Lifeway's Explore the bible series: Philippians 1 12-30 for 9/12/2021 lesson "Joy in Adversity"

hello everyone this is mike howard and i am here with howard and we're going to do a bible study we're in the book of philippians it's paul's message of joy not only to the church in philippi but to us today so we started last week lesson number one and paul instructed us to be joyful when we pray and that's pretty good advice because a lot of my prayers are oh god woe is me and woe is this world and paul said it's okay to pray for what you need for god to do in your life but also be aware pray joyfully because god is doing great things and you're in a partnership with the other christians in this world and with god in his plan of redemption so paul was pretty clear to be joy and joyful in prayer today is a little less obvious because paul is going to instruct us to be joyful in adversity and what he's going to introduce today is that real joy real joy comes with a share of meaningfulness and a share of adversity to be really really happy with things in your life those things need to be meaningful and really need to be sometimes difficult so paul introduces that in today's lesson so i'm excited to figure this out so let's go ahead and get started being happy in a sad world and we don't have any uh lack of reasons to be sad the virus seems to be mutating on a weekly basis and becoming a bigger and bigger problem instead of going away the war in afghanistan ended badly for the americans okay and for christians who still are alive in afghanistan it's a very trying time there are hurricanes coming this way and that and the people in louisiana and new york and new jersey understand how bad that is there's forest fires in the west seems like everywhere you look there's something that you can be upset about politics government the whole nine yards it's just the economy what do you pick pick a handful and you and you can do you can be sad but paul says you need to be joyful you need to be happy even when you look around and it's a sad world so joy and adversity we're in chapter one of philippians talk about the need to have a challenge and for that challenge to be meaningful in order to be really happy it came to mind this great philosopher uh snoopy it says snoopy here is a is a the war is over so he was involved in something meaningful and something difficult the war is over the world war one flying ace is now home and nervous and restless he's searching for something to do something to be joyful about something to be meaningful with and he finds out that that's not going to be about girls and root beer so so what snoopy discovers is that just having a ball and enjoying life isn't going to really bring true happiness or joy and so what snoopy discovered paul is going to develop we we pursue happiness the picture on the right of your screen is a picture of our son as he completes an iron man he's he's married to a beautiful lady who has competed in marathons and iron man competitions and she's uh she loves it she like they both love it they're they they are the perfect couple for this kind of stuff i don't understand why they like doing it but they do first of all they find it to be enjoyable they find it clearly to be challenging or difficult but they also find it to be meaningful this kind of running and what paul says is the same thing he says there are three dimensions to our happiness one is our happiness needs to provide satisfaction it needs to be enjoyable for us and it needs to be challenging at the same time it needs to be difficult anything that's trivially easy to do is not really going to make you happy it may give you a little bit of fun for a short time but it's not going to bring happiness and to be meaningful to make a difference in the world to change something or someone for it to be an accomplishment when you do that that's great so i've i've divided it up into three green circles i know it's hard to read this but these this is the circle of satisfaction or satisfying and enjoyable things and and either any of these circles will make you happy if you do something that's satisfying or enjoyable like going on a ride at disney or or for a swim in a cool pool or or you know swinging a golf club any of those things are satisfying and enjoyable if you do something that's uh that's challenging you'll find that that can bring you happiness as well i can still remember when i finally passed calculus you talk about a happy guy i was such a happy guy i'm finally through with calculus okay that was challenging and when i finished it because of the challenge i was really happy i'm glad i don't have to take it again and meaningful i remember having uh the boys when they were born very difficult but also very meaningful to think that god would give us the gift of two little children to raise uh in a godly way and so that was also very meaningful to us but if you take a look at any one of these three will make you happy but if you talk take a look at putting all three of these together you're going to find according to paul that that is going to bring you true joy so it's the intersection of it's going to be satisfying enjoyable challenging and yet meaningful if you bring all three of those together you not only are happy you are joyful and then um emmanuel kant who was an 18th century german philosopher uh responsible for the age of enlightenment type of thinking he he said that there are three dimensions to uh to happiness he says these are the three rules for happiness you need something to do someone to love and something to hope for that's one of his more famous and understandable quotes something to do someone to love and something to hope for and we're going to find out how that fits into paul's philosophy of joy in just a little while so if you take a look at that one of the people that i first heard that quote from was a football coach retired football coach named lou holtz who did a lot of public speaking uh now lou is a pretty interesting person in that he was a fairly small person and yet he played football and he wasn't all that smart he isn't all that smart and yet he won a national championship as the coach of notre dame and then in terms of public speaking he's a famous public speaker and yet he's got a speech impediment so lou holtz is kind of one of those people you pay attention to he's an anomaly one of his quotes that i really liked was the fact that happiness has a half-life it's got a time frame and he put it this way if you want to be happy for an hour eat a steak now personally it would be more about an ice cream cone but he says eat a steak if you want to be happy for a day play golf i i kind of challenge that but okay you understand the thought that he's got behind that [Music] if you want to be happy for a week go on a cruise if you want to be happy for a month buy a car if you want to be happy for a whole year win the lottery so you kind of see how he's putting time frames on these things but then he ends it this way he says if you want to be happy for a lifetime put your faith in jesus christ he'll never let you down so lou had it right a lot of things that we do in life will bring us temporary happiness but what he's talking about here is the thing that's going to bring us complete and absolute eternal happiness and joy is our faith in christ so philippians examples of happiness and joy lesson one joyful in prayer god uh says rejoice to god for what he is doing in his church and in our lives because we number one he says you are my partners okay he says we are part of god's plan now let me just delve into what that means as christians this book the bible is 66 books written by about 40 people over thousands of years and it's got one message and that is the message that god loves us and wants us to be connected with him wants us to be part of his family and there is there's a problem with that in that we are sinful people and so the answer to that problem was jesus christ and he died on the cross so that he could pay for he was our sacrifice that he could pay for our sins and then he rose again to show that god has forgiven us and that we now can be redeemed back to him that's the message of the whole book i mean the road to emmaus jesus was talking to two believers because he'd he'd just been crucified and they didn't know he was had raised from the been raised from the dead and he took them through this whole old testament and he said see here i was here i was here i was it's jesus it's about jesus from cover to cover it's the message of the gospel the good news that god loves us that he wants us back in his family so that is our joy in our prayer we are now part of god that's all god's plan that's his gospel plan this is a redemption plan for mankind and by when we become believers god says you are now part of my plan we all know about moses and we know about abraham and we know about paul and we know about the apostles and the patriarchs and all these people they were we we understand that they were part of god's plan because they're in the bible what we might not understand is that you and i are now just as much a part of god's continuing plan of salvation we are his partners once we become believers unless he takes us right on to heaven we stay here and we remain as his partners to do the work that he's left for us to do so we're part of god's plan god's doing great things in our ministries and in our lives and we're being trained and prepared and that was a message from last week's lesson you are part of god's story this is just our review and in all my prayers for all of you i always pray with joy because of your partnership you're part of the plan you're part of our our team here in the gospel from this first day until now being confident of this that he who began a good work in other words the holy spirit is working this out in your life i will carry it on to completion until the day of jesus christ so lesson number two the joy of adversity so that's the joy in prayer and now we're going to talk about god how to have joy in our adversity same chapter chapter one we're going to start in verse 12 and go to verse actually i think verse 26. now i want you to know paul is saying brothers and sisters that what has happened to me okay so now let's take a step back what has happened to me what's he talking about well the fact that he's in prison in rome and then on his way to rome he was shipwrecked and then prior to that he was beaten almost to death so i want you to know that what has happened to me means i want you to understand that even though i was beaten nearly to death and then i was put on a ship and then the ship was shipwrecked and then i got here and now i'm in prison i want you to know that even though that's my life this actually has served to be part of the plan god's plan to advance the gospel and you think to yourself okay fine paul you are the world's most optimistic person okay if you can see all of these terrible things in your life as being part of god's plan then how much more so should i see the things that happen in my life whether they're good or they're bad as part of god's plan and paul is simply saying this if you will get out of your pity party if you will grieve it and move on what you will understand is that all of the things that are happening in your life are for the glory of god they are part of the plan so paul says if what's happened to me is part of the plan then what's happening to you is part of the plan too okay that what has happened to me has actually the part of the plan served to advance the gospel and then he goes on and he explains exactly how that's happened he says as a result of me being here in prison it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard in other words everybody that's employed as a guard in the palace prison and to everyone else that i am in chains for christ they're not confused about why i'm here i'm here because of my faith in jesus christ and because of my chains most of the brothers and sisters that's the other christians in the rome in the rome area around rome they have become confident in the lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear in other words because they see my example of fearlessness even though i'm in prison and shames of these guards 24 hours a day they look at me and they go wow if paul has that kind of courage we can be more courageous in our faith too so he says that's number one everybody in the palace now knows about christ number two all the other christians around town are emboldened because of what i'm doing it is true then he's then he goes on he makes another point he said it is true that some preach about christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of good will so he's come up with two different groups and the envy and rivalry group is you can think about those as being perhaps a church in your area that you don't necessarily agree with maybe they do music in a different way or maybe they do something else in a different way and so you're like well well well okay so you're not totally in agreement with those those folks but folks look what he says about him now i'm not talking about false teachers and i'm not talking about false religions i'm talking about other christians that are perhaps envious or jealous of what your church is doing he says he says some preach christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of good will the latter the ones out of good will do so out of love knowing that i am put here for the defense of the gospel the former the ones that are envious and rival rivalrius the former preach christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely supposing that they can try to stir up trouble for me while i'm in chains in other words their motives are impure but they are still preaching the message of the gospel and you know what paul has to say about it i don't really care what their motives are all i really care about is that the gospel of jesus christ is being preached in the end he says christ is preached the message is being expounded they are being they're teaching others about the redemptive plan of god through jesus christ he said what does it matter he says the important thing is that in every way whether from false motives are true christ is preached and because of this i rejoice i rejoice in the people who who are trying to create trouble for me because there's no way they're going to do that and i rejoice in the people who love me because they love me and that's great okay he says because of this i'm going to rejoice yes and i will continue to rejoice wow what an attitude and then he says god's going to take care of me don't worry about me even though it looks like there's a lot to worry about don't worry about me i'm actually right in the middle of where god wants me to be at exactly the time that god wants me to be there this is part of the plan i know it's part of the plan and i'm excited to be part of the plan at this point at this time it just blows my mind and if paul can do that we can do that for i know that through that through your prayers and god's provision of the spirit of jesus christ what has happened to me will ultimately and eventually remember the definition of joy is that the ultimate and eventual result is going to be us being with god in heaven will turn out for my deliverance and he's going to say he says i know that ultimately and eventually what's happened to me is going to turn out for my deliverance but then he says i could potentially be delivered two ways he says don't i can't lose either way whether i live or i die i'm a winner and that's another attitude adjustment for me i love this i eagerly expect and hope that i will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage he says so that now as always christ will be exalted in my body catch this whether by my life or by my death so you pray that i will have the courage to die and be strong in my faith or live and be strong in my faith so then he says and i want you to catch this this is to me it's just beautiful it's very famous and so for me to live for me to live is christ and to die is gain if i am to go on living he says in this body that will mean fruitful labor for me yet what shall i choose what shall i prefer should i prefer to die and go to be with the lord or to live so that i can continue to minister to the church those are my two choices those are two my two potential paths for my life to take to die go be with jesus to live and continue in my ministry so he says for me to live is christ meaning to live means i get to continue the ministry to the church to work for christ to be part of god's plan here on this earth to be part of god's redemptive plan that's to be to live in christ or and to die is the game that means i think i'd rather be there you know so let's take a look at something to do somewhat to love and something to hope for in in this verse for me to live is christ that's someone to love for me to die is gain but that's something to hope for and for me this will mean fruitful labor for me that's something to do something to do is the fruitful labor of our ministry in this on this earth in our churches and our families someone to love that's the lord love the lord your god with all your heart mind soul and body something to hope for you know as christians we have that eternal hope and glory with the lord so it's something to do someone to love and something to hope for that according to emmanuel comp is happiness according to paul it's pure joy and then he goes on to say this he said he let me back up he said what shall i choose which proof which shall i prefer i can't make out my mind i don't know if you've ever been down to two two choices uh let's make it simple uh we're gonna go out to a seafood restaurant or we're gonna go out to a steak restaurant and so you can't make up your mind so you take it and you flip a coin and it comes down and if it's not if it's not really the one you want you say okay two out of three and you flip it two out of three if it's not it is still not the one you want you know okay three out of five okay that's how you know what you really want you think you can't decide between seafood and steak but you really don't know so you're saying i'm gonna flip a coin but then you get to figure it out later that when you go two out of three three out of four and all that kind of stuff then you kind of know that really you wanted to do whichever one it was paul is in the same boat paul says i really really want to go be with the lord he says i really really would would prefer to do that watch what he says he says i am torn between the two i flipped the coin and it said stay here and be on this earth and continue to minister and i flipped the coin again and it said stay here and i flipped it again and just stay here he said he's not really torn quite frankly there are two choices he can go be with the lord which he eventually did and we all eventually will do or he can stay here and some of the adversity and the persecution that he's going to have and yet there is fruitful label labor for him so he says i'm torn between the two i desire to depart and be with christ which is what really my first choice that is so much better by far now i'll give you that paul has a leg up on us in this regard and i'll tell you why paul has actually been to heaven right he actually went there he knows what it's like firsthand all we know is what we've been told about heaven and what we've been promised by god's word about heaven paul's actually been there when i talk to people about how beautiful hawaii is i can tell them because i've been there several times if somebody is telling you how beautiful hawaii is because they've looked at pictures of hawaii they may think they know how beautiful it is but they don't understand as much as i do how beautiful it is because i've seen it with my own eyes paul has seen heaven and the lord with his own eyes and so he's got a leg up on us on this but he says to this i which i want to depart and be with christ again which is better by far but it is more necessary now he gets to the duty part of his life he says quite frankly it's more necessary that i stay here and then i remain in the body so he's going to say i'd really rather go but god's got a job for me to do right here and as long as i'm here i'm going to do that job i'm convinced of this i know that i'm going to remain he knows that he's not going to be put to death this time he actually is freed and he comes back to prison later which is when he's when he's uh martyred he says i know that i will remain and i will continue with all of you for your progress and your joy those are the two things that he's working on those are the two things that we work on is our progress in being more like christ and our joy because we're part of god's plan in the faith so that through my being with you again you're boasting in what god is doing in christ jesus will abound on academy in other words when he is set free everybody's going to go woohoo paul's free again he's coming back to see us it's kind of like a fisherman saying look at the fish that i caught our golfer look at the golf shot that i did it's the boasting part of that with for the church at philippi it's going to be woohoo we got paul back and he does he goes back to see them that is the lesson joy in our suffering living the gospel is our real joy that really is as a christian we're god's partners it's his plan to redeem people and as long as we're here on this earth we get to participate with him and with our teammates is part of god's plan just as much as abraham and moses were part of god's plan in the bible we're part of god's plan today god is working in us through his holy spirit to change us into the image of christ that is pretty cool and the only reason that we would want to stay on this earth is to do something that would bring fruit for the kingdom of the gospel remember what jesus said he says i am the vine you're the branches okay without if you're not in me you can't do anything but if you are in me you will bear much fruit so the conclusion remember we are god's children you remember the three circles satisfying meaningful and challenging we are god's children that's pretty satisfying god has called us to a work to be his partners in his redemptive plan that's pretty meaningful god is transforming us through our knowledge of jesus that in my life is always challenging to take the world out of me and put christ into me is like training for a marathon it's like practicing for your golf game it's like learning a difficult skill it's challenging and yet when you get it right it will really bring you joy you'll be happy why because it wasn't easy it was difficult anybody that's listening to this that's overcome a major habit bad habit or had a major change in your attitude in life you know that it wasn't easy it required discipline and hard work and yet when you look back at your life and you see the photographs of yourself when you see those pictures that brings you happiness you're happy because you made it through i finally passed calculus you're focused on what appears but paul is encouraging the philippians he says you're focused on what appears to be bad circumstances but you're not looking at it the way that god sees it you only need to know that god has everything under control in your life in your community in your family's life in this country in this world in afghanistan he's got it under control and he has a plan and you're part of the plan you're a partner with him so paul says stop looking at stuff like it's bad and start understanding that it's just difficult but it's meaningful and it's satisfying and it's gonna bring happiness and joy because that's the way god made it so as a christian your priority is this know christ more and more share christ the message of forgiveness and salvation in christ and then help your teammates that's your church and your family grow and increase in their joy of christ well you want to know how to be joyful how to be happy it takes those three things doing something that is satisfying doing something that's meaningful doing something that's difficult and when you put all three of those together what you find is true happiness and joy and it's in christ jesus pray with me father god thank you for this lesson thank you for helping us to understand that if we look at the world if we look down we're going to get discouraged but when we look up and we see that we're your children and we're part of your plan and that you've got us right where you want us right when you want us to be there and that you're equipping us to be meaningful in a difficult time in a satisfying way that will bring us happiness and joy and father hopefully it will glorify you in your kingdom in jesus name we pray it amen well it only gets better next week we're going to look at probably the most beautiful poem in all of the new testament and the whole book of philippians is built around this poem don't miss next week's lesson until then we love you take care

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Keywords: Lifeway's Explore the bible series: Philippians 1 12-30 for 9/12/2021 lesson, Explore the bible series, first baptist church of crystal river fl, mike howard, leader guide 2021, Lifeway series, mike howard sunday school lesson, Lifeway explore the bible series, Lifeway's Explore the bible lesson: Philippians 1 12-30 teacher overview, philippians 1: 12-30, Joy in Adversity, teaching Philippians 1 12-30

Id: 2Hza3s80KrE

Length: 28min 58sec (1738 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021