Snakes in the Garden

[00:00:00] Now we are gonna continue in our study of Philippians. We started a few weeks ago and, and what we're gonna look at this morning is a very challenging passage. It's very real, uh, but may touch on some very sensitive subjects for, for some of us here, some past scars. And, uh, we're gonna be looking at Philippians one versus 15 through 21.

And as usual, we ask you if you have a Bible to open it up to keep it open throughout the time. If you don't have one, there's one in front of you. We'd invite you to use that. But let me begin by reading the passage. We're gonna study this morning, Philippians one, starting in 15. Some indeed pre preach.

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 outta 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 [00:01:00] rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance as it is, as it my eager expectation and hope that I will not and and be ashamed, but with the full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by my life or by death.

For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. May God bless the reading. Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we do have to come together this morning, father, to be able to worship and now to be able to dive into the teaching of your word. I thank you for this passage, father, for how it has been meaningful to me over the years.

Father Howard has helped me to deal with some hard situations I've felt. And dealt with. And, and Father, how, how you continue to teach me. I pray now that your spirit would speak through me in spite of me. Help me to, to faithfully proclaim what your word says. That the truth that would be proclaimed wouldn't be me, but it'd be you through me.

And, uh, father, that you'd help each one of us to have hearts [00:02:00] that, that are open to hear, understand, and to apply. Whatever you have for us this morning, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, before I dig into this passage, I, I wanna take a, kind of a personal moment of, of share sharing that this passage has been significant to me in very personal ways over the years.

You see, it deals with two related problems that Paul was facing. First, there were some who had been part of the church leadership in Philippi who lacked both the character and the proper motivation to do ministry in a God honoring way. Him and while claiming to represent Christ in the gospel, they were actually driven by selfish motives and driven by those motives.

They had done things that had wronged. Paul harmed him in significant ways. The second problem was related. One of the ways that they sought to hurt Paul was to take advantage of his imprisonment, to attack his character, spreading lies about him. Now, I say that this has been an important and personal passage to me because over the years I've faced these [00:03:00] challenges in previous churches that I've been at.

There have been people, some, in some of those churches, there have been people in positions of leadership who have acted in ways that are very much inconsistent with that of a fall of Christ, let alone a leader. They were driven by selfish motives and some of the actions that they did actually caused me and my family great harm.

And when I was going through those times, and I remember at times struggling with what's the right way to respond to this? You do I try to fight? Do I, do I try to expose their motives? Do I try to stand up and defend myself? Do I just get frustrated and give up on the church? Now, I share this because I realize that I'm not alone in this kind of struggle.

I know that there are many here today who carry very deep wounds, often inflicted by those who have claimed to be leaders within the church. And when we look at this, the challenge isn't just even to figure out how do we, how do we respond to this? But we, we even asked this question, why does God allow snakes?

Why does God allow these [00:04:00] people who claim to be leaders, but who lack proper biblical, uh, character traits and motivation? Why does God allow these snakes in the garden of his church? How could God's sovereign and good plan include allowing people who claim to represent him, but get away with such sinful behavior?

Why does God allow their lies to stand? Why doesn't God expose the truth? And again, I'm sure that I'm not alone in having struggled with this. And I wanna tell you, as I've struggled with this, one of the passage that has helped me the most, that has been kind of one of my anchors to understand what I'm supposed to do is this passage.

It's not an easy passage, but I, I look forward to struggling with it, with you together today. Now, we started Philippians a few weeks ago and we saw that, that it's this incredible book that gives us a different perspective on life. You know, Paul had planted the church in Philippi. He was their spiritual leader, but the church had become confused and depressed.

There had been things that were going on opposition from the outside, that [00:05:00] division, from when the inside that discouraged them. And, and they were worried about Paul as their spiritual leader. They knew that he had been in prison for three to four years. They knew about people that were opposing him.

They, there was a trial that could result in their death, and they, and they were worried he had to be discouraged. And yet he now writes this letter back. This letter is in a lot of, a lot of ways, response to those worries and concerns. And the incredible thing is that the primary theme of the book is that of joy, the word joy, and, and rejoice occurs 14 times in the short book.

And, and Paul is teaching them and he's teaching us how can we then find confidence and hope, and even joy in the most difficult and uncertain of times. And right off the bat, we see that at the very beginning, Paul teaches them that there's some foundational truths that we need to understand, foundation to our faith, foundational to this joy, starting with this foundational promise In verse one, six, you know, again, he's writing this letter, these groups of people that were discouraged by [00:06:00] the problems they faced, and we're going to see him address specific problems and talk about specific situations, but before he gets into any specifics.

He starts off the book by giving this overarching promise, this incredible truth that, that he says, this is what I'm sure of and that we can be sure of in Philippians one, six, I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And this is the central promise of the whole chapter.

In fact, everything else is really kind of an expound expounding on this and saying, this is what it looks like for us to really believe this. And so he gives this foundational promise, but it's also linked to kind of a foundational purpose. When we look at this, we, we, you know, if we actually have to go back a few verses to verse three and four and five of chapter one, and he talks about this purpose, and I want you to see not only the purpose, but then how these things are related.

So let's go back to Philippians one, three. He says, I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always in every [00:07:00] prayer of mine. For you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership and the gospel from the first day until now. Then he goes, and here's the promise, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Now, here's what I want you to see. When we look at this and he says he's gonna bring this to completion, what is the work that God has begun that God will now complete? And verse five tells us that it's in your partnership with the gospel. And here's what I want you to see. Paul is dealing with all these problems, including this extended termed prison.

And his hope is not just that God will get him outta prison and make his life easier. His hope is, is, you know, is, is not, you know, God, you know, redeem, you know, shut up my, my, my accusers. His hope and confidence is that no God is accomplishing the purpose of the gospel, that God has begun that work in me and through me, and he will bring it to completion.

And as we read this chapter in the whole [00:08:00] book, it's evident that Paul isn't primarily concerned about himself and his comfort or, or you know, that you know that things will go well for him. He's so in love with Jesus. He's so committed to that cause, the cause of the gospel, that when he sits in prison, he doesn't say, why does this happen to me?

He doesn't say, why, why are people attacking me when I'm serving God? But instead he says, how does it affect the gospel? And here's what's incredible is, is that when we look at this, it's not that he's making himself a martyr. He's not saying, you know, life can be miserable to me, but I'm just gonna serve God because we need to remember what is the theme of the book.

It's joy. So how is it that this is about joy? This is not a book of self denial. It's a book about discovering joy. And here's what we need to realize. Joy was not Paul's primary purpose. The pursuit of joy wasn't his primary purpose in life. And what this book is gonna show us is there's an incredible secret that if we will never discover [00:09:00] lasting, true happiness, if we make the pursuit of happiness, our primary pursuit, because what happens is we're seeking after this, and then we're looking for other things to somehow feed that desire, that goal, that need we have.

Instead, Paul teaches us that true joy is discovered as a side benefit. Of choosing to pursue something greater than ourselves, greater than our happiness, greater than our goals. And that's what he's talking about. My goal is the gospel. He's saying this is the defining vision that carried him through with all the disappointments, all the imprisonment, all the problems that he faced.

He had this incredible promise, here's what God is, and this incredible principle that, that God's accomplishing this and that gave him a, a foundational perspective. That, that he gave himself, you know, giving himself something greater than life. And suddenly now he was able to see life totally through a different lens.

We talked about this a lot last week. You know, some, some of us tend to be optimists and we tend to look [00:10:00] at the good and, and, and looking at the good boy. We sometimes aren't realistic about the problems and difficulties of life. The pessimists focus more on the negative and, and they say they're more realistic about the problems, but.

The pessimists can become discouraged by the problems and, and even miss the good that God's doing or the opportunities in front of us. And what we see throughout this book is God's calling us to this third perspective, this perspective that says, I recognize that God is sovereignly in control of everything that is happening.

And, and so that's where I talk about not optimism or pessimism. I make up the word sovereign. That this idea, it's a perspective that on the one hand is totally realistic about the pain and the difficulty and the betrayal and the opposition that we face in life, but at the same time sees that God is sovereign over all those things and has a good plan.

Yes, that it's realistic about all the bad things that happen in life. God allows evil and, and, and pain is real, but yet God uses it for a good [00:11:00] purpose. That's the promise of Romans 8 28. For we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to purpose.

It doesn't say For those who love God, all things are good. No, there's a lot of things in life that aren't good. There are things that are evil and the result of sin and brokenness, but the promise is that we can know that God will work all things to good together for good. He will take even the evil and the painful, and somehow work them out for a good and greater purpose.

Now what I said a few moments ago then is that that's the big foundational idea and then Paul takes the rest of chapter one and he says, okay, this is what it looks like to live this out. What he does is he doesn't just say, here's a truth, figure it out. He says, here, let me show you by my own example. In fact, if we think about it, the one of the main impetuses of the book of Philippians.

Is that Paul is responding to the Philippian believers and the concern that it, they had expressed for him while he's in prison. They had sent a financial gift to help him [00:12:00] with his needs and, and this guy, a pitis that came and, and brought that gift. And, and as he's meeting with Paul, I'm sure that they heard just perspective Paul, man, you've gotta be discouraged, you gotta be depressed, man.

We're wor worn down. And that's the perspective that they have. And now in the second half of Philippians one, Paul addresses the three big concerns. That they had concerning Paul and his situation. And he says, this is how I've learned to view these things through the lens of a sovereigns. The first is what we talked about last week.

He had been in prison for between three and four years. He had been first arrested on totally false charges and um, and so he is arrested and then after one thing, after another, he sits in prison for two years. Finally, he's appeals to Rome. He's now waiting trial before Nero. And from their perspective, it's like, man, Paul, you've gotta be discouraged that you know you're chained.

The gospel is chained. And what Paul is saying is, no, I realize that in God's sovereign control, I don't like this, but God is still using it for good. You know, I [00:13:00] prayed for opportunity to reach the inner, the Paul's of power of Rome, and now I have the guards of Caesar that are guarding me. They haven't chained the gospel, they're chained to me.

I've got a captive audience. The gospel's getting out to the halls of power of Rome. Now that's the first problem. The third problem we're gonna look at last next week. The second problem that he was facing is that the believers in Philis, Phil, uh, Philippi were concerned that there were some people in the church that were using Paul's imprisonment and out of selfish motives were, you know, kind of tearing him down, dividing the church, you know, trying to, to take away, kind of deny him as a leader so that they could now take that position of leadership away from him.

That's what we see in verses 15 through 17. If you have your Bibles, we read 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 proclaim Christ outta selfish ambition. Uh, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in [00:14:00] my imprisonment.

Now here's the problem that came up. It's out of his prolonged imprisonment. You know, Paul's faithfulness was there, and he's talked it in verse 14. Some people were encouraged by his faithfulness in the midst of opposition, but there were other people who, for selfish reasons, saw it as an opportunity for personal gain.

You know, Paul was the founding pastor of the church, and, and there were some people that out again, out of their selfish desire, he looked at, at his imprisonment and basically started sharing the message if God was really approved by, or if Paul was really approved by God. If, if Paul was God's man. God wouldn't allow him to be in prison.

This way, the fact that God isn't answering his prayers, that shows that God's dis, you know, God has disfavor towards Paul, we shouldn't follow him. And so the imprisonment, they said was a sign of God's disapproval of, of Paul's ministry. Now, as I read this passage again, one of the things we have to say, how do we respond to this?

Why does God allow this? What is a right perspective that we have when we see these [00:15:00] snakes, these people that lack right character and motive in the garden of the church. And, and, and even before I get into this passage, I want to almost take a moment to speak pastorally for this. Um, because, because I realize that there are a lot of people, there are numerous people in our church, many of I've talked to you in the past that have wounds.

That, that have been hurt by people in positions of leadership at various churches, there are people that have significant scars and, and where you've been hurt, you've been abused, you've been, you've been betrayed. And, and first I need to say that there are people in positions of leadership who have done things that before God are wrong.

And I wish that that pastor or leader who wronged you would have the character to admit their sin and to come to you and confess and ask for forgiveness. Unfortunately, many of us know from our own circumstances, that's unlikely to happen. Now, I've prayed about this a lot this week [00:16:00] and I, and I felt that as I've prayed about it, that God is calling me to say some things again, as a pastor, there are people that have been in positions, uh, of leadership as pastors who have misused, who have abused that, and I realize that now.

I speak as a pastor, as one who represents the pastorate. Again, I wish that those people would come and, and say that they're sorry for what they've done. If they haven't, I need to now speak in against, in a sense, as God's rep representative for that role. I, I wanna start by saying that I'm sorry for the way that you've been harmed, the way that you've been disappointed, the way that you have been abused.

I'm sorry for what has been done to you, and again, as a representative of, of the role of a pastor. I apologize for the way that people in positions of leadership have abused their position. To, to discourage you, to harm you. But secondly, I also want to encourage you even beyond that, to challenge you, to let God [00:17:00] begin the process of healing those wounds that you have.

I'm not just saying, just drop it, you know, and it's a process and you've gotta go through that process. I wanna, I challenge you. Don't continue to hold onto the failure of someone who claimed to represent Jesus Christ. Don't hold it against the gospel itself. Don't hold it against the church. And the whole, the fact that there are some pastors and Christian leaders who have impure motives, who have flawed character doesn't mean that all Christian leaders have flawed character and impure motives.

Now, I know even as I ask you to work this through for some, that's a very difficult ask, and I'm not trying to be flippant about it. But I want to show you that I'm not only asking you, I think that's what Paul is asking and exemplifying because he himself had been wounded by people who claim to be leaders.

And I want to look at what he learned, how he did it, and say how do we follow that? And so what are some of the things that we see in this passage? First of all, Paul [00:18:00] isn't excusing or justifying bad leaders. When he talks about these people, he's not defending them. He's not saying, well, they, you know, that's okay.

And he's addressing a specific situation. Now, first of all, we're gonna moment look what that specific situation is, but I want you to see in what he's addressing, it has to be consistent with what else is taught in the Bible about church leadership. Because any those of who are long-term, you know, attenders and members of the church, you know, we say this all the time when we have a hard passage, the first rule of interpreting the Bible is.

Scripture, interpret scripture. And so we have to look at these other passages. So we look to one Timothy, three, we look to Titus. One where Paul spends significant time talking about choosing, uh, church leadership. And the primary qualification that he focuses on isn't, do they have the right education?

Are they good speakers? Primarily, he's looking at it and saying, do they have the character of true Christian maturity? You see, the Bible is clear that character and [00:19:00] motivation matter. They're the thing that's most important. And not only that, but there are numerous passages that talk about the, the importance of confronting sin, of dealing with sin, especially those in church leadership of church discipline.

Now, the problem is in this specific case. The people that Paul is talking about are people that have obviously gone out on their own. They've rejected the church leadership. They've rejected accountability, they've rejected Paul's authority. And so now they're not at all open to that confrontation. And so now Paul's talking to them and he is not saying, well challenge them.

No, they're not open to that challenge. So what happens when we have someone who's like that in a position of leadership that that doesn't, isn't willing to listen, isn't willing to take a uh, accountability. Well, here's where we need to realize that the Bible's clear that God is gonna judge them. God gives a lot of warnings.

In fact, in in James chapter three, he tells us this, not many of you should be, uh, should become teachers, my brothers, for you know, that we who teach [00:20:00] will be judged with greater strictness. It's not saying it's bad to be a teacher in the church or a leader in the church, but it's saying that we shouldn't do it until we're sure.

Not only that we're called by God, but that we have the moral character that that backs it up. He's saying, be careful because we're gonna be judged with greater strictness. God is gonna hold us accountable. And in a passage, it's really scary for, you know, for and, and people need to pay attention. Look what it says in, in, in Luke chapter 17.

Jesus is talking about those in positions of leadership that that abuse their authority in such a way that harms those who are young, spiritually. And he warns them and us. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea. Then he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

That's tough. And here's what we need to realize. God takes that seriously and ultimately God is going to hold accountable any in positions of leadership who have misused that position. And so I wanna encourage you there, let God [00:21:00] take care of it in time, he will. But in that we also have to be careful that we don't overreact and judge people's motives.

And again, I think about the Philippian believers. I'm sure they were discouraged. We know that from the context people had left the church doing ministry with wrong motives, and I wish it weren't the case, but we still have that today. We have people that you know that, that serve with wrong motives. I wish that we would look at the value of the gospel and say, because it's so valuable that that only people with the best possible motives would preach the word.

But unfortunately that's not the case. And there again have been many people that have, have, have dealt with people that lack that motive and lack that character. And when we look at Paul's words here, though, what he's telling them and he's telling us, don't get discouraged by that flipping believers word.

Don't be discouraged. Why? Because the gospel is still true, and the failure of those who claim to represent Jesus Christ doesn't take away the truth of the gospel itself. [00:22:00] And but not only that, Paul's teaching us not only in these verses, but in the rest of the chapters. If we look at chapter two, chapter three.

He's saying, yeah, there are people that have wrong motives, but there are other people that have right motives. There are people that have right character. In fact, we see that, you know, as one of the main themes in chapters twos and three, two, and three starts starting in two. Chapter two. He says, focus on Jesus.

I mean, if you have wrong motives, Jesus had the ultimate motive. He was the person who existed in, in very in uh, um, fraternity is God. And he gave that up and took on human flesh, took on death, and that wasn't self, it was the most selfless thing in all of human history. And so that's what the gospel is based upon.

And then in chapter two, at the end, he goes to Timothy and, and this guy of Paphitis, these are men that, that are serving with the right motives. These are the people that that had it. Right. And then in chapter three, he talks about even his own example. So for example, in verse 17, he says, this brothers join in imitating me and [00:23:00] keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example as you have in us.

And he's saying, okay, we're trying to do this right? So, so focus on those that have right motive. But in the midst of that, we also say, but there are people that are wrong mode of wrong character. And how does God work that good? How is that consistent with God's good purpose? Well, that's where we have to look for his purpose.

We have to believe if it really is true, verse one six, that he who began to work good work is bring it to completion. That God is sovereign in everything. God, how are you bringing good out of this? Look again in verse 15, 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 proclaim Christ outta selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict, afflict me in my imprisonment.

And again, that's the statement of the problem, which we saw before. But now in verse 18, he says, this is how I view it from the perspective of a sovereigns. This is how [00:24:00] God is still good in the midst of it. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that I rejoice.

Now here's what we've gotta realize is that he's not saying that these people are preaching a false message. The problem is they had a impure motive. It's not a false doctrine. He's not preaching a different gospel. Paul addresses it elsewhere and he addresses it very directly. But these are all people that are preaching the true gospel, but for a wrong motive.

So Paul divides the leader, these people into two groups. The first group consists of those who are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry. The second group is those who are consisted by motives of goodwill. Now, here's what I want you to see. Paul's conclusion is what then? What, what, what? Doesn't matter because only in every way, whether by good motive or wrong motive, Christ is proclaimed, and in that every rejoice.

Now, he's not again, justifying the wrong motives. He's not saying that it was of no concern, [00:25:00] but he's saying that he wouldn't allow their wrong motives to blind him to the biggest, the big issue. And he is saying what really matters is that even God is using sinful people to bring the gospel forward.

Then I praise him on that. Yes, there are people that have wrong motives, but if they have wrong motives, they're gonna have to answer to God. I'm not gonna hold them accountable. But he's saying my goal is ultimately to get the gospel out. And his prayer is that people would be so focused on the truth of the gospel that they, that they wouldn't see the, the hypocrisy of the lifestyle.

That's what mattered to him most. And so he said in every way, whether in pretense, whether it's in trying to cover false, uh, ambition or in truth, those who really claim to honor God, if Christ is proclaimed that, that's what matters. Now let me give you a couple practical points, just what this, what this means.

How do we, how do we take this home and live it out? Um, the fact that there were snakes in the garden of their church back then suggests to us we shouldn't be surprised that there are [00:26:00] still snakes in the garden of the church even today. So how do we respond to that? First, we need to remember to focus on the message, not the messenger.

We need to remember that the quality and truthfulness of the messenger does not change the truth and the quality of the message. The message of the gospel is true because it is rooted in Jesus Christ, in his love, in his work on the cross, and the hypocrisy of a few people who claim to be his followers can't undo the truthfulness and life-changing power of what Jesus has done.

And so Paul's focus on the message was so great that he could look at these people that, that were seeking even to do him harm and say, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed in that I rejoice. Second of all, censor your focus on Jesus. Remember again, the gospel message is about Jesus, about him and his work and his love.

The truthfulness of the gospel is tied to [00:27:00] him. His representatives may fail, but Jesus Christ will never fail. In fact, if we go to chapter two, we're gonna see in a couple weeks in chapter two, Paul dives into the example of Jesus Christ, of his sacrificial love, and, and he calls us to have that same mindset towards each other.

We always need to make our focus Jesus. Now, I will acknowledge that as a pastor or as a spiritual leader, as a youth pastor, anybody that's in positions of leadership. There are people that will come in, especially who are young spiritually, who at first will see Jesus through me or through a spiritual leader.

That's why God warns us. Don't do this lightly now, but here's what I want you to see. At first. You may see Jesus through me as soon as I can. I wanna say, don't look at me. Look at Jesus, look at him again. We're all going to fail, um, but let's, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. I love what it says in Hebrews 12, two.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He's what it's all [00:28:00] about. But the Bible also then calls us to choose spiritual leaders carefully. Character and motivation do matter when it comes to church leadership. Yeah, being a good speaker, being a good guy, you relate to right.

Education. Those are all important, but the most important thing is character. Now at one time, no pastor, including myself, is gonna be perfect. I'm gonna mess up. And, and so if you look at it and you say, you never, no, I'm gonna mess up. I'm gonna dis, I'm gonna dis I'm gonna do things that you know, that, um, you know, don't follow me when I drive.

You know, some that can be embarrassing. It's like, you know, I'm not gonna do everything right. But here's the question is, does the person have the character where they're seeking after Christ, where you see them surrendering to Christ? And when we mess up, do you see us acknowledging that? And yes, there are going to be snakes in the garden of the church, but there are also faithful servants of Christ who have the right motives and who are letting Christ shape their character.[00:29:00]

So here's what I want to do. Look, not only for people whom you can listen to their teaching, but look for people whom you can follow their character and their way of life. You know, are they good husbands? Are they good dads, their family work together? Or you know, are they, do you show kindness? And what do you see in the character?

And that's vital. Now I'm gonna deal with this point a lot less, a lot less time. Um, but when we talked in the very beginning, we talked about there were two problems that Paul was dealing with. Remember, it's like, first of all, it got these people that had wrong motives and that had harmed him. The second problem is that there was, in this time of imp, prolonged imprisonment, there were people that were attacking him, attacking his character that, you know, that were cutting him down.

There was this seeming injustice. You know that here he's doing what's right and yet these people are attacking him for his faithfulness to God. That's the problem that addresses starting in verse 18. He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth crisis proclaimed, and in that I rejoice, [00:30:00] and yes, I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or my by, by death for me to live as Christ, to die as gain. Now dealing even with the issue that the Psalmist soft deals, why does it look good, prosper, God, are you going to defend my name and what is the right response?

And here's what I want you to see. What we see in Paul. Is Paul allowed this to help God reveal in his life what mattered most. Again, what is Paul's motive? He says only then, only in every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed, and that I rejoice. His motive was the gospel and, and had being so focused on the gospel allowed him to say, even if there are people that have false motives, you know, that's not, that's not gonna change the truthfulness.

If Christ is being preached, then I rejoice. Even if people [00:31:00] use it as camouflage for personal gain, you know, it's, no, the gospel is the, the power of God for salvation. And, and people were even using Paul's suffering and hoping that it would somehow make it worse. And, and Paul's saying, no, my life, if it was defined by personal agenda, if, if Paul's life was defined by, how do I get a following?

How do I get people to like me? How do I, you know, then he would be defeated, then he would be crushed. I. But because he could say, no, my passion is the gospel in spite of everything that they're doing to me. You know, what really matters to me is going forward. When he talks about even that this, you know, that this will be for my deliverance.

He's basically saying, this is helping me grow. This is helping me, me become a better person because it's showing me what matters most. See all these people, they were concerned about how this is impacting Paul. All, but the key is in verse 21 when he says, for me to live is Christ. Because what he's saying is, my life is about Christ.

That's what, that's what defines [00:32:00] me. All of us have something that we would say for me to live is the most important thing to me. You know? And for many, we don't think about it. For me to live is my family. That's what matters most for me. To live my work, for me to live as security, for me to live as, as, as pleasure, and, and we have all these things that we can live for.

And here's what happens. If any of those get, things get threatened, we get destroyed. Now, here's what happens with Paul. He's saying, for me to live as Christ, that is my center. That's what matters most to me. And when all those other things get threatened, when I'm imprisoned, when my reputation gets threatened, that hurts.

That's hard. It's real. But you know what? It doesn't destroy me because for me to live is Christ. Everything else can be taken from me. But if the thing that matters most isn't taken. And actually what he's finding is all those threats actually just helped him become more focused on Jesus. But still, people attack us and how do we respond?

And, and, and here's what we've gotta see, is that Paul understood that he needed a trust in God to establish [00:33:00] truth and justice. Look in verse 19 again. He says, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. In verse 20, it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed when he said, this will turn out my deliverance.

God's gonna deliver me. God's gonna take care of this. He's saying, when I hope that I will not be ashamed. He's saying, all these people are attacking me. They're attacking my reputation. They're attacking me and my ministry. They're gonna try to use my imprisonment as a way to attack my credibility. But at the end of the day, what matters is my standing before God.

At the end of the day, they're trying to tell all these things that will make me look ashamed, but God's gonna take care of it. I, I believe that be stand before God. God is going to defend my name. God is gonna defend my character. See how many of us have faced times when people are attacking us, they're telling lies about us.

You know, they're the things that we, you know, that we had frustrated and it seems, and you are like, God, why don't you? [00:34:00] And here's the question. When that happens, who's gonna do a better job defending your name, you or God? All of a say. The fright, theological answer. God, most of us don't believe that. Why?

Because what happens is they start saying things, they start, and God doesn't seem to be working. And God isn't setting it right. I'm here, you have Paul, and, and they're saying these lies and, and they, it seems they seem to be thriving and God's like, you know, Paul's like, God, why aren't you working? And so we're saying, God, if you're not gonna do it, let me take it upon myself.

But God doesn't always work in our time, in our way. I mean, I love my, uh, the pastor growing up, the example that has carried me through so many of the things that I've been through Dave Burnham, and in one of his statements that he would always say, truth and time go hand in hand. And that's true. There have been times there have been lie.

Just sit back and wait. Truth and time will God go hand in hand. God will establish truth in his time. He will do a better job of it than than you or I can ever do. So let's think about [00:35:00] Paul. Did God ultimately defend Paul's name? Now some of us might be thinking, I'm not really right. I'm not sure. I don't know what happened in Philip Hyatt.

We don't know the end of that story. No, we don't know. But that's short term. Okay, let's look at long term. Okay. When you think about this, what do you think of Paul now he's a great leader. I mean, he's a guy that, that, that we're, we're looking at his example even now, 2000 years later. What do you think of the guys that attacked his name and that we're trying to set them up as themselves, up as leaders in the church?

We don't even know their names. If we did, their name is, is, is, has been in the mud. It's, it's it, their motive's been exposed. And so now here we have 2000 years later, clearly God has defended Paul's name clearly, God has lifted Paul up. And what we need to realize that's not, again, only what God did. It's what God does.

And if God would defend Paul's name in that way, and God it didn't, you don't always see it in his time and his way. See, God's gonna do [00:36:00] that for us as well. He's gonna do that for you and for me. He's gonna do a much better job. Wait, give him time. So let me wrap this up and just give you several closing thoughts.

You know, this is again, about joy. It's about about finding joy in the midst of, of circumstances that are confusing, that are frustrating, that joy that transcends the circumstances, and just some closing thoughts on that. First of all, remember the promise of Philippians one, six, that that's kind of the center of this whole first chapter.

That he says Before you consider the specifics, here's the principle that the foundational principle, that the promise that underlies it all, and what is that promise? I'm sure of this, that he began a good work in. You will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That's this promise we need to remember.

We need to remember that God has done good work. Have the perspective of the sovereigns, believe in him, trust in him, even though we can't see what he's doing, trust his heart. And not only that, but we need to have the right source in life to find that [00:37:00] right source. You know, for if I look at it, and I think sometimes when I struggle the most, it's like not if somebody's attacking my name, something's taken away, something's threatened.

At the end of the day, when I really look at it, honestly, a lot of times I'm sitting there saying, it's something threatening. It's something small to me and, and I've gotta look back and I've gotta say, God, am I for me to live is what? Am I threatening? Am, am I falling apart because my life was about something else and God's calling me?

No. Now I want you to say for me to live as Christ because when I make Christ the center, you see, then everything else works better for for you to live as what? Define your life and the right source. And then as you do so, then see life this through this transcendent purpose. Again, as we said, if you make happiness in the pursuit of happiness, your main pursuit in life, you'll never find it.

You'll always be frustrated. You'll, you'll get a little bit and it's gonna drain out. But if you give yourself to something that is bigger than yourself, for [00:38:00] me to live as Christ, for me to live as about the gospel of Christ, if you give yourself to something greater than what you're going to find is that that true joy, the true happiness, is something that not only comes, but it transcends the circumstances.

So what are you giving your life to? What does it define? What is your great purpose? Do you believe the promises of Christ? Are you willing to, to embrace those in your life? These are hard truths. This is a hard passage, and again, to many it's talking about things in your past wounds that, that I know you're struggling with, but it's real.

And that's what I shared in the beginning. I've struggled with this passage. I struggled with these circumstances. But these are the things that as I've embraced more and more, man, God's helped even purify my vision, my my, my purpose in life. And I could say that, okay, those things didn't destroy me, but somehow I was able to find even greater joy and purpose, even some of the most difficult things that [00:39:00] I've experienced through life.

And that's the hope that Christ gives to each one of us. Let me close in prayer and then we'll close in song. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we do have to come together this morning, father, to be able to look at, at the example the testimony of Paul. Father, I thank you for the testimony that can give hope to each one of us here today.

Father, I pray for those that have here today who, who bear scars, who have been wounded, who have been wronged. That Father that even in that, we would see it from a God perspective, that that.