Discover Joy in Christ through Perseverance
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6 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.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
6 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.
There is a lot to unpack in this one verse which starts us out today.
Beginning
Beginning
This one verse right here talks about our Christian life. It speaks of the beginning of our life in Christ.
He who began this good work in us. The Holy Spirit begins convicting us of our sin. He begins to show us we have fallen short of the mark. He is the one who starts this work in us.
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Have to be careful here. We could into a real fine discussion here on the difference between your conscience and the Holy Spirit. Verse 10 could take some further study which we don’t have time for that rabbit hole today.
The Holy Spirit helps us to recognize this godly grief this scripture talks about and helps us to realize we need a Savior. There is nothing we can do in ourselves to save us from our sin.
Christian life on earth
Christian life on earth
Once we have accepted the gift of salvation, we are called to become more like Christ. Our lives should be one lived out of devotion to Him.
Do we do this because we owe Him something?
Do we do this because we owe Him something?
If this is the reason why you serve in the church and try to live a life pleasing to our God, you are going to wear out and get tired. You wonder when you will ever repay the debt. The simple truth is, there is nothing you can do in this life to repay the debt which was paid for you sin.
We should do this out of love.
We should do this out of love.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
When we do something out of live for someone, we don’t find the thing we are doing burdensome. We find joy in it.
I love history (Go from here about how you will watch documentaries. Not a burden for you, but for Julie.)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Why will we rest even though we may still be in the same situation?
Because He loves us, and we love Him. When we are serving Him and doing it for the right reasons, the burden is easy. The yoke is light.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
When we live our Christian lives in love instead of as a response to something I have to pay back, we will find a new joy in the lives we live. As we continue to grow in Christ, the we will find the struggle is still there, but the burden does become so much lighter. Why? Because He has proven himself to us time and time again. We will not question as much why is this happening as how is God going to use this?
Our lives in heaven
Our lives in heaven
The last part of this verse says until the day of Christ. It doesn’t say until the day of our death.
The day of Christ will be the day of His second coming.
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The work in us isn’t complete until His second coming and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those who are still living will be called to follow them.
God is going to continue this good work He has started in Christian believer and see it through to the end. He isn’t someone who leaves something half done. He will be the One who sees our transformation through to the end.
Told you there was a lot in this one verse and there is more to chew on. This is a great reason for you to get involved in a small group or Bible study. There are things during a sermon we don’t have time to dig into, but you can really have a great discussion about these things.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul genuinely loved these people. He loved the people of this church. They were truly trying to live the life God had for them. They had grabbed hold of the grace of Jesus Christ. He missed them. He yearned to be with them.
They loved his as well. They loved him back. They were concerned about his imprisonment. They didn’t hold this against Paul.
They continued the work of Christ and defended this work. They were staunch supporters of the mission which was laid in front of them.
He really loved these people. Even saying with the affection of Christ Jesus. These people were his brothers and sisters in Christ. They were fellow laborers who supported him without question and prayed for him.
People who pray for you.
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
This is the verse which really hits home for me. When people say they are praying for the leadership of the church or myself and Mark. You may not even know what we are facing the day you pray for us, but through the faithful prayers of the body of believers, each day has its own challenges. The power of prayer is something which cannot be matched. What a gift? What a weapon both defensive and offensive. Never underestimate what your prayers for the saints and the church can do.
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
Growing in knowledge to prove what is right
Growing in knowledge to prove what is right
In his absence, Paul wanted this church to continue to grow in their knowledge of Christ. He wanted them to continue to dig deeper in their faith so they could prove what was right and what was wrong.
Just like our world today, there were many different religions/cults. There would be those who would present things which really sounded great on the surface, but when you actually got down to what their beliefs are based on, they have either taken bits and pieces of out the Bible and totally warped the meaning. They’ve taken the verses out of context.
Or they have taken bits and pieces of the Bible and then added to it. All of these are dangerous habits.
An example of this would be John 15:7
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
If you just take this verse, it sounds like if you have strong enough faith, anything you ask for can be yours. However, look at the section of scripture this verse comes out of.
It is talking about fruit of the Spirit. It is talking about Jesus being the true vine.
This verse can be used so many times to support the prosperity.
There is nothing further from the truth about this verse. Once you take a look at where this verse comes from, Jesus is talking about being the true vine. It is speaking of the fruit which will be produced from those who are in the vine. It is talking about if we are truly believers, we will see the fruit of our labors which comes from the fruit of the Spirit, not worldly prosperity.
My scripture this morning from my devotion does actually take about God loving a cheerful giver.
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Once again, there is so much more being communicated in this verse other than the monetary wealth we might have. I want to read an excerpt from my devotion this morning about a missionary couple and the wife’s struggle.
“Rosalind Goforth and her husband, Jonathan, were missionaries to China in the late 1800s. Their early labors brought few results, and Rosalind grew discouraged by the apparent futility of their efforts.
One day, struggling with disappointment, she turned to 2 Corinthians 9:6. The words leaped out as God’s clear answer to her situation. Greatly moved by God’s truth, she wrote the words “HE WHO SOWS BOUNTIFULLY WILL ALSO REAP BOUNTIFULLY” on a blackboard. For the next two years, she kept that truth—written in bold black and white—before her. In due time, God used the Goforths in one of the greatest periods of revival in missionary history. . . .”
Excerpt From
Being Still With God Every Day
Henry Blackaby & Richard Blackaby
https://books.apple.com/us/book/being-still-with-god-every-day/id839682758
This material may be protected by copyright.
Does this testimony abous the Goforth’s talk about their willingness to give financially. No. It talks about them, particularly her, giving of herself wholeheartedly into the ministry God had called her family into.
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
We need to be constantly studying the scripture through our own quite time and in small groups so we can all continue to grow in the knowledge of what is right and to be able to watch out for false doctrines which might come our way. And when we are in those small groups where things we believed might be challenged, we need to dig deeper in the scripture to see how the opposing beliefs compare to what scriptures says. We need to do this with an open mind.
And when you find yourself struggling with a section of scripture, pray. Pray the Lord will give you discernment to help you figure it out. Go to Him in prayer. Go to those you respect in their knowledge of scripture.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
So, how do we find joy in perseverance?
So, how do we find joy in perseverance?
What we have studied today in the Word of God isn’t something which happens just once and done. Like we were saying in verse 6, our growth is something which is ongoing. While we are here on earth, we are continuing to become more Christ-like. We are to grow in knowledge and wisdom in His Word. We as the church are supposed to go through this together. We are to pray for each other when we are facing struggles in our lives just like the Philippians were while Paul was in prison. We are to rejoice with each other and share in the victories which I’m sure they did when Paul was released. But, they were also able to rejoice with him in the work which was going on while he was in prison.
For this is what we know about perseverance.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
When we can put all of this in perspective we can see how God can work through our circumstances to help us become more like His Son.
All of this is so we can be more like the Son who was given to us not only as our sacrifice for our sin, but also as an example of the life we should be striving to live as Christians.