Sermon Text: Philippians 4:4-9
Date: November 26, 2025
Event: Thanksgiving, Set 1

Philippians 4:4-9 (EHV)

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything is excellent, and if anything is praiseworthy, think about these things. 9The things that you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: Keep doing these things. And the God of peace will be with you.

Request with Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving and contentment go hand-in-hand. If you’re thankful for what you have, there’s a high likelihood that you’re content. And likewise, if you’re content with what you have, you’re probably thankful for it.

But I think it can be tempting to equate contentment and thanksgiving with never desiring something more, but in truth, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Certainly a lack of gratitude and seeking after more! more! more! is a problem. But can you be thankful for what you have, content even, and still desire something beyond it?

Perhaps an illustration: the family is finishing dinner. There are no plans for the rest of the evening, and everyone is feeling satisfied. The child asks if they can go get a treat out once everything from the meal is cleaned up. If the answer is “no,” she won’t be throwing a fit. She’s just wondering—great if it can happen, and fine if it can’t. It’s just an idea for a family outing to enjoy that evening.

The little girl in that example is not unthankful for what she has; quite the opposite! And in some ways, it is her thankfulness and contentment that lead her to make the request. She knows that her family loves her and wants her to be happy, and so she makes this small request to see if they can do something special since they have the time.

It is with these thoughts that we approach our second reading for this evening. Taken from the tail end of Paul’s “letter of joy” to the Philippians, these are essentially Paul’s final words to the Christians in Philippi, a closing direction for these dearly loved children in their walk of faith and their relationship with God. Paul begins this section with famous (and perhaps obvious) words about our response to the blessings we have from God: Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice!

Of course, that’s what we want to do. We who know the love of God want to rejoice in his blessings—to be awash in joy knowing God’s love for us and the eternal blessings that he provides. But sometimes we might wonder how. Like, clearly, being in church for worship is a way to do that. A thankful prayer in the middle of the day is part of that rejoicing.

But Paul goes on to other ways that we can express that joy in God’s love for us: Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The way you live your life, the way that you are an ambassador for God to those around you, is part of this thankfulness. Letting your gentleness be known to everyone means you don’t let anger grip you. You don’t let harshness spew out of your mouth. You treat people and situations with compassion and decency because you know the compassion God has shown you.

A lack of worry is a common goal stated in Scripture. But it’s not just the “worry is not productive, so stop it” one might find in secular self-help books. As we noted a few Sundays ago, worry is really the brain freaking out about the future because it cannot find any certainty. But for the Christian, it’s not just “stop worrying,” it’s “you don’t have to worry because the almighty Creator of the universe is working all things out for your eternal good.”

That confidence influences the prayers and petitions that we bring to God. How are your prayers different if you trust that God is taking care of you, loving you, doing what he knows, in his perfect knowledge, is best for you, working all things out for your benefit? Prayers with this motivation and backing are not desperate, but rather an expression of trust. It is not that we expect everything in our lives to be perfect—we know for certain that will never happen—but we know that when we bring our requests to God, they are received with love.

Which brings us to thankful prayers and requests. It’s not just saying thank you to God who loves us and has saved us (though that is certainly part of it!). But even more so, it is approaching God with a thankful heart that says, “I know and trust the promises you’ve made to me. Thank you for that faith, thank you for all you do. Because I know your love for me, I bring this further request before you.” It’s not unlike the little girl bringing the request for dessert out after dinner to the family. These prayers are not selfish or greedy; this is exactly what God wants us to be doing!

This stems the tide of worry because the thankful heart is firmly planted in the peace that God brings. Paul’s familiar words here generally serve as the closing encouragement for our sermons: The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This peace of God is something very special and unique. This is not the promise that he will provide us with daily bread. This is not even that he will work good from difficulty and suffering. No, this peace of God is the eternal peace brought only by Jesus.

God’s forgiveness is the anchor point, the lynch pin in our whole relationship with him. Without the peace of Jesus’ forgiveness won at the cross, we would be in a constant state of distress and hopelessness because we’d go through this life with the eternal albatross of our sins around our neck, while not being able to do a thing about it. It would drag us down to the depths of hell because that is sin’s just punishment.

The peace of God goes beyond all of our comprehension and understanding because the way he brought that peace is completely baffling. We sinned against him, but his love was so great that he took the punishment for our sins against him on himself. It’s like someone stealing your car, and then you volunteer to go to jail for grand theft auto, only infinitely worse. It makes no sense to human reason. Even for us who know that God loves us, it still leaves us dumbfounded that he would do such a thing for people like us. And yet, here we are, standing with completely mystified human reason, yet also standing in the peace of God.

Thus, we thank him with our contentment, with our gratitude, with our public gentleness, and even with our trust-emboldened requests.

There’s an internal knock-on effect to all of this. As the peace of God guards your heart and mind, your heart and mind are changed. Knowing the forgiveness of sins means we no longer have the desire to dwell in the muck and mire of our sins. Rather, we want to dwell on those things that are pleasing to God. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything is excellent, and if anything is praiseworthy, think about these things.

If our thoughts are dominated by these high standards—things that please God rather than things that gratify our sinful flesh—that will also shape our thanks-driven requests. The peace of God means we won’t ask for anything sinful or spiritually harmful. It means we won’t want God to do what we know he hates. It means that no matter what the content of our prayers, we know that God’s will is always higher and greater and more praiseworthy than our will, so our prayers will always ask that his will, not ours, ultimately be done.

We know that all of this is easier said that done. It’s difficult to keep our sinful natures in check, to live as we want to live. Even Paul wrestled with not being able to do the things he wanted to and constantly committing the sins that he hated! But as we struggle and strive for this life of thanks, we are an encouragement for each other.

Paul noted this, even while acknoelgeing his failings. He knew that as he strived for this life, he could be an example, an encouragement, for his dearly-loved Philippians. The things that you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: Keep doing these things. And the God of peace will be with you. So, too, can we be that for each other. Not perfectly, but in our striving for thanksgiving, in our striving to live contented lives, entrusting the God who loves us and forgives us with all of our requests, we can be this model for each other.

So, my dear brothers and sisters. Follow my lead in these thankful requests to God flowing from a heart overflowing with gratitude for my sins forgiven. As you follow my lead, I will follow yours down the same path. And together, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria