#Philippians #series #philippi #apostle #paul #PaulEss #Stylianou #bibleteaching #history #christianity #christian #God #doctrine #ChartridgeMissionChurch #chesham #thefriendliestfellowship #LearningTheBibleTogether
Popular international speaker, Paul Ess, once again enters the Chartridge Mission Church pulpit this time to begin our study of the book of Philippians. Written by the imprisoned apostle Paul, Philippians tells the story of the suffering of Christians, but assures them that through their trials, God will refine them as gold, with all things working for their ultimate good. God does indeed work in strange ways, and it is pure joy to examine His work. Let's learn the Bible together as Paul Ess teaches from chapter one of Philippians.
Chartridge Mission Church, a beacon of faith, was founded in 1844 and remains in the village of Chartridge, just outside Chesham, in the picturesque Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
We are a warm and welcoming fellowship and would be delighted to have you visit us in person. Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm, followed by refreshments.
Our Church is fully accessible, with wheelchair ramps and an accessible toilet, ensuring everyone can participate in our services.
Chartridge Mission Church, Chapel Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2TH
Support our work at Chartridge Mission Church:
Donations via Stewardship.org.uk:
https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20005300
Cheques can be made payable to Chartridge Mission Church and sent to the above address for the attention of Pastor Barry Kempson.
Recorded on Sunday, 7th September 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Popular international speaker, Paul Ess, once again enters the Chartridge Mission Church pulpit this time to begin our study of the book of Philippians. Written by the imprisoned apostle Paul, Philippians tells the story of the suffering of Christians, but assures them that through their trials, God will refine them as gold, with all things working for their ultimate good. God does indeed work in strange ways, and it is pure joy to examine His work. Let's learn the Bible together as Paul Ess teaches from chapter one of Philippians.
Chartridge Mission Church, a beacon of faith, was founded in 1844 and remains in the village of Chartridge, just outside Chesham, in the picturesque Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
We are a warm and welcoming fellowship and would be delighted to have you visit us in person. Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm, followed by refreshments.
Our Church is fully accessible, with wheelchair ramps and an accessible toilet, ensuring everyone can participate in our services.
Chartridge Mission Church, Chapel Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2TH
Support our work at Chartridge Mission Church:
Donations via Stewardship.org.uk:
https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20005300
Cheques can be made payable to Chartridge Mission Church and sent to the above address for the attention of Pastor Barry Kempson.
Recorded on Sunday, 7th September 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
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TVTranscript
00:00Blessed in assurance, Jesus is mine, Oh, what a fortress of glory divine!
00:11Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washing His blood.
00:21This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long.
00:45Good evening, good evening to you all.
00:50Can we just read through Philippians chapter 1?
00:54Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi,
01:02together with the overseers and deacons.
01:06Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
01:11I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for you.
01:17I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
01:25being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion
01:32until the day of Christ Jesus.
01:34It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.
01:42For whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.
01:49God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
01:55And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
02:04so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
02:12filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
02:19Now, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
02:28As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
02:36Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
02:45It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry and others out of goodwill.
02:53The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
03:00The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
03:10But what does it matter?
03:11The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.
03:20And because of this, I rejoice.
03:23Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.
03:26For I know that through your prayers and the help given by the spirit of Jesus Christ,
03:32what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
03:35I eagerly expect and hope that you will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always,
03:45Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
03:50For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
03:55If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
04:00Yet what shall I choose?
04:02I do not know.
04:03I'm torn between the two.
04:04I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
04:09But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
04:14Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,
04:22so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account for me.
04:30Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
04:36Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you, my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.
04:49Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, this is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved.
05:01And that by God, for it is being granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.
05:11Since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
05:18Amen.
05:20The whole book of Philippians is absolutely incredible, isn't it?
05:23And I know that it's traditional that the person that's opening up a new series will focus on hysterical data, on backgrounds, on context and things like that.
05:37Well, I'm going to leave that to the others as they go, because everybody gets involved in that.
05:43You end up hearing the same things over and over.
05:46So I'm only going to focus on the historical data, background and context of what is directly related to Philippians chapter one.
05:58So let's just quickly find out where is Philippi, this place that the book of Philippians has been written to.
06:08If you can imagine northern Greece, where Thessaloniki is, the big town, that's the second largest town now in Greece, right?
06:18It's right up there.
06:21And if you go from Thessaloniki, which is at the top left of the Aegean Sea, the top left corner, on the top right hand corner of the Aegean Sea, you've got the border with Turkey.
06:35So you go from one to the other, and just about in the middle is Philippi, just halfway to the border with Turkey.
06:44Now, of course, there was no Turkey in the time of Christ.
06:48There wasn't even the Ottoman Empire at that time.
06:52I think the Ottoman Empire began roughly around the late 13th century.
06:58All of that was Roman.
06:59Everything was run by the Romans.
07:02Greece, what is Greece now?
07:03What is Turkey now?
07:05What was Israel?
07:07Everything was the Roman Empire.
07:09The interesting thing is that Paul, during his second missionary journey, had dropped in on Philippi, had gone to Philippi, because he'd heard a call in a dream from a man in Macedonia saying,
07:27please come to us, please come to us, and so he went along there to see what was happening, and he arrived in this major city, which was quite a major town at that time, and quite a major Roman town, as it were.
07:43And he found this place, and we're told that what he found was something that was very much like Corinth in some ways, because there were so many different types of people there.
08:02There were lots of different types of gods, and the Romans, of course, didn't mind how many gods there were.
08:09They just kept on adding them to their own gods.
08:12So you had this place, which was really a bit of a mess, quite honestly.
08:17And economically, it was very good.
08:20It was very healthy.
08:23Now, the epistle to the Philippians, this letter to the Philippians, is actually called by most people the Book of Joy.
08:35And that's a bit strange, really, as a Book of Joy.
08:38It can teach us an awful lot about ourselves, in that it was written under very, very difficult circumstances for Paul.
08:51And the church in Philippi had been created through similarly difficult circumstances.
08:59Really, we'll look at those very briefly.
09:02Really, not much joy there.
09:04But it was still called the Book of Joy because of the joy that comes out of the book, as we were just reading there.
09:14The joy that permeates through the words of Paul there.
09:20So, clearly, the church in Philippi was a good church.
09:24It was marked by its generosity, Paul says, in 2 Corinthians.
09:29He picks it out.
09:30He says how generous they were.
09:32And as I say, he was founded on that second missionary journey.
09:38And one of the great lessons that I was talking about just here that we'll see throughout Philippians is the joy that Paul felt in all of this and that is in the Book of Philippians.
09:55And in Philippians 1, we see very much in Philippians 1, that joy was not dictated or based on the circumstances of Paul and the people at the time.
10:10Their joy was not dictated by the world, by what was happening around them in the world.
10:16Now, what do I mean by that?
10:18You see, what happened was that when Paul was in Philippi, his first convert in Philippi was the lady Lydia and her family.
10:30And this Lydia, she was from Theatro, which is, of course, one of the seven cities of Revelation.
10:38And she was from there, and that was about, if she was doing the proper round trip around there, it would take about 350 miles away for her.
10:51So she was a long way from home.
10:53Even if she could fly like a bird straight across the sea, it was still a good 300 miles.
10:59So she was a long way from home.
11:03But she and her family were the first converts, as we can read that in Acts chapter 16.
11:11But the second converts were the ones who really caused a lot of issue for Paul.
11:22Not they themselves, but the way Paul converted those people.
11:26Many of you will know the story from Acts 16, which explains what happened in Philippi, in that Paul and Silas were there.
11:36They were arrested on trumped-up charges because they exorcised a spirit from a woman who was bringing in money for the people with prophecies and so on.
11:50And she was following Paul and Silas around for many days, it tells us, and shouted, these men are servants of the Most High God.
11:59Listen to them.
12:01Well, you might think, well, what's wrong with that?
12:04What a wonderful testimony.
12:07But Paul was more concerned about the spirit within her.
12:12And the spirit within her was tormenting her.
12:15The spirit within her was an evil spirit.
12:19And so he exorcised.
12:21He called down the spirit to leave her.
12:23And when the spirit left her, she couldn't see the future anymore.
12:28So the people that owned her were very angry about it.
12:33And so they got Paul on some trumped-up charges and said, these men are against everything that any of us stand for.
12:40And Paul and Silas were arrested and they were put into a deepest dungeon and shackled up, it says, in chains inside the dungeon.
12:51It wasn't enough that they were locked up in a dungeon, but they were chained up as well.
12:55And we're told that during the night, Paul and Silas were singing praises to the Lord.
13:05They were worshipping God.
13:07There they were, locked up in this dark dungeon, chained up as well.
13:12And they were singing praises of worshipping the Lord, their God.
13:16And at midnight, we're told, suddenly there was a great light and a shaking of the dungeon and the door flew open and their chains fell off.
13:30And there they were, free.
13:33They could rush off if they wanted to.
13:35Now, the jailer who was there, responsible for them, immediately thought, oh, no, my prisoners have gone.
13:44I'm going to be killed, so I'll kill myself first.
13:47Otherwise, I'll suffer and probably my family will suffer.
13:50So he went to kill himself, thinking that he'd lost his prisoners.
13:54And Paul immediately cried out to him, it says, out of the darkness.
13:59So it must have been really dark.
14:00They couldn't even see what was going on.
14:02And he said, no, don't do anything, silly, said, because we're still here.
14:08We're not going anywhere.
14:10We're still here.
14:12Don't fear.
14:13And the guy was so thrown by this.
14:16He had heard these people locked up.
14:19He'd seen them locked up.
14:20He'd seen the conditions they were under.
14:22And they were praising and worshipping their God despite that.
14:27And now, when they could have escaped, they wouldn't escape because they were worried about him.
14:34How could he respond?
14:35The only way.
14:36He turned to them.
14:37The scriptures tell us he turned to them and he shouted to them, what must I do to be saved?
14:44And they led him to the Lord and he took them back to his home and he cleaned their wounds and fed them and then took them back to the prison.
14:55So they were there the next day and all of his family were saved and they were all baptized.
15:02Isn't that incredible?
15:03You see, our circumstances, as wretched as they might seem at times, do not dictate our joy because our joy is in one who is way above all of our circumstances.
15:21He is beyond all of that.
15:24He is the one that gives us the shalom.
15:28Shalom, the word peace in Jewish.
15:30It doesn't mean an absence of conflict or an absence of problems.
15:37It means knowing peace, God's peace in the midst of our problems.
15:44So we don't get saved from the problems necessarily.
15:48Very often we are saved from the problems by God.
15:51But there are times when we're not saved by them, but we'll still have the strength of God and the joy of God within us.
16:02And so that is how Philippi began, basically.
16:08But you see, there's more because when Paul, years later, was writing this letter to the Philippians, this epistle to the Philippians, he was in prison in chains again, this time over in Rome.
16:25And he was sending them this letter that we've just read from Rome.
16:31But he was again imprisoned in chains, as he tells us over and over.
16:39As we read there, you see, he says, I was chained up.
16:44But was he really chained?
16:47No, he was as free as any of us.
16:50In fact, he was probably more free than many of us, because in his heart, he knew who was supporting him.
16:59You see, God had told him what must be two years, three years before, previous, I want you to go to Rome, Paul.
17:12I want you to go to Rome, and I am going to have you witnessing to Caesar himself.
17:20And Paul had heard that years before from God.
17:24And so he knew that God was going to fulfill what he had done.
17:32Unfortunately, Satan also heard it, and Satan was determined that it wasn't going to happen.
17:39So Satan couldn't imagine the damage that Paul could do to his kingdom in Rome if Paul got as far as Rome.
17:52So as we read on through Acts, and you can read it in chapter 17, 18, and carries on right through to 28, chapter 28 in Acts,
18:04and you can see the buildup and how he gets to Rome, and how many times Satan tries to stop him.
18:13And every time God overcomes, Paul stays at peace, and God overcomes.
18:26Satan tried to shipwreck him.
18:29Well, first of all, before they even went on the ship to go off to Rome, he tried to have him killed.
18:35And he stirred up the crowds to have him killed.
18:37And the Romans themselves snatched him and took him away, and he appealed to Caesar.
18:43And so they took him off to Rome, and then Satan tried to shipwreck him.
18:47And he did shipwreck him.
18:49And the boat, the ship that he was on, ended up on Malta, the island of Malta that you've just been to, or you've been to recently.
18:58And there he is, and I believe there's still the Bay of Paul over there, Paul's Bay in Malta, where they say the shipwreck happened and so on.
19:09And there's a shipwreck there, and there was something like 270 people, prisoners, most of them, and crew on that ship.
19:18And they were panicking, and Paul knew in his heart, he knew in his heart, God had said it, so God would do it.
19:30God would complete what he had promised.
19:34And then, just in case he was a little bit, getting a little bit anxious about this storm, they were in for 14 days as it battered the ship, and was going to sink the ship.
19:48An angel came to him in his dream and said, don't worry, you are still getting to Rome.
19:54And God is going to spare everyone on the ship with you.
19:58And so he could turn then to the people on the ship and say, look, God has told me this ship will be destroyed, will be wrecked, but not one life will be lost.
20:12And so Satan was beaten again, because they landed on, they swam ashore to Malta when the ship was wrecked, just on the reef, just off Malta there.
20:24And they swam ashore to Malta, and there were people there thinking, saying, who are these people?
20:32And they realized that they were from a shipwreck, so they tried to help them, and they were building big fire because it was cold to warm everybody up and dry off their clothes.
20:41And as Paul is collecting wood to put on the fire, a snake comes along, a poisonous snake, it tells us, and it bites, doesn't just bite Paul, but it hangs onto his hand, it says.
20:57It's held onto his hand there, and it's hanging there.
21:01And everybody thinks, oh my goodness, this man is going to die.
21:05The locals knew the snake was a poisonous snake.
21:09They knew their local snakes, and Paul just shook it off into the fire, it tells us.
21:17And that was Satan's second attempt on Malta in that time of getting rid of Paul.
21:23The snake never killed him.
21:25They were said, and the local people said, this man must be a murderer or something if God is trying to kill him off like this.
21:34But we know it wasn't God.
21:35It was Satan trying to stop him.
21:37And he survived, and then they said, well, he must be a god then, because he survived.
21:44And then God takes it even further, gives Paul even more opportunities.
21:50You see, a shipwreck wrecked on this island in the middle of the Mediterranean might seem like an awful thing,
21:58but God meant it, but God meant it for the good.
22:03All things, the word of God tells, all things work together for the good.
22:08To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
22:14Do you believe that?
22:16Do you believe that everything that's going on in your life,
22:20if you love God, if you are called to God and are walking according to his purpose,
22:30Satan has no authority and no hold over you.
22:34Everything you go through, good or bad, will end up for your good.
22:39And so there they are on this shipwreck, and they are on this island.
22:43And what happens is the council, the leader of the island,
22:49invites him to his home.
22:52And his father, the big leader of Malta, his father is sick with dysentery and a fever.
23:00And Paul heals, prays over this man and heals him.
23:06Wow.
23:08And the moment that happened, everyone said, this is amazing.
23:12This guy, this guy is just absolutely amazed.
23:15And it tells us that all of the sick, all of the diseased of Malta came to him,
23:22and he prayed over each and every one, and everyone was healed.
23:27Isn't that incredible?
23:28And so Christianity reached Malta, almost like a sideline to going off to Italy.
23:42Satan meant it for evil.
23:45God meant it for the good.
23:47Eventually, they get another ship.
23:51They find another ship eventually after many months there,
23:54three months or so there in Malta.
23:56And this ship is of the Alexandrian line, it says.
24:01And it describes a ship.
24:04And the historical data tells us that these were some of the most luxurious ships around.
24:11So Paul goes from a slave ship, a slave cargo ship, as it were,
24:16and he goes to Italy to roam on this luxury ship.
24:21And when he's over there, he's got his guards and he's got the people keeping an eye on him,
24:34the Roman guards who are keeping an eye on him.
24:36But he could say, as we just read there, that everybody here knows that I am here because of the gospel of Christ.
24:50Purely because I'm in chains for Christ.
24:53And because of my chains, most of the brothers of the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously.
25:03You see, Satan always oversteps himself and we see it time and again.
25:08But that is the background to both this book and how the church in Philippi was started.
25:18And there's just so much richness there in this book.
25:23And there are lessons as we go through Philippians 1.
25:28We see that there was no synagogue in Philippi.
25:32And the city didn't have, it seems, sufficient number of Jewish men to meet the traditional quota.
25:40In Jewish law, there have to be 10 adult men.
25:44By adult, it means in excess of 13 years old.
25:47So 10 men to be able to establish a synagogue.
25:51And they didn't have them there.
25:53And so this Jewish community would have been just a few families, quite small,
25:59which meant they couldn't form that quorum to start the synagogue.
26:03And so they gathered by the riverside on the Sabbath, we're told there we read, for prayer.
26:10This was a common practice in places which didn't have a synagogue.
26:14They would often gather by the riverside to pray because of their need for ritual purification and running water.
26:23The law states in Leviticus that they must have clean running water.
26:28So that's why they were there, just outside the town.
26:33And we find this woman, Lydia.
26:37And Lydia and there were other women who were there at this prayer service.
26:43Now, in the cultural context, what we see is that although women in Judaism, as with biblically now,
26:55they're not allowed to be official readers, leaders, participants, those leaders at the services, the Torah services,
27:05only males over 13 years old.
27:07However, if there weren't enough males to form the quorum, there weren't more than 10 males there to form that quorum,
27:18then the women were permitted to run the service, as it were, and to read at the service, to read the scriptures at the service.
27:27And, of course, this fits in really well with what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 15,
27:36where he gives that chosen order and what the place, what the leadership role of a woman should be in a New Testament church as we now.
27:48Anyway, and so we move on, and we see here that in the beginning, Paul introduces himself and he gives thanksgiving for the people.
28:02And he's saying, you know, I am just so blessed by you.
28:06You give me such joy in just knowing that you're walking with the Lord.
28:11For me, I see Paul's joy, and I understand Paul's joy there, as many of you will do, particularly those who are parents here,
28:21because it very much sounds like a proud parent that has a child that they know is walking with the Lord,
28:30they know loves the Lord, they know is serving the Lord,
28:34and they're just so at peace and so happy because of that, because their child is walking faithfully in the Lord.
28:42And no matter what their child faces, they know that God is with them.
28:48And so Paul has this fatherly feeling about the people in Philippi,
28:56because he knows that they're walking with the Lord.
28:59He knows they're faithful.
29:001 Thessalonians 2, verses 11 and 12 says,
29:05For we know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,
29:11encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God,
29:16who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
29:19That's what he said to the Thessalonians.
29:21But that gives us an insight into what Paul's aim was in those churches,
29:28to deal with them as a father deals with his own child,
29:33encouraging, comforting, and urging them on to better things, to greater things.
29:41And so Paul continues then,
29:44and he talks about the knowledge and depth of insight in verses 9 and through to 11 of Philippians 1.
29:53And he says that knowledge and depth of insight which leads to discernment can only come,
30:00is what he's saying from the word of God.
30:02Because he's saying to them,
30:04This is my prayer for you,
30:06that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
30:12so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
30:20filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
30:26You see, what he's saying is that that knowledge,
30:32that depth, that discernment that we want them to have,
30:36they have to learn.
30:38It's something that they have to learn and receive.
30:41We're blessed.
30:43We have this.
30:44We have the word of God here,
30:46which teaches us.
30:47We have the Holy Spirit who teaches us through the word of God.
30:52We need to be more serious about the word of God so that we also may abound more in the knowledge and depth and insight
31:02and know and discern what is and isn't of God.
31:09Dear friends, I can't overemphasize the importance of getting to know the word of God intimately,
31:18reading and reading and reading,
31:21not just looking at one verse a day or something like that,
31:25but spending as much time as you can possibly put aside to read through the word of God
31:31and asking the Holy Spirit to teach you and guide you because he will ultimately teach you and guide you.
31:37And then we see Paul continues on.
31:43He talks about how his trials,
31:45his difficulties have advanced the gospel.
31:50And we have that verse in Romans 8, 28 that I quoted earlier before.
31:56We know that in all things,
31:58God works for the good of those who love him,
32:02those who have been called according to his purpose.
32:05Do you know that?
32:07Do you truly know that in all things,
32:12God is working for the good of your life because you love him and have been called by him?
32:21You know, Christians, the church,
32:24the word church in Greek is ekklesia.
32:27And the word ekklesia in Greek comes from the called out ones,
32:32ekklesia, ekklesia are the invited ones,
32:37the called out ones.
32:39That's what we are.
32:40Do you know that you've been called out by God?
32:44You have been brought into his family.
32:48And he goes on to talk about those in verse 15,
32:52about who preach Christ out of envy and rivalry and others out of goodwill.
32:58Some doing it out of love and others out of selfish ambition, not sincerely.
33:06Unfortunately, don't we see that?
33:08I've been a Christian 42 years or so now.
33:12And I have seen the arguments even within the church with people who want to do nothing,
33:21but push their own means, their own beliefs, their own doctrines and so on.
33:28They push aside everybody else.
33:32It's important that in everything that we do, we do it in love.
33:38And I love what Paul says.
33:41He says, despite all of that, in verse 18, what does it matter?
33:46The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true,
33:51whether it's those who are doing it out of self-promotion or out of truth,
33:57because they truly do love the Lord, he says, I rejoice because they're still giving the gospel.
34:04So that's an incredibly mature attitude, isn't it?
34:09And one which I know I struggle with.
34:11You see people that perhaps can't see something the way that we see it,
34:18and we want to push it, and we want to push it.
34:22But God says, stay focused on the right things.
34:26Let's just push the gospel.
34:29That's something we're all agreed on, the gospel.
34:33And it doesn't mean that other things aren't important.
34:36It doesn't mean that.
34:37But between mature Christians, it is important that we also search the scriptures
34:44and look between ourselves, between friends and so on, in Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ,
34:52that we look at what God really wants from us.
34:57But that's an amazing attitude and state of mind that Paul has.
35:01And he can see that it's not about him, but about God.
35:06God will do whatever needs to be done.
35:10And if Paul needs to be vindicated, God will do that also.
35:15We go on to verse 19, and he says,
35:20And I know that through the prayers and God's provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ,
35:26what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
35:31The word there, really, that word translated deliverance in the NIV is really vindication, salvation.
35:39It's for my good.
35:40So we're back to the Romans 8, 28.
35:43He's acknowledging that.
35:45And he says,
35:46I eagerly expect that and hope that I will in no way be ashamed,
35:52but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body,
35:58whether by life or by death.
36:01And then we get a wonderful verse in verse 21.
36:05For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
36:10Isn't that a wonderful verse?
36:13He says,
36:14If I go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
36:19So if I continue to live, says Paul, because remember, he's in prison.
36:25He's going to get killed.
36:26He's going to be executed sometime in the future.
36:29But he says,
36:30Right now, while I'm here in chains,
36:33he says,
36:34If I'm to go on living in the body, I'll make it fruitful labor.
36:38So he hasn't given up his ministry just because he's in prison in Rome and he's in chains.
36:46And he says,
36:47What shall I choose?
36:49I don't know.
36:50I'm torn between the two.
36:52He says,
36:53I desire to depart and be with Christ,
36:56which is better by far, of course.
36:59But it's more necessary for you that I remain in the body so I can keep the ministry to you.
37:05You know, what gets me in that passage there, those few verses there,
37:11I love how he's sat there in chains, imprisoned, waiting for them to decide what they're going to do with him.
37:20And as we know, he's ultimately executed and so on.
37:24But he's a prisoner of Caesar in Rome.
37:27He's 1,300 miles from Philippi.
37:33And he's talking as if it's his decision what he'll do.
37:38I don't know what I'll do.
37:39You know, I think it'd be nice to be with Christ.
37:43But for your good, I want to get, I think I ought to continue.
37:49Yeah.
37:50It's not down to Caesar.
37:52It's not down to his jailers or anybody else.
37:57It's down to God.
37:58He knows that.
37:59He knows what God has said.
38:02He knows that whatever happens, it'll happen because God wanted and has planned it to happen.
38:10And he says, so convinced of this, I think I'll remain and I'll continue with all of you for your progress.
38:17Isn't that incredible, eh?
38:18Talk about not allowing your circumstances to dictate your joy or the outcome of your life.
38:28If only I could get that message more often myself.
38:32Well, it's so easy to fall into the, oh, Lord, why are you letting this happen to me?
38:39Oh, Lord, why am I having to go through this?
38:43Oh, Lord.
38:44Yeah.
38:44And we whine and whinge all the time, don't we?
38:47We're like those Israelites in the wilderness, 40 years.
38:53God had nothing, but all he could hear from them for 40 years was whinging and whining, complaining and rebellion and so on.
39:02But God is wonderful because even with those Israelites for 40 years, rebelling against him, whining and whinging and complaining nonstop and turning their backs on him and chasing after every other God that they could possibly find.
39:20Still, for 40 years, God sustained them, he carried them, he carried them, and I love those verses in Deuteronomy where God is describing this, in Deuteronomy 32, verses 8 to 14.
39:38I'm not going to read it all, but he says, for Jacob, he found him in a desert land, in a barren and a howling waste, and he shielded him.
39:47He cared for him, he guarded him as the apple of his eye, and like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft, the Lord alone did lead them.
40:04No foreign God was with them, and he made him ride to the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the field.
40:12And it goes on, yeah, God works in us, in spite of us, not because of us, hallelujah.
40:21If he worked only because in response to how my life is, boy, I'd be destroyed a million times over, believe me.
40:33Yeah, God is merciful.
40:35He breathes our heart, he knows our love for him, despite what we say sometimes and our complaining and everything, and he cares for us.
40:49He cares for us, he feeds us, he guides us, he supports us, he's always there.
40:56What a great lesson for us as Christians.
40:59He goes on to say that whatever happens, whether God takes me or not, he's just declared that he's going to hang around for a while.
41:12He's decided that, but he says, but whatever happens, just conduct yourself.
41:17So he's accepting that even if it's not God's will that he does live longer, that he's preparing his people for it.
41:30So he's already decided that he thinks it's better for him to live longer, but he accepts God's will at the same time.
41:39Isn't that familiar?
41:40Not my will, said the Lord Jesus, but your will be done.
41:44Lord, he said, take this cup from me.
41:48Don't let me go through this.
41:50However, not my will, but your will be done.
41:54So we submit to God's prayer.
41:57That's maturity in Christ, isn't it?
42:00It's maturity in knowing.
42:02When we pray for our friends who are sick, when we pray for those who don't know the Lord yet,
42:10and we pray with total conviction, we pray totally convinced that God will heal them.
42:20But if they're not, we need to have the maturity to shake off and carry on and say, but God's will is done.
42:30You know, that's hard, isn't it?
42:32And actually, while we're saying it, it reminds me of David, doesn't it?
42:37King David, after he had sinned against God, and Nathan the prophet came and told him that his child was going to be sick and die.
42:46David started to mourn straight away.
42:49He fasted.
42:51He prayed day and night.
42:53He cried before the Lord.
42:54Lord, save my child.
42:57No, please don't let my child die.
42:59And he went crazy almost.
43:04Everybody saw him as going crazy as he prayed earnestly for his child.
43:10And then when his child died, nobody wanted to come and tell him that his child had died.
43:16Because they said, if he was like this before the child died, we have no idea what he'll do if we tell him that his child has died.
43:27But they had to tell him in the end.
43:29And they told him.
43:31And it says he got up.
43:33He washed himself.
43:35Clothed himself properly.
43:37Had a good bath, whatever.
43:40Anointed himself.
43:42And said, the Lord's will.
43:44And carried on with his life.
43:46That's maturity.
43:48Yeah.
43:48And that's the level of maturity that we're seeing with Paul.
43:52No matter what he's going through.
43:54No matter what Satan is throwing at him.
43:56He is working and going forward for God, trying to do what he can.
44:05It doesn't matter whether it's in prison.
44:08It doesn't matter whether he's chained up.
44:10It doesn't matter if they're about to execute him.
44:13I can guarantee you probably turned around and tried to tell the executioner about Jesus just before he executed him.
44:21Before you do that, let me just tell you about Jesus.
44:25That's what we need to be more like.
44:32You know.
44:34He says, don't want you to be frightened by those who oppose you.
44:38But he finishes this in Philippians 1 with verse 29.
44:45For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.
44:57Since you are going through the same struggles you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
45:03You know, that's the bit that I find hard, that all of us find hard, isn't it?
45:12Why should I struggle if I belong to Christ, if I belong to the Lord and I'm serving the Lord?
45:21If Paul was so faithful to the Lord, why should he go through so much?
45:272 Timothy 3, verses 11 and 12 says, persecutions and sufferings.
45:35What kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Niconium and Mystra?
45:39So he's talking about Philippians there again and Thessaloniki and so on.
45:44The persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from those.
45:49And in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
46:00It's not an optional thing.
46:03If we, it's not that we go out looking for persecution, but if we are standing up for God,
46:12if we are speaking out in the world, if you go into the center of Chesham and on the high street
46:20and start talking about God, wanting to live for God and talking about him,
46:25I guarantee that you will be persecuted.
46:31People will turn against you because the cross is an offense, we're told, to people.
46:38It's offensive to people.
46:42Well, how can you say that I'm going to hell?
46:45How can you, are you suggesting I'm going to hell?
46:47How can you say that Christ is the only way?
46:50How can you say?
46:52And so what has the church done over the last, I don't know, 30, 40 years?
46:59We've watered down the gospel.
47:02Because we don't want to be rejected.
47:05We don't want to lose our friendships with the world.
47:10We don't want to stand out.
47:12We don't want to be persecuted.
47:15And so we watered down.
47:17We don't say the things that might bring the persecution.
47:21I remember, and a bit of name dropping here,
47:25I was having lunch with Brother Andrew quite a few years ago.
47:29I was still quite a young Christian, so 35 years or so ago.
47:34And we were at a conference, and I was having lunch with him.
47:38And he was telling stories, as he always did.
47:41He was a great, great storyteller.
47:43If you've never read his book, I think his best book of all, God's Smuggler, you must read it.
47:49It is an incredible book.
47:52Incredible testimony of God working in these ways, in Pauline-type ways.
47:58And I remember he was saying he had been in Russia recently because he was always smuggling Bibles into all the closed countries.
48:08And he had been in Russia recently.
48:10And he was telling the Russian pastors there about how much freedom we had in the West and how we weren't prosecuted for sharing Bibles.
48:26We weren't prosecuted for standing in the street speaking about Christ.
48:31And this pastor looked at him, confused, and he said, so what do you do with 2 Timothy 3.12?
48:44And Brother Andrew said, you know, I had to stop there and think, what's 2 Timothy 3.12 first, he said.
48:51And it is this verse, in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
48:59So this pastor couldn't understand how we could be living godly lives in Christ Jesus and not being persecuted.
49:13Perhaps 30 years ago, it was easier to stand on the streets without persecution.
49:19Now, it's not.
49:22Try and say the same things that we could have said on the streets 30, 40 years ago, in the streets, on the high street, in Cheshire or any high street.
49:32And you will soon find out what that verse means.
49:39And yet Paul understood that.
49:41He said in 1 Corinthians 4, 11.13, to this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty.
49:50We're in rags.
49:51We're brutally treated.
49:53We're homeless.
49:54We work hard with our own hands.
49:56We're cursed.
49:57We bless.
49:58When we're persecuted, we enjoy it.
50:01We're slandered.
50:03And we answer kindly.
50:05We've become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world.
50:07But right up to this moment, that's what he could say.
50:13And he could say in 2 Corinthians 11, he could say, I've worked much harder.
50:20I've been in prison more frequently.
50:22I've been flogged more severely.
50:25I've been exposed to death again and again.
50:27And he gives a whole line of everything he's been through, shipwrecks and all sorts of things.
50:34But the Apostle Paul knew the truth because he knew what the Lord God done for his people and what he continued to do for his people.
50:46He knew for David, for instance, Psalm 9, the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
50:55Those who know your name, trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
51:03Psalm 37, salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.
51:07He's their stronghold in times of trouble.
51:11Psalm 138, though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me and you will stretch out your hand against me and the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will serve me.
51:22And so the Apostle Paul could look back and see the faithfulness of God to his people and to David and to many others for all generations because he knew what God had done.
51:38And so he was encouraged.
51:40And so in Hebrews 10, 35 to 36, Paul could say, so do not throw away your confidence.
51:49It will be richly rewarded.
51:52You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
52:01Hallelujah.
52:01Isn't that wonderful?
52:02So many people in these last 10, 20 years have lost their hope in Christ Jesus.
52:30This is Christians I'm talking about.
52:33Because the hope of the future, the hope that we have laid up in Christ Jesus isn't preached the way it should be day by day.
52:45We're not encouraged.
52:47We have our ears tickled and we just hear what we like to hear.
52:53But, you know, the hard things, the hard things in the word of God can bring us hope.
53:01If we're walking in God, it will bring us hope.
53:05It'll keep us strong.
53:07It'll make us strong.
53:08Even.
53:08I really want to finish with two passages of blessings, one from Paul in Ephesians 3, 14, and one from Jude in Jude 1, 24 to 25.
53:22For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
53:31I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being,
53:40so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
53:43And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people
53:51to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
53:58and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
54:05And now on to him who's able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
54:11according to his power that is of work in us,
54:16to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, forever and ever.
54:23Amen.
54:24This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior.
54:54All the day long.
54:58This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
55:10A great salvation, a lifted rise, visions of rapture and worst of my sight.
55:21Angels descending, ring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
55:33This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
55:44This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
55:57Perfect salvation, all is at rest.
56:03I in my Savior, I in my Savior, I in my Savior, am happy and blessed.
56:09Watching and waiting, looking around, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
56:20This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:32This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:45This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:46This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:47This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:48This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:49This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:50This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:51This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:52This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:53This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:54This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:55This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:56This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
56:57This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
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