The Gospel Unchained

Transcript

If you have a Bible, Philippians chapter one is where we're at. in week three of our series, our summer series through the book of Philippians. We're calling it Enjoy Jesus. And that's from the themes of Philippians. 16 times you're going to come across the word joy or enjoy. And 31 times you're going to come across Jesus in these four short chapters. So that certainly is the theme. But this is the book of joy. But paradoxically, as Ryan mentioned in his prayer, it's also known as the book of suffering.

And I say paradoxically, not because the Bible says it's paradoxical, but because we and our culture says joy and suffering. Those are like if you had a spectrum over here is suffering and you don't want to spend any time there. You really want to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum where joy and get as far away from suffering as possible. In our mind, that's how it works. Avoid suffering so that we could go to joy.

But Paul is going to show us that that's not actually the case. That the purpose of life isn't to avoid suffering, but that actually, that there is a path to joy even in and through our suffering. In 2003, I graduated from Denver Seminary and had a six month old baby at the time. And we headed off to Okinawa, Japan to do ⁓ military ministry. had a contract with the chapel on base to run.

They're young adult ministry, so 18 to 25 year olds. So you could think college ministry and it was awesome. Privilege of my life. Love working with the military. ⁓ Got to have a lot of fun. A lot of scuba diving, snorkeling, spearfishing, jet ski, all the things. Sports, every Thanksgiving we'd have this massive ⁓ turkey bowl thing. And I was in my late 20s at the time. And so ⁓ it was awesome. But something happened over the years. I noticed that every year

I'd be a year older and they'd be the same age because they were just like switching out and every year I was getting a little slower and a little bit more broken down and and I was like what was this was frustrating to me because they were just keep going there still 18 it seemed like every year and and I realized early on that one of my responsibilities as their pastor was to help develop a theology of suffering.

And that was a particular challenge in that community ⁓ because they are some of the healthiest people on the planet. To be in the military, you had to be healthy. You had to stay healthy. You had to ⁓ continue to get the scores. In fact, to be in Okinawa and bring your family, everyone in your family had to be healthy because they wouldn't send your family over there if they couldn't deal with them there. So they all had to be healthy. And so I would remind these guys and girls, I'd be like, hey,

Life is actually shorter than you think. I know you're living like this is how you're going to live forever. I know you don't believe me when I say your body will break down. You will suffer. You will eventually die. I know you don't believe all that, but that is coming. And it was hard because even when someone did get sick, ⁓ there was occasions where someone would get cancer. Within a matter of days, they would move them out of Japan and back to the States. And so just take that out of their realm.

When my daughter was two years old and in ⁓ the commissary, the grocery store on base, one time my wife was pushing her down the aisle and ⁓ she screams out, she says, mommy, mommy, why does that man have white hair? It was such an oddity to see on base anyone over 40 years old. And so this was the environment. So it was real hard practically to be like, hey, actually ⁓ it's coming.

And the better you prepare for it now, the better you'll be then, but it was hard. But what's true then and there, I think is still true here and now. Yeah, we might have a diversity of age that we didn't have there, but we still, most of us live our lives as if we will live forever. As if things are just going to keep going in spite of the evidence, right? Like last Sunday, I woke up.

I had injured my knee while sleeping.

I still can barely, I'm like, why can't I walk? Well, you're 49 now. You can go to sleep in injury. So some of you, most of you are younger than that. You don't realize that's a possibility, but it's coming. But also this life, like on this side of eternity, there is suffering. You'll lose jobs. If you're married, one of you will bury the other one. Like this is genuine. And I know just pastorally, when we do,

our worship and prayer nights, and we have you fill out the prayer cards. The level of suffering that is in this room every Sunday is just, it's unbelievable. In so many realms, brokenness from the past, brokenness in relationships, brokenness in finances and career and unmet expectations and life plans that have gone astray, like that's all in the room. But we spend most of our time thinking, I...

That's not where God's at work. I just need to focus on God. just need. But but here's the big truth that Paul is going to show us. And it's actually really good news that that whatever area your life in right now you point to as a struggle, a point of pain, an uninterrupted plan like that, that it's that's probably the area in your life where God is at work the most. That God has plans for your joy.

through that. And the sooner we can understand that and begin to wrap our minds around that, the sooner our joy will rise. So we've got to have a broader definition, a theology of suffering, a broader definition of what God's blessings are. make no mistake, we have a lot of blessings here at this time in this place. Most of us are healthy. Most of us do have finances. We have

education, like all those things are good things and evidences of God's grace, but they're not the ultimate thing. And all those things can be taken away tomorrow. And if that's the case, does that mean all your joy goes away as well? Well, Paul wants to give you something better, a firmer foundation for your joy and mine. And that's why I'm so excited for this passage. There's good news. There's a path not

around suffering but through suffering for our joy here now and forever. So if you have your Bible we're in Philippians chapter one and I'll pick it up in verse 12. Paul's writing to the church at Philippi.

in about the year 60 A.D. and he writes, I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Okay, so if you've been here you know some of the context but I'll just remind us Paul had traveled about 10 years prior to this to the city of Philippi. He brought the gospel. God did a miraculous work. A church was planted. They loved.

their pastor and they were just so encouraged by him. They've now gotten word 10 years later that he is in prison in chains, literal chains in Rome with an uncertain future, maybe death before him. And so they've got two concerns or two major worries that Paul wants to as he sends back a letter to them, he wants to calm them down a little bit. He wants to encourage them. And the first one is

What's happening to our friend and pastor? He's suffering. Is he OK? And so Paul wants to address that a little bit. But the other one is they know the apostle Paul is the in the first century, the preeminent architect of of Christianity and church planting and evangelism. Where Paul goes, churches are being planted. But now he's in prison. So the question in this young church is mine and this young movement is will.

the mission of God continue when God's best man is out of the game. And so Paul wants to put them at rest. He wants to encourage them with that. And so he starts and he says, I want you to know what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. And when Paul says what has happened to me, it's such an understated way of saying what has happened to him. He could have listed out many things. We have them recorded in the book of Acts.

Since he planted Philippi, things have not gone well physically in Paul's life. He's gone into cities to preach the gospel. People got mad. They dragged him out, stoned him, left him for dead, thinking he was dead. When he comes to again, he gets up and he heads back into the city to preach the gospel. Like, probably that's not happened to any of us. Praise the Lord, I guess. But he continues and...

And we read in Acts chapter 20, says, Holy Spirit has testified to me that in every city I go, persecution awaits me. To which I'm like, Paul, stop going into the city. Like that seems like a bad path. He's like, no, but I need to go into the cities to finish the course that God has set for my life. And so he continues. Well, in Acts chapter 21, he's headed on his way back to Jerusalem and this prophet named Agabus comes up to him and

takes his belt and binds his hands and he says, the Lord says, whoever has this belt, this is what's going to happen to him. You're going to go to Jerusalem. You're going to be arrested and you're going to be handed over to the Gentiles and treated, misabused. ⁓ Things are not going to go well for whoever owns this belt. And everyone's like, okay. And Paul's like, yeah, I know. That's what the Holy Spirit told me too. And so the other Christians are like, so Paul, you're too important for the mission.

Don't go to Jerusalem. He's like, no, I swear the Lord told me I need to go. And so he goes to Jerusalem and sure enough, he gets arrested. He gets beaten. He gets handed over to the Gentiles. He appeals to Caesar. So they put him on a ship while he's sailing from Jerusalem or from Palestine to Italy. He ⁓ that there's a storm, there's a ⁓ shipwreck. The ship breaks up. He spends a day and a night in the open sea. Like, that's not fun.

When they wash up on shore, they're freezing, and so they try to start a fire. He reaches into the woodpile, gets bit by a venomous viper. Lord, you're sovereign. Why the viper? Like, that's... I would have some prayer of lament. Like, why, Lord? Where are you, right? But he survives, and because he survives, they think he's demon possessed. Like, all this stuff. Eventually, he gets to Rome.

and chained. And the book of Acts ends kind of unceremoniously. It just says, and then Paul was in prison in Rome for two years. So for at least two years, he's in Rome chained daily to a guard. Hour by hour. But he says something crazy. What has happened to me? All of that has actually served to advance the gospel. So your fears about the gospel going forward, you don't need to worry. And he offers up

two compelling and surprising evidences of God's grace. In verse 13, he says, it's advanced the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. This is really significant and interesting. The imperial guards, the Praetorium, it's the elite special forces of the Roman Empire. And as such, in many ways,

They're the most powerful force in Rome, more so than even Caesar because they have been known to take out Caesars that they don't like. So Caesar wants to be kind to them. Well, for 24 hours a day, in four to six hour shifts, Paul is literally in chain, chained to one of these guards. And Paul says, and because of my chains, the gospel hasn't been changed. The gospel has actually been unchained. It's been.

released 24 hours a day, four to six guys a day are literally a captive audience for me.

This is kind of crazy when you think about it, right? The apostle Paul, you're going to be chained to him for six hours? you're going to get some gospel there. So every like over two years, that's like 2000 guys chained to him. And then, you know, maybe some of them don't say anything. Maybe some of them mistreat him, but others are like, so what are you in chains for? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's because I believe that Jesus,

This Jewish guy is the Messiah. Okay, what's big deal with that? Why believe he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And the guards are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay. Now I know why you're here. That's a dangerous thing to say. That could ⁓ end in your death. We say here in Rome, Caesar is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You can't just be saying that. Well, tell me more about this Jesus. Okay, well, yeah, Jesus.

is the Son of God. is God incarnate. He left his throne in glory. He took on flesh to live among us a life of perfect obedience to the Father that you and I could never live. And then after 33 years, he was betrayed and crucified on a Roman cross. And the Roman soldier says, ⁓ crucified. This guy must be a bad dude. he's a bad dude, just not in the way that you think.

because he died on the cross. took his body down. They put him in a tomb and by the power of God on the third day, he rose again from the dead, conquering sin, death and the grave. And after 40 days, he ascended to the right hand of the father so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And every soldier is just like, okay, dude, maybe some are offended.

Maybe some are indifferent, some, some are like, wow. God opens their heart and opens their mind and they're becoming followers of Jesus one by one by one. Their shift is over. They go back to their family. They're like, I got to tell you something happened to me today. I'm a follower of Jesus and their families are like, well, tell us about that. And they tell the story and they become followers Jesus and they're all in, in the.

heart of the Roman Empire, heart of the power of the Roman Empire, the heart of Caesar's household so that some of Caesar's aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins, they're becoming followers of Jesus. So that at the end of the book of Philippians, third to last verse, it's crazy what Paul writes. says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers and sisters who are with me, greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

This is wild. Paul wants the gospel to go as far as possible. He's now in chains. Everyone's thinking the gospel is not going to go forward and Paul's like, contraire. The gospel is going further and faster than it has ever gone before. And it's just a reminder that God doesn't need any of us to advance his mission. And yet he invites all of us to be a part of it. And so this surprising evidence of grace is the first thing he offers up to

allay their fears and their worries. And he says the second thing, which is also surprising. It says, and most of the brothers and sisters having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. This is interesting because you would think if the leader of Christianity is seen as suffering and about to die,

that all the followers might scatter, but the opposite is true. It's actually true throughout church history. It's simply this, that Christian courage is contagious. Christian courage is contagious. You can see it in every century where persecution rises up and the church is put to death, burned at the stake, crucified. It doesn't actually... ⁓

The doesn't suppress Christianity, it actually fuels Christianity. Let me give you just a couple of examples. One from 470 years ago, year 1555, during which would start what's called the English Reformation. Prior to this, there was a king, King Henry VI. He brought Protestantism to England for the first time and it began to grow. But then his sister took over the throne. Her name was Queen Mary. She's known as Bloody Mary.

I don't know what you think about Bloody Mary. I thought you just say her name three times in a mirror and she shows up or something like that. Or it's a drink, whatever. But Bloody Mary was named Bloody Mary because of her hatred of Protestants. She wanted to bring back Roman Catholicism into England. And so she gathered up all the Protestant leaders and she would burn them at the stake. And in 1555, she gathered up Hugh Latimer and what's his name? Ridley is his last name, Nicholas Ridley.

and they're leaders of the church and she condemns them to be burned at the stake and so they set up the two poles, they set up the wood, ⁓ their friends had come by and put ⁓ gunpowder on their chests so that it would catch fire quickly and they would die more quickly. It was a mercy to them. Well, they start Ridley's fire first but the problem with Ridley's fire was they used fresh wood. It was green wood. It wasn't burning very fast or hot.

So it was just burning his legs and he's just praying Lord into your hands I commit my spirit into your hands I commit my spirit into your hands I commit my spirit and he's in agony and he's praying Lord let the fire come to me let the fire come to me let the fire come to me just he just wants it to be over and then Latimer next to him he's got a wood pile but his wood is dry wood and it starts to go up very quickly and Ridley suffering and then Latimer says this famous phrase to his friend.

says this, of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man. I love that, play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. Play the man. Now two observations about that. In a few moments, so Latimer dies first because his wood was hot and fast. Someone had mercy on Ridley. They took a log that was on fire, put it to his chest, caught that, caught that ⁓

gun power on fire and he died after that. cross over from this side of eternity to the next. I imagine they enter into glory together and Latimer just looks or Ridley looks over to Latimer and he's like dude hey Mr. Quickburn ⁓ what was all that about play the man. I was trying. All right. But God used that to absolutely spark a flame of revival throughout all of England going north into Scotland where it reached a guy named

John Knox and John Knox from there just lit that the whole island nation on fire and into Europe as well. Courage is contagious. What Paul wants the Philippians to see, what Paul wants you and I to see, wherever you're at in life, whatever you're facing is simply this. When our passion is Jesus, when that's the all-consuming passion, then our joy will rise above our circumstance.

When your passion is Jesus, your joy rises above the circumstances because circumstances are good and bad, good and bad. And if your joy is tied only to your circumstances, you're going to go up and down. if Jesus is above it all, your joy is secured. Now, Paul knows this. He knows this theologically. He knows this personally. Like he knows the word. He knows the stories.

He knows the stories like Joseph in the book of Genesis, where his brothers leave him for dead. gets sold into slavery in Egypt, but rises up through the ranks so that in the sovereignty and goodness of God through Joseph, the nation of Israel is preserved. His brothers are preserved. And when his brothers realize who it is that is saving them, they're afraid and they think he's going to take vengeance on them. But Joseph knows this truth as well. He says this in Genesis 50-20.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. What you intended for evil, God is sovereign over even that. He meant it for good. Paul knows this. He knows this theologically throughout the word. He knows this personally. Before he goes to Rome, he sends a letter on ahead and in it he writes that famous verse, Romans 8 28. And we know that for those who love God,

all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes. That's not a throwaway verse. That this is a ⁓ trust and no matter what I face I can have joy because my passion is Jesus and he's above my circumstances. Well he gives one more just evidence of grace showing that when your passion is Jesus

Your joy will rise above your circumstances in verses 15 through 18. When you first read them you ask the question like what is going on there. What's wrong with these people. Look what he says. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. That's interesting. But others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

This former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Now don't know about you, but I do know my own heart. I do not have yet developed in my soul the gospel flinch.

that the apostle Paul has here. You see what I'm saying? Like when someone is critical of you, or ⁓ as my daughters would say, if someone's one of your ops, ⁓ there's not exactly warm feelings to that, right? Like your ops are trying to pull you down, they're going after you, they're backstabbing you, like all these things.

Like my pride rises up and my my defense rises up and I said, you know, I get personally offended. But that wasn't the case for the apostle Paul. Again, when your passion is Jesus, your joy rises above your circumstances. I love how ⁓ Eugene Peterson put this in his paraphrase in his book, The Message. Listen to how he reworked these verses. I think he gets it right. He says this.

It is true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they'll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I'm here defending the message, wanting to help. The others, now that I'm out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition.

And so the worse it goes for me, the better they think for them. So how am I to respond? I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed. So I just cheer them on.

And that is a joy in Christ, a passion for Christ that has a joy that is above our circumstances. So then the question becomes in all of this for you and for me is this, is Jesus your passion?

Think about that. How do you answer that? Is Jesus your passion? And I don't mean by that, is Jesus one of your passions? Because you're here on a Sunday morning. That's true to some degree of all of us. But I mean, is Jesus just a part of the pie? Like, hey, give me a little bit of Jesus, but I'll really be happy if I have ⁓ this going on in my life and this relationship and this financial state and this vacation and this retirement plan. If I have the whole package,

then I'll be happy. Or or or do you get to a point where the apostle Paul get got to or the Psalmist Psalm 73 in Psalm 73 the Psalmist starts his Psalm and he says as I looked out into the world I saw the wicked prospering. He essentially says and I was mad at God. It seemed everyone else was doing great in their life. Here I am trying to follow and worship God.

And my life isn't like their life. And he's grumbling and he's he's discontent. And it says eventually as he goes through life he comes to this place where he goes into the presence of God and and in the end all he has is God and in the end he finds God is enough. Here's how the psalmist in Psalm 73 concludes his psalm he says whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Can you actually say if tomorrow God stripped everything from your life, your health, your relationships, your finances, would Jesus still be enough?

I think this question is Jesus your passion. If we're honest with ourselves, maybe what we have to say is no, but I want him to be. And if that's your prayer this morning, that's actually a prayer I think Jesus understands and answers and respects. Look, we all have competing things for our joy. But Jesus loves us too much to let...

The good things become God things because then they become idols and they crush us. Is Jesus your passion? Well, we should also, maybe you're here today and you're like, I don't know about that. I still feel like you've got suffering on one end of the spectrum and joy on the other and never shall the two meet. Or maybe it's something you're going through or have been through or are about to go through and you're like, there's no way my joy can be

⁓ had because of this suffering in my life. I get that. But there is a place you can look outside of your life to know that actually joy and suffering do overlap. It is God's plan. The author of Hebrews tells us about this in Hebrews chapter 12. Listen to what he says. He says, Let us run with endurance the race set before us. So run your race. Let us look to Jesus.

the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. You see the connection? The joy and the cross, the joy and the cross, the greatest suffering the world has ever seen. The cross of Christ where the wrath of God for the sin of man is being poured out on him is a pathway for Jesus's joy, it says, and it's the pathway for our joy. Joy and suffering are.

hide at the cross. So even if you can't make sense of your suffering, you can look to Jesus and see that your joy is eternally secured in Him. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.

Christ, Our All in All

Transcript

Good morning. Happy Mother's Day. Good to see you all. If you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way to the book of Philippians. It's one of Paul's short letters to the church at Philippi in the first century. We started this series last week. We call it Philippians Enjoy Jesus. This is the theme. We picked that on purpose because there are 31 references to Jesus in this small book and 14 references to joy. These are

tied together. That's why on our website you'll see we exist to enjoy Jesus and make disciples. Well, as I was thinking about that this week, I was thinking, well, who are the happiest people on the planet? Who has the greatest joy? And so I did what we all should do. I asked Chachipiti. Chachipiti pointed me to the World Happiness Report that comes out every year.

And it said, well, the people in these countries are the happiest people in the world. And for seven years in a row, Finland has been number one. The next is Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway. Maybe you're starting to pick up a theme here. These are the Nordic countries. And by the World Happiness Report, they report consistently as the happiest people on the planet. But as I thought about it some more, I thought,

how do you measure that? On what criteria are you determining these people to be more happy than say anyone else in the world? And then you start to learn some more. And so I probed Chapti Pti and I asked, well, what's the criteria? And what emerges is a very modern secularist, secularist, atheistic, even ⁓ materialistic view of what should define our happiness. And so a closer look says these have the

highest GDP, the most government programs, the highest level of personal freedoms, the highest trust in your government. These measurable things are then showing up as these are the happiest people on the planet. But I thought, is that true? Are they really the happiest people on the planet? This seems entirely dependent on circumstances or ⁓ material wealth or life.

Circumstances are they really the happiness and so I probed some more And then there's a different story that starts to emerge from that Finland who's the happiest country in the world also? Ranked second only to the United States in antidepressant use ⁓ Same thing with Sweden these countries often lead that not that you wouldn't take those or or But but it but you would think if you are the happiness you would do that.

a high level leading the world of suicide. There's a loneliness epidemic in these countries. It's a very stoic culture. so as a stoic culture, there is a cultural expectation that you wouldn't say you're unhappy. And so you start to see, wow, maybe they're not quite as happy as the World Happiness Report says. Maybe this is just a modern secularist materialistic view of how we could possibly measure happiness. And so after

Probing these questions and getting articles and reading some more, Chat GPT finally concluded this. Said this, while the top ranked nations in the happiness report enjoy stability, safety, and economic well-being, a deeper narrative emerges when we look at metrics like suicide, divorce, out of wedlock childhood, substance use.

and loneliness. These suggest that happiness defined by material comfort and individual freedom doesn't always equate to lasting contentment. This is happiness based entirely off of circumstances. ⁓ But as we've talked about before, circumstances alone come and go. One of the great frustrations I had even this week is why does my joy seem to rise and fall on my own circumstances or

my perception of my circumstances. And I want a happiness that outlasts that. One of the books that Pastor Rick on his sabbatical said, here's the first book I read. I love the title. It's a book on the book of Ecclesiastes, which deals with this issue. But I love the title of the book. The title of the book is Everything is Never Enough. Everything is never enough. It's not enough for you to be happy. So then I begin to think, what will...

who are the happiest people that I've encountered? Again, it's hard to measure. It's hard to really tell what's going on in people's hearts and lives. But what immediately came to mind was this village of people that I went to visit in the middle of nowhere in Cambodia. There was an exuding joy from these people. There was a smile in our conversation with them. There was just a contentment. This, in spite of the fact...

that they all lived in shanty homes that were probably smaller than your children's bedroom with 10 roofs. ⁓ This whole community had been uprooted in a massive systemic injustice by their government from being a fisherman community for generations, 20 miles inland, no river, no fishing, because they needed to make room for a new mall on the river. And so they were plotted down here, nothing.

And yet they had this exuding joy. They had a happiness that clearly had risen above their circumstances. And I asked the question, well, how do we get that? How do we get that kind of soul satisfaction? And this is the reason we're going through this book. We said last week as we did an overview of the book that the big idea of the book is when we abide in Christ, we will abound in joy.

When we abide in Christ, we will abound in joy. Again, 31 times Christ has mentioned, 14 times joy. But then, as I said last week, someone came up to me after the first service and said, well, what does that look like? What does it mean to abide in Christ? So that's a very good question. And this book serves as kind of a field guide for that. It's easy to say, it's more difficult to do.

But hopefully through our journey through this book, we will learn what it means to, as Paul says, the secret of being content. Because if it was just on our circumstances, 2025 Parker, Colorado, given all those things, GDP and health and wealth and circumstances, you would think Parker would be one of the most explosively joyful places on the planet. And I'm not sure that that's true. In fact, I've been to the self-proclaimed happiest place on Earth.

Disney World. And I've seen full on meltdowns, tears and snot and all of it. And that's just the parents. I've been the parent where I've looked my kid in the face and be like, what is wrong with you? We're in Disney World. Why are you breaking down here? And if you can't be happy in Disney World, then maybe happiness isn't so tied to our circumstances. Well, Philippians wants to give us a

deeper foundation, a stronger foundation for our joy. And it's again, something that I need desperately in my life because I am too much moved up and down by my circumstances. And so my hope for me and for you is that this would take us to deeper waters. I'm to go and read our passage and then pray for us as we dive into this first passage in the book of Philippians. But as I do so, I'd ask you to lift.

Listen carefully, this is God's word.

I thank my God in all my remembrances of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you.

because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day.

of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray.

Lord, we do come before you now in the name of your son, in the power of your spirit, turning our attention to your word to us. So, Holy Spirit, would you would you show us what what we need both as individuals and as a church to find our joy in Christ today? Form and shape Christ in us as only you can do. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, even in this initial

introduction to the church. Paul on one level is writing a thank you letter. A thank you letter for a church that has been with Paul for about 10 years now in support and prayer and encouragement. So he's thanking them but even in his thinking of them he gives us clues to a happiness that transcends our circumstances and that's what I want to look at. He gives us three. In fact he starts off in verse 3 says I thank my God in all my remembrances of

You. Now it's one thing to say I'm thankful for you but to say I'm thankful for God because of you. That there's something bigger going on here. He says, in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy. Why? Because of your partnership in the gospel. We'll come back to that at the end. It's a very important word that partnership word. But he says because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

So Paul is thinking about the Philippian Church and we talked about this last week in Acts chapter 16 you can read about how that church came about and what was clear then as is now in Paul's life is that ⁓ That that the church should rejoice in Christ because Christ was the initiator of their salvation And then this is why we can rejoice as well. We rejoice in Christ because he's the initiator the starter the the founder of our salvation so when

Paul came to Philippi. He's thinking about that day when he came and there weren't there weren't enough men for a synagogue but he went down to the river and he saw Lydia in Acts 16 13 says and the Lord the Lord opened her heart and she received Christ. It was clear to Paul from the very first person that came to know Jesus. Jesus was on the move. Jesus was at work and then it went on and there's the slave girl who was

possessed and she's delivered and she comes to know and be part of this church and then it goes on to the jailer who's as Paul and Silas are in prison and God sends an earthquake and the chains fall off and the jailer falls on his face and he becomes and his whole household becomes followers of Jesus and what Paul is reminding them is what is clear and what you can rejoice in and this is incredibly good news your salvation

entirely of God. Listen, this is good news to us. There is a as many ways as God saved people in Philippi is probably represented in this room. So for some it is through the mind and through the intellect like Lydia. She's thinking about, she's reasoning, but God reaches down and opens her heart and she finally comes to know Jesus. Some it's a demonstration of

Holy Spirit power, a deliverance from a stronghold like the slave girl. Others, it's like the jailer who you just all of a sudden see your need for Christ and you fall down before him and say, what must I do to be saved? And God comes in. This is how God works. This is incredibly good news. This is good news even if you're not a follower of Jesus yet, because if you become a follower, you can know that it wasn't you, but God wooing you.

Drawing you in God doing the work This is good news because you you can know that your salvation is secure because it it wasn't that you you were smart enough It wasn't that you were moral enough. It wasn't that you tried hard enough It wasn't that you prayed the right prayers and and did the right things like whatever it is It wasn't on you. We get to rejoice in Christ because Christ is the initiator of our salvation it's all on him he

did this work. It reminds me of what Paul said to the Ephesian church. In the Ephesian church in chapter two he says, you were dead in your sins and transgressions. You were by nature children of wrath. This is the story of humanity apart from God. They are dead. Dead men don't do anything but be dead. They stood condemned under the righteous holy wrath of God and

And that's where we all were. But but listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2 4. says, but God, you were dead, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. This is good news. We were dead. Our salvation.

was not on us. didn't make ourselves alive, but God did it. And then he says, I thank God because of your partnership in the gospel. We'll come back to that from the first day until now. He who began a good work in us. This is what he says next. So the first first thing we rejoice in is he's the initiator of our salvation. But in verse six, it says this. And I'm sure of this. He who began a good work in you. So this was God who started this.

in you. That word in is very important. We'll see. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So we rejoice in Christ that he's the initiator of our salvation, but we also rejoice in Christ and rest in Christ that he is the sustainer of our salvation. This is again incredibly good news. I talk to so many Christians that

understand that they were saved by grace alone in Christ alone and faith alone but then live their lives as if now it's on them to stay straight to really show God that they're serious. We're saved by grace but now I'm gonna sustain myself by my work and my own righteousness? No! That's not good news. The good news is I am sure that that he who began a good work in you

carry it on until completion until the day of Christ. This is good news. This is what the hymn, He Will Hold Me Fast says. Listen to the hymn from 1903. When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail, he will hold me fast. I could never hold, keep my hold through life's fearful path for my love is often cold. He must hold me fast.

He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast for my savior loves me. So he will hold me fast. Those he says are his delight. Christ will hold me fast. Precious in his holy sight, he will hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost. His promises shall last bought by him at such a cost. He will hold me fast. This is good news. In verse seven, it says this. It is right for me to feel this way about

you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace." That word partakers is actually the same root word of verse five, partners in the gospel. What Paul is saying is he knows that the grace that Paul has received, the grace that Paul knows he still has, he knows is also true of the Philippians. He's seen the evidence and the fruit of it in their lives. So we are

saved by God once and for all. That's called justification. But the Bible also talks about a present tense. We are being saved. We were saved by grace and we are still saved by grace. It's grace and more grace. But in this second kind of ⁓ mention of salvation, it's ongoing, active, and present. So it's less like, or John Piper says, it's less like an inoculation, right? Where you get a shot

You don't think about it and you're good for the rest of your life. So like I prayed a prayer when I was six and I got the inoculation. No, he says it's less like an inoculation and much more like dialysis. The Christian life is much more like dialysis. I am saved by grace, but I keep coming to Christ, the fount of grace, and I keep getting that drip of his grace and power and mercy in my life day after day after day after day.

One of the evidences that God's grace is present in your life is that you want more of God. You want to grow. You desire Him. This is not born of yourself. You don't muster this up in yourself. This is God's grace in you. It's the dialysis. ⁓ Charles Spurgeon told the story that he had an elderly lady come up to him after a sermon one time and she said, Pastor,

I don't know if God loves me. Well, why do you think that? I just don't. I don't know if God loves me. he said, well, what do you love, Jesus? She saw with all my heart. Spurgeon's smile is like, well, you can be assured that if you have any love for Jesus, Jesus put it there first. Therefore, he does love you. This is the evidence. Your desire is an evidence of grace, but it is this constant coming.

to the fount of grace in our salvation. He who began a good work in you, he who started it will sustain it, which brings us to the last point, verse nine. it is my prayer. And here's what Paul is praying for the Philippians. By the way, it's good to tell people you're praying for them. It's better to say, here's what I'm praying for you. I mean, that's that's really encouraging. And you're like, well, I don't even know what I would say.

This is free today. You can literally just memorize these verses or copy and paste them and then actually pray these things. But but there's nothing there's no prayer that you're going to give to anyone that's more encouraging than this. Paul writes it down. This is my prayer for you that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be.

and blameless for the day of Christ. Paul prays this that your heart, your affections would grow, that you would love the people on your left and right, the people that God has in your life more this year than you did last year and more next year than this year, that your love would grow. But notice he ties it also to our mind. There's not this disconnect. He says your love for one another, your love for Jesus,

should grow and have this desire in you to know Jesus more. And as you know Jesus more and the gospel more, your love grows. And as that grows, you want to love Jesus more. It's this cycle that overflows toward one another. so the last thing, but he says is that until the be blameless until the day of Christ. This is speaking of the last day. So Christ is the initiator. He's the sustainer, but

Christ is the finisher of our salvation as well. What Christ begins, Christ sustains. What Christ sustains, Christ finishes. This is our hope. This is our confidence. He says this is what will happen when that happens. We will be filled with the fruit of righteousness. Not our own righteousness, the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Our lives are headed somewhere.

And it's headed to a destination. We see this at the very end of his prayer to the glory and praise of God. This is the point of life to glorify God and to praise him and enjoy him forever. This is the aim of every Christian and every church. But there is actually more here than just these three things, initiator, sustainer and finisher of our faith for our joy here. Let's go back up to those words that I pointed out before.

says because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and then in verse seven you are all partakers with me of grace. So the word there and the root word there is coinonia. So if you have Christian subculture you have any background there you're like coinonia I get that that's that's like what my small group was called or that's I think of a potluck dinner you know coinonia we're gonna have

Fellowship that that is a very small part of this word, but it actually totally misses the word see Paul throughout this passage has been saying another word that we don't have in English It's well, I guess if you're from the south you might have it but it's the plural for you So what would it be in the south? Y'all maybe if you're from New Jersey in New York, you have it as well. It's the plural for you. What is it?

Use guys, right? I've yet to see that in a translation. But it's an important thing, especially in our very individualistic culture. Your joy hits a ceiling if you make your life only about yourself. You and Jesus, what you're doing, that's actually a path for kind of a miserable life. Deep down, you were created for something that is...

far greater and bigger than even your own life and even your own contribution. We were made for koinonia. So well, potlucks, fellowship, no, no, Koinonia is this, I'll give you definition. ⁓ koinonia is ⁓ a fellowship of people with a shared purpose, a shared mission, and a shared vision. A shared purpose and a shared mission and a shared vision. So.

This happens in a lot of different ways. Your family hopefully is a koinonia. We have a shared purpose, a shared mission, a shared vision. ⁓ When we think about koinonia in this kind of transcendent, purposeful way, you can start to see, you get to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself and you can see how that makes your joy expound on a multiplication, exponentially. So a good way to think of koinonia or fellowship

is the fellowship of the rings. Here they have a koinonia. They've got men and dwarves and elves and hobbits and they have come together where they shared purpose, mission, mission and vision and every person in that fellowship of the ring had to fulfill their role. So now you start to see, ⁓ this word is actually very important. Paul is thanking the church for their

Partnership their shared vision purpose and mission another coin ania. I thought of this week is a Navy SEALs happy Mother's Day by the way Navy SEALs shared purpose vision mission Everybody train do your part do it well for the sake of your brothers and the mission This is a coin ania now you start to see this is more than a well the potluck that you're ⁓ Every sports team is a coin ania

Every sports team when they gather for training camp that they don't just say hey ⁓ Glad it's another year. Let's let's just go have fun guys Unless maybe you're the Rockies. Maybe that's what they say

They're terrible. But every other team, every other team is like, hey, we'll have some fun, but we're here to win. And if you're good enough, we're here to win the championship. Everybody has to play their part well. Here we have an F1 race team. There's 21 people in this. 21 people, all of them, for the sake of the mission, the shared purpose, vision, and mission, that they've got to do their job to exact.

as fast as possible in perfect concert together to achieve the goal to win the race. 21 of them. You can just start to imagine what each person's job is here. I was told after the second service they don't do they don't even change out the gas anymore. That's too dangerous so they have enough gas for the whole race so they're just changing tires. So they come in they they lift it they put on the tire and they're off. On average an F1 team is just under three seconds.

in the pit. Team Red Bull has the record 1.8 seconds. Shane Zataris on your way. It's a koinonia.

Sometimes koinonia is big, it's national. I think of the 1960s. In 1960s, America was falling behind in the space race with the Soviet Union. And John F. Kennedy thought this was a problem. And so in a very famous speech to Congress on May 25th, 1991, he started to cast a vision for a koinonia, a shared vision, mission and purpose for the nation to come alongside to play your role.

to accomplish the goal. 1961, before Congress, he spoke to him in his thick New England accent and said this, this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before the decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. And I think that's a pretty important part at the end there. I think we can land a man on the moon, but to return them safely, that seems like a

part of the whole thing, right? That's not Elon's thing right now. We're just going to land a man on Mars and he's going to die. That's the plan. But that wasn't JFK's thing. We're going to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely. There's the vision. There's the mission. This has caused the nation to move and everyone play their part. So the following year in 1962, he goes down to Huntsville, Alabama and visits NASA for the first time.

There's a story, we don't know if it's true, it's probably apocryphal, but it does capture this idea of Koinonia. As he's touring the facilities, he comes across a janitor. And he asks that janitor, what do you do? And the janitor replies, Mr. President, I'm helping to put a man on the moon.

If you can understand that, you understand I have a role to play. The goal is far bigger than what I'm doing, far bigger than what I know or can accomplish on my own, but I'm part of something. I'm part of something that is great. I'm helping put a man on the moon. The following year, or actually the next day, Kennedy goes to ⁓ Rice University in Houston and he gives this famous speech there.

I love what he says. says, choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things. I love that part. That's like public speaker. I don't know what to say. I'm just going to throw in some filler words. We're to go to the moon and do some other things. What other things? Other things.

It's not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because the goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. It was a coin in the air. Of JFK would be killed the next year, but before the decade was out as he...

cast that vision, the mission was accomplished. It was costly. Oh man, it cost the nation a lot. It was dangerous. Nine men would give their lives in different accidents in that decade. And the mission was accomplished. July 20th, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission, they accomplished it.

And as amazing as that was and all the energies and engineering and the nation and the funding and all that coming together to accomplish this mission, amazing as that was, Redemption Parker, Jesus has called us to a coin in the air that is far more amazing than that. More costly than that, more dangerous than that, more important than that. It's of eternal importance. And so we don't.

We don't gather as a church just for ourselves.

We don't gather because we like the style and we like this and we're kind of consumers. We gather because we are a koinonia. We have a shared mission, vision and purpose to see Christ glorified, to see God praised in our lives among our neighbors and the nations. This is what God has called us to do. And if we're not doing that, why are we even here?

I say this all the time, if we're not about the mission, why do we gather here? Colorado has much better things to do on Sunday morning than this. But if we are about the mission and we've been invited to the greatest coin coin in Nia, the world has ever seen. Our hope and our confidence is this, that the mission will be accomplished. It will be accomplished. Christ will do it.

So let us rejoice that Christ is the initiator of our salvation. Let us rejoice that Christ is the sustainer of our salvation. Let us rejoice that Christ is the finisher. Let us rejoice that Christ is our all in all. Let us rejoice God is and will be glorified in us and through us among our neighbors and the nations. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for us toward that end.

Philippians: Enjoy Jesus

AI Transcript

Well, if you have your Bibles, you can make your way to the Book of Philippians. think I got that right for you, Trisha. The Book of Philippians. So if you've been with us for the last couple of years, we worked our way through the Gospel of Luke. I was blessed by that. And it was an amazing time for me. Hopefully you were as well. But now what we're going to transition a little bit and on the back of your bulletin, if you got a bulletin, you can kind of see the the summer preaching schedule and see where.

we're going to be if you want to kind of dig in and prepare yourself for our time together each Sunday and then you'll see also ⁓ our fall planned ⁓ series is the book of revelations so buckle up for that as well. This morning we are starting the book of lippians we're calling it enjoy Jesus. For 49 years I've had this problem I've been going after things ⁓

There there's been desires in my heart and I chased down certain things. That's actually not the problem. That's actually how God hardwired me and you we whatever we do we do in pursuit of our own joy. The problem is in a fallen world with a fallen heart and a fallen mind oftentimes the pursuit of my joy has not led to joy but disillusionment or dissatisfaction or sin or

destruction. has been my problem for 49 years because I'm 49 years old. We live in a culture that offers all sorts of promises for your joy, right? There is this consumerism culture, certainly in Parker, Colorado in 2025, that says, buy this and you'll be happy. Get kind of a retail therapy to fill that void that we feel, that angst, that kind of existential angst that we all have that I believe God

put in there for a reason, we fill it with stuff. And we live in such a time and a place and have such resources that oftentimes ⁓ we get one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. This is why when my girls were little, I would always take them with me to the city dumps and I would show them broken dolls and bikes. I said, this is where it's all ending up. Like the stuff that you...

⁓ so much this is where it's it's gonna end up and it was really for myself just a reminder as well but there's consumerism there's there's hustle culture do the grind work this achieve that then you'll be satisfied and don't get me wrong that there are good things in in getting good stuff and and and and achieving things that that's not my point my point is it's not it's not the essential joy that you were created for you can enjoy a lot of things in this life and

Hopefully you do, but there is one essential thing that you and I were created for. There's self-optimization culture. Eat this, don't eat that, exercise this, get this degree, do that, then you'll be satisfied. There's a whole section in the bookstore on that. There's, of course, just endless opportunities for escapism with this existential angst. You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to feel it. So you go into... ⁓

Netflix binges or video games or drugs or alcohol or or hobbies like it's an endless list of seeking and searching longing to find satisfaction. And of course we live in a day and an age where we're told if you're not happy with yourself though the path to happy is just to change yourself change your identity become a new person and then you'll be happy and everyone will celebrate you. Again the list is endless. We all have this in common.

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal has that famous quote 300 years ago where he writes all men seek happiness This is without exception for some it's the cause of going to war and for others to avoid it But whatever the purpose whatever the aim in every single action People are seeking happiness even those that take their own lives It's a it's a seeking a longing for happiness now ⁓

We would do well as we go through this series to pause and just ask ourselves the question, maybe journal a little bit. Where am I looking? What am I seeking? What am I believing about what I'm pursuing that will bring me happiness? What do you daydream about? What is the promise behind that pursuit? Right? But happiness is elusive. I mean, that soul satisfaction is elusive. It's like grasping smoke in the moment you think you have it.

you don't have it. And every every now and again some some people in our culture and in history go further down the roads that we think will bring us happiness than we could ever think or imagine. And then they come back and they say it's actually not down there. And we say well the problem must be with you because I think it is down there. Right. A classic a great example of this is after he won his third Super Bowl.

Tom Brady is being interviewed by 60 minutes and he says, you know, I was sitting on my hotel bedroom after I won the Super Bowl. Super Bowl MVP has a supermodel wife. And he says, is this it? Is this all there is? I thought I'd be happy by now. And the interviewer is like stunned. What can you do? And Tom says, I don't know. I wish I knew. I wish I knew.

He again has gone further than all of us in this room combined. Maybe it was the seventh Super Bowl. Maybe he found happiness in that. But probably not. The three thousand years before that, ⁓ Solomon, Solomon had more of everything than we could imagine. And then he reports back in his book as an older man in Ecclesiastes and he says, it's not what you think. Ecclesiastes, two.

Verse 10 says this, denied myself nothing my eyes desired, nothing, whatever I desired I had. I refused my heart, no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor and this was the reward for all my toil. yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless. A chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained.

under the sun. Again, some of these people have so much that we believe would bring us happiness. When they report back, it doesn't bring you happiness. We just think the problem is in you, Solomon. The problem is in you, Tom. If I had that, I'd be happy. But we would do well to take heed to learn from their wisdom. there's there's this you've seen this meme where there's two options and you got to choose and you don't know what to choose. Let me see. You might not be able to see it.

But on the left hand, you get to choose option A, a comfortable life that goes according to all your plans. Like, ⁓ that sounds like a pretty good option. I'm going to choose that. But before you do, have option B, a deep sense of contentment and joy in life. And then the sweating face, right? Like, which one do I choose? Because in our mind, well, if I choose the first one, I get the second one. A.

leads to B. If I have a comfortable life that goes according to all my plans, I'll have a deep sense of contentment and joy in life. And Paul is here to tell us in the book of Philippians, A is independent of B. There is not the connection you think there is. In fact, this is the secret he's going to say. If you understand that it's not about a comfortable life that goes according to your plans, you can still have a deep sense of contentment and joy.

in this life. This is a profound little four-chapter book that we're going to be in together this morning. So let me ⁓ do a little bit of context here for you this morning. ⁓ We're going to do what the church at Philippi did. ⁓ It's four short chapters. What would have happened is, as Epaphroditus brought this letter from Paul to the church of Philippi, he would have gathered the whole church

And he would have said, listen, I've got a letter for you. And he would have read it in its entirety out loud. So we're to get there. But before I do that, let me just set up the context a little bit for you. Philippi, Philippi was established by ⁓ Caesar, Caesar Augustus eventually ⁓ is a Roman city. It's where the Roman army officers would go and retire because Rome didn't like to have ex military officers in Rome. That that kind of would be.

conflict there but they would send them to Philippi and it was modeled in its government and culture and architecture ⁓ after Rome and they had the worship of all the Roman gods but primarily in Philippi they worshiped the state they worshiped the Emperor and so the the claim in Philippi Caesar is Lord was not just a political claim it was a religious claim and so now you can kind of start to get the

the picture. It's in ⁓ Macedonia north of modern day Greece and in Acts chapter 16 we learn that the apostle Paul is traveling with Silas and Luke and he's doing what he's doing. He's going around telling people the gospel planting churches and in Acts chapter 16 he's in modern day Turkey and he thinks I'm going to go to this city and preach the gospel and the Lord says no.

And he's like, OK, well, I'm going to walk to this city and preach the gospel. And the Lord says no. And so he's confused. Like, I just want to go preach the gospel or what's going on. So he goes to sleep and in the night he gets a vision. There's a man in Macedonia saying, come here, come here. And so he wakes up and and he says, OK, the Lord is calling us there. So that means they've got to get on a boat, cross the Aegean Sea. And for the first time ever.

bring the gospel to Europe. And so they land on the shores, go about 12 miles in shore to this town, Philippi. Now it's the Sabbath and so what Paul would normally do on the Sabbath is he'd go to the synagogue, the local synagogue, and find the Jews there and start there. But you needed 10 men, Jewish men, to establish a synagogue. Apparently there's not 10 Jewish men. In fact we see in the context that

This city is maybe kind of racist against Jews. don't have any and they don't like foreigners. but then Paul goes to the second option which is down by the river and he finds some women praying there and as he joins them in prayer he begins to tell them the gospel and in Luke in in Acts 16 it says that the Lord opened the heart of this woman named Lydia from Thyatira.

Lydia is this girl boss. She's got a house in Thyatira, a house in Philippi, a house in Rome. She's a dealer in Purple Goods. She is a business. She's got it all. But she comes to believe in the Lord. She goes back to her household. That's her whole family. She tells them the gospel. They believe. She tells all her servants.

Wow.

To do that, I'll need to be on the online. What in the world? OK.

I'm trying to figure out how it, I don't have anything connected to the speaker. So, oh, maybe I do. Maybe it's my computer. Siri or Siri. Yeah, just shut that down. I don't even know where my sound guy is. All right. So Lydia, she's a girl boss. Okay, you get it. Then Paul goes with Silas into the city. They're preaching the gospel. Well, there's this girl who's demon possessed and she's owned by, she's a slave girl.

And she would tell people's futures. that's how she would make money for her owners. And she'd follow Paul and Silas wherever they go. And before they could open their mouths about the gospel, she would cry out, these men are servants of the Most High God. They're telling you the way of salvation, which is true, but not the way they wanted to start their sermon. so it says after two days, Paul was greatly annoyed. I love that Paul got greatly annoyed. And he turns and he rebukes the demon and ⁓

casts out the demon and ⁓ then she gets set free. Beautiful picture. Next member of the church at Philippi. Well the owners of the girl are not happy at all. That's their way of making money. And so they drag Paul and Silas before the magistrates. They beat them for their faith, throw them in jail. And in jail they're bloodied and wounded but Paul and Silas in chains are praising God.

singing hymns, praying in the night, and God sends an earthquake, it's an earthquake like no other. You could read this all in Acts 16. It's a wild start to a church. And the chains come off, the doors open, and the jailer, who's probably a retired army officer, he's like, oh no, if any of these people escape, I'm going to be put to death, but I'm going to be tortured first. So in pursuit of his joy, he gets ready to take his own life.

And the apostle Paul says, don't do it. We're all here. We're all here. And he's blown away and he goes and he falls before them and he says, what must I do to be saved? And Paul says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he believes and he rejoices and his household believes and they get baptized. So this is the the core team. This is the launch team of Philippi. Think about it. You have upper class Lydia. Businesswoman, you've got this ⁓ broken

bottom of the rung slave girl just now set free from her oppression. You've got blue collar ⁓ jailer who just wants to drink a beer and watch the game on Sundays. And this is the family of God in Philippi.

It's a beautiful picture of the church. love what D.A. Carson says about the church in general, but this certainly applies to Philippi in here. He says this, church itself is not made up of natural friends. It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs or anything of the sort.

Christians come together not because they form a natural collocation but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance in the light of this common allegiance in the light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself they commit themselves to doing what he says and he commands them to love one another in this light they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus's sake.

This church now becomes this beautiful picture of the gospel. It is marked by its radical generosity. Even though Lydia is doing well, the rest of the church is pretty poor. But they always give generously, whether it's to the church in Rome who needed money or to support the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. Now they hear that their beloved founding pastor is in prison and in need in Rome. Paul's been arrested.

He's in Rome. He's in totally in the need of others, but he's being abandoned by other Christians at this point. And so they gather what limited resources they have and they send it with a path of dryness to Rome to care for their pastor. So Paul loves this church on one level. It's a thank you letter for their their support of the mission. But but he also loves this church and he knows there's certain things both within and externally to the church that are threatening the joy of the church.

perseverance of the church. Wherever Paul planted churches, it wouldn't take long for others to come behind them and say to these Gentiles, it's great that you found the Jewish Messiah, but you also need to find and obey the Jewish law. It's grace plus law. And Paul will say repeatedly, that's not the gospel. And so he's going to address that. There is some poverty and there's some struggle financially as they're being ostracized by

the others. And so they're wondering, can God still provide? Is this religion going to provide for me? And so Paul wants to address that. And all this pressure is creating this unity and division in the church. And so Paul, because he loves them, is going to address that as well. So this is the letter he writes. Probably he doesn't write it. He probably dictates it to someone, maybe Epaphroditus, who will then take it on a scroll to Philippi.

Now imagine yourself this is this is a real letter from a real person to a real church in real time and real space and yet it is also indwelt with the spirit of God. So it's meant for the Church of God throughout all time. So imagine yourself in Philippi in the first century receiving this letter. I'll go ahead and read it. It'll take about 15 minutes to read through the whole thing. If you're new here and you leave the church because there's too much scripture.

That's better than you go to a church and there's no scriptures. So that's just I'm just saying. But I'd ask you to listen carefully. This is God's word. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God and all my remembrances of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become.

known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident and lured by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition.

not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, I and I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but with full

Courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh that that means fruitful labor for me yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come to see you or am absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

and not frightened in anything in your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now here that I still have. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit,

any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering, the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise.

You should be glad and rejoice with me. hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served me in the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill near to death, but God had mercy on him.

not only on him but also on on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow I am the more eager to send him therefore that you may rejoice in at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious so receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men for he nearly died for the work of Christ risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me finally my brothers

Rejoice in the Lord to write the same thing to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you Look out for the dogs Look out for the evildoers look out for those who mutilate the flesh for we are the circumcision Who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh? Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more

circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already perfect.

But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eye on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and their glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Iodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you to 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. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God and the peace of God.

which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 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. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. 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 and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him.

who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves 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 and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied.

Having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. There was one big idea for the book of Philippians. I would say it's this and this is why we've titled it Enjoy Jesus. The big idea is that when we abide in Christ we will abound in joy. When we abide in Christ we will abound in joy. There are many things we will pursue.

happiness but there is only one thing that is meant to satisfy our souls. It's Jesus. When we abide in Christ we are bound in joy. So I want to encourage us to pursue joy this summer. Pursue the deepest joy. Now the gravitational pull of this world is such that 30 minutes on a Sunday morning once a week is not going to be sufficient for you to persevere in your joy. So I want to challenge you. ⁓

I have I think I call it the joy challenge. OK. The joy challenge. There's three things that I want to challenge you to consider doing for the duration of the summer. The first one is to meditate on this book. Spend some time just reading rereading the book. If you if you read a chapter a day every day during this series you would read through this book 22 times. ⁓ We've got some scripture journals if that's your thing.

out by the offering boxes on your way out. All this is is the book of Philippians. And on the side, it's got a blank space for you to take notes. I encourage you to live in the text, highlight, underline, put question marks, put crosses where you see Jesus, see that the theme of joy and Jesus go hand in hand throughout the book. So that's the first one. Meditate on the book. Whatever that looks like for you, commit yourself to live in the book a little.

Number two, would say, ⁓ talk about your joy with others. Discuss it with others. In Deuteronomy six, the Shema says, take the law of the Lord and meditate on it and talk about it when you sit down and when you walk and when you're with your friends. So at your dinner tables and with your friends and coworkers talk, you know what question people love to answer? Hey, what what brings you joy in this life? People love to answer. Strangers love to answer that. You can ask these questions. And then the big one.

The last one is memorize this book. Memorize the book of flipping. You're like, no, I can't memorize stuff. Like, dude, you told me the stats of a 20 year old on a football field for like the last 20 years. I know you can memorize things. Like we can remember things. You have all the lyrics to Taylor Swift. You're OK memorizing things. So you can't. So I don't have time.

Well, first I would say, well, make time. And second, I said, just give me your phone. I'll find some time. Let me see your screen time. I bet I could find the 20 minutes a day that you would need for that. I bet I could find it. You're like, well, I don't know how. I'll say this. The more you do it, the better you get. So it'll it'll start off hard. As Jennifer said yesterday, every every start of every morning or whenever you do this, it starts a little bit hard, but then you get into a rhythm. Here's what I do. I usually just print out.

print out the text. I just read from the ESV and these journals are in ESV, but it's not the easiest translation to memorize. So I'm probably going to memorize in the NIV just because it flows a little bit smoother. But I'll print out a chapter, front and back, and then I'll just practice, I'll highlight, and then I'll take my voice recorder on my phone and I'll test myself and I'll play it back. And then you'll see, I keep making a mistake here or there. You can do this. You're like, well,

What other suggestions you have? ⁓ Ask Chat GPT. I'm serious. It'll give you a whole plan, strategy, schedule, reminder. That's the strength of Chat GPT. ⁓ So memorize it. And then if you do that, if you take this joy challenge and you memorize the book at the end of the series, whoever does that, lunch is on me. I'm going to take you out. I'm serious. Like the Saturday before the end or the week after, whatever. We'll figure it out.

Whoever does it. If a bunch of you do it, we'll go to Chick-fil-A. And like two or three of you, we're doing steaks, but... ⁓

That's my challenge for you. What you saw in this book is Paul's love for the Philippians. Man, he loved this church. Not only because of God's grace to them, but God's grace through them. And so he wanted them to abide in Christ and abound in joy. And I feel the same way. I love this church, not only because of I get to be a part of what God is doing in the city and God's grace to you, but you guys are such a blessing to me. And so...

For your joy, for my joy, may we abide in Christ and abound in joy. amen? Amen, let me pray for us to that end.

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Encountering Jesus at The Cross

The Mistrial of Jesus

Unfailing Faith

Persistent Prayer Preserves Faith

Sermon from Luke:22:39-53

A Table of Grace in a World of Betrayal

Echoes of Eden Part 4: Eager Anticipation, Joyful Participation

Echoes of Eden Part 3: Dearest Place on Earth

Echoes of Eden Part 2: The Sacred Space of God

Echoes of Eden Part One

Plan Your Perseverance

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Dangerous Games

The Glory of King Jesus

How to Live Today for That Day

Teach Us to Number Our Days