On Keeping Christ and the Gospel Central: Philippians 1:12-20

Well, good morning or good evening, depending on when you're able to watch this service. We welcome you. We're glad you're able to be with us, to share in worshiping together. I think you know that no matter where we're at, we can worship our Lord.

It doesn't need to be corporately, but this is a special time for us as a church, and we just are grateful for the opportunity to be here, to share God's word with you, to lift our voices this morning.

Worship, Psalm 100, and Prayer for the Service

So welcome. And this morning, before we begin, I'd like to read Psalm 100. You can just listen. You don't have to look it up. If you would like to, fine. But this is Psalm 100. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.

Be thankful to him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. Amen. Let's pray before we begin our service today. Lord God, we are blessed to be here, Father.

We are grateful for your faithfulness, for your goodness, for your kindness, for your mercy. Lord, without you, Lord, we are nothing. But Lord, we come together today at this time to rejoice, to lift our voices in acclamation of you, Father.

Lord, may our hearts be ready and be prepared to hear what the Holy Spirit would have for us today. Lord, use us, we pray, Father, in all things, and that you might be glorified. We pray these things in Christ's name.

Amen. And before we continue, we have a special music piece from Johanna and Jacqueline. Today, we've been blessed to have Pastor John Kane to be here with us to give the message. And these are his lovely daughters, and they are going to share with us this wonderful, merciful Savior.

Thank you, ladies. That was beautiful. So this morning or this evening, depending on your ability to watch this, we're going to take this time, we're going to lift our voices to the Lord. And it would be just wonderful if you could sound, if you could sing loud enough to not hear me sing today, and that would give glory and honor to the Lord.

And so let's lift our voices wherever you're at. And this morning, our first song is going to be Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. This is a song of comfort and assurance, and that is just what we need right now in these times.

So we're going to sing Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

A joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms. Safe and secure from all, safe and secure, to visit peace with my slursome here.

Leaning on the everlasting arms, safe and secure.

I'm sure that was great singing. Next, we're going to sing God Will Take Care of You. And he will.

Be not dismayed, be take care of you. A case of toil when heart doth fail, God will take care of you. Angels fish your path asail, God will take care, take care, will take care, take care.

Thank you. And Brother, Pastor John will come and lead us now.

Amen. Thank you, Harold. If you have your Bibles at home or here, let's go to the Book of Philippians. The Book of Philippians, Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Philippi. And I send my greetings to the church family at Faith Bible Church that are watching on video and appreciate Pastor Stan trusting me enough to come and share the Word of God with you and the elders approving that.

So it's a blessing to be here. And our text will be taken from Philippians chapter one. And I'm just going to read the first 21 verses for you and then pray for our country. But a fantastic letter about joy in the Christian life in the midst of very trying circumstances.

So Philippians chapter one, Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.

For God is my witness, how I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus. And this, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Now, I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

According to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything,.

But that with all boldness,.

Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, what a testimony of a man of God, a man that you converted on the road to Damascus and used mightily for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to be coming towards the end of his ministry in life for me to live as Christ and to die as gain.

God, may that be our testimony as a church family and as a church in this country, that for us to live is Christ, to die is gain. And Lord, we do think about our country. It is really very challenging for us to wrap our minds around the reality of what's going on.

A major car rental agency this morning announced their filing for bankruptcy. So much, Father, going on with businesses and people's lives, unemployment. So, Lord, what can we do but to do what you tell us to do, which is to pray for those in authority over us.

And we do pray for our country, for our president, for the Congress, God, for the Senate, for the Supreme Court. We pray, God, for governors across this country. We pray especially for those believers in political office or political influence, God, that you would give them wisdom as they seek to be salt and light in a very dark, dark place, God.

We pray especially for them. We pray for the Bible studies in legislative buildings across the country, Father, in Capitol buildings for state senators and state representatives, God, that might know Christ, that are burdened that they would be a testimony to the legislators around them, God.

We pray for wisdom for these medical directors for county and city, these men, Father, that went to medical school and swore an oath, Father God, to protect and to preserve life. Lord, they need wisdom right now.

And we pray that you would fill these people with all spiritual knowledge and wisdom. For those that don't know Christ, God, we pray that you might be drawing them to Christ through the testimony of churches that have sought, Father God, to honor the directives and the orders, God.

And we are thankful, Father, for this announcement Friday that churches, places of worship are now considered essential businesses, God. And Father, across this country, we need wisdom in how we'll essentially roll that out, God, so people feel safe.

People are nervous, Father, about this virus. We pray for our testimony as a church family, for those of us that go to an office, God, for those of us that are working online, for emails that we write and phone calls that we take and videoconferencing, Lord, that we would have those opportunities to be light and salt in this very challenging time for our country, God, and that we would join shoulder to shoulder with Paul.

And rejoice.

And again, I say rejoice. We pray these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

We're gonna sing again a hymn that goes, has been around a long time, Day by Day.

By day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise bestowal, I've not cause for worry or for fear. He whose mind beyond gives unto.

Thank you so much, Harold. I wish you guys that are watching could have been here before we started recording because we were losing it in here. My wife and family are here. Victor and Barb are here. Kevin is here.

Harold and Debbie are here. Probably because they were like afraid that I, what would I do if I was here alone, right? So have your Bibles go to Philippians, please. Keeping Christ and the gospel central.

Keeping Christ and the Gospel Central in a Fallen World

You know, as we face the reality of living in a fallen world, it's good to remember that in general, in general, the thoughts that we think and what's central on our minds and hearts for the most part are personal choices.

For the most part, even right now, you have the ability to listen carefully to what I'm saying, to have your Bibles, to not let your mind drift. And I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking or anything even close to that.

What I'm talking about is what the Holy Scripture tells us here in Philippians chapter four, verse eight, what it tells us and what it teaches us about the choices of what we think about. Look at Philippians four, verse eight.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise dwell on these things.

I hate to admit how many times I failed to do that. Think about that word dwell. In my translation, it has the word dwell. It's a command in the Greek. The word means really four things. It means to think about something, to consider it, to regard it intently.

The idea is to dwell or to think or to consider or to regard the topics on this list, those things. So God's holy and inspired and authoritative word is saying here that these are the things that we need to be dwelling on and thinking about and it's letting us know that we have a choice to do so.

And when it comes to trials, what do we most often think about when we're in a trial? The trial, right? Or what do we think about most when someone hurts us? Not the good about them. No, it's what they've done to hurt us.

So today, I want to dwell with you. I want to think with you. I want to consider, I want to encourage you what was on the apostle Paul's mind and central to his thinking when he was in the midst of extremely trying circumstances.

And yet, in spite of those circumstances, he had the joy of the Lord. He was rejoicing in the Lord. Now, it just so happens that the theme of the epistle of Philippians happens to be joy. It's been called the epistle of joy.

Paul uses the word joy or rejoice, basically same idea in the Greek. He uses it 15 times and the idea means to experience a full gladness of heart. So this letter, you could think of it as kind of a guidebook on how to have joy in the Christian life.

The apostle Paul was under house arrest. He's awaiting trial for his faith. And in spite of these very trying circumstances,.

Paul had joy.

And we learn here in this passage back in chapter one, if you'll turn there, we learn here that he was making a conscious choice or decision to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central. He made a decision.

It was in his thought life DNA to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central in spite of his circumstances. So this morning, or as Harold said, whenever you happen to be watching this, maybe you slept in late.

I mean, we've been doing it for months now in our home. We have our service. We have, and then we're watching. And it did not feel a bit strange singing for the first time in your house, joining in the congregational singing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we got used to it. And I won't tell you which one, but a certain member of my family was kind of saying, you know, I'm kind of liking this worshiping in my pajamas thing, keeping Christ and the gospel central.

You know, as we face the reality of living in a fallen world, it's good to remember that in general, in general, the thoughts that we think and what's central on our minds and hearts, for the most part, are personal choices.

For the most part, even right now, you have the ability to listen carefully to what I'm saying, to have your Bibles, to not let your mind drift. And I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking or anything even close to that.

What I'm talking about is what the Holy Scripture tells us here in Philippians chapter four, verse eight, what it tells us and what it teaches us about the choices of what we think about. Look at Philippians four, verse eight.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

I hate to admit how many times I failed to do that. Think about that word dwell. In my translation, it has the word dwell. It's a command in the Greek. The word means really four things. It means to think about something, to consider it, to regard it intently.

The idea is to dwell or to think or to consider or to regard the topics on this list, those things. So God's holy and inspired and authoritative word is saying here that these are the things that we need to be dwelling on and thinking about and it's letting us know that we have a choice to do so.

And when it comes to trials, what do we most often think about when we're in a trial? The trial, right? Or what do we think about most when someone hurts us? Not the good about them. No, it's what they've done to hurt us.

So today, I want to dwell with you. I want to think with you. I want to consider, I want to encourage you what was on the apostle Paul's mind and central to his thinking when he was in the midst of extremely trying circumstances.

And yet, in spite of those circumstances, he had the joy of the Lord. He was rejoicing in the Lord. Now, it just so happens that the theme of the epistle of Philippians happens to be joy. It's been called the epistle of joy.

Paul uses the word joy or rejoice, basically same idea in the Greek. He uses it 15 times and the idea means to experience a full gladness of heart. So this letter, you could think of it as kind of a guidebook on how to have joy in the Christian life.

The apostle Paul was under house arrest. He's awaiting trial for his faith. And in spite of these very trying circumstances,.

Paul had joy.

And we learn here in this passage back in chapter one, if you'll turn there, we learn here that he was making a conscious choice or decision to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central. He made a decision.

It was in his thought life DNA to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central in spite of his circumstances. So this morning, or as Harold said, whenever you happen to be watching this, maybe you slept in late.

I mean, we've been doing it for months now in our home. We have our service. We have, and then we're watching. And it did not feel a bit strange singing for the first time in your house, joining in the congregational singing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we got used to it. And I won't tell you which one, but a certain member of my family was kind of saying, you know, I'm kind of liking this worshiping in my pajamas thing. So praise God, praise God.

So Philippians chapter one, before we go any further, do not, if they, if faith Bible church, I don't know how they're going to feel about pajamas next week. I mean, at Walmart, they're okay with it, right?

But not in church, amen.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for this day and this time in your word. God, thank you for the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit that teaches us and comforts us. And I pray that he would open our eyes.

We thank you so much for this day and this time in your word. God, thank you for the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit that teaches us and comforts us. And I pray that he would open our eyes, God, of understanding now to the passage that we're gonna be studying, that we might not only understand it, but most importantly, apply it to our lives, that it might become a part of our heart, Father God, and bear fruit and grow fruit in our lives.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So beginning in verse 12 through verse 20, we learn some encouraging things about the realities of living in a fallen world, and in spite or despite trials or challenges like COVID -19, that it's possible for believers to have joyful hearts.

See, we're told a number of times in the New Testament, in various ways, that believers are to keep Jesus Christ first, the gospel central in their lives. Matthew 6 .33, seek what? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, right?

So there's, it's not, if everything's going well, seek first, that's where it starts. Seek first the kingdom of God. Hebrews 12 .1 says, let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, and I love this, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

So fixing their eyes on Jesus and keeping him and the gospel central by faith is the priority for a Christian, even in the midst of trials and we can make a case from this passage that we're gonna be studying, that the source of comfort and strength when experiencing trials is moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, the decision to keep Jesus and the gospel central.

We can see Paul's choice and his decision to keep the Jesus Christ and the gospel central. He mentions it twice, once in verse 12, look at it. I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances, no matter how bad, have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

And then he says in verse 16, right, that he was appointed for the defense of the gospel. So we can also see the choice and decision to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central by his recurrent use of synonymous phrases.

Look at verse 14, where he says, speak the word. Verse 15, he says, preaching Christ. Verse 17, proclaim Christ. The point is that for Paul, the advance of the gospel was central in his life purpose and it overrode and it overshadowed everything else that was going on, even in his imprisonment, and this helps us to understand one of the keys to having joy in all circumstances.

See, it goes without saying, and I think we all understand that it's not if trials will come, it's only when, because we live in a fallen world and we have the enemies of the flesh, the world system, and the devil.

Go to John, very interesting what Jesus says in John chapter 16. Someone once said, we're either in a trial or we just finished a trial or we're about to go into a trial. John 16, verse 33, I wanna point out, look at the language there in almost any English translation I looked at.

Jesus didn't say that believers could or would have tribulation, he said we would have it. And it comes from the world system that's anti-God or it comes from the temptations of the flesh or it can come from the devil.

But what we want to understand that there's two sides of this coin, on the other side of that coin is Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel. See, like a two-sided coin, this is a two-sided biblical truth.

Jesus warns in the first part of that, he says, in the world you have tribulation. But look at the next part, I have overcome the world. So how does a believer have courage when facing tribulation, through and by means of faith in Christ.

First Peter 5 .8, be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to listen carefully to what I'm saying, to have your Bibles, to not let your mind drift.

And I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking or anything even close to that. What I'm talking about is what the holy scripture tells us here in Philippians 4 .8, what it tells us and what it teaches us about the choices of what we think about.

Look at Philippians 4 .8. Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

I hate to admit how many times I fail to do that. Think about that word dwell, in my translation it has the word dwell, it's a command in the Greek. The word means really four things. It means to think about something, to consider it, to regard it intently.

The idea is to dwell or to think or to consider or to regard the topics on this list, those things. So God's holy and inspired and authoritative word is saying here that these are the things that we need to be dwelling on and thinking about and it's letting us know that we have a choice to do so.

And when it comes to trials, what do we most often think about when we're in a trial? The trial, right? Or what do we think about most when someone hurts us? Not the good about them. No, it's what they've done to hurt us.

So today I wanna dwell with you, I wanna think with you, I wanna consider, I wanna encourage you what was on the Apostle Paul's mind and central to his thinking when he was in the midst of extremely trying circumstances and yet in spite of those circumstances, he had the joy of the Lord, he was rejoicing in the Lord.

Now it just so happens that the theme of the Epistle of Philippians happens to be joy. It's been called the Epistle of Joy. Paul uses the word joy or rejoice, basically same idea in the Greek, he uses it 15 times and the idea means to experience a full gladness of heart.

So this letter, you could think of it as kind of a guidebook on how to have joy in the Christian life. The Apostle Paul was under house arrest, he's awaiting trial for his faith and in spite of these very trying circumstances, Paul had joy.

And we learn here in this passage back in chapter one if you'll turn there, we learn here that he was making a conscious choice or decision to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central. He made a decision, it was in his thought life DNA to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central in spite of his circumstances.

So this morning or as Harold said whenever you happen to be watching this, maybe you slept in late. I mean we've been doing it for months now in our home. We have our service, we have and then we're watching and it did not feel a bit strange singing for the first time in your house, joining in the congregational singing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah but we got used to it.

And I won't tell you which one but a certain member of my family was kind of saying, you know I'm kind of liking this worshiping in my pajamas thing. So praise God, praise God. So Philippians chapter one before we go any further, do not, if they, if Faith Bible Church, I don't know how they're gonna feel about pajamas next week.

I mean at Walmart they're okay with it, right? But not in church, amen?

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for this day and this time in your word. God thank you for the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit that teaches us and comforts us and I pray that he would open our eyes God of understanding now to the passage that we're gonna be studying, that we might not only understand it but most importantly apply it to our lives that it might become a part of our heart, Father God and bear fruit and grow fruit in our lives.

We pray in Jesus name, amen. So beginning of verse 12 through verse 20, we learn some encouraging things about the realities of living in a fallen world and in spite or despite trials or challenges like COVID -19 that it's possible for believers to have joyful hearts.

See we're told a number of times in the New Testament in various ways that believers are to keep Jesus Christ first, the gospel central in their lives. Matthew 633, seek what? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you, right?

So it's not if everything's going well seek first, that's where it starts, seek first the kingdom of God. Hebrews 12 one says let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus and I love this, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

So fixing their eyes on Jesus and keeping him and the gospel central by faith is the priority for a Christian even in the midst of trials and we can make a case from this passage that we're gonna be studying that the source of comfort and strength when experiencing trials is moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, the decision to keep Jesus and the gospel central.

We can see Paul's choice and his decision to keep the Jesus Christ and the gospel central, he mentions it twice, once in verse 12, look at it. I want you to know brethren that my circumstances, no matter how bad, have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel and then he says in verse 16, right, that he was appointed for the defense of the gospel.

So we can also see the choice and decision to keep Jesus Christ and the gospel central by his recurrent use of synonymous phrases, look at verse 14 where he says speak the word. Verse 15, he says preaching Christ.

Verse 17, proclaim Christ. The point is that for Paul, the advance of the gospel was central in his life purpose and it overrode and it overshadowed everything else that was going on even in his imprisonment and this helps us to understand one of the keys to having joy in all circumstances.

See, it goes without saying and I think we all understand that it's not if trials will come, it's only when because we live in a fallen world and we have the enemies of the flesh, the world system and the devil.

Go to John, very interesting what Jesus says in John chapter 16. Someone once said, we're either in a trial or we just finished a trial or we're about to go into a trial. John 16 verse 33, notice that Jesus said in the world, you have tribulation.

In the world you, in the world you believers have tribulation but take courage to devour. We know that verse but sometimes we forget the next part of the verse. Peter goes on, the devil's going about, he's like a roaring lion but resist him firm in your faith.

So how does a believer resist the devil? By faith. See, every time in scripture when it comes to facing trials even through the Old Testament or enemies or temptation, it's always, always, always gonna come back.

It's always gonna circle back to faith in God. Remember Moses? Remember Gideon? Go through the Bible. It's always gonna come back to faith. It's always going to come back to keeping Jesus Christ and the gospel, the power of the gospel central.

So what can we be learning about this seemingly simple matter of keeping Jesus Christ and the gospel central in this passage and how does this attitude or mindset or decision or purpose become the means or path to having joy in the midst of trials?

There's two parts to my outline. Maybe you're taking notes at home. So number one, two parts. When it comes to having joy in spite of or in the midst of trials, be learning from the reality of what the Bible teaches us about the circumstances of life.

You see, in verse 12 back in Philippians chapter one, we're reminded that one of the realities of living in a fallen world is that stuff happens. Paul says, I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances, see, we'll dig a little deeper into Paul's circumstances in a few moments, but some of the circumstances that Paul had experienced since he had last seen the Philippians when he planted the church wasn't COVID -19 or shelter in place.

It was things like beatings, hunger, stoning, cold, persecution, being chased, to name just a few. But he says, notice, he says, in spite of those circumstances, right, they have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

Paul had trying circumstances, and so can anyone else ever born in a fallen world. Nevertheless, the centrality of the gospel in Paul's life resulted and turned out for the progress and advancement of the gospel, and why?

Because it was the focus of his life. Romans 828, God causes all things to work together.

For our what?

Good, right, for a believer's good. God causes all things to work together for our good. In Genesis 520, Joseph told his brothers, as for you, you meant it for evil against me. But God meant it for good.

Have you thought about how, in spite of all the bad news, all the businesses, all the unemployment, the people dying, the mortality rate, the shelter in place, have you thought about how God is using this for good?

God meant it for good to preserve many people alive, and you wanna talk about keeping the gospel central. Have you thought about the gospel opportunities that you've had the last couple of months? I'm gonna give you two quick examples.

Out of the blue, my daughter, one of my daughters knows this young lady, thought she would never hear from her again. I guess it's one of these teenage friendships. I don't understand them. My kids say, you'll never understand them.

I say, wait a minute, I used to be a teenager. I know a little bit about this. Out of the blue, she gets a text message. Hey, can we talk? They get on the phone. Hey, I really wanna get together with you.

I wanna do a Bible study with you. I'm going through a trial. Now they're meeting at 7 .30 twice a week and doing a Bible study together. The other day, I had a run-in with a neighbor. Totally, never would've happened without COVID.