Category: Philippians

This is another installment of the series designed to introduce both the context and the content of the Word of God.

Introduction:

I posted this especially for those who need the notes to go along with the audio presentation of “One Hour: One Book” for Philippians.

As Paul was imprisoned:

• Progress was slowed
• Attacks increased
• Divisions showed

Three Issues are obviously addressed in Philippians:

1. Paul was imprisoned – some preaching with wrong intentions (1:12-30).
2. Doing good, but wrong priorities – bad roots (2:1-30).
3. Wrong priorities produced wrong fruits – living it out wrongly (3:1-4:9).

The letter can easily be broken into three parts:

• The Prayer (1:1-11)
• The Prescriptions (1:12-4:9)
• The Pattern (4:10-23)

Part One: The Prayer: “Losing frustration and Gaining a Positive Heart” (1:1-11)

Our quick definition of prayer: “a process of exchanging burdens for energy as I spend time with my Savior.” In the case of Paul in the Philippian letter, his prayer was:

• Public (1:1-2)
• Positive (1:3-5)
• Projecting (1:6)
• Personal (1:7-8)
• Pointed (1:9-11)

It seems that Paul got smarter as he prayed. God opened his heart to some of the answers, so he wrote to share them.

Part Two: Eleven Treatments for the Ailing Church (1:12-4:9)

1. Vision (1:12-18a) Helping people on earth see what Heaven was doing.

2. Transparent Leadership (1:18b-26): Explaining the divided heart that comes with living one world but waiting for another.

3. Focus (1:27-30): Cherishing each other and seeing the value of others.

4. Standards (2:1-18): Seeing clearly the bench marks of obedience: humility (like Jesus) and calm, reasonable demeanor.

5. Teamwork (2:19-30): A fierce unity born of concern, cooperation, commitment and consideration.

6. Praise (3:1): The call to face the world with a song of rejoicing.

7. Vigilance (3:2-9): The ability to spot those who attempt to swap religion for relationship and true spiritual life.

8. Goals (3:10-21): the recognition of both a process of growth and efforts to strive toward pleasing Jesus in my life.

9. Resolution (4:1-4): the commitment to close any breaches of relationship with brothers and sisters in Jesus.

10. Prayer (4:6-7): the exchange of burdens for peace.

11. Deliberation (4:8-9): the intentional selection of thoughts that please God.

Part Three: The Seven Part Pattern of Paul (4:10-23)

Paul lived the truths he taught, modeling the walk with Jesus as well as teaching with words. While he sat and waited to appear before Emperor Nero, he taught through example to:

• Celebrate, don’t complain! (4:10,19-20).
• Offer concern, not command! (4:10b).
• Be content, not contentious! (4:11).
• Cope, don’t be careless! (4:12)
• Collect, don’t consume! (4:13).
• Confirm, don’t criticize! (4:14, 17-18).
• Be considerate, not contemptuous! (4:15-16).

Essentially, Paul’s letter to Philippi made clear: “From the right roots (priorities) come the right fruits (actions and behaviors).”

This week it happened again. I was working with great fervor, but not being a careful enough steward of my body, and my resistance to the cold and flu broke down. I hate getting sick. I don’t mind the physical symptoms as much as I hate to waste time lying around accomplishing nothing and watching the work back up. The breakdown of my resistance was the invitation for sickness to overtake me – just like it is in you. We cannot always avoid being around sick people – but we can compromise our system and rob our body’s ability to fight off invading infection by our own decisions. How? One way to do that is eat badly. (All holiday eaters say “check”.) Another way to do that is get too little sleep. (All holiday party goers say “check”). Another way to do it is live with additional stress. (All holiday shoppers say “check”). Isn’t it a wonder we don’t all just die between Christmas and the New Year celebration?

Resistance is a concept well known in modern life.

• In electricity, it is defined as “a measure of the degree to which an object opposes an electric current through it”.

• In physics, it explains “drag” on our aircraft or boat with “fluid or gas forces opposing motion and flow”.

• In medicine, the term is used to describe: ”the protective assistance gained through taking a specific medicine or following a specific regimen of treatment”.

In short, resistance is about forging the ability to stand firm in the face of pressure.

Why are we talking about it? Because God’s Word addressed a problem long ago that we are observing again in our day. Anyone paying close attention is really beginning to notice that in the world of the twenty-first century Western church – resistance is quickly evaporating.

There are increasing numbers of people who claim to follow Christ with few distinguishing marks that separate them from the culture around them.

Believers appear to be less able to stand firm in the face of the deluge of immoral thinking and outlandish behavior of our day. A wise old Pastor wrote: “If the church is to be the church, it must resist the track of the world. It must guide the world in God’s intended path, and challenge the immoral lifestyle and unconscionable cruelty of sinful expression in society.” Dear ones, God has called on His people to stand firmly on a wall of truth and resist a tsunami of lies…It is our privilege, and it can be done with great security and intense JOY – but we must be instructed on how to do it.

Look back with me into the letter of Paul to Philippi that was later divided into four chapters. Identify the call in the opening of the final chapter in Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.” Can you see the call? Paul had one thing he was driving home to the congregation – STOP BACKING UP. Stand on the ground God put under your feet. Resist.

Key Principle: Believers can effectively resist the moral slide of our nation when we follow the pattern God gave to us.

Before we dive too deeply into the verses of chapter four, let me ask you something. Did you notice how Paul positioned what he was about to say? The chapter opened with a “THEREFORE” – as Paul beckoned us backward in the letter, urging us to look at the setting carefully for his point. His ending instructions were rooted in the previous points he raised. When we last looked at this letter, we tried to grasp the Spirit’s call to JOY in the face of trouble as it was expressed in what is now called the third chapter of Paul’s writing to Philippi. Since it has been some time, let’s recall the three steps we observed to move from panic to peace in the face of trouble.

• The first step was to DEAL WITH OUR OWN HEARTS before anything else. A man with limburger cheese stuck to his lip thinks the whole world stinks – when the problem is that all his sense of smell is dominated by a close odor. His senses are fouled but it seems like the world is. Paul said in Philippians 3:1 to rejoice, and that he didn’t mind repeating that call at all. We have to face the fact that we cannot see all that God is doing, and we aren’t qualified to judge the day from where we sit. What we can do, and what we MUST do, is look inside and place our hearts under the light of the Master’s scrutiny. Is my attitude one of trust or of insecurity?

• The next step we observed in the letter in 3:2-11 was the call to KEEP OUR EYES AND EARS OPEN. Looking within can make one be blind without. Troubles were plaguing the early church, just as troubles plague the work today. Some problems came from the intentionally planted “dogs” (3:2) that were moving about in the churches and couldn’t be pinned down. They had great criticism for churches and believers, but offered no regular help and commitment. They FED – but they didn’t provide anything but an occasional critique. Some were plants of the enemy to disrupt, but some were simply immature believers that had not been challenged and held accountable to learn and live God’s Word. They drifted about, feeding on whatever was currently fashionable and convenient. They didn’t build anything; they just used what others were building. A third group was found in those who got terribly impressed with physical accomplishments – those who thought spiritual assessment could be accurately made in this world. In each case – dogs, drifters and deed measurers – God warned that distraction would come if His people didn’t recognize what was happening – keeping eyes and ears open.

• The third step we mentioned was found in the end of chapter three – we must KEEP PUSHING RELENTLESSLY TOWARD THE PRIZE. Paul leaned into the future – pressing to grow to be what God truly desired of him. He didn’t pull back to a monastery – but anticipated what was coming. The temptation to GIVE UP is very real, but needs to be checked. Paul didn’t say that his future goal was about ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THIS LIFE – but rather about his honest and full surrender to Jesus Christ REGARDLESS of where that would lead him. He wasn’t saying he was going to DO great things for God that other men could see – but that he would reach out to the hand of Jesus in Heaven and grab it more deliberately, more strongly. That is something you CAN do, and that is something you MUST do.

As chapter four opened, Paul had expressed that if a believer dealt with his heart before God, looked with understanding and care at the situation of the local church body, and kept his eyes focused well beyond the constraints of the physical world – they would be ready to face the challenges of troubling circumstances with assurance and stability. That would certainly set them on the right path toward offering stiff resistance to the world’s onslaught of their Biblical values. At the same time, Paul wasn’t done. He now offered six actions that construct a wall of resistance. He argued that resistance was essential to keeping the Gospel open to future generations. The wall needed to be constructed, and the Spirit used his quill to tell believers how to accomplish this vital task.

Six Ways to Build a Wall of Resistance

We can panic and run into monasticism, or we can acquiesce and accept moral ambiguity – but both would be disobedient to God. We are to stand firm in the faith. We are to live in a way that contrasts with the world. We are called to build a wall. How do we accomplish this? Here are six ways to complete the task:

First, to build resistance we must face interpersonal tension – we may struggle to harmonize.

When believers fail to get along, and become settled with the idea that division is acceptable – they say much about what they believe concerning God’s call and power. Paul told two co-workers in the Philippian church to get together.

Philippians 4:2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.

The terms “auto phronein” literally translate to “be of the same mind” or literally the same “midriff or diaphragm; the parts around the heart.” The idea was to “properly, regulate (moderate) from within, as inner-perspective (insight) shows itself in corresponding, outward behavior.” Essentially, Paul is calling for discipline of inner feelings that show in harmonized outer behavior. The task comes down to one thing alone: inner discipline. We cannot expect to get along if we feel we have the right to verbalize every emotional outburst and “let it all hang out”. We MUST learn to deal with our heart within, and curb our mouth without.

Admittedly, we know little of WHO these two ladies were, or what their true role was. We DO know they fell out with one another—fueling a disagreement between them. Perhaps it began as a small slight, but it eventually mushroomed into a rift that began to hurt the entire congregation, and was reported to Paul in Rome. The women may have held responsible positions in their municipality. As a Roman colony, Philippi gave a level of independence to women that was not common in most Greek cities of the Roman period; this may account for the prominence of the women and their disagreement.

James reminds that troubles come between us because of troubles within us. James 4:1-4 offers these words: “1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Before you overreact to the hyperbole in James’ words, listen to the symptoms of a building conflict between believers:

• First, James said we start into quarrels and conflicts because we get hurt by the war within to have what we want, the way we want it, when we want it. We are focused on selfish pleasure so very easily, and when we are bit deeply, and our veins flow with the venom of self – it shows in our stubborn behavior toward one another.

• Second, James argued that when we are fixated with lust, and hunger for something dominates our thinking – we are more concerned about what we want then any care for the another person. We can “kill” them in our minds – their needs don’t count. We quarrel because our desire is our only passion.

• Third, James admits that we stay in a state of distance from God – either not asking Him to meet our inner needs because we know them to be debased, or allowing our hurt to even warp our view of God’s goodness.

• Finally, James ended the few verses with the recognition that we are all too friendly with the world, and that bond pulls our hearts from following God’s priorities. We don’t WANT what God desires; we want what the world offers. That poison can be seen in our comfort with an immoral world, and our bickering with the family of God.

Paul recognized what all of us in church leadership recognize: the greatest single hindrance to the spread of the Gospel is the behavior of God’s people – especially in relation to one another.

Churches can tear down in one business meeting what took generations to build in reputation in their community. Two arguing believers can reduce the great Sequoia of witness to a pile of ashes faster than felling and burning the actual great tree. The failure between us to get along is responsible for countless losses of testimony and embittering of lost men and women. Some of the people who are most avid haters of Jesus grew up in churches and saw our mistreatment of one another. We must face the fact that harmony is hard – but working for it builds the wall of resistance in a community searching for truth.

Second, to build resistance we must create systems to deal with the growing struggle, and recognize committed workers.

Philippians 4:3 Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

With the issue between Euodia and Syntyche still in mind, Paul enlisted an unnamed individual to intervene directly and assist in ending the quarrel between Euodia and Syntyche. It isn’t as easy to see in English, but in Greek both of the people in verse 2 were female. In verse three, Paul changed to masculine form and called on his “companion” to step in and help the women settle their dispute. One commentator, (Peter Toon) wrote in his commentary: “His identity is not known, but he was probably a respected and influential member of the church whose word would be heeded”. Much earlier, William Barclay, wrote: “Maybe the best suggestion is that the reference is to Epaphroditus, the bearer of the letter.” That sounds very plausible.

Regardless of WHO God used – the fact remains that the struggle needed to be solved and to do so would require intervention of someone. Paul made sure that person understood his RESPECT for both of the women and their help in times past. He made clear that they were believers, anticipating eternal life. He shared the problem out of a heavy heart, not a flippant spirit of gossip. Paul set up the necessary system to bring resolution. In fact, we possess indirect historical evidence that, perhaps, the women did reconcile and peace was restored. Tucked in the archives of the Apostolic Father, we have a letter from Polycarp of Smyrna. Early in the second century, the church in Philippi wrote to Polycarp to inquire about the fate of another minister who had been arrested and taken to Rome. Their letter appears lost in history, but Polycarp’s reply was preserved. In it, he commended the congregation saying: “have followed the example of true love and have helped on their way, as opportunity offered, those who were bound in chains.” He added: “I rejoice also that your firmly rooted faith, renowned since early days, endures to the present and produces fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ.” Scant evidence, I know… but we may be able to conclude that our dear servant ladies resolved divisions and tensions.

Beloved, we must grow up! We cannot allow divisions to foster and disgust to build. We need ways to resolve problems and we need to be insistent in doing so – so that our wall of resistance to the world’s moral deluge is buttressed. The church cannot preach unity and reconciliation with God while fighting behind the scenes amongst ourselves. I have enjoyed many years of Pastoral peace because some around me have insisted on confronting problems and resolving conflicts. It has made serving Jesus where I am much more joyful and secure.

Third, to build resistance we must recognize that the world will watch our demeanor as closely as they listen to our message.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

Don’t be deceived! The world isn’t listening to our doctrinal disputes as much as it is watching our expressions and listening to our tone. Look at the three truths Paul pressed in two short verses:

• He repeated the need for believers to be steady about rejoicing, not grousing. Beloved, some meetings of senior believers don’t sound encouraging or encouraged. We all recognize that things aren’t going well on the moral landscape, there is little encouragement on the governmental scene, and the financial prospects don’t appear to be improving. If we ever forget, there are news outlets on 24/7 dedicated to depression and the fostering of blame. Believers must be diligent to ward off the complaining spirit that is gripping the nation. We are to sound like the buzzing of those rejoicing. God is still on the throne. He hasn’t finished telling His story, and we want to thank Him for His endless goodness today! Drop the attitude. Shake off the negativity. Look up! God is still smiling, in spite of earth’s groans. He is readying the Bride for the soon coming wedding dance.

• Paul placed a goal before believers that they would build the reputation of gentle reasonableness. The term for “reasonable” or “gentle” in the text is well chosen. The word “epieikḗs” is a compound adjective, derived from epí, “on or fitting” and eikos, “equitable, fair”. It simply means “equitable”; and is “gentle” in the sense of truly fair- seeking to keep the “spirit of the law.” Believers must be known as people of principle, but not rigid and unbending in the complexity of life. We cannot toss aside truth, but we don’t wield it like an offensive sword. We have to try to be FAIR with people, and CARING toward them. It isn’t enough to be right, we need to be of a loving nature. Paul’s call was always to speak the truth in love. People don’t care what you know until they know that you truly care about THEM. They don’t want to be a project, or the object of your evangelism – they want to be loved and genuinely cared about. We must see people as God’s great gift, and try to HELP them see God. Pharisees hinder and hold out – followers of Jesus invite in and love. There are times we cannot, but they must be the extreme.

• He reminded them that the Master was close to them, watching and listening. We aren’t motivated simply by the eyes of the crowd. We serve One – and He is nearby. He cares what we are doing and HOW we are doing it.

If we would simply remember that our walk talks, and our talk walks but our walk talks louder than our talk walks – we would do well.

Fourth, to build resistance we must remember that the Lord only removes the stress we deliberately place in His hands.

Every time we address the subject of prayer in any text, I get concerned. It has been my experience that the subject of prayer brings much GUILT into the room, every time it is mentioned. Most believers I know well are very unsatisfied with their prayer life. I am not saying they are dissatisfied with God’s answers – quite the contrary. They are dissatisfied with the time they spend in prayer, and the very mention of it makes them feel dirty and inadequate. Stop. Listen for a minute to what the text says…

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Can any among us truly say they have mastered worry and now stand before God without anxiousness about ANYTHING in their lives? I doubt it. If you are engaged in the battle, your mind is filled with concerns (that is the acceptable Christian word for WORRY!). Paul didn’t say what he said because he wanted believers to read it with dread for generations. He used the word DIVIDED- the term that is now translated “anxious”. Worry divides you energy and cuts your effectiveness. It keeps you awake when you should be asleep and recharging. It distracts when you should be focused. Look at the words closely.

Stop worrying. Give the cares to God. Ask for what you need. Pour out your heart. Share while you thankfully recall all that God has given you. Leave HIM with the problems, and take home the PEACE.

God’s interest in your prayer life is not self-serving. He isn’t lonely. He isn’t denying you the opportunity to do it on your own because you might have too much fun. Facing anxiety is like moving your couch. It is TOO BIG for you to move alone. You can nudge it, but you can’t get it out the door without another pair of hands. That is what God offers. If you want to clear out the clutter and get back to peace – you will need His strong hands to help. He’ll take your trouble and leave you the peace you long for – but only if you let Him.

Fifth, to build resistance we must fight the battle for the mind and learn to think properly.

The battleground in the believer is in the mind. The enemy has lost your soul, and now he seeks to mute your voice and curb your influence. The fastest way to sideline a powerful force for God is confuse the thinking within. Get them caught up chasing the wrong ideas, and thinking about the wrong things. Paul said it this way:

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Paul opened with thinking about things that are TRUE. The word “alēthḗs” is a negative – the “a” means “not” and “lanthánō” means “unnoticed, concealed. The term is “true” in terms of it being a fact or reality that is tested and cannot be hidden. The idea is that it has been tested and is truly authentic.

Paul moved to the HONORABLE. The term semnós comes from the word sébomai, “to revere, be in awe”. It refers to what is “august, dignified, weighty, deeply respected, majestic, of grave importance”.

He urged onward to what is RIGHT. The term díkaios is an adjective derived from dikē, “right, judicial approval” and literally means things “approved by God” or things “upright.”

He pushed them to think of things PURE. The term hagnós is an adjective meaning “chaste, un-adultered both inside and out; uncontaminated and undefiled from sin; not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable”.

He directed them to think on things LOVELY. The term prosphilḗs is a compound adjective, from prós, “extending toward” and philéō, meaning “worthy of personal affection” or “dearly prized”.

He called them to think on things OF GOOD REPUTE. The term “euphémos” meant “well reported of, spoken in a kindly spirit”, laudable, and reputable.

He marked out things that are EXCELLENT. This is the word arétē – the term for “moral excellence” which enriches life.

He called them to think of the PRAISEWORTHY. This is the term “épainos” from epí, “on, fitting,” and aínos, “praise”) – meaning apt praise, or accurate acknowledgment.

Let me ask you something… How should my desire to change my thinking change my actions?

• If I am to think of things that are TRUE what does that mean for the movies I watch, the books I read, and the games I play? Is fantasy that takes more of my day than reality a good thing?

• If I think of things HONORABLE, How much comedy should I build my life around? Should everything be a joke with me? Do I also feed on some ideas of substance? What have I read or watched that really took my breath away recently?

• If I think on things that are RIGHT – how much time should I spend in entertainments that encourage me to laugh at ungodly words or behaviors?

• If I think on things PURE, how many extra-marital affairs can I watch in the movie theatre before I am in disobedience?

• If I think of things LOVELY, how much gratuitous violence should be in my video gaming?

• If I think on things of GOOD REPUTE how much arguing, bashing, and shouting should I listen to on talk radio?

• If I thing of things that are MORALLY EXCELLENT, how many stations should never get turned on my TV?

Paul ended with: “These things consider”…logízomai is the word at the root of the English terms “logic, logical”. The idea is to “take into account”or “reckon” based on this thinking

Sixth, to build resistance we must stress the need for the team to be mentored and instructed to follow the recognized pattern.

Christianity is more caught then taught – but then, so is paganism. What should that mean about when and where we invest our time?

Philippians 4:9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul called on believers to learn, receive and practice truth together. It would bring peace to the body, and progress to the Gospel. People can’t simply get the lessons they need from a message or Sunday School class – they need PATTERNS as much as LESSONS. Consider this testimony:

“Howard Hendricks tells of a mentor who changed his life in his book Iron Sharpens Iron. Howard was from a broken family, and said, “I could have lived, died, and gone to hell without anyone bothering to care.” However, a man named Walt from a tiny church in his neighborhood cared about reaching nine and ten year old boys for Jesus. One Saturday while he was playing marbles on the sidewalks of Philadelphia Walt came by and asked him if he wanted to go to Sunday School. The very thought of school made him decline, but Walt then asked if he would like to play marbles. Howard was the best marble player on his block, and was sure he could beat Walt easy. Walt won every single game, and after that Howard wanted to follow him everywhere. Over the next several years Walt would take the boys hiking, even though he had a bad heart. His teaching and love for thirteen boys, nine of whom came from broken homes, made a difference in their lives. Eleven of those boys went on to pursue careers as vocational Christian workers, even though Walt had only gone through the sixth grade.” (Sermon central illustrations).

This is the pattern: Learn to get along. Build systems that keep us together. Watch how we act before the world. Learn to surrender worry in prayer. Think rightly. Shape through mentoring.

Believers can effectively resist when we follow the pattern God gave to us.

We are about to dive again into the pool of the School of Joy. Before we do, as we near the coming season, I am almost afraid to give you this news out loud, but I am compelled by the Word to do so. Brothers and sisters, we are sick. Some disease pathogens have spread throughout the Christian community, and we have found ourselves suffering in the ranks all across our nation. They are not entirely new pathogens – but there is a new virulent strain in them that our tried and true strategies no longer seem to slow. The world has never loved the REAL message of Jesus – they prefer the greeting card Jesus. The real One challenges us, and He is the only actual and effective treatment for the broken and the lost… Yet something is different in the time and place WE are living. Our population is dramatically changing around us. The Biblical foundations beneath us are being washed out to sea and the incoming tide is replacing them with a viciously anti-god, anti-Bible, anti-anything that seems derivative from the moral system of traditional Christianity. The difference is not in them – it is in the church’s response. It is in the church’s readiness to stand.

Now that’s a heavy set of truths, and it promises to set up a “heavy-hearted” message – but it doesn’t. All is not lost – and God is not in trouble. His grip is as firm as it has ever been on our world and our lives. JOY is the assurance of that truth – and rejoicing is the physical expression of JOY.

Key Principle: Times of trouble may be designed by the enemy to bring doubt, but God desires they to become times of renewed joy.

Before we go deep into our lesson from the School of Joy – let’s take a breath and be human, vulnerable and real with each other. Let’s honestly admit some things that are really uncomfortable…

• First, the Holiday season is a time of physical demands for many of you, and many of you will pass through a time in which you will feel physically drained.

• Add to that the season also is emotionally challenging. For some, they will pass through this Christmas and it will sting, because a loved one has gone to be with Jesus, and you, frankly, deeply miss them. Christmas feels like a family time, but only SOME of our family is HERE – and as they relocate to Heaven, we feel sweeping waves of nostalgia and pain. For some in our congregation they are at the FUNNEST time for celebration, with little children that will love both the gifts and the boxes and wrappings they come in! Do you recall that? Others will feel the stress of failing to meet expectations in others, or having to deal with that part of your visiting family that is most difficult. The fact is, for both the lonely and for all the others this is an emotionally draining time.

• We aren’t even going to mention the financial stresses that some of you are under right now, and how that plays in. In the midst of this draining time it is easy for the enemy to slip in to your life and really get you down.

I believe the enemy takes special delight in making believers sad and even mad at the time we choose to celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth.

Just about that time, the attacks roll in as our energy wanes… we enter the time when all the pagans rage about how entirely “too Christian” the country is, and how unfair that is to their rights. Apparently the message of the wise men kneeling before Jesus has caused serious psychological damage to some who are now coming forward and must be protected. The use of public property to celebrate traditions that ANYONE in the room might not be a part of is now deeply destabilizing to their balance. You don’t have to go far to look for the argument. In the past week the news has been flooded with dozens of examples of them.

• Hawaii News Now reported this week that a “threatened lawsuit had put a halt to what’s become a Christmas tradition for members of the Moanalua High School orchestra. For the past six years, the award-winning group together with volunteers from the New Hope Church have raised more than $200,000 for a charity that treats poor people in Africa. But that all came to a halt on Monday when the Department of Education decided to cancel the concert just four days before the event, because of “…entanglement between a public school and a Christian church”. After all, isn’t it obvious that only the government has the right to give away money in our modern day? Heaven forbid that someone who follows Jesus participate in the process of helping others…

• From Albany, N.Y. comes a story of a cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets. The compromise for his mental anguish and suffering after being forced to stand silently before meals? He gets to quit, take his credits and not have to pay anything for the education. After all, all that standing in silence during prayer time has really been tough on him – so he gets rewarded with a free education worth scores of thousands of dollars – with no obligation to pay back.

• New members of our Congress in Washington describe the open threats made against the Congressional Prayer Caucus – where new members have been warned that if they join the prayer caucus, they will be sued – because the act of a public official praying is so devastatingly bad for the country. Now mixing church and state means that the man or woman of faith should stay away from Washington, because they do so much better without God’s help.

I won’t do more of the dozens of stories… we don’t need to be pushed down. Here is my point: the open full-throated attack on our faith that was at the foundation of this country at its inception is openly underway – and unless our Master blocks it from Heaven, His church is about to experience a tremendous rise of persecution. All this – and I am speaking to people who are going to be drained physically, emotionally and many, fiscally. These things are happening, and God has removed the blocks from them. What is different is the church.

What can we do? How should we handle it?

First, let’s admit the church isn’t ready. We have been feeding on light-hearted prosperity passages for so long, that many a believer isn’t a follower of Jesus as an end in itself. They follow Jesus because they see Him as a means to an end – but their end is self-fulfillment. They want to be perpetually full, and Jesus had an open bag from which they could snack. The real commitment doesn’t become clear until He closes the bag and expects something from His follower.

Now the good part of the message is at hand. Smile and open God’s Word to Philippians 3. Don’t paint the backdrop in the first century as pretty – it wasn’t. It stunk of urine and sulfur from the vats of the fullonica – the cloth cleaning center nearby. Remember that when Paul was sitting under house arrest, surrounded by a pagan populace and Christians that seemed on the whole a minor and weakened force. Yet, what Paul shared through the power of the Spirit changes us!

Step One: Deal with our Heart.

First, let’s deal with our heart – since that is where all the issues of life come from. Paul did not grumble. He dealt with their PERSPECTIVE and their HEART COMMITMENT. Paul pointed believers toward praise: keep rejoicing!

Philippians 3:1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

I love the part where Paul admits that this injunction to rejoice is a repetitive command. He isn’t stuttering, he is teaching… and our hearts get a new surface of hardness so very quickly when surrounded by senselessness and pagan pronouncements. We get angry, we get sad, we get fearful… and we should get back to rejoicing.

How can I rejoice when bad things happen when people are putting my faith and my Savior down? Jesus offered a hint in that very circumstance:

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In the context of persecution, attacking lies and evil words cast before a believer about his faith – he should not lose perspective. Jesus said the disciple should re-focus to gain proper perspective in the midst of painful and adverse circumstances – therein lies the clue to rejoicing. Jesus said: “Remember two important truths that will help you rejoice…

• First, remember this isn’t our permanent home – you and I are in a rental body and rental home. If they take it all, that is ok – you have a permanent one – and they cannot take that one! That isn’t ESCAPISM, it is allowing TRUTH to restore attitude. As the Master said it: “Great is your reward in Heaven!” He isn’t saying that you get a GREAT REWARD because you underwent persecution – that isn’t true. Our great reward comes because of His suffering – and all of us – those who are persecuted and those who are NOT – will still get a great reward by being in Heaven with Him! The issue isn’t what I go through in Jesus’ saying… but WHERE I WILL GO. I don’t belong here as a follower of Jesus – so my HOPE should not rest in some guarantee of a good life while this side of Heaven. My hope is in HIM, in HIS HOME, in HIS FAITHFULNESS to do what He said He would do. Believers who place their faith in Him based on peace and prosperity now won’t be prepared to stick when real persecution comes – because they weren’t taught enough of the BIG PICTURE of salvation… that Heaven isn’t here, and here isn’t my primary focus.

• Second, recognize that you and I are in GOOD COMPANY. If and when persecution comes, we must remember that many godly men and women have been persecuted before us. “So persecuted they the prophets” Jesus said. Ours is not the first generation to face a turning away from the faith – Europe did it before. We have seen this movie because it plays in other places. In a democratic country, a majority may in some sense rule, but majorities are seldom good at maintaining moral standards for very long – because of the heavy downward pull of men in an insatiable hunger to rebel against God. The “many” usually find a way to pull the standards lower. The “few” are left taking a stand once agreed to by “many” in times past… and that is approaching quickly…

The hard part of the words of Jesus and Paul like “Rejoice” and “Be glad” should sober us up in an instant. They require something of us deeper than the surface. They require discipline of the emotions and training of the heart. We must keep Heaven in view, and see ourselves as part of a long line of believers that want to please Jesus and tell His story. Don’t do it alone! Gladness and rejoicing invites Jesus’ participation in my daily walk. Sour faces come from sour hearts. Sour hearts come from doubting spirits. Trust IN Jesus flows out in praise FOR Jesus. Gladness adds the sweetness back to the journey on the way to reward.

My life is not a duty to carry, but a joyful expression of hope to come that I get to share with those around me.

• Young believer – learn that Jesus is closest when we are weakest.
• Adult believer – learn that Jesus is sweetest when troubles are largest.
• Senior believer – learn that Jesus is dearer when our own abilities fail us.

And all of God’s people – we must together learn the tenderness of a Savior that was both willingly wounded for us, and is now vigilant in defense to unfold His story. Rejoice. Let the assurance that God is still on the throne help you to carry you head high, and know that the rewards may not come in this life – but they WILL come.

Step Two: Keep your eyes and ears open.

Paul warned them to keep a sharp lookout for teachers who claimed to follow Jesus, but said and did things that weren’t Biblically sound. He immediately turned from their attention to their hearts and attitudes to warning them of INTERNAL departure from God’s Word in the ranks of believers and churches. Some were IN THE CHURCH that were disrupting it and making trouble.

Philippians 3:2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Though many were causing trouble – they weren’t all doing it the same way. Paul told the Philippians:

• Philippians 3:2 says “Beware of dogs”: The term dog or koo’-ohn was literally the term for a scavenging canine that was feared and hated in the Near East, it was figuratively used as “a spiritual predator” who moves about unaccountable and uncontrolled to feed off the labor of others. There is little doubt in my mind that these were men and women that CLAIMED to be believers, but they would not align themselves with any local church accountability. They moved about, and they couldn’t be pinned down. They had great criticism for churches and believers, but offered no regular help and commitment. They FED – but they didn’t provide. They are in our town, and in virtually every town – even today. It seems unloving to point it out, but it is a direct response to the words of the text – keep a watchful eye!

Some of the so-called “dogs” seem to be unbelievers that make their way into Christian circles but keep their lifestyle untouched. They learn our language, but not obedience to our Savior. Revelation mentions them in 22:15 “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” Notice that in that case they are involved in spiritual darkness, immoral lifestyles, hateful abuses and self-made gods. Notice what binds them together is that they LOVE LYING. They don’t just forget to tell the truth – they CHOOSE lying because it is something they LOVE. They sneak into the “religious community” and try to confuse people by saying things from the Bible, but not speaking, leading or acting Biblically. They open a Bible, quote some of its words and then deliberately LIE about what they read. They aren’t uninformed – they are deliberate. Be careful about what you hear!

We must be painfully clear: Christianity is NOT simply a thankful response to the message that Jesus loved us and died for us. We must be clear that Jesus requires REPENTANCE for salvation, and then SURRENDER for Christian growth.

Those who choose to live wrongly should be loved and invited by us. They should enter because of genuine warmth. At the same time, they should not feel comfortable continually living wrongly among God’s people very long – or the church is not properly addressing the real issues of lost life and sinful behavior. We have seen it: platitudes will draw crowds – calls to commitment will drive them away. We can peak interest with slogans, but growth comes with substance from Scripture. Few want to be told they aren’t good – but even fewer that they must yield in brokenness to God to experience Him as He desires for us. Don’t get caught in the trap that clear teaching of Scripture regarding yielding to God is some form of legalistic thinking… it is NOT! Rather, it is a fair and honest representation of the truth – that God loves us as we are, but won’t let us stay that way. His love IS the answer to our need, and our growing surrender to Him is the response to grabbing His hand in love.

Using the analogy again – not all the so-called “dogs” are of that same unsaved litter, however. Some are plants of the enemy to disrupt, but some of them are simply immature believers that have not been challenged and held accountable to learn and live God’s Word. They drift around in Christian circles, feeding wherever it is currently fashionable or convenient. They don’t build anything, they just use what others are building.

Let me plead plainly so that is cannot be misunderstood. Get involved, share your life, and become accountable, stable and useful as a believer in our town. Don’t drift about. Get off the edge – and pull your weight in a local congregation. Do it here or do it in another – as God directs. Don’t hop around and bop around and “just make friends” and not tie your life down to a body. You weren’t saved just to get your destiny changed, but to become an active tool in the hand of your Savior. Don’t just witness while at work and float around with no tied connection to a church body…I don’t want to stand before Jesus as a professional Christian tourist, that went from one place to another to see the sights and sample the spiritual food, offering a fickle critique when there was too much salt for my taste. I want to share life with others, pour myself out to share the Word and be accountable to brothers and sisters. I want others to lean their weight on me, as I do on them. When I hurt, I need them. When they hurt, I want them to know my heart will be with them.

• Next Paul warned the Philippians to “beware of the evil workers”: The terms “kakos ergatas” are directly translated, and refer to people who work at doing wrong. They are tunneling under congregations, and chipping away at foundations. They are in churches quietly teaching in small classes that the Bible isn’t really God’s Word. They are busy introducing questions into the lives of young believers and causing them to stumble by confusing them. They are deliberately seducing Christian workers and drawing them out of their active roles as leaders. They are offering temptations to trip disciples… and yes, I have met some of them. They have introduced false teaching simply by placing “religious” but unbiblical literature in the racks at the entryway, or pulled people aside and tried to pull apart their beliefs after a Bible study. They don’t connect with people who can answer their query – because they don’t work that way. They head for the weaker and try to trip them. I have a friend who called me after a woman came over his desk trying to grab him as he ran out of his office screaming for his assistant, and got the janitor instead. He said he never closed another door in counseling again! They are all over the place, and every elder and every deacon will need to PAY ATTENTION. They are on the prowl, and they are dangerous. This past year, at a Youth Conference, one man snuck in to tear apart the faith of young people – and he was a college professor at the school where the conference was held. He didn’t believe the Bible, and he wanted to be sure the youth that attended the conference didn’t leave that “naïve” either…so he said until we sat with him and made it clear that he stop or leave. He left.

• The third group Paul warned about were “beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh”.

There are two worlds: the temporal or physical one and the real or spiritual one…but that isn’t how the ungodly person thinks. Sadly, it isn’t even how many believers think on a daily basis… It is easy to get distracted. I am easily duped into believing the physical world is the one I need to pay attention to. The spiritual world seems distance. That sets us up to measure reality in the wrong way.

Look at what God instructed Philippi through Paul to watch. They were to be vigilant about the work or false teaching and EVIL men – those who set their focus on the wrong world and put confidence in the physical world’s accomplishments, understandings and way of thinking. These were people who put confidence in OUTWARD ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

Paul’s argument was not to discourage righteous living or accomplishment – it was NOT TO TRUST IN THAT for righteousness before God. Paul lived in opposition to that kind of thinking. Look at what he said:

• I don’t rely on anything I accomplished in the past, and I count them as a “distraction” or hindrance to right thinking (3:7).

• Every accomplishment is deliberately pushed aside in my thinking and replaced with one more important thought: “Am I knowing the Savior better today?” (3:8). I want to gain a growing knowledge, and a deeper relationship with HIM. (3:9-10).

• I delight in knowing Him more deeply when He is empowering my hands and work or ministry. I learn when I am hurt what His hurts were like. The more I see the other world as the REAL ONE, the more I understand what Jesus went through to come from that one to this one.

The aim is to get passionate about the inner man and the spiritual world! Our prayers should be MOSTLY for the spiritual lives of people – not just their physical pains. Our testimonies should be filled with how God is building our relationship with HIM, strengthening our inner man in spite of the failing outer man. Our encouragement to the younger believers must vitally center on the spiritual delight to walk with the Savior.

Step Three: Keep Pushing to the Goal!

Paul leaned into the future – pressing to grow to be what God truly desired him to become. The temptation to GIVE UP is very real, but needs to be checked…

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. 18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. 4:1Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

Focus on the reality of the spiritual world allows me to live an OPTIMISTICALLY and focused on the FUTURE GOALS in this life. I live with Christ, and when I die it only gets BETTER!

• Maybe you are asking: How can I press on, when I can’t walk very well – because my body is giving way… ask how Paul intended to press on without the ability to leave the house he where he awaited a meeting with Emperor Nero.

• Maybe you are asking: What prize can I seek, since I am not a person who is famous or incredibly talented… ask how Paul intended to seek God more fervently and love Him more fully without the ability to stand before the crowds right then – or perhaps EVER again.

Paul didn’t say that his future goal was about ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THIS LIFE – but rather about his honest and full surrender to Jesus Christ REGARDLESS of where that would lead him. He wasn’t saying he was going to DO great things for God that other men could see – but that he would reach out to the hand of Jesus in Heaven and grab it more deliberately, more strongly. That is something you CAN do, and that is something you MUST do. Put the past down! If you did great things, set the trophies aside. If you did little, stop focusing on past inadequacies…look to the future and grab His hand. What is He calling for from your life? What part of you is resisting God’s hand? Give Him your whole life, because you are a citizen of HIS REALM. Be honest about the need to truly follow Him. Men have lived LIES for centuries, and called them truth –don’t waste your life following that path. Listen to these wise words:

“The fundamental problem Jesus was exposing to Pilate and to the world is not the scarcity of available truth; it is more often the hypocrisy of our search.” —Ravi Zacharias

Truth is in His hands, and given in His Words. Sure, the tide may well turn against His message – but the rising tide may also be broken. That is in God’s hands to accomplish. What is in MY HANDS is to recognize the truth about trouble…

Times of trouble may be designed by the enemy to bring doubt, but God desires they to become times of renewed joy.

Who knows if our joy won’t once again challenge the lost world – it did in the past. Listen to this:

Achieving our ends in a post-Christian nation will require us to step out of our boats and onto the shore of an unclean culture… And if we, like Jesus and His earliest followers, are willing to do that, the time may come again when Christianity topples a secular empire. – John Stonestreet.

That’s true. We have to stretch to reach them. But it will only work if we do it with JOY, not fear, blame and anger.

The beginning of army service is called “basic training” – a time where the body and mind are both relentlessly pushed to shape a straggler into a soldier. We all understand that shaping a life is a process. For most of us, the important lessons we learned in life were learned young, and are now so basic we barely think about them. At the same time, they were vital lessons – even though they are ASSUMED. Think about learning to TIE YOUR SHOES. How important is that lesson for your personal safety? Think about LEARNING TO READ ROAD SIGNS. You cannot imagine how dangerous it would be if someone were driving down the road with you but knew nothing of the word “STOP” or what a red light meant. You don’t think about the BASIC RULES unless something goes wrong… and that is what I want to talk to you about in this lesson.

I mention these basic lessons because we have a problem in the foundational thinking of our modern church. Many leading in American Christianity have made a wrong turn, and masses are following. Many a ministry and many a Christian has lost their way in the process – mimicking the culture rather than being changed by the Spirit. They have overwritten some basic ideas of the Word that are adversely affecting everything from the true understanding of the Gospel, to the very intent of God in daily life. Some are teaching openly that Jesus came for our comfort, and God is deeply concerned about our sense of success and self-image. The truth is, many are being sucked in to a Gospel of self-interest and self-discovery – at the expense of the Gospel of the Word of God. Let me set up the problem for a moment…

Paul was nearing the end of five years under arrest, sitting by the Tiber River awaiting his trial before Emperor Nero. we can surmise a number of things about what he was going through:

• Progress was slowed. After traveling much of the 10,000 land miles that made up his journeys, Paul was stopped and held to a single house near the Tiber River. He couldn’t physically check on the churches, or practically show love to them.

• Attacks increased. Both existing churches and new believers were under attack, both in the public square and by sub groups within the church. Gentiles felt they were second class citizens of the Kingdom of God, while Judaizers moved about.

• Divisions began to show. Cracks in the church were evident. People who should have been mature were picking at each other and the harmony was being interrupted by dissonant notes.

The Apostle had every reason to be discouraged – but he wasn’t. He was energized and positive – because his heart was NOT HIS OWN. His surrender gave him his strength…

He gave his heart to the One who had given His life’s blood for Paul – the Savior. The key to Paul’s current JOY was found in his previous surrender – but it was a LONG and HARD battle for his heart, played out in stages – the most recent of which were inside imprisonment. Last time we saw that a surrendered heart allows God to reposition us in places we would not choose to go, but those places may be the most useful ones for God’s service. Because Paul surrendered to God’s hand, God used him to send a series of letters under the Spirit’s command. The one to the Philippians contains (by my reckoning) three essential thematic parts:

As we open what has become chapter two in the letter – we can see an important truth that is both SIMPLE and HARD…

Key Principle: Growing Christians are being transformed by God, often reshaped against the forces of their culture.

Today I want to see this is terms of two very important transformations that can be practically measured. This message isn’t difficult to understand – but it is incredibly difficult to DO.

Transformation #1: Get out of the center of the circle

The very first transformation that must happen smacks against every impulse we have from the message of this world. We were raised to believe we were at the center of the story, and that we were to be constantly encouraged to see ourselves as important. Here is the truth from God’s Word…Philippians 2:1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

There is no other way to read this and try to “soften” the words. They offend me. God has the audacity to simply state that I AM NOT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. How rude! I mean, doesn’t He know what a treasure I am? Sure He does. But the plain fact is this:

I cannot be the center of my life if Christ truly is. He comes first, and others around me second… I am third.

• The passage opens with some statements that anticipate an affirmative response. The first one is: “if there is any consolation in Christ” – assuming there surely IS. What does that mean? The term “encouragement” is the Greek word paráklēsis – which is properly, a call (urging), done by someone standing “close beside” and is related to the legal term for your DEFENSE LAWYER in court – paráklētos (“legal advocate”). Paul anticipated that ALL BELIEVERS would immediately understand that in Christ we have a legal advocate that stands beside us. That is why he wrote to the Romans that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are IN Christ Jesus. The Law that required death as the penalty of sin has been satisfied in Him. A short way of saying the opening phrase then is this: “If we are free because our lawyer successfully advocates for us…” AND…

• “If there is any consolation of love” a combined Greek term paramýthion referes to a high level of comfort produced by using soothing words or actions. The second hrase could be said this way: “And if God’s love offers us real comfort..”

• “If there is any fellowship in the Spirit” is a translation of the term koinōnía which is properly, something that is shared in common as the basis of fellowship, partnership or community. This could be said this way: “If there is any real deep bond holding us together…”

• “If any affection and compassion” which contains two words – “affection” (splágxnon –the internal organs or figuratively a “gut-level compassion, sympathy, or empathy.) and “compassion” (oiktirmós, as in a type of compassion like pity, also used of the deep feelings God has for all of us). This could be said: “If there is any deep emotional bond of love from God to us…”

Paul is basically offering these three conditions: If Jesus is effectively standing beside us to free us of all condemning charged, and the love of God that is deep and rich is extending comfort to us, and we are truly bonded together… then I want to ask you to do something…fill up the completion of my joy by GETTING TOGETHER IN PURPOSE AND AGREEMENT to fulfill the work God wants to do through all of you. Put selfishness away. Stop concentrating on yourself, your needs, your desires, your fulfillment…and put the others around you before yourself.

“Other person centered living” was the standard modeled by our Savior, and the standard we are to learn to live.

Paul is calling for “BIBLICAL HUMILITY”. Humility is defined differently in our culture than in our Bible. In our culture it is “the quality of being modest, and respectful”, derived from the Latin word for “from the earth”, or “low” (derived from humus, or earth). It can be an “aw shuks” quality of feeling low or insignificant. Biblically speaking, it is something far from that. Humility in the Bible is OTHER PERSON CENTEREDNESS. It is that quality of losing one’s self in something greater than self-directed thought. It is thinking of another because they are more important than you – to you!

In the event that Christians some time in the future (read: NOW) begin to buy into the idea that they are the center of everything – we may start to see things like this in the body of Christ..

• I didn’t go to the service because there wasn’t something specifically “for me” that night.
• If they aren’t going to put more songs I know into the worship, I am just not going to go. It isn’t pleasant to try to learn new ones – I like the old ones!
• I don’t really feel led to support missionaries, I think we have a lot of issues right here at home that we should take care of first!

Paul made the definition of other person centeredness painfully clear. He carted out the best picture of this behavior EVER on the planet… the picture of what Jesus did for us… Philippians 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

No matter what one says of the historical picture of Jesus left by the evangelists of the first century, they are forced into understanding this: Jesus was HUMBLE. He didn’t think He was less than God said of Him. He wasn’t LOWLY in the sense of misunderstanding His own importance. He was OTHER PERSON CENTERED in His actions – therefore Biblically humble. Paul used that truth to reveal something that is only offered in a shadow elsewhere in Scripture: That Jesus consciously chose to come to die for us in a dialogue with the Father BEFORE He put on skin in the form of a baby. The clearest place to see this is the text of Philippians 2. Paul’s point was that they should : “Fill out the joy you have begun in me by becoming servants one of another. Look at Jesus’ model of emptying Himself and adopt His way of thinking about yourselves. In obedience, show His changes in your life reverently, knowing that God can change multiply your work and even change your heart.”

Paul argued that in light of God’s lifting, loving, bonding together of His people – believers should JOIN THEIR THINKING TOGETHER – BE OF ONE MIND. What did he mean? How would that unity look in a practical way? Would everyone like the same things, choose the same desserts and music? NO… but they would STOP BEING SELFISH. They would stop thinking that things should be done in the group that would make them happy, or they will fuss about it…. Why? Because the opposite of selfishness was Biblical humility. Obedient believers want to be like Jesus – and put the other people in their lives ahead of their own comfort, preferences and desires.

Selfishness is never seen more clearly than a spirit of entitlement. Fiona Smith, in her blog wrote these words in 2007: ”Although born in Britain, I lived for many years in South Africa, with all its massive social problems. So when I finally ‘came home’ a few years ago I had little patience with people who moaned and complained about poor housing, transport, policing, education and healthcare. When I pointed out that compared to many other parts of the world we have it good, I was told, bluntly, that in Britain ‘we deserve more.’ The American constitution defines certain ‘inalienable rights’, while the British social welfare system sets out to deliver them. We live in an age of entitlement. We demand and expect a certain standard of living: a good house, a decent education, an above-inflation salary, streets free of crime and grime, must-have appliances, designer décor, fashionable clothes, continental holidays… And why not? We’re British. We deserve it….Psychologists and sociologists are linking this sense of entitlement to the rise in violent crime and inappropriate social behavior. If we don’t get what we think we deserve – materially and emotionally – we are easily overcome by a sense of injustice. And this can bubble over into rage: date rage; road rage; sports rage; shopping rage; parking rage … spiritual rage? ….When I was at university a young man called Graeme was very active in our Christian Union. Like Jacob, he struggled with God, and I was drawn by his passion and refusal to let go until God blessed him. But one day he just gave up and pinned his reasons for doing so to the Christian Union notice board. I wish I’d kept a copy of his declaration of the death of God. But I remember the opening sentence: ‘This is why I no longer believe in God.’ Graeme went on to list a series of promises that God had made in His word, promises that Graeme held on to, believed in and prayed for, and how they failed to materialize in his life. ‘There are only two possible conclusions I can make,’ said Graeme (and I paraphrase), ‘either there’s something wrong with me or there’s something wrong with God. I know that I’ve done everything I can, so I’ve kept up my side of the bargain, but God has not come through on His. I can only conclude that God has lied, and seeing God can’t lie, this leads me to the inevitable conclusion that He cannot really exist.’ Graeme left soon after that, and I have no idea what happened to him. I can only pray that he realizes there was a third conclusion he didn’t consider: that his understanding of God’s promises might have been wrong.”

What Graeme didn’t understand was that he was not equal with God, and he was not ENTITLED to anything… but that is not our culture. We live in a culture where the soloist better be ME or I quit the church choral group. My child better be highlighted in the bulletin or I will let you know how deeply hurt I was.

Pastor Newland wrote these words, and I found them helpful: “Do you ever ask yourself on Sunday morning, “Why am I going to church? Am I going because I feel I owe a debt to God, so I’m trying to pay it back? Or because I’m carrying a heavy burden that I hope will be lifted? Or because I like the music and the fellowship and even the preaching? Why am I going?” Why should we go? Well, if we’re genuinely interested in others, the church becomes a training ground where we learn how to help one another. So when you come to church, be on the lookout. Over there is a mother with both hands full, trying to herd her kids through the door. Maybe she could use your help. Or you’re sitting near a guest, here for the first time – introduce yourself and encourage them by saying, “I’m glad you came.” And let them know that if we can help them in any way to grow in their faith, that’s why we’re here. Or when you look at the prayer list and learn of someone who is having a difficult time – get a card & write them a note, and let them know that you’ll be praying for them. Or if someone you know is struggling with a heavy burden of grief or loss, hold their hand, & maybe weep with them. Just let them know that you care.”

Paul didn’t make the Philippians WONDER about what humility looked like. He opened the door to show us a room that was long hidden by God… the room of the discussion between Jesus and His Heavenly Father before the Incarnation.

• Jesus had the conscious attitude of other person centeredness before He had a human body (2:5-6).

• Jesus existed in completion on the throne of God Most High and made a conscious choice (2:6).

• Jesus deliberately “emptied Himself” – a state of self-imposed limitation of comfort and control– to redeem us (2:7).

• His act of humility met the need for our salvation through His death (2:8)

After Paul assured his readers that God accepted and honored the sacrifice of Christ as the Preeminent One, he returned to his main point. They were to work out the salvation they received from God through accepting Jesus, by changing their behavior that was so naturally inclined to think of SELF FIRST.

A youth minister was attending a Special Olympics where handicapped children competed with tremendous dedication and enthusiasm. One event was the 220-yard dash. Contestants lined up at the starting line, and at the signal, started running as fast as they could. One boy by the name of Andrew quickly took the lead, and was soon about 50 yards ahead of everybody else. As he approached the final turn he looked back and saw that his best friend had fallen and hurt himself on the track. Andrew stopped and looked at the finish line. Then he looked back at his friend. People were hollering, “Run, Andrew, run!” But he didn’t. He went back and got his friend, helped him up, brushed off the cinders. And hand in hand, they crossed the finish line dead last. But as they did, the people cheered, because there are some things more important than finishing first.

That is a picture of what Jesus did. Though a VICTOR, He became a SERVANT. Though a SON, He became a SLAVE – and He did it because He had opportunity to please His Father, and to save His creation… As a result, Jesus gave God the Father a public opportunity to celebrate before all the cosmos the character of the Son, wrapped up in other person thinking and action. Do you see it?

Philippians 2:9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus obeyed His Father, laid aside His comfort and preferences, saw our need – and filled it at great personal expense to Himself. As a result, God used His testimony as the platform of celebration and adulation that will one day soon belong to the Savior.

The point is clear: Jesus was exalted by God by not exalting His own desires over the needs of others and the delight of His Father – and we must heed the pattern. Christianity is not about self-exaltation. Its point is not in MY SUCCESS or in MY COMFORT – it is about being transformed into a SERVANT. “Self-service Christianity” is a culturally created infantile and self-centered religion of self worship cloaked in “God words” to sound genuine. Jesus willingly laid down His life, His comforts, and His exalted status to be beaten by His own creation – because we needed a Savior. We are told to define our calling by the same standard. Christianity is about seeing the honor of my Father as much higher than my own. It is about seeing the broken and lost hearts of men as reason to lay aside comfort and self-exaltation – and become a friend to the friendless, and helper to the lonely, a comfort to the broken. As the winds of our culture begin to bite like frost against our faith – we will be tested on humility. A church suckled to believe that God exalts the SERVANT above THE MASTER is a church that will fall away in the face of such cold winds.

That sounds un-American, and is in some circles even un-Christian – but it is thoroughly Biblical. Paul didn’t suggest it – he COMMANDED IT:

Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

We need to see our ability to lay aside our comfort and desire as a part of working out our relationship with God in a way that pleases Him. We need to remember that we will need HIM to help us to surrender at that level – and that is why Paul assured the people at Philippi that God is ON THEIR SIDE if they will work to yield.

Let me cut right through all the verbiage:

• I am not an obedient and mature believer if I make my choices chiefly based on what is most comfortable to me, what advances me, and what pleases me – rather than seek God and ask Him what He wants me to choose. That includes every area of life – home, work, school, relationships, careers, etc.

• I am not an obedient believer if I make up my schedule solely based on the work I MUST do to make a living, and fill in all the other slots with WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY – rather than deliberately factoring in the needs of others around me – and intentionally trying to help.

• I am not an obedient believer if my salvation is all about my FIRE ESCAPE from Hell and not about bringing delight to my Heavenly Father with my daily life and daily choices.

Transformation #2: Join the Team

Surrender has its own SOUND. It is distinct from the world…

Phil. 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

The SOUND of surrender is never whiny. Our obedience and maturity is found in how we handle the pressures of daily life, and the stresses of interpersonal relationships one with another. Hold back your complaints over one another, and increase your prayers FOR one another.

• Someone has written: “On the seventh day God rested….and on the eighth day God started answering complaints.” Some days it feels like that may be true – even when you are serving God. It is easy to get negative, isn’t it?

• Someone astutely observed: Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Many of us have developed the habit of WHINING AND COMPLAINING at the first sign of discomfort. Paul unfolded the simple truth: We need to work together without verbalizing all our selfish immaturity. We need to LIFT the discussion above whining – so that we can be SHINING EXAMPLES of what God wants to show. Let me offer this rule: “If you KNOW you are not an example of what God wants others to see, don’t verbally criticize others who are trying to be!”

There are three very practical tests I can use to see if I am walking in unity:

• The first was the CONCERN TEST:

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

First, it was an effort for Paul to send Timothy, rather than have Timothy take care of things in Rome for Paul. Sending Tim was not simple – it was painful. Paul was more concerned about their growth than his comforts. Concern that is only talk is just a mental exercise. Do you find yourself doing that? Do you find yourself coming up with things you SHOULD do for others, but never seem to find the time?

The concern test is this: Am I deeply concerned for other believers in my service to the King?

• The second akin to it is the COOPERATION TEST:

2:21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. 22 But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. 23 Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.

The cooperation test is about the ability to practically serve one another. Those who serve their own interests were fickle when times were hard. They were at one time with the Apostle – and then defectors when self benefit ran its course. We must be ever so careful not to allow self interest to dictate our involvement. Where do you hear it? “I’m not going to that, because I don’t feel like it really touches me, or meets my need!” Could it be that it meets a need in someone else for you to be a part of it?

Note also that the work of Timothy was advancing the Gospel by serving the one that God called to lead him. He served Jesus by serving Paul. Cooperation, not an entrepreneurial self adventure, was the evidence of God’s building up of Timothy to a worthy help in the Kingdom. Tim bent his life around what God was doing in and through Paul – not expecting Paul to conform a program to himself. Those who desire to learn should work to change their lives to conform to the offerings of the trainer – launching out more slowly and helping with greater fervency.

The cooperation test is this: Am I willing to practically serve other believers who God has put before us to lead us to maturity?

• The third is the COMMITMENT TEST:

2:25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; 26 because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. 29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.

We are living in a generation that hate responsibilities and ignore commitments. Say anything you want about Epaphroditus, you cannot argue that he was uncommitted to the work. Paul called him a BROTHER, a FELLOW LABORER, a FELLOW SOLDIER, a MESSENGER and a MINISTER. No wonder he almost died. The guy had so many jobs in the ministry, he couldn’t fit them on his Latin business card. Saving Epaphroditus’ life was a genuine prize to Paul who was worried he would be buried in administration and service if his companion died! Paul would have lost a right arm in ministry, and been sorrowful and weighted down. Paul sent him (presumably with the letter we are now studying) to assure people their prayers were answered for his restoration to health.

The commitment test is simple: “Will they miss me if I am gone?” If there would be no functional change in the body of believers because of your absence, something is desperately wrong with your commitment – and that is burning a wound in the unity of the body.

Chuck Swindoll wrote these words: “Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.” Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess–weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?” You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.” I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, “Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!” – Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 242.

Do something about God’s Word today.. let it change you. Growing Christians are being transformed by God, often reshaped against the forces of their culture.

As Christmas approaches, you will see and hear the word JOY much more often than you do at any other time of year. If you are fortunate, you will sing, “Joy to the World” and be reminded of God’s great gift to us, or you will be reminded of Jeremiah the bullfrog – but that is a whole other story. You may hear songs exclaim: “How great our Joy!” With all the talk about joy – you would think that people had a clear understanding of what it actually is, but the sad fact is that they do not. Biblically speaking, joy isn’t happiness – you can be joyful at the funeral of a friend, but deeply sad at the same time. The Biblical understanding of JOY is closer to a celebration of assurance. That assurance is not in circumstance, but rather in the character of the Sovereign One that holds all my life’s circumstances carefully in His hand. Joy is rooted in understanding that God is on the throne, and that He is not worn out by being there. He is on the job and He is fully engaged. More than that, joy is the assurance that He knows me and my needs – and He isn’t forgetful. He is the very essence of good, and I am on His heart and in His mind.

In our first lesson from Philippians, we read the opening words of the letter, and found that “Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice. The Apostle Paul had to learn JOY. He had to practice at it – and so do we. How should we do it? We saw seven lessons we glanced at the words of God’s Spirit pressed from the quill of the Apostle:

• He laid down any expectation but that of a slave of Jesus (1:1).
• He humbly recognized his need for the others on his team (1:1).
• He trusted wholly the process of God’s grace that leads to God’s peace (1:2).
• He openly recited a litany of God’s blessings (1:3-5).
• He celebrated the power of the Gospel in others – both near and far (1:6).
• He identified the power that came from tying hearts together in Christ (1:7-8).
• He practiced surrender through prayer –exchanging his broken perspective for God’s whole view (1:9-11).

Now as Paul continued his journey to know, reflect and even attempt to spread JOY to other believers, he had to identify something within, and allow God to defeat it. He had to know and face the fact that there is a strong resistance of the flesh to be molded by the Potter’s hand. Do you have that problem?

Have you ever tried to mold a shape from dough? If the dough has any yeast within, it will grow and change shape after you have handled it. Leave alone your tiny creation and it will become, by completely natural processes, a chubby and unformed version of your former creation. Only an oven can stop the changes. If you really think about it, we are not altogether different from that dough. Deep within our heart, every believer has fallen “natural” tendencies to take the shaping work of the Spirit of God and push out all the forming work that has been done. We exert ourselves and in our flesh we often undo the changes that God is making because of a hunger to regain control by recalling our old systems, our old methods of doing things. Surrendering to the hand of the One who would reshape us and mold us is not easy – but it has incredible benefits and can create exciting open doors for God to use our lives! I can only really spread joy when I am in the Master’s hands and stop wrestling with His shaping work in my life. Our text for this lesson will show a truth that we need to grasp:

Key Principle: Paul’s surrendered heart allowed God to reposition him in places he would not choose to go, but could be most useful to God’s service.

Paul sat in a cell for several years, and then moved to a house arrest near the Tiber River in Rome. Nearly five years of life slipped away as he sat under bonds. He waited for the Master to use Him in God’s chosen way in God’s selected moment. Surrender is truly a self-defining act – it admits limitation in understanding and trust in God’s sovereign plan. I will only ever be what God wants me to be when I recognize that I don’t fully know what that is – and I don’t have the ability in the flesh to get there. As he wrote the Philippians, he said, “I wanted to start churches, but God wanted to reach prison guards. I wanted to teach believers, but God used my prison bars to embolden them without ever seeing my face.” What is at the center of surrender? It is nothing less than excelling in trust in God while admitting my trust in self must be torn away.”

Paul sat in a cell and waited for God to use Him in God’s chosen way. Surrender is a self defining act – it admits limitation in understanding and trust in God’s sovereign plan. I will only ever be what God wants me to be when I recognize that I don’t fully know what that is – and I don’t have the ability in the flesh to get there. I must learn trust to practice surrender.

How did Paul learn to let God shape him?

As Paul wrote Philippians, he sat in his room and waited for another visitor from Colossae. He was used to sitting long hours by now. His days by the sea in Caesarea as he awaited questioning taught him well. God takes His time, and God knows best. Think back with me to Paul’s life over the last half decade before he wrote our text in Philippians. Don’t rush this… because the slow move of God’s hand is part of the point of the lesson…

First there was the questioning of Procurator Antonius Felix, five years before. Felix was a man of Paul’s own age.

• He was given the position of Procurator by Emperor Claudius, who was also responsible for introducing him to his first wife – one Drusilla of Mauretania – a maternal cousin of the Emperor. Claudius arranged for them to marry in Rome around 53, about the time Paul was on his second mission journey.

• By the time Paul met him, Felix had divorced his first wife – after her family connection was no longer of political help to his political career because Claudius had died in 54 and Nero was now hailed as Emperor. Felix dropped her and married another woman- this one also named Drusilla (that way he didn’t have to change the dishes and stationary). The second wife was a Judean princess – the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I (whose death “smitten of worms” was recorded in Acts 12).

• Felix’s second wife, we’ll call her “Drusilla II” like a boat named at a nearby dock – became an interesting historical footnote. She and two children perished along with the many of the inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 CE. Drusilla was one of only two major figures reported as dying in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the other being Pliny the Elder. Little did she know when she sat in Acts 24:24 on a judgment seat before Paul, that one day Paul’s Master would sit in permanent judgment over her life – abruptly ended by a volcano.

Paul met Felix at a time of transition for the Procurator. His term of service was nearly completed, and his Imperial patron was no longer on the throne. Nero was a good Emperor for his first years (before 59 when he killed his mother). Felix was facing an uncertain future with a new Judean bride. Would he be called back to Rome? He probably didn’t know. This was a time for uncertainty. You can hear it when reading the New Testament account. Luke reminds us of the time Paul and Felix met:

Acts 24:24 But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” 26 At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. 27 But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

Paul prayed fervently, met with Antonius Felix, and then saw his hope fade as he was sent back to his cell, time after time. The frequent discussions may have helped Paul to interject the Gospel, but didn’t get him out of prison. At the same time, they were the closest to LIFE that Felix would ever get. He heard of Christ. He heard of a life free of facing the JUDGE of man. His greed and his fear blinded him – just as it has so many others since.

Felix wasn’t so different from many people we meet today. Any discussion of things like “righteousness”, “self control” and “judgment to come” make them squirm. They want the Gospel of God’s love – not the one that requires them to deny themselves and take up His cross daily to follow Him. I understand. I want to be selfish now and glorified later – but that isn’t Christianity. At least Felix lived when it was clear that you either needed to surrender life and choice to Jesus – or not claim to be a follower. Today, across the airwaves and in many a book there is a “cheap grace” Gospel that pervades – a “have it all now” and “get it all later” version. That teaching isn’t the Gospel of the Apostles – it is a much more modern adaptation. It is not about sacrifice or loving service of Jesus, but about personal greed and comfort. If the Gospel of ME were available at the time of Procurator Felix, he may well have signed on to the Jesus movement – but it would have been the same cloaked self-centered faith that it is today – not a real heart transformation that leads to following Jesus Christ.

Don’t back down when people try to suggest that a Gospel that includes surrender is not the real Gospel. Look at what Paul was sharing. Ask why he didn’t just emphasize what Felix could get from Jesus, but rather what was truly at stake without surrender of the heart and life. Paul’s Gospel wasn’t so easy, and we need to be careful that ours isn’t either. Some would call what I am saying heresy – but it is right within the black and white words of Luke’s account in Acts 24:25. The words of Paul to a lost man were not simply about self-benefit and self-acquisition. It wasn’t all – “You get Heaven… and you get blessing… and you get healing… and you get…” WAIT! The words were about “righteousness”, “self control” and “judgment to come”. Let’s admit that truth isn’t any more popular now than it was in the beginning of the move of the Gospel. When the truth became too hard to swallow, many simply adapted the message to something more palatable. Voila! We have a Christian message that guarantees heaven but requires nothing of surrender! I can both claim Christ and live for self. The only problem is it doesn’t please God and it doesn’t save – because it isn’t real.

The Gospel is this: I cannot work to get to Heaven, because my sinfulness isn’t just about my actions, but about my judicial guilt before a perfect God. Jesus, the Perfect Son of God put on skin and took my place in judgment. He paid my deserved penalty of sin – all of it. I need only acknowledge the gift by truly opening my life to becoming His man or woman – to be a vessel of His will and His choices – and He will gladly receive me before His Father when my life on earth is through. It will be a journey, not an instant surrender. There will be setbacks and I will never be perfect. That isn’t the point. Christians aren’t perfect, they are on a journey to surrender to the nail scarred hands of the Savior, just as He surrendered His life for us. To ask Him to come into my heart so that He may elevate ME is not the message of the Christian church. Our message is about the exaltation of HIM in light of what He has done for us. Surrender is essential to the message, but it is quickly being tossed out of the faith in favor of a new adaptation called the “Gospel of self benefit”.

Back in his cell, Paul sat. Time passed slowly… The second set of questions came from the replacement Roman procurator of Provincia Iudaea, one Portius Festus. He took office near the end of 58 CE, and Provincial coinage changed in the year 59 CE. As Festus rose to the office, Emperor Nero was sinking to new lows. He had his mother Agrippina murdered, and he stole away a Roman general’s wife, and took one Poppeia Sabbina of Pompeii as his new bride. Strangely enough, one of the houses that you can visit today that has been entirely uncovered and excavated is her family home. The Empire was very likely beginning to recognize the uncertainty of the future as the great philosopher and writer Seneca was called for less and less as Nero’s tutor and advisor.

• Festus not only faced the shifting sands of Rome, but inherited problems regarding the creation of civic privileges for Jews under Roman rule. The status of Jews was a constant problem. Festus wanted the Jewish leadership to be quiet, and that didn’t play well into Paul’s possibility of release. In fact, it imperiled him. I suspect he knew it, and that is what caused him to turn down the offer for a trial in Jerusalem. He knew he would be killed on the road to the Holy City, and never make it to trial.

• If he DID get to the Temple, internal fighting made any trial there uncertain, as the increasing controversy and tension between Herod Agrippa II and the Temple priests in Jerusalem bedeviled Festus’ administration. No doubt Paul heard of the troubles, even while imprisoned in Caesarea.

The Apostle Paul stood before Festus. Festus sought to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem for trial; Paul appealed to the Emperor. Luke recorded it this way:

Acts 25:1 Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. 2 And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul, and they were urging him, 3 requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way). … 6 After he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. 7 After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him which they could not prove, 8 while Paul said in his own defense, “I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.” 9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?” 10 But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know. 11 “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.” 12 Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.”

The lessons in the school of JOY did not take place in a Paul that was half asleep. He was aware of the danger lurking below the surface. He trusted God to do what was best, and at the very same time kept his eyes peeled and mind working to make the best choices he could. Believers aren’t lacking trust when they are planning – they are rehearsing with God the possible outcomes and trying to sense His direction. Paul faced a CHOICE about how to move forward. He didn’t go back to his cell and wait for God to divinely intervene. God HAD loosed him from jail before, long ago in Philippi. Rather, he looked at the options and tried to discern what would be the best direction based on his honest understanding.

I get nervous around Christians that believe that no matter WHAT they choose, God will always intervene in a way that makes their lives easier. That just isn’t how a mature believer should think. God loves me, but His highest agenda isn’t my ease – it is my surrender and His message of life. Paul chose ROME because it seemed the best way to get the Gospel to the place where all roads led. He wanted it to hit home, and then be spread from that place.

A third set of questions was now posed to Paul. It is hard to tell from the record how Paul felt about the apologies and defenses he was forced to give. From the Epistles it seems like Paul knew it was not a CHORE, but an OPPORTUNITY. That is the sense we get, especially from the first chapter of Philippians.

The defense before Herod Agrippa II recorded in Acts 25 and 26 is rich, but time won’t permit us to really address it in this lesson. Suffice it to say that Paul offered a defense of the Gospel so ringing that Agrippa replied that he was “almost convinced”. By the time Paul sat on the Tiber River, he had been through a shipwreck, a snake bite, and a tin of official questioning. His freedom was GONE. His travels curtailed. He was a man on a leash.

Tell me that Paul never had a moment with his inner struggle to surrender. I don’t believe it. He learned TRUST by God’s molding work of love.

He fought the questions that arise in the immature heart. At the heart of many un-yielded Christians is a lack of trust. Does God really know what is best for me? Look at what the surrendered and matured man of God could write:

Philippians 1:12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 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.

• It looks like I have been out of the work for years, but the work has grown in new ways (1:12). (God has the right to set me aside from traveling and put me in a locked room, if that is where He wants to work) – the implications of a slave’s expectations.

• I wanted to start churches, but God wanted to reach guards (1:13). Paul was like any other man serving Christ – great plans filled his mind. Yet, God moved him from the front line of service to the cells of jails and now to a small house by the Tiber – waiting. The great struggle of surrender in the believer is nowhere clearer than when his will is powerfully subjugated by God’s overruling hand. God knows the plan and I don’t – I know only my small piece of the puzzle.

• I wanted to build believers by discipleship, but God wanted to make my life an example to stir others (1:14).

Look at the things Paul found out about a surrendered heart…

Paul’s surrendered heart allowed him to look past the petty nonsense that easily engulfs others.

Philippians 1:15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Jealousy thrives in every community, even the community of faith. Some will be angered by any success of others – because they have an selfish heart. One problem with selfishness is that it blinds from God’s real direction. Paul saw his appointment from God – it was clear and real to him. At the same time, as a mature believer, Paul lost no sleep trying to discern the motives of other men – but let their works be measured by God alone. He rejoiced in anything that he could rejoice in. He didn’t draw back his hand from instructing people – his letters are filled with specific injunctions against believers behaving badly. At the same time, he didn’t run around looking for a fight. He wanted to celebrate the proclamation of Christ more than he wanted to find what was wrong with everyone else.

Paul’s surrendered heart opened him to anticipation rather than fear.

Philippians 1:19 for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 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. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Surrendered people may not think everything is coming up roses, but they are also not glum people that preach gloom and doom. The plan has not left the Master’s hands. He is very much in control. Understanding that truth is at the heart of JOY. Paul didn’t know if he would live or die – but that wasn’t the point. He KNEW the Gospel would change the world. His only point of anxiousness, and many of us really understand this one, was that HE didn’t want to drop the ball and become a weak link in the chain. He wanted to be bold and face both life and death. He wanted to apprehend in his heart the real meaning of the Resurrection – that Jesus “rendered inoperative” death itself. Facing the sword, he didn’t want to whimper, but to face his own mortal end with an air of Christ’s victory.

Paul’s surrendered heart pushed him from no-win to no-lose thinking.

Philippians 1: 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Believers don’t face a lose-lose life. We will either live today, and have opportunity to exalt our King, reach our neighbor, celebrate a sunrise and sunset, sing for God’s goodness to us – or we will leave this life – and stand in His presence complete, our life’s journey over. If we really understand that, we should have the biggest smiles in the town – for to live or to die is a great opportunity to serve and celebrate the Savior.

I love the grumpy old man who said: “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” That was the Roman orator Cicero in 55 BCE! Things aren’t even close to better now, so who wants to put their trust in society and government?

Why do we labor so hard to be encouraged and seem so easily discouraged? Do we not DESIRE to honor the Savior with the day we have? Are we unsure of what life will be when the body dies? Is the problem that He hasn’t spoken or that I haven’t believed? I suspect we know the answer. It is time for believers to recognize they have been duped into measuring life by material prosperity and not by things that are real. Nothing you buy on “Black Friday” goes past the black hearse at the end of your life. It isn’t real. It isn’t the root and source of happiness. It is just more STUFF. If it helps you be what God wants you to be for Him today, then it is a tool in your hand. If it doesn’t – then it is at least a distraction and at most an idolatrous thing. If we measure life from the wrong perspective, we will be negative when we should not be – for God has told us both in this life and in the next what to expect. Life for the believer is one of anticipation – not despair.

If the dollar falls, my faith will keep soaring until I am home. If my health fails, things will hurt more, and will no doubt cost more – but my life is not dependent on this frail body – but on an ever loving, ever giving, ever generous, ever blessing Father.

Paul’s surrendered heart allowed him to focus on the others in his life and their needs.

Philippians 1:25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.

I am always amazed when I visit people who I know are experiencing intense pain, and they ask about me and my family. I feel small when I stand next to those who have graduated from the school of God’s amazing “other person focused” curriculum. Mature believers care about the others in the room. They aren’t trying to constantly re-direct the focus back to themselves – that isn’t how they live!

Paul truly believed that he would return to them though he was about to stand before a man whose picture is found in the dictionary under the word “unstable”. Nero was at least unpredictable and at most despicably cruel and heartless. Paul was confident, because he was looking at the church of Philippi and projecting the hope that God would allow him yet another time to sit with them, love on them and share with them. Surrender and self run in opposite directions, and Paul was not his own. You can hear it in his words.

Paul’s surrendered heart gave him confidence that God was always working His plan in the best way.

Philippians 1:27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. 29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

Those who lack surrender lack trust. They lack confidence that God is capable, qualified and truly GOOD. That lack robs the essential elements of JOY from them. They keep score on wrongs committed against them, and bump up their own score on righteousness. They whimper, whine and complain, and then sing hymns of faith on Sunday like an opera star.

Look at Paul’s words. He PUSHED the people to LIVE CHRIST, not just talk Christ. They weren’t supposed to relax the Gospel because of his imprisonment – they were to step it up! They were to anticipate that God was GOOD even if persecution and suffering increased. They were not to back away from the faith because their leader was under arrest and facing Nero – they were to see this as God being faithful, and Paul being tested. They were not supposed to shut off the possibility of harder times ahead – they were to take JOY from serving Jesus no matter what came next. They were to learn what God taught Paul after long hours of sitting under arrest…

A surrendered heart allows God to reposition us in places we would not choose to go, but those places may be the most useful ones for God’s service.

Something horrific happened this past week – many of us felt it deeply. I know that across America this Sunday there will be a collective GROAN in churches that are deeply concerned about some of the issues our nation selected as they exercised their respective votes. Some states voted to allow marijuana to be legalized. Others voted to install in the Senate openly homosexual leaders in the country. Still others defiantly framed “true care for women” as the unmitigated and inalienable right of a woman to terminate a life in her womb – even if it simply because she finds that life inconvenient. We saw people party in the streets for so-called “rights” that are nothing more than the wholesale licensing of moral wrongs into civil rights. While the pundits spoke of an impending fiscal cliff, many believers across the country were in shock –over the seeming moral cliff our countrymen wish to push all of us over. It was sobering, and it was hard for some of you. I truly do understand.

Yet, I stand as a man full of JOY. If joy is defined as “the resolute assurance that God has neither lost interest in me, nor the power to deal with my problems” – I am truly standing in abundant JOY. I cannot hardly contain myself for all the joy of the Lord that I find within me. You surely have a right to question why I should find such joy and speak in this way. I think that MUST be because I have been spending much time with an old friend of mine – the very man who first helped to teach me about a walk of joy. I want you to meet him today – because he will be our real speaker today. He supplied all the material we will study today, because the hand of God was mighty through his pen. His name is Shaul of the city of Tarsus – but many of you know him by his Gentile name – simply Paul. He was a man who learned joy, and taught joy – and I am one of his disciples in this lesson.

The other day, I stood worshiping God in a dark and dank room that was part of the building, many scholars feel, of Paul’s first imprisonment. I stood in a tenement building from the first century in Rome that belonged to Jews who were cloth dyers and heavy cloth weavers. Situated near the Tiber River, at the heart of the ancient city of Rome, Paul found himself under a “light chain” of arrest somewhere close to where I was standing. From those chambers he received visitors according to Acts 28. From those rooms of house arrest he penned a personal letter to a friend named Philemon of Colossae, and also wrote profound and challenging letters to the small but growing churches at Ephesus, Colossae and Philippi. Facing charges that led him to stand before Nero – a man who killed his mother and kicked his pregnant wife to death – there was a reasonable chance that Paul was at his end. Yet, Paul sat on a stool, quill in hand, with unparalleled joy! He was not a man on the ropes, but a man unstoppable with a message contagious. I want you to catch what he knew. I want to restore the joy to those of you who may be over weighed by life’s troubles. I want you to hear Paul’s surrendered heart and be lifted by his courage and gentleness. It is with that purpose we open the pages of our Bible to Philippians 1 and its first eleven verses. As we do, it will become apparent that Paul learned to meet troubles with joy – but he had to learn how to do it. He learned to stare down loss with a buoyant companion- but it did not come without sincere practice. We will see, at long last, a key truth…

Key Principle: Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice.

How do you face setbacks and attacks with joy? What did the Spirit of God offer through the Word that can supply us with the tools to work at life when evil seems to march ahead and good seems to suffer? There are seven lessons that we must carefully learn to bring back the hop in our step that comes with the walk of a confident and joyful believer.

What are the seven lessons?

First, I must learn to live with the expectations of a bond-servant (1:1a).

1:1 “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus…”

The Roman world was full of slaves. In fact, in Rome at the time of Paul, there were on any occasion more slaves than free citizens. Slaves were not “stupid”, and performed much more than manual labor. Some were domestic servants, while others were employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves. In Roman elite culture Greek slaves in particular were often highly educated. Among the lowest classes, unskilled slaves (or sometimes those condemned to slavery as criminal punishment), worked on farms, in sulfur or rock quarry mines, and at mills. Often their living conditions were brutal, and their lives short in these harsh places.

Slaves were considered property under Roman law – they had no legal status as a person at all. Unlike citizens, they could be subjected to physical beatings, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), sadistic torture, or summary execution. Their testimony could not normally be heard in a court of law except under extreme conditions – and then only after they were tortured – a practice based on the belief that slaves would be too loyal to reveal damaging evidence unless coerced by painful means. Caesar Augustus imposed a 2 percent tax on the sale of slaves, estimated to generate annual revenues of about 5 million sesterces—a figure that indicates some 250,000 sales. The tax was increased to 4 percent by 43 CE under Claudius. Slave markets appear to have existed in many cities, yet outside Rome the major center was of purchase appeared to be ancient Ephesus. Most new slaves were acquired by wholesale dealers who followed the Roman armies. Julius Caesar once sold the entire population of a conquered region in Gaul, no fewer than 53,000 people, to slave dealers on the spot.

In Rome, slaves were sold at public auction or sometimes in shops, or by private sale in the case of more valuable slaves by Roman fiscal officials called “quaestors”. They may have been put on revolving stands, tagged from sale with a plaque of the slave’s place of origin, health, character, intelligence, education, and other information making them more appealing to purchasers. Because the Romans wanted to know exactly what they were buying, slaves were presented naked. The dealer was required to take a slave back within six months if the slave had defects that were not manifest at the sale, or make good the buyer’s loss. Slaves sold “as is” – with no guarantee – were made to wear a cap at the auction.

Why do I mention all this? Because Paul thought of himself as a SLAVE of Jesus Christ. He was not saying it to suggest that Jesus had treated him badly, or shamed him in some way. He was very likely following the pattern of Dr. Luke, who accompanied him to Rome. It appears, from scholarly research, that Luke must have sold himself as a slave to Paul in order to make the journey. Paul’s status on the journey likely increased in the eyes of the Roman soldiers that accompanied him to Rome – because Paul journeyed with a personal slave-physician.

How can learning the expectations of a slave life help me to be JOYFUL? Because the attitudes of privilege and anticipation of personal comfort rights can damage my outlook when it comes to following my Savior. When I think I deserve better than my Master, I become self oriented, and self concerned – and I lose the real perspective I am to have in life. Jesus had a mind to please His Father – even in His death. Paul had a mind to please his Savior – even unto death. Paul did not write that he deserved his “best life now” – quite the contrary. Paul thought of himself as one who was born to serve his Master – and not himself. Did that mean he did not laugh, sing and celebrate life? No, not at all. It meant that he did not consider it strange when hard things came into his life – and therein is a secret.

When believers focus on their own comforts and pleasures, they grow in self focus. When they pay close attention to the delight of their Master – whether in comfort or in difficulty – they become reflectors of a surrendered heart. God is searching for people who desire to serve Him because they love Him – not those who will serve Him simply for the benefits they receive from His good hand.

Matthew Henry wrote, “Whom Christ blesses the world curses. The heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of woman (Eve) and of the serpent (Devil). Why did Cain hate Abel? Because Abel’s works were righteous.“

Persecution is part of Christianity. Jesus warned of it in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. Paul warned Timothy that “…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Timothy 3:12). It is stated, and reminders are placed carefully into Scripture because we are offensive to the world. Righteousness in daily living makes us an offense to people who live for the themselves and feed their flesh. A life surrendered to Jesus Christ convicts those nearby who live for themselves.

Christians need not seek persecution. Conversely, they should neither retreat from it, nor offer retaliation in the face of it, or stand shocked that it has come. Their reward is clearly set in Heaven, and their joy is found in facing earthly strife with the attitude of the early believers who were “…rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Christ].” (Acts 5: 14).

Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were the two American Christian aide workers being held by the Taliban under threat of death during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on America and the resulting U.S. attack on Afghanistan. They open their book, “Prisoners of Hope” with these words, “To the Afghan people whom we so dearly love.” These words reflect the heart of Christians who are willing to risk persecution and perhaps death for the sake of taking the gospel to the lost, those who are without Christ as personal Savior and Lord. They also wrote; “To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your everlasting love healed our hearts and set us free. May we honor and love you with all that we are for all of our days.” (sermon central illustrations).

Blessed abundantly with the “Righteousness” clothed from God’s forgiveness wardrobe, a believer with a surrendered heart does not resist His will, regardless of the pain or cost. They have learned to think as a slave, not as a freedman. They feel blessed to be counted worthy to undergo persecution for the sake of the righteousness of Christ.

Second, I must learn to build a team in my life (1:1b).

1:1b “…To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons…”

A slave and persecution mentality normally makes people suspicious and wary of connection, yet that is a terribly mistake. Jesus warned that His message would divide families, and cause some to turn against their own flesh and blood. Light contrasts against darkness, and makes the darkness look cold and uninviting. As children of light, we are called to adopt the mentality of those who KNOW THEY NEED each other. Christianity CANNOT be properly lived in isolation, nor can it be properly and fully practiced apart from relationship.

Paul knew the people on the ministry team at Philippi, because they openly declared their allegiance to Jesus by putting their time, talent and treasure on the line for the work to grow. Can the same be said of YOU? Seriously, are YOU in the situation that so clearly demonstrates your commitment to Jesus that your accountant can see that? How about your spouse? How about your co-worker? Is your faith obvious, or is it distant and implied?

Paul saw himself as part of the others who were working for the Kingdom. He wrote BOTH the believers, AND their leaders – both their “episkopos” – their overseers and “diakonos” – their congregational servants. He wrote as a kindred spirit.

It takes a team to pull of Christian testimony. It takes leadership, organization, evaluation and most of all – caring. God drew us into team work. The Christian world has far too many ball hogs that want the stands to acknowledge their every accomplishment. The acid test of the Christian is work that is hard, pushing their endurance – that gets credited to someone else. If you can work hard and know that your Master misses no sacrifice, forgets no suffering and remembers every exploit done for Him – without the need for applause this side of Heaven – you understand your call. We serve on teams, and sometimes your roll will not be singled out. Don’t worry, Jesus keeps perfect score!

Third, I must learn the process God uses to draw men and women (1:2).

1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Note that Paul’s salutation was specific and ordered. “Grace” came first, then “peace” followed. The fact is that is always the case in the days of the Gospel’s move forward. Grace is God’s unmerited gift of a personal relationship with him, while peace is the result of a life held tightly in His grip. I need to experience God’s grace before I can know God’s peace – that is the Divine process.

In our day, far too many people are committed to the product without the process. We want a great marriage without the requisite work in the relationship. We want the money that comes from hard work without doing the work itself. We want to play the instrument of life well without the hours of tedious practice on its strings… but we know that isn’t real. Yes, people win the lottery or inherit a whirlwind of money – but most live out their days without the “Publisher’s Clearing House” people showing up at the door. They work, and they save. They try to do their best to keep the job they have. In the process of life, they advance painfully slowly at times – but they do advance. Our faith is no different. We cannot be more committed to the end than the process. We must first accept God’s grace, and learn to live in it – then we will gain His peace.

Note that Paul made perfectly clear the source of these incredible blessings – God the Father, and His Son Jesus – the agent of blessing in a life lost to sin. God loves you. He sent His Son to secure your life and bring you peace where it really counts – between you and Him. No man or woman will ever truly have peace with others until they surrender their heart to God’s rich gracious gift of forgiveness – and then begin to feels the washing over of warm peace that soothes the pain-ridden soul.

Fourth, I must learn to be conscious of God’s hand of blessing and RECITE them (1:3-4).

1:3 “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all…”

Paul was not embarrassed, even under the light chain of arrest and awaiting a hearing, to proclaim himself an incredibly blessed man. He took sheer delight in the relationships that grew out of the expansion of the Gospel. As people came to Christ and asked Him for salvation, the family grew. As the family grew, so the photo portion of Paul’s mental wallet grew. Pictures upon pictures upon pictures of new lives, new marriages, new hope, new smiles. Paul thought about them as he flipped through the plastic sleeves of their pictures affixed in his mind and heart.

He thanked God regularly for each of the men, women and children that were being drawn to Christ through His testimony, and through the testimony of those who were already part of God’s Kingdom. Every time he thought of one he prayed, he sought God’s best for them. He was close to them within, though far away without. He wanted them to know they were on his heart, and in his soul. He spoke words of familiarity and care. “Out of sight, out of mind” is not a Christian thing – quite the opposite. We must intensely follow and fervently pray for those who are spread out in many places, as God burdens our hearts for them.

Fifth, I must learn the encouragement of God’s power through the Gospel (1:5-6).

1:5 “…in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Paul took courage and strength from the move of the Gospel and the power of God saving men and women. We should learn this pattern too. We are too self consumed in our culture. God’s work doesn’t STOP at the edges of our church, our movement or even our country.

A year ago, Dr. Wafik Wahba, Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Tyndale University reported a massive meeting of Egyptians. I had a personal friend in that crowd that verifies what was reported:

“An estimated 70,000 Egyptian Christians gathered on November 11, 2011 for praise, worship, and prayer at St. Simon Church in Cairo while millions around the globe followed the event live on TV and the Internet. This was a significant event: It was the largest Christian gathering in the modern history of Egypt…The focal point of the gathering was repentance and forgiveness. The leaders of all churches came together in unprecedented unity to lead thousands of people in worship and prayer for Egypt: “We are here to rend our hearts before the Lord and repent for all our sins,” said one priest as he reflected on Joel chapter 2. Before leading the people in prayers of repentance he reminded all church leaders, Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” – Joel 2:17. Another priest prayed for the healing of the land and for God’s intervention to save the country from a disastrous famine as the Nile is drying up at alarming rate. The powerful time of praise and worship focused on God’s glory being declared, once again, over the land of Egypt with several songs on the theme of “Blessing Egypt”. One of the highlights of the event was a prayer of dedication, wherein the country and its people were covenanted to the Lord to live a consecrated life. (Tyndale online).

Last week one year later, Stoyan Zaimov, a Christian Post Reporter filed this exciting piece:

October 26, 2012|12:19 pm “A massive four-day national prayer event is starting today, Oct. 26, in the desert north of Cairo, and is expected to draw 50,000 people from all over Egypt and reach around 5 to 6 million viewers with television coverage. “What is happening in Egypt this month is truly awesome. In the midst of increased persecution, turmoil and uncertainty, Christians are reaching out to others and fervently praying ‘in such a time as this.’ Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ during this weekend event,” said Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director for Open Doors USA. A Christian contact in Egypt who was not identified but spoke with Open Doors, a nonprofit persecution watchdog, explained that the main theme of the event will be to show to Egyptian people how Christ can change lives. “There is no doubt that God is moving in Egypt and showing Himself in mighty ways to many of His children, and to many who are seeking to know Him,” the contact said. “The hunger to know about Jesus and to get to know more about the Christian faith is phenomenal.” He added, “These are, indeed, difficult times we live in today. With all the political, social, economic and religious challenges we have faced here in the last few months, all Egyptians are left with many uncertainties and concerns about the present and future. “But we Christians of Egypt are realizing more and more every day that God is visiting our country with a powerful divine presence, and that the things He is going to do in our country are beyond imagination. This is what we pray for and this is what we are waiting in faith to see happening.”

To walk in the certainty of JOY is to trust the power of God to change lives and renew work. It is to believe that economies are secondary and temporal concerns – hearts of men and women are forever. It is to seek prayerfully the encouragement of God’s harvest in fields all about the globe – instead of looking with disdain and disbelief at the weeds in your own yard. The Gospel IS moving forward, and lives ARE being changed. We can grouse about our own moral downturn, or place it in the context of a God that is ON THE MOVE. Joy cometh in the morning (Ps. 30:5).

Sixth, I must learn the POWER of connected hearts (1:7-8).

1:7 “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. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

We talked about TEAM at the end of verse one, but this is something even MORE. Paul openly states that it is RIGHT for him to have them attached to his heart, and it is RIGHT for them to feel the same connection to him. Look at the term “affection” in verse 8. This is the word “splágxnon” – a word for the internal organs. It is a way of figuratively saying “gut-level compassion”; the depth of emotion that is a byproduct of a real and deep relationship. Some of you have been believers for many years, but have to honestly say: “I don’t really feel that about other believers!” Those are hard words, but they are true ones. Let me suggest why that may be the case. Deep relationships form under pressure and strain. Our churches in North America have been largely culturally accepted for generations. Real persecution hasn’t really hit us hard. In places where it costs deeply to belong to Jesus, deep bonds are formed in the lives of believers to one another. We have lived through a time where we had a free hand to be light in our touch to one another. Yet, if the skies truly foretell a gathering of morally dark clouds, the church in America will learn anew the lessons of old – and deep relationships will be forged – leading to a powerful connection to one another.

When openly admitting to being a Christian is costly, the fake fly off. Those who have come to Christ and felt His touch draw toward one another. Frivolous differences flake off. We stop our whining about the silly things. I have traveled the earth and met many believers who have suffered. They are not nearly so picky about each other. They love and support each other with all their respective differences. They have seen the edge of the sword, and they have chosen a family with which to take their stand. It is not done lightly – and Paul stated his connection to the believers at Philippi as witnessed by God Himself. It was profound – because they were born again in the trenches of warfare, not the beds of luxury. A powerful connection is forged when the odds are stacked against us in the flesh, and the work of the Spirit within is all that keeps us strong. Persecution turns believers into magnets – attractive to one another, and deeply committed to standing as one. Prosperity and ease lead us to silly divisions, and frivolous chatter – but that falls away under pressure. In a strange way, believers amid persecution report they feel uniquely BLESSED by one another.

Seventh, I must learn the settling nature of a vibrant PRAYER life (1:9-11).

1:9 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

We have talked about prayer many times, simply because God’s Word speaks of it constantly. We have defined prayer as the exchange of my broken view, forged in weakness, with His perspective. When I truly pray effectively, I leave with a different view than I came. My pleading gives way to rejoicing – for no other plan is better than the one God has prepared for me.

Look closely at Paul’s prayer. It included several elements:

First, he prayed that the love founded among them would grow abundantly – showing itself in real practical knowledge and discernment about how to live righteously. Don’t skip past this, look closely:

• The terms “real knowledge” are from the Greek compound word “epígnōsis” or epí, “on, fitting” which intensifies “gnṓsis” “knowledge gained through first-hand relationship”. It is “contact-knowledge” or appropriate (“apt, fitting”) experience of first-hand practice

• The term for “discernment” is aísthēsis, a feminine noun – the kind of sensible perception that “cuts through” hazy ethical (moral) matters to really “size things up” (used only in Phil 1:9).

Paul was praying that their love would not be blind and theoretical – but experiential and leading toward greater clarity in truth. Believers need THAT BRAND of love to prevail. We need a growing sense of connection that is holy and discerning and practical.

Next, Paul prayed for their ability to prioritize properly the spiritual growth steps that would lead them to maturity. Believers are easily distracted by the lesser lights of philanthropy. We can feed the hungry and build shelters for those in the cold – and that isn’t wrong. At the same time, the Gospel is not a social theory branded to make life on earth better. The Gospel is about the eternal, not simply the temporal. We must care for others in practical ways, but never at the expense of the Gospel or the exclusion of it. Pagans can feed hungry people, and God’s people should do it in direct connection with credibility to underscore the love of God and the rescue message of God’s Word…I am concerned when practical help replaces Gospel commitment. I am disheartened when those who will not profess Christ in their mouth are so quick to pick up a hammer and call that their witness. It is true that we need to care for men and women so that they will see the love of Christ. I simply argue that faith – true saving faith –comes by hearing, and that by the Word of God. No one was ever saved by being fed or clothed apart from the clear presentation of God’s holy Gospel – we must not forget that.

Finally the goal of Paul’s prayer was the fruit of lives committed to Jesus. He wanted them ready to meet Jesus at the sound of the trumpet, carrying baskets filled up with righteous fruit, as an overflow of the work of God’s spirit within.

He wanted love that drove them into experience and practice. He wanted people who could sort out the most important objectives spiritually and stay focused on them. He wanted people overflowing with fruit that came from the Spirit’s work within. He wanted what any real Pastor wants… mature believers that can think and act in Biblically mandated ways at work, at home and in the public square. He would not stay up nights, tossing and turning about this – it was far beyond his control. Rather, he would bow his knees and humbly hand the situation over to the powerful work of the Spirit of the Living God.

Prayer releases me from having to find a way to do what I cannot do. It opens my heart to allow God to show me how small I am, how BIG He is, and how capable His power can be. Prayer brings peace, because it properly moves over to God the things which He says He will care for – and removes me from the Messiah complex of fixing things in my own power.

In the end, Paul had to learn JOY. He had to practice at it. How did he do it?

• He laid down any expectation but that of a slave of Jesus.
• He humbly recognized his need for the others on his team.
• He trusted wholly the process of God’s grace that leads to God’s peace.
• He openly recited a litany of God’s blessings.
• He celebrated the power of the Gospel in others – both near and far.
• He identified the power that came from tying hearts together in Christ.
• He practiced surrender through prayer –exchanging his broken perspective for God’s whole view.

Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice.

The story is told of an old recluse who lived deep in the wooded mountains of Colorado. After his death, his relatives appeared one day from the city to collect his valuables. The arrived to see an old shack with an outhouse beside it. In the main room of the shack, next to a rock fireplace, was an old cooking pot and some rusted mining equipment. A three-legged chair sat beside a cracked table, and a kerosene lamp served as the only centerpiece for the Spartan surface. On the end of the little room was a dilapidated cot with a threadbare bedroll on it.

Within a few minutes of their arrival, a mountain neighbor appeared to watch them pick through the old relics. A few minutes more passed and the family members started to leave. As they placed the few items they found in their car, the neighbor on his mule, asked them: “Do you mind if I help myself to what’s left in my friend’s cabin?” They didn’t hesitate, and thought the man looked just as poor as their old relative turned our to be. “Go right ahead,” they replied. After all, they thought, what inside that shack could be worth anything?

The family drove away. The old friend entered the shack and walked directly over to the table, moved it, and released one of the loose floor boards. He took out all the gold his old friend had discovered over the past 53 years – enough to have built a palace. That old solitary man died with only a single friend knowing his true value. As the friend looked out of the little window, he watched the cloud of dust behind the family car as it disappeared. He remarked to the mule, “They should have got to know him better.” (adapted from Andrew Chan, sermon central illusrations).

Dear ones, I wonder if perhaps many of us are struggling through life because we do not know the resources our Father has for us. Could it be you lack JOY? You can have it, but it will take practice.

1: Learn to Celebrate and not Complain! Paul rejoiced in Jesus over good things God gave him. Philippians 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly…19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul kept his focus on what the Lord of Creation was doing in and through his life. He directed others to see God as GOOD, a giver to those who need. A stingy God was not the One that he served – but a God willing and able to bless. Paul PRAISED God! When our lives are centered in praise, our countenance changes. Our heart is lifted – and those around us are lifted as well.

2: Learn to offer Concern not Command! Paul didn’t focus on his entitlement for help, but understood those who could not help. Philippians 4:10b “… that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.

What a stunning reversal from the norm of self absorbed people! Paul wasn’t grousing at them when they didn’t give – but was understanding and patient about the delay. He evaluated their delay as lacking the opportunity – not the desire. Instead of judging their motives as evil, he offered them a gracious note that he understood their slow response to his needs.

3: Learn to be Content and not Cause Commotion! Paul learned to rest in the place God put him. Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Paul took pains to learn to settle down and allow God to work. We become frustrated and impatient when we don’t see God at work the way we desire Him to – filling our needs as they come up. The fact is that God is under no obligation to jump through hoops for me – and any mature believer knows this! At the same time, it takes a whole learning curve to learn to rest in His arms in my times of trouble.

4: Learn to Cope and not become Careless! Paul could make the most of a little but could also rest in abundant places. Philippians 4:12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

When you first read this, it is easy to conclude that Paul’s chief accomplishment was to be able to live in humble and meager times and places. Look again! The problem of being able to go from “famine” to “feast” was also difficult! Having abundance creates a hunger to fulfill every need in this sphere – the physical world. Moving between times of lack and times of fullness is even more difficult than living in one or the other. Paul learned, and then modeled, the lesson of coping!

5: Learn to Collect but not Consume! Paul drew his strength for living from Jesus Himself. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

In the context, Paul’s “all things” regards contentment in both times of abundance and times of lack. That Paul learned to be calm through both was its own lesson – but here he offers a special secret as to how such calm overtook him. Paul drew on Jesus’ presence and comfort in the watch care of his life. It the arms of his Savior he found peace and stability – regardless of circumstance.

6: Learn to Confirm and not Criticize! Paul affirmed those around him for their service. Philippians 4:14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction…. 17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

People need affirmation, some desperately so. Paul offered pointed positive words to those who were doing well, in order to encourage them to continue to follow the Lord’s gentle leading. He didn’t presume they would understand what they did… He TOLD THEM. Here is a great secret: people don’t leave jobs as often as they leave BOSSES. They leave people, because they find themselves in a hole. One way to add to another’s life is to openly and often affirm their worth.

7: Learn to offer Consideration and not Contempt! Paul remembered the good things people did for him. Philippians 4:15 You yourselves 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; 16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.

Paul wanted to recall the past – but not the failures of others. He recalled the specifics of their generosity to him, and the good that it did the ministry. He kept track of the good, but deliberately tried to distance his memory from the negative attacks of ministry. He knew the best way to lead people was to remember the good and release the bad. The negative only drags you into a slump!

In the end, Paul understood the dangerous traps of the enemy. He knew that he could have chosen at any time to delve into a suspicion about his colleagues, seeking hidden reasons why they responded in each situation. He chose to assume the best of them. He could have dwelt on his problems and sought someone to blame. Rather, he felt the productive thing to do was celebrate God’s strength shown through his personal challenges. He could have set up himself with unrealistic expectations, but that was not nearly as exciting as inviting the team to participate in the victory that he knew they would all eventually experience!