Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM -

Good morning. Good to see your all bright shining faces. Let's all stand as we worship and I'll pray us in. Lord, we thank you for this time. God, I thank you just for the opportunity that we have to be here on a Sunday morning. Lord, I pray that you could just help us to take a minute, Lord, just to pause and reflect on the week behind us, Lord, the week that we're

going to have ahead of us, Lord, but I pray that we can just lay all of it at your feet this morning. God, offer it up to you, Lord, and say, do what you want to, Lord. I pray that we can put you in the rightful place on our hearts, Lord, and come to you boldly this morning knowing that you are our God, you are our Father, you are our protector. Father, so I pray that you just fill us this morning, you make us aware of your presence this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

Lord, we thank you, God, just for who you are again, Lord, for your glory, God, for everything that you do in our life, God, who you are making us into day by day, God, as we surrender to you. Father, we just can't even understand your goodness, your greatness, your grace for us, Father. Continue to just remind us of who you are in our lives this morning, in Jesus' name. Never desire, Father, so remind us again of who you are this morning. Go before us,

step by step, Lord. You are aligning our paths with yours, Father. Continue to help us to yield our desires for yours, God, that we desire to do the things that honor you, Lord, and bless you and please you, Father. So we thank you, God, again for who you are. May we be ever in awe of who you are. In Jesus' name, amen. Why don't you turn and greet one another, if you'd like.

Good morning. If you guys want to find your place, please do so. We'll get started. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. We're glad that you've chosen to join with us today in worship. A little bit of bulletin, what's going on. On the left side of things, the regular stuff through the week is going on, so find a place to get yourself plugged into. Middle of the bulletin, reminder that that Bible reading plan, daily there's those

sections of the Bible to read that's posted online as well as on the back of the bulletin. Construction update. They have the back room closed, the iguapi room, so right now the door's closed. Try not to go in there if you can avoid it. All the coffee's in the middle section. But they're still working on that kitchen. I peeked back there earlier. It's looking really

good, so it's coming right along. Continue to keep the Guatemalan missions trip in our prayer. On the God Send Go Missions Facebook page, there's a couple pictures they posted of them landing, so you could probably follow them on there. But otherwise, keep them in your prayers. Intercessory prayer is tonight at 6 p.m., so if you come to that, don't forget that.

There's no women's breakfast this month. Then there's the Reclaiming Masculinity Conference. That's going to be Saturday, September 12th at Prairie View Camp, which is right here in Arc City. 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. There's going to be multiple speakers on hot-button topics. Registration's free and lunch is provided, and it's open to all men. So there's a QR code there in the middle section of the bulletin. Go and scan that in order to sign up

for it. There's a, it's not on the bulletin, but there's going to be a new Bible study put on by Family Life Services called the Embrace Life Study. Do we have a guest to come up and talk about that? All right, she's coming up. My name is Melinda, and I'm with Family Life Services. We have been praying about how to come alongside these moms in the program and extend it

by mentoring them, loving on them, supporting them, discipling them. And we had started a year ago Embrace Grace Bible Study that's out of Arc City First Church up north, and they minister to the single moms that are pregnant. We're going to be starting Embrace Life, which is single moms that are pregnant. We're going to be starting Embrace Life, whether it's a new single mom, whether it's life has changed. You know, sometimes divorces

happen. Sometimes widowhood happens. I found myself a single mom again after 19 years of marriage. So, you know, you kind of have to rethink things. And so I just want to encourage you to, one, pray for us as we start this ministry. We will be meeting with you in the community. We will be meeting here on Tuesday nights at 630. There are various ways to get involved. We will be blessing the women with quarterly baskets. So like, for example, the

first one we're going to do a hug in a basket. So if there's anything that you can think of that you'd like to donate to those baskets, we'll be doing them again quarterly. And it's just to bless the women, bless them where they're at. If you'd like to donate or help, please reach out to me, or there'll be a sign-up sheet if you just put your name and number and we can contact you. There's, again, other ways,

snacks for these moms on Tuesday nights. Child care. We need child care. We want to encourage these moms to come out and have no reason not to come because we want to support them. And if you're interested in just coming alongside us to support these single moms, we'd love to help. Please, please reach out to me. There'll be information out on the foyer with my number

and whatnot that you can reach out. So I think that's it. And again, I just want to confirm. He talked about the Reclaiming Masculinity. That's another event that Family Life Services is supporting. It's just really for our men in the community, whether young, old. We just want to, again, make the right decision. And I think that's what we're going to be doing.

Thank you. I think we have resources available for these men to be strengthened in this season of life because right now, when you think of masculinity, at times it's been stripped away. So we want to encourage the men to rise up and be men of valor. So if you can come out, please come out if you're a gentleman. If you know anybody, maybe you need to just bring somebody. It's

not necessarily just maybe you, but maybe you bring in someone that needs that extra speaking in to. You will all be best. God always has something for us wherever we go. So I want to encourage you. Thank you. All right. This week we have Tyler joining us as guest speaker again, and we're going to do the responsive reading with him. If you'll turn to Psalm chapter 27, there should be a Bible in the

row beside you if you don't have yours with you. And you can stand in the honor of reading God's word. Hi. Can you guys hear me okay? Sound good? Cool. Psalm 27. I'll read the odd verse. You guys can read the even. Psalm of David, verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? When evildoers come upon me to defy my flesh, my adversaries and

my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war arise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in his temple. For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his

tabernacle. The secret place of his tent, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock. And now, my head will be lifted up, above my enemies around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices, with shouts of joy. I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Your, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, I will Evolution 6, verse 2. Revelation 6, verse 2. voice. Be gracious to me and answer me. When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you,

your face, O Lord, I shall seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of

my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for this beautiful Sunday. God, that we get to come together as a church family

to open your word. Lord, we invite you into this space. Let your spirit be among us. Lord, and I pray that as we get to dig in to the book of Philippians today, that you just minister something personal to each person here, Lord, and to me also. Lord, continue to speak to me as you've been speaking to me throughout the week. Lord, and we just are excited to see what you're going to do.

Father, we praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, you guys can be seated. Hi again. I get to be back, which is exciting for two reasons. One, because I get to share God's word, something I love to do. But two, I didn't scare Ryan away from the first message I got to do. So that's a blessing. He's down in Oklahoma doing a wedding. So luckily, him and Ann will be able to

be fresh. Pastor Jared as well. So pray for them. They can just be revived and continue coming back and doing spirit strong. But when he asked if I would be willing to teach, I said, yeah, sure. And anything is specific. And he's like, well, as the spirit leads. So, I've kind of been doing topical messages when I've been invited to teach, but I want to do some verse by verse. I think that's where we get to receive the notes from the Lord and also where

we just get to let the text speak for itself. So it was like, okay, Lord, what do you want me to share? What do you have for your people? And a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Ryan was going through Hebrews chapter 10, and he mentioned something. It was just a small point, not necessarily a big point of the whole message, but he talked about being satisfied in Jesus. And I thought, huh,

satisfied in Jesus. That's kind of tough because, well, as I'm trying to get adjusted to my new season of life, and there's different ebbs and flows throughout our journey, the last message was stay the course. Well, to stay the course, we have to be satisfied in Jesus. So I thought, well, okay. I was thinking maybe we'll do a topical message on being satisfied. But no, actually,

I think the book of Philippians does a great job of sharing what being satisfied in Jesus is really all about. So if you have a Bible next to you, go ahead and open up to Philippians chapter one. We're just going to begin. We're going right through the text, and I try to have some slides up. So as we go through, I'll kind of explain as I get the opportunity to share more on the direction that we're going with

the book of Philippians. So this series, Roadmap chapter one, it's going to have a topic and then a question we're going to answer. I like to just give a roadmap. When you plug in Siri or Apple Maps, it tells you where you're going. Chapter one is Christ is our life. The question is going to be, what is my life centered on? Paul's going to claim in chapter one for me to live as Christ.

And everything belongs there. Chapter two, it's going to talk about Christ being our example. Christ being our example. Who am I becoming? We see the humility of Jesus, the servant heart of Jesus, and the mind of Christ. Chapter three, we're going to see that Christ is our treasure. We're going to be asked the question, what do I value most? What do I value most? Paul says in this chapter, I count everything as lost

in his love and knowing Christ. Chapter four, Christ is our strength. This is the big question. Where do I find my contentment? The big overarching series idea is being satisfied in Christ. And we're going to be looking into what that means, what that looks like. So once again, little reminder, chapter one is just Christ is our life. Chapter two, Christ is our example.

Three, Christ is our treasure. And four, Christ is our strength. Okay. Philippians chapter one, we're going just to verse 11. There's a lot to unpack, so I don't want to have to blow through it. I also don't want to speak too fast because I can tend to get excited and then just go like a fan, just keep going, circulating. And then I turn into white noise and I don't want that to happen. So hopefully as we're following along,

we can zoom back into the text, let it pull out what we want to see, and then move forward with application. All right. So Philippians chapter one, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to read all the way through one to 11 so that we understand what we're talking about. Then we'll go back verse by verse and dissect it. So Philippians chapter one, verse one,

Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God, our father, the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy. In my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now, for I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be perfect, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and defense and

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

Quite a section, quite a chunk. Now I want to kind of put you guys in the same mindset that I try to approach when I come to a new book. Okay, I start to think, okay, why did they write it? Who's writing it? What's the context? What's going on around this scene? Okay, so the title of this book is A Letter to the Philippians. So he's writing to the people in Philippi. Okay, well, why is Paul

doing this? So if you want to read more about this, you can read it in Acts chapter 16. I'm not going to have you guys turn there. I'm going to summarize it so that we can get the big picture. It's kind of a quick start that should be up on the screen in a second. But basically, Paul gets the Great Commission. And remember, we have Paul, who was Saul. Some people think that his name was changed

to Paul, but actually, Saul was just his Hebrew name. Paul was the Greek name that he started to go by. So it wasn't actually a name change. It was just a difference in how they addressed him. But Paul becomes this missionary who's going out. He was zealous to persecute the Christians. Now he's excited to go out and share the gospel. Okay, he does so by first doing it in Asia.

So he's going from Jerusalem and going to the Asian colonies around. But then he's trying to proclaim the gospel in Asia, and he gets a very strict forbiddance from the Spirit. Why would that happen? Why is the Spirit forbidding him to go out and share? Well, because God has a different plan. He has something else in mind. The Spirit says, no, he's not going to proceed in Asia. He

goes ahead and takes a little sleep, takes a nap, and he wakes up. And the vision was a Macedonian man calling out to him, saying, the gospel to us over here. We're hungry for it. And Paul goes, huh, interesting. Okay. So him and Silas and his gang, Timothy, all the little protégés that he was helping to raise up, disciple, say, all right, well, here we go. We're going to get on a ship. We're going to go to Macedonia. Well,

because Macedonia is a big place of influence in Europe. Okay, here we go. And the first place they go to is Philippi. So the Philippian church is the first church Paul goes to on his second missionary journey. Why am I going back and describing all this? Because it's a radical mission. So what we're talking about today is being satisfied in Jesus. And the title of today's

message is being compelled by Jesus. Okay, so Paul is excited. He's compelled by Jesus to go and do this mission. When he goes there, crazy things happen. One, he walks up, and it's the Sabbath. They're going to the river. Just Lydia, you might remember her name. She sells purple cloth. Well, they're all praying down by the river. And Paul goes down and explains the gospel to her. She

loves it. Her heart is open. She's ready. So her and her household, they get baptized. Then, as they're going out and continue to do ministry, through the streets, there's this lady. She's this slave who is possessed by this demon, but can tell the future. So the masters over this slave woman are using her for profit. They're using her to tell people their future and make

a ton of money. But what's interesting is when Paul and Silas come into the scene, they enter, and she says, oh my gosh, these are men from the most high God coming to proclaim the way of salvation. And then, as they're going out and continue to do ministry, they're using her for money. And then, Paul gets annoyed. Well, she's saying things that are true. She's doing it over

and over again every time they go into the town square. But why is he getting upset? Why is this happening? Well, just because an evil spirit can say things correctly about God, that's not a good witness representation. So what Paul does is he decides to cast the spirit out of the woman. The name of Jesus be free, and she is. Praise the Lord. But what happens? Well, the people who are

making the money are like, shoot. Here goes our whole way of making our money. And then, as they're going out and doing the work, they're like, shoot. Here goes our whole way of making our money. And this stinking Paul guy, we're going to take him to court. He goes to court. The court officials get upset. They tear their robes. Enough of this, Paul. Silas, you're going to prison. Okay, here we go.

They should ring some bells. They're in prison. They're in chains, bound together. What do they do? They start praising and worshiping. Earthquake happens. The walls come down. Shackles break, and they're free. The jailer, he's about to kill himself because he just let these prisoners go free. But Paul says, no, wait, we're here. And then, the jailer comes, decides to let him out,

and they start the church in Philippi. So that's how, the church in Philippi got started. Now, he's writing a letter back to them. What happened? Well, since then, a lot of time has passed. He's gone to Ephesus. He's gone to Galatia. He's gone to all the different churches he's written letters to. But Paul's in prison currently. This is a prison in Pistol. And Philippi, the Philippians, have been super supportive of him

the whole time. We'll learn later, Epaphroditus, this guy, is sending them a letter. And in his letter, it's a bunch of money, saying, hey, Paul, we want to support you, even though you're still in prison. So the Philippian church has been a church that has always been by Paul's side. So he's writing back to them. So that's why, when we first get into verses one to two, we're going

to dig into it. It says, Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's writing back to them because he's thanking them. Hey, thanks for the gift. Happy birthday. You get like a birthday card. He's going to write and

send them a gift back. Hey, thank you for my birthday. Hey, thank you for my gift. Hey, thank you for my gift. Hey, thank you for my prison gift. I appreciate it. And I find it interesting. I'm literally going to try to dig into everything we can. He includes Timothy. Why is Paul including Timothy? Okay, well, we already know about Paul. He was still turning to Paul. Timothy, he's this young guy who's growing up, wanting to follow in

Paul's footsteps. He's Paul's disciple. Paul tends to include those who are relatively close to him in proximity. So we can assume that Timothy was with Paul at this time, helping him while he's in prison, going out and doing what Paul is saying. He's going to later say, I want to send Timothy to you to help out your church. But he includes Timothy. I think this does two things. One, it

places Paul in a position of humility. He's not saying, I am Paul, the great apostle, writing you this solo letter by myself. He's including, no, this guy I'm teaching, this guy Timothy. He calls them bond servants of Christ Jesus. Interesting way to introduce yourself. I did this fun little example with the youth kids on Wednesday. We went ahead and I asked AI to make a Instagram profile of Paul the apostle. It's not like in

Instagram or Facebook, you have like the bio. And in the bio, you can like write things about yourself. Like if we were to look at Messi's bio, we'll probably say like famous soccer player. You'd probably say, you know, world cup, second place winner, and all of his accolades. That's how he'd identify himself. Hi, I'm Messi. I'm a great soccer player. Or Donald Trump. Hi, I'm the president of

the United States. Well, Paul doesn't choose to include any of the big, cool accolades that he's used to identify with a bond servant. In other epistles, he chooses to represent himself as an apostle. What is a bond servant? Ryan talks about it all the time. It's a slave by choice. It's because you love your master. You're appreciative of what they do for you. Wow, you're a great

leader. You're a great governor. I appreciate how you've led me as a slave. I want to choose to align myself and serve you for the rest of my life. An apostle is one who's being sent. So in some other letters, this is why Paul addresses himself as an apostle. Because he's giving instruction. He's saying, hey, I'm going to give some church instruction, some church doctrine. I'm identifying myself as an apostle. I'm a sent one. I have authority.

You need to listen. Here, Paul doesn't have to do that. The Philippian church already loves him. They're sending him this gift. He's like, yeah, I don't need to prove my authority, my status. He's saying, I'm a bond servant to Jesus Christ. I'm choosing to serve him. So we're going to keep going down. We're going to see throughout this letter, it's literally Paul's

letter. We're going to like, hopefully as we're reading through it, I'll hear you say, aw, because just so cute, the stuff Paul says. Like he's going to say, wow, my heart longs for you with the same affection of Jesus Christ. Paul just really cares about these people. So author, Paul, audience, to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons,

grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, audience, why did I go through that whole backstory in Acts chapter 16? Well, because these are all the people who are going to be reading his letter. Lydia, the one who he met by the river, is going to be reading this letter. The jailer who bound Paul up, but then was later welcoming Paul into his home, cleaning his

wounds and setting him free, is going to be reading this letter. All the elders, all the people that started the church in Philippi are going to be reading this letter. So I'm saying this because Paul's talking to real people. This is a real genuine heartfelt thank you note. And I think it becomes much more relatable. So let's continue verses three down to five.

I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. So a couple notes I just want to mention. Let's see. We went through a lot already. As Paul's writing this and including Timothy with it, Timothy's watching how he's writing this. Timothy's watching the things Paul's choosing to

say. And something I wanted to ask, just as it comes to mind, Paul's including Timothy, this person that he's discipling. I want to ask a question to each of us. Is there someone that we're discipling? Is there someone that we're pouring into? There's members in our family that are younger. We should be discipling. We should be discipling. We should be discipling. We should be

training them up to be the next generation to carry the course, carry the cross. So who do you know that you can be pouring into spiritually? There's plenty of youth kids around. There's plenty of kids that you see running through this church. I bet you'd mean the world if, hey, you want to go get a donut at Ike's and you get to talk to them about the word. Or, hey, at the fair,

right, the fair's going on. Hey, you want to come to the fair with me? And you can just ask them, hey, how are you doing? What's going on in your life? How can I be helping you? What's tough? What are you struggling with? And that's investing in a real person, doing real kingdom work. So I just want to point out, Paul's choosing to include his protege, his disciple, Timothy, because Timothy's watching all this. He's seeing what

Paul's doing, because later Timothy is going to be the leaders of a church. He's going to be the one pouring into people that are under him. So something that has come obvious to me throughout this week is, everything keeps coming back to Christ. Every single sentence, every single word, every single action that Paul does. And somehow we can get distracted and think that this whole message is

going to be about Paul. And I want to illustrate how it's not. So the sermon title being captivated by Christ or compelled by Christ is because as we read Philippians, we should admire what Christ has done in Paul. He's not doing this because he's a great person, because he can perform these acts on his own. He's not discipling Timothy just because he's doing it in his own strength or in his own power. He's doing

it because Christ has changed him from the inside out. The more we read Philippians, the less we should admire Paul and admire what Christ has done in Paul. If we leave today saying, wow, Paul is amazing, we've missed the point. If we leave today saying, wow, Pastor Ryan's amazing, we've missed the point. It's because we admire what Christ has done in those people.

So a challenge that we all have is trying to recognize what the Bible says and then live it out. And that's true for each and every one of us. So where does this connect? Where does this become relevant? My goal is not to be up here just to like start giving a list of demands because that would be annoying or frustrating. It's like, man, this guy, he just comes up here and tells me

what to do every time. It's more so supposed to be, hey, monkey see, monkey do. Like we're seeing an example of how someone has worked and changed their whole life. Paul changed his whole life. Did Paul do it on his own? No, Jesus did it for him. So we're seeing that example through Paul. You can look and see other examples who've done that. You probably have spiritual fathers or

spiritual people that have poured into you. Mine is Pastor Ryan. I'm looking at Pastor Ryan and seeing monkey see, monkey do. I want to try to imitate him. I want to try to, not because he's the Savior, not because he's like walking on water, but because he's trying to faithfully do what's right in front of him. So I just kind of wanted to him out because like there's a lot of application that's going to be coming, but it's not to be like

finger point, finger point, finger point. But hey, like Paul's just living his life out, encouraging these people to, hey, come and be satisfied with Christ with me. Come and see what Christ has done in my life. So, all right, let's get back to verses three to five. I thank God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy, participation of the gospel from the first day until now. How

does Paul start this letter? He gives his introduction. Who's the audience? Then he starts off with, I thank my God in all remembrance of you. So here's something interesting. He starts off by thanking God, not by going and directly talking to people. He's like, wow, reminiscing. I remember when I went to Philippi. I remember what happened. I remember being put in jail. But

then as soon as I was let go of jail, how you guys came and supported me, how you've provided funds throughout the whole mission. He's like, man, thinking of these people, I thank God for you guys. Always offering prayer with joy in the end. Every remembrance of you. So when Paul thinks of them, it's not like out of frustration or disappointment. Like, ah, these people, they're not doing what I'm saying. They're not doing what

the Bible says. It's a pleasant thanking. It's gratitude. It's not, here we go. Here's your list of instructions. It's, no, I'm pleased. And something that Paul says is always offering prayer with joy. That's a big statement. Every time that he remembers them, he's offering prayer with joy. What a, what a challenging thing. Like, I might be going through Walmart and I see a shirt.

I'm like, oh, that shirt makes me think of someone. And instantly, like, just picture Paul, like, down to his knees, like, Lord, I thank you for that person. Thank you for what they do in my life. Lord, go before them, protect them. It's like, wow, is he for real? Like, every time he thinks of them, that's crazy. And he's, he's offering it with joy. I think a challenge with this might be

that when you think of someone, are you offering prayer for them? When you think of someone, I have the opportunity to work in Rose Hill. It's about, like, a 45, 50-minute drive away. And something that's been fun, sometimes I listen to worship music, sometimes I listen to a sermon, sometimes it's just complete silence because I just can't put anything else in my brain. But going to Bible college, that season is not too far out of

my life. There's people that have entered and poured into me and friends that I made along the journey that I'm like, man, those are valuable relationships. Sometimes one of them will pop into my head because maybe a song lyric that they sang makes me think of them. Or something funny that they did, I'm remembering. And in that moment, it's like, hey, I should probably reach out to them. Hey, thinking of you, send a little text. How you doing?

Or hey, thinking of you, how can I be praying? And what's the most encouraging part was when people do that back to me. They're like, hey, thinking of you, what's going on? Or hey, what's God doing in your life? It's like, oh, wow, thanks for thinking of me. That's so sweet. But then also, it's like, hey, how can I be praying for you? How can I be supporting you?

And I'm sure there's people in your life that you can think of, and it's like, oh, man, I'm thinking of that person. I wonder how they're doing. But then nothing happens. I think that's a little God moment. Hey, you knock on the door, placing this person on your heart and mind, reach out, check in, see how they're doing. That's what the body of Christ is for.

So not necessarily a crazy point, but Paul's saying, I thank God every time I remember you, offering prayer for you. And then what is the contingency? What's the follow-up? Verse five says, in view of your participation of the gospel from the first day until now. So what's the testimony of these people? What have they been doing that Paul is so thankful for, so excited for?

They're participating in the gospel. What's the gospel? The good news. How? What are they doing to do that? Why are they doing that? Well, participation means you're working alongside, right? You're in collaboration with. They've been sending Paul these gifts, these letter packages that have financial support for him. He's saying, hey, I thank you because you're choosing to participate in the good work. Now,

are these people just the greatest people ever who are like just saints walking on water? No, they're people just like you and me, fallen. But why would they be participating in the gospel? This goes back to the title of the message. Their heart has been captivated by Christ. We're going to see how a heart being captivated by Christ change is a life to be captivated by Christ.

So if you're captivated by Christ, your life is going to reflect that. Your life should be nearing a heart and actions and attitude being captivated by Christ. Now, I say this because, well, how do we have our heart captivated by Christ? Is it by just coming to church and reading your Bible? Not necessarily. Is it by just doing good things? No. A heart that is truly

captivated by Christ will be doing those things naturally. But a heart that's captivated by Christ is in captivation. Admiration of him is surrendering to him daily, coming before him and saying, I need your help. Lead me, guide me, direct me. So when Paul's saying, I thank you for everything that you're doing in view of your participation in the gospel from every day until now,

he's pointing out something good that they're doing. Now, this is another zoom out moment. I'm trying to like paint a picture in my head. He's in prison, like, you know, behind cells, right in this. And he's not thinking of himself. Like, he has every reason to be moping around. Like, I hate this situation. This cellar stinks. Like, I'm frustrated that I'm here because I

shouldn't be. And what's he doing? He's not moping, being self-centered, pointing to himself. No, he's thinking about other people. He's thanking them. So this goes to something, it's what you let your mind meditate on. He could be focusing on a situation, on a circumstance, on something else. And he's not thinking of himself. He's not thinking of himself. He's not

thinking about what's happening to him and be like, this isn't fair. I'm upset. I'm not happy about this. But no, his heart is captivated by Christ. So what's he doing? What does a heart captivated by Christ look like? It's not looking at yourself. It's not being self-centered, choosing to look out and look at other people, look past your immediate needs and look and see,

man, what are people doing around me? How can I meet the needs that they have? How can I encourage them? So that's just something fun that I wanted to point out. And let's see. Verse five, Paul tells us he's thankful. Paul isn't thankful because he really liked them. He's thankful because they shared in the same mission. So I think this is of note because sometimes we can just come to church because we get along with everybody here. Our

personalities kind of mesh. Or maybe you have friend groups because you all enjoy the same football team or you like watching the same sport or you have similar hobbies or whatever. You have your friend groups because you share in common things. But here it's because they have the same mission. We're all here. We work together. We probably have different personalities. We probably

have different hobbies, but we all are aligned on the same goal. So Paul's not thankful for them because he liked them because they're great people. He's thankful because we're all working together. So honestly, I'm thankful for you guys. Thank you for working together in the mission of the gospel. And I pray that as we come together in church, we can encourage each other. Hey,

keep pushing forward. We just had someone come up and share about family life services. Hey, keep serving in that area. Maybe you serve or work at a school. Hey, keep serving in that area, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Your heart, let it be captivated by Christ. You can influence that area. Then we gather back together like the team huddle on Sunday. It's

like, hey, let's be refreshed. Let's be refilled. Let's let our hearts be captivated by Christ so we can go back out. Friendship brought them together, but the gospel united them. Amen? Okay. So, okay. Let's go into verse six. So Paul's starting his letter. He's thanking them, not focusing on himself, looking and reminiscing on their participation in the gospel. And then he gets

to this really powerful verse. I think it might be one of the more powerful ones in the New Testament. It reads, for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. I'm going to read that again. For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And then he tells Paul, I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So couple of key words there. Let's point them out. Key words confident keywords is he but it's capitalized. That doesn't seem like an important one, but actually is and keyword is until. Why am I pointing out these interesting words? Well, Paul's confident. He's sure of it. He believes it. He knows.

That he, he has capitalized God, is going to continue to perfect the Philippians until the day of Christ. So let's break this down.

I wrote down in my notes something I want to bring up. When I first read this, like, I am confident. It made me stop because that's strong language. It's not, I have a good feeling. It's not, things seem to be going well. It's, I am confident. And where does that kind of confidence come from? Where is he able to speak with such authority on these things? And then Paul's going to tell us exactly where it comes from.

He doesn't say, I'm confident because you're growing. He doesn't say, I'm confident because you're faithful. He doesn't say, I'm confident because you're doing really well. No, his confidence rests somewhere else. Where is that? Paul's confidence isn't in the Philippians. His confidence is in God. That changes everything. Because people disappoint. Churches struggle.

People stumble. We fail. We sin. But Paul's confidence isn't on human consistency. If you place your confidence in Pastor Ryan, he will stumble. He will fall. Paul's confidence in resting in God. It's on his divine faithfulness. So let's go down. Let's look at the verbs. Who began the work? God. Who continues the work? God. Who perfects the work? God does. Who finishes the work?

God does. The whole journey, the whole process, the whole nine yards. At any point, if you try to take the steering wheel out of God's hands, you're trying to say, I can do this. God, I don't need you. God, I am going to make myself perfect until the day of Christ. And he's just going to be like, oh, you're so silly. Why would you do that? I'm here to hold your hand right along the way.

Trust me. So, Paul's just saying, I'm confident because you're doing so well. He says, I'm confident because God never abandons what he starts. Say that again. God never abandons what he starts.

Paul says, he who began. That means God always makes the first move. God begins. God initiates. God saves. God transforms. And if God starts something, he finishes it. And I don't know about you guys, but that's incredibly comforting for me. Because there's days where I feel like, man, God, where are you? Today was rough, man. I, you know, okay, not actually today.

Like, I'm just, you know, giving an example. But today was rough. Today sucked. Like, okay, throughout the week, there's been some bumps along the way. You know, getting pulled over. We had car issues. This is like real talk now. Like, it's crazy. And it's like, okay, God, what's going on? Like, I have to teach on Sunday. I can't be working on this stuff. Like, oh, this is crazy.

And then we got to babysit our little nephew. She's adorable. But he's a baby. So they wake up. So you don't get a lot of sleep. So it's like, okay, I'm very tired now. But God knows exactly what he's doing. He's teaching me a lesson through each of the things. And if I choose to miss it and just be like, ah, forget about this. I don't need this. I'm just going to go and study for Sunday because that's what matters most.

No, I'm missing all the lessons along the way. All the little things, all the little hiccups, the wins, the successes. I finished my summer job. Boy, was it hot. I got to work at a fabrication shop. And I got to weed eat for about eight hours a day because no one else did it. Right? And that was torture. But guess what? It's done and we finished well. So praise the Lord.

But a lot of things were taught through that. Hey, don't grumble and complain. We'll read that in this book as well. Philippians. Hey, do all things with excellence. All right. So I'm going to cut this grass to make sure it's the same length so that my boss comes in and she says, I want it to look like a golf course. I'm like, okay, here we go. Golf course it is.

But throughout that whole thing, if I'm choosing to say, man, I'm going to hunker down and I'm going to just do this job the best I can. I guarantee I'll be complaining. I'll be whining. I'll come home to my wife upset and then we'll get in a fight. And that just doesn't work. If you slow down when you're sweating and it's like irritating and you're like, God, help me.

This is tough. My forearms are hurting because this machine's, you know, eating me up. Hey, here to give you the strength. He'll place a worship song in your head. You can put in those earbuds and rock out. I love how Ryan says, make your workplace your sanctuary. Hey, you can do that wherever you are, whatever you're doing. So God began. He's the one who does something.

He'll finish it. If salvation depended on me, I'd lose it. Salvation depended on me. I'd quit. Paul says, God began the work. God continues to work and God completes the work. I want to give a sneak peek into chapter two. So if you look at Philippians 2.13, there's something that talks about that. Philippians 2.13 says, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So guess what? Even when you don't want to do it and you're like, God, I know. I should be kind right now, but I don't want to. Or God, I know I should be patient right now, but I don't want to. God knows. He knows we're sinful little kids. You know, he's like, hey, I know you don't want to. So just ask me both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So he'll give you the desire and then he will still do it and help you through it.

Notice, same author, same idea. God is the one working, not just at the beginning, but every single day. So, okay. I ask permission from. This, but Grace shared me something that made me smile. I asked her to read the text through me and if she has any thoughts to bring them up. And she brought up this one story about this woman named Gong who's in here today.

And Grace told me that Gong has a little saying. She says, when I wake up, God's not done. Is that so true? You go to bed and you wake up and it's like, all right, another day. God's not done. What's it going to work on? He's the potter. We're the clay. How am I going to get molded and shaped today? What a great perspective to have when I wake up. God's not done.

Lord, what do you have? When I heard that, I immediately thought of this verse. Philippians 1 6. Every morning when God wakes up, he's still shaping. He's still teaching. Still pruning, sanctifying, still making us more like Christ. We're not finished and that's the good news. So, I want to kind of see if this applies to anyone in here. If anyone came in discouraged this morning, maybe you've been fighting the same temptation.

Maybe. You've been wondering, why am I not farther along? Why am I still having to learn this lesson? Maybe you've looked at another Christian and thought, I'll never be like them. Can I encourage you? Paul would simply smile and say, neither am I. But then you remind you, God isn't finished yet. Just keep going. Stay the course. Sanctification is a lifelong journey.

Notice it says, until the day of Christ Jesus. It's not upon. You don't wait until Christ Jesus is coming. It's like, let me clean up my life. And Jesus is here. Hi, Jesus. I'm ready. No, it's until the day of Christ. It's every day. When you wake up, until Jesus comes, we're being sanctified. And that's going to be a painful process. But it's also a joyful process.

Because you can look back and see, man, how much have I grown? How much has God done? So, the work continues until Jesus returns. There's no retirement years from sanctification. That's a bummer. There's no graduation ceremonies in this life. As long as we have breath, God's still working. So, I think we found another sentence worth remembering. Put a star next to this.

When the Christian life isn't sustained by your grip on God, it's sustained by God's grip on you. It's not how tight you can hold on to things. It's how tight you can hold on to God and know that God is holding back on to you. The Christian life isn't sustained by your grip on God. It's sustained by God's grip on you.

So, question. Where is your confidence this morning? Is it in yourself? Is it in your routine, your plan? Is it in your Bible reading, your consistency, your discipline? Or is it in God's faithfulness? Because Paul isn't inviting us to have confidence in ourselves. He's inviting us to trust the God who never quits. So, where is your confidence?

Okay. I want to look at the flow. This is all kind of building on each other. I want to look at the flow. So far before we get into our last sections before we close. First one was about identity. Paul's identifying as a bondservant versus three to five. Whereas gratitude is thankfulness for the Philippian Church. Their joy is prayer. Their partnership verse six was the confidence.

And then I asked myself, where do you gratitude? Joy, partnership and confidence come from? Not Paul, not prison, not his personality, not circumstances. They come from a life. Captivated by Christ. All these things come from God working on you from the inside out. So, what do we see that's happening? Paul isn't teaching us theology. He's not given a super pastoral pistol where he's given theology doctrine.

He's looking at the inside. He's letting us look at the inside of his heart and see a man who's been conformed by Jesus. I believe that's the entire letter. So, God's doing that kind of work in Paul. What does it produce? Next question. Let's look. Verses seven to eight. Read for it is only right for me. To feel this way about you all. Because I have you in my heart.

Since both my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You are all partakers with me. For God is my witness. How I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more. Hope I started reading verse nine versus seven and eight. Okay. I love how Paul starts verse seven. It almost sounds like.

He's saying. Well, of course. It's only right for me to feel this way about you all. Like duh. I love you guys. Why? Because I have you in my heart. And that made me stop. Paul isn't apologizing for loving these people. He would say it would actually be wrong if I didn't. That's beautiful. Paul doesn't say I have you in my ministry. Doesn't say I have you on my prayer list.

He doesn't say I have you on my mind. He says I have you in my heart. Oh, you know, that's not a moment. I don't know. I think that's different. Paul didn't simply minister to people. He genuinely loved them. It's a true Shepherd's heart. It's not revealing Paul's theology. It's revealing his heart. The more we see Philippians, the more you see what Paul values,

what Paul loves, what he prays for, what he considers worth living for. And every answer keeps leading us back to Jesus because he's the one who's changed Paul's heart. He's the one that allowed him to care for those people. So question. Do we love people? Or do we simply work around people? Those things are different. It's possible to serve in church without actually caring about the people you're serving.

You're just checking the box. Yep. I served on Sunday. Oh man, that person drives me nuts. You get in the wife, get in the car, talk to the wife. I'm like, man, you know that person? Jeez, they reek. It's like, well, yeah, they're people. We're sheep. We get stinky. Okay. Um, where was I? Where am I going? It's possible to serve in church. Oh yeah. Okay. Without truly loving.

So Paul says both of my imprisonment and the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Notice something. Paul says, yeah, things aren't going well. He's real. He's not just fairy tales. He's not thinking about himself, but he's also like, yeah, it's kind of tough. Like you guys supported me before I was in prison. You supported me during prison. You sent gifts.

You prayed. The Philippian church didn't disappear when things got hard. Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared Grace. Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared Grace. That's important. It's easy to love someone when they're perfect. But when you know that your heart has been changed in your life has been changed by the grace of God.

You can have grace and other people know that God's working on them to Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared Grace. So this made me think about our own church. One of the things I've appreciated since coming here is watching people quietly support one another, pray with one another, show up for one another, and I've encouragement for you guys.

Let's keep being that church. That's what keeps the church healthy and vibrant. The second when we just start thinking about ourselves and not about other people, we're just going to become so self-centered. We don't care. We just want to come in here. Good message and leave. But that's not the type of church community that Paul's describing. Let's continue to verse eight.

For God is my witness. How I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Wow. Like I said, the affection of Jesus Christ. I long for you. That's a deep word. It's emotional. It's personal. It's real. But how does he long for them with the affection of Jesus Christ with the love of Jesus Christ? You know how much Jesus Christ loves us? So much so that he went to the cross and died for us for Paul to be able to say, I love you with that same affection.

He's crazy. I don't know how he can say that, but he does. He's saying, I care for you. I long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ. Where did Paul get love like that? Not his personality, not their compatibility. Not that they got along. Not because the Philippians were easy people. Where did he get it? Because Christ loved them through Paul. So what's Paul saying?

He's saying Christ has changed my heart. And now I love you with his affection. Christ has changed my heart so I can love you with the new heart that he's given me. The goal of Christianity isn't merely learning to love people better. It's allowing Christ to love people through us. Allow him to grow your love for people. Don't just be, I'm going to be a better lover.

No, it's, Lord, help me to love that person because I struggle to. So catch up on those people. If there's someone you don't get along with, start praying, Lord, change my heart and work to mend that relationship. So let's wrap up, get to verse 11, because it's also Communion Sunday. So verse 9 to 11. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Once again, until the day of Christ. Verse 11, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Now, we finally get to hear. What Paul has actually been praying. It's kind of wrapping up his prayer.

He's not just like remembering reminiscing. Oh, thank you, God. These people are so great. He's saying God protect them. God bless them. Keep them healthy. Provide for them. Grow the church. Those are all good prayers, but Paul prays differently. He doesn't begin with circumstances. He begins with their heart. That your love may abound still more and more. Okay, that surprised me.

Usually when you're praying for a church that you started, they're like, man, I hope you become more. Successful Lord, grow the numbers. I hope your church gets bigger. I hope that you ease the workload. No, he prays that their love would grow. That tells me what mattered most to Paul.

Here's a question. When you pray for someone, what's the first thing you pray for? If I'm being honest, it's usually their circumstances, whatever's going on around them. Lord, you know, help them to go through the situation that they're struggling with. Lord, help them to get through this challenge. Lord, bless them. But how about, Lord, grow their love. Wow, why is that a big deal?

Paul doesn't just stop at love. He also says in real knowledge and discernment. That made me stop because it's not emotional love. Oh, I just feel so much love for you. He's praying for wise love. Biblical love isn't blind. It knows what's truly good for another person. Love encourages, sometimes love corrects, sometimes it waits, tells the truth, even when it's uncomfortable.

Love isn't just mere sentiment. It's wisdom shaped by Christ. Guess what? There's a whole section in 1 Corinthians 13. I plan on reading it, but we're not going to. So if you want to learn more about love, it's 1 Corinthians 13. It's got a ton of good stuff in there. So love isn't merely heartfelt. It's wise.

As I started this, I was having to ask myself a question as well. Do I simply know more of the Bible than I used to? Or do I actually love people more than I used to? That's a challenge because as I'm reading and preparing a message, I could fill my head with a bunch of things. I could fill my head with a bunch of knowledge. But if it doesn't go that 18 inches from my head to my heart, it did nothing.

It has to transform me. I need to have a heart captivated by Christ. So it's possible to grow in knowledge without growing in love. Paul wants both. He's saying in discernment, in truth, and in love. You can't just love unwisely because then you'll love people that are actually in sin. Right? Hey, you can't love, this girl can't love another girl in a relationship because hey, that's not the way God designed it.

I love you as a person. But, I can't love the way that you're living your life. That's maturity. So verse 10, Paul tells us so that you may approve the things that are excellent. I think it's one of the most overlooked in the past verses in the passage. Choose what is excellent because sometimes we ask, well, is it sinful or is it not? But Paul asks a better question.

Choose what is best. One asks, what can I get away with? What's not sin and what is sin? The other asks, what honors Christ most? Gold box, gold star, spiritual maturity isn't simply learning to avoid evil. It's learning to recognize what's excellent. What's good, what's perfect. So there's a lot of decisions. How to use your time, what opportunities to take?

Paul's praying that believers would become spiritually mature to recognize what's truly excellent. And verse 11, finally, Paul brings everything back to where it started. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness. which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Brings everything back to where it started. Who fills us? Christ. Who produces the fruit? Christ.

Who receives the glory? God. Everything comes through Christ to the glory of God. Paul never leaves Jesus. Every road keeps pointing back to Christ. Why? Because Paul's heart is captivated by Christ. He's deeply in love with Christ. So, the more we read Philippians, the less we admire Paul. And the more we admire what Christ has done in Paul. Paul's going to be the example.

He's going to be the one we look to. But the person behind the example is Jesus. Because Paul's been working on him. Or Jesus has been working on Paul. So, review, what do we see today? Verse 1, we saw that a life captivated by Christ finds its identity in him. Verses 3 to 5 show that it... Overflows with gratitude. A life captivated by Christ has joy. There's prayer.

Gospel partnership. Verse 6, a life captivated by Christ trusts in God's work. God's not done. It knows that people aren't faithful, but God is faithful. Verses 7 to 8 show that it carries people in his heart. A heart captivated by Christ cares about people. It loves with the affection of Christ. 9 and 10, it desires wisdom, discernment, spiritual maturity.

And verse 11... It lives for the glory of God. So, there's no kids. I wrote a note to have the ushers go get the kids, but that's second service. So, Grace, if you're going to come up for worship, that'd be fun. And ushers, if we want to get ready for communion. I'm going to wrap up the message today. So, where did all of that come from? All these awesome attributes that Paul is describing.

I'm going to kind of just hit this nail over and over again. Not Paul, not prison, not his personality, not circumstances. It came from... It came from his life that was captivated by Christ. If we leave this morning saying, Paul is an incredible man, we've missed the point. But if we leave saying, look what Jesus can do with the surrendered life, then that's encouraging.

So, question for you guys. Does your life represent a heart that's been captivated by Christ? If not, I pray that you do some seeking. If so, continue on until the day of Christ. God's still perfecting. He's not done. Amen. All right. I'll show you guys. You can come on up. I will pray. Grace will do some worship. And then we'll do communion. So, Father, I thank you for this message.

I thank you for everything that you've been showing us through your word. Lord, I pray that we don't just see it and then understand it with our heads, but that we also allow it to shape our hearts. Lord, to be captivated by you. That's the theme of this first message in Philippians. To have a heart captivated by Christ. Lord, because the bigger thing that we want is to be satisfied with you.

Lord, the first step of being satisfied with Jesus is being captivated by Jesus. Lord, so allow our lives to be examples for others to see. Just like how Paul's life was. Lord, I pray that any words that were of me fall away. Lord, but the things that you wanted to minister to each and every individual person here. Lord, that you speak directly to them. So, Lord, we love you and we thank you.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Ushers will be coming around. There's two cups. One cup has the juice and the cracker's underneath. So, if you get confused, don't worry, it's there. All right, let's worship. That's a little juice that we get to take.

So, I'm going to take us to 1 Corinthians 23. The Lord's purpose was for this. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night, in which was betrayed, took bread. So, take the bread. And we had given it thanks. He broke it and said, this is my body. Which is what I do for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So, take the bread.

Father, we thank you for it. Lord, we thank you for your body that went and sacrificed itself on the cross. For us, Lord. Because there's no way we could come and attain righteousness. Lord, we learn that it's only through you. Lord, to help us to remember that sacrifice. And also come to you when we're struggling to fight our flesh. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man.

Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Lord, to kill the sinful inward man. Day by day, perfected until the day of Christ. Father, we thank you for your body.

In the same way, he took the cup. Also after supper, saying, this is the new covenant. Which is in my blood. Do this as often as you drink. In remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until it comes. Hold up the cup. Father, we thank you for your blood. Lord, what can wash away my sins? But nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Lord, we thank you that you went and suffered a death that was not right. Lord, you didn't have to. Lord, but you did it because you loved us. Lord, for Paul to say that he had the same affection for those as Christ Jesus. Lord, you loved us so much. You went and died on the cross for each of us. Lord, so as we're going throughout the week, help us to remember that.

Lord, when we're being tempted or going through a hard moment, to remember the cost that you paid. Lord, so thank you for the blood you shed on the cross for us. May it partake.

Connect with the Lord in this time of worship. God, we surrender to you this morning. Lord, every moment, every day. God, every second, just do what you want in our lives. God, help us to desire to be captivated by you, compelled by you, Lord, in every moment of our lives. God, and may it lead to a life that reflects you, Lord, that honors and glorifies you

in everything that we say and do. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. God bless you guys. Have a great week.