The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E85 - God is in Control

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

Hey church family. If you got your Bibles, it's Devo Time. As I said yesterday, we're going to be in the book of Philippians for, I don't know how long, maybe the next few weeks or so. We're just going verse by verse. We're going to pick up right where we left off yesterday. So we're going to be in Philippians chapter 1. We're going to pick it up in verse 12. And if you'll remember, we're coming right off of the heels of Paul saying to the church at Philippi, how grateful to God he is for them and what they mean to him in his life. And it was right. for him to feel that way, and then he closes with this prayer. And basically, it's a prayer from like verse 10, 9 and following that just God continues to sanctify the church at Philadelphia. Verse 12, he begins to shift gears a little bit. He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. What has happened to him is that he went to prison for preaching the gospel. Now, Paul is the same person. He has the same person, that authored the book of Romans. And in the book of Romans is chapter 8,

which is the greatest chapter in the whole Bible. And he says in one of the most famous verses, 828, that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And one of the primary study tools for Scripture is always used the Bible as commentary unto itself. And so Paul looks at his imprisonment, and he's saying,

you don't have to feel sorry for me. Because I'm not focused on my circumstances and I am not focused on my own comfort. I am focused primarily on the gospel. When your life is focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ, like Paul's is, there's a lot of things that change. There's a lot of superficial things

that begin to just fade away. And so Paul never, he doesn't raise his hand and say, this isn't fair, this is a false imprisonment. Would you guys do something to help me? In fact, he has asked God to give him eyes to see the results and the impact of his mistreatment and God's faithfulness in that. And so he can say, hey, I want you to know because maybe it seems like the Church of Philippa,

they're very concerned for him because obviously we found out yesterday. They have this really, really close relationship. And he's basically calming them down. And he's saying, I want you to know, brothers, what has happened to me has really serve to advance the gospel. And implicit in this verse is Paul saying, and it's worth it. And it's worth it. Years ago, a man and a man named Bob. Bob was the father of a lady in our church who is super awesome. She's super successful. She leads this crazy awesome disciple group. God has used that family in enormous ways in my life and Gretchen's life.

God used that family to do ministry all over this city and all over the world. And this lady's dad, Bob, contracts cancer. And he started hanging around church and coming to a bunch of Bible studies. And long story short, Bob surrenders his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And the cancer scared him to death for a while at first. And over time, not overnight, but over time, as his health decreased what God had begun in him, he did bring to completion.

And his faith grew bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And one day, maybe just a few days or weeks before Bob went to be with the Lord, I was sitting with Bob in his hospital room. And when I met Bob, he was a hunter and his super tough guy. He was real awesome. And then by the time, He only had a few days or a few weeks left to go.

His body had really worn down a ton. And he was sitting in this kind of rocking chair thing at the Mayo Clinic. And he had like a little beanie thing on his head because he was cold. He had a little bathrobe thing on. He had socks on his feet. He was kind of moving back and forth. And I went and sat with him and just talked about the reality of eternity for him. And Bob said these words.

Bob said, I would rather have cancer and Jesus than have no cancer and no Jesus. Bob was one of the most successful human beings that you would ever make. He succeeded at everything. And the one thing that he did not have control over was this battle with cancer, and yet, you know what he understood? He was saying to his family, basically what Paul is saying here,

this thing that has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. And so what about you? What is most important in your life? It is really easy for us to get hyper-focused on our own comfort and miss the fact that God could be making us very, very uncomfortable in ways that we don't understand because his ways are in our ways and his point and purpose is not necessarily our comfort.

It's not our comfort. That he's more concerned about our character and even more than that, he is concerned first and foremost about his glory, and nothing glorifies him more than for the gospel to go to the ends of the earth, and every tribe and every tongue and every nation know who he is. And so Paul says, I've been beaten, I've been shipwrecked, I've been imprisoned, I've been mistreated, and all of that is worth it if it advances the ultimate goal, which is to serve to advance the gospel. Verse 13, so that it has become known throughout

the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. I want you to hold on the verse 13. We're not going to get back to it until we get to chapter four, I think it's verse 21, that Paul knows, he says, people are hearing about me and people are talking about me. You see, I don't have to defend myself because the Lord is my defense. And the word throughout all of the Imperial Guard is not that I'm some kind of crook that has landed me in prison, but the word that is gone throughout the whole imperial guard is that my imprisonment is for Christ. Verse 14. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. You see, Paul, Paul's saying, I don't mind

being the fullback. You see, in football with the fullback, we don't really use a fullback very much anymore. The Jacks probably do, but all the good teams don't. But a fullback is the person that goes through the line, takes on the linebacker, and they clear the way so that the running back can score the touchdown. And what Paul's saying is, it's fine for me because I went through the line first, and I took the linebacker head on. Now somebody else can carry the ball, and they can take it to the end zone. And he's saying, because of my imprisonment, there are some legit Bible-believing gospel-centered brothers. They have been raised up, and now my boldness has emboldened them. You know, courage, oftentimes, is very, very contagious.

And then he goes on to say in verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. He's saying not everybody out there preaching is doing it with the right motives, but then look what he says next. The latter, do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. All right, stop right there. If you knew that you were put in prison for your faith in Jesus, and if you knew other people claimed to be Christians, and they were preaching not for the advancement of the gospel, but if they were preaching simply to make it worse on you, how then would you respond to them?

I know what my instinct would be, because I've had people say things about me, mean things, very publicly on these things, right? Post stuff or pick it in front of our church, and there's something in me that always wants to defend myself, but how many of you know that when you were gospel-centered, then you don't have to defend yourself, because Christ is your defense. And so look what Paul says.

He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. I rejoice. Here's this word that's going to show up over and over and over in the book of Philippians. I rejoice. What does it look like when your life is focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ? I can tell you what happens. One of the first things that happens is you begin to trade in happiness for joy. Happiness is based on your happenings.

And there's nothing wrong with happy. I'm pro-happy. I'd rather be happy than sad. When the braves win, I'm happy. When the braves lose, I'm sad. When the dogs win, I'm happy. When the jags win, I'm happy. But if my happiness is based on my sports teams, that ain't too good. Two other three of them are pretty good teams. But joy is rooted in the personal work of Jesus and our joy is never diminished because Jesus never changes. So when you are focused on the gospel, then you can experience a joy that is not based on just the things that are surrounding you. Paul says some of you are preaching and you're trying to get me more in trouble, but I don't care what your motives are. If Christ is preached, then in that, I rejoice. Another thing that happens when you're

focused on the gospel is this, is that comparison is killed. Listen, nothing will rob you from joy more than comparison. Nothing. When you wake up at the morning and the first thing you do is grab one of these things and start comparing yourself to everybody, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it kills the joy that God has in store for you. Because what we do, especially with these things, especially with these things, is we compare our unfiltered life to everybody else's filtered life. The photo of that guy, the photo of that girl, that's not what they actually look like, and you know this, you know this. The story behind the perfect pictures are some very imperfect people. and when we compare ourselves, the reason it kills us is because it's always a lose-lose proposition.

Sometimes we compare ourselves with people and it puffs us up with pride. You cannot be prideful and abide in Jesus. Other times we compare ourselves with people and it beats us down with condemnation. And condemnation is not the language of the Father. And again, we always compare what we know about ourselves to what we don't know about other people. Paul, who is a great preacher, although he never says he's great. He actually says he's pretty mediocre. But what he does is he just not try to compare himself to the other people preaching. He just praises God that he is in control. You see, when we compare ourselves with other people,

actually it's an affront against the almighty sovereign God, because what we are saying in that moment is, God, you got it wrong. You gave her too much and me not enough. You gave her too much and me not enough. you gave him the opportunity that should have been mine. Comparison kills. The gospel brings joy. The other thing that the gospel does is the gospel breeds gratitude. Because what the gospel reminds us of over and over and over again is, who am I that you would take my place?

Who am I but a sinner that deserves to be punished? Who am I but a traitor? but a traitor against the almighty sovereign king, and yet you came on a rescue mission for me. From prison, Paul says, I want you to know this. Although my world may look like it's out of control, the gospel reminds me that God is in control.

Because on the day that Jesus died, on the day that Jesus was on that cross, I'm telling you, if you didn't know the plan, if you didn't know that this was God's plan for the salvation of all who would believe, you would look at this and you would think, oh no, the Son of God is dying on a cross. God, have you lost control? And he would say, no, this is exactly what I had planned. And in this, in this, you can rejoice because the sovereign king still sits on his throne.

So when your circumstances seem out of control, let us learn from the Apostle Paul to be focused on the gospel. to shrink the comparison in our lives, to shrink the complaining in our lives, to build up the rejoicing and to build up the gratitude because of what Christ has done for us. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I pray that we would never, ever forget that you were in charge. And God, because you were in charge, God, you made us the way you wanted to. You give us the opportunities that you want to, and they're all for your glory. God, may you save us from the trap of comparison.

When we feel tempted to compare ourselves to what other people are doing, God, may we be more focused on what you have done for us and what you have called us to do. God, I pray that we would search for something much, much greater than happiness that is found in our temporary circumstances, and that we would pursue joy that is found only in Jesus. We pray it in Jesus' name.