Rejoice
in the Lord Always!
Philippians
1:18b-26
Introduction: Don’t
Waste Your Life. That is the title of a book by John Piper. Last week I
referred to the famous story of the five missionaries who were killed when they
sought to reach out to the Huarani (aka Auca Indians) of Ecuador in 1956. I
came across this reference to that story in a sermon by Ray Pritchard…
In January 1956, the five men decided the time had come
to make contact in person. After much prayer they established a base camp on a
sandy beach of the Curaray River. On January 8, 1956—at about 3:30 PM, they
were speared to death by the Indians who mistakenly thought they had come to
hurt them. The news shocked the world. Many people wondered how young men
with so much promise could waste their lives that way. When the journals of
Jim Elliot were published several years later, they were found to contain this
sentence: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he
cannot lose.”
Why
risk their lives to reach a remote and violent people? Were their lives
wasted? Because they knew those people needed Jesus they went. Those young
missionaries knew the truth Paul will talk about in this passage. The philosophy
of life that guided the apostle also guided those men: To live is Christ, and
to die is gain. When Paul wrote Philippians he was in a serious
situation. After a total of about 4
years imprisonment his case was about to be decided and his life hung in the
balance. As he looked to the future, he had joy in the Lord – as he writes this
letter it is clear that Jesus is his life… I like the way Pritchard describes
Paul’s attitude here, he asks and answers the question that you might be
thinking…
How could Paul say such things? It’s
because for Paul death didn’t put him in a cemetery; it ushered him into a
sanctuary. He knew that he would enter the presence of Christ at the moment of
his death. That would truly be “gain” for him.
Jesus
was his life, so to live is Christ, to die is gain! Adoniram Judson,
missionary to Burma wrote: “If I had not felt certain that every trial was
ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated
sufferings.” Knowing God, trusting Him, entrusting yourself to Him, really
changes everything!
We
can rejoice in the Lord because He is our life and His plan for our lives is perfect.
As long as we serve Him, He will be glorified because our life will help others
to experience real joy as they grow in their faith.
The BIG Idea:
Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can have joy that goes beyond our circumstances.
We can rejoice because we are 1) Confident in God’s Promises; 2) Convinced of
Christ’s Preeminence, and 3) Committed to God’s Program. First, we are…
I. Confident in God’s Promises:
Christ will be honored, come what may! (1:18b-20).
“…Yes, and I will rejoice…” We are starting in the last part of v.18 (remember
the verse numbers aren’t part of the original text!). Here Paul continues the
theme of “rejoicing,” but switches to the future tense. He has joy now as a
prisoner, and he will rejoice in whatever way his story unfolds. He has confidence
in God’s promises. Even though the outcome of his trial before Caesar is
uncertain, he is full of joy in the assurance of one thing: Jesus will
be magnified. But how will that happen? See v.19,
”…for I know that through your
prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my
deliverance…”
The prayers of God’s people and
the presence and power of his Spirit guarantee our victory in
Jesus (1:19). “Deliverance” is the word elsewhere translated, “salvation.”
Normally he uses that word to refer to salvation from sin. Here Paul is applying
that to his vindication, one way or another, in his present crisis (cf. Job
“…as it is my eager expectation and hope
that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always
Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death…”
Paul had one main passion in life. It
seems clear from this text that in everything he does he is passionate about Jesus
Christ being magnified. Now he has a very strange way of stressing this. Look
at verse 20: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I might not be at all
ashamed…” Paul is expressing his desire and confidence that as he goes
before Caesar he would be emboldened to stand firm and speak the truth of
Christ before his accusers and the authorities. Recall the prayer of the
disciples in Acts 4, after being arrested and threatened, they come together
and pray. They don’t pray for protection. They don’t ask for safety. They pray
for courage to preach the gospel in the face of opposition! “…And
now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in
preaching your word…” (Acts 4:29). For
Paul, the opposite of shame was not that he might be honored or even
that he might live, but rather that Christ might be honored. “It is my eager expectation and hope that I
might in nothing be put to shame but with all boldness Christ might be honored [or, “magnified”] in my body.” Paul loved Jesus more than life.
Later in this letter he’ll say, “Whatever gain I had I counted as loss. I
count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord!” (Phil 3:8). Remember the response
of John the Baptist when it was being reported that more people were going to
Jesus: “He must increase, I must decrease.”
v.20c “…whether
by life or by death…” Paul is a prisoner, his life could be forfeit.
Someone might ask, “Where is the value of Christ now?” And so Paul adds in
verse 20, “My confidence is that Christ
will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” Death is a threat to the degree that it
frustrates our goals. Death is fearful to the degree that it threatens to rob
you of what you value most. But Paul valued Christ most! He looked at death and
he saw it as an occasion for the fulfillment of his highest value, that Christ
might be magnified. Life and death: they seem like such opposites, but Paul was
ready for either, so that whether by life or by death Christ would be
magnified. The greatest longing he had would be fulfilled in both. Soanist, it
almost didn’t matter to him which one the Lord would give him.
For us, the
decision to follow Christ might not seem like a life or death decision! It
clearly is for someone in Afghanistan, or Pakistan, or China! But it should be
for us as well! Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the
life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.”
Another
pioneer missionary, James Calvert, went out to the indigenous people of the
Fiji Islands. The captain of the ship that carried him warned him, “You will
lose your life, and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.”
Calvert’s reply expressed his commitment, “We died before we came here” (cf.
Gal 2:20). We can rejoice in the Lord
because His plan for our lives is perfect. *Knowing our eternity is secure in
Him, our joy goes beyond circumstances. We rejoice because, we have confidence
in God’s promises, and because we are…
II. Convinced of Christ’s Preeminence:
Jesus is my Life (
21 For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor
for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart
and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your
account…
Let’s consider 1:21. Paul gives us a very
packed summary statement of how it is that he can be so confident that Christ
is going to be magnified whether he lives or whether he dies. He says “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
“To
Live is Christ” - He is saying, “Jesus is my life!” We don’t know how many
years we have. How would you complete that statement, “For me to live is
______”? How would the people who know
you best fill that in to describe your life?
We can put a lot of things in there that are good, or at least neutral.
Our family, our work, those are good. Even our hobbies aren’t bad… But we can
so easily make people or things into idols. We can start to love the world more
than we love Jesus.
Do we love Jesus more than life? I
want to, but God forgive me, I am not sure that I always do. It depends on the
day. Would to God that we could say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ.”
How he looked to live that out is hinted
at in verse 22: “If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor
for me.” If God gave him life, he would serve the Lord with gladness! He
saw that his life purpose was to serve Him joyfully.
“For me to
die is gain.” In the last chapter of John, where Jesus predicted how Peter
would die, John adds, “This he said to show by what death he would glorify
God.” (John 21:18-19). Even how we die can bring God glory. It did for
Stephen in Acts 7!
First, Paul
says in 1:23, “I am hard-pressed between
the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
Better? I remember when Mary Ann read
“Deadline” a few years back, how excited she was by the prospect of eternity. To
depart and be with Christ is far better!
Look, I am not saying we should be so heavenly minded that we are
no earthly good. But our worldview should be shaped by the truth that we were created
for eternity, God is our Creator, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life! Some of us have gray hair (some of us have no hair) but if you know
Jesus, no matter your age, the best is yet to come: To live, Christ, to die,
gain!
Death comes
to all. We will magnify Christ in our dying to the degree that we believe that
fellowship with him in heaven is more to be preferred than any person or any
thing in this earth. Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy than me” (Matthew
“I am hard-pressed between the
two…” Our life has purpose, He saved us on purpose for a purpose. We are
here on assignment, and as we serve, we bring Him glory. And He numbers our
days. God will give us work until our life is over, and life until our work is
done. C.S. Lewis said: “The great thing is to be found at one’s post as a
Child of God, living each day as though it were your last, but planning as
though our world might last a hundred years.” (from God in the Dock). *Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can
have joy that goes beyond circumstances. We rejoice because we have confidence
in God’s plan, we are convinced of Christ’s preeminence, and…
III. Committed to God’s Program:
Our life in Jesus has purpose: to bring Him glory,
by encouraging others to grow in joy through faith in Him (
25
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for
your progress and joy in the faith, 26
so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my
coming to you again.
Now we can see
the steps in Paul’s thinking. First, v.21“For me to live is Christ.”
That is, v.22 “For me to live is to be
dedicated to fruitful labor.” Then he says, “For me to be dedicated to
fruitful labor is for your sake.” (v.24). And now finally he defines the
fruit that is to come about in their lives as the advancement and the joy of
faith: A version says, “The increase of your faith and its overflow with joy.”
(v.25).
“Faith”
is the confidence or trust that we put in a person who has given us cause to believe
that he is reliable and is able and willing to help us in our need. So, for
Paul, “to live is Christ” and “For me to live is for your joy of
faith” go together. Notice what that definition implies about the One
trusted. Our faith is only as good as the object of our faith. If there is a
line to get into the lobby of the bank and you hand the person in front of you
an envelope of cash, and ask them to make the deposit for you, it might work
out. It depends on the person! Jesus is trustworthy.
Faith in Christ means joy in Christ.
So, to live for their faith and to live for Christ alone are the same thing.
The only way we can live for Christ is to live by faith in Him. For me to
live is Christ… That is Christ honoring faith, you might say. But that’s
not all. We left out a word, the word joy in verse 25: “I will continue with
you for your joy.” Now this little phrase in the ESV is “joy in faith”
Literally it is “joy of faith.” For Paul that when we have faith, we will
have joy. He says in Romans 15:13 as
he prays for the church that, “…the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing.” In other words, believing is the means to joy.
Joy comes from a confident trust in
Christ and his promises. He also said to the Corinthians, describing his
ministry in 2 Cor 1:24, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we
work with you for your joy.” He replaces one word for the other
because for Paul they are intimately connected. You can’t have the one without
the other. Joy comes from a confident, hopeful trust in the promises of God
which are “Yes” in Christ Jesus because of his death and resurrection. This
is why Paul ends the text in verse 26 with a reference to “glorying in” or
“boasting in Christ.” Paul has only one joy in mind here: joy in Christ, joy
that comes from the abundance of Christ’s provision and his promises. If we
delight in the Christ from who we receive every good thing, don’t we find joy
in giving Him the glory? When you are happy about something, you magnify that
thing. So, not only faith but the fruit of faith in joy magnifies Christ
tremendously.
What is
God saying to me in this passage? Is Jesus your life? If so, rejoice, because when we serve Him, He will be
glorified as our life helps others to grow in their faith and so to experience
real joy. *Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can have joy that goes beyond
circumstances. Did those 5 young missionaries waste their lives in Ecuador
in 1956? We are still talking about them today because of the impact they made.
We rejoice because we have confidence in God’s promises, we’re convinced of
Christ’s preeminence, and we are committed to finding our place in God’s
program.
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) Is Jesus
your life? As Piper urged us, “Don’t Waste Your life.” Aim to love Him with all
of your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Commit to knowing Him better, spending
time in the Word and in prayer. To know Him is to love Him!
2) Will we determine
to use our gifts and to help others grow as His disciples? Paul could see the
value of his ongoing ministry to the Philippians: he said, “I know that I
shall remain… for your advancement and your JOY of faith.” We can get so
distracted by the world! Jesus is building HIS church.
3) Since joy comes from faith, and faith
comes from hearing, will we choose to immerse ourselves in the Bible? Jesus said, “My words I have spoken to you
in order that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full” (John
Rejoice
in the Lord Always!
Philippians
1:18b-26
Introduction: Don’t
Waste Your Life. That is the title of a book by John Piper. Last week I
referred to the famous story of the five missionaries who were killed when they
sought to reach out to the Huarani (aka Auca Indians) of Ecuador in 1956. I
came across this reference to that story in a sermon by Ray Pritchard…
In January 1956, the five men decided the time had come
to make contact in person. After much prayer they established a base camp on a
sandy beach of the Curaray River. On January 8, 1956—at about 3:30 PM, they
were speared to death by the Indians who mistakenly thought they had come to
hurt them. The news shocked the world. Many people wondered how young men
with so much promise could waste their lives that way. When the journals of
Jim Elliot were published several years later, they were found to contain this
sentence: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he
cannot lose.”
Why
risk their lives to reach a remote and violent people? Were their lives
wasted? Because they knew those people needed Jesus they went. Those young
missionaries knew the truth Paul will talk about in this passage. The philosophy
of life that guided the apostle also guided those men: To live is Christ, and
to die is gain. When Paul wrote Philippians he was in a serious
situation. After a total of about 4
years imprisonment his case was about to be decided and his life hung in the
balance. As he looked to the future, he had joy in the Lord – as he writes this
letter it is clear that Jesus is his life… I like the way Pritchard describes
Paul’s attitude here, he asks and answers the question that you might be
thinking…
How could Paul say such things? It’s
because for Paul death didn’t put him in a cemetery; it ushered him into a
sanctuary. He knew that he would enter the presence of Christ at the moment of
his death. That would truly be “gain” for him.
Jesus
was his life, so to live is Christ, to die is gain! Adoniram Judson,
missionary to Burma wrote: “If I had not felt certain that every trial was
ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated
sufferings.” Knowing God, trusting Him, entrusting yourself to Him, really
changes everything!
We
can rejoice in the Lord because He is our life and His plan for our lives is perfect.
As long as we serve Him, He will be glorified because our life will help others
to experience real joy as they grow in their faith.
The BIG Idea:
Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can have joy that goes beyond our circumstances.
We can rejoice because we are 1) Confident in God’s Promises; 2) Convinced of
Christ’s Preeminence, and 3) Committed to God’s Program. First, we are…
I. Confident in God’s Promises:
Christ will be honored, come what may! (1:18b-20).
“…Yes, and I will rejoice…” We are starting in the last part of v.18 (remember
the verse numbers aren’t part of the original text!). Here Paul continues the
theme of “rejoicing,” but switches to the future tense. He has joy now as a
prisoner, and he will rejoice in whatever way his story unfolds. He has confidence
in God’s promises. Even though the outcome of his trial before Caesar is
uncertain, he is full of joy in the assurance of one thing: Jesus will
be magnified. But how will that happen? See v.19,
”…for I know that through your
prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my
deliverance…”
The prayers of God’s people and
the presence and power of his Spirit guarantee our victory in
Jesus (1:19). “Deliverance” is the word elsewhere translated, “salvation.”
Normally he uses that word to refer to salvation from sin. Here Paul is applying
that to his vindication, one way or another, in his present crisis (cf. Job
“…as it is my eager expectation and hope
that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always
Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death…”
Paul had one main passion in life. It
seems clear from this text that in everything he does he is passionate about Jesus
Christ being magnified. Now he has a very strange way of stressing this. Look
at verse 20: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I might not be at all
ashamed…” Paul is expressing his desire and confidence that as he goes
before Caesar he would be emboldened to stand firm and speak the truth of
Christ before his accusers and the authorities. Recall the prayer of the
disciples in Acts 4, after being arrested and threatened, they come together
and pray. They don’t pray for protection. They don’t ask for safety. They pray
for courage to preach the gospel in the face of opposition! “…And
now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in
preaching your word…” (Acts 4:29). For
Paul, the opposite of shame was not that he might be honored or even
that he might live, but rather that Christ might be honored. “It is my eager expectation and hope that I
might in nothing be put to shame but with all boldness Christ might be honored [or, “magnified”] in my body.” Paul loved Jesus more than life.
Later in this letter he’ll say, “Whatever gain I had I counted as loss. I
count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord!” (Phil 3:8). Remember the response
of John the Baptist when it was being reported that more people were going to
Jesus: “He must increase, I must decrease.”
v.20c “…whether
by life or by death…” Paul is a prisoner, his life could be forfeit.
Someone might ask, “Where is the value of Christ now?” And so Paul adds in
verse 20, “My confidence is that Christ
will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” Death is a threat to the degree that it
frustrates our goals. Death is fearful to the degree that it threatens to rob
you of what you value most. But Paul valued Christ most! He looked at death and
he saw it as an occasion for the fulfillment of his highest value, that Christ
might be magnified. Life and death: they seem like such opposites, but Paul was
ready for either, so that whether by life or by death Christ would be
magnified. The greatest longing he had would be fulfilled in both. Soanist, it
almost didn’t matter to him which one the Lord would give him.
For us, the
decision to follow Christ might not seem like a life or death decision! It
clearly is for someone in Afghanistan, or Pakistan, or China! But it should be
for us as well! Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the
life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.”
Another
pioneer missionary, James Calvert, went out to the indigenous people of the
Fiji Islands. The captain of the ship that carried him warned him, “You will
lose your life, and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.”
Calvert’s reply expressed his commitment, “We died before we came here” (cf.
Gal 2:20). We can rejoice in the Lord
because His plan for our lives is perfect. *Knowing our eternity is secure in
Him, our joy goes beyond circumstances. We rejoice because, we have confidence
in God’s promises, and because we are…
II. Convinced of Christ’s Preeminence:
Jesus is my Life (
21 For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor
for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart
and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your
account…
Let’s consider 1:21. Paul gives us a very
packed summary statement of how it is that he can be so confident that Christ
is going to be magnified whether he lives or whether he dies. He says “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
“To
Live is Christ” - He is saying, “Jesus is my life!” We don’t know how many
years we have. How would you complete that statement, “For me to live is
______”? How would the people who know
you best fill that in to describe your life?
We can put a lot of things in there that are good, or at least neutral.
Our family, our work, those are good. Even our hobbies aren’t bad… But we can
so easily make people or things into idols. We can start to love the world more
than we love Jesus.
Do we love Jesus more than life? I
want to, but God forgive me, I am not sure that I always do. It depends on the
day. Would to God that we could say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ.”
How he looked to live that out is hinted
at in verse 22: “If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor
for me.” If God gave him life, he would serve the Lord with gladness! He
saw that his life purpose was to serve Him joyfully.
“For me to
die is gain.” In the last chapter of John, where Jesus predicted how Peter
would die, John adds, “This he said to show by what death he would glorify
God.” (John 21:18-19). Even how we die can bring God glory. It did for
Stephen in Acts 7!
First, Paul
says in 1:23, “I am hard-pressed between
the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
Better? I remember when Mary Ann read
“Deadline” a few years back, how excited she was by the prospect of eternity. To
depart and be with Christ is far better!
Look, I am not saying we should be so heavenly minded that we are
no earthly good. But our worldview should be shaped by the truth that we were created
for eternity, God is our Creator, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life! Some of us have gray hair (some of us have no hair) but if you know
Jesus, no matter your age, the best is yet to come: To live, Christ, to die,
gain!
Death comes
to all. We will magnify Christ in our dying to the degree that we believe that
fellowship with him in heaven is more to be preferred than any person or any
thing in this earth. Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy than me” (Matthew
“I am hard-pressed between the
two…” Our life has purpose, He saved us on purpose for a purpose. We are
here on assignment, and as we serve, we bring Him glory. And He numbers our
days. God will give us work until our life is over, and life until our work is
done. C.S. Lewis said: “The great thing is to be found at one’s post as a
Child of God, living each day as though it were your last, but planning as
though our world might last a hundred years.” (from God in the Dock). *Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can
have joy that goes beyond circumstances. We rejoice because we have confidence
in God’s plan, we are convinced of Christ’s preeminence, and…
III. Committed to God’s Program:
Our life in Jesus has purpose: to bring Him glory,
by encouraging others to grow in joy through faith in Him (
25
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for
your progress and joy in the faith, 26
so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my
coming to you again.
Now we can see
the steps in Paul’s thinking. First, v.21“For me to live is Christ.”
That is, v.22 “For me to live is to be
dedicated to fruitful labor.” Then he says, “For me to be dedicated to
fruitful labor is for your sake.” (v.24). And now finally he defines the
fruit that is to come about in their lives as the advancement and the joy of
faith: A version says, “The increase of your faith and its overflow with joy.”
(v.25).
“Faith”
is the confidence or trust that we put in a person who has given us cause to believe
that he is reliable and is able and willing to help us in our need. So, for
Paul, “to live is Christ” and “For me to live is for your joy of
faith” go together. Notice what that definition implies about the One
trusted. Our faith is only as good as the object of our faith. If there is a
line to get into the lobby of the bank and you hand the person in front of you
an envelope of cash, and ask them to make the deposit for you, it might work
out. It depends on the person! Jesus is trustworthy.
Faith in Christ means joy in Christ.
So, to live for their faith and to live for Christ alone are the same thing.
The only way we can live for Christ is to live by faith in Him. For me to
live is Christ… That is Christ honoring faith, you might say. But that’s
not all. We left out a word, the word joy in verse 25: “I will continue with
you for your joy.” Now this little phrase in the ESV is “joy in faith”
Literally it is “joy of faith.” For Paul that when we have faith, we will
have joy. He says in Romans 15:13 as
he prays for the church that, “…the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing.” In other words, believing is the means to joy.
Joy comes from a confident trust in
Christ and his promises. He also said to the Corinthians, describing his
ministry in 2 Cor 1:24, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we
work with you for your joy.” He replaces one word for the other
because for Paul they are intimately connected. You can’t have the one without
the other. Joy comes from a confident, hopeful trust in the promises of God
which are “Yes” in Christ Jesus because of his death and resurrection. This
is why Paul ends the text in verse 26 with a reference to “glorying in” or
“boasting in Christ.” Paul has only one joy in mind here: joy in Christ, joy
that comes from the abundance of Christ’s provision and his promises. If we
delight in the Christ from who we receive every good thing, don’t we find joy
in giving Him the glory? When you are happy about something, you magnify that
thing. So, not only faith but the fruit of faith in joy magnifies Christ
tremendously.
What is
God saying to me in this passage? Is Jesus your life? If so, rejoice, because when we serve Him, He will be
glorified as our life helps others to grow in their faith and so to experience
real joy. *Knowing our eternity is secure in Him, we can have joy that goes beyond
circumstances. Did those 5 young missionaries waste their lives in Ecuador
in 1956? We are still talking about them today because of the impact they made.
We rejoice because we have confidence in God’s promises, we’re convinced of
Christ’s preeminence, and we are committed to finding our place in God’s
program.
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) Is Jesus
your life? As Piper urged us, “Don’t Waste Your life.” Aim to love Him with all
of your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Commit to knowing Him better, spending
time in the Word and in prayer. To know Him is to love Him!
2) Will we determine
to use our gifts and to help others grow as His disciples? Paul could see the
value of his ongoing ministry to the Philippians: he said, “I know that I
shall remain… for your advancement and your JOY of faith.” We can get so
distracted by the world! Jesus is building HIS church.
3) Since joy comes from faith, and faith
comes from hearing, will we choose to immerse ourselves in the Bible? Jesus said, “My words I have spoken to you
in order that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full” (John
Comments
Post a Comment