Philippians 1 - lose-lose to win-win

How is Paul able to be in what most would consider a awful situation and write to the church in Philippi about joy?
                                                  
 If you would like to give online click here https://secure.myvanco.com/YHPM

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Oh, you guys. Um, let's pray, guys, before we come to God, we I'm so excited to be here. Um and to see so many people that want to know you more. In this moment, let your word um transform us, let us um calm our inner voices, all these things, Lord, and let us tune to what you have for us, Lord. Lord, um hide me, speak through me. Just let your words, not mine, be heard, Lord. And it's your son's name that we pray. Amen. So, as you guys know, new song. We've got a new uh video, a new book that we're starting tonight. So we've finished up with Ephesians, and uh, we've kind of turned the corner in the posters here, and now we're back, we're on Philippians, you know. So I'm excited. If you read through Philippians, one thing that you'll see compared to the other books is a lot of the tone is much different. When you read through Philippians, the tone is more of a uh you get on a sense of friendliness that Paul has with this church, and and it's almost evidence that this is like you could feel almost, this is one of his his favorite groups of people. And you read through, and and one thing that permeates the letter over and over is this theme of joy. Uh joy is used like four times throughout the book. The word rejoice is used something like eight, it's four or five, depending on how you will look at it. Uh eight times rejoice is used glad, and this short little book is three times. And so you see throughout it is this theme that is about joy and being glad and rejoicing in what we have. Now, what's interesting is when you see that theme is to know where Paul is at as he's writing this. This is one of the prison epistles. Paul is in prison as he writes this, and yet the theme that permeates it is joy and rejoicing and resatisfied and excited with what you have, what God is given you. And yet he's written writing it from prison. Now, I've never been in prison, I've never been in jail, but I don't think it's a place where I would naturally have joy, especially in a first-century prison, you know, like Paul is there. Now, on top of that, as Paul starts to tell us about his circumstance, one of the things that he's dealing with is that there are people on the outside of prison trying to cause more trouble for him. And so you're like, wait a minute, so you're in prison, Paul, and people are now causing trouble for you, trying to get you in worse shape, and you're still saying to us, joyful, rejoicing. And as we read even farther, you see, Paul adds to it that he must be close to death. The way he speaks about it is that, yeah, I'm, you know, kind of death is right on the verge, right on the edge, and he may not live through this. And so it's a very real thing. And yet, this theme of joy keeps going. And so why is it that he keeps saying this over and over? Let's read it. We're gonna pick it up through the after, uh, I'm sorry, verse 19 of chapter 1, and we're gonna start there. And just even actually the sentence right before it, yes, I will continue to rejoice. That theme of joy. But Paul says this to the Philippian church in verse 19. For I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit, Jesus Christ, or the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I easily expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage, so now as in always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. And so Paul starts off saying, I, first of all, saying that whether in life or in death, any of those things, that Christ, the I or that Christ will be exalted. There we go. Whether by life or by death, Christ is exalted. And so Paul's attitude, we start to see where this joy is coming from, because he says, no matter what happens, whether I live through this or whether I die, his focus is not on that. That's kind of a trivial matter. His focus is on whether or not Christ is being exalted through what happens, through his circumstance. So he continues it, and he actually says it another way, and this is this verse that was very famous. It's one that we all probably have heard or we know. It says in verse 21, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now I tend to overthink things. And so wait a minute, isn't that improper grammar? I mean, to live is Christ, shouldn't it be to live for Christ or something like that? But Paul actually expounds on this also in Galatians, I'm sorry, in Galatians 2.20, he says this, I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul realizes every action that he has, if he's alive, he's going to live in this new life. That he is left behind his old life and no longer living that life that he's been baptized out of. He renounced that life, that former life. And so to live now is to live as Christ. And so he says, I will die. And to die is gain. Because now if I die, then I get to be face to face with Christ. Right? And so, and he keeps he actually says it right here in verse 22. If I go on to living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I chose? I do not know. I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. But it is necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you and your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me. So he says basically that he's going to serve Christ by serving others. He's going to be serving Jesus by serving other people. And he describes this as his labor, right? Serving Christ, his labor is by serving people. And he's laboring for Christ doing this. Now, he labors not just to preach salvation, but he labors to share the gospel. And it's not just a lot of times when we think of sharing the gospel, it's just to tell people about their they're able to accept Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection, be baptized. And a lot of times I get that mindset. If I share the gospel, it's that. But Paul says when he shares the gospel, he's laboring not just to tell people about the receiving of that, but to live how, to know and discern truth. Right? This is part of sharing the gospel. Once this person accepting Jesus is the beginning of the gospel, it's the living in him that Paul is continuing to be fruitful or to bring about fruitful labor. He says this, he says, you know, to discern and to know the truth, to help these people live righteously, to understand peace that comes from the gospel is all part of that. And then also to use their faith to combat the attacks that the enemy is bringing, and then also to handle the word of God faithfully and accurately. Now, if you hear those things like, okay, that's a pretty good list, Jared. Yeah, you know, it's in Ephesians 6. That's simply the armor of God. Come on. What I just said. And so those are the things, though, that Paul is equipping the believers to do. Yes, you've accepted and you have the helmet of salvation. But now put on the other parts of the armor. Don't just go about just with this salvation, but instead know truth, live righteously, put on the full armor of God. And then he also says this. I love that he what he says is if I do this, if I go on living, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Now, when he's talking about fruitful labor, he's talking about the Philippians. Right? If he labors and then he sees the fruit of their labor. And to a minister, and to Paul, a missionary, this is the truly the greatest encouragement there is. Now, I am absolutely very grateful for every person that leaves on Sundays and Saturdays and says, Jared, nice message. That was great. I am truly grateful. I do chuckle to myself when I totally bomb, and there's nice ladies who are like, oh Jared, that was so that was something, you know? And I'm like, we can all know, you know, we can put it out there, it was bad, right? But the really, and those are nice things, and I appreciate it. And I enjoy all the notes. I keep every note, I've got them in a file in my office. Every note that people give me that's an encouraging note. And I love those things. But I'll tell you what, the truly encouraging things, the things that get me up and make me get up in the morning and continue to go, is when I get to see or when I get to hear about people maturing. When I read and when I I talk to people and they're like, Jared, I don't know what it is, but I found this new app and it finally makes sense to me, and I am in the Word every day. That brings joy to my heart. When we're reading them, I have somebody a while back tell us, yeah, and me and Malcolm sit and discuss these things. When we come in on Monday, we talk about you guys, right? And and so, but we talk about it, and we're so excited when we hear, yeah, somebody told us a few months ago. I mean, we've been reading the Bible and we realize tithing is a pretty big thing, so we better start doing that more. And it's like, wait a minute, you're reading scripture and you're letting it change your life. Those are the things that encourage us bigger. Or one of the greatest things is somebody sat me down and goes, Jared, I'm praying for you every day. And just to hear that brought me to an emotional state that was just, it blew me away. Also, just I we had one student in our youth group, too, that is came and is like, I am struggling so much in math, and I'm the only one that's struggling right now. And I was like, Well, why? Is it just too hard? He's like, Yeah, our teacher isn't doing a good job teaching it, but I'm the only one that's not cheating. I'm the only one that's not willing to use AI to get the answers, instead, I'm trying to learn the work. And to hear this person, the student, mature to the point of having this integrity just filled my heart. And so I know when Paul is sitting in prison and he says, if I have to live, that's okay because it's going to have fruitful labor by giving the gospel to these people and continuing to walk with them in this thing. And I know that was the encouragement that Paul truly was grateful for. Now, Paul turns a corner in verse 27 and he starts instructing the Philippian church here. He says, Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I uh I come to see you or only hear about you by my in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together as one faith of the gospel. And so the first thing he says, and it's kind of interesting, it's just the actual Greek, we read it in the verse here, it says, conduct yourselves in a matter worthy of the gospel. The phrase Paul actually says is be a citizen of the gospel. Now, this I think is a very purposeful word choice by Paul to say be a citizen, because Philippi, the city of Philippi, was formed in 42 BC after the War of Philippi. There was a war there, and it was started as a colony at that point. And so I believe it was Anthony, made some soldiers stay behind. And again, in 30 BC, Octavian forced some Italian citizens to go and live there. Now, in exchange for displacing them out of their home in Italy, he gave them Roman citizenship. So they lived in Philippi, but they were citizens of Rome. So no, if they didn't have the rights of Philippians, because Philippians was just a colony, they had the rights of being a Roman citizen. So they have privileges and honor and responsibilities and duties that a Roman citizen had, even though they lived somewhere else. Now, Paul, when he talks to them, he says, be citizens of the gospel. Sure, you live here on earth, but your citizenship is in the Lord and is in heaven, is in with Christ. And you have privileges and honor, but you also have responsibilities and duties that you don't have at a citizen of earth. So be a citizen of the gospel. And then he tells them here, stand firm. Stand firm in your faith. Um, in fifth grade, I remember very clearly one day at recess. Now I grew up and I like very young, my parents got me into sports a little bit, you know, and so I played T-ball, and I grew up with two fathers, right? A dad and a stepdad, and they both are eager to coach a young child in T-ball, right? And so I had two guys yelling at the sidelines, and I remember going, Well, what do I want to play? What do you guys not know anything about? And they're like soccer, and I was like, that's what I want to do. So I started playing soccer, and and so I started playing soccer, and so up until like that was like at five years old, and I played soccer all the way, and so we get into fifty grade, right? And and so I've been playing for five years, and I thought pretty highly of myself, I'll tell you what. And I remember we're playing on recess one day because nobody else really played, but then for some reason that day everybody wanted to play soccer, and so I was like, yes, these finally, I'm gonna be the cool kid on the playground, right? I was excited for this. And so we're playing, I don't know why we weren't playing on the field, but we're playing on the dirt, and um, we were playing in the dirt, and I remember there was a kid, Chad Lumberg, we were about the same size, and he had the ball, and I was like, Okay, I am a five-year soccer star, A-Y-S-O, right? Uh-oh, yeah. And uh, I'm gonna show Chad what's up, and so I charged at Chad, and I remember just charging him and just thinking, I'm gonna like run at him and he's gonna be intimidated, and he's gonna back off the ball, right? And so I'm gonna take it from him. Now, here's the thing. When I grew up, I had one older sister that was four years older than me. Chad had three older brothers. Chad's brothers were not nice guys to him. And I remember as I'm running at Chad, I see him, and as I get close, Chad did something I've never seen before. He like tensed his body in a certain way, and I remember seeing his legs just shift, and all of a sudden I was laying on my back. And I was like, What? This is not what was supposed to happen, right? I'm staring, I'm laying there staring up at Chad Lumberg, and just like, wait a minute, what happened? That is the image because Chad knew he had those three brothers coming to him all the time, right? And so he planted his feet and he just shoulder-checked me and put me down. And I remember looking, and to me, that is the definition of stand firm. Paul says, stand firm in your faith. Get yourself rooted. Because when somebody tries to slam into you, and they will, when the enemy comes to attack, but you're rooted, who's gonna be on their back? And if you're not ready for it, it's not gonna work out that well. And so then he says also, be united and striving together, right? Whatever happens, conduct yourselves, be citizens of the gospel. Then whenever I come to you and see you, or only hear of you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, united, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. This striving together almost works or gives kind of the note of almost like a team effort, right? Like an athletic team working for a common goal. A lot of times, and especially just in, I don't know if it's an Arizona mindset, Western mindset, we want to have our faith by ourselves. It's a personal thing, and and we want to struggle. I hear so many people over and over tell me, Jared, I just I feel like I'm I'm asking people to pray for me too much lately. Right? When you hear somebody say it out loud, you're like, that's really foolish, right? I've had couples both call me, Jared, I really need you to pray for my spouse. And they think they're doing it behind the other person's back. I know I'm in trouble, and they're just they and it's and because they want encouragement for their spouse. They're trying to do their faith alone, even within their marriage. But Paul says that we are to be striving together. Not only are we supposed to be praying for one another, because if I told you you need to be praying for another person, you'd be like, yes, I can do that. But if I said you need to let other people pray for you, well, well, let's not get carried away, Jared, right? My stuff isn't that big a deal. I don't need to burden somebody else. But that is what we need to do. We're always eager to pray for somebody else. Why are we so reticent about letting others pray for us? And so we need both to pray for and share what we need prayer for. Now, Paul goes on to drop this bomb in verse 29, and he says, actually, read 28 first, he says, without being frightened anyway by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Since you were going through the same struggle I saw, or you saw I had, and now here I still have. Paul drops this bomb that suffering is a privilege. Now it's kind of weird. I'm sure some of us are thinking, okay, well, you know, maybe I don't want all the privileges. Right? And or maybe you're like Jared, do that Greek thing where you tell us what the word really means. Actually, it gets worse, right? Right? The word there, the phrase that Paul uses is God is doing a favor for you. So when you suffer, God is doing you a favor, allowing you to go through this. Paul, who's in prison, people are trying to make his life harder, and he's near death, and he says, suffering is a privilege. What is going on? How did this man come to this attitude? How is it that he came to this part where I mean this attitude is not a natural one? That attitude does not come naturally to me, and I don't think it came naturally to Paul to be willing and look at suffering as a privilege. And Paul, yet he demonstrates that for his people over and over. Through the books of Acts, we see him being beaten, suffering in prison, all of these different things, being stoned to death, being persecuted over and over, and yet he counts it again as a privilege. In Corinthians, verse chapter 11 of verse 1, he says, Imitate me as I imitate Christ. So we're supposed to have the same attitude. How do we go from the attitude I have of, no thanks, I don't want to suffer, to, okay, suffering is a privilege for Christ, allows us to have that. I think we can map out how Paul arrived at that point. The first thing is Paul had a huge confrontation with God's grace. He was confronted forcefully with the grace of God. And I say confronted forcefully, very intentionally, because grace is amazing news. The grace of Jesus, the gospel, knowing that Christ died for us. But before it's amazing news, it's terrible news because we have to be confronted with our own sin. With how short we fall from where we are supposed to be. And Paul was confronted in a very violent way. Jesus shows up and just, Paul, why, or Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And over three days he was blind because of it. And then he was set free. And so Paul was very in this moment confronted by the grace of God. Some of us have experienced that. Some of us have had a moment and we can look back on where we came to an understanding of how awful we are and how good God is. Some of us, though, grew up in the church and we've kind of been eased into it, and we've not had that moment. And that's where I was at. And when I grew up, and so I was kind of I never had this experience of. Fully understanding almost this violent experience of God's grace crashing into me until I was in my late actually probably 30 years old. And in this moment, though, and I have to tell you what happened was I was very just forcefully confronted with my own sin, shown what I was falling short of, and then also shown that, okay, I still love you, Jared. Now, if you haven't had had that moment of experiencing God's grace, it's hard, but it's worth it to sit down and come to the realization that you are a sinner, that your best is garbage compared to the goodness of God. I would urge you, if you're willing and you want to know God's grace more, is to let yourself be confronted with your own sinful nature. To sit down and be real with yourself, and then come to the understanding that God still loves you in spite of that. And so Paul was very violent. So the first thing is that Paul was confronted with grace. The other thing that we see Paul is that his mind was focused on what he had, not on what he didn't have. Paul, in this passage here, yeah, if I die, fantastic. If I live, fantastic. He could have easily said, Well, if I die, I'm separated from you, boo-hoo. And if I live, I'm separated from Christ, boo-hoo. But instead, he says, if I die, wonderful. If I live here, wonderful. Paul in everything says that he was content. He was focused on what he has. Now, as I was writing this, and I even as I was studying out before this, right, as I kind of go through my notes, I came to the understanding at home right now, there are dishes in my sink. And I'm really annoyed because I've done all the dishes over and over the last few days. Somebody else has been making dishes and not cleaning them. Right? Now I'm really annoyed at that moment. And I'm sitting there studying, like, okay, wait a minute, Jared, if you're actually going to apply this to yourself, why are you not grateful that you have food to dirty dishes? Why are you not grateful that you have people you love dirtying those dishes? My focus was on, oh, stink dirty bowls in the sink. Why? Not, man, they had a chance to be filled and be full and show their love and do these things. See, Paul, I would say, and we should be focusing on the things we do have, being grateful for those things. The other thing that we see Paul do, his mind was not focused on what he didn't have, but what he did, but also he served others with others. So he was willing. I am going to labor and see fruitful labor. His goal was to serve other people. See, are so many times we get focused on ourselves, but that's our natural state, right? Is to fill, what about me? Again, with the dishes. I have to do these dishes. Get over yourself, Jared. Right? You get to serve other people and do these things. If I'm willing to serve, if I have this attitude of service, then I'm like, oh wow, opportunity to serve these other people in my house. Instead of the focus on me. Paul understood this. Yeah, I'm in prison, but if I don't die, then I get to serve you more. And so with that. And also, he not only served people, but he served them with others. He was in community. As we read through scriptures, a lot of these letters that we all have, these posters up, we accredit them to Paul. And Paul wrote them, but almost every single one, the greeting that he writes is from Paul and Timothy, from Paul and Silas, from the brothers here, greet you there. See, these were written because Paul didn't do this alone. He had a community around him. In the book of Acts, he had Luke, Barnabas, John, Mark, all of these people always around him, doing this together. We're never meant to serve alone. And so if we're to have the same attitude that Paul is demonstrating for us, we also need to make sure we have that community of people, those people around us. See, our understanding changes our outlook. Our understanding of God, our understanding of ourselves changes the way we have. If we want to have an outlook of Paul, see, Paul's outlook to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul's outlook was the way it was because he understood the grace of God. Paul's outlook was the way it was because he focused on all that he did have, not the things he didn't have. Paul's outlook was also focused on, or he understood, he understood that to live as Christ is to serve people around us. Not to serve himself or to be served, but to serve others. And Paul's outlook was also because he understood that he was part of a community striving together for a goal. Not by himself, that he was willing. And we see this in Scripture too. Greet me in your prayers, pray for me, that I'll be bold, that I do these things. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was asking the other people for prayer. Why are we, we think we're better than that? Why should we not ask others for these prayers? So if we desire to have that same outlook of Paul, then we could also sort of adopt the same understanding of Paul, of grace, of serving, of community around us. Let's pray, guys. God, help us to be moldable, to be changeable, to take on your likeness, Lord. Help us to understand your grace in such a deep way that we are changed because of it, Lord. That our attitude and our understanding, or that our outlook becomes like what Paul says here to live is to Christ, to die is gain. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.