Philippians 1:1-11

Philippians 1:1-11 - Definant in Joy - Message by Dale Meredith at The Red Door Community Church.

Episode Transcript

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Word and Way is kicking off again.
This is our second one thiscoming Wednesday, 7 o'clock start.
And I do just want to say, because Iknow some of you are wanting to come,
but you couldn't make it to the firstone and you're like, can I still come?
And of course, this is the kind of thingyou can just drop into at any point.
So first and third Wednesdays, we aregoing through the Book of Philippians.

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But it will not matter whether you jumpin from the first week or the third week
or the fifth week or whatever it might be.
So, yes, we will be gathering.
Again, we had about 45people come to the first one.
I cannot tell you how encouraged I was.
I was fully prepared to just havea nice little holy huddle of a

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few little like minded folks.
And 45 of you came.
And there was, there was many morewho said, said they wanted to be there
but couldn't for different reasons.
So I'm so profoundly encouraged thatthere are so many people in our church
family hungry to, chew on the Word ofGod, to know it, and to not just know

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the Word, to know the God of the Word.
Because that's a really important part ofWord and Way, it is not just about giving
you information about Scripture, it isthat you would come to know the God of
the Word in deeper and deeper and deeperways, in more personal, intimate ways.
So, yeah, I'm superencouraged and very excited.
And so,

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yeah, we are doing Philippians andI've done it that way just to be kind
to myself as we start this new thing.
I thought, okay, we'll stick to the samebook that we're doing in church and that
way I'm not having to, you know, dealwith different parts of the Bible in big
and significant kind of ways and so thatis to be kind to me and it's also kind
of cool, right, to be doing it, this iswe're going to go into Philippians this

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morning and then to have the opportunityto dive a bit deeper into it, on these
Word and Way nights but going forwardit won't necessarily be that way.
I have lots of fun ideas.
in mind.
Yes, it is good.
It is very good.
Okay, so let us begin by reading ourpassage of Scripture for today, which

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is Philippians 1 verses 1 to 11.
All right, it says this, Paul andTimothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to
all God's holy people in Christ Jesusat Philippi, together with the overseers
and deacons, grace and peace to you.
From God, our Father and theLord Jesus Christ, I thank my

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God every time I remember you.
In all my prayers for all of you,I always pray with joy because of
your partnership in the gospel fromthe very first day until now, being
confident of this, that he who begana good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way aboutall of you, since I have you in my heart.

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And whether I am in chains or defendingand confirming the gospel, all of
you share in God's grace with me.
God can testify how I long for all ofyou with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer, that yourlove may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight.
So that you may be able to discern whatis best and may be pure and blameless for

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the day of Christ Filled with the fruitof righteousness that comes through Jesus
Christ to the glory and the praise ofGod Amen, it's a great passage, isn't it?
Yes, so good.
All right, who remembers Marie Kondo?
Yeah?
Okay.

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Who's got zero idea of whoI'm just talking about?
Who's never heard ofthis Marie Kondo person?
All right, so Marie Kondo,darling back, I don't know, how
many years ago do you reckon?
Five, six years ago?
Do you think she was pre COVID?
Yeah, okay, that's the marker, isn't it?
You know, it used to be, you know, BC andAD and now it's before, which is still BC.

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Okay.
So Marie Kondo was this wonderful,adorable little Asian lady who
helped us all declutter our homes.
And one of the ways that Marie advisedus to help us declutter our homes
was to take up various items that weare considering whether to keep or

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jettison from our lives and to askthe question, does this spark joy?
Yeah, does this sound familiar?
Yep.
So it's the whole, if it doesn'tspark joy, you get rid of it.
And if it does, you keep it.
All right.
So here's a questionfor you, church family.
As you behold the person ofJesus, does he spark joy for you?

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It's a good question to consider.
And, and don't just do the, don't justdo the whole, yeah, I'm a good Christian.
So of course he sparks joy.
No, no, no.
Answer it honestly, in your heart.
Does Jesus, as we have worshippedhim this morning, as we have heard
his name proclaimed this morning,throughout this week, as you have
beheld him, has he sparked joy?

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Does his gospel spark joyin you as you consider the
mission of Christ in the world?
Does that spark joy in you?
Well, here's one.
He's bride.
Does she spark joy?
He's bride, which is the church,which is all of us across the planet.

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Does the bride of Christ thatwhich sparks joy in Jesus?
Spark joy in you.
It did yesterday.
Sharon was sparked withgreat joy yesterday as she
participated in Gather 25.
And speaking of that, yesterday,last night I was driving and I was
tuning in to Gather 25 as I wasdriving down the freeway and it was

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a section on the persecuted church.
And if you're not sure what this Gather25 thing's all about, you can jump online
and you can watch all the stuff that'shappened over the last 25 hours or so.
It's pretty amazing.
Very profound.
Profoundly encouraging, but I'm listeningto one story of this young Muslim girl
who had come to faith Simply by, she'sin a, I can't remember what country

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exactly she was in, but she had nevermet a Christian but she had gone online
one day, Muslim, just one of these reallystrongly Muslim locked countries and And
just written the question, who is Jesus?
And in that search, she had come toChrist in quite a profound and dramatic
way and so much so that, you know,she, she hadn't told her family what

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had happened or if she knew what wouldhappen to her if she did, but her
brother noticed the difference in her.
The brother noticed thejoy that she now had.
And he confronted her and hesaid, have you become a Christian?
And she said yes, I have and he saidyou've got two hours to renounce your

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faith or we will kill you and So she'sIt took two hours, what am I going to do?
But she could not renouncethe joy that she now knew.
She could not renounce the lovethat she had now come to know.
And so she was martyred forher faith, a modern day martyr.

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But she was known by what?
Her joy.
Her joy.
Oof.
Pretty amazing, hey?
You know, I consider some ofthe people in our church family.
And there are somebeautiful, joyful people.
We've got loud, joyful Chrisover here, but, you know, and I
appreciate that so, so very much.

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My beautiful father and Iare in exuberance joy in his
commitment to be a person of joy.
And that has been acommitment, hasn't it, Chris?
It's been a choice.
I'm going to apprehend the joyof the Lord and I'm going to
share it wherever my foot treads.
That is a conviction thatChris has walked with.
And, you know, it's, it's a joy for him.
But it makes it him ajoy to be around as well.

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I think of Ahmet.
Yeah, most of you will know Ahmet.
Where is Ahmet right now?
Ahmet's in Albania.
What is Ahmet doing in Albania?
For the joy of the Lord, he isgoing wherever the Lord sends him.
And if you know Ahmet, you've onlygot to be around him five minutes.
He burns with a joy.
for the mission of Christ in the world.
And he will count the cost.
And he will go wherever thegood Lord leads him because

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of that joy that fuels him.
And it's contagious and it's infectiousand it is beautiful to be around.
And we all know Steve Scrimgeour as well.
You know, he's just Captain Exuberant Joy.
The joy of the Lord just literallypours out of every pore in his body.
But then we have beautiful people too.
I think of, like, Johan.
You know, most of you will know Johan.

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I don't know where he is right now.
Is he here?
Oh, there he is right at the back.
Johan, you just have thismost beautiful, gentle joy.
But it's still so obvious, it is stillthere and it is still clear what inspires
it because you hear Johan talk aboutthe scriptures, you hear Johan talk
about God and there is a joy aboutthat, there's a joy that comes with it.

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It is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And so, let's consider for amoment, this passage I've just
read, what is the context of it?
We went deep into this at thefirst Word and Way, we went deep
into the context of Philippians.
And it's really important that weapprehend the context to really be
able to extract all the goodnessthat this letter has for us.

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For Paul is writing this letter,the context from which Paul is
writing matters significantly andbecause it adds so, so very much
weight to the words that he says.
These are not just idle words, conceptualwords, abstract concepts for Paul.
This is a lived reality thathe is sharing with this church.
And so Paul is in prison hereas he writes this letter.

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This is one of his prison letters.
Now he's in a prison, possibly.
In Rome, possibly in Ephesus, Biblicalscholars can't quite land definitively
on which one because it's not clear.
You're gonna gotta put the puzzlepieces together, but it really
matters not because the conditionswould have been the same.
And so he's writing from, not just mildlyuncomfortable kind of context, from a

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Incredibly difficult, painful, just theworst of circumstances in so many ways.
One writer writes about theexperience of being in a Roman prison.
He says this, It is not a surprisethat these awful conditions cause
such profound distress of body andsoul that prisoners, if they did not

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become sick and die, wish themselvesdead or actively sought suicide.
So this is the contextthat Paul's writing from.
He's chained to a jailer.
24 7. I'm assuming they'rerotate shifts or whatever.
And these chains are, you know,they're not fur lined or anything.
You know, they're going to be rubbingthe flesh off his wrists and his ankles.

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There's no bed to lie on.
Who knows how many peopleare in a cell with him.
They don't feed you in Roman prisons.
And so if people, your friends and familyon the outside who are now so exceedingly
ashamed of you because the shame of beingin prison in that culture was horrendous.
So you're going to be lucky ifanybody actually does care for

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you because of the shame of beingassociated with somebody in prison.
So the only way you're going tosurvive is somebody actually does
bring you food and does actuallycare for you from the outside.
Now you're not in prison as apunishment, you're just in prison while
they figure out what to do with you.
And so Paul's facing thisvery uncertain future.
Now he only is in these horrendousconditions, he doesn't know

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what's going to happen to him.
And so, the sentence could be passed,he could be sentenced to death.
It could be banishment.
It could be, well, flogging.
He's pretty good at copying aflogging by the sounds, if you
know, you read his letters.
You don't know what it's goingto be, so he's sitting there
in an uncertain future as well.
And it is from this place thatPaul writes of joy, of rejoicing.

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He writes of confidence and hopein Christ, of love and passion
for the advancement of the missionof the gospel in the world.
He writes of contentment.
It's amazing what hewrites of from this place.
Just incredibly harshand hard circumstances.
And so the vision and the intent of thisseries is I want us to look at Paul.

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And I want us to wonder and tocome to really want what he's got.
You know, that classic Harry Met Sallyline, I'll have what she's having.
You know, I want us to lookat the life of Paul like that
and go, I want what he's got.
I want to see how he sees.
I want to know Jesus, how he knows Jesus.
I want to know the gospel, the way thatPaul knows gospel, knows the gospel.

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I want that.
I want that kind of joy and passion andhope and confidence in Christ because
that's where it all comes from, from Paul.
As you read this letter, all ofhis joy and his hope, it's not
manifested, it's not some hype.
It comes from a groundedconfidence in Christ.
This is where his hopeand his joy comes from.

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His love and affection for Jesus andhis people and for the mission of
the gospel comes from his confidence.
And so I want us to thinkof Paul as our mentor.
So one of the, Paul is going to mentor usin the areas of joy and the areas of hope.
He will be our mentor.

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So may we lean in with a postureof curiosity, posture of wanting to
learn, of looking at a life like Paul'sand going, I see that fruit and I
wanna, I want that kind of fruit tobe the testimony of my life as well.
Because if you have the Holy Spirit,Red Door Church family, there will

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be something resonating on the insideof you, even as I say this right now.
No matter the circumstances thatare coming upon you, if you have the
Holy Spirit, your Holy Spirit, theHoly Spirit within you will start
to Resonate and go, yes, becausethat is what the Spirit is for.
Yeah, the Spirit is to reveal Jesusin you but through you as well.

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And so it might be quiet and it might bevery, very dormant because there are many
other things squishing it, crushing it,crowding it out, but it will be there.
Lean in to that voice, that stirring.
Start to stoke the fire of it.
You know, just towards the end of lastyear, and I've shared this a little bit

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already, but I really started to feela growing conviction around this area
of joy, particularly in my own life.
So this is, you know, apersonal thing as well.
I'm certainly not standing up here asone who has absolutely got this nailed.
That's what I'm saying.
Paul as a mentor and not Dale, right?
Because Dale tends to thedark side quite easily.

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And so I felt this growing convictionaround joy for my own life.
Where was it in my life?
Why was it so absent?
And now, I could give you a lot ofjustifiable reasons, you know, there's
a lot of hard stuff that we deal within our life, both in a peripheral
but in a deeply personal way as well.

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And you could look at that inthe eyes of the natural and go, I
understand why you might struggle tohave joy, because you are faced with
pretty painful stuff on the daily.
Situations that don't looklike they're changing at all.
And I can understand why you might feeldiscouraged, despairing, hopeless in that.
But

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there's this little fact that,well, I profess to know Jesus.
And I have the Holy Spirit,the fruit of which is what?
So where is it in my life?
Why is it not manifesting?
And so I have been on a personaljourney of wrestling with this myself.

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But as I've looked around, in all honesty,I feel like there's a pervasive lack of it
within the broader church family as well.
You know, it's there in littleBut I see way more despairing
than I do persevering in joy.

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I see an awful lot ofweariness and discouragement.
And this is not to keep condemnationon anyone, but it's like how sad
it is to have it right there.
To have joy right thereand to not grab hold of it.
What a waste!
Because what Jesus did, what itcost Him, what it cost the Father

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to send the Son to give us joy.
Okay, I'm just for a moment going to goto the very last scripture of my message
because I'm going a little bit off script.
But anyway, it's really good.
Okay, so John 15, 9 11.
Jesus said, as a father oflove me, so I've loved you.
Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands,you'll remain in my love.

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Just as I have kept my father'scommands and remain in his love.
I have told you this.
What?
So that my joy may be what in youand that your joy may be what?
Complete, I
mean, take the implicationsof what Jesus is saying here.
All that he has suffered is what?

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So, and Jesus suffered a lot, right?
Like, that's an understatement.
An understatement of the universeis to say Jesus just suffered a lot.
No.
The worst that any humanbeing has or ever will suffer.
Jesus suffered so that we could know joy.
And so it's all there for the taking.
And yet we somehow fail so often toapprehend it and to live out of it.
Which seems such a verywaste to me, doesn't it?

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And like, what does itsay to a watching world?
About the sufficiency of Christ inour life when the people of Jesus
walk around Burdened and discouraged.
It's like what have we got to to sharewith the world If we haven't apprehended
the joy that is right there for thetaking it is right there Do you know my

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friends you're sitting there and you'regoing I can't imagine how I could have
joy in my circumstances Well try harder.
All right, and I know that's not acool thing to say in church, right?
Because oh, that's so condemning.
Mm hmm You've got a Godgiven, God given imagination.
Right?
Right?
Just imagine yourselfin your place of trial.
Imagine wrestling through whateveryou're wrestling through with joy.

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Right?
Because this is what Paulis telling us we can do.
It is all there.
Right?
It's not that we need thecircumstance to go away to have joy.
No, no, no.
So this, this was my lesson last year.
It's like, God's saying to me, you havethis wrestle, and this is a daily one,
and it is a hard one, it is a painful one.
But will you allow imagination to riseup, that you can endure this with joy?

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That each day you can get on before thereality of this, and you can come with
joy, and you can still grieve, and you canstill wrestle, but you can do it with joy.
Sometimes I think our, our, ourimaginations are just a little bit
limited, or we've believed the liethat, These two things can't exist.
Grief and joy can't co exist together.

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Or, you know, struggle andwrestle can't co exist with joy.
They absolutely can!
Happiness can't coexist with these things.
Oh, but joy can.
And we've just been sold the lie,and we've bought it that happiness
and joy are the same thing.
They're not, right?
Whatever excruciatingly painful anddifficult circumstances, and I'm, and

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I know a lot of your stories here, andthey are hard, but my word to you is if
we take God's Word seriously, you canface these horribly difficult situations
with joy, and you know what that does?
Oh my gosh.
It just transforms.
everything.
And it doesn't make it, well ina way it does make it less hard.

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But we can have joy and we canhope, have hope in the wrestle
and the struggle and Paul is goingto teach us how we can do that.
And that was way longerintroduction than I wanted it to be.
Alright, so key themesthrough this letter.
We've got spiritual mentorship going onthrough the personal example of Paul.
We've got defiant joy inthe midst of adversity.

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Paul is putting his moneywhere his mouth is here.
Remember where he's writing from, right?
So he's not just writing aboutsome abstract theological concept.
This is real for him.
And another key theme that's soimportant is the reorientating
around the worth of Jesus Christ.
It all centers on this.
Paul calls believers to the centertheir lives around the incomparable
value of knowing Christ, suggestingthat true fulfillment, true joy and

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hope come from this relationship.
And yes, they do.
So let's go throughthis passage bit by bit.
So, Paul and Timothy, servantsof Christ Jesus, to all God's holy
people in Christ Jesus at Philippi,together with the overseer's deacons,
grace and peace to you from God ourFather and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So let's just pick up a couple of thingsfrom this introductory verse here.
So he uses the word servant.
And the Greek word forthis is the word doulos.
Some of you would have heard,that word before, and it just
means, it means a slave, right?
Interesting, isn't it?
Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.
It's not a, the word servant, the wordslave, they're not particularly compelling

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words in our culture today, are they?
No.
But when you understand what isactually meant by the word doulos, you
understand what Paul is saying here.
A slave is one who has given himselfup to do the will of another.
That's the definition of doulos,one who has given their own will
up to do the will of another.

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And so who is Paul and who is Timothy?
He is one who has given up his ownwill to do the will of Jesus Christ.
And we should all have that posture.
Because guess what?
Our own wills largely suck.
Our own wills are very, very corrupted.
Our own wills are bent in on themselves.
They are full of all sortsof unhealthy deceptions,

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distortions, corruptions, right?
We should be tossing our wills offwith gay abandon because mostly they
are fairly putrid things, right?
And going, oh my gosh,Jesus, your will is good.
Right?
It's just not that simple though, is it?
We get so attached to our ownway of doing things and our

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own way of being in the world.
But what Paul is saying here, I amone who has given up my own will
to give my life wholly and solelyto pursue the will of another and
that other is the person of Jesus.
And then he says this line here,Grace and peace to you from God.
Grace, the favour of God and God'sempowering presence to do his will.

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Peace, the deep soul assurance that comesfrom knowing that you are saved, that
you are in right relationship with God.
God wants you to know these things.
Paul writes, right, this sit, the way he'swritten it is effectively this is coming
from God's heart through mine to you.
And this same God is saying thissame message to you, church family.

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In the midst of what can be achallenging word for sure, God's
heart towards you is grace and peace.
It is that you would know His presence,His empowering presence, and that you
would know and have a deep abidingassurance that you are good with God,
that you're good with your Creator.

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Yes!
That's pretty great, right?
Considering What giant Muppetswe all are in this room, right?
In terms of the goodness ofGod and the holiness of God.
And considering how much that wehave all sinned against Him, right?
And we've misused His good creationin various different ways and the
different ways that we all participatein the ways of evil in this world.

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And you'll see me going, I do all this?
Yeah, you do.
We've just, we're just reallygood at sanctifying it.
We're really good at going,yeah, but I'm not as bad as
that guy, so I'm actually okay.
And I'm compared to a holy God.
But then we get to say,we're good with Him.
We're good with Him.
We could end the sermon there becausethere is enough joy to be gleaned just
from the truth in Paul's introductionthat we could just go, oh my gosh,

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praise the Lord, let's worship.
But I've got pages more to go, so
Yes, the joy, preach it Chris.
Yes, alright, and the joy sitbefore you in the pages and
pages I've still got to go.
No, alright, it's going to begreat people, hang with me.
Alright, next slide.
Next part of this passage.

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I thank my God every time I rememberyou and all my prayers for all of you.
I always pray with joy because of yourpartnership in the Gospel from the
first day until now, being confidentof this, that He who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completionuntil the day of Christ Jesus.
So good.

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There is again, just in this coupleof verses here, there is so much, but
let me draw your attention firstly.
To the third and fourth words there.
I thank my God.
What does that say to you, church family?
Just that little phrase, my God.
Is he your God?

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Or is he just God?
But this, how personal is that?
How intimate is that?
This is my God.
When He is your God, whenthat's how you speak of Him,
you will know joy, my friends.
You will know joy,unstoppable, unshakable.
Is He your God?
And again, it's all there for the taking.
You just have to enter in, and youjust have to have faith that it

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is true, that that's who He wants.
to be for you and to you.
He wants to be your God,intimately acquainted with you.
Song of songs, my belovedis mine and I am his.
Is that how you think aboutyour relationship with God?
As beloved as the beloved.

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He says, I always pray with joy.
I always play, pray with greatpleasure and great delight.
Picture him in a. This is prettypowerful, potent stuff, isn't it?
If it can enable you to expressthings this way, it's gotta be

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pretty powerful, this joy of whichPaul testifies to, that is all
grounded in his confidence in Jesus.
He's joyful because of theirpartnership in the gospel.
So because the gospel is his verygreat treasure and delight and mission
and purpose to have people who arepartnering in that with him, the
spreading of it, the advancement ofit, that brings great joy to his heart.

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And what is the gospel exactly?
It is the good news that the risenJesus is Lord and King of the world.
That is the gospel.
I don't know how, maybe how you'veheard it framed before, but that
is the essence of the gospel.
That Paul is so passionatelyand joyfully devoted his life
to see advanced in the world.
That the Lord Jesus Christ, the risenLord Jesus Christ, is king of the world.

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Again, we could just leave it there.
Because there is enough joy tobe had from that reality alone.
Because this king has defeated death.
This king is the one that calls youhis own, has chosen you, has called
you, has united his life to your life.

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Can you see how it's just alittle bit wrong to not have joy?
Yeah?
To be called a child of God, to bepermanently united to the resurrected
life of Christ, now and for alleternity, unshakable, unbreakable,
the love of God, bound to you now andforevermore, in perfect faithfulness.

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It's a little bit of an injusticeto not be people of the deepest
and profoundest joy, right?
Right?
I don't want to be insensitive.
I don't want to downplayanybody's sufferings by this.
But then I don't want to leave you in thatplace and go, well, oh, they're there.
Your stuff's really hard.
It is.
But it's not the end of the story,and it's not even the biggest

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part of your story by a long shot.
Because the risen Lord JesusChrist It's the king of the world.
Oh!
And that's what Paul was willing tosuffer anything to see proclaimed
and believed and testified to.

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And then he writesbeing confident of this.
And so he's got this deep assuranceand knowing that what God has
started, God is going to finish.
There is a good work that Godis working in you, my friends.
And he's God.
He can't lie.
He started it.
He's going to finish it.
He's not like so many of us whoare really great at starting jobs
and not good at finishing them.
Yeah?

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I'm sure there's plenty ofus in this room right now.
We've got a lot of halffinished jobs at home.
You should see our ceiling.
It's just, oh, it's just, don'tever come and look up, right?
Because we have this veryunfinished job on our ceiling.
Um.
And some of us are great starters, right?
We're not so great at finishing.
That's not God, okay?
Because God is perfect in integrity.
If He starts something, He will finish it.

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He's not going to get distracted.
He's not going to get bored.
He's not going to go, Ohmy gosh, that's too hard.
He will finish it.
So He has started a good work inevery single one of you who has
called Him your King and your Lord.
And He will finish it.
And you can have thevery greatest confidence.
No matter how it might look to yournatural eyes, you can be full of joy
and hope that He will complete it.

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Because He is faithful.
And you know, we, you hear a lot, youhear it quite a bit around Red Door, you
know, is this whole, we're called to bedisciples, we're called to follow Jesus,
to be with Him that we would be what?
Come like Him.
Yeah?
And sometimes I think we can hear thatand what we can end up doing is we
can end up trying to be like Jesus.

(30:35):
Yeah?
So yeah, we do the whole WWJD thing,you remember that was Great bracelets.
Oh man, those bracelets arecrushing What a crushing weight
to try and do what Jesus did.
Right.
It's like, oh gosh.
We don't have to try to be like Jesus,'cause God's doing that work in us.

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We do have a work to do, however.
Right.
And that's to die.
Okay, we, our work is to die toourself, to daily take up our cross.
Okay, your, your cross that youtake up isn't your difficult spouse.
Okay, it isn't your painful friend.
Oh, we've all got our cross to bear.
It isn't your bad hair.
Okay, your cross is your whole life.

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Yeah, when you're daily takingup your cross, you're saying, I'm
laying down my life and killinga dead that your resurrection
life can be birthed through me.
You know resurrection lifecan only come through death.
The only way you're going totaste resurrection life is to die
to the things that are outsideof the will and the way of God.
And that's our role.
And then God does the rest.

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He does the transforming intoJesusness in and through us.
All right, next bit.
It is right for me to feel thisway about all of you, says Paul.
Really start to hear Paul'saffection for this church.
Now Paul writes quite a few lettersin, letters in Scripture, doesn't he?
Yeah?
And not all of them aresuper friendly, right?

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But he really has strongaffections for this church.
And if you want to Do a deeper diveinto the backstory of this church.
Go read Acts 16.
Gives you a beautiful, beautifulexplanation of the foundations
of this church in Philippi.
So this church, okay, just a sideline.
This is fun little fact, right?

(32:21):
Do you know who was thefirst member of this church?
Anyone?
Lydia, right?
So Paul's on this missionary journey.
Paul wants to head over east, right?
And it's so great when youread it in Acts, right?
It's so functional, like the Spirit ofthe Lord was like blocking him, going,
no, no Paul, you can't go that way.
No, you can't go that way.
And then Paul has a dreamabout this Macedonian guy.

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He says, come help us.
And like that, but I'm goingeast and they are over west.
And so he's like, well,okay, keep getting blocked.
So I better go that way.
So Paul goes that way.
This is the very first church in Europe.
The very first Christian church inEurope is the church in Philippi.
And he gets there, and he's like,well, who am I going to preach to?
Okay, it's a Roman outpost.
There's no Jewish people there,because there was no synagogue.

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You need to have a synagogue.
You needed ten Jewish men.
There was no synagogue.
So there's not, he's not got a lot ofJewish people to leverage off here.
So he finds himself down by this riverone day, and there's this lady with
some other Girls, and they're praying.
They've got a little prayer meetinggoing, and they're praying to God, but
they've never even, they don't evenreally know who this God is, right?
But they're still praying anyway.
And then it beautifully says, you know,and God opens Lydia's heart to receive

(33:28):
the good news about Jesus Christ.
And her and her householdget baptized that day.
That is, Lydia is the founding member,a Gentile woman is a founding member
of the very first church in Europe.
So, and do you knowwho the next member is?
Because you know what happens then?
Right?
Paul, they're, they're wanderingaround Philippi and they've got

(33:50):
that annoying, like, slave girl whokeeps telling the future behind them
and then Paul just gets so jack ofit and just goes, Get out of her!
And they're like, you know, and thenthe owners of this slave girl are
not happy because she can no longertell the future and so they end up in
prison and then the whole in chains andthey're worshipping and praying and the
earthquake and the chains and then thejailer says, What must I do to be saved?
Right?
And so the second foundingmember of this church.

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is a jailer.
This is cool, isn't it?
And this is how the Gospelmoves through the world, right?
Not through fancy famous preachers,but just this move just through
ordinary people, that God,whose God opens the hearts to.
Oh, go read Acts 16.
It's so good.

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All right, back to this.
It is right for me to feel this way aboutall of you, since I have you in my heart.
And whether I am in chains or defendingand confirming the gospel, all of
you share in God's grace with me.
God can testify how I long for all ofyou with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Now put another translation here.
This is N. T. Wright's translation.

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And so let's just have a look at this andjust see if you can see the difference.
It is right for me to thinkthis way about all of you.
You have me in your hearts.
Here in prison as I am, working todefend and bolster up the gospel, you
are my partners in grace, all of you.
Yes.
God can bear witness how muchI'm longing for all of you with
the deep love of King Jesus.

(35:14):
Did you pick up thelittle difference there?
It's like, okay, who's got whoin whose heart here, right?
You know, in Paul, in this firsttranslation, NIV, it's like, you
know, I've got you in my heart.
But then, so it must betricky to translate, right?
Because NNT, right, is saying, oh no,Paul is rejoicing because they have him.
in their hearts.
Okay, I think the point is, right,it's, it's this beautiful expression

(35:38):
of delighting in one another.
And I, you know, I delightin you all most days.
Not every
day, right?
But, but

(35:58):
I want this, right?
I want this posture, right?
Just so, just Just be full ofdelight in the body of Christ, in the
church family, in my church family.
Imagine church family, if you got up ona Sunday morning, you're like, I'm so

(36:18):
full of delight for my church family.
And you spring out of bed and you'rejust getting ready so eagerly with so
much joy because you have so much delightin your heart that has come from where?
Jesus's delight in this churchfamily, because while you might
not find this church familyparticularly delightful, Jesus does.

(36:40):
Jesus finds this church family incrediblybeautiful and actually worth dying for.
We need a little bit re envisaging,don't we, a lot of the time.
But imagine getting up with that posture.
Oh, Lord, give me your delightfor your church family.
And you come through those doors at 1050.
No, 950.

(37:04):
Because you delight in the music teamso much, and you want to encourage
them by being here when they start,and you've got your kids in there, and
when the rooms are open, and you know,and you've, and you've just been just
overflowing with joy as you've come in.
This is possible, people.
If we posture ourselves andwe have a vision for it, it is
all there for the apprehending.
There is so much agapelove going on right here.

(37:26):
And this is loving with thedeep love of King Jesus.
Paul loves this church with the love ofJesus because Jesus has first loved him.
And this is not just lip service.
This church has sacrificed for Paul in bigways in the sending of resources to him.
Firstly, for the spreading ofthe gospel and the good news.
And now to support him in jail.

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So in 2 Corinthians 8.
Verses 1 to 5, Paul talks about this andhe's writing to the church in Corinthians
here, but in Corinth, but he's referringto the church in Philippi as he does and
he says and now brothers and sisters wewant you to know about the grace that
God has given the Macedonian churches.
So Philippi is a part of that, the church,church in Thessalon Thessalonica as well.

(38:10):
So in the midst of a very severe trial,their overflowing joy and their extreme
poverty welled up in rich generosity.
Wasn't a beautiful link from ourgenerosity series we just finished.
For I testify that they gave as muchas they were able and even beyond
their ability, entirely on theirown, they urgently pleaded with
us for the privilege of sharing inthis service to the Lord's people.

(38:30):
And they exceeded our expectations.
They gave themselves first ofall to the Lord and then by the
will of God, also to us.
And so my point here is this loveand this affection, this delight and
this devotion that they have for oneanother, it's not just lip service.
These people have put their moneywhere their mouth is, giving
beyond what they even had, it'ssaid here, in order to support the

(38:52):
work of the Gospel, to participatein it, and Paul himself as well.
What a beautiful, beautiful pictureof what church family can be.
Alrighuh, next bit.
And this is my prayer.
Oh, I love this.
I've been praying thisprayer so much lately.
This is my prayer that your love mayabound more and more in knowledge and
depth of insight, so that you may beable to discern what is best and may

(39:15):
be pure and blameless for the dayof Christ, filled with the fruit of
righteousness that comes through JesusChrist, to the glory and to the praise.
of God.
So he uses the word knowledge here.
Your love would abound in knowledge.
That's interesting, isn't it?
So often when we think about love, it'sall this feeling kind of stuff, right?
But he's actually talking aboutknowledge here, your love would abound

(39:36):
in knowing, in, and it's a specificknowing that he's talking about.
It's not just general knowledge.
It is a knowing of God's will.
It's about knowing of God's way, aknowing of the gospel and the promises
and the benefits of knowing Christ.
So that particular knowing would deepen.
And the insight, so what's he's talkingabout, this has to do with perception,
perspective, how one perceives theworld, that your love would abound

(40:02):
more and more In how you know God,but how you see the world as well.
You know, through the generosity series,we kind of talked about, you know, when
Jesus uses the whole good eye, bad eye.
Parable.
If your eyes are good, then yourwhole being is full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, then how darkis that darkness that is within you?
You know that?
And so, this idea here is that, is thisprayer that Paul has, is that these

(40:26):
people, that their eyes would be good,that they would look out with eyes of
love and see the goodness, and they'dsee the God in the world, and their being
would be full of light in that place.
All right.
Righteousness.
What's he talking about here whenhe mentions righteousness is to be
in alignment with God's reality inthinking and in feeling and in acting.

(40:47):
And so what's theimplication in all of this?
So when the people of God abound inknowing the will and the way of God,
they are seeing and perceiving God'strue reality so that the way they
think and feel and act is in alignment.
Then God is glorified.
We can't miss that last little bit there.
All of this is to the gloryand the praise of God.

(41:13):
All of this.
You know, if you are wondering, if you'vegot questions about how you should be
in the world, decisions before you,put this framework over all of it.
Will this bring glory to God?
Will this bring glory to God?
It's incredibly clarifying.

(41:33):
If you are wrestling with something,how to respond, how to behave, what
to do, what to choose, what decisionto make, will this bring glory to God?
It's a really, I found a reallyhelpful question to sit under
in moments of uncertainty.
What is the purpose of the church?
The purpose of the churchis to bring glory to God.

(41:54):
And this mean we live lives where wefeel, we think, and we act in ways
that reflect the greatness of God.
And this is what Paul is doingso beautifully, and how he
expresses himself in this letter.
But when we have a joyless and a hopelessand an anxious faith, my friends,
this does not bring glory to God.
And again, this is not tomake you feel bad, alright?
This is just to stir up faith and vision.

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For all that God has put beforeyou, that all is right there,
if we would just apprehend it.
Not only is being joyless, hopeless, andanxious, you know, a sad way to live.
It is offensive, as we've touched on,to God in light of what he has done
for us and what it cost him to do it.
All right, so in summary, let'sjust look at this final little bit.

(42:34):
When your confidence is in the goodnews of Jesus Christ, as Paul's
clearly is, and in the love of God,and God's willingness and ability to
work in and through you, God's abilityto work in and through you, oh gosh,
if we would just rest alone in that.
There would be so much joy to be had.
You will have a joy and a hope that fillsand fuels you with a deep affection and

(42:55):
desire for Christ's mission and for thosethat you have been called to partner
with in the advancement of this mission.
So just quickly as I do bringthis home, all right, what
application can we take from this?
Firstly, let's ask the question, whereis your confidence, church family?
Where is your confidence?
Again, a really good question to sitwith, because we know our confidence.

(43:17):
When, when, when discouragementand, anxiety begin to take hold,
you know, it's usually a sign weneed some kind of recalibrating.
Our confidence has shifted.
Yeah, it's shifted outside of theperson of Christ, outside of the
gospel of Christ, outside of thesufficiency of God in our world, and
it's shifted on to something else.

(43:40):
And often, you know, Adam touched on itat the beginning of the service, right?
So often we get wobbly and shaky becauseYou know, it's, it's actually, you know,
if you're feeling wobbly and shaky right,shaky right now in the world, you know,
just go, oh, okay, just allow it to be agateway into deeper peace with God, okay?
Don't go all boo hoo about it, oh mygosh, I'm a bad Christian, I've got
anxiety, I'm feeling hopeless, justgo, oh my, take it before the Lord,

(44:04):
and go, oh wow, alright, Lord, I needsome recalibrating here, alright?
Remember, this is not about earningfavour with God, this is not about earning
approval with God, you've already got it!
You've got as much favourand approval that you're ever
going to get, right now, okay?
So you're free to just come withyour anxious, weary, weighed down
heart and go, Lord, I am off track.
The wheels are wobbly.

(44:25):
What are we going to do about this, Lord?
Okay, because I really don'tknow how to fix this myself.
And you are free to comebefore Him like that.
Okay, don't try and fixit in your own strength.
Okay, bring it before the God who wantsyou to know His grace and His peace, as
we talked about right at the beginning.
All right, secondly, whatdo you need to die to?
That this Christ confidencewould stop being choked in you.

(44:49):
What might you need to die to?
So my friends, let meput it in another way.
What maybe are you beholding?
What do you set youreyes on in any given day?
What, I guesuh, fills your field of view?
As you look at your day, asyou look out at your week.

(45:09):
What are you beholding?
Are you beholding the beauty ofChrist through the Word of God?
Are you beholding just the beautyof God just through creation
as you're out in the world?
Or are you just feeding offthe life sucking news cycles
and social media dribble?
No wonder you're struggling, folks,because there's ain't no joy and hope

(45:32):
to be found in those places at all.
I swear the very best thing a lotof you could do for yourself would
be to walk out those doors thismorning, put your phone under the rear
tire of your car and back over it.
Oh my gosh.
I reckon joy would flood your heart inan instant for many of you who beholdened
to this thing and all the toxic crap thatyou feed your soul as you come before it.

(46:00):
Oh, we gotta be morevigilant in this space.
It's not good.
You know what?
The world doesn't need you to knowall the news for the world to be okay.
Because guess what?
Jesus is king of the world.
And that is the good news.
And Paul says it later on in Philippians,whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely,

(46:22):
whatever is admirable, excellent,praiseworthy, these things, put
those things in your field of vision.
And oh, it's transformative.
For me personally, a big one, andGod has put his finger on, it's
like, you need to die to worry.
Now, I'm not necessarilyan overtly anxious person.
I don't know that people, you know,know, they've known me for a while, go,
oh yeah, Dale's got, you know, becausewe know people who are anxious, right?

(46:44):
But it's amazing how muchanxiety we actually operate.
at a chronic level, right, notnecessarily an acute level that
manifests in obvious ways, but at achronic level, chronic level anxiety.
And God's really had hisfinger on that in me.
And it's like, and it'sbeen a call to die to it.
Not to go to therapy about it, notto say I'm not against therapy, okay,
okay, it's alright, it's all good,alright, but to literally just, to

(47:08):
not pick, to choose to not pick it up.
Okay, today I'm stepping into this day,and all the circumstances which are
relatively similar to the day before, butI'm not going to pick up worry about it.
I'm going to pick up joy.
I'm going to pick up confidence in Christ.
I'm not going to wear worryanymore, because it is not helping
anything at the end of the day.
And so there was a real call upon me.

(47:28):
And so my weapons of massdestruction against worry?
Gratitude.
You know, you talk about how worrykills gratitude, but you know what?
The opposite.
Gratitude kills worry.
Prayer, confession, the presence of God.
And so I had this new motto, andlook, I've even, I've even written
it on the top of my page here.
No worry, no hurry is my new motto.
No worry.

(47:51):
And some of you are going, would youplease hurry up and finish this message?
No worry, no hurry, for the glory of God.
Yeah, for my good, for sure.
And for your benefit, because it is somuch better that you have a Dale that
isn't full of worry and hurry, right?
I am far bigger blessing to you all.

(48:11):
A non worried, a non hurried Dale.
But ultimately, it's forthe glory of God, right?
So I'm laying this downfor the glory of God.
I'm laying it down because Jesus isking of the world and he's called me
his own and this does not honor him.
And that's not from a placeof guilt or condemnation.
That's because I love him.

(48:33):
And I want to do what's pleasing to him.
So you're walking out of here with a, witha sense of weight and burden and guilt
and shame that you have failed to hear me.
And you've missed what Paulis saying here as well.
Don't have a bar of it.
The enemy will try to convince you, right?
Don't listen to his stupid lies.
There is no guilt, shame orcondemnation in this at all.
It is all glorious,joyful, hopeful freedom.

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You know, the other thing I've hadto come to die to, and this is true
for many of you as well, that mysuccess in life, my well being in
life, is all dependent upon me.
So I have got to take up thetruth that Paul talks about here.
That God will do it.
God will do it.
He is faithful, and He will do it.
And I am His responsibility.

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That's liberating, isn't it?
He's called me His own,therefore I'm His problem.
I
mean, it's not to say I don'thave responsibility, right?
I'm not abdicating responsibility here.
Okay, my responsibility is toapprehend the truth and to follow
Jesus and to yield my life andsurrender and all those things.
But ultimately, I'm his problem, right?

(49:42):
Because, you know, one of the thingsthat crushes us as leaders here
at Red Door, Is when we think thatyou all are our problem, right?
And that sounds bad, okay?
Hear me out, alright?
We are here to love and serve you, okay?
And to see you experience all the fullnessof Christ and, and to be released into
the callings that God has upon your life.
But when we take ultimate responsibilityfor that Well, that is, that

(50:04):
is above our pay grade, right?
And we forget, and then we get crushedand weary, and we go, Oh my gosh,
actually, no, Red Door is yours, Lord.
You are the buck stops here, guy.
Yeah?
So don't get weighed down by yourown ability to fix yourself, change
yourself, because that's his problem.
That's above your purview, okay?
You don't have the goods to be able toconform yourself into Christ's likeness.

(50:25):
So just don't even bother.
It's just an exercise in frustration.
Just go, Lord, what areyou asking me to die to?
And then trust He will bring theresurrection life from that place.
All right.
Okay, no, let's, let's call it there.
Okay, you're going to wonder what thatamazing last point was, but never mind.
Team, how about you come on up?
Because I think it's probably moreimportant at this point that we

(50:45):
worship than we hear what I havewritten on this piece of paper.
This one thing I will say for youthough, church family, you know,
just, just quickly touching on Paul'saffection for this church in Philippi.
This deep, deep affection that he hasfor them is really quite U you know,

(51:06):
I really want that level of affectionfor those that God has called me to
partner in the work of the gospel with.
And for a lot of the time I do, oftenI just sit back and pinch myself and
go, oh my gosh, the people I get todo this work with are just beautiful.
But that's not always the story, right?
And and so what I foundincredibly powerful is, come
on up, come on up, come on up,
chickens.
Could we have a, this final prayer

(51:28):
here, um.
The one that, I'm going to put myglasses back on, bear with me people.
Yeah, this.
Okay, so this final prayer.
Here.
And this is my prayer.
That.
Okay.
So who, my friends, are youstruggling to have fond affection for?
Perhaps in this church family.
Maybe it's me right now.

(51:49):
Put their name in there.
That their love may abound more andmore in knowledge and depth of insight
so that They may be able to discern.
You start praying this prayer forspecific people, you watch your
heart transform towards them.
Pray this prayer of Paul'son the regular, on the daily.

(52:09):
Pray it for your church family every day.
Pray it for your brothersand sisters in Christ.
If God has called you here,these people are your family.
And that's not a lip service thing, right?
The blood of Jesus binds usmore strongly, or is meant to,
than the blood of our ancestors.
Yeah, these are your brothers and sisters,so pray this prayer for one another and

(52:30):
just watch your heart posture shift.
And you know what, one ofthe, what does Jesus say?
How will the world know us?
By our tolerance of one another?
By our frustration with one another?
By our offence with one another?
The world will know us byour love for one another.

(52:51):
And let me tell you that love doesn'tcome from just trying to grit it out.
Love comes from praying prayerslike this for one another.
And it's then the affection ofChrist that fills your heart.
You don't have to stare it up on yourself.
Is that good?
That's good.
Let's stand.