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Sun, Jul 07, 2024 10AM• 57:48SUMMARY KEYWORDSPhilippians, Jesus, Christ, Paul, joy, Greek, people, church, verse, consumerism, reading, god, heaven, contentment, bad, remember, hyperbole, prison, saints, slave
Good morning. If you're new here among us. My name is Bob, and that's what you write on the card when you complain about me. There you go. I'm Gene I serve here at C3 church as your pastor, and I heard a story about a little Swiss watch. Really cool. I'm in the watches. I kind of like them. If you look in the back, you can see all these like tiny moving parts, and it's amazing how someone put that together. So this one little watch found its sphere of influence on a lady's wrist, but it wasn't content to be there. One day the lady was walking by at city hall, they had a clock tower, and said, I want to go up there. So instead of serving just one person, I can serve many. Ladies said, little watch, you'll have your chance. Now, if you think that this is a real story, I get it, because a lot of you talk to your watches nowadays, and I think they can talk back too, but it's not that kind of watch. So if you find yourself talking to that kind of watch, see me after service, and I can refer you to some places. What like the iPhone store, right? Because you need a smart watch anyway. So here's what the lady did. She had a sphere of influence in City Hall, so she was able to arrange for the little watch to be brought up to the clock tower. So they lowered a thread down, they tied it on the watch, and as it went up, it slowly, kind of disappeared out of view. It was tiny. And so in a dramatic way, the little watch learned that its elevation had diminished its influence. So pray too that you might not lose the small influence that you have now by coveting other things that maybe you're not equipped for, or maybe out of His love, God prevented you from getting we must learn to be content. Today, we find ourselves continuing in our series twisted scripture, alright? So I call it fortune cookie theology. So this is how a lot of Christians are reading their Bibles nowadays, right? Like a fortune cookie. You get what you're fed. Alright? Then whatever that says, you can just apply that verse to whatever it is that you want to apply it to, void of context. No idea where it even comes from, right? Unless it was like the actual book it came from, but for the most part, whatever. So that's what we're dealing with. We're looking at the most popular verses that people tend to quote, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not intentionally, because they're being fed stuff on the app or whatever it is they're looking at today's a real popular one. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one today. Maybe you're not, but anyway, Philippians 413 for I can do all things or everything through Christ, him, the one who gives me strength. As some of you've been in church for a while ago. Oh boy, he's going to go at it now. Here we go. Philippians. If I have a favorite book of the Bible, this is it. So like, this is a book that's whole Bible is, but I love Philippians a lot. Alright? So if you're new too, when you see the brackets, that's me reading it in the Greek and then inserting, like, maybe it's a little better. I use an NLT on a Sunday because everybody understands it. And that's a point. Not here to show off. I'm here to teach you guys the Word of God. So it works for all reading levels, but here and there, when you want to make specific statements, it's good to look at the Greek. And so that's kind of what that is. So I can do all things through Christ or the one who gives me strength. So, most common misuse, right? So I've seen, I've seen, like, a football pendant, you know, with like Philippians 413 on it, right? Uh, most common misuse is sports. You see it a lot in sports, right? So it's really funny, because, you know, you have this rich athlete and sometimes a painted on their face, or something like that, right? And I can do all things like win this game and make millions of dollars more for, you know, through Jesus, who helps me do that, right? Um, it could be for normal people. You know, you're asking for things. You're asking for more money. It's a kind of a more verse, right? We're all here. We're good. We don't really need that much more. But this is what we use to kind of treat God like a genie in a bottle, right? So that's really what it's about. So honestly, if I had to translate it the way people are interpreting it, I can get more insignificant luxuries through Christ, who gives me strength, alright? So that's how it's used, right? So just looking at the verse with what we know now, we've been in the series, I don't know, a few weeks now a month, whatever it is. So just knowing what you know about carefully reading the verse itself, one thing should stand out to you. All things. Well. What did Jesus say last week, as for anything in my name, and I showed you clearly, that's hyperbole, right? Like, so he's not going to give you anything that's going to cause you to sin, furthermore, anything that's outside of his will. So anything is hyperbole. It's a kind of an exaggerated statement. Well, so from this verse, All things, right? You can do all things. Jump out of a plane without a parachute. Jesus didn't fall for that one. There were no planes, but devil took him up on the big old temple, right? Jump off. You know, he's like, Whoa, don't put your Lord God to the test, right? So you cannot do all things clearly. So we have a little bit of hyperbole baked into the verse itself, if you're looking at it right again. Another thing I hope you've learned. If you've been here even for a few weeks, you need to read the verses around it, right? But if we just read one more verse ahead, here's what it says. Philippians 413 for I can do. Let's say everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Next verse even so you have done well to share with me in my presence. And the best translation would be affliction or tribulation, thlipsi and Greek. That's the way it's translated. Either way, not like difficulty. Difficulty is not big enough, right? Tribulation, that that works for the situation. That's why Paul used that word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? So it's tribulation in Greek. So it would give you the image, if you're a Greek person, you know this, like, of being crushed, like you're being you're being devastated and crushed. It's bad. Things are bad, alright? So you know that this is not about clearly, like, about trivial things like, this is a pretty big thing. So what I want to do today is we're going to look at Philippians. We're looking at pretty much the whole thing four chapter book, so it's not extremely long. Don't worry. And we serve food after so we'll get you out here. We're only going to be here for about four hours, right? We'll do it an hour chapter. Don't worry. No. So Philippians, I'll explain it to you. I'm going to give you the background, because even when you're reading the books, you really need to kind of look around your Bible and get the context sometimes for that book. So the current tribulation is that Paul is in prison. That's not fun, right? So he's in prison. It's not like the way, you know, we have prison today, where they have, like, all these rules about how you're treated, you know, it's nice. You have AC stuff like that, nope. You know, it's really bad for Paul, right now, it's really, really bad. So Philippi, so this is a major city in ancient let's call it the ancient Greek world, right? So Greco, Roman world in Macedonia. And so really, it's named after King Philip Alexander, the great stead. We saw Philippi when you're in Acts 16. So when we're there, they get there, right? So, and that was on missions. We looked at that very quickly, because the Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of Jesus says, or the Holy Spirit was telling them twice where not to go, right? But Paul receives this vision from a man from that place, from Macedonia, saying, Come, you know, help us, basically. So they decide, Okay, it's good. Now we have a bunch of people in tow, Timothy, who will come up a little bit later, Luke, because the we narrative picks up right there. So Luke is writing acts, and he says, We went there, right so we know it's him. So Paul Silas, they get there, they run into a lady named Lydia. So she's one of the wealthy people I talked about that were in the church, but she's selling these expensive, like purple garments. So she's a merchant. She has a home. She puts them up. She's one of the first European converts that we know of a female. Then Paul gets kind of annoyed with a girl who has a spirit of pythona. And that's in the Greek it might say spirit of divination in your version. So she's like telling fortunes. That's what she's doing. It annoys Paul. So he cast that spirit out. Now, the Python is thing you have to read Greek mythology and other history. It's pretty deep. I'm not going to go there, okay, but you will talk about it after service, over some Stromboli, if you want to.
So anyway, cast out that demon from the girl. Then her owners are mad because they can't make any money off the fortune telling anymore. Paul and Silas get put in prison, beaten with rods. It's bad, but they sing, they worship while they're in jail. That's the attitude they have. They bring the house down, and even the jailers converted, right? So it's all about, no matter where you are, converting people, right? Telling people about Jesus. So he's not writing from that prison, right? He's writing back to this place later. That's an important thing to remember. So again, different jail. And so what happens is, the church in Philippi sends this guy named Epaphroditus to deliver hell, probably money, stuff that he might need in jail, right? Supplies he needs in jail. You're going to need money to get stuff. Maybe he's trading for cigarettes, right? No, probably not. Anyway, bad joke, but anyway, just trying to wake you up, you know? But maybe you'd have to bribe a guard, I don't know. So setting it with stuff, but Epaphroditus goes back with this letter, so it's like the greatest theological thank you note ever written. So that's really what's going on in the background. So let's just look at it. I'm not going to read every single verse. I'm going to paraphrase a bit here. I'm going to give you a pretty good chunk of it. I'm. Right here, we'll look at the letter, and it'll help us to understand the verse in question. And when you think about it, right, a commitment to the Word of God, which is, if you're a Christian, you're believing like that's the word of God. It's his words, a love letter to us. We should be interested in reading it. So, just four chapters, but if you want to understand the verse, that's what you have to do. You have to have a little mild, in this case, commitment to the Word of God, right? And understand it. So that's just what we're going to do. Things to look for. I'll bring em up, point em out. But joy, remember, Where's Paul joy? Here's the word joy, a lot in this letter, so think about that right away. And Christ's return. It's a lot in here. A lot of people don't really pay attention to that, but it's a big theme here. Alright, right out the gate. Philippians, one, one. This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ, Jesus. I'm writing to all God's holy people, saints in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders, overseers, literally, and deacons. May God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace. So the first thing I want you to notice here is Paul is not throwing titles around, not throwing titles around Paul and Timothy slaves, not, not, you know, like I'm an apostle, right? So, and even when he does that, it comes after, like Paul an apostle, like a sent one. It's after very different from people of today, right? So, not throwing that out slaves. Now, this is not about racism back then, it's about commerce. Even in Jesus's parables, you see slaves, they make a lot of money. They're responsible for a lot of money. That is right. So you can be a slave. So that's what he's talking about here. It's about commitment, not like racism or anything like that. So we have to stop looking through our lens and our culture and realize that this is a long time ago, so back then it's not what it means, commitment, total commitment to Jesus and humility. That's what he's saying right out the gate, immediately. He wants you to know he's humble. And if I'm a slave, what do you like? Humble? That's what Jesus said, right? If I'm like your servant, then what are you same type of thing here? Saints, they just Agia in Greek that gets translated holy. Holy People is pretty good. But I want you to see saints too, because we are all saints once you Well, if you're in Christ Jesus, right? If you've been baptized, you are holy, which means set apart to God like so you are set apart for God. So what are we starting to see here? Commitment, right? You're seeing esteem of like, committed, right? So you're saints. You've been set apart from the world for God, and that's what that means. So later, traditions brought us like saints, and you had to go through this process, No, the Bible, That's not biblical Christianity. The Bible tells us you are all saints if you're in Christ, Jesus. No marriage jokes. No marriage jokes. Okay? So if you're never mind somebody's married up there, they're getting it. So I had a couple of jokes that probably would have gotten me into trouble later about being a saint and being married. So Grace and Peace, man, not enough people are laughing. There must be a lot of ribbing going on in the audience. Grace and peace. This is a Greek easter egg, a cultural easter egg here. A lot of people don't get it. Paul says this a lot. There's a lot in the New Testament, and it's in New Testament, there's wordplay going on here. So if you just start reading Greek, you're going to get two words confused. I guarantee it, uh, joy and grace, because they look almost the same, Karis, Kareem. So it's like, this, this weird little word thing. But the word for greetings in Greek looks a lot like that too. So he's like taking a gentile or Greek greeting, and he's like, kind of changing it to grace, peace, shalom. And that's not, that's Hebrew, not Greek, right, irinini in Greek. But so he's doing he's taking a Gentile greeting and a Jewish greeting and putting them together in a lot of his letters, like Ephesians, Romans, all about unity, right? So you're going to see that Jewish Christians apostles and Jesus, all Jewish, they become Christians, and then Gentiles are not always getting along, so they're having these kind of like disputes with each other. So right out the gate, he's using like, there's your greeting and then their greeting, and they come together. So just a quick thing, um, grace and peace, though. He's setting a tone here, right? Grace and peace. So he prays, he gives thanks to God. He talks about being partners and spreading the good news. Not all of them are missionaries, but they're all in the same mission of making Jesus known, and they're supporting him in his mission in prison. So he prays, talks about partnership. He wants them to understand that they should be living pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ returns. So there it is, right there, as he continues in the prayer. So just remember that this theme. We'll talk more about it next week, pure and blameless lives, right? So that matters. That's kind of important, right out the gate. Um, then he goes into a thing. It's pretty interesting. I want you to know if your brothers and sisters that everything that's happened to me here, remember, he's in prison, has helped to spread the good news. So again, what was Paul's content in his position? He's like. I feel out of here, right? No, he's content in that position, because everyone in prisons hearing the good news, and they'll go on to say, like, including the guards, right? So that's the all things that Paul can accomplish through Christ. It's about the gospel. It's about Jesus, not Paul, right? But some make it about them, and he says it's true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry, and basically he's saying they preach with selfish ambition. And so do remember the sin of the flesh is selfish ambition, not sincerely intending to take my make my chains more painful for me. But that doesn't matter whether their motives are false or genuine. The message about Christ is being preached either way. And so I rejoice. Okay, people have used this verse as an excuse for false teaching, and it's kind of ridiculous, but I've heard it. This is, see, that's what Paul said. So even if it's false or whatever, Christ is being preached. Put that in your back pocket, and we'll see how Paul clarifies that comment in a little bit. We're going to keep reading. So just hold on to that one. Alright, so now you have Paul's perspective on the situation. Philippians 120 for I fully expect and hope that I'll never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die for to me, living means living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. Sorry, I'm reading my own translations, but dying is gain your translation might say, but if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don't know which is better. I'm torn between two desires. I long to go and be with Christ. Which would be far better for me, but for your sakes, it's better than I continue to live. Yeah. Wow. Alright, so think about that. But technically, if we have faith or reading the Bible, that's the appropriate Christian perspective. What do you have faith in? We talked about this last week, right? You have faith in heaven. If you're a Christian, you believe that heaven is better than here, right? So you hopefully you believe that, right? And you have faith in that. So Paul's just saying something that we should all believe should be all of us, right? So to my family, like I rather die and go to heaven, because it's better than here, no offense, but for your sakes, I'll stick around.
Okay, if we continue down a bit, live as citizens of heaven. Philippians, 127, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Oh, that behavior again. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you're standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith which is the good news we talked about that fighting in the past, just a idiom. Don't be humiliated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they're going to be destroyed, but that you're going to be saved even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in the struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know I'm still in the midst of it. So, citizens of Heavens, remember Colossians three? We looked at that, I believe, last week, right? So that's what we focus on, heavenly things, not earthly things, because what a person who focuses on earthly things is an idolater? Okay? So read Colossians three. So we hear a lot about that temporary residence. We're just temporary residents here. We're just passing through. That's it, alright, the privilege of suffering. This is not the only place your New Testament says this, right? And so we saw like, I think, acts fifth, right? Five. Um, through chapter Acts where you see the apostles, they're like, they're beaten and they counted as joy, right, to be disgraced for the name of Jesus, right? So now your attitude about it? Philippians two. One, is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ, any comfort from his love, any fellowship together in the spirit? So every when you see those words, like fellowship partners, Keeney, like to have in common. That's another big theme here. Like one in Christ, like being together in common, uh, keen uh, just to be in common. So you can translate it fellowship. Those kinds of things are your heart centered and compassionate, then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with that the theme one mind and one purpose, one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest, but take in interest in others too. So are we seeing like that? All things is not about competition. It's not about being better than someone else. It's the opposite. So, and here we get a little key here. This is a remedy for a lot of your problems, and a good antidote for that you also gives you joy. What is that? Well, worry about the problems of others instead of just your own. Get out of your own head, right? So other people may have it worse, like Paul in prison, right? So we learn here selfishness. Steals joy. Remember that selfishness steals joy, but being selfless is to be like Jesus. And that brings me to some of my favorite verses in the Bible. I don't have a verse in the day now, you know why, right? But I have like sections. And what a lot of people don't realize is that in your Bible, you have all these creedal things, these early let's just call them poems to help you to remember what's really important, right? So here is what later is called the Carmen Christi. It's what this is called later. It's a palm about Christ and it's beautiful. There's a lot of imagery. I could actually go for about an hour on this, so I'm going to this is going to be five minutes. I'll explain this to you. But so verses five through 11 are important. So make your own attitude that of Christ, Jesus. So in Greek a little simpler, but the Greek words are phroniti, like, think like Jesus. Think like Jesus, who existing in the form of God. So right there, your Bible's telling you that Jesus is God. Didn't regard equality with God as something to be and this is just really a lot of beautiful imagery here our arpogmon in Greece. And Greek is like your version might say robbed, if it's old, it might say grasped. Think of equality with God as something to be taken advantage of. Some version say, but in Greek, a Greek priest person will look at this word, and if they ask you to translate it, it's like, snatch something. So it's to, like, take something by snatching it, like stealing what fruit, like out of a tree, like Adam and Eve. And so that's what Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit's doing. He's taking all and unlike Adam and Eve, what was the promise Satan made? Alright, what was the promise, if you have this fruit like you're going to have all night. You're going to be like God. So they try to be God. Jesus flips it and reverses it. Even though he is God, he doesn't do what they did, right? So he emptied himself and assumed the form of a slave, and taking on the likeness of man. When he had come as a man, as an as in his external form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. In Greek, it's more poetic in the point of death, death on a cross. So it's kind of like cascades in that way. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and below the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father, and you say, Amen, alright, so that's the word of God, a beautiful poem, and so it's kind of like the centerpiece of this. Now think about this, right? Make your own attitude, though, be like Jesus. Think like Jesus, right? Who did? What? Where to tell you, even though he's God, aka, better than all of us, he assumed the form of, what did Paul say before he was slave? Assume the form of a slave, took on the likeness of man like, you know, like joining your aunt's farm and then died for us, was obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross, okay, all things, right. So that's at the center. Philippians, 212 dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it is even more important work hard to show the results of your salvation. That is again, obeying God with deep reverence and fear, uh, word for reverence is not there in Greek. It's just fear and terror. That's what it says the Greek, uh, terror that makes you shake and trembles, while your version says trembling. They're trying to take it easy on you, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do it please him, so work hard to show the results of your salvation. So we're seeing this like your deeds kind of mean something. Why? Well, we're representatives of Jesus. We're supposed to be like him, right? So just hold the stat. Think like Jesus, right? So you're, you're Christians. Well, they're going to judge you by what your behavior. So Paul's concerned with this, if he's concerned with the spread of the gospel, a quick thing on fear. You can go back in the series watch this message, that message where we talk about fear, not 365 times, if you believe that you need to read your Bible, because the Bible does not say fear. Not 365 times. It talks about fear about 511 times. And only about 81 of those times does it say fear, not most of the time. It's stuff like this. Work out your salvation with fear and terror, not reverence, because God loves us and he's always nice, you know, like no so he loves us. He loves us, but it's not always nice. So,
alright, so Philippians, 214, do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, and it says lives as children of God shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked, perverse people hold firmly to the word of life. Then on the day of Christ's return, I will boast that I did not run the race in vain, and my work was not useless, but I rejoice even if I lose my life pouring it out. Like a liquid offering to God, just as just your faithful service, as an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share in that joy. So pride crossed out. It doesn't say pride there. I call that an innocent idiom. The NLT will do that once in a while. You're my pride and joy. It doesn't say that because pride is a sin. In the Bible, according to the Word of God, it is always a sin. So that is not the word for pride. There eperiphanos. It's kafima, which is like to boast about other people specifically. Alright, so Christ's return again comes up a lot. Read those parables. Remember, we were in Matthew 24 to 25 that's what Jesus keeps saying. Yes, you don't know when the inner world's going to happen, but I'm coming back, so be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. So that's kind of the point here, joy, even if I lose my life. Alright? So think like Jesus, don't complain. Just have joy. Be like him and these two other guys who are also trying to be like him. So Timothy, the co author, so to speak, of the letter, and Epaphroditus, the guy who brought them, brought him the letter, the gift, send them back with the letter, right? So be like them. They're risking their necks for me. So they're trying to be like Jesus. They're putting their lives on the line. Uh, quick side note, I talked about it during missions. I talked about lowercase A apostles and other case, a certain Greek Apollo means I sent. It means to send a person somewhere. So he calls, in Greek, Epaphroditus, an apostle. But it's he's a sent one. Now I want you to remember this Philippians, another back pocket thing. Philippians, 228, so I'm all the more anxious to send it back to you, for I know you will be glad when you see him, and then I will not be so anxious, so worried about you. Welcome him in the Lord's love with great joy and give him honor that people like him deserve. For He risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away. So just put the fact that Paul is anxious, just put that in your back pocket, alright? Uh. Epaphroditus, again, be like him, right? Just like he's risking his neck. So here we're going to solve because that's going to be a paradox, but we're going to solve another one. Remember the false teachers, Philippians, 31 whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, Rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith. Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we worship God by the we worship this. We worship by the Spirit of God and the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ, Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort, if anyone could, indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more. So I'm trying to read like two versions here. Alright, so remember, no big deal. He's talking about false teachers here. Remember, no big deal, big deal. They're dogs, alright? So, yeah, so reliance on Christ alone. So what's going on here? A lot of the false teachers, like we have our popular false teachings now, theirs was that even the Gentiles, remember I told you, like Jews, they're the original Christians, and then Gentiles also become Christians, be one in Christ, Jesus. So the first false teaching of the early church was that all the Gentiles coming in had to obey the law of Moses. That was the first thing resolved acts 15 at the Council of Jerusalem. No, they don't just these four things. That's it not such a big deal. So what is the circumcision that's a part of, I mean, I know it's before, but it's a part of the law of Moses, what you're supposed to be doing. And so that's the false teaching he's addressing. So he's saying, Nah, you're circumcising Jesus. You don't need to do any of that stuff. You're saved through faith. And that's true, right? Although we do see the deeds are kind of important if we keep reading Ephesians two alright? So he's addressing that. Then he starts ripping into his credentials, right? So, you know, I was circumcised on the eighth day. I'm a pure blooded citizen of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, if there ever was one, a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church as for righteousness. I obeyed the law without fault. I was blameless, right? So say that again. We'll look at that next week more. But Philippians, 37 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless. When compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have discarded everything else. Counted it all as dung. So skivala in Greek, if you're Greek, you'll say, Wow, you have a terrible accent, but it means dung. Literally, he's saying poop in church, right? So really that so that I could gain Christ and become one with him, I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law. Rather, I become righteous through faith. In Christ, for God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with him. There it is again, sharing in his death, so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead and I get it right. So these are not popular verses. People don't want to hear these, but this is the word of God, right? It's redundant. So Paul is really giving you a strong perspective on those lofty credentials. So Pharisees were, like, super high ups. They're the PhDs that we have today. That's what they are, right? So the guys that go around and think they know everything, right? So that's like, what Paul was, high status, high rank, like, you know, he was the guy, right? But he's saying poop, it's garbage, right? Interesting, alright, so he isn't competing for credentials here. Paul is content with Christ. He's given up all those titles, all that position, everything, to become a slave, that's what that's the perspective we should be getting at this point, right? Suffering like Jesus, there comes up again. Well, the other thing too, why do you want to die again? The resurrection is the goal, right? So, but you have to die in order to raise from the dead, right? So, good. You know what? I mean, let's do that, and then we'll get to heaven. Great, right? So just a note here, too, about identifying in titles. This is a really big theme, and this is something we in our culture, really, as Christians, especially, we really need to pay attention to so many I mean, like Romans, Ephesians, the purpose for writing those letters is really a cultural racial unity, alright? So guys get along, stop. And so Paul's taking those titles, and he's taking all that culture, right? So I was, he identifies the tribe of Benjamin. I was, you know, all these different things. I circumcised. He's taking it all, and it's garbage, garbage. So when we become Christians, all that stuff that we used to qualify ourselves with needs to be garbage. It needs to be pope and from New York showing a lot of restraint right now. Okay, that's the Holy Spirit. Not me. So anyway, have to lighten it up once in a while. So, but think about it, right? How many you know you have, and I just don't want to name, but you have this type of church for this race of people on this type of church for this race of people. Paul's like, rolling over in his grave, right? No, you missed the point of the whole book of Romans, the book of Ephesians. You, you missed it. And so here, this is it again. Paul's taking he's throwing himself under the bus. He was like, up there. Man, like, but no, that's garbage, right? I'm a slave. I'm nothing all. I'm just a Christian. Now, that's it. That's all I am. I'm just a slave of Jesus. That's it, right? Happy to be one. So it's not a one off. Look at Galatians, 326, for you, are all children of God through faith in Christ, Jesus, and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes, there's no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, so you can insert like different racial groups here, male and female for you, are all one in Christ, Jesus, we need to remember that we don't identify entitles race culture status, Right? Our identity as true Christians is in Christ and Christ alone. That's it. No pride in these things. What did he say before the common Christian? Right? We think of others as better than ourselves, right? That's the idea. So the pressing towards the goal. Philippians, 312, I don't mean to say that I've already achieved these things, or that I've already reached perfection, but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ, Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I've not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, Jesus, is calling us. So this is a helpful reminder for a lot of you, if you are born again, forget about the past. It doesn't matter, right? That should not be restraining you before you were Krishna, whatever, you know, even yesterday, whatever, like, just, just press on, but press on towards what the heavenly prize, right? So that's what really matters here. We are born again. So there's another part of the thing that gives us joy. We don't have to have those regrets, that shame, all that that's in the past, right? So not the earthly prize. So, so frame this out here. Think about it. What did Paul just call all the earthly prizes?
Poop, right? Garbage. They're worthless, right? So we're pressing on towards the heavenly cross. We keep reading Philippians, 317, dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example. For I've told you often before, and say it again with tears in my eyes that there are many whose conduct shows that they're enemies of the cross of Christ. Look at that conduct again. They are headed. Destruction. Their god is their belly. Killia. Heli, I think, yeah, Greek, yeah. They brag about shameful things, and they think about only this life here on Earth, but we are citizens of Sins of heaven, right where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly awaiting for him to return. There's that theme again, as our Savior, He will take our weak, mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. So we're examples. Remember, Paul, we're being like Jesus. Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, there it goes again. False teachers. That's what he's talking about here. Their god is their belly. No big deal, enemies of the cross of Christ. Can you think of anything worse than being an enemy of the cross of Christ? Wow, right? Why? Because they think of earthly things. But we are citizens of heaven. We don't do that, right? So we're not greedy people, idolaters, right? So there's that theme, Jesus coming back, looking forward to the resurrection, looking forward to heaven. As we get into four, Paul will be going to get practical, because he's going to conclude this letter here, I give some word, words of encouragement. Even in a good church, there are problems, and so I don't know two people, Eoodia and Sintiki. Fun names to say they're not getting along. We don't know what it is. So he's encouraging them. Clement is mentioned. If you've been here for a while, you've probably heard me mention first Clement. That's like third Corinthians. Here's Clement that talks about him, but it's not scripture in the early church, some were, I guess I'd say, like voting for this to that letter to be put in the Bible. So it's considered by many in the early church as scripture first Clement. Again, remember that theme of joy? Philippians four, four, always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you're considerate in all that you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done. Then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His feast will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ. Jesus again. So Jesus is coming back. Be ready. That's a big deal. Joy. Be considerate of one another. That's a key to joy. But don't worry about anything. Wait a minute, anything. It's probably hyperbole, right? Like, ask me for anything. What's our clue? Remember, I told you to put something in your back pocket. Paul is anxious. Don't be anxious about anything. Well, wait a minute. What's going on here? Paul? Alright, so Miriam knows the word in Greek, so Paul is not the only place he said it second. Corinthians, 11, for example. He has anxiety about the churches. So Paul has anxiety, and more than once in the Bible, her little hyperbole, this is the ideal guys, right? And so I'm anxious about anything, right? So that's the goal. That's what we're trying to work for here. So paradox, two seemingly contradictory things, when put together in context, can make sense. Again. He talks about the things you do keep putting in practice, all the things you learn from me. He says, then let's look at the lead in here for our verse of the day. Philippians 410, how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know that you've always been concerned about me, but you didn't have the chance to help me, not that I was ever in need for I learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do all things, everything through Christ, who gives me strength, even so you've done well to share with me in my affliction. We clearly see here. These verses are not about competition. They're about contentment. The Bible talks a lot about it too. And just to bring this up, Timothy, a co author of this letter, so to speak, uh, First Timothy. Paul's addressing false teachers in First Timothy six, right? And not loving money in between it, he says this, First Timothy six, six. Yet true godliness with contentment itself is great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into this world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food or clothing, let us be content. Lot of contentment, that competition can kill your contentment, right? So and contentment itself is great. Wealth a key to joy here. So Paul says at the moment he's thanking Epaphroditus, again, I have all I need and more, I have all I need and more. Where is he again? Prison. He's in jail. Talks about sending greetings. And another thing about Caesar's household, they send you their Greetings, everyone. So he's saying, like the prison guard have heard the gospel now they're saying, What's up too? He's kind of like mildly boasting about all the people saving while what in prison. He's not complaining. His sphere of influence is too small. Is he? No? He's content to see people saved, even if it's from prison. This is a lesson a lot of ministers could learn. Alright, about that bigger ministry He ends, may the Lord I, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. So again, remember grace and peace comes full circle. So now that you've seen the context, you understand Philippians, I hope we just went through pretty much all Philippians. There with some paraphrasing. Can you see how bad the misuse of this verse is? It is like, not just a little off. It's insulting. It's insulting. It's insane, right? This book of Philippians is all about contentment in your present situation, even that's prison, and joy in that situation, right? Rich or poor content, joy, whether you're in prison, whether you're being afflicted, consent and joy, privilege of suffering. Wow. You can endure all hardships and have joy because of Jesus. That's what Philippians is all about. No one saw a picture in a friend's house that got my attention. So I come from the business world, so going into ministry, I was, I was not early. It was kind of early in ministry. I wasn't yet a pastor, so, you know, I'm still working these things out. It's tough for me because, you know, the you've got to kind of leave a lot behind. And so I was in a friend's house, and he, you know, he struggled to he was, he made a better amount of money than when he moved in, and he was a missionary, so he was kind of poor. And I was in his house, and I looked up and I saw this, this picture on the wall, someone else is happy with less than what you have. I knew he put it there. I talked to him about it. He had it he had it there as a reminder, you know? And I was like, man, maybe I should get one of those. Right? Really, like, and it really, it stuck. I never forgot it, right? Of all the things in all different houses I've been to, like, this thing, just like, stuck in my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about it, because it's so true. It's amazingly true. Now, if you're a foreign missionary, you know that, right? So you totally understand that. You get that, right, but that wasn't my calling. So, you know, I do. I've been to some bad places, and it took me back to like, when I lived like, I don't know what I'm politically correct. I'll have to call it a really bad neighborhood. We live in a horrible neighborhood, shootings constantly. It was really, really bad. We were very poor, so it's kind of like, took me back there, I was like, Yeah, I would have been happy with less than this coming from that interesting yet we live in a culture right, that tells us exactly the opposite. Tells us the opposite, right, don't be content. Is like a curse word, right? In our culture, it's a bad thing. The culture of consumerism. But think about this, if lasting happiness could be found in having material things and being able to indulge ourselves in whatever we wanted, right, then most of us in America should be delirious with joy. We should be like, everything should be happy. I just think about really funny things, right? So I, like, pop my head out of the gopher hole, like, for a little bit, maybe an hour or so a day, I watch the news, right? But I don't do it when my wife's around, because she says this just makes me anxious, like, I don't even know what they're saying. I don't have but just the tone of it, like, breaking news, everything's breaking news, right? You know what? Because you're it's going to break you and the world's going to end, you know, it's like, fear mongering constantly, right? And so it's agitating, I could see. I'm like, oh, yeah, that is really agitating, right? But it should be the opposite, right? It should be totally the opposite. Should be like, you know, the news anchors get on there, they'll be like, how you doing this morning? You know, Bob, or whatever, right? They're like, great. I got out this morning, and we have air conditioning, you too, yes, because the weathermans, yeah, it's gonna be 95 degrees today, and we have rooms. Wow, it's amazing. And you know, what else I did? I went
to the bathroom and flushed the toilet. You too. Like we can do that. This is amazing. Then I made coffee clearly, you know, so, right? It's me, like, these are crazy things that we This is nuts. I should be outside. We should be outside and be sweating like crazy right now and screaming with no microphone. What? It's cushy seats. You ever sit in a pew? I do my whole childhood. It's terrible. People complain about things. I'm like, shut up. I don't know we say that, but I just did. So if you're going to complain to me about something again, Bob behind the connection guard, don't tell me. Write it in, put it in a shredder. But anyway, we complain in church. Consumerism. People complain about every little thing. I'm like, Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It's crept into the church. It's disgusting, right? It's all really like even the politicians, right? Yeah, we disagree about these little things. But guess what? This country is awesome. I am rich, right? Because they're all rich. It's just, what do you they actually, I've been told they do that at dinner later, after they put on the political theater for you. And that's true. You can talk to Ed about that. But anyway, right? We, we should be so happy. We should be so full of joy. I mean, it's crazy, the luxuries that we have, right? But what's happening? Right? It's all this trying to rob us of our joy. Tell us like that we don't have it great, like it isn't amazing. You can get beaten and flagged for going to church today. Calm down. You know what? I mean. It's not real, but it's all about consumerism and not contentment, and this gives us what divorce, suicide, depression, addiction, why consumerism? None of these things help, and all of this is proof that happiness is not found in material things. Otherwise we should all be like, like, we won the lotto every minute of every day, right? Like, if you're poor in Naples, and my friends, I have friends here struggling a lot, and they'll tell you, it's like, You're rich in Naples if you're poor, it's great, right? Especially in this city, it's crazy. You cannot go hungry here, you cannot. We have so much. We have such an abundance. But consumerism has primed us for all of these problems. It's made things like divorce easy, right? Get another one that's easy instead of contentment? No, I'm not talking about abusive relationships. I don't go there with me. You get what I'm saying, right? Addiction, it's the disease of more, sort of more, right? And it's not just, you know, alcohol or drugs,
food. No one wants to talk about that food. You need more. You need to supersize it. You know, think about the portions. It's unreal. You go to a really nice restaurant, you take someone who's never been there. What first thing they're going to say
is it portions are terrible. Okay, if that's you, we're not going to lunch. But anyway,
right, so this brings me to a question, what's stealing your joy? If you didn't even walk in here this morning like just skipping in and joyful, right, even after you had your coffee, right, and it still didn't work, right? What's stealing your joy? Why are you not joyful? I'll tell you one reason I learned right? So again, I came from the business, world, right? Practically, nice things cause you more problems than joy. They just do now, if you own a boat, you're nodding your head right now, right? Still have that thing, right? So I don't, but I own really expensive sports cars, right? And, man, like, I just like, I would be like, losing sleep. I'd be like, oh, you know, I hope no one's sitting on my car right now if it was outside, or you don't need to worry about the paint, and it came time to replace the clutch. Every 12,000 miles, there's $12,000 Crazy, right? That was robbing me of my talk. I thought I wanted it, right? But it caused me more problems. Sometimes I'm like, let's just rent. You know, really, it's problems. It can rob your joy. You have a roof leak. I'll rob your joy real quick. But the main reason is consumerism, consumerism, right? Because consumerism is a hamster wheel of insanity. Again, if you don't know my story, I did. I came from the business world, compared to someone in Naples. I was poor, but compared to average people like I did really well. My wife and I did really well for ourselves. We had a lot of nice luxury things, right? And so I had this thing. I didn't believe in God, really. I didn't believe in Jesus, because the pews didn't work. I ran out of church. So anyway, I'd put things on my vision board, and these were things that the universe was going to get me alright? So my vision board up there, and put things on the vision board right, and then I would get them, because the universe gave them to me. Maybe from the world. We talked about the devil, right? Giving you stuff. Maybe, I don't know, right, but I would get really nice things. So I put these cars on the vision board, and then I get the car right, and then I'd be driving out of the car dealership lot and looking at the next nice car I was going to buy. I didn't get the thing off the lot. It was like this with everything, it didn't stop. And if you knew me back, then you look, people would say this to us, like, well, you don't have any problems. You're rich, you know, like, I'm like, I. You have no idea I have. I have bought myself a lot of problems, a lot of problems, unreal. It just didn't stop. So when you put all these earthly things on your vision board, you will never find joy. It's not going to happen. I try, trust me, it's not going to happen, we need to set that vision board on heavenly things. That's it. Then you'll find joy, not always happy, not always joyful, ask my wife. But I'm way more joyful now than I was back then. Right? The only thing where I've been able to find joy, right? So the biggest reason here that consumerism robs us of joy, right, is because it takes our focus off of Christ. That's the problem. It gives us something else to be distracted with. So Philippians gives us the secret to unlocking the joy Philippians 313, no, dear brothers and sisters, I've not yet achieved it, but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, Jesus is calling us Christ is calling us to forget the past and move forward into your calling in him toward the heavenly prize. That's the first thing. Remember the false teachers preaching worldly things. Philippians, 319, they're headed for destruction. Their god is their belly. They brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on Earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our Savior. So there's that contrast. Be miserable like those dogs, those enemies of the cross, the Christ, or you be like us. We think about things of heaven, the heavenly prizes, nothing better here, that can be in heaven, like that heaven. So we were to think, right? It's a secret. What are we what are we getting here? Put Jesus on that vision board, right? Christ and Christ alone. Then it brings us to a daily exercise. Philippians, four, six. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has and we put in already done. Then you experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand, which exceeds all understanding. His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live, then you will be at peace. You will be content. You find that peace through prayer. Pray, commune with God, be content in that relationship. You'll find your peace. Then do there's a lot of doing in there right? Then do what you learned and now And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent, worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you again. You'll get more peace if you put into practice pray, focus on heavenly things and be about the business of Kingdom, work important, then you'll be content if we keep building on it. Philippians 410, how I praise the Lord that you're concerned about me again. I know you've always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me, not that I was ever in need for I've learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. There you have the secret to being content. Paul learned through that process. And so should we? We live prayerfully. We focus on heavenly things, right? Our faith is in Christ alone, and we joyfully anticipate his return. That's what it's all about. Christ has conquered our current crisis. He's overcome the world, and as such, should overcome our worldly desires with it. So if you have a little understand, that your reward is in heaven. You're good. What did Jesus say? We looked at the sermon. Blessed are the poor. The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Good for you. See you there, you're good. Rejoice. Have joy in your promised inherit. It's, it's waiting for you. If you have a lot, enjoy the ride, right? But understand that that's what this is. We're just passing through. This is just temporary. Cannot take any of this with us. Be generous, right? Pour into the kingdom of heaven, help others out and evaluate my advice. What might be robbing some of that joy. It's not Jesus store your treasures in heaven where moths can't eat them, or rust can't destroy it, our thieves can't steal it. And Aren't those the things we're worried about? So I want to pray from some verses in Philippians. 42 guys here for you guys, and you can join me if you want. Lord, at the moment, I have all that I need, and more I'm generously supplied with everything I need, Lord. So thank you, Lord, I thank you for everything you've done in my life, everything that I have, the abundance that I live with. Thank you, Lord, thank you for blessing me. Let me see the opportunities I have in front of me so that I can be a blessing to others as you have blessed me. May the grace and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your Spirit. Amen. Thank
Good morning. If you're new here among us. My name is Bob, and that's what you write on the card when you complain about me. There you go. I'm Gene I serve here at C3 church as your pastor, and I heard a story about a little Swiss watch. Really cool. I'm in the watches. I kind of like them. If you look in the back, you can see all these like tiny moving parts, and it's amazing how someone put that together. So this one little watch found its sphere of influence on a lady's wrist, but it wasn't content to be there. One day the lady was walking by at city hall, they had a clock tower, and said, I want to go up there. So instead of serving just one person, I can serve many. Ladies said, little watch, you'll have your chance. Now, if you think that this is a real story, I get it, because a lot of you talk to your watches nowadays, and I think they can talk back too, but it's not that kind of watch. So if you find yourself talking to that kind of watch, see me after service, and I can refer you to some places. What like the iPhone store, right? Because you need a smart watch anyway. So here's what the lady did. She had a sphere of influence in City Hall, so she was able to arrange for the little watch to be brought up to the clock tower. So they lowered a thread down, they tied it on the watch, and as it went up, it slowly, kind of disappeared out of view. It was tiny. And so in a dramatic way, the little watch learned that its elevation had diminished its influence. So pray too that you might not lose the small influence that you have now by coveting other things that maybe you're not equipped for, or maybe out of His love, God prevented you from getting we must learn to be content. Today, we find ourselves continuing in our series twisted scripture, alright? So I call it fortune cookie theology. So this is how a lot of Christians are reading their Bibles nowadays, right? Like a fortune cookie. You get what you're fed. Alright? Then whatever that says, you can just apply that verse to whatever it is that you want to apply it to, void of context. No idea where it even comes from, right? Unless it was like the actual book it came from, but for the most part, whatever. So that's what we're dealing with. We're looking at the most popular verses that people tend to quote, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not intentionally, because they're being fed stuff on the app or whatever it is they're looking at today's a real popular one. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one today. Maybe you're not, but anyway, Philippians 413 for I can do all things or everything through Christ, him, the one who gives me strength. As some of you've been in church for a while ago. Oh boy, he's going to go at it now. Here we go. Philippians. If I have a favorite book of the Bible, this is it. So like, this is a book that's whole Bible is, but I love Philippians a lot. Alright? So if you're new too, when you see the brackets, that's me reading it in the Greek and then inserting, like, maybe it's a little better. I use an NLT on a Sunday because everybody understands it. And that's a point. Not here to show off. I'm here to teach you guys the Word of God. So it works for all reading levels, but here and there, when you want to make specific statements, it's good to look at the Greek. And so that's kind of what that is. So I can do all things through Christ or the one who gives me strength. So, most common misuse, right? So I've seen, I've seen, like, a football pendant, you know, with like Philippians 413 on it, right? Uh, most common misuse is sports. You see it a lot in sports, right? So it's really funny, because, you know, you have this rich athlete and sometimes a painted on their face, or something like that, right? And I can do all things like win this game and make millions of dollars more for, you know, through Jesus, who helps me do that, right? Um, it could be for normal people. You know, you're asking for things. You're asking for more money. It's a kind of a more verse, right? We're all here. We're good. We don't really need that much more. But this is what we use to kind of treat God like a genie in a bottle, right? So that's really what it's about. So honestly, if I had to translate it the way people are interpreting it, I can get more insignificant luxuries through Christ, who gives me strength, alright? So that's how it's used, right? So just looking at the verse with what we know now, we've been in the series, I don't know, a few weeks now a month, whatever it is. So just knowing what you know about carefully reading the verse itself, one thing should stand out to you. All things. Well. What did Jesus say last week, as for anything in my name, and I showed you clearly, that's hyperbole, right? Like, so he's not going to give you anything that's going to cause you to sin, furthermore, anything that's outside of his will. So anything is hyperbole. It's a kind of an exaggerated statement. Well, so from this verse, All things, right? You can do all things. Jump out of a plane without a parachute. Jesus didn't fall for that one. There were no planes, but devil took him up on the big old temple, right? Jump off. You know, he's like, Whoa, don't put your Lord God to the test, right? So you cannot do all things clearly. So we have a little bit of hyperbole baked into the verse itself, if you're looking at it right again. Another thing I hope you've learned. If you've been here even for a few weeks, you need to read the verses around it, right? But if we just read one more verse ahead, here's what it says. Philippians 413 for I can do. Let's say everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Next verse even so you have done well to share with me in my presence. And the best translation would be affliction or tribulation, thlipsi and Greek. That's the way it's translated. Either way, not like difficulty. Difficulty is not big enough, right? Tribulation, that that works for the situation. That's why Paul used that word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? So it's tribulation in Greek. So it would give you the image, if you're a Greek person, you know this, like, of being crushed, like you're being you're being devastated and crushed. It's bad. Things are bad, alright? So you know that this is not about clearly, like, about trivial things like, this is a pretty big thing. So what I want to do today is we're going to look at Philippians. We're looking at pretty much the whole thing four chapter book, so it's not extremely long. Don't worry. And we serve food after so we'll get you out here. We're only going to be here for about four hours, right? We'll do it an hour chapter. Don't worry. No. So Philippians, I'll explain it to you. I'm going to give you the background, because even when you're reading the books, you really need to kind of look around your Bible and get the context sometimes for that book. So the current tribulation is that Paul is in prison. That's not fun, right? So he's in prison. It's not like the way, you know, we have prison today, where they have, like, all these rules about how you're treated, you know, it's nice. You have AC stuff like that, nope. You know, it's really bad for Paul, right now, it's really, really bad. So Philippi, so this is a major city in ancient let's call it the ancient Greek world, right? So Greco, Roman world in Macedonia. And so really, it's named after King Philip Alexander, the great stead. We saw Philippi when you're in Acts 16. So when we're there, they get there, right? So, and that was on missions. We looked at that very quickly, because the Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of Jesus says, or the Holy Spirit was telling them twice where not to go, right? But Paul receives this vision from a man from that place, from Macedonia, saying, Come, you know, help us, basically. So they decide, Okay, it's good. Now we have a bunch of people in tow, Timothy, who will come up a little bit later, Luke, because the we narrative picks up right there. So Luke is writing acts, and he says, We went there, right so we know it's him. So Paul Silas, they get there, they run into a lady named Lydia. So she's one of the wealthy people I talked about that were in the church, but she's selling these expensive, like purple garments. So she's a merchant. She has a home. She puts them up. She's one of the first European converts that we know of a female. Then Paul gets kind of annoyed with a girl who has a spirit of pythona. And that's in the Greek it might say spirit of divination in your version. So she's like telling fortunes. That's what she's doing. It annoys Paul. So he cast that spirit out. Now, the Python is thing you have to read Greek mythology and other history. It's pretty deep. I'm not going to go there, okay, but you will talk about it after service, over some Stromboli, if you want to.
So anyway, cast out that demon from the girl. Then her owners are mad because they can't make any money off the fortune telling anymore. Paul and Silas get put in prison, beaten with rods. It's bad, but they sing, they worship while they're in jail. That's the attitude they have. They bring the house down, and even the jailers converted, right? So it's all about, no matter where you are, converting people, right? Telling people about Jesus. So he's not writing from that prison, right? He's writing back to this place later. That's an important thing to remember. So again, different jail. And so what happens is, the church in Philippi sends this guy named Epaphroditus to deliver hell, probably money, stuff that he might need in jail, right? Supplies he needs in jail. You're going to need money to get stuff. Maybe he's trading for cigarettes, right? No, probably not. Anyway, bad joke, but anyway, just trying to wake you up, you know? But maybe you'd have to bribe a guard, I don't know. So setting it with stuff, but Epaphroditus goes back with this letter, so it's like the greatest theological thank you note ever written. So that's really what's going on in the background. So let's just look at it. I'm not going to read every single verse. I'm going to paraphrase a bit here. I'm going to give you a pretty good chunk of it. I'm. Right here, we'll look at the letter, and it'll help us to understand the verse in question. And when you think about it, right, a commitment to the Word of God, which is, if you're a Christian, you're believing like that's the word of God. It's his words, a love letter to us. We should be interested in reading it. So, just four chapters, but if you want to understand the verse, that's what you have to do. You have to have a little mild, in this case, commitment to the Word of God, right? And understand it. So that's just what we're going to do. Things to look for. I'll bring em up, point em out. But joy, remember, Where's Paul joy? Here's the word joy, a lot in this letter, so think about that right away. And Christ's return. It's a lot in here. A lot of people don't really pay attention to that, but it's a big theme here. Alright, right out the gate. Philippians, one, one. This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ, Jesus. I'm writing to all God's holy people, saints in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders, overseers, literally, and deacons. May God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace. So the first thing I want you to notice here is Paul is not throwing titles around, not throwing titles around Paul and Timothy slaves, not, not, you know, like I'm an apostle, right? So, and even when he does that, it comes after, like Paul an apostle, like a sent one. It's after very different from people of today, right? So, not throwing that out slaves. Now, this is not about racism back then, it's about commerce. Even in Jesus's parables, you see slaves, they make a lot of money. They're responsible for a lot of money. That is right. So you can be a slave. So that's what he's talking about here. It's about commitment, not like racism or anything like that. So we have to stop looking through our lens and our culture and realize that this is a long time ago, so back then it's not what it means, commitment, total commitment to Jesus and humility. That's what he's saying right out the gate, immediately. He wants you to know he's humble. And if I'm a slave, what do you like? Humble? That's what Jesus said, right? If I'm like your servant, then what are you same type of thing here? Saints, they just Agia in Greek that gets translated holy. Holy People is pretty good. But I want you to see saints too, because we are all saints once you Well, if you're in Christ Jesus, right? If you've been baptized, you are holy, which means set apart to God like so you are set apart for God. So what are we starting to see here? Commitment, right? You're seeing esteem of like, committed, right? So you're saints. You've been set apart from the world for God, and that's what that means. So later, traditions brought us like saints, and you had to go through this process, No, the Bible, That's not biblical Christianity. The Bible tells us you are all saints if you're in Christ, Jesus. No marriage jokes. No marriage jokes. Okay? So if you're never mind somebody's married up there, they're getting it. So I had a couple of jokes that probably would have gotten me into trouble later about being a saint and being married. So Grace and Peace, man, not enough people are laughing. There must be a lot of ribbing going on in the audience. Grace and peace. This is a Greek easter egg, a cultural easter egg here. A lot of people don't get it. Paul says this a lot. There's a lot in the New Testament, and it's in New Testament, there's wordplay going on here. So if you just start reading Greek, you're going to get two words confused. I guarantee it, uh, joy and grace, because they look almost the same, Karis, Kareem. So it's like, this, this weird little word thing. But the word for greetings in Greek looks a lot like that too. So he's like taking a gentile or Greek greeting, and he's like, kind of changing it to grace, peace, shalom. And that's not, that's Hebrew, not Greek, right, irinini in Greek. But so he's doing he's taking a Gentile greeting and a Jewish greeting and putting them together in a lot of his letters, like Ephesians, Romans, all about unity, right? So you're going to see that Jewish Christians apostles and Jesus, all Jewish, they become Christians, and then Gentiles are not always getting along, so they're having these kind of like disputes with each other. So right out the gate, he's using like, there's your greeting and then their greeting, and they come together. So just a quick thing, um, grace and peace, though. He's setting a tone here, right? Grace and peace. So he prays, he gives thanks to God. He talks about being partners and spreading the good news. Not all of them are missionaries, but they're all in the same mission of making Jesus known, and they're supporting him in his mission in prison. So he prays, talks about partnership. He wants them to understand that they should be living pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ returns. So there it is, right there, as he continues in the prayer. So just remember that this theme. We'll talk more about it next week, pure and blameless lives, right? So that matters. That's kind of important, right out the gate. Um, then he goes into a thing. It's pretty interesting. I want you to know if your brothers and sisters that everything that's happened to me here, remember, he's in prison, has helped to spread the good news. So again, what was Paul's content in his position? He's like. I feel out of here, right? No, he's content in that position, because everyone in prisons hearing the good news, and they'll go on to say, like, including the guards, right? So that's the all things that Paul can accomplish through Christ. It's about the gospel. It's about Jesus, not Paul, right? But some make it about them, and he says it's true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry, and basically he's saying they preach with selfish ambition. And so do remember the sin of the flesh is selfish ambition, not sincerely intending to take my make my chains more painful for me. But that doesn't matter whether their motives are false or genuine. The message about Christ is being preached either way. And so I rejoice. Okay, people have used this verse as an excuse for false teaching, and it's kind of ridiculous, but I've heard it. This is, see, that's what Paul said. So even if it's false or whatever, Christ is being preached. Put that in your back pocket, and we'll see how Paul clarifies that comment in a little bit. We're going to keep reading. So just hold on to that one. Alright, so now you have Paul's perspective on the situation. Philippians 120 for I fully expect and hope that I'll never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die for to me, living means living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. Sorry, I'm reading my own translations, but dying is gain your translation might say, but if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don't know which is better. I'm torn between two desires. I long to go and be with Christ. Which would be far better for me, but for your sakes, it's better than I continue to live. Yeah. Wow. Alright, so think about that. But technically, if we have faith or reading the Bible, that's the appropriate Christian perspective. What do you have faith in? We talked about this last week, right? You have faith in heaven. If you're a Christian, you believe that heaven is better than here, right? So you hopefully you believe that, right? And you have faith in that. So Paul's just saying something that we should all believe should be all of us, right? So to my family, like I rather die and go to heaven, because it's better than here, no offense, but for your sakes, I'll stick around.
Okay, if we continue down a bit, live as citizens of heaven. Philippians, 127, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Oh, that behavior again. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you're standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith which is the good news we talked about that fighting in the past, just a idiom. Don't be humiliated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they're going to be destroyed, but that you're going to be saved even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in the struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know I'm still in the midst of it. So, citizens of Heavens, remember Colossians three? We looked at that, I believe, last week, right? So that's what we focus on, heavenly things, not earthly things, because what a person who focuses on earthly things is an idolater? Okay? So read Colossians three. So we hear a lot about that temporary residence. We're just temporary residents here. We're just passing through. That's it, alright, the privilege of suffering. This is not the only place your New Testament says this, right? And so we saw like, I think, acts fifth, right? Five. Um, through chapter Acts where you see the apostles, they're like, they're beaten and they counted as joy, right, to be disgraced for the name of Jesus, right? So now your attitude about it? Philippians two. One, is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ, any comfort from his love, any fellowship together in the spirit? So every when you see those words, like fellowship partners, Keeney, like to have in common. That's another big theme here. Like one in Christ, like being together in common, uh, keen uh, just to be in common. So you can translate it fellowship. Those kinds of things are your heart centered and compassionate, then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with that the theme one mind and one purpose, one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest, but take in interest in others too. So are we seeing like that? All things is not about competition. It's not about being better than someone else. It's the opposite. So, and here we get a little key here. This is a remedy for a lot of your problems, and a good antidote for that you also gives you joy. What is that? Well, worry about the problems of others instead of just your own. Get out of your own head, right? So other people may have it worse, like Paul in prison, right? So we learn here selfishness. Steals joy. Remember that selfishness steals joy, but being selfless is to be like Jesus. And that brings me to some of my favorite verses in the Bible. I don't have a verse in the day now, you know why, right? But I have like sections. And what a lot of people don't realize is that in your Bible, you have all these creedal things, these early let's just call them poems to help you to remember what's really important, right? So here is what later is called the Carmen Christi. It's what this is called later. It's a palm about Christ and it's beautiful. There's a lot of imagery. I could actually go for about an hour on this, so I'm going to this is going to be five minutes. I'll explain this to you. But so verses five through 11 are important. So make your own attitude that of Christ, Jesus. So in Greek a little simpler, but the Greek words are phroniti, like, think like Jesus. Think like Jesus, who existing in the form of God. So right there, your Bible's telling you that Jesus is God. Didn't regard equality with God as something to be and this is just really a lot of beautiful imagery here our arpogmon in Greece. And Greek is like your version might say robbed, if it's old, it might say grasped. Think of equality with God as something to be taken advantage of. Some version say, but in Greek, a Greek priest person will look at this word, and if they ask you to translate it, it's like, snatch something. So it's to, like, take something by snatching it, like stealing what fruit, like out of a tree, like Adam and Eve. And so that's what Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit's doing. He's taking all and unlike Adam and Eve, what was the promise Satan made? Alright, what was the promise, if you have this fruit like you're going to have all night. You're going to be like God. So they try to be God. Jesus flips it and reverses it. Even though he is God, he doesn't do what they did, right? So he emptied himself and assumed the form of a slave, and taking on the likeness of man. When he had come as a man, as an as in his external form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. In Greek, it's more poetic in the point of death, death on a cross. So it's kind of like cascades in that way. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and below the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father, and you say, Amen, alright, so that's the word of God, a beautiful poem, and so it's kind of like the centerpiece of this. Now think about this, right? Make your own attitude, though, be like Jesus. Think like Jesus, right? Who did? What? Where to tell you, even though he's God, aka, better than all of us, he assumed the form of, what did Paul say before he was slave? Assume the form of a slave, took on the likeness of man like, you know, like joining your aunt's farm and then died for us, was obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross, okay, all things, right. So that's at the center. Philippians, 212 dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it is even more important work hard to show the results of your salvation. That is again, obeying God with deep reverence and fear, uh, word for reverence is not there in Greek. It's just fear and terror. That's what it says the Greek, uh, terror that makes you shake and trembles, while your version says trembling. They're trying to take it easy on you, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do it please him, so work hard to show the results of your salvation. So we're seeing this like your deeds kind of mean something. Why? Well, we're representatives of Jesus. We're supposed to be like him, right? So just hold the stat. Think like Jesus, right? So you're, you're Christians. Well, they're going to judge you by what your behavior. So Paul's concerned with this, if he's concerned with the spread of the gospel, a quick thing on fear. You can go back in the series watch this message, that message where we talk about fear, not 365 times, if you believe that you need to read your Bible, because the Bible does not say fear. Not 365 times. It talks about fear about 511 times. And only about 81 of those times does it say fear, not most of the time. It's stuff like this. Work out your salvation with fear and terror, not reverence, because God loves us and he's always nice, you know, like no so he loves us. He loves us, but it's not always nice. So,
alright, so Philippians, 214, do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, and it says lives as children of God shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked, perverse people hold firmly to the word of life. Then on the day of Christ's return, I will boast that I did not run the race in vain, and my work was not useless, but I rejoice even if I lose my life pouring it out. Like a liquid offering to God, just as just your faithful service, as an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share in that joy. So pride crossed out. It doesn't say pride there. I call that an innocent idiom. The NLT will do that once in a while. You're my pride and joy. It doesn't say that because pride is a sin. In the Bible, according to the Word of God, it is always a sin. So that is not the word for pride. There eperiphanos. It's kafima, which is like to boast about other people specifically. Alright, so Christ's return again comes up a lot. Read those parables. Remember, we were in Matthew 24 to 25 that's what Jesus keeps saying. Yes, you don't know when the inner world's going to happen, but I'm coming back, so be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. So that's kind of the point here, joy, even if I lose my life. Alright? So think like Jesus, don't complain. Just have joy. Be like him and these two other guys who are also trying to be like him. So Timothy, the co author, so to speak, of the letter, and Epaphroditus, the guy who brought them, brought him the letter, the gift, send them back with the letter, right? So be like them. They're risking their necks for me. So they're trying to be like Jesus. They're putting their lives on the line. Uh, quick side note, I talked about it during missions. I talked about lowercase A apostles and other case, a certain Greek Apollo means I sent. It means to send a person somewhere. So he calls, in Greek, Epaphroditus, an apostle. But it's he's a sent one. Now I want you to remember this Philippians, another back pocket thing. Philippians, 228, so I'm all the more anxious to send it back to you, for I know you will be glad when you see him, and then I will not be so anxious, so worried about you. Welcome him in the Lord's love with great joy and give him honor that people like him deserve. For He risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away. So just put the fact that Paul is anxious, just put that in your back pocket, alright? Uh. Epaphroditus, again, be like him, right? Just like he's risking his neck. So here we're going to solve because that's going to be a paradox, but we're going to solve another one. Remember the false teachers, Philippians, 31 whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, Rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith. Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we worship God by the we worship this. We worship by the Spirit of God and the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ, Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort, if anyone could, indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more. So I'm trying to read like two versions here. Alright, so remember, no big deal. He's talking about false teachers here. Remember, no big deal, big deal. They're dogs, alright? So, yeah, so reliance on Christ alone. So what's going on here? A lot of the false teachers, like we have our popular false teachings now, theirs was that even the Gentiles, remember I told you, like Jews, they're the original Christians, and then Gentiles also become Christians, be one in Christ, Jesus. So the first false teaching of the early church was that all the Gentiles coming in had to obey the law of Moses. That was the first thing resolved acts 15 at the Council of Jerusalem. No, they don't just these four things. That's it not such a big deal. So what is the circumcision that's a part of, I mean, I know it's before, but it's a part of the law of Moses, what you're supposed to be doing. And so that's the false teaching he's addressing. So he's saying, Nah, you're circumcising Jesus. You don't need to do any of that stuff. You're saved through faith. And that's true, right? Although we do see the deeds are kind of important if we keep reading Ephesians two alright? So he's addressing that. Then he starts ripping into his credentials, right? So, you know, I was circumcised on the eighth day. I'm a pure blooded citizen of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, if there ever was one, a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church as for righteousness. I obeyed the law without fault. I was blameless, right? So say that again. We'll look at that next week more. But Philippians, 37 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless. When compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have discarded everything else. Counted it all as dung. So skivala in Greek, if you're Greek, you'll say, Wow, you have a terrible accent, but it means dung. Literally, he's saying poop in church, right? So really that so that I could gain Christ and become one with him, I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law. Rather, I become righteous through faith. In Christ, for God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with him. There it is again, sharing in his death, so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead and I get it right. So these are not popular verses. People don't want to hear these, but this is the word of God, right? It's redundant. So Paul is really giving you a strong perspective on those lofty credentials. So Pharisees were, like, super high ups. They're the PhDs that we have today. That's what they are, right? So the guys that go around and think they know everything, right? So that's like, what Paul was, high status, high rank, like, you know, he was the guy, right? But he's saying poop, it's garbage, right? Interesting, alright, so he isn't competing for credentials here. Paul is content with Christ. He's given up all those titles, all that position, everything, to become a slave, that's what that's the perspective we should be getting at this point, right? Suffering like Jesus, there comes up again. Well, the other thing too, why do you want to die again? The resurrection is the goal, right? So, but you have to die in order to raise from the dead, right? So, good. You know what? I mean, let's do that, and then we'll get to heaven. Great, right? So just a note here, too, about identifying in titles. This is a really big theme, and this is something we in our culture, really, as Christians, especially, we really need to pay attention to so many I mean, like Romans, Ephesians, the purpose for writing those letters is really a cultural racial unity, alright? So guys get along, stop. And so Paul's taking those titles, and he's taking all that culture, right? So I was, he identifies the tribe of Benjamin. I was, you know, all these different things. I circumcised. He's taking it all, and it's garbage, garbage. So when we become Christians, all that stuff that we used to qualify ourselves with needs to be garbage. It needs to be pope and from New York showing a lot of restraint right now. Okay, that's the Holy Spirit. Not me. So anyway, have to lighten it up once in a while. So, but think about it, right? How many you know you have, and I just don't want to name, but you have this type of church for this race of people on this type of church for this race of people. Paul's like, rolling over in his grave, right? No, you missed the point of the whole book of Romans, the book of Ephesians. You, you missed it. And so here, this is it again. Paul's taking he's throwing himself under the bus. He was like, up there. Man, like, but no, that's garbage, right? I'm a slave. I'm nothing all. I'm just a Christian. Now, that's it. That's all I am. I'm just a slave of Jesus. That's it, right? Happy to be one. So it's not a one off. Look at Galatians, 326, for you, are all children of God through faith in Christ, Jesus, and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes, there's no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, so you can insert like different racial groups here, male and female for you, are all one in Christ, Jesus, we need to remember that we don't identify entitles race culture status, Right? Our identity as true Christians is in Christ and Christ alone. That's it. No pride in these things. What did he say before the common Christian? Right? We think of others as better than ourselves, right? That's the idea. So the pressing towards the goal. Philippians, 312, I don't mean to say that I've already achieved these things, or that I've already reached perfection, but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ, Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I've not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, Jesus, is calling us. So this is a helpful reminder for a lot of you, if you are born again, forget about the past. It doesn't matter, right? That should not be restraining you before you were Krishna, whatever, you know, even yesterday, whatever, like, just, just press on, but press on towards what the heavenly prize, right? So that's what really matters here. We are born again. So there's another part of the thing that gives us joy. We don't have to have those regrets, that shame, all that that's in the past, right? So not the earthly prize. So, so frame this out here. Think about it. What did Paul just call all the earthly prizes?
Poop, right? Garbage. They're worthless, right? So we're pressing on towards the heavenly cross. We keep reading Philippians, 317, dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example. For I've told you often before, and say it again with tears in my eyes that there are many whose conduct shows that they're enemies of the cross of Christ. Look at that conduct again. They are headed. Destruction. Their god is their belly. Killia. Heli, I think, yeah, Greek, yeah. They brag about shameful things, and they think about only this life here on Earth, but we are citizens of Sins of heaven, right where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly awaiting for him to return. There's that theme again, as our Savior, He will take our weak, mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. So we're examples. Remember, Paul, we're being like Jesus. Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, there it goes again. False teachers. That's what he's talking about here. Their god is their belly. No big deal, enemies of the cross of Christ. Can you think of anything worse than being an enemy of the cross of Christ? Wow, right? Why? Because they think of earthly things. But we are citizens of heaven. We don't do that, right? So we're not greedy people, idolaters, right? So there's that theme, Jesus coming back, looking forward to the resurrection, looking forward to heaven. As we get into four, Paul will be going to get practical, because he's going to conclude this letter here, I give some word, words of encouragement. Even in a good church, there are problems, and so I don't know two people, Eoodia and Sintiki. Fun names to say they're not getting along. We don't know what it is. So he's encouraging them. Clement is mentioned. If you've been here for a while, you've probably heard me mention first Clement. That's like third Corinthians. Here's Clement that talks about him, but it's not scripture in the early church, some were, I guess I'd say, like voting for this to that letter to be put in the Bible. So it's considered by many in the early church as scripture first Clement. Again, remember that theme of joy? Philippians four, four, always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Let everyone see that you're considerate in all that you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done. Then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His feast will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ. Jesus again. So Jesus is coming back. Be ready. That's a big deal. Joy. Be considerate of one another. That's a key to joy. But don't worry about anything. Wait a minute, anything. It's probably hyperbole, right? Like, ask me for anything. What's our clue? Remember, I told you to put something in your back pocket. Paul is anxious. Don't be anxious about anything. Well, wait a minute. What's going on here? Paul? Alright, so Miriam knows the word in Greek, so Paul is not the only place he said it second. Corinthians, 11, for example. He has anxiety about the churches. So Paul has anxiety, and more than once in the Bible, her little hyperbole, this is the ideal guys, right? And so I'm anxious about anything, right? So that's the goal. That's what we're trying to work for here. So paradox, two seemingly contradictory things, when put together in context, can make sense. Again. He talks about the things you do keep putting in practice, all the things you learn from me. He says, then let's look at the lead in here for our verse of the day. Philippians 410, how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know that you've always been concerned about me, but you didn't have the chance to help me, not that I was ever in need for I learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do all things, everything through Christ, who gives me strength, even so you've done well to share with me in my affliction. We clearly see here. These verses are not about competition. They're about contentment. The Bible talks a lot about it too. And just to bring this up, Timothy, a co author of this letter, so to speak, uh, First Timothy. Paul's addressing false teachers in First Timothy six, right? And not loving money in between it, he says this, First Timothy six, six. Yet true godliness with contentment itself is great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into this world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food or clothing, let us be content. Lot of contentment, that competition can kill your contentment, right? So and contentment itself is great. Wealth a key to joy here. So Paul says at the moment he's thanking Epaphroditus, again, I have all I need and more, I have all I need and more. Where is he again? Prison. He's in jail. Talks about sending greetings. And another thing about Caesar's household, they send you their Greetings, everyone. So he's saying, like the prison guard have heard the gospel now they're saying, What's up too? He's kind of like mildly boasting about all the people saving while what in prison. He's not complaining. His sphere of influence is too small. Is he? No? He's content to see people saved, even if it's from prison. This is a lesson a lot of ministers could learn. Alright, about that bigger ministry He ends, may the Lord I, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. So again, remember grace and peace comes full circle. So now that you've seen the context, you understand Philippians, I hope we just went through pretty much all Philippians. There with some paraphrasing. Can you see how bad the misuse of this verse is? It is like, not just a little off. It's insulting. It's insulting. It's insane, right? This book of Philippians is all about contentment in your present situation, even that's prison, and joy in that situation, right? Rich or poor content, joy, whether you're in prison, whether you're being afflicted, consent and joy, privilege of suffering. Wow. You can endure all hardships and have joy because of Jesus. That's what Philippians is all about. No one saw a picture in a friend's house that got my attention. So I come from the business world, so going into ministry, I was, I was not early. It was kind of early in ministry. I wasn't yet a pastor, so, you know, I'm still working these things out. It's tough for me because, you know, the you've got to kind of leave a lot behind. And so I was in a friend's house, and he, you know, he struggled to he was, he made a better amount of money than when he moved in, and he was a missionary, so he was kind of poor. And I was in his house, and I looked up and I saw this, this picture on the wall, someone else is happy with less than what you have. I knew he put it there. I talked to him about it. He had it he had it there as a reminder, you know? And I was like, man, maybe I should get one of those. Right? Really, like, and it really, it stuck. I never forgot it, right? Of all the things in all different houses I've been to, like, this thing, just like, stuck in my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about it, because it's so true. It's amazingly true. Now, if you're a foreign missionary, you know that, right? So you totally understand that. You get that, right, but that wasn't my calling. So, you know, I do. I've been to some bad places, and it took me back to like, when I lived like, I don't know what I'm politically correct. I'll have to call it a really bad neighborhood. We live in a horrible neighborhood, shootings constantly. It was really, really bad. We were very poor, so it's kind of like, took me back there, I was like, Yeah, I would have been happy with less than this coming from that interesting yet we live in a culture right, that tells us exactly the opposite. Tells us the opposite, right, don't be content. Is like a curse word, right? In our culture, it's a bad thing. The culture of consumerism. But think about this, if lasting happiness could be found in having material things and being able to indulge ourselves in whatever we wanted, right, then most of us in America should be delirious with joy. We should be like, everything should be happy. I just think about really funny things, right? So I, like, pop my head out of the gopher hole, like, for a little bit, maybe an hour or so a day, I watch the news, right? But I don't do it when my wife's around, because she says this just makes me anxious, like, I don't even know what they're saying. I don't have but just the tone of it, like, breaking news, everything's breaking news, right? You know what? Because you're it's going to break you and the world's going to end, you know, it's like, fear mongering constantly, right? And so it's agitating, I could see. I'm like, oh, yeah, that is really agitating, right? But it should be the opposite, right? It should be totally the opposite. Should be like, you know, the news anchors get on there, they'll be like, how you doing this morning? You know, Bob, or whatever, right? They're like, great. I got out this morning, and we have air conditioning, you too, yes, because the weathermans, yeah, it's gonna be 95 degrees today, and we have rooms. Wow, it's amazing. And you know, what else I did? I went
to the bathroom and flushed the toilet. You too. Like we can do that. This is amazing. Then I made coffee clearly, you know, so, right? It's me, like, these are crazy things that we This is nuts. I should be outside. We should be outside and be sweating like crazy right now and screaming with no microphone. What? It's cushy seats. You ever sit in a pew? I do my whole childhood. It's terrible. People complain about things. I'm like, shut up. I don't know we say that, but I just did. So if you're going to complain to me about something again, Bob behind the connection guard, don't tell me. Write it in, put it in a shredder. But anyway, we complain in church. Consumerism. People complain about every little thing. I'm like, Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It's crept into the church. It's disgusting, right? It's all really like even the politicians, right? Yeah, we disagree about these little things. But guess what? This country is awesome. I am rich, right? Because they're all rich. It's just, what do you they actually, I've been told they do that at dinner later, after they put on the political theater for you. And that's true. You can talk to Ed about that. But anyway, right? We, we should be so happy. We should be so full of joy. I mean, it's crazy, the luxuries that we have, right? But what's happening? Right? It's all this trying to rob us of our joy. Tell us like that we don't have it great, like it isn't amazing. You can get beaten and flagged for going to church today. Calm down. You know what? I mean. It's not real, but it's all about consumerism and not contentment, and this gives us what divorce, suicide, depression, addiction, why consumerism? None of these things help, and all of this is proof that happiness is not found in material things. Otherwise we should all be like, like, we won the lotto every minute of every day, right? Like, if you're poor in Naples, and my friends, I have friends here struggling a lot, and they'll tell you, it's like, You're rich in Naples if you're poor, it's great, right? Especially in this city, it's crazy. You cannot go hungry here, you cannot. We have so much. We have such an abundance. But consumerism has primed us for all of these problems. It's made things like divorce easy, right? Get another one that's easy instead of contentment? No, I'm not talking about abusive relationships. I don't go there with me. You get what I'm saying, right? Addiction, it's the disease of more, sort of more, right? And it's not just, you know, alcohol or drugs,
food. No one wants to talk about that food. You need more. You need to supersize it. You know, think about the portions. It's unreal. You go to a really nice restaurant, you take someone who's never been there. What first thing they're going to say
is it portions are terrible. Okay, if that's you, we're not going to lunch. But anyway,
right, so this brings me to a question, what's stealing your joy? If you didn't even walk in here this morning like just skipping in and joyful, right, even after you had your coffee, right, and it still didn't work, right? What's stealing your joy? Why are you not joyful? I'll tell you one reason I learned right? So again, I came from the business, world, right? Practically, nice things cause you more problems than joy. They just do now, if you own a boat, you're nodding your head right now, right? Still have that thing, right? So I don't, but I own really expensive sports cars, right? And, man, like, I just like, I would be like, losing sleep. I'd be like, oh, you know, I hope no one's sitting on my car right now if it was outside, or you don't need to worry about the paint, and it came time to replace the clutch. Every 12,000 miles, there's $12,000 Crazy, right? That was robbing me of my talk. I thought I wanted it, right? But it caused me more problems. Sometimes I'm like, let's just rent. You know, really, it's problems. It can rob your joy. You have a roof leak. I'll rob your joy real quick. But the main reason is consumerism, consumerism, right? Because consumerism is a hamster wheel of insanity. Again, if you don't know my story, I did. I came from the business world, compared to someone in Naples. I was poor, but compared to average people like I did really well. My wife and I did really well for ourselves. We had a lot of nice luxury things, right? And so I had this thing. I didn't believe in God, really. I didn't believe in Jesus, because the pews didn't work. I ran out of church. So anyway, I'd put things on my vision board, and these were things that the universe was going to get me alright? So my vision board up there, and put things on the vision board right, and then I would get them, because the universe gave them to me. Maybe from the world. We talked about the devil, right? Giving you stuff. Maybe, I don't know, right, but I would get really nice things. So I put these cars on the vision board, and then I get the car right, and then I'd be driving out of the car dealership lot and looking at the next nice car I was going to buy. I didn't get the thing off the lot. It was like this with everything, it didn't stop. And if you knew me back, then you look, people would say this to us, like, well, you don't have any problems. You're rich, you know, like, I'm like, I. You have no idea I have. I have bought myself a lot of problems, a lot of problems, unreal. It just didn't stop. So when you put all these earthly things on your vision board, you will never find joy. It's not going to happen. I try, trust me, it's not going to happen, we need to set that vision board on heavenly things. That's it. Then you'll find joy, not always happy, not always joyful, ask my wife. But I'm way more joyful now than I was back then. Right? The only thing where I've been able to find joy, right? So the biggest reason here that consumerism robs us of joy, right, is because it takes our focus off of Christ. That's the problem. It gives us something else to be distracted with. So Philippians gives us the secret to unlocking the joy Philippians 313, no, dear brothers and sisters, I've not yet achieved it, but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, Jesus is calling us Christ is calling us to forget the past and move forward into your calling in him toward the heavenly prize. That's the first thing. Remember the false teachers preaching worldly things. Philippians, 319, they're headed for destruction. Their god is their belly. They brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on Earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our Savior. So there's that contrast. Be miserable like those dogs, those enemies of the cross, the Christ, or you be like us. We think about things of heaven, the heavenly prizes, nothing better here, that can be in heaven, like that heaven. So we were to think, right? It's a secret. What are we what are we getting here? Put Jesus on that vision board, right? Christ and Christ alone. Then it brings us to a daily exercise. Philippians, four, six. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has and we put in already done. Then you experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand, which exceeds all understanding. His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live, then you will be at peace. You will be content. You find that peace through prayer. Pray, commune with God, be content in that relationship. You'll find your peace. Then do there's a lot of doing in there right? Then do what you learned and now And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent, worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you again. You'll get more peace if you put into practice pray, focus on heavenly things and be about the business of Kingdom, work important, then you'll be content if we keep building on it. Philippians 410, how I praise the Lord that you're concerned about me again. I know you've always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me, not that I was ever in need for I've learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. There you have the secret to being content. Paul learned through that process. And so should we? We live prayerfully. We focus on heavenly things, right? Our faith is in Christ alone, and we joyfully anticipate his return. That's what it's all about. Christ has conquered our current crisis. He's overcome the world, and as such, should overcome our worldly desires with it. So if you have a little understand, that your reward is in heaven. You're good. What did Jesus say? We looked at the sermon. Blessed are the poor. The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Good for you. See you there, you're good. Rejoice. Have joy in your promised inherit. It's, it's waiting for you. If you have a lot, enjoy the ride, right? But understand that that's what this is. We're just passing through. This is just temporary. Cannot take any of this with us. Be generous, right? Pour into the kingdom of heaven, help others out and evaluate my advice. What might be robbing some of that joy. It's not Jesus store your treasures in heaven where moths can't eat them, or rust can't destroy it, our thieves can't steal it. And Aren't those the things we're worried about? So I want to pray from some verses in Philippians. 42 guys here for you guys, and you can join me if you want. Lord, at the moment, I have all that I need, and more I'm generously supplied with everything I need, Lord. So thank you, Lord, I thank you for everything you've done in my life, everything that I have, the abundance that I live with. Thank you, Lord, thank you for blessing me. Let me see the opportunities I have in front of me so that I can be a blessing to others as you have blessed me. May the grace and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your Spirit. Amen. Thank