Philippians 1 // Introduction

burdens my understanding [Music] it's like the ground beneath is wrong oh my so long [Music] for all to be much clearer but the dust doesn't see [Music] I can rely on [Music] [Music] [Music] lord have your way [Music] to [Music] [Music] [Music] though I stumble [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] how are you guys doing glad to be here with you and for people at home thanks for joining us also and let's pray and we'll get started with worship lord I just thank you so much that we're back here that we get to fellowship together that we get to worship you together it's just so precious and I'm glad that we get to see how precious it is to be together but also I just pray that just the stuff that's been going on the lockdowns and everything would and I pray that people would be healed and yeah just that we'd get to continue to worship you together pray that you'd fill us with your spirit that you'd be here with us tonight and we love you in Jesus name Amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] who me now enhance a creative hair find me now with grace runs as deep as your scars you pulled me from clay set me called me by made my kill [Music] No me [Music] last and with no reasons interfere you put clay said cut new they again [Music] yes hi need you [Music] was broken [Music] and she christened me [Music] great [Music] with Oh you crush those a Jew you love nose great sure [Music] yes ooh two sinner me crazy [Music] heels and perky she to the smooth whistles that crime and you chrysalis me the croissants me [Music] [Applause] he'll dance again [Music] took with my shame there's no the Graysons crown heels and forgive my Chi to the store croissants the ground in Ukraine suits me Christmas me sinners me miss appraisals me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you unravel me with a melody you surround me with the song of deliverance from my enemies to my fears circle I'm no longer I am a child of God [Music] I am a child the God [Music] from my mother's womb you have chosen me love has called my name I've been born again to your family your blood flows through [Music] you [Music] my child I'm no longer [Music] a child of God [Music] you spent the season could walk right through my fears were tried and perfect though you rescued me so I can stay amateur of God you split the sea so I could walk right through my fears were drowned in perfect love he rescued me so I could stand and sing I am a child of God and I'm no longer safe to fear I am a child of God and now no longer a slave to see you I am a child of God [Music] when peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll whatever my love thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul my sin oh the Bliss of this glorious thought my sin in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord praise the my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul in Lord he's the day when the faith shall be sight the clouds be rolled back as screw the Trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend even so it is well with my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul it is where with my soul it is well it is well with my soul oh it is well it is well with my soul [Music] thank you Jesus we love you so much you're just so good and following you is awesome and I just agree that everyone here and everyone watching and listening would be blessed and that you would bless the study and ask this in Jesus name Amen all right say hi to someone maybe just wave at them tonight I left my mask on because I want to do this really bad let's get this off how you guys doing look at you all wait turn the turn the lights on guys we're not gonna be able to see their violence I'm seeing how many obedient I'm gonna say anything look at all you people you are so rowdy alright hey we're gonna do Sharon just like we normally do all you guys on Facebook live and and YouTube and stuff we normally share before we get into this study and you know share prayer requests and even answer Bible questions and stuff like that but you guys can remember this is going on Facebook live right so though might want to think about that might change it change what you Sheriff so anybody want to go anybody want to share something thing yeah that friend over here or a prayer request obviously no you don't need to go ahead right end of April and he was 25 so he leaves behind like a grieving family who did wasn't married her had kids or anything but parents a sibling cousins and the greedy Lord and so just a prayer request for Chaz's family okay did you say jazz or chess Josie yes I've got it looks pretty for father we just looked up Chaz's family to you and more just just thank you for the fact that he's with you what a it's just a blessing to know that when we leave here we're going home and what we thank you that he's with you father we your word says that we don't grieve as others who have no hope but we do grieve and so lord i I just want to pray for the family that you'd be in the midst a creek that you'd be speaking to hearts hearts that's don't know you Lord we pray that you draw them close to you and hearts that do or even the in the midst of the tears I just pray that they just be glory and the fact that they're gonna be reunited with him in the not-too-distant future it's looking like and so well just lift up that family to you pray that he blesses and do this in Jesus name Amen okay anybody else going going yeah go ahead ma'am I just had a question the verse I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me is that literal what or is it I mean I guess why ask that is it seems like it could be a verse that could be used yes it could to justify not just bad but also just like yeah I can literally I could go live the car yeah and this is a slightly the proper context of it wait so here's the context Paul says not that I speak in regard to need actually just as Philippians chapter 4 verse 11 not that I speak in regard to need for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I've learned both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and so it's the idea no matter what circumstance I'm in I actually this is out of Philippians we're actually starting Philippians tonight and the whole book is about having joy in the midst of bad circumstances and so that's the context right there so yeah I can't lift I can't bench 500 pounds because I'm a Christian yeah because no no not bad but yeah this joke oh go ahead if there'd been over the years times were this sanity I'll catch you next week you know I have something else to do I will never ever take fellowship for granted again I came Sunday I am here tonight I am coming two times a week never ever will I ever taken for granted is that amazing yeah I agree yeah you know actually for me it's actually been pretty fun because we had to do the services before we weren't actually doing them live and so exactly needed some time to do some things with them so that we could get Lucan in these guys on the screen and that kind of stuff so well I'd be doing the Sunday morning service on Wednesday during the day and so Sunday morning I would get up like you know our family would come over and I you know I'd get up and you know first I turn on Greg let's so I watched my old pastor first and then I turned it on to YouTube and we'd all sit down and we're eating breakfast and watching church and it was just like being a Christian again yeah yeah just being like a regular old Christmas that's it's what I feel like when I go on vacation I love going on vacations part of it is because I just get to go to church and just get to sit there you know don't have to take a nap in the afternoon because I'm so wiped out or anything and so that was pretty cool but actually the last couple of weeks I was like you know this has been fun but I'm really done I'm done with this because you know obviously this is important jesus said where two or three are gathered and gathered together and they're in the midst and so you know fellowship is important it's it's special okay anybody else yeah TCC [Music] watching church on Mondays because I can actually watch the whole service without it pausing pausing pausing pausing so I was and lots of people come to Lourdes yeah sometimes the buffering thing Zack are you up there can you connect can the buffering thing be on her end okay so so sometimes it's your bandwidth yeah that happens too yeah absolutely yeah so we had a we've had a bunch of people watching you know obviously I mean well not obviously but just a lot of people from all over the places and watching and so that's been really cool it's been you know that's one of those things that's been neat about this and so that's one of the reasons we're keeping it out of doing the online stuff yeah Paul yeah so like Stacey did you might you might watch it on the next day or watch it a couple of hours later and then you wouldn't have the buffering problems okay anybody else and hear me alright I just I'm a techy guy so I want to say YouTube works a lot better than Facebook at the same problem the Facebook and and then I just wanted to you know say there's a lot of fear going around and I thought maybe we can pray for you know some of it is of course founded fear you know it's a real virus and everything but there's a lot of maybes called smoke and mirrors but there's the what is it the prince of the power of the air or the media pray against that just the people that you know they don't have hope maybe you know the where they're coming from they don't have a place of the foundation in Christ and everything so I just thought maybe we should pray for for that okay you wanna do it oh okay father we just lift up first off our fellowships we pray for our people that you would help us to have our hope and new hearts our trust in you and Lord obviously we know that sickness is real and and we're not immune from all that but Lord you have your hand on us you you walk with us you have our life in your hands and there's there's nothing that can come against us it doesn't go through you first so father we just pray that you would help us to just be able to really trust in you and not fear the world and fear of circumstances especially in situations where it may not be warranted well we lived up this whole thing with virus the virus and just ask Lamar again Lord for grace and for mercy we pray for those who may be sick and just ask that you'd be working in their hearts working in their bodies Lord and just making them whole and father we just pray like dave was saying that you would help us to walk without fear and we ask that you do this in Jesus name Amen you know um you know how I am I'm kind of techy sciency and all that kind of stuff and so when this whole thing came out you know obviously I want to take it seriously and I do i-i've told you before my dad has COPD and so he is somebody who if he gets this this is gonna be bad and my stepmom too mom you know I call her my mom but she's got a little grade form of cancer and same thing with her she's older and this would be bad for her so you know I take I take this stuff seriously because of that but then on the other hand when when you look at the the numbers and and everything that they've been talking about one of the one of the problems that we have is we don't know how many people have had it we don't know how many people have been exposed to it and so whenever you're looking at the death rate that number is not real that number is way too high at this point it's it's at least half you know actually it's way more than half there there been studies done where they've actually taken populations and tested them and statistical studies they haven't taken them and tested the whole population but statistically they figured out that anywhere from 17 to 22 percent of the population has already had kovat and when you start putting those numbers in all of a sudden that death rate goes down you know they were talking about 4.5 percent and 2 percent that kind of stuff all the way it goes down all of a sudden it goes all the way down two tenths of a percent or even hundredths of a percent depending on how many people have had the disease and so we're not in a situation where we where we know exactly what kind of effect it's having we do know for sure that the effect that it's having on our population is less than what the statistics are stating we know that for sure because the denominator is bigger than what they're allowing so they're doing case they're doing deaths a ratio of deaths based on people who they know have had the disease well there's been all kinds of people at our population that have had had it and may not have known that they've had it you know about that right and so in that instance what happens is all of a sudden it becomes less of a scary thing and so again this is something that I take seriously and whenever I'm talking to older people in our fellowship you know if they're worried at all about it I'm calm you know I'm encouraging them to stay home and that kind of thing because there is a danger for older people and especially anybody that's that's got underlying conditions and I know that I'm not you guys are pretty on top of this stuff usually people are fellowship bar and so I'm not telling you anything new but this is not something that people in the world many many of them have a handle on because what happens is they just watch the news and depending on the news station and the and the people who are involved sometimes they have agendas and that kind of thing and so a lot of people are living in you know just kind of abject fear of this whole thing and you know I I don't know so when I look at this actually when this whole thing first started and I started considering what was happening especially with the older population I realized that I'm probably going to die of the flu or this because what happens is I'm going to get older and I'm gonna be in my 70s or 80s if the Lord tarries that long and I'm going to have a weaker heart or I'm going to have weaker lungs and I'm going to get a sickness and that sickness is gonna put me over the top and I'm gonna croak and then I'm gonna go home to be with Jesus you know and so that that really kind of blew me away I just realized I'm probably gonna die of the flu of all things I always figured I just kind of keeled over with a heart attack or something but that might not be the case in fact lots of people go that way so you know there's a passage in Psalms that says there were there they were in great fear where no fear was and and so I'm I'm really a realist when I look at the stuff - guys remember when Ebola was going around a few years back I was a little bit worried about that because that that would that was nasty that was nasty if if that had been more communicable that could have been really bad really bad and I'm not as worried about this one as I was about that one and so you know you just pray it pray for these things that's God you don't protect us protect our family and you know again you guys just just to let you know if I if my mom and my dad were living in my home I would be way careful I would be way careful about what I brought home and so I think that's an important thing to keep in mind but you know again kovita is rapture to me home to be with a lord if I if I die of this puppy so okay anybody else okay we're gonna start in the book of Philippians we got we got done with the book of numbers and I thought you know I wanted to go through a New Testament book and the book of Philippians is all about joy joy in the midst of trials and actually it's all about joy in the midst of confinement literally for Paul the Apostle and so I thought that was pretty appropriate for the times that we're in because we got the whole CO vid quarantine thing going on and and so I thought this was this would be good let's uh let's turn to Philippians chapter 1 and let's pray before we get into it father we just want to come before you and Lord thank you so much for the time that we have together we were talking earlier about what a blessing fellowship is you you said behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity in Psalm 133 Lord and father that's absolutely true it's just a blessing to be able to come together Lord we thank you for technology we thank you for all the people that can tune in and and just listen into the studies and where we pray for your blessing on them too as they're in their households watching this and even people who are gonna be watching later on we pray that you'd have your hand on them also Lord as we're going through your word we pray that your word would get into us that the Holy Spirit would be speaking to us and encouraging us in our walk with you Lord that we'd have the kind of joy that Paul had in the midst of his confinement when he was chained to the Roman soldiers that were around him Lord the fact that he could have like Peter said joy unspeakable and full of glory Lord we pray that you would help us to have that - and we just pray that you bless the study of your word and that you'd do this all in Jesus name Amen okay book of Philippians Philippians chapter one verse verse 1 Paul and Timothy bondservants of Jesus Christ - all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Phillip I with bishops with the bishops and deacons grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ you know like I was saying before Philippians is is an epistle and the word epistle means a letter I didn't know that when I was first a Christian there's a number of terms that Christians use because you know we're just used to this stuff and the Epistle was one of them I remember the first time I heard the word epistle and I wasn't you know I wasn't ignorant the sense that you know I wasn't a I was somebody who was pretty well read but epistle is a pretty old term and when you're talking about the epistles it just means the letters and that's kind of one of the cool things about especially Paul's letters these are actual letters to groups of people and in different churches and this is - the church at Philippi it's an epistle of joy and it's an epistle of encouragement in the midst of adverse circumstances in fact the word joy is used four times rejoice is used eight times and the word glad is used three times so a total of 15 different times throughout the Epistle Paul Paul's talking about joy and gladness and and rejoicing and that kind of thing yeah that's something to keep in mind especially if you've had some trials in the last couple of months have been trials in the first place some of you have been out of work and I understand what that's like I've been there been times in my life when I've been out of work miserable just miserable times I've never liked being out of work and so the the whole thing about thinking that you're you're not providing for your family or not knowing where how the bills are going to get paid and and that kind of thing is not a great place to be except for it does put you in a place where you actually have to trust Jesus and so some of the coolest times that I've ever had as far as God providing for me and coming through for me and having my back were those kinds of times when I was out of work and so something just to encourage you but just in in general the situation's that we can be in in our lives can just take your joy away can just steal it and I you know that's something I have to be careful of I'm I'm kind of a workaholic in the in the sense that I'm I'm focused on what I'm doing and one of the things that I've noticed I'll hear people on my staff say how you doing you know that kind of thing and they're really asking me how I'm doing and the reason they're asking me that is because I look like this I just got this straight face and I'm not really mad or anything like that I'm just focused and I'm busy and they've got things to do Mitch's like Tigger in our office he's bouncy trounce he bouncy trounce he full of fun fun fun and so he bounces around throughout the office and he comes in my office and a lot of times what I'm doing is I'm at my computer and you know I'm doing Bible studies or I'm answering email or I'm you know I'm just busy and he'll be he'll stand there and he'd sometimes he'll walk in he's got his cup of coffee and he wants to talk and he stops for a second I'm like I kind of look up and I'm still going and he goes I'll get you later and then it happens over and over during the day in fact what's he doing why isn't he working what come on doing you know anyway that will happen over and over during the day and I'll I'll realize he could come to me the whole day I haven't even smiled at the guy or done anything like that because I'm so in what I'm doing and that's not what it was like when I first got saved when I first got saved I was smiling all the time I was laughing all the time I was having a really great time I wasn't it wasn't just work work work work work right and so I have to remember this stuff and in fact I've had some situations go on in my life where actually literally lost my joy there was some times when my daughter wasn't doing so well and there was a good long period of time where I was just worried about her and it's all I could think about you know I'm giving it up to the Lord and I was praying for her and and that kind of stuff but I was not having a good life in the sense of you know all right you know that kind of thing and I had to I had to focus I had to pay attention to the fact that I wasn't you know I wasn't like I've been before I wasn't it wasn't like when I was first Saved and I constantly have to hearken back to the to the time when I first became a Christian when it was fun to do the things of Jesus I want to have joy and so you know life can be a bummer in all kinds of situations there there can be times when you've got no peace and no joy and that kind of thing and this is something that God wants to give to us he he wants to give joy you know the the phrase peace on earth goodwill to men you know we always talked about that around Christmastime right out of the out of the book of look Luke peace on earth goodwill to men God wants to give that he wants to give peace and he wants to give goodwill and he wants to give joy to men into women and wives and husbands and brothers and his sisters etc etc and again that's what the book of Philippians is all about having joy the city of Philippi that's that's where the church is it's in Philip I was named after Philip who was Alexander the Great's father he was Philip of Macedon and so kind of northern Greek is called Macedonia after Philip of Macedon and it is pretty interesting in history it's actually the site of the battle between Octavian who is Caesar Augustus and that's the Caesar that was around during the time of the birth of Christ Caesar Augustus and the forces of Cassius and Brutus you guys know who those guys are so at two bruited Brutus Brutus Brutus excuse me at tu brute eh thanks Dom that's that's the whole thing where Brutus killed Julius Caesar Cassius was another one of the guys that was in on that whole thing and so they all stabbed Julius Caesar and then there was a civil war in in the Roman Empire actually it wasn't the empire yet but there was a civil war in the Roman Republic and Octavian or Augustus who was gosh I believe he was the nephew of Julius but don't quote me on that and was on one side and then Cassius and Brutus was on the other side along with Mark Anthony you know Anthony and Cleopatra you guys ever heard of that and so that's all happening during that period of time and so there was a battle that took place at Philippi and 42 BC where Cassius and Brutus were taken out basically after that this place became a military colony the Romans like to put colonies in strategic places in the Roman Empire and they like to populate it with people that they knew were patriotic and who's more patriotic than Roman soldiers and so they would go they would go through their enlistment and after their enlistment the Romans would give them land in these different places and so they were they were obliged to Rome basically there were not many Jews in Philippi and you can tell that by the story in Acts chapter 16 remember to Lydia the seller of purple that's in Philippi so Paul comes into town and he's gonna go hang out with the Jews in town normally he would go to the synagogue but there were there was no synagogue in Philippi and so there were Jews that met down at the river for prayer and Lydia the seller of purple was prominent among now the deal with a Jewish synagogue is that if you had 10 men with families to basically ten families you had enough to pay a rabbi because you know everybody's giving it tithe right so you had enough to pay a rabbi and that's how you would have a synagogue so there were less than 10 Jewish families in Philippi at the time at least less than 10 Jewish men specifically in Philippi at that time and so when you didn't have a synagogue what you would do is you would meet down by a river and the river you the reason that you would meet down by a river is because a river is full of no water what kind of water running water it's living water actually that's what they would call it because it was running water they called it living water and so when you go out and you look at the Columbia River you look at that water running by living water right that's what you think nice clean yeah it's a little bit different back then in any case the reason that they would hang out down by rivers is because there were ceremonial washings that Jews had to go through and so in Acts chapter 16 you see Lydia hanging out and hanging out down by the river and that's where Paul goes and begin sharing with the the Jews in Philippi this is also the place where the jailer gets saved and so you remember Paul's going through Philippi and there is a lady who is demon-possessed and she's walking behind Paul and saying this is Paul and you know he's of God and that whole thing does it for three days and he finally gets tired of it and turns around tells the demon to come out and I don't know what was going on there you know I don't I don't know if it was if if it was a situation where he didn't know that she was demon-possessed at first or if he just thought she was weird or you know I don't know what was going on there but it was for a couple of days before Paul decided okay this has got to stop and that's kind of a weird thing one of the things about that story that that you need to remember is that Satan will promote believers at times and you always got to look for the angle you always got to look for why he would do that kind of thing and the reason that that Satan would use this lady to promote Paul is because what he's doing is he's taken this lady and he's sideling her up next to the Apostle so that when he leaves she looks like an authority and so this has happened throughout my ministry you know it's like I whether I was just teaching a home Bible study or whether it was an assistant pastor or whether I've been a pastor one of the things about wolves guys who have agendas is that they'll sidle up next to me they'll try to be buddy-buddy with me and they'll make sure that they do that in front of people who are around me so it looks like I'm approving of everything that they're doing and so I've had a number of situations where guys have done that kind of thing and then gone off the you know off the rails and tried to do weird things in either my Bible study or the fellowship that I was serving at or whatever that kind of that kind of thing and that's what was going on there as soon as Paul leaves she's been going around for claiming the fact that he's a true teacher of God and that kind of thing and so Satan at that point can have an in with all the believers who don't know very much and he can deceive them and so Paul at that point turns around frozen you know throws a demon out and the problem with that was this lady was a fortune-teller and got people lots of bucks and so the guys in Phillip I got a little ticked off about the whole thing and so they brought Paul up on charges and that kind of stuff and he ended up beaten and in jail and you'll remember that when he was in jail remember it's midnight him and Silas are in jail and they're in the bottom of the prison they're at the bottom of the dungeon and they're in the stocks is what the Bible says and this is what that means they're sitting there and you at least their feet you guys know what stocks are where they would take your feet and they would tie him up and usually was like in a board type device so that he couldn't move a lot of times it wasn't just your feet it was your hands and your feet and so you're sitting there and you literally can't move and you're you're sitting there in these stocks and in these prisons they didn't come along and give you bathroom breaks whenever I think of that story I think of having to sit there for hours they arrested them during the day it's midnight at this point they didn't give him bathroom breaks and so there's probably some problems at that point down in the prison as far as Paul and Silas were concerned can you imagine that so you're sitting there in your own filth and it's been night and Paul and Silas turn each other and go hey what are we saying and so they start singing songs and in the middle of singing those songs there's an earthquake and all the doors to the prisoner are opened and the jailer realizes that all the doors are open and he thinks that the prisoners have left and so he's about to fall on his sort because he's in a Roman colony and he's probably a Roman soldier and if you fail at your duty as a Roman soldier they would kill you and so he just decides to take care of it himself and it must have been pretty intense as far as the threat of death because he's got a family and he's willing to kill himself in this situation and Paul yells out from the prison it says we're all still here and he comes in and he basically falls before him and says sir what must I do to be saved and he gets saved Paul says you need to believe if you believe you'll be saved and your whole household little prophecy of Paul and so this this jailer gets saved he takes Paul home he dresses his wounds Paul had been beaten Silas had to dress his wounds and the whole family becomes believers and gets baptized at that point talk about joy in the midst of trials talk about joy in the midst of confinement talking about joy in the midst of real problems yeah I've never had any problems like that I've never had somebody beat me up for being a Christian I've never had somebody put me in stocks I've never had to be sitting there in my own filth at midnight in the bottom of a prison and I've never sung in the midst of that kind of situation I've never been in this situation and yet Paul the Apostle was and so that's that's cool obviously full of Philippians was written by Paul the Apostle was written from Rome and in 1:13 if you look over there chapter 1 verse 13 it says so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and all the rest that might change are in Christ he is in Rome he's in Chains and he's under guard and so we know that it was when he was in Rome and facing possible death and you could see that again when you look at verse 22 if I live on in the flesh this will mean fruit from my labor yet what I shall choose I cannot tell if I'm hard I'm hard pressed between the two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better and so Paul was under threat of death and yet he's speaking about joy this is one of what are called the the prison epistles so the prison epistles are Ephesians Philippians Colossians and Philemon those are all written when Paul was in prison in Rome and so this is one of them also 2nd Timothy was written when Paul was in prison probably had a second imprisonment and if Paul wrote Hebrews most likely it was while Paul was in prison - or just after his imprisonment there's a good chance that when Paul was in prison the first time he was released and then he was imprisoned a second time and that's when he was put to death and that's what you have in 2nd Timothy the reason that Paul's writing this is because a guy named ape afroditi swill run into him later on in the book was sent from Philippi and he may have been the pastor at Philippi to minister to Paul and give him give him a gift of support and you can read about that in chapter 4 in verse 18 the these guys the Philippians had given Paul support three times before two times at Thessalonica so when you read the book of Thessalonians actually later on in chapter 4 in verse 16 Paul talks about it and once at Corinth and that's in verses chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 Paul in 2nd Corinthians 11 9 said this when I was present with you and in need I was a burden to no one for what I lacked the Brethren who came from Macedonia supplied and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you and so I will keep myself and what Paul was talking about was when he was in Corinth there were guys who were who were accusing him of doing stuff for money and he made sure that he didn't take anything from the Corinthians and so while he was in Corinth the ones who supplied his needs were these guys at Philippi and so they were they were sending to Paul to bless him and to be part of the ministry there and basically besides the fact that it's a it's a missile about joy and trials it's a thank-you letter from Paul to the Philippians for the things that they had done for me okay so the first part here that we just read Paul and Timothy bondservants of Jesus Christ you know obviously this is Paul's greeting and one of the things that you have in ancient letters or ancient epistles is they always started the greeting or always started the letter telling you who they were and so you didn't have to read the whole letter and get to the end and see dears or sincerely Steve to know what the letter was it would start off with Steve pastor of Calvary Chapel in Tri Cities to da-da-da-da-da that kind of thing and so that's the standard way that letters were written in the first century so Paul and Timothy you guys know Paul and Timothy so Timothy was constantly with Paul he was one of Paul's disciples and Paul calls them both bonds servants of Jesus Christ that reflects back to Exodus 21 5 through 6 and this is kind of standard every time I'm going through one of Paul's epistles he also always calls himself a bondservant and what he's talking about is somebody who is a servant by choice Exodus 21 5 through 6 says this but if the servant plainly says I love my master my wife and my children I will not go out free then his master shall bring him to the judges he should also bring him to the door or to the doorpost and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl and he shall serve Him forever well that's talking about is somebody who had been placed into bondage or slavery and you know the term slavery is different for us than it was for them back then basically that was a situation where you got yourself in a bad situation you needed you needed to be taken care of and so they would they would give you basically a seven-year job where you were working for somebody and they supported you and fed you for that seven-year period unless you could buy yourself out of the contract and so you had a contract for seven years well this is talking about as a guy who's gone through the contract for seven years and he goes you know what I don't want to go free I like it here I like my master I love my master I love what I'm doing and so I want to stay here and that was called a bondservant you could always tell a bondservant by the fact they had an earring they would pierce his ear with an awl my daughter did this not with an awl but she wanted to pierce her ear and so she goes into the bathroom and sticks a needle through her ear you know I I'm like whose kid are you I would never do that that's that's not something that I would ever come up with you know it's like I don't I don't mind getting hurt you know they've been all kinds of times when I've cut myself or you know poked myself hoarse I worked in construction I've had stitches all over the place so they've been all kinds of times when that's happened I've never done it on purpose I've never actually Kevin I've heard about you and bee stings yeah doing that on purpose what is that about that's it that's just stuff that I would never he did this whole thing with this with his nephew where they were you know doing an experiment with stinging themselves with bees so anyway I would never do that on purpose and and but again my daughter would in any case they would they would know that he was a servant because he had a piercing basically so you have piercings in the Bible and it represented the fact that he was a bond servant a servant my choice a willing servant of Christ and that's what Paul is saying about his life with Jesus he's a willing slave you know one of the I was just doing some concrete with a buddy of mine and one of the things that he was asking actually asking me if I would come and speak and he said to me hey you know I mean you might talk about leadership training and use David so we were just talking about things that could happen if I went and spoke it is at it's ministry and then he stopped and he said you know what people and people in this ministry they're constantly talking about leadership training and he said you know what we really need is servant training I don't need a leadership training we need servant training and Jesus said that if you want to be great in God's kingdom you have to be the servant of all and that's actually what we're called to called to be a servant to Christ a willing slave and called to be a servant to others true freedom comes from willing service that's important true freedom comes from willing service most of the people that I've known that have been in bondage are constantly concerned with what they're gonna get most of the people I've known that have been in bondage are constantly concerned about themselves constantly most of the people that I've known that have been depressed they're constantly thinking about themselves constantly and one of the best ways to get out of that type of situation is to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about other people and you can look at this and all kinds of different areas where we're be where people just have real problems and the reason that they have real problems is because the self focus is too huge you know the the Bible doesn't teach that you never think about yourself the Bible just teaches that you think about others better than you think about yourself and if you do it that way then you get a more balanced outlook on life and actually you're not constantly bummed out all the time little tautology there John 8:31 336 jesus said to the Jews who believed in him if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free they answered him these are the ones who believed in him they answered him we're Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone how can you say you will be made free and jesus answered them most assuredly I say to you whoever commits sin is a slave of sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever but it's son abides forever therefore if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed it's pretty wild that Jesus is talking to people who believe in him he talks about being disciples he talks about knowing the truth and the truth making them free and as soon as they hear the word the phrase make you free they're offended as soon as they hear that what do you mean you think I'm not free you think I'm in bondage I've never been a slave to anything and Jesus goes oh yes you have if you sin you're a slave to sin and you guys know how that goes once sin grabs ahold of you it just does not let go it grabs you holds on and drags you down and and brings you down as far as it can take you and you just become a slave to things it's it's pretty wild how of how people get caught up in things whenever I think of this I think of things like pornography guys start start off you know looking at pictures when they're kids or whatever and pretty soon they're you know they're in their 20s and they can't have a right relationship with anyone and they're just all messed up because all they have this constant lust and desire to a stupid computer and look at pictures of whatever I'm not even gonna get into it that look at those pictures and their life gets wrapped up in this this whole thing and they're constantly hiding and sneaking and doing all this stuff and then pretty soon your basic pornography is not enough for them they have to have something harder and more intense and that's how you see guys get into all kinds of garbage and filth that just destroys their lives and literally destroys families it's amazing what sin does to people and you can see that in all kinds of areas and so we want to be free from sin and the way that you get free from sin is you become a slave you're gonna be a slave to something and so might as well be a slave to Jesus because he's a good master and so if I if I know that true or if I am abide in Jesus's word I'm his disciple that means a disciplined learner somebody who follows a master but somebody who follows a rabbi that's what a disciple was and you'll be my disciples indeed and you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free to all the saints he says in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi and so Saints I like that term too because what Paul is saying is that all the believers in Philippi are Saints and this is something that I know that you guys know but a lot of people are not familiar with this again is one of those things that when I first became a Christian I was like you know I I thought Saints were perfect people Saints were people who did miracles Saints were you know people who gave up everything that they had and and were poor all of their lives and you know just did did magnificent works of service to people and and that kind of thing and I didn't realize that the word Saint just meant set apart for God it's all it means is set apart for God it comes from the word for holy holy in st. are similar terms in Greek they come from the word ha Geass and again it just means to be set apart for God's use and so I am st. Stephen and my wife is st. Bob my son is Saint Nathan st. Bethany you know and obviously you can put your name in there too to all the Saints in Christ Jesus who are in Phillip I with the bishops that's the overseers and the deacons one of the things that you had in the early church was a situation obviously Christianity is under persecution and it's about to get worse so it wasn't a legal religion as far as the Romans were concerned it was about to become a religion that was under persecution under Nero and so the early church didn't have buildings like we have right here they met in homes and the reason that they met in homes is because they had to they had to keep things on the down-low they didn't want to be noticed by the populace in the sense of their meetings they didn't mind being noticed as far as their one-on-one interactions with people but as far as their meetings went they kept those quiet and that's why they had they had small fellowships if this whole thing that we've got going on in the United States right now ever turned around from being something where it might be what you called discrimination against churches at the point that we're in and became something that was absolutely persecution against churches you can know for sure that's exactly where we would be going would be we'd be going underground and we'd be doing it on the down-low and what you would have is not just one pastor of a church you'd have a bunch of overseers in other words home Bible fellowships would be led overseen by elders elders bishops and pastors are terms that are interchangeable in the New Testament and so they would be overseen by these guys and so you'd have one more than one in a town and so that's why Paul's addressing it to the bishops the bishops and the Deacons and that word for deacon just means servant he says grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace unmerited favor peace is Shalom in Hebrew right grace was the term that the Gentiles used for a greeting kind of like Aloha and so when you when you saw somebody you that you would say chorus that's what grace is in Greek and when you when you were leaving you would say chorus and you were saying grace and it was a greeting and it was a it was a goodbye to and the same thing with Shalom and so grace is to the Gentiles Shalom or peace is to the Jews and so he's addressing both people what's interesting about this though is grace and peace or go together biblically you don't have peace with God until you've experienced the grace of God you don't have real peace in your life until God's come on come along and poured his unmerited favor out on you the fact that we're saved the fact that we're going to heaven isn't because of our good works it's because of the goodness of God you guys you guys know that well enough and so grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ both of those come from God in the Lord Jesus then the next section you're here you have here is Paul's thankfulness for the Philippians starting out in verse 3 since I thank my god upon every remembrance of you you guys remember when we started I didn't look at the clock can anybody tell me okay it doesn't matters I can just go on forever we just started like five minutes ago no I think my god upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of this very thing that he was begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you're all partakers excuse me you all are partakers with me of grace you notice how he says you all over and over he was from southern Israel you won't yell okay whatever for God is my witness how greatly I longed for you all for y'all with the affection of Jesus Christ and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all it is all discernment that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are beat by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God and so Paul lists out the first thing that he says to these people is I'm just thankful for you and the first thing that he talks about in his thankfulness is the fact that he prayed for them I think my god verse 3 upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy Paul's thankfulness resulted in prayer at every remembrance you know prayer is not just something that we do diligently in the sense of we take a time during the day and we spend time in prayer I think that that's an important thing jesus said if you that what we're called to do is we're called to go into our closets or going to our rooms and were to seek the Lord in secret and a lord who sees in secret will reward us openly I've always considered that to be you know the practice of prayer it's something that we need to be doing so I need to have a special time where I'm talking to the Lord where I spend time with him right but what Paul says here is he's praying for them at every remembrance so every time he thinks of them every time they come to they come to mind he immediately becomes thankful he's like I'm so thankful for these guys at Philippi up afroditi even Sinicki she causes a problem later on I'm just thankful for these guys there's some faithfulness they just so helped me out and he would just bust out into prayer for these people I think that that's how prayer supposed to go to do you pray all the time you know it's like you're just kind of going through the day and things go bad and and the first thing that you think of is going Jesus this has gone south if you don't help me bad things are gonna happen that's usually my worst time that's that's usually the time I'm not praying you know when I pray most often is when something goes good because it's not very often that that happens so something goes really well I'm like oh thank you Jesus that was so good it was so awesome the other day uh well week before last Saturday I got a count actually actually a skier and so we're gonna raise a steer right and and so I got back into that and so had to fix up my fences and so I just you know it was it was a real quick job because I didn't realize I was gonna do it the guy was gonna go get the steers you know I had a certain day and I'm like yeah go get it for me and so he brings it and I'm not finished fixing up my fences and so I put the steer in the pasture and the next morning he's gone which is the reason that I stopped doing steers in the first place because they were always getting out and so he's gone and I'm like you know and so actually I did pray at that point you know I was like God you know you know how this goes this is gonna be for hours it was Mother's Day of all things and I'm like this is gonna be a four-hour Trek my brother-in-law is gonna help me out he goes do you have a do you ever rope in the back gear truck he's gonna go out there with me and I go yeah and all I'm thinking about is this steer is fresh off the range it's a yearling it weighs about 1,100 pounds and I'm gonna go out try to rope this stupid thing and it's gonna it's gonna be a rodeo it's not it's not gonna be a good thing and so you know I take off and I'm driving around with my truck and I just go to the first place that my steers have always gone and there he was inside somebody's pen in the back of there in the in the back of their property I come driving up and I'm like I wasn't real familiar with him yet I've only had him for a day and I look at him and he's there he is laying there chewing his cud and the guy who owned the place comes out and he goes that your steer and I go yep I think it is and he goes okay you know until we things went back and got my first trailer came back backed it in and the steer walked right in closed the door took him back we brought right back in the in the pasture easiest deal I ever had as soon as as soon as that steer walked in well actually as soon as I saw him I'm like thank you Jesus and as soon as he walks into the into the the back of the trailer I'm like thank you Jesus because these are all important periods of time that things can go south and then got him back home and did that whole thing I'm I'm really thankful for the things that God does for me I like it when things go well it's when things are not going well usually what I'm doing is I'm trying to figure out the next thing it's not going well I got to figure out what I need to do and I'm kind of into the you know I was talking before that I'm task oriented and so I'm kind of into the whole thing and I'm not praying about and you know then I you know maybe I'm into it for 15 minutes maybe I'm into it for an hour and I realize I haven't taken this before the Lord I should pray about this and you know obviously it's fear led prayer you know you need to be open to the prompting of the Spirit there are times when people are just gonna come into your mind and a lot of times the reason that that's happening is because God wants you to pray for them I can't tell you how often that's happened to me at 3 o'clock in the morning I just wait you know what you know how you're sitting there sleeping and all of a sudden Dean 3 o'clock in the morning and you're like what is going on why am i awake what's what's happening and you can't go back to sleep and so you you know actually I used to have my Bible by my by my bed now I have my phone by my bed and a lot of times I'll just grab my phone and start reading and spending some time in the word that kind of thing unless I want to go back to sleep immediately if I want to go back to sleep immediately I read something that's not my Bible what's I get into my Bible I start getting into it but in any case I'll I'll spend some some time just talk a little lord and a lot of times the reason that I'm up is because God wants to talk to me it's a good time for him to talk to me and sometimes the reason that I'm up is because he wants me to talk to him somebody else he's leading me and you need to be open to the prompting of the Lord the remembrance of these people brought Paul joy brought him joy again he says thank my god upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making require requests for you all with joy what a great thing to hear from somebody every time I think of you I pray for you and it just rejoices my heart up you know not that we talk that way but you know what I mean so every time I think of you all I can do is smile right is that how people think of you so how people think of me is every time I think of Steve winner all I can do is smile what a great thing for somebody to say about you right and again you know you you you want when you want this the situation that when people think of you it's a joyful thing so are you a joy are you a delight yeah everyone smile joke around with with with somebody and I'll go you know I'm a delight Paul prayed with joy you know prayer again it's not just about burdens any more than a conversation should be prayer is a conversation with God and so it's supposed to be joyful it's supposed to be thankful it's supposed to be full of praise and you can also share your burdens and you know again it's just it's just something to keep in mind if if I'm constantly going to God I'm and I'm not saying that you can't do this because Jesus said that you're supposed to bring your requests before God it's a it's a command that you bring your requests before God but again when I when I'm thinking a prayer I'm thinking of talking with people and so like talking with my wife if the only thing I ever talked to my wife about are things that are just a bummer how's that conversation gonna go every time I talk to her I just want to talk to her about everything that's going wrong in my life and then I asked her to help me and to fix it for me how's that how's that conversation gonna go sir and my wife is really sweet and she would go oh yes I'll fix it for you and she would do that but after a while it's gonna get old and I know I don't think it gets a little with God you know again if you've been in that position we've all been there but I like to think of my conversation with God as a conversation with God and so it needs to not just be about the bummers in my life and it needs to be about the joys and about things that just bless me about him and you know it's just a conversation right that would be a good thing he goes on and says I always in every prayer of my making requests for you all with joy verse 5 for your fellowship and the gospel from the first day until now and then he goes on and says being confident of this very thing that he was begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ for their fellowship in the gospel you know what he's talking about fellowship is a mutual sharing and again what's happened is they've just sent him money so that he can eat back in those days if you were under lock and key by the Romans they would feed you something minimal but they didn't feed you and so if you wanted to be taken care of you had to have somebody who cared about you who would send you food or send you money so that you could buy food and that's what the Philippians are doing they're taking care of his basic needs and so when he's talking about their fellowship that they've had with him from the very very beginning for your fellowship for your sharing with me in the gospel from the first day until now it's a sharing lit that's what the word fellowship means and so what again we talked earlier about the fact that the Church of Philippi was a church that supported him and what Paul is talking about here is that there's been a sharing in the gospel there's been a joint participation that again is what the word fellowship means there was financial support there was prayer support and the financial support was considered again a sharing in the work of the gospel and so that's an important thing to keep in mind to you know you guys give here at Calvary right one of the one of the things that you always need to remember about any time that you're giving to a ministry is that you're sharing in the work of the ministry so it's not just the guys down here who were doing counseling or the ladies who are doing counseling who are doing doing the work of the ministry obviously for us to be able to do that stuff we got to eat and so when you are giving to the church you are supplying needs so that we can do the work of the ministry do you know how God sees that and the way that God sees that is that you're involved in that whole thing you see this principle all through the Bible David at one point was talking about actually he made a standard in the armies of Israel that when somebody went into battle the people that watched the stuff got an equal share with the guys who went into the battle and this is something that you see in the Book of Numbers we just saw it talked about this a couple of weeks ago and you also see it in the life of David the people the people who are taking care of the stuff taking care of the needs that kind of thing have an equal share with the guys who were fighting the battle and so when I give to compassion for example so I have a compassion kid I've had had one since the 1980s different ones but had him since the 1980s I'm not doing anything I'm doing a Center in a check send a check every month and on his birthday sent another check or a bigger check same thing with Christmas that's all I'm doing is sending a check you know god season about seeing that check go to the people who are doing the ministry to the people who are talking about old kid who are sharing in his life who are teaching him who are drunk you know drawing him into a deeper relationship with Christ and every penny that I've spent in that whole thing is a joint participation in the ministry that's going on with that child you know how God thinks about kids right and so for that whole time since the 1980s I've been a joint participation with everybody that's shared in the children that were involved in compassion and I'm gonna get a reward for it and I didn't do anything except for send money it's the same thing with with the missionaries that I've supported it's the same thing with you know the different churches that I've given to I'm involved in all of those things and you know I'm not sitting there thinking of it constantly or something I'm not like okay you're all ahead now I'm involved and all these cool things are gonna happen to me the reason I'm telling you this stuff is because that's what's gonna happen to you there's coming a point where you're gonna stand before Jesus and you're gonna be the Jesus is gonna be passing out rewards and you're gonna be getting rewards for things that you didn't know that you did you're gonna be getting reward and it's not even you doing them because you've been faithful and giving to different ministries and in the into different situations Jesus sees all of that stuff and he rewards it it's a joint participation in the gospel is how God sees that whole thing and so you don't have the superheroes who are out front doing the you know doing the work you know the Billy Graham's and and that kind of thing and then you know the the people who are just the the the nobodies it doesn't work that way in the kingdom of God God sees everything that's going on and the stuff that we do with our finances matters and it's what Paul is saying with these people you are you are you are allowing the work actually you are involved in the work that goes on here and you are somebody who I pray for because of your fellowship again in the gospel from the first day until now good things to keep in mind I keep those things in mind when I'm giving and I'm still in the position where I give to different ministries obviously I keep that in mind gifts are seen as part of the work then he talks about the confidence that he has that God is at work in them and so not only are they involved in the work in the ministry Paul sees that God's at work in them and he says being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ so God's working in them and Paul is confident that he's going to complete the work that he's done into in them until the day of Jesus Christ that day when Jesus comes to take home God is continually at work in your life continually at work in my life until the day that Jesus comes to take us home here's the thing about God being at work in your life he finishes what he starts right I am notorious for not finishing what I start and so I did a room addition back when Nathan was three it was a big room addition but when he was three I'm still not done with it there's you know there's some there's some stuff on the handrails that I got to do there's a plug that needs to get put in I know exactly what I need to do there's a plug that needs a gift get put in there where you know where I had to bolt it into a wall and then there's a handrail that I didn't finish going up the stairway haven't finished that one yeah got a got to go down get the handrail stain it and that kind of stuff there's a door that's upstairs in the bathroom that I need to lacquer and and that kind of thing and I think that's it that's about it okay so I haven't finished that one I have a pool house actually I built a pool so I built this pool and dug it and did that whole thing built the pool and so I built a pool house there is a door in the pool house that I have not put in yet it's leaning against the inside wall of the pool house and I need to put the door in haven't put it in because I went onto other projects the back side of the pool house three sides of the pool house have been painted and the back side has not and so there's another one of my projects the trim you know everything is not up on the pool house except for the trim the trims not on the pool house and I got the same thing with my well house and what stuff I get I get involved in these projects I start them up and you know I'm having a great time I'm doing it and when I get to the end I'm just bored I'm bored and so I just wear something else comes up my wife has another project for me and so I move on to something else can you imagine if God did that with you he's all excited right at first and he's all into it he's built got the straw sure in and he you know he puts on the roof and he's got the siding up and he's doing the painting and then all of a sudden he's just like yeah what else can I do and he moves on to someone else right well God begins in you he he completes in you and that's a good thing to know God's not God's not finished with me even when I'm finished with him he's not finished with me and so how many of you guys in backswing raise your hands me too right was he finished with you when you backslide did he keep coming after you did he not leave you alone would he not shut up right you know and we've all experienced that whole thing where we're just walking away from God and we're in it hard and heavy and thick and and you know doing the whole thing where we're eating throw up as a dog returns to its vomit so if full returns to his folly and we're all Washington Pig goop like a wash Pig returns to the mire we're doing that whole thing and Jesus just isn't through he just doesn't stop it keeps coming and coming and coming that's a good thing because most of us wouldn't be here if that wasn't what he was like daaad God doesn't get bored with you and move on to something else and so he goes on and he says just verse seven as it is right and for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart and as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you all are partakers with me of grace for God is my witness how greatly along for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ and so he talks about the reason that he can be confident in the work of God you get that so I'm confident that he's going to be he's gonna finish the work that he started in you and if you look at verse 7 he says just as it is right up for me to think this of you all because and he goes through a list of reasons that he can be confident in the fact that God's gonna finish the work in him in in them and the first thing that he that he gives the reason that he gives for being confident is I have you in my heart that could be translated you have me in your heart also in so it's one or the other most likely it's I have you in my heart probably that one and the point being this that there was a fellowship of the Spirit there was not just a response to the gift that they gave him he wasn't saying I know that God's gonna complete the work in you because you gave me money it wasn't just a response to the gift that they they've given him or a recognition of their works there was a there was a there was a heart thing that was going on between Paul and the people at Philippi and this is what I'm going to tell you with this you can tell when somebody loves Jesus you can tell when God has done a work in them you can you can tell when somebody is faithful to the Lord you can tell when you're dealing with a faithful follower of Christ and so you know for for a long time as a Christian you know I got in in I don't want to make you judgmental and I don't want to make you think that I'm judgmental but the whole thing where well I don't really judge people and God knows who's saved and who's not that's nonsense that's nonsense we know who's saved we can we can tell who's walking with the Lord and we don't go run go around you know choosing people out and picking losers and you know you picking studs for Jesus and and that kind of thing but I can tell when somebody's in love with Christ I can tell when somebody's playing a plastic Jesus game and I can tell when somebody's actually gone for it with the Lord I can tell when somebody's going for it with the Lord as much as they can but they're messing up big time because they're just being a jerk I can tell that too and I can tell somebody who loves their flesh so much but for some reason they want to be called a Christian I can tell the difference between those two can't you you know what I mean and that's what Paul's talking about there is a fellowship of the Spirit there is a recognition of the work of Christ in somebody's life you can tell when somebody's in love with Lord and you could tell when they're not and that's the first thing that Paul points out the other thing that you that he says in the next passage he says I have you in my heart in as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you're all partakers with me of grace they weren't afraid of Paul's chains these guys are living in a patriotic Roman community and they're not a fraud afraid to support a minister that the Romans have imprisoned and you have to understand the Roman Empire at the time this is like the Soviet Union this is this is like like communist China they take you and they ship you off to a gulag someplace actually Romans didn't even do that they just crucified you this is a tyranny that these guys are living under and Christianity wasn't something that was appreciated these guys are living in a military town it's a base town they're living in a military town and they're not afraid to give give funds and goods to a guy that is persona non grata in the Roman Empire and especially he's in prison in Rome because he's under the condemnation again of the Roman Empire he's gonna stand before Caesar and you know these guys aren't afraid he goes to jail they're not afraid he he's in trouble with the law he's in trouble with the government and they're not afraid you can tell where someone stands with Jesus when they're living for the gospel or when they're supporting others that might cost them something if they support them you know what I mean so you're at work and HR is after a guy and they're after the guy because he puts a Bible on his desk and he doesn't care about the fact that HR doesn't appreciate that whole thing or maybe he's brought up Jesus in a conversation on his break and somebody went and ratted him out to HR and all of a sudden he is somebody who is under the gun to the supervisors and the managers at the office and you're not afraid to go up and stand beside him spend time with him and look like you're his best friend you know how that goes I could lose my job if people connect me with this person and that's just a job these people could Lou that lose their lives ultimately it's not too far out from the time when Caesar Nero is gonna make Christians the butt of every persecution that he's got going on in the whole Roman Empire he's gonna blame everything on these people and have them killed off and they're not afraid to support Paul so when somebody stands up and this happens pretty pretty routinely you see this all the time on Facebook somebody will stand up for Jesus and you have all the trolls and the snotty people who would never do this to your face but they'll write it on Facebook who just start ripping into them and do you immediately distance yourself from those people or do you stand up for them on some level or another I'm not saying that you need to get into a huge Facebook debacle every time that somebody gets picked on but it's always refreshing to you know to watch somebody defending somebody for doing something right instead of constantly seeing the situation where we're you know some troll has come along coming along and tearing everyone down especially Christians and they don't have the guts to do it face-to-face they do it over you know the internet I think that that's cowardly I think it's cowardly and I think that people should be stood up for even people who do stupid things so I've seen a lot of Christians who are brand-new Christians and they say dumb things and they don't do it exactly right but what they're doing is they're trying to stand up for Jesus and trying to you know I'm trying to share the gospel that kind of thing and they don't do it tactfully and they they don't do it in a way that may be winsome and they they actually may act like a you know like a bad impression of TV preacher right when they're doing it but at least they're doing something at least they're doing something for Jesus and a lot of Christians won't stand up for anything and so I you know I don't like it when I see people getting picked on like that and usually if I you know if I don't spend lots of time on Facebook but if I see that kind of thing going on and I don't usually do it on the front page I will message people and I will do it personally with them and I'll get into it with them you know off off line so to speak but I'll get into it with them you know you stand up for for people who are doing the work of God you stand up for people who are trying to serve Jesus and that's what these guys were doing with Paul and so the only people who actually stand up for people who are doing the work of Jesus are people who are actually followers of Christ and again you can tell you can tell they're not afraid of Paul's Jain changed they were active in defense and confirmation of the gospel we'll end it with this active in the defense the the word defense in that passage is a Pelagia and it means having a reasoned defense it's it's a word basically a word upon its CI it's the idea of giving a good word a good answer to somebody who has a problem with something or who has a question and so Paul says that not only have you been involved in my chains and you've been involved in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel the word confirmation is a word that means to cause something to be known as certain to confirm to verify to prove it to be true and certain a confirmation of verification the defense and a confirmation of the Gospel as what they were involved in we need to have a good defense we need to be able to answer questions when people attack Jesus when they attacked the gospel when they attack the Word of God you need to know something about what we're doing and I don't expect that brand new Christians will have every apologetic answer that you could ever give to somebody and by the word of the word apologetic doesn't mean I'm out Paul I'm saying I'm sorry for being a Christian it's again that word for defense it's a defense of the gospel and so I need to be able to answer questions that people have you know how you could do that you answer the questions that you have a lot of times people will tell me I'm pretty amazed Steve by the amount of knowledge that you have and the fact that whenever anybody brings something up you always know how to answer them you know how that works I had all the same questions I just took the time to find out what the answers were and I didn't depend on somebody else to give me the answers I went and looked at it up myself you know there are subjects and I can't remember I can't I'm not gonna be able to tell you one off the top of my head but there are subjects I still have to go look up because I never cared to look it up on my own it was one of those things that I got taught and so I was like oh okay that's really interesting that's a great answer for that question that kind of thing it so it kind of goes in my mind and it sits there for a little while and then the next time I come up with it I was like he answered that thing and the reason I don't have any answer the thing is because I never cared it was just like oh it was kind of incidental I heard somebody ask question this guy had a great answer it's like you'll file it in there someplace and it never sticks but all the questions that I had all the questions that I have about the Bible about Who God is about where evil comes from about you know why the gospel is something that needs to be spread to everybody else how come everybody on the planet can't go to heaven you know what's hell about why does God allow allow people to go to hell why does God send people to hell well you know all of those questions that people have what how come there's evil in the world if God is good all those questions that people have are exactly the same questions that I had and so when I had the questions I just picked up my Bible and I started looking and and I found him out for myself I got the answers myself and when I dig into something and get the answer for myself I always remember it and that's how you get a defense don't you know you don't need to go around answering everybody else's questions to be able to have answers for people all you got to do is go and answer your own questions because pretty much everybody has the same questions right and so the things you care about are the things that you're gonna know about and so that's what I did there and then you have the confirmation so not only am I willing to give a reasoned answer I need to give a personal confirmation I need to give an endorsement of the truthfulness of the reasonable answer that I just gave to them so it's not just about spouting out facts it's not just an intellectual proposition you know I very rarely have ever said to people have you considered the possibility and every once in a while when I'm in a conversation I might do that but that's an intellectual proposition well I know that you believe this thing but have you considered the problem you know the possibility that maybe this might be true that kind of thing on the other hand a confirmation is something where you say you know what I know this to be true I know this personally and you want to know how I know it and then you give them the answer so one is tentative and the other allows no argument the one is where you give somebody again a proposition maybe you might consider this and the other one is you know what dude I'm not telling you that this might be true I'm telling you it is true and here's how I know it that's a confirmation and that's what the Bible talks about that's just boldness its boldness you know you get boldness you have experience with God again God answers your questions God deals with you God works in your life there's a there's an ongoing relationship you know nobody can walk up to me and go well Jesus isn't real arms yeah I'm so done with people who do that believe that there's actually a historical just shut up I know the guy no that's a it's like somebody coming up to me and saying I don't really believe in Mitch Dunphy what what's wrong with you yeah it's it's that kind of thing in my mind and again you know I've been a Christian for a while and so there is that whole thing but that's the kind of attitude that you need to have when you're talking with people what are you talking about there's no historical Jesus I know the guy yeah obviously they're not gonna understand all that they're not gonna get it but that's the kind of attitude that you need to have when you're going after this stuff there needs to be a boldness it's true whether they like it or not it's true whether they believe it or not it's true whether they want it to be true or not it just is true and again that that comes from a walk with God these things all those things show the grace of God and work in them and so again there's there's a fellowship there's a there's a fellowship of the Spirit I have you in my heart there's a there's a knowing that they're actually lovers of Jesus they're not afraid of Paul's chains they're active in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel and those things again show the work of grace in their hearts he says just as it is right begin verse seven because I have you in my heart in as much as in my both in my chains and defense and confirmation of the gospel you're all partakers with me of grace those things show that again the grace of God there so that's good huh a lot of good stuff in there um let me pray for you guys and get you out of here Lord thanks again for your word lord thank you for the exhortations that we get from it that whole thing with standing up for other believers I think that's an important thing especially the times that we're living in way way too many timid believers and lord we've all been in that position where the pressures on and we don't know what to say and we don't know how to act and we're embarrassed or sometimes we're just even frightened of what's going to take place if we stand up and ultimately Lord you said that we're not to fear men but we're to fear you and there's there are men who can kill us and none of us is under that threat but they couldn't kill us and then there's the one who can cast both body and soul into hell but you said better than that you're the one who knows us better than we know ourselves you're the one who knows every Sparrow that falls to the ground you're the one who knows every hair on our head you're the one who loves us and so God we just pray that you'd help us to have a little have that kind of love for you I love where we care more about what you think then what the boss thinks what you think then what about the gut and what the government thinks what you think more than what our family things frankly we just need to be people who care about what you think or help us to walk with you in truth and Lord we thank you for your faithful faithful nough stew us I like it that you don't walk away I like it that you don't get bored with me I like it that you that you complete the work that you started completed in us Lord yeah and we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen god bless you you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 948

Rating: 4.8823528 out of 5

Keywords: Truth, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Jesus, Bible teaching, Sermons, verse by verse bible teaching, Good bible teachers, Philippians, New testiment

Id: TZV0_MO42_c

Length: 106min 27sec (6387 seconds)

Published: Wed May 20 2020