This world is many things, but it is not peaceful. When we turn on the news, we hear of constant wars, constant rumors or war, constant crime, and constant fear. When we go to work, we find ourselves surrounded by conflict, gossip, office politics, drama, and power plays. When we head home, we enter into short tempers, arguments, and long-developing dysfunctions. But even when we can find solitude, we discover to our horror that our own hearts are filled to the brim with anxiety, bitterness, rage, and terror. No matter where we go in this world, we cannot find peace.

What, though, can we realistically expect? Is it plausible to expect peace on this side of the Fall, or is the drumbeat of peace reserved for naive idealists who do not fully understand the depth of the brokenness of this world? As much as we crave peace, do we need to relegate our hope for peace to the future for the coming reign of the Prince of Peace?

In fact, peace is possible. Although Paul has only used the word “peace” once so far in this letter in his standard greeting (“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…”; Phil. 1:2), he now turns his attention to peace as the fruit and goal of everything that he has taught the Philippians in this letter. Their unity, their joy, and their ability to endure suffering depends on their experience of the peace of God that will surpass all understanding.

---

Please open your Bibles with me to Philippians 4:2-9. We are continuing our sermon series through the letter to the Philippians. Next week, Lord willing, we will conclude that study.

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 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. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.Philippians 4:2-9, ESV

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, you probably have asked yourself the question at least implied to yourself the question of where were you fifteen years ago today? This is the 15th anniversary of September 11th. I myself was in Washington, D.C., packing up my things, preparing to get on a plane later that day to head back to Nebraska. I never got on that plane. I had friends I was at a conference with who are actually deplaned at the airport, and they weren't able to travel home until much later in the week. I was in a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, where for the next two days I watched the Pentagon burn. A surreal experience.

You know, there are a lot of ways that we could describe this world. Even today, as we think about the anniversary, the 15 year anniversary of a tremendously disruptive, tremendously violent, tremendously world altering day in history, the one word we probably would not use to describe this world is peaceful. This world just flat out is not peaceful. You don't even have to look at 9-11. You don't have to look at ISIS. You don't have to look at Syria. You don't have to look at the geopolitical conflicts in the world to recognize this.

When you go to work and recognize all of the office politics and drama. When in your neighborhood, you see crime and you see people who aren't taking care of their lawns and whatever else it is you see. When you go home and you find dysfunction in your family. Even when you get alone and try to get away from all of the external possibilities to bring a lack of peace into your life, that's what it really gets scary, right? That's when you just look at yourself and your own heart, when you realize truly how deep the lack of peace that we experience goes.

Last night, my wife was trying just search on Google, the repository of all human wisdom, trying to search on Google for children's Bibles that do not fall apart because if you've met the hurricane named Zachariah my two year old, you probably have a good idea of why our children's Bibles do not stay together. We've gone through multiple.

When she searched this, she saw a list of related searches. If you've ever seen that one, an auto fills when you're typing into Google and you get a bunch of possibilities that they ought to suggest. Well, that's not a bunch of people brainstorming things that you might want to search about in the headquarters of Google. That is algorithmically driven. A lot of people have searched those things, and so based on what a lot of people have searched, Google provides them to you.

Well, again, my wife searched children's Bibles that do not fall apart, and these searches are what a lot of people are typing in the Google. Bible verses about family falling apart. Bible verses for hopeless situations. Bible verses being stressed and overwhelmed. My life's falling apart. What do I do? Bible verses when things are going wrong. Or this one I thought was the most poignant, lots of people type this into Google; God, why is my life falling apart?

A lot of people are looking for a lot of peace that we simply cannot find. We don't need an anniversary of a terrorist attack to remind us of that. It is every day we are neck deep in it all the time. Yet Paul says that rather than, on the one hand, simply ignoring the realities and the brokenness and the fall in this and the sinfulness of this world and just sort of wanting to hold hands and sing Kumbaya and give peace a chance and peace in our time and can't we just be friends?

Rather than ignoring realities and trying to take up that kind of a mindset, which will always be frustrated. Or on the other hand, becoming so cynical and jaded where we simply say to ourselves, well, if this world is going to be violent, I will be more so. If this world is going to be harsh, I will be more so to make sure that I do not get hurt. Whatever it takes, whoever I have to hurt.

Between those two options, the Bible, God says that there is a different way. There's a middle way where we are called to be people who are transformed by peace and freed and reconciled in order to seek peace in the world. It's a radical, radical, transformative kind of a thing that is fundamentally different from anything the world has to offer. We are given peace and we are called to seek peace.

So Paul in this passage, almost as though this is the fruit that has been building up and growing from everything he has written as he comes to these couple of concluding passages, Paul tells us to seek peace in three ways.

1. To Seek Peace in our Relationships with Other People

2. To Seek Peace in our Own Hearts

3. To Seek Peace in our Interactions with the Wider World

To Seek Peace in our Relationships with Other People

In the first two verses that we're looking at today, Paul is addressing an interpersonal conflict, the place where there is a lack of peace between two individuals. Now these individuals have been dead for nearly 2000 years. So it almost is as awkward to us to read this conflict that Paul is speaking into. But it must have been all the more awkward for Paul to have done this when these women are still living.

Paul writes, "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord." Paul wades into a conflict. I mean, you don't just do this lightly. We don't know the nature or the details of the conflict that's happening here, but we recognize that it must have been pretty significant. Remember Philippi, the distance between Philippi, where this conflict was happening and Rome, where Paul most likely was imprisoned, was the distance of about Chicago to New York City. Remember, they couldn't just pick up their cell phone and say, did you hear about the fight you Euodia and Syntyche had this morning? That was pretty amazing.

I mean, in order for this news to have been transported, this must be a deep, deep conflict that's lasted for a long, long time. Not only that, but Paul anticipates that the conflict will still be happening when this letter, he writes, gets back to them. He can't fire off an email and say, get yourselves together, stop this argument. He has to write a letter weighing into a conflict that is many, many, many miles removed from him.

He does is and he does two things here that we should pay attention to. The first is that Paul enters into this conflict. I mean, you don't you don't enter into conflicts lightly, but he does it wisely, graciously, intelligently and strategically. There's a lot for us to learn in how he enters into this conflict. Then he also does something that's surprising that we'll talk about in just a moment.

The first thing that Paul does as he enters into this conflict is that he does it in a way that is fairly neutral. Paul is not trying to prioritize one or the other. He actually treats both of these women pretty fairly. Look at the way he says I entreat twice. That's one word in Greek, it's two words in English. This word he repeats twice. He doesn't want anyone to think if he just says, I entreat you Euodia and Syntyche, he doesn't want anyone to think he's singling out one person. So he says, and it's awkward, just as much as for us as it is for them in Greek, "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche."

It takes two to tango. There are two people on this argument there are two people who have problems here that are being brought out in this issue, so I can treat both of them. He says, to agree in the Lord.

The second thing he does, which is very wise, is he acknowledges the really good things that these women have accomplished in their lives. He says in verse three, "Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life."

He says, Euodia and Syntyche, you have done an amazing work here. You have labored. You have striven. You have you have worked side by side with me. This was the word that Paul had used back in Philippians 1:27, it's the word that we get our word athlete from. Of athletes working together, side by side with someone else. If the idea of striving of gladiators working hard side by side to lock shields and gather round to protect ourselves from what's happening in the wider world, the attacks that come after us. Paul says the Euodia and Syntyche were two of those people who were in the fight. Their shields were labored side by side with us and held up to protect ourselves from the onslaught.

By saying this by acknowledging the good work that they have done as fellow workers in the gospel with Paul, he's implying the problem here. If you are divided, then the work of the gospel is divided. If you are fighting, then the work of the gospel is undermined and undercut. You've done good things in the past. Let's go back to that. Paul first is very, very deliberate not to take sides, but second here. He wants to praise them and acknowledge the good things that they've done in the past.

The third thing Paul does, which is so fascinating, is he uses aspirational language to speak into their lives. He could just sort of try to slap them on the wrist and say, You've got to knock that off. Have you seen that Bob Newhart video, the psychologist who's he's talking in an office and say, "Well, I'm going to give you some advice here. Stop it. That's really all I have to tell you. Just knock it off. Stop it." People sort of are taken aback and they, of course, go back to the very things that they had done that got them in that problem in the first place.

That's not what Paul does. Instead of telling them to knock off your arguments, he tells them, agree in the Lord. It's literally think the same thing in the Lord, have the same mindset. Take up the same affections and desires and goals. Agree in the Lord. The Lord is the one who judges you. The Lord is the one who redeemed you. The Lord is the one who laid his life down for you. You are called to have the same mind in the Lord. He actually used this same phrase in Philippians 2:2. He says, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind", by agreeing, by thinking the same thing.

It may in fact be that much of the unity that Paul has been addressing throughout this letter has been gearing up to address this particular conflict. Or it may simply be that Paul wants to illustrate as one of my professors writes that the heady concept of Christian unity must be worked out on the ground, one quarrel at a time.

When we talk about fellowship and unity as a body of Christ, we're not just talking about ethereal concepts. Wouldn't that be nice? Isn't that a lovely thought? We're actually talking about conflict resolution. There are conflicts all the time, even in this church. I guess I left out talking about conflicts in the church. That's because we don't have them, right? Ok, good. Yeah. Laughter is the correct response. We do have them, but the gospel calls us to agree in the Lord.

So Paul addresses this issue and he does so winsomely, generously. He does so helpfully, strategically, intelligently. He doesn't wade in like a bull in a China shop. He really strategically, sensitively addresses this issue.

Notice what Paul does next in verse three, he asks for help. I mean, this is Paul. This is an apostle. He could have just thrown his apostolic weight around. It could have pulled out his shiny apostolic badge, laid it on the table and said, you better knock this off, I'm the sheriff here. He doesn't do that. Instead, what he does is he asks for help. He doesn't write several paragraphs trying to work through micromanage the details of the reconciliation. He asks for help. He says, I'm in a position where I can't help you here directly. So he says in verse three, "Yes, I ask you also, true companion."

There's been a lot of speculation about who this companion might be, because all of a sudden Paul just talks to what sounds like an individual. There's a lot of speculation, whether it might be. Timothy, but that's probably not true because Timothy isn't going on this delivery of the letter until sometime later. One commentator, Gordon Fee, offers an elaborate explanation that this might actually be Luke, the one who wrote Luke and the Book of Acts. That's plausible, but we don't really know. It may actually be someone whose name is Sisyphus. If there are a couple of people who are expecting, if you want a great name, think Sisyphus.

The problem is with the word companion here. It's literally yoke fellow. In other words, if you're an ox pulling a yoke, trying to plow a field, well, this is the person you are yoked beside to be able to pull the plow with you. And Sisyphus is this word, and some people think this is actually a name. The problem with that is that there is no record of anyone else in the ancient world ever being named Sisyphus. So if you wanted to name your child Sisyphus now, you would be unique throughout history for doing so.

So it may be, he says, I guess we don't really know it's possible. It could be the whole church. It could be individuals that Paul is trying to raise up lots of suggestions. To engage in speculation on this point, God saw fit in his wisdom not to tell us who this is. The bigger point that he wants us to see is not who is here, but rather the fact that we need to ask for help. Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

There are a lot of places in life where we come across in conflict, conflict in our homes, conflict in our workplaces, conflict in our neighborhoods, conflicts in our church. Blessed are the ones who make peace, the peacemaker who enter into these situations to help other people to sort out what they cannot for themselves. Paul says this here, asking help, illustrating what it looks like even as an apostle to show the humility to ask for help. If Paul is willing to ask for help, sometimes we need to be willing to do that too.

Now, appropriately, there are times when you don't necessarily need to involve the church right away. Jesus gives an example of escalating, bringing more people in to help with conflict resolution and Matthew chapter 18. I'd encourage you to do this. Here we see right off the bat in this passage an explicit example to seek peace, a command to seek peace that we are as a church to agree in the Lord. Paul exhorts us of this and pleads with us to do this through the example of Euodia and Syntyche. We seek peace in our relationships. Everything they talk about, about fellowship and unity is worthless if we cannot simply engage in the conflicts and resolve them in our relationships.

To Seek Peace in our Own Hearts

It's not just people out there with whom we have problems with peace. Again, some of the scariest parts of our lack of peace show up when we start to think through our lack of peace in our own hearts. So in this next passage, Paul addresses our attitudes and our anxieties as we think about peace.

You know, if you are writing two questions and gave them to Paul and he wrote back a response that happens to be what he writes here in verses four through seven. The two questions you would be asking to elicit this response would be, number one, Paul, is there ever a time when Christians ought to be anxious about something? Then number two, what do we do when we do feel anxiety about things?

Now I want to start by talking very clearly and honestly that there are some anxieties issues of anxiety in our lives that are not emotional and spiritual primarily. There are some that are frankly biological. God made us as whole people so that when our bodies go on the fritz, we can have psychological problems. There are some of you who are struggling with deep anxiety who shouldn't hear Paul saying, well just pray more and it'll go away. You, in fact, should think about visiting a doctor. I'm very serious about that. If you are struggling with anxiety, you might need to see a doctor because we are whole people and God made us to be a unity of body and soul.

However, that doesn't mean that every one of our problems are organic in nature. That doesn't mean that every one of our bits of anxiety flow from, well, there's just something wrong in my body, and I need to pop a pill for it. There are spiritual and emotional anxieties that Paul does direct us to prayer in order to solve.

So Paul addresses first our attitudes, and he says, this is if you were a Christian, what your attitude should look like. He says rejoice and be reasonable. Your attitude should be one of rejoicing and reasonableness. Well, he's talked about rejoicing a lot in this letter. Back in Philippians 3:1, he says, "Finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord." Earlier on in Philippians 1:18 in the midst of being in prison, in the midst of having rivals preach against him. He says, "What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice."

Well, rather than talking just about his own situation, he says to the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord, always again, I will say rejoice." If you have the unshakable confidence of the gospel your attitude should be consistently one of rejoicing and not only rejoicing, but of reasonableness. He says in verse five, "Let your reasonableness be known to everyone."

Now that word reasonableness may be one of the ways that's best to think about this is how do you feel when someone cuts you off in traffic? If you are anything like me and I pray often about this, you are instantly unreasonable because you tell all these nasty stories in your mind about the terrible, terrible motivations of this person who would dare to be so unsafe to cut you off, even though you probably do the same thing other people all the time. The idea of reasonableness is a gentleness. A yielded a generosity of spirit not to rush immediately to thinking What a horrible person. Maybe you say a few other words in there as well, but to think immediately, rather, this isn't that big of a deal. I'm thankful we're safe. I'm thankful that didn't come to any problem. I wonder what's going on in that person's life that they're so distracted.

Well, so the question is, is that your attitude? Well, I would like to learn from you if it is consistently your attitude. What Paul says here next in verse five is he gives us how this might be the consistency of our attitude. He says the Lord is at hand. In other words, the return of Jesus Christ is imminent. He has already passed through this world living a perfect life, dying a perfect death in punishment for our sins, for the ways that we have fallen short. He has been raised up in glory and he is reigning at the right hand of his father until the day that he returns. The day of Jesus Christ, when Jesus returns to bring all things together, to make all things new, to judge the wicked and the righteous, and to bring his people into their internal inheritance and to judge the wicked forever into hell.

These are the ultimate realities, Paul says. If this is the case, if the return of the Lord is imminent, if he is at hand, if he is near to us at all times so that we do not know the day or the hour when this return will come, then we can have this unshakable confidence. It's not about our situation, whether we're having a good day or a bad day, whether we're having a rough time or a bad time. A good day, a good week, good month, a good year, a good decade. The confidence is based on Christ's supremacy, not on our ability to control our situations.

Should a Christian ever be anxious about anything? Well, the answer is no, because the Lord is at hand. In verses six and seven, it's almost like, so you're having this conversation with Paul and you say, well, ok, Paul asking for a friend, you know, this is someone in another city, you wouldn't know them. Let's say a Christian does experience a level of anxiety, again, asking for a friend here, what would you recommend? As such, what can I tell my friend that you would say to that person?

Paul says again in verse six, "Do not be anxious about anything." Ok, Paul, you're not helping me out, Paul, how do I do this, do not be anxious about anything. But here's his advice, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." The solution, the way in which we are to combat anxiety, difficulties, stress, depression sometimes this manifests itself as, assuming it's not an organic problem where our bodies are on the fritz. Paul says if that's the case, if it's not an organic problem, then you and I ought to devote ourselves to prayer.

How many of the problems that we have and entertain and let fester and continue are exactly stemming from this? That we are too proud or too lazy to go to God in prayer. So Paul says here with prayer and supplication, but then he says, "With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." The phrase with thanksgiving is not just another kind of prayer, whether it's prayer and their supplication, there's thanksgiving. The phrase with thanksgiving actually goes with the next section.

"With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Grammatically, that's how that works. What Paul is saying is you don't just give an order honest to God. A laundry list, a grocery list. Here's what I want God. make all these things happen, and then my anxiety will disappear. It's really the idea of when you make your requests known to God, you do so with Thanksgiving. I had a friend who pointed this out to me once and it really changed a lot of my prayer life. To think OK, when I am stressed and anxious about something, when I go to God and ask for him to address that, am I going with a thankful heart. To recognize God, everything you have given me, everything I have ever had, the way in which I had a situation, maybe a couple of months or a couple of years ago, which was very similar to this, the way you brought me through that, that's all of grace.

So when we go to God in prayer, we don't say, God do this or do that, we say, God, thank you for your grace to me over the years. Thank you for the way that you consistently, continually bring me through the roughest of situations. Father, I have another issue. Would you address this in front of me? With thanksgiving make your requests known to God.

Paul offers this with a promise in verse seven and the peace of God, that peace that we long for, that peace that we want and desire in life, "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." It's a picture of a garrison of soldiers, the peace of God, acting and functioning as a garrison of soldiers set guard outside your heart, not allowing anyone or anything to enter into your heart in mind that would provoke anxiety. That's the picture here. Paul says we gain that through prayer.

Again, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. The idea is not once God sorts out everything, then I can have peace. The idea is that through prayer, through thanksgiving, as we make our request known to god, God gives us peace in the praying. Not even necessarily in the way in which God answers. Seek peace not only in the other people out there who are causing problems and tribulations, but even in your own heart.

To Seek Peace in our Interactions with the Wider World

Paul tells us to seek peace in a third and final way here in verses eight and nine, which is the peace that we should seek with the wider world. He writes, "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." Then in verse nine, he says, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things." Think about these things and practice these other things over here with the promise.

This is where we get to the peace and the God of peace will be with you. Well, in verse seven, he talked about the peace of God. Here he talks about the God of peace. Let’s go to verse eight, all of these virtues; true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable. If you grab my notes, I really worked through very specific definitions of these. Really, when it comes down to it, this is a great translation. This really gets at what Paul is talking about here. You don't get a ton by really trying to parse through the meaning of these words, because Paul is not trying to build a very specific case off of the words he's using. He's trying to give a general picture of goodness in this world.

We talked about how this world is not characterized by peace, it's not characterized by goodness, by truth, by honor, ability, by justice, by purity, by loveliness or by commend-abiity at either. Paul says nevertheless, whatever does match that description, think about these things. Notice, though, and here's what's important, he says, if there is any excellence, he changes from saying whatever is to say, if there is any excellence or if there is anything worthy of praise. Think about these things.

Now, we might read that as a summarization. So he has this long list of whatever is, whatever is, whatever is, then he summarizes it by saying if there is any, but that doesn't make sense. He's not summarizing, he's qualifying. It's like he's acknowledging this world is a mixed bag, here are really bad things in this world, but if you can find a facet of truth in an otherwise untruthful person. Think about that thing. If you can find an angle of justice in an otherwise unjust person or unjust institution or unjust organization, think about that. If you can find something that is commendable in an otherwise commendable person or something that is impure in an otherwise impure area, think about those things. If there is anything that is excellent in something, think about that. If there's anything that is worthy of praise, praiseworthy, think about those things.

Now here's where I'm going to get a little personal. You and I very often deal with a great amount of anxiety because of the material we are bombarded with all the time. We are more than any other nation in the history of the world, more than any other civilization ever are constantly, constantly exposed to all kinds of media. We have constant ways of people who are trying to capture our attention.

Do you want to know what the easiest way to capture the attention of a person is? To make them afraid or angry. If you can make someone afraid or furious outraged, we have a culture that's increasingly defined by outrage. Well, boy, then you can get eyeballs on that. If you get eyeballs on whatever it is you're selling, that makes someone afraid or angry. Do you know what happens? You can sell advertisers. If you can sell advertisers, then you can make a lot of money. So what do you need to do, publish more and talk about more. That's terrifying and outrageous.

Brothers and sisters, I don't have a command from the Lord on this, I will simply give you a story from my own life. Eight years ago during the election, at that time, I recognize that I was getting sucked in really hard to the election. Really, I was furious everything that was happening was making me angry and I was anxious, and I couldn't stop hitting refresh on the news sites that I was going to. I was watching endless cable news trying to figure out what was going on. I realized God convicted me at that point that in my own life, I needed to take a fast from news.

I'm not saying stick your head in the sand, pull yourself out of the world. I'm saying that I had to fast from it for 30 days. Do you know what happened when I pulled myself out of that world of anger and outrage and fear? Suddenly, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding came a whole lot easier to me. We subject ourselves to so much of an endless twenty-four seven news cycle that is designed to terrify us.

Now it's happening on Facebook and other social media outlets. It's not just television news. It's happening on social media sites. I scroll through my Facebook feed and I read about the person who perfectly shut down this other person or the person who just destroyed somebody else. Well, that's edifying. We may need to take a fast from this. I don't have a command from the Lord on this. I'm simply trying to think, how do I apply this text to me? I'm realizing that none of these things are letting me focus on and think about what's true, what's honorable, what's just what's pure, what's lovely, what's commendable, if there's any excellence, or anything worthy of praise? I'm just getting angrier and more anxious in my life.

Consider it. At the same time, Paul says in verse nine, it's not just about having happy thoughts, having the right mindset. Paul calls us to practice these things. Verse nine says, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen and me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you." He says, think about all I've said. I've preached to you about the unity that's necessary in the body of Christ. I've proclaimed you the excellence of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. You are counted righteous in Christ through faith.

I've talked to you about the future hope you have that your body of shame, of loneliness, of brokenness will be transformed to be like Christ's body of glory. Do you want that? Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Think about the valuable things in this world and meditate on those things. Be anxious of nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Seek peace. Seek peace in the world. Seek peace in your own heart. Seek peace in your relationships. We ought to be a people of peace. Because we serve the God of peace, the Prince of Peace, the one who is characterized by peace and the one who comes to bring peace again and guess what, he already reigns. He is already sovereign in control of all things that happen, and we can trust on that and depend upon that because the God of peace is at hand. Therefore, think on these things and practice these things.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, we ask for grace and mercy. We have pensive, doubting, fearful hearts. We worry and we fret, and we are anxious and God. Much of this is self-inflicted. As we expose ourselves to ever more fear and outrage, God, let us be a people of peace, a people who are confident not because of the latest news report or the status of our relationships or even the turmoil level of our hearts, but because you are at hand. And so far, that you've taught us to pray that, to pray come quickly, Lord Jesus, and we ask that again. Father, this is a broken world that we can do nothing to fix, so we ask, God, Would you send your son again? Come quickly, Lord Jesus, wrap this up. Put the anxiety and the fears of this world away forever, as you invite us into your eternal kingdom of peace. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.