Take God's word with me and turn with me to Philippians. Chapter number one tonight, verse number 12. Philippians chapter number one and verse number 12. I'd invite you to stand with me as we read the word of God. If you're not able, I completely understand. Philippians chapter number one and verse number 12. But I would ye should understand brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. And one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, everywhere, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice. Yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we need you this moment. I pray you'd settle our minds, give us strength in our body and our voice to be able to preach the Word of God. Fill us with your Spirit. These people came back tonight to get something else from you, and I can't do that without your power. And God, speak to us through your word tonight, through your spirit. May each of us open our hearts, open our minds, and pray sincerely. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Do a great work in each heart. We thank you, Lord, for the faithfulness of your people, the sweet spirit we've already experienced one with another through fellowship and singing and worship. And now, Lord, as we open your word, which is magnified above your name, I pray you'd fall fresh among us, and we'd know we've been in the presence of the Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen. You can be seated. We've preached on a joyful prayer and a joyful fellowship, and tonight we will preach on a joyful outlook. I think everybody likes to be around a person that's got a joyful outlook, right? I don't think you want to be around, I like to call them a negative Nancy. You've heard that from here before, haven't you? I like a person with a joyful outlook. Paul had a laundry list of reasons to complain, but he didn't. He's in prison. He's in prison, to name one. In this text of scripture, he's got guys preaching Jesus, but of ill will. He's got guys preaching Jesus to add affliction to his bonds. He's got guys that are preaching Jesus out of envy and strife and contention. And he says, I'm not gonna complain about it, because Christ is being preached. And I will rejoice, because that's why God left me here, to spread the gospel. He says in verse 18, I want you to see it, this is kind of the text, or the hub verse. He says, some are preaching of love, others are preaching to add affliction to my bonds. Either way, or what then, verse 18, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, and yea, I will rejoice." He said, you're not going to move me off of that. I don't care if they're preaching of ill will or of good will. Either way, if Christ is getting preached, I'm going to rejoice. I'm not going to be moved off that. Now we're going to come full circle to that statement again, that verse again. But I just want to tell you, not everybody that's wearing a coat and a tie like me feels that way. Not everybody feels that way. Not everybody's got that much grace of God on their ministry to feel that way. If somebody doesn't do it their way, they don't rejoice that Christ is getting preached. They get mad that they're preaching Christ and doing anything for God if they're not doing it just like they do it. You know that's true. Some of y'all are scared. You're a little nervous right now. That's true, isn't it? I want to be like the Bible man that I find here that's writing under inspiration of God. I want this church to be like the Bible man. I want to be like what we see in verses 12 through 19. I'm telling you what, you don't get this passage many times, and I've got it tonight. You understand what I'm saying? There's some things you come across and you say, boy, I better not miss it tonight, Lord. This is an important one, and I feel this way about this message. It's a joyful outlook. The very reason Paul had a joyful outlook, in spite of his circumstances, was because he was a man of the gospel. He had his mind set single for getting the gospel to as many people as possible, period, dot. And if that meant he was in prison, or that meant he was a free man, as long as the gospel got furthered, his purpose was accomplished. He was good with free or bound, as long as the gospel spread like wildfire. Paul had one and only one supreme purpose in life, and that was to get the gospel. Nothing else mattered after the Lord saved him on the road to Damascus. Everything else took second place. That man, when he met Jesus Christ, His life was changed, and just as much passion he had for his vain religion, he had for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was a man on fire for the gospel. He said, I am not ashamed of the power of God, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God and the salvation. I'm telling you what, God got his life and changed him and invaded every aspect of his life. His identity was the gospel. He said, I'm separated under the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm separated unto, everything else is gone and everything, I'm completely separated and given over to the gospel. I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ, that's what Paul would say. What's your identity? What's my identity? What's our church's identity? Who are we? Who are you? What's your identity? What are you known for? We all know it should be one thing. Jesus and the gospel. That's it. People's identity can be a team they support. A candidate they represent. A hobby that they're passionate for. And a noble cause that they join with. Brothers and sisters, I want people to think of me. I don't want them to think of something else, but it should be the gospel. He loves souls. He loves and has a burden for people. And he wants something done with the gospel and for the gospel's sake. I want us to think, people to think of this church That's a gospel church. They love people. They want to see people saved. They're not prejudiced towards anybody. And as long as the gospel's going out, those folks are happy. Don't you want people to think that of you? Listen, that can be your identity, should that be your identity. Come on. That should be your identity, a gospel man. You don't have to be a preacher to be a gospel man. You don't even have to be a teacher to be a gospel man. And when you're a gospel man, your circumstances won't hinder you because bond or free, whatever circumstances, the gospel blows up the walls. You can't shut up the gospel. The word of God will not return void. Put it in a prison cell and other people will get on fire for God. You can't shut up the gospel. Put Paul and Silas in a jail, bless God, and God will send an earthquake to get you out. See there? You can't stop God's power, which is the gospel. You wanna see great things happen? Give out more of the gospel. The gospel. What's your identity? I think there's five types of church members. You might wanna write them down. I didn't get this from no book. I just got this from my Arkansas pea brain. So this fixin' to be real good. There's five types of church members. There's the random attender. He just randomly attends whenever he wants to. If it suits him good and it's comfortable, he'll come. He's not going to make his schedule according to the church. He's going to make his schedule to go to church according to his convenience. He's just going to randomly go. And then there's the church supporter, not the random attender, but then there's the church supporter. That person might be almost faithful, but they support the church. When they're out and about, yeah, my church is Bemis Road Baptist Church. That's my church. They're a church supporter. And then there's another church member. It's the preacher lover. It's the pastor lover. They love their pastor. I know. They love their pastor. And I appreciate your love for me and your support for me, but I'll be honest with you. Look at me. I want it to be much deeper than you loving and appreciating me. Because if it's that shallow, buddy, you'll get your socks blown off one day. I'll disappoint you. I tell you what, if you got preacher worship, you'll get disappointed. Has that ever happened to you? You might say amen real quiet. Yeah, you better get it deeper than admiration for me. That's weak. You understand that? There's people, I love my pastor. I mean, that name will get back. Man, that guy really likes your preaching. He loves his pastor. And there's good in that, but that won't keep you around all the time. There's just the attender, there's the church supporter, there's the pastor or leader, lover. Some people love their Sunday school teacher. As churches get big, they love that certain person, that certain class. When churches have gotten bigger, there's people that have been known, there's churches that are known. They'll have more people in Sunday school than when they will in the morning worship service. Because they'll support and then they'll slip out, not even come in the morning worship service. Because they love that Sunday school class or that teacher, but they won't even step in the 11 o'clock service. Because they love that certain person, that leader. That ought not to be, by the way. You know that, right? And then there's the hardest worker. That person, they get a job to do, and they work just as hard as they can. I mean, they've got a position, they've got a job, they've got a duty. And I mean, their whole church life revolves around what they're doing. And that's good. And I thank God that you take your job seriously, that you do. And we all should, amen? But what if that goes away one day? What if you can't do that one day? What if that stops? Ever thought about that? I wonder, I think to myself, Ms. Lynn, what if I can't preach one day? I can still be a gospel man. What if I can't hold my train of thought and I lose my mind and something happens to my speech? I can still do something with the gospel. The gospel can't be stopped, even though I enjoy standing behind this pulpit and preaching. What if I can't pastor one day for whatever reason? You can still be a gospel man. You all have certain jobs that you do, but that's not your identity. It shouldn't be. That can get stripped away. I'm getting you to walk on glass right now. What if somebody else comes around that can do it better than you? Say, you shouldn't say that. That's not our identity in what we do. Our identity is the gospel. We always connect back to the gospel, don't we? You know, we've always got something to do because we've got the gospel, which is the power of God and salvation. There's the last church member and he's the gospel labor. Everything he does, whether it be, it's all connected back to the gospel. They realize what they're doing for the Lord is so souls that can be saved. Whatever it is. If it's cutting a blade of grass or picking up something on the floor. You know what? I don't think it's very good of the gospel if people walk in here and they see trash on the floor and somebody's trying to listen to the gospel and they think, man, these people don't care about nothing. They're just trash all over the place. You see what I'm saying? It all connects back to the gospel, and it's an influence upon the representation of Jesus Christ. So we're all together for the gospel's sake, you understand that? That's our outlook on everything that we do. The lady that plays the piano, or the man that plays the upright bass, that's not, and I'm picking on two people, they're in this place right here. That's not their identity, is it? No. They're doing that for the gospel's sake. And if they're having to do something else in the ministry, they should be, right? Good with doing it, amen? They should take and say, hey, that's not my season for me right now. God has something else for me to do. I served as a assistant pastor here patiently for over 15 years. See? And there were some meaningless things that I had to do, but I did it for the gospel's sake. For the gospel's sake. And when we have that outlook that everything we do is for the gospel's sake, it's for the souls of men, and to edify the church, we're all gospel laborers. Who are you? Paul was a gospel laborer. He was faithful and single-minded towards the gospel. That's what we ought to be. Somebody should be able to look at us and say, who is that person? Brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so, they're a gospel person. That was Paul's identity. You know what? Maybe Paul might have thought, who am I? I'm an itinerant, going evangelist. Place to place, town to town, and then that all stopped and he went to jail. He was that guy, wasn't he? And then all of a sudden it all stopped and God put the brakes on it and he got in jail. And God can do that in our lives too. But if we've got the right outlook, we can do all things with the gospel, we won't get discouraged. I know that's easier said than done. Number one, I want to look at verses 12 through 13 on the advancement of the gospel. He said, I want you to understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel. So that my bonds in Christ, my imprisonment in Christ, are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. The advancement of the gospel is all that mattered to the Apostle Paul. He said it's furthering now, that word further. All these things have fallen out. All these things that have happened have fallen out. Rather to get the gospel even further, that's all that mattered to him, was the advancement of the gospel. He realized his chains, he realized his chains were divinely planned. He said they've fallen out under the furtherance of the gospel. He's looking at this thing and he's saying, you know what? This ain't so bad after all. You know what? God does work all things together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. This thing's working out pretty good. It's fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel. But the lesser man would have questioned God's way. The lesser man would have been frustrated over inactivity. He would have got wearied that he couldn't get out and be free. But he realized that he trusted God with the power of the gospel and he had a joyful outlook. Remember that God is in control of your obstacles and your obstacles can become opportunities. Your obstacles can become opportunities. Things that you think are slowing down God might further the gospel. Things that you think would stop the gospel might further the gospel. You can't stop the gospel. The only thing that's going to stop it is if you've got the wrong outlook upon it. And you just plain out give up. Now God can work in spite, we all know that. He realized another thing. He realized his chains were distinctively productive. Look at it, verse 13. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Oh, distinctively productive. He realized and saw that it was working. Where was it working? In all the palace. and in all other places. The gospel started furthering from the palace. The palace here is the headquarters that was built in the prison there. A great place, a mighty place. And I can picture Paul in that palace. He's making friends with everybody. He's making friends with the jailers. He's winning folks to Christ. He's from the high man to the low man and all in between. He was making an impression on others that were in bonds just like him. And the gospel was just running to and fro and getting further like you'd never believe. Why? Because he had the right outlook. Some people when they get things stripped away from them that they love, they stop. You know what got stripped away from Paul? His freedom. But that didn't stop him, did it? Who would like to be in jail or who would like to be free? Somewhere along the way, he said, I've got to trust God even though I'm stopped. And I got to see the gospel work in this place, even though I'm shut up. And he realized that his chains were distinctively productive. Think about this for a moment. Think about this for a moment. Who else is gonna witness to those people? Who else? He's the light in the darkness while he's in that jail and in that palace. He's witnessing to the emperor's bodyguard. He's witnessing to the chief captain of the whole palace. Who else is gonna do that? How about you? You're in a place where I'm not gonna go tomorrow. God's got you in a palace. He's got you in a place for the furtherance of the gospel. It might not be the greatest place, you might not choose that place over another place, but he's got you a sphere, he's got you a world to impact for the furtherance of the gospel. And that's why God's got us all over Valdosta and all over South Georgia, North Florida, to make a difference in our little world for the furtherance of the gospel. And if we have a joyful outlook and be reminded that God's got me there for the gospel, our work will look different, our duties will look different, and our days will look different. We live and breathe for the gospel's sake. You do realize You have purpose. You're just not here. God saved you to get the message of the gospel to every creature. That's why we're here. And if we're not fulfilling that, you're purposeless. He realized the chains had a purpose. There's no accidents with God on where you're at. Wherever you're going tomorrow, I'm not probably going there with you. You're going there and the church does not only meet on Sunday, the church meets wherever you go. Hallelujah for that. Think of the potential. Not only the advancement of the gospel, we've got to talk about the advocates of the gospel. Look at verse 14, and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds. Wow. Somebody's taking note. People are getting bold. They're waxing confident. They're getting bold and are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Is that what the Bible says in verse 14? They're getting bold, aren't they? Notice in the advancement, or excuse me, in the advocates of the gospel, notice with me the number of these brethren, the number. How many? Second word of verse 14, somebody shouted out. Many. Not a few of them, many of them. How about that? It's working. What are they doing? They're waxing confident. They're much more bold. Don't you like that phrase? Much more bold to speak. Not to preach, to speak. You can be much more bold to speak the gospel without fear. You can wax confident. But how did that happen? Enthusiasm. Look here. Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. Zeal inspires zeal. Paul's tireless commitment to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ affected people and motivated people. Hey, folks, need a leader. They need somebody out in front. They need somebody that is an inspired example that'll get out in front for the gospel's sake. This is specifically what happened. They saw him do what he did in spite of the circumstances he was in, and they said, if he can do it, I can do it too. And by the way, we need some fire in the church. We need zeal, we need enthusiasm, we need a good amen and a good hallelujah, but we need more than that. We need young men to get gospel tracks, we need old men to get gospel tracks, and we need to canvas this area with the gospel of God. See, because there's people coming in them doors, left and right, and they're looking to see if there's any old log that's still on fire for God. Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. Zeal inspires zeal. Who knows? No man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. Everybody's looking at you. You might not want to admit that, but they're watching to see who's going to do it first. Well, I'll wait on sister until she does it, and I'll wait on brother until he ... We'll wait on somebody to start doing it. Who's going to be the first one to do it? That's how people be. Well, if he's not going to do it, I reckon I'll just wait. Nobody's doing it. Well, who's going to be the first one? Is it going to be all right right now? You can't wait around on everybody else. Somebody's got to be the leader. Somebody's got to, we got to do something. Somebody's got to round up another man a woman round up another woman and say hey, we're gonna do something for Christ Jesus is coming soon Let's wax bold in the gospel wax confident and be much more bold to speak the word without fear And when somebody starts doing that fire spreads zeal inspire zeal and enthusiasm inspires enthusiasm That's called leadership. You don't need a position for leadership. You just need a little get up and go and somebody will follow you Leaders don't have a position first they lead on purpose and then people follow You give a person the leadership position that's not leading by example first. You'll have a disaster on your hands. Sure you will Paul was a leader in the worst of circumstances. He got a bunch of prisoners and prison guards to get on fire for God. You don't tell me, you don't tell me the gospel won't work in any situation. It will. You get a man on fire for God, he'll shake two continents for God like Moody did. Sure he will. How about you? Be an advocate for the gospel, the number of them. The modern jargon would be from Paul's lips, I couldn't care less what situation I'm in, as long as the gospel's going forth, I'm happy as a bird. I'm happy. He never allowed them people to get on top of them, but he saw the big picture of spreading the gospel. He saw the big picture. Verse 18, Christ is preached, I'm gonna rejoice. The nature, not only the number of those preaching, many, but now we're gonna look at the nature and oh, we're getting to the nitty gritty, who knows what that means. We're getting to where the cheese meets the pizza right here. All right, we're getting where the rubber meets the road right here. These guys are just not a bunch of people preaching and excited about what Paul's doing. Look at verse 15, some, now it doesn't say many. It says many in verse 14, you see many in verse 14 say amen. We're preaching the Bible tonight. Look at verse number 15. Does it say in verse number 15, many or some? Some. There's some of them. Indeed, preach Christ even of envy and strife, some also of goodwill. And one, preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds. The nature of these preachers, some were goodwill, some of envy, some of strife, and some of love. So some showed the prisoner goodwill. They wanted to help him and be a help to him. Others wanted to add more sorrow to his sorrow. They wanted to add more misery to his misery. But what were both preachers preaching? Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Both preachers were preaching the gospel. So he rejoiced. Not only the advancement of the gospel, the advocates of the gospel, but last of all tonight, hang on, the attachment to the gospel. The attachment to the gospel. He was attached to the gospel. He kept the main thing, the main thing. Listen here, folks. If you don't keep the main thing, the main thing, you'll get off the gospel road. If you let people get you off the gospel road, they'll get you off the gospel road. You better keep your eyes on Jesus and the gospel. Paul had every opportunity to get discouraged so bad that he got off the gospel road because of them nasty preachers that preached out of envy and strife. Am I telling you a story? It's in the Word of God. And we felt that temptation strong. Last thing I'll do, I'll never, no, I can't believe that man gonna cut me in the back like that. Say that about me and add affliction to what I'm already going through, doesn't he? Keep the main thing, the main thing. Have the right outlook. The gospel's what matters. God'll take care of them dogs that are barking on the side. God will take care of them dogs that are barking on the side. I'm gonna keep my eyes on the gospel and do it for the gospel's sake, amen? I don't know who needs this tonight, but I'm preaching the Bible. It's all about an attachment to the gospel. Paul makes three comments here. He discerns their difference, he discusses their difference, and he demisses their difference. He's gonna discern it. He's gonna name all these things, and I've already named some of them. Some out of love, some out of goodwill, some out of contention, rivalry, and strife. He's gonna discuss their difference. He's gonna bring it up. He's not oblivious. He's not in la-la land. They're really doing it. Right? It's real. Let me tell you, it's real when somebody will say something against you and try to cut you down when you're doing the right thing for the Lord. You don't have to be a preacher. That's real. He said they did it, not sincerely. They knew what they were doing. They did it in pretense, verse 18, and not in truth. So he discerns their difference, and then he discusses their difference, verses 16 through 17. Paul had an explosive quality about him. He drew people into him. He had the power of influence. He was a man on fire, but he could have had that explosive, listen, he could have had that explosive quality about him, but the thing that is most attractive about him tonight is how he had the grace of God on his ministry to keep on keeping on and not bark at every dog that barked at him. That's the grace of God. I heard a preacher the other day, he's going through something just so terrible. And my heart broke for him and he just kept on. And he talked about some people that were doing bad to him, not doing him right. And I said, brother, you've got the grace of God to be able to say those things. I want that. Paul had it. It is amazing how much envy and rivalry there is among ministry people. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's silly. I do not 100% endorse the ministry of Billy Graham as you can imagine. Billy Graham made a great impact for the gospel's sake. Amen. Where he went wrong is he didn't send his converts back to a local Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. But I praise God, especially in his younger days, he preached the unadulterated gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not trying to cut him down, but I just do want you to know where I stand with him. I rejoice for the souls that were saved under the ministry of Billy Graham. But when Billy Graham was preparing for a crusade in London, many British pastors and evangelists gathered together for this meeting that he was having in London, and they were scrutinizing the American preacher Billy Graham. And there was a man that stood up and rose and put a question upon Billy Graham. He said, Mr. Graham, in his cultured accent, tell me, do your converts stand for Jesus after they've been saved? Billy Graham refused to be drawn into an argument and called the man by name and said, tell me, my brother, do yours stand as well? Mm-hmm. It works both ways. There's people, oh, well, they're getting so many people saved and everybody's coming. Where are they getting all them people from? You can't be that way. It works both ways. It'll come back to you. Brothers and sisters, there's some people They'd almost choke before they'd praise another man's ministry. And thank God for a man that stands for God. I don't want to be that, and I don't want a church that way. I'm thankful for those that are preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in this town, in this community, in this state, and all around the world. They might use different methods that I would never use. They might be a different stripe than me, but if I'm like the person that is described in chapter number one, I rejoice that Christ is preached. Amen. A lot of it is just fighting rivalry and it's jealousy. Some people just can't do it. They can't say anything good about anybody else. And you know what? That can slip into a church. You know, it's real distance when I tell you people can't say anything good about another preacher, but it can slip into a church. Don't be fooled for one second. This isn't my first Sunday in an independent fundamental Baptist church. Let somebody sing better than you. Let somebody teach better than you. Let somebody do something better than you. And I've seen people rise up with so much jealousy. I think if they had the opportunity, they'd start swinging at each other. You know what? That's evil, isn't it? I don't want that in this place. And it starts to rise up. You and me, let's get rid of it real quick, because we've got a sweet place, a lovely place, and jealousy's a nasty thing. And what we learned this morning, brother, that is from below, and it is That's the wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish. My dear friend, God doesn't want jealousy to be named among us, and jealousy won't be named among us if we get the main thing, the main thing, and that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There might come along a person that can do things better than me, and if they can, I ought to let them do it for the glory of God. I hope somebody can come in and lead songs, and when they come along, they can lead songs for the glory of God and I can let them have it. And anything else that goes on around here, you understand that? If it's better and it's for the glory of God and for the advancement of the gospel, help yourself, brother, amen? We're not in competition with one another. You have to ask yourselves the question, are we keeping the main thing the main thing? Now let me say this here, I'm not condoning false religion, you know that. If something's false, we're going to mark it and avoid it. That's what it says in Romans 16, right? Mark it and avoid it. I'm not going to condone false religion, false doctrine. I'm not even going to condone terrible methods. But I am gonna advocate Jesus Christ and Him being preached clearly. And what goes on in this church, we're gonna stand against it and separate against it. And that conviction starts here at this pulpit. And we will stand against certain things, but look here real clear, look real clear right now. That doesn't mean that we have to be nasty to everybody else while we're doing that. We speak the truth in love. Sometimes I've been asked by individuals before, what you think about this person? And I just, the Holy Ghost tells me, shut your mouth. It's better not be said. I don't want to run down a man of God. I don't want to run down a ministry. And so I just kind of get quiet a little bit. And if they want to discern the difference, that's fine. You understand some of that's being led of the Holy Spirit of God. Not everybody's right, by the way. You understand that? Not everybody's right. There's some people that are wrong. There's many people that are wrong. And I hope that we're right in the Word of God, but not everybody's right. And so if not everybody's right, there'll come a time when we've got to stand up for what is right. But we need to do it in love and compassion and with the right spirit. I love what Brother Michael said in Sunday School about the King James Bible this morning. Thank you for reading that article. He read a little expert about standing on the King James Bible and standing for it, and he read a little portion of it, but we ought to have the right spirit when we stand for the King James Bible. There are some people that don't know a hill of beans about the doctrine of inspiration and preservation. They don't have a clue. All they've known is some other version, right? And if you have a belligerent, domineering, ego attitude towards them, you think they're going to listen to you? No. I think there ought to be something bathed in love and give them a humble spirit and teach them the things of God. and still stand for the authorized King James Bible. And we believe this is the word of God for English speaking people and none other, none other but this one right here. This is the word of God down to every jot and every tittle, amen. But I don't have to be a jerk about it. And you're not helping anybody by being a jerk. Now that that's done, he dismissed the differences. He said, what then? Look at that phrase in verse 18. He said, what then? I don't even know how to relate that. God just said it perfect. He said, what then? If they're that way, what then? If they wanna be that way, they're still preaching Christ, what then? I'm gonna still rejoice. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, and I, yea, and will rejoice." He dismissed their differences. The contentious crowd, hearing these verses, were not preaching a false gospel, or Paul would have not said that. Paul would have never taken pleasure in false doctrine. Understand that. But since they were preaching Jesus, they were not a discouragement to Paul, but they were a delight to Paul. That's the joyful outlook we need to have. And we need that back in this area. Everybody is not our enemy. We're not in competition with everybody. There needs to be a sweet spirit among like-minded churches, amen. We need to rejoice with one another for souls to be saved. Look at me in the eye right now. I prayed for other local good Bible-preaching churches this morning and their pastors for them to have a great day just like we have had a great day. I want Brother Mosley to see souls saved and his church to grow just like this church to grow. We're not in competition with one another. That's how it ought to be. God give us that spirit back. I'm going to work just as hard at it as I can. And I'll get hurt in the process too. But God will heal our hearts, won't he? A joyful attitude. There are people preaching the gospels whose motives were probably questionable. Some of them seem to be building empires. You think, man, what are they doing? They seem like they're just building empires and getting a bunch of money and spending it questionably. Others draw their circles with people and they seem like they have no standards whatsoever and it just seems like they don't stand for anything as anything goes. Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that. But you know what? That's his ministry over yonder. and up the road. I just have to be minding my own business and we have to be minding our own business because God knows we sure don't have a monopoly on God now, do we? Oh no. We sure do know we haven't done all we can do and aren't we just the perfect little saints over here on the side of Bemis Road Baptist Church. We've got a lot of work to do ourselves. We rejoice that Christ is preached God will bless His Word as He pleases. He's sovereign and the Holy Spirit is still Lord over the harvest. The wind bloweth where it listeth. He's in control of it all. I want to remind you of some things. These characters that I remind you of to close the sermon, I want to remind you that I'm not condoning these Bible characters. They were wrong for what they did. And they had to deal with their sin, but God still used them. Who would have ever thought Jonah, with a miserable, unforgiving spirit and racial prejudice, God would ever use him? Who would ever think that God would ever let David write another psalm after he committed adultery and committed murder? Who would ever think that Peter would have ever preached and souls actually get saved after he sweared and cussed? I'm telling you what folks, the mercy of our God is very great and we should extend it to other people just like he's extended it to so many people including ourselves. I think sometimes we like to be rough and tough just to make ourselves look good but I think the stronger man is the man that shows mercy because he's realized he's received so much mercy. Paul says I will rejoice He graciously overlooked the mean spirit of jealousy and he rejoiced that the gospel was being preached. He was special not because he was necessarily a man of the gospel, that he was, but he was a man focused on the gospel in spite of people doing him wrong on purpose. He had a single passion and it was the gospel that mattered to him. He focused his attention on preaching. not on preachers. Now you might not need that as much as I need it, but I needed that when I pinned that down. He focused his attention on preaching, not on preachers. Let me tell you something, you'd do well to do the same thing. Don't focus your attention on preachers. Focus your attention on preaching. You'll go a lot longer strong if you won't look at the man, but you'll look at the message. Mm-hmm. When Christ is exalted and souls are one, it doesn't matter. Can we say hallelujah? When you hear a soul was saved over there, soul was saved over there, can you honestly say hallelujah, praise the Lord? Even if it wasn't done by the, yeah, you know what I mean. Glory to God. Another soul saved before Jesus comes. That's a joyful outlook. How's that a joyful outlook? Keeping the main thing, the main thing. The gospel sake, keeping the main thing, the main thing. What's your identity tonight? Your identity, when it's the gospel, you won't be sidetracked. You won't be pulled away by men. You won't be pulled away by prison. You won't be pulled away when something gets stripped out from under you that you love so much because you've got the main thing, the main thing. It's getting the gospel to a world that needs it. The main thing's the main thing. Verse number 12, the furtherance of the gospel. Church, this is why we're here. We're not here to have good services. Don't you like good services? Brother William this morning, I thought he was gonna come clean out of his seat through the ceiling. He was just shaking his head this morning after that choir came down. You were enjoying yourself, weren't you, brother? That's a good thing. I like it when it's that way. Don't you like good singing, good choir singing, specials? Man, when the Spirit of God gets a-moving, and I tell you what, you don't know what to do with yourself. I know what to do with myself when that happens. I have myself a time right where I'm at. Amen? That's what you should do, too. I enjoy that, but we gotta do more than just having good church. We've got to do something with the gospel. Don't you agree? We've got to get out with the gospel. We've got to get our neighbors, our friends, our family members and get the gospel. That's what we're going to stand. We're not going to stand and count before God. God asks us, oh, you didn't have very good church services. We're going to give an account for the gospel, aren't we? For soul winning. That's a dinosaur word, isn't it? Soul winning. Whatever happened to that word? It's still in the Bible. He that winneth souls is. wise. Let's do something with the gospel even more than we're doing right now and keep the main thing the main thing and that'll help you keep a joyful outlook. Let that be your identity. Your identity. That's a gospel person. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Thank you for allowing me to preach tonight. As you stand with me maybe you say, God spoke to me. I want to be a gospel person. We talk about it but are we doing it? We have conversations, programs, and plans for it, but are we doing it? The gospel. That's what kind of man Paul was, and that's why he stayed joyful even when he was put in prison for the gospel. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word tonight. As I've studied this, you've helped me with so many things. I want to be, by your grace and your help, what's written on that page. I went to this church. to be what's written on that page. Grant it, Lord. Help us to be gospel people rejoicing when souls are saved, no matter what, by whomever. Rejoice that souls are saved. Help us to be single in our eye, single in our mind towards the gospel. It's all that matters. It's not really whether or not even people get saved, Lord. It's whether or not people are hearing the gospel that saves them. May we get it out more than ever. Give us strength to do it, a desire to do it. Grant it, Lord Jesus. Give us fire in our souls. Give us desire, passion for the gospel. In Christ's name we pray, amen. As she begins to play, for the gospel's sake, I wanna do more with the gospel. Maybe you'd like to come forward. You got any need, any burden? What are we doing with the gospel? You got workers tomorrow? Acquaintances tomorrow you'll run into, what about the gospel? That'll give you a joyful outlook when you got the gospel in focus. Yeah. Yeah. you you Thank you for being back tonight. And grab some gospel tracts on your way out. Should be in the front and the back. Of course grab some of these flyers. Thank you for signing up. There's still a couple spots here to sign up if you'd like to help. I know we could use it there. And there's a couple spots there. Some hamburgers, hot dog buns, and some, looks like some ice cream toppings if I'm seeing things right. Very good. Pray for us this