Whatever is True

[00:00:00] I have a. I have several favorite basketball players. Y'all don't know this, but we're in the throes of the NBA playoffs and that matters to only me most of the time. [00:00:12] It's my Super Bowl. [00:00:15] I do not stay up late enough to watch any of these games. I just check them on my phone and do a fist pump or do an Aw, man. And then I move on with my day. [00:00:24] I've got several favorite basketball players I like watching. I don't have a team. I'm from Arkansas. I like the Mavericks. I'll celebrate the Mavericks. Mavericks winning, but I'm from Arkansas. We just rooted for players growing up. It was Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan and for me, Sean Kemp, oddly enough. [00:00:43] And I just had my guys that I liked. [00:00:48] I've got this guy now. I don't know if you've heard of him. He just won the MVP. [00:00:54] His name is Jokic. [00:00:57] He is. He looks like a playground bully in the third grade. He does not look like a basketball player, but he's the best basketball player on the planet. And one of my favorite things about him is that he doesn't seem to care all that much about basketball. He's just playing it. They won the championship last year. [00:01:22] He won the finals mvp. They came to him at the end and said, aren't you excited? And he goes, yes, I get to go home tired. And then he looked and they said, he looked at a guy and he said, when do we get to go home? This is at a press conference. When do we get to go home? And they said, well, we have the parade on Thursday because we've got to go to the parade. [00:01:45] He wanted to go ride his horses. [00:01:48] He wanted to go. It was just a job. [00:01:52] Some things we take too seriously. [00:02:00] Don't you think the list is long? The things we take too seriously. [00:02:06] Do you think this is a must win game? They'll ask people, well, sure. [00:02:15] You all have your favorite college football teams. [00:02:19] That's coming up. For some people, it's a and m. For some people, it's the Longhorns. For some people, it's one of the other thousand. I'm sorry, Baylor. I'm so sorry, Baylor. But Baylor, one of the other thousand of football teams that live in Texas, professional football teams that reside at colleges and Alabama has no room to talk. [00:02:51] I'm from Arkansas. We have a JV college football team. It's never been good. The one time it was good. You remember that time, don't you? Because that was a special time. But we're used to it being to not mattering. [00:03:08] But you can listen to, you can listen to college, like the football talk radio in Arkansas, and there are people there. Listen to me. There are people that take the Razorbacks seriously. [00:03:24] That's absurd. That shouldn't happen. [00:03:29] You've got people, caller after caller. That's like, man, we got, you know, if we just get that right, we get that quarterback out of fable, he's gonna be the guy this time. And he's just, no, he's not. [00:03:42] What are we doing? It's just absurd that, like, we take sports seriously, that it happens and we take it serious. [00:03:58] Now, invest in it. Have fun. [00:04:02] But if you ever get to the point where you're like, where it's just completely destroying your day, do you know what you can do? [00:04:12] Stop. [00:04:17] You don't have to exist in that world. It's not a requirement. [00:04:26] Same thing happens with the news. [00:04:30] If we sit around our tables and eat dinner and watch a news broadcast that riles us up. Do you know what you can do? [00:04:41] You can stop. [00:04:44] What, what about any of that is true? [00:04:54] What about it is real? [00:04:58] There's a song that was on christian radio for a while that says, I live in a big, you know, in my father's house. It's talking about what heaven's gonna be like, incredibly biblically unsound. But it was like, there's a big, it's a big, big house and we can run around and I don't, I don't know the lyrics all that well, but I remember, and I'm not researching them. [00:05:23] It's like in the kitchen is a circle and we can play chase or whatever. And then one of the lyrics is and a big, big yard where we can play football. [00:05:37] Do you realize how pervasive that false reality is in our world? Where we're like, I want to get to heaven, but I better be able to play football. [00:05:49] What an absurd thing. It's like we should be able to step back. Something we love, something we invest in, something we're excited about whenever it comes around, we should be able to laugh at it because it is, a lot of it is silly. The stuff we wrap ourselves up in, not just sports, but our life, like, a lot of the stuff we invest in in our life that we are, that we have clenched up in our fists and we are, it is causing us stress and anxiety. Those people. [00:06:38] I spent 5 hours at urban air yesterday trampling part. I took kids. I didn't just go by myself. [00:06:48] Took some kids and we played. It was fun. [00:06:51] But, like, the number of times I thought to myself, where is this kid's parent? [00:07:05] It was, if I had a nickel for every time, you wouldn't have seen me this morning. I'd be on a beach somewhere, just. And I got to where it was stressing me out a little bit. But what I needed to do was do this and laugh about it like, it's fine. [00:07:27] This anxiety that I'm feeling, not real now. Anxiety is real. But, like, for some reason, I'm choosing. I'm choosing to be caught up. I am focusing on this. [00:07:44] This sermon series is not one that asks us to not care about stuff, but it's one that is going to ask you to care about certain things. [00:08:00] The Book of Philippians is a book about joy. It's a book about unity. It's a book about. Book about being united in Christ and being joyful because of it. [00:08:08] But Paul writes that book because there's a certain thing happening in Philippi that he needs to address. There are two people, Euodia and Syntyche, who are fighting. [00:08:22] Without Euodia and Syntyche, the book of Philippians wouldn't have existed. So we must thank them. [00:08:30] But they are upset about something. [00:08:35] Not quite sure why, but he finally gets to it at the very end and all. If you read Philippians through the lens of this battle between Euodia and Syntyche, a lot of it becomes three dimensional and pops out at you. But after he addresses them, he recorrects, let's stop bickering. Let's stop arguing. Let's get together in Christ. He never says, one of you is right and one of you is wrong. He says, let's find joy in our unity. [00:09:06] And then he adds to the way they should be in Philippians four, and we'll start in verse four. It says, rejoice and the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known, visible to everyone the Lord is near. 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. Let's pause there. [00:09:46] I wonder if we believe this. [00:09:51] I wonder if we believe that being in the presence of God brings peace, that sitting in the presence of God brings peace. In notably tumultuous time, the church here was struggling. [00:10:14] The community was struggling. In Philippi, you're living in a world in the first century where Jesus proclaiming the name of Jesus can get you in trouble. [00:10:26] They were not, it was not a favorable situation for Christians. And not in that weird way where we become like, fake, when christians now become fake martyrs because they didn't say merry Christmas at Starbuck. [00:10:46] I forgot it was plural Starbucks. Like, that's not, they were facing real persecution, actual struggles, difficulties there. [00:10:58] And he's saying, your anxiety, your, the way you approach the world is not anxious, but should be proud, prayerful and sit in the presence of God. And if you do that, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, I can't explain it to you. It's not, not caring about the troubles of the world, but knowing that the God of the universe cares about my troubles too. [00:11:27] When I go to God with my anxieties, he's not saying, oh, those are no big deal, but what I have is a God who cares about my anxieties. The peace that comes from God matters to me, surpasses your hearts and will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus hearts and minds. He's dealing with that here, verse eight. He gets into where we're going to spend our time over the next few weeks. [00:11:58] Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. [00:12:20] Ponder these things. Consider these things. [00:12:27] Do you know that for the most part you get to pick what you think about for long periods of time, in most cases, you're in charge. You get to make requests of the DJ in your brain. [00:12:47] Long phrase. Now, we do have intrusive thoughts. Everybody can. All right, everybody shout out your intrusive thoughts on three. Ready? One, two. I'm kidding. [00:12:58] There are such things as thoughts that just jump in your head and you have to do the work of going, oh, okay, you're an odd thing. Okay, let's put you over here. [00:13:09] But we get to choose what we consider. [00:13:13] We get to choose where our mind focus. We get to choose what we pay attention to. That's our choice. [00:13:25] And in the presence of God, our choices about what we consider are affected by his goodness and his holiness. [00:13:36] Whatever is true, pure, honorable, just pleasing, commendable. If there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, I want you to consider these things. [00:13:53] Think about these things. [00:14:01] I think sometimes we get wrapped up in stuff that's not worthy of consideration. [00:14:10] It's not worthy of our mauling over and over again. [00:14:16] And that could be a lot of different things, right? It could be an argument that you had with somebody. [00:14:23] Were you just playing that in your head? Maybe you went to an event and you said something, and, like, afterwards, you're thinking, I should have said that. [00:14:35] Surely there's people with me on that one regret. [00:14:40] It can be something as crazy as that time in 9th grade. [00:14:46] Those of you who made it to 9th grade can be just stuff that we'll just hold onto and stare at as if those things are the real things. [00:15:07] Whatever is true, we consider it. [00:15:10] I think that's the first test on what's worthy of our consideration, is what is true. [00:15:19] Now, here, I'm not saying what is accurate. You can't just go, all right, whatever is true. Pythagorean theorem, that doesn't count as true. That's correct. [00:15:34] But it's not like math is correct. But listen, hear me out. Math ain't holy for you students. I'm just kidding. It can be some beautiful stuff happens in math, but it's not like what we're talking about here. When we say true, we're not just saying things that are correct or factually accurate. [00:15:56] Yes, that's probably one of the prerequisites, but it has to be something bigger to be true. [00:16:07] It has to be something more than just factually accurate, something more than intellectually correct to be true. [00:16:17] Jesus meets a woman at a well in John. [00:16:26] They ride up to a samaritan village, just in case you aren't a historian, samaritan village is a village full of Samaritans. [00:16:38] Now that you've caught up, it's just a bunch of Samaritans, people who aren't jewish people, they're part jewish, but that actually, in a lot of jewish people's minds, people, people of Israel, they had a problem with that. [00:16:55] And Jesus says, I'm hungry. [00:17:00] Can y'all go get something? And I'm gonna wait out here. It's about noon, and a woman comes out to the well. [00:17:09] While Jesus is sitting there. She can see that he's a jewish man. She knows she's a samaritan woman. [00:17:16] So her experience in these situations, although she probably hasn't had a ton of experience in these situations, is to just ignore him. And he's going to ignore her, and they'll go about her day. [00:17:31] He says, can I have something to drink? [00:17:36] And she's shocked. She says, wait, hold on. You're a jew, I'm a samaritan. [00:17:41] Why is it that you asked me something and then Jesus did that thing where he doesn't answer her. But he says, well, if you knew who I was, then you'd ask me for something to drink. [00:17:52] She goes, do you know, I bet a lot of conversations started like that with Jesus, where the other person went, okay. He said, because the water I have to offer, anyone who drinks of it will never thirst again. And she goes, we've been coming to this well forever. [00:18:11] Do you have a different well? [00:18:15] I said, no. [00:18:18] They get to talking. [00:18:20] He mentions her husband, and she says, I don't have a husband. He says, that's right. You don't have a husband. In fact, you've been divorced. You are divorced because you were kicked out of your house. [00:18:39] This woman never at any point in her whole life had a legal remedy to end a relationship. Every divorce that happened to her, happened to her every time she was kicked out of her house against her will and without probably a just cause in that world, it was just, go. [00:19:08] And now the man who had brought her into the house didn't even do her the service of marrying her. None of this is something she did. Jesus is not shaming her. He's seeing her. [00:19:24] And, man, we've spent centuries shaming this woman who is in an awful place, kicked out not just from her house, but from society. Not worth marrying to the point that you gotta go get water at noon instead of in the morning, when everyone else got to. [00:19:51] He points this out to her, and as people often do when they're seen fully, they change the subject. [00:20:00] She says, I think my Bible rusted up. [00:20:06] She says, you know, sir, I see that you are a prophet. That's a good way to respond, sir. I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you say the place where people must worship in Jerusalem. Oh, not just change the subject, but let's get into a religious debate. [00:20:31] Jesus said to her, he says, woman, but he calls his mom this too. This isn't like woman, you know. He's not saying. It's like a kind. It's a. It's a dear woman. [00:20:44] Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. [00:20:53] You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. [00:21:03] But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers, not just this division between you and us, but the true worshipers, will worship the father in spirit and truth. For the father seeks such as these to worship him. The. Here, the word true means what we need to, how we need to keep it in our hearts. Not we worship in spirit and truth, as in we worship with the spirit of God and we worship correctly. [00:21:42] That's not what this passage is talking about. It never has. It never will be. [00:21:48] And pity on us when we take it and try to say, well, we worship properly and other people do don't. And so we have to worship the spirit of truth. [00:21:57] What Jesus is saying here is we will worship not on a temple, not on a mountain, but the spirit will overwhelm us, and we will actually worship God face to face. [00:22:13] In reality, we worship truth for Jesus and for Paul here in Philippians, truth is not correct. [00:22:25] It's actuality. [00:22:28] What is real? [00:22:32] All of most of what we do in life is a bit of a game. [00:22:38] We drive and people. We see ourselves as the main player of this game. We drive and people got in front of me, they pulled out in front of me. [00:22:55] When's the last time you got mad because someone pulled out in front of somebody else? [00:23:00] Like you just caught it in your sight line. What in the world? Jerk. You know, it's me. [00:23:09] Comes down to me. [00:23:12] Well, that's not the stuff that's real. [00:23:18] That's not the stuff that matters. [00:23:21] We got so we get so caught up in our world that we've created these little idols and we call them real. We. We worry about them, we're frustrated with them, and we called them real. [00:23:39] What's real? [00:23:43] That human being that's walking slower than you want them to at Walmart. [00:23:52] The fact that God loves them and cares for them and honors them and is rooting for them, just like God has always cared for and loved and honored you, that's the truest thing you see every day. [00:24:11] The me first mentality that we have in our souls, that's not real. [00:24:19] That's not pointing to anything. That's true. [00:24:24] I should get my way all the time. I should have. I should have what I want. [00:24:32] That's not true. You know it's not true. [00:24:37] But when we focus on what's actual, what's true, what's real, what it's going to come down to is there's these people in this world that need to be seen. [00:24:54] And there's this God that loves those people we see. [00:25:01] He loves all of us more than you can possibly know. [00:25:09] My mom loves me a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Probably too much. We'll say too much. [00:25:17] I've said this before, but whenever I would get bullied in school, which I did, surprisingly, she would say it's because they're jealous of you, the mom? [00:25:36] No. [00:25:38] And back then I thought, no, mom. There's no way they're jealous of me. [00:25:44] But now, looking back, I'm certain they weren't. [00:25:53] I. [00:25:56] No. [00:25:58] She loved me, though, like, just unconditionally and probably sometimes, like, thought too much of me. [00:26:13] But there is no greater love. [00:26:18] Not a mother to a child, not a father to a child, not a child to a mother. There is no greater and truer and more real, more actual love than the love God has for you. When Paul says, go to God, find the peace, when Paul says, don't have anxiety, just alone. Go to God. Sit with God, find the peace. It goes beyond understanding. And what you need to focus on and consider in this world is that which is true. [00:26:54] He's asking us to consider the reality of the world. The reality of the world is not that we have an election to God. That's just as pretend. That's just as pretend as when my kids would come out and say, we've written a play for you. [00:27:15] Do you remember that? When your children would come out and say that, we've got a play. We've written a play. We want to perform a play. [00:27:22] And you would sit down, guys. It was so bad. [00:27:31] It was fine, but it didn't have a beginning or an end, just 20 minutes of a middle. [00:27:42] And like, to me, some of the stuff, I think God sometimes watches the stuff that we consider to be true and, like, real and important and just thinks, oh, this is an incredibly well thought out. [00:28:01] This is pieced together, and I can't believe they're so serious about something that's not true, not real. [00:28:18] Whatever it is that affects your spirit, whatever it is you consider, that's what you think is true to me, I think we need to get back to the place where the truest thing we've got is a God who loves us and cares for us, who's rooting for us to become more like his son, to be affected by his son, to be a community that shares the message of his son. That's the truest thing we've got going. [00:29:04] And as much as we can recognize that being like sports can be ridiculous, all this other, all this other mess can be just as ridiculous. [00:29:18] What is true? [00:29:21] Sure, you might root for the proper sports team. [00:29:28] You might vote for the correct politician. [00:29:35] While that might be correct, it's not true. [00:29:41] It's not the real stuff. [00:29:44] The real thing. The actual thing can't be found in scrambling for power, for self. And my perspective here, it can only be found in the presence of God. That brings peace. That passes understanding. [00:30:05] That's true. [00:30:07] Consider that for a while. [00:30:10] Let's pray together. [00:30:13] Father, thank you for how much you actually love us. [00:30:21] You never give up on us. You always forgive us. [00:30:29] May your love for us be the most real thing in our life. May it be more certain than the bridges we drive on and the roofs we stand under concrete. Your love into us, father. [00:30:51] May it no longer be something that just is an idea and a good sense sentiment. But may it be the most actual thing we've got, the truest thing in our life. [00:31:05] And may we find ourselves letting your truth, your love, occupy. [00:31:13] And may we worship in peace. [00:31:17] And may we worship in truth. And may we worship in spirit. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.