Last Sunday, we spoke about obedience, and obedience is a hard thing.
To walk in obedience to God’s word in the culture and surrounding we live in is not that easy. At times we have to push ourselves to walk in obedience to God, but if we are not careful there is another tendency in us that is equally sinful than all other sins from which we are trying to run away.
While doing the right things, we also have a natural tendency to lean towards grumbling in our heart and/or arguing with others to prove our point or show others how superior we are.
Probably that’s the reason why Paul, immediately after talking about obedience, in verse 14 says “Do everything without grumbling or arguing”
Imagine pursuing holiness and purity by keeping away from adultery, fornication or pornography when everyone around us seems to be enjoying it without guilt or shame – in college, in offices, in our society. And when they see us taking a stance against such lifestyle, we are mocked and made fun of.
In such scenarios, we can quickly get into a complaining mode with God when we treated badly for our righteous actions, saying why is it that they get to enjoy all the fleshly pleasures and not me.
Or we can get into an arguing mode where we bring in our righteous SELF and start pointing fingers and correcting others, showing them how superior we are from them because we do everything right.
The same kind of attitudes also manifests in other situations. When we see people in the office do all the wrong things and yet are promoted to higher positions, when people adopt unethical ways to do business and make money for themselves.
Often when complaining, we forget that we are living amidst “the wicked & crooked people” of this world as pointed in verse 15. We cannot stop anyone, and we cannot change anyone. The only thing we can change is the way we look at our situation and react to it.
Brothers & sisters, complaining, grumbling & arguing is not the right way to do it & as I pointed out earlier is equally sinful as other sins.
Here are a couple of things to remember from our passage today that can help us in such scenarios.
What God thinks about us is more important than what people think.
V15a – “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”
What Paul is saying is that when we obey God without complaining and disrupting in such manner, we present ourselves blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.
Often, we are too worried about what others think about us, how others will treat us. And we forget that ultimately we all are accountable to God for the kind of lives we live on this earth. We are either living as children of God or as children of the devil; however, we chose to live will decide what our eternal destiny will be, whether heaven or hell.
What God is doing in us & through us is more glorious.
V15b – “Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.”
As we live holy and obedient lives without complaining and arguing, God is using us as shining stars in this dark generation. God’s ultimate goal is to save this wretched world from the hands of satan. He is saving the world through our obedience in Christ.
One day we will all die, and in our last days, all this wealth & pleasures will seem meaningless. And when we are in our death beds, the greatest joy in our hearts will be to cherish all the beautiful gifts God has given to us, whether our salvation, our family, our friends, the joy, and the peace.
Like how Paul puts it in verse16 “as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain.”
Another thing that can help us in our struggle is when we remember the high price Christ had to pay to set us free from Sin and death. While we were sinners, Christ died for us, paid the penalty of our sins on the cross of Calvary. Nothing we go through in life for living an obedience life can be compared to the shame, mocking, beating, insult our Lord Jesus had to go through.
Our repentance and belief in the Gospel have given us this new life, and unlike what the world thinks, this new life is far more glorious than what the world has to offer us.
And finally …
We ought to rejoice and be glad as we walk in obedience to God’s commandments.
v18 – “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”
Paul ends this conversation in verse 18, saying “Rejoice & be glad”. But why do we rejoice?
We rejoice because we know that God is pleased with us. He is not pleased because of our obedience, he is pleased in the obedience of his son Jesus, who lived a fully obedience life on our behalf. He is pleased with us for excepting Christ as our saviour and Lord; he is pleased with us because of our love for Jesus.
We rejoice, because, greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world.
We rejoice, in the fact that God, the creator of the universe, is using us as instruments in his hands for his glory. What is a privilege it is?
We rejoice, because, in the end, we will be rewarded for our love and obedience.
Therefore, brothers & sisters, let us continue to walk in obedience to God but without complaining and without arguing, which is an acceptable sacrifice unto our God.
Good morning church! As we continue our series on a ‘Joy-filled Life’ from the book of Philippians, we will see today how the breathtaking view of Christ’s obedience to the Father which we read in last week’s passage now informs us to live in obedience every single day. Let’s read from Philippians 2:12-13.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
It was the most nervous Sunday School class for me! When I was probably in 3rd grade, I remember being part of a Sunday School class taken up by a lady from church who was close to my family.
Initially, it was exciting because she was a familiar face to me but then it turned into anxiety because midway through the class she told everyone “I know someone who has been very disobedient to his parents”. Immediately my joy turned to sorrow and I was sweating.
I didn’t want to be called out…that also in front of my friends. As she was going to announce who it was – my heartbeat started racing – and finally, she said that the person was her “son”. Phew! What a sigh of relief. Now the reason I got so stressed that day was because my greatest concern was that I didn’t want to be embarrassed before my friends.
Similarly, we sometimes view obedience as something to make us look good or bad before people. So we spend a lot of time trying to appear to be “obedient followers” in front of others. But what if we saw our obedience as something that our heavenly Father wanted from us? What if we recognized that God is deeply concerned about our obedience?
Our obedience matters to God! And it matters for our joy in Him too.
Three things about obedience from this passage that I think it’s important for us to know:
Obedience involves total surrender (v12)
Obedience is a response to God’s grace (v12)
Obedience is a miracle of God (v13)
1. Obedience involves total surrender (v12)
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence
The word obedience is something that we’ve overused in our church culture and even at home. So we sometimes think of obedience as obeying rules and disobedience as not obeying rules. But the word “obedience” whenever it’s used in Scripture describes surrender and submission. I’m surrendering myself to heed to what this authority is commanding me to do.
Paul was imprisoned far away from the church at Philippi while this letter was written. The church was having issues within themselves where members were getting into arguments while from the outside they were being persecuted. Paul – being their spiritual father in the faith, what does he tell them to do?
as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence
That’s why I used the word “total surrender” because I think it captures the idea to be obedient not just when your spiritual family is around but also when they are absent.
Each day there are many people who come to Mumbai from different cities far away from their homes and families. I can imagine the pressure of temptation that they feel because they’re tempted to think that since they are all alone, they can now let their guards down. They think they can do whatever they want and probably not get caught.
And it’s not just those who come from other cities but you can be living with your family in Mumbai itself but due to college or work schedules spend hours outside of the home. Maybe you get to meet your family only early morning or late evenings.
Even with the church you probably only get to meet them once or twice a week. For the remaining time you’re living by yourself. And I can understand the pressure of temptation that people face to do things in isolation – in secrecy – in private that no one knows about.
When I was new to believing in Jesus, one brother told me something that stuck to my mind. He said “Most of the time people live restricted and self-controlled lives because they’ve got family around or because they’re afraid of getting caught.
But the moment they go to another city or country for studies or college, that’s when they are really tested because they think that even if they compromise there’s no one who would know”. There’s a real danger to living in isolation.
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. (Proverbs 18:1)
It can be relationships that we are in right now that our family or church has no idea about. It can be images and movies that we watch on a computer screen. Or it could be conversations and jokes that we have with our colleagues and college friends that we know are dishonouring God but we would never mention this before our family and friends. In our sinfulness, there is a tendency and an urge to keep a private, secret life.
Both me and Saju even though we are elders here – I wanted to tell you guys that there’s a need for us to fight this battle every single day. We are in no way taken off the hook.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
I’m really thankful to God for a loving wife who shows me grace and applies the gospel daily & for brothers and sisters who encourage me to fight this every day.
One thing that has helped me grow as a believer has been this truth – for a believer in Christ, there isn’t a concept of private life. Why? Because all of our life – every single part of our life is owned by Christ. There’s no room for a secret stash. And this is something very important for us to consider.
If we want to really obey Christ, the question is – are we willing to fully surrender everything? Even our private life and that would mean bringing that to the light and sharing it with a trusted brother or sister who would urge you to repent and go back to the gospel. And let me tell you it’s freeing to confess and repent. We end up feeling enslaved and miserable when we conceal.
Not only is obedience total surrender
2. Obedience is a response to God’s grace (v12)
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
The first question that came to my mind when I read this was – Is Paul talking about working for salvation? Is he telling that we should have good works to get saved? No, he’s not contradicting what he said in Ephesians 2:8,9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast
Rather, what Paul is saying here is that because you are saved…because you have experienced and received God’s grace through Jesus, you need to obey with seriousness and reverence. We are not working for salvation but we are working out of salvation. True obedience is an outflow…it’s a result…it’s a response to the grace of God.
The Bible in Luke 7 has an interesting story of Jesus being invited to a house of a Pharisee. A woman from the city who was known for her sins heard this and brought an alabaster jar of ointment and came to the house. She stood behind him weeping and wet his feet with her tears and wiped it with hair and kissed the feet and anointed it with the ointment.
Now according to the culture of that day, it was improper for a woman to do this in a public setting. On top of that everyone seated out there knew this woman was a sinner. And Simon the Pharisee thought to himself – “If Jesus really was a prophet, he would’ve known what sort of woman this is who is touching him – she is a sinner”.
Jesus knew what he thought in his heart and told him this parable “a moneylender had two debtors – one who owed him 500 denarii and the other who owed him 50. When they could not repay the debt, he cancelled both of their debts.
Which of the two do you think will love the moneylender more?” Simon said, “I think it’ll be the one whose larger debt was cancelled”. Jesus said, “that’s correct”. “When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet but she wet it with her tears and wiped it with her hair.
You gave me no kiss but from the time I came, she’s not ceased kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, her sins even though they are many are forgiven – for she loved more. But he who is forgiven little loves little”.
The seriousness and obedience that we show toward God is often a reflection of how much we think we have been forgiven. If we think we had a massive debt over us and that was cancelled through the what Christ has done, then our obedience would be quite serious and radical! But if we think that our debt was small and minute, that would, in turn, be the love and obedience that we show to Christ.
But not only is obedience total surrender, not only is it a response to grace but
3. Obedience is a miracle of God (v13)
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Now, this is might be slightly confusing for us. In the last verse, this is telling us to “work out our salvation” – meaning we need to actively obey God because of grace. But in this verse, it’s telling us that it’s God who actually works in us!!
Wait a minute? Am I the one to obey? Yes. Is God working in me to make me obey? Yes. How does that work?
During our honeymoon is when I learnt how to float for the first time. My wife being a good swimmer decided to help me out a little. So we found a shallow bed of water where we could practice how to float. She told me to lie flat on my back, lift my feet up and then I would float. But the moment I did that, I started sinking.
The next time I did that, I frantically started paddling with my hands and feet and still sank. This continued for almost half an hour and about the time when I almost decided to call it a day, she told me to calm down and allow the water to handle the weight of my body. She told me to lean back and calmly rest on the water body and before you know it – I started to float!!!
And similarly, I think when it comes to obedience –
God empowers us to obey. He gives us the TOOLS which will allow us to obey Him.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3)
When we obey – we are actually cooperating with Him – submitting to His final authority and acknowledging that He knows better than us
Then we actually see how God carries us forward, strengthening us to complete obedience.
It’s like floating on water. Who is the one causing us to float? It’s actually the water. We are just cooperating with the buoyant force that is allowing me to float. Obedience is active, intentional, radical but as we are obeying God we’ll see how we are able to do it only because He empowers us to do the same.
Sometimes we wonder why is it that we are not experiencing that kind of intimacy with God. We wonder why aren’t we experiencing the powerful presence of God as we ought to. And the question we need to ask ourselves is “have we been obedient to God?”
Me and Glen were having this conversation yesterday. Imagine two scenarios. One where we live our lives for our own selfish goals and pleasures and maybe we do gain the riches and luxuries of the world.
The other scenario where we probably don’t gain the riches and luxuries and where everything doesn’t go our way but instead as we are obeying God and surrendering to His will we are experiencing His power and might in such an amazing way not just in our lives but also around us! I would choose this over the former any day. There is a thrill in obedience!
And God has given us a few TOOLS to help us live out a joyfully obedient life:
1. We are His children through Jesus Christ. Sin no longer defines us. Even though we sin, even though we mess up but we can go back to God and find restoration. If you are experiencing distance from God due to your private, secret life – I want you to know that you can turn to God in repentance. He is your Father who is waiting for you with open arms.
2.He has given you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a weak spirit that is there within you. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 He is God and has brought God’s power and presence into your life. He will enable you to wage war with sin and struggles. We need to yield to Him in prayer and surrender.
3. We have brothers and sisters to help us fight. If you’re a man,I would encourage you to find one or two brothers who love the Lord with whom you can share your “private life, secret stash” and have them hold you accountable. If you’re a woman, find one or two women who love the Lord who can hold you accountable. Brothers, I want to tell you and encourage you that there is immense power in the prayers of brothers and sisters that deeply care for your spiritual health. Spiritual battles have been won. Sin has been fought with. People have been redeemed when men and women have come together to seek divine help. He will definitely answer!!
This sermon is part of the series called ‘A Joy-filled Life’ and today’s topic is ‘Joy in Brokenness’. The Bible passage we will be looking at is Philippians 2:5-11.
If we are honest, we will all say that our hearts desperately yearn for a spiritual revival. I need one. For me, the last couple of weeks has been very rough, I’ve missed on my prayer & devotions, I’ve missed out on my scripture readings, and is feeling quite dry spiritually.
There might be some of you who are maybe going through the same feelings as I am. To overcome such feelings, we are seeking a revival that will get us back on track with our relationship with our creator God.
Now, whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, God, the maker of heaven and earth is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him through His son Jesus Christ, and we shall see His power demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence.
If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of Revival.
Psalms 51:17 – The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
It is painful, humiliating, but it is the only way. It is being “Not I, but Christ” (Gal 2:20), and a “C” is a bent “I.” The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself until the proud self within us is not broken.
What today’s passage offers is a perfect example of what it means to be broken to our self. We see our Lord Jesus, our Saviour and our redeemer, the King of king and the Lord of Lords, our champion & our hero, setting us a perfect example of what it means to be broken, contrite & humble – To have a posture and an attitude that will please our Father in heaven and set us in a right relationship with him.
This passage is a portion of a letter that was written by Paul to the churh in Philippians. And if you read the earlier chapter you will to know that the church is going through a turmoil in their relationship with one another. And often times when our relationship with another hits the rock, its a good indicator that our relationship with God is also not going well. Both are interconnected. And they needed a Revival to get sorted.
And therefore, in verse 5 Paul is saying to the church “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”. He is telling the church to imitate Christ and his posture of humility that will help maintian right relationship with God the Father.
We can learn three lessons from Jesus, which can be applied in our current situation as we seek revival in our hearts.
Jesus gave up his status & position
V6. though he (Christ) was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped
Often times, what keeps us away from a healthy relationship with God is the SELF in us. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory is the biggest hurdle in our heart.
It doesn’t want to bow its head to God’s will, doesn’t like to admit its wrong, doesn’t want to give up its own way to Jesus, doesn’t want to surrender its rights and doest want to discard its own glory.
It is so often the self who even tries to live the Christian life, do Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It is self who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we need breaking.
If we are honest, we can all see how much of this self there is in each of us.
As long as SELF is in control, God can do little with us, and therefore it has to be crucified.
It was the SELF that drew Adam and Eve to Sin against God. And when the SELF took over, darkness entered our hearts. The beautiful relationship we had with our creator God was broken. The whole human race is suffering the consequences of that fall.
But because of our fallen state, and because God so loved us, he sent His only Son Jesus to come to earth and live a life we ought to be living.
And here’s what Paul is saying about how Christ lived among us – Even though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
If there was one person on this earth who had the rights to follow his SELF then it was Jesus. He could have easily chosen to abandon us and leave us in our sinful state, and there will be no questions asked. But what we see is He willingly gave up his rights so that he can redeem us back to the Father.
In our lives, ultimately it is God who is bending our will to His, but there is an active part we also have to play without which the process is incomplete.
And Jesus has set a perfect example for us to follow.
Brothers & sisters, let’s examine our heart and identify the areas where our SELF is dominant. Do we always lean on our wisdom and strength to achieve the goals of our life? Or Is it the wealth and possessions we have that determines what we want to become? Or Are we acting stubborn with God saying – “This is the way I want to live my life, so please grant me my desire”, “This is the only kind of girl/boy I’d like to marry, so pls throw him/her from heaven”, “This is the only kind of job I would like to do”, “This is the only way I want to ministry.”
If thats true, then we have to crucify the SELF and its desires so that we can enjoy our relationship with the Father.
Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a servant
The second lesson we learn from Jesus is that he not only gave up his rights, but he emptied himself and took the form of a servant. He came not to be served but to serve.
To be a servant is not just mere superficial servanthood we are talking about here. Often times this word is misinterpreted by our society, especially by the people in authorities. People in authority often project themselves are the servant of the people, we hear politicians say that, entrepreneurs say that. Thats not the servanthood Jesus showed us.
He literally washed the feet of his disciples. The Holy God of the universe stooped down to the unworthy, unholy, undeserving insects like us and washed our feet.
When was the last time we served someone in this manner?
We don’t help our mother’s & wives at home. We think it’s the lowliest thing to do. It takes a lot of courage and dying to SELF to be able to serve others in this manner. It starts at home, then in Church and then to society at large.
Our act and attitude in serving others in this manner shows us how willing we are to be broken to our self so that we can draw near to God.
Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.
Jesus not only gave up his rights and took the form of a servant, but he also humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.
Jesus fully obeyed His Father in heaven, to the point, that to save us from the wrath of God, he took all our Sins, all our infirmities, and died in our place, paying the full penalty of our sins.
The suffering wasn’t an easy one. In the Garden of Gethsamane, right before he was supposed to be taken away to be crucified, his cries out to God in prayer saying “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
His humility by becoming obedient to the point of death is what gives us the privilege to become sons and daughters of God, as we repent and put our faith in Jesus.
Can you imagine what would have happened to us if Jesus never fully obeyed His Father in heaven? Our lives would have been devastated.
What is our excuse for not walking in obedience to God’s word?
John 14:15,21,23-24
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
THAT IS WHAT BROKENNESS IS ALL ABOUT!
Brokenness is not God forcing us into the image of Christ, so that in spite of my desire to sin He causes me to do what is right anyhow.
Asking God, “Lord, please make me a broken man!” is like praying, “God, please force me to love you!” God wants loving, obedient servants, not blindly obedient robots. He wants the willing, voluntary slave, not forced labor.
Many times, when in the midst of temptation, we would pray, “God, please help me!” (meaning, “God, please intervene and do something to prevent me from committing this sin!”)
God’s response over the years has been, “I already have helped you. Jesus died to set you free from bondage to sin. Go read Romans 6 again!”
We are without excuse! God is the sovereign Creator of the Universe – He gets to set the rules! It is my part to love and obey.
He commands, He expects love and obedience, but He also gives us encouragement, reminders, and the power of the Holy Spirit living in us to conquer the nature of sin that still plagues us!
Brother & sisters, if we are experiencing dryness in our heart & a detachment from God the Father this morning, it is not because God has kept a distance from us. It is because we are not letting our self die, not emptying ourself at the throne of God’s grace, unwilling to serve & not humble ourselves to the point of total obedience to God.
In Philippians 2:9-11 Paul continues to write
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Father not just delights in a broken and a contrite man but he also rewards them. Just like he exalted his son he will also exalt us and pour out his Spirit over us and fill our hearts an overflowing joy and peace..
And the greatest joy he offers us is the privilege to participate in the final celebration when Jesus will come back again. We all get to see Him, bow down to him and confess Jesus is Lord. What a Joy?
Brokenness is not a one-time thing. To have a continued communion with God, we need to have continued brokenness in our spirit at all times.
Brokenness is a good thing it directs our hearts to God.
Good morning church! How’s everyone doing a week after the retreat? I would say that the retreat was a blessing for all of us and what’s interesting is that today’s passage seems like a continuation on the topic of “Unity”.
It does seem like something that God is impressing on our hearts as a church. As we all turn to Philippians 2 in our series titled “A Joy filled life”, I want us to be reminded of what’s been happening at the church at Philippi.
A couple of weeks back we did learn about the persecutions that these believers were facing because of their faith in the Lord Jesus. But not only were things difficult for them with the world outside but internally things were not great between members of the church too.
Two women who apparently were co-laborers with Paul got into a disagreement and this was affecting the rest of the church. How should the church respond? Let’s read in v1-4
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
“You’ll never find a perfect church!” I remember this quoted being mentioned to me ever since I became a follower of Jesus. It didn’t take me too long to realize the reality of that quote but that presented a set of problematic questions: “How is the church ever going to be united with so many differences and disagreements?” “Should they overlook and ignore all the issues?” “Or should they pin-point and correct every single issue?” “Specifically, how am I as a follower of Jesus required to live in the midst of this?”
And knowing that we have married couples in our congregation and young people who are looking to get married sometime in the future, I want to extend these questions on unity to them as well – “How can I experience true unity in my married life?”
4 points of observation from today’s text:
1. Unity can only be brought about through the Gospel (v1,2)
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
What I find so interesting is how Paul starts this chapter – He starts by talking about amazing truths and gifts that are ours through Jesus Christ.
Encouragement in Christ: Because Jesus Christ saved us and rescued us from the wrath of God, we are encouraged to approach the throne of God with boldness. We need not be afraid of the presence of God anymore.
Comfort from love: For people who were once staring at hopelessness and eternal death, the amazing truth is that we have God who eternally comforts His people with love. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you”. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thess 2:16,17)
Participation in the Spirit: God graciously pours out His Spirit on everyone who places their faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have the same Spirit who convicts us, changes us, works through us to make us more like Jesus!
Affection and Sympathy: These are words that basically mean compassion and mercy being shown to someone. When God saw us in our sin and misery, He had compassion on us and came after us to pull us out of pit of sin and darkness.
And his point is that – if we’ve truly experienced these amazing things, then it needs to be evident in our lives as well.
Right now because we are expecting a child, we do have a lot of experienced parents who meet us and give us advice. A few weeks back someone shared with us that after the 20th week or so, the baby in the womb actually has a capacity to hear.
This parent advised us to be mindful of what we communicate during this period and also encouraged us to sing Christian songs and read verses that the baby will actually identify once out of the womb! And that process continues even as the child grows, what the child sees the parents do, that they’ll imitate and do. Wow! And I kept thinking – isn’t it that same with all of us spiritually as well.
God being our Father wants us to experience His grace, love, mercy and kindness and be filled in it so that we can extend it outwards to the people around us!
Here’s what I think the application for this point is. If we think that more events or programs or combined activities is what is going to keep the church together or the marriage together, then that’s a very meaningless, faulty line of thinking.
There’s only one way for your marriage, your family, and the church to experience true unity and that’s going to happen when we understand and respond to God’s grace, love, mercy and kindness – the message of the gospel.
2. Unity doesn’t necessarily mean similarity (v2)
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
My immediate thought when I read this verse was: Is he trying to say that all people should talk the same way, think the same way and walk the same way? I don’t think he’s saying we need to become similar people.
We are so wired in the world to group ourselves around similar people – people who think, talk and walk like us. People who are different from us are labeled as “awkward and weird”. When the world talks about unity – they are more or less talking about similarity.
But when the Bible talks about unity – it has to do more with the One gospel and Savior & how we now care for each other within the church.
If you ask around the room today, you’ll hear many unique testimonies of how God saved each believer here. Some of us were saved when we realized the purposelessness of sinful addictions, some of us got saved while we heard the gospel being preached at a Christian meeting, some of us got saved when someone personally shared the gospel with us and my own story is that I got saved while reading a Christian book.
So many unique stories but one Savior Lord Jesus and when we heard the amazing love – that He would lay down His life on the cross and rise again on the third Day – our eyes opened and we turned from our sins and ran to Jesus to save us and our lives completely changed! And that’s what unites young, old, dark skinned, light skinned, tall, short, male, female alike. It’s not so much how similar we are but how united we are despite our differences.
Sometimes in our churches or even in our marriages, we also bring in this baggage of trying to make the other person like us thinking that if we are more similar then we’ll be more united. Not true.
For example in churches there’s always an issue between the elderly and the youths. The elderly people accuse the youths of being free-spirited and naïve. Young people accuse the elderly of being rigid and over-disciplined. But the thing here is that both groups need each other.
The elderly need to be encouraged by the zeal of young people to still remain passionate and radical for the things of God. The young people need to have the guidance and wisdom of the elderly to be able to grow in maturity. We need to learn how to embrace each other’s differences – in terms of giftings, cultural backgrounds, lifestyles, language and see how we can actually learn from each other.
As long as the gospel is our foundation and love is the motivation, the gospel allows us freedom to actually embrace each other’s differences and yet still be strengthened in unity.
3. Disunity is a result of SIN (v3,4)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Please carefully note what these verses are trying to say. The reason for disunity isn’t really style issues, or worship preference or in marriage “communication issues” but the real issue that causes disunity is the “SIN ISSUE”.
There are 2 main root sins mentioned here:
a) Self-centredness:
How can I get noticed for doing this or that in the church?
If I’m serving the church in this way or that, I’m hoping that at least someone appreciates and acknowledges me for what I’m doing.
If I do this for the church or my spouse, what will I get in return?
At the core of it, I’m most concerned of how my needs are met in my church or my marriage?
b) Pride:
I’m not as bad as the person sitting next to me
I’ve got more biblical knowledge and I’ve been so actively involved in the church for years
This church event or Sunday service is successful due to my hard work.
Why should I go and reconcile when I was the one wronged? I’m right! I’ve not done anything wrong. Especially in marriages there is that common joke which people crack – best way to have a successful marriage – just say that the wife is right. I don’t agree to that because in an argument or a fight – both are in sin and both aren’t right.
If I have to sum up all of these statements that I’m sure we’ve said or thought about in our lives, it’ll come to this “I deserve better”. In our sinful selves we all think we are entitled to something better because we think that we are great human beings.
But we aren’t. We are people whose hearts the Bible describes as “desperately sick”. Apart from the grace of what Christ did for us, we have absolutely no hope. And we are no better than the person sitting right next to us. The person sitting next to us needs infinite grace and so do we.
Even though we are believers saved by grace, we need to recognize the pride and self-centredness that is so evident and prominent in our hearts.
Which brings me to the last observation:
Only the Gospel can heal Disunity (v3,4)
How do you know if a person is truly in love with Jesus? By his biblical knowledge? No. By his charisma? No. By his great spiritual feats and accomplishments? No.
Look at his humility! And how does a man become humble knowing how prideful and self-centred we are?
By kneeling before our Savior and realizing what Jesus did for us in spite of our rejection – how He faithfully pursued us, how He laid down everything for us, how paid the costliest sacrifice and opened the glorious gates of eternal fellowship with Him. That absolutely humbles us.
Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage and remind you of the power of the gospel this morning. I remember many times either at home, or while listening to a sermon travelling or while at a church gathering like this – my heart was filled with pride and selfishness and being hardened.
But in those times when the gospel was preached, I can’t express but it felt like something was powerfully breaking through my hardened heart mainly humbling me and allowing me to receive the truth and instruction from God. If you are also experiencing self-centredness and pride this morning,
I would urge you to come before our Savior and ask Him to reveal His love and kindness to you. Ask to melt your hardened heart so that you can enjoy true fellowship with Him.
As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “A Joy Filled Life” from the letter to the Philippians. As we’ve been studying this letter, we realize that this “joy” that is being described in this letter is being experienced not through the best of scenarios and circumstances.
One would imagine someone who speaks about joy to be in a beautiful, calm, pleasant, pain-free environment but Paul actually writes this letter about joy in a prison cell. One of the verses that encouraged all of us last weekend was v21 – “To live is Christ and to die is gain”.
So much is the joy and treasure found in the midst of a prison cell and in suffering. And what we will see this week is not only was Paul undergoing suffering but also was the church at Philippi. Their circumstances were no less difficult and challenging than Paul’s. Read with me in v27-30
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy[h] of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
I want to ask this question to a few of us whose home isn’t in Mumbai. You’ve moved cities and come to Mumbai for either work or studies. Do you remember the last thing your parents told you before you left home?
Probably something on the lines of: make sure you eat well. Make sure you’re staying in a good locality and make sure that you have good friends. And every time they call you, these are the same things that they check on you.
It’s coming from a place of concern and they want to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself in their absence. And in some similar ways I think Paul is trying to make sure that the Philippian church is doing well. Paul after all is their spiritual father in the faith.
He brought the gospel to them, discipled them, nurtured them and you’d have to believe that they were dependent on him as well. But now they find themselves in a position where he’s far from them bound in a prison cell while they are in Philippi without their spiritual father facing persecution for the same faith.
What is the most important thing for them to know, believe and obey right now? When we go through real persecution in our homes and workplaces because of our faith…what is the most important thing we need to know, believe and obey?
V27 says: Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. The Greek phrase for manner of life is actually “behave or conduct yourself as a citizen who has been changed by the gospel”.
You might be a citizen of Rome or India but your true citizenship is of heaven and you must live a life in line with the gospel. I hope all of us have this question right now – okay, but what is a life worthy of the gospel? It’s a life that recognizes that it’s
Because of God and not because of us
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
As we think about our past – we don’t look at it as glory or something great but rather as being lost and dead. We were not great but dead. In our rebellion and sin, we were incapable of turning to God and responding to God by ourselves.
That’s what “dead” means. But here’s God’s commitment toward us. He reveals his goodness and loving kindness. Which means that we deserved condemnation and destruction but God chose to show us kindness. And this kindness is not because of good works or great efforts (filthy rags) but because of God’s mercy.
Because we were dead, God had to wash what was unclean and repair the broken wiring through the Holy Spirit. This wonderful gift was made possible only because God’s Son – Jesus Christ fully and sufficiently paid the complete price on the cross. He didn’t pay half. He didn’t pay 75%. He paid it all! And He rose again to declare the work is done and those who commit and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ (not me but because of Him) will have no reason to fear God’s judgment but instead enjoy God’s love and fellowship.
That’s why it’s so essential for us to know “It’s Because of God, not because of us”. That’s the theme of the Christian life. Every single day we wake up, we remind ourselves of the same. Every single Sunday we come to the Gathering, we say the same thing. We sing the same thing.
For God and not for us
Sometimes there is this misconception that because of the gospel and grace, it lowers the standard of holiness for God’s people. And that’s absolutely not true. If anything, it raises the standard and shows that we all have a higher calling.
You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:19,20) – You belong to God. You are His. Live for Him.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. – Old man – Old person – dead…if you’ve understood and responded to love of God, then your Boss has changed. Your Master has changed. Your reason to live has changed.
Out of Love
And this obedience and pursuit of holiness and living a life worthy of the gospel isn’t done out of reluctance or unwillingness – it is done out of love.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15) – We obey out of love for Christ. Our motivation for obedience also has radically changed through the gospel. We read the Bible each morning not because we expect some blessing from God but out of love.
We share the gospel with the people in our lives not out of compulsion but out of love. We pursue holy living not to earn God’s favour but out of love for God. We repent of our sins not only because we want to be guilt-free but because we love Christ and we want to grow in a relationship with Him.
And that’s the most important thing for all of us to know, believe and obey each and every day! Even if this is the only thing that you remember from today – that’s great because we need to live a manner of life worthy of the gospel. We need to remind each other about this same thing every every day.
Here’s Paul’s application for the Philippian believers. He’s telling them that the gospel of Christ & living a manner worthy of the gospel was going to produce:
1. Internal Unity
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy[h] of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
Although the Philippian church was fruitful, generous, obedient, like any other church they also had divisions and fights among them. We’ll be reading a little more about that in the coming chapters but their greatest struggle was to find unity among the members.
Think about this guys – imagine an army of one nation trying to battle against another army. What would happen if one of those armies started fighting amongst themselves? Total chaos and a lost war.
You can imagine how divisions and fights within the church affect the witness of the church.
This is what Mahatma Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” And so many like him are put-off by what happens in a church & that’s why there are some people who chose not to be a part of a church because they see the mess that’s in it.
When we come together as a church – we do bring alongwith us our sins and differences which is why there is going to be conflict. But instead of quitting and leaving the church because of the conflict that is in it, Christ calls us to commitment.
We are sinful, we are broken, we are different but the beauty is in seeing how Christ unites us and restores us through the gospel.
Imagine right now if there is a conflict within our church – what do we do? How do we deal with this issue? Take sides? No. We remind each other that we were saved not because of us but because of God’s mercy. That humbles us.
We remind each other that we live for God and not for us. No longer do we live for our own selfishness and pride. We remind each other that we will bear with each other and love each out of our love for Christ.No matter what we will fight for unity through forgiveness and repentance out of love for Christ.
2. External Boldness
One thing that was happening at the time is that the Philippian church was being hit with persecution. The problem people had with Christians was not so much that they were following Christ but that they were failing to properly worship the community gods especially the emperor.
Does that sound familiar? The decision to follow Christ brought severe social (families cutting ties), economic (losing their jobs and business) and legal consequences (taken to court, harsh punishments and being labelled as traitors). And it’s in this context that Paul tells them that the gospel was going to produce boldness in front of their opponents.
I know many times in churches we tend to focus on the happy and comfortable things – God’s love and peace and joy that He gives us but if we ignore this topic of “suffering” we end up missing out on a big part of what it means to be a Christian. Yes, you heard it right. Suffering for Christ – not for doing wrong – but for the gospel is a very important part of being a follower of Jesus.
Yes, and this passage offers two very important things that I don’t want us to miss out on:
i) Suffering is proof of your genuineness. (v28)
28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
Biblically – there are many tests that can help us understand if we are truly in the faith or not. One of those tests – is suffering – how we respond to suffering and if we are still standing in the midst of suffering reveals if we are genuine pakka believers or not.
If we look like the world, act like the rest of the world, talk like the rest of the world and think like the rest of the world, there would actually be no persecution. The world aggressively hates and opposes believers because they are radically different from all of them.
So this should really makes us question ourselves – have we ever faced opposition from our unbelieving family members or our work colleagues or neighbours because of the gospel? And if we’ve faced them, how are we standing? I’m not saying that we won’t experience pain or fear but is the suffering leading us to reject Christ or depend on Him all the more because our faith is genuine! I would challenge all of us to think on this.
ii) Suffering is a gift of God which indicates your union with Christ (v29)
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
Sometimes it seems contradictory, how can something like suffering be considered a gift from God. “The world will hate you because they hate me” is what Jesus said in John 15. All suffering because of the gospel ultimately happens because people are broken and rebellious toward Christ.
And the fact that that anger is directed toward us shows that we are His. We belong to Him. We are His family. He is united to us. And here’s the promise guys – God is not someone who allows us to suffer while He’s at a distance. His presence is not just with us but more powerfully experienced during times of suffering.
1 Peter 4:4 – If you insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
There are aspects of God’s character and love that we can only understand as we are suffering for Him. And that will deepen our love and faith in Him.
Last week Jinson
helped us understand the circumstances under which Paul was writing this letter
to the church in Philippi. We learnt that Paul was imprisoned for his faith in
Christ and for sharing the Gospel, he was suffering and going through hardships
for the sake of Christ as he is waiting for justice.
The man didn’t harm
anyone but was still convicted and was going through extreme pain and anguish.
And even in such harsh circumstances, at the end of verse 18 he says “Yes,
I will rejoice”.
In Philippians 1:19 we
see he is so full of hope, confident that he will never be ashamed, and that at
the end, Christ will be honoured in his body, whether he is alive or dead,
there is absolutely no fear or doubt in his mind, fully prepared even to die.
I’ve met a lot of
people in my life who go through tough circumstances and some even going
through hardships right now, some due to sickness in their body, some because
of pressure at work, some because of unfavourable conditions where people have
taken advantage of them, hard life, abuse, cheated close family etc. But it is
scarce to hear people use such words of hope and confidence as Paul is
expressing here.
Most people in such
circumstances go into depression and sorrow and end up blaming God or blaming
others for their circumstances.
And therefore, I find
Paul’s confidence and hope so amazing. And I’m sure a lot of people would
desire that they would also live a fearless life just like Paul with faith and
hope, responding in the same manner when facing hardships.
As easy as it sounds,
I realized that this kind of response is not something a person can manufacture
it. We can say these words with our mouth, but our hearts can be all messed up.
Here are some of the
advice people commonly give to us when we are facing hardships.
They ask us to do Positive thinking
Get drunk and forget your sorrows
Indulge in fleshly pleasures, and you forget all the worries in life
Some religious folks will ask you to repeat prayers and mantras to attain peace
Leave the world and go on a pilgrimage
Some will advise you to intake drugs
But as we all know
these solutions only give us temporary relief and joy, once the effect is over,
we all go back to the same feelings of sadness, loneliness, depression etc.
And as we continue to
read Paul’s letter, who is a follower of Christ we realize that there is
something deeper that’s going on in his heart because of which he can respond
the way he is responding. He is not drunk, or even hallucinating but is
speaking from a clear conscience and a steady mind.
What we learn in these
passages is Paul’s outlook towards life itself that is helping him rejoice and
stay hopeful in all circumstances.
Every situation in our
life is ultimately about survival and death. The best thing about life is
staying alive, and the worst thing is to die and leave this earth.
Some enjoy their
present life but dread the thought of death, and others hate their life so much
that they want to kill themselves because they want to get rid of all their
earthly sorrows and misery.
Paul seems to be fully
prepared and satisfied in both these scenarios. He says “For me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain”.
Paul, a Christian,
looks at both life and death and finds both of them fascinating and joy-filled.
In fact, he says it is difficult for me to choose which
one is better.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Today I want to focus
on Paul’s statement ‘to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ and discover what
did he mean when he said that.
Paul was not always a
hopeful and fearless person as he is at this moment in life. He worked for the
Roman empire and was recruited to find and kill all followers of Jesus. But his
life changed when he was travelling on the road Damascus as he was looking for
Christians in the other town, Jesus appeared to him and opened his heart and
mind to see and understand the truth about life and death.
Friends, there is a
reason why we live in brokenness and despair. The world we live in was not
meant to be corrupt, sinful, dark, selfish and full of hatred. It was supposed
to be a beautiful place. The Bible says, when God made the world, animals &
birds, mountains and trees, lakes and rivers, and human beings, it was pleasing
in his eyes. Man lived in perfect harmony with God and with nature. And
everything God made was meant to exalt him and glorify him.
And when God made man
and woman, he gave us a unique gift, and the gift was the free-will to
choose between good and evil. And He gave it to us so that willingly and out of
own choice, we would worship Him and honour Him, the one who created us in His
likeness and His image.
But, we misused our
free-will and are still misusing it daily.
But instead of using
our fill-will to choose Him and worship Him, we ended up choosing ourselves and
pursuing our selfish desires by disobeying his holy laws and commandment. If
the world is broken and dark, it is not because God made it that way; it is because
we chose to make it that way. And when our fore-father and mother,
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, it affected all of us.
It’s like a baby in a
mother’s womb. If the mother, while carrying a child in her womb, chose to
intake drugs or any poison, it automatically affects the baby who is in her.
Babies who are born to drug addict mother are called broken babies because they
end up having some deformity in the body when they are born.
When Adam and Eve
sinned, we were in them, as the baby in a mothers womb, and therefore we too
committed the hideous crime against our creator God, which is why our
relationship with God is broken. And according to God Holy law, the punishment
for sin and rebelliousness against him is only death.
We lost our peace and
joy. The peace and joy people in this world are seeking by doing good works,
going on a pilgrimage, beating themselves up, chasing the world and its
pleasure like a crazy man will never pay for the penalty of our sin we have
committed against God.
But the good news is,
about which Paul who encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus writes in Romans
5:6-11
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
On the road to
Damascus, when Paul met with Jesus, he realized the one whom he hated was
Christ, the Son of God, who paid the penalty of his sins by dying on the cross,
who rose again on the third day and is now sitting at the right hand of God and
is interceding for us, who is the only one through whom he can achieve
salvation, through whom he can be restored into a relationship with God the
creator and not end up in hell but enter heaven.
And to attain this
salvation, all he had to
do was
repent of his
sins and believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, with all
his heart, mind and
soul.
And therefore, for
Paul to say ‘to live is Christ is to live a completely restored and free life,
one without condemnation, without fear of death, with full of hope and joy. And
for him to say ‘death is gain’ is because he knew his end would be glorious, in
heaven, he will ultimately meet Christ and spend his eternity in heaven. And he
is not able to decide which is better.
The extent of his joy
and gratefulness was so large that he saw everything else in the world rubbish
in comparison to Christ. In Philippians 3:7-8
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Friends, it is one
thing to say we know about Christ and it’s a totally another thing to say we’ve
experienced Christ and His saving power in our lives.
A person who has
genuinely experienced Christ and His love, who has understood this glorious
Gospel, he is a changed man. The Bible says when we sincerely repent of our
sins and believe in Jesus, our old self dies with him and we are born again.
And the person who
is genuinely born again treasures Christ more than all
the things and
the pleasure of
this world because he is convinced that in Christ
he has found everything his soul needs.
A person who is truly a believer in Christ lives in freedom, has hope in heart that no matter what happens in life, whether hardships or calamities or sickness or pain, he believes everything will ultimately work out for his good, and that Christ will be glorified in his body, whether in life or in death.
If we say we are
Christians and even after years, we are still not experiencing freedom and joy
in life. If we are not fully treasuring Christ more than the
worldly things and its pleasure. If we are living hopeless lives falling back
into depression and feelings of loneliness. If we are still living as our old
self, we have to question our faith.
It’s time that we turn
to Christ, not just in our mind, in our knowledge but our heart and our whole
being. All you have to do is repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus.
To be a Christian
doesn’t mean that you are born in a Christian family. To be a Christian doesn’t
mean that we are coming to church every Sunday. To be a Christian doesn’t mean
we know all the Christian songs. To be a Christian doesn’t mean we know the
Bible.
To be a Christian
means to experience Christ and his life-transforming power in our daily life.
Please do not be fooled. Don’t just be satisfied that you know about Jesus but
seek to experience him and his saving grace in your life on a daily basis.
If you think you are that person that claims to know Jesus but haven’t experienced his life-transforming power in your life, you may want to consider committing or maybe re-commit your Life to Christ today.
Feel free to reach out to us if you wish to speak to one of us. We would love to hear from you and pray with you.
Good morning church! As we are all aware, we’ve been going through a series titled “Joy filled life” from the letter to the Philippians. Especially over the last few weeks, our main focus has been on the topic of joy-filled prayer – the how, why and what of joy filled prayer.
This week we turn our focus to “Joy filled Ministry”. Now we may think – does “ministry” only apply to pastors and church leaders? The answer is no. Every person who has received the gospel and placed their faith in Jesus Christ is called to ministry.
From a new born believer to a believer who’s been in the faith for many years – we are all called to ministry – to proclaims the grace of God that He’s revealed and promised through His Son Jesus Christ. So let’s read today passage from Philippians 1:12-18
Can our ministry truly be joy filled? Is it possible to live
a life where we can daily experience joy as we share the gospel? And I
understand why it might be hard for us to believe that truth. Maybe it’s our
circumstances. Maybe it’s fears. Maybe it’s our reputation – all these things
can make it difficult for us to see ministry as something that brings joy. I
believe today’s passage offers us three amazing truths to encourage our hearts:
1. God’s purpose is greater than our circumstances
(v12-13)
12 I want you to know, brothers,[e] that what has
happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
I think it’ll be good to understand what exactly happened to
Paul to get the context. What were the circumstances that affected him at that
point?
Restricted Freedom: Apostle, pastor,
author and global missionary – Paul – he should’ve been travelling to various
cities preaching and teaching God’s Word. Instead he’s confined to a room where
he’s under house arrest being bound by chains and being guarded by a Roman
soldier 24/7.
Demeaning Status: He was labelled as a
prisoner of Rome. Perceived as someone who committed a crime against the state.
What does a tag of a prisoner/criminal do to someone’s ministry and reputation?
It can affect it big-time.
Suffered for Christ: In the eyes of the
world, life was quite comfortable and prosperous for him while he was an
unbelieving Jew, but the moment he turned to the Lord things started to get
really tough for him. He didn’t do anything deserving to be arrested and tried
in a court. The guilt that he’s being charged for: proclaiming God’s love and
rescue through Jesus Christ. He suffered for Christ.
Delayed Justice: Years have passed since
he was arrested in Jerusalem. Multiple rounds of interrogation and court
hearings took place but with no result. Eventually he had to appeal to Caesar and
that’s how he arrived in Rome. While he wrote this letter, the hearing with
Caesar was still pending. So he’s not received justice till then.
You can see and understand how this was not an easy time for
Paul and yet we see him make a remarkable statement where he says that all this
served to advance the gospel! How can something so difficult serve to advance
the gospel? The answer is in v13.
13 so that it has become known throughout the whole
imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
What’s unbelievable is that the imperial guard are a group
of 10,000 soldiers who are personal body guards of the Emperor. Influencers? Absolutely
– Big influencers. And the “rest” can probably refer to the members in Caesar’s
palace and even the city. We know in Philippians 4:22 – in Paul’s closing words
of the letter he mentions “saints from Caesar’s household send their greetings”!!!
Isn’t this amazing that members of Caesar’s palace and maybe even the royal
family turned to Jesus Christ through this situation?
Because God is God & because He is omnipotent – He
can use unlikely individuals in unlikely situations to reach unlikely people
groups with the gospel!
Unlikely Individuals: Paul – the renowned
cross-cultural missionary – who would’ve thought that God would chose him to
minister out here!
Unlikely Situations: Another interesting observation
is that this fruitful ministry did not take place in a huge hall or a
stadium but rather in prison!
Unlikely People Groups: This was probably the last
place most believers would chose for ministry because if things go south then
it could mean immediate death because you’re directly approaching the ruler of
the powerful Roman kingdom.
I’m sure for many of us – as believers we earnestly desire
to serve the Lord and be active in ministry. Although we desire fruitful
ministry, the problem is that we want to chose our own mission field! We think
“if I had a better job, then I would serve God fully”, “if I go to so and so
place, then I would be more active in sharing my faith”, “if God could change
my circumstance, then I will be able to serve Him better”, “If God could give
me better people around me, then I’ll minister to them better”. So we want our
own mission field but that’s not how God sees it.
God says “You are in the perfect mission field that I’ve
appointed for you right now”. You’ve been uniquely placed in this phase in
life, in this unique circumstance and among these unique people because you’re
in the perfect position to make Jesus known”.
Some of you might be thinking “Man, I’m in this current
circumstance as a consequence of my sin, can God still use me?” If you repent
of your sins, turn away from it today and trust in the forgiveness &
purpose that God has for you – you can still be used by God! God is more than
able to do it over.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things
work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose.
(Rom 8:28)
How do we know if it’s true? Well when we look at the Bible
we see numerous stories of men and women that have messed it up. Jacob, Moses,
David etc. But when they understood the faithfulness and mercy of God, they
turned to Him in repentance and God used them.
Unless God calls you to another place or another situation,
remember that you are in the best and perfect mission field for God to use you
to reach unique people with the gospel. That’s our calling! It might look
different from the person sitting next to you. That’s fine. But this is the
right mission field.
2. God’s faithfulness is greater than our fears (v14)
14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in
the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word[g] without
fear.
What’s interesting is to see how Paul’s imprisonment is now
influencing and encouraging other believers to speak and share the gospel
fearlessly. But how was that possible? How can other believers get encouraged
by the sufferings of a brother in Christ?
Here’s my thought on this. I think it might be because of
the continual joy and witness in Paul’s life. They probably thought – “He
should be depressed or frustrated or fearful or bitter by now” but for some
reason he’s full of joy and persistent in witnessing. How come? Was it because
Paul was emotionless or because Paul was in denial and didn’t accept his
circumstance? No, I don’t think so.
Not only did Paul understand that God’s purpose is greater
than his circumstances but he realized that God’s faithfulness is close to him,
is near him especially when he’s going through difficult times.
Turn with me for a minute to Acts 23:11. This happens while
Paul is still in Jerusalem before going to Rome. The Pharisees and Sadducees
and all the Jewish leaders are interrogating him in front of a Roman tribunal.
At one of the statements that Paul makes – the entire court room erupts in
great violence. To the extent that the Romans are fearful that Paul will be
torn into pieces. They quickly commanded him to be removed by force and brought
him back into the camp before things got worse. You can imagine the confusion
and fear that Paul experienced at that point. And then we read v11.
11 The following night the Lord stood by him and
said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in
Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”
Our Lord Jesus is not someone who just commands us to
witness for Him and live for Him while He observes from a distance. Our Lord
is with us…He stands with us especially as we go through difficult
circumstances. His faithfulness never departs from us! And that’s why even
in the most terrifying and troubling circumstances we can still experience
great joy and boldness.
Just think about the compelling statement we make when in spite
of our circumstances we still joyfully minister to others. Instead of going
further away from God during difficult circumstances, when other people see us
grow closer to the Lord Jesus then they are emboldened and inspired. Not
because they are bold and strong in themselves but because they’ve
understood that God’s faithfulness is much greater than our fears!
3. God’s glory is greater than our reputation (v15-18)
15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but
others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put
here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of
selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
What Paul says in v15-18 is that there were two types of people that were being emboldened to preach the gospel. One group were the ones with a sincere motive – they were inspired by Paul imprisonment as we read in the previous point.
But the other group were people who were using this opportunity to harm and damage Paul’s reputation. Although there isn’t too much mentioned about what they did, we know this for sure that they did it with impure motives for selfish gain.
Interestingly in v18 we see Paul make an unusual statement –
he says whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in this I
rejoice! Now Paul isn’t approving of their wrong motives…he’s clearly calling
that as sin but he’s taking a step back to not make his personal reputation as
the main issue. He wants to bring glory to God and isn’t primarily concerned
about the hit that his reputation is going to take.
And here’s the principle I want us gauge: as we engage with
people and share the gospel and when God gives us the privilege to see fruit in
ministry, it could also invite envy from some people. They might come and say
“I’m more qualified and more skilled – I deserve to have that ministry” and
this selfish ambition might drive them to attack and damage your reputation.
What should we do that time? Should we fight back? Retaliate? Give it back to
them in their own terms?
I think we need to remind ourselves that it’s not about us
ultimately. Our ministry is not about us but for God’s glory. The church is not
ours but it’s for God’s glory! It belongs to the Lord Jesus. So even as we are
fully invested in ministry – we are still in a sense holding onto it loosely.
Saju and I constantly remind each other and we always
mention it to you all – that this church doesn’t belong to either one of us.
It’s God’s church and He’s appointed us as overseers right now. When God say
it’s time to step down from this role, we’ll do that. And this doesn’t only
apply to pastors but also to all of us ministering to people around us, God’s
glory is more important than our reputation. This deals with humility and
that’s why it’s primarily a heart issue.
A few weeks back, we began a series titled “Joy-filled life” as we’ve been reading through the letter to the Philippians. Paul, who is the writer of this letter, emphasizes the importance of prayer right at the start itself. It’s a fantastic thing to study about and navigate through as a church.
A couple of weeks back, we tried to answer the “HOW” question of prayer as we went through the five ingredients of joy-filled prayer. Last week we learnt about the “WHY” of Joy filled prayer – what motivates to pray with joy and today we’ll try to understand the “WHAT” of Joy filled prayer – what’s the content of joy-filled prayer – what’s the substance of Joy filled prayer. Turn with me to Philippians 1:9-11:
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
If you were to pray about only one thing – just one thing for a person who is dear to you – it can be a family member or a friend or a co-worker, what would you end up praying for? I want us to think about what our honest answers would be.
Probably better job opportunities to be provided for that person.
Probably some healing if that person has an illness.
Probably that the person gets more engaged in church ministry.
Probably marriage if that person is looking out to get married.
The options are many and let me say there’s nothing wrong in praying and asking for God’s wisdom and help in any of these. But if you were only given a single point to pray for – what would be of highest priority? Think about it.
Here’s what the biblical text says is the main thing: “LOVE” – Love for God!
Out of all the things that Paul could pray for the Philippian church, he prayed intensely and earnestly that they would love God. The word prayer out here means supplication (Yachana) – which means begging and sincerely asking someone to do something for them. That’s the intensity with which Paul is making this prayer. And what does he pray for?
1. Abounding Love
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (v9)
So it’s not just love mentioned here – but abounding love – increasing love for God.
Why is that important?
Because love is what compels (Majboor) us to joyfully obey God, love drives us to radical obedience. Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15) God receives no glory and no honour if we obey him reluctantly and ritualistically.
Truly delighting and loving our Creator & Redeemer is what honours Him! And that’s why he prays that their love abounds more and more.
But one question here: how does our love for God abound more and more? How does it increase? The answer is in the same verse… by knowledge and discernment
a) Knowledge: Knowledge is knowing God through His Word. Knowing God is much different from just knowing about God. For example, I can say I know a lot about the Prime Minister, but that isn’t same as knowing him personally. I can read a lot of information about the PM online but still not know him. Similarly, “knowledge” in the Bible always implies knowledge that comes through personal fellowship.
In another prayer that Paul makes to the Ephesians, he puts it in this way:
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph 1:17 – NIV)
Now we may think what the connection between knowing God and loving God is? Because the more we “know God” through His Word, the more we’ll grow in our love and appreciation for Him!
We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is God’s love story for a people that were broken and lost.
When we see biblical narrative: We see God who is Holy, full of wisdom, Powerful – created the entire universe with His command – He spoke and came to be.
Out of the overflow of His joy and purpose, He created man and woman in His image. His intention for them was that they would love, obey and trust Him because He created them.
But quickly into that storyline, we see the first man and woman decide to rebel against God. They wanted to be their own God. They wanted to decide what was right and wrong for themselves.
Guess what that sounds like all of us in our thoughts and actions. And they went ahead and rebelled against God and threw themselves & all of humanity into brokenness and corruption.
From that moment on, humans were born in sin and fully saturated with sin. The immense brokenness that we experience in our hearts, actions and the world around us is a consequence of a separated life from God.
And we all stand guilty to face God’s wrath and judgment. This could’ve been the end of the story but “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” – (Eph 2:4,5)
When we were dead in our sins and unable to respond to God. Unable to reach out to God. He reached out to us. He came after us. And He stood in our place to face the penalty and the punishment that was directed toward us.
He died for us. Buried in a tomb and three days later rose again victoriously so that if we turned away from our sins and trust in the loving sacrifice and life of our Master and Redeemer, we would be saved! We would be made free! We would be declared not guilty! Most importantly, we would know God!
We would know the One who created us. We would see the One for whom we needed to live. We have a living hope that we look forward to! And when we read and think and pray and talk and believe these truths from Scripture, it fills our heart with love for God!
While on the one hand, knowledge is Knowing God through Scripture,
b) Discernment: Discernment is knowing God’s will for us through Scripture – What does God call me to do? What does God expect from me?
And this also enables us to love God more. Now we might wonder how does that happen?
Many times when we think about commandments, we think about it as a task-list to be accomplished or rules that curb our freedom but what if we looked at God’s commandments as the safe paths that our Father has laid out for us to protect and provide for us?
What if we saw it as loving instructions from our Creator who knows what’s best for His creation? What if we saw it as commands that will help us understand the character of our Father better? So discernment is knowing God’s will for us! Both Knowledge and Discernment help us to abound in love for God.
But not only is the prayer for abounding love, but it also mentions:
2. Sincere love
“so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”
When I love God by knowing who He is and Knowing His will for me, it should now lead me to approve and examine all the decisions and choices in my life.
The word approve means “scrutiny and examination”. We live in a time when reflective thinking isn’t encouraged. We keep ourselves occupied in so many things, including our phones, that it doesn’t give us any time to evaluate our choices and decisions in our lives.
Every single day we are making hundreds and millions of choices that all have implications with our hearts and responses to God’s will. To
give a few examples:
How should I respond to my parents?
What should I say in this situation or that?
How should I respond to my boss?
How must I deal with my sinful temptations?
Whom should I marry?
Which job should I take?
What should I watch on TV or the internet?
And these choices are not to be thought as of having any lesser spiritual value.
Let me take the job question, for example. Now when we usually think about another job – we often only think about if it’s paying more and if it’s more convenient.
But as a believer, we need to be asking some more questions to understand our heart motivation:
Will this job hurt or help my witness for Christ?
Am I finding my identity rooted in this job?
Am I seeking the approval of man by taking/not taking this job?
So, a lot of our decisions and choices daily have moral implications. God’s desire for us that we would examine these decisions and choices and lovingly obey Him.
But why is it that we find ourselves in many occasions and situations choosing ourselves and our sins instead of God? It’s because we love our sin more.
But, instead, in all our choices, the real question we need to ask ourselves honestly is “Do I love God more” or “Do I love this sin more?” That’s the real question we need to ask.
And as big and weighty is this question, we are hit with a more substantial question “how can someone like me in my frailty and weakness in sin be PURE and BLAMELESS on the day of Christ?”
I think the answer is found in the next verse which is why it’s not just abounding love and sincere love but it also the Exalting love.
3. Exalting love
“filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
It’s God who takes it upon Himself to assure and establish us.
V11 says on the day of Christ believers who have fully trusted in Him will be filled with the fruit of righteousness! Now, this is not self-righteousness – it’s not talking about our good works or self-efforts or accomplishments in our flesh – those all are “filthy rags”. It’s talking about the righteousness of Christ that we receive by faith.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)
There was a great exchange that happened on that cross because of which sinners like you and me have hope by trusting in God.
We receive the righteousness of Christ! His robe…completely by His grace!
Not just Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice but we have His own Spirit that’s being placed within us that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)
And also with that, we have the promise of God’s faithfulness in holding us till the end: My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29)
And what does all of this do in our hearts? When we see our Lord laying down His life for us to give us His righteousness, when we see the Spirit working in us, when we see our Father holding onto us – this love produces great hope which makes us want to repent and rely on Him. How can we run away from our God?
Therefore, like Paul, let us also pray over us and over others that, more than all the needs and necessities, that we grow in his love. His abounding love, His Sincere Love, His Exalting Love.
We are doing a new series called the Joy-Filled Life, expository preaching through the book of Philippians. We are looking through the opening statements of Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi in chapter 1.
Last Sunday, we saw HOW Paul prays for the Church of Philippi.
Today we will discover WHY Paul prays for the Church in Philippi, and
the Sunday after this we will see WHAT Paul prays for the Church in Philippi.
Before we look at the ‘why’ let’s once again refresh our memory and remind ourselves ‘how’ Paul prayed for the Church.
He prayed with Thanksgiving
He prayed Frequently
He prayed with the Gospel at the centre
He prayed by drawing encouragement from past testimonies
He prayed with an Expectant Heart
Even though we all said amen to the excellent sermon that Jinson preached last Sunday, confessed our prayerless heart from one another, committed to being more prayerful. My guess is most of us have failed to do so in this past one week.
And that is why today, we will learn the possible reasons why we might have failed to uphold each other in prayer as preached last week.
To discover the answer, we will now read the next two verses of Paul’s introductory statements to the Church of Philippi. It’s Philippians 1:7-8
Philippians 1:7-8
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
After explaining HOW Paul prayed for the Church, he is now saying ‘It is right for me to feel this way about you all. In other words ‘The reason WHY I prayed for you the way I prayed for you’ is because….
• I hold you in my heart
• Because you are partakers with me of grace
• I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus
Let me share with you three things I understand from Paul’s statements that motivated him to continue praying for them.
1. He held the Church close to his heart.
‘I hold you in my heart.’
If we are continually failing to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Church, then a relevant question to ask ourselves would be is it because we fail to hold each other close to our heart as Paul did.
And if that’s true then why and what stops us from doing so?
The first reason I could think of is that we fail to see the Church as God sees it.
The Church in the past and even today is portrayed in the wrong light in most of the world, and I don’t know what version of the Church you are exposed to and what version of the Church was picturized for you.
For some church is portrayed as a building where we go and say our prayers, make confessions to the statue of Mother Mary and baby Jesus.
For some church is described as a place where you go to get your needs met. Either healing or some support and help
For some church is portrayed as a place to find new friends, hang out with cool people and have fun
For some church is described as a place where only the so-called holy people go – A place where you will be judged for your wrongdoings, for your looks, for your behaviour etc.
For some church is where gossip happens
For some church is portrayed as an organization or a setup to control and manipulate people to give their money & make the leaders rich.
For some church is described as a place to quiet your soul, meditate and discover yourself.
The truth is, none of these is a correct representation of what the Church is described in the bible. And the reason we may be failing to hold the Church close to our heart maybe because in some manner we have a wrong understanding of the Church, we are failing to see the Church as God sees it.
You and I are the Church – The redeemed and saved children of God. It’s not a building, not a place, not an organization, not a Trust, not an NGO, not a Christian program on GOD tv & not a Youtube channel on the internet where you listen to Christian music and bible talks.
The Church is not a lifeless thing to which we can’t relate to.
The brother and sister in the Lord who is right now accessible to you in person, who you can meet, talk and have fellowship is the Church, sitting right next to you is the Church. Even the ones who may not be part of The Gathering church but some other church, a dear friend who is on the Lord.
In Ephesians 3:9-11 Paul writes it is through you and me (the Church) that God will make known the manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places which is according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul was able to hold the Church close to his heart because he understood the high value of this relationship with each person because of Christ, and the eternal purpose for which God was gathering people in this manner. He saw the Church as God saw it and not how the world (the Pharisees & Sadducees) portrayed it.
How we chose to see the Church depends on us. The world and people around us may have given us a faulty representation of the Church, but we must turn to the scriptures and see the Church as God sees us, only then we will be able to see how precious and marvellous is this body of Christ. Motivating us to hold it close to our heart and pray unceasingly to see it grow and flourish.
2. He Identified himself as part of the family.
The second reason why Paul would pray for the Church the way he prayed is that he identified himself with the Church when he said: “you are partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.”
He identifies that it is the same grace of God that saved him, also saved his brothers and sisters in the Church of Philippi. He recognizes that once we were all sinners and enemies of God, instruments of wrath. But God, in His mercy, sent his only begotten son Jesus to die for us so that we can be set free from sin and death as we confess our sins and believe in Jesus. He identifies, it was the same body of Christ that was broken for him was broken for them; the same blood that was shed for him was shed for them.
He relates to his salvation as the union with his real family.
Even Jesus, when he was asked to meet his natural mother and brother who was waiting on him, said: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
I am not saying that we have to ignore and discontinue our relationship with our natural family, but I’m saying we have to identify ourselves with our real family, which is the Church.
Brothers & sisters, it is essential that we see each other that way, to depend on in times of trouble, to lean on in times of turmoil, to confess our innermost feelings of shame when convicted of sins, to find encouragement when we are discouraged or disappointed.
And just as any other family, we may not be perfect. Each one will have their unique personalities, have their background they are dealing with, struggles that are unique, etc. But we are still a family.
When we see each other as our real family, know each other well and the struggles we go through we will feel the burden to uphold each other in prayer all the time, just as Paul.
3. He Longed to be with his family in Christ.
The third reason why Paul felt the way he felt for the Church is because he had a longing to be with them and to spend time with his real family in Christ. He says “how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus”
He didn’t just hold the Church close to heart and identified himself as part of the family, but he longed to be them.
Brothers & sisters, have you ever thought, what is it that stops us from longing to be with each other. Is it anger, unforgiveness, envy, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, doubt, distrust, or something else
These feelings are not from God. As a good Father, God desires his family to be united and close-knitted. The world outside is dark; there is danger lurking at every corner, the devil and his agents are all around the place waiting to pounce on God’s children.
To make sure we are safe and healthy, God wants us to stay united, desiring and longing to be with each other all the time. In the book of Acts, it is said that believers would meet each other every day, devoted to prayer, devoted to the apostles teaching and devoted to breaking of bread. And the Lord added to their number.
Sunday mornings, Gospel communities during the week, get-togethers, casual hangouts, movie nights with each other, going on a trek, are all opportunities for us to hang out with one another as often as we can. Let’s develop a natural longing to be with each other all the time as Paul did, and as we know each other better, know each other’s struggles in life, know each other’s desires and dreams, our hearts will be naturally drawn to uphold each other in prayer. Because that’s what we do, depend on God for all the needs and answers in life.
Conclusion
If you are struggling to pray for your brothers & sisters in church as Paul did, ask yourself these vital questions, and you will find your answers.
Q: What stops you from holding the Church close to your heart?
Q: Do you fail to identify yourself with your real family? Why?
Q: Is there a longing in your heart to stick close to your church family? If ‘no’ why?
Good morning church! We began a new series last weekend titled “Joy-filled life” which we’ll be covering from the letter to Philippians. Brother Saju set up the series for us beautifully by explaining the source of joy from the life testimonies of Paul and Timothy.
We learnt that the source and motivation for joy came through their “Devotion to Christ” and their “Desire for the Kingdom” which is why they introduce themselves as “servants of the Lord Jesus” in the very first verse. In today’s passage, we’ll be looking at the theme “Joy-filled Prayer” from verses 3-6.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:3-6)
Have you ever thought about praying with joy? For some of us it might be a strange combination of words. “Praying” and “Joy” might seem like opposites. Growing up I always struggled to understand this. We would go for long overnight prayer meetings and I would end up feeling really restless.
I would observe how some of the uncles and aunties would get emotional every time they prayed and so I wondered “Oh! Maybe we need to shed tears every time if God needs to hear us”. Please don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with all-night prayers and if your heart is being moved genuinely while praying, there’s nothing wrong with that either.
As a child, my own prayers were standard formula prayers that I would try to say with the most innocent expressions. I would keep repeating the same prayer every day. All to say that my observance as a child/teenager was that praying was a joyless activity. And it’s only to be used when things get really bad and out of hand. And I couldn’t be more wrong about that. What we’ll be studying in today’s passage and continuing into next week’s passage is the topic of “Prayer” – specifically “Joy-filled Prayer”. What does “Joy-filled Prayer” look like? What are the secret ingredients to it?
1. Thanksgiving
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you (v3)
Paul is exulting in thanksgiving as he’s thinking about the
Philippian church! He is expressing his gratitude to God for these believers. In
order to understand why Paul starts with thanksgiving, I looked up on all the
other mentions of thanksgiving in the Bible. Time and time again in the Bible
we see a consistent pattern of thanksgiving:
In the OT, we see that “thanksgiving” is a Command:
Psalm 100:4 – Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! – It was something that God desires in His people
In the NT, we see thanksgiving always mentioned alongside
prayer. Wherever there is prayer, there is also thanksgiving.
Col 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being
watchful in it with thanksgiving. – It’s something that’s necessary
Revelations 7:12: We see all the angels around the throne of God, the elders and the 4 living creatures falling on their faces before God in worship saying “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” – It’s something that’s done as a response to God
If I have to sum up all these passages, it seems that a
thankful heart comes from an understanding of who God is – how great and
merciful He is & an understanding of our humble position before a
great and merciful God. It comes from
understanding how God is our Help and how helpless we truly are.
If you’ve been around in any church, you would be familiar with the phrase “Thank God or Praise God”. Sometimes we use it just as an automatic filler statement. We know that that’s not how Paul used it here. Paul’s idea here is about adoration and worship to God! Because he knows that whatever is happening in lives of these believers is only because of God.
Even though Paul was known as the one who planted this church at Philippi – but he realizes and acknowledges that God was the one responsible for saving them, changing their hearts, giving them a new life and purpose. If anything, Paul was simply an instrument used by God.
Sometimes we mistakenly presume that we are responsible for changing people’s lives. I shared the gospel with this person, I encouraged this brother or sister, I led worship, I preached this message, I taught this lesson – God is the one who is changing people’s hearts.
We are just channels and instruments in the hands of God. Thanksgiving is the way by which we direct the credit and glory to God! And it’s also something that God uses to keep our prideful hearts at check. If today we are feeling really self-centred and prideful, a good question to ask ourselves would be: “what has my thanksgiving looked like over the past week?”
2. Frequent
always in every prayer of mine for you all (v4)
Another ingredient to joy filled prayer is “frequent and
consistent prayers” made for other people. But why does God want us to
repeatedly come back to him with the same requests? Does God have trouble
hearing our prayers? Or is God trying to wear us down with these repeated
prayers? Certainly not. I think there might be a few reasons for this:
God wants us to develop a true burden for the people in our lives. How many times have we seen this? That as we are praying for a brother or sister in Christ or for a neighbour who doesn’t believe in Jesus, we realize how God is actually creating a real burden for them in our hearts? To the extent where we are now being moved in our hearts and actions to find a way to fill that gap…find a way to serve and meet that need.
To teach our hearts what dependence looks like. Sometimes we think we know what trusting God means but we truly don’t. In reality we are relying on several crutches of self-confidence. And I think frequent and consistent prayers for other people’s faith reminds our hearts that the person can’t change or grow in his faith apart from the work of God.
3. Gospel-focused (v4,5)
making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your
partnership in the gospel
Did the Philippians have financial issues at the time? Sure. Did the Philippians have a need of physical healing among them? Sure. Could there be a genuine need for physical and material help? Sure. But it’s interesting how Paul doesn’t make that the focus of his prayer.
The focus of his joy filled prayer is the “gospel”. It’s the good news of God’s salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. But why did Paul not focus on these other things? Because Paul knows that they can only experience true joy through Jesus and the gospel. Nothing else. Nothing additional.
Imagine a parent who has a child who constantly gets cranky and demands different toys from the parent. Now if that parent spends all of his money to give toys to satisfy the child’s desire, and doesn’t have the money to provide for food and shelter, would you say that the parent cares for the child? No, it would unloving for the parent to do that.
Why? Because the child has more important needs than just toys. Similarly, our deepest need is not a material thing, is not the best job, is not the most attractive salary, is not found in a relationship – our deepest need is to be restored in a relationship with God which happens through Christ. Our deepest need is to enjoy a living daily relationship with God.
This should inform the way we even pray for our brothers and
sisters. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for each other’s physical needs but
if that’s the only focus of our prayers, then something is wrong. Why? Because
we need to be more concerned if their hearts are being cared for. We need to be
more concerned if they are growing in their faith. We need to be more concerned
if they are living holy lives. We need to be concerned if they are obeying God
no matter what the cost.
4. Encouraged by testimonies (v5)
from the first day until now.
Rewinding back to God’s faithfulness in the past is one of the key ways by which we can have joy filled prayers. When we think about how the church at Philippi came into being – we can’t help but notice the miracle wonderworking power of God.
When Paul arrives in Philippi one day he goes out during the time of prayer and speaks with some of the women who were there. Lydia was also present there and the word says as she heard the word, the Lord opened her heart to the gospel – she and her entire family got baptized.
Later on Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a slave woman and her owners put a false accusation and sent them to jail. While they were singing hymns and praying that night, a great earthquake shook the jail and the prison doors flung open.
The jailer thinking that the prisoners fled was about to kill himself. But then Paul called out to the jailer loudly to let him know that they were still there. The jailer comes to them and asks them what must he do to be saved!!! He and his family get saved and baptized that night. From both these incidents, the church at Philippi was birthed out of.
You can imagine the joy in the heart of Paul as he
recollected how God was faithful from Day 1 till date with the marvellous work
that He began in the hearts of the believers at Philippi! Don’t forget the
testimonies…don’t ignore the testimonies of your brothers and sisters in Christ
– why because these are stories about God’s faithfulness which will fuel your
heart to pray with joy for them.
5. Expectant (v6)
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work
in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
We can see a Confident Expectation in what God was going to
do!! For Paul to make such an emphatic statement – “I am sure of this….”, he
had to be trusting in
The Character of God – God is faithful to do
this – to do what He has promised. He won’t abandon. He won’t forget. He won’t
change His heart and mind.
The Ability of God – God is powerful enough to
do this. God is fully capable of changing us from the inside out and making us
perfect like His Son. Displaying the perfect righteousness of His Son. The work
that began before the foundations of the world. The work that revealed itself
on the cross. The work that will be fully completed when Christ returns will
happen.
Confident Expectation I believe cannot be manufactured apart from the Word of God. We need God’s word to repeatedly remind our hearts that He is faithful and will continue to be faithful.
We need God’s word through all the stories right throughout history to remind us that our God is omnipotent – there is nothing impossible for Him! This confident expectation as we pray for our brothers and sisters will bring about joy filled prayers.
One last thought – I know sometimes when we hear a sermon like this on prayer – our automatic response is of guilt because we know we aren’t spending as much time as we ought to do. But I want to address this slightly differently…I think the question isn’t so much about how much time…rather the question is what have we made our prayer out to be? Is it just a checklist for us that we tick in order feel good about ourselves and our day?
Have we made our prayers out to be only about ourselves? Have we not come to God in prayer because we are self-reliant and prideful? Those are the things we need to be repenting of. And let’s turn to our Savior who is the reason why our prayers are being heard and accepted by God. Let’s trust in Jesus Christ who has now removed the legalistic ritualistic understanding of prayer and given us the privilege of knowing and talking to our Father.
Let’s ask God to transform our prayer life that is filled with joy as we pray for others. Let’s ask God to fill it with thanksgiving, consistency, gospel-centredness and expectancy.
