1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,860 Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest 2 00:00:15,860 --> 00:00:21,080 questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search 3 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:27,300 and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead 4 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:32,440 pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth 5 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:41,160 for the life we're searching for. Please grab hold of your Bibles today in terms of 6 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:45,440 the book of Philippians. We're in the book of Philippians and have been for a few weeks. 7 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:50,720 We will be for a season of time until we get through with our book. And today we're going 8 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:55,440 to talk about the greatest progress in life out of Philippians chapter 1 beginning in 9 00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:00,160 verse 12. The greatest progress of life. Did you know that Christians view progress very 10 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:06,960 differently from the way the world views progress? When we say we're progressing, we're moving 11 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:11,340 forward in life, we have a very different definition of what that means. And Paul shows 12 00:01:11,340 --> 00:01:16,200 us what that is in Philippians 1. Let's stand together. I'm going to read some passages 13 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:20,360 out of Philippians chapter 1 building on what we've said in previous weeks in the book of 14 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:27,520 Philippians. Remember, Philippians is a letter written by Paul in a Roman prison about joy. 15 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,920 That in itself should get your attention. How does a man in jail write about joy? Well, 16 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,800 he doesn't get that from the normal means that we get joy or happiness. He gets it from 17 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:42,080 God in a special way. We're going to look at what that says today. Philippians chapter 18 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:46,140 1, we're going to begin in verse 12. He says, now I want you to know, brethren, that my 19 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:51,300 circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. So there's a word 20 00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:56,560 that's going to influence what we say today. Moving forward, advancing, progressing in 21 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:01,460 the gospel. So that my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has become well known throughout 22 00:02:01,460 --> 00:02:06,200 the whole proetorian guard and to everyone else. And that most of the brethren trusting 23 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:11,160 in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God 24 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:16,160 without fear. Some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some 25 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:20,880 also, from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the 26 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,760 defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than 27 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:32,560 from pure motives, thinking to cause me to stress in my imprisonment. So what then? Only 28 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:38,840 that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this, 29 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:44,840 I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance 30 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:49,800 through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ according to my 31 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,440 earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with 32 00:02:54,440 --> 00:03:01,280 all boldness Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or 33 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:07,920 by death. I'm going to read verse 21 as well. For to me to live is Christ and to die is 34 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:12,720 gain. Father, in Jesus' name I pray that you will speak to us from this text and from the 35 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,520 life of Paul in a relevant way that helps us know what progress really means in our 36 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:26,520 life. We ask this in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. Amen. Please be seated. So if I 37 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,600 were honest with you, I would say I'm going to preach two messages today in this one message 38 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:35,400 times five. That's not unusual for those of you that know me very well. I try to do it 39 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:40,920 every week, but nonetheless this is literally two messages, one on joy, one on the gospel. 40 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:46,000 But the reason they must take place in one message is because they are intertwined through 41 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:53,400 these verses 12 through 20. And in these verses 12 through 20, Paul is demonstrating something 42 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:58,520 and then he's admonishing them to do something. Now remember the church of Philippi is the 43 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:04,760 first church in Europe. It was a result of the Macedonian vision where Paul and Silas 44 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:09,640 and Timothy and Luke were in Troas and were called over by that Macedonian vision. They 45 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:14,720 all concluded that the Spirit of God was leading them across the sea to this place in Macedonia 46 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:20,620 called Philippi, the very first church in Europe. And so from there, Philippi had incredible 47 00:04:20,620 --> 00:04:24,960 influence and the gospel moved west and north to Great Britain and across to America. You're 48 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,760 kind of saved today because of the work of the church at Philippi. It moved this way 49 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:36,040 instead of some other way. God in His sovereignty chose that direction, but it wasn't without 50 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:41,320 hardship. Paul was in prison as a result of preaching the gospel and now he's riding 51 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:46,400 to the church at Philippi while he's in this Roman prison. Some say he was under house 52 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:52,000 arrest. The Praetorian guard is those elite soldiers that guarded those special prisoner. 53 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,520 So he may have been under house arrest, but he's been in enough prisons where he's got 54 00:04:56,520 --> 00:05:00,880 a kind of a prison mentality about him. He knows what it means to go through hardship 55 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:06,120 in prison and he's writing about the source of joy and the source of progress with the 56 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,360 gospel. Now before I dive into this, let me just say this is very clear as we walk through 57 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:15,200 the text. Christians don't get their joy the same way the rest of the world gets their 58 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:22,000 joy. You know that, right? Most of the world gets their joy or their happiness, which is 59 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:27,680 a much more surface kind of happiness. Joy is much deeper, of course. We've defined that, 60 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:32,440 but most of the world gets their happiness from a new home, a new job, new relationships, 61 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:37,600 new friendships, new clothes, new something. Something added to their life to make them 62 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,960 smile. The problem with that is the smile doesn't last very long because the thing is 63 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,120 empty. It doesn't have life in and of itself. So many people look for their happiness in 64 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:52,360 things. Christians don't look for their joy in things. They look for their joy in a person, 65 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:58,000 and that's the person of Jesus Christ. We believe joy is God given, and we'll talk 66 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:04,640 about that in just a few moments. At the same time, the world gets their purpose from doing 67 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:10,120 something that feels rewarding to them. They're making some kind of progress in life. They're 68 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:15,340 elevating from one job to another. They're in an influential position somewhere and they 69 00:06:15,340 --> 00:06:19,680 feel like they've found their purpose in life. They're doing what they like to do, but a 70 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:24,280 Christian doesn't find their purpose in what they like to do, but they find their purpose 71 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:31,480 in being aligned with the one that gives them joy, who is Jesus Christ. There is a difference. 72 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:36,880 Because there's an incredible difference, it's a difference of source, and because of that, 73 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:41,160 we don't get discouraged in our joy, discouraged in our progress the way the world kind of 74 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:46,440 does because the world has a lot of left turns, left fields, a lot of weird things happen, 75 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,680 a lot of hardships that take place. If you don't have strong joy in Christ, you're going 76 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:56,040 to always be down because you're going to go up and down with the circumstances. 77 00:06:56,040 --> 00:07:00,200 So Paul makes a statement early on in this passage, this is verse 12, that really kind 78 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,440 of flavors the whole thing. Here's what he says, now I want you to know, brethren, talking 79 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,520 to the church of Philippi, who's worried about him, that my circumstances have turned out 80 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:13,680 for the greater progress of the gospel. In other words, you're worried about me, but 81 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:18,240 I'm not worried at all. I'm not concerned at all. It's natural for you to be concerned 82 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:23,920 about my life and my health, but I'm not concerned at all because the gospel just keeps on advancing 83 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:30,160 and my joy is not threatened in any way. So we want to dig a little deeper to find out 84 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:36,840 why is Paul still joyful in jail? Why is it not threatening to him? And why does he feel 85 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:42,720 out the gospel is progressing even though he's in chains? Okay? Two things I want to 86 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:48,200 emphasize today. First of all, he says to them, keep progressing in joy. You should 87 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:55,200 write that down. I am called to move forward in joy. I'm called to advance in joy. One 88 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,480 of the lines that we have here in verse 18, I've just kind of lifted it out of the whole 89 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,160 context and I'll come back in the rest of the context, but it says what he's thinking 90 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:10,720 at the moment. It says, yes, and I will rejoice for I know this will turn out. Now leave that 91 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,960 open ended because we're going to talk about how it turns out for the progress of the gospel, 92 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:20,440 but his mindset is this doesn't look good, but it's going to turn out just fine. You 93 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,800 ever been at a place in your life where you had to come to that conclusion, this does 94 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:30,800 not look good? Yeah. You get more amen saying that than you do anything else, man. This 95 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:37,800 does not look good, but I know this will turn out. That's the view of a person that believes 96 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,560 in the sovereignty of God. God's on the throne. This doesn't look good, but God's on the throne. 97 00:08:43,560 --> 00:08:46,280 This doesn't look good, but I don't know the whole picture. This doesn't look good, but 98 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:52,080 God has not spoken yet. That's what Paul's saying. He said, this doesn't look good. I 99 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:55,880 know that you know that this doesn't look good, but my circumstances have actually turned 100 00:08:55,880 --> 00:09:01,200 out for the greater progress of the gospel. So keep progressing in joy. Don't let what's 101 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:08,200 happened to me hold you back from rejoicing. Basically, Paul is saying that God given joy 102 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:14,120 is not threatened by circumstances and that's what he wants them to know as well. The reason 103 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:18,200 he knows that is because he knows that joy doesn't come from circumstances. Therefore, 104 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:24,840 it can't be threatened by circumstances. He knows that joy is God given. Christian, do 105 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:30,240 you know that your joy is God given, that it comes from God himself? Paul is writing 106 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:37,240 to the Romans and he talks about joy. As he writes to the Philippians, he talks about 107 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:44,400 what's valuable to him. Paul, if you remember his previous life was one of esteem. He was 108 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:49,360 a member of the Sanhedrin. He was one of the rulers in the Jewish group, the Jewish class. 109 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:56,360 You had to be pretty prominent. You had to be a great mind. You had to have a great study 110 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:01,000 of the Old Testament law. You had to have a little bit of wealth for you to be in that 111 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,360 level of being a member of the Sanhedrin. That's what he was before he met Jesus Christ personally. 112 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:10,240 In the book of Philippians, he says, you know, all those things I used to count as gain, 113 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:15,560 I now count as loss. In fact, that's what he said in chapter three, verse seven. Whatever 114 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:21,600 I counted as gain before, I now count as loss. Everything is lost in view of the surpassing 115 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:27,600 value of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. Man, I mean, that's a strong statement there. 116 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:34,600 He knew a lot. Now to the Romans, he said this. He's defining the relationship he had 117 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:39,120 with God, the relationship we have with Christ. He says, for the kingdom of God is not eating 118 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:44,160 and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Look at the words 119 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:49,960 on that screen. The Bible tells us that we get righteousness, peace and joy from God 120 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,960 himself. It doesn't come from circumstances or performance. It comes from God himself. 121 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:59,720 The kingdom of God's not eating and drinking. It's not keeping a list of dos and not doing 122 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:06,720 the list of don'ts. It's not keeping a list of how far we've progressed personally, but 123 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:10,560 it's righteousness and peace and joy that is given to us by God. What that basically 124 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:15,220 means is that when you come to faith in Christ, you're given all the righteousness of Jesus 125 00:11:15,220 --> 00:11:20,240 Christ in your life in spite of the fact that you weren't righteous when you came to Christ. 126 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,720 He gave you his righteousness. Not only that, you have peace. You have peace with God and 127 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:29,800 peace with each other as well in the body of Christ. Then it says you have joy in the 128 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:36,200 Holy Spirit. Paul's joy, does it come from circumstances? It comes from God. In Galatians 129 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:41,520 chapter five, verse 22, he begins to name the fruit of the Spirit. You know this passage, 130 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:47,160 but the fruit of the Spirit, and say it with me, is love, joy, peace, patience. You could 131 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:54,160 probably go on and on. If you were in Bible drill, you could go all the way through this. 132 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:59,080 There's joy right there in the middle of it. That comes from the Spirit of God living inside 133 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:04,400 of our lives. Paul's basically saying you don't get joy from circumstances, so keep 134 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:10,640 progressing in joy no matter what. It's rightfully yours in Christ. It's a greater sense of joy 135 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:15,280 than the world can ever give you with possessions or things or possessions or anything else. 136 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:22,000 Joy is ongoing, but life is hard, and Satan has a way of trying to steal your joy. Paul 137 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,480 is saying to the church at Philippi, I know it looks bad. I know I'm in prison, but let 138 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:33,480 me just remind you that your joy is not threatened. We'll break it down into three different sub-points. 139 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:40,480 First of all, circumstances cannot steal your joy. Notice what he says in verse 15. He says, 140 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:48,720 my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment 141 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,880 for the cause of Christ has become well known. What were his circumstances? His circumstances 142 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:59,880 were that he was in prison. Being in prison and being filled with joy at the same time 143 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:06,360 is hard to understand if you think you get your joy from circumstances. I doubt if the 144 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:11,800 place where he stayed at night was joyful. I doubt if his jail mates were joyful. I doubt 145 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:16,360 if the meal plan that he was on was joyful. I doubt if the future was joyful, but he was 146 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:23,120 joyful. Paul's about to die. He's not far from dying here. At any moment, he could be 147 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:28,840 sentenced to death, but he still has joy. Paul is not a normal person. He's like you 148 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:33,280 and I are. We're not normal people. We're Christ followers filled with the Holy Spirit 149 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:39,080 of God inside of us. Because we're a believer in Jesus Christ, he gives us his joy, and 150 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:45,280 it can't be threatened by circumstances. You say, well, sometimes, Pastor, I don't know 151 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,800 if that's true. When you don't feel that it's true, then what you're doing is you're putting 152 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:56,140 too much weight in your circumstances and not enough weight in Christ and the joy he 153 00:13:56,140 --> 00:14:03,040 gives you. The second thing is difficult people cannot steal your joy. I preached last week 154 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:06,080 in a church I'd never been in before. There were probably 1,200 people in the building 155 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:10,520 when I asked this question. I said, I need to take a survey in here. I was preaching 156 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:15,800 a message called Difficult People and the Goodness of God. I polled them. I said, how 157 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:21,600 many people have a difficult person in their life? It was unanimous in the Baptist church. 158 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:25,680 They all put their hands up. It's hard for us to be on the same page about anything in 159 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,560 the church, right? But we were unanimous there. We have difficult people in our life. Paul 160 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:35,880 had difficult people in his life. Look at verse 15 and verse 17. He said, some to be 161 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:40,320 sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, thinking to cause me distress and 162 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,240 my imprisonment. In other words, people are stepping up trying to take Paul's place while 163 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:49,720 he's in prison. And they're hoping to make him mad because if he gets mad and reverts 164 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:54,320 back to his former way of life, which was a disaster, then they could probably take 165 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:59,720 his place as a prominent apostle of the day. So they were doing some messed up stuff for 166 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:04,680 Paul and against Paul. But basically he said, I'm not going to let those people threaten 167 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:11,680 my life or threaten my joy. By the way, every great leader I know of and all the leaders 168 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:17,800 in the Bible went through incredibly difficult circumstances with opponents that hated them 169 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:24,800 and did everything they could to trip them up. Think about Moses, Joseph, think about 170 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:32,400 David, Solomon, Abigail, Esther. Think about Jesus. Think about Paul. Think about all these 171 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:41,280 people who had very influential, powerful people poised against them and yet not one 172 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:48,280 of them lost their joy because of difficult people. Difficult people do not hold weight 173 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:56,280 against a great God. He can keep giving you joy in the midst of difficult people. And 174 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:01,560 thirdly, death cannot steal your joy. Did you know that death can't steal your joy? 175 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,600 Here's what he says in verse 20, he says, Christ will even now as always be exalted 176 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:12,600 in my body, whether by life or by death. In other words, I may live, I may die, but Christ 177 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:20,080 will be exalted. My joy is not threatened either way because the ultimate joyful moment 178 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:25,440 of the believer is the moment they die. Did you know that? Now if you haven't experienced 179 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,440 death before, and I'm pretty sure none of you in the room have experienced death yet, 180 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,880 if you haven't experienced it yet, you don't know exactly what that looks like. But I promise 181 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:39,680 you all those who have have been absent from body, present with Christ at the millisecond 182 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,880 that they die. The moment they close their eyes on this planet, they open them face to 183 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,880 face with Jesus Christ. That's why the Bible says absent from body, present with Christ. 184 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:53,520 Now I've been with people at their death moment where they were lucid and they were aware 185 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:58,480 of what was going on in their life and they enter into eternity with a smile on their 186 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:03,360 face. Trust me, they do. And why were they not? All of heaven has opened up for them 187 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:08,160 at that moment. And everything they've waited for is now there. And so what Paul's basically 188 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:12,160 saying is it doesn't matter if I live, it doesn't matter if I die, I'm going to stay 189 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:17,600 on point here. I'm going to have joy and purpose in my life no matter what. Now next week we'll 190 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:20,760 look at the argument he makes. He makes this argument, he said, well if I stay for a little 191 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:25,560 while longer, then I can help you grow. But if I leave if I die, then I'm going to be 192 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:29,440 with him. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I want to stay and help you or if I want to 193 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:35,480 leave or die and meet him. But whatever it is, whichever one it is, Christ will be exalted 194 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:42,160 in my life. And I will have his joy and purpose that I've been called to. Difficult people 195 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:47,320 cannot steal your joy. Death cannot steal your joy. The only thing that can steal your 196 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:54,800 joy, are you ready for this? The only thing that can steal your joy is sinful directions 197 00:17:54,800 --> 00:18:00,880 in your own life. Where you decide to go your own way and put a barrier between yourself 198 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:06,240 and the fellowship you have with the Holy Spirit who gives you joy. That's what can 199 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:11,520 steal your joy. And that's when my joy has been stolen. When I've gone off on my own 200 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,600 way, sin can make you miserable. In fact sin should make you miserable if you're a believer 201 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:19,800 in Jesus Christ. You grieve the Holy Spirit of God in your life, you're not going to have 202 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:26,520 joy. And the reason is because we're called to be somebody completely different from everybody 203 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:31,400 else in the world. We're called to follow Christ in a powerful and unique way. And when 204 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:35,680 you derail that purpose that God has given you for your life, you're not going to experience 205 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:45,760 great joy. Here's the good news. You can come back to that joy again. One of the most significant 206 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:50,320 moments in my young adult life happened when I was about 20 years old and I knew I was 207 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:55,440 a believer. I knew also I had freedom in Christ, but I was using that freedom to make some 208 00:18:55,440 --> 00:19:03,680 choices that were not in alignment with Christ. Some of us have done that. And I lost my joy. 209 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:08,520 And finally I got so tired of making those decisions on my own and then ending up going 210 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:13,920 the wrong direction or clearly disaligning with Christ that I finally surrendered and 211 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:18,880 said, okay, I'm through with making decisions. I don't know enough about the future or my 212 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:23,480 life or the people around me to make informed decisions. You're going to make them from 213 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:29,360 here on out, Lord Jesus. And when that happened, I began to experience real joy in life. So 214 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:34,800 with you, so with you. Repentance and forgiveness can bring that joy back if you lost it very 215 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:39,840 quickly. King David learned this. He was a man after God's own heart and yet he sinned 216 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,160 with a bath sheet. And he fell very quickly in so many different ways, but one of those 217 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:51,280 was joy. How do I know that? Because in his repentant prayer, Psalm 51 says this, restore 218 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:56,240 to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with the willing spirit. Then I will teach 219 00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,600 transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. In other words, restore 220 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:06,640 my joy, Lord, restore my forgiveness, my relationship with you. You're my sword. Restore all that 221 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:12,440 to me. And I'm going to tell everybody about where I got my joy from. Which leads us to 222 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:18,720 Paul's second point. Paul says, not only should you keep progressing in joy, but you must 223 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:25,280 keep progressing in the gospel. I've told you that the gospel, the word gospel is threaded 224 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,480 all the way through the book of Philippians, but especially in the first chapter, it's 225 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,260 all the way through there. But in chapter four, he's really intently focused on the 226 00:20:33,260 --> 00:20:37,580 gospel people, what we call the tribe, the church of Jesus Christ and what we're supposed 227 00:20:37,580 --> 00:20:43,440 to be doing. So Paul is reminding that church while he's in prison, you need to keep progressing 228 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:48,680 with the gospel. So I want to answer the question over the next few moments. The text gives 229 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:53,360 us the answer to how do we keep progressing with the gospel? The gospel got to you, didn't 230 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:59,600 it? And you've experienced it. How do we keep moving forward in the gospel? So let me give 231 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:04,560 you the three words that are in the text that Paul was describing for the church at Philippi. 232 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:12,920 First of all, defend the gospel. Defend the gospel. Paul himself said, I am appointed 233 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:19,400 for the defense of the gospel. So he's leading the way for the church to also to know how 234 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:25,400 to defend the gospel. There will always be disagreements and debates about the gospel 235 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:28,400 as long as you're in a very secular world. And by the way, if you haven't figured it 236 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:34,120 out, you are in a very secular world today. There is no buckle to the Bible belt. There's 237 00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:39,920 not even a Bible belt anymore. You are in the world, but you have Christ in the world 238 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:45,400 and you have a Bible in your hands. And it's really important that we learn to defend our 239 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:51,200 faith. Peter said it like this, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being 240 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:56,560 ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is 241 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:04,160 in you yet with gentleness and reverence. Paul himself described himself as a gospel 242 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:09,160 defender. If you read Acts 22 through 26, you'll see him defending the gospel in event 243 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:16,560 after event before the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 22, before Felix in Acts chapter 24, before 244 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:23,040 Festus in Acts chapter 25, before King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26. And he was always, always 245 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:27,600 defending the gospel. And so I'm looking at Peter and Paul, and I'm gonna crunch this 246 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:32,280 down in a very short phrase of sentences that say, here's how you defend the gospel. Are 247 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:40,400 you ready? Five things. Number one, be respectful with gentleness and reverence. You will never 248 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:45,520 argue anyone into the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit draws people into the kingdom 249 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:51,680 of God. Be respectful. People are gonna believe something absolutely crazy, just like you 250 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,760 did before you came to Christ. Crazy to think that we could earn our way to heaven. Crazy 251 00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:01,600 to think that we could earn the respect of a holy God. We could never do that. But we 252 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:08,120 thought that until we came to Christ. So be respectful. Secondly, use logic. It seems 253 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:12,640 unusual that I would say this, but Paul was very logical in his arguments in Acts 22, 254 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:20,120 24, 25, 26. For example, he said, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. Did I 255 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:27,200 listen to him? Yeah. Wouldn't you too, if someone rose from the dead? Logical. Who's 256 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:33,080 the last person you talked to who rose from the dead? Nobody. And if someone rose from 257 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,440 the dead, don't you think we ought to hear how they rose from the dead, where they came 258 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,760 from and what they have for us? I mean, Paul basically used that kind of logic with all 259 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:46,240 those he was interacting with. Thirdly, be transparent. Paul very readily said before 260 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:52,960 I came to Christ, I was a mess. I was a mess. Basically a religious terrorist is what Paul 261 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:59,680 was. And he talks about that when he defends the gospel as being transformational for him. 262 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:05,040 The fourth thing that we saw is he shared his story. He gave his testimony. You know, 263 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:11,640 you live in a world that, um, that puts more in experience than they do in absolute truth. 264 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,600 That's the world you live in. We believe in absolute truth as believers. We believe the 265 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:19,720 Bible is absolutely true, but most of the world doesn't believe that. Most of your friends 266 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,520 may not believe that. And so what they believe is that whatever they've experienced, that's 267 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,360 their reality. And what you need to be able to say to them by defending the gospel is 268 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:32,920 to say, this is what I experienced when I came to faith in Jesus Christ. He met me, 269 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:38,560 forgave me, and gave me the joy and the eternal life I had. And they can't argue against that 270 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:44,560 because the basis of their belief is experience. Paul used that same argument back in the 271 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,560 first century. And that's kind of the same kind of century we're in today in terms of 272 00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:53,920 mindsets. Share your story and then invite them to trust Christ. Invite them to believe 273 00:24:53,920 --> 00:25:00,400 for themselves. Paul's methods were very simple, but they were very convicting and we do well 274 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:06,240 to use them. When you read the story of Acts 26 and King Agrippa, which is the final of 275 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:12,880 those series I've told you about, Paul told him the story. And then there's this conversation 276 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:18,080 between Agrippa and Paul, and here's what Paul says. King Agrippa, do you believe in 277 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:23,600 the prophets? I know you do. And Agrippa replied, in a short time, you're going to persuade 278 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,760 me to become a Christian. In other words, I can't have you in front of me anymore because 279 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:33,280 I am under conviction. Paul was basically saying to the sitting king there, why don't 280 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:38,320 you come and believe in Christ with me? Just put your faith in Christ. What an incredibly 281 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:44,800 bold guy. So you have this way of defending the gospel so bold as to invite the king to 282 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,200 come to Christ. The second thing, the second word we use here that Paul uses is the word 283 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,600 proclaim. If you're going to advance the gospel, you've got to defend it, but secondly, you've 284 00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:57,920 got to proclaim it. The word proclaim is a very simple word. You read it here in verse 285 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:03,840 18. Well then, he said, only that in every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is 286 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:09,840 proclaimed and in this I rejoice. To proclaim something doesn't just mean to preach it. 287 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:15,120 You think, okay, that's the preacher's job and he's proclaiming that today. No, proclaim 288 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:19,880 means to talk about, to make it public, to say something to someone else. It means to 289 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:26,280 declare openly, to announce aloud, to celebrate it and to share it everywhere. And the disciples 290 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:31,960 did that so boldly that the cities that they were in were disturbed. These guys are going 291 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:38,960 everywhere proclaiming, talking about a resurrected man. I love what it says in Acts 4-2. They 292 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,720 were being disturbed. The city was being disturbed because they were teaching the people and 293 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:50,720 proclaiming. There's that word that in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead takes place. 294 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:56,840 That put some of them in jail, but many heard and by then there were 5,000 people. These 295 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,680 two testament disciples were filled with joy. They felt the same way that Paul did. Well, 296 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:06,280 I'm in jail today, but yesterday 5,000 people came to faith. So I'm just going to rejoice 297 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:13,280 in that. The Gospel keeps progressing and later on Paul summarizes his whole ministry 298 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:19,440 with the word proclaim. Colossians chapter 1, another prison letter by the way, we proclaim 299 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:24,680 him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every 300 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:30,320 man complete in Christ. Do you notice the every man phrase there over and over? He says, 301 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:35,040 I want everybody to know every man, every woman, every child. I want everyone to know 302 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:40,160 about Christ. I want the Gospel to advance. And the only way to do that is that if we 303 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:45,480 all as the church of Jesus, just like the church of Philippi written to the elders and 304 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:52,480 the overseers and the deacons and the saints of God, everybody shares the Gospel. Everybody 305 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,540 shares. I know that's an intimidating thing to do. People ask me, what's the best way 306 00:27:56,540 --> 00:28:01,920 to learn to share the Gospel? And my normal answer is whatever way you will share the 307 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:07,320 Gospel, as long as it's accurate. But we train people to share the Gospel as well. 308 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,840 And one of the things I say to people, and here you are at church, like the church of 309 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:16,520 Philippi, and Paul will say, proclaim the Gospel. I want him proclaimed no matter whether 310 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,800 someone has the right motive or not. I just want the Gospel declared. And I'm going to 311 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:24,520 tell you as a church, the same way that Philippi scattered and shared the Gospel, so do you 312 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:31,520 need to do that? Someone says, how do you get into the Gospel? Well, I ask simple questions. 313 00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:37,240 Let me ask you a question real quick. How many of you had a conversation this past week 314 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:43,600 about the weather with somebody? Would you raise your hand? How many of you had a conversation 315 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:48,200 about some sports event this last week? Would you raise your hand? How many of you had a 316 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:54,000 conversation about politics this last week? Would you raise your hand? Yeah. How many 317 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:59,880 of you had a conversation about your favorite food last week? Would you raise your hand? 318 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:03,960 So we have conversations with people all the time that don't intimidate us, right? You 319 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:10,480 can talk about almost everything except the Gospel. And the best thing that you can do 320 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:17,080 when you're talking with someone is to say, can we talk about spiritual things? And if 321 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:22,720 I say yes, you can say, well, let me tell you what happened to me. That's your experience. 322 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:29,240 Let me tell you what I found out when I began to seek after Christ. And then you could share 323 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:34,040 the Gospel with them. By the way, if you can spell the Gospel, the word Gospel, you can 324 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:38,760 say the Gospel and share the Gospel. Did you know that? You've heard me say this a lot, 325 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:45,760 right? The way you spell the Gospel is G-O-S-P-E-L. Did I get that right? I got it right. I got 326 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:51,280 it right. The G stands for God's character. He's a loving, merciful God who doesn't want 327 00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:56,720 to punish us for our sin, but a just judge who by no means let the guilty go unpunished. 328 00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:02,400 That's the G. The O of the Gospel is the offensive sin. Sin offends a holy God and is a barrier 329 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:08,680 between ourselves and God and has to be dealt with. The S of the Gospel is the sufficiency 330 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,520 of Christ. You can use the word Savior if you want to simplify that. Jesus came, lived 331 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:19,000 the perfect life, died on the cross for us to pay for our sins, to cross that bridge, 332 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:24,920 to get us to God. What an act of life. Jesus died on the cross for us and His death was 333 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:30,720 sufficient. The P of the Gospel is personal response. It simply means that the Gospel 334 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:37,000 doesn't happen just because you were born into a Christian family or you go to a church. 335 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,760 You have to make a personal decision to accept Christ, to trust Him. That's the P. The E 336 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:48,320 of the Gospel is eternal urgency, meaning it's life or death and forever and ever and 337 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,680 one day you'll die and you'll stand before God and whatever decision you've made or 338 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:57,800 not made about Christ is your forever. That's why we're urgent to share it. Then the L 339 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:03,840 is life transformation. Once you put your faith in Christ, your life can be transformed, 340 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:08,560 beginning immediately and ultimately completely until Christ comes back. That's what Philippians 341 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:13,200 1, 6 is all about. I'm confident of this very thing. He that began a good work in you will 342 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:20,080 also complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Proclaim the Gospel and then exalt the Gospel. 343 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:25,600 That's the last thing we read about here. Paul said in verse 20, with all boldness Christ 344 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:31,680 will even now, as always, be exalted in my body either by life or death. The word exalt 345 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:40,680 means to elevate Christ. It means to magnify Him by following His character and His ways. 346 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:48,040 Paul is basically saying, I don't really care whether I live or die, but however long I 347 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:55,280 have, I want Jesus to be so evident in my life that He has magnified His character, 348 00:31:55,280 --> 00:32:00,360 has demonstrated to people around me so that when I share the hope that's in me, people 349 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:09,080 will say, now I get why He's so different. It's Jesus. When you love people, do people 350 00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:15,000 think about the love of Jesus and how He loved? When you speak truth, do people think about 351 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,240 the truth of Jesus and how He spoke truth? When you serve, do people think about, are 352 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:25,880 they reminded of the serving nature of Jesus Christ who came not to be served, but to serve 353 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:32,280 and give His life at ransom for many? In other words, did you exalt Christ? I have to tell 354 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,240 you, it's not really effective to share the Gospel if your life doesn't look like it's 355 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:41,560 been impacted by the Gospel, right? But if your life has been impacted by the Gospel, 356 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:48,520 then you are believable. People want to know, what's the hope in you? Why do you live the 357 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:53,820 way you live? Why do you have joy when circumstances are awful? Why do you keep talking about this 358 00:32:53,820 --> 00:32:59,680 Jesus in this Gospel? You could say, well, He's transformed my life and I'm part of 359 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:05,480 the tribe. I'm part of the Church of Jesus Christ and I want you to have that same kind 360 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:12,480 of joy that I have. Wow. In Acts chapter 19 verse 17, there's one more verse here. The 361 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,600 Gospel became known to all, Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them 362 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:25,000 all and the name of the Lord Jesus, and I love this line, was being magnified. Everybody 363 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,000 was talking about Jesus because of the life of those disciples. Now catch this, don't 364 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,640 miss this. When we make a big deal of Jesus, we cause the tension to be directed to the 365 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:41,480 Gospel. We give people something to consider that they may not have considered before. 366 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:47,720 When they watch your life, they should whet their appetite to want to know the one that 367 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:54,720 influences you. Life is interesting. Sometimes we prefer to spend money on things that will 368 00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:01,160 immediately gratify and later on think, you know, I really need to be letting something 369 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:08,160 up for my later years. And all the advice, the wisest way to spend your money is set 370 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:13,720 a little aside every year so that you can invest for your retirement. How many of you 371 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:20,720 think that's a wise way to do that? How many of you don't even have a savings account? 372 00:34:20,720 --> 00:34:27,720 How many of you? Really slow response there. But isn't that smart advice? Don't spend 373 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:37,280 all your money on things that gratify you right this minute. Some of that is good. But 374 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,840 what about the long haul? What are you setting aside? What are you investing for the future? 375 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:47,160 Now clearly this is not a message about giving or money. It's a message about spending your 376 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:54,160 life and your words, your conversations. Some of us are pursuing life in such a way where 377 00:34:55,400 --> 00:35:00,680 we only do those things that bring immediate gratification. Paul is saying, make sure the 378 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:07,680 gospel progresses. Yeah, have fun. But make sure you're investing in conversations in 379 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:14,720 people's lives. Make sure you're sending it ahead so that one day when you stand in heaven 380 00:35:14,720 --> 00:35:19,600 and look around, you'll realize I really did influence some of these people in this big 381 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:24,640 room called heaven. When I exalted Christ and I proclaimed the gospel or defended the gospel, 382 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:31,480 I really helped people come to faith when I prayed for them, when I invited them, when 383 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:38,480 I shared my story, when I explained with logic why they should believe in Christ as well. 384 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:44,840 Keep moving forward in joy. Keep moving forward in the gospel. It's the best kind of progress 385 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:51,840 you can make in life. And I urge you to progress that way like Paul does. In just a moment, 386 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:56,160 I want to invite you to three things. One, to the decision stations because we have people 387 00:35:56,160 --> 00:36:01,080 that would love to talk to you about decisions. Maybe today you need to make a decision to 388 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:05,840 put your faith and trust in Christ. Maybe you never have. Or maybe you're a believer 389 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:11,280 and you're not experiencing joy and something has gotten between yourself and him. We would 390 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,880 love to pray with you about that. Stop by the decision station on your way out. We would 391 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:19,600 love to pray with you, talk with you, answer questions. The second invitation is that I 392 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,760 invite you to go to our guest reception room right outside the center exit door across 393 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:27,480 the hallway where we'll be there to answer questions about our church, to share a very 394 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,600 brief presentation, to give you just a few gifts, and thank you personally for coming 395 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:38,600 to our church today. And the third invitation is come back. Come back next week. Invite 396 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:45,360 someone with you. Pray for people to come back as I build this huge cross on the stage 397 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:49,880 like the cross that's out in front of our building and we talk about Jesus' death on 398 00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:55,720 the cross and the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. I invite you to do those three things. 399 00:36:55,720 --> 00:37:01,200 Would you stand with me as we have a closing word of prayer? Father, I'm so thankful today 400 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:06,880 that we have this opportunity to progress in joy and progress in the gospel. Lord, help 401 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:13,880 us as a tribe, as a church to be moving and advancing forward. Because God, this is your 402 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:19,440 agenda for us. This is your calling for us and I pray we'll do it. Lord, today I pray 403 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,040 that we'll make decisions today that allow us to be in alignment with you, full of your 404 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:29,360 Holy Spirit, following you. Lord, thank you for this church. Thank you for the opportunity 405 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:36,360 we have in the days ahead. Help us to take advantage of them, I ask in Jesus' name, amen.