Keep sharing good news without ads.
Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
God's Sovereignty & Providence
Who could Just describe the goodness of who you are the
Lord we rejoice in you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen Will you stand with me
Music Saints and servants
Hosts of heaven All creation Praise the name of the
Lord Night and morning Sing his glory Now forevermore
Earthly kingdoms All dominions
Bow before him Praise the name of the
Lord None as holy None as worthy
Now forevermore Crowned with adoration
He is high above the nations
Who is like the Lord our God Who is like the
Lord our God Praise the name of the
Lord His kindness He will keep us now and forevermore
Crowned with adoration He is high above the nations
Who is like the Lord our God Raised from the ashes
He has turned our grief to gladness
Lord our God High and holy
Meek and lowly There is no one like you
Our Messiah here beside us
There is no one like you
High and holy Meek and lowly
There is no one like you Our Messiah here beside us
Lord our God There is no one like our
God There is no one like our
God It's great to sing praises to his name this morning.
It says in Psalm 33 verse 4 and 5 For the word of the
Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is filled with his unfailing love. Who can light the fires of a thousand burning suns?
Blazing in the heavens, there is only one. He is our
God. Who commends the nations, building up and tearing down Silencing his rivals, there is only one.
He is our God. He is our
God. Holy, you alone are holy.
Matchless in your glory. Holy God.
Who would come to save us when we turned away his love? Conquering us with kindness, there is only one.
Matchless in your glory. No one is like you, worthy.
You alone are worthy. We adore you only.
Holy God. Now to the king on the throne, who was and is to come
And to the lamb who was slain, be all glory. Now to the king on the throne, who was and is to come
And to the lamb who was slain, be all glory. Holy, you alone are holy.
Holy God. Let's pray together.
Lord, we stand before you knowing that you are holy. We stand before your throne undeserving.
But Lord, we come and sing praises to your name. Ascribe to the
Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the
Lord in the splendor of holiness. You are holy.
You are mighty. You are worthy.
Worthy of praise. I will follow.
I will listen. I will love you all of my days.
I will sing to and worship the king who is worthy.
And I will love and adore him. And I will bow down before him.
And I will sing to and worship the king who is worthy.
My prince of peace and I will live my life for you.
Satan does not like when we cry out to him in the power of his name and in his holiness.
We can defeat Satan this morning by singing out to him, you are holy.
You are holy. You are mighty.
You are worthy. Worthy of praise.
I will follow. I will listen.
I will love you all of my days.
Sing out with me. I will sing to and worship the king who is worthy.
You're my prince of peace and I will live my life for you.
Amen. You may be seated.
Good morning, family. It is wonderful to be here.
It's a privilege to to come and speak to you about Paul, our
Lord, the inerrancy of Scripture. And Pastor John had started the whole theme of sovereignty.
And what does sovereignty mean for all of us? How does it impact our lives? And what does that mean?
And we're going to continue in Philippians, not just what sovereignty is about, but what providence comes about and how the
Lord uses that. But before we go there, I want to just give some house.
I was given some house rules. All right. Just got to be honest with you. So my wife, Joyce, my beautiful bride.
She she gave me a coaching thing this this morning and she said, look, you're going to go up there.
Can't talk fast. All right. Really? Don't don't don't do that. OK. OK. And she goes, you know, all that apologetic stuff that you always talk about, you know, anytime someone asks you a question, you start going down this path of.
Oh, yeah. And the history of this and this is what's going on in the verse over there. And she goes, try not to do too much of that.
All right. Just like all right. People just want, you know, just want to learn certain things.
And and it was it was it's good advice. You know, I had to rearrange certain hard wiring in my head when
I was beginning to put this all together. And there's a purpose there.
My name is Ivan Solero. I'm one of the elders here. I teach with my brother,
Matt and Drew. He's not here now, but we teach apologetics here.
I also help with John Dottoli and my one brother, John. And then
Rod, he's out there somewhere in another space with the agape class. And the
Lord has been so good to us, good to this church, good to people, even in the worst of times that we're living in.
I truly believe that God has a hand on this church and with Jeff and with John, the rest of the deacons, it's just an amazing group of people, all the teachers here.
We're very, very blessed to have that. And with that, I wanted to just do some platforming right now.
I'm going to be good not to go down the path of too much. But I wanted to give a sense of what sovereignty means and then what providence means.
So in God's sovereignty, there's absolutely nothing that happens in the universe that is outside of God's influence and authority.
And one would say, well, there's the backup of that. In Revelation 21 .6, it says, God is above all things, before all things.
He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is immortal. He is present everywhere so that everyone can know him.
In Colossians, Paul reiterates, it says, God created all things. All things together, both in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible.
And so the beginning part of Philippians, what Pastor John was talking to you about, is getting an understanding of how
God's sovereignty oversees everything that's happening there. And while we have free will to make choices there, he is overseeing it.
He is everywhere. He's constant. Now, as we get into verse 15,
Paul starts to switch gears and he starts to put in his opinion, through the
Holy Spirit, about God's providence and how God uses different people, different groups, for his purpose, for his will.
And to have a clear understanding of what God's providence means for all of us is, it's a divine providence, it's the governance.
Governance of God by which he, with wisdom, love, cares for and directs all things in the universe.
The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things.
So you have two things that are going on simultaneously. So you have God's sovereignty and you have his providence that's happening there.
And we know a lot about the providence part because it's written in scripture. We have many examples of that.
One being Joseph, when he was sold. Later, he saved
Israel, basically saved mankind from the famine. What he told his brothers, what you thought was evil,
God would use for good. There was Moses confronting Pharaoh.
He had the Israelites leave Egypt. Rahab, who let the red sash out of the window or whatever was there to help the messengers and protect the family and to finally take over Jericho.
Job in his suffering to show God's authority, his providence. The amazing truth about Judas.
It was Judas' betrayal that allows us to have salvation.
That's a crazy thought, you know, when you think about that. And in John 17, 11 and 12, as Jesus is praying to God and he's asking for protection for the disciples, but they foreknew that Judas was going to do this according to what the scripture is going to say.
And if it wasn't for his betrayal, we would not be here as a church, as a family of believers, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Which is crazy when you really think about that. And then from that point, you jump over to Paul, who saw the persecutor before his conversion on the road to Damascus.
And who ends up being one of the greatest Bible writers, teachers and evangelists the world has ever seen.
His truths that he has in his different books still impact people today.
And they guide people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8, 28 explains it this way.
And we know that for those, and catch this, for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
And Paul sets up this premise in Philippians, in having the church of Philippi, which is the first church to really understand what the
Bible and what God's word really means and how it's going to penetrate the good news there.
So, before we start this part, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you, Lord, for this church, for the people that are here. We thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit is here, that we have leadership here, that we have people that are wanting to learn, that are opening their hearts and their minds to have you in their hearts,
Lord. We pray that the words that come out of me, Lord, they're not about me, they're about you. Lord, that everything
I say and everything we talk about edifies you, glorifies you, worships you, Lord.
We pray that these words will penetrate, Lord, that these words are true. We ask this in your name, in Jesus' name, amen.
So today's sermon is God's Providence in Joy and Suffering. And it really talks about what type of believer you are.
In the politics class, we make a big, big deal about the idea of belief versus faith.
There's people that believe things, and then there's actual faith that's intrinsic. Believing can be the mind, the faith is the mind, the heart, the action.
And so, we kind of go back and forth, and Paul references this in the beginning part there. Some quick facts that I want to share with you.
Paul's conversion happened somewhere between 33 AD and 35 AD. If you go to Acts 9, to the road to Damascus, he is approached by Jesus, a bright light, and, you know,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And in that moment, he is converted. And his ministry lasted about 33 years.
A lot of people don't realize that, how long it was, but it was 33 years. He wrote the first book, the prison epistle,
Philippians, was the first book that he wrote. It was the first church in Asia Minor. And he was in a house, under house arrest.
There were four books in total that he wrote, Ephesians, Galatians, Colossians, Philippians. And he did this in a house arrest, being chained to a
Roman guard, 24 hours a day. He was allowed to have visitors, he was allowed to have people come and go.
Obviously, he was passing out the letters as that happened. He did not know what his life was going to be like in the next months or what have you.
But whatever happened that was going to be happening there, he was going to rejoice. And he says this throughout in his letter to the
Philippians there. He could have cried out for release. He could have done something like, why are you doing this to me,
Lord? It changed my whole life. But he never did. And the letter to the
Church of Philippi is one of full, full rejoicing. It's only 104 verses, four brief chapters, but it's amazingly profound.
And it's really a poignant epistle from the jail's apostle to the beloved and supporting church that loved him, that he was shepherding, discipling.
And it kind of gives a glimpse of who he was in his intense passion for the love that he had for the people, and the love that he had for Jesus Christ, and the love that he had for the ministry that he was doing.
He also points out in the beginning part here is the motives of people who were trying to undercut him, trying to make him not to be who he said he was.
So there's a number of layers that happens through all this. But probably the thing that's starting to change and what we need to identify with is that in our belief in Jesus Christ, we are not just here to be kind of stagnant, but to change this world, and to change it for the purpose of telling the truth.
C .S. Lewis saw it this way. To be ignorant and simple now, not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground, would be to throw down our weapons and betray our uneducated brethren, who have under God no defense, but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.
Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.
And Paul talks about this. He realizes that as he's beginning with the book of Philippians, that he is laying out how the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to be penetrating through people who are believers, but through other people that not necessarily believe, but just want to undercut him or say something about him.
And it is a mark for us to take this seriously as a biblical plan to defend the faith.
And Paul was wonderful in defending the faith everywhere he went. So the
Church of Philippi, just briefly here, was started, and it's in Macedonia around 49 -50
A .D. It was the first church established on European soil. Its beginnings were documented in Acts 16 .11
-40. And with his companions of Silas and Timothy, they visited Philippi, encountered several key individuals, including
Lydia, the prominent businesswoman, who really was the person that gave the financial support to go ahead and start the church.
And so throughout the book of Philippians, it's about unity, humility, joy, providing guidance, and living out the
Christian faith. But Paul was in prison. And what does that mean?
So Rome knew that something was happening. This group called the People of the
Way was out there. And there was some undercutting that was starting to happen.
So he was moved around a number of times, kept under house arrest,
Acts 28 -30. And the form of detention that they had to give him was more lenient than a dungeon, like I was saying before.
And he worked through that in terms of getting the inspiration through the
Holy Spirit and through the people who were coming by to start writing and writing and writing.
So let's read the text and see where we're at. We're at the point now where he's in prison.
He's thanked the church for their support. He thanks everyone that sees where he's hoping the church will go to.
And now he's starting to switch gears. He's pointing out the different groups that are after him and for him and the reason why that's okay and that he rejoices in that.
So starting in verse 15, he says, The former proclaims
Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed. In that, I rejoice. He continues,
Yes, I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed and that with full courage, now as always,
Christ will be honored in my body, whether be life or by death. For me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which
I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard -pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the face, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.
So Paul is laying out now that there are challenges and there are tests in this.
It's a lesson for us in terms of being a believer in Jesus Christ. The road of being a believer is not a comfortable road.
In fact, it's a warning sign if you're too comfortable being in Christ. If you're claiming in Christ and you're comfortable, you better do a self -examination.
It doesn't work that way. And Paul is attesting to that, that there are people that are going to try to push him to various different directions, and it's similar in our lives.
We continue to try to proclaim the truth of what's happening there. There are other people that you think are friends, acquaintances that may know you.
We'll try to stop you. It is the nature of our spiritual warfare that we're involved in and how we go ahead and address that and be able to show love and joy through the whole process.
For him, he was dealing with a Hellenistic culture trying to rival God's truth through their own
Greek deities at the same time. And, of course, he had to deal with the Judaizers that were strictly going with the law.
And then there were the false teachers that were coming into church. We look back at the
Church of Corinth, and Paul had to deal with all the type of undercuttings from the sexual immorality in the church to the false doctrines that are being preached there.
And then there were groups that were mixing the pagan ideologies with what the gospel was about and doing it within the church itself.
So he was dealing with that part, too. And at the same time, he was having travel problems, personalities he had to deal with.
And finally, there was Rome. And Rome was at the point now where his penetration with the people of the way is getting to the place where these various different governors and other political facets that were involved in society are taking notice there.
And they wanted to squash to Jesus' rebellion. The other part of this was the animosity.
And that came from within the church. How do you deal with animosity in the church? So he starts to break it out.
And I put names to them. There were three different groups that were very distinct. So there was the casual observers, which were the
Paul voyeurs, the people who kind of knew Paul before he was Paul. He was
Saul, the persecutor. And he was an oddity. Who is this guy who converted, and now he's out there, and he's pushing the gospel into these different areas of the world.
And they followed to see what's going on. They believed that something had happened, but they really didn't have faith in what was going on there.
Even though the gospel was being preached, and you had this guy here who got converted, they didn't know what to make of it.
He was just an oddity to them. Then you had the second group, which I'll call cultural announcers. They believe also, but also they didn't have deep faith.
They relied on the law and customs. And Paul was definitely pushing against that.
He was talking about grace, talking about how God's grace through the death of the cross and the resurrection is salvation.
It was totally opposite to what they were speaking about. And then the third group was these committed believers that were willing to die for Jesus.
And all three played a role, and God used all three through his providence to spread the good news all over.
If we go into verse 15, it says, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.
Everybody was speaking about Christ, but they didn't know Christ. Most of them didn't know
Christ. Within the pagan society, many who were claiming to know Christ, but their motives for preaching were different.
There was an economic motive that was underneath that. There was a reputation motive that they were trying to do.
And there was the motive of undercutting what Paul was doing. And since he's in prison, what a better time to go ahead and do this.
And Paul recognized this. Back in the church of Ephesus, Paul faced the same opposition.
And it was not because of what he said, because he was speaking truth, but it was because of how he said it and what he looked like saying it.
Isn't that funny how that works? You can meet people out in the real world, and they're telling you exactly what the truth is, but the delivery may not be exactly what you like.
And they don't have a presence. And who are you? Who are you to tell me anything?
We're very fortunate because in this church here, we call him Phil the Evangelist. It's a wonderful evangelism class, and I would encourage everyone to attend it.
Phil was just telling me after the first service that in a couple of weeks, he's going to start it up again.
And so we're all... Yeah, I got you stuck in that one, huh? He's going to do it again. But... LAUGHTER Rock it down.
But what's interesting is that it's not a conversation that you're going to have that you don't feel like people are just going to easily bend over, especially in the world we live in right now.
They're going to push back, and they're going to push back hard. And so our defense to this thing is to know
Scripture and to know what the Gospel means for them. And so when
Paul's talking about this, he's thinking about the different types of motives that people have there.
And there's a lesson in here. When we see someone speak in truth, automatically assume that you're going to be suspect, which gives you more reason why you need to have your defense ready to explain it, to explain the good news.
Jealousy can and will motivate. That's what a lot of these people are doing. And they motivate to enjoy the person falling down.
And that's what they're looking for with us, too, as believers. They want to see us trip up. The downside is that jealousy works when it deprives others of their own selfish gain.
It never builds up, it only tears down. And Proverbs 3 is very explicit about the motives of this.
It says, As they all have turned aside, together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one.
So even in our sin nature, our innate nature, we don't have the capacity, without the
Holy Spirit, to go ahead and understand. And our natural tendency is to go ahead and tear it down.
Verse 16 goes, The latter, they do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
And Paul states very clearly that he and others have a mission. The mission is to spread the gospel everywhere, anywhere they can.
These are the committed believers who are willing to die in the defense of the gospel. And so, out of this love that we have, we have a sense of understanding where God wants us to go, and that our love should be paramount in doing that.
That it's not a situation of just going ahead and being punitive about the gospel, but saying that we are living this image of the
Lord, and that you'd want part of that. So God uses everything for his purpose, and when there's a rogue element out there spreading lies and gossip, the vicious rhetoric,
God will show others the caliber of that rogue soul. And that happens, how often does that happen with us?
That we're talking to people, and even people that seem to be saying, well, I understand the whole
Christ thing and everything else like this, and after a while, God reveals the natural motivations of what these people do.
And all we can do is pray for them. In some cases, we have to forgive them. But our job is to go ahead and spread the good news to them.
And Paul sees a light in all this. In verse 18, he goes, Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed, and that I rejoice. So, in his perspective of what is happening, no matter what is happening, as long as the word of Jesus Christ is coming out there in some form, it's okay.
The word of mouth is everything at that time, and if people are talking about Jesus Christ, there can be some traction that's going to happen from that.
And he was fine with that. So he calls out the motives of there, and there were two.
The what then, or so what he poses to us, in pretense, meaning what the real motive was, and then in truth,
Christ is being spoken of. Paul did not approve of the motives, but for him, the salvation of souls was paramount.
And that should be our call. That it doesn't matter if we have it down tight.
As long as we're sending the message of Jesus Christ out there, something will stick.
Something will happen. The Holy Spirit can use that and do that. And God can and will turn whatever cursing into blessing, and His providence is at work all the time there.
Which segues me into really explaining what the three groups are.
So we have this casual observer, and who are they? Who is the casual observer? Random visitors, they saw a podcast, church jumpers, pew potatoes, are there pew potatoes?
They hang out, they just hang out, they kind of love the church thing, they love the God thing, you know.
And the group, we have this group here today. Back then, they viewed people the way as an oddity.
They went against the Judaism and Hellenistic belief of that day. Like I said before, his reputation preceded him.
And so they just wanted to see this oddity. And his immense reputation as Saul, a persecutor that was actually killing
Christians, was really a dynamic story of his conversion. Like how can that possibly happen?
People wanted to see that. But the church of Philippi was small, it wasn't really that large of a church, it was about 100 congregants.
They even saw the people of the way there were making such differences within the country, and the surrounding areas, that people stood up and noticed.
So how does that reflect for today? So in 2019, a Pew Research study claims that approximately 65 % of adults in the
U .S. identify as Christian. Think about that for a minute.
65 % in this country say they're Christian. And what has happened is that Christian here is more of a brand, as a separator.
I'm not Hindu, or Islam, or Muslim, or Buddhist.
I'm a Christian. It's not really an identifier as it should be in being in Christ.
It breaks down like this. 43 % of Protestants are Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians.
20 % are Catholic. 1 % are Orthodox Christians, and 1 % are other
Christians. If we had true in Christ believers, 65 % in this country, you wouldn't recognize this place.
It wouldn't be what we're saying it is. So we have a problem there already. And this is a church problem.
This isn't a problem about the world itself. This is inside the churches themselves. So we have two different demographics that we're dealing with.
Those who absolutely do not know the Lord, and those who sort of claim to know the Lord, but don't have faith in the
Lord. And that's what Paul's referring to. So you have these people that claim they know something, but they have no faith in that.
And it's up to us, as part of our mandate, as a believer in Jesus Christ, to go ahead into there, into our churches, and into everywhere that we can see to spread the good news.
The second group are the cultural warriors. This is the temptation of compromise. And there are two significant types in this.
The religion of wounded theology is where we're at right now. This is a form of paganism.
We talk about it in an apologetics class. We call it tribal spiritualism. This is the one where we're seeing all the time where survivor, victimhood becomes the rite of passage in the religion of survivorship.
It's all about justice and victimization. And you've seen it. All of you have seen it.
The religion's central focus is the transference from victim to survivor, i .e., the gay movement,
Black Lives Matter, CRT, transgenderism, a sense of moralism, women pastors, social justice, abortion, to name a few, and the perverting race that go between what sin really is about.
And the people who advocate this truly believe Jesus represents this. It's not a question of, like, well,
I'm admitting that I'm doing something absolutely wrong. They believe and they change the gospel to fit that narrative.
They change Scripture to fit that. They're not interested in truth, and they express their truth only in fairness, freedom, and justice instead of pursuing
God's truth. Political conformity underscores their own ideology and replaces biblical truth by bending
Scripture to fit their own narrative. In the end, it's all about power, and it's about being our own
God. Now, I drive the guys in Apologetics crazy because I say all the time that everything you see in our country, in this world, starts at two points.
Either there's a sovereign God or you think you're God. And everything comes out of that.
So when you read the news and you read everything that's happening there, understand that the starting point is they think they're
God. They don't believe in a sovereign God. And once you can grasp that concept and that truth there of what's happening, you can understand man's plight to go ahead and try to overthrow whatever it's gonna be.
The latest one is AI. Our pastors, when they went to Fullington, they went into a hostile environment of so -called
Christians. They went there to try to make a defense, our pastor
Jeff, of his books and what was really true. Now, if you can take a second and just imagine what was going on there.
They fly over to California. They land there. They go into a place where 400 delegates literally hate them.
And I'm not stretching the truth. There were some that were going to to kind of bend their way, but for the most part, they were disregarded.
They were charged with punitive nonsense. And they went there speaking truth, absolute truth.
And what's weird about it is that, and this is an example of God's providence, is that you have two guys from Mount Merlot in a little church that goes out to Fullington.
And those two guys upended everything over there. They were the main source of conversation the whole time.
And that proves what God can use people to do what they did.
And God bless them, and God bless this church that we support that, that that can happen.
And so, Pohl is addressing that type of attitude with the Church of Philippi and what was happening there.
Even with other people that were coming into the forefront of the law, of the politics, or whatever else like this,
God's truth is going to win in the end. The other part of this is the religion of legalism.
And that's the Judaizers, the Mosaic Law. And we have that issue here today.
You know, it's a cultural religion. And it's dangerous. People who want to push a workspace conversation is hurting those who don't have a full understanding and idea about what grace is all about.
It sucks the life out of grace. It makes orthopraxy dominant when it's not supposed to be that for salvation.
The people that get hurt in that part are new believers. When they first accept
Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, where did he go? Who did he go to? And unless you have churches like here that are going to disciple and to mentor, it can very easily fall into a work -based type of religion type of thing very quickly.
And ironically, Paul, when he was Saul, he was the king of legalism. To the point where he was killing people because of that.
He was the person that drove what the
Pharisees and Sanhedrin wanted to get done. And it was a zero -sum game.
He wanted to kill Christians. It didn't matter. He didn't care if they were old, young, married, not.
He was determined to kill them. That should be a lesson for all of us about God's grace and his conversion and what it can do to somebody.
And how when the Holy Spirit is in somebody, the impetus of it, the driver of it, can change the world.
And he did it through Paul. And then you go to the last group, which is the committed believer.
And the committed believer pursues truth through his love. And it's easy to see.
They have stability of character. They rejoice in the Lord. It's always about praying.
Control their thoughts. Contentment in the heart has a fruitful life. So the people of the way, when they were present, didn't have to really say much.
Their lives reflected exactly what was happening. And it was different than the other groups that was happening.
And Paul knew that. In chapter four of Philippians, he goes over through these things of who these believers were and the attributes that they carried.
And he explains his attitude towards his imprisonment and death. He goes in verse 19. Yes, I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. And everything from his viewpoint pointed towards his only purpose on earth.
That is to spread the gospel through the Holy Spirit. And he was a person of confidence, but not in himself, in the
Holy Spirit. He knew the Philippians loved him and were praying for him that soon he would be released.
But the most important aspect for Paul was the truth be told. And the lesson for us here is that we're all going to have to face adversity.
And the question becomes, do we place our confidence in truth? And truth is the only way to battle adversity.
Verse 20. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now, as always,
Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. So he had eager expectation.
In the Greek, it meant stretching away from your head and looking. Like actually taking an outer body experience of looking.
And he expected, his expectation was, if I am here by mandate to spread the good news,
I know somehow, someway, that the Holy Spirit is going to do what he said he's going to do.
It may not be in my lifetime. It may not be with the people I'm with. It may not be in the place I'm at. But I know if I'm doing my part, the
Holy Spirit will. And he was excited about that. Again, Paul's courage was not from him.
It was from Christ. And the Holy Spirit was a driver. And in doing that, he took his life and his death as a lower economy.
He said, it doesn't matter what I'm doing here as long as I'm doing it for the
Lord. If I live or die. It doesn't matter. He was ultimately the image bearer of Christ.
Which kind of brings us to now this whole idea about the Christian and the people of the way.
We hear that word Christian a lot. And it's just so marginalized now that I have a tendency not to use it.
I always use the word in Christ. Because everybody, you know, you talk to anybody and it's almost they're saying,
I'm a Christian. And it's hard to decipher that. It's more of a label now.
The people of the way was and still very specific. The first term that was used was used as the
Christ ones in describing the followers of Jesus Christ in Antioch. In Acts 11 .26. It was used as a denigration.
It was used six times in Acts. And it was in reference to their lifestyle. The way they lived.
The way they were persecuted. And their defiance to stay true. To Jesus and the gospel.
A lot of testimony. That they don't even have to say a word. People are around them and they knew they were different.
They knew. And that's a testimony for us. In each one that they read the references in Acts, the way, you will see how far the gospel has traveled and how it has affected so many in a short time.
The book of Acts that we're going through, we're going through in our Thursday night Bible study class that Drew has.
And I would recommend everybody, if they can, to at least come to one class. Matt and I, we kind of pitch it once in a while and help out there.
But the story of Acts is an amazing story because it really talks to predominant characters,
Peter being one, Paul being the other one, of how the gospel was driven so quickly through the people of the way.
And as much persecution that was happening to the people during that time, the more persecution, the more the gospel came out.
We're just approaching the part now where Stephen is giving his, we call it dissertation, lecture, argument to the
Pharisees in the Sanhedrin of what they did. And if you know the story, you know he'll be martyred at the end of it.
But he was pointing out through the Holy Spirit, being powered by the Holy Spirit, of how the
Jews had prophets in the past and killed them all. And these were precursors to what
Jesus Christ was going to be doing again. To the point where at the end of the passage, and this is referenced also in Revelations, that they were gnashing their teeth from the anger that happened.
And the same thing is true when people get thrown into a lake of fire, they'll be gnashing their teeth. That's not going to be from pain.
That's because they are so hated of the God that we have in the
Lord, they gnash their teeth. And we see that there. So he comes up to this place where it's really the pinnacle of his life.
Verse 21. And this is really the key verse that you need to take home. For to me to live is
Christ and to die is gain. What do you do with that? There's no way out.
If you claim to be in Christ, if you claim to be a believer of following Jesus, if you claim to anyone that, oh yeah,
I accept the Lord Jesus Christ there, you kind of can't get out of that verse. Because he kind of sets the barrier, he sets the boundary, he sets the bar for me to live as Christ.
For us to live as Christ. And if we're not living for Christ, if we die, we're going to be with Christ.
Where do you go? Where do you go from that? This is the pinnacle of Paul's life.
While Paul's in prison, facing trial, possible sentence of death, he sees deliverance into conclusion.
Hopefully he would be set free. But now the pressure of life and death, it's not quite there.
His spiritual DNA, our spiritual DNA, now at this point, is we live for Christ.
Everything we think about, everything we do, everything we act, the thoughts, our motives, is
Christ. Where do you go? How do you do that? Again, another zero sum.
It's a difficult proposition for all of us to do. Especially the fact that he's saying this and he's chained to a guard in house arrest.
That living for Christ is everything for us, for those in Christ. And to die?
Well, we'll be away from the body, present with the Lord. Very, very hard.
This is a daily axiom of our lives. It's something we all should carry. We do not need anything else.
Simply and eloquently, Paul raises the bar of everyone who claims to know Jesus Christ as our personal
Savior. If this is not your daily call in life, you need to re -examine your priorities and pursuits.
Now, as a fun exercise, I try to do this. For to me, to live is, and I put blank, and to die is blank.
So let me see. For me to live is in Christ. For me to live is career.
For me to live is marriage. For me to, it doesn't even make any sense when you're professing to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
That is what God died, excuse me, what
Jesus died on the cross for. The Christian life is not a hobby
Sunday thing, it's life. What would you place in life instead of Jesus Christ? What is more important in your life than Jesus?
What bothers you that people cannot recognize you as a follower of Jesus Christ?
Simply done, if you walk out of this church and people do not understand or see something different about you, there's a question there.
And that's the mandate of the people of the way. You don't have to be pronouncing on a soapbox like I'm doing right now.
They should automatically know when they see you in your presence, in your work, at home, anywhere, you're different.
Which brings me to the whole idea about ministry. So, we all have responsibilities about our own ministry.
Being in Christ is having your own ministry. It can be just being at home, who you are at home.
It can be at work, friends. But that's a responsibility for us that we also carry our own ministry in Christ.
And he looks towards us to do that, spreading the good news for that. In verse 22 he says,
If I live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which shall I choose?
I cannot tell. And this is kind of a loving dilemma that he has there.
He has this wonderful family in the church of Philippi. Yet, he can be with the Lord. He's like, family,
Lord. Either way, to go on living physically, the benefits of fruitful labor for Paul, the benefits of the
Philippians, other churches to help him towards the progress and joy of the faith and increase the joy in Christ.
The other one, the other way is to die physically. Paul would be with Christ, that is in Christ's immediate presence.
Which would be an immense advantage to Paul personally. So, it's, I don't want to use the word selfishness, but, you know, if we know that we pass from here and we're going to be in the presence of the
Lord, but while we're here, we have a job to do. We have a ministry to do.
We live under these choices. And verse 23 says, I am hard pressed between the two.
My desire is to depart and be with Christ. For that is far better. So, there's the yin and yang of it.
Do we become part of the church, mentoring, helping, spreading the word of God? Or do we look and look forward to the day that we meet the
Lord Jesus Christ? Or do we just go? So, he's squeezed between two paths. One, he feels the Father's shepherd of the church that he truly loves, that he has a responsibility to mentor and disciple.
Yet, having this desire to depart in nautical terms, to leave, he sees eternity with Christ.
That anticipation is not about wanting death, but more about wanting eternity with the Lord. And that should be our desire every day in our lives.
This is not fatalistic. This is not fatalistic. Those who claim to be in Christ one day will be with the
Lord. One day. But that one day isn't here yet, because you're sitting here.
So what is today? Death for us is not bleak.
I'm just reminded of the story of when Louise Reynolds went to be with the
Lord. When we were at the church there. And it was a celebration. The whole gathering.
All the people who knew her, loved her, her testimony, her witness. And it was an absolute celebration.
It should always be like that for us. That our family here, our brothers and sisters in Christ here, no matter what happens, if one of us goes home, you know,
I'm hoping that you at least applaud me, you know, I'm going home to the Lord. Same thing is true with you.
My cancer, you know, I just want to do a quick segue here. I was diagnosed with cancer.
They only gave me 7 % to live. Joyce and I, my dear sweet wife here, we looked at each other like, what are you talking about?
How can this happen? You know, I've got things to do. I've got things I've got to get done here.
We were finished up in ministry with soldiers there, a place called Living Springs, young men that had just come back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of the main questions they kept on asking us is, where is God? You know, after seeing what they saw over there, you know.
And then, this whole cancer thing comes up. And the biggest fear
I had was I did not want to be put on the shelf. Lord, don't put me on the shelf.
I wasn't afraid of dying. I just didn't want to be put on the shelf, not to do anything. And, you don't have to use me at all as an example.
But, the Lord has us here to do something. Not to be idle.
To make something happen. And that's what Paul is referring to with this. In verse 24 he says, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
He still has work to do. As long as we are alive on this earth, God has a purpose for us being there, which translates that each of us have our own ministry.
Don't look at us here at the church as being the end all. God has a purpose in each one of your lives.
Each of your ministries happen daily, hourly, it happens everywhere if you use it.
And finally, 25 to 26, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.
One purpose for existence upon this earth is to be animated with our maturity and joy in Christ.
Paul was confident in every way that the Lord chooses where he's going to end up going.
And that should be our call to action. That if he's with the presence of the
Lord, or he has us here doing what we need to do in the church, so be it. So in the application of this, there's a lot that's being taught here, the power of the gospel.
And what does that mean for us? The power of the gospel will cut through everything and anything. And with that is the rejoicing in our adversity.
And we will have it. As believers, we will have it. But it's brothers and sisters here, that's what the church is made to do.
It's to encourage us, to lift us up, to when we fall down, pick us up, and push us back out there.
To love each other, no matter what. It helps us to live with a purpose. And there's a value with selflessness.
There's a value with giving and serving. As Jesus did, as the disciples did, there's a value with that.
And we are blessed by that. And at the end, there's the hope of eternal life for us as believers in Jesus Christ.
And I hope for all of you, as we see these dark times that are happening there, and it seems like it's coming right to our front door, understand that we are not alone.
That we're together as brothers and sisters to band together, to do something together, to change the world together.
It only takes a few of us to do it. And that our hope is that we will draw others for Christ.
Our other hope is that when we finish what our mission is, that we will be in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray. Father, I thank you so much for the truth that you show us in your word.
I thank you, Lord, for this church, for these brothers and sisters who I love so much. I thank you, Lord, for everything you do in our lives, every day, all the interactions,
Lord. I pray for discernment. I pray for mercy. I pray for understanding and patience,
Lord. And, Lord, I pray that you would not put us on the shelf. That you would use us for your purpose,
Lord. I pray that you continue to build this church up, build these leaders up here, build the teachers that are here, the deacons here, the mothers and fathers that are teaching there.
I pray for all of them, Lord, in your precious name. Amen. Amen. Will you please stand?
Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song.
This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears are stilled, when striving cease.
My comforter, my all in all. Here in the love of Christ I stay.
There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave
He rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me.
For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.
From vice prescribed to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever block me from His hand.
Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
I find my strength, I find my hope, I find my help in Christ alone.
When fears assail, when darkness falls, I find my peace in Christ alone.
I give my life, I give my all, I sing my song to Christ alone.
The King of Kings, the Lord I love, all heaven sing to Christ alone.
To Christ alone. To Christ alone.
Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I'll stand.
Here in the power of Christ, I'll stand.