Reasons For Joy

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 64

Psalm 64 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, “Who can see them?” They search out injustice, saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.” For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep. But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads. Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 106:1-4

Psalm 106:1–4 ESV

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise? Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times! Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them,

Sermon:

Good morning Church!

I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

If you remember back last week… I know it was a long time ago for many of us. We are in “the letter” of Paul to the Philippian. And as we begin, it would be helpful to think of how WE write letters. I don't know if you're like me, but when I was a kid especially I had to write thank you letters. And I learned very quickly, the best way to crank out as many thank you letters as you can is you just go with a form letter.

Dear ______,

I hope you're doing well. Thank you for _________. I really enjoy it because __________. I miss you and hope to see you soon.

love,

David

Boom, there's the formula and with this one simple trick you too could write all your thank you notes asap so you could play with the toys that you were so thankful for.

But in reality, most of our letters that we write follow this same sort of form. There's a Intro, dear... whoever. And then some version of hope you're doing okay. The classic one: “I hope this letter finds you well”. And when Paul was writing some 2000 years ago, there is the same idea that letters should have a certain form.

We talked about this a little bit last week but there we also noted that Paul is willing to change it up. It's from Paul, but he said it's from Paul and Timothy. And then you would say to whom it's to, but it wasn't just some generic to the Philippian church. No, it was to all the Saints together with the elders and the deacons. And instead of just “greetings” Paul changed that thought to “Grace to you and peace”.

But the next part of any form letter was the, “I hope this finds you well”, I hope you're doing okay. But instead of some trite. Just throw away “I hope you're doing okay”. What we begin to see in the introduction to Paul's letter, here is his heart.

If we think about it, it's as if instead of writing a generic thought. Imagine you get a thank you note. And instead of it opening with “Hope this finds you well”, It starts with something like: “I've been praying for you a lot. And I pray, all the more earnestly, that God -- In his infinite Grace and wisdom — blesses you with every blessing in the Heavenly Realms. And that you, being rooted and established in Christ, see the manifold blessings of a life and Devotion to him each and every day.” That sort of introduction would be a little difference...

It's as if Paul started his letter much more like that. There will be deep theology and a true showing of his heart for the Philippians.

Philippians chapter 1 verses 3 through 6. We're going to make Breakneck speed through the book of Philippians. Three verses this morning. And these verses serve as the beginning of Paul's opening prayer for the Philippian church, and my hope and prayer is that, as we read it, as we look through it together this morning, That we will — in our hearts — Be shown the reasons for the joy that we have in Christ,

Philippians 1:3–6 ESV

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Our Holy Father in Heaven, Great and mighty is your name. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your kindness. We thank you for the joy and privilege of being yours. And especially this morning as we gather together as your people we thank you that you have given us this joyful Fellowship where we can spurn one another on to love and good works. We thank you for your word given to us, that we might know you and know the exceeding Riches of all that you have done for us. I pray that you would meet with us this morning. Open our eyes to see, give us ears to hear all that you have said and done. We pray that as we read and study your word, you would conform us into the image of your son. For it's in his name that we pray. The name above all other names, the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord Amen.

As we open this letter, my heart again— And what I hope we see— is that Paul gives us reasons for joy. and importantly, he shows us what we find joy IN

We find joy in:

and if we understand and read and hear what Paul is saying, we too can find the same joy that Paul has. This letter, ultimately, should be read as a thank you note. From the start to the end this is Paul's joyous Thanksgiving. For what? Well, it's partially the what we would call “the occasion” for the writing of the letter Is the gift that Paul has gotten from the Philippian church. They sent some gift with Epaphroditus. He received their gift with gladness and so this is his thank you note to them.

But more than that, This letter is an overflow of Paul's gratitude to the Lord for all that God has done in Paul in the Philippians in the world — everywhere. Paul is overflowing with joy. And by seeing and understanding how Paul finds Joy we then can begin to find that very same joy. So how do we get there? Where do we find Joy? Well most sermons — Just spoiler alert — most sermons, we start with a theological point and then try to work to “okay, how does this change and work out in my life? I'm going to do this a little bit backwards this week and we'll start with the Practical application. How can you find more joy?

You find it in thankful Prayer.

THANKFUL PRAYER

Not just prayer and not just being grateful. You do these things together? Verse three, it opens.

Philippians 1:3–4 ESV

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

The overarching thought in this passage is: I thank my God in ALL my remembrance of you. How often? Always! How many prayers? every single one of them! Why? Because they are making his prayers with joy.

The joy and the prayer always go together, in particular, in thankfulness to God. Paul looks around and he's filled with thankfulness. For, who the Philippians are and what the Philippians have done. THAT is Paul is grateful for. Here we note Paul does not thank God for the physical gifts that he has. Partially possibly, it's because Paul's in prison, chained to the Roman guard. Like, there's not much to be joyful of there. But i think more importantly, because Paul sees that this idea that “Together we are thankful for one another. and we thank God for the privilege of being with one another.”

Paul again — it's it's comprehensive — there's no prayer or thought left out. Always in every prayer in all my remembrance. And if we think about this, we might think, okay, well, it's easy to be thankful for the Philippian church. They're the good church. They're the ones Paul loves. But the rest of the letter shows that it's not just that they're just “everything's good, everything's happy. There's nothing to worry about”. There was infighting two, women were fighting not getting along. It was causing division in the whole church. Epaphroditus himself almost died. There's things going on... There's things that if Paul were to sit down and think on them, they would have the potential to damage his heart. But instead, as he thinks about them, his heart is marked with joy.

And so for us as we sit and we think - What has God allowed into our lives? What has God given us? That we ought to be thankful for? and like Paul we are selling this short if we don’t count one another.

There's a famous song. I mentioned this song all the time because I think this practice that this song recommends is good. Count Your many blessings, Name them One by one, count your many blessings and see what God has done. And immediately, for many of us, as we count our blessings, this thought goes to I'll have my health. I have my family. I have a house. I have a car. I have a job. That's the type of things we think about. But notice Paul. If Paul were to list his blessings, It would probably go like this:

I thank you for you Euodia. For Synictity, for Clement, for Timothy, for Epaphroditus for ALL the saints in the Philippian church, for the overseers and the deacons for all of them. In all of his prayers, each person in this church in Paul's life, was a blessing. And so Paul with thankfulness to God, begins to think with joy of the people of the Philippian. He's thankful.

We too ought to be thankful.

I remember growing up. I went to small Christian Schools, one question that you would have there is, how do we teach these kids how to pray. Let's teach kids how to pray. So you Usually it's like little acrostic - different little words. Well, when you pray use ACTS: Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving Supplication. ACTS. It's okay. I think that's a helpful way to pray, right? If you struggle to pray, start with adoring. God praising who he is. then confess your sins. First John tells us he's faithful and just, and will cleanse us. Give some Thanksgiving, thank God for what he's done in doing your life and then finally, you can bring your requests before him.

But what I want us to see, even more than just some checklist of how we pray is the heart of Paul. Always in every prayer, his heart is filled with thankfulness in his prayers. Thanksgiving is not a PART of Paul’s prayers. Thanksgiving IS Paul’s prayer. Paul always, and in every prayer his heart is filled with Thanksgiving. That's his thought. That's where his heart goes.

Though troubles rage around him again. He's in prison awaiting what could be a death sentence. He doesn't know. Thankful to God for each and every one of you. He's faced Shipwreck. Snake bites, being stoned, being abandoned, fights with his best friend... All of these things. I thank God always. In my remembrance of you always in every prayer because you make my prayer with joy. Being with one another is what stirs joy and affection in Paul's heart. And so Paul begins to just explode with Thanksgiving. And that should be how we pray, that should be how we approach these things: with joy and Thanksgiving in our prayers.

And so as we continue the rest of this opening Thanksgiving becomes an elaboration of of why Paul is so thankful. Look to verse 5: BECAUSE.. We're gonna get to see why he's so thankful, but first and foremost we must hear his heart. But why is he thankful in particular? Because he sees the gospel partnership of the Philippian church.

GOSPEL PARTNERSHIP

He looks… Paul, who's in prison for preaching The gospel... looks and sees the Philippian church and thinks I'm here in prison. They're still preaching the gospel. We're doing this together. In the Philippian church, it is evidence both in their gifts they have given to Paul. But also it is seen as they live out, the fruit of the Gospel which leads to a changed life. I thank God for you. All why verse 5? Because, Of your partnership in the gospel from the first day. Until now.

As he's writing this letter. It's probably thinking of Lydia. And her family, baptized and now part of Paul's spiritual family. those people who Who heard and received the words of Paul with gladness. He's probably picturing the whole church sitting there together. So there’s Lydia and beside her and her family is The GENTILE Philippian Jailer and HIS family. And he begins to see that the gospel is what unites us and the gospel is what then moves us and motivates us and how we grow together and what we DO together.

So glad that you all partnered in the gospel with me! That as we go forward together, the gospel is proclaimed. That becomes the heartbeat of Paul's message of Joy. It's in the gospel. Later in this letter, we'll get to it.. We will read that here are some people who are preaching the gospel for inappropriate reasons. And Paul has two options when presented with this news: 1) get upset. Or 2) do what he actually does. Which is to ask: what it doesn't matter? Ultimately, Paul says they're preaching the gospel, the gospel is being proclaimed. Jesus's name is being spread. And that in that I Rejoice, It doesn't matter. Paul says, if we disagree, if I'm in prison, if these things are going on... if the gospel is proclaimed, that becomes the joy.

And as we partner together in this, as WE work together to proclaim the excellencies of him, who saved us joy will spring forth. We can look at this theologically as sort of Joy multiplying in the heart of us and those around us.... But how about we just think about it Practically. When those around us, Come to Faith in Jesus Christ joy Springs forth. Why? Because I see in them. What I saw and hoped for in myself. God can save you and God can save me and when I see God, saving you, it reminds me of when God saved me and I have joy. This is why Baptisms are so beautiful and important because we all celebrate this together. And then continuing on form there, as you grow in sanctification and as I grow in sanctification, our joy is growing together and we see the beauty of what is happening as God works in us both.

Paul's passion. Paul's hope. Paul's heart. Is to see the gospel proclaimed. So he thinks of the Philippian church and he thinks of their faithfulness in the gospel, though it's difficult though Paul himself has faced persecution.... and they have seen it and they themselves are probably facing persecution, too… Paul has joy. Because we work together in the gospel. This gospel partnership becomes the foundation, the centerpiece, and the source of all of the joy that they share together. How do we find Joy? Well, we find joy in being thankful in our prayers before God. And then we find Joy as we move forward together, expressing the joy and hope of the Gospel.

As one commentator said: Those who truly possess the gospel also propagate it. The gospel is not to be hidden away, but worked with. And their evangelistic concern was coupled with the work of establishing believers in their faith, described by Paul as the confirmation of the gospel.

When these work together Joy is multiplied. It's what we do. We preach the gospel for the Salvation of those around us and we disciple one another for the sanctification of each other. And in that Joy grows, that's the point. That's how this works. So we thank God and then we work. Where do we land?

How can we have joy? We like Paul. Should Proclaim our bold confidence. In what God has done.

BOLD CONFIDENCE

Verse 6.

And I AM SURE

Bold to say… Especially when we see what he's saying. What was he So sure of? There are very few things in my life that I am sure of. Am I sure I'm going to make it home today? I'm not sure... fairly confident, but SURE, like I know that NOTHING can or will happen to me in the short mile drive home, no I am not SURE.... Am I sure that I'll wake up tomorrow? No. Pretty confident. Am I sure? … In reality I'm not sure of much. Paul sure of this and what Paul is sure of is the most important and fundamental and joyous thing we could think of… and While I am not sure of much, I share Paul in his sure confidence here.... I am sure of this that he who began a good work in, you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. In other words... that the God who saved, you will seal you and keep you forever. I'm sure of it.

But what about… I'm sure of it. But Paul, you're in prison. I'm sure of this: God's got me. But Paul, I struggle. So do I. But I am sure that if God started salvation in you, God will finish Salvation in you. Any work that God begins, God himself will finish.

Not even mem... right weak, frail. Sinful men… not even Men Begin to work at random… Let alone a work that we promise will finish. But how about God The Sovereign King of the universe? The one who is omnipotent omniscient Almighty all, knowing all loving. If he says he will do something, he has the power to do it. He has the conviction to do it. He has a strength to do it and he will do it according to his good pleasure. So when he says he will hold us and keep us, I'm sure of that.

Why can I not be sure I'll wake up tomorrow because I'm not God, and no one is promised tomorrow.... But God is god and he has promised me that he will hold me safe and secure in the palm of his hand… And if he says he will do something, he will do it.

As Paul looks to his life. This bold confidence Springs up: God's got me. The one who began this work. He'll finish it. Though dangers and difficulties and trials and troubles may come, God's got me. I'm sure of it. There's no doubt in Paul's heart and mind. It'll be okay.

I think what's beautiful about what Paul does here, there's two things, the first, maybe a bit of practical application...

What's beautiful about what Paul does is he rests all of his confidence In God. This verse would mean read much differently. If Paul said and I am sure of this: If you try your best everything will work out all right. This verse would be read much differently. If Paul said, I am sure of this. You guys are good people. You'll figure it out.

There's no confidence there. The way I would read that if we had… NOTE: we don't have any verses like that... but if we did the way I would read that would be something like Paul's saying. I'm sure of much more than that I'm trying to motivate you. That's what saying I'm sure of… It's like when your kids going off to do something, and you say something like… “you got it, buddy.”... I hope so. Sometimes parents say “you can do this...I hope.”

So the beauty of what Paul says here is it is grounded in God. Because God began the work. HE called you out of Darkness. When you were dead in sin and trespasses that's when God saved you not when you saved yourself... when God's grace entered into your life when the Holy Spirit began to convict your heart draw, you unto himself when God began the work in regeneration. When God did that, God promised that God would finish it.

It doesn't matter if you're not strong enough or good enough or smart enough because Are not! But God is that's the point and so he who began it— God — will finish it — God. everything in between a work of God. So rest in him. That's the point. That's where we get such bold confidence.

So then The beauty, the first beauty is that Paul looks at this, and he sees the work of God. the second one, and one we might miss The beauty Of what we get in this passage comes in remembering the context of verse 6.

I Thank my God for YOU. For YOU ALL for every one of YOU, all of you, my partners in the faith. God will bring a good work In YOU about to completion.

The joy and the beauty of this confidence is, it's not just mine.

More and more I find my ministry.... this is my sort of my personal ministry… As being me trying to instill confidence in your heart.

And I think the reason for me, this has been important… I'll just share some of my journey, maybe… Confidence is something I've often struggled with. Not necessarily in like a what I'm doing... sometimes I can be too confident and gets myself into trouble.

But in particular, confidence in my own Goodness. And I know all the theological points, right. And if someone came to my office, you were to sit in my office and say I'm struggling with my own goodness. I'd say congratulations. You don't have any, glad we got that out of the way....

But in that the practical application of that that means I often also struggle in confidence that God can do something with a wretch like me.

And Paul looks at the Philippian Church, A church, he loves but a church, not without its problems and not without its issues. But he looked at this church. He says God will save you. I'm sure of him. The gospel is strong enough. I'm positive. Jesus is a perfect savior. I know this to be true. If you trust in him, you will be saved. There's no doubt in my mind.

So, you Philippian Church have the same confidence that Paul has. And then we as those who get to read this letter later may our hearts fill with that same confidence. God will save me. God will save you of this I am confident.

It's rather bold of you to say.. You don't know what sins I've done. You don't know how wretched I am. You don't know my heart... I don't need to! I know God and I am sure of this his grace can cover a multitude of sins. How do I know this? One: I read the scripture. But two, and maybe even a little more personally: he saved me.

And I'm sure of this, if God can save me, he can save anyone. You're not worse than I am. When I read Paul, and he says that he the chief of Sinners I think: It's nice of you to say, Paul, but I know how bad I am.

Paul's answer would be the same. If God can save me, God can save you. If he can save you he can save me.

This is what breeds joy in our life. These working together. These three pointsworking together, become the source of Joy. They become our reasons for joy. So then we work our way backwards.

I have a bold confidence and because of that confidence, that Christ can save. I preach the gospel, and we together in Partnership, preach the gospel. And then, as I look at the gospel and I look at my life and I look at Salvation and I look at what we're doing together, reaching the lost, as I look at these things. My heart is filled with thankfulness in prayers always to my God and father, that's the point. That's how we live life.

Let's pray.

COMMUNION

Believers in Christ are people of the future, a sure future that has already begun in the present. - Fee, 88