Untitled Sermon

Philippians 1 verse 1 Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and deacons grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus now we're just going to stop there we read before the whole chapter and then up to verse 11 but we're just going to get through verse 6 this morning the whole focus of this study if you want a title or something to hang this study on

in our study of the book of Philippians is dealing with circumstantial Christianity learning to rejoice in the Lord learning to rejoice in the Lord is the overall title that's what's in the bulletin learning to rejoice in the Lord through our study in Philippians that's the main thing that I hope will come forth as we study together and as we learn to rejoice in the Lord we will be overcoming circumstantial Christianity now again circumstantial Christianity is that joy in the Lord when things are going great and the bills are going up and the kids are paid and the washer works and the car's running and the kids are doing fine and then the washer quits and the cars stop running and get hit and the kids start getting sick

and you don't have enough money to pay the bills and then it's God's abandoned me you've left me out here in the wilderness to die you don't love me anymore I knew you'd leave and then things start happening and the bills get paid and the car gets fixed and the washer goes running again the kids are healthy and praise you Lord and we have this circumstance circumstantial joy that we so often find ourselves as Christians writing and the study of Philippians is seeking to overcome that so that you can rejoice in the Lord always Paul says here and again I say rejoice now each chapter will have its own subheading and this chapter, chapter one really the subheading is we're learning to rejoice in the opportunities that we have to serve Christ

rejoicing in the opportunities to serve Christ is really the title of chapter one we're learning to rejoice in the Lord and in chapter one we're learning to rejoice in the opportunities that we have to serve Christ now when do we have opportunities to serve Christ every moment of every day every single moment that you live you have an opportunity to serve Christ but there will be granted it unto you special opportunities to serve Christ when will those happen usually when the washer breaks and the kids get sick and the car's in an accident when you go through those times of trial those are special opportunities for serving Christ and you and I are to learn to rejoice in those opportunities instead of being victims of circumstances

and ending up being circumstantial Christians now you end up learning what you teach you end up experiencing what you teach and so I really encourage all of you to teach in Sunday school teach in Children's Church we can use teachers regularly and so if you want to grow in your spiritual walk you want to grow in your Christian walk just take a quarter of teaching Sunday school you can talk to Gary after and I'm serious if you've never taught Children's Church you need to you need to experience that it will teach you how to be a servant that's what we're supposed to do you want to be great in God's kingdom learn to be servants of all and we always need servants in children's ministry you can just take a quarter you don't have to sign your life away

or you're first born you just I'll take a quarter I'll teach I don't know maybe go to a junior high oh God bless you you know go to a junior high but sign up to teach you'll be amazed at how you grow in your Christian walk you want to grow come out on a Friday night and go street witnessing you'll grow in your faith come and learn how to counsel new converts now you may say well I'm just a young baby Christian hey there's only a few things you need to know when you counsel somebody that comes forward at a concert or at a church service or as you lead somebody to Christ as you evangelize as you street witness you guys have friends that you'd like to have come to the Lord there's just a few things you need to know to be able to share with them

to get them started in their Christian walk and that's what Pastor Andy's going to be teaching at these new convert counseling classes but you want to grow in your Christian walk get involved in some of these things and you will learn what you teach you will experience what you teach and we've been talking about learning to rejoice in the Lord and learning to rejoice in the opportunities to serve Christ and the last two Friday nights have really been hairy for me where that's concerned a week ago Friday we were on our way back from the conference I was scheduled to speak here at seven o'clock at the graduation of our kids from Calvary Chapel Christian School and we landed in Phoenix the Phoenix airport and we were in the church

and we were in the church and we were in the church and we were in the church and we landed on time actually a little ahead of time and Steve Bliss and I were getting off the plane and we were coming down to Concourse and we were excited we were walking on those walkways between Concourse B and Concourse A we knew we were going to get there in time to come up to the gate and sit down and I was going to be able to sit there and for 45 minutes before the plane took off I was going to be able to work on the message for that night at graduation and we rounded the corner into Concourse A our gate was right there and we walked up and there's a line of people coming out from the desk there and there's a sign that's flashing right there that says flight 847

whatever it was to Wichita cancelled not delayed not you know going to be here in a little while cancelled no flight to Wichita and then they announced well you know all the passengers that were seeking to fly to wherever through this flight need to go down to the passenger information counter down the hall and there's this mass stampede from you know this gate and you go down and you get in this line and you stand for an hour in this line and you get up to the counter and they say well you know the next flight out we have goes to 530 and you get into Wichita at 930 and we can't even really guarantee a seat well you know we'll put you down and it looks like you got a seat but you'll have to just be there at 530

and you have one of two choices at that time you can walk in circumstantial Christianity and you can say oh wait a minute you know I'm supposed to be there I have to speak to one lady behind us in line that just came uncorked it you know and this is a secular thing you guys but many of you have been taught this that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and so people have an attitude and they think if you have an attitude you're going to get waited on and they're going to get me there by God you know and that lady just was coming unglued and I've got to be there I've got a granddaughter that's in a graduation thing and just unloaded on these people who have absolutely nothing to do with the problem you know it's not their fault that the plane broke

you know if you take time to think about it you might rather be glad it broke while it was on the ground but we have this idea that if I get mad enough I'll get them to do something I don't see that anywhere in here it doesn't say when the situation doesn't work right lose control it says just the opposite so you have a choice you can either do that and end up in circumstantial Christianity or you can do what we've been learning here and immediately you know I'm sitting there thinking no I've got to be back there and then verses 1 and 2 that we went through last week came to mind because I was preparing those for last Sunday and I could hear the Lord saying who are you? and I'm going I'm Mark you know who I am and he's no who are you?

oh yeah I'm a bond slave of Jesus what does that mean? it means I belong to you then whose problem is this? it's yours okay what are you Mark? I'm a pastor who's supposed to be speaking at a graduation ceremony no what are you? according to what you're teaching in verse 2 oh yeah I'm a saint I'm hogios I'm set aside unto you for special service so who's in control of this?

you are Lord okay where are you Mark? I'm in the Phoenix airport God and I'm late for the no according to what you're teaching in verse 2 where are you Mark? oh I'm in Christ Jesus okay so what does that mean? it means you've got the situation under control and I'm your bond slave and I'm called to be a servant and you want me to rejoice in the opportunity that you're giving me to serve you in this special situation I said okay and God blessed with that particular situation with Steve and I in fellowship and we got to fellowship with some guys we never would have had an opportunity to fellowship with and share the Lord and God blessed where that was concerned then this Friday night see Fridays you've got to understand this with me

because I operate on a schedule I have the little book that tells me who I am and where I'm supposed to be and apart from this one it says 8 o'clock you're supposed to be here and you know 9.15 you're supposed to be doing that and Fridays are study days for me Fridays are me and God me and the Lord preparing for Sunday morning so it's a special time you know so it's one of those you think God's going to honor and God's going to do battle against those time robbing enemies that are out there that are going to steal that time from you and Him and this Friday night we you know this Friday I was thinking well it's time for you and me Lord and that didn't work out when we got going Friday morning and Friday afternoon and so I was thinking Friday night God

Friday night you and me Lord right and I get home and we just walk in the door and there's a call and Hannah had been run over by a van and they wanted me at the hospital so we have to jump in the car and run to the hospital all the time thinking these thoughts and you're thinking oh God no please you know we just lift her to you and ask that you bless and your mercies poured out upon her and we get there and all that time a fleeting moment this time as we're going in and it's oh , when am I going to study you know save Hannah and bless her and make her strong when am I going to study and God's going who are you Mark and I'm a bond slave and I'm set aside and I'm in you but it's hard and we get there and Hannah's okay things are great

but I had a chance to pray for and to share with the guy that backed over in the van rejoicing in the opportunities that God gives you to serve Christ is what He wants us to learn those are the first three things that we learn in verses one and two last time is if we're going to learn to rejoice in the Lord you have to know who you are you're a bond slave in Jesus you're a bond slave of Christ you have to know what you are you're Hagios you're a servant you're a saint just like these saints in Philippi you're set aside to Him for special service and He's going to work through you in a special way you're not your own anymore you can't just go out and do things that you want to do all the time and just seek to please yourself you don't belong

to you anymore you belong to Him you're set aside unto Him and where are you you are in Him always always always always always no place you are that He isn't and He's ordained special work for you to do it at that particular time opportunities to serve Him so those three things we have to know but secondly we have to know what we're going to look at today verse three I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of this that He's going to He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus you not only need to know who you are and what you are and where you are we

we not only need to know that we need to cultivate the habit of prayer just like Paul did here we need to cultivate the habit of prayer now doesn't that sound neat isn't that a neat way to put it well it's not mine I didn't say that you sit there and think gee we need to we need to learn how to pray and God goes you're from Kansas how about using the word cultivate grab you know the farmer's attention cultivate the habit oh that's great Lord I didn't do that I got it from a commentary F.B. Myers commentary and he had this wonderful statement and he said habits of prayer need careful cultivation habits of prayer need careful cultivation now I know that you're probably like me and as I mentioned as far as time to study the word to read it

to listen to the word we're robbed of time and you're you're gonna be saying right along with me I just don't have time I mean I pray I pray we pray for dinner and for breakfast and for food like you know you're afraid your wife's poisoning you or something we pray at all of our meals and that's great but we need to cultivate the habit of prayer we need to look at examples like with the Apostle Paul of how to pray and cultivate that habit of prayer you see it doesn't make any difference how much well you just don't understand I am so busy I've got all these things to do it's we're at a six month period and it's time to take inventory and we're just out of time there's no time I'm working 12 hour days and then having to do stuff at home

and there's just too much to do you just don't understand Martin Luther said who was one of the fathers of the Reformation he said I have so much work to do today that I cannot get through it with less than three hours of prayer he knew the foundation of what was necessary to accomplish what was necessary how much how much preparation and prayer did you have this week for your week how much did you know you had those things scheduled the conference here speak at a graduation there maybe for you it's you've got extra days that you have to work because you needed to get done before Memorial Day weekend because you get an extra day off and you had to crank out those extra hours and take over somebody's shift who was sick how much prayer preparation

did you have yourself before all of that happened you see usually we're again circumstantial Christians we pray after the fact oh God I'm so exhausted you know I'm just wiped out usually we don't have a lot of preparation yet who do I talk to the most when I have questions or feelings of despair when I am exhausted who do I talk to do I talk to God or do I talk to other people am I quicker to talk to friends and spouses and all about my feelings and about my problems or do I talk to the Lord you see the habit of prayer does take cultivating what is cultivating what is cultivation well I are a city boy and I didn't know nothing about cultivation until we came back here and I watched my brother-in-law farm I mean I'm from you drag a stick and make

a rut and drop seed in and stamp it over and water it and something grows but I learned that when you cultivate ground ground lays fallow lies fallow hard it works into itself and it's like a rock and so you may come through with a spring tooth or with a disc and you disc that up and then you don't just leave that there because all you got is a bunch of clumpy ground and if you just leave clumpy ground for a while it'll go back to fallow it works its way right back into fallow so not only do you disc it or spring tooth it but then you plow then you come through and you take something one direction and work it another direction until all that thick clotty dirt is taken down into fine granules that you can kind of sink down into when you walk into it

then the seed is put in the ground and then it's irrigated or whatever the rain comes unless you live here and then it waters it and then you get a crop that grows but the cultivating is the work on the ground now listen our hearts even when we come to Christ can get fallow when it comes to our relationship with him and you know as well as I do that you have your schedules that you have to do this and that and this and that today and then all of a sudden on a morning you go there I am and I've got the word and I read and it seems like it's been a week and it has been a week since I've been with the Lord and you know that you need to take time with the Lord but you think I just don't have time no you and I have the time but we've allowed the ground to

become fallow and we hear these things about prayer and stuff like you're hearing today and you hear it and it sounds good and you know I need to do it but I don't know when because I've got this no it's immediate we do it now and we'll do it today before we leave here gotta break up the fallow ground cultivate prayer in our prayer life in our heart in our mind so we can receive the things of the Lord now look at verse three Paul says I thank my God every time I remember you and then verse four and all my prayers for you all in all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy verse three could be literally translated all my remembrance of you causes me to thank God all of my remembrance of you causes me to thank God you realize that none of

Paul's other epistles say that I mean he he says think talks about praying for the different churches he prays for them but in Corinthians and and in Thessalonians and all and nowhere else in his epistles does he say all of my remembrance of you causes me to thank God so the Philippians were so special to Paul in some way that every time he would think of them either collectively as the church or an individual Epaphrodites came and ministered to Paul Paul was sending Epaphrodites back to Philippi with this letter and so Epaphrodites is there maybe every time he would see Epaphrodites every time Epaphrodites would come to visit him or something probably would remind Paul of the Philippian church and he just would break out into thanksgiving to God

wouldn't that be great to have people feel that way about you you know every time they think of you or me every time every time I think of fill in the blank you know every time I think of Mark they just go oh thank you Lord you know thank you for Mark and for all that you're doing through him and all that wouldn't it be great instead of oh Mark oh God you know boy what a I hate to be around him he's always grumpy and complaining and all that that's how we should be seeking to be in the lives of others is that fragrance of Christ that always is rejoicing in the opportunities to serve him so that when we leave that aroma of Christ is there and they they think of you and they go wow thank you Lord just causes them to break out in thanksgiving for

Christ but more than that and really what the context is teaching us here is that that's the kind of attitude that we should have for others if we're cultivating the habit of prayer it involves giving thanks to God for other people learning to rejoice in the opportunities to serve Christ will involve cultivating the habit of prayer that includes learning to give thanks to God for others we have what's the one of the what's the most difficult thing you have in your Christian walk to deal with and don't say Satan because he's just there you know forget him he's a he's there but don't worry about it God's got him under control what's the what's the most important thing what's the most important struggle you and I will have in our Christian walk

it's each other that's the most ministry be great if it weren't for the people you know if we could come and sing praises to God and all and hear the word taught and go and not have to interact with anybody we'd be great but we gotta smell each other we gotta rub each other and we will we'll offend each other all over the place and do things and say things and just you know that's why people leave churches they get offended at other people the toughest thing we have to do is relate to each other and it's hard to learn to rejoice in the opportunities to serve Christ and to have joy in our relationships with each other if we're not learning how to give thanks to God for one another you see that's that's a key because it's easier to be critical and

to find fault than to give thanks to God for one another somebody offends you it's easier to let that thing just sit in your mind and you roll it over it's like we have this hologram in our mind and you take the offense that that person did and you just kind of look at it from all the angles why did they say that what made them think that how could they have said that why did they do that and you just examine every piece of that so that in your own mind your attitude towards that person is the next time you see him you know and you end up wanting to bite and devour and you're critical we just so many critical spirits in the church critical of everything that's going on critical of everybody that's going on critical of everything critical critical

critical what does God want us to do he wants us to rejoice in the opportunities that he's given us to serve him how do we do that when we're interacting with other people we have to cultivate the habit of giving thanks to him for one another somebody in offense to you right now let me let me give you the cure to that begin when that when that person's brought to mind begin to thank God for them Lord I thank you for that individual I thank you for what you're teaching me through that person I thank you for that person I thank you Lord because you're in control I'm your bond slave I'm set apart unto you I'm in you there's nothing they can do to me so thank you because in your wisdom you knew I needed to experience this particular situation and

I just really thank you for them otherwise you're going to end up being critical that's going to lead to bitterness that's going to lead to biting and devouring in chapter four Philippians we have two women in the Philippian church named Euodia and Sintichi and I'm probably mispronouncing their names but that's how I'm pronouncing them Euodia and Sintichi and they are evidently women in conflict that has caused some strife in the Philippian church and Paul encourages them to stop the bickering and he encourages those that are there to help bring these women back into fellowship back into strong culture now who knows what they may have done to Paul you know maybe they are they've done some things maybe that Paul could call up some critical attitudes

and stuff towards if he really wanted to but you know he's giving thanks to God for this particular church and God is changing his attitude towards them now look at verse four in all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy that word for prayer that's used in verse four is the word in the Greek and I think it's desai I'm probably mispronouncing that Greek word but it's used it means supplication supplication so Paul's not only giving thanks to God for the Philippians he's also asking God to meet their needs he's interviewing preceding on their behalf he's praying for God to meet their needs now let me ask you a question how much time when you pray how much of your time is spent asking for God to meet the needs of other people and how much of

your prayer time when you pray is taken up mainly with praying for your own needs well if you're busy down and study and pray then if you're like me when you do have time to pray it's God who's going to pray for you and God I need strength money help in this area help with my boss help with my spouse help with my kids I need help I need money I need time I need this I need that thank you God oh by the way Hannah got run over strengthen her Lord amen how much of our prayer time is really spent thanking God for other people and interceding for them that God would bless them that he would meet their need you know when you begin to thank God for these individuals who have wronged you it's amazing how God kind of gives you some insight into their

lives and all of a sudden you you it's a spirit that kind of says maybe it's because they're going through this stressful time in their life right now it's why they seem to bite you it's why they seem to be acting that maybe there's finances that they need and as you pray God lays that on your heart they need finances God bless them with finances and Lord if you want to use me and have me send an anonymous donation to them just to help them out just that comes from you I want to do that it's amazing when you do that how they're no longer enemies and you are brought into the into contact with them you become sensitive to them and concerned for them and Paul goes on to say in verse 4 and I always pray with joy and all my prayers for all of

you I always pray with joy literally that could be with joy making the prayer I always pray or I always with joy making the prayer for you and as you look at that as it could be translated that way or the way that it's translated in NIV you ask the question which came first the prayer or the joy did Paul pray first and from praying God gave him joy or did Paul see the opportunity to to serve Christ and saw the joy and that led to prayer well really if you look at it both feed each other if you have the joy of the Lord and you begin to pray for someone else you'll find that joy strengthened and if you don't if it's not there right now and you begin to pray you find that joy is revealed and that causes you to desire to pray more which causes

more joy to be revealed and and it just becomes a self-feeding perpetuating cycle it's just getting us into it really if you look at the context the context Paul is actually motivated to pray as he remembers them look down at verse five in all my prayers for all of you verse four I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day till now the partnership is the word called the word of grace in the Greek the koinonia Paul remembers the koinonia in the gospel that they have with him and that thought of that koinonia in the gospel is what gives him joy and so Paul as he cultivates his habit of prayer by giving thanks to God for these people he begins to make intercession for them praying for their

blessing and as he does that it causes him to remember the blessings that God's given him that's another thing that's another byproduct of this and it's a great thing to do as you and I cultivate this habit of prayer you and I will remember the blessings that God has given us through these people now it's very possible and this is all conjecture we're stepping way out into conjecture that sentichi and you odia those two women in chapter four maybe there was something that that Paul offended them in Paul was not mr. congeniality he didn't win the award for mr. nice guy I mean Paul was brusque if you've ever met pastor Romaine at Calvary I kind of think of Paul as probably like pastor Romaine Steve listen I went in we were in the sanctuary on Thursday

night and Steve said why would you like to meet pastor Romaine and I kind of chuckled and I said well he'd be kind of brusque if you met him and he said oh well maybe I don't want to meet him and he said where are the offices and I said they're over here and we had time I said you want to see the offices and he said yeah so we walked over to the offices and walk through the door and who's sitting behind the counter but pastor Romaine and so I said oh there's pastor Romaine Steve let's go meet him we walked up there and I said hi pastor Romaine we're pastors from Kansas and he said so what do you do in here why don't you go back to Kansas you know and you got to know him you know and I chuckled and I said well I just wanted to introduce Steve

Bliss to you he's a pastor pastor there too and he said well what do I want to meet him for he said the only person I care about is the guy that signs my checks and his last name is Smith now if you're not used to Romaine that might tend to offend you you might tend to be offended by the brusqueness of his manner but we sat there and kidded with him for a minute and finally he said so how was the conference it was pretty good and he's genuinely concerned you know but he has a manner that's brusque that's how Paul was and I can see Paul doing something to one of these ladies or something like that and them going you short little stubby nose Jewish person you know but they got it back together and as Paul is praying he's praying for

these two women they were obviously on his heart because he deals with them here and he's praying for them here in his in his epistle and he's it's with the fondness and so there's probably you know and again it's conjecture maybe they were some of the women that were there at the river when Paul first came to Philippi and prayed with Lydia and maybe they were some of the women first came to Christ and and maybe they ministered to Paul in a special way and and maybe one of them was baked something and one of them did something else and so as Paul's interceding for them God causes to be brought back to his remembrance the blessings that happen through these people and so I think you see these people were the Philippians were literally a part in

Koinonia with Paul's ministry through their generous giving he mentions that frequently that the other churches weren't able to give and the Philippians were poor and yet they gave out of their need they gave to help supply Paul's need and so Paul says in doing that you became part of our ministry part of the ministry of what's going on here is the result of your giving and and we don't talk a whole lot about finances here but if there's one thing I always want to talk about is that you're giving is part of your worship when you don't give you're not hurting me or you're not hurting the ministry God supplies the need you're hurting your relationship with the Lord it's a part of your worship of God it's a part of your getting to

see God move as you learn to give up and to be obedient and you're giving and you give worshiply to the Lord and say God here you know I give this to you you then become part of you are in partnership with us here in the ministry and you are part of the things that are happening as people are coming to Christ as a different ministries go out radio ministry we're hearing from people who who listen who either don't go to church or they're in another church and they they they're getting fed from this ministry and that's you have partnership in that the prison ministry is guys are led to the Lord up there and strengthened in Christ the Spanish ministry the tape ministry the newsletter the newspaper the newspaper the newspaper the newspaper the

the children's ministry the Juana's ministry all the different ministries you're a part of we're in Koinonia together and we worship the Lord through our giving in that and God uses that and brings forth fruit that we partner together in it's all part of it it's all part of that worship together and Paul sees that as he prays as he cultivates this habit of prayer God causes him to remember the blessings that God has brought through the Philippians and as you cultivate a habit of prayer that's what God is doing and that's what God is going to do in your life now finally Paul says in verse six that where he shows us that as we cultivate a habit of prayer you are actually understanding the assurance of God's faithfulness that song that

Lisa and I did that area that each of us as Christians need to know the assurance of God's faithfulness actually verses four through six are all one sentence look at this again verse four and all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy because of God's faithfulness as well as for others and as I've said before if you've been praying for anybody and I say what are we praying for you what's your prayers for another person well is it that they may be in their comfort zone with God's faithfulness of all day long good things of God's faithfulness all of you are not going to fill it up until the day of Christ Jesus that's all one verse so Paul is saying as he is praying that God is giving him an assurance of his God's faithfulness God is going to

complete the work that he has begun in you you need the and i need the assurance of that regularly because we live in an incomplete world we live in a world where faithfulness and loyalty are really sold to the highest bidder and we don't see that much anymore we see a world of incompleteness and a world that's temporary filled with things that are temporary we see very little faithfulness in the world today and people need to see it in the church i had a chance to go to lagos nigeria a few years ago on a missions trip a two-week missions trip lagos is a city that started off about the size of ark city it was an agricultural area they they exported agriculture to other nations in the world they were a strong agricultural

base in that part of africa in that part of nigeria the 60s came along in the early 70s in the oil boon and standard and several other the major oil industries went over there and exploited divided and divided and divided and divided and divided and divided and divided developed that area and people literally left the farms to come strike it rich in the city of lagos which is a seaport city and so that town went from a town of 15 000 to over a million people overnight and as you can imagine they couldn't do it in a correct way and little shanties and aluminum shack houses and half completed concrete block homes went up everywhere and people lived in slums with the idea that once things got going they were going to be able to do it again and

they would be able to build these mansions and have the things that the people in america had they started building huge business structures structures for businesses as they anticipated businesses relocating the lagos with the the oil rich wells that they had there but then the mid 70s hit and the the economy dropped out of the oil industry and you go to lagos now and you see these skeletons of concrete where they are incompleted structures and these little shanty homes and people gave up and they were able to build these mansions and have the things that their agricultural means and they now have to import agriculture into nigeria because they just cannot produce enough agriculture to feed themselves let alone to export

and it's a real pitiful situation and unfortunately that's how a lot of people are maybe even some of you sitting here feel that way as far as the lord is concerned you're afraid to really really trust and really believe that god is going to do a mighty work in your life that as you as you give your heart to him that he's going to take it and he says as he as he says here in verse six as paul alludes to he who has begun that good work and you will be faithful to complete it and you read those words and yet in your heart you're going i just don't see how that can happen because you just have been inundated with incompleteness around you and you have this idea that you're

going to give your life to god and he's going to take you out in the middle of the wilderness and desert you that's how the children of israel felt with moses that he brought them to the wilderness to die that god had abandoned them and maybe that's how you're feeling this morning i want you to learn how to rejoice in the lord i want you to learn how to rejoice in the opportunities that god is giving you to serve christ and for that you need to know who you are you are a bond slave of christ you need to know what you are your hagia you're holi you are set apart to him for special service you need to know where you are you're not in arc city kansas you're in christ and it doesn't make any difference where you are

and you need to know that you can cultivate that habit of prayer so you can be Begin to be thankful to God for what he's doing, for the people that he's brought into your lives, many who have hurt you severely. And you need to begin praying for them, that God will bless them, that God will meet their needs, and he will bring to your remembrance the way that he has blessed you through those people. And as he begins to do that, you begin to realize that it really doesn't make any difference what circumstances I've gone through. God has kept me, be it divorce, be it a death of a spouse, or the death of a child, be it being fired from a job, be it alienated from family members, be it prodigal children, be it the loss of means of support.

God has been faithful to bring you through that to this point. And he who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. And he wants you to know that, and he wants you to trust in that. Now, the last part of that verse, he says in verse 6, until the day of Christ Jesus. That's exciting. Lightfoot, who's a commentator from ages past, brings out that that can only mean

until the time of the rapture. It's used in Thessalonians and elsewhere concerning the day of Christ, which is different from the day of the Lord. It's used there regarding the coming of Christ for his church at the rapture of the church. So Paul, in writing as we look at that, Paul was anticipating the imminent return, the return of Christ. He was in prison.

He knew the consequences. He knew the chances that he might be dying, but he was anticipating the Lord's coming in the life of these Philippians. And so he's saying, otherwise he'd have said, he who began a good work in you will perform it until you die and stand face to face with the Lord, and then you'll be complete. He didn't say that. He said until the day of Christ Jesus,

which is that day that Jesus comes to snatch his church out. So Paul anticipated it, and it was a motivating factor to cause them to see that Jesus is coming, and soon I need to have my heart set aside. I need to learn to rejoice in the Lord. I need to learn to rejoice in the opportunities he's given me to serve Christ, and it's no different for you and I. Yes, they felt that way now for 2,000 years,

but they haven't had the things in place that they do now. Israel was not a nation. Israel had to be a nation before these things could be fulfilled. The day of Christ is coming soon, and he who has begun that good work in you will continue it until you see him face to face with the Lord. until you see him face to face with the Lord. And that's going to be soon.

At that point, you're going to be transformed into his likeness. This stuff is going to pass away. You're going to see him as he is, and you're going to reflect his glory. The glory is that of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now I want us, as we close today, let's stand. I don't want to just tell us this morning that we need to cultivate the habit of prayer

and cultivate the habit of praying for someone else. I want us, as we close, I want you to just do this with me, okay? Let's bow our heads. And as we close, as we close now, we're going to take just a moment and ask the Lord to bring to our remembrance somebody that, as we think right now, as he brings them to your remembrance, is just going to cause you to go, thank you, Lord.

God, I thank you for bringing that person into my life. And as I remember now, Lord, the things that you did for me through them, I just praise you and thank you. Do that for just a second. Just take a moment and let the Spirit bring somebody to mind. And then, then between you and the Lord, just thank him for that individual.