Overview of Philippians: Unity in Humility

Okay, so tonight we're going to attempt to go over the whole book of Philippians in one night.

And, yeah, I know. Now, I told you, Philippians is one of my favorite books and here's why. Because if you have a

Christian t -shirt, if you have a cup, a mug, what? It is.

Alright. So, if you have a t -shirt, a mug, a hat, or a license plate holder, you probably have one of the verses in Philippians on it, right?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.

Most of the most famous verses you hear out of the Bible come from Philippians.

So we're going to attempt to go through it in one night. Here we go. So what's the theme and the occasion for the book?

The chief theme of Philippians is encouragement and unity. That's why I called it unity and humility.

Paul wants to encourage the Philippians to live out their lives as citizens of a heavenly colony as evidenced by a growing commitment to service to God and to one another.

The way of life that Paul encourages was manifest uniquely in Jesus Christ. It was also evident in the lives of Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.

Those are the examples that Paul's going to use later. So does anybody know when Philippians started?

Like where in the Bible you would find the start of Philippians after Ephesians?

Yes, even before that. The book of Acts. Acts chapter 16, right?

Where Paul actually was delayed. He was supposed to go to Bithynia and then the spirit of the

Lord stopped him and made him go down to, he went down to Troas. But then he had a vision of a man who came down to Macedonia and he was asking for help.

And it was through a series of events, seemingly random events, that Paul ends up in Philippi, in Macedonia.

And who does he meet in Philippi? He meets Lydia, the woman clothed in purple.

He meets the Philippian jailer. He was in jail, right? And then a slave girl.

So the church of Philippi had a special significance for Paul since it was the first church he founded in Europe.

It's the first church in Europe, and I'll show you a map of it in a little bit. The first convert was Lydia, a seller of purple goods, which means she had money.

Paul and Silas were imprisoned for exorcising a demon from a fortune -telling slave girl.

God miraculously delivers them and they proclaim the gospel to the Philippian jailer.

And here's the famous, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You and your whole household will be saved.

So Paul likely visited the Philippians a few times after his initial departure and they maintained active support for his ministry.

One of the things that we're going to learn is that Epaphroditus comes from Philippi all the way to Rome, a 500 -mile journey, to bring a love offering to Paul.

And this is one of the, what would seemingly be random events that landed

Paul in a prison in Rome. He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial garden to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers, having been confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Paul obviously always centers on the sovereignty of God. He knows that he's there for a purpose. God is the one who brought him to that place.

The letter of rejoicing is written from prison to encourage the Philippian Christians to live single -minded oneness close to Christ.

So he's going to constantly be talking about unity throughout this whole epistle. It's also known as a prison epistle because Paul wrote it from prison.

The letter starts with a prayer and later Paul describes the gospel in a nutshell in chapter 3.

It shows Paul's priority to honor his Savior and to promote the gospel while in prison where he endures opposition from Christians and faces the prospect of death.

All of it, all of it points to Christ, his true humility as the divine Son of God. And again, we're going to get to that in chapter 3.

So Paul's writing from prison and he's writing a book to encourage Philippians, the church in Philippi.

He's in prison. He needs encouragement. He's encouraged and strengthened by God and he's encouraging others.

So the letter is basically a thank you letter for the church in Philippi bringing him money.

Epaphroditus brought it to him. It's not the usual way that Paul writes letters. Usually he starts off with some kind of doctrine and then application and practice.

This letter is more relaxed and you hear his pastoral heart coming through. He truly cares deeply about these people.

It's not like 1 Corinthians, Colossians, or Galatians. He offers no corrective on doctrine or behavior.

He's not saying, oh you're doing this wrong, you've got to do this. He's not correcting them in any way. In fact, in this epistle, there's no mention of sin at all.

It doesn't appear once and his letter starts off, his letters normally, this one starts off Paul and Timothy where he usually starts off Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to establish his authority, to establish his position as an apostle.

But here he's not doing that. This is more of a friendly, loving type of letter.

So Philippi, right? What name does that sound like? Who?

Philip. Hey, good. Philip. You know why? It's named after Philip of Macedon.

Anybody know who Philip of Macedon was? He was Alexander the Great's father.

Thank you. Good job. Excellent. Right? Right? He's old. Did you know him?

That was very good. So now, Philippi is a very unique city, right?

It's famous for one particular reason, an event. In 42 BC, Mark Antony and Octavian defeated

Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar in a battle at Philippi.

Later, 31 BC, when Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, he assumed the name

Augustus and rebuilt the city of Philippi. So now he's

Augustus, he rebuilt the city of Philippi. He placed retired soldiers there to ensure loyalty to Rome.

He gave them land for free. It's a big deal. And he established it as a military outpost.

It was a very strategic city, and you'll see it on the map in a minute. You had to go through that particular region of the country in order to go east or west.

He also gave the new colony the highest privilege obtainable by Roman provincial municipalities, called the eus italicactum, which really means it was a law in the early

Roman Empire that allowed the emperors to grant cities outside of Italy the legal fiction that they were on Italian soil.

So you didn't need to be connected to Italy. You could be anywhere you want. If you had this proclamation, that was considered

Italian soil. And this meant that the city would be governed under Roman law rather than local law.

And it would have a greater degree of autonomy in their relations with the provincial governors. So a lot of importance with that came a lot of privileges.

The soldiers also, as it says here, they were exempt from poll tax and land tax.

So you have a bunch of retired soldiers who helped take the city over and win it for Augustus, who are now given land and don't have to pay tax on it.

These are going to be guys who are going to defend that city to the end. They don't want to lose what they have. And they were proud people.

The retired Roman soldiers flocked there, like the villages in Florida. You know those places, the villages, right? No land tax.

They were proud people boasting of their status. Think about it. Now they're Roman citizens. And they have all the privileges that come along with Roman citizenship.

And that's going to play a big part in what we're going to learn in a couple minutes. They were people of means. They had money.

They had status. That area in Philippi, they had a lot of springs, cold water, hot water, right?

Like think Palm Springs. It's that kind of area. Plus, there was nearby gold mines. So they had no tax.

They had availability to gold. It was a trade route for other people, other people going through the area.

So it was a very affluential type of city. And they were given this status by Augustus, which led to what?

Emperor worship, right? Augustus was lord. Again, that's going to come into play.

Okay, so I don't know if you can see this too well. Over here is Israel, Jerusalem, okay?

This happened on Paul's second journey. He goes all the way up here, all the way around. And all the way up there is

Philippi. There we go. Okay, so that's

Philippi up there. And you see the trade route? You would go over this way, all the way down that way to get to Greece, unless you were going by ship.

Now, that whole area, see Macedonia? It's that whole area right there. And it was in 146

BC that Rome took over that whole area, defeated Greece, and that became

Roman territory, okay? And down here, well, underneath there was Crete when we were going through Titus.

Okay, so the text. Let's talk about Paul's vocabulary. He uses the word Christ 37 times.

He uses the word God 23 times, Jesus 21 times, the Lord 15 times.

All in all, in four chapters, he uses the name of God 96 times. All right, that's 24 per chapter.

That's a lot. He uses the word rejoice 23 times. Now, most of the commentaries that I looked at and most of the videos

I watched say that he mentioned it 16 times or 17 times. Logos, based on the root word, says it's 23.

So I'm going with 23. There's not one quote from the Old Testament in the book.

There's an allusion to one, but that was it. No mention of sin, like I said before. And interestingly, he links love to knowledge.

Every time you hear he uses the word love, it's some way linked to knowledge or discernment.

Any idea why? Yes. Because the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the fear of the Lord is also love of him. Sure, sure, yeah.

And love, people think that tends to be more emotional, more feelings -driven, and he wants to let them know, no, the love abounds with knowledge and discernment when it comes from the scriptures, when you're learning

God's word. You just said it. Right, it's just like seeking that intimacy.

Mm -hmm, mm -hmm. Okay. All right, so we're gonna go through the difference between happiness and joy.

This is a big theme, not just with Paul, but throughout the whole scripture, right?

So happiness depends on what's happening. It's circumstantial.

Your circumstances dictate whether you're happy or not. It's conditional, right? Because if your circumstances are bad, well, you're not gonna be in a good mood.

If they're good, oh, I'm in a better mood. They're temporal and fleeting, right? Happiness doesn't last long.

It's fleeting, it's elusive, it's shallow. It's uncertain because if it depends on what's happening and you don't know what's happening tomorrow, well, then you may not be happy or you might be happy, you don't know.

It's worldly, it's bottom -up, okay? If things down here are going right, well, then

I'm happy and it's outside in. So happiness depends on what's happening outside of you to affect your heart.

Big difference between happiness and joy. Joy depends on spiritual realities, not worldly realities.

It's relational. Our joy is the joy of the Lord. When you're in union with him and you have a relationship with him and you see things through his eyes, you understand everything has a purpose.

That's why Paul can be so joyful in the midst of a prison. He understands that he's been placed there for the defense of the gospel, right?

Joy is a gift, it's supernatural. What's one of the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, right there. It's a supernatural gift.

It's transcended, it's above us. It's always available. When you call upon the name of the

Lord, he's there and it's a much deeper thing than happiness. It's lasting, it endures, it's spiritual, it's top -down.

Again, it's one of the fruits of the Spirit and it's something that happens inside of us that affects the things on the outside.

When you're joyful on the inside, you're gonna help other people to be joyful.

Again, this is Paul's whole thing. He's writing from prison and here's the difference between me and Paul.

Like he's writing, telling everybody to be rejoicing. I'd be writing a letter to all you guys here, say, listen, anybody know somebody on SEAL Team Six?

Like, how am I getting out? Get me out of here. Not Paul. He's like,

I'm here for the gospel. Rejoice, don't worry. Again, I say to you, rejoice.

Since joy is of the Lord, it's something the world cannot give us. If you're gonna be moping and whining, please don't tell anyone you're a

Christian. Steve Lawson, that's a quote from him. Think about what

I pray in the prayer on Sunday morning. In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

When the Lord is present, we can be joyful no matter what the circumstances are around us.

This was part of Jesus's priestly prayer. But now I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves, my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Again, joy is relational. Yes, John? I just want to say, for me, I immediately thought of James.

When he says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. So the joy is, like you said, it's full.

God is coming. Yeah, happiness is, you're looking at things from a worldly perspective.

Joy, you're looking at things from a heavenly, spiritual perspective, God's perspective. All right, so let's start getting actually into the first chapter.

So being in Christ and a part of the Christian fellowship, which is a means of grace, is a source of joy when things become difficult.

Here, Paul, a prisoner in Rome, is rejoicing because of the fellowship he has in the gospel.

Right, how many times when we come to fellowship after worship and you're not feeling good and all of a sudden you start hearing somebody give a testimony about how

God worked in their life or so -and -so, we prayed for so -and -so and the prayer was answered, and all of a sudden, your burden seems insignificant.

Right, and you recognize God is in control. He's working in everyone's life. Yeah, so I'm not maybe getting an answer to the prayer that I'm praying right now, but it's coming, right, and God's in control.

He has a reason for all of these things. Three phases that are gonna summarize

Paul's attitude toward the church. They were on his mind. In verse 1 -6, he says,

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. They were in his heart. Verse seven, I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace.

And last, they were in his prayers. Verses nine through 11. It is my prayer that you'll love me about more and more with knowledge and discernment, right?

Knowledge, why, again, why knowledge? Because Paul's writing this from a heavenly perspective.

I'm in prison, right? And especially writing to the church in Philippi where he was busted out of prison, right?

The angel miraculously busted them out of prison, broke, and there was like an earthquake. So now the church in Philippi are like, you're in jail over there?

Like, this isn't supposed to happen. The angel busted you out in Philippi. There's no angels in Rome?

He's like, no, I'm here for a reason. And wherever we are, no matter what we're thinking, you are there, placed there by God for a reason.

Philippians 1 .6, and I am sure of this, he encourages them that he who began a work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Again, a verse that we would use in the perseverance of the saints, right? God is going to carry you the whole way through.

Paul, who also wrote Romans 8 .28, knows he's there for the gospel. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

Now, the imperial guard, those are the soldiers who were assigned to Augustus, the king in that area.

So these just weren't regular guards. These were guards that were assigned to the king. Now, I heard it said that he was handcuffed to each of the soldiers for six hours at a time, and that gave him opportunity to witness to people, and I just questioned myself, how did

I know that? Like, how do you know it was six hours? Did they have sophisticated handcuffs?

Obviously, he was in prison. They had some kind of change, but I don't know if it was six -hour intervals. Doesn't matter.

He was there witnessing to all the guards. And here's where he says, for me to live is

Christ and to die is gain, right? Can we say that and meet it in our hearts, to live is

Christ and to die is gain, right? I'm hard -pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, but that's far better.

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 faith.

So again, here, Paul is thinking about others. He's not thinking about himself. He says, I know this would be better for me, but I'm here for you.

So when you come to church on Sunday, do you come with the attitude, ooh, what am I gonna get? Are you a consumer?

Or are you coming to church saying, hey, how can I bless somebody? What am I gonna, how am I gonna help someone?

Philippians 1, 27 and eight, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent,

I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, right?

Again, unity, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. And I put this verse up for a specific reason.

It says, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of you, your salvation, and that from God, right?

We're living in a real difficult time right now. So are you frightened by your opponents?

Are you frightened about what the culture is gonna bring on you? He says, don't be frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is a sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation.

When you're rooted and grounded in Christ, you're here for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And look, we're getting into a situation like it's not hypothetical anymore. Look at this.

In Israel, Netanyahu's coalition of lawmakers are now introducing a bill that would make it illegal to talk about Jesus in person, online, by print or mail.

They're proposing prison time up to two years for anyone caught doing so. And I didn't believe it, so I looked it up online and I found several news articles that said this is being proposed.

You talk about Jesus, they'll put you in prison. Send somebody an email, they'll put you in prison.

However, we have the joy of the Lord. Do not be frightened. It's a sign of their destruction, not yours.

Chapter two. Okay, this is gonna be characterized by Paul. Look out, work out, and pour out.

Philippians 2 .3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Paul is the least self -centered guy

I know. He's always looking to help the other person, right?

And as a church family here, we're a unit. We're to be unified, to have the same mind, same love, all be in one accord, and looking out for each other's interest.

Pastor Chris did a thing on gaining biblical wisdom and what was one of the tenets, right?

To think more highly of others than yourself, to give yourself over to other people, to help them, to sow into them.

That's gold, silver, precious jewels. That's sowing into the soul of the person and that's what's gonna get to heaven, not real gold, silver, precious jewels.

All right, so he's stressing unity, service, and humility. Philippians 2, this is a good one.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, that's the word kenosis, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is Christ's humiliation and I can't think of a greater example of humility than this.

This is God overall taking on flesh and becoming a man.

Now, there's been no small amount of ink and controversy over what kenosis is. Unfortunately, there's some people who say when

Jesus emptied himself, he emptied himself of his divinity. He was no longer

God. You have people in the word of faith movement that say he wasn't

God at that point and all the miracles he did, he did them as a man. And the reason they say that is because they want to do the miracles that Jesus did.

Well, if Jesus did them just as a man and we're like Jesus, then we can do them. No, yes. J .C.

Wright has a great quote that says, God becoming man is like man becoming a slug.

You know what I mean? Yes. Exactly. So you have Jesus who was

God, he's in the form of God, takes on the form of a man. And I was trying to think of how to illustrate this.

What exactly did Jesus give up, right? Because he really didn't lose anything.

What he did was gain a human body and the limitations of being a human being. So he had status as God and then became a servant to die on the cross.

And the only illustration that came to mind was Pastor Jensen. You're gonna like this, right? Pastor Jensen, how many speeding tickets have you had in your life?

None. Why? I'm just a very safe driver. Pastor Jensen has a badge, a sergeant's badge, okay?

So my illustration would be this. If Pastor Jensen just happened to be speeding for some crazy reason, right?

Trying to get to church on time and was pulled over and didn't show the policeman his badge, that would be laying aside his privileges, okay?

And being like one of us and getting the ticket or trying to talk your way out of it and still getting the ticket. So it wasn't that Jesus lost divinity.

He did not lose divinity. He just didn't use it to get what he needed, okay?

So he was truly God, truly man, and this is part of the Chalcedonian Creed. This is very important. Jesus is truly

God, truly man, one person with two natures. It's known as the hypostatic union.

And you can ask theologians or any person on earth, that's a mystery, okay? The scripture says it like the

Trinity. Scripture teaches it, it's a mystery. Nobody can point to something on earth that's gonna duplicate that.

The Chalcedonian Creed says Jesus has two natures, without confusion, without change, but without division and without separation.

Try to wrap your head around that, it's difficult, right? But that's the truth. He's truly God, truly man.

Lay aside his divine prerogatives, okay? Becomes a man and dies on a cross.

He was a form of God and then becomes a form of man. Greatest act of humility we ever could see.

Okay, let's move on. Chapter two still. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is Christ's exaltation, okay?

He became a man, he died on a cross, but then he rose again on the third day, is seated at the right hand of God the

Father. Jesus's resurrection is the Father's amen to Jesus's it is finished, okay?

This also teaches us we gotta go to the cross before the crown, before we get the crown, right?

We need to die to ourselves, we need to humble ourselves, we need to be humble servants and model what our

Savior did. You can't think of a better example of humility than Jesus. He was the top, you know, the highest you could be and then being given sin, the sin of other people, the lowest you can be.

I think of James, it says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast on the trial for when he stood the test he will receive the crown of life which

God has promised to those who love him. We're in a testing phase right now, right? This is how do we die to ourselves and live for others and help others along.

Philippians 2 .13, therefore, therefore, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is

God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, right?

This Jesus who was God became a man, died in your place, places the

Holy Spirit inside of you. Now it's up to us to work out what

God has put in, okay? So we have to die to our flesh, which is a difficult process, we're all in process, okay?

And imitate our savior and do that without grumbling or disputing, without complaining.

I catch myself all the time, I said, you know, if I was an Israelite in the desert, God would be really mad at me because I'd be grumbling and it's like, do you realize if all you had was eternal life, you have everything you could ever want in Christ, right?

Especially us, I mean, we live in America, we live on Long Island, we're surrounded by such wonderful, beautiful things and some other places in the world are not like this.

You know, they're being persecuted, you know, all different kinds of things. We are a blessed people, let's not whine and complain and say that we're

Christians because then we're gonna bring reproach on the name of Christ. So then

Paul gives us examples, right? He says, Paul's fruitful in his labor and his flesh and then he was poured out like a drink offering.

Timothy says, I have no one like him, genuinely concerned about the other's welfare,

Philippians 2 .20, says he will be, Timothy would be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Epaphroditus, he's a fellow worker, a fellow soldier. And then Jesus, obviously,

God became man, laid aside his divine prerogatives. And then he ends up, likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Rejoice, no matter what your circumstances are, rejoice in Christ.

If the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you have eternal life, wherever you are, you're there for a reason, okay?

Bring Christ into the situation. Okay, chapter three. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the

Lord. And then he goes on for two more chapters, right? He's a Baptist preacher. Finally, I'm gonna wrap it up now and then he keeps writing.

Okay, rejoicing, counting, reaching, weeping, and looking. Watch out for those dogs, the evil doers, those confident in the flesh.

Who is he talking about there? I'm sorry? The Judaizers, right?

The Israelites who were still trying to keep the law. Now, I would love to go into this, but we don't have that much time.

So if you look up those verses, it talks about the Israel of God. We are the circumcision, not the

Israelites, the synagogue of Satan, those who continue to reject their Messiah and think that they can keep the law in order to gain

God's favor and be at peace with God. 3 .7 through 11, but whatever gain

I had, this is Paul who was a Hebrew of Hebrew, a Pharisee, right? According to the law, faultless.

He was like the top Jew. He says, whatever I had in as far as those things go, those works,

I count that as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

Jesus as my Lord. What's the definition of eternal life? John 17, 17, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true

God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. If you know God, everything else should be considered loss.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them rubbish. Now, if I was to translate rubbish into English, they might throw me out of here.

So I'll just say it's waste. Okay. In order that I may gain

Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

So many people today are denying justification by faith. You have

Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, all these different kinds of groups that say no. Justification, sanctification and glorification are all one thing and they're not.

Those are separate things. Justification, sanctification and glorification are different things. They are all salvation and they are part of the process, but they are different things.

When you're justified, you're declared innocent before God by faith, just like the thief on the cross.

And anytime I start to talk to people about this, like, oh, you're going to the exception, the thief on the cross. I said, the thief on the cross is not the exception.

He's the rule. He's the rule. You mean to tell me the crucifixion of Christ, which was everything the

Old Testament was pointing us towards. In that scene, when we see Jesus on the cross and the thief on the cross repents, and he says, today you'll be with me in paradise.

That's the exception? That's what everything pointed to. He's the rule.

You're saved by faith, by grace, through faith, not of yourself.

It's the gift of God. You're declared righteous before God, innocent. Gospel is the only place where you get the verdict before the trial.

So it's not a righteousness that comes from the Lord, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

And then he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and that by any means possible,

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Anyone know of a nice little controversy that's going around right now that this verse might apply to, that I did three lessons on?

Hyperpreterism. He says, by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Hyperpreterists say, oh no, we're resurrected already.

That's not what Paul thought. If he was resurrected already, born again, what is he awaiting the resurrection from the dead for?

This is a physical resurrection from the dead. We're gonna go through another verse in a second. Philippians 3 .16,

brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

Again, unity and humility. Focus on Christ.

Now all too often, and I think we have a tendency to do this, we focus on people who are doing things wrong.

Oh, look at this guy, he's doing it wrong. Look at that guy, he's doing it wrong. Look at those guys, they're doing it wrong.

Fix your eyes on Christ. Fix your eyes on the guy who did it right. Fix your eyes on people who are mentors to you, who are walking with the

Lord. Okay, yes, we can talk about the people who are doing things wrong. Don't focus on them.

Our goal is to fix our eyes on Jesus. He's the author and perfecter of our faith.

And you will become like what you focus on. For many of whom

I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, right? Paul, he's so caring with these people.

Walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.

Okay, so they're worldly. They're setting their minds on earthly things.

They don't have their minds set on things above, all right? So Paul says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. Ooh, ooh, that's another kick hyper -preterism out the room verse, right?

By the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Now, why would Paul put our citizenship is in heaven?

What do you think he's trying to tell them? What's he contrasting it with? Their Roman citizenship.

They're all like, we're citizens of Rome, and making a big deal of it. Paul's like, you're a citizen of heaven.

Rome? Yeah, they got good spaghetti and meatballs, but you're a citizen of heaven.

Like, don't even worry about, that's earthly. Oh, oh, so the king gave you certain rights.

You're in union with the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Are you kidding me? Augustus can't shine

Jesus' sandals. Right? Four, Philippians four.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Sintici, I guess, to agree in the Lord. Now, you know what, these are two women, and you know what happens when two women don't agree?

It's a problem. Like, gossip starts going around. Oh, yeah, she did this, she said that. He needs them to agree, right?

Again, this is about unity. Yet, I ask you also, true companionship, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

He's trying to bring everybody together to work together in unity.

Lay aside your disputes. We have an eternity to worry about that, right? We're not gonna worry about it, actually, in eternity.

We don't need to worry about that. We work together for the sake of the gospel, for the glory of God. The Lord is at hand.

This is a verse that he's gonna give us with regards to prayer. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

That's like a must memory verse, right? And most people start off, do not be anxious about anything.

And I say, don't forget the first part. The Lord is at hand, all right? If you have the

Lord at hand, what do you have? You have the joy of the Lord, right? And then he says, if there's anything true, noble, righteous, pure, lovely, admirable, if there's anything excellent or praiseworthy, think about those such things, all right?

Get your minds off all this junk. Focus on the beauty of the world that I have made and what it's going to look like if we continue to proclaim the gospel.

Build with gold, silver, and precious jewels, in everything, by prayer and supplication.

He doesn't say in some things, in most things. Everything gets prayer and supplication.

That's why Wednesday nights are so important together that we pray corporately together. Philippians 4, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation,

I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance,

I have learned the secret of facing plenty in hunger, abundance in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Now that verse doesn't mean that you can get a hole in one, dunk a basketball, score 15 touchdowns.

That's not what that verse means. He's saying, regardless of my outside circumstances,

I can remain joyful because I have the joy of the Lord. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

In the midst of adversity, in the midst of trials, I am steadfastly standing on the

Lord. And the reason why joy isn't temporal, like happiness, is because everything in the world changes.

If you attach your happiness to something in the world, it's going to change, it's gonna fade away, it's gonna get old.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change, therefore your joy will never change.

Philippians 419, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

He doesn't say, I will supply all of your wants. He says, all of your needs. God will supply us all of our needs according to the riches in Jesus.

He says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Why do I love that? Because he's now

Augustus, who's the king, who gives everybody land, and his household are turned into Christ.

Caesar, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

Caesar's household became saints because Paul was put in a prison, chained to them, and gave them the gospel.

Man, don't underestimate where God places you. Share your faith wherever you go, and we need to be more bold about it now.

They're bold, but guess what? I'm not gonna be afraid, because that's a sign to them that they're winning.

When I'm bold, the righteous are as bold as a lion, that's a sign to them of their destruction, but of our salvation.

So, Philippians, unity and humility. In the end, rejoice in the

Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever, amen.

Questions? It's very important. We had talked about this on Monday night.

You know, we're gonna be known by our fruit, right? So when you think of a tree, let's say an orange tree, apple tree, whatever it is, it grows, it grows up, and it bears fruit.

Do you realize that the fruit is never for the tree? The fruit is always for someone else.

The tree doesn't eat its own fruit. So whatever giftings God has given you, okay, you have to grow in those things, and that fruit is for someone else, okay?

And if you're receiving fruit from someone else, hopefully everybody in here who's a

Christian has a gift, right, hopefully the person who is feeding you, you are also feeding them.

There's no one that does not have anything to offer to the body. The hand can't say to the foot,

I don't need you. We all are one body, right? We who are many form one body.

Each one of us plays an integral part in the furtherance of the gospel, no matter what it is.

Okay, so just keep that in mind. Ask yourself, what is my gift? Ask other people, what do you see my gift as? Maybe you just don't know, right?

And then exercise that gift. Bear fruit for others. Yes. I just want to add, and plus, we have to note that God is sovereign.

So there is, you could say, oh, I don't need this right now. Yes, you do, because if God is giving you, is putting you in that situation, there's a purpose.

You don't even try to think about what it is, because you don't have that right. But we must always remember, he is sovereign.

There's a purpose for what he does for us. I'm continually asking myself when I find

I'm in a place of discomfort, I just pause and I say, Lord, what are you teaching me? What is it you're teaching me?

You know, traffic. I'm like, patience, whatever it is.

Maybe there's a crazy accident that was going to happen down the road, and if I was going at the rate of speed I was without a sergeant's badge,

I might have hit somebody, right, or gotten to an accident, right? No, every situation you're in, okay, is orchestrated by the

Lord. Paul wasn't planning on going to Philippi, right? Philippi wasn't like on his radar.

He had a vision to go somewhere else, and the Lord said, no, I'm stopping that. Turned him away. He ends up going through Philippi and starts the first church in Europe, and they get a letter written to them by the apostle.

So all things work together for good. I've been placed in the prison for the proclamation of the gospel.

Okay, let's pray. Let's pray.