Philippians 1

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0:00 So I want to wrap up this like extended season of Christmas, but we don't know. And we kind of even got into it because I started thinking about the ramifications or the lessons of the incarnation. And we were born and we said more stories than we could tell on Christmas. So we can tell different stories about what we learned from God,

0:35 what its evidence about who God is by the incarnation. And in Christmas, when we focused on this idea that God is our God, the God of creation, and the Lord, the God of Abraham, the magic of Jacob, the pomps the God of Christ, and then the God of the Church. And that this God is thoughts in it and flesh and re-est.

1:08 The first thing that the story of the incarnation comes back to you in the state, is that this God, the God of creation in life, the God of Abraham, the magic of Jacob, it becomes the God of Christ and the Church. It is a very physical, even biological way. Like, so small and vulnerable and exposed that our God takes on the characteristics of us

1:46 in order to save us. And it's been pulled out of the proximate, and flesh, and real. And the first thing for me was to remind us that then the incarnation, because God is proximate, it means that God is not separate. As though you have your life to live with its technical and real concerns, when you have some faith to put energy, or maybe when your holiday energy, you move over and begin to consider these things of religious or spiritual significance.

2:20 That's not the nature of our God. The nature of our God is that God runs into all of the life, mass of your life, and even at this most critical juncture, this pinpoint of humanity, God has not removed people from the kind of messiness of life that comes right into the messiness of life. And then all of that has been pulled into other communities, so what can we learn? We learned that God has committed to the poor,

2:50 and he couldn't come at any time at any place, and he comes to this unknown, young family living in this little, hobble town, the altar of maybe 400 people, a lot of dugout homes, and God is committed to the poor. That God is committed to holding it, but God has not congealed the behavior that moves us away from God, and that God, that Christmas shows us that God is committed to holding it,

3:22 not because it's right, but because it's not as opposed to long, but because in holding it is life, and God would not abandon you to death. And we found that God committed to death, and we talked about how God is committed to body, that your body matters, that God saves you flesh and bone, bone, and spirit. Because it's committed to every stage of life.

3:52 This was a new idea for me, that Christmas was jealous, that God didn't just walk out of the desert, ready to accomplish salvation, in Jerusalem, be crucified, resurrected, and leave. Then God comes down and in questions and in questions, and then lives through every stage of life, and that was God. And that was the fact that God was blessed with that book called, And Abbot and Blessings, and that God has blessed every stage of life for me.

4:23 And the hardship and blessing, celebration, and suffering, while it's been through it, in order that you might go through it as well. God has committed every stage of life. And then that just idea that God is committed to Israel. And the thing that occurs when I consider that God is committed to Israel is like, why on earth, of all the people through all the mistakes. We talked about that one, one side of promise,

5:01 and we remembered that God has made a one sided commitment, and it keeps us committed. So we can learn that because God's committed to Israel, He's ready to move. And what I want to do today is I want to keep this. All of these have commitments of God, and run down into the gospel. And the first new generic church Paul, in so many of the letters, is to try to help people in first century Rome and Israel apply the gospel to the situation of life.

5:40 And I want to get one of those, because I'm just going to talk about this in the end of the first year. And it's in Philippians, if you could look at what you see with this small little letter to the church in Philippians. So it's in the New Testament, Matthew Mark Luke John, Acts, Romans, 1st century, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians. Notice I got a teaching this song for all the New Testament books. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, Philippians.

6:11 And we're going to look at chapter one, and then I like try and run through chapter. And we'll see. First word of the start, it's actually a letter I remember. Some correspondence, a God bless, some studious person who the church and Philippied, and they copied and saved them, tossed them around. Paul, in from his feet, servants of Christ Jesus,

6:41 to all the things in Christ Jesus who are in Philippians, with the overseers and beacons. And this is a huge word for remembering, for you this is like not all the message, but it's worth your numbers. You're reading all of these documents at least at the moment. Paul and Timothy didn't like the letter to you, it's probably not. Right? They wrote it to some real people with real questions, and out of it you can learn real things, but in order to learn, you'll have to slowly and over the period of your life

7:15 and learn more about who the followers of Jesus Christ Philippied. In order to begin the understanding more fully, why the texts are so beautiful, it takes the Holy Spirit and studies to illuminate them, and you can continually illuminate them. It's not as simple as this I will write a letter to you. Paul and Timothy wrote a letter to the things that are sent to us Philippied. And they also engaged in peace and God. And I thank God, my God, in my, in all my remembrance that you

7:46 always in every prayer of mine, for you all make me my prayer of victory, because of your partnership in the gospel, from this day and so now. And I'm curious, that you'll begin a good working world when it's a complete ! One of my absolute favorite phrases, you can hold this, you can, you can chime your pattern and you can begin a good working world, see it through the completion of the day of Jesus.

8:16 In this, in this context, Paul is exploring Philippians, you have an assemblance of faith. And we can see, we talked about God's commitment to humanity and Israel, right? We started something with creation, out of the need, and in the very beginning, we don't know how long they lived, but before we got too far, they were poor, the God was holding out on them, and so they like slid under the weight of responsibility

8:48 that was designed to only forgotten it, plus the whole experience of light change. And we just had a few, we could have started over against the did. God honored this commitment to humanity, also been out of the garden so they wouldn't live forever in this fall and set us out the work of trying to undo the fatal flaw of humanity, and finally comes in each our nation's cell. In order to bring us to death, one life, and bring together one line of light from autumn, and bring to life the new line in the second line,

9:20 the personal Christ. The God of creation and life, we've got to over him as we can take it. He finishes what he stole. Christmas can assure me he does not need things unfinished, and he has started something in you. You have however small the capacity for generosity. You have found in your heart a different part

9:51 the willingness to serve. You have like awoken a different part from passing for people that are different from you. God is at work in your heart, mind, body, soul, God has done something in you. And then with God, he begins,

10:21 he will see her into its complete will. All said, I am sure of this, that he will be down again working you, will see the completion in the day of Jesus, that isn't the obligation of the commitments of God for the gospel. And it is right in the field of prayer about it is right that it is not for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers listening of grace,

10:53 both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Paul is in general right now, right? Because he followed Jesus. He did the thing that Jesus did. He went out and told people, hey, this same Christmas came. Jesus was born kind of in a natural, if he heard of it, to this moment, it's not a big deal, but a huge deal,

11:24 like no one paid attention to it, but everything was different after it. He goes around and tells people that any end up in prison because of it, or something came to walls, but God is committed to the poor, and the distant franchise, and the suffering. All partakers are not evidence that something is wrong, but in this case evidence that something is wrong. You are mad,

11:54 not mad, or will hard, things in your life. Christmas is evidence, God is there in the midst of the hard thing. Hard things are not evidence necessarily that you are wrong, or something is broken. And they personally are not evidence that you are alone. My favorite stories of Paul in prison is his part singing,

12:24 the God in prison, and literally his teens call out of him. Not figuratively, literally, I will take figuratively. A commitment the Christmas shows us that God is committed to hearts and a labor is all. Delivery is harder, I imagine. Right? Doing a kid when all the boys you're in need have been killed

12:57 is hard. Growing up without boys your age around would be hard. Called crazy, but your family would be hard. All this stage of life, because things are hard, and things are wrong, and it's hurting it, I mean, God is there in your Christmas, or your Christmas, or your living in places of life. For God is my goodness,

13:27 how I yearn for you all with the affectionate Christ Jesus, and it is my prayer that your love may have bound more and more with knowledge than all the children. So you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure, and blameless, and the dead Christ Jesus. And I feel that the fruit of righteousness has become the root of Jesus, the glory of God. This phrase, I feel like you could unpack nearly the whole story of scripture on this little sentence here. I've never really done the time to do it,

13:58 but I would love to read some of that stuff. Because you can't elude my prayer that your love may have bound more and more with knowledge and discernment. What I love about this and the next phrase is it locates all of your understanding, your growth and holiness, your righteousness in the oxygen of God. It says, may your love of God of growth, in knowledge and discernment.

14:29 If you want to know more about the character of God, fall more in love with God. If you want to know more about the workings of God in the world, if you want to understand more about the stories of God and scripture, fall more in love with God, knowledge comes after gift. Discernment, if you want to be able to walk into situations and understand the right move, if you want to be able to into it the next thing you say or the next direction to move.

14:59 If you want to understand intuitively when things are good for you and when things are bad for you, fall more in love with God. I pray that your love being about in knowledge and discernment. And then it goes on, it's not done yet. And there's my prayers, you're loving about more and more with knowledge in the terms of, you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless so that they excels with the fruit of righteousness

15:31 that comes through Jesus Christ. Christmas tells us that God is committed, not the holiness in general, but to your holiness. Meaning we set a holy, we set apart something for a specific purpose that you would be set apart for the purpose of living the life that God has all used to. And this comes not with your will power

16:01 not with your discipline not with your good intentions, your holiness has come as your love for the God increases. It comes as a gift from the God into proof of the work of God, and I want you to go on and say,

16:32 I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me really has really served to advance about this impersonator. I'm going to line this to the thought, what Christmas does, who would have thought of Christmas as the crazy incarnate of Christmas? I'm going to line this to the thought, what Christmas does is, who would have thought of Christmas because it's the crazy incarnate which is a re-beginning and a sating at the same time

17:02 as the way to say it. You cannot predict the strategy and working of God, right? That the gospel would be spread through Paul's imprisonment. But he goes on to say that people are preaching and he loves that they are preaching. And go up to verse 18, Yes, and I will be joined for I know that through your praise and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ,

17:34 this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all things. But my full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my... I think like this is a couple of years ago I was talking with a pastor friend about how to preach a particular passage

18:04 and the passage would say something about life being in danger about this persecution. And generally the passage was, but the emphasis was that the writer was putting his life on the line by believing in Jesus and he was saying he was having trouble preaching that because he didn't feel like that was his situation. He wasn't putting his life on the line and then he went from his situation to a month

18:34 and said, I mean, you know, we just don't have to put our life on the line anymore. And I said, hey man, speak for yourself. No one's coming to certain age. I said, but I had put myself in situations on more than one occasion at the same time that if God doesn't come through, I will be completely embarrassed. Even ashamed. Like I will be, if God doesn't come through, I will look like a fool.

19:08 Paul says, while he's in prison, clearly descended, announcing that the one who's in prison in him has no power or authority over him. So he's in prison. Clearly under the authority of the Roman Empire, says this who has no authority over him. But I say here because God wants me to stay here, and when God wants me to leave, he'll get me out of here.

19:38 Paul says, I have complete confidence that not only will I be released from here one day, but I will not be put to phone. I think an opportunity for us this morning is to consider all that we learned about the commitments of God that are revealed in Christmas and begin to ask ourselves, what then do we believe?

20:15 If God, how does the commitment of God to you, God's commitment to you and your humanity, and your poverty, God's commitment to your holiness and life, God's commitment to your class and your future, our God's commitment to you finds evidence in the way that you live. How are you living in life of God's commitment to you?

20:47 Paul says, I will put myself in a place where I will be ashamed if the God will talk through and confident I will not be ashamed. Yes, I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and that help us be spirited Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. I believe it's my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all seen. But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in our bodies.

21:17 With full courage, I will stand in the midst of the suffering or the hardship I will stand on the lines continuing to believe we're full courage, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live the Christ and to die the King. If I need a flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

21:47 But we try to, like I cannot tell, I'm hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to put and be with Christ, but to remain in a flesh and to be more anticipated on your account. When I was, when I came back to my sophomore year of college, I had spent my freshman year of college on the,

22:19 I'm like way too intense in conversations that I've mellowed a lot. And college I was like even more like kind of narrowly focused on very intense. And so my freshman year of college, I had decided that I was not going to date anyone. I just decided this is what I really did just. I can't have it. And most is because I didn't like the, like I didn't like trying to get people to like me. I realized that I was spending a lot of time and I would take out some of it, but I'm going to get this person to like me.

22:50 So freshman year of college, and I'm not going to play that game. I'm not going to do that. sophomore year of college, I come back before school even starts. I go to the palace with some friends and this girl's there. And I can't say it's a night. I go to the front of the business. So if you have got to leave, I'm sort of attracted by the fact that it's working too. And I've got to be cool enough for her to like me. Okay, we got to go home, man. I got the same right.

23:20 And I think the rest of the semester is getting a global life. It's an instant. I was like singularly focused on getting this person to like me. Again, directing to, I planned my week around. I got a standing out of daytime activity, like, fun day. Every day I'm going to show you how fun I can be. Right? Whenever she was in the room, I was very aware.

23:51 Like, I planned different activities. I planned different plants to get into how fun it could be. Right? Because I knew how to do it on time. She was too good looking for me. I didn't want to, I didn't want to come. Right? It was like a singular focus in my life. And there was something beautiful about that season, right? I'm in my life because I was so clear about what I was doing. What I wanted.

24:21 It was a worthwhile goal. Paul says, I know what I'm in here for. I know for what I am living. I know where I'm heading. Nothing else now. I'm singularly focused. And if I stay here, I'll stay here for that. Look, your life is complex, but you have a lot of different things happening.

24:52 You've got a lot of people that you owe things to, or that you don't know how to respond to what they want from you. You've got a lot of competing interests or concerns. You have an open and future you don't know. For me, the singular area is pain. This is the best. You've got to stay real. This is a cool.

25:24 And blood. It's got a commitment to me in my humanity and my poverty. It's got a commitment to my ownness and my life. It's got a commitment to me and my people here. Deliciness connects me over and over again. This got us in my physical and real and has secured a future for me. I really love the simplicity I say.

26:01 And what it can do for my life is to choke the cordless, the choices that I make, for the perspective that I view all of the competing activities and requests and concerns. Ordering the relationship in my life, and then I make the perfect and direct of my day.

26:33 Paul is so comfortable in his face. He said, how to go home and be with the Christ now. He said it's hard. I'm in the house of the indigence. Paul thinks that that is one of the great benefits of people's things. That our life has direction and toward that.

27:05 It orders all of our concerns and sets us to work. I hope that you can be people who are in the name of the reality of Christmas. Are able to live with me today. If we do this today, then tomorrow we'll talk about it again. Please call me.

27:39 Hey Lord, thank you for the opportunity to believe. We know that faith is available to us. We say that we would like to rest from having a figure everything. In your life, it is comforting Lord to know that you might have the opportunity to cure and un-fault herring and unwavering, and not pickle choices and emotions you have to cure

28:22 and be for us. It's just a rest and there's some place in your face. You can do this. Allow your descent for the last ten minutes. If you just need a new plan.