The Right Perspective Part 1

Would you all stand? We want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. And those of you online with us, Facebook, YouTube, all that good stuff. We want to welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to worship this morning, to study your word. Father, we ask that you would just go before now and just order our time together, Lord.

That you would be glorified.

That you would do your work in each of our hearts, Lord. That we would worship, express your worthiness, your worthship corporately this morning together. We have those opportunities individually to do this in various ways. In song, in giving, in serving, however you lead us to serve. To worship you, Lord. To express your worthiness, Lord. And so, Lord, maybe just kind of.

To begin to get that mindset. As we sing, we want to sing as unto you. Just love you, Lord. And express our love through our worship, Lord. We thank you, Lord. That you would be magnified. That we would be magnifying you as we live our life. May we be a shining light that reflects you in our life. And salt that has its zesty effect. And. The other things that it does, too, Lord, is it can have a little steam, too, Lord.

We ask that you would continue to bless, strengthen us, Lord. You may be seated. Father, we praise you. We praise you by faith. Because we may feel different ways. We may be going through different things. But we praise you by faith because you're worthy of our praise.

Sending your son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. To die in our stead. And as we just simply ask you into our hearts to forgive our sins. To make us those people you want us to be. You begin a work in our hearts. And we're set free from the bondage of sin. Even though we have this old nature we deal with. You are faithful, God. And we thank you in Jesus' name.

Your mercy. Your sovereignty. Your loving kindness, Lord.

Through the floods, whatever it may be. You're always there. Faithful. We thank you.

We thank you, Lord. So, Father, as we express our love for you. As we talk about how we love your voice, Lord. It's our desire to this life that we are just that branch hooked to the vine. And Jesus, you're the vine. We're the branches. And the Father is the husband. And so, Lord, we want to abide in you. We want to rest in you, Lord. We want to realize our total sustenance is in you.

We're really nothing without you, Lord. We just thank you for who you are this morning, God. And, God, we just want to express our gratitude to you this morning. For what you've done for us, Lord. God, for the new life that we have in you, Lord. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you for what you've done for us through your son, Jesus. Lord, we thank you.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Bless our time now. And anoint Pastor Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word. Bless Jim as he comes up. And we just give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin the process of locating your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements here.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us here this morning. A few things to take note of in your bulletin. As usual, the things on the left-hand side are the things going on throughout the week. Over in the middle section, just a couple of things to remind you of. First of all is that the Bible study led by Glenn and Sandra will begin the second Thursday in February.

If you have any questions, you can talk to Glenn and Sandra afterwards. And then also, we still have one spot. And I'm actually going to look at... Oh, there's two spots. I was... Concerned if that was correct or not. So, there's two spots still available to go to Guatemala. If you're interested in that, you can talk to Jana after the service. So, those are the things that are going on.

If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 150. Psalm 150. We'll be looking at the New American Standard for this part just so that we sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 150, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Jared and the even verses. Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him. Praise Him. Praise Him to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing.

Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And Lord, what a wonderful way to start this last Sunday in January than to say praise the Lord. And so, Father, we praise You for who You are. For Your goodness. For Your goodness.

And Lord, that You have given us Your Word. Father, Your Word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Your Word that is truth. And so, Father, as we spend time in it this morning, may You speak to our hearts. May You guide us closer to You. And may we, more than anything, see You more clearly this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

So, before we get into the Word this morning, usually around this time of the year, I start hearing from Jim Butler, who is our representative from the Gideons. And he says, hey, it's almost January. When can we come speak again? And I say, well, let's make it happen. So, we plan it. And I always love hearing what Jim Butler has to share because the ministry of the Gideons

is to go around and place God's Word anywhere that they can. And so, he is going to share with us this morning for just a few minutes about the ministry of the Gideons. And so, if I could invite up Jim Butler.

This is like coming home. I feel so comfortable here. Just a great feeling when you are around the true body of Christ sometimes. And that's not always true some places I go. But nevertheless, I want you to know that it slowed down on my response that people send me things that they want my money. I was up in December to 90 letters a month. People wanting something for maybe they wanted to...

To build a house or feed the poor or give loan money to the poor. In fact, I was kind of surprised. But I was interested because some would double my money if I sent it in. And then it was up to five times. Ten and twelve. And Thursday I got one that would multiply my offering 70 times. Wow. And... Not to be outdone, I received this particular desire. This person, this ministry said that if I would send in this coupon with my offering,

that in March they would have an offering and I could win $10,000. Not to be outdone. You know, that's better than the casino as far as... But anyway, if I send money to this organization, I could win $10,000. I could win $10,000. And I will receive an apostolic blessing from the Holy Father, Francis. And to top it off, I will get an intercession from the Virgin Mary,

invoking an abundance of divine grace. So if you're interested in any of those, I'll be glad to share them with you.

I like about a dozen of them that I received. I like about a dozen of them that I received because they all have to do with the Bible. You know, there's the Bible for India. There's the Bible for the world. Wycliffe Bible translators. I'm particularly fond of the voice of the martyrs because they go to hostile places, dangerous places to get out their scriptures.

And there's the American Bible Society and the Bible League. And of course, I'm with the Gideons. I like the Gideons because everything that you might decide to give to the Gideons for Bibles, I like the Gideons because everything that you might decide to give to the Gideons for Bibles, 100% of that money goes for that. There's no administrative cost that you incur.

It's all for the Bibles and the distribution of those Bibles. We still go to all those places, motels, hotels, hospitals, you know, places that I'm sure you're aware of. I just heard a testimony of there now. Some of the motels, some of them, the rooms will have, uh, Mormon Bibles. I do not suggest that you use those, but, uh, we're in, I guess you might say we're in competition with the devil.

And, uh, that's our feeling. We believe that the word of God is the most important thing there is in the world that you could possess. In fact, uh, one of the versions I, I like it says that God, uh, magnifies his word above his name. And so it's important to God. It's perfect according to God that, uh, the, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul and it's alive and it's

powerful, able to pierce through the, the soul and the spirit. And plus the fact that it can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Jesus said, um, what was it? My words are spirit. They are life. Whoever hears my word and believes on him who sent me gets eternal life and will never be. Judged. I mean, these are things, and you know, when you think about it being perfect

and I'm not going to give my standard line on that, that I usually do, but, uh, to, to imagine something perfect that we can possess and, and read. And so we make it our point. We just do two things. We tell people how to go to heaven and we give them scriptures whenever we're able to, um, I, uh, I guess I'm kind of excited that this year, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, Last year, we hit the two and a half billion mark in passing out scriptures.

And I like it because now I can say if you stack them from end to end to end to end and so on, they would go clear to the moon. Or now it's not seven and a half times around the world at the equator. It's now eight and a half times. If you get an idea of how many scriptures that we distribute and have over the years, we now, I just learned, have a hundred or three hundred and sixty one camps in the hostile, dangerous areas around the world, particularly in Africa, where there's like in Niger and Mali and Central African, Republican, Ethiopia, places where it's very dangerous to even open.

And we got a letter from a man named John Griffey from Corrigan, Texas, and he said so many times in hotels, I found comfort in picking up a Bible from the nightstand. I was always amazed at the Gideon's work in countries where I could not even carry my personal Bible in my luggage. So it's exciting to me to know that we are in places where. I wasn't sure we went and but we have what, twenty five, two hundred and fifty thousand Gideons in a couple of hundred countries where we publish.

And if you're if you have a smartphone and I don't know anybody who doesn't, I'd imagine those little ones back there have have a smartphone and you can get the Bible in twelve hundred and eighty different languages. They just go to the Gideon app and and download that. And you can get all twelve hundred and eighty languages. I don't think you speak that many.

But if you meet a Chinese person or a Russian or Japanese or somebody from Hackney or Udall, they'll find something in their in their language. Now, I I always try to find a new way to present the old message. And I and sort of an emphasis in my life has been the young people. And. So I got a letter here and it says the U.S.S.R. followed by China, Cuba and other communist regimes spared no expense in indoctrinating children.

Lennon said, we're the party of the future and the future belongs to the youth. And he started the young pioneers to promote the communist thinking of anti God. And then in Germany, it was. A fellow named Adolf and Mr. Hitler or for all whatever it is, he decided that he would start an organization. By the end of 1933, he had two million members of his Hitler youth movement.

And eventually every young person had to belong to that and and followed the dictates of the German people. Of. Their philosophy against the Jews and so on. And we see the fruit of that even today. A decade later, North Korea started emperor worship, you might say. And over there, even today, if you don't worship the leader of the country, then you are condemned and either go to prison or die because you don't.

And it's they have quite a following of the young people there. They're required. They're required to worship, uh, the emperor. I don't know what they call them, but you know what I mean? Uh, it's important. This person says that we understand what's at stake. Uh, persecuting regimes, uh, whether they're communists, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or secular list, make children their primary target.

And. It says ungodly governments attack the sacred role of parenthood because they know that's the path to victory. And so that's where my emphasis is going to be right now. Um, because, uh, we, we believe in young people and we've received letters back from different people that still their heart burns for the fact that the kids, our government has stopped us from.

Distributing. Scriptures to little kids, unless we stand across the street and they come and ask us for a scripture, then we can give them one. I can remember when I started over 40 years ago, we could go into any grade school in America except in New Jersey and we could, uh, pass out scriptures to the kids and every school everywhere in America had somebody passing out these, uh, these, uh, red testaments. And I imagine there may be somebody here.

Or at least. In the next service that remembers receiving one of those. And, uh, we got a letter back from, uh, a lady that worked at the vacation Bible school. And she said it was, uh, and she was, uh, what they call the auxiliary. That's the Gideon wives. And so, uh, she said, uh, it was a thrill to her to be able to work there because their theme was focused on outer space.

And she said the kids were really thrilled to realize. That it was a Gideon Bible taken up into outer space and read from the moon on that trip up there. And, uh, then there's a school bus driver from West Virginia. And, uh, he said that the greatest thrill he's had was getting the junior high kids little scriptures that were passed out there across the street from the school.

And, uh, the kids got on the bus and he said about a half a dozen of the scriptures that were passed out there across the street from the school. students started reading the scriptures and then they would say popcorn now i didn't know what that meant but there were some people last week in a church where i was and they said oh yeah that means somebody else has to read and so they said popcorn and somebody else would start reading and he said my bus has never been so quiet so silent all the way as we took the kids home and he said today they brought their scriptures back and are reading them on the bus again kids need that and we are responsible to get them to them and so that's going to be my personal

emphasis and i i hope that you'll make that a matter of your prayers we have a letter from a school teacher named shirley fox and shirley writes for over five years i've kept your address taped to the wall over my telephone and i've moved three times since then and each time i was careful to take the address with me i knew i wanted to donate to your work and back then i thought a twenty dollar gift was a good one i didn't have more at that time today i'm blessed to be able to send you more i want you to be a i want to be a fisher of men and at the age of 75 this might be the closest i can come to that goal you how well i remember your visits in the red new testaments you passed out in my class

i sincerely believe that testament helped keep me on the road to christ i taught public school for 38 years and only on the end were scriptures forbidden how sad it is for the children of this generation to miss out on your message of hope and feel the electrifying power of the new testament in their hands i wish you a steady stream of open doors leading to open hearts and i'll be looking for you in that homeland with jesus and all the others whose fruit has blossomed because of god's word and so that's uh... our emphasis this year i trust that if you want to be a part of that well that'll be made available to you at the end of the service do i still stand back there and i'll have my body and soul stand back there and i'll have my body and soul

stand back there and i'll have my body and soul Bible open and if you'd like to contribute well we'd love to send some bibles somewhere and thank you for the privilege of coming here brother i do appreciate it and and uh... everything you've done for the gideons in the past thank you boy i appreciate that ministry it is good to see god's word go out and to do things that sometimes we forget just a plain simple reading of god's word can do so that being said let's open up an hour of bibles to the book of philippians chapter one philippians chapter one we're going to be starting down in verse twelve but before we do as you're opening there i'd like to make a few uh... kind of introductory statements here

uh... first of all we're getting into the meat of the book of philippians now we've dealt with kind of the introduction who wrote it who it's written to uh... the greeting that paul gave and then last week of course we looked at that introductory prayer that paul had for the philippian people how he prayed that their love would continue to grow their knowledge would continue to grow their discernment would continue to grow so that they could approve the excellent things and be able to grow in their faith as we get into the meat of the book of philippians there's four chapters in each of the chapters of the book of philippians is going to teach us a lesson on joy a lesson about what it looks like to live a life full of joy

so the first lesson that we'll look at is the lesson of the right perspective that joy comes from having the right perspective and so this'll take more than one week to get through so this is the first section which is the right perspective part one now for the rest of chapter one there's three things he's gonna teach us about the right perspective he's going to give us the right perspective on trials he's going to give us the right perspective on life and death and he's gonna give us the the right perspective on our heavenly citizenship so this morning what we're gonna talk about is the right perspective on trials. Now I've debated on where to start with this. There's a couple of different stories that

are great introductory stories that deal with trials, but I went back and listened to a message by Dr. David Jeremiah that he gave earlier this year. Matter of fact, I think it was January 4th where he taught on this exact passage of scripture. And he shared a story that I've always enjoyed because I remember this story happening as a kid. There was a, when I was a young kid in the late

eighties, there was a baseball player. His name was Dave Drovecki and Dave Drovecki was a great left-handed pitcher. Matter of fact, I definitely pitched in some all-star games and I'm pretty sure he pitched in a world series with the, with the San Francisco Giants. And, and Dave Drovecki was also, is also a believer in Jesus Christ, firm believer in Jesus Christ. Well, in the middle of

one of his seasons, they discovered that he had cancer and, and it was located in his arm. As a matter of fact, they had to do surgery on that. What most people thought was a career ending surgery where they removed a significant portion of the muscle mass in his arm, especially in his rear deltoid, which is very important for a pitcher. Everybody said there was no way he would ever pitch again, but by the grace of God and some really, really good doctors and physical therapists, he was able to come back. As a matter of fact,

when I was a little kid, I read a book by Dave Drovecki called Comeback and it chronicled the story of how he came back. And it was a book that he wrote about how he came back and how he came back from this injury and how by God's grace, he was able to come back and pitch again. And that's exactly what he did. He came back in the, in the middle of the season. I believe it was 1988. It

might've been 1989. He came back during that season and he pitched his very first game after coming back from cancer. Miraculous. Everybody talked about it. And he won his first game that he came back for. Everything was looking really great for Dave Drovecki. And then came the next rotation five days later for him to pitch again. And in the middle of him pitching again, if I remember correctly, it was the Montreal Expos.

He was pitching against the Montreal Expos in Montreal and he wound up to pitch. And when he pitched, his arm snapped in half because what they did not realize is that the cancer had come back and it had affected his bone. And he would never pitch again. Isn't that sad? That's just such a sad story. And he had to end up having his entire left arm removed. As a matter of fact, if you look

at the picture, there's nothing there. It was into the shoulders that they ended up having to take that all away. He never pitched again. As a matter of fact, Dave Drovecki went through an incredibly dark time in his life. I actually watched an interview with him last night, an interview that actually took place earlier in January because he was speaking at a fantasy camp for

the San Diego Padres for a bunch of people who had disabilities kind of like his. And they got to ask him questions and they said, what was that like? And he said, honestly, I reached a dark, dark place where I was incredibly depressed and I was not a very good human being to be around. He said, but you know what? My wife simply put up with me during that entire time. And every now and then she would say, I don't know when you're going to come back,

but I'm looking forward to it because this is not who you really are. He said, I had friends that just sat with me. They were just there for me. As I went through this time of very great denial and I didn't know if I was ever going to come out. He said, but by the grace of God, and he said, I know some people think this is weird as he's talking to these two guys on this

radio program. He said, I know this sounds weird to some people, but by the grace of God, I came out of that. And I learned that the platform that I now have, I would have never had any other way if it weren't for my injury, if it weren't for the fact that I no longer have a left arm. And that story of Dave Gervecki, which by the way, he wrote another book called When You Can't Come Back, where he chronicles this story and he tells about the dark place that he got to because in his mind, his life was over because he could no longer play baseball because that's what his identity was in. It was not until he came back to finding his identity

in Christ that he was able to ultimately become the man that he is today. A man who, by the way, can joke and say things like, gosh, I sure wish I had two arms because of the work that God has done in him. And the reason why is because in the midst of those trials, through fellowship with Jesus Christ and fellowship with other believers, he gained the right perspective on trials. And that's what we see that Paul gained here as well. He had gained the right

perspective on trials because he saw that God uses the most horrific things, in our lives, to bring about something very beautiful. You see, no trial, no difficulty, nothing in our life is ever wasted. Nothing that happens in our lives is wasted. God uses all of it and he uses all of it in the absolute best way possible. The only time we waste anything in our lives, especially the trials in our lives, are when we wallow in them. Or when we wallow in

them and start to say, why? But why? Why, God? And we become obsessed with asking God, why? Forgetting that the correct question to ask God is not why, but the correct question to ask God is, what? What do you want to do in me through this? What do you want to do through me in this? What do you want to do with what you have brought into my life? Once we ask the right questions, God uses trials in the most powerful

way possible. And that's what we see in the midst of those trials. And that's what we see in the in our lives. And that's what Paul had learned. And so starting in chapter one, verse 12, it says this. Now, I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known

throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. And that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim it out of selfish ambition

rather than pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. Paul starts off by saying, I want you to know they had learned about the things that were going on with Paul. They had learned about his imprisonment. And after all, they had also

known about his past issues with being persecuted over the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, Paul says, I want you to understand from my experience what's really going on. He says, I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances, what are the circumstances that Paul was in right now? Well, Paul was imprisoned. He was in really one of the most difficult circumstances that most of us can imagine. But he says, I want you to know something

about my circumstances. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But I think we all could say, just like Paul, I want you to know about my circumstances. I want you to know about my circumstances. I want you to know about my circumstances. Because for you, considering you're sitting in here with me today, imprisonment is not the circumstance that you're in. But you're still

facing some kind of trial, many of you in here. Some of our circumstances look different because they're not imprisonment, but some of our circumstances have to do with illnesses, sicknesses, diseases that we have, sometimes debilitating diseases that we have that have created trials in our lives. And because of those trials in our lives, we find ourselves in that place of going, why? And sometimes we wallow in those, forgetting that God wants to use them for good. Some of you

are facing circumstances that have to do with finances. Your trial has to do with some aspect of finances in your life where you don't know how you're going to pay the next bill. Some of your trials that you deal with in life have to do with loss, loss of people that you care about greatly. Some of the trials that you're facing in your life have to do even with a loss of a job.

Perhaps you now are in a place where you're finding yourself looking for a new job. Perhaps the circumstances that you're facing in your life have to do even with a loss of a job. Perhaps you have found yourself in or broken family relationship or broken friendship relationships, whatever it is, whatever the trial that you are in, we need to understand something that by our circumstances, we can understand what God wants to do in the process. And so Paul says, I want you to know brethren about my circumstances. And then he's going to tell us four lessons

about trials, four lessons about having the right perspective on trials. Number one, he says, my trials have furthered the spread of the gospel trials, further the spread of the gospel. I would like for you to take note of what it says in verse 12 and 13. It says, no, I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for great progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ may be well known throughout the praetorian guard.

He says, they have actually turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. The old King James and the new King James use a different word for greater progress. It says the furtherance of the gospel. That Greek word is a pretty significant Greek word. That Greek word or furtherance or to make progress literally means to cut before. And it was a word in Paul's day that was used for this.

It was used of the woodcutters that would go ahead of the regular army to clear an impenetrable path, to create a path that could be easily traveled for the invading army. Now I want you to think about what Paul just said. He said, my circumstances, for him it was imprisonment, have just cleared an impenetrable path for an easy progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a question for you. Have you ever viewed trials like that?

Have you ever viewed trials like that? Have you ever viewed trials like that? Trials is something that actually clears the path for the greater progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You say, Ryan, I don't understand how that works. Well, let me explain it to you. Do you understand that in the process of your vulnerability, you become relatable to other people?

This is something I find in the church today. My wife and I have discussed this. It feels like in the church today, there's this idea that that's created that your life has to be perfect. And that if you don't have the perfect life, you probably can't be the right kind of Christian. You have to have enough money to send your kids to Christian school. You have to have enough money

to send your kids to Christian camp. You have to have enough money to make sure that you can attend all of the conferences so that you can have all of the right things so that you can attend the right church so that you can be the right kind of Christian. Only, you know what the problem is? There's not very many people that have that kind of money, huh? There's not that many people that

have that kind of availability, huh? And so we think, I don't have what all of the Instagram Christian influencers have. I can't be the right kind of Christian. I can't be the right kind of the right kind of Christian. Only you know what the problem is? It makes you unrelatable to everybody else. If you have all of the things that all the Christian Instagram influencers have,

because you now have a life that's unattainable by other people. And people don't look at you and say, Hey, they're just like me. And if they're still walking with Jesus, I can still be walking with Jesus. But do you know what? When you see the person get real honest and say, I'm having a real hard time. This is what's going on in my life. All of a sudden you go now that I can relate to the vulnerability that you experience in the midst

of a trial clears the path for the furtherance of the gospel, because it all of a sudden makes your story so much more relatable to everybody else that's going through a hard time. And they say, I see what he's going through. And I see how he still, seems to have the right kind of attitude, I wonder what's going on with him. I wonder what's going on with her. And there are doors that are open for you when trials are taking place in your life

that won't be open any other way. Because the attitude that you have is now the correct attitude in presenting the gospel to the people around you. Your vulnerability creates opportunity. But do you know how else it ends up clearing a path for the gospel? The trials that you go through put you in situations that you would have never been in any other way. Have you ever noticed

that? It puts you in places you would have never been to. I remember when Pastor Mark was going through cancer and he ended up in hospitals all the time. And every time he would end up in a hospital, he would have a new nurse to talk to. He would make sure he presented the truth of the gospel to them. I remember O.C. Bearden going through the same thing. You know who one of my

heroes is right now? And I don't know if he's watching this right now. I don't know if he's watching online. I'm sorry if you are. I'm not trying to embarrass you. It's Doug Dillner. I don't know how many of you know Doug, but Doug's been through two lung transplants now. And Doug is a kid that I grew up with. He's just a year younger than me. And I've known him my entire

life. And Doug's going through some really hard things. And he continually deals with illness based upon his lungs. But you know what Doug always has about him in all of the things that he goes through? He presents the gospel everywhere he goes. And he's a light everywhere that he goes. Because he uses his trials as a way to clear the path for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You see, brothers, the first thing, brothers and sisters, the first thing that we learn about trials is that trials produce the furtherance of the gospel because they clear the path for the message to be preached. The second thing that we learn about trials is this. Number two, trials produce a focus on Christ. Trials produce a focus on Christ. Notice what it says in verse 13.

So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. You know what Paul basically just said there? Everybody that is in the royal Roman government knows exactly why I'm in prison. You know why they knew why he was in prison? Because he told everybody. He told everybody. He told everybody.

He told everybody why he was in prison. And now everyone that knew who Paul was said that guy's here because of Jesus. Why on earth would you go to prison for Jesus? And all of a sudden now all of the focus is on Jesus. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing how trials produce a focus on Jesus Christ? It does it in two ways. Number one, it does it for you. Because when you are going

through a trial, if you stop asking why and stop wallowing, you start saying, Lord, I need you. Because isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing how all of a sudden when you're going through something really hard, you put the blinders on and you go, I don't care what else is going on in the whole rest of the world. This is

what I'm dealing with right now. And Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you every hour. I need you. Right? Like that quits being a song that you sing in worship. It starts being the words that you repeat over and over again in your life. And it increases your focus on Jesus. Pretty soon in the midst of your trial, the entertainment of the world just doesn't seem to be as fun anymore.

You know why? Because that doesn't offer you any hope. And what you're really want to find yourself doing is focusing in on Jesus. Pretty soon, all the pleasures of the world stop losing some of their luster because you know that those aren't doing anything to help you in the midst of your trial. You only want to focus on Jesus. All of a sudden, that trial has sharpened your focus on Jesus Christ. That's what it does for you.

But you know what happens when trials are going on in your life? It focuses on Jesus Christ because of all of the people around you. Now, I'm going to tell a quick story about my dad here, okay? He goes out all the time to get his tests run out at the hospital. And there's a lady that my mom works with out there who, as far as I know, is not a believer in Jesus Christ. And she always

wants to know about my dad. And she always wants to know how he's doing. And this lady who doesn't seem to have very much of a knowledge of Jesus Christ is believing that God can heal. You know why? Because trials create a focus on Jesus. We watch this goofy show at home, right? It's incredibly funny, but it's incredibly goofy. It's called Young Sheldon. Anybody ever watch this show?

And if you've ever watched Young Sheldon, you know that he's an atheist, right? So that bothers me sometimes while we're watching it, but it creates some really good conversations. I usually use all of those things, even shows that I don't really like, to turn it into a conversation about Jesus. We talk about it sometimes. There's a show, episode on last night that my daughter was watching. So I sat down and watched it with

her for a few minutes and there was a tornado. And this tornado comes through and all of a sudden, the mom starts praying. And Sheldon, who's an atheist, looks at his mom and says, mom, pray harder. Isn't that funny? And my wife pointed it out. She said, isn't it funny that Sheldon, the atheist, is looking at his mom and saying, mom, pray harder. You know why? Because trials

create a greater focus on Jesus. And if you are in the midst of a trial right now, and you're going to pray harder, you're going to pray harder. And you're going to pray harder. Why? Stop asking why and start saying, Lord, I want to see you because everybody else around you that knows that you're a believer in Jesus Christ, they're a little more focused on Jesus because of

you too. You may not even realize it because trials become a lens through which the entire world views Jesus Christ. And God uses those things to increase not only our focus on him, but the focus of all of the people around us on him. As well, trials improve our focus on Jesus. Number three, trials produce boldness in the brethren. Trials produce boldness in the brethren.

Notice what it says in verse 14, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak. The word of God without fear. And most of my brethren who trust in God now have more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Now, if you've been with us on Wednesday night, which a lot of you in here have been, but I'm going to go over this again.

We've looked at a couple of things. We're in the book of judges on Wednesday night and judges is just a fascinating book to me. Always has been since I was a little kid. The stories of the judges are just incredibly interesting. And so the first thing that we looked at was how the children of Israel failed to take the land. And you notice that the first group of people that failed to

completely drive out the inhabitants were the members of the tribe of Judah. And then they fell like dominoes from there. More and more of the tribes failed to drive out the inhabitants of the land. And we drew a conclusion from that, perhaps a spiritual application from that. And that's that failure tends to beget failure in our lives. Therefore, if you are around people who are

constantly compromised, you're not going to be able to do anything. You're not going to be able to compromise. You have a tendency to fall to the lowest common denominator and you will partake in that compromise as well. And so sometimes you have to separate yourself from the people who are constantly compromising. But last week we've started looking at the story of Gideon and we

saw that the exact opposite can be true as well because Gideon lived in a time of idolatry and he lived in a family of idolatry. And God came and spoke to Gideon and said, Gideon, you mighty man of valor, valor, who was in the, the place where he shouldn't have been with his knees knocking together in fear. He looks at him and says, you mighty man of valor, you're going to deliver the people. And Gideon goes, me? Am I the

Gideon you're talking to? He says, yes. He goes, but I'm the youngest. I'm the least of the tribe of Manasseh. I'm not the right guy for this. He says, no, you're the right guy. And here's what you're going to do. My first mission for you is this. You're going to go to your dad's house and you're going to take his oxen and you're going to tie his oxen, to the altar of Baal that's there and to the Asherah pole that's there. And you're going to

pull them down. And then you're going to cut up the Asherah pole and use it as a sacrifice to the Lord and take another oxen. You're going to sacrifice that oxen while you burn the wood from the Asherah pole. And Gideon goes, boy, that seems like a terrible idea, but okay. And so he goes and boldly does it in the middle of the night when no one can see him, right?

And the next morning, everybody gets up and they says, son of a gun, what happened? It was Gideon. Right? They saw him on the ring doorbell. They knew it was him. And so, so they said it was Gideon that did it. So they go to his dad and they're like, we got to get Gideon and we got to kill him. Now his dad is the one who owned the altar. He was probably somehow high up in the worship of Baal and his community.

But when Gideon took a stand for the Lord, you know what his dad said? Can't Baal defend himself? If Baal can't defend himself, what kind of a God is he? I stand with Gideon. So we learned the opposite can be true as well. And that's that courage begets courage. All it takes is for one person to stand up. All it takes is for one person to stand up and say, no, I'm going to stand for the things of the Lord.

I'm going to be a witness for the things of the Lord. I'm not going to give into all the garbage of the world anymore. I'm not going to give into all the garbage of the things going around me anymore. I am going to stand up and declare the truth. And you know what starts to happen slowly, but surely one more person stands up and then one more person stands up and then one more person stands up.

You know how I know this is true? Because I speak to groups of people. When you speak to groups of people, if you say, has anyone ever, it takes forever to get the first person to talk, right? It takes forever to get the first person to stand up. But once the first person stands up, everybody joins them. You ever notice that? I lead group discussions sometimes.

You know what's the hardest thing to do is to get the first person to talk. But when the first person talks, it opens the floodgates. When I do funeral services and I have people, they say, we want people to share. I'll say, okay, then one of you family members needs to go first. Because if you go first, everybody else will want to get up and share. If you don't, it'll be crickets the entire time that we stand there.

Because it just takes one person to stand up. Because then everybody else goes, it's okay. It's okay that they stood up. They didn't die. It's okay that they talked. Nobody made fun of them. It's okay that they made a stand. Because everybody else joined them. And what it takes is one person who will stand up and who will say, I will make a stand. And it's amazing how the dominoes fall after that.

And all of a sudden, everybody's standing. Now, that takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of strength. It takes a lot of grace. It takes the work of God in our lives. And quite frankly, it takes telling yourself no a lot. You know why? Because everything in you won't. It's because you don't want to say, don't stand up, don't stand up, don't stand up. Just sit down.

And you're like, no, I'm going to stand up. And once you do, it's amazing what happens. Because courage begets courage. Revival begets revival. Trials produce boldness in the people around us. Because when they see you going through a trial and continuing to be bold for your faith, they find themselves going, maybe it's okay for me to be bold in my faith. I'm not going through it.

They're going through. Right? And so, what do these trials do for us? What does it take to have the right perspective? Well, the right perspective, number one, means that trials further the spread of the gospel. Number two, it means trials produce a greater focus on Christ. Number three, trials produce boldness of the brethren. But then number four, trials produce the single purpose of Christ being preached.

The single purpose of Christ being preached. I want you to notice what he says. Dovetailing off of where he says, Many have grown bold to speak the word of God without fear. In verse 15 it says, Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and strife. Some from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim it out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. Paul says, those boldly speaking the word, we need to realize they fit into two categories. Some are doing it out of selfish ambition.

Some are doing it out of envy and strife. Some are doing it for the exact wrong reasons. Now, I want us to understand something. The people he's talking about here are not the Judaizers that are pushing legalism instead of Jesus. If that were the case, he would call that out. Because Paul had no problem calling that out. These were people who were really preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They were really preaching the truth. Problem is, they had the wrong motives. They wanted to build their kingdom, not God's kingdom. And they saw that Paul, an incredibly popular preacher, found himself landing on the ground. He landed in prison, and they saw it as an opportunity to build their church. They saw it as an opportunity to build their following.

They saw it as an opportunity to build their kingdom. Now, we have to understand something. What was true in Paul's day is absolutely true today. There are some out there preaching the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they're doing it for the wrong motives. They're doing it to build their kingdom. They're doing it to build their church. They're doing it to build their following.

They're doing it to sell their books. They're doing it to promote their YouTube channel. They're doing it to promote their website. They're doing it to build their kingdom. And we need to be well aware that there are people getting saved in churches right now where perhaps the pastor doesn't even know Jesus, because he's doing it for the wrong reasons. He's simply building a church.

I was listening to Joe Foch. He was teaching about this, and he said, you know what the worst thing that's happened to the Western culture church is? We started ordaining people because they have the right degree instead of ordaining people because they have the right calling. And we've created a bunch of professional pastors instead of called shepherds. Oh, that was good, wasn't it?

Boy, it made me test myself. Made me look at me and go, okay, Lord, am I really doing this for the right reason? And hit me to the core. But then there. There are some out there who are doing it for the exact right reasons. They are preaching the gospel from goodwill. They are preaching the gospel out of love. Both of those two groups of people exist. They existed in Paul's day, and they existed, and they exist today.

Matter of fact, Jesus told us that these groups were going to exist, didn't he? Remember the story of the wheat and the tares? He said they would grow together. I heard somebody say, why would God allow this church to last? So long if it's not a good church. I'm like, have you ever read the gospels? Of course, it's going to keep lasting because he said, let it wait until the judgment comes and then we'll separate them.

Then we'll separate the wheat from the chaff. The wheat from the tares. Those two things are going to be together. But Paul had the greatest perspective ever on this. He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. No matter what, the most important thing is that Christ is proclaimed. Now, I got to be honest with you,

at my stage in ministry right now, I'm still learning this lesson. Because I still get pretty irritated with some of the things that go on in the world today. I'm pretty hard on megachurches. I'm pretty hard on pastors with satellite campuses, because I disagree with those things. I disagree with the way some of these things are gone about. I feel like satellite campuses,

turn into a cult of personality. But you know what? It's not my job to do. Decide whether or not that's true. This is what I have to keep reminding myself of. There are people out there right now, that are just waiting to take advantage of one pastor falling, so that they could build their ministry up. And that's the exact wrong way to look at it. But that's not for me to decide.

I just need to be happy that Christ is being proclaimed. I just need to be happy that the message of the gospel is getting out there. I remember, one of my roommates in Bible college, gave me some great perspective on this long time ago. And you know, I used to always joke, okay, just take this joke for what it's worth. I may not crack this joke second service.

We'll see how it goes in this one. When I was fresh out of Bible college, actually, no, it was in between my first two years of Bible college. Benny Hinn was on every single morning, right before we left. And so my joke always was, I watched Benny Hinn before I left for work, and I healed. I healed everybody on the way, right? That was, that was always my joke.

Okay. It went pretty well. First service. A couple of you look offended. That's okay. But one of my roommates in Bible college was like, we joke about him, but my grandmother gave me some great perspective on this. She said, do you realize people get saved in his services? Do you realize that even though we disagree with his theology, that he turns it into more of a show,

people get saved in his services. And I was like, good call. Christ is being proclaimed. I might disagree with some things going on, I might disagree with a whole lot that's going on, but he's still giving out the word of God. It doesn't mean that you can stay in that church and continue to grow, but it does mean that Christ is being proclaimed. And I think that one of the greatest lessons that we have to learn,

especially in a town like Arkansas city, Kansas, where there are, if I remember correctly, 68 churches, pastor or pastor Butler may be able to correct me on that somewhere in that range. He says close enough. We have to remind ourselves of one thing. As long as the church is preaching the word of God, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter which church is growing.

It doesn't matter which church has the most attendance. It doesn't matter where the Holy spirit decides to move. He can decide to move on whenever church is giving out the word of God that he wants to. It doesn't have to be this one. And I need to pray for all the churches that are giving out the word of God because whether the word of God is being given out in pretense and for selfish

ambition, or whether the word of God is being out in goodwill for goodwill and for love, what matters is that the word is being preached. Why? Because trials produce in us a single purpose of Christ being preached. You see all Paul cared about in the midst of his trial is that the Jesus that he was in prison for continued to be glorified everywhere that everywhere in the world, everywhere that the word of God was being preached.

And it's kind of fascinating how trials do that to us because too many times in our lives, we want to build our own kingdom, right? And sometimes God's word and not any of you, other people, sometimes, sometimes God's word becomes the opportunity for me building my own kingdom. Right? And, and I claim all of the promises of God that are about good things happening for me thinking that God is more interested in my checkbook than he is the kingdom of heaven.

Right? Some people do that, but when the trial hits, all of a sudden you go, my checkbook's not nearly as important as the kingdom of God because it causes me to sit back and know what's really important in life. So that's one of the greatest things that happens to us. When trials come on us is all of a sudden we realize what's really important in life and that what's really important in life is ultimately whether or not Jesus Christ is made known.

We have a wonderful placard right on the front of this church. As you walk in, it's on the right hand side. It says one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You know how you gain that perspective as you go through trials, you realize it doesn't matter what else is going on in the world. It doesn't even matter my bank account, my house.

None of those things matter. There's only one thing that matters and that's the ministry of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ because all of this stuff on this earth, it's all going to get wiped away and there's only one thing that's going to last forever and it's my relationship with Jesus Christ. It produces a single focus on the preaching of Christ. Now, you know, you know, we'll discover this more as we go through the book of Philippians, but I don't want to leave you going.

How can I gain that kind of perspective? I'm going through trials right now. How could Paul be this way? Was he just some super saint? No, he wasn't a super saint. We've talked about how often he was scared in situations like this and the Holy Spirit had to show up sometimes in the form of an angel, sometimes a direct word from God, sometimes another brother and would tell him,

don't be afraid. So how was Paul able to have the right to be a saint? How was he able to have the right kind of perspective? I would tell you that there are two things that happened in the life of Paul that gave him the right perspective. Number one, he had an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. He had an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you know how I know that?

What's the first thing that we studied in the book of Philippians? His prayer for the Philippian people. And what do we say that that meant about Paul? Because in every letter he prays for people, it meant that his prayer life was strong. How could Paul have the right kind of perspective? He had an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ because apart from that,

you can never have the right kind of perspective. But you know, I think that there's a second reason why Paul had the right kind of perspective. He had the encouragement of fellow believers. He had the encouragement of fellow believers. Now I want to tell you two reasons why I think Paul had the encouragement of fellow believers. The first is who was with him when he wrote this letter.

Did you notice that? Paul and go ahead, shout it out. Timothy, Paul and Timothy. In other words, Timothy is with him while he's writing the letter. How was Paul able to maintain his right perspective? Not only because of his abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, but because brothers and sisters were there with him. You know, the second reason why I think that Paul had the fellowship of the brethren.

Why is he writing Philippians? Because Epaphroditus brought him an offering from the Philippian people. Can you imagine that offering showing up and him going?

They're still with me. It may only be in prayer, but they're still with me. Brothers and sisters, if you want to have the right kind of perspective, if you want to be able to know that trials further the spread of the gospel, that trials produce a focus on Christ, that trials produce boldness, that trials produce a singleness of purpose. The number one, you need to make sure that you have an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer and the word.

And number two, you need the fellowship of the brethren. We need the fellowship of each other. Now I'm going to be honest with you guys. I am one person. We have a lot of people in this church and I can't get to everybody. And sometimes people fall through the cracks. It's happened. It's happened two or three times this last year. And I've had to say, I'm really sorry.

I did not take the time to reach out the way that I should have. But the fact of the matter is the church is not intended to be an organization run by a group of five or six people. It's intended to be a body that ministers to each other. And one of the things that stuck out to me the most about the story of Dave is that he said, I really began, I really began to heal when a friend of mine spent about a year just sitting with me.

He goes, I don't even know that he ever said a word when he showed up. He just sat with me and I'm here to tell you right now, friends, the people that sit around you are not just the people that attend the same organization that you do. They're your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ and you should make sure that you know them. You should make sure that you know their name.

You should make sure that you have their phone number. You should make sure that you're spending time with them because when it comes right down to it, if we don't have that, why are we here? We're here for the mutual encouragement of each other as the body of Christ. So my friends, if you want that right perspective, sit with each other, talk with each other, spend time together because we need each other.

Amen. Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me, father, we come to you and Lord, I thank you for the time that we've been able to spend in your word. I thank you for the words from, from Jim. Lord, it's so encouraging to see the power that your word of God, that your word has in the lives of people. And so Lord, be with us as we go out from here. Lord, may, we abide in you. May we just love on each other.

Lord, continue to grow us in you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

One that gives us the breath in our lungs. Lord, God, help us to use it to return praise to you. God, we love you. Father, we praise you. And we thank you. All God's people said, amen, man, you guys have a wonderful week. God bless you. God bless.