We're turning now to the Word of God, Philippians chapter 1, 1 through 11. If I've looked at the calendar correctly, as your interim pastor, I've got five more Sunday mornings to preach. I've got multiple evenings, but I was thinking, all right, what am I going to preach? So, I just love the book of Philippians, and I just thought, If you'll permit me, I would like to walk us through this book over the next five, not in a row, but the next five mornings that I preach in the book of Philippians. So would you do me a favor and read the book? Maybe several times over the next few weeks, just to familiarize yourself with it again. So, Philippians, we're just going to take on the intro text this morning of 1 through 11, but there's so much here, so much here. So I've been praying that the study of Philippians would just be a real blessing to our hearts. The inerrant Word of God begins here now as Paul picks up a pen in prison. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you. and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer, watch this, with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It's right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge in all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent. And so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. The Word of the Lord to us this morning from the book of Philippians. This being just an introductory sermon on this great book, let's walk through a few just treetop comments about the book of Philippians. First of all, what's the purpose? Why is he picking up a pen and writing to the Philippians? What's up? First, to thank the Philippians for the gift that they have just sent by way of a guy by the name of Epaphroditus to Paul who's in prison. You'll see that in chapter 2, verse 25. So that's one reason, to be thankful. It's good, isn't it, kids? It's good to say thank you. What's Paul doing here? He's saying thank you. All right, number two, to communicate Epaphroditus' health condition to the Philippian church. He's been sick. We're gonna see he's been nigh unto death. And the Philippians heard about it. And they're like, oh, they loved this Epaphroditus guy. Now he shows up, Rome, see Paul, and he's sick. They're worried about him, they're praying for him. So Paul wants him to know about how he's doing. Third reason, to communicate his own situation and circumstances, sure. And then fourth reason that I took note of is warning against false teachers and disunity. And finally, I put this down, which is one that we're gonna particularly focus on. to promote their joy. Yeah. What's Paul doing here? He's seeking to promote the church's joy. I want to do that. Yeah. It's not that we're not filled with joy around here. We are. But hey, if this is where we're at, great. But let's take it up a notch. key words in the book of Philippians. Here are some key words you're going to find over and over and over and over and over. What's one of the most used words in the book of Philippians? It's this, Jesus. That's interesting. The book about joy, the number one word used, number one name used is Jesus. Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus. Let's see, chapter one, 18 times. Chapter two, six times. Chapter three, 10 times. Chapter four, four times, which means every 2.7 verses, Paul writes down the name Jesus, or Christ Jesus, you know, the variants. So, he's mentioned about 40 times in the book of Philippians. Number two, the second key word is joy. It appears 16 times, the word joy appears 16 times. For example, verse four, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with something, with joy. When I pray for you, it's just with joy. I pray for this guy or this situation, but here, for you, with you, as I'm praying for you, it's all about joy. Okay. 29 times I count some form of expression in Philippians like joy, okay, a synonym, like rejoice, glad, content, encouraged, hope, comfort, the most famous of which is probably verse four in chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. So why a sermon series on joy? Why would we give ourselves to this? If you had to answer the question this morning, where are you on the scale of joy, you know, one being real low, ten being way up there, where are you? I don't know where you're at. I get a sense of where I'm at, but where are you? Would your worship of Jesus Christ be experienced in your life at a more powerful level if your joy was higher? Would you enjoy life more if your joy level was a little higher? Now, obviously, rhetorical questions, you know, the answer is obvious. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know, it's one of the fruits of the Spirit. It's one of the things the Holy Spirit wants to see in your life, wants to work into your heart. God wants you to be joyful. What is the will of God for your life? One answer? To be filled with joy. That's one answer. There's multiple answers to that, but that's one of them. So it's God's desire for you and for me, so why would we want joy? Because it's God's desire for us. It is a sin for a believer, I just got down here, to have a grouchy disposition. Not that I think grouchy disposition is the direct opposite of being joyful, but it's just not right. It's an absolute requirement. Let me say that again. Joy is an absolute requirement in living a gospel-sharing life. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. So, why would I seek after joy because… the Lord's joy? Because He gives me strength. I don't like being weak. I don't want to be a weak Christian, weak Christians. don't have much joy. So what is joy? Why pursue joy? What needs to change in my heart to deepen my joy? These are some of the questions we're going to be asking as we work our way through the book of Philippians. Here's my first stab at a definition. This will probably be changing as I'm studying the book of Philippians. I'm anxious to hear your definition of joy. I will be asking. I hope you ask each other. Here's mine. It's a little long. The work of the Holy Spirit in my soul to make me happy and content in the blessings I have in Jesus Christ." Let me say it again. It's the work of the Holy Spirit in my soul to make me happy and content in the blessings that I have in Jesus Christ. That's why… So, does the world have… Does a non-follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, does he experience joy? Certainly. This joy? Our joy as a Christian is different than a non-follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. How so? Because it's a work of the Holy Spirit in me who is helping me focus on all the blessings I have in Jesus Christ. And as I think about and meditate on and believe in all the blessings I have in Jesus Christ, my reaction is just joy. Right? Okay, so that's the second key word, joy. A third one is the concept of humility, sacrifice, trouble. Can you take all those words and put them into one? Paul's going to talk about his suffering in this book. That's interesting. That we've got a book about joy, but we've got a book about suffering. Almost even as you count the words. Humility, self-sacrifice. 22 times I count some form of the word. With joy, I counted 29. See what you count, but I counted 29 of synonyms of joy. But with this idea of suffering and humility and hurting, 22 times, suffering, chains, anxiety, trouble, frightened, poured out, tears. Probably the most famous of which is, don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all your understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So don't be anxious. In the midst of your joy, don't be anxious. But we're gonna talk about anxiety. How about this one, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also, what does the verse say, but also, but also to what? To have joy, yes, but this text says, but to suffer for Him. Christians will suffer for Him. It's been granted unto you. So, okay, that's the third one. You know, humility, sacrifice, trouble, that kind of, Paul uses the word, I suffer. And then a fourth one, in the original language it's phoneo, to be tilted in your thinking toward a certain way. I say in your thinking. See, now here's where we have trouble bringing this Greek word into the English language. We just don't have a word. And so you're gonna see that in the translation. In Romans 12, 3, Paul uses it. So, there's fifteen different Greek words for think, to think. Well, there's one in the book of Philippians that's used over and over, but has to be translated in different ways. Like, for example, chapter 1, verse 7, we just read it. Take a look at it. It's right for me to, it's translated to feel this way about you, right? That's how the ESV has it. It's right for me to, yeah, feel. So here it's translated feel. In other texts it's think. But here it's feel. It's a word that has to do with what's going on in my head, but also going on in my heart at the same time. So, This is a very important word to us. Chapter two, make my joy complete by being like-minded. Same word, or at least the root word is there. Having the same love, being of one spirit and purpose. Same word, purpose. Now it's purpose. Not feeling, not thinking, but it's purpose. Your attitude, verse five, should be the same, that of Christ Jesus. Chapter two, your attitude. Attitude, okay. Chapter three. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. That's how, again, the translators try to bring it into English. Verse 19 of chapter 3, their destiny is destruction, their God is in their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things, their mind, or their purpose, or their view of things, or how they think and how they feel. Chapter 4, same word again, I plead with Iodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree. There here it's translated to agree, to think the same way, to have the same view, to be of the same mind. You start to get that? Okay. So there's four key words in the book of Philippians. We'll be watching for those as we study it. The author, no question, it's not disputed, is Paul with Timothy. The date, Paul meets the Philippians around 51 A.D. This, we think, was written around 61, ten years later. What would you title this book? Well, here's four, I found, that different people have used. Radiance amidst the storms and stresses of life. I love that. Radiance, the joyful radiance that I'm radiating while I'm in the storm and stresses of life. Oh, that I would live like that. Somebody titled it, A Letter to Help You Smile. Somebody else wrote, Joy in the Midst of Suffering. Somebody else wrote, Expressing the Mindset of Joy. A key verse, well, boy, I could argue about this one. Right now, just write down chapter 1, verse 21, or maybe 3.10, or maybe 4.4. Let me give those again, 1.21, or 3.10, or 4.4. There's a unique teaching in the book of Philippians on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that unique teaching about Him is the depth of His humility. The depth of His humility, and we find in the book of Philippians that Jesus is my life, chapter 1. He's my model in chapter 2. He's my goal in chapter 3. He's my contentment in chapter 4. I think I should print some of this stuff out for you maybe next year, next week in your bulletin. Here's some uniqueness about the letter itself. There's no major theological problem expressed in the book of Philippians. There's nothing theologically, it's a problem that Paul's got to deal with. And you see that, if you'll notice, right at the very beginning, because how does he introduce himself? Paul a what? Does he call himself an apostle, hence putting forth his authority to speak and correct a theological error in the church? No. What does he say? Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. The word joy is found in each passage, not one quotation from the Old Testament. I don't know why that is, but that's the case. It's the most positive of all Paul's letters, yet written while he is in chains. least house arrest. And he's writing to Philippi. I'll give you my outline in a moment for the book. We have the introduction here in chapters 1 through 11, but then verses 12 through 30 of chapter 1, rejoicing with a single mind, rejoicing with a servant mind is chapter 2. Rejoicing with a spiritual mind is chapter three, and rejoicing with a secure mind, chapter four. All right. I wanna focus now on three issues to help us with our joy that we see in chapter one in this introduction. So I wanna shift gears now to the text that we just read. Let's consider three areas this morning for our lives to help us develop a tenacious mindset to live in peace and hope and love, okay? Here's three areas to think about to apply to our lives from this text. Number one, how do I develop joy in my life? Number one, consistent thankfulness. Consistent thankfulness. I find that people are most happy and joy-filled when they are consistently thankful. So let me ask you this morning, Not just if you're thankful, but are you consistently thankful? Is that just a mark of your life? Is that what just comes out from you because it's inside you? You are thankful. You have considered the grace of God in your life. And because of His mercy and kindness to you, you're just thankful. You get it, that you are who you are because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are who you are not because you were owed it, but you were granted it by his kind and gracious hand to you. Paul says in verse three, I thank my God every time I remember you. Every time I remember you. That struck me. Really? Let me get this straight, Paul. Every time you think of that time 10 years ago, when you walked into the town of Philippi, you remember things that you just are so thankful for. Do you remember how it was when he walked into Philippi? Do you remember the story? All right, I'll read it to you. Acts 16. I'm going to read a little bit here. From Troas, we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. From there, we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days. Okay, what happened? Acts 16, 13. On the Sabbath, we went outside the gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to a woman, to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house, and so she persuaded us. Wow, there's a whole lot of reasons to be thankful, right? That's a memory that brings a smile to your face. I'll read on. Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. The girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved. She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. And at that moment, the Spirit left her. Uh-oh. There we go. When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept our practice. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. There's a memory. After they had been severely flogged, They were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks." About midnight, Paul and Silas were complaining? No, no, no. What were they doing? Praying. And what? Singing. They were singing hymns. I don't know if they knew the song, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. I don't know. Maybe. While they were praying and singing to God and other prisoners were listening to them, Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake on the foundation of the prison was shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up and when he saw the prison doors open, he threw his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, don't harm yourself. We're all here. And you know the rest of the story. What did Paul choose to think about, choose to be thankful for when he thought about the Philippians? Did he think to himself, oh, I remember that time. Remember that time he went into Philippi? Oh, I remember that time. Remember they stripped us right there in the marketplace? There we were, stripped, and then they started flogging us severely, the text says. Can you imagine what that means? Oh, we just love Philippi. Remember how they dragged us into prison? Yeah, they put us way in the back. That's where the rats live. No, that's not what he remembered. What he remembered was that God had collected and gathered some women down by a river and they were praying and they could be a part of it. And what he remembered was setting the slave girl free from the bondage of Satan. And what he remembered was the Philippian jailer who came out and cried out, what must I do to be saved? That's what he remembered. What do you remember when you think about yesterday, the troubles and the trials and the difficulties? You got it in your mind right now the way that person talked to you? You got it in your mind right now of how that event happened and this all fell apart and you thought you were gonna get this done, instead you couldn't? What do you remember? Do you remember instead all of God's blessings and the smile on your child's face and the wonderful food you had to eat and the house you slept in? What do you remember? What is your head fixed on? What's your feelings fixed on? To use the Greek word, what's your finale? What did he choose to remember? What did he choose to think about? What was his mindset? Did he think about the way they wandered from town to town, seemingly without any direction, till they finally arrived at Philippi? No, he didn't think of the negative. And so I know that to have this joy in my heart means I've got to get a grip of myself over what I'm thinking and what I'm saying and what I'm doing and be thankful. So I know it's a battle for joy. You want to be filled with joy? You're going to have to go to war. First and foremost, Paul thinks of God. It was God that led them to Philippi. It was God that led them to Lydia for a time of prayer and baptism. It was God that converted the Philippian jailer. It was God that worked grace and goodness. Shall I think of the evil of man? No, I will think of the grace of God in his glory. Paul is thankful in his prayers for what God has done. See, the past will make you bitter or it will make you beautiful. And you and I have seen the face of that one who down through the years has always been bitter. And I think you'll agree with me this morning that it ultimately even impacts the way we look. Are we beautiful in Christ or bitter? Paul chooses joy because he has a mindset. He's tilted towards joy. You push him and he falls over to joy. Too often you push me and I fall into the grip of complaining. So what are you thankful for this morning? Number two. Okay, the first one, what was it? Thankfulness, number two. Confident thinking. Now, be careful here. I'm using the word confident, but I'm using verse six. Do you see it, verse six? He says this, I am sure of this, I am confident of this, I am sure of this. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. So this is a thinking that's Christ-focused, aware of Christ's work in my life. Confident thinking, Christ-confident thinking. When Paul thought back, he was moved with joy to see the hand of God. Now we also see that Paul looks forward, and his joy is once again found in God, specifically in the confidence that God will complete what God has started, a good work, a good work. I had a long conversation with a person this week, and they were just expressing vulnerably and honestly that they've been preaching to themselves what's not true. They've been telling themselves that they're dumb, that they're inadequate, that they'll never be anything. And we had a talk about, wait, really? Is that what verse 6 teaches? That you're never going to be anything? Paul says, I'm confident of this. He's going to finish a good work in you. He's at work in you. And what are we doing? Too often standing in a mirror going, boy, am I worthless. Young people, be careful. This is Satan's lie to you. In Christ, I am all that He would have me be. I'm not talking about a confidence that the world brings like, you know, some… Baseless reason to think you're somebody. Without Christ, you're a nobody. But with Christ, you're everything He would have you be. And He's working that into your life. Joy is one expression of confidence. If I'm living a life without joy, it's expressing that I don't have confidence in Christ. But if I have confidence in Christ that he is indeed at work in me and will complete it, there's every reason to be full of joy. Weariness brings weakness to me and to those around me, but joy brings strength. When it's the joy of the Lord I'm talking about. Note the difference here. Christ-glorifying, confident thinking does not reveal itself with untrue speech, first to your own heart and second to others. It brings true speech to yourself. When's the last time you stood in the mirror and said, I am victorious in Christ? Yeah. Play back what you've been saying to yourself. Play back what you say about others behind their back. As you look forward, are you confident in God? Okay, third thing, very quickly. All right, first one, first one was consistent thankfulness. And we see this right here in verse six, or in previous, when he was praying, verse three and four and five. And then confident thinking, and I'm saying Christ-centered thinking. Now the third one. compassionate feelings. Verse 7, Paul simply says, I have you, I have you in my heart. A joyful heart is an enlarged heart. A joyful heart has room for people, others. A joyful heart is an enlarged heart. A joyful heart has room for people with hurts and with pain and with sorrow, and you can be compassionate towards them. You can move forward towards them. You can seek to be with them when you have a joyful heart. Joy enables me to suffer. It gives me the ability to suffer. Are you personally alongside of someone right now helping them? by expressing joy. You know, when I'm down, struggling with some depression, what really helps me is to spend some time with people that are consistently thankful and are confident in their thinking. They can serve me and help me, lift me up. They don't put me down. They have that mindset of opening their heart up with compassion. They have compassionate thinking. They can move towards me and help me with this confident, feelings, but compassionate feelings. I don't know. How do you minister to others without joy? So one of the reasons we want to be pursuing joy is because we want to be pursuing ministry in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to a broken and lost and hurting world, we want to come with a compassion towards them. We want to open our hearts to others and to do so with joy. When ministry becomes, Drudgery. It's just not of the Lord. It's not being done in his power. So Paul's encouraging us here. Just as he has them in his heart, so we should have each other. Behold, I hold you, the text says, in my heart. Yeah. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? So God is working in us because joy is the fruit of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit. So if you're sitting here today and you're going, I'm certainly not where I belong in this area of joy, what am I gonna do? Hey, have confident thinking in what God is gonna do in your life and lay it before him and say, Lord, I wanna step up in this area of joy. I wanna be like Jesus Christ. And somebody wants, right, that old acronym, J-O-Y, Jesus, others, yourself, yeah. That's joy. Are you ready to pursue this in the book of Philippians and see what God's message is to us in this letter? Let's ask the Lord to work in our lives during this time of study. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the book of Philippians and its application that is just so relevant to us and where we're living and what we're doing. Father, help us to trust you, to be people of hope, to be people of love, But also, Lord, people of joy, happy in our soul, because we know the Holy Spirit is there carving us into the image of Christ. Father, I pray that we will all see Jesus in this book, that he has a joy in his soul. Help us to be like Him, we pray. For we ask it now in Jesus' name, amen.