Sermon on Eternal Security

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as, again, as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that He's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, if you would, open up the

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Word of God to Philippians, New Testament. Very short.

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As you all get there, again, we are doing a side step off of the Gospel According to Matthew, our series,

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The Kingdom of God, into the letter of Paul to the Philippians. Very short, four chapters.

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Now, I have to confess, when I looked at this and I'm thinking through it, I see four chapters and four years, but I'm not going to do that.

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So I'm going to take, I'm going to move through this more with emphasis on particular things.

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And I'll take, I'll take steps away from a very long discourses or sermon series, saying even in the first couple of verses here on overseers and deacons,

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I'd love to do a whole series on what those offices are and all the rest, but we're not going to do that because I want to really have an emphasis on what

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Paul talks about in terms of joy, trusting in Christ, the benefits of Christ, and then actually living together in Christian community.

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Four chapters. So we're in Philippians, letter of Paul to the Philippians, chapter one.

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And we're really just going to be going through the first six verses.

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So here now the words of the living and the true God, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

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Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my

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God and all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

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And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together as a church. Father, we come before you as your people that you've redeemed.

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You chose, you predestined, you planned. Lord, you brought this glorious story of redemption and salvation about.

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We thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you've accomplished in our behalf. And we thank you for the presence of your spirit and our lives.

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We thank you for the hope that we have in the gospel. We thank you, Lord, for the hope of joy in our lives walking with you.

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Please bless and help us. Teach us through this series.

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Transform us. Renew us. Give us new strength. Challenge us. Convict us,

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God. Help change us. Let us see what you see. I pray that you'd get me out of the way, that you'd make much of the

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Lord Jesus in this series. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, this particular side series, again, we want to have emphasis.

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Emphasis on what Paul really sets everything down on and has everything come out of.

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How is Paul speaking from prison, writing from prison, talking about joy?

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I think if we're all honest as we approach this letter, none of us have even begun in our

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Christian lives to taste the sorts of things that the apostle Paul endured. Just consider it. When he talks about what he's endured as a follower of Jesus, as an apostle, you have to think about even like what we know in the historical narrative in the book of Acts.

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Acts chapter 9, this is a guy that we know is persecuting the Christians. When he talks later about his resume, he's like, let's compare it.

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Look, I'm circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. As to the law of Pharisee, look, blameless.

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You're not going to find anything. And as to zeal, Paul says, I persecuted the church. So, there's my resume.

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We know that, of course, the apostle Paul is present in Acts chapter 6 at the stoning of Stephen.

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We know that's his history, right? Paul has a very corrupt history before coming to Jesus to the degree that when he does come to Jesus, he needs sort of like a guy standing next to him, like a hype man, like this is the real deal.

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Paul's serious. He's not covert. He's not spying. He's not faking, which if we're all honest, we probably would all think like this is a dude that was just killing people that we know.

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He's a guy persecuting the Christians. I mean, that's what he's trying to do. He's trying to destroy the church. And now all of a sudden he's walking through the door saying he loves

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Jesus. Be honest. All of us would probably be a little bit leery saying, but for real, like seriously.

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And we know in Acts chapter 9, when he does come to Jesus, he takes that beeline to Damascus. And the very first thing he's involved in there is preaching the gospel at the synagogues, reasoning with the

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Jews, refuting them from the word of God, proving that Jesus is the Messiah. And the blessings are like instant, right?

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And all we see at times is like the positive, the blessings, like Paul's in Jesus now. I know the backstory.

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God saves, saves perfectly, really saved Paul. He's preaching the real Messiah. He's a part of God's marvelous, amazing plan in history.

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And we see the glory of Acts chapter 9 and what it says that the church experienced peace.

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They were built up. And of course it says they were multiplied. The church is growing. And it says some people wanted to kill him.

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There's a start of Paul's troubles. Come to Jesus, preach the gospel, trouble instantly.

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He says, of course, later when he's describing his life, he says, I've been beaten times without number. I always say when

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I talk about that, how many times do you have to get beat before you stop counting?

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Right? Like, okay, I'm just going to stop because I don't really remember. Like I have a few incidents in my time out doing evangelism in very hard places where I felt like, you know,

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I might get punched or I was pushed around or whatever the case may be, but it's limited. And I could probably spend five minutes saying it was this time, this time, this time.

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He says I was beaten times without number. Look, adrift at sea. I'm in danger. Constantly, Paul says

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I'm in danger from false brethren. I'm in danger from my own countrymen. I'm in danger always.

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And he says it's a light and momentary affliction. Now is the apostle Paul, here's the question, is the apostle

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Paul, the first century version of Joel Osteen, right? Like there's just a constant fake smile on his face, right?

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Just trying to be the, the, the eternal optimist, like everything's well, everything's fine. Right? And is that really what's going on there?

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I'd argue, no, that the joy that he's describing here in the midst of a very difficult life is a joy that comes from truth that transforms.

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Now, listen, please hear me on this. This is tough stuff because we can come into this church and we can spend time together.

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We can act like all as well, but in the background, there's a story to our lives. There's losing jobs, there's financial difficulties, there's death, there's disease, there's sickness, there's loneliness, there's sadness, there's depression, there's grief, there's guilt, there's shame.

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Some people are contending with whatever the case may be. You have to be honest when you approach something like this.

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When we talk about Paul saying joy, joy, joy, he's in a prison. He's in a prison.

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His life is not going well. Like from a human perspective, he's chosen a very difficult path.

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It's ugly. He has to contend with wolves coming into the flock. He has to contend with people actually maligning his character and slandering him constantly, right?

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And there's not even social media in this day, but it's still happening. Slander, right? He has to defend his own ministry.

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He's got people that were with him one point and now they've apostatized and now they're gone. He's constantly worried about all these churches.

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He's on the run at times. He's got the government after him. He's in prison. You know, when you can look at a letter like this and you can say, he says joy in Jesus, joy, but like there's something to this.

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Paul is not just the optimist. There's something that created joy in him.

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And if we're all honest, we have work to do. We're not there.

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I mean, how many times have you come into church on a Sunday, had amazing worship, amazing fellowship.

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And on a Monday, your life just feels like darkness. It just feel like a cloud of depression and hopelessness.

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How many times, how many times have you actually faced the season in your life of depression as a

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Christian? Be honest about it. Christians aren't supposed to be depressed. It happens. Some of the giants of the faith had to contend with depression and seasons in their lives.

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So we have to face this question, honestly, the question of joy. How is there joy in the midst of a fallen world, a broken world?

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How is there joy in the midst of moments of loneliness and grief and depression and sadness? How are we going to be transformed?

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And my answer is not just the externals that doesn't work. I mentioned

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Joel Osteen for a reason because he's a fake. It's a lie.

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That's not Christianity. He's a liar. He's a charlatan. You're allowed to say that, by the way, he's selling something.

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It's marketing. You're not getting anything different in him than you would get in self -help books and motivational speeches.

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So we don't want that. We don't want the plastic smile. We don't want to pretend Christianity.

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One of the things that Pastor Luke and I said very early on at Apologia Church when we planted this church is we had a very rough crowd of brand new believers coming out of drug addiction.

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Some people were just almost dead in a Circle K bathroom with a needle in their arm, pushing heroin into their bodies.

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We had people that were still on detoxification medicine. And one of the things we said often to this new body of believers that God brought out of darkness was we said, take off the

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God face. Take it off. Leave it at the door. Stop pretending like everything is well.

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Stop faking. Take off the plastic smile. We said, when you come through those doors to fellowship and to worship, you need to have integrity about where you're really at with the

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Lord in this moment. Do you have pills in your pocket? You got a bag in your pocket you shouldn't have?

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Then be honest about it. Don't hide it. Confess your sins to one another so that you'll be healed. Stop pretending like all is well.

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There's no healing in that. When we talk about as Christians pursuing joy in Jesus, what we don't want, let me just say,

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I'll speak for myself here. What I don't want is the plastic smile. I don't want the facade.

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If it isn't real, substantial, meaningful, actual, truthful joy, then

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I don't want it. Because at a certain point, the motivational speeches and the plastic smile wears off.

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Let's be honest. It's not sustainable. It won't carry you at three in the morning in the moment of darkness.

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So if we're going to pursue this issue of joy in the Christian life, we have to have integrity about where we're really at, what we're really struggling with, and we have to be honest about what is wrong in my life, my inner monologue.

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What's wrong in the way that I'm seeing things and then buying it, right? Adopting it as that's the case.

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That's the truth. You see, how can Paul be surrounded by circumstances like a prison, like being in a dungeon, like being on the run, like being beaten, like being lowered out of windows?

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How does he actually have those circumstances? All is not, from a human perspective, well with the world.

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How does he actually, in midst of all of this, say, joy, joy.

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My answer is because of truth. It's actually engaging with what's really true, what's fundamentally true, actually true.

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Because here's the deal, listen, you've got to be honest with it. Just be honest. You believe yourself more than anybody in your life, right?

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You trust your voice and your emotions and your reactions and your feelings, be honest, than anybody else.

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It's pride, it's sin, it's habit. That's a lifelong habit of saying, this must be the way things are.

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This is how I feel, so it must be real. We've dealt with that our whole lives and so there's a certain aspect to entering into this study.

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We have to say, okay, I'm going to lay it all down, be willing to be wrong, confess sin, humble myself, put pride to death, and be willing to say,

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God, you tell me what's true. So in the moment of the prison, the moment of the slander, the moment of the dungeon, the moment of being lowered out of windows, the moment of beating, whatever the case may be,

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I'm going to believe what you say is actually true and unchangeably true over against my feelings and my emotions.

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Everybody in this room has to be changed in this area. All of us have to be sanctified here, every one of us.

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And I want to say this and this is the lead into all this and saying, challenging you in this, we have to all be honest about needing to be sanctified in this area and we have to all be honest about the fact that we have seasons that show, that show how really broken we are.

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And now I'm not going to ask you to blurt it out. So don't, okay, because you might embarrass yourself, but don't, don't blurt it out.

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But I want you to reflect for a moment on say the last year or two years of your life.

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As a follower of Jesus, if you've been in Christ that long, reflect on it last year or two years of your life. Have you endured a season of sadness?

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Have you endured a season of depression? Have you endured a season of loneliness?

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Let's be honest. Have you endured a season where you were angry with God? Angry, legit angry with him.

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I don't like what you've done. I don't like where you have me. I don't like the circumstances you presented to me.

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Have you experienced that as a follower of Jesus legitimately? I'm angry with you

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God. I don't like what you're doing. I think I could have done it better.

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Right, that kind of arrogance just sort of flows out of us. And have you had moments where in one moment you're with God's people and all is well and next thing you know you're driving away from the

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Bible study or the fellowship or the prayer or whatever it is and now all of a sudden this cloud is just following you.

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Why? You're believing your own inner monologue, believing your circumstances, whatever the case may be.

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Let's all have integrity to say this is an area we need God to change us in. We do. And I want to just say this to start with.

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It's only going to start one place. Repentance. It has to start with repentance.

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It does. You got to confess, I'm wrong, he's right. How's that for the start of this? I'm wrong, he's right.

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I'm wrong, he's right. If we're honest, we have to say this. The reason the cloud hangs and the loneliness is there and the despair is there and the guilt is there and the shame is there and we're just sort of carrying it like luggage with us everywhere is because we're not willing truly actually honestly to say to God, you're right,

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I'm wrong, you're right, I'm wrong. In the moment of despair, I kind of like the despair.

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In the moment of depression, I kind of like it. Right? Why? It's selfishness, it's pride, like I'm right, right?

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That I should feel this way. You got to be honest and to say he's right, I'm wrong. He's right,

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I'm wrong. I'm convinced that's how Paul can be in a prison and be talking about joy, joy.

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I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what I want to do. Like there's a part of me that says I'm hard -pressed like to stay with you, fruitful ministry, it's going to be great for you.

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But man, I long to be with Christ. Like I don't know, to live as Christ, to die as Gain.

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I don't know which one I want. I don't really know. Like I'm good with either, being with Jesus or being with you. Either way, it's good.

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Like I'm good. And then he gets his head cut off. You know, it's like, wow, like how do you live like that?

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I'm convinced of this. Paul is not carrying a plastic smile. He's not.

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Can I just say this to start with? I'm just giving a lot of confession today. I hate flattery and I hate the fake smile, the pretend love.

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I despise it. I despise it. I despise the person who's wearing the smile and just pretending to love and everything's well.

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Like I just want integrity, honesty. Like if there's going to be joy, I want it to be substantial and real.

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Like real. I want Paul's joy. I want Holy Spirit empowered and energized, real joy.

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I don't want the fake joy, the pretend joy. I want the real joy. That's my hope in this message.

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So the letter of Paul to the Philippians, I'm really only hanging today on this verse six, but just to give you background.

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So, you know, as we do the series together, there's background to this particular letter might be helpful for you to know.

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It's good to know the background always. And when you're opening the text of scripture, even if we're not going to be doing, you know, to the minutia word for word, which

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I'd love to do, we're not going to be doing that. It's good to know the background and the unpack the language and to get context.

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This is a particular thing written about the background. I thought it was helpful. I would just do this today to do it quickly rather than spend an entire message in it.

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When Paul came to the city around 49, Philippi was an urban center at the Eastern end of the plain, a few miles

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Northwest of Neapolis. The people there were both Romans and Greeks and spoke predominantly

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Greek, even though Latin was the official language. According to this here, the church in Philippi was founded by the apostle

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Paul on this second missionary journey recorded in acts 16. Okay. So that tells you his connection to this particular church that he's writing to.

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He founded this particular church in this, this area was his Paul originally went to Macedonia because of a night vision described for us in acts 16 in it.

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Paul saw a man of Macedonia standing and asking that he come over to help them.

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Paul responded. And so the gospel went triumphantly Westward beginning in Philippi as the first city to be evangelized in Europe.

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When Paul arrived in the city of Philippi, he stayed there several days. Acts 16, 12, the religious life of those in Philippi was marked by very syncretistic practices, including the worship of the emperor, big thing in Rome, the

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Egyptian gods, Isis and Serapis Serapis, as well as many other deities.

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When the Sabbath came, Paul went outside the city to the river looking for a place of prayer in the Greek texts of 1613 is somewhat uncertain, but it seems that there were not enough men practicing

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Judaism in a Philippi to have a synagogue. This being the case, Paul probably went to the gang to the

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Genghis river, approximately 1 .5 miles away in hopes of finding a Jewish meeting place.

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Paul spoke to the women who had gathered there, including a woman named Lydia, who the

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Lord opened her heart to respond. Evidently her entire household responded as well. Since all of them were baptized together, both the references in acts 1615 to the members of her household and the fact that Paul and his companion stayed with her together may indicate that Lydia was a woman of some means.

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This then is the rather auspicious beginnings of the Philippian church. So very important to get some of that background in terms of where did this all come from.

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So that's the background, but I want to just point to a couple of things here in chapter one. If you look down at verse 12, you'll see, how do we know where he was when he wrote this letter?

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Here it is verse 12. I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel point joy.

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How? Because I know that my trials, my tribulations, my difficulties have actually worked to advance the good news.

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That's a point to keep in mind. So that has become known throughout the whole Imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

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And most of the brothers haven't become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

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Paul has the circumstances that are challenging, but what does he say in his imprisonment where he's writing this from is that this is working out for the further into the gospel and it's making other

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Christians actually bold to preach the gospel. So how does he have joy? He sees the circumstances only through the light of God's truth and what he knows about what

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God is actually doing. But if you go on in verse 17, another example of how we know where he's at, it says the former proclaimed

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Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking of to afflict me in my imprisonment.

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So there's the example of background. Where's he at? Where's he writing from?

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What's he thinking? What's going on in his life in this moment? Paul is writing this from an imprisonment.

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We're not going to do a big detailed study and debate as to which particular part was he in Rome in this case, what, where was he at?

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Not important, overly important for what we're trying to do here. But as we look in the first verse here, it says Paul and Timothy, his son in the faith, he was a spiritual father to him.

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He writes more about Timothy in chapter two, verse 19. He wants to send Timothy to them, but he says, as he opens

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Paul and Timothy, slaves of Messiah Jesus.

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That's how he wants to be known. That's how he wants to be known, slave of Christ. I mean, that's how he addresses the letter.

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Like we tend to do it the other way around, right? You write a letter, you say, dear John, and you write the letter out.

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At the very end of it, you say, sincerely, joy, Matthew, Wade, Jeff, whatever the case may be, you're at the end, right?

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Or you say something really special, right? Like, are you always at that moment at the end of the letter, you're like, now, how do

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I finish it up? And every reformed person goes, soli deo gloria, right?

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Something like that. But you always want to have that final punch, like the full punch. This is what

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I want you to know, the main thing, right? Soli deo gloria, to God alone be the glory, whatever the case is.

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I love you so much. I miss you. I can't wait to see you, Jason, or whatever the case is.

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He opens the letter and the address goes the other direction. This is how they did it. And he says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Messiah Jesus.

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That's what I want you to know, is that I'm Jesus' slave. I'm a slave. We don't like that word today.

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And of course, the kind of slavery that we're talking here, we're not talking about the kind of slavery that was happening in Georgia.

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Doulas is slave, servant. We're slaves to a wonderful master.

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And by the way, I think one of the great ways that you can defy, defend against, refute the modern false gospel promoted in the

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West of praying a magic prayer and then walking away and saying, I'm saved, and never crossing the door of a church, never worshiping, never obeying

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Jesus. That whole mindset of like this magic prayer sort of a thing. I think the way you can totally and utterly destroy it is just with that first verse in Philippians.

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Like that's the identification of a Christian, a slave of Jesus. Are you a slave of Jesus?

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Is he your master? Do you have to obey him? Is he your ultimate?

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Do you bow the knee first and foremost and always to Jesus? Is that your identification, a slave of Jesus?

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That's what Paul says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus. And then he says to all the saints in Messiah Jesus who were at Philippi.

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Now this particular word here, saints is interesting, right? Because you have in some Bibles, it'll say the gospel of St.

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Matthew, the gospel of St. Luke. You hear about saints in history, like St. Athanasius and St. Augustine or whatever the case may be.

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And of course we have particular groups that have perverted that idea. And they said, no, in order to get sainthood, you need some confirmation, right?

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We've got to do some work to see if you're really a saint and see if there's like a miracle or if there's this or that, you know, like they had all these totally fictitious and unbiblical rules for what it means to be a saint.

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Well, let me just say the apostle Paul here is addressing a church of Christians in Philippi and he says to the saints at Philippi, right?

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No team of confirmation, right? No, no examination saying, like, have you had miracles?

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Did you do this? And did you successfully complete the race? He says to a church in Philippi, saints.

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So St. Wade, St. Elliott, St. Hannah, St. Jeff, St.

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James. That sounds very biblical, St. James, right? Saints, what's it, what's the word mean?

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Well, in the Greek, hagiois, it means those who have been set apart by God, set apart, people set apart, children of God.

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It is, it is to take something and set it apart as holy. So you are set apart ones set apart by God as holy.

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You are seen as something that is set apart and it's in a special place, right?

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It is holy. It is different. So Paul says to this church in Philippi, you are saints to the saints at Philippi, those who have been set apart by God.

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You're in Christ. You're a saint. There's a lot to that.

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It's not just a title like, um, it's not like a, it's not a black belt, right?

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Like status, right? Like I've earned this. And so I wear this and it's my, it's my thing.

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Like you call me this because I'm wearing this or it's a badge or something like that. Like, this is my thing.

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Like I wear it and try to take a look. St. St. Jeff, what do you think? Right? Like that's, I want you to, you know, give me reverence because I'm a saint.

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That's not what it is supposed to communicate. Saint is something that God has done.

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Saint is something that God is responsible for. And you, if you are in Christ, have been set apart by God.

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It's something that glorifies him and it makes much of him, but also pay close attention to this.

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It says a lot about God's love for you. It is concerned for you.

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If you're in Christ, if you believe in Jesus, God took you and he set you apart.

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We don't like that today. We say God has to treat everybody exactly the same.

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And here's the thing. No, he doesn't. God, what he should give to all of us is judgment.

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What we all deserve from God is punishment. What we deserve is to be separated from God.

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So if God calls those who have faith in Jesus, saints, he has taken you, his child redeemed you, and he set you apart as something different, as something holy.

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It's talking about what God has done in you. Again, what's the source of Paul's joy?

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That. Set apart. Hey, Christians in Philippi, as hard as things are right now, saints.

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Set apart. God loves you. He took you and he set you apart and he said,

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I'm gonna make much of myself through Christ in you.

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I'm taking you and I'm doing something special with you. That can be seen as highly offensive today, but it starts at the beginning of the

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Bible. Even with the people Israel, right? You weren't more a number, right?

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And you only have I known of all the nations of the earth. I chose Israel. He chooses to give grace and love and peace to whom he pleases and to the saints in Philippi.

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They've been set apart by God. Those who believe in Jesus are loved by God, set apart by God.

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And Paul says this, and this is really important in terms of the context of the local church. Why does Apologia church have multiple elders, pastors and deacons?

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Why do we have those two offices at Apologia church? Well, here's an example because scripture dictates how

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God is to be worshiped and how we're to function together as his people. And here's what it says to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

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Again, I was tempted. So, so tempted to do like, let's take a couple of weeks on overseer and deacon.

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And I said, no, it's just a side series. We're not going to take 10 years to do this. Maybe eight.

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So Paul says overseers and deacons. So what you need to know about this just simply as overseers.

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The word there in the Greek is episkopos and Paul in Titus 1 .5

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actually addresses the issue of establishing multiple elders. And in Acts 14 .23,

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you can see it was also done there. They established multiple elders or pastors or overseers to local bodies.

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There, there wasn't the controlling element at the time of one primary bishop or pastor or overseer or Pope.

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There were multiple elders and bishops and the apostle Paul here talks about overseers plural at Philippi and deacons.

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What's a deacon? Deacon is the word essentially means servant or servants.

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We've been talking about that. We've talked about that a lot in terms of actually the book of Romans chapter 13 and the government being called

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God's deacon or God's servants. So churches, local churches are supposed to have a multiplicity of overseers, pastors, elders.

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The office in scripture is actually, it's synonymous where you'll see elders, same duties and roles as overseer or pastor or any of those things.

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You have multiple overseers and you of course have deacons. Here's what

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Paul says in verse two, grace to you and peace. I want you to hear that because we tend to just run right past it, but that's the substance.

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That's the main thing. Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the

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Lord Jesus Christ. That's true religion. That's true

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Christianity. You want to know what it's about? That's what it's about. True Christianity, a true relationship with Jesus Christ is about peace with God.

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Like that's the substance of the gospel. You want to know what it's really all about? What it comes down to? Like what are the pillars that hold everything else up?

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Like give me the bullet points that those are the bullet points, grace and peace from God, our father and the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is unmerited favor. It's God doing what I just said a minute ago, setting somebody apart by his own will for his own purpose is saying,

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I'm choosing you and I'm setting you apart and choosing to make you different, you holy.

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I'm pouring out grace, unmerited favor upon you. Now I want to just explore this for a moment.

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The grace that Paul describes, that Jesus describes, that runs through and through this entire revelation is not a grace that is responsive.

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Can you hear that for a second? It's not a grace that's responsive in terms of, oh, they did something.

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And so I'm going to respond because they did something. It's not the kind of grace that sees choice meet and says, oh, okay, now

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I'll choose to save. Why? Because there's something in you that deserves it.

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It's not a grace that says, okay, I'm going to look through time and based upon their responsiveness to me or based upon their activities, their behavior,

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I'll choose to work lovingly towards them. That's not the grace that Paul talks about.

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Jesus talks about that's not biblical grace. Grace is unmerited, undeserved, unworked for favor from God.

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So Christians, those who have been taken and set apart by God as saints set apart as holy, as different, as sanctified grace to you, to you.

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Remember the whole theme? Joy. How do I have a joy that is not a plastic smile, that is not flattery, that is not fictitious?

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We're two verses in and you see it? Set me apart.

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Grace. He chose me. Set me apart. He gave me unmerited favor.

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And then it says this, here's the substance, peace. And there it is. That's it.

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Man -made religion doesn't do it. Can't give you peace. Rome cannot give you peace with Jesus.

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It doesn't. Roman Catholicism. Read the Council of Trent. Read their decrees on justification.

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Mormonism cannot give you peace with God. The Watchtower will not give you peace with God.

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Baha 'i religion will not give you peace with God. You see, the distinction between true religion and biblical faith, a relationship with Jesus, and listen, every other man -made religion is at this point.

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Grace. Peace. I have peace with God. How can

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Paul have joy in the midst of people trying to kill him? How can Paul have joy in a prison?

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How can Paul have joy being slandered? How does he have real joy? He has peace with God.

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It's what God did to save. Grace and peace. Paul says elsewhere, Romans chapter 5, he says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Did you catch it? Having been, past tense, declared righteous by God, we have,

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Christians, you have, peace with God. Shalom. This is not, as Pastor James has said many times before, listen, it's not a temporary ceasefire that most religion offers you, right?

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Think about it. Most religions, like, you know, you step into the, you step into the group, you step into the community, and then you're given the sort of like the path.

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You need to do this, you need to do this, you have to do this, and then you're here, and then do this, and don't, don't do that, or you'll kind of come back this way.

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Scientology is a lot like that, right? Work your way all the way through, and then, uh -oh, move yourself back just a little bit, a couple units, right?

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There's no peace with God. What the Bible teaches about Jesus is that he accomplishes peace.

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It's not a ceasefire between you and God. Now, this is huge, so please don't pass this up.

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If you're, if you're losing it, come back, because this is critical. You're going to have days,

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I'm going to have days, as a believer, that are rough, and difficult, and dark. There's going to be conflict, there'll be attacks, whatever the case may be.

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Everything may completely fall apart. You may be unfaithful in your response to it.

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Did you hear me? You may be unfaithful. You may have a day where you just rebel, you fall apart, and by eight o 'clock at night,

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God challenges you, convicts you, you're on your knees, you're confessing, you're repenting, you're praising

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God for salvation. Know this, at no point was that just peace with God disrupted. Your peace with God is not based upon your performance, not ever, not ever.

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That is the distinction between true religion, faith in Jesus, real Christianity, and all man -made religion, is that they will never offer you peace with God.

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Muslims do not have peace with God. They do not. Their own system doesn't give them peace with God in this life.

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It does not. With Jesus you have peace with God, not a temporary ceasefire.

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Next, the Apostle Paul, first announcement, he says, I thank my God, verse 3, in all my remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine, for you all, making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

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Just a quick thing here, he prays about this church, he's praying pastorally, he's a part of how this church started, and he's saying this, like, every time

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I remember you, and I'm praying, I am filled with joy. I'm making my prayers with joy, right, because he knows what

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God's accomplishing, and so I'm praying for you, and I'm making my prayers with joy. Like, Paul's like in a prison, probably dungeon, like barely able to stand up, like bumping his head, and he's like, yes, right?

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Making my prayers, here's the first announcement of the word joy, and here's what

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I wanted to have us all focus on today, and he says, and I am sure of this, he's confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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I tried to repeat that, and I want to repeat it, because I want you to get that into your bones.

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I want it into your hearts, into your minds, into your souls. I want it in you, because let me just tell you, for the longest time in my walk with the

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Lord Jesus, very personally, this particular verse has been the thing that I have fallen back on when things are difficult, or there are trials and tribulations, when there's attacks, and when there's slander, whatever the case may be, my own unfaithfulness, my own weaknesses, whatever the case may be, it's this particular thing.

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It's a promise from God as a source of real joy. He that began a good work in me will complete it.

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He'll finish it. You see, that is also the distinction between man -made religion and biblical faith.

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Is this a God thing? It's not a you thing. So when we fall apart, and we falter, and we're weak, and we have difficult moments, and we fail

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God, and we're depressed, and we are lonely, whatever the case may be, right, like it's all us.

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And I think a lot of times we see God like we see ourselves. We bring down the king from his throne, and we want him to look like us.

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We want to make him inconsistent like us. We want to make him have bad days. We want to make him change in our own minds.

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But that's not who he is. That's not the true God. He's not like you. He has no bad days.

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He's not like you. He does not change. And his promise is this. He started it.

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He finishes it. You're not in this room today. Can I just say, I don't know the condition of everyone's soul in this room.

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I don't know if you've turned from sin to trust in Jesus, and you belong to Jesus, and you're a saint. You have the gift of eternal life.

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I don't know if you, I don't know where you're at. You have trusted in Christ or in Jesus. I don't know.

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But let me just say, you're in this room right now because God brought you here. You're sitting here right now.

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Yes, you made choices. You wanted to be here. Maybe somebody dragged you. Praise God for them. Whatever the case is, you're here.

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And you're here because God's sovereign. He's in control of whether you were going to arrive or not arrive.

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He's in control. And if you're in Christ today, you're here today, and you will be brought to completion because he started it, and he will finish it.

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It's not your faithfulness. It's not your consistency. You and I are not hot stuff, right?

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And if you know your own life, like I can reflect on my own life, you know that you're not worthy of his love and his grace.

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You know. I hope you know. If you don't know that, reflect on his holiness and get to know who he truly is.

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So that's a glorious promise, isn't it? That he started it, and he's going to finish it. It's not dependent upon you, your actions, your obedience, your perfection, your handling things well.

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None of that. He started it, and he will finish it. I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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How's that for a source of true joy, not a plastic smile? He started this.

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He's going to finish it. Man, it doesn't look like it. Sometimes, right?

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It doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like it at times, at noon, at two in the morning.

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If we're really honest with ourselves, we can say that. Sometimes it doesn't look like I'm going to make it.

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Sometimes it doesn't look like I deserve this in any way. But Paul says, here's the source of my joy.

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He started it. He's going to finish it. That's my confidence. And so the source of Paul's joy here,

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I believe, is the sovereignty of God. This is a God thing. And just to show you that it's in the very text before us.

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This is not just grabbing text from other passages and saying, well, I'll pull these together over here and see if I can make them work together.

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We do need to see what all the scripture says about something. But this is just the consistent teaching of scripture.

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And particularly it's Pauline theology. And it's right here in the text. Look, I'll show you. Chapter one.

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We're in up to verse six. He started it. He started it. He's going to finish it.

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But if you move over just a little bit, it's one of my favorite verses. Chapter one. And here he says in verse 29.

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So same chapter. Okay. He says this, for it has been granted.

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The word is there gifted. It's been gifted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, man, that's meaty.

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We'll probably do five weeks on that. It's meaty. It's big. It's important, right? Here's what he says. I'll let you hear it again.

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And let's do it slowly so we can capture all this powerful truth. He says, for it has been gifted to you.

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Stop. What did you do it? Is it your doing?

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Is it something that God saw in you and was appealing? Is it something you earned?

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Is it something you put before God? Here's what Paul says to the church, the saints, the grace and peace ones, the church in Philippi.

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He says, ready to the church. It has been gifted to you.

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Who's the giver of the gifts? Well, the one that started this good work in them and will bring it to completion.

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Hey, saints, it's been gifted to you for the sake of Christ.

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Oh man. Talk about taking away every possible brag from us and badge, right?

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It's been gifted to you for the sake of Christ, for his glory, not yours.

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Because a lot of times, right? What do people do is they hear the message of like the reformed faith and Jesus teaching and Paul's teaching that God chose a particular people in Jesus Christ to bring about redemption.

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And they're like, that's so arrogant of you. You think God chose you, but not them. Um, hang on just a minute.

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The bottom of it is it's a gift from God for God's glory. Not mine, not mine.

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I'm chosen in Jesus has been given this grace and this peace with God. He started it and he's finishing it.

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And here's the ultimate thing on the last day. None of us are going to be, how do you do it?

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Women pulling your dress up and giving a bow, right? Or pulling the time. Yes, I did very, very well.

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Everyone falling down before the throne saying you get the glory. It's all you.

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None of mine. It's been gifted to you. It's a beautiful present. It smells like Christmas with a bow.

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I love that smell tape and wrapping paper. It's amazing, right?

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God gives this amazing gift. You didn't earn for the sake of Christ.

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What ready? Two things that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer.

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So here's two gifts from God. Hey, praise God. How is Paul having real joy?

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Not a plastic smile, genuine joy. He sees this life that he's enduring this faith in Jesus, the salvation and the suffering.

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Paul says this, God gave me this gift. What? To believe in Jesus.

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I didn't do that on my own. He gave me the gift to have faith in Jesus.

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That's something he did. He started that. He caused me to believe in Jesus.

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And he's given me this incredible gift to suffer for Jesus. Everyone goes, oh,

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I like that first part. And that second part is a little weird. But how do you have

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Paul in prison saying joy, joy, joy, praise God. I don't know what to do.

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Stay with you or go home. Be with Jesus. I don't know because he sees the source and the substance of all of this is

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God. He's the one who starts it. He's the one who finishes it. He even gets down to the nitty gritty details of, well, how will they believe?

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I'll give it to them. I'll gift it to them. And all the suffering, it's a gift.

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Man, that's hard. I'll be honest.

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That's the hard part. The moments of suffering and difficulty and trial to actually be changed by that, to say that that's real.

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That's true. That this suffering I'm enduring right now as a child of God is a gift.

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It's a gift. You know, what's amazing is that sometimes you get to see how the suffering was really a gift.

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Isn't that amazing? You ever had those experiences as a Christian where like you suffered tremendously and you're like having to apologize later to God for all your bickering and moaning at him for all the suffering, right?

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By the way, it's probably why we shouldn't groan and gripe and complain when we're suffering because we're only going to have to say sorry about that later, right?

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You ever do that where you're suffering and you're complaining to God and you find out later, oh my goodness, thank you

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God for that suffering. If you didn't have me endure that suffering, this wouldn't have happened this way.

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You're a masterful planner. Wow. Right? Like even in the last, my story's not the important thing.

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It's just, I'm here now, so I'll talk about it personally. Even in the last couple of months, my own family, my own life, like just, it was,

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I mean, maybe not everyone understand like what that was really like, but to actually say, all right, we're going to take on a difficult situation.

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It could be like a lifelong thing of physical therapy. There could be surgeries and challenges.

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And I mean, we were thinking about everything and we just said, yes, but it was like, let's get ready to enter into the suffering and let's be obedient.

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But like, we were like, okay. And you know what's amazing? I'm an idiot. I'm seriously like,

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I think back into the time where we're like, you know, we were like at the line going, you got to make a decision.

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Everyone in church, we're all praying. We're fasting as a church, trying to figure out who's the family, who's the father of August, all these different things.

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I had the most intense cry session I've ever had in my Christian life at the mountain.

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I'm like two hours, there's like snot and tears. I mean, people walking by, like, we should probably call the police on this guy.

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Like, I look like a lunatic, like in the desert by the cactus, like, and I'm just like crying and I'm groaning and like, oh

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God, what are you going to do? And like, what am I supposed to do? And then all of a sudden, like a month later, it comes out perfectly whole.

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You're welcome, cry baby. But like entering into all that suffering, like that was a gift.

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There's one example of my own life. Again, my story is not the substance of all this, not the important thing, but my own life, there's an example of even like faith in Jesus gift from God, all the suffering gift from God, all these gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts.

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He does it for His glory, for the sake of Christ gift from God. He's the source of all of it, even down to the faith in Jesus.

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There's a source of His joy. How about this in terms of showing the connection to the other passages in scripture?

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Of course, we would want to unpack all these. I won't do it all today, but John 6, 44, just write these down for later.

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John 6, 44, one of my very favorite verses in the entire Bible, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him who's in charge, who starts it.

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Not us. You get a bunch of dead spiritual people with no one can come.

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No one has the ability to come to me unless what happens first, he starts it.

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He does it. The father who sent me draws him. And isn't this

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Paul, isn't Paul saying what Jesus is saying here in John 6, 44, listen to it.

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He who began a good work in you will complete it till the day of Jesus Christ. And here's Jesus himself saying, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

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And I will raise him up who the one, the father draws

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Jesus and Paul saying precisely the same thing.

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God starts it. God finishes it. God starts it. And he brings it to completion.

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John 6, 37, all that the father gives me will come to me. There it is again.

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He who began the good work brings it to completion. Here's Jesus, John 6, 37, all that the father gives me will come to me.

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And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Are you seeing a theme here for God's people?

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Are you seeing a story here? Are you seeing a story about a God who does things for his glory with his own power to undeserving people, people who have no ability to come to God.

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He starts it and he finishes it. Acts 16, 14, one who heard us was a woman named

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Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God.

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The Lord, here it is, the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul, who is the one initiating this.

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The Lord, he starts it. Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, not of your own doing, neither the grace nor the faith.

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You didn't do it. It is the gift of God, the grace and the faith. Here's another one.

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Acts 13, 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

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Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

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As many as who were appointed to eternal life believed. So the Gentiles who were there, who were rejoicing and believing, the ones who believed were those who were appointed.

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So who started it? That's the summary of the whole thing today. He starts it, he finishes it.

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He starts it, he finishes it. Everywhere and every time. God is the source.

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He's the one who gets the glory. He's the one responsible. How about James? James 1, 18.

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Of his own will, God, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

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Of his own will, he brought us forth. 2 Timothy 1, 9.

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God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

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That's Paul's letter to Timothy, the Timothy that he has in his address to Philippi.

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Paul writing with the same consistent theology. What? He did it.

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He started it. He'll bring it to completion. How does Paul have joy? I think that's the answer.

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I think that is honestly the meaningful substance of it all is that he sees

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God as the source of it all, sovereign over every detail. And this is something that God is doing and God's going to finish.

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And listen, your inconsistency, brother or sister, isn't going to change that. Your failures as a husband, it's not going to change that.

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Your failure as a wife isn't going to change that. Whatever you did on Thursday or Friday isn't going to change that.

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Your inconsistency, your lack of trust, your disobedience at moments isn't going to change it.

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Your failure to see properly, your failure to walk totally consistency is not going to change because God is the one who starts it and he's the one who finishes it.

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Now I want to point you to two passages. I want you to hang out there in light this week of what we've done today about God who begins the good work in you and we'll bring it to completion of the day of Christ Jesus.

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Go to Romans eight and first Corinthians 15. That's Paul again, Romans eight, first Corinthians 15.

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I'll summarize. Well, let's we're good on this. I'll read the text and I'll summarize what happens in first Corinthians 15.

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Just go to Romans eight because you need to see it. You have to know this. You need this in your heart and your guts and your bones. You need this in you.

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And Romans chapter eight, the apostle Paul has, of course, what we all know an apology.

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I hope for the golden chain of redemption. It's in verse 28, but I'm going to keep going because you'll see the consistency of Paul's theology, which

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I'm arguing leads to his genuine joy. It's his theology. What he knows is true about God that leads to his genuine joy.

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And here it is again, Paul again, Romans eight, 28. And we know that for those who love

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God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to here it is again, his purpose for those whom he foreknew.

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He also predestined. There's him starting it again. And to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers and those whom he predestined.

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He also called and those whom he called. He also justified and those whom he justified.

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He also glorified. There's the same thing. He starts it.

01:00:02

He finishes it. Who gets the glory for the sake of Christ? He does this. He foreknows.

01:00:07

He predestines. He calls. He justifies. He glorifies.

01:00:12

And then what's Paul do? He gets to this epic moment, which again shows where his joy is coming from.

01:00:21

How is he joyful in a prison? How is he joyful when slander is happening and false brethren?

01:00:26

He's going to get beatings and he's going to get killed for his faith. Ultimately, here's what he says. He says, what then shall we say to these things?

01:00:34

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

01:00:42

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

01:00:49

It's God who justifies. And there it is. There's the courtroom setting of justification. You need to know that is forensic.

01:00:56

That is courtroom language, right? Who's going to bring any charge against you? Here's the courtroom. You're guilty.

01:01:02

God is holy. Who's going to bring a charge against you? The one on the throne is the one who declared you righteous.

01:01:10

That's Paul's point. How is someone going to bring a charge against you when the one that you ultimately answered to is the very one who said not guilty?

01:01:21

Why? Because you're not? No, because you're hiding in his son. And there's the source.

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And so Paul says, who is to condemn Christ? Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, the source of Paul's joy, who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake.

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We are being killed all day, all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. And all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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For I am sure the source of Paul's joy that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord. He began a good work in you, will complete it.

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You see, that's the only life that Jesus gives, like biblically defined, is eternal life, never ending life.

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And so Paul's whole belief system, which is the source of his joy, he starts it, he finishes it.

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Nothing's ever separating me from the love of God. Nothing. I don't even know what's to come. Whatever's present, not going to do it.

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And whatever's to come in the future, not going to do it. No ruler is going to do it either. No angel is going to do it.

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Nothing is going to do it. No trial is taking me away from God's love. He's going to finish this thing that he started.

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It's for his glory. It's not for mine, nothing. So here's what

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I wanted to end with as sort of like anticipating what might be coming as a question.

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The question is, I think it's fairly simple to answer, so I'm going to try to do it quickly. Here it is. What about those who fall away?

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What about those who fall away? If he starts it and he finishes it, then what about those who fall away?

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Here's the answer. I think it's fairly simple, to be honest. 1 John 2 .19. What's it say?

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John's answer to those who are falling into apostasy, who once had faith, they said they had faith, and now they deny

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Christ or have gone away. John says they went out from us in order to show they were never really of us.

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They went out from us in order to show they were never really of us. Which is to say, listen, get in on this because it's massive.

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Listen, I've seen people come through Apology of Church over the last decade, people we thought were believers, and after a small period of time, after they hang around people who are alive spiritually long enough, and after they have people around them who want to obey

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Jesus enough, when there is no life in them, when they are truly, really spiritually dead, and all it is is a mere profession, they eventually have to depart in some way or another.

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Either they eke their way out because it's uncomfortable to be among people who are alive spiritually for very long, or they fall into open sin and say things like,

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I want my sin more than I want Jesus. That happens. And let me just say this, here's the warning.

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I'll give you the warning. The Bible says he starts and he finishes it. Jesus says, if you believe in him, he gives you eternal life.

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John says, these things have been written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know, know that you have presently eternal life.

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That's a promise from God. So what about the people who have false professions and fall away?

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They never knew him. Not they knew him and fell away. You never knew him.

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You weren't a believer. You had a pseudo faith, a false faith, a professed faith, but not real trust.

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Here's the difference. False faith is comfortable with the facts about Jesus.

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This is huge. Please hear this. It's massive. It made me the difference between life and death for someone in this room.

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False faith accepts the facts. James says, even the demons believe and they tremble.

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All the demons have great theology in terms of, I know this to be true. That's the truth.

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Jesus is truly God. Trinity is true. Justification through faith. That's God's word. God is sovereign.

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If, if, if a demon did a theological test and wanted a prize, he could do very, very well.

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They know what's true and watch. They acquiesce to it.

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They believe it to be true. That's true. There is a profession of faith that can acknowledge all that's true, but there is no trusting in Jesus to save me.

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Do you see, I know it's true, but I don't trust him. And so Paul says second

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Corinthians 13, five, he doesn't say things like, make sure you do well enough.

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So you make it to the end. He says things like this, examine yourselves to see whether you'll be in the faith, whether you are in the faith, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith, because Jesus only gives one kind of life, eternal life.

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God finishes what he starts. So here's the challenge to us.

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The hope we have and the joy we should have is in the truth about what God has done to save, to set apart, to give grace, to give peace.

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It's what God does starting and finishing this whole redemptive story in my life.

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So here's the challenge I want to give to you. Do you really trust in Christ? Are you really his?

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Do you have eternal life? Do you know God? The call always comes across this pulpit, repent and believe the gospel, repent and believe the gospel.

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But here's the question. Are you believing in Christ right now, trusting in him?

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Are you his slave? Can you say that right now with Paul? Would you address others in that way?

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I'm a slave of Jesus. He's my master. He's my king. I'm obeying him. Would you say that about Jesus?

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Do you trust in him? Here's the promise. If you do, you're a saint.

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Set apart. If you do, you're the recipient of grace and you have peace with God. If you do, the one who started that work in you is going to finish it.

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Despite your inconsistencies, despite your failures, despite your weaknesses, he's going to finish it.

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Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

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Let's pray. Father, please bless the words that went out today for the glory of Jesus.

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I pray that you would help us, God, to have genuine joy rooted in what you say.

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Please heal what's broken in each of us, in this area, all of us.

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And please, Lord, do it for your glory in every instance. And I pray that we would point to that in everything.

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And I also ask, God, that you'd help us in this area of having joy in you. Transform our hearts and our minds.

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Break our hearts. Cause us to be humble. Give us the strength to believe you over ourselves and our circumstances.