1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,320 The Bible at the Beach. Today we'll be in Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through 11. 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:12,240 Let's get right into it. Every time I come to the Bible I always say, now Lord give me the eyes to 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,480 see what you need me to see today. Give me the ears to hear what you'd like me to hear and give 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:22,080 me the heart and the courage to change and be fluid in my life and my thinking so that I can line 5 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:26,000 up to what you're you're saying to me so I can make those adjustments in my life today. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:33,280 In that spirit let's get into this very exciting new book of the Bible. Paul starts out he says 7 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:39,040 from Paul and Timothy both of us servants of Jesus the anointed one. So Paul's writing this 8 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:47,520 letter from prison. He's this might represent what was one of his low points of ministry 9 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:53,920 being incarcerated and yet it's one of his most profoundly joyful letters 10 00:00:53,920 --> 00:01:03,520 that he has penned. So we see the dynamic between circumstances and joy and they almost have zero 11 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:09,920 correlation in life. You can see people that have everything and aren't joyful and you can see people 12 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:15,680 that have nothing i.e. being incarcerated being in prison yet they're totally joyful. You see it's an 13 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:26,240 inside job. Joy, gratefulness, thankfulness, your attitude in life. It's an inside job. There's 14 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:31,920 nothing to do with your circumstances, your surroundings, what you have, what you don't have. 15 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:41,280 I get up every day. I have a thing in my notes, my journal called life's scoreboard and gratitude 16 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:47,360 and every day I say Lord thank you that I ended up with a beautiful wife and family. 17 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:53,600 All of our kids know God. God thank you. Lord thank you that I ended up in my favorite town 18 00:01:54,240 --> 00:02:00,720 owning a home, getting to surf my favorite waves. God thank you. God thank you that I ended up with 19 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:09,440 the most loyal friends in life. I'm loyal to them and they're loyal to me. God thank you. God thank 20 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:13,680 you that you helped me take my education to completion. I have a doctor, I have a platform 21 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:20,640 to teach. God thank you and God thank you that I get to pastor people. I get to preach and teach 22 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:27,440 your word. I get to plant churches and I get to provide water for people. God thank you. Every day 23 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,680 I start out with that gratitude and that thankfulness before I really leave my room, 24 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:40,160 leave my home or or get along with my day and it changes everything. It changes everything 25 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:45,600 and so you see that your attitude and your gratefulness is what determines your joy, 26 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:50,640 not your circumstances and not your surroundings. I'm here in the hills directly behind where I live 27 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:56,960 here in San Clemente. It is such a beautiful place to live but I know this area well enough to know 28 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:04,800 after living here for seven years with my family that the outside settings don't match the inside 29 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,640 settings. There's a lot of people live here are any happier than anyone you'd find in the most 30 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:16,480 destitute part of the world because again happiness, joy and peace is an inside job. As the Bible talks 31 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:23,520 about, Jesus says there's going to be a gift of living water that can bubble up inside of your 32 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:28,320 soul. It changes how you think, changes your perspective, changes your paradigm, changes how 33 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,360 you relate to the world, builds your gratitude, builds your gratefulness, builds your thanksgiving 34 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:41,440 and that changes everything. It's Jesus, it's the living water. That's what Paul had. He also was 35 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:49,200 developing a younger leader. All wise leaders always develop younger leaders every single time. 36 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:54,720 So what Paul's trying to teach us in both how he strategically did mission, how he strategically 37 00:03:54,720 --> 00:04:01,440 raised other people up. So Paul is including Timothy in this writing and he says to all the 38 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:07,840 devoted followers in Philippi, including your pastors and all the servant leaders of the church. 39 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:13,840 So Paul makes it really clear what his audience is. He says may the blessings of divine grace and 40 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:19,680 supernatural peace that flow from God our wonderful father and messiah the Lord Jesus be upon your 41 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:27,280 lives. So again we see Paul in his circumstances incarceration and prison talking about a peace, 42 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:35,200 a supernatural peace. You see a lot of times people pray for their circumstances to change. 43 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:41,840 Rarely do you think people pray for their perspective to change. You know you really 44 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:47,760 start getting mature in your life and your relationship with God when you quit asking for 45 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:53,760 your circumstances to change and you start praying for your perspective to change. That 46 00:04:54,400 --> 00:05:01,680 is what a mature follower of Jesus does. They say Lord give me your eyes. The way God sees things 47 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:08,560 is so much different from the way that we see it. He sees the entirety of your life from the beginning 48 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:16,080 to the end because he has the benefit of being outside of time and space and he could see all 49 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:24,320 the little pivot points of our life and he just sees things differently. So we always want to say 50 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:32,240 God help me to see life and seasons and chapters with your view not with my view. I have a finite 51 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:40,480 limited scope. God has an eternal scope we should try to align with. He says in verse three and four 52 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:48,480 my prayers for you are full of praise to God. I give him thanks for you with great joy. I'm so 53 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:53,520 grateful for our union and the enduring partnership that began the first time I presented to you the 54 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:58,880 gospel. I pray with great faith for you because I'm fully convinced that the one who began his 55 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:04,160 gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our 56 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:11,680 Lord Jesus. You know God has a totally different plan for our life than out than we do. We gravitate 57 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:23,280 towards comfort and accomplishments. God often doesn't care about our comfort and our accomplishments. 58 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:31,200 He has a totally different perspective. He is rejoicing every time we make a decision to be a 59 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:38,720 little bit more like Jesus. That's when God says there's my kid making godly choices 60 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:48,720 leaning into godly wisdom going after godly action. And so that's what it means to be mature 61 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:54,880 to the unveiling of Jesus Christ aligning with his view for us. He says it's no wonder 62 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,760 I pray in verse seven with such confidence since you have a permanent place in my heart 63 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:05,040 you've remained partners with me in the wonderful grace of God even though I'm here in chains 64 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:10,800 for standing up to the truth of the gospel. Now you'll find your commitment to Jesus lands you 65 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:19,920 in different spaces and places. Paul took the mountaintops with the prison basement in same 66 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:27,520 viewpoint. Life's full of mountain tops and peaks. It's also full of valleys and difficulties. 67 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:35,520 And it's interesting that Paul would write my favorite book Philippians in the New Testament 68 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:41,120 from the hardest of circumstances. He's trying to communicate something here 69 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:49,440 and it has nothing to do with that. Again it's an inside job. God give me peace, 70 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:55,280 give me love, give me life that flows in me and through me and out of me. Then verse 9 he says I 71 00:07:55,280 --> 00:08:02,960 continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure bringing you to the rich revelation 72 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:10,160 of spiritual insight in all things. Spiritual insight in all things yeah. Yeah you can learn to 73 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:18,320 see life through a spiritual lens where all of life becomes spiritual. When you start out baby 74 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:24,320 Christian you think your spiritual life is like these little few activities that you do. No no no 75 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:31,040 all of life is spiritual. Everything's interconnected and the more we grow with Jesus 76 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:36,720 the more we learn to trust when God's speaking to us through scripture, through wisdom, through 77 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:44,400 circumstance, through prayer, through the energy that you interact with with other people all the 78 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:53,440 time. You really learn how to do amazing things as you trust God more. And then in verse 10 this will 79 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:58,720 enable you to choose the most excellent way of all becoming pure and without offense until the 80 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:02,880 unveiling of Christ and you will be filled completely with the fruits of righteousness that 81 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:09,920 are found in Jesus the anointed one bringing great praise and glory to God. Following Jesus is 82 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:17,280 excellent, becoming pure is excellent, living without offense is excellent and you will be 83 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:23,440 filled completely with the fruit of righteousness that are found in Jesus. All the best fruit in our 84 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:31,520 life flows out of a sincere devotion to the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. Man thank you so 85 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:36,240 much for tuning in Bible on the Beach today. We've for those of you follow for the beginning man 86 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:41,840 we've done the book of Matthew, we've done the book of Acts, we've done a bunch of Genesis, 87 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:47,680 almost all of Genesis, we've done Ephesians, now we're doing Philippians, we've done 175 episodes 88 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:52,640 now. I'm so thankful for those of you who are joining us in this daily dose of encouragement 89 00:09:52,640 --> 00:10:01,040 called Bible at the Beach. Until next time I hope you have a beautiful day stay strong in Jesus name.