WEBVTT 00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:03.020 There's just a couple things I want to accomplish with us this morning as a church family. 00:00:03.740 --> 00:00:11.040 And I'm going to invite you to turn to the book of Philippians in order for us to do that in chapter three, I'm going to make just two sort of pledges 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:11.740 or goals. 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:12.240 We'll say goals. 00:00:12.360 --> 00:00:19.040 I'm going to set out for us together as a church as we dive into today's message is one is next week I'm going to see you £10 heavier. 00:00:20.220 --> 00:00:20.760 Right? 00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:22.880 You think I'm joking? 00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:28.870 But last night I ran six miles in preparation for this coming week, so I'm working that off already. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:29.700 And, uh. 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:31.160 And then the other is this I. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:36.460 I, I want us to feel strengthened and refined in our walk with God. 00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:42.400 And the reason is because of the series that we've been going on together and it's called Move Past. 00:00:42.580 --> 00:00:50.240 And the reason we've been going through this series together is we recognize there are things that we encounter in life that can 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.840 affect our relationship with God and not in a positive way. 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:02.700 And we've gone through those discussions together as we've looked at pain and temptation and forgiveness, and we've talked about some of the 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:08.020 pitfalls that we experience in those and how it can isolate us and our relationship with God. 00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:13.460 But how to overcome those and to move forward in our walk with the Lord. 00:01:14.220 --> 00:01:21.320 You know, the reality is we can't talk about everything that we may encounter as people through this series, just specific details of everything that you might 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:26.240 walk into that would present adversity in your walk with God. 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:32.200 But the good news is that we know the God who will walk with us through all of it, right? 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:37.480 And we can encourage one another that as we're going through something. 00:01:38.460 --> 00:01:39.520 Sometimes. 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:42.880 We don't always realize that God is also taking you to something. 00:01:45.460 --> 00:01:52.580 And in all that we experience in life, some of the heartaches, some of the difficulty, the adversity, maybe we haven't touched on a topic 00:01:52.580 --> 00:01:59.600 that you feel relevant to you over this series, but you may be in a place where you feel like quitting and if not 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:02.960 quitting, your spiritual walk with God has become dull. 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:06.200 And the world has a tendency to do this to us. 00:02:07.300 --> 00:02:12.820 You find excitement in your relationship with Christ and just a few months down the road, you're wondering where that went. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:22.060 And this morning my desire for us is just to be strengthened and refined in the relationship in which God has called you 00:02:22.260 --> 00:02:23.380 to in him. 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:32.260 Philippians chapter three sort of has this theme or this idea painted over it, through some of the things the Apostle Paul says 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:33.760 around verse 12. 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:40.900 Many of the people, some of your Bibles may even have this something about winning the race or running the race in Christ or being victorious in that 00:02:40.900 --> 00:02:41.440 race. 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:48.440 And in verse 13, we've used what the Apostle Paul has had, has said as sort of the theme or the backdrop to 00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:51.740 what his desire is and walking with Jesus. 00:02:51.820 --> 00:02:56.600 And he says this, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 00:02:57.660 --> 00:02:58.560 But one thing I do. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:03.720 Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. 00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:12.040 You know, if you read just the context of Philippians chapter three, you get from verse seven just this individual on 00:03:12.040 --> 00:03:15.400 a mission in his relationship with God, who's counted the cost. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:20.720 Listen in verse seven he says, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:27.180 More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:33.400 Paul's got this idea that he is just ramping up in the speech that he's given. 00:03:33.540 --> 00:03:40.300 This is this is a statement that Paul is sharing that's really written through a life that's demonstrated a desire that wants to walk in Jesus. 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:46.360 I think Paul has written these statements in Philippians three and in Philippians four, in his blood, literally. 00:03:48.060 --> 00:03:50.580 Of what the value is of Christ in his life. 00:03:51.940 --> 00:03:59.140 And I read chapter three, and it's an exciting chapter in the Bible to read, and it gets me excited and I start clapping my hands and cheering with enthusiasm 00:03:59.140 --> 00:04:01.310 when I see Paul writing this way. 00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:04.760 But then there's a piece of reality that says. 00:04:07.150 --> 00:04:08.730 And it's not always easy. 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:12.400 Paul, where do you get that kind of strength? 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:17.519 In the midst of some of the hardship that he faced. 00:04:18.140 --> 00:04:21.230 How do we find that strength? 00:04:22.330 --> 00:04:26.880 Truth is in the adversity I face in life, and I'm sure it's the same with you. 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:29.450 I don't want to be the victim of my circumstances. 00:04:31.400 --> 00:04:36.030 Rather, I want to be the victor over my circumstances. 00:04:38.780 --> 00:04:46.220 Paul in chapter three just gives the singularity identity of his mission and life as it relates to his relationship 00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:47.060 in Christ. 00:04:48.770 --> 00:04:55.940 And if you see that with enthusiasm, like I see this morning and just seeing how he counts it all but garbage for the surpassing knowledge of 00:04:55.940 --> 00:04:58.020 knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. 00:04:58.260 --> 00:04:59.840 If maybe in your heart you're thinking. 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:01.450 And as I move forward, I'm going to encounter hardship. 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:03.800 Where do I find the strength? 00:05:05.780 --> 00:05:05.820 Well. 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:11.560 Chapter three ties beautifully into chapter four, and I'm going to invite you to just look at chapter four. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:18.780 We're going to pick up in verse six as Paul, Paul begins to outline for us the strength to not be the victim of circumstance, but 00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:20.550 to be the victor over his circumstances. 00:05:20.840 --> 00:05:28.100 It begins to dialogue with us, revealing to us where he finds this strength to walk with the Lord and the singularity of his relationship 00:05:28.100 --> 00:05:29.420 to him in this world. 00:05:31.460 --> 00:05:32.040 He says in verse six. 00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:35.210 Be anxious for nothing. 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:43.880 But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:52.540 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:56.560 Be anxious for nothing. 00:05:59.420 --> 00:06:02.650 I don't know about you, but sometimes I tend to be a worrywart. 00:06:03.020 --> 00:06:04.360 Like this past. 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:07.230 This past week, my kids were wrestling on the floor. 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:14.320 And my son, I don't know what he was thinking, the youngest one, but he jumps off the couch on my back and he kind of flips over my back, lands on the ground. 00:06:14.760 --> 00:06:18.140 I hear a loud noise and he immediately starts crying about his hand. 00:06:18.140 --> 00:06:19.280 I'm thinking his finger is broken. 00:06:19.340 --> 00:06:19.850 I'm like, oh my gosh. 00:06:20.320 --> 00:06:21.700 And I just start spasming. 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:23.430 Anything happens to my kids, man, I'm a spaz. 00:06:23.960 --> 00:06:26.620 So I got to I just got to call Stacy because I immediately just throw him in the car. 00:06:26.620 --> 00:06:27.240 We're on our way to the hospital. 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:29.030 We're getting this sucker fixed, whatever. 00:06:29.100 --> 00:06:36.540 You know, and my oldest son is very compassionate, and he, I'm 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:40.900 not even looking because I'm spazzing so much about my little my littlest boy and my oldest son. 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:42.440 He feels pain with people. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.260 And he's sitting on the couch, and I look over a few minutes after I'm spazzing about this finger, I'm looking at it. 00:06:46.520 --> 00:06:47.440 I'm like, looking at my wife. 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:50.040 It looks like the, I don't know, the Vulcan sign or something. 00:06:50.320 --> 00:06:50.950 I'm like, is it broken? 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:55.870 I can't tell, and I look over my son's just tears running down his eyes because he thinks his brother's hurt. 00:06:56.280 --> 00:07:02.740 And my wife comes upstairs and she says she just looks at me and the finger that I think is broken, which isn't. 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:10.380 And she goes over to our other kid first, and she sits down and she goes, listen, daddy's a spaz sometimes, like 00:07:10.380 --> 00:07:12.700 he goes overboard. 00:07:12.840 --> 00:07:13.640 Nothing's wrong. 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:14.200 Don't worry. 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:15.890 I'm looking at her like, wait, we got a broken finger. 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:16.500 What are you doing? 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:19.240 I listened to her kindling our son. 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:21.160 I realized, oh, yeah, I'm. 00:07:21.380 --> 00:07:22.470 I'm kind of a spaz by nature. 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.060 Philippians four six is written for me, right? 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.240 And the reality is, it might be written for you to. 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:38.820 Because the truth is, sometimes within our lives, especially when we're learning to walk with Jesus, maybe for the first time, we're used to trying 00:07:38.820 --> 00:07:41.300 to shoulder everything ourselves, right? 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:49.320 And in fact, when anxiety becomes what is driving you, it really becomes an immobilization to doing 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:50.970 what God has called you to do. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:57.610 We think about the fear of just stepping out for God and the concerns. 00:07:58.640 --> 00:07:59.300 And what if I fail? 00:08:00.640 --> 00:08:01.920 What if people look at me, you know? 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:10.200 The anxiety starts to build within you, and you allow the anxiety to take control from where God has 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:11.410 called you to. 00:08:13.460 --> 00:08:15.640 The truth is, none of us know what tomorrow holds. 00:08:17.260 --> 00:08:19.430 It all rests in God's hands. 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:27.440 And so when it comes to this thought of being anxious, Paul recognizes that while you may not know what tomorrow holds, your God 00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:28.290 does. 00:08:29.380 --> 00:08:30.720 And he has called you to it. 00:08:30.760 --> 00:08:32.559 And before you get there, he is already present. 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:42.200 And how important is it in your life to recognize the significance and power of the gospel, not only working in you, but as it works out 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:43.049 of you? 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:48.520 So there's a couple of ways in this world that we can view the message in which God has given us. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:56.800 The first is to sort of protect it and hold on to it, like something might damage it. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.200 Legalism tends to work that way. 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:06.400 Religion tends to work that way sometimes where you get this gospel message, and I think it's a beautiful thing, and I think we need to be purified in it. 00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:08.660 But the gospel is also a lion. 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.540 And God has called us into this world to release it. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.140 As he leads you just to stand up on it and let it go. 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:21.960 Don't be anxious for anything. 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:26.140 Yes, the Bible tells us our heart is weak and yes, our flesh is weak. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.940 And yes, the Apostle Paul talks about a thorn in the flesh. 00:09:32.010 --> 00:09:33.020 With the power. 00:09:34.640 --> 00:09:38.320 Of the Christian life was not really found in us to begin with. 00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:41.620 It's in him. 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:46.480 And so regardless of the but what ifs. 00:09:49.100 --> 00:09:50.700 If I want to rest in that power. 00:09:53.060 --> 00:09:53.860 I pursue him. 00:09:56.640 --> 00:09:57.700 And that's what verse seven says. 00:10:00.300 --> 00:10:01.360 And the peace of God. 00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:04.180 Which surpasses all comprehension. 00:10:06.260 --> 00:10:08.180 Will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 00:10:11.800 --> 00:10:16.430 You know, we've talked about it together and ways of pain and temptation and forgiveness. 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:26.090 And as you walk with Jesus, you're going to encounter things where again, you're tempted, and again you may experience pain and you may encounter someone you have to forgive. 00:10:28.630 --> 00:10:31.990 But trust in a God who's big enough to walk with you through it. 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.410 Don't let the anxiety hold you back from where God has called you. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.770 You don't want to be the victim of your circumstance, but the victor over. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:50.390 And Paul's statement in verse seven, maybe there's a better way of putting this, but in a way he's saying it's like magic. 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:55.090 That it's beyond comprehension. 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:00.860 That this God in step with him, he guards your heart. 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:04.260 And it's coming from a guy who has been through it all. 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:14.940 There's just something about in the midst of adversity, aligning yourself with Jesus that Jesus gives you the strength in that 00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:15.340 adversity. 00:11:18.140 --> 00:11:21.360 In fact, he goes on in verse 11 and 12 and he says this. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:30.500 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 00:11:32.020 --> 00:11:38.480 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. 00:11:38.540 --> 00:11:45.550 I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, but of having abundance and suffering need. 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:54.960 When Paul is talking about his relationship with God, there's a couple of important words I just want to lean into in verse 11 as he's 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:56.800 communicating to us his journey. 00:11:58.060 --> 00:12:03.670 He says, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. 00:12:04.900 --> 00:12:12.000 This word for learned doesn't just mean it's knowledge that he understands, but rather it's this word that 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.100 means he's learned by experience. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:22.920 He's learned that as God has led and he has followed, he has learned that in that he has found his God who supplies. 00:12:25.060 --> 00:12:26.550 And the result is content. 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.780 You think about walking with Jesus for us in this room this morning? 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:40.240 When God calls you to him, when you embrace him for the first time in your life, you're now learning in a process of learning about a 00:12:40.340 --> 00:12:43.860 God who is there to supply your needs as you walk with him. 00:12:44.760 --> 00:12:47.480 It's an experiential statement, Paul says. 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:51.720 That is, you are in line with Jesus rather than holding on to the anxiety. 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:52.580 But going with him. 00:12:52.880 --> 00:12:56.340 You will learn by experience that God is there to meet you in the circumstance. 00:12:59.260 --> 00:13:00.150 To be content. 00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:07.270 This word for content, it does not mean complacent. 00:13:09.540 --> 00:13:15.800 And sometimes I think that we get this idea that contentment is you just have to lose the ability to care all together in order to find that. 00:13:17.140 --> 00:13:18.180 And that's not what it means. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:20.520 It doesn't mean complacent, which is I don't care. 00:13:22.380 --> 00:13:26.700 Content means you rest in peace and confidence as you're going through the experience. 00:13:28.380 --> 00:13:30.780 This word for contentment literally means contained. 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:37.800 Greek philosophers would often use this word to describe the self sufficiency of the individual. 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:46.520 But as the Apostle Paul is describing this word for contentment of the self-sufficiency of the individual, there's something the Apostle Paul knows 00:13:46.520 --> 00:13:48.340 that is unique about the Christian life. 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:51.960 And that is within you. 00:13:53.660 --> 00:13:54.340 The power of God dwells. 00:13:56.640 --> 00:13:58.370 Because within you is where the Spirit of God dwells. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:05.010 The first John chapter four and verse four says, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 00:14:07.060 --> 00:14:14.100 The reason to be anxious when your circumstance is smaller compared to a God who is greater. 00:14:15.300 --> 00:14:22.760 And so the Apostle Paul is saying, I have learned from this that in this I by experience I 00:14:22.760 --> 00:14:29.040 am, I am becoming content, because within me I'm finding a strength that rests in the Lord. 00:14:30.260 --> 00:14:34.660 There is a depth of God's grace that comes out to you that you have not known before. 00:14:37.530 --> 00:14:39.690 On the basis of this. 00:14:40.700 --> 00:14:47.460 Paul then gives probably one of the most famous statements in these passages of Scripture, he says. 00:14:47.880 --> 00:14:51.540 I can do all things through him who gives me strength. 00:14:53.980 --> 00:15:00.100 So the reality is, you're stronger when you learn to embrace your weakness and take it to Christ. 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:12.100 I heard it said once of Christians that Christians are weak people, and 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:13.200 in one sense it's accurate. 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:24.240 What Christianity means as a person in Christ is this we come to a place in our lives where 00:15:24.260 --> 00:15:28.980 we recognize we don't have the strength, right? 00:15:29.060 --> 00:15:30.980 We don't have the ability to forgive ourselves. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:32.900 We don't have the ability to overcome. 00:15:33.660 --> 00:15:38.820 We don't have the ability to do what God has called us to do, because our hearts will often stray. 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:40.110 It will often walk away. 00:15:40.260 --> 00:15:40.920 It'll give up. 00:15:41.020 --> 00:15:41.640 They'll faint. 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:46.280 God does. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:48.850 And the reality is the Apostle Paul said. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:50.840 When I am weak. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:53.590 Then I am strong. 00:15:56.200 --> 00:16:03.280 It's in the encounter of the grace of God through the strength of Jesus, that in our weakness we receive strength because of what Christ has 00:16:03.460 --> 00:16:04.260 done for me. 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:14.020 And the truth is, the source of our greatest sufferings and our greatest weaknesses can become the springboard into your most powerful 00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:15.420 message in Jesus. 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:22.290 I know I've said this before, but. 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:26.400 I grew up as a kid with not a lot. 00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:36.080 And when it came to time to go, go into public school and to 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:41.540 do the assignments within school, if there was anything that came my way that required me to stand up in front of people. 00:16:42.760 --> 00:16:46.280 I was a bookworm, 4.0 student, I would I would do the project. 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:50.860 But if the teacher said, now give your report, I'll be like, and I'll take the F on that, please. 00:16:50.880 --> 00:16:53.840 You know, not public at all. 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:00.530 In fact, today, unless it's really talking about the Bible, I prefer to stay. 00:17:01.160 --> 00:17:03.900 Not that in public giving any sort of speech or comment. 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:11.920 God's strength. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:13.670 When you lean into it. 00:17:15.780 --> 00:17:17.349 When you find it. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:25.800 It gives you the opportunity to learn by experience of the goodness of 00:17:26.040 --> 00:17:30.680 God who upholds you and walks with you in the midst of adversity. 00:17:32.940 --> 00:17:40.260 I heard someone translate this passage like this I am ready for anything through Jesus who transfuses me with 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:40.840 his strength. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:51.440 It's a loose rendition of the Greek text, but the idea is this as we are with God, as we are walking with 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:58.800 the Lord, and in fellowship with the Lord, the Lord has this supernatural ability to transfuse me 00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:02.440 with the strength that I need for where he has called me to be. 00:18:09.040 --> 00:18:11.170 When you look within the context of this passage. 00:18:13.670 --> 00:18:19.460 You see, as Paul is interacting with his thoughts and walking with the Lord, he's also remarking. 00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:23.000 About the church in Philippi. 00:18:24.820 --> 00:18:29.420 And through their example we see an example of strength being lived out as well. 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:36.440 It says in verse ten and to the church, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me. 00:18:38.600 --> 00:18:39.720 In verse 14. 00:18:39.720 --> 00:18:46.740 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction in verse 18, but I have received everything in full and have 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:47.240 an abundance. 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:54.500 I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:03.440 You see this picture of this church that not only Paul living in the strength of the Lord, but this church that's coming alongside of Paul 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:06.600 and demonstrating a strength in the Lord. 00:19:08.320 --> 00:19:11.320 You just pause and think about this text for a minute and maybe ask what? 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:13.360 What makes them do this? 00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:13.700 Why? 00:19:15.660 --> 00:19:20.980 You know, one of the things I've learned about life is some of the most helpful, giving, loving people in the world. 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:27.310 Are people who have been refined by a fire with Christ. 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:34.990 I'm looking at this church of Philippi and just wondering, asking the question, are we looking at a church in Philippi? 00:19:35.780 --> 00:19:40.190 Giving to Paul as being a church that has been refined by fire. 00:19:40.820 --> 00:19:47.940 Is this a church that has learned a heart of giving and loving, because they have gone through a need in their life where they needed someone to give to 00:19:47.940 --> 00:19:48.460 them and love. 00:19:50.360 --> 00:19:55.080 In First Thessalonians chapter two, Paul writes to the Thessalonians about Philippi. 00:19:55.080 --> 00:19:56.920 Listen what he says in verse two. 00:19:57.220 --> 00:20:04.200 We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi. 00:20:04.540 --> 00:20:11.680 In acts chapter 16 and starting in verse nine, it describes the scenario which takes place in Philippi for the rest of chapter 16. 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:16.520 And you see the church in Philippi birthed out of adversity. 00:20:19.580 --> 00:20:21.240 Now think about. 00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:24.120 Alpine Bible Church. 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:27.060 How we exist. 00:20:29.560 --> 00:20:31.380 You need to get our church started here. 00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:39.300 And even to this day, we've depended on believers from around the United States, great people who love the Lord and 00:20:39.340 --> 00:20:41.960 want to see God's name proclaimed all over the world. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:51.200 A lot of people behind us, from Florida to Ohio to from, I think it's far west as Missouri, all the way to 00:20:51.320 --> 00:20:52.520 the East coast, on the coast. 00:20:54.940 --> 00:20:56.660 A lot of people behind our church family. 00:20:56.860 --> 00:21:02.120 But can I tell you, out of all those great people that give, um. 00:21:02.120 --> 00:21:05.720 The people that have tended to be the most generous towards our church. 00:21:07.320 --> 00:21:12.000 Have been church families in some of the most economically depressed areas in our country. 00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:17.800 I think there are people refined by fire. 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:23.100 Who have learned the goodness of God in the midst of adversity. 00:21:26.860 --> 00:21:29.260 Maybe you can even think about people like that in your life. 00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:37.720 The reality is, when we experience trials within our lives, we come to a fork in the road. 00:21:40.580 --> 00:21:44.930 And the ingredients that you put in determines what comes out right. 00:21:46.820 --> 00:21:49.260 If you decide it's bitterness, then it's bitterness. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:58.000 But if you decide it's the goodness of God as he ministers to you in that time of need. 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.300 It's saying that don't let the world use a fire to change you. 00:22:01.540 --> 00:22:03.920 Let let God use the fire to refine you. 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:06.300 And that's what Paul says in Philippians four. 00:22:06.300 --> 00:22:13.710 Look at this in verse eight and nine, knowing that we're all going to encounter something at some point he says this finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:21.020 whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell 00:22:21.020 --> 00:22:25.300 on these things, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:28.050 Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. 00:22:30.860 --> 00:22:31.180 Look. 00:22:31.180 --> 00:22:33.640 Let the strength of God fill you. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:40.760 Let him refine you in the midst of that the purity of who he is counted all as dung. 00:22:41.080 --> 00:22:44.200 Look unto Jesus in this adversity. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:47.540 Don't let your circumstance have victory over you. 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:53.160 Get victory over your circumstance. 00:22:54.340 --> 00:22:55.840 First Peter one, verse seven. 00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:56.610 It says this. 00:22:58.420 --> 00:23:00.900 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. 00:23:02.620 --> 00:23:05.550 It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. 00:23:06.560 --> 00:23:13.820 Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you 00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:15.680 much praise and glory and honor. 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:18.790 On the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:26.100 You know some of. 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:29.660 The most hurtful things that you. 00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:35.360 Can experience in life can come from the very people that you love and care about. 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:40.180 I'm not short of that. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:45.220 Relationally. 00:23:45.260 --> 00:23:48.960 This past week was somewhat of an adverse week for me. 00:23:50.980 --> 00:24:00.180 I even at one point had an individual tell me that they'd been watching me for years and wondering when I was going to fail, like. 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:06.620 I have no idea where that route comes from, or why you would even utter that to someone that you might care about. 00:24:09.240 --> 00:24:11.760 But you know, the anxiety inside of me would just say. 00:24:12.860 --> 00:24:13.260 Oh, man. 00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:13.980 What if they're right? 00:24:15.620 --> 00:24:16.680 Or what if you know. 00:24:18.180 --> 00:24:20.510 What and think of all the bad things that could happen. 00:24:21.420 --> 00:24:23.400 And I could let that work in my heart. 00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:28.800 Choose the seed of doubt and bitterness and resentment. 00:24:30.540 --> 00:24:31.140 Or I can do this. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.500 And you said that, and that's stupid, right? 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:40.820 God doesn't call me to be concerned about my failures, right? 00:24:41.020 --> 00:24:43.340 I'm not going to live my life concerned about failing. 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:46.860 And I tell you, I'm going to at some point and I have. 00:24:49.460 --> 00:24:51.240 But I'm not living my life worried about it. 00:24:53.020 --> 00:25:00.060 I'm not living my life thinking about, the concern about just being the mother hen all the time, just protecting everything and protecting everything and trying 00:25:00.060 --> 00:25:02.090 to have control over things that I can't even control. 00:25:02.560 --> 00:25:07.480 What I want to do is I want to let go of it all and trust in the Lord and just move forward as God has called me to move. 00:25:12.300 --> 00:25:14.200 When I was a new Christian. 00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:22.640 One of the first biographies I ever read was about a man named Jim Elliott. 00:25:24.740 --> 00:25:28.660 Jim Elliott wrote just this phrase that resonated in my mind. 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:34.910 He says this he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:39.560 I think it's a phrase that echoes Paul's writings in Philippians three. 00:25:39.580 --> 00:25:46.720 But when Jim Elliott was a young man, he went to Wheaton Bible College thinking about the ministry, and that's where he read the 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:50.330 words wrote in Luke chapter nine and verse 23, and it says this. 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:57.320 Then Jesus said to them, whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 00:25:57.380 --> 00:26:02.720 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 00:26:04.580 --> 00:26:06.860 And when Jim read those words. 00:26:09.020 --> 00:26:12.280 He reflected in his journal, and I believe it. 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:21.040 Jim went on to the country of Ecuador to minister to tribal groups with other missionary families. 00:26:21.040 --> 00:26:28.380 He and his wife and other missionary families went with him, and on one one day he and the male missionaries went to the Waodani 00:26:28.380 --> 00:26:30.760 tribe to try to minister to them. 00:26:31.580 --> 00:26:34.340 And before they are even able to share the gospel with them. 00:26:34.560 --> 00:26:35.840 Those men were killed. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.370 For demonstrating their faith in Christ, trying to reach these individuals. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:50.840 One of the beautiful things that happened from the story is that it gained such popularity, and I can show you on the screen the individuals that lost their lives. 00:26:52.140 --> 00:26:53.460 I think it was in 1956. 00:26:55.080 --> 00:27:02.140 That their story gained such popularity that not only did the wives then go back to this tribal group to try to reach them, 00:27:02.620 --> 00:27:09.240 other missionaries began to hear the story of what happened to these individuals, and they began to flood into this region to reach these people for Christ. 00:27:11.800 --> 00:27:14.060 One day, a young man was moving into this area. 00:27:15.860 --> 00:27:18.360 And a bush pilot was taking him to his place of ministry. 00:27:20.540 --> 00:27:22.440 And he looks at the pilot and says, when? 00:27:22.540 --> 00:27:25.920 When we pass over the place where Jim Elliott died, will you? 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:27.050 Pointing out to me. 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:30.950 The pilot said, I can't take you there. 00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:33.700 The young man was confused. 00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:34.280 Why not? 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:41.850 And Pilate looked back at the young man and said, Jim Elliot didn't die in Ecuador. 00:27:43.540 --> 00:27:45.960 And this young man was confused at this point. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:50.680 And he looks back and he says, I know Jim Elliot died in Ecuador. 00:27:50.740 --> 00:27:52.160 And the pilot said to him, young man. 00:27:54.620 --> 00:27:56.660 You may think Jim died in Ecuador. 00:27:59.060 --> 00:28:01.350 But Jim Elliott died long before he got to Ecuador. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.720 He died as a young man in his dorm room in Wheaton College. 00:28:05.960 --> 00:28:11.600 When he read the words of Luke nine and gave his life to follow Christ wherever he may lead, no matter what the cost. 00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:24.380 Sometimes as believers, we read the stories of radical Christians and we think, wow, incredible. 00:28:25.040 --> 00:28:25.800 Can I tell you? 00:28:27.610 --> 00:28:30.770 I don't think Jim Eliot was a radical Christian. 00:28:34.320 --> 00:28:34.500 I think. 00:28:36.220 --> 00:28:42.300 He lived a biblical Christian life through the power of a radical God. 00:28:43.020 --> 00:28:44.080 I don't think he should be the abnormal. 00:28:46.980 --> 00:28:49.410 I think he did what Jesus calls us to do. 00:28:51.060 --> 00:28:58.120 And laying down our lives and just trusting in him and recognizing, yes, this world could go awry and things may 00:28:58.120 --> 00:29:05.360 have adversity, but he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. 00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:10.580 Philippians 3 to 4. 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:15.740 It's a passage written to us to say, don't give up. 00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:19.200 Listen in verse eight. 00:29:19.280 --> 00:29:24.980 Just listen as Paul says this in Philippians chapter three and verse eight, as if, as if it's Paul's letter to you. 00:29:25.260 --> 00:29:32.260 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I 00:29:32.260 --> 00:29:39.500 have lost all things, and consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, 00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.240 but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God. 00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:44.740 On the basis of faith. 00:29:44.760 --> 00:29:45.680 I want to know Christ. 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:52.920 Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow 00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:55.120 attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 00:29:55.760 --> 00:30:03.100 Not that I have already obtained this or what already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus 00:30:03.100 --> 00:30:04.320 has taken hold of me. 00:30:04.660 --> 00:30:09.020 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet as have taken hold of it. 00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:13.720 But one thing I do, I forget what is behind and I strain towards what is ahead. 00:30:13.980 --> 00:30:16.210 I press on toward the goal to the prize. 00:30:16.300 --> 00:30:19.920 The prize for which Christ has called me heavenward in him. 00:30:22.260 --> 00:30:23.100 Because God's people. 00:30:25.140 --> 00:30:28.440 To not be the victim of circumstance, but the victor over the circumstance. 00:30:28.520 --> 00:30:34.020 Paul says in Philippians 413, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. 00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:39.520 I think we move past. 00:30:42.280 --> 00:30:43.860 When we learn to give up. 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:48.020 And give over to Christ as he leads our life. 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:50.880 To be anxious for nothing. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.550 That's what it means to be strengthened and refined. 00:30:57.560 --> 00:30:59.100 And Jesus is worth it. 00:31:00.600 --> 00:31:02.480 Don't give up on following him. 00:31:02.540 --> 00:31:05.410 I think it's a it's a display of his beauty. 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:09.550 When we show the significance of Christ beyond our challenges. 00:31:11.260 --> 00:31:12.100 My hope for you this morning. 00:31:13.340 --> 00:31:14.160 Let's do this passage. 00:31:15.260 --> 00:31:18.660 God uses it to strengthen and refine you.