#Philippians #chapter #four #series #philippi #apostle #paul #PaulEss #Stylianou #encouragement #eternallife #bibleteaching #history #christianity #christian #God #doctrine #greek #ChartridgeMissionChurch #chesham #thefriendliestfellowship #LearningTheBibleTogether
Described as one of the most moving and encouraging sermons ever preached, this is the final part of our series on the book of Philippians. Here, International preacher Paul Ess brings us chapter four, using his skills as a master storyteller and his knowledge of Greek and history to both educate and cheer us in equal measure. You'll not want to miss this one!
Philippians Playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLtfVhcCUFv_dvetFhcAvifJfsvhS3SJ&si=fgrIMt7afiKQ05XM
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
The village Church with an international audience.
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, 28th September 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Described as one of the most moving and encouraging sermons ever preached, this is the final part of our series on the book of Philippians. Here, International preacher Paul Ess brings us chapter four, using his skills as a master storyteller and his knowledge of Greek and history to both educate and cheer us in equal measure. You'll not want to miss this one!
Philippians Playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLtfVhcCUFv_dvetFhcAvifJfsvhS3SJ&si=fgrIMt7afiKQ05XM
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
The village Church with an international audience.
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, 28th September 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Let the world be right on pity, I will glory in thy name.
00:11Fading is the worldly flesh and all his boasted calm and strong.
00:24So it was a lasting treasure, now but I am still there alone.
00:40Wonderful to be with you all again.
00:42I had the privilege of opening Philippians with the first chapter.
00:48Now here I am about to close Philippians, as it were, with the fourth chapter.
00:53So really looking forward to this.
00:56The Lord's given me some real encouragement through this, building up, as it were, as I've been studying it.
01:04Because when I prepare to speak anywhere, it's always I find a Bible study for me, first of all.
01:11And it's just incidental that I'm going to be sharing what the Lord has done to me and said to me through his word.
01:20Here we are on the final chapter, Philippians 4, which seems to be the smallest chapter, full of all sorts of names, as Kathleen said.
01:29Yet there's so much richness, just as there has been right through Philippians.
01:36This book, as I said in week one, is called the Book of Joy.
01:41And yet it was birthed in difficulties, in hardships.
01:47It was written by Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome.
01:51And yet the joy in this book comes through with every single chapter.
02:00And as I was reading verse one,
02:03Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved.
02:13You just get that sense of a father's heart in Paul, don't you?
02:19You get this real sense of the love that Paul has for the people in Philippi.
02:27It started like that on a very similar level, but it seems to have gone up a notch here.
02:33And my beloved, my longed for brethren, my joy and crown, it just permeates through all of this.
02:43And then it's interesting, because immediately in verse two to three, we see that there's a bit of an issue.
02:52Because it doesn't matter what church there is, there is no such church that is perfect.
03:00There is no church that is without issues, either relationships between people or doctrines or whatever.
03:09Even if there's no reason for something, then we will always find reasons to fall out, to argue, to disagree, whatever.
03:19Oh, no, no, no. I don't think you've got that quite right.
03:22And we always add brother, don't we, at the end?
03:24You know, brother, it makes it better.
03:27But he's saying here in verses two and three, I implore, for the end, and I implore, Sidachin, to be of the same mind in the Lord.
03:37And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
03:53So these are real believers.
03:56Their names are in the book of life.
03:58And these two ladies, Ephodia and Sindachin, and, sorry, I'm saying in the Greek way, they've obviously fallen out somewhere.
04:09And he's imploring those round about them to bring them together again, to collect them and help them to focus on what is important.
04:20And that's exactly what Paul now does in verses four and five, because the moment he has said that, and we finished on three, he says, rejoice in the Lord always.
04:33And again, I will say, rejoice.
04:37Let your gentleness be known to all the people.
04:42For the Lord is at hand, or the Lord is with you, or the Lord is there.
04:48That's what he's really saying there.
04:51Don't forget, the Lord is there in your midst.
04:57He's hearing these arguments.
04:59He's seeing these disagreements.
05:03And he's urging the people to bring them together.
05:07He's saying, I urge you.
05:10And this you is a bit ambiguous, because some think that it might be Luke that he's speaking of,
05:17because Luke is thought to have been there in Philippi.
05:22But I don't think it's Luke.
05:24I think it's Abaphroditus, because Abaphroditus is the person that was with Paul in Rome and took this letter and bought it to Philippi.
05:37And we know that because he mentions Abaphroditus again further along.
05:41He's saying, my true companion, my help, bring these women together.
05:45And where he says, true companion, you get quite an interesting insight here.
05:50Because he is saying, gnicie, cisie.
05:54Now, that may mean nothing to you.
05:56But anyway, to me as a Greek, okay, gnicie means someone that is true, that is honorable, that is pure.
06:05And he's saying this about, if it is Abaphroditus, and then he uses this word, cisige.
06:13Now, cisige, or cisigos, is what I refer to Kathleen, and Catherine refers to me as a husband and wife.
06:21We're cisige.
06:22And even now, it's a common word that is used when I'm introducing Kathleen to somebody in Greece.
06:31I'll say, and this is my cisigos, Kathleen.
06:35You see, my wife, Kathleen.
06:37So it is a very special bond.
06:41It's not technically limited just to a husband and wife or to a male or female, as we see here, because he's speaking about a man here.
06:51But it's giving us an insight into how precious each and every one of these people are to Paul and how he sees these people, the heart that he has for these people.
07:05And he's trying to refocus these women as well, because we don't know what the misunderstanding is.
07:13But he's saying, look, focus on these things.
07:16Rejoice in the Lord always.
07:19And again, I'm going to say, rejoice, he's saying.
07:22Focus.
07:23If we focus on the right things, if we rejoice in the Lord, all our petty disagreements will just flow away.
07:33They won't seem quite so important to us.
07:37Having my point of view heard isn't going to be quite so important.
07:42Being right isn't going to be quite so important.
07:46Tim Judson touched upon something like this today, and he was saying, God is way beyond right and wrong.
07:52He's not about right and wrong.
07:53So often we say, oh, yeah, but I'm right.
07:56You're wrong, brother.
07:57Yeah.
07:58And or whatever it happens to be.
08:01But God is way beyond right and wrong.
08:04Of course, things are right and wrong.
08:07There are rights.
08:08And there have to be absolutes.
08:10There are always absolutes, particularly in the word of God.
08:14But in our petty disagreements, they're not quite so important.
08:19And if we focus on the right things, we focus on the Lord and on rejoicing in the Lord and seeing him and knowing that he's right here, right amongst us in the midst of our discussions.
08:34I think it'll temper us, won't it?
08:37It'll make us focus far more on what on the Lord being at hand and on him rather than on our disagreements.
08:48I'm not sure whether in verse six, as he goes on, touching upon what the disagreement was about.
08:54We never get to know what that disagreement was about, what the fallout was about.
08:59But he says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
09:11And the peace, that shalom, that perfect peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
09:22Isn't that wonderful?
09:24Be anxious.
09:25We've all heard this.
09:26We've probably all used these verses.
09:29Some of the well best known verses in the New Testament.
09:32Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
09:43And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
09:51You will get that peace.
09:52That peace will fall upon you.
09:54And it doesn't matter how much you're falling out with people or how troubled your heart is or how difficult life is.
10:03You can pour it out to the Lord and he will return to you his peace.
10:10I find this extra interesting and challenging as well because, remember, Paul here is speaking about rejoicing.
10:20He's speaking about not being anxious about anything.
10:23He's speaking about being thankful for everything and about the peace of God and all of these things, all this hope that he has.
10:32And where is he?
10:33He's writing this from prison.
10:36He's chained up, as he says in Philippians, when we read in chapter one.
10:40He's saying, I'm writing this in my chains.
10:43I'm chained up and I'm writing this.
10:45And yet, he could know peace.
10:50He could know what it was not to be anxious about his situation.
10:56As I said in week one, he wasn't the type to let his circumstances dictate his feelings and his outcome.
11:07That's incredibly difficult, isn't it?
11:09We all were all challenged by that.
11:12But Paul says these things and we can know that his focus is totally and utterly on God.
11:21And that got me as I was going through this with the Lord.
11:24And I was asking the Lord, can I find Lord?
11:27Can you give me that same peace?
11:30It doesn't matter what I'm seeing out there.
11:32It doesn't matter what I'm hearing on the news.
11:34It doesn't matter what awful things are happening.
11:37Can I really know that peace in the midst of all of this?
11:45And of course, the Lord says, yes, you can know that peace.
11:50Each and every one of us can know that peace.
11:53If we turn to the Lord and ask him, he will give it without holding back.
12:00It got me thinking of others as well in the Bible who are just the same.
12:06There's so many of them that were suffering.
12:08And the first one that quickly came to mind was Jeremiah.
12:12You've got this young chap and there he is in his fields and he's dragged out of his fields by God and told he is going to be the mouthpiece for God, a prophet for God.
12:25And God, during his time, drops in things.
12:30And I don't want you ever to marry, Jeremiah.
12:32You're not going to marry.
12:34And you're going to be showing the suffering of Israel.
12:39Your life is going to be full of hardships.
12:42And we see that and reflected when Jeremiah writes Lamentations, of course, don't we?
12:50We get in touch with a little bit of that.
12:52But he says, I'm going to make you alone.
12:54You are going to be alone as a picture to Israel.
12:58You see, God wants Israel to understand their only real hope.
13:04The only person they can rely on is God himself.
13:10And that's still no different these days.
13:13We can see now everything that Israel is going through.
13:16We can see they rely on America.
13:19They rely on this.
13:20They rely on that.
13:21Get all worked up about, oh, they're cutting off our armaments to us.
13:26And they're saying bad things.
13:28And they're accepting all these European nations, declaring Palestinian statements and so on.
13:34And I'm not getting into the rights or wrongs of those things of God.
13:37But the thing is, they cannot rely on anybody.
13:43And that message of Jeremiah hasn't changed through all the generations.
13:49Rely on me.
13:50And that's the message for us as well.
13:53Stop looking around.
13:55We'll lose our peace if we look around and we expect to find comfort or encouragement outside of the Lord.
14:05We're not going to find that.
14:06Certainly not a lasting encouragement, not a lasting comfort.
14:11It's only in the Lord that we have it.
14:14And yet that same Jeremiah that went through so much, thrown in pits, you name it.
14:20It is just mind-blowing what the poor chap went through.
14:23And yet he's the same Jeremiah that could say in chapter 3 of Lamentations,
14:31Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord, and your mercies are new every morning.
14:38Isn't that incredible?
14:39Can we really say that no matter what?
14:42Can we say to the Lord, Great is your faithfulness, O Lord.
14:47Your mercies are fresh in you every morning.
14:52How did he manage to do that?
14:54The Pauls of this world, the Jeremias of this world, all of these people, they took, they accepted so much hardship, so much suffering.
15:04And yet they could stay so positive.
15:08And Paul could talk about being anxious for nothing and giving thanks and being full of thanksgiving and rejoicing in the Lord while he's all chained up as well.
15:19And we see this pattern throughout the scriptures with multiple mighty people of God.
15:27We see this over and over.
15:29And I believe as I looked into this over these last couple of days, and I looked deeper and deeper and tried to find,
15:37is there something, some little secret that can be revealed to us to help us find that same level of peace?
15:45And all I could really see that they all had in common was they knew God and they were alive in God.
15:55That's the best I could do there.
15:57They fed on God's word.
15:58Jeremiah 15, verse 16.
16:01He said, your words were found and I ate them.
16:06And your word was for me joy and rejoicing in my heart.
16:11Why?
16:12Because I'm called by your name, O Lord God of hosts.
16:17Isn't that wonderful?
16:18We're called by his name.
16:20We are the Christ followers.
16:23We are the eclect, to use the proper terminology there.
16:28If we're feeding on the word of God, we're strengthened.
16:32We're built up.
16:34It's no different to eating food, is it?
16:36We get our nourishment from food, from physical food.
16:39And we get our spiritual nourishment from feeding on the Lord, feeding on his word.
16:47And only when we feed on the word of God can we become truly alive in God.
16:53Jeremiah's joy there was supernatural.
16:56Paul's joy there was supernatural joy.
17:00They had this rejoicing, this joy in their hearts that they could just supernaturally know and trust that God would do all that he promised through them, support them, uphold them, no matter what they went through.
17:18I love Psalm 40 because King David knew this very well, didn't he?
17:23He said in Psalm 40,
17:24And he's put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God, and many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
17:53And so ultimately, as Paul saw these things and knew these things, he could say in 2 Corinthians 4, he could say with conviction, with real conviction,
18:05Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
18:15For our light affliction, for our light affliction, and he calls it a light affliction, what he's going through, which is just but for a moment, is working for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
18:30While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
18:36For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
18:45They were alive in the Lord, and they knew these things.
18:50Habakkuk knew it, Job knew it, Jeremiah knew it, Daniel knew it.
18:55They all knew these things, and they were close to the Lord.
19:01They were in the Lord, they walked in his word.
19:06In Habakkuk 3, he says,
19:09And even though the fig tree may not blossom, there is no fruit on the vine, and even though the olive crops may fail, and the fields produce no food,
19:18even though the sheep flock may be cut off from the fold, and there is no herd of cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
19:29I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19:33The Lord God is my strength.
19:34He will make my feet like deer's feet, and he will make me walk on high places.
19:42In Job 13, he could say,
19:44Even though he slays me, yet will I trust him.
19:49Even so, I will defend my own ways before him, because he shall be my salvation.
19:55All of these, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they could all say these things.
20:02They could all stand firm in the word of God.
20:06It doesn't matter.
20:07O king, throw us into the pit, throw us into the fiery furnace.
20:13Our God can save us, and if he doesn't, it doesn't matter, because we still have him to rely on.
20:20We always know, O king, but we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the old image you said.
20:27So each of these people going through, and many, many, many others through the history of the Old Testament and the New Testament,
20:37we see over and over and over trusting in the Lord, no matter what.
20:43And then we get another little insight in verses 8 to 9.
20:47Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
20:57whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report,
21:00if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
21:06The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these, and the God of peace will be with you.
21:16So we get endless insights into what will sustain these people.
21:24And it's not just a history lesson for those people.
21:28This is for us.
21:30This should encourage us.
21:32It should build us up.
21:34It should strengthen us in our faith.
21:37And then from verses 10 to 17, he talks about the generosity of the Philippians.
21:44And there's a couple of lovely little bits that I've highlighted here in verse 10.
21:51For I've learned in whatever state I am to be content.
21:55Isn't that lovely?
21:57I've learned in whatever state I am to be content.
22:02Have we learned that?
22:02Have we truly learned that?
22:06Or do our circumstances dictate the state that I'm in or my contentment?
22:12Do my circumstances dictate that?
22:15And in verse 13, that wonderful verse that I've heard quoted so many times of prayer meetings and all sorts of things.
22:23I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
22:27You know, we love to pluck out these little bits and to wave them about as if there's some sort of Harry Potter wand, you know, that's going to do something miraculous and so on.
22:42But the reality is these are in context of a life of trust in God, a life trusting, fully dedicated to and trusting in the Lord as they feed on his word, as they trust him day by day, no matter what.
23:03And of course, in verse 19, we get, and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
23:16Paul always spoke from direct first-hand experience.
23:39He knew these things.
24:09When Kathleen was, she must have been about six months pregnant by that time.
24:15And we lived up in a tiny mountain village, two and a half, three hours by a rickety old Bedford Sherry Bang type bus.
24:25You remember the old Bedford Sherry Bangs with a big nose in front and so on.
24:29That's the only way to get down.
24:30We didn't have a car, couldn't afford a car and so on.
24:33And we were ministering up in this village and living up there.
24:36And Kathleen had come to the time of needing one of her medical checks.
24:41And she said, well, we haven't really got the money to go down and come back up and so on.
24:46Probably give it a miss.
24:47And I thought, OK, I'm not comfortable with that because, you know, her legs have been swelling a little bit and so on.
24:55And so I said, well, perhaps we should go, I don't know, but we haven't got the money.
25:01And my faith was lacking at that moment.
25:05I was having a dip in faith.
25:07And Kathleen said, you know, because we prayed about it then.
25:11And she said, you know, God has said, and she quoted this, that God, that he will supply our needs according to his riches in glory.
25:21And this is a need.
25:24So it doesn't matter that we can't see the money.
25:29We've got enough just to pay for the bus fare down the mountain and get into the hospital.
25:38And let's let God worry about the rest of it.
25:40OK.
25:42And that's what we did.
25:44We went down.
25:45We went to the hospital.
25:47We kept the appointment.
25:49There was a pound or so left over.
25:51The equivalent of that is to buy pita bread for each of us after the appointment, because there wasn't enough money to get us back up to the village.
26:00But there was just enough money for the pita bread.
26:03And so I said, well, we may as well just blow the whole lot.
26:06Yeah.
26:06And so we did.
26:07And then we started to walk back towards sort of what should we do?
26:13Well, let's walk back towards the bus station.
26:15We've got to walk.
26:16So it was about a 15 minute walk back to the bus station.
26:20And we start walking back to the bus station.
26:24And as we're walking, I must admit, my faith was taking a bit more of a dip again.
26:30And I was looking down and thinking, am I going to see a fiver or something rolling around on the floor?
26:38God's got to do something.
26:39And we're getting closer and closer to the bus station.
26:42And Catherine's just there.
26:44She's quite comfortable.
26:45And so she'd been a Christian a long time.
26:48I hadn't.
26:49So we're walking along.
26:51Suddenly we hear this beep, beep, beep, beep.
26:54And this car slams its brakes on right alongside us.
26:58And one of the heads of open doors for the Middle East jumps out.
27:03A big Texan guy, big Texan guy, Sandy.
27:08Yeah, Sandy.
27:09Yeah, that's it.
27:10And Sandy jumps out and he said, Paul, Kathleen, fancy seeing you all the way down here.
27:17Lovely, lovely to see you.
27:19And he said, oh, whatever his wife's name was and so on.
27:23We keep thinking of coming up and visiting you sometime.
27:26We must do that sometime.
27:27Anyway, I'm off to a meeting.
27:29So I just saw you on the road.
27:31So I thought I'd stop and say hello.
27:33And so we just saw you.
27:35Lovely to see you, Sandy, and so on.
27:37And he's just about to jump in the car.
27:39And he says, oh, hang on.
27:41He said, I've been carrying this envelope around with me.
27:44He said, for weeks now, as we've been meaning to come up to the village and see you and visit you and give you it.
27:52But you may as well have it now.
27:54And so he said, anyway, I've got a rush.
27:55Here you go.
27:56And he threw this envelope.
27:57Well, threw it.
27:58Handed us this envelope.
28:01And jumps in his car, drives off.
28:03And that's it.
28:04We're looking at this envelope.
28:05We're standing there.
28:06And there was more money than we'd ever had stuffed in this envelope.
28:12And we thought, well, Lord, you are just absolutely amazing.
28:16That wasn't just once.
28:18I mean, many times over such things.
28:20I could sit here all night just telling you stories like that.
28:24Because God is faithful.
28:28God is true to his word.
28:30If God says, I will provide your needs according to my riches in glory, if we are walking with the Lord, if we trust him, he will never let us down.
28:44He cannot let us down.
28:46Because not just because he's faithful to us, but he's faithful to himself and to his promise.
28:53He is our covenant God.
28:55He is sworn by whom?
28:58By himself.
28:59He swore by himself.
29:02And so Paul knew that only too well.
29:05Because he spoke from that direct, first-hand experience, as I'm sure many of us can do, and come up with stories.
29:14So encouraging, isn't it?
29:15When we sit down together and say, oh yeah, what happened to us?
29:19And what happened to us?
29:20And what happened to me?
29:21And that builds up our faith.
29:22And I believe that is what Paul is trying to close his epistle with, with faith boosters, endless faith boosters in this chapter.
29:34I think perhaps one of the most exciting bits here, although it may look as though he's winding down.
29:39He says,
29:41Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever.
29:47Amen.
29:49Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.
29:52The brethren who are with me greet you.
29:55All the saints greet you.
29:57But especially those who are of Caesar's household.
30:01The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
30:04Amen.
30:05Hang on.
30:06But especially those who are of Caesar's household.
30:11You know, we know from history and from the scriptures that many people had come to accept the Lord Jesus, their Lord and Messiah in Rome.
30:23His witness, his testimony, his teaching.
30:27He never held back, even when he was in chains all the time.
30:31He was under house arrest and in chains and so on.
30:34He never held back.
30:35But here we've got that particular mention of Caesar's household right there in Satan's stronghold, the very household of one of the most evil and one of the most corrupt and depraved rulers that Rome had ever known.
30:55Nero at that time.
30:58And there he was.
31:00And he was saying there are believers in that household.
31:06Isn't it any surprising that Satan had worked so hard to stop Paul from reaching Satan's stronghold?
31:17Rome was Satan's stronghold.
31:20He had a stranglehold over that city.
31:23And we know as we looked in the first week that we looked at it in Acts 16, wasn't it, where we looked at Acts 16 and we saw how the Philippian church built up and then through Acts, how on his way to God said to Paul, I want you to go to Rome.
31:42And then a mob, and then a mob trying to kill Paul, and then he was arrested and then he appealed to Caesar.
31:50So he had to go to Rome and then Satan hadn't managed to get the mob to kill him.
31:55So then Satan tried to get the ship to sink, to be shipwrecked.
31:59And he brought in this storm and the ship sank under all the people there and they swam ashore and he failed to drown Paul as well.
32:10And so as they're drying off and building a fire there and Paul's collecting wood, we're told, a snake, a poisonous, a venomous snake, catches or bites him and holds onto his hand.
32:25And he shakes it off into the fire and the local people said, oh, he's dead.
32:31This guy is definitely dead and he must have been a bad man for his God to allow him to be killed like this.
32:40But he wasn't.
32:41So Satan tried over and over and over and that in itself should have told us how fearful Satan was of what was to happen in Rome.
32:55The last thing he wanted was Satan wanted was somebody like Paul in his stronghold, in his evil stronghold of Rome.
33:03Paul got there and he arrived in chains as a prisoner of Rome and he was guarded around the clock and yet still, despite his chains, he himself being in chains, broke the chains of many prisoners of Satan in Rome.
33:23And even within the household of Caesar, he overcame that stronghold.
33:31That same outcome of obedience by servants of the Lord is a recurring story and a recurring message that we get, a recurring encouragement that we get throughout the scriptures.
33:45When we read what happened, we need to obey and trust.
33:51Can we trust our Heavenly Father enough to accept what he has for us without turning back or giving up in the face of adversity?
34:02James 1, he says,
34:03From the speaker last week, Philippians 3, 7-8.
34:27Anything that it's cost me, he's saying.
34:57Jeremiah knew this.
34:59All of the prophets of God, all the great people of God knew this.
35:04And what their cost was to themselves was nothing for the excellence of knowing the Lord.
35:11They had that blessed hope.
35:13They had that great, great hope.
35:16And we know that even as Paul speaks about these saints in Caesar's household, we read in the historical Jewish books, Josephus in Antiquities chapter 7, that the empress herself, Nero's own wife, became a worshipper of God, it says.
35:40Yes, Nero's own wife, Nero's own wife, and he killed her for that.
35:45Historian Jerome, he said in his book Philemon, that Paul converted many in Caesar's family.
35:52And being by the emperor cast into prison, Paul became the more known to Nero's family.
36:01And Paul turned the house of Christ's person into a church.
36:06Isn't that incredible?
36:07The famous philosopher, Seneca the Younger, he was the teacher of Nero when Nero was young, because Nero had been, if you remember, Nero wasn't of the lineage of a Caesar, but he had been adopted by the previous Caesar at 13 years old.
36:27So he was built up to become Caesar.
36:31And the tutor of Nero himself was not just Seneca the Younger, but Seneca's nephew, the famous poet Lucan, he said, were both converted by Paul while he was in Rome.
36:44So they're endless.
36:46I've got lots and lots of examples of historical writings which speak about the people that were converted in Rome.
36:54So, and Paul wouldn't have known any of that when he was being blocked from getting to Rome, when Satan tried to have him killed by the mob, when Satan tried to drown him, when Satan tried to get the snake to kill him, all of those things.
37:13But God knew.
37:16So we cannot know, dear friends, what God has lined up for those that love him.
37:24We cannot know what is in our future.
37:28It doesn't matter how old we are.
37:31It doesn't matter that some of us think that we're right up at the end of our days.
37:36God has great and mighty things planned for each and every one of us.
37:43The question is, are we willing to trust him?
37:48Are we willing to take that walk with him?
37:54Are we willing to stay close to him so that he can reveal moment by moment?
38:01We have the freedom, freedom to refuse anything along the way.
38:06Even as believers, he's not going to cast us out.
38:10We're not going to suddenly lose our salvation.
38:12But we will lose our blessing.
38:15We will lose our blessing.
38:17The blessing that God so desperately wants to shower on us.
38:23The encouragement that he wants to give us because you can take the bus down into the city without the money to get back up.
38:34And know and see the Lord working.
38:39We had no idea how he was going to work.
38:43But we knew he had to work.
38:45Because he was our God.
38:47And our God is faithful.
38:49Amen.
38:50Glorious things only are spoken, Zion, city of our God.
39:03He whose word cannot be broken, only for his own abode.
39:15On the rock of ages founded, war can shake the sure repose.
39:28With salvation's laws surrounded, thou mayest battle thy foes.
39:42See the streams of living waters springing from eternal love.
39:53Well, so blind thy sons and daughters, and all fear of want removed.
40:05Who can faint find such a river ever close to their thirst to swage?
40:18Graceless like the Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age.
40:32Savior, faithful, Zion, city, I through grace remember all.
40:44Let the world be right of pity, I will glory in thy name.
40:56Fading is the worldling's pleasure, all his most in call and show.
41:09So may the joys of lasting treasure, none but Zion's children know.
41:23Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
41:24Go on, come on, come on.
41:25Go on, come on, come on, go.
41:26To be continued...
41:28Go on, come on, come on, come on.
41:31And, come on.
41:33This is a kid.
41:33That's how לד a God of mercy, man is a great leading force of blow to love.
41:36I will, with a biochemist.
41:38This is an old voice of virtue and love crime.
41:38This is a kid in attraction with dynamite of two of thousands and disasters.
41:41And when it comes to work, it'll work harder.
41:43And when I have to try to hustle, and doubtRED,
41:46hoe können your boobs, I will have to try to stay.
41:47That's a kiddo nya sell, and grow up to me wherever,
41:47That's a kiddo.
Recommended
1:14
|
Up next
1:12
15:07
56:47
44:33
47:27
49:35
45:06
40:39
44:22
38:05
26:32
42:07
1:04:15
36:57
52:28
43:08
32:52
29:08
39:14
38:59
51:12
41:19
Be the first to comment