Philippians

Intro

The last sermon series we did was called overflow

Today we are starting a new sermon series and doing something that I have never done before

We are going to be going through the book of PHILIPPIANS

How many of you guys have read the book of Philippians before?

As we go through the book we are going to be going through in a way practicing what is called Exegesis

How many of you guys have ever heard the word exegetical before? does anyone know what it means?

The definition is: A scholarly practice of interpreting and explaining biblical texts.

And so that being said we will be going straight through

I want to unpack what the book is about

Why was it written

and How can we apply it to our lives

That being said today we are going to be specifically looking at chapter 1

before we get into it though lets talk about the book of Philippians in the first place

I want to talk about 3 things

1. Background

2. Purpose

3. Spiritual application

Background

Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul

who was one of the most influential early Christians

I won’t go crazy into detail about who Paul was, but the main thing to know is that he did so much for Christianity

He so many books in the New testement

He went on I believe 4 different ministry journeys where he spread the gospel to cities and countries all around where he lived

Along the way he was imprisoned multiple times

And in fact he wrote book while he was imprisoned

Where he eventually was killed for his faith

SO THATS A LITTLE BIT ABOUT PAUL

Now in the book We have Paul writing a letter to the church that he planted on one of his ministry journeys to Philippi

hense the name Philippians

Phillipi is found in the country macidona

At the time Phillipi was under the control of the Roman empire

And if you don’t about the Roman empire

At one point, and during this time they were about the most powerful force in the world

If you know your history the Roman empire was on their way to conquering about

1/5 of the entire worlds population

Now that being said when it came to faith, and when it came to religon

Rome pretty much governed all of their occupied nations the same way

And rule was basically you believe whatever you want

you can follow whatever you want

as long as you don’t try to overthrow Roman authority

as long as you pay your taxes to the Roman government. they didn’t really care

Now because people Lived in a society you basically do whatever you wanted do you think Christianity was very popular?

NO OF COURSE NOT

In the vast majority of country was Pagan

believing in Greek gods

praying to statues

worshipping rocks

and participating in horrible

sexual immorality

and all things of the like

Purpose

Pauls main purpose for the letter was to thank the Phillipian church for the support they have given to Paul throughout his minstry journeys

And to encourage them because of the persecution they were facing in Philippi

Spiritual Application

That being said

the main theme that we see in the book of Philippians more than anything is Joy

in fact so much so that many times the book of Philippians is referred to as “the letters of Joy”

Intro continued

Now that we know more about what this book is really about lets dive into chapter 1

After doing some studying I believe the are 4 truths that Paul was trying to tell the church of Philippi

And i believe there is 4 truths that God can show us about him

1. We can find JOY when we are thankful period

Philippians 1:7–8 “So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.”

Have y'all ever had a time when so much stuff goes wrong its funny

I used to have a Minivan

it was my first car

it was a hand me down from my parents

I think after a while everything that was ever on it stopped working

Automatic door locks

DVD player

Cup Holders break

Radio

The Suspension was so bad

Driver side window

It was one of those things

where the situation was so bad, but I thought it was funny

And I believe there are moments in our life where we get to decide if we are going to respond with bitterness or thankfulness

And this is exactly Pauls circumstance

He was literally imprisoned, beaten

But he writes to the church of Philipi saying

“ God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.”

And right I use the example of my van BUT

For you guys its probably something totally different

You just bombed a test

Your team just lost the game

You got benched during the game

you found out your crush doesn't like you back

Or maybe its something more serious

You have a bully who is saying something hurtful to you

At home Mom and Dad aren’t always getting along

You have someone in your family who is sick

I don’t know it could be anything

but the the truth is there are parts of life that we CAN’T control, but our response is something we CAN

The truth is that we like in a broken world

And Paul Got that. he Understood

But he said look im going to have Joy.

I am going to be thankful for the things that God has done

The last thing I want to us to undertand about this point

I am using the words thankfulness and Joy alot.

and we often use them interchangeably

but they are actually different

*can anyone tell me the difference*

Thankfulness is an action. Joy is a state of being

So what does that mean

Joy isn’t dependent on what is going on out here

so all those examples I gave

we are called to be joyful

in other parts of scripture we talk about something called the joy of the Lord

and what that means

is that no matter what is happening we have JOY

2. There is JOY in the Gospel period

Philippians 1:17–18 “Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”

I want you guys to image something for me

imagine you are on a beach and there are 2 life guards

One good

One bad

someone starts drowning

the bad life guard runs out and saves the person drowning before the good one can get there

Now when you hear that

The bad life guard is still the bad life guard right

But the important part is that this kids life was saved right

like if you are out there drowning and the bad life guard comes running out

your’e not “Oh no i’ll just drowm”

Paul is trying to make similar point

And he talks about this even more in depth in the verses before what I read

But the point that he is trying to make is that “there are some people who are following God for the wrong reasons”

But regardless Christ is being preached

right there are people who are drowning

And truthfully it does matter WHO goes into the water to save them

the point is that they get saved right???

And so what does this mean for us

I think the point is this

God is strong enough to make himself known. even through broken people

Man this is such good news

because guess what.

I am not perfect

You are not perfect.

And I realize that in this passage Paul could be refering to people who are purposfully living in Sin

But when I read this I feel like there is joy to be seen

I read it and see that i’m not the one that makes any of the difference with gospel

God use me. i’ll talk about you

But the renewing of peoples hearts

The hope that makes its way into our souls

I can’t do that. thats all God

and so we need to remember that there is hope in the Gospel (Period)

The other reason that I bring this up

Is because I think for some of us we talk about our relationship with God with a little pride

Matthew 23:11–12 “The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Especially when we are someone who has been a christian for a long time

we might think that we know more

are “closer with God”

whatever

I think another thing that Paul is trying to say

It doesn’t matter how long you have been a Christian for

God has the power to iron things out

3. There is JOY in the security from Christ

Philippians 1:21–24 “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.”

Do you guys ever wish you could make a whole meal from like whatever restaurants you wanted

Ask volunteer

“If you could create a meal from all different restaurant chains”

Appetizer

entree

drink

dessert

Cheese curds from Culver's

Big mac from McDonalds

Baja blast from T-bell

Frozen Lemonade from Chick-fil-A

This would be awesome right?

Normally you have to decide what you want from one place

BUT THIS WAY NO MATTER YOU ARE GOING TO ITS A WIN

Very similarly this is what Paul is saying in this scripture

He talks about He mission that God has given him

One had he is thinking “what happens if I die”

On the other “what happens if I stay living”

If I die I get to go to Heaven with God

If i live I get to stay here and continue to serve him

truthfully its a win win

in Pauls mind

He”s like “I got options”

And so for us What does this mean?

It shows that we can have real security in Christ

We can feel secure all the way to death when we are in Christ

For so many of us this is a hard concept to grasp because we are pretty safe in America

But when we have a relationship with Christ we can be confident

As Paul is talking literally in prison \

He’s not scared

He’s not writing about how he is crying

Paul is secure

So secure that he’s like this is a win win

And so for us. the question that we need to ask

whether or not we have that security

I have offered it the past few weeks

but if you are in this room and you don’t know if you have a relationship with God

please come find me or any of our other leaders

I would love to able to talk to you about what that means for your life

However if you are someone who would say that you are

I want to encourage you today that you have security in Christ

There are many of us that have had a real encounter with him where we put our faith in him

But the devil wants to try to convince us that we don’t really have security with Jesus

The devil starting to use fear and doubt to his advantage

Let me give us one more scripture

Philippians 1:6 “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

If God truly has us he will continue a good work

4. Heavenly JOY comes with Responsibility

Philippians 1:27 “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.”

When Del and I went on our Honey moon

We took a trip to the Bahamas

it was super fun

But one of the things they told us when we got off at certain points

Was to make sure that we had one thing

*Can anyone guess*

Passport

There are tons of horrible stories about this

But right the main point is that if I get stranded

I need this

it proves my identity

It tells anyone who finds it in the world

“Hey I belong to the United States. I am American”

In our scripture what does Paul say?

He starts off “ABOVE ALL, you must live as citizen's of Heaven”

Above all

So that means when people interact with us

Do we have our passports?

Can you prove your citizenship

Because the unfortunate part is that we do just have a piece of paper that says we are a Christian

The way you live matters

When you are a citizen of heaven you aren’t living for here and now. you are living for eternity

And I say that because I think that so many of us are

We go to school and our only focus is here and now

Oh I hope this guy or girl likes me back

Oh I hope They like my outfit. what if don’t look like everyone else

Oh I hope my post gets enough likes. or views

Or Even more so I hope that person sees it

We have a responsibility to get our joy from an upward focus

And I use the word responsibility becasue thats exactly what it is

Because you are a citizen

When you are a citizen you have to follow laws

That being said I want to End us today with something a little different

During this sermon series we are going to be talking alot about Joy

EVEN WHEN I AM DEALING WITH ————I STILL CAN HAVE THE JOY OF THE LORD

EVEN WHEN THEY ARE SAYING ———— I STILL CAN HAVE THE JOY OF THE LORD