Philippians 1

LIVING AS GRATEFUL SERVANTS

Intro

If someone knew every detail of your life, what would they say you live your life for?

If my life does reflect that I’m living for God what all does that look like? One of the key aspects of a Christ focused life is living as a servant, and lets add a layer to that ——— A GRATEFUL SERVANT.

That’s what makes Paul’s words in Philippians so striking.

He wasn’t writing this letter from a comfortable office, or after a string of successes in ministry. He was writing from prison. A Roman prison wasn’t like a modern jail cell with three meals a day and rights guaranteed. Paul would have been dependent on others to bring him food, with little certainty of how long he would live.

Now pause and imagine yourself in that situation. How grateful would you be? How easy would it be to write a letter that bursts with joy, thanksgiving, and encouragement to others? Most of us would be tempted to write a complaint letter or a desperate plea for help. But Paul begins this letter with words of gratitude. He doesn’t dwell on his chains; he rejoices in Christ. He doesn’t focus on what he’s lost; he’s thankful for the Philippians and their faith.

That’s the challenge right out of the gate. Gratitude for Paul was not tied to his circumstances. Gratitude was a spiritual discipline that overflowed from his perspective in Christ.

And if we’re honest, that’s where many of us struggle. It’s easy to be grateful when life is good, but much harder when we’re hurting, overlooked, or burdened. Yet that’s exactly the time when gratitude shines the brightest—because it declares that our joy isn’t anchored in this world, but in Jesus.

So Paul’s life and perspective sets the tone for the whole letter.

Ch.1

V.1-2

There is this opening idea about the importance of being a servant, and who is. In fact, it’s easier to say who isn’t a servant — those that don’t truly belong to Christ!

What is your view of leadership?... What is Paul’s?

The world would view elders/deacons as the top of the pyramid, but that’s wrong. Elders and Deacons are made to serve, to be people of action.

Upside down triangle of power. The mindset of Jesus was a servant. (Matt.20:28, “came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many”. ) To serve means to give of yourself for the betterment of someone else.

If my life reflects living for God, if it reflects Christ, that means its’ going to look like Christ – meaning I’m going to talk like Jesus who talked with gracious words, I’m going to live like Jesus lived with the mission of the Gospel as my focus, and I’m going to serve as Jesus served all types of people from all walks of life.

How is it that church leaders and all members of the church are to serve? It goes farther than just helping someone move or lending a hand here or there. That certainly is an aspect of it, but it’s meant to go deeper. We model our service after Christ who often was a crutch for the spiritually wounded, for the ones who can only be healed up in Jesus, for those that need a shoulder to lean on to keep walking towards the goal of eternity in faithfulness. And He still does that! And you and I are called to engage in that way both a lost and hurting world, as well as the members of our own body.

To be a servant you can’t be preferential. There’s not a person you don’t serve.

To serve right you need to remember the grace that God has given you so that you’ll give grace.

To serve right you need to remember the peace that God has made with you, so that you will go out of your way to live at peace with the saints.

Do you think Paul was tempted NOT to be at peace, not to serve or serve with this specific group of people? Do you remember what happened to Paul and Silas in Philippi? (Acts 16 recap)

It was a rough start, something that any of us could easily have said “forget it, I’m not helping you”. Yet Paul didn’t, and he even wrote to them to keep them built up in the faith.

You and I, we get our feelings hurt and have a tendency to either sit back and do nothing or leave. But a real servant of Christ doesn’t leave those that he serves. He goes out of his way to make peace with those that Christ has made peace with, to offer grace to those that Christ has offered grace to.

How many times? Jesus would say in Matthew 18:22 “Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” to Peter who asked that very question… “70x7”

V.3-4

GRATITUDE

Sometimes it’s easy to be grateful. Sometimes it’s not easy to be thankful or grateful.

Gratitude is a discipline, not a feeling. It’s an exercise for our hearts and minds! Sometimes we’re overwhelmed with those feelings of it, but sometimes we need to exercise it.

What would be different about us if we fully followed this example? Do you do this? Do you meticulously and intentionally pray for your brothers and sisters? Who do you pray for gratefully - not as a figure of speech, not as just saying “northside as a whole”, but specific names and faces? Is there anyone you do? Or do you neglect praying constantly for people?...

Not just the ones you FEEL grateful for, but who are you disciplining yourself to be grateful for? If I’m not, then pride and prejudice is in the way of me living fully as a servant.

Prayer is indeed a servant act – to pray on the behalf of another, to ask for God’s awesome and complete care for another.

Paul gives us a great example that a REAL follower of Christ prays constantly, gratefully, and joyfully for each person of the Church.

A prayer of Joy that is only found in Christ.

Joy has one source: Jesus. Joy comes from knowing where our journey ends, despite what the road is like between here and there. Despite other drivers on the road. I know where WE are going, and so I can pray a prayer out of that JOY for you despite what’s going on around us or even perhaps with us.

If you can’t then you’ve lost sight of that joy. Or, you’ve never had it. One of the fruit of the Spirit is Joy, it’s a characteristic of God, Christ, and the Spirit themselves that He grows in us Christians. And if I don’t have it or I’m not growing in it then I need to repent and get to it! A person of joy does not just see the negative all the time, a person of joy in Christ does not only feel anxious and react out of that all the time – that’s what people away from Christ do!

But a Christian is one who intentionally focuses on the Joy that is only found in Christ, and lives for others, serves others, prays for others, endures this world with the mindset of joy – knowing the destination, and trying to remind others of that same end to the journey. The world can give or take happiness. But the world cannot give or take Joy, because it’s a special grace given from Christ to me. Your feelings got hurt and you giving up? You’re living too weak! You’re refusing God’s work being done in you!

Paul has a couple things and people on his mind:

A gift the Church sent, Phil.4:14-18.

Remember, the government didn’t provide your food and needs, so the Church here steps up and did it.

Part of the reason it’s easy to be thankful is because of the gift, but Paul says it’s not even about that — I can be content regardless. But he’s thankful for the credit it brings to them, the volumes it speaks about them!

2 Women Feuding, Phil.3:2-3.

I wonder how much of that is on his mind as he writes these things about thanksgiving and gratitude, and how it pains Paul that there is this conflict in this congregation. I wonder if they were to follow Paul’s example and give thanks for each other the way Paul gives thanks for them how much it’d strengthen their relationship.

Is there peopel in your life that are frustrating you? What if you did for them what Paul does here. What if you approach God on their behalf in a grateful way...

Paul wants them to follow his example of prayer and servanthood!

V.5

One of the things that helps us to exhibit that joy with one another and keep a servant heart is being obsessed with the Gospel! When you’re obsessed with God’s plan and will, then you also remember that we as Christians are all partners together. We’re not over or under, and we’re not leaving someone behind if they can’t keep up.

But when you’re obsessed with your own plan....when you’re obesessed with your way and things done like you want and say then it’s easy to see people as an obstacle in your way...

But if you’re obsessed with the Gospel and people hearing it, people aren’t in the way they’re our partners!

If we’re more obsessed with our own way and pursuits, then you can’t be a servant and you can’t be grateful for others and what they do.

Koinonia = participation, partnership, fellowship

“It means we all have the job of giving the Gospel message!” Yes.

“It means we all are partakers of the same blessings of the Gospel!” Yes.

You’re right…But what else does it mean?

Die to self, live for Christ, and serve others. Isn’t that what Christ did? Isn’t that what Christ invites to do in taking up our cross and following Him?

So yes we preach it, yes we celebrate it together, but you also need to LIVE it!

But that sounds like hard work? It can be sometimes. But guess what, Christ grows you to be able to do it.

2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

V.6

Paul also takes time and thoughtfulness to see the way God is working in other people! He sees in the Church what they are and what they can be! You can be thankful for people when you look at it with a better perspective.

Yea, we’re all a work in progress, everyone of us. Not just the ones that frustrate us but our own selves too.

BUT We have this promise of growing in Christ.

Christ began a good work in me. Do we realize what it took to begin that good work of redemption, reconciliation, and sanctification?

Ch.2:4-8

So that work has to be started “in” me by me being “in” Christ.

Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” If I put on Christ at baptism that means I am in Christ. I don’t get in him when I repent, I don’t get in Him when I say I believe. I get in Him when I go down immersed in the water for the purpose of being saved and entering covenant with Him.

It took a lot to start that work. How dedicated do you think God is to finishing that work?

God is dedicated to that joyful end for you, God is dedicated to that for others around you!…are you?

V.7-8

“feel this way” also = “think this way”. You should think a certain way about the Church and also feel a certain way.

Paul is partaking of grace just as the Church in Philippi is. Paul is in prison but they aren’t. That means that grace transcends and exceeds this world, and we are still benefitting from it despite what circumstances we are facing!

And notice what Paul chooses to focus on! Not the hardship. What do we focus on? The circumstances or the people that make us angry or grieved. Instead Paul focuses on how GENEROUS God is! God has given me gift after gift - every day, every breath, every blessing in Christ — and we all share in it Paul says!

A lot of the time the way we feel about things and treat others has a lot to do with what we choose to focus on!

V.9

Sacrificial and Servant like love. Doing for others what they need.

God is telling us through Paul to never be content with where we’re at, especially in our love for others and devotion to Him. Keep going, don’t be satisfied with the status quo. There isn’t a point we can get to where we are at liberty to say “Now I can sit back and do nothing” or “I’ve accomplished as much as possible for God in my life”. That time only comes when we go to our eternal home.

Growing in KNOWLEDGE & DISCERNMENT

Paul’s prayer is that their love would not remain shallow or stagnant, but that it would overflow more and more with knowledge and discernment. Real love isn’t blind—it’s informed. It grows deeper as we grow in understanding God’s will.

How does that happen? By being in the Word and by living it out. Some people want to separate the two, asking, “Should I learn first, or should I live first?” Paul’s answer is simple: both, together.

There’s “book knowledge”—what we learn as we read and study Scripture. And there’s “experiential knowledge”—what we learn as we obey God and walk with Him through real life. One without the other is incomplete. Book knowledge without practice makes us proud and cold. Experience without truth leaves us shallow and misguided. But when the two grow together, we gain discernment—wisdom to see what really matters, and the ability to choose what pleases God.

ILLUSTRATION:

Think about driving a car at night. You need two things: headlights and a steering wheel. The headlights give you knowledge—you can see where you’re going. The steering wheel gives you discernment—you can respond to what you see and make the right turns.

If you have headlights but no steering wheel, you’ll see everything clearly but you’ll crash because you can’t act on it. If you have a steering wheel but no headlights, you might turn, but you’re just guessing in the dark.

That’s why Paul says love needs both knowledge and discernment. The Word of God shines the light, and daily obedience puts our hands on the wheel. Together they keep us on the road God has called us to.

V.10

When love is shaped by knowledge and discernment, the result is this: you become able to test and approve what is excellent. Paul isn’t talking about just avoiding what’s sinful—anyone can spot the obvious wrong. He’s challenging us to go further: to choose what is best.

This means asking not only, “Is this allowed?” but “Is this the wisest, most Christlike choice I can make?” Spiritual maturity isn’t about living on the edge of what God permits; it’s about pursuing what most honors Him.

The purpose, Paul says, is so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

Living with discernment today prepares you for eternity tomorrow. Every decision, every action is shaping who you’ll be when you stand before Jesus.

We usually ask this type of question to non Christians to try to provoke a response, but lets take the same challenge for us Christians:

If you were to stand before Him today, what is the nagging thing that you know you should’ve changed? what habit, attitude, or relationship would you already know needs to change? Maybe there isn’t an obvious thing, but chew on it longer and take an evaluation and see what ought to be shaped up in your life. Because you are responsible for it.

V.11

What are you filled with? Gratitude or something else?

There is expected fruit from the righteousness that’s been gifted to us. The objective of bearing fruit is to the glory and praise of God. This should be the purpose of every Christian. After all is said and done, his ultimate purpose is that God be glorified.

The fruit isn’t for our applause - it’s for His! Every act of service, every word of encouragement, every step of obedience is meant to draw eyes upward to Him and have people say “what a great God!”

If you’re someone that isn’t a servant, or grateful, or joyful, or constant in prayer —— you’re not going to be someone that points effectively to God.

So the question is simple: What are you filled with? Gratitude or grumbling? Service or selfishness? Joy or bitterness? Whatever fills you will eventually spill out—and if it isn’t Christ, it won’t point anyone to Him.

Paul reminds us that the fruit of righteousness has already been gifted to us in Jesus. The expectation is that we live it out—so that God is glorified in our lives. And that’s where all of this has been leading: grateful servants live in such a way that when people see us, they don’t see us at all—they see Him.

Conclusion:

There’s a work that’s been started in you as a Christian. God is trying to grow you. are you cooperating with His work, or resisting it?

Are you making it your life’s emphasis to glorify God? Are you really the servant that you know how to be?

God moved Heaven into earth to begin that work. The Cross and Resurrection have opened the opportunity. Have you let Him begin that work in you?

If so, now you need to surrender in order to finish it.