The Bottom Line to Everything

The fountain of youth, the lost city of gold, the genie's lamp. Throughout history, people have searched for something to transform their everyday lives into something spectacular. Not many of us today are traveling the world looking for a literal fountain of youth, but we're still all searching. We sense, deep down, that there's got to be more to life than what we're living. We feel, in our bones, that even though it's elusive, the good life is out there. Centuries ago, an old man with scars on his back, sitting alone in a prison cell, claimed to have finally found it, the secret to the good life. And lucky for us, he wrote it down in a letter to his friends and to us. That letter is the Book of Philippians. Well, good morning, Summit family. If you have your Bibles, won't you meet me in Philippians chapter 1? We're going to look at verses 12 through 18 as we have begun a series making our way through the Book of Philippians. At the same time, if you could stand up with me in honor for the Word of God as we prepare to hear from God's Word today. Philippians chapter 1, the guy who wrote this, his name is Paul. Pick me up in verse 12. Paul writes, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Most of the brothers have become confident in the Lord, but my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. 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. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in

that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. God, speak to us today, I pray. We need encouragement from you. I'm well aware that we've come from so many different contexts, and God, I am unable to speak to all of the needs that are represented among all of our campuses. Lord God, but I'm calling on one who can. So would you speak to us? Would you give us hope? Would you challenge us? Would you ultimately change us? It's to that end that I make myself available to you. It's in Jesus' name I ask it all. Amen and amen. You may be seated. One of the things that I have really found beneficial in my own walk with the Lord is to drink deeply from the lives of men and women who have followed Christ. It's this thing called spiritual biography. There's nothing like immersing yourself in the lives of the saints of long ago and drawing a sense of inspiration and encouragement from their lives. I want to encourage you to actually sit with them through a book. Sit with them as you listen maybe to their story. If you do that, there's one individual I would just say needs to be near the top of your list. It's a 19th century missionary to Burma, a guy by the name of Adoniram Judson. Adoniram Judson was used by God in incredible ways. And yet I don't want to paint his life or even airbrush his life as if he didn't have his set of challenges. In fact, what Adoniram Judson went through was right up there as far as just a life spent facing great tragedy.

He outlived his first two wives. Yes, he was a widower two times over. As if that wasn't bad enough, he buried a few of his kids. No parent is supposed to bury their kids. And on top of that, as if that wasn't bad enough, Adoniram Judson spent 17 months not just in prison, but being tortured for his faith. And yet in spite of all that, you talk about sheer perseverance and grit, not of the inauthentic kind. Yes, he cried. Yes, he wept. But you just talk about an individual who just leaned into the power of the gospel and ran through the finish line and was filled with great joy, to the point where I'm just sure when God called him out of this life, he heard God say of him, well done, well done. None. Now here's my question. I'm reading through Adoniram's life and I'm just like, man, I'm leaning in and man, I can feel the hair on the back of my neck just kind of stand up and I'm, here's my question. How in the world do you keep going? Like, how do you just, you just don't have quit in you. How do you, how are you filled with joy? How are you back at it? How are you still preaching and loving Jesus? And here's how it's actually found in an engagement letter. It's a letter that he wrote. He was in love with the woman who would become his first wife, Anne. Young Adoniram Judson writes Anne's father this letter and this letter tells us everything.

Look at it with me. Adoniram says, I have now to ask whether you consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world, whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life, whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the Southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death, so romantic. Can you consent to all this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God, can you consent to all this and hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with the crown of righteousness brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her savior from heathen saved through her means from eternal woe and despair. It's a bit aggressive, it's a bit aggressive. That's so not, by the way, so not how my conversation went with Art Benavides, the father of the woman who's now my wife, nothing close to that. Like your wife's, your daughter's beautiful, I'm in love with her.

There was nothing of can you consent to never seeing her again. Anyways, but what's obvious, what's obvious from this letter is as much as he loves Anne, she's not his greatest love. As deep as his feelings are for Anne, she doesn't have his deepest affections. There's something deeper. There's something greater for Adoniram Judson that that's something deeper, that something greater wasn't just Jesus. Yes, it's Jesus. But what comes through in this letter is his greatest passion in life was not a woman. It was to see the gospel advance. He saw all of his life as going back to that, the advancement of the gospel. That was his bottom line. And so now that he's in love with Anne, Anne is going to be pulled into that. They're gonna do that together. But that was his thing. And that, well, before Adoniram Judson, it's Paul's thing. So I just want you to see, we come to our text. I'll come back to this in just a few moments. Verse 12 frames everything. So I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me, Paul says,

has really served to advance the gospel. Like Adoniram Judson, Paul is experiencing dark and dire circumstances. Like Adoniram Judson, who spent 17 months in prison, Paul writes this from prison. Not only that, we're gonna see at the end of our text, just like Adoniram Judson encountered difficult people, Paul encounters difficult people. At the end of our text, he's saying, I've got people in my life who are thinking to, his words, afflict me, afflict me. So here's Paul dealing with difficult circumstances, dealing with difficult people, and here's how he ends our passage. Yet in that I rejoice. Yet in that I rejoice. And I will rejoice. He's not saying, I'm gonna rejoice once they let me out. He's not saying, I'm gonna rejoice once these difficult people stop being difficult. No, no, I'm rejoicing right now. Now, here's the question. How do you get to, yet in that I rejoice? Unless you got something greater. Unless there's something deeper. Paul is out of luck if his greatest thing in life is freedom, is not being in jail. He's out of luck. If his deepest thing is comfort, if his deepest thing is happiness,

if his deepest thing is being well thought of by everyone, he's out of luck. The only way he could say, yet in that I rejoice, and I will rejoice, is the bottom line for Paul wasn't comfort, wasn't what you thought about him. His bottom line was Jesus and specifically the advancement of the gospel. And what about you? If I were to pass the microphone around, one of our campuses right now, if I were to pass it around, and we just did open mic, what are you going through? What's happening? We could spend hours hearing from you, and we would shed tears as many of you would come to the microphones, and you would just talk about the difficult circumstance. I just prayed. I just prayed after one of our services with one of our brothers, man, who's like, man, I may not have eyesight after this procedure, and his world is rocked, man. But he's like, man, I wanna advance the gospel. Even in that, he's just full of joy. And others of you can just, you can just talk about, man, the financial crisis you're going through and the relational difficulty, and maybe some of you, maybe some of you students,

it's a rough patch because you're getting bullied. You know what it's like to have difficult people in your life, and I don't say this dismissively at all. Man, we wanna sit with you, and we wanna grieve with you. We wanna walk with you. It's important that you learn how to process that. But at some point, Paul gets up off the couch, and he sees that through gospelized lenses, and he says, this jail cell is a mission field. No matter what it is you're going through. What if you says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me with the cancer diagnosis has really served to advance the gospel. I want you to know that what has happened to me with me being drug through the mud online has really served to advance the gospel. Wow. Wow. So here's my sermon in a sentence. Here's the message of this text. I believe Paul is grabbing us from his jail cell, and he wants to communicate this truth. I must see everything in my life as an opportunity to advance the gospel. I just think that's it. Verses 12 through 18, that's it. I must see everything, everything, everything in my life as an opportunity to advance the gospel. Let me unpack that, and we're done.

Paul's got a good rapport with the Philippians. In fact, what's kind of interesting is when he first meets them, when he first goes there to Philippi in Acts chapter 16, he's thrown in jail. Earthquake happens around about midnight. He's released, and now when he writes them, he's back in jail. The Philippians are worried about Paul. They've got deep affections for Paul. They love him deeply, so much so that they actually take up a collection for Paul to encourage him, to help support him. They decide to send this gift, this collection through Paul's co-laborer, a guy by the name of Epaphroditus. In fact, in Philippians chapter four, Paul says to them, yet it was kind of you to share with me in my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. He talks about this gift that he's received from Epaphroditus. It's a fragrant offering, a sacrifice,

acceptable and pleasing to our God. And right on the heels of that, he says these words that we quote all the time. And my God shall supply all of your needs according to his will. His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He's received a gift from Epaphroditus. But then chapter two, Paul tells us something goes horribly, something goes horribly wrong. I have thought it necessary, Paul says, to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow messenger for my needs. For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed, hear it now, because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, don't miss it, near to death. But God had mercy on him, not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. So get the picture, Philippians love Paul. They raise up some money, give it to Epaphroditus to take it to Paul, Epaphroditus gets to Paul. Then he gets ill, almost dies. But God had mercy on him. Paul now writes a letter to the Philippians who are curious, Paul, how are you doing? He writes this letter, puts it in Epaphroditus' hands. Epaphroditus now takes it back to the Philippians. Can't you see them now? They're huddled together, maybe in someone's living room. There's a little church plant there.

Someone reads the letter, and here's one of the core messages of the letter. Philippians, they wanna know, how's Paul doing? Paul's response, oh, I'm good, I'm good. In fact, Paul would say in so many words, I'm gooder than good. Paul would say to them, I have joy. Thanks for your concern, but I have joy. He just takes them into this incredible thing of contentment. He says, I'm good where I'm sitting in jail, and I know you're thinking I'm freaking out. I want you to understand, I'm not freaking out. I am full of joy, and not only, this is what blows my mind, not only does he say he has joy, but he takes considerable time from jail telling free people, you have joy. Oh, you missed it. Yeah, you missed it. High pitch right over your heads. You missed it. So in a couple weeks, I'm gonna get on an airplane. If you were to ask me, you know, just my itinerant schedule, just, you know, what's, just give me your favorite thing you're gonna do this week, this year. Here's my favorite thing. I'm gonna fly to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hop in a car, and hang out for a whole day

at Angola State Prison. Last time I was there, this violent prison, these dear inmates made in the image of God, share the gospel, gospel is breaking out. They're actually planting churches. They planted over a hundred churches. I'm gonna do a training with the pastors of these churches inside this prison. Some of them actually have MDivs through a partnership with New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Beautiful gospel work happening. We're gonna do a service together. Last time I preached at it, but I'm gonna spend a couple hours in the afternoon on death row. Those death row inmates can't mix in with the general population. They can't come to the service. So last time I stood with them, I shared the gospel, and it was just a heaviness. As you can imagine among the death row inmates, you could just feel the burden that they have as they're looking death in the eye. And here's what I do. It's just a natural instinct. You would do it too. You're surrounded by inmates, not just inmates, inmates on death row, and you're racking your brain going, how can I stir up? How can I instigate joy in you?

That's what we do. Free people, when we're with the incarcerated, how do we stir up joy? Don't you see Philippians is the exact opposite. It's an inmate telling free people, you have joy. Joy is the most rebellious thing the Christ follower can ever do. When you have joy in the face of difficult and dire situations and individuals, it is as if you are shaking your fist in the face of your circumstances saying, not today, Satan. You might take my health, but you can't take my joy. You might take my money, but you can't take my joy. You may break my heart, but you can't take my joy. This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me, and the world can't take it away. That's why Nehemiah would say, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Is that you? Is that you? Joy doesn't mean you can't cry. Joy doesn't mean you don't have sorrow. Joy doesn't mean you don't grieve. But joy at some point pulls you off of the couch of your sorrow and doesn't allow you to be lorded over by your circumstances. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, I heard Paul say, for the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. To you, have joy. Here's Paul, he sits down and he writes to Philippians, all of chapter one, he's just giving them an update. It's one of the uniquenesses of Philippians, more than any other book, Paul spends significant time talking to them about what's going on in his life. He's not being like some teenage boy where you just kinda go, how was your day? And he grunts out a one-word response. No, no, Paul's talking in very, very great detail, using his words, saying this is what's going on with me. Now watch it now, here's what I want you to see. Here's the point. If you read Philippians one, Paul giving his update, he's not ultimately obsessing over what has happened to him, as much as he is obsessing over how he views what's happened to him. For example, verse 12 tells you everything. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. So do you see, he's parking on perspective, not on the circumstance. Part of the problems we Christians get in is that when something happens to us, we just lock in on the what, and we never zoom out to the perspective. Therefore, we never seize the opportunity, because we're so locked into, this has happened to me,

and I can't believe they did that, and I can't believe they said that, and I can't believe I got this. No, no, no, Paul wants us to see that, yes, there's a what, but he's showing us mature, gospelized Christianity, which means I have to see everything through the lens of the gospel. I want you, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. So he's listening, I'm in prison, thank you for your concern. Thank you for your concern. I would imagine Paul would say, it's frustrating, I'm in prison, but I have turned this prison cell into a mission field. I may not be able to travel, but the gospel is traveling, even in these circumstances. The only way Paul could seize this opportunity is if he saw himself, no matter what his situations, no matter what his circumstance, as a missionary. Now, here's the quote. I'm gonna give you more church history. Guy by the name of Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 18th century Christian leader, here's the quote. You need to write this down, take a picture of it. He said, every heart with Christ is a missionary. Every heart without Christ is a mission field. That's it. How is Paul able to see his prison cell as a mission field?

Because he understands that principle. Every heart with Christ is a missionary. Every heart without Christ is a mission field. You know this, we beat this drum here, Pastor J.D. just says it over and over and over again. When you said yes to Jesus, at the same time you said yes to his mission, which means at the same time you became a missionary. Thing I hate about the American church is we create a class of people the Bible knows nothing of. And here's that class. I can say yes to Jesus and maybe kinda, sorta, if I have time, if it's convenient, be a missionary. No, that does not exist in the Bible. Let me just say it to you a different way. You are not, you are not a teacher who happens to be a Christian. You are a Christian who happens to be a teacher. You are not a plumber who happens to be a Christian. You're a Christian who happens to be a plumber. You're not a student. who happens to be a Christian. You're a Christian who happens to be a student. We can just go on down the, and so I just want you to see what Zinzendorf says is real. You have to learn to see everything through the missionary lens of the gospel. So, so the issue now is, for the believer, it's not will you live on mission,

but what kind of mission will you be, or which William will you be? Let me give you some more church history. Just call this the church history sermon. So right now, many of you, there is a William Carey call on your life. What do I mean by that? William Carey was an 18th and 19th century missionary, loved Jesus. Before that, he worked in the marketplace. He was a shoemaker. Shoemaker, loved Jesus, loved the Lord. At some point, God began to burden his heart, almost like what we saw in the Nehemiah series. He saw a hole in the wall. His heart was breaking. There was a burden in his heart. For those who did not know Christ in India, he's a shoemaker. God comes to him in the marketplace, saying, I'm gonna call you and lift you out of that marketplace, and I'm gonna put you into full-time vocational ministry. That's what William Carey does. Packs his family up, packs his belongings up. They get on a boat, go to the other side of the world. He spends the rest of his life in India, preaching and proclaiming the gospel. He's into Bible translation. He helps to plant some churches,

bring about spiritual and cultural renewal into many parts of India. God used him phenomenally, and that's exactly what God's gonna do with some of you. Pastor J.D. shared, maybe about a year ago, this whole idea, this vision. There's a hundred of you that God wants to take out of the marketplace, full-time vocational ministry, put you out there on the mission field, and we're pleased to report that so far, 77 of you have gone through that process. You're ready to be sent. We've got another 20-something in the pipeline, but why stop at 100? Why stop at 100? Is your yes on the table? And will you let God put it anywhere on the map? I believe there's more of you who God is saying, will you love me more than money? Will you love me more? I know it's an awkward conversation. I know you just graduated from college, and your parents took out student loans in their name to get you through, and I know it's awkward to say to them, hey, God's calling me out, and they're gonna go, what do you mean? And I know, but Matthew chapter 10, unless you're willing to hate mother and father

and sister and brother, you're not worthy of me. Most of us, though, there's a William Wilberforce call. What does that mean? The age of 21, William Wilberforce got elected into parliament. He's a government official. Four years later, William Wilberforce becomes a follower of Jesus. He's 25 years of age. And so his immediate thought is, now that I'm a follower of Jesus, I gotta quit my job in the marketplace. I gotta go into full-time vocational ministry because he was a contemporary of William Carey. They lived right around the same time. Maybe he was thinking, William Wilberforce, that we all know the varsity side of the kingdom are those who are engaged in full-time vocational ministry. Nothing could be further from the truth. But right before he turned his resignation in, he scheduled a meeting with his mentor. Not the name of John Newton. Yeah, that John Newton, the guy who wrote Amazing Grace. He says, Pastor Newton, you just gotta understand, I just became a follower of Jesus. I think I gotta quit my job in the marketplace. I think that's what I gotta do. And I love what Newton said to him. Newton said these words to him. It is hoped and believed, William,

that the Lord has raised you up for the good of the nation. Translation, you don't need to leave the marketplace to make a difference for Jesus. It's like he's going back to Zinzendorf. Every heart with Christ is a missionary. Every heart without Christ is a mission field. Parliament and the world and government, that is your mission field. These words, strength and Wilberforce, man. He got some other Bible-believing, gospel-believing friends, and they did incredible things. They saw their marketplace work as an opportunity to advance the purposes of God. They actually even helped to start churches and missionary societies, and I believe that's some of you. God is saying, no, no, no, you're William Wilberforce. I want you to stay right where you are. Stay in the classroom, start those businesses. Some of you gotta say, I'm gonna put a lot of money in your hand, and that's not just for a second home up in the mountains. Ain't nothing wrong with a second home in the mountains. If you want somebody to occupy it, give me a call. I'll gladly do it. But I'm gonna put money in your hands so that you can hold the ropes for the William Careys that are gonna come through the summit. In fact, I love it, man.

I was making this point at one of our church plans a couple weeks ago, and the pastor came to me and goes, man, you have no idea. The Spirit must have just gave you that because we got a guy, came out of college a couple years ago, feels called to go and leave the marketplace, go to the full-time vocational ministry, but he's got like about $100,000 worth of loans. And he goes, he's sharing this with a small group, and there's another couple there. They spend a couple weeks to pray. They come back to this guy and says, here's a check for your student loans. We got you. Now you go to the mission field. So don't you see, the question is not will you live on mission? The question is, which William will you be? Here's Paul. Paul is grabbing us. He's saying that we've got to see everything that happens in our lives as an opportunity to advance the gospel. And that begins with seeing everything through the lens of the gospel. But secondly, I must see everything in my life as an opportunity to advance the gospel, even difficult circumstances. Look at verses 13 and 14.

So that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So here's Paul. We learned last week that Paul is chained to the Imperial Guard. They're the special ops of Rome. These are people who were not to be played with. They guarded Caesar, they guarded politicians, dignitaries, and they were commissioned to guard certain individuals, certain prisoners whom Rome deemed to be a significant threat. That's Paul. One word that Paul uses is chains. In other passages when he talks of his imprisonment, it's a unique Greek word. It speaks of the small chain in which it would have been on either wrist and it would have been fastened to an Imperial Guardsman on the other side of that wrist. Scholars say that the Imperial Guardsmen worked on four-hour shifts. So here Paul is for four hours, chained to these individuals. They rotate off. Two more come on for another four hours. They rotate off.

Two more come on for another four hours. Now you have to understand this, and I hope this is a safe place. If I'm Paul and I'm chained to these special ops individuals, I'm going to be chatting it up about, hey man, I don't belong here. I need you to lobby Caesar. Get me out. That's not what Paul does. What does Paul do? Writing from prison, he says this to the Ephesians. Look at it with me. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplications for all the saints, and also for me, here's this prayer request, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. So here's this prayer request. I'm in prison. I'm thinking he's gonna say, pray that I get out. No. Pray that I might open my mouth boldly to declare the mystery of the gospel. That's what he does. In Philippians, he says the gospel has advanced throughout the whole imperial guard,

which means two guys are chained to him. He's just talking about Jesus. They rotate off. Two more guys come on, talking about Jesus. They rotate off. Two more guys. He's run out of guardsmen to talk to, and not only that, he says the gospel's advanced throughout the whole imperial guard, and I love this little phrase, and to all the rest. It's sort of like you're getting diagnosed with cancer, and people are like, man, how you doing? And you're going, man, this is amazing. I've run out of oncologists and nurses to talk to about Christ. I never would have seen these people before. I have no one else to tell. You don't do that unless you're more concerned about their eternal deliverance than your physical deliverance. On my Mount Rushmore of preachers, there's a guy by the name of Robert Smith, Jr. If you've never heard him preach, do not die and go to heaven. without hearing him preach. If you feel the death angel coming, tell him to hold off. I gotta get to YouTube to hear Robert Smith Jr. preach. As great of a preacher as Robert Smith Jr. is, he's a even greater follower of Jesus.

Some years ago, his young adult son was murdered. They caught the guy who murdered his young adult son, took him to court, he was found guilty, sentenced, thrown in jail, they got closure. That is until the Holy Spirit tapped Robert Smith Jr. on the shoulder and says, I need you to go visit the guy who killed your son, check in on him, share the gospel. Robert Smith Jr. goes, goes to that prison, like Paul's in prison, shares the gospel. Lo and behold, he gets saved. Robert Smith Jr. comes back home thinking he's done, and the Holy Spirit says, no, you're not done. I need you to disciple this young man. So he's back and forth from the prison, back and forth. Can you see them now? Glass partition either side on the phones, training him up in Christ, building him up over a significant portion of time. The father with the man who murdered his son. At some point, the young man he's discipling, the man who killed his son, said, man, I'm never getting out of here, but I've got a real hunger for the word of God, and God's used you in amazing ways. Dr. Smith, I know you're also a professor here at Beeson Divinity School, and I just got a hunger, man. And I wanna preach the word right here, right here in this prison. Is there any way, I'd love to study the scriptures

through this seminary you're teaching at, but there's a cost involved. I can't pay that. Is there anything you can do? Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. just talks about the Holy Spirit in so many words, it's like, you gotta make that happen. Did I tell you this is the father of the son this guy killed? So he sets up a scholarship. It's a scholarship to help young, aspiring ministers of the gospel. He gets some money, he endows this scholarship. He names the scholarship after his murdered son, and the first one to get it is the guy who killed his son. Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. have been well within his rights to say too much. Too much. Yes, he could have done that, and we would have understood. But he saw his life through the lens of Philippians one through 12, one verse 12. This has happened to me to advance the gospel. See, this is grown folks stuff here. This ain't baby Christian stuff. You will never do this if life for you is just turning in on yourself and woe is me. And I say this with complete pastoral empathy. That's why we have a G4 ministry here. We wanna walk with you, and you've gone through horrendous things, and we wanna sit with you, and we wanna hold your hand,

and we wanna cry with you, and we wanna be an active presence. But at some point, you have to say, I'm here. What if my oncologist is my mission field? Some of you are watching right now, we got two campuses and prisons. At some point, what if you say, this prison is my mission field? What if you say, the grief I've experienced, what if God wants to use the grief I've experienced as a bridge to connect with other people who are walking in grief down a similar road to advance the gospel? This is where we get really counterintuitive because we live in a culture that says, when something bad happens to you, take care of you. Take care of you. And there's a place for that, but that's not the punchline of your life. Finally, Paul ends by saying, I'm gonna see everything in my life as an opportunity to advance the gospel, even difficult circumstances. Finally, he ends by saying, even difficult people. Verse 15, it closes. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition,

not sincerely, but thinking to afflict, afflict, afflict, afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. Paul says, I'm not just going through difficult circumstances. I'm actually dealing with difficult people. He says that there are people out there who are thinking to afflict, afflict, afflict me. And then Paul goes, I love this. Learn to read your Bible in its emotional context. You can almost see Paul striking his shoulders. What then? Only that in every way. I remember reading this, because going, has Paul gone soft? Paul, there are some bad preachers out there. Have you gone soft? What's up with the laissez-faire? What then? Nonchalant posture. Please notice, Paul is not dealing with bad doctrine. He's dealing with bad motives. There's a difference. Paul does not have a laissez-faire posture when it comes to bad doctrine. You mess with the gospel. You mess with the deity, the humanity of Christ.

He's uber aggressive. In fact, he says this to the Galatians who were having a bad or false gospel preached to them. He says, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Here's a good reason to leave the church. If they're messing with the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, if they're fiddling with, if they're a little fuzzy on the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ, that is him dying in my place for my sins, you gotta call that out. You gotta be uber aggressive, in love. We gotta have hard conversations. It's time for you to leave. But that's not what Paul's dealing with to the Philippians. He's dealing with some preachers who don't have bad theology. They have bad motives. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love. The former, out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment, out of selfish ambition.

And so I just gotta say this to you. In my years of pastoral ministry, it's just amazing how much of a foothold I've seen the enemy get into Christians' minds through this thing called vain imaginations, where instead of believing the best, they assume the worst. It's a big church, something's gotta be wrong. Pastor preaching on money, or his car's a little bit nice, he must be in it for the money. On and on, a million ways we could go, and some leave without even a hard, clarifying conversation. If you're questioning motives, you should have a clarifying conversation. But I can't tell you how many conversations I've sat with people who have thought totally the wrong thing. I applaud their courage. We're sitting down having the conversation. You're giving me room to respond. I'm responding, but you still don't believe me. Paul says, don't do that. What then? Only that in every way. Christ is proclaimed. Paul wants us to understand that difficult people present a wonderful opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Some years ago when I was in college, my father called me on my landline, and he had just gotten into a car accident. Driving down, I think it was Highway 29 there

in Union City, Georgia, and dad's going along, this other guy ran through a stoplight and just crashed right into my dad. If you've been in a car accident, you know how disorienting that can be. So dad's just kind of out of it. He's just getting out of his car. and the guy who hit him, the guy who was clearly at fault, is walking briskly towards my dad, cursing my dad, calling him all these foul names. My dad's telling me this, I can just feel my blood pressure just like, what in the world? And my dad's like, hey, hey son, can you pray for me? I'm like, oh yeah, I got some prayers, bro. I'm thinking of the Psalms and Precatory Psalms, Psalm 55, send my enemies to hell, alive. He says, son, can you pray for me? And I'm thinking, he's gonna say, that God will give him the strength to forgive, that's not what he says. He says, son, can you pray for me? Because chances are, when I go to court, I'm gonna see him, and I wanna seize this opportunity to share the gospel. Wow. Difficult people present incredible opportunities to advance the gospel. Now don't miss this. Paul says, there's some people in my life, their motive is to afflict me, afflict me.

But he shows them a great grace. Why, Paul? Why, Paul? Maybe Paul, as he writes this, his mind is back to what we now know as Acts 9, when Paul was walking down a road called Damascus, what was he doing on that road? He was on his way to afflict Christians. And now that he is a Christian, he's being afflicted. Paul understands this. You will only seek to reach difficult people with the gospel when you first realize they're not the only difficult ones, I'm difficult too. This ain't us and them. I'm not the good guy, and they're the bad. No, no, all of us are difficult. Brian, what do you mean by this? Peter would say it this way. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live in righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. It was us, we difficult people who put Jesus on the cross.

We were the rebellious ones. We were the ones just bent on negotiating and doing life on our own terms, and Christ did not withdraw from us, but he advanced towards us. When you get in touch with that reality that I'm the difficult one, saved by grace, that now postures me to reach difficult people and to see them as a wonderful opportunity to advance the gospel. And so friends, I want you to know, if you're here today and you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior, the good news of the gospel begins with some very bad news, and that is we are the difficult ones. We are sinners, not just you, all of us. And it was our sins, not just some Roman soldiers, it was our sins who nailed Jesus to the cross, and there's nothing we can do to ever advance our way towards him. We can't work our way towards him. We can't make steps towards him. Your cute little Apple watch can't count that many steps, but he took steps down to us. He bore our sins on his body. When we understand that I've been saved by grace, that I'm the difficult one, now I'm ready to seize the opportunity. And so Father, I bless you. Thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ.

Maybe someone's takeaway today is just that simple message. They're in some very tough times, and Jesus is saying, have joy. This joy you have, the world didn't give it to you, don't let the world take it away. Have joy. Maybe for someone else, maybe there is that William Carey call on their lives. God, we hold our lives with open hands. It's your life. I'm just a steward. So what are you stirring in me? Maybe for others, there's a William Wilberforce call, and you're called to hold the ropes. Don't get distracted. Don't let the stuff. of this life. Be your final end all be all. God is putting resources in your hand so that you can hold the ropes for others. And maybe in a gentle way to others, the Spirit of God is whispering right now. Yeah, I know you're in a tough situation and circumstance, but what would it look like to see it as your mission field? Yeah, you cry. Yeah, you cry. Yeah, you get wise counsel. Yeah, you grieve. Yeah, you process. But what if that was your mission field? Speak Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.