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Good morning. Let's open up our Bibles to Philippians. Last month we spent several messages talking about Reformation theology or those that have been influenced by the Reformation or those that influenced us through the Reformation. This month we're going to spend four Sundays going over each one of the chapters in Philippians so that we will emphasize praise and thanksgiving to God. So if you're just wondering what on earth are we going to study, what are we studying, we're going to study from the book of Philippians concentrating on thoughts of thanksgiving to God and praise to God. Let's open up in a word of prayer.

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Heavenly Father, we pause and we thank You for all of the goodness that You have shown to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. You have called us out of darkness. You have given us a living hope.

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You have changed our affections, our hearts, so that we no longer desire the things of the world.

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But now our greatest desire is to please You and to serve You. Lord, build anticipation in our hearts for the day that Christ would return where we're continually filled with joy and thanksgiving to You because of Christ in our lives and the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray all of this in Your Son's name. Amen. Philippians could be summarized or given an overview with the following sentence. Paul's letter thanks the Philippians for their support of his ministry and Paul encourages them, God's people, to greater unity and to greater joy and to greater contentment. But all of this joy should be seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our joy, our thanksgiving, is not in circumstances.

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It is not in the happenings of our life that come and go, but rather we are thankful to God and we rejoice in Christ because of something eternal. Now, do I need to remind you of Romans 1.21?

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Don't turn there. But Paul is talking about how he would love to talk about the gospel and that revelation. But in the midst of that, he says God's wrath is actually being revealed.

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And how is God's wrath being poured out? Well, it's being poured out upon those who knew God, but they did not honor Him as God. To honor God is to worship Him. In other words, Paul is condemning those wayward people because they have an innate knowledge of God. God has revealed Himself not just through nature, but also through revelation. And although they knew God, they didn't honor or worship Him or give Him thanks. In other words, the world, those who are outside of Christ are characterized in two ways. One, they don't worship God. And second, they are unthankful.

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In other words, how should I say it positively? Those who are in Christ are characterized by worshiping God and thanking Him. You and I, as blood-bought believers, should be characterized by worshiping and honoring our Savior and full of thanksgiving and praise to our eternal God who saved us by the blood of Christ. Well, back in Philippians, we should see that we should be full of thanksgiving, full of joy, and this thanksgiving and joy is found in nothing but Christ and Christ alone. Now, I do not want to disappoint you guys, so I thought I would tell you about the numbers found in Philippians. For those of you that are just kind of trying to keep track of things, the word for joy is used five times in the book of Philippians. Look at chapter 1, verse 4. He says,"Always in every prayer of mine for you, always making prayers with joy." Verse 25 of chapter 1.

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Paul uses this word again, "Convinced of this that I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith." Chapter 2, verse 2, once again, we see this joy coming out.

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He says, "My joy complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, and being in full accord of one mind." Chapter 2, verse 29, "So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men." Joy is just used again and again, even chapter 4, verse 1. He says, "Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm, thus in the Lord, my beloved." Joy is used five times in this wonderful book, but there's other numbers that we need to look at.

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Nine times is the word gospel mentioned. Nine times, joy and the gospel. We would see that the gospel is used a myriad of times. In verse 5, he says that there is a fellowship in the gospel.

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Verse 7 of chapter 1, there's a confirmation of the gospel. Verse 12 of chapter 1, there's progress in the gospel. Verse 16, the defense of the gospel.

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In verse 27, twice he uses that word, talking about being worthy of the gospel or striving in the faith for the gospel. Chapter 2, verse 22, he talks about the service of the gospel.

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Chapter 4, verse 3, labor in the gospel. And then in the last chapter, verse 15, he says,"The beginning of the gospel." The gospel is important to Paul, and so is this whole idea of joy. Not only is the word joy used five times and the gospel using nine times, but 11 times he uses the phrase to rejoice. 11 times. And what's interesting is that they come in these little couplets or pairs. Look at verse 18, twice it's used there. Chapter 2, verse 17, it's used again twice. Verse 18, to rejoice is used twice again. Chapter 4, verse 4, to rejoice is used doubly. And then he uses that phrase just once in 2.28, chapter 3, verse 1, and chapter 4, verse 10, Paul has a joyful tone throughout all of this epistle. And so that goes back to the summary of what we talked about. Paul is writing a letter of thanksgiving, mentioning God's people with a heart of joy because they partnered him with him in the ministry, and he wants to encourage them still to excel more and more in their unity, in their joy, in their contentment in Christ.

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In Christ. Christ really is the center of this book in so many different ways. In fact, Irving Jensen has helped us by outlining the book in the following ways. He has four points to understanding the book of Philippians. For the most part of chapter 1, verses 1 through 26, he says this deals with Christ our life. His second point picks up in chapter 1, verse 27, and ends at the end of chapter 2. Christ is our pattern. Then in chapter 3 to the first verse in chapter 4, he says Christ is our goal. And last of all, he completes the book by saying that Christ is our sufficiency. Let's look at some of these passages with some of the key verses that would help us. Chapter 1, verse 20 of Philippians, Christ is our life. What would be a key verse that we would see here? You can see it, where Paul says that it's his great expectation. It's his eager hope that I will be with all of you unashamed, that with full courage, as with Christ, will be honored in my body, whether by life or death. Christ is our life. It doesn't matter how we live, whether it's going to be a life where it's suffering or ease. He just knows that whether he's living, he's living for Christ, or whether he's dying, he's dying for Christ. Christ is his life, as you can see at the end of that, whether by life or by death. Continuing on with Christ as our pattern, look at verse 27 of chapter 1. "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you, I am not ashamed. I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving by side by side for the faith of the gospel." Here we want to see that we're to do this according to the gospel of Christ. We're to do it worthy of that. That's what our pattern is to be. It's a manner that's worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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If Christ is our goal, look at chapter 3, verse 8.

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Paul writes, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." Everything else that we might have goals and aspirations in this life pale in comparison to Christ. Christ is our goal. And of course, to conclude with this way of looking at Philippians, if Christ is our sufficiency, look at chapter 4, verse 11 as a key verse for this idea. "Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." Now what situation was Paul in?

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Paul was in a luxury hotel where he was being pampered by room service, brought to him by the Roman guards, right? No, he was in prison. He was chained. That was the situation where he was found. And he said, "It doesn't matter what our circumstances are. Our happenings can change. They can be good or they can be bad, but our sufficiency is found in Christ.

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Our contentment is found in him. It doesn't matter what situation that he is in or that you're in." Christ is our life. Christ is our pattern. Christ is our goal. Christ is our sufficiency, no matter where we're found in this world. Whether we're living for him or whether we're dying for him, our life is summed up with Christ. Well, let's talk about Christ our life by going back to chapter 1. Paul opens up the letter by, you know, I have committed to memory the first word of every book that Paul has ever written. Now before you start thinking too highly of me, just know that the first word is Paul. And look, look right here. Chapter 1, verse 1, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. Paul is starting off in humility.

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He is telling him his perspective of the reality of his ministry. He is a slave.

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He is bound to Christ. He's not serving himself. He's not building up an empire for himself, but no, no, no, he is serving others because ultimately he has the master Jesus and he's writing them. He's writing them in prison. He's not moping around. He really doesn't even make a whole lot about his imprisonment, although it does come up time to time in this letter, but he humbly sees himself as a servant, a servant of Jesus Christ. And then he esteems them, the saints, to all the saints in Christ Jesus. Paul is a slave to Christ. And then he looks at them as esteemed ones, the holy ones, the holy ones in Christ Jesus. Paul is a slave in Christ Jesus. They are saints in Christ Jesus. They're the saints who are in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi. And he's not just talking to the saints, but he's also talking to the overseers and the deacons, the church leaders or the officers. And notice that both of them are in the plural, that at the church there should be multiple leaders, overseers, elders, deacons, these bishops that are ruling Christ's church. And he's writing to them. He's esteeming them. And then he gives them a salutation in verse 2, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now what I find very interesting is in the following verses we have thanksgiving and prayer.

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He starts off by talking about thanksgiving in verse 3. And then in verse 4 he talks about the prayer.

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And then he will go back to the thanksgiving in the latter part of verse 4. But then he will pick up the prayer again in verse 9. Let's look at it together. He says, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you." It's just bubbling up inside of him. When he thinks of God's people, he's so grateful. He's not grateful because of the benefit that he receives from them. He is grateful because they are precious to God. We should have the same view that when we come and assemble on Sunday, we are so grateful to see God's people, God's grace in them. What an encouragement they are to us that they've been called out of darkness, just like we've been called out of darkness.

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I just thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Thank you, Lord, for your people.

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We should be encouraged by that. That should also be a pattern for us of just being grateful.

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Thankful for God's people. Verse 4, he goes on, he says, "In all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer," man, he's just heaping this up. "All my prayers, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy." His prayers are just filled with this exuberance towards God because of his people. His remembrance, his recollection of them is a happy one.

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And then he's making intercession for God's people, every prayer of mine, making prayers for you with joy. Look at verse 5. Why? Because of your participation, because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. What does that tell us? That tells us that God's people should be supporting those that are preaching and teaching God's Word, and that there's some type of union, there's some type of fellowship, there's a partnership in the gospel, that we're all in it together from the very first day of your conversion. And even till now, it's going to continue that we have this partnership of seeing the gospel advance. Isn't that wonderful?

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Have you ever visited another church because you were on vacation or because you were visiting friends and you're just like, "Man, these are my brothers in Christ." We have union with each other.

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We have participation. They're advancing the gospel too. God has kingdom outpost all over the place, and it just brings joy to us. It was like, "Man, I thought this world was full of darkness." But look, God has his light even here from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. He's anticipating not just that Christ would regenerate them, not that he would just bring justifying faith and sanctifying works, but it will bring it to completion, full glorification. He's confident of it. Oh, this is wonderful.

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This truly is wonderful. He's anticipating the end of their deliverance, full salvation.

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It is right for me to feel this way about you all. I don't know if he is a Southerner.

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That almost gets close to it, right? Because you hold in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel.

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For God is my witness of how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

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And it is my prayer. Okay, so now we're getting into his prayer. What's your prayer, Paul?

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It is my prayer. It is my prayer of affection. It's my prayer of affection that's in our Savior that your love may abound more and more. You have the love of Christ, and I'm just praying that it would just increase. You want a prayer that will always be answered? Pray that one. Oh, Lord, would you just enhance our love for you, our love for each other? That we just may abound more and more with that love and with the knowledge and all discernment. It's not just a little discernment.

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We know good from evil, but what we want to know is not just what is good, but what is best.

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What's going to ultimately please God? How can we discern that? We need the knowledge of God.

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We need his discernment. Second prayer is in verse 10, or request, "so that you may approve what is excellent." Oh, we want those things that are going to glorify God. We can approve that.

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We can get behind that. Third prayer, "so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." Oh, you're set apart in Christ, yes. But I want you to continually be set apart, useful to the Master, blameless, pure, white, so that when the bride comes, pardon me, when the groom comes, the bride is without spot. What would that look like? Well, verse 11, "being filled with the fruit of righteousness." You know, we're not saved by works, but we're saved unto good works, and we know that that looks like walking in the fruit of the Spirit, or here it says that we're filled with the fruit of righteousness. How does this come? That comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. What a prayer. What thanksgiving that we see going on there. Have you ever found yourself wanting to give thanks to God, and yet you didn't possess the words to give Him thanks?

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Me too. So let's write down over a dozen and a half things on a list of what to be thankful for.

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You guys ready? Oh, this one's going to be fun. We should make a thankful list, a thankful list that says, "God, we are thankful for the goodness and mercy that you show to the whole world, especially to your people. We're thankful for the gift of Christ. We're thankful for Christ's power in our life and His rule and reign over His church. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the reception and the effectual working of the Word in your people. Oh God, we are thankful for your deliverance through Christ from indwelling sin. We're thankful for that. We're thankful that in you there is victory over death and the grave. Oh God, we are thankful for your wisdom. We're thankful for your might. We're thankful that the gospel triumphs. It cannot be bound even if we're bound in prison. God, we are thankful for the conversion of others. We're thankful for faith exhibited by others. Have you ever seen the faith of someone else and you were just so encouraged by that? You got to give thanks to God? Absolutely. We should give thanks for love exhibited and demonstrated by others. We should be thankful for the grace that has been bestowed upon others in the church, especially when you see them serving. It's wonderful to see all of that.

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We should be thankful for the zeal, the passion that is exhibited by God's people.

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There's a lot to be thankful for, isn't there?

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Well, I said it was a dozen and a half, right? Well, let's continue on. We should be thankful for the nearness of God's presence. We really should be thankful for that. He's Emmanuel, God with us. We should be thankful that He gives us the opportunity to serve Him and minister to others. We should be thankful for the willingness of others that give up their property and serve God. Have you just been amazed how some people are always just giving? That's God's grace in their life. They give up whatever they have so that gospel would advance. We should be thankful that God supplies our every need. We do give Him thanks for our daily bread, don't we?

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Our clothesmen, our raiment? Absolutely. We should be thankful for all men and everything.

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Would you guys turn to Ephesians chapter 5?

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Maybe we need just to see it from another book.

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Obviously, Paul's in prison when he's writing to the Philippians, and he's full of joy.

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But when he writes to the Ephesians chapter 5 verse 20, it says, "Give thanks always, and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." There's the command, "Give thanks." In other words, if I don't give thanks, then I have to give thanks for, and that's just a small grocery list.

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If we're to give thanks always, and if we're to give thanks for everything, to whom should we give thanks? To God, our heavenly Father. How should we give thanks?

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We should give thanks to God, our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Unfortunately, we do have remaining sin, don't we? We have heart issues.

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So what hinders our heart from being thankful? Here's just a few ideas. Doubt, selfishness, worldliness, critical spirit, impatience, coldness, rebellion. These are just a few things that hinder our heart from being grateful to God. But you know what Paul would say.

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Paul would say, "You just can't take things off without putting on." Where to put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Because we have taken off the old man. Yes, we must put off the deeds of the flesh and put on the works of righteousness. So instead of doubt, we should trust God. Instead of selfishness, we should serve others, especially Christ.

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Instead of being worldly minded, we should be Christ-focused. Rather than having a critical spirit, we should have the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives. Instead of being impatient with one another, we should be long suffering because Christ has been patient with us. Rather than being cold, we should be full of impassion for our brothers and sisters. Rather than living in a state and a mind of rebellion, we should have a spirit of submission to Christ and to the authorities that He has established. We must put off the deeds of the flesh and put those things on that would please Christ through His Holy Spirit so that we would please Him.

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You remember Romans, how we opened up with? The world was characterized by two things. They wouldn't honor God. They wouldn't worship God or give Him thanks. And I said, as Christians, as those who are in the beloved Savior, we should be characterized by worshiping God and overflowing with thanksgiving.

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Philippians will help us remember that we can give thanks for God's people because God's people help and support gospel ministry. And this book will encourage us to greater joy and contentment and unity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you excited about this?

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But I started by saying that this book was all about Christ, correct? If that is just a summary overview, what would be a key theme of Philippians? It's knowing Christ. You can't have joy unless you know Christ. The most pervasive theme in Philippians is the great joy of knowing Christ summed up by Paul's command in chapter four, verse four, "Rejoice in the Lord always." I will say it again, rejoice. Oh, I hope that this month that you will be greatly encouraged to give praise and thanksgiving to God as we continue to study chapter by chapter through the themes that are found in the book of Philippians. Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we confess that we haven't been grateful and thankful to you as we ought.

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We wish to confess that to you, and we are so overwhelmed how good you are that no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, whether we're a based or whether we abound, you are our life, you are our contentment, and for that we can truly rejoice no matter what the happenings of our life may be. Would you work in our lives, Lord? Would you comfort us when our circumstances are bitter?

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May we find our true joy and satisfaction in you. Lord, for those of us that have not been grateful, would you not just convict us of our sin, but would you encourage us and empower us to walk in righteousness where we're just overflowed with the blessings that you have just lavished and bound up upon us, all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly you have given to us. We thank you and praise you for that in Christ's name. Amen.