Living 101

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 When I first got into cooking some 20 years ago, I bought the Dinosaur Barbecue Cookbook, and what it did is it offered me some key essentials, the fundamentals, the cooking 101, temperature of meat, how to cook something slowly, or how to cook something and sear it, how to cook something with a dry rub, and why that's important versus a sauce and when do you put the sauce on? And these things have helped me. I learned so much and have helped me through my whole life. They were the basics, the fundamentals. We're gonna look at it today as Paul offers us his living 101 And they are three things that we should be about in order to experience grace and peace.

And these three things, as he sketches them out in Philippians 4, are to be magnanimous, to stay connected, and to put our mind on the right things. Those are the three things.

In Philippians. As he's writing, he says to his listeners, rejoice. I'll say it again. Rejoice. And then he says, let your gentleness be known that you're gonna be known for your gentleness.

Now, when we hear the word gentle. We tend to think about it in relationship to force. So if I push you gently, it's just sort of a friendly, nice push. Or if I push you hard, then I'm really pushing on. Maybe I speak to you gently versus speaking to you with force, and those are helpful, but the word that gets translated to gentleness there also has within it the connotation of generosity and the connotation of considering others.

In another place, Paul's actually writes about how he's writing out of Jesus' meekness and his gentleness. And what we see in Christ is we see that God operates gently towards us, meaning there's a sense of considering others. There's a sense of generosity, there's a sense of gentleness. And so that's what he's saying.

He's saying, Hey, be known for your gentleness, for the way that you consider others for being generous. And this word along with this idea of rejoicing so it's a happy considering of others. It's a rejoicing and celebrating generosity is the word, magnanimous. It's a great word. What Paul is challenging us to is that we would be magnanimous in our lives, especially to those who have less. And less and can mean a variety of things. Less social standing, less resources, less authority. And less of a voice. And so however we want to operate, what we wanna do is we want to be magnanimous. We wanna be gentle and generous. We wanna consider others, and we wanna lift them up with a sense of joyful generosity. So what does that look like in your life, whether it be at work or home or at school?

You can think and you can look around and say, okay, what does it look like for me to be magnanimous as a Christ follower? That's what we should be known for, being magnanimous people.

You know, we had the Samaritan Center come visit us this week and they create a magnanimous community. They're generous and they're gentle, and they're kind, and they consider others and such a blessing the work that they do in the city of Syracuse, and we're so grateful to partner with them.

So maybe connecting with them is a way you can grow in your magnanimity, or maybe it's focusing school and home and work and neighborhood.

The next thing that Paul challenges us to in his Living 101, is that we would stay connected to the spirit he says, to pray and to ask God for help. And to do that all in such a way in which you're giving thanks.

And so when we think about those things, it's if we want to experience grace and peace. We want to not worry, as he says, don't worry. But instead in prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, continually engage God. It's us staying connected to the spirit. That sense of generosity. And so for you and I, there's always this sort of quick moment where we say, okay, well how much is worry dominating our my life. And then how much time am I giving to prayer? Prayer being the chance for our soul to resonate with God's soul so that we care about what God cares about. We love what God loves. We are passionate about justice and mercy and grace and goodness. And then we ask, we have as human beings, we have needs.

So we ask God, say, I need help here. Can you guide me here? Can I have some wisdom for this? But finally we're doing all of that out of a sense of thankfulness versus a sense of grumbling. So we're not worrying and we're praying, having our soul resonate, and we're asking for help, and we're doing that with a sense of thankfulness as we connect with God.

And that when we do those things, then peace comes. You know, life is hard and none of us escape Its challenges. And life will never be easy. We always wait for it to be easy, but it'll never be easy. And so what we want to do, if we want to experience grace and peace, we want to be a people who push aside the worry and focus on prayer and asking God for help and doing all that with a sense of thankfulness.

And that's where we'll go. So, you know, maybe do a quick inventory. How much are you struggling with worry right now? What does your prayer life look like? How often are you trying to resonate your soul with God's? And then are you asking, are you admitting that you're a person of need? And yet, in the midst of that, do you have a sense of thankfulness?

Ask yourself those questions. Because that'll help you give it a sense of like where you're at with Paul's Living 101. Finally he says, think on these things, beloved. Think on these things. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just. Whatever is pure, whatever is good. Whatever is right.

He says, put your mind on those things. You know, and this is true for all of us. Our minds tend to go to problems, to challenges, to envy, to things that feel unfair to our tiredness. And of course, when we're there, we're not gonna experience any grace or peace. So Paul challenges us and says, Hey, what I want you to do is I want you to pay attention to what you do with your mind. Think on things that are true, think on things that in Christ, what has been revealed is that love wins and that resurrection is our future. Think about things that are honorable, and just like the Samaritan Center, remind yourself that there's good work going on in the world.

And remind yourself of the things that are wonderful and beautiful and good, and put those inside of your mind. Because as we do those things, that's when we are able to see not just the world around us, but the world as God intends it, and the way that God is shaping the world towards that end. And that's gonna help us to connect and it's gonna help us to experience that grace and peace that we're looking for.

So, hey, I hope you have a great week and I hope that you're able to incorporate some of these Living 101 basics, be magnanimous wherever you go. Stay connected to the spirit and set your mind on the right things so that you can experience grace and peace.

Have a great week. We're gonna wrap up with Philippians next Sunday, so I look forward to seeing you then.

Take care.