Sermon Transcript
The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.
- Philippians 1:12–18
- Opening Prayer
- Advance the Gospel
- Be Bold for the Gospel
- Be Filled with Joy
- Closing Prayer
Philippians 1:12–18
What are you doing? All right. We’re going to be in Philippians chapter 1 if you want to turn there. Starting in verse 12, it says:
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
(Philippians 1:12–18)
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you that you are a good and gracious God. Thank you, Lord, that we can come and we can hear your word preached, that we can receive it, that your Holy Spirit can do his work in us, and that we can become more like the image of your Son. We pray, God, that we would continue to be immersed in your word. We would continue to receive it, that you’d give us hearts to receive this morning the truths that are from you. Lord, we thank you for the blessing of children. We thank you for blessing this church with so many kids. I pray for the parents that you would be with them and give them wisdom and knowledge beyond their years to instruct their kids, to shepherd their kids’ hearts toward you. Bless them, Lord, in their efforts. Let them keep the long-term goal in view. And Lord, we pray for the kids’ play coming up very shortly, Lord, that you’d be with them. Let them have a great time of building friendships, of fellowship, of having a good time. I pray, God, that as different people come, the nights of the performance, that your gospel would go forth in clarity and in truth. People would hear it, people would respond. Lord, we pray that you would get the glory through all and everything involved, leading up to the play, in the play, and then the preaching of your gospel. Father, we pray you bless our time now as we go on and do this all for your glory. Amen.
Advance the Gospel
All right, so we’ve been looking at Philippians 1, and we actually now get into the actual content of the letter. So we’ve looked at the opening greeting. We’ve looked at the prayer. And here we have the first section of the main content. Though technically, it’s actually not the main content. Really what we have is Paul giving an update on his current situation, which makes sense. I mean, if someone was writing me from prison, I’d want to know how things were going for them. But you’re going to notice something. Paul here actually doesn’t give an update on himself. We’ll see why shortly. But there’s three things I want you to take away from today, kind of three exhortations for us. One is we need to advance the gospel. That’s going to be my first point, advance the gospel. My second is going to be that we need to be bold for the gospel. And then my third is that we need to be filled with joy.
Let’s talk about the first one, advance the gospel. Here’s the thing, brothers and sisters, we can take much hope because the gospel cannot be bound. It can’t be bound, and that’s what we’re seeing here. Many have tried. Back then, even now, many have tried, none have succeeded. The gospel advances despite man’s best efforts to stop it. Look back in the verse. What does he say? “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” What do we see time and time again? Man tries to stomp out the gospel. What ends up happening? It actually lights the flame and the gospel spreads. You see those videos where there’s a little fire and the person tries to stamp it out, and what ends up happening? I mean, they end up spreading it. Right? Well, I mean, that’s how it is with the gospel. You can try to stamp it out. That actually helps it spread. Tertullian, the famous church father, said this, it’s a well-known quote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” So they imprisoned Paul. Does it stop the advancement? I mean, they thought, oh, we’ve got them now. We’ll just throw them in prison. That’s going to slow things down. The Jews were happy, the Romans were happy. But what happens? No, the gospel keeps going. And it starts spreading throughout the prison guard. Look at Acts, hold your place in Philippians, but look at Acts chapter 5. Acts 5:12, it says, “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.” Well, what ends up happening? I mean, God’s doing amazing stuff. People are coming to know him. Well, the high priest, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they get jealous. What does it say? Verse 17: “But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.” Like, prison was something that the early church was very much familiar with. But what did God do? Over and over again, he uses that. He uses awful circumstances to advance the kingdom. Listen, you can imprison the people of the word over and over and over, but you can’t imprison the word of God. You can’t imprison it. It will always break out from whatever way you try to confine it. I mean, if you think about what God’s doing, he’s always using circumstances for his glory. Think of Joseph in Egypt, right? And that very powerful, at the very end of Genesis, very powerful verse, he’s talking to his brothers. He says, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” And what do we see? I mean, that story of Joseph is 14 chapters of Genesis, as we’re really following kind of Joseph’s story. And what do we see? We get to follow along what appears to be all these different awful things happening to Joseph. And time and time and time again, what happens? God is using that circumstance to further his kingdom, to further his causes. So the gospel advances despite man’s best efforts. It actually advances despite Satan’s best efforts. What did Satan think he had done when the Son of God was crucified? I mean, he thought he won. I mean, he was like, wow, this is pretty good. And what happened three days later, right? Three days later, a little bit disappointed. Satan tries over and over to thwart the plans of God. It always fails. Even in 1 Thessalonians, we went through a while back. But just listen, Paul says, “We wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.” But what happens? Does the Thessalonian church suffer? No, it keeps growing, as we saw. They’re doing really good. They’re flourishing. So Satan is trying to stop it, but the Lord has planned. The gospel doesn’t need Paul to advance. It doesn’t need you to advance, it doesn’t need me to advance, but God in his mercy and grace uses us to advance it. Amen? I mean, we’re the ones that are called to advance it.
So we see in, if you’re still in Acts, just turn a couple chapters over. We’re going to see another example of God using an awful circumstance. It says, Acts 8, and Saul, verse 1: “And Saul approved of his execution.” That’s Stephen, you know, the first martyr of the church, Stephen had just died. Saul, who’s also Paul, he’s there. It says he approved of his execution. “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” Now, at that point, you’re like, that doesn’t seem very good, persecution. But look at the next verse: “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” Now, again, in Acts 1, what is the promise that’s given? Verse 8, Acts 1: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And where are they spread out? Verse 1, they’re scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. And some actually, theologians actually believe that the church had not been doing the greatest job to this point following the commission, and God says, I’ll use other means in order to accomplish it. I’ll have persecution come, which scatters you, and then you can figure out, hey, are you going to keep walking with me and preaching the gospel, or are you going to keep keeping it to yourselves? Well, what do they do? They’re scattered about, and those who are scattered went about preaching the word. The Lord uses bad circumstances, they’re being persecuted. What happens? Oh, the gospel is advanced. It advances despite man’s efforts to try to thwart it. It advances despite Satan’s best efforts to try to stop it. But what does this mean for us? Listen, if it can’t be bound, we can share it with confidence that God will use our words. Why? Because it’s not our words. It’s the gospel. It’s the gospel. If the gospel can’t be bound and we’re sharing with people, then they’re going to receive that, they’re going to hear that, they’re going to respond in faith as God calls them. So we can share it with the confidence that God will have the gospel do its work.
This means we need to make the advancement of the gospel a priority. It’s the primary concern. What’s the task that’s given to the church? We have the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. What are we supposed to do with it? The keys to the kingdom means we’ve been given the gift of salvation. We know what it is. We know what the path is. We know how to tell people to get there. So we’re supposed to do it. Here’s what Don Carson says: “Paul’s example is impressive and clear. Put the advance of the gospel at the center of your aspirations. Our own comfort, our bruised feelings, our reputations, our misunderstood motives—all of these are insignificant in comparison with the advance and splendor of the gospel. As Christians, we are called upon to put the advance of the gospel as the very center of our aspirations. What are your aspirations? To make money, to get married, to travel, to see your grandchildren grow up, to find a new job, to retire early? None of these is inadmissible; none is to be despised.” He goes on, “The question is whether these aspirations become so devouring that the Christian’s central aspiration is squeezed to the periphery, or choked out of existence entirely.”
Remember Romans 1, what does it say? The gospel is the power of God for salvation. When you’re sharing with someone, you’re not just using your words. The Spirit is there doing his work. That’s why we have, it is the power of God, what, for salvation, the power of God for salvation. And at one point, brothers and sisters, if you’re a believer, right, that power worked mightily in you. And you believed and you got saved, true? And you’re walking with Jesus and you’re walking in his way. There’s other people out there who need to hear it. They need to know what it is to have the power of God for salvation. Well, it’s the gospel. So whatever we desire, the advancement of the gospel must be preeminent throughout our lives. Don’t be like the seed. You know the parable of the sower and the seeds. Don’t be like the seed. And it gets planted. And what happens is it grows up and then there’s the thorns. And it gets choked out. And what do the thorns represent? It’s the worries and the cares of the world. I feel like that’s one of the things that can attack and take us down as believers the most. We get concerned with just normal everyday stuff. And just like I quoted from Carson, there’s nothing wrong with those things, but there is a problem if those become the primary thing, if those become the sole focus, if they become the main focus and pull our attention away from advancing the gospel. When I was in college, I went through a period where I was dealing with headaches, and so I was seeing all sorts of different doctors. And I was like, man, if I’m going to deal with these headaches, then anyone I come into, I’m going to at least try to use this situation for God’s glory. So I was meeting with headache doctors and neurologists and different doctors. And every single time, I’m looking to share with the nurses and the doctors, and many nurses and doctors got to hear the gospel because I went through a period of dealing with headaches. Could I have just suffered and dealt with it and put up with it and kind of had a bad attitude? Yeah, sure, and some people do. But instead, you’re in a circumstance, sometimes you can’t change your circumstance. I wish you could, but sometimes you can’t. But what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to walk in that circumstance, filled by the Spirit of God, doing what he commands us to do. One of the things, preaching. Preaching the gospel.
So whatever we do, wherever we go, the gospel has to be at the front. Think for a moment if you were dying of a disease and people visit you and they have the cure. And they’re like, oh man, you look really bad off and you really can’t move much so we’re going to build a house for you. You’re like, hey, that’s great, I don’t have a house. And they’re like, and it looks like you don’t have much food, so we’re going to make sure you got food. Hey, that’s great, but then you die. Like, does that house and that food help you? Well, it helped you during your earthly time here and that’s nice. But they got the cure. They could have given you the cure. They didn’t give you the cure. No, you need the cure. So yes, I mean, that’s one of the challenges with missions, even with the evangelical church. You go on mission trips. I mean, definitely build houses, which we’ve done, definitely paint churches, which we’ve done, definitely hand out food, which we’ve done. But you have to bring the gospel. I mean, that’s why we’re going: to bring the gospel. You know, Jehovah’s Witnesses can paint and build houses. The Mormons can build and paint houses. Pagans can hand out food. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t do those things. In fact, we do do those things. Acts of mercy, right? But we have what they don’t have. We have the power of God in the gospel. We have the cure. So we go far with the cure, and we stay near and talk to people because we have the cure. The gospel, listen, it has to be the locomotive. It has to be the engine of the train, not the caboose or the cars in between. It has to be at the front. It’s on the back burner for too many. It’s an afterthought, but it should be the driving force behind what we do. This includes school. This includes work. This includes family. Look, if you are a student, whether you’re junior high, high school, college, you should be thinking, how am I supposed to use this time to advance the gospel? I get it. Between the tests and the studying and the goofing off. Okay, you all don’t goof off. Okay. There’s none of that, sure. But all that, how can I advance the gospel? Why does God have me here for this time and this season? Yes, maybe to get your diploma or to get a degree, to prepare for a job. God has you there to advance the gospel. He has you there for that. So wherever you’re at, you’re the salt and light. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to some great Christian college or great Christian high school or homeschool. Like, there’s a lot of people that need Jesus. A lot of homeschoolers, a lot of private schoolers, a lot of public schoolers, they need Jesus. So it can’t be an afterthought. So same with work. Whatever your job is, part time, full time, you need to be thinking, how am I bringing the gospel into my work? How am I shining that light? How am I looking for opportunities? How are they being provided? How am I advancing it as an employee? And then the same with your family. Many of us have family that don’t know Jesus. So how are we looking to take those opportunities to advance it, to speak truth to our family? Is it always going to go well? No, in fact, some people have shared it, it doesn’t always go well. That doesn’t mean we don’t do it. If we’re called to do it, then we do it. And listen, God is faithful. Some of us here were very, very, very adamantly opposed to the gospel when we first heard it. And what did God do? In his mercy and his grace, he broke us down. He convicted us. Don’t pat yourself on the back to think that you saved yourself. God was very merciful to save you. It wasn’t because you were great looking. It wasn’t because of your great intellect. It wasn’t. But then he wants you to be witnesses and spread that to others, which leads me into my next point.
Be Bold for the Gospel
One, leading into it. Paul’s heart, I mean, you can’t read these first 18 verses that we’ve been going over the last couple weeks without coming to the conclusion Paul wants the gospel to go forth, right? Right? But that’s his desire and passion, but it’s the Holy Spirit speaking through him, as an apostle, to let us know, hey, that’s not just Paul’s job. Sometimes we just write it off. Oh, that’s the apostle’s job. No, back in Acts, if you remember, it says, those who were scattered about went about preaching the word. It actually says that the apostles actually stayed back in Jerusalem. So everyone else is scattered, and they’re the ones that go preaching the word. Why? Because the command’s given to all. So Paul doesn’t focus on himself, he focuses on the gospel, and one of the things that we see is what’s the result of the gospel going forward? It’s a boldness for the gospel. Look what he says back in Philippians. Verse 14: “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” Which I mean, it just, if you ever, you know, Ray Comfort, we went through that series, The Way of the Master, last year through our life groups. I mean, you can go on YouTube and see all the different clips and encounters. I mean, he regularly does essentially what we would call open-air preaching. You can go and see these encounters, and you watch those encounters, that encourages you. You’re like, I need to be doing this. But it encourages you to be sharing as well. So, what happened to the believers when they heard about Paul’s imprisonment? Were they afraid? Actually, no. Contrary to what you might think, it emboldened them. So, you should see the gospel going forth, and that should encourage you, whether it’s in life group or sometimes up here, and they’re talking about, you know, I got this opportunity. I mean, that encourages. Hey, that’s cool. I want that opportunity. I need to look for those opportunities. It emboldens us to be strong and vocal for Jesus. So that means a couple things. One, use your situation to reach those around you. Paul was guarded around the clock. So he’d have access to visitors, he’d be able to write and send letters, he’d be able to do some other small things. But he was likely on a four-hour rotation shift where a new guard would come in, and very likely he was actually shackled to the guard. All right, talk about having a captive audience, right? But he’d be shackled. He didn’t let circumstances sidetrack him. I mean, he’s in prison, but he’s sharing. And he didn’t let circumstances slow him down. Like he had a mission, so he kept doing it. Think about it. Paul had every opportunity to win the guards, like to his side. He’s like, oh, let me tell you why I shouldn’t be here. Let me tell you about how poor it is for me. He could tell them about his false imprisonment. It was a false imprisonment. And he could let them know how he was wrong so that he could try to have people on his side and speak on his defense, right? You know, having maybe one of the higher-up guards speak on his defense, that’d be a good thing. But he doesn’t do that. His focus is on a Jew named Jesus. And what? I mean, that doesn’t even make sense from an earthly perspective. It would at minimum seem odd to the guards that Paul wanted to talk more about someone else than himself, probably all the other prisoners. They’re like, oh, help me out or set me free. What’s Paul focused on? Jesus. He’s focused on Jesus.
And we think about prison conditions. Like if you think about prison conditions today, a lot of times we think, well, at least in America, like prisons are halfway decent. But you want to talk about prisons back then. First, depending on how long we put Paul’s overall ministry at, some people think he spent as much as 25 percent of his time in prison. That’s a long time of his Christian ministry. But most cells were dark. They were cold, there’s no water, you’re in tight quarters, horrible smell. There’s a lack of facilities, if you will. A lot of times they put the male and female prisoners together, which led to all sorts of abuse. Most prisoners had to provide their own food from outside sources, so you were dependent on people bringing you food. And some prisoners were manacled in such a way, and their chains were so short, they couldn’t move their hands to their face to feed themselves. So they literally had to depend on someone else to feed them. You know, they couldn’t bring their hand to their face to give themselves food. Well, the prison in Rome housed its prisoners on a lower level, accessible only by a hole in the floor. So, if you wanted to visit any of the prisoners, you’d have to be lowered through this hole in the ground, and you’d have to hope that the prison guards would bring you back up. In Paul’s situation, [audio unclear] his imprisonment is for Christ. He’s sharing with everyone. And I think the estimates on the imperial guard were around like 6,000 to 9,000 imperial guards. And they all had heard directly or indirectly about Jesus. Why? Because Paul was thrown into prison falsely. Horrible circumstances. And what does he do? He uses the circumstances to advance the kingdom.
Be Filled with Joy
Let’s look at his attitude for a moment, which is really my third point, to be filled with joy. What does he say at the very end of this? He says in verse 18, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.” So be filled with joy. It’s the gospel going forward, we should rejoice. One theologian said, this passage shows that when our joy is connected to the advancement of the gospel rather than to our physical condition, or to the responses of other people to us, it remains firm even when these circumstances stand against us. Our joy has to be grounded in something outside of ourselves. If it’s grounded in something inside of ourselves, some feeling or emotion, then when our feelings or emotions change, boom. If it’s grounded in something that is subjective, then when the subject is changed, then there’s the joy, right? Here today, gone tomorrow. No. If it’s grounded in something outside of us, something objective, then it has a firm foundation. And all the winds and the waves can be blowing about, but the joy remains, because it’s anchored to something, or in this case to someone, so that our joy doesn’t diminish or it doesn’t decrease or change even when circumstances might. I mean, think about it today if we were in prison today, what would our letter say? We’d be like, help. I mean, we’d probably be like, it’s horrible, it’s awful. Do everything you can to get me out of here. The food is horrible. But have you noticed something so far in the Philippian letter? Paul’s concern isn’t to tell them how he’s doing. He hasn’t said it yet. I mean, is he sick? Is he not? Is he doing all right? Is everything okay? No. What’s his focus? The gospel. He’s like, well, Epaphroditus, he’s delivering the letter. I mean, he can take care of that and tell them how he’s doing. But his concern is to tell them how, what the gospel is doing. What’s up with the gospel? That’s his focus. That’s what he wants front and center. It’s not on himself. I mean, we don’t even know how he’s doing. But that’s how absorbed he is with the gospel and wanting to make sure they know, hey, here’s what’s going on with the gospel. Does the incarceration affect him? I mean, sure. But where’s his focus? On the gospel.
I prompted one of the online AIs, and here’s my prompt: “Write the letter to the Philippians by the Apostle Paul if Paul had a bad attitude.” I’m just going to read part of it. It actually gave me the entire book. “From Paul and I guess Timothy, two servants of Christ Jesus, though some days I wonder why I bother. To all you so-called saints in Philippi, along with you overseers and deacons who probably aren’t doing their jobs right anyway, I thank my God every time I remember you. Well, most of you, because I’m stuck here in chains and it’s not like I have much else to do. I suppose it’s fine that you’re sharing in this gospel work, but honestly some of you could step it up. I’m confident, or at least I hope, that God who started something decent in you might actually finish it by the time Christ shows up again, if you don’t mess it up first.” And it goes on. I mean, it’s funny, right? But it makes the point. It makes the point. We see the exact opposite from Paul in this letter, right? The exact opposite. The letter exudes joy. Over and over we see joy or rejoice mentioned, or we’re going to see it. It’s a key theme in the letter: joy, joy, joy, joy, joy. That’s why I want to encourage us, like our mission theme for the year is, you know, make truth your home. But kind of as the subtext, if you will, is let’s make sure we have joy. We have the best gift possible in the world. Jesus, and the salvation he gives. And it’s like we’ve won the lottery. Like if you found out today you won the lottery—I know you don’t play, but if you found out today you won the lottery, like you’d be freaking out. You’d be jumping up and down. Like a million dollars even. You’d be like, that’s amazing, right? You’ve won the lottery like a trillion times over, right? I mean you have a priceless gift. You can’t put a price on your salvation. Would you sell your salvation for any price whatsoever? Seriously, someone’s like, hey, I’ll give you a trillion dollars and you’re going to hell. Like that’s a horrible deal, right? So yeah, maybe your circumstances are tough or challenging. Maybe you don’t have all the money in the world, but you have Jesus and you have a hope that lies right now, but also in front of you, you will be reunited with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. You’re going to a heavenly home. I mean, this is just like a little stop on the way. I mean, that should give you great joy. Think about when you’re getting ready for vacation, especially if it’s one like you really are looking forward to and it’s like one of those things, oh, we don’t get to do this, might never ever get to do it again. You’re like looking forward to that trip coming up the whole time, like this major, awesome, amazing trip. Well, that should be our view regarding the new heavens and the new earth in a much bigger way. Right? We’re getting ready for this amazing, and it’s really not a vacation, but this amazing vacation where we get to be with Jesus forever. I mean, it’s going to be a huge party. The wedding feast of the Lamb, right? There’s going to be lots of food. Don’t tell me there’s a wedding feast without food. Right? There’s going to be lots of food and there’s no calorie counting at this party, okay? You can probably eat just about as much as you want. That’s what we need to remember. That should give us the joy, that God has been gracious to save us as sinners, deserving hell, receiving heaven.
Paul’s example, is this the only place we see Paul shining? No, over and over again, we see him shining it. Look at Acts 16, this is actually in Philippi. Lydia just got saved, a couple verses earlier, we’re in Acts 16:16.
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
(Acts 16:16–25)
So here he is in Philippi, and Lydia just got saved. And what happens? They get thrown into prison. Paul should have begun his letter to the Philippians, it would have been kind of funny, like, hey, I’m in prison again, right? I mean, he’s in prison. That’s where he was in prison in Philippi. He gets out, and years later, right, he’s back in prison again. But what happens? One, look at their attitude. They’ve been beaten. They’ve been beaten. They were stripped of their clothes and beaten. Verse 25, they’re praying and singing hymns to God. And notice, they’re just, I mean, they’re just having like a little worship service, and notice what it says, and the prisoners were listening to them. Right, they’re walking with Jesus, they’re focused on him. That’s attractive to people. And what ends up happening? You know, the Philippian jailer, the doors get thrown open, there’s a great earthquake. The Philippian jailer, he’s about to kill himself. I mean, he’s literally seconds away from an eternity separated from God. And what do they say? No, stop. We’re all here. And what does he do? He falls down and is like, what must I do to be saved? And he gets saved. You’re talking this close to separated from God forever in the lake of fire, and God has mercy. You think the Philippian jailer was glad that Paul got beaten and thrown into prison? Yeah, I’d say so. I mean, he might not like, I’m sorry about those bruises, sorry about the broken wrists. But like, if he hadn’t been thrown into prison, the Philippian jailer never gets saved. He never encounters Paul, they just go on their merry way. So, what is God doing? It’s not just God uses circumstances in spite of the circumstances. He uses bad circumstances because he wants to use those bad circumstances. Sometimes he actually plans those awful things out. Tough to hear, but if you want the best example, he planned out the death of his own Son. That’s the worst of the worst of circumstances, and God planned that out for us. We see over and over, Paul, it’s not just like, oh, I got to go and have some joy. No, I mean, that’s like his lifestyle. That’s who he is, and that’s who we need to be. So we can’t control our circumstances, not usually, but we can control how we handle our circumstances. We can control our attitudes and our actions in the circumstances. That doesn’t mean we won’t have rough days, I get it. It doesn’t mean we won’t struggle. But it does mean we can use those circumstances to advance the gospel. It means we can still have joy in those circumstances. It means we can be bold for the gospel in those circumstances. You know, some of you have health issues or you’re getting older, you just have more doctor’s visits. Like, those are great opportunities, great opportunities to share. The theological truth in this passage: human circumstances lie in God’s hands. And God uses those circumstances to advance the gospel. So whatever your circumstances, be a part of what God is doing in them. Be a part of what he’s doing in them. You might not like your circumstance. I get it. I’ve been there. You might not like it, but you need to still ask, what is God doing in this particular circumstance? How am I supposed to partner with him? What am I supposed to be doing? What lessons am I supposed to be learning? How am I supposed to be growing? And how can I help advance the kingdom? Whatever your circumstances. And I get some of you, you’re like, that’s just little old me. Like, what can I do for the kingdom? Well, [audio unclear] going and cheating and looking in historical books, but we probably couldn’t name even 50 people, maybe 25, 50 people from 200 years ago, people that lived in the 18th century, but they were faithful. They were faithful, some of them, and they did whatever God called them to do. There was a task put before them, and the kingdom is filled with those type of people, and we’re going to get to heaven and be blown away by the faithfulness of people that we’ve never heard of, that God used in mighty ways. We’re privileged to read the books when we get to read them, of people that God has used to change things, but there’s a lot of stories that are unwritten and potentially maybe yours. So don’t downplay the impact that you can have on the kingdom when you’re fully surrendered to God, walking with him by his Spirit. So what we see is God works not merely in spite of challenging circumstances, but he works through the challenging circumstances. Again, in your circumstances, look for how God might be working in those circumstances to advance the gospel and then join him. This is an area we need to surrender to the Lord in, this area of being faithful with the gospel, right? Now part of that is sharing. I’ve clearly focused a lot on vocal, and that’s the primary way, but the Lord’s blessed many of us, probably all of us, with the means and resources to somehow further the gospel financially. Sometimes, yes, it’s just, I mean, you’re giving and you’re tithing to the church, yes, but also other ways. Missionaries, you know, I mean, we’ve got the Cooks. I mean if you’re giving here you’re partnering with the Cooks. Some of you are partnering additionally, separately, but if you’re partnering here we’re sending them money each month, that you’re partaking in that, and there’s much good work going on by many different people. I mean, can everyone here, you know, is everyone called to go to Southeast Asia? No, we’re not. But some are. And Northeast Asia too. Right? I mean, people are called to go. So if we can’t go, then we’re either helping them get there, right? We’re helping them get there. We’re partnering with them. We’re praying to get them there. What, every single person that wants to go? No, no. The ones that the Lord brings into our midst as opportunity provides, right? I mean [audio unclear] I mean, they’re going to have a great time. [audio unclear]
As we’re being bold for the gospel, really, we need to tell ourselves, I need to be bold for the gospel. Have I been bold? You can decide for yourself. You need to be able to make the statement: I will be bold for the gospel. Then finally, be filled with joy. How can I better walk in joy? How can I better walk in joy? Well, one, read Philippians. There’s a lot of joy there. The Psalms, you could probably just do a little concordance search on joy or rejoice and read those psalms. I mean, you’re reading the Scriptures. Ask the Lord to change your heart. We talked about it last week, but you know Paul says in chapter 4, whatever is good and noble, think on these things. Right, meditate on the goodness of God and the gifts that he’s given to you. Meditate on those things. Finally walk in humility before him. Seek him. Ask, like, Lord, I don’t have a lot of joy. So would you help me in this area? We’re back to prayer. Asking him to give you the joy. I mean, it’s one of the fruit of the Spirit. The second one, love, joy. He’s not, that there’s necessarily a ranking except for love. But love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I’m just right there, right? Right after love, joy. Walk in that. We can walk in that. Some of you, I’m going to be honest, you’re challenged to walk in joy. That’s not good. You have a million reasons to walk in joy. A million. The primary being the salvation that you have from God. You’ve been made right with him. You have a relationship with him. You’ve been made whole. I mean, that should be reason enough for us to spend time in worship for a thousand years and more. But you can ask. Ask. You have not because what? You ask not. Right? So go to the Lord. Ask. Confess your lack of joy, repent, and ask for him to give it to you. He will give it to you. Might be challenging for some of you. Might have to focus on it. But he will answer that prayer. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we do thank you that the gospel is going forth. We thank you that it’s going forth here, that people are getting saved. We thank you that it’s going forth throughout the rest of our country and throughout the rest of the world. We thank you for the work you’re doing in Belize. The gospel continues to go forth there. We pray that the brothers and sisters there would participate in advancing the gospel. Bless Elohim Community, bless Queninea, bless Libertad Baptist and the other churches there, Father. We pray, Lord, that the gospel would go forth with the Cooks. Bless their efforts. Be with them. Let the gospel continue to go forth and ring out and people see it and respond. Lord, help us to be bold, not in a boldness of our own, but a boldness that comes from your Spirit. Power and strength from your Spirit. And then let us walk in joy, Father. Regardless of our circumstances, give us an inner joy that comes from you. Let us rest our hope on you. Let us pursue you. Let us surrender to you, for your glory. Amen.