Introduction to Philippians

Laurel Bible Church

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All right, thanks for having me. It's really a blessing to be here. Let's go to the

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Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you and praise you for your grace to call us to yourself,

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Lord. We thank you that you've given us life and life abundantly. I just thank you for this group of believers that you've even blessed me with to just come fellowship with today and to worship you, the one true

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God. Just pray that our hearts would be open to your word this morning.

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We ask in Jesus' name, amen. There's several reasons in which we would often write letters.

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And I think today, in today's day and age especially, letters might have a little bit more meaning to them than they used to just because the digital age is so easy to send a text or an email.

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So a lot of times we send letters in the form of birthday cards or Merry Christmas or Happy Anniversary, those sorts of things.

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Sometimes letters share information that even though it's difficult to hear, is necessary for us as a reader to know.

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I think of back in the day when soldiers would go to war and sometimes family was notified of the untimely death of their son or their spouse through a letter or a telegram.

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In a similar sense of receiving bad news or what seems like bad news, sometimes letters are sent to notify somebody that their actions now require more action or there needs to be some sort of rectifying based on something they've done as a game warden.

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I'm used to drafting such letters at times to certain people, notifying them that their unruly behavior as far as hunting goes now results in them to have to come answer for their actions or maybe notifying somebody that a search warrant has been signed by a judge and a search warrant is or has been executed maybe on their home or something.

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Not great news to get but certainly necessary for the reader.

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I think in the context of addressing sin in the life of believers, it's often very beneficial and wise sometimes to write to a brother or sister in Christ that might be in sin with the goal of restoring them to fellowship.

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A letter might be a great tool where we can thoroughly articulate our thoughts and express our concerns and the basis for our admonishment yet we do it in a very thoughtful way and sometimes when we slow down and write it, we can certainly express a lot of love with that.

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I think it's good for the person that receives the correction too because they don't have the ability to just answer in haste or respond in haste.

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They get to sit there and they get to read, they get to meditate on maybe the correction that has come their way.

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The apostle Paul often wrote letters such as these to churches.

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I think of the church in Galatia. Paul shares right away his astonishment that they so quickly deserted him, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who had called them by his grace for a different gospel which he explains really is not another gospel.

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It's really nothing. He tells them that in their midst, there are those who disturb or those who divide by distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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So Paul's correction here is very doctrinal. He admonishes them to abandon this false gospel and return to the gospel of grace.

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First Corinthians, in a similar light, Paul admonishes the church in Corinth for several reasons. Not quite as much doctrinal, but just how are they living their lives?

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There was kind of rampant sin in the church. He actually even tells them that some of the sin that was going on in the church at Corinth was unusual even amongst the

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Gentiles. Undoubtedly, churches would have been able to see the severity of their sin through these thoughtful, well -written letters from Paul.

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In the same way that admonishment can be strategically drafted, I think we can also express love and encouragement in the same way.

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I don't know anybody that's not excited to go to the mail and find a letter from a loved one, or for those of you that are married, finding a note from your spouse, just offering encouragement.

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Thoughtfully crafted letters can really help us articulate our thoughts.

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And I think oftentimes in letters is where we might offer terms of endearment or things that we might write that we might not normally say.

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Things like, my beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown. Those words might sound like the words that a young man would use to describe his wife, but these are actually the words that Paul uses to affectionately express his love for the church in Philippi.

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And today we're gonna be starting a series on the book of Philippians. And for anyone that's familiar with the book of Philippians, we know that Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, offers a really fresh perspective on life. And we certainly see this letter is immersed in the context of joy.

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I wouldn't say that the theme of the letter is joy, but it's certainly written in the context of joy.

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And as we study Philippians for the foreseeable future, I think it's important that we realize that this book of Philippians, though it was written to the church in Philippi, it was still written for us today.

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Paul loved this church and his reason for writing to them was to thank them for how they labored in the gospel with him, how faithful they were in ministry, to encourage them to keep pressing on, to live in unity with one another and to continually, faithfully pursuing sanctified lives, to stand firm in the gospel of the

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Lord Jesus Christ regardless of their circumstance. Philippi was a ancient

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Roman city that is in modern Greece today. So Paul first visited this area, it's called

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Macedonia, that would be the region that it was in, on his second missionary journey. And though we will be studying the book of Philippians, by way of introduction, let's go to Acts chapter 16.

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That was loud, I'm sorry. Acts chapter 16.

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Acts chapter 16, verse six. And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the

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Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And after they came to Mysia, they were there trying to go to Bithynia, and the

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Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And in a vision that appeared to Paul in the night, a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

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And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the gospel to them.

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So Paul was joined on the second missionary journey by Timothy, Silas, and Luke.

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Luke, of course, was the author of the book of Acts. And what Luke records for us is the unfolding of God's providence to take the gospel to Macedonia, which was the first time that the gospel had ever reached

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Europe. So God's will for Paul's ministry was actually to bypass Asia Minor and go directly to this

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Roman colony. And this instruction was given to Paul in this form of this vision.

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So Paul and his men obeyed. They picked up, verse 11, so setting sail from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neopolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a

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Roman colony. And we were staying in this city for some days. And on the

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Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer.

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And sitting down, we began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the

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Lord opened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the

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Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. So Paul and his companions, they make it to Philippi.

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And instead of teaching the Jews at the synagogue, they go outside the city on the

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Sabbath. It would have been Paul's accustomed to typically go to the synagogue. Even though he was the apostle of the

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Gentiles, he would go appeal to the Jews at the synagogues first. So probably not a synagogue here in Philippi.

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So he goes out. He goes out to the river, anticipating people might be gathered there to pray.

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And when he arrives, there's these women there, and he preaches the gospel to them. And then verse 14, it introduces us to Lydia.

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Again, a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the

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Lord opened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul. So this prominent woman,

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Lydia, who already knew at least of God and was worshiping God, listened to what Paul was teaching, and it says that the

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Lord opened her heart to pay attention, or some translations say to respond to what

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Paul had said. So Paul's first sermon in this Roman colony went really well.

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Paul preached the gospel to these women. Lydia responded to the gospel preaching with genuine faith.

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Verse 15 gives us the evidences of that genuine faith. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the

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Lord, come into my house and stay, and she prevailed upon us. So it's interesting, again, verse 15, it gives us these evidences of salvation.

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Her and her whole household was baptized, which following the New Testament model for baptism, upon profession of faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, new believers were marked as new believers by the ordinance of baptism.

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So nowhere in scripture does the Bible ever teach us that an unconverted person or an openly unconverted person receives baptism.

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Somebody that's walking in open rebellion or somebody that lacks understanding of the gospel altogether.

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These people are not baptized. Bible does not teach that. The Bible's not teaching that infants receive baptism.

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The only reason I say that is this text is often used to justify the practice of infant baptism.

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That's not what's going on here. That's an evidence of salvation. That's how we would need to look at verse 15.

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On the topic of baptism, the Lord Jesus gives us a command who is to be baptized.

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Jesus even speaks of this. Matthew 28, in the Great Commission, he says that his disciples ought to be baptized.

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He says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, the disciples, in the name of the

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the things that I have commanded to you. So Jesus gives us our marching order.

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So again, when we look at verse 15 of Acts chapter 16, we see this as evidence of salvation.

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She had genuine saving faith. In her household, in fact, they were all baptized too, which is evidence of their saving faith.

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And the second evidence of salvation is that they immediately, they desired to partner with Paul and his ministry.

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She asked them to stay with her. So immediately, she becomes a new convert, and then she desires to aid

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Paul and his companions in their ministry by letting them stay with her. True faith is always and will always be accompanied by obedience and by a desire to see

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God glorified, not only in our lives, but in the world. And true faith is always a gift.

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Going back to verse 14, did you notice what it said about what the Lord did?

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It said, whose heart the Lord opened to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

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It wasn't that Lydia, in and of herself, just used the brain that God gave her to reason that this was the decision that she needed to make.

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It wasn't that Paul, as masterful as Paul was in presenting the gospel, it wasn't that Paul was so savvy in his gospel presentation.

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It was that the Lord opened her heart and changed her heart. So this beautifully depicts two different things, that God alone quickens the heart, the dead heart to life, just like Ephesians 2 tells us, that we were dead in our trespasses and sin.

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A couple verses later, again, we see, it's by grace that you've been saved through faith. It's the gift of God.

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God in his loving kindness grants salvation. He grants repentance and faith to us. The Lord opened

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Lydia's heart to respond to the gospel. The second beautiful thing we see is the means in which the

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Lord grants us faith and opens our hearts. It's always through the teaching and the preaching of God's word.

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It's always through the teaching and preaching of God's word. Salvation is the sovereign act of divine grace in which the sinner is given spiritual life.

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And this is always done by the means of the preaching of God's word. So in Philippi, the

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Lord graciously saved Lydia and others after only one sermon. And the

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Lord used Lydia to immediately partner with Paul and his companions for the sake of the gospel. So their ministry continues.

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Verse 16, now it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a servant girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling.

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Following, after Paul and us, she kept crying out, these men are slaves of the most high

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God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And she continued doing this for many days, but being greatly annoyed,

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Paul turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her, and it left her that very moment.

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So this demon -possessed girl had this demonic ability to tell the future.

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So it's interesting, what was she saying? She was actually telling the truth.

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She's saying that these men are slaves of the most high God and that they are proclaiming the way to salvation.

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I think we would do very well to remind ourselves that Satan and his demons will absolutely use as much truth as possible in their attempt to deceive us.

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They're gonna use as much truth as possible. She's saying essentially the same things that they were saying.

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But Paul finally had enough, and by the power of the Holy Spirit commands the demon to come out of her. He would rather be the mouthpiece of the gospel than the demon.

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So verse 19, there's repercussions from this now. But when her master saw that their hope of profit had left, they seized

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Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion being

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Jews and are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or observe, being

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Romans. And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off them, proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

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And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them secretly, who having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.

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So the root of the issue with this young lady is she was making money for somebody. So she had this demonic ability to tell the future she's making money.

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Well, now this ceased. So they became very upset, and they had Paul and Silas arrested.

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Verse 25 tells us what is now happening in jail. But about midnight,

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Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

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What a witness to the other prisoners of the peace that surpasses all understanding when we know

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Christ and we have Christ. They just went through an unjust arrest. They just went through ill treatment.

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Yet Paul and Silas' response is to worship by praying and singing hymns.

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You see, their circumstance, it's not dictating whether or not they are joyful.

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Their circumstance is not dictating their joy. Paul would later, in his letter to the

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Philippians, write, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Well, these words may have brought to mind how

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Paul demonstrated this himself when he was in prison as he ministered to the church in Philippi.

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So these men are rejoicing. And then all of a sudden, there came a great earthquake so that the foundation of the jailhouse was shaken.

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And immediately, all the doors were opened and everyone's chains unfastened. And when the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

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So failure to keep the prisoners secured would have resulted in him, this jailer, losing his life.

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He would have been corporately punished for his failure to keep them secure. But verse 28,

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Paul cries out with a loud voice and says, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And we called for lights and rushed in.

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And trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after, he brought them out and said, sirs, what must

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I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house.

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So in the midst of this chaos and this sense of lost hope, he'd lost all hope, he was about to kill himself, he starts thinking about eternal things.

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I think that's very natural. In the face of death, in the face of extreme circumstance, that is often where people's mind goes.

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It goes to eternal things. And not only was he thinking of just eternal things, he realizes that he was deficient.

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He asks, what must I do to be saved? He realizes, he knows he's deficient, he doesn't know exactly what he's missing, but he knows that he's not saved.

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Paul now shares the hope of Christ with the man and not only to just the jailer, but Paul says, this gospel, my friend, it's not just for you, it's for your family also.

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Of course, Paul isn't advocating that by the man believing in the gospel that his entire household would be saved through the belief of the jailer, but what he is saying is the gospel is an invitation and a command to all and salvation is readily available to his family in the same way it was made available to him.

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Verse 32, we see kind of the same model that we just saw with Lydia. And they spoke the word of the

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Lord to him together with all who were in the household. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

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And he brought them into the house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly with the whole household because he believed in God.

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So verse 32, the gospel is proclaimed, again, the means in which salvation comes, the preaching of God's word, and faith is never absent of the preaching of God's word.

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Faith comes from hearing, hearing from the words of Christ, Romans 10. So the gospel's taught, the

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Lord opens hearts, and now there's evidences of salvation again. The entire household was baptized, again, following the

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New Testament model for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to be marked by baptism. Not only this, but they celebrate.

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Everybody's celebrating, they feed Paul and Silas and they rejoice greatly over the fact that he had believed the gospel.

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This, again, we can't think that this is some sort of, some sort of maybe covenant baptism where one person is baptized and saved, therefore the whole household just automatically does and receives the sign of baptism.

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They're rejoicing, that's an evidence of salvation. An unregenerate person, an unredeemed person is not going to rejoice when somebody else comes to salvation, it means really nothing to them.

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So there's major evidences of true salvation here. Now, when day had came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen saying, release those men, and the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the chief magistrates have sent to you to be released, therefore come out now and go in peace.

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But Paul said to them, having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison and now they're sending us to go away secretly?

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No indeed, but let them come themselves and bring us out. And the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates.

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They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans and they came and appealed to them and when they had brought them out, they kept requesting to leave the city and they went out of prison and entered the house of Lydia and when they saw their brothers, they encouraged them and they left.

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So Paul is released at this point and Paul points out the fact that he's a Roman citizen and he'd just gone through an unjust and unfair trial unbeknownst to them, so they're kind of terrified.

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Their response is like, oh, okay, we messed up. Can you just please quietly leave?

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They know that they were rightly in fear.

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They could see and know that they were about to be held accountable for doing something that they should not have done, so they begged

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Paul to leave. So Paul, this ended his first mission trip to Macedonia, to Philippi.

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And Paul would not again visit Philippi for another five years and he was only there for a little bit on his third missionary journey.

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He went through Philippi and then back through Philippi, but this relationship between Paul and the

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Philippians just strengthened over the years. And one of the reasons it strengthened is because they were probably the church that supported

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Paul's ministry more than any other church. It was nearly 10 years later that Paul found himself in a

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Roman prison writing this letter to his beloved and longed for, his joy and his crown, the

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Philippians, so let's go to the book of Philippians now. Philippians chapter one,

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Philippians chapter one. Our text this morning is just one through five of chapter one,

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Philippians one. Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrances of you, always offering prayer with joy in every prayer for you all because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

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So Paul was in prison in Rome on two different occasions. This would have been his first imprisonment.

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And throughout his ministry, this Philippian church, they just constantly sought to keep supporting Paul. They did this certainly in a financial sense, but they did it in other ways too.

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They even sent a man to come minister to Paul, Epaphroditus. And he said, he literally came to visit

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Paul in prison to minister to Paul, to encourage Paul in prison. And while he was in prison, and Epaphroditus is there visiting him,

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Epaphroditus became very ill. So Paul writes a little bit about that in chapter two, verse 25.

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He says, but I regarded it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need, because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

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For indeed, he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him and not only him, but also on me so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

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Therefore, I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less concerned.

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Receive him then in the Lord with all joy and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking life to fulfill what was lacking in your service to me.

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So Paul receives Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus becomes ill, and this word makes it back to Philippi, and they become instantly very distressed, not knowing the state of Epaphroditus, not knowing if he was gonna make it or not.

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So Paul's desire is to now send Epaphroditus back to them to help encourage them and say like, look, here's

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Epaphroditus, he's well, he's doing good, he's recovered, thank you for your ministry to me. In the same way that he ministered to me, he's going to continue to minister to you.

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So Paul's desire is to send him back, but he's gonna send him back with this epistle, this letter to the church.

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So he's actually the messenger which would later deliver this letter to the

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Philippians. So Paul writes this letter and he starts with his greeting. He says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.

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Paul's sincerest view of himself was nothing more than a slave or a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

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One of the encouragements or maybe perhaps small admonitions that actually does happen in this epistle,

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Paul encourages the Philippians to be humble, to not have selfish desires, but to regard others as more important than themselves.

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So if anyone had a reason to be braggadocious in their introduction, writing such a letter as this, it certainly would have been

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Paul. And he kind of talks about that a little bit in verse four of chapter three.

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He says, if anyone else had a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law found blameless.

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But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted for loss for the sake of Christ. More than that,

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I count all things to be lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom

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I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them to be rubbish so that I may gain

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Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is from faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and fellowship of his suffering, being comforted, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.

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So Paul rightly sees that he's done nothing, he positions, titles, anything, compared to what

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Christ has done for him. So rightly, Paul's seeing himself as nothing but a lowly servant, a slave to his king.

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And this to Paul is the greatest value that he can have because he is now found in Christ in the righteousness of his savior.

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And he shares that Timothy is also with him, this would have been a welcome thing to read for the

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Philippians because Timothy had also came and ministered to the church in Philippi and he actually even says in chapter two that he's going to, as soon as he can, send

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Timothy back to them. So Paul and Timothy write this letter and it probably would have been

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Timothy that actually wrote the letter. Paul would have probably been instructing Timothy what to say,

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Timothy would have been writing out Paul's thoughts. So verse one,

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Paul addresses this letter, he's introduced himself, he's introduced Timothy, now he's addressing who he's writing this letter to, he says, to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

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So he writes to three different types of people here, saints, overseers and deacons, of course overseers and deacons are still saints.

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Saints are not some special holy dead people that the Catholic church, oftentimes even in Protestantism we have a misunderstanding of saints because of the

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Catholic church and their view of saints. Saints are anyone in whom the Lord Jesus Christ has saved and set aside for his own possession.

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So it's the redeemed, so the church, this is a gathering of the saints. So Paul's writing to believers in the church of Philippi but then he also includes two special offices that these saints should have, overseers and deacons.

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Overseers are those in the church that have been entrusted with shepherding the flock of God and care for their souls.

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First Timothy chapter three gives us qualifications for the office of overseer and I realize some of our

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Bibles might say different things, it might say overseer, it might say elder, it might say pastor, it might say bishop even in some translations.

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These are all describing one in the same office, these are all the same thing. And it's vitally important, this office is vitally important for the church.

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Hebrews 13, 17 says this is what these elders or these overseers do, they keep watch over your souls as those who've given an account.

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So overseers, deacon, or I'm sorry, overseers and elders, pastors, they give an account for your soul, they're held accountable for how they shepherd the flock of God.

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Obviously Hebrews 10 tells us that Jesus is the good shepherd but in first Peter five, there's this instruction to elders, shepherd the flock of God.

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So we can kind of view elders or overseers in this light that though Christ is the great shepherd, the good shepherd, there's under shepherds in which he's given the church to lead, to shepherd his people, to care for their souls.

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So they don't shepherd from their own authority, they're not shepherding anybody that comes and preaches, they're not speaking of their own authority, they're under submission to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and they're shepherding. Anytime you guys just call the pastor, he's a shepherd to you.

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He also greets the deacons, the deacons are servants in the church. First Timothy three gives qualifications as well for deacons but deacons, they serve the church, they assist the elders.

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Acts chapter six is a great reference to the need for deacons in the church to assist the elders so the elders can focus on shepherding.

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I love what this greeting shows us about the church. The church is never absent of saints, obviously it's a congregation of saints but the saints are never independent of elders and deacons.

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In other words, there's no maverick Christian. This idea that all, this idea is that Christianity, God's desire for the church is that we would gather together like Hebrews 10 instructs us, don't forsake the assembly of gathering together.

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So there's this gathering of believers and then like Hebrews 13 instructs, we must submit ourselves to elders so that they can care for our souls and finally, the church is not complete without servants, bond servants who serve the church that assist the elders.

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If you're not regularly submitting yourselves to the Lord by submitting yourselves to being part of a local church, you're walking in disobedience, you're not walking in his will for you.

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He's very clearly described his will is that we would gather together as a church, that we would submit to elders, we would be under their care.

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And Paul's opening words so vividly just show this model of the church.

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Saints, elders, deacons, they're all together. When he writes to the Philippian church, he knows that these three categories are the people that he will be writing to because no church again is complete without these three and in light of the fact that he's writing this letter to the saints in Philippi in a very normal Paul -like greeting, he says grace and peace from God, our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This warm greeting really sets the tone for what's about to follow.

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Both grace, the grace to save sinners in peace, the peace that comes from reconciliation with God, find their source in the

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Godhead. This is a salutation only fitting to greet those in whom the

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Lord has given salvation to and imparted his love and kindness to. Outside the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not know grace and you do not know peace.

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And the church in Philippi was maybe even more unique compared to many of the other churches that Paul writes to and I think we see this in how

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Paul prays for them. He offers a joy -filled prayer for them. Again, despite the circumstances of being persecuted and afflicted for the sake of the gospel,

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Paul's joy was not dependent upon the circumstance. Paul's joy was found in Christ and specifically here what

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Christ was accomplishing in his church and who he was now relationally to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So as we consider verses three through five, I want to give three disciplines in life that will inevitably help change our outlook on life or maybe help us find joy regardless of the circumstance.

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First of those would be discipline that cultivates joy is thanking

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God for the memories and experiences he gives us with his children.

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The second discipline that cultivates joy is praying for other believers. And lastly, the third discipline that cultivates joy is participation in gospel ministry.

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So the first discipline that cultivates joy is thanking God for the memories and experiences he gives us with his children.

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Verse three, Paul shares, he says, I thank my God in all my remembrances of you.

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Paul's fond memories and thoughts involving the Philippian church drove Paul to respond by thanking his

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God. The very memory of these dear believers brought Paul much joy. Even from behind prison bars, the memory of the

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Philippians gave Paul joy despite the circumstance he was in. And he attributes this joy, not necessarily just to the

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Philippians, but to his God, he's thanking God. He realizes this is of God.

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So Paul acknowledges that it is God that receives all the praise and the glory for the blessing of these dear people.

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Well, how do we do this? How do we fondly think of other people? It seems like it would be kind of simple.

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And it really should be, but the problem that exists is our minds can be so quick to dwell on the unlovely things or the sinful things or the things about people that might annoy us.

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And I think that kind of pollutes our entire thought process, which inevitably finds its way into our prayer life.

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It doesn't mean that when sin comes up that we don't address sin with a brother or sister in Christ.

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But we must discipline our thoughts not to dwell on those negative things, but we dwell on the good things that the

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Lord has done. If you don't, you're not gonna be able to replicate this prayer that Paul just gave.

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You're not gonna be able to say, I thank my God and all my remembrances, because your heart's gonna be far from that. You're not exercising thanksgiving in your heart because you're sitting there nitpicking and you're building up anger in your heart towards somebody.

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So I think we need to be disciplined in our thought life. We need to be disciplined in going to the

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Lord and thanking him for the saints that he's put in our life. Paul certainly would have thought back to Lydia and the

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Philippian jailers and the jailer and others that labored with them in the gospel. These were positive memories.

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He was thinking of the good things that had happened. The second discipline that helps cultivate joy is praying for other believers.

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In the circumstances of Paul, it would have been very easy for his own prayer life to be consumed with prayer just for himself, which in and of itself, it's not a bad thing to pray for ourselves.

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We should be praying. We should be praying that the Lord is sanctifying us and causing us to grow. But oftentimes, trials can cause us to be very self -focused in all facets of life, and then this leaks through to our prayer life.

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It can be very difficult to be one another's minded when we're in the midst of trials.

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It becomes very tempting to withdraw and stop serving in the church. In Paul's circumstance, he wrestles with this a little bit.

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He's afflicted in life, but he also realizes that there's this need for him in the church. So Philippians 1 .21,

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he says, "'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. "'But if I am to live on in the flesh, "'this will mean fruitful labor for me, "'and

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I do not know what I will choose. "'But I am hard -pressed between the two, "'having the desire to depart and be with Christ, "'for that is very much better, "'yet to remain on in the flesh "'is more necessary for your sake.

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"'In convince of this, I know that I will remain "'and continue with you all for your progress "'and joy in the faith.'"

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So Paul realizes that being gone from this world means instantly being in the presence of his

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Lord and Savior, which is gain. That's personal gain to Paul. This is far better than the toils and trials that he had in his life.

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But note how even as he's thinking about this, he's still thinking about the church. He's thinking about those he's ministering to.

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He points out that though being with Christ is better, it's better for the church that he remains.

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It's better for the church that he would remain with him. And therefore, he resolves that he will remain and continue with them for the progress and joy of their faith.

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So Paul's lack of self -focus allows him to be a faithful servant that he was called to be.

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Note verse four. Because of his desire to see them sanctified and grow, he prays for them.

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He prays a prayer of joy. It is a joy to go to the Lord and praying for other people.

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One thing that I would challenge you with today is when we pray for others, are our prayers, are they filled with the immediately earthly needs and the earthly desires that we have, even for other people?

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Or are we praying for conformity to the image of Jesus Christ? Are we praying that people be sanctified?

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I wanna take note of how Paul prays for the church in Thessalonica.

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May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, for all people, just as we also do for you, so that he may strengthen your hearts, blameless in holiness, before our

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God and Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus with all his saints. He also says, now may the

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God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and body be preserved, complete without blame, at the coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, as faithful as he who calls you, and he will bring it to pass. I encourage us all, if we're praying for healing and provision for temporal things, which again, that's not wrong, we should be petitioning to the

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Lord for those things, but we also need to be disciplined in praying for people's greatest needs, spiritual needs, even believers, we need prayer from brothers and sisters in Christ for our spiritual well -being.

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Pray that they would be faithful Christians, pray that they'd be serving the Lord well. No doubt these are the sorts of prayers that Paul was joyfully offering to the

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Lord for the Philippians. When you pray in this way, with focus off yourself, it should bring joy, you're approaching our

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God and Father, who is the Father of all saints, who loves us, and it's a joyous occasion that we can actually approach him directly and give prayers of intercession for other people.

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The third and final discipline that helps us cultivate an attitude of joy is participation in gospel ministry.

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As a pastor, nothing brought Paul more joy than to see those whom he shepherded continue on with enduring in the faith, desire to participate in the fellowship of the gospel with Paul.

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Their participation was steadfast, it was unwavering, he says, from the very first day through now, they were faithful in their ministry.

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So Paul, being the active shepherd that he was, saw the way the gospel changed their lives, and that brought him immense joy.

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He certainly would have recalled Lydia, who immediately came to partner with him in the gospel and hosted him and others, and Paul would have thought of Epaphroditus, who came to visit him in prison and nearly died in the attempt to just minister and encourage

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Paul. Paul would see their desire to labor in the gospel with him and by how they financially supported him.

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2 Corinthians 8, Paul even writes to the church in Corinth about the Philippians and how generously they gave.

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He said that they gave even beyond their ability for the sake of the gospel. And though the gift itself was deeply encouraging to Paul, he has this to say about what encouraged him even more so.

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So in Philippians 4, verse 10, he says, but I rejoice in the

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Lord greatly that now at last you have revived thinking about me.

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Indeed, you were thinking about me before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I learned to be content in whatever circumstance

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I'm in. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in abundance.

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In any and all things, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

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I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to fellowship with me in my affliction.

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And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left

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Macedonia, no church fellowshiped with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone.

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For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the fruit which increases to your account.

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But I have received everything in full and have all abundance. I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

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So the thing that encouraged Paul the most was seeing that his spiritual children were growing spiritually.

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He was seeing the fruit in their life of this. A child of God ought to be deeply invested in the work of the gospel by how we share the gospel, how we financially support the gospel, those working in gospel ministry, and certainly by how we pray for gospel ministry.

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Seeing the fruits of others' labors for the gospel is always a cause for joy. As a pastor or a teacher or a parent, whatever, it doesn't, there's few things that would give you more joy than those that you've labored to pour into, that you've poured

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God's word into to be being sanctified, to be growing. That is a huge source of joy.

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And it should always be a source of joy. We have to be disciplined in being active in gospel ministry.

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It's not a, being disciplined in gospel ministry will bring you joy. It's not a guarantee that things are gonna be easy or that life is not gonna have hardship.

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2 Timothy 3 .12 says that anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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But what, again, I want to remind you of is godly joy is not dependent upon our circumstances.

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It's quite possible to experience tremendous hardship and sorrows yet be completely overcome with joy.

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James reminds us, count it all joy, my brethren, when you face various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

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And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

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So I would ask, do you find joy in the things that the

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Lord would have for you? Or is your joy just completely and totally dependent upon your circumstance?

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It's like the apostle Paul. Do you find joy in thanking him for other believers?

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Do you find joy in praying for other believers and seeing the growth in others? Or do you feel perpetually without joy?

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Maybe there's not a single ounce of godly joy in your life. If the faithful ministry of the gospel brings you no joy,

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I have to ask why. This might simply just mean that we need a perspective change a little bit.

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Could be an indication that what we had talked about earlier, this grace and peace from God, it might be something that you've not ever tasted before.

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Because if you don't know the Lord, then you haven't received his grace, you haven't received peace from him.

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Romans 5 .1 says, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. If you have not received his grace by faith, you're at war with the righteous judge.

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You're at war with the king of kings. You will not have peace. And the only joy that you really can know is fleeting because it's earthly joy.

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It'll last for a little while, but it's not sustaining. It's the joy from the

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Lord that surpasses all understanding. It's the peace that we get from him that surpasses all understanding.

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That happens to be you, I just want you to realize. God's very patient and he's very kind to us.

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He desires all people to be saved. But one day his patience will cease. Don't wait another hour to receive his grace.

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Have peace with God now. Turn to him in childlike faith. And just like the Philippian jailer, what do

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I have to do to be saved? Well, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Ask him for help.

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We know that salvation is a gift from God. We know that the quickening of the heart is a gift from God.

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It's God that worked, just like we saw with Lydia. Ask God for help in that. I just pray that the rest of us would have godly joy, that we would see the encouraging things that God's doing in ministry.

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You guys just went through such a long season of time without a pastor, and look at how God has sustained you.

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He's brought you through that. Now you have a shepherd coming. That should be a source of joy.

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Not just because you have a pastor coming, not just because you have somebody to come stand up here every week.

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You see how God is working in and through this church. That's such a blessing. So let's go to the