>> Okay. Sorry to interrupt your conversations. I hope you guys got through most of those questions there. So, before we begin, I'd like to do just a quick, like a intro to the study again. For a lot of you, you know, the practice of going through the questions, doing observation questions, maybe you've done a lot.

I just want to make mention of the fact that that really is what we hope to be, really the bulk, the center of the study. Meaning, we could run the Bible study where I do the, you know, the bulk of teaching, take a solid 50 minutes to go over the passage, give you an outline, give you the main points, that kind of thing.

But as you guys know, it was intentionally done where we wanted to have this format go inductively through the scriptures so that a lot of times the benefit of engaging with the scriptures comes from your own discovery, your own conviction, and essentially having your own eyes see the various convicting truths that are found in scripture.

So, that being the case, please do make sure that in the upcoming Bible studies, I know some of you guys are running straight from work, so I understand if you're late. But please try to show up on time so that when we go into the beginning discussion, you take that bulk of time to share your observations, the questions you have about the passage, whatever interesting and convicting things you saw.

Okay? So, if there was a focal point of the Bible study, it's not so much the formal teaching time, it would actually be the time that you're discussing with one another. Okay? So, I wanted to make sure you guys see just the relevance and significance of that time. And then, I'm going to try to, in the future, post up the discussion questions and things like that in advance so that you can even kind of prepare your heart for that discussion time.

We know that trying to accomplish everything during one of the Bible studies is tough. Trying to share about your convictions, your applications, your week, any prayer requests, just trying to do everything is a little bit tough. So, the more you have time just to prepare your heart, prepare your thoughts would be better.

Okay? So, as a heads up, to you that's what we're going to be doing each week. We're going to come in, discussion about the passage, specifically of observation questions. We'll have formal teaching, and then we'll go into application and personal discussion time. Okay? All right. Well, before we jump in, let's take a moment just to pray that God will bless our time, and then go from there.

Lord, we again want to ask God that whenever we open your scripture and your word, even if today, Lord, it's overview, God, that your spirit would cause us to see. Lord, help us to see what is contained in your word and be desiring, both on the level of understanding your truth, but to want to know it so that it could radically change us.

And I also pray, God, that you would help us by your spirit to have then open eyes to see our own lives. That God, as we see your perfect standard, as we see your perfect will, God, that it would automatically cause us to take a good, deep look at ourselves.

And that, Lord, there would be just an evaluation and a desire to just regularly, incrementally, yes, but to regularly change into greater conformity to the image of Christ. So we thank you, Lord, it's in Christ we pray. Amen. Okay. So as we think about just beginning a book, I had four questions that I asked, and these questions I put into a specific order.

Because you don't have to do this for every single moment when you begin a new book study. But for me, this is the way I like to think about it, and it helps me walk through the major categories of the book. To help me to put my mind around, okay, sequentially, if I walk through it like this, I will understand different categories of the book.

Okay? And that is, again, first impression and tone. Then, thinking about the recipients and who it is that the author is talking to. What is the author's purpose? And then, therefore, what are the repeated themes or emphatic teaching of this book? Okay? So I know we could do a lot more.

We could talk about historical context, which I trust you know how to look up and you can find. You could do a lot more talking about who is Apostle Paul, who are the specific people named in verse one and two. Why does he address it to both the leaders and the church?

And you could do all of that, but because we're doing overview today, we're going to be talking about these main categories. So, let's begin. I asked this question, what's your general impression and tone? Okay? And for a lot of people, it's pretty clear evidence just straight from the beginning that Apostle Paul, as he's writing through this church, he has a very thankful and joyful tone.

What's more, he expresses, in terms of just kind of an impression, he expresses a ton of love and fondness for this church. Okay? And so, just as a heads up, we're going to be reading big chunks of the scripture today, big chunks of the book, so that we can get this whole overview.

Let me read chapter one, verses one through 11 for us. And it says, "Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and the deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ." Okay?

So, that's a very typical introduction that you have there, right? And then he says, "I thank God in all my remembrance for you, always offering prayers with joy." And what you're going to see is that idea of joy repeat many times. He says, "In every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now, for I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you with all affection of Christ Jesus.

And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God." Okay?

As we think about that, man, I just kind of highlighted in green. Every time I see lovey stuff, I just highlight in green, okay? You see a lot of it here just in this first paragraph. And then you're going to see more and more of it as you go.

And if you take a moment just to pause and think of it, man, He speaks in ways that we normally might not. I don't know when the last time I said to somebody, "I have you right here in my heart," right? Or something like, "God is my witness. He knows how much I long for you." And that idea of longing is actually that desire where I want you.

I want to be with you. So in many other portions of Scripture, whether it's 1 Timothy, 2 Corinthians, when He says that I long for you, He regularly says, "I long to be with you." Okay? So just by way of the emphatic way that He speaks, you can tell.

Man, Apostle Paul is expressing an incredible kind of love for them. And one might ask, like, "Well, doesn't He do this with every single group?" I mean, He even does it in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, "I'm so thankful to God for you." That's how He begins. "You saints who are in Corinth." So is that the normal way that He just talks so we shouldn't think much of it?

Well, we're talking about the overview of the whole book. You know from the other chapters in Philippians, He talks about how He's encouraged by them, how He is regularly thinking, praying. He's concerned for them just because He wants to protect them. Whereas in contrast, Book of 1 Corinthians, yes, chapter 1 starts with, "I'm so thankful to God for you." And then chapter 11, He's like, "Should I praise you for this?

I will not." Right? It gets intense. And you read that and you're like, "Whoa." Right? And then in other chapters of that book, He's almost talking as if He wants to literally spank them. Other books of the Bible are actually really, really just heavy-handed. You think about Book of Galatians, right?

Opening lines, yes, the same thing. "I'm so very thankful for you. Grace and peace be with you." But He gets serious really fast. If you in any way digress from the gospel, you turn. Right? There's like warning and warning. So a lot of times you have to think about the tone of the book because it says a lot about what Apostle Paul is doing.

Okay? And what I'm going to say is, yeah, it's pretty amazing that this book that we're studying happens to be one of the most encouraging letters of the New Testament. Right? Certain letters are kind of sad. Apostle Paul's like looking towards death. It's a pretty downer. But this book is very encouraging because he commends them.

Now, we have to ask this question. Remember I said, when you start thinking on the general impressions, you start then sequentially thinking, "Oh, what about the other categories of this book should I understand?" And typically one of the big categories of the book you should understand is who are the recipients.

Right? And I ask this question. What is Paul thankful for? If Apostle Paul is really joyous, if he's really fond of them, he's very much encouraged by what he sees. If you notice, I'm going to do this in orange because, I don't know, there's no reason for it. I'm going to do it in orange.

And he says, "In view of," okay? So when I see that, I'm thinking, "Okay, Apostle Paul's saying, 'I'm so thankful, I'm so joyous,' because he sees them." Yes? He sees what they're doing. And so you got to ask, "What are they doing? What does he see?" And so the question was, "What can we learn about the people that Apostle Paul is speaking to?" All right?

So question two. In question two, we learn that the people that he's talking to in the Church of the Philippines, he sees a group of Christians who are engaged in gospel ministry. Okay? They're absolutely engaged in gospel ministry. So where do I get this from? Well, what you notice is, you can follow along in the text packet, or you can just follow along in your Bibles.

But if you notice, he starts talking about how, you know, he's praying for them with joy, in every prayer for you all, in view. And the first thing he says is, "Participation in the gospel from the first day until now." So they've been participating for the long haul of when Apostle Paul was ministering to them, and up until now.

And then what's more, in verse seven, just a couple of verses down, he says, "For it has only arrived for me to feel this way about you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment." So we're talking about his sufferings, right? His imprisonment, in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, he says, he says, "You are partakers of grace with me." That's really interesting, the way he puts that.

Apostle Paul is talking about his suffering, his persecution, and he says, "You are part of this great thing." It was like, "Grace to me." That's pretty amazing. And he gets even more explicit in that kind of teaching when he says, in Philippians chapter one, verse 29 through 30, so if you scan your eyes down there, he says, "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake." That's huge.

"Experience the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me." The reason why I say that's huge is because one might think like, "Oh, when he says participation in the gospel, he just means they really received it and they believed." Right? Like, "You're participating with me in this gospel because you're in it, you're in the game." Well, he makes it even more explicitly clear, not only are they in the game, they're paying the price to be in the game.

Right? They're in the gospel ministry. They're alongside him experiencing the similar kind of persecutions as he went on his journey. And then later on in Philippians 4.14, he says, "Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me my affliction." Okay? These aren't the only passages, there are many more within the book where he talks about, "I'm so thankful and I'm so encouraged." Why?

Because look, you're not sitting there saying, "Yes, I believe." You're actually showing it because of your sacrifice. Because there is a willingness for you to go there where you know it's going to hurt. There's a willingness for you to go there where you know you're going to have your privileges deprived.

And in many ways, those are some of the things that are sometimes incredibly encouraging to us. When we hear and think about people who are in China, when we hear and think about those pastors who are in India, who don't have much but they straight walk into a village knowing, "I can go in there and literally be beaten to death." What an encouragement that is, right?

Especially for Apostle Paul, he's sitting there thinking, "Wow, I'm so thankful because I see that we have this partnership, a koinonia, a true sense of the fellowship that we're in this together." That's pretty awesome. What else is that the people are generous people. Okay? They're generous people. And this we see because here in Philippians 4, 14 through 16, Apostle Paul says, "Nevertheless, you've done well to share with me in my affliction.

You yourself also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my need." Okay? So on your papers, I do have a small map.

And as you guys know, the travel that he does, he goes from modern-day Turkey area and he goes this way. Okay? So, what ends up happening is in the book of Acts chapter 16, it talks about Apostle Paul's ministry there in that area. And then later in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, he describes the Macedonians, the people who are here in this area.

I am sorry. People who are here in this area, as those who are so generous, they're giving beyond even their own means. Okay? If you recall this passage in 2 Corinthians 8, he describes these people who even in their own need, they gave out of the generosity of their heart.

Okay? He's talking about these people. So if you, I'm sure maybe you've heard this before, but the book of Philippians, this tone and tenor of the book has an incredible attitude of "I'm so grateful for you." And as a matter of fact, you can actually even look at the book as a thank you letter to this church.

Because if you read chapter 4, he describes, "Man, not only did you give me once, but you even gave me in another time and I want to thank you." Not that I need it at all, not that God's grace isn't sufficient. I'm content. But look at your generosity. Thank you.

Right? So as we do Bible study, we think about that and we think, "Oh man, wow. Look at this church. Look at this church. What a challenge." Right? What an encouragement that is already to us. To think about a church that's not just trying to get by living their lives on earth.

They're engaged in ministry. They're engaged in ministry to the degree that they would give monetarily. And they would do that to the degree where later on, Apostle Paul speaks about it, like, "Oh my goodness, you're even giving beyond. Beyond what's expected. Beyond what's normal." Okay? All right. Now, in thinking about the church a little bit more, there's one more thing we have to describe.

Okay? He describes that there is a potential for division. Right there. Okay? The bad stuff I like to highlight in red. Division. Opposition. Does it exist? Yes. Can you have an encouraging church that receives the Word of God, that is engaged in gospel ministry, that gives, that sacrifices, and yet have drama?

Of course you can. Right? Can it be susceptible to the false teachings that happen in lots of different arenas of, you know, spiritual life? It absolutely can. Here, one of the things that kind of is a giveaway that the church is experiencing that. What you see is in Philippians chapter 4, Apostle Paul says, "I urge Jodea and I urge Syntheci to live in harmony." So he emphasizes this idea of like, "I urge you, I urge you to live in harmony with the Lord." Right?

Harmony in the Lord. So, you could automatically assume, it's like, "Oh man." He wrote this letter clearly to the leadership of the church, because that's in verse 1 and 2. He wrote this letter to be read to the whole church, and then he singles out two ladies in the church who are perhaps in disagreement and discord.

Right? And imagine if you were Jodea or Syntheci, and it's like, "The apostle who wrote us this letter from," do you guys remember where Apostle Paul is? He's in? Prison! He wrote from prison to our church to encourage us of how we're an encouragement, how he's thankful, and then he names you, right?

Like, "Oh my gosh!" I just, sometimes you just gotta imagine if that was you, right? He'd be like, "I'm sorry." Right? He'd say, "I'm sorry." And you would reconcile, right? But I just wanna think about that for a moment is, Apostle Paul is caring for this church because we know that that kind of discord in the church can be very problematic.

Right? I mean, if you have two sisters fighting, someone would be like, "Ah, you know, mind your own business, man. If you get in there, you're gonna get hurt." You know? Like, someone could have that kind of mentality. But the reason why he brings this up is because it's so important to the testimony of the church.

It's so important for the character of the church to be Christ-like. Right? And so, Apostle Paul addresses that. And as you guys know, one of the more emphatic teachings of the book of Philippians comes in chapter 2 when he talks about, he says, "Make my joy complete by being of the," you hear?

"Same mind, same love, same united spirit intent on one purpose." Okay? And that's in chapter 2. So, there's that kind of danger, and then there's also the danger that you see of Apostle Paul warning them, "Beware of the dogs. Those who are evil workers, beware of the false circumcision." So, we are talking about those individuals who are advocating.

The Judaizers advocating, "Follow us in real holiness." You know? "When you follow these rituals and when you follow these commands, you shall be righteous." That is the teaching of, you know, like a works-based religion. Okay. I just wanted to mention that briefly, just to share with you. We have now kind of an overview of, these are the recipients, and notice how we didn't have to stretch far and wide to get all the details.

We just paid closely attention to what was already in the book. Right? Now, here is the next question that helps us transition along to the next point. And the next question is, okay, Apostle Paul is super thankful and joyous. He's super thankful and joyous because these individuals are engaged in the gospel ministry, these individuals are generous to him, and clearly, they've responded to this gospel, right?

However, there is still a danger of disunity, there's still a danger of false teaching. The next question is, how is he going to address these issues? There is a spurring, typically a reason why somebody writes the letter. Right? You feel like, "Oh man, I gotta say something." Right? Something that's an impetus for that letter.

And likewise, typically when Apostle Paul writes, it's really clear. He has a lot of statements like, "I'm doing this so that..." "I'm praying for you this..." Right? And a lot of times those things, the "so that's," the "therefore's," "I'm praying this," will kind of tell you, "This is my intention, this is the purpose of why I wrote the letter." Okay?

So this is the way I'm going to present it to you. And I want to challenge you. Don't think, please don't think, that there is one right answer when someone says, "What's the purpose of the letter?" There's like one singular thing. There can be various things that Apostle Paul writes.

But I want to challenge you, please, when you do an overview study, or even when you're thinking about a paragraph, think about how you can summarize that into a purpose statement. The reason why is because, as you do that, you start thinking about the author's intent for the reader.

Right? And that's vastly important. We're not asking the question, like immediately, "Okay, how is this in any way relevant to me?" That's a bad starting point. The best starting point is, "What does this author hope to accomplish by writing this?" Yes? And so asking this question of, "What's the purpose?

What's the goal? Who is he addressing? And what does he want to actually speak into?" Those are super, super crucial, as you guys know. Okay. So, I've got some blanks for you there in this little mini paragraph. And what I wrote is this. The goal is to have true joy through faith in Christ.

Okay? True joy and faith through Christ, so that they can continue to fellowship in the gospel of Christ, living in unity for the sake of Christ's glory and his gospel. Okay? Hope you got all the blanks there. Now, as you see that, you might be like, "Okay, that paragraph sounds like a lot of the kind of big, you know, kind of over-generalizations, that kind of stuff.

So what we're going to do now is break it down. And I'm going to skip this little paragraph from MacArthur. I just pulled it from his study Bible because I liked it. He pointed out various purposes that he saw. And so I just liked it and put it there for you.

But the way I want to break it down is this. The first element of that was to have joy through faith in Christ. And that's really evident here. Philippians 1, verse 25-26. Okay? He says, "Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith." Remember, in this context, the Apostle Paul says, "You know what?

For me to live as Christ, die is gain." Right? And as a matter of fact, if you were to ask me honestly, what do I prefer? I would prefer to be with my Lord Jesus. Why do I stay? That is a question of purpose. A question of intent. And what he says is, "I am staying, I am remaining so that you will progress and that you may have joy in the faith." Okay?

So that's absolutely important right there. Next, Philippians 3, verse 1 says, "Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you. For for rejoicing the Lord always, again, I say, rejoice!" Okay? Remember that whenever you guys are doing your Bible studies, repetition is key.

And anything emphatic where he, in that same phrase, whether he repeats it in a nuanced way, here he's just like, "Rejoice! You know what? I'll say it again!" Right? "You better rejoice!" I mean, think about his purpose for you to delight in the Lord. Right? For the Philippians to have that kind of appreciation where their joy comes not simply because they were safe, not simply because, "Oh, now I know what I'm doing in life.

I found some reason and I've got some purpose." No, no, no. He desires them to rejoice in the Savior, the person of Jesus Christ. Moving forward, he mentions how he desires for them to fellowship with him in his suffering for the greater progress of the gospel. So if you notice in the previous paragraph, I said to have true joy so that they can continue in the fellowship of the gospel.

That part of it is huge. For example, verse 12 through 14, we talked about how you know, there is this greater progress of the gospel and whatnot. And he says, "So that," and I'm going to start from verse 13, "that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear." Okay?

What's more, I want to highlight for you Philippians 3 and jump down over to verse 16. He says, "However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example." Reminder, where is he? In prison, right? I want you guys to think about that for a moment.

Apostle Paul commends them for being partners with him in the gospel, but he desires that that fellowship will continue. Right? "Join me. Keep going." In this previous paragraph, he talks about how we haven't reached the end, you guys. We put back the stuff behind, the suffering, the persecutions. We lay the prize ahead of us and we just keep going.

We persevere. That's the idea. And if you think about Apostle Paul and his joy, man, he is truly, truly set when he sees the gospel going forth, when he sees the ministry of Christ having its powerful effect, he says, "Man, I'm living. I'm so happy." Right? So for Apostle Paul, that's his perspective.

Now, moving forward, there's a couple more things. He says, "To unify the church and have them walk worthy of Christ." I want to take a moment to mention this idea again. He says, "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of spirit, any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." Your unity as a church is not just because unity in of itself is, "Oh, it's so beautiful." Right?

There was a moment in time when a lot of people were just enamored with the flowery thought that if we had a multicultural church with all kinds of nationalities, that in of itself would just be a beautiful thing. Can I say something? That in of itself doesn't have much weight.

Why? Because that kind of harmony should be for the sake of Christ's glory. When we join together, not because we had the power to make something beautiful, but when we join together despite the differences because of the power of Jesus, where in Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, in Christ there is no longer woman or man, free or slave, but Christ is in all.

Right? When he becomes all in all, he becomes glorified. Our unity speaks to God's glory, the power that belongs to God to make us one body, and that in the name of Christ. And so that's why Apostle Paul cares whether two ladies get together in the church. Right? And that's why Apostle Paul cares that the church stay united to that cause and purpose.

And so, here in Philippians 127, he says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Right?

For the faith of the gospel. Okay. So, we covered, this is the general tone, these are the people he's writing to, and then we covered, this is the way he's going to address them. Right? He's going to address, yes, their participation, yes, their generosity, but also the danger of disunity and bad teaching.

The last part then is, what is the emphatic teaching that you should take home? Right? I asked this question, what is the major theme and teaching that you should draw from this? Now, I just want to say again, there isn't just like, there's just one thing you have to get, like, there's a lot he says.

Okay? You don't have to get overly concerned like, "Oh gosh, I missed it." You know? Every time, sometimes, I'm not doing any audience participation today, but I can sense like some people, I give a really obvious question and they're afraid to answer, you know? Because what if I'm looking for a specific answer and I don't get that one thing?

Well, remember, there's a lot of things Apostle Paul says in this book, but one of the main repeated and both emphatic teaching is that we who are genuinely in faith should be rejoicing in Christ. Okay? If we missed that, then yes, we would have missed the repeated and emphatic teaching that Apostle Paul says.

Apostle Paul is talking about having such a joy in Christ that remember, where is he? In prison. So far, he has been beaten multiple times. He's been chased out of cities. It's not as though this was the first city he visited. He is already long, long into many sufferings.

And he says, "I am overjoyed." In chapter 4, it says, "I have rejoiced." He finds that eternal and external joy that doesn't come from within his self. He doesn't look at the situation and say, "Well, look at the bright side. There's a nice guy watching me." Like, he doesn't look at the scenario.

He is looking to Christ. And when he does that, he uses lots of synonymous or linked ideas to this idea of rejoicing. He talks about not only joy but contentment, right? He talks about peace that surpasses everything. He talks about a kind of confidence because guess what? When you're rejoicing in Christ, you will have confidence.

You'll be clear about who you are. You'll be clear about your security. He talks about having abundance, having riches, right? Those are all the lens of really seeing in faith who you have, the person of Jesus Christ. And so, one of the things I want to highlight for you is Philippians chapter 3, verses 20 to 21, where he says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory." Right?

The body of his glory. "By the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself." I want to conclude by highlighting that a little bit, okay? That Apostle Paul desires these individuals to grow in their expansive understanding of faith in Jesus Christ. This is the way I would like us to think about it, okay?

Apostle Paul is talking to a fairly mature church, right? Because why? They're already engaged in ministry. Apostle Paul is talking to a fairly mature church, right? Because they're already generous. And he says, "You guys already know how to love each other." When I think about that, I'm thinking, you know, my honest perspective is that here at this church, we have a lot of people who are eager to serve, who are eager to be generous, and they're looking for opportunities to engage the ministry of God.

That's my honest opinion, okay? But Apostle Paul wants them to grow even more, right? He's taking a church that's already encouraging and says, "I want you to have even more. I want you to have more knowledge, more discernment, more love. I want you to have greater faith, a persevering engagement in ministry.

I want you to take up the suffering that I call grace, right? I want you to take this up and join me." He's encouraging this church to do more. How do you do that? Right? How do you take people who are already at a certain level and push them to do more?

Do you say, "Okay, guys, we're about ready to get, you know, even deeper into our work, so let's first take a break, you know? Okay, what we need is more practical training." No, he says, "What I would like to see in you is an unmovable, standing firm joy in Christ that'll motivate you in no matter what circumstance you're in.

You are not going to find joy by looking at your feeble, humble flesh. You're not going to find joy by looking at this world. You're not going to find joy by looking at other people. You can't look anywhere else. Especially if you are desiring to grow above and beyond where you are now, you feel like you've walked your Christian life to a certain degree, you've been living the Christian life for many years, and you desire to grow more.

You can't look anywhere else. You have to look to Christ and eagerly, eagerly desire the Savior who is going to exercise His power and share with us His glory." That's pretty amazing stuff. And that lens, that spiritual phenomena of having your faith not be based on your sight, like, "I can't see, you know, I can't see why I should be happy in this.

Where's the silver lining?" Right? It's seen through your faith. When that happens, God is going to radically empower us to go above and beyond what we think is even capable. Right? So I wanted to challenge you with that because there are a lot of other teaching and themes that I'm not going to cover today, but all of those things are going to be empowered by a steadfast joy in Christ.

Amen? Amen. All right. Now, what I'd like to do before I pray is just share with you that A, there is some optional further study. At the end of each study, because it's a short amount of time, I went only for about 30 minutes here, 31 minutes. Can't cover everything, but what I'd like to just challenge you to do is read Acts 16 and 2 Corinthians 8 to get a feel for like, when did this happen?

What was Apostle Paul doing? Where was he? Right? The other thing I'd like to challenge you to do is as you read this book multiple times, yes, you're going to start feeling, you're going to feel the tone. You're going to start sensing like, "Oh, this is what he's trying to address." But also, I want you to be able to follow his flow of thought.

Apostle Paul is an incredibly methodical, because he's being inspired, right? The teacher in the sense that he's leading us from point to point. And a lot of times, outlining will help you actually follow his trail, and it'll help you summarize and therefore remember. Okay? And then, lastly is next week, we're going to be studying chapter 1, verse 3 through 11.

So please make sure to try to jot down as many observations as you can, even if you're like, "But this is obvious. I don't need to say it." Yes, you do, because observation is just that. You write down and notice the stuff that's there. And then you start asking questions.

What does this mean? How does this connect? Why is that there? That kind of stuff. Okay? All right. Then let me take a moment to pray, and then you guys can have rest of the evening too, fellowship by discussing about the application questions. Let's pray. God, we want to thank you so much.

Lord, it's pretty incredible because, Lord, you're the one who is offering to us this sweet joy, freely. And God, this sweet joy is not conditioned upon life circumstances. God, it's not conditioned upon my limitations. Father God, the joy that you offer us is tantamount to your eternal character, because Lord, the offer you give is to have you.

So God, we want to thank you, and we pray that our eyes of faith would look to you. And what's more, realize, God, that our joy is steadfast because we are looking to an external joy given to us by your grace. And I pray, Father God, if there's people in the room who have been living lives of sadness and brokenness because they're looking at sin and they're looking at pain and looking at all kinds of brokenness in this world, I pray, God, that you'd grant to them greater faith in Christ, to look to our Savior and to trust his words, that God, you have all that we need and more.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.