Even This Can Advance the Gospel

In this message from Philippians 1:12-18, Matt shares how God can use even the circumstances we never would have chosen for His purposes. Paul’s chains didn’t stop the Gospel. They helped move it forward.

Whatever you’re walking through, God may be doing more through it than you can see. Even this can advance the Gospel.

harbourcc.org 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, church. One more time. Good morning, church. It's exciting, right? We're in church. This is an exciting thing. We should be excited. We feel excited to be in the house of the Lord in this theater. Uh, no matter where we meet, we are God's body, his church. And uh this is an exciting time. I love it. I love coming to church on Sunday mornings. I look forward to this. It's uh it's really an amazing blessing to have an opportunity to meet here week after week. Uh we officially uh just became one month old, uh, according to the state of South Carolina. So there you go. Uh September 4th, I believe, is when that happened. But uh, it's just been a whirlwind for the last four weeks. And uh the fact that we just get to meet here, it's a blessing. It's a real blessing to be here and have church together. And before I start into this message, uh, that we're continuing this work in progress uh message series, I would just like to ask you uh to pray uh individually, silently. First of all, thanking God for the opportunity to be in this place. It's it's an amazing blessing, like I said. Uh second of all, pray for yourself uh that you would be receptive to God's word today. You can block out distractions, uh, not being so concerned about what may have happened before you got here and what's going to happen after you leave here, but really focused in on this moment. And then thirdly, if you could pray for me, uh that I can speak uh with liberty and freedom, and that the words that I say today can have an impact on uh those of you who are listening and including myself. So let's just take uh 30 seconds uh just to offer some prayers to God, and then uh uh while we're doing that, I'll pray for you and for myself as well, and then I'll close us in prayer together, and then uh we'll get started. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, just in the stillness of this place right now, I just ask for your presence to be made evident, God, that we could be focused in on receiving your word today. God, that we would open our hearts and our minds, that this message would come across with clarity, that you would be glorified, and that ultimately we can walk away from this place more like Jesus than when we came in. Amen. Amen. So we're we're gonna jump in and get started. If you were here last week, you realize I I love classroom participation. So uh when there's an Amen opportunity, I fully expect the Amen. Uh, I've told the the last service, um, this is actually August began my 20th year of education uh as a teacher and 20th year as ministry I've done simultaneously uh over the years. So I'm really thankful to continue that here at Harbor Community Church alongside Justin as we kind of lead this thing and do the best of our ability. But we're jumping in this week to Philippians 1, 12 through 18. If you want to turn there in your Bibles, uh I will go ahead and read that for us. It'll be on the screens behind it. And uh, like I said, I have uh about four points today uh as we go through this scripture and take a look at what Paul is saying here in Philippians one, twelve through eighteen. He writes these words I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Paul says, In that I rejoice. So the message today, the talk title is Even This Can Advance the Gospel. And like I said, we're working through Philippians in a message series called Work in Progress, where we are a work in progress. We're planting a church. ING, it's it's in it's in present tense. We're planting a church, we're a work in progress, and we'll we're thankful to be able to be doing that. But in that process, there are gonna be things that happen in our lives that are unexplained and difficult, and that's kind of where Paul is talking about this right now in verses 12 through 18. So I'm gonna jump right into my first point today from verses 12 and 13, which is this your circumstances can become a catalyst. Your circumstances can become a catalyst. See, we Paul writes in in 12 and 13, I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, through everyone in Rome, that uh to and to all the rest of my imprisonment is for Christ. We have a tendency to feel sorry for ourselves, I think, a lot of times. We we feel sorry for ourselves when trouble comes our way and everything seemingly appears to be going wrong. You see, what Paul is saying here is a setback can become a setup. Paul is looking at everything that's happened to him. Paul has experienced opposition, he's experienced accusations, he's experienced imprisonment, he's experienced change, and essentially says, even this, even this can advance the gospel. Paul doesn't say everything that happened to him was good. He says God has used everything that has happened to him to advance the gospel. The chains were real, the suffering was real, but so was the sovereignty of God. You see, Paul was chained, the gospel was not. And I think for us today, the most effective cure for self-pity, because there are a lot of times where we feel bad for self because of the things that we're experiencing, is to actually recall the suffering of Jesus. In 1 Peter 4 1, it says, Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude. Christ suffered, and if we're in this room, we likely have an idea of the suffering that Christ experienced, whereas Christians to arm ourselves with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. See, Jesus willingly submitted to the suffering, yet he never gave way to sin. And we have a Savior who suffered, and I think as a result of that, we experience moments of suffering. We have to go through things sometimes as Christ followers and as Christians. And uh, I'm gonna take just a little tangent away here to talk about three reasons or three ways that we suffer in in the Bible and what it explains to us about those ways. And it's really through uh testing, God's testing, God's uh God's testing us. The second one is through temptation, and the third one is ultimately through our own personal treason against the holy God. But let's start with sometimes God uses trials to test us. Peter continues in verse 12 of that same chapter and says, Do not be surprised, don't be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange was happening to you. See, God tests our faith. Affliction tests our affection. God tested the faith of the ancient Israelites by allowing them to go through tough times, through hard times in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 8:2, it says, You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you keep his commandments or not. See, we're going to experience test the chosen people of God walking 40 years in the wilderness, were tested as a result of their following of God. And God was testing them that they might be humbled as a result of that. See, we shouldn't be surprised when we're experienced suffering in the same way that Paul was not surprised of experiencing the suffering that he faced. See, the affliction in the valley, that's what reveals the depths of our faith. And weak faith, weak faith is not obvious when you're winning life. See, when everything is going your way, it's easy to think your faith is strong. Think about that for a moment and reflect on your own life. And when everything is going your way, it's easy. We kind of get content with our circumstances. Everything is going good. I have strong faith, right? It's easy when uh to have faith or to trust when the bills are being paid. It's easy to have faith when you're healthy, when your marriage or relationships are good, when your kids are doing well, when the job is secure, when people like you, when prayers are answered, it's easy to have faith. But sometimes what we call faith is really comfort. And you discover what you actually trust when the things you are trusting start to get taken away. So if you're losing something today, if God is bringing a trial into your life, it's to test you for a reason so that your faith can be proven strong when you're not winning life. So sometimes God uses trials to test us. Number two, sometimes we face suffering, we face temptation. And let me start by saying nothing happens by accident. Every second of our life is filtered through our Father in heaven. I talked about that last week where you are in the center of God's will, you're immovable. It's perfect in the center of God's will that no matter what is coming against you, it's there, and God is in control of that. And the thing is, God does not lure us to sin. Satan does that. And what temptation does is it causes us to take steps away from God. And that thing that we're being tempted by can seem to be really good, really great. It makes sense, it feels right, it's what I should do, so I should just do it. But in a if we really take a look at it, it's simply a temptation to take a step away from God. A good illustration of that is years ago we had the opportunity to move to Siesta Key. I had a lot of people come up to me after first service and say, we know all about Siesta Key, and we're surprised that people drive to Hilton Head and don't keep going because Siesta Key is so beautiful, it's amazing the beach and the sand and the sunsets. But we had an opportunity years ago, Thaddeus and Noah were little. Uh, they loved the beach. We had an opportunity to get a place there, and we wanted to move there permanently. We felt it was a calling. We felt it was something we should do. And uh in fact, we were driving back from there, Thaddeus was probably seven, Noah was six, driving back, and we we saw that there was a school that was hiring at the time, and I literally walked in in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and I did an interview right there with the the head of school at that school. She hired me on the spot. I don't know what it was about me, but she hired me on the spot. You have the job. I accepted it. I'm like, this is the dream. We want to move to the beach. Everything is perfect, everything's going the way that we wanted to. We have a place to live there. And Naomi's working remote now, and everything seemed to line up in this perfect way that it was God's will for our lives to do that until I woke up in the middle of the night after we put our house on the market and I said, Oh, this is wrong. This is not God's will. I just had this pit in my stomach. I tell Naomi, hey, I don't think we should do this. She's like, You what? You what? What are you thinking right now? I mean, we just put the house on the market. You got a job there, I can work remote. We have a situation that's gonna work. I'm like, I don't know. I'm not sure. But I felt this pit in my stomach, and I felt God just saying no to this. And there was this temptation that everything felt so good, the perfect sunset, the perfect condo, the perfect situation for our family. And it was wrong because it took us steps away from God that He didn't want us to take. And ultimately, I had quit my job at that point, too. We dialed everything back and we got everything back that we we turned down and said no to, and God worked that out in our lives because what we felt was a calling was not the calling, and God put that on our hearts. And what happens is the greatest lie we consider is that freedom exists further from God, and we have to be willing to be in our hearts, able to make the decisions based on what he puts there for us. His desires have to become our desires. See, God does not tempt you, but he may permit you to be tempted for you to make a decision just like that. James 1 13 says, When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own desires and enticed, their own desires. So ask God today if the desires of your heart are his desires or your desire or your desires. And you may be tempted to believe that the reason it looks so good, feels so right, has been there so long, or doesn't go away is because God wants you to have it. But every one of us is has something within reach that looks good but is off limits. Check out the tree in the garden. Charles Spurgeon wrote these words we shall always be in danger as long as we are here. So when we're facing temptation, we have to be cautious about that. We have to remember God's faithfulness, we have to recognize sin's consequences, we have to realize what the choice does, how it affects things, and rely on God's strength. So testing, temptation, and the third one, like I said, is our personal treason against the holy God. Sometimes we suffer consequences from sin. See, sin in our day, sin in our day is communicated in terms of making mistakes or poor choices. I think that's what the world wants you to think sin is. Making mistakes are poor choices. If I don't study for a test and subsequently do badly, it's a mistake. But if I don't study for a test but cheat to get a good grade, it's a sin. See, the world says cheating takes it to a different level, but God actually says a lack of preparation is sin. If you know the right responsible action to take and deliberately fail to do that, it's sinful. James reminds us about this in 417. If anyone knows the good they ought to do, if you know what you ought to do, but you don't do it, that's sin for you. And even the seemingly slightest sin is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us. And as such, it's an act of treason against the king of the universe. So we will suffer. And like I said, I believe it's because of those three things testing, temptation, and our personal treason. But no matter what we're going through, God can pull us through it. His grace is big enough to pull us through any situation that we're going through. And that leads me to point number two, which is this your courage can create confidence. For Paul, uh, he has become confident in the Lord, and as a result of his confidence in the Lord, by his imprisonment, others are bold to speak the word without fear. Paul's courage made other Christians courageous. Think about your courage today. Does your courage to follow Jesus embolden other Christians? Do you make other Christians courageous? See, in this case, obviously the Philippians had already trusted Jesus for salvation. This was a good letter, remember? We've talked about this. And the trusting speaks of a confidence in him as they go out and boldly witness. Our walk and our attitude always has an effect on God's people. So basically, what you do matters. What we do matters. See, Paul's imprisonment just didn't advance the gospel through Paul, and that's a big picture idea today. Paul's imprisonment didn't just advance the gospel through Paul, it advanced the gospel through the courage it produced in other people. That's amazing. Think about Paul and his writings. Think about his writing to the church now, where he is imprisoned, where he is chained to a Roman guard, where he is dealing with the consequences of being imprisoned. He could have looked at his imprisonment, and we do this a lot of times. We look at our suffering, we look at our situations, and we think, I'm sidelined. There's nothing God can do through this. And Paul could have looked at his situations. He could have wrote, guys, I'm sidelined, but God looked at Paul's situation and he said, I'm multiplying, Paul. I'm multiplying, I'm growing the church, I'm creating bigger church as a result of this. Even this can advance the gospel. Something about Paul's imprisonment emboldened other Christians. They watched Paul suffer without abandoning Christ, and his courage produced courage in them. See, Christian courage is contagious. When we're courageous, when we show Christian courage in whatever circle of life that we're living in, it is going to create courage in other people. It's going to be contagious where other people see our belief, they see our faith, and they want a part of that. Your faithfulness may give somebody else the courage to be faithful. And I think I really think as a church, as a baby little church that we are now, I think we have a call for boldness simply to model boldness for our children to be bold, for the next generation to be bold. And I'm really concerned about where our next generation is. I've worked with students for 20 years that we're raising a generation that knows how to consume Christianity, but doesn't know how to follow Jesus. When following Jesus costs them something. We have a call to set an example for them. This week I joined Anytime Fitness. I I've been going to a gym. The gym that I've been going to is shutting down apparently, so I had to join a new gym, which I've done uh many times in my life. And I joined Anytime Fitness. Great gym, by the way. I uh I'm I'm it's a great job. They did a great job over there. It's brand new as itself. But Anytime Fitness got a membership over there, 27 bucks bi-weekly or bi-monthly, whatever it is. But anytime they just kind of get you, right? Anytime fitness, now anytime fitness is gonna let me have a gym membership, regardless if I go or not. Okay, good example. This is Justin. He has a he has a gym membership, but we can tell that that's not often used, perhaps, or maybe should be used more. Listen, he picks on me so much. It's just one little thing, guys. Come on. Um but anytime, think about it. Anytime fitness is gonna let me have a gym membership even if I don't go. Your gym membership is gonna continue even if you're not in the gym. I can literally pull in the parking lot every single day and then leave, and I'm still a member of Anytime Fitness. They're gonna keep me, they're gonna keep charging me by weekly or monthly, whatever it is to have that membership. I can walk inside the gym, I could sit down on the bench, I could never move a weight, and I'm still a member of Anytime Fitness. I could go in the gym, I could get a drink of water from the fountain, walk back out. I'm still a member of Anytime Fitness. See, showing up is just the beginning. We have a responsibility here as a church. And I wonder, I wonder if what we've done is we've reduced Christianity to showing up. And like I said last week, I'm not so concerned about the seating capacity. I think it's great. We have a full church, and it's amazing how many people have shown up, but I am more concerned about our sending capacity. How many of you are going into your ecosystems this week and actually having a conversation about Jesus Christ, showing Jesus Christ to the people that are in your sit in your circle, showing them what it means to follow Jesus. We have reduced it to showing up. I went to church, we checked the box, I sang the songs, I listened to the message, I took communion. These things matter. I'm not saying they don't. But Jesus never said show up. Jesus said, follow me. What we need today are true disciples. We need outspoken followers of Jesus the righteous. We need bold believers. We need grateful givers. We need radical Christians that spread the good news of Jesus Christ through love and mercy and kindness and a smile on their face that God is working out every detail in their lives. We need men and women to suffer, willing to suffer for the gospel. And listen, we have it easy on Hilton Head Island. We have it easy in the context of the world. And if your greatest sacrifice for the kingdom is waking up early on a Sunday, you have misunderstood sacrifice. See, Jesus did not call us to consume Christianity. Jesus calls us to carry a cross, to die to ourselves. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, I grew up Methodist, it means a lot to me. John Wesley wrote these words Give me 100 men who love God and hate sin. And we will turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. I bet we could find 100 men and women who love Christ, but that's just the first part. What about 100 men and women who hate sin? And I've always said we must pray for revival on this island. If you've heard me speak in the last three years, I've said it before. We must pray for revival on this island, but first we need revival in our hearts. And a revived heart is ready when God presents an opportunity. A revived heart is ready when God presents an opportunity. You see something happen that is a Christian opportunity, a spiritual movement, you take it. An opportunity is a time favorable for a purpose. In Latin, the word opportunity means toward the port. It's when a ship takes full advantage of the wind and the tide to arrive safely in the harbor. And maybe that's a picture of what God is doing with us right now. We do not choose every wind that brought us here. We do not choose the storm. We do not choose every circumstance. But God can use the wind. Even the wind we didn't expect to move us to the places where He wants us to be. And the question, church, the question is not whether the wind is blowing. The question is whether we'll raise the sails. Which leads me to point number three, which is this their motives should not impact your mission. Their motives should not impact your mission. Coming from 15 through 17. The clear application of this text is to check your motives. People were preaching the gospel as a result of Paul's imprisonment. There are two categories that Paul talks about here. Number one, sharing Christ with others out of goodwill and love. That's the first category. The second one is this people in it for what they could get. People doing Jesus things for what they could get. Fame, respect, authority, control, money, favors. See, the second group, the second group that Paul's talking about here envied Paul's popularity. They wanted to prove that they were just uh just as good or even more better, even better as an effective minister than he was. Now here's the amazing thing. This is the amazing thing here. Paul rejoiced in both circumstances, in both situations, Paul rejoiced. He doesn't spend his energy trying to uh expose everybody else's motives. He entrusts their motives to God and keeps his attention on his mission. How much better would we be as a church if we focused on ourselves and our mission and our very own motives instead of looking around us? Because I can't control your motives. I don't have control over that. You can't control my motives, but what I can do and what you can do is ask God to search your heart to make sure your motives align with his motives. See, we can spend our lives trying to prove somebody else was wrong, or this is one of these amen moments. I'm gonna set you up here. We can spend our lives trying to prove somebody else was wrong, or we can spend our lives proclaiming that Jesus is righteous. See, someone else's motives, those motives don't determine my mission. Someone else's jealousy does not steal my joy, someone else's criticism does not stop my calling. Even this can advance the gospel. God's word is living, God's word is active, God's word is powerful, and the power is in the message. The power's not in the messenger. The detractors they valued success, not because the gospel was winning. Evil motives did not steal Paul's joy. Paul was content, and Paul refused to play the game. Which leads me to number four, and what Paul was really focused on. In verse 18, it says, What then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. And in another uh version says, and again I will rejoice. Celebrate when Christ is proclaimed. Celebrate that. Paul did not care about being admired by everyone or to achieve great fame. His goal was not to be self-indulgent. Paul's joy, the joy of Paul was based on his steadfast focus on Jesus Christ and the gospel. Now think about what Paul's letter could have looked like to the Philippian church. He could have easily written, Why me, Lord? Why me? Why am I going through the suffering? Everyone else is having success. Everyone else is being able to preach the gospel without chains. Why am I here? Why am I dealing with this? And how often do we do that as people, as Christians? We say, Why me, Lord? Whether we verbally say it, where we say it within ourselves, whether we act like it with our attitude, we say, Why me, Lord? Instead, Paul says, Why does it matter as long as Christ is preached? The thing Paul sees in spite of all their envy and selfishness is that Christ is openly, publicly proclaimed. And one of the surest measures of our spiritual maturity is what it takes to rob our joy. Corey Tenboom, maybe you've heard of her. She was a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor, known for helping Jews escape Nazi persecution during World War II. She wrote these words. Look around and be distressed. Look inside and be depressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. See, what does it take to steal your joy? A bad day? A difficult conversation? Someone criticizing you, a health issue, something not going as you planned, a financial setback, someone treating you unfairly. Look at Paul Church. He is chained to a Roman soldier writing a letter. I thought a great illustration would have Justin dressed up as a Roman soldier chained to him. But it's the gym thing, Justin. You just don't look the part, man. Paul was chained to a Roman soldier. Now, maybe do a deep dive on this. This is some homework for you. Go home and take a look at what exactly this meant for Paul. And you know, the interesting thing to me, Paul didn't write this, but I'm sure his mindset, after reading a lot of Paul in the Bible, he's probably uh his mindset here was, you think I'm chained to you? It's more like God chained you to me. He lost his freedom, he lost his privacy, he cannot determine where he goes, he cannot determine what he does, yet he has joy. Paul has joy. Even this can advance the gospel. The chains, even this, the prison, even this, the criticism, even this, the people trying to hurt him, even this, the circumstances he never would have chosen, even this can advance the gospel. See, God is so sovereign that he can take the very thing that you would you would think would stop his work and use it to advance his work. See, Christian joy is not pretending all is well. Paul is not pretending that the chains aren't there. Paul's not pretending that prison is fun, he's not minimalizing what has happened to him. But here's what we do, church. Sometimes we give our circumstances too much power. We give our circumstances of what is going good and what is going bad, the victories and the valleys. We give those circumstances too much power because if your joy disappears the moment your circumstances change, maybe your joy has not been rooted in Christ, but in circumstances. Paul's joy was Jesus is being made known. And church, that needs to be our mission, vision, values, and everything above Jesus being made known. Every single thing we do, every breath that we take is harbor, community church, every aspect of our ministry, everywhere we walk, everywhere we go, everything we touch needs to be with the idea, with the mindset that Jesus is being made known. That's why Paul could say, even this. If Jesus is being made known, my circumstances don't have to be wasted. If Jesus is being made known, my suffering does not have to be meaningless. If Jesus is being made known, even this can advance the gospel. And again, I say, rejoice, church. Rejoice. No matter what you're experiencing, no matter what you're going through, God is working, God is using it for his good. And I will continue to rejoice. Amen. Would you pray with me before we have worship and communion? Father, we just thank you for these moments in your word. And God, let this return strongly in our hearts, God, and in our minds, and let us walk away from this place, knowing that no matter what circumstances we are experiencing in our lives, you are working. Even this can advance the gospel. So, God, let us be a church that goes out this week. Let us be a church that are your hands and your feet, the lost and hurting people, and be a light in the darkness for those around us, illuminating a path to Harbor Community Church where people can learn and live and become more like you. Jesus' name. Amen.