We're going to bring our attention up to the front and take about 30 minutes to walk through the passage. Let's take a moment to pray for God's blessing and spiritual fruit as we walk through the verses. Let's pray. All right, God, we thank you so much for your grace.

Lord, we're such a privileged people to be able to come to your word and to see the light, to have your spirit illumine our eyes, to open up the text to us, and God, to have it so freely. We just absolutely recognize that we are so privileged, and God, we want to express to you that we're so thankful.

Father, Lord, we do confess, although the scripture and the word is so near us, so readily available, Father God, sometimes the standard of your word is so high, and also our flesh is so weak, and we pray that you grant to us spiritual strength. We pray, Father God, that you would empower us so that our hearts and our minds would be receptive, and God, that we would continue to labor and to fight every source of distraction, rebellion, resistance in our heart, whatever it may be, Lord, excuses, to put those things aside, and God, that we would continue to aspire to conform to what we see in the word.

And so thank you again for what you teach us in the book of Philippians. We pray for a fruitful time of study tonight. It's in Christ that we pray. Amen. Okay, so what I'd like to do is first just take a moment to walk down this passage together and kind of show you why I outlined in a brief way, by just simple indentation, this passage the way I did.

So obviously, in this beginning portion, it clearly kind of started off a new section by Apostle Paul saying, "Now I want you to know." So now listen up, right? And typically he gives us a topic sentence this way, and he says, "Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known to 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." At that point, what you see is, if this is the topic sentence, here you have, "In terms of the circumstance having turned for the greater progress of the gospel," you have two "so that's" here, "and that and so that," which tells me this one sentence is like one complete thought.

So what I did is I broke it off for you guys right there. I'm going to read on. It says, "Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some are also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment." As I read this, I kind of thought, "Hmm, that's completely a kind of a transition of thought there," because over here it was, "This is great. There's progress of the gospel, and most of the brethren are actually trusting in the Lord and being encouraged in faith," and one might say, "Wow, that's really awesome." And Apostle Paul has a little bit of a contrast and says, "But some, to be sure, are not actually being encouraged that way.

Some, to be sure, are actually responding in their flesh a bit." So then you start thinking, "Okay, that's kind of horrible." And so I break a break right there, because he asked this question, "What then?" And so there's a transition of thought. Here is something good. Here is something bad.

What then? Right? And as he asked this question, you got to give attention to these kind of rhetorical questions because you know Apostle Paul wants us to think about it. What are we to do then? If in this kind of dire situation, Apostle Paul is in prison, and the people who are taking this opportunity to boast in their own teaching perhaps, maybe have a kind of selfish worldly ambition to succeed while the head honcho is locked up in jail or wherever it may be, what do you do?

And he says, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Okay, so there's our paragraph, or at least section of the scriptures for tonight.

And I split it into three sections, not just because having three points to a sermon is awesome, but because you saw the flow of thought, right? You saw how he was saying, "I'm so grateful that there is a greater progress of the gospel." And then some, however, to be sure, are preaching to Christ out of envy.

"What then?" he said, "Only that in every way Christ is proclaimed, and that makes me happy." Three easy points. So I have these three sections for you, verse 12 through 14. There are circumstances for the progress of the gospel. Clearly Apostle Paul is taking his current situation. He's taking his current suffering.

He's taking the kind of situation that would cause any group of people or any particular individual to fret and worry, and he's interpreting it for them. And then what's more, there is what I like to call a mixed bag reality, because Apostle Paul is very real, very truthful. He sees it as it is.

There are surely some who are preaching out of envy. And then verse 18 through 19, "However, I will rejoice when Christ is exalted." Right? "I will rejoice when Christ is exalted." So in that way, I tried to summarize really briefly what I just read, and I hope that when you guys do your study, that you guys are walking through it multiple times in that way, reading it just a few times to find the flow of thought.

Where are the transitions of thoughts moving? And it helps you to really outline the passage. Okay. Now what I like to do is start by looking at section one, verse 12 through 14. Let's take a look at it a little bit more carefully. I love it when Apostle Paul writes in such structural ways.

What do I mean by that? You know, we learn in school, when we start writing essays, paragraphs have structure to it. You have a topic sentence, you have certain points or arguments within it, and you also end with a conclusion, right? Something that's emphatic, or whatever it may be.

And what you realize is Apostle Paul's thoughts are typically really well organized. So I love it when there's this kind of topic sentence. Here he says, "I want you to know and understand this, brethren." So whenever you see that, you should also be thinking, "Anytime you ask the observations of the passage, where is the emphasis?" Clearly that's one emphatic thing, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

And then as you read the next part of that sentence, which is kind of a long sentence, you realize all he's doing is unpacking that topic sentence by saying, "So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known through 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 of the word of God through fear." And so we ask the really kind of obvious question of, "Okay, so clearly Apostle Paul thinks this current circumstance is not as bad as you think it may be.

Yes, I am in jail. Yes, I don't have freedom. Yes, I have my limitations and all that kind of stuff. I've been beaten. But this circumstance has led to greater progress in the gospel. How? Simply because that imprisonment, A, has been well known through not only within his immediate context but all around.

So let's talk about that a little bit. When you looked at this passage, we asked the question of, "Okay, how is it that his imprisonment being well known is a good thing?" We should be asking those questions, right? How is it that it's spreading to the guards is a good thing?

Is it because then people are wowed at some of the miracles that has happened? If you guys remember back in Acts chapter 16, there was even the earthquake shaking. Here and now, we believe he's in Rome, and clearly there's him sharing the gospel, him even being on trial and trying to even convert those people who are trying him.

What is so great about this? What's really interesting is if you did one of those exercises that we were trying to do in previous Bible studies, there is something to notice here, which is that the imprisonment is specifically because of the cause of Christ. Maybe you guys check the other translation, the ESV.

Who here is still using ESV as your own Bible? Just read it real fast just to see. Okay, there's a lot of you guys. So good. When you look at this verse in the ESV, it reads a little different, right? It does. I'll read it for you, and it says this.

It says, "So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ." Do you hear that? It's kind of nuanced a little bit, and it kind of gives an emphasis on this idea. This idea is the imprisonment is not just simply, "Oh, wow, Apostle Paul is suffering." Clearly he's suffered a lot.

He's been through all kinds of ... Remember like in 2 Corinthians 11 where he goes through this laundry list of sufferings he's experienced? It's not just that. It's that all of those sufferings are now pointing very clearly to Christ. Now what am I talking about here then? The idea behind this is the greater progress of the gospel has come forth not just because word is spreading, but because of the clarity as to why he's there.

There is a clarity as to the link between what he's doing in jail, the suffering that he's experiencing, right? Because I want you to think about this. A, sometimes I kind of forget, Apostle Paul even before becoming a Christian, like even before his conversion, he was already a well-known individual, an individual who was educated, an individual who had authority.

I almost see him as like, if you actually study him or think about all the various character traits and all the various privileges he had, he was almost like a presidential candidate doing rallies, right? He's like being groomed to take charge. He actually has authority to go and chase down people and even execute, right?

So you think about this and you realize all I'm saying is he was already a well-known man, right? And in terms of being well-known, there is a sense to which he could have been well-known because man, Apostle Paul has courage to go stand up against King Agrippa to give a defense, right?

He's a man who's experiencing miracles. Around him, crazy stuff happens. But the thing about it is, here, Apostle Paul is not emphasizing the fact that people heard of the miracles. He's not emphasizing the fact that people heard just simply of his stature. He's emphasizing the fact that people get why he's there, right?

Now, there are times when sometimes I'm like, "Hmm, am I making too much of this?" Well, other passages really highlight the way Apostle Paul thinks about this. For example, a passage in Ephesians chapter 3, you don't have to turn to it, but I'm just going to read it to you really briefly.

Verse 1 through 2 says, "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me," okay? What is he saying there? He's saying, "You know what my job is. You know what my responsibilities are.

You know who I am." Who am I? "Prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ," right? Now, the reason why I say this is because, quickly making a small point of just conviction for us. Right now, what I'm focusing on is this. Is there a clear link between the things that we experience and its cause?

Is there a clarity when people see you operate, when people see you work, when people see you carry the responsibilities that you have? Is it clear what you're living for? I'm assuming that a lot of people are looking at Apostle Paul thinking, "You know what? You had so much potential.

Why are you going through these beatings? These individuals are falsely accusing you. These people are mocking you. They're putting you through unfair trials, and they're realizing you could easily, very easily make it stop. All you have to do is say, 'Oh, you know what? My bad. I didn't want to make any trouble.'" That's it.

Back in the book of Acts, whether it was chapter 16, whether it's chapter 20, or chapter 28, a lot of the people are just upset because they're like, "Hey, so many people are coming to this guy, and this guy's going to be a threat to us. All we have to say is, 'You know what?

Just keep quiet a little bit. I'm done.'" Right? There wouldn't be a problem. But what was clear was Apostle Paul could not stop speaking of his Lord. And so what you have is a clarity, a direct link as to what Apostle Paul is doing and why. Okay. And so in that way, the greater progress of the gospel is going forward.

And then what's more, he says, "And most of the brethren," so the majority of the people who are finding about a situation, concerned, all that kind of stuff, "they are trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment and have far more courage to speak the word of God." Okay.

So one thing we want to highlight is things that are repetitive. What we'll see is that there's going to be an emphasis, and I'll do this kind of really briefly in orange too, there's going to be an emphasis on the progress of the gospel, there's going to be an emphasis on speaking, there's going to be an emphasis on exaltation, there's going to be an emphasis on proclamation.

Right? What Apostle Paul is most concerned about is the understanding that the advancement of the gospel and the truth about God needs to go forth. Right? There is this one track, there is this high, high priority goal of Apostle Paul where what he desires to see in life is not simply that he would realize his full potential, it's not simply that he would escape certain woes, he wants to see the gospel preached.

And he says, "What I'm so encouraged about is not my two years of being neglected in jail, what I'm so encouraged about is that through this, the brothers, the people of God found courage to speak boldly." That's pretty cool. What an amazing perspective for Apostle Paul to have. Okay?

Now, again, just taking a real brief moment, just a real brief moment to cause that to be a source of conviction for us. If we were to think about this, man, number one, Apostle Paul is reinterpreting the current scenario. Any single individual just wants to take a moment to imagine if some of our leaders at our church were imprisoned because of their stance, because of their beliefs.

Right? I mean, there would be such a stir in our community. Right? Not only that, but I mean, think about how discouraged we would be. Think about how discouraged we would be. Think about how worried we would be. Think about all the concerns of, "What's next for the church?

What's next for us?" Right? Well, in this moment, Apostle Paul is reinterpreting that entire circumstance saying, "You guys, with all the worry and concern that's there, think about how the gospel is moving forward." And within that, there is a convicting, convicting truth there, which is there is a challenge to the normal kind of experience where in the moments where we're challenged to shine the light, in the moments when we're challenged to EV, are we going to have courage or are we going to cower?

By way of just kind of thinking through this a little bit on my own too, for myself that is, I'm going to say honestly, every time I'm in front of an individual and I have that little stir in me, because I believe each one of us, we want to evangelize.

Right? We want to share. But within those moments, there are almost those times where I start playing out the scenario in my head. Right? Okay, I'm going to say this, I'm going to say that, and I'm going to say there are a lot of times when I have a major case of the quit before I even begin.

I prejudge the scenario. I just automatically assume, "Oh gosh, that person is not going to be receptive." I automatically assume like, "Oh gosh, this is not going to work." Right? Before I even say something, I already quit because why? In the end, I fear failure. I fear it's not going to be effective.

I feel like they're not actually going to come turn around, whatever it may be. And there's a huge case of fear there. And so, as we look at that, there is a quick, quick just conviction for us when we think about how is Apostle Paul's imprisonment, right, supposed to actually stir up courage as opposed to just worry and fear.

I believe if our hearts are right and we want to share the gospel, anytime we see individuals go like have a moment where they overcome those fears, overcome those sufferings so that they continue to pursue what they know and believe to be right before the Lord, what a huge, huge challenge that is for us.

Okay, so this first section, thinking about how Apostle Paul is thinking about the circumstances that are progressing for the gospel. Okay. Now, as we think about this, I want to move to the next section. Someone can say, "Wow, like there's so many people who are then being encouraged. This is great." But all I want to say is Apostle Paul in this next section, there is kind of a reality.

There's a realistic thing. Okay? Apostle Paul is not saying, "Hey, guys, I just want to say suffering is amazing, right? It's wonderful here. Like here in the jail cell. It's awesome. The room is quaint. You got to try." Right? That's kind of like, I've heard sometimes like people kind of overcompensate.

Overcompensate meaning, yes, we're supposed to delight in all scenarios. We're challenged, consider it all joy when we experience the variety of sufferings that we experience in life. But we don't want to necessarily overdo that and be like, "Yes, bring it on." Right? Because that's kind of weird too. We're not sadistic or like sadomasochistic where we love pain.

Apostle Paul is very real. He says, "You know what? To be sure," okay, which is a realistic look at the current situation, "there is a contrast." And what he does is this. I'm going to set up that contrast here. There are some, but there are some. Right? And what you have is like versus.

So whenever we have that, we should be thinking, "Do I really understand the contrast between the two people that we're thinking about?" Okay, as we take a look at this passage, let's think about the individuals that he says. There are some who are preaching Christ even from envy and strife.

Some who are preaching Christ from goodwill, okay? The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. However, the former, okay, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.

Okay, so if we're thinking about kind of this versus here, we kind of think about this scenario and it says, "Man, they're experiencing everything from," I'm just going to put the first letters there, "envy and strife. They've got selfish ambition, and then not only that, they're having this kind of thinking intentional thought of causing him distress." And as you think about that, it's kind of strange, right?

Apostle Paul is in prison, already in like a dire situation. Who in the world, who are these people? Some wicked people out there, right? Wicked people who are thinking about then just elevating themselves. They're opportunistic, a little bit like sharks. Who are these people? But as I kind of started thinking about that and asking those questions, like who are these individuals?

There is this question, have there already been through church history where people take opportunities to one-up each other? Do people ever do ministry? Like God forbid, but are there pastors who are self-motivated, who are seeking to preach just so that they can showcase their knowledge, to showcase how better they are, how eloquent they are?

They want to kind of step up in the ladder of the corporate ladder of church. Those things kind of exist. Is there ever rivalry within the church? Yes, there is. Is there ever any kind of competition? It's like, "Oh, you think you're the anointed messenger?" Those kind of stuff happened even from a long time ago, back in the Old Testament, right?

You think about even Moses and his own sister. Does God speak to you alone? I want us to think about that because even within the very early stages of the church, you guys think back to Acts chapter 5, people were trying to give generously from their heart. And then you have individuals jump into that saying, "Well, I'm going to one-up you.

I'm going to sell my house. I'm going to give everything." Why would you do that? It doesn't even make sense. But it's so crazy how subtly our flesh, the motivation to just have some kind of influence, the itch to have people respect you, for people to believe you're holier, like it's so strong.

And so just as a moment of conviction for us, what's really interesting as Apostle Paul says, even within moments like this, you have both. You have a mixed bag. The reality is a lot of times there's a mixture of the flesh even within ministry. And that's something we have to be really careful of, right?

So Apostle Paul, with a dose of reality, says, "Individuals, some of them, some of them, not all of them, perhaps a minority, are even going to this degree." Now, what's really interesting is he has this contrast and he says, "These individuals, there's goodwill, there's love, and what I'm going to say is there's even respect." Apostle Paul clearly is somebody who is anointed for the defense of the gospel.

The early church recognized that Paul had apostolic authority. And that's why when he was going from church to church preaching, people received him and said, "He is teaching to us the Word of God." Individuals who had the spirit of them, Christians who are being genuinely converted, they recognized that and so they gave him that kind of respect and ear, right?

What's really crazy to me is the degree of the other side then. It just highlights. I think Apostle Paul is clearly highlighting, like, these individuals would go to the degree to cause an apostle this kind of distress. These individuals who are preaching the gospel, going and actually trying to share of Jesus, there's such a mixture and such a blindness in them, they would actually go against an apostle.

So as a kind of a summary point of that, sometimes there's a mixed bag. And I think as a convicting point, man, every single individual who is trying to do anything for the Lord, don't we have to? Don't we have to do diligence to examine our hearts to see, "Why in the world am I doing this?" Right?

"Do I care much whether this like ministry or even just serving, do I care much about its success because it reflects me or do I care much about its success because it reflects God?" Right? Whatever I'm doing, what am I caring about in its end fruit? Whatever I'm doing, what am I caring about in terms of the intentionality when other people see and what other people criticize?

Am I caring much about, "No, I just want this to be good because it benefits, number one, our God who is watching and he is worshiped because we're putting the energy and sacrifice, and two, it's benefiting the church because it's going to benefit you in your edification of faith." Or are we caring deeply about, "Is this my work?

How does this reflect my energy, my expertise and success in making sure that it's fruitful?" Those are just some of the things that we have to do. Okay. So, as we think through that, I'm not going to... On your... Sorry, I forgot to mention. On your papers, I listed a bunch of sample questions for questions about the passage so you can dive deeper and deeper.

I'm not going to cover all of them, obviously, just for the sake of time, but I just wanted to make sure that within each major section, we ask the more important ones, "Do we understand this contrast that people are saying?" Okay? All right. So, okay. Within this, I want us to take a moment to just drop down into the context of this passage and think about this a little bit.

Apostle Paul said, "Look, guys, here's a scenario. I know it's a little bit discouraging." Maybe a little bit is kind of understating that, right? I know it might be really discouraging, actually. But let me reinterpret that for you. This has caused there to be a greater advancing of the gospel, and for that, I'm really thankful because people are now knowing and the Christians are actually being encouraged and they're speaking with boldness.

The reality is that's the majority, but there are still some who are taking this opportunity for their flesh. Now again, I'm assuming if we were to ask the question, "Why does Apostle Paul even care to address this? Could it be because the church is looking at this with a sense of discouragement?" I believe so.

And then as I thought about this, I want you to take a moment to think about if this was a real case scenario. So I want to share with you that Pastor Peter Kim, he's mentioned many times to me that he regularly thinks about missions and evangelism because that's where his heart is.

And then once in a while, we'll go out to lunch or something, and then he'll just drop a bomb and be like, "What would you say if I went to X country to do missions?" And I'm like, "What? What?" "So what would you think if I went to Korea?" Or something like that, right?

And I was like, "Dude," and then my mind's just running wild. And then I'm going to just be honest, like sometimes I'll say something crazy like, "This church will never survive without you," right? Something like that. Or there are moments I think about even bigger churches where the pastor has been there forever, right?

And you know, Grace Community Church with 7,000 members with Pastor John MacArthur, I sometimes watch his sermons on video, and then there are days when I'm thinking like, "He's probably going to retire soon, right? He's looking extra pale today in this video," right? And I'm just sitting there thinking like, "Dude, the guy is like 71, 72." But I wonder like, "Dang, can you imagine?

His father was pastoring the church. He started passing the church at like 35." That's like years and generations of just people he's pastored. And then to imagine like, if you can imagine having somebody that pivotal to a community be gone, be in jail, and the prospect of death is like really, really likely because he's already been beaten this close to death, right?

And then in his absence, you start seeing like a rise of these pastors and shepherds where like, "That guy is pretty ungodly," right? You start wondering like, "And that guy is like crazy, crazy prideful, and that guy is like we can see it." Because if Apostle Paul can see it, I'm pretty sure other spiritual people can see it, right?

I just want you to think about the whole scenario. Wouldn't that be pretty like unnerving? Wouldn't you be really worried? And if you're one of those people who just like, you can't stand, you're like, "You know what? We've got to put an end to this. Apostle Paul, you need to write a scathing letter to that one fool who's like preaching right now, and we need to get together, and we need to squash that guy." And like, you know what I'm saying?

You could imagine stuff like that happening. I mean, I would feel it. I'd be like, "What? We got to do something." But Apostle Paul has a desire to mature the church. He has a desire to mature the church. And so he actually asks this question. We're jumping to the next section.

Section 3, verse 18 through 20. What then? What are we supposed to do about that? What are you supposed to think? Now, he answers in such a profoundly mature fashion. He says, "Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice.

Yes, I will rejoice." That's pretty awesome. If we were to ask, "Man, where is the emphatic, like, center point? Where is the emphasis of this passage?" Clearly, there is such an emphasis right here. He uses the rhetorical question, like, "What are we supposed to do about all this? What are we supposed to think?" And then he says, "In every single way, only that, right?

In every way that this would happen, Christ would be proclaimed. I rejoice. Yes, I rejoice." Then he says this, "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and provisions of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to the earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or death." Okay, let's take a moment to camp out here, and then we'll wrap up the Bible study section of it.

Here, I want to say this. I just kind of transitioned by asking you, if you were to put yourself in that kind of situation, how would you feel about all that, right? How would you feel about the Apostle Paul and the other disciples are being imprisoned in this fashion?

Run out of towns. You would be worried, okay? But what's really mature and amazing about all this is that Apostle Paul does not base the success of the gospel on the person carrying it, right? There is such a confidence on the gospel truth of God. There is such a confidence on the sufficiency of Scripture.

There is such a confidence in Christ. And the ministry that God has already set into plan is bearing fruit. And Apostle Paul is not conditioned to think, "Oh, goodness, because there is enemies, because there is bad preachers, because there's this and that, there's going to be such a sway of ministry." No.

Apostle Paul has a mature way of thinking about what is his confidence. And what's more, that confidence then is really his singular focus. It's his, I like to call, massive purpose and goal. It's like your number one desire. This is what I want to see, right? This is what I want to see, this is what I love to see, and I'm thankful for it.

That Christ is proclaimed in every scenario. Could it be that there's a mixed bag of stuff? Could it be you see weakness in the church? It's not ideal. Could it be that there's threats here and there? This is risky business? Yes. But Apostle Paul has such, such confidence. And so the emphasis there is where he has such confidence, there he finds such joy.

Where he finds such clear purpose, there he finds such joy. Where he finds his number one desire, there he also finds his joy. I put into your notes, more means more. What do I mean by that? The more that he stakes everything on that one singular purpose, the more he's able to simply find joy in what God has established.

Let's take a moment to think about this for a little bit, okay? So here we have the double stars for emphasis. But here there's a point I'm making to you. Because Apostle Paul has firmly established his goal, his purpose, his desire upon this, that Christ be proclaimed, look at the effect it has on his subjective joy, right?

Look at the effect it has on his subjective experience. For example, Apostle Paul has a certain kind of confidence because he says, "You know what? I know. This is what I know, that it's going to turn out for my deliverance." Does that sound like a wishy-washy, timid person who's not sure?

It's like, "I don't know what's going to happen to me, guys." Right? "Maybe, maybe this." No, he says, "I know this is going to turn out for my deliverance." For through the provisions of the Spirit, so he's confident in this provision, the resource of God. And then what's more, he says, "According to my earnest expectation and hope," so he has hope, "I will not be put to shame in anything." Think about this idea of like, "I'm not going to be put to shame." You know what that is?

There is a level of clear conscience. If he was a normal human being, he'd be absolutely ashamed. There's nobody in this world who is chained to a guard or sitting in prison who's going to sit there like, "I've got my head up high. Got no regrets, man." That kind of clarity of conscience comes when you've staked your life on something solid.

And what's more, he's got an incredible boldness. He's got strength. What am I saying here? We, at the beginning of the book of Philippians, we said, "The book is about joy. The book is about rejoicing. The book is about a kind of fruitful result of really knowing and having Christ." Apostle Paul here and now is modeling that in the midst of suffering.

And what he's doing is not looking at the circumstance. He's not looking at the people's response to a circumstance. He's not simply even looking at his immediate hope and perspective. What he's looking at is Christ's exaltation. And he says, "Through that, I am going to rejoice." You know what's really crazy about all this?

Did you guys get to ask the question of like, I know sometimes we run out of time, but how does Apostle Paul envision and think about this deliverance? Because it seems a little weird, right? Because for him to begin by saying, "Oh, I'm happy because my circumstance, which is my imprisonment, is producing all this good stuff.

People are finding out about Jesus Christ and learning. And then what's more, they're being encouraged, and then they're being bold." And then he says, "I'm really confident that I'm going to be delivered." So then we have to ask the question, in his bucket of deliverance, what does that mean?

And what's very, very clear is that he does not mean that he's going to get out of prison and is going to be nice afterwards, right? Apostle Paul defines this in such a much, in such a bigger way. He judges this scenario by saying that he is going to turn out for his deliverance almost more like his victory.

It's going to be his deliverance almost more like his vindication, right? That he's not going to be ashamed, but rather in boldness, he is going to actually do what is his main goal. He's going to be able to do what is his main objective, which is to exalt Christ, whether by life or by death.

Now, let me talk to this point a little bit, which is to say this. This is such a major, major paradigm shift for everybody. Why? A lot of times when I counsel individuals, I find that something very important to counseling is how do you judge the world? How do you judge the world?

What do I mean by that? Certain life circumstances happen and we have a natural instinct to judge. We have a natural instinct to say, "This is good. This is bad. This is awesome. This is sad." Right? And what's more, we have certain then criteria to judge that. We will say something to the extent of, "You know what?

I don't deserve this." And what that means is you are judging by your own worth. If I am to be respected up here, then that that's happening in my life is not fair. And that leads to the next part. Sometimes we'll say things like, "This isn't right. This isn't fair." And what that means is we're judging by our sense of justice.

What's more, in moments when we say, "Oh, gosh. This sucks. This is horrible." We're judging by our sense of preference. "This is good. This is bad." Based on the things that I like. The reason why I say this is such a major paradigm shift is Apostle Paul is interpreting everything in his life, including his death, by the standard of, "Is Christ exalted?" And so this is a convicting point for every single one of us.

This is a huge paradigm shift. Do you have such an operating principle? Do you have such a goal and desire that is so big it is encompassing the front and back of your life to the degree that even it makes sense of your death? And this is where I would start to conclude by saying this.

For Apostle Paul, what is he looking for? Apostle Paul, what is he desiring? What is his expectation? What is his hope? Man, what's really, really clear is that Apostle Paul is using the criteria and the rubric to say his hope is that which encompasses Christ. Think about that for a moment.

That his entire existence, his entire existence, he has an absolute clarity. There is no hesitation. There is one singular focus by which he can answer the question, "Who are you and what do you live for?" And as he answers that, he is absolutely able to make sense of every single experience, every single suffering, including the prospect of death.

And that's a challenging question for you. Some of us have a hard time making sense of the things that we go through in life. Some of us have a hard time making sense of, "Why is this like this? Why am I like this? Why do I have to go through these hard times?" And we have knee-jerk reactions.

My question to you is, do you also have a growing clarity like Apostle Paul? Do you have such an ambition, such a goal, such a desire where a good life or even a good death is not because we simply live long enough, it's not simply because we've knocked off all the stuff of our bucket list, but it's because we have exalted the Lord?

All right. Let's take a moment to pray, and then you guys can jump into discussion. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much for the many servants, the many brothers and sisters we have that are encouraging us to exercise our faith. And we are so thankful that here we have the example of Apostle Paul, who has tied himself, who has fully embraced your plan for him, and God, that he is desiring so eagerly to exalt you in his life.

Lord God, we pray that every single one of us in this room would also have that as our all-encompassing ambition. We pray, Father God, that that desire in us would never grow stagnant. It would be the constant beating, almost obsession of our mind that God, we need and we desire and we rejoice in Christ's exaltation.

I pray, Father God, that Lord, you would help us to put aside every other competing desire, to put aside every other competing distraction, Lord, and God, that we would desire to focus on you in such a way where God, we have such a clear interpretation and judgment on this world.

I pray, God, that we would be individuals living with such purpose. I pray, Father God, that we would be individuals living with such identity. Lord, we thank you. Pray for a fruitful time of discussion. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. - Okay.