The Wandering Shepherd

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.