Turning now to the book of Philippians, chapter 1. Returning to a pew Bible, it's on page 1,247. Philippians 1, we're going to begin reading today at verse 12 and read through the end of the chapter. Philippians chapter 1, now verse 12 through 30. You make a pastor happy when I hear all these pages turning. That's awesome. Thank you. It's good to follow along in the word of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former, well, they proclaim Christ out of 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 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 my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of you, that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents, This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake. engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. The Word of the Lord to us from this book of Philippians. Congregation, if you're note-taking, I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago when we went through the introduction, the outline that I have for this book, and that is Rejoicing with a Single Mind, chapter 1. rejoicing with a servant mind, chapter two, rejoicing with a spiritual mind, chapter three, and rejoicing with a secure mind in chapter four. You see that I keep on using the word rejoicing And then I keep on using this word, mind, the mindset that we have as a believer. Oh, that we would be set to rejoice in the Lord always, as Paul says, and again I say, rejoice. From our introduction, we saw that the book of Philippians is teaching, of course, multiple things, but one of them is joy. And I thought that over the next few weeks, we would focus on this topic of joy found in the book of Philippians. And we saw in the introduction, verses one through 11, that we needed some things to develop joy within the inner part of our soul, a happy disposition in our soul. And we needed to have consistent thankfulness. If you remember, Paul starts out in verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Every time I think of you, I'm just so thankful. So he's consistently thankful. If you wanna have joy being developed in your heart as an inner disposition, that that's just where you lean, always you lean towards joy, it starts there. being consistently thankful, not consistently complaining, but consistently thankful. The second one was confident thinking, verse 6. Now, I don't mean just confident like in a worldly way, but this is a Christ-centered thinking. Look what he says in verse 6. I am sure of this. I am sure of something. And what's he sure about? The Philippians and their walk with the Lord? No, he's positive, he's confident in the work God is doing in them and will continue to do. So I need to have some confident thinking, Christ-centered, confident thinking. What are you thinking about? Is it confident? I thank my God. And then he says, I'm confident of this very thing. So confident of things. Third, we need to have compassionate tenderness towards others to see our joy develop. If we are self-centered, self-interested, self-focused, self, self, self, we will not wear the smile of the Holy Spirit. But when you get others on your radar and you care about people, God begins to put a smile on your face. There's just something about serving others that brings joy to our hearts. Congregation, you'll remember from Acts 21 that Paul was initially arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Caesarea where he was held in a jail for two years. What an amazing thing this is as I, I just shake my head sometimes at how God does things with people. Here he has the powerful apostle Paul going throughout, you know, present-day Turkey and into Greece and all these areas with the gospel. And now he parks him in jail for two years. So he's there for two years. The book of Acts suggests that Felix, the governor of Caesarea, kept Paul imprisoned for so long in hopes of either receiving a bribe or gaining favor with the Jews, right? It's always about money. Paul sat in jail while a ruler used him as a pawn. And I thought to myself, while man is using him as a pawn, God is using him as a pastor. You know what he does? He appeals to Caesar. And he gets on a ship, and he's sent out to Rome. And you know, on the journey, the shipwreck, and all the mess that occurred, he gets to Rome, and he's placed under guard. And there he is, two more years. So now we've got four years that the apostle is parked in a prison. Now, I know some of it was house arrest and that kind of thing. It wasn't the worst of the prison system yet in Rome. That'll come later in Paul's life. So Paul was eventually held in Rome for a period of two years under house arrest. This is 60 A.D. Young people, could I just point something out a minute? Let me go down a tangent. I said A.D. Did you hear me? Did you notice what's going on now? We got new letters. It's not A.D. anymore. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You see the new ones? It's B.C.E. I don't even know where that came from. We're not supposed to call it AD anymore, you know, Latin for the year of the Lord. No, no, no. Nothing to do with Jesus Christ. No, no, no. Now it's BCE. You seeing that? Before the Common Era. That's what it stands for. I don't even know what that means. But you notice that they've taken Christ out of the calendar. So, just a sideline. Kids, please do not write B-C-E on any of your term papers. Write A-D. Anyways, here we go. So, what did Paul do during these two years that he's in Rome? What's he do? He could just sit there and whine and cry and pout. Nope. The text is clear that the gospel has gone out through all the Roman guard. Everybody knows why Paul's there. It's because of Jesus Christ. That God, he's, house arrest. He's got these Roman soldiers that have to stay with him all day long. What do you think Paul talks about with these Roman soldiers all day long? Christ. He's winning Roman soldiers to Christ. He's using this time for fruit. under the glory of God, not to mention, he writes four letters. He writes Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, and this precious book you now hold in your hands was written in jail by a man who was content with wherever the Lord would choose to put him. whatever circumstance God would put him in. So, let me quickly say, per the theme of the sermon, God used the difficult circumstances of Paul's life to bring to us four precious letters that have brought blessing through the church of Jesus Christ. God takes pain, and He gives it purpose. That brings Him glory. Your pain… Jump off track here a minute. Your pain is not wasted. Your pain is in the hands of God. And I know there's pain in every one of these pews. And some of you are hurting, and you're hurting deep. And I want to say to you again today from the scriptures, your pain, God will use to his glory. Trust him in the dark valleys. I recently listened again to a podcast. I've listened to it before, it's so good. Podcast by Steven Davey, a preacher out of Cary, North Carolina on the life of Fannie Cosby. She was blinded, you remember the story? Remember the story? She was blinded at seven years old by this so-called doctor. He wasn't a doctor. They found out later, he wasn't a doctor at all. And he put some salve on her eyes that literally burned her eyeballs out. So not only was she diagnosed wrong, but the treatment was wrong at the age of seven. Later on in her life, she was asked, Fanny, if you ever met up again with this fake doctor, what would you say to him? She said she would say, thank you. Her blindness helped her see Jesus. and find true joy. Penny Cosby, who at the age of 40 began to write hymns, at one point six to seven hymns a day. Can you think of it? She brought incalculable blessing to the church and to her own soul as well. She wrote, "'To God be the glory.'" This blind woman wrote, "'To God be the glory.'" Great things He has taught us, right? Think of who just wrote that. One who was so blind she couldn't see, but God was teaching her throughout her life, throughout her circumstances, to develop deeper joy within her heart. Great things he has taught us, great things he has done, and great are rejoicing. Listen to the joy. Great are rejoicing through Jesus, the Son, and pure and higher and greater will be our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Let's just get back to Paul. He arrives in Rome, 60 A.D. Now it's 62 A.D., he was released. Now, I'll do some, I'm not sure, but let's guess. 63 A.D., perhaps he traveled east to Ephesus where he stationed Timothy. We think at some point he did, because we have it in 1 Timothy 1, that he placed Timothy there. Perhaps at that time he also left Titus in Crete because again we have it in Titus 1 that he put Titus in Crete. Then perhaps, perhaps 64 AD from Neocopolis he sailed off to Spain and perhaps back in Rome in the fall of 64 he's imprisoned again. What book of the Bible did he write in this second imprisonment? Boys and girls, can you tell me? 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is now the fifth book he writes in prison. He spends another two to three years in prison, now it's prison, where he is beheaded. We know, again, from church history that this is how Paul died. But before he died, he wrote to his son in the Lord, his joy. Let me prove it to you that Timothy was his joy. 2 Timothy 1.4, as I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. So three key words in the book of Philippians. There's the key word joy as we've been hammering on. There's the word suffering. Isn't that interesting that a key Word, teaching that's coming out of the Book of Philippians is suffering. You're not going to have joy without suffering. And then the other one is mindset. And I said to you, there's a Greek word in here that's tough to translate. That's why it comes out in multiple different words. The word is feel in chapter one, like-minded in chapter two, purpose, attitude, view of things. It's translated think, mind, agree, concern in chapter four. So I'm studying the book of Philippians asking one question. As I said, there could be 100 questions that we take to it. but I'm locked onto just one. How can I attain a happy disposition in my soul for the glory of God? I have joy here. I'm just trying to notch it up. Congregation, I've gotten to know you over the last two years. You've got a great joy here. There's a lot of joy in this congregation. I'm not preaching this because we don't have any joy here. We've got a lot of joy here. But if we've got some, what would it be like for us to come up here? So may God help us grow in the joy of the Lord, who is our strength. So that's our focus. So I'm looking at Paul's life and asking this one question, how does he have it? A happy disposition in his soul for the glory of God. So, please note with me this morning, verse 12, Paul has a one-track mind. Paul has a one-track mind in verse 12. He is single-minded. He is fixed with a single mindset that matches the single mindset of God. Can I say that? Okay, God has a lot on His mind besides one thing, but I'll tell you the greatest thing God has, and it's what Paul has, and it's the advance of the gospel, and the reason for God having such a commitment to the advance of the gospel is He is committed to the glory of His Son. He will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and if we're going to be on the same page with God, we've got to be Single-minded focus on advancing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ humbled Himself, but His Father is gonna exalt Him to the highest. He's already given Him a name which is higher than any other name. So Paul's, Paul's locked in on this. He is convinced of the victory of God's power in maturing present believers. And he is convinced in the plan of God to advance the gospel throughout the world so that every tribe and tongue and color and people groups will bring glory to Jesus Christ. This is foundational to Paul's joy. This is the foundation. He is convinced in the victory and the power and the plans of God. So, number one this morning, rejoice with a single mind in spite of my circumstances. If I'm going to rejoice in the Lord and have this inner disposition of joy, I've got to be confident in God's goodness towards me even in difficult circumstances. So the point is, don't let your circumstances rob you, steal from you your joy. Paul didn't. That's one of the lessons I'm seeing here in chapter one. He's imprisoned. He has this, what we could call, hello, very negative circumstance in his life, and yet he's using it to God's glory. He's in chains, but the advance of the gospel's not chained. Our Savior was arrested into the hands of wicked men, but it did not stop the advance of the gospel. Our Savior was nailed to the cross, but it did not stop the advance of the gospel. Our Savior was buried in a tomb, but it did not stop the advance of the gospel. The world continues to attempt the holding down of the gospel, but it causes the opposite, in fact, to occur. They're trying to stomp on it all over China. They're trying to stomp on it all over Saudi Arabia. They're trying to stomp on it in Yemen. Stomp, stomp, stomp, and every time they stomp, it just splashes out, such is the work of God. So let me ask you this morning, what are your circumstances? You got some difficult circumstances going on right now? Let's see, Psalm 23, thou anointest my head with oil. Why does a shepherd put oil on a sheep's head? There's two reasons, here's one. Because sheep get these little tiny, tiny bugs up their nose. Sorry for being a little gross here. And that oil calms the sheep down because those little bugs drive the sheep crazy. They'll rub their face in the ground, smack their head into a tree, do anything to try to get these bugs off them. It's all these little things. And that's the way it is with us, isn't it? What is it that's bugging you? If I can use it, no pun intended. It's a little thing, isn't it? You get in the car, you're late for work, you turn the key and the battery's dead. Now, how do you react? Full of joy. See, we've got a moment in time right there, right now. You turn the key and you go, oh no. You've got a moment right there. What's it going to be? Will it be joy to the glory of God? Or will it be something ugly? Again, I say to you, Paul turned his circumstances into something that he used to glorify God. He's also joyful, not in just negative circumstances, but even when he's slandered or put down or mocked. That's what's going on. There's other Christians in Rome. Paul shows up and they're jealous. Here comes the big apostle Paul. So they start speaking bad of him. You see it in the text? They're seeking to afflict him with further trouble. And sometimes joy is taken from us, right, by being mocked. Kids, don't you ever let somebody mocking you because you love Jesus bother you. Mm-mm, that's good stuff. He maintains his joy. by asking this question, is Christ preached? Is Christ promoted? Is Christ made known? People mocking me because I'm a Christian? Good, now they know that I'm a Christian and Christ is being honored in my life. He's hopeful, verses 19 to 26, he's hopeful even though there is cause for worry. Worry, there's a word, did you write that one down? W-O-R-R-Y. Why do I worry? He's hopeful. It's possible that Paul's about to die. He's worried about dying in a way that would bring shame to Christ. He's, will I have the courage? Will he have sufficient courage to die for Jesus Christ? Will he, like Romans 12, one, that he penned, be alive in his life? Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercies to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. My life belongs to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. My house belongs to Jesus Christ. My car belongs to Jesus Christ. My popularity belongs to Jesus Christ. My money belongs to Jesus Christ. My health belongs to Jesus Christ. My wife belongs to Jesus Christ. My children, my time, my boyfriend, I don't know, fill it in. Have you given it to Christ? Do you hold these things with an open hand so that if God, out of His goodness, is to remove one of those, what happens to your joy? Luke 9, 21, then he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Do you have a single mind, a single focus on the Lord Jesus Christ? Can it be said of you, for you to live is Christ and to die is gain? That's the first point this morning. Rejoicing in Christ in spite of my circumstances. I was listening to a song by Casting Crowns. It's called Praise You in the Storm. I don't have time to read it in its entirety. I wanted to, but I'll just give you a few verses. I was sure by now, God, you would have reached down and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. Once again, I say amen, and it's still raining. But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain, I'm with you. I want to be the Christian that's learned to dance with joy in the rain, don't you? All right, second point this morning. We're to rejoice with a single mind in spite of, yes, number one, our circumstances, but now others' circumstances. Here's what I find in my own heart, my life. I see it in the text. I can lose my happy disposition in my soul when the ones I love are hurting and sick or gone astray. So I can, my joy is challenged by my circumstances, but it's also challenged when those that I love are hurting, when their circumstances are rough. Some of you mothers today are burdened for your wayward children. And it hurts deep, doesn't it? They're on your mind all the time. You wake up at two o'clock in the morning just praying for them. You're crying out, oh God, save my kid. Paul says in verse 27, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Boys and girls, let me tell you something this morning. You want to give something to your mother? Here's a present. to your mother, not only for the glory of God, for your mother. You want to give something for your mother? Here it is right there. You live a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, your mother will be thrilled. I put my mother through agony for years. But she didn't stop praying for me. She was amazed when I became a Christian. And then she found out I was going to be a pastor. You want to give your mom and dad a present, boys and girls? You walk with Jesus Christ. I'm not saying walk with Jesus Christ to give your mother a present. Walk with Jesus Christ because it's the right thing to do. But I'll just tell you that there'll be no greater gift, no greater joy, joy that you will give to your mom. And when she knows that you're walking in truth, that's 3 John 4, verse 4 in 3 John. I have no greater joy than to know my children walk in truth, John said. And I turn that around. And mothers, you will amen me on this one, won't you? That you have no greater grief in your heart than when your kid isn't right. So kid, get right. For the glory of God and the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the joy of your mom. Walk worthy of the gospel. Kids, how do you act when your parents are not around? See, Paul says, I just love the Philippian church. I'm not there, and what I hear is that you're doing so good. Kids, how do you act when your parents are not around? We found out years later that my son used to duct tape his sister to the tree. College students, how do you act now that mom and dad aren't around? Businessmen, when you're traveling, what are you looking at? What are you doing in that hotel room? Let the report about your conduct bring joy to those that love you instead of grief. Verse 28, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation. Witness the gospel, and you will be filled with joy. Continue to battle evil and Satan, and you will be filled with joy. All right, here are some thoughts on application this morning. Negative circumstances do not cause problems in my life. They do not, listen to me, don't miss this. I don't know who came up with this quote. This is really good. Negative problems that come into my life, negative circumstances that come into my life do not cause my problems. They reveal the problem that I already have in my heart. You turn the key, car doesn't start, battery's dead, you got a bad attitude. What did that bad battery just reveal? A bad heart. So we need to be thankful when God brings these things into our life, because it helps me see me for who I truly am. Your circumstances are showing us who you really are. Do you have the disposition of joy? So negative circumstances, they can reveal that I have a problem with anger. They can reveal that I'm not trusting the Lord as I ought to. They can reveal that my cheerful disposition is circumstance dependent, not God dependent. The tools in God's toolbox to make me into the image of Jesus Christ, to complete the work, is often going to be what I would call a negative circumstance. I don't want that hurt. I don't want that problem. But God has brought it to me. And he's bringing these things to you. Why? that you might find true joy in discovering that God is sovereign over every area of your life. Now we want God to complete the work. We just don't want to go through the pain. I don't either. Are we willing to go through the process of God working in us? Look again at verse six of chapter one. For I am sure of this, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So congregation, our challenge now is to rejoice. Our challenge now is to rejoice with a single mind, to be like Christ, and to see the advance of the gospel. May God help us develop in joy as we continue to work through the book of Philippians. Again, I ask you, be reading this book, be reading it. and examining each chapter. What is Paul doing here? What's Paul bringing out? Study the book of Philippians and let's all grow in our joy. Let's pray together. Father, so much here today for us to learn. We need to trust you during dark times in our life, difficult times. You're sovereign. We know that in our head. but the joy in our heart doesn't always reveal it to be believed in our heart. So forgive us for that. May you continue to test us and try us and work on us and help us that we might be like Christ, full of joy, full of peace, never in turmoil, always trusting. Father, thank you for this chapter and for putting Paul in jail so that he'd write it. Thank you for the work you're doing in our lives too. Father, we love you because we're discovering that you love us so much.