I mean, he took a long spiritual wandering after that, a lot of Buddhism, things like that. But he was actually...
Speaker: confirmed you know, in in a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in San Francisco. in the in the Bay Area. um And his parents were lifelong Lutherans. and And he talked about his dad was, ah his dad really liked cars.
Speaker: And they restored cars together. and And he did that as a child with his dad. And and he remembered. one time. They were doing something on the inside of a door panel.
Speaker: and And his father insisted that he he make this. look good. on the inside of a door panel. And. and Steve looked at him at his father and said, Dad, why are we doing this? Why are we spending all this time doing this? Because no one's ever going to see it. No one's going to know it's there.
Speaker: It's inside the door. And his dad looked at him and said, All notes there.
Speaker: And. And Steve actually really credited. you know a lot of the his is Because. Some people said neurotic. Some people said, you know, almost.
Speaker: Contra business sense, you know, like. Uh, his his obsession. with the with the design and the and the build quality.
Speaker: of his products. to His dad. You know and that that kind of that kind of ethos he had. about fix the inside of the the that You work on the inside of that door panel like it's the outside.
Speaker: Yeah. you know So whatever is pure, yeah it it isn't just... you know, I think about these whatever is pure and noble and good you you could i suppose spiritualize that and just turn that but but i think paul's really talking about yeah if you're fixing a door panel If you're fixing the door on your on your car...
Speaker: Do it right. Do it well. you know if you're if you're If you're changing the oil or your pure if you're mowing your lawn or you're doing you know that that. that what Jesus right there does for you.
Speaker: is it allows you to... Ask a set of questions about everything that you do. Whatever is good. whatever is noble, if it's praiseworthy, if it is just, if it is, and and you get this whole different set of questions you now get to ask about. everything in life.
Speaker: Because Jesus... By being right there. Let's read that for you. Reminds me I was doing I don't think this is fieldwork. This might have been like a a teaching class at seminary. huh So go in once or twice a week.
Speaker: It was K through 8. Emmanuel Lutheran in St. Charles. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know the church. And they had memory work to do. And of course, they're seventh, eighth graders. They hate memory work. They can't stand it. but So we're practicing this verse, Philippians 4, verse 8.
Speaker: And... They just don't have it. And you can tell. and they they really don't like it at all. Get to the day where they need to write it all out and memorize it. They hand it in to me. I take it home. Everybody got a 100.
Speaker: And I'm going, you guys couldn't. say half this stuff to save your life. How did everybody get a 100? They realized there was a poster up on the wall behind me where I stood in the classroom. they had the verse and they keyed in on that Bye. It turned into this really neat teaching moment because I realized what it when I think it was the next time I walked into class, I looked up and I'm like.
Speaker: Oh, I know her.
Speaker: And it it probably definitely wasn't nearly as ref refined as how you were just teaching it. I was younger. um But that was the point that I got to make with him. It's like, hey, this is the work you guys are being tasked to do right now.
Speaker: Maybe you don't want to. Maybe it's not your favorite thing to do. Okay, I get it. But it's what you're supposed to be doing. And if you're going to do something, you should be able to do it well.
Speaker: Right. So let's let's take this sign down. and i'll give you guys another week and we talked about different ways of memorizing it you know finding youtube video with the song let's let's figure this out but how and How you do things does matter, even if nobody else.
Speaker: See, you get to do that. Because Christ is taking care of everything for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. What you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, says Paul.
Speaker: Practice these things. and the God of peace will be with you. That the peace which surpasses all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds with Christ So I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. Now at length you have but revived your concern for me.
Speaker: You were indeed concerned for me. but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need. for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low.
Speaker: And I know how. to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned. The secret of facing plenty and hunger. abundance in need. I can do all things through him who strengthened me.
Speaker: That's the other, I think, really cool benefit of of that presence of Christ. It just gives me a contentment. um A calm. Uh huh.
Speaker: Hunger is just that. You know? Having a whole bunch of things, you know God has blessed me.
Speaker: That doesn't mean I'm better than or that I need to lord it over somebody else. I i can you know i can be who I am. because Because that isn't.
Speaker: who I am. I am this person in the presence of Christ. And I and and he is he's taken that. Dead. egocentric, self -serving Me.
Speaker: And. pushed it. Out. of the middle And so now. Now, what makes me happy, what drives me is...
Speaker: What I find really interesting in this letter and and what our our reading kind of misses is that that Paul actually embeds this wonderful passage.
Speaker: in the middle of... Two. very practical concerns. Um, Immediately before this, there's apparently, he only devotes a couple of verses to it. um There's apparently... uh ah A pair of women in the congregation, let's see, I got to get their names right. I'll let pronounce them. It's in Tiki.
Speaker: Uh, who are We're having a fight. okay it It appears that they're they're in some kind of conflict with each other. And yeah these things happen in congregations. They happen when you get people together. that people people you know their kind of Their heart and their minds get all...
Speaker: wrapped up and and and they were having a fight. And. um you know and And Paul urges them to be reconciled to each other. He encourages the pastor who is there, the person who is in charge of the parish, to...
Speaker: Clement is his name. um uh To. He asked them. He says, help these women. help them wreck Help them live this good and noble and pure and just and ah and all this out. Help them live that out.
Speaker: um and And that that's always a work in progress. That's not something, Paul paul is not talking to us as if as if this is a done thing. You know, he he urges us toward this because we need that urging, because we've we've got a ways to go.
Speaker: um And then at the end of it... Uh, Uh, He talks about... um He talks about the offering that he's been gathering. from from his churches for the poor that are in in Jerusalem.
Speaker: You Philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once again.
Speaker: I'm not looking for a gift now, he said. but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I've received full payment and more. I'm well supplied. Having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Speaker: And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in the glory of Jesus. He brings it right back down to... Listen, I don't need more. You don't need to send more. I received your gift. It was a wonderful, fragrant offering from God. um but But he he just roots he roots this whole... discussion of noble and true and pure and excellent and commendable. All of that roots it all in these very mundane.
Speaker: their Their support for Hume. and the And the people... And as he's in prison, this conflict that's going on in the congregation. that that that what Paul's talking about here isn't disconnected.
Speaker: from the everyday life. that you and I lead. and And I i think... If anything, if I was to to... To amend this reading on Sunday, I would expand it to include.
Speaker: some of those things because I think it's really easy. especially that that line of you know the one you had your students learning. Yes. uh It's really easy for the... for that to get.
Speaker: to that to become sort of a othered become something about another part of my life, then... than you know, vacuuming my carpet or something like that, yeah or or or mowing my lawn or or reading with my kids or doing something like that.
Speaker: Um, It just becomes, it becomes a. Huh. I don't think Paul wants it to be disconnected from the dailies of life. He wants that to be the...
Speaker: As we talked about you when you're fixing the inside you're fixing your door have let the inside look just as good as the outside. Right. See you. Your work's not done until it's done right. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Praise Aaron once. Yeah. and then I think it was my dad, I think it was my dad, my dad or my mom, and I've passed a son to my daughters. you've got something that you know seems the mundane or monotonous, or you'd rather be doing something else.
Speaker: Do it right the first time as quickly as you can. Yep. Yep, just makes life so much better. It does. It is and then maybe maybe it'll help you get to a point where you can look back and go up Okay.
Speaker: By the grace of God, I accomplished that. Well, yeah, it wasn't all that bad, you know, and and yeah, I had Christ with me. Yeah! You know? i i think the i mean it's i mean i one there's there's i mean I mean, I think we're kind of mingling two different things here, and and that's not bad. I'm i'm not saying that's ah that's a mistake. But, um you know, I mean, one of them, there's just a wisdom.
Speaker: that That is inherent in... um that is inherent in in the Ah. idea of doing something well the first time. It just makes everything better.
Speaker: You know, it just it does. Everything just gets better when you do it well the first time. And that's ah like kind of like a wisdom piece. you know i'm i'm a ah I have a wood shop. I like to work in my...
Speaker: in my ah but In my garage, I have some tools out there. and And there's this basic... There's this wisdom piece of cry once. Pay once, cry once. And that is don't buy a cheap tool.
Speaker: You're going to end up having to buy another one because that was no good. um Cry once. All right. Pay a little more. And you'll be happier in the long run. Uh...
Speaker: Ed. And and yeah that's just wisdom. And that's that's available to everyone. What I think makes Paul's exhortation here a little bit different is that he takes that wisdom of ah do the right thing. That's just a good way to do it. But but he rams it up and he and he he takes it and he says, do the right thing. because Christ is at hand.
Speaker: Because... Because what happens there is that that now my... my kind of horizontal life. you know This life I live in relationship with people and the material world around me and all of this stuff has suddenly gotten this vertical dimension.
Speaker: That all of it is now imbued with... um With my. with my with my Lord Jesus. And so. Yeah, when I'm...
Speaker: When I am. working in my garden. who growing vegetables and flowers. That now has become an act of worship.
Speaker: That now has become something that is. That is... Um. filled with Christ. and And that now becomes... yet another and maybe and I would hope far more powerful.
Speaker: injunction to Um. Do the right thing.
Speaker: to to do it well, and to do it beautifully and nobly and commendably. Yeah. This is a really powerful text, Matthew. I i really enjoyed talking about this with you.
Speaker: Um, Thank you. oh Thank you! I think you you've shared a whole lot more than I have. now that There's a contest here in any way, shape, or form.
Speaker: um It is good to gather together and talk through the text. Yeah, it it really is. And it's part of that, whatever is noble, whatever is good, whatever is pure, think about those things.
Speaker: Yeah. This has been a great a great few minutes with you. Thank you very much. Thank you as well. I have assumed you're going to be preaching on this one. Yep, I've got this one on the... on the Uh,
Speaker: On the burner here, we're going to preach this one. so Yep. Presence of God. I think I'm going to really talk about that. The Lord is at hand. And that. that how that that really is the...
Speaker: I think the central phrase that governs everything else. in that passage. jesus is the Jesus is at hand. So synecdoche and euodia, you can reconcile. Because Jesus is a hand.
Speaker: I can be reasonable. I can be joyful. I can always. Because Jesus is right here.
Speaker: Hey, with with with that truth, I think it's gonna be hard to preach him a bad one. Yep.
Speaker: That's great. Although, you know, I'm always capable. Oh, yes, yes, yes. You and me both. You and me both. All right, well, you have a wonderful week, Pastor. You as well, Matthew. God bless you.
