Joy Anyway

Into

This week we start our new series for the summer Joy Anyway. We are going verse by verse through the most joyful book in the Bible. It’s the primary theme of the book. and yet the book that is about joy was written by a man who was in prison. Paul talks about joy 19 times in just four chapters. He talks about joy while imprisoned, while suffering, while facing opposition, while uncertain about life or death. He has joy anyway. And throughout the book he isn’t just telling his audience and us to have joy despite circumstances. He is modeling it. So that in even the most challenging circumstances we can have joy anyway.

Isn’t that what we all want. Isn’t that what you want? to have a joy that isnt circumstance based, that isnt comfort based, but a joy that is there anyway. Regardless of your comfort or circumstances, you can have joy anyway this morning because Jesus is there anyway.

Philippians 1:1–11 CSB

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Indeed, it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, and you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

To give a little background about the audience that Paul is writing this letter to. Clearly it was a church that he loved. In Acts 16 we see that Paul planted the church in the city of Phillipi modern day northern Greece. It was the first church that he planted in Europe. This was the city where he was thrown in prison and instead of sitting and sulking he sang hymns and God miraculously opened all the prison doors and cause chains to fall off all the prisoners but instead of escaping they stayed put. and as a result the jailer and his whole family came to faith in Christ.

after Paul was thrown out of the city that jailer’s family and a few others families grew into the church of Philipi. and that is who Paul is writing this letter to. He is writing from jail to a city that put him in jail and kicked him out.

But as we see in verse one this book isn’t an open letter the city as a whole it is a letter to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi. We have taken the word saint and only used it to identify the super Christian’s but the early church used the word saint the same way we use the word Christian.

To use the word saint to mean a status that we work to attain through self improvement is unbiblical.

Here is the first takeaway that I believe is fundamental for us to understand the rest of this book and what it means for us to have joy anyway.

1. Jesus Changes Your Position

If you are saved than you are a saint. Your position has changed from being a slave to sin to saint in Christ Jesus. There is not some higher level of Christianity that you can attain and be considered a saint. There are not some mythical breed of super Christians out there that are meant to do the important stuff while you are called just to show up.

The only distinction that matters is if you are in Christ or not in Christ.

If you have accepted God’s gift of salvation you are a saint in Christ Jesus. Every other promise, every other thing that we will talk about as we unpack the message of the book over the coming weeks is based on the fact that the person reading it is already a saint because they are in Christ Jesus.

The joy that you can have that transends circumstances and comfort this book promises is only available to the saints. which aren’t the super Christian’s they are The ones who have accepted the gift of God’s grace. If you spend your life looking for joy without first looking for Jesus you are going to live a miserable life.

If you jump from thing to thing looking to find joy and fulfillment. You will jump from disappointment to disappointment. But there is something better its what the jailer who held Paul in Phillipi on his first trip there discovered.

Acts 16:29–31 CSB

The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. saved from your sin, saved from the cycle of looking for hope and joy just to be disappointed over and over again. Saved from death itself. and given the title of saint in Christ Jesus.

Being a saint doesn’t mean you have worked and achieved perfection. it means you have been saved and your position as a saint has reorientated you away from your self and towards Christ. it is all because you are in Christ.

Stott defines being in Christ like this.

The Message of Philippians a. The Relationship in Which the Christian Lives

To be in Christ, then, is to possess what is often spoken of as full salvation: everything necessary to our past, present, future and eternal welfare has been secured for us by the action of God in Christ and is stored up in Christ for us to share and enjoy

He has everything you need. Past, present and future, its all be secured already.

You may here that and be a bit skeptical. you may be an unbeliever and simply not believe that to be true or you have seen far too many Christian’’s not act like saints. You may be a believer and say I don’t consider myself a saint. how do I reconcile that in my head your saying I am a saint in Christ. It doesn’t feel like it, and I’m certainly not experiencing the joy that is there no matter what’s going on.

I want to point you to verse 6

after giving thanks for the joy that he has in simply remembering them.

Philippians 1:6 CSB

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

You may feel unfinished this morning. If that’s you I have good news.

2. God Finishes What He Starts.

God has started a good work in you. and he’s not going to leave it half finished.

I remember the first time I went to Washington DC one of the things that I found truly breathtaking was the washington momunment. How it stands tall over the city, and how it looks reflecting of the reflecting pool. its beautiful. But one thing I noticed was the color of the stone is a little different 1 third of the way up.

that is because construction started in 1848 and was 1 third completed but then construction stopped. because of the lack of money, politicians fighting, the civil war. the work just stopped and people were left wondering will this thing ever get finished, has the vision been abandoned, will it remain incomplete forever.

history is full of projects that were started and not finished. guess what as big of a project as building the washington monument was the project of turning you from an enemy of God to a saint of God was a way bigger project.

But guess what unlike human projects

God doesn’t run out of resources

God doesn’t lose focus

God doesn’t abandon what He starts

We often look at our lives and see:

unfinished areas

inconsistency

failures

slow growth

And we wonder: “Is God done with me?”

But Paul reminds us:

God never leaves His people half-finished.

He may not finish the work on your timing, it may not look exactly how you thought it would work. But God will finish the work that he has started in you. you are not abandoned. He is not done working on you. And he’s promised that he wont stop working, and he has proven time and time again he keeps his promises. right there is a reason for joy.

When the Washington Monument was finally completed after sitting for decades unfinished, nearly 40 years later at the dedication ceremony President Chester Arthur said, ‘In the completion of this great work there is abundant cause for rejoicing.’

How much more abundant cause for rejoicing does God feel when he finishes the good work that he has started in you.

Philippians 1:6 reminds us that God is doing a greater work in you than any monument. And unlike human builders, God never abandons what He starts. There is joy because God finishes His work in us.”

Even in the times when it feels like no work is being done. God is using even those times to complete the good work that he has begun in you.

You can have joy today if you have been saved because even though you may not look at you and see a saint. God looks at you and sees a saint. and he is going to finish the good work that he has started in you. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in today hear this God’s not done working on you. The story isn’t over. God is going to persevere with you the entire way. Paul said he was sure the good work will be finished in each of the saints he was writing to. He had been convinced.

Be sure this morning. that no matter the hardship, the financial trouble, the broken relationships. The monument is getting built no matter what and that is a great cause for rejoicing.

Paul being convinced of this finishes this first section with a prayer. I love to see insight into how the apostles prayed and we get a great glimpse right here.

Philippians 1:9–11 CSB

And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

If you break this prayer down to its parts everything comes out of the first thing that he prays for, that their love would grow. He could have prayed for any number of things as the starting point but for these saints who like us God was still working on the thing he prayed for was that their love would grow.

3. God Grows What He Plants.

You were saved by and because of love. and the love that saved you acts like a seed that grows within you. Paul clearly sees love as the growing point of the Christian life. He doesn’t say anything about where their love should be directed like growing in your love toward, God, each other, or your city. But he is praying that the virtue of love would grow to the point of invading their entire being and character, which will mark every part of their attitude and action.

This is where Christianity stands apart from every other worldview or belief system. Every other ethical system tells you to strive through effort to become someone you are not. But the gospel is different. In Jesus, you are already made new. At salvation, God plants a new nature within you. So the Christian life is not about striving to manufacture a different identity, but allowing the love of Christ to grow and mature the new life already placed inside of you.

As the love that brought you to Jesus grows within you, it begins drawing out more and more of the person God created you to be. We are not working to earn a new identity; because of the love of Jesus, we are finally free to grow into the people we were always meant to become. and Paul clarifies exactly what that looks like.

As the love of Jesus grows within these are the real life practical ways Paul says it should show up. He says approve the things that are superior. Meaning we are to be different in the principles that we hold dear. As you grow in the love of Christ the principles that you cling to become far different than people who do not have the love of Christ.

He then prays that growing in the love of Jesus would make them pure. that means their inner character has been transformed by the love of Jesus. not just the things people see but what is going on inside is pure.

Then he prays that the love of Jesus growing inside of them would make them blameless meaning their outer conduct is different because it is motivated by a love that is different than any other motivation that the world can offer.

And then finally Paul prays that they would have the fruit of righteousness as the ultimate product. An product that is different than anything else.

The end result of Christ’s love growing in each of us. the work that he won’t leave abandoned in you. is that our lives would filled with the fruit of righteousness.

if thats the end goal why do we feel like so few of our lives are marked by the fruit of righteousness?

I got to Ask as you saints in the Lord Jesus Christ who are in Sevierville. Is this the ultimate goal of your life? to be righteous before God?

Is the reason you feel like God isn’t working in your life because you are looking for a work that he never promised to do?

This is the work he promised to do. He promised to do what he did for that Jailer in philipi, save you if you place your faith in Jesus. if thats you He made you a saint. And he promised he would finish the good work he started at your salvation. and that good work wasn’t to make you rich, make you happy all the time, or even make you a good person. the good work he promised he would do in you was to make you righteous.

How? through the growing love of Jesus. It transforms the principles that shape your worldview. it transforms your inner character, it transforms your outer actions, and it transforms you from a rebel to righteous.

I want you to ask yourself saint in the Lord Jesus Christ who is in Sevierville. Could the reason that you don’t feel joy anyway this morning is because the end goal you want for you and the end goal Jesus wants for you aren’t the same thing? What Jesus wants for you is for every fiber of your being to be righteous from your principles to your inner character and your outward actions. And for whatever reason we have decided that, that could never be us.

It is time that the prayers and the end goal that we have for ourselves and the prayers and end goal Jesus has for us lines up. You can be righteous because you are a saint in Christ Jesus. And he started a good work in you that he will not abandon, because what he plants he grows.

Here is how we are going to end this morning. If you are not a saint. If you have never been saved as soon as I am done praying come down and let Jesus change your position from being dead to being alive. For the saints this morning.

We are going to pray the way Paul prayed. That our love would grow, and it would make our principles, inner character, and conduct full of the fruit of righteousness.

God is going to finish the work he’s started in you. He’s building you into a monument but not a monument of a dead president. A monument to the goodness of a savior that is alive, every step of the way in the planning, in the ground breaking, in the building, difficulties and in the finished project there is abundant cause for rejoicing.

Lets spend some time making sure our lives are building towards righteousness this morning.