back to indexWed Bible Study Philippians Lesson 13
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So, I wanted to share with you guys that we have a cool graphic for the next Bible study 00:00:14.820 |
and again as a, before we jump in, jump in, as a quick reminder, please do take a moment 00:00:23.000 |
It's going to be called Every Blessing in Christ, okay? 00:00:27.880 |
Now, this book is ending, the book of Philippians, and it reads, "Now to our God, the Father, 00:00:37.080 |
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus and the brethren who are with me greet you. 00:00:42.600 |
All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. 00:00:47.760 |
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 00:00:52.320 |
Now, this is the conclusion and some of these statements sound just, I guess, cliché-ish, 00:01:00.280 |
so to speak, or just kind of standard in terms of its conclusion. 00:01:04.480 |
But there are pieces or elements of the conclusion that we should observe and I've highlighted 00:01:10.400 |
That there is this glory forever to the Lord focus. 00:01:15.800 |
There is also the greeting going back and forth where they should be greeting other 00:01:20.600 |
First and foremost, more the saints that are with Apostle Paul is greeting them. 00:01:23.800 |
And then lastly, his desire to bless them with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:01:28.400 |
So in summary, there is both all these different elements, doxology, a command. 00:01:42.040 |
These aren't necessarily things that you have to retain and remember, but it's good to even 00:01:46.080 |
in the conclusion notice some of these things. 00:01:50.040 |
Because some of these things really, you know, Apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit, is really 00:01:55.040 |
summarizing certain important things and then he's leaving lasting thoughts before the conclusion 00:02:02.120 |
What I like to do is focus on this, the doxology. 00:02:06.360 |
When the Scripture says, "Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. 00:02:15.920 |
It just sounds too high churchy, just kind of reminds you of high cathedral stained glass. 00:02:21.960 |
Almost, you know, you almost kind of picture maybe what mainstream media has depicted as 00:02:28.600 |
a form of religiosity, what's like, "And to our God forever and ever." 00:02:39.920 |
Because those statements that are so, I guess you could say, magnanimous, like so epic, 00:02:45.880 |
"Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. 00:02:52.600 |
I bet actually in those days the Christians saw it as such a huge privilege to be able 00:03:01.840 |
And as a matter of fact, when Apostle Paul is saying that, I'm sure he's filled with 00:03:07.000 |
this, I guess, fullness of both conviction, emotion, right? 00:03:12.800 |
To say, "And glory must go to God through all time, forever and ever, in all place." 00:03:20.640 |
And I would have to say again, maybe we would shy away from saying these epic statements 00:03:27.160 |
because it sounds too lofty, but as a matter of fact, it causes us to really think and 00:03:35.720 |
So I want us to take a moment to think about that, that as we look at the closing, I want 00:03:42.360 |
I want us to think about what gives glory to the Lord. 00:03:45.480 |
I want us to think about how Paul, even through this letter, gives glory to the Lord. 00:03:50.160 |
I want us to think about how Paul expects the entire church to give honor and glory 00:03:54.840 |
And then obviously even for us, I want us to think about whether we can say what Apostle 00:04:01.760 |
Paul is saying with such great conviction, that now and forevermore, God deserves all 00:04:11.840 |
And every time we take moments again to think about this, we have to again just kind of 00:04:16.240 |
meditate deeply about just even that simple phrase, that we need to glorify God. 00:04:22.600 |
So what I like to do is walk through, walk through my plan of kind of reviewing. 00:04:30.480 |
It was a little tough trying to think about the best way to review such a kind of a deep 00:04:40.880 |
First punch is going to be, I'm going to walk through and then highlight for you what I 00:04:50.880 |
I'm going to, bear with me, walk through all four chapters and talk to you about the perspective 00:04:56.040 |
and attitude that Apostle Paul exhibited that gives glory to God and therefore he's concluding 00:05:02.320 |
with and now glory needs to go to God forever. 00:05:08.120 |
And then the second punch is going to be, hold on, I lost my place a little bit. 00:05:21.520 |
The perspectives or the attitudes and the second part is going to be the direct commands 00:05:25.280 |
that Apostle Paul gives that also gives glory to the Lord. 00:05:32.160 |
I have essentially on your handout the outline of this book twice. 00:05:37.280 |
The first time we're going to go through this idea of the attitudes that give glory to the 00:05:42.200 |
If you recall, I made much of this concept of the attitude because what we saw in the 00:05:47.880 |
book of Philippians was Apostle Paul trying to communicate first and foremost his faith. 00:05:55.760 |
And as he was doing that, he was challenging the church saying you need to have this same 00:06:01.160 |
And in many ways those are kind of synonymous terms because the biblical idea of attitude 00:06:07.240 |
is a way of thinking that you're exercising your mind, that you are having a clear rationale. 00:06:16.060 |
And so whether you want to call it perspective, like how you are seeing the world, how you're 00:06:20.640 |
seeing and interpreting the scenario, how you're exercising your evaluation of stuff, 00:06:25.800 |
how you're judging your circumstances, all of that actually is an exercise of faith. 00:06:35.900 |
And so what I'd like to highlight again is Apostle Paul inspiring the church in how differently 00:06:41.520 |
he is seeing and interpreting all of his life scenarios, how he is looking at the spiritual 00:06:50.480 |
So that's what I'm going to highlight as I go through these various chapters. 00:06:54.640 |
So in the very first chapter, we have these different elements where Apostle Paul begins 00:07:00.700 |
with the introduction and then he starts to express his love. 00:07:04.440 |
Remember how he said, "I feel this way about you. 00:07:06.780 |
It's only right and I'm so confident that Jesus is going to, he who started a good work 00:07:15.760 |
But one of his goals for this entire book was to explain to them how he sees his current 00:07:23.260 |
You guys already all know the church saw his dire need and wanted to help. 00:07:30.020 |
I mean, the whole, I guess, Christian community would have been very worried to see this apostle 00:07:36.100 |
Now, if you recall what Apostle Paul said was, "I want to update you, but I want you 00:07:43.180 |
to understand that his circumstances actually proved to further the gospel." 00:07:48.900 |
And so what he says is that Christ is proclaimed through his circumstances. 00:07:54.620 |
And what I'd like to highlight to you is as he is thinking through that, my circumstances 00:08:00.460 |
has now produced greater fruit for the gospel. 00:08:04.100 |
He explains his perspective and he says, "Whether by life or death, Christ may be exalted." 00:08:09.980 |
And he says, "Whether by life or death, in my body even now," and he says, "for me to 00:08:18.740 |
And so on your outline, those are the simple blanks for you guys, right? 00:08:22.940 |
Apostle Paul has this mindset, and I'm going to tell you this, in terms of for me, the 00:08:26.940 |
entire book, the book of Philippians, if there was one section, and there's so many different 00:08:32.780 |
sections, but one section I had to memorize, I would memorize this section, chapter 1, 00:08:41.340 |
Smaller portion of it I want to review with you. 00:08:44.100 |
He says this, "Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for 00:08:50.340 |
Skipping forward to verse 18, he asks, "What then?" 00:08:54.700 |
Remember he describes that in terms of the progress of the gospel, he describes it as 00:09:00.220 |
how the praetorian guards, where he's at, there are people who are actually being bold. 00:09:07.520 |
If there was a certain place where you'd be super shy that you're a Christian, if there 00:09:12.140 |
were a certain place where you would be very, very cautious, it would be there, essentially 00:09:20.060 |
And so one of the questions that I asked you was, "Oh, what is this whole idea of the Caesar's 00:09:26.100 |
I don't think that he actually means Caesar's relative, brother, or something like that. 00:09:31.100 |
We're talking about people who are in that realm. 00:09:34.100 |
For example, if we say, "Oh, somebody in the White House," when we say White House, we're 00:09:37.540 |
talking about huge numbers of people, swaths of president's cabinet, people who are working. 00:09:43.380 |
Now all that to say, not only then were there good things happening where people were being 00:09:47.200 |
bold, where people were being all the more brave about their faith, there were other 00:09:52.980 |
Paul says, "For sure, there are some who are all messed up." 00:09:56.540 |
So if you're following along in your Bibles, we're looking at all these various things, 00:10:01.140 |
but what I want to highlight to you again is Paul's perspective. 00:10:10.180 |
He is actually asking us to think along with him in faith. 00:10:15.180 |
He is asking us to interpret in a godly fashion. 00:10:18.220 |
If you see that there are people who are preaching out of false motives, if you see that I'm 00:10:22.940 |
in prison, if you see all this stuff going on, how are you going to judge this? 00:10:27.780 |
Are you going to have this kind of very embittered, like, "What in the world are they doing? 00:10:35.020 |
Or are you going to be looking at the big picture from God's angle? 00:10:40.460 |
He says, "Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. 00:10:49.140 |
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your 00:10:54.500 |
prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 00:10:58.060 |
According to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, 00:11:03.020 |
but that with all boldness, Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether 00:11:08.100 |
by life or by death, for to me," and when he says that, again, I'm highlighting for 00:11:13.100 |
you in blue all the places where he is expressing to us his faith. 00:11:18.940 |
When he says, "For me," he's giving us his rationale. 00:11:26.620 |
For him, to live is Christ and to die is gain, right? 00:11:34.780 |
And what's crazy about this is not only is this his expectation, not only is this his 00:11:39.380 |
reality and hope, check a look at this verse in verse 29 where he says, "For," so he's 00:11:45.060 |
continuing his rationale, "For to you and to me, it has been granted for Christ's sake 00:11:52.020 |
not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake." 00:12:01.500 |
We're talking about attitude, we're talking about change of perspective. 00:12:06.900 |
He is radically changing what is normal to human interpretation. 00:12:12.720 |
You take something like getting unjustly jailed, I mean, think about an American citizen who 00:12:19.540 |
is falsely accused and then thrown into prison. 00:12:22.620 |
I mean, talk about somebody who would be livid. 00:12:25.320 |
Talk about somebody who's going to fight for their rights. 00:12:27.420 |
Talk about somebody who's going to come out and make sure he gets paid millions because 00:12:36.460 |
He is radically changing our judgment, our interpretation of current realities and taking 00:12:43.820 |
something that every single person would say, "This is horrible," and he says, "No, this 00:12:48.660 |
has caused a greater advancement of the gospel. 00:12:54.220 |
Man, I think about that and what a huge eye-opener. 00:13:01.300 |
If any of us was there and you started talking to him, let's say you visited him in jail 00:13:05.780 |
and you're like, "Oh my gosh," and you went over there crying, you brought to him gifts, 00:13:09.580 |
you brought to him blankets, and he looked at you and said, "Why are you sad? 00:13:17.420 |
I think part of us would even think like, "Dude, Paul, I get it. 00:13:20.940 |
You're holy and stuff, but please don't fake it." 00:13:23.660 |
I wonder if you actually played that entire scene, if somebody actually thought like that 00:13:28.100 |
in front of you, you'd almost be like, "Yeah, I get it. 00:13:34.700 |
I wonder, but I actually know he says he is completely showing us a grand, grand shift, 00:13:46.420 |
And I tried to think of a better analogy for this, and honestly speaking, I couldn't. 00:13:52.460 |
I was thinking about, "Were there moments of hardship and suffering and difficulty and 00:14:01.380 |
But I couldn't think of a good analogy for this. 00:14:04.620 |
In a sense, this is where you exercise your faith, and I'm not sure if there's just another 00:14:10.620 |
good analogy to explain this, but there is something that, as I was trying to think of 00:14:15.020 |
an analogy, I got really, really convicted, like, "Wow." 00:14:20.900 |
Even for every single one of us, I believe that our perspective, like our judgment upon 00:14:28.620 |
our own lives, whether it's good, bad, fitting, pleasing, man, it can be radically, radically 00:14:38.860 |
And so at this moment, I wanna kind of extend this moment for you to reflect on that. 00:14:44.120 |
If there were moments for you, when you were evaluating, you were kind of summing up your 00:14:49.140 |
life, and you started having these thoughts of like, "Oh my goodness, my life is horrible. 00:14:58.620 |
If you had certain moments like that, I mean, be challenged. 00:15:02.660 |
Be challenged to ask, "How were you deciding that? 00:15:10.100 |
What was your operating standard by which you made those judgments?" 00:15:15.340 |
And then all of a sudden, we get really, really convicted, right? 00:15:19.140 |
Because especially, especially when we have hardships and suffering, sometimes maybe, 00:15:24.660 |
maybe, I think we can fall into this kind of perhaps dangerous thinking, where we might 00:15:31.380 |
ask this question, "Okay, I do believe in Jesus, but in what way is Jesus going to help 00:15:40.900 |
As I was thinking about this, there was just a moment I was thinking about, or I guess 00:15:44.060 |
a scenario I was thinking about, where if we have incredible suffering or if we have 00:15:47.980 |
a very, very hard time that we can't get out of, perhaps we might be tempted to think, 00:15:53.540 |
in these moments of hardship, in these moments of difficulty, "How is believing in Jesus 00:16:01.660 |
And what's crazy about this is that Apostle Paul completely changes that whole question 00:16:06.980 |
upside down by giving us this perspective that we see even here. 00:16:13.180 |
That to us, we've been granted, graced, gifted, for Christ's sake, not only to believe in 00:16:23.580 |
So someone can respond, "Yes, we may ask the question, 'How is Jesus going to help us? 00:16:34.380 |
But here, there's this entirely different question. 00:16:38.060 |
And the question absolutely changes our worldview to ask, not, "How is Jesus going to help me?" 00:16:51.980 |
It's not for us to ask, "If and when we ever felt like Jesus Christ was useless, if ever 00:16:57.500 |
we felt like Jesus Christ was of no avail," the answer to that would be, "Wrong question. 00:17:07.820 |
That is a radical change, radical change in perspective. 00:17:13.060 |
So I spent a long time on that because you guys recall as we studied through this book, 00:17:21.100 |
He takes a certain scenario that maybe we would naturally react to, and his perspective, 00:17:26.420 |
his faith radically changes how we judge everything. 00:17:30.660 |
So moving forward to chapter 2, there was another attitude that Apostle Paul highlighted, 00:17:37.380 |
and that was the attitude of unity in spirit, in mind, and love through the humble attitude 00:17:51.180 |
It talked about how Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, right? 00:17:57.340 |
The context is He was God, but He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 00:18:04.160 |
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant. 00:18:07.480 |
And being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself 00:18:13.000 |
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:18:17.620 |
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above 00:18:23.180 |
every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven 00:18:27.200 |
and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ 00:18:35.400 |
So recall, remember how I began with asking you the question, "What is God glorified by?" 00:18:42.960 |
To think that God is glorified by Jesus laying down His life, by Jesus humbling Himself, 00:18:55.980 |
Perhaps in this generation, people think what glorifies God is when we excel. 00:19:03.280 |
I think a lot of people presume that what glorifies God is when I score, when I win, 00:19:09.320 |
when I succeed, and when I fulfill my great potential. 00:19:17.960 |
If athletes give thanks to God and give glory to God because God created my body, that gives 00:19:24.120 |
If you excel in your business and you give glory to God because you know that the business 00:19:28.880 |
is not yours but His, if you use your mind and you excel in academics, all of that when 00:19:35.160 |
you give thanks and acknowledge God is glory to God, amen? 00:19:42.080 |
Why is it that some people presume that you have to score in order to give glory to God, 00:19:50.160 |
Very contrary to what the Scripture is saying because Scripture, Scripture talks about how 00:19:55.160 |
self-sacrifice, self-humbling, a willingness to die to self and submitting yourself for 00:20:01.800 |
the sake of others, for the sake of God, for the sake of His purpose, that that glorifies 00:20:09.180 |
Because when we lower ourselves, God Himself will raise us up. 00:20:13.740 |
And it's Him who's going to elevate and therefore it's Him who's going to be glorified. 00:20:18.740 |
And what's more, the example that Jesus Christ has laid down. 00:20:23.820 |
And when people acknowledge that, that is going to be to the glory of the Lord. 00:20:28.420 |
Okay, so in chapter 3, a connection to that is this. 00:20:34.460 |
I think when we think about our kind of example that Apostle Paul said, it's Jesus' humility 00:20:39.380 |
and self-sacrifice, if we're thinking really honestly, we should be all admitting like 00:20:49.820 |
I mean, self-sacrifice, humbling yourself, being willing to submit underneath all the 00:20:56.920 |
various things that here in the green that Jesus Christ did. 00:21:01.780 |
I mean, in all honesty, even when I know I am wrong, I don't know, it's difficult to 00:21:08.660 |
In that scenario then, we should all be able to admit, man, it is very difficult. 00:21:13.420 |
However, I think in Apostle Paul's perspective, what he reveals to us enables and empowers 00:21:23.660 |
And that next part is, after in chapter 3, going through various things of warnings, 00:21:30.660 |
after going through explanation of the people who are putting confidence in their flesh, 00:21:35.340 |
you guys know that he talks about how all things, he starts to praise stuff. 00:21:42.520 |
You think holding up your stature is valuable? 00:21:48.780 |
And he tells us, "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss 00:21:57.860 |
More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing 00:22:02.460 |
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but 00:22:14.180 |
I count, I count the view and the counting, right? 00:22:20.340 |
Because as an admonition and challenge to us right now, I'm going through these chapters 00:22:24.420 |
talking about perspective, talking about your rationale, talking about our value systems, 00:22:42.940 |
And Apostle Paul expresses to us that in his view, Christ is the goal. 00:22:52.540 |
Having everything but not having Jesus means utter bankruptcy, that there's no crisis bigger 00:23:00.780 |
And here, I would like to take a moment, you know I feel like in the last like six months 00:23:05.620 |
or so because we've walked through Hebrews, a lot of the church has been talking about 00:23:13.620 |
People have been very moved that drifting is dangerous and whatnot, right? 00:23:19.220 |
But the fact of the matter is, have we in our own experience, have we experienced drifting 00:23:27.040 |
but then didn't feel the sense of urgency, right? 00:23:31.580 |
Didn't feel the sense of like, gasp, I'm far from my Savior. 00:23:37.140 |
I want to take a moment to think about that because right now, if we're saying that every 00:23:44.140 |
single thing I have, every single thing that makes me feel like I'm okay, whether it is 00:23:50.780 |
my job, finances, the people around me, right, that even if I had all those things, I would 00:23:57.500 |
literally be bankrupt because I have nothing worthy, I have nothing valuable if I don't 00:24:04.020 |
And the challenge is for us to actually by faith feel like the greatest disaster I could 00:24:10.340 |
ever be in is to be far from my Savior, right? 00:24:15.420 |
That the worst crisis, like oh no moment, shouldn't be when I lose my job. 00:24:20.380 |
It should be if I realize I'm far from my Savior, that should radically shake me if 00:24:27.460 |
I'm appropriately seeing Jesus as my treasure like Paul, right? 00:24:34.140 |
That to us, being far from my God would be the most depressing. 00:24:41.420 |
Drifting from my Savior and not being intimate with my Jesus would be the saddest, most despairing 00:24:50.780 |
Not when I don't have means, not when I don't have freedoms, but when I'm far from the will 00:25:00.220 |
And the opposite is the way that Apostle Paul presents it though, that to him, Jesus is 00:25:09.580 |
He will literally suffer all loss because all those things he counts as rubbish. 00:25:27.700 |
If we were to grow in any way through the book of Philippians, sometimes it's not practical, 00:25:38.140 |
Sometimes you just deepening that urgency to worry from falling into apathy and not 00:25:47.500 |
feeling that urgency, that alone to you then is the greatest application. 00:25:53.340 |
If that you're going to worry about anything, your worries and concerns are based on your 00:26:00.660 |
And I wanted to make sure that we have that perspective. 00:26:05.260 |
In chapter four, Apostle Paul goes through many different commands that we're going to 00:26:17.180 |
But the perspective that was so challenging was Apostle Paul's perspective, his faith, 00:26:23.140 |
his rationale, his thinking, his attitude on how he could be content in the Lord, how 00:26:29.260 |
he could be giving thanks in every single circumstance. 00:26:33.700 |
And so if you recall in chapter four, he says, "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned 00:26:41.780 |
I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. 00:26:46.860 |
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, 00:26:55.820 |
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." 00:27:04.380 |
By faith in the Lord, by having that treasure in Jesus, what incredible stability, what 00:27:13.380 |
That even on either sides of the spectrum, you know, either sides of the experience, 00:27:23.420 |
And you could think, you could think about Apostle Paul's experience. 00:27:27.500 |
Whatever it is to us, the degree by which we have experienced hardship, and some of 00:27:30.980 |
you here have experienced hardship a lot more than others. 00:27:36.580 |
You've just suffered through lots of different things that maybe a lot of people have not. 00:27:42.220 |
But you can imagine whatever is our experience to this scale that Apostle Paul has gone through 00:27:51.780 |
I mean, he's gone from being like a ruler, a Pharisee of Pharisees, studying under the 00:27:57.340 |
highest, you know, in terms of his educational accolades, it's incredible, right? 00:28:05.780 |
On the flip side, he's been on almost this going hungry, working night and day, being 00:28:12.500 |
ridiculed, being falsely accused, jailed, shipwrecked, beaten, almost dying by being 00:28:23.420 |
And then to have this perspective, but I've learned. 00:28:28.180 |
I've learned through all that how to be content. 00:28:31.740 |
Wow, what a challenging attitude and perspective. 00:28:35.540 |
So that being just a review, I hope that was encouraging to you that I believe the book 00:28:42.660 |
of Philippians is so challenging because, yes, there are a lot of direct commands that 00:28:49.260 |
But I believe more so the book of Philippians was so beneficial to our faith because it 00:29:00.180 |
It inspires us to interpret life experiences through spiritual truth. 00:29:08.420 |
Now, what Apostle Paul does though is he always goes from here, there's teaching and spiritual 00:29:14.980 |
truth to therefore it takes this kind of effect in your life. 00:29:19.060 |
And this part I'm going to go over very quickly. 00:29:22.860 |
For chapter one, these are the commands to more, right? 00:29:25.700 |
And I just put a blank there because there's a lot in terms of what he says in terms of 00:29:32.100 |
So in chapter one, what I saw was Apostle Paul saying, "I pray that your love may abound 00:29:40.460 |
So the blanks for you there are more and more. 00:29:42.500 |
One of the challenging things for us and I really wanted to emphasize, especially to 00:29:46.620 |
our group, was I honestly believe we have just a great core of Christians who are trying 00:29:56.660 |
But dare we ever say that, "Oh, things are pretty good now. 00:30:01.940 |
We have to be regularly growing, desiring more and more than we were before. 00:30:05.900 |
And no matter where we are, we have to have this perspective. 00:30:08.340 |
There's so much more that we should be doing. 00:30:11.340 |
So he says, "I want you to abound more and more even if you're doing well." 00:30:15.460 |
In chapter, I believe this is chapter still, chapter one. 00:30:18.980 |
Oh no, sorry, this is chapter, yeah, this is chapter one. 00:30:25.500 |
What he says through all that, he says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel 00:30:29.580 |
of Christ so that whether I come to see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that 00:30:34.340 |
you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the 00:30:41.300 |
So from there, you have a good summary of the general content of what Apostle Paul 00:30:48.180 |
Greater perseverance, greater stability, and greater unity in the proclamation of the gospel. 00:30:54.580 |
He's got one main focus and there's no crazy like, "Oh," like, you know, nuance and deep 00:31:01.060 |
He wants you to persevere, standing together, standing firm in the midst of all the ways 00:31:05.380 |
of distraction, persecution that's coming, and making sure you're holding true to the 00:31:11.420 |
And so that's why I'm going through this quite quickly. 00:31:13.940 |
Even chapter two, in the first part of it, when he is giving that admonition for unity, 00:31:19.580 |
notice how he's essentially saying the same thing. 00:31:21.620 |
"Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of 00:31:25.620 |
love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and compassion, make my joy 00:31:30.580 |
complete by being in the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on 00:31:38.140 |
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another 00:31:48.700 |
So here, he makes this connection that in terms of his joy, what would be so pleasing 00:31:56.220 |
to him is to see the church doing this, that they're maintaining the same love, united 00:32:04.220 |
In chapter two, verse 18, he says this, "You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and 00:32:18.020 |
If you kind of follow along, just kind of walk through the trail of the various commands 00:32:22.740 |
in the book of Philippians, again, I walked through that pretty quickly. 00:32:27.800 |
There wasn't a ton of like specific sins he was addressing, whereas maybe some books were. 00:32:35.520 |
There weren't tons of specific like issues that arise. 00:32:40.720 |
And even his combating false teaching or whatever it may be, some of it seemed kind of subtle. 00:32:45.720 |
Like we could assume, "Oh, these probably were Judaizers. 00:32:48.800 |
These probably were individuals who put confidence in the flesh." 00:32:56.120 |
You guys saw the perspective of Apostle Paul? 00:33:02.840 |
Did you see the intent and purpose of his heart? 00:33:09.400 |
And even if in the whole scale of his life experiences, early when I was talking about 00:33:13.880 |
all the blessings to having plenty, to having little, to nothing, if in all of that, it 00:33:19.560 |
meant the proclamation of Jesus, he was what? 00:33:24.720 |
The main admonition that Apostle Paul is going to say is, follow my example. 00:33:36.240 |
If you're looking for joy in other things, I'm not sure how you're going to find it. 00:33:43.640 |
There's one thing for sure that can cause to us a sense of, "This is right. 00:33:51.320 |
It's glorifying the one who is worthy of glory. 00:33:54.640 |
It's serving the one who is worthy of all our worship and service. 00:33:58.640 |
And so I want to conclude with that, that the commands of Apostle Paul in the book of 00:34:02.880 |
Philippians, though there were many, they had a theme. 00:34:06.400 |
It was all related to his one purpose, one single perspective of mind, of exalting Christ 00:34:16.120 |
And so, at that final question, when the passage said, "Now to our God and Father be the glory 00:34:21.960 |
forever and ever, amen," we asked that question, "What gives glory to the Father?" 00:34:30.600 |
So this part, let's take a moment just to think about this a little bit, and this is 00:34:44.520 |
One of the thoughts that I had was, "Man, there is this weird balance of the Christian 00:34:51.080 |
life where on one end, you're supposed to try to do everything you can, give up of your 00:35:04.640 |
You should pour yourself out, and there's all these things you should do." 00:35:12.880 |
God is absolutely sovereign, and whether you are doing stuff, preaching words, whether 00:35:17.000 |
you're meeting people, whether you're giving all your money, actually the scripture says 00:35:30.320 |
And you guys, I think, already know where I'm going with this, because we're asking 00:35:33.680 |
the question, "Then how is God glorified through all this if we're not feeling like a need, 00:35:40.440 |
if we're not feeling, you know, doing something as a favor for God?" 00:35:46.240 |
And what he says is, "We're not just simply supposed to be doing this stuff." 00:35:51.720 |
He says, "The way that you're actually pleasing to God is through faith." 00:35:57.600 |
And you, whether it be serving, exalting, preaching boldly, giving of yourself and sacrificing, 00:36:05.480 |
all of that was boiling down to your faith, that you believe all of that was a happy, 00:36:12.040 |
happy, joyous thing that is right, good, and your love to the Lord, right? 00:36:19.760 |
That in your thinking, in your perspective, and in your attitude, there is nothing more 00:36:25.680 |
that you would be happy to do than to give God everything, and that in doing so to you, 00:36:33.600 |
Through the middle of your life, through the beginning of your life, through the end of 00:36:36.560 |
your life, all of that would be Christ, amen?