We're gonna go and get started. So come on and have a seat. There's handouts in the back. This is our third study in our exposition of the book of Philippians. And we're gonna be looking tonight at verses 12 to 20. of chapter 1, 112 to 20. So let's read the word and we'll pray. Philippians 1.12. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel, The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come to you tonight, Lord, to lift up our hearts to you and to give glory to our Savior, Jesus Christ. We come asking that you would help us to walk in joy and to love, Lord, the work of the gospel more and more, that we would be more faithful followers of Jesus, more fruitful in our lives, and more attractive to unbelievers because they might see in us the hope and the joy that comes through Christ. So use this time for your purposes. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So the title of the class, Surprised by Joy, that's from C.S. Lewis's title of his autobiographical account of his salvation. And we've used that because the theme of the book really is joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. So that joy, we are surprised by it because of what Christ has done. And so you have this contrast we've talked about, especially two weeks ago, where you have Paul's attitude is emphasized greatly in the book. And then his circumstances, it's a contrast, his circumstances versus attitude. And how do you explain this? He's in prison, and he makes that point clear four times, the word imprisonment is used in the first chapter. My imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment. But you have 14 different occurrences of the word joy and rejoice. Seven times joy is used, seven times rejoice. And then the gospel. Paul's concern is for the gospel. And so we have these three concepts intertwined. His circumstances, which seem to be prohibiting, what would be prohibiting joy, what would be prohibiting his ministry. And yet we see that Paul is finding joy in the midst of these difficult circumstances and that the gospel is going forth in spite of these circumstances. So that's those three key words, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, theme of the letter. We said this last week, how to rejoice in the Lord, how to rejoice in the Lord, how, you know, Christians should have joy. Remember the fruit of the spirit is love, Joy, peace, right behind love is joy. And so even though we're not talking about happiness, we're not talking, in fact, this letter makes it clear. Happiness, if you think about the root word in English, happiness is connected to the idea of what happens. You're happy because of what's happened. Your circumstances make you happy, right? Now, we can use the word happy and mean joy, but I'm just saying that's where that word comes from. And so we wanna avoid thinking of joy like that kind of happiness. the joy of the Bible or true happiness, even to use the word happiness, because sometimes it comes out of my mouth and I don't mean according to what happens, I mean joy, but, you know, oh, how happy are, you know, I say that when I'm talking about the Beatitudes, oh, how happy are the poor in spirit. Anyway, so we're talking about a joy that is not connected or directly affected and impacted by circumstances. It's something about what Christ is doing in our lives and particularly through the gospel. That's the focus of this book. How to rejoice in the Lord in spite of our circumstances when we align ourselves with God's purposes, His saving purposes in Christ. So, the text for tonight, 112 to 20, In the passage we just read, I've titled the lesson tonight, A Mission's Update from the Apostle Paul. A Mission's Update from the Apostle Paul. And I said a couple weeks ago, this really is part of the reason he wrote the letter. He's not writing this letter to a church that is in crisis. They're not like the Corinthian church. They're not like the churches in Galatia that are struggling. He writes to a church that is really relatively healthy. Now we're gonna find out they're not a perfect church, they've got some issues, but it's not like there's a driving concern and urgent need that they have rooted in unbelief or difficulties like the Corinthian church, but he's writing in response to a gift they sent him. In fact, if you look over at a moment for chapter two, Verse 25, Paul's explaining who he sent with a letter. But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need. I've sent back Epaphroditus. You sent Epaphroditus to me, Paul's saying, to meet my need in prison. Because we know he's in prison. He's in Roman prison. The Philippian church heard about that, sent one of their own, Epaphroditus, to Paul with a love gift for him. And he's now sending Epaphroditus back. So think about that. He's in prison. They're concerned about him. They're worried about him. And think about this. They've been supporting his ministry. To use the idea of, like, you know, we have a number of missionaries. If you follow the email, you'll see from time to time missionary report from, you know, we had one recently from the temples, of course. Actually, we had Ken share one here. But we receive a lot of written ones from time to time, right, from all our missionaries. well in a sense this is like a missionary report and they've been following his ministry since he planted the church on his second missionary journey about 10 years before he writes this letter so they've had a relationship of about 10 years and think about it they know Paul He left Philippi and went to Thessalonica and Berea and then on down into Macedonia where Philippi is. He's going south and he goes on down to Athens and then to Corinth and he plants the church. He goes back across to Ephesus and spends a lot of time there. And so they're probably getting word from him from time to time. Paul is in Ephesus. He's there three years. He's in Corinth for 18 months. And look at how the work of the gospel is going. And now they get word he's in prison. in Rome. They probably heard at some point about him being imprisoned in Caesarea for quite a while and then sent to Rome and now he's in a Roman prison and they hear about it and they are concerned for their missionary, the one who birthed them, their ministry and they send this love gift to him and then he sends back Epaphroditus with a letter which is basically in part It's encouraging them, yes, but it's telling them what's going on in his ministry. He's updating them and he's really concerned because he knows that they are probably being tempted to fear, anxiety, timidity because of what he's going through. It's, this is almost a contemporary of 1 Peter. It's like probably two years before Peter writes the book we're looking at on Sunday mornings. And so the cultural climate is about the same. You know, Peter's writing to believers up in Asia minor, which is Turkey. The Philippians are in Macedonia, north of Greece. And so, but still Roman society in the first century, things are getting difficult. Persecution is a present reality in the sense of, you know, when people get saved, they're ostracized by their families, they're rejected by the communities to differing levels in different places, but basically that's the norm. Christianity is misunderstood, it's mocked and maligned. There's all kinds of terrible things said about Christians because Satan's always working to destroy the work of the gospel. So these people are struggling to live faithfully to Christ. And now their hero, their spiritual father, as it were, is in prison. So they're concerned. And so he writes the letter to assure them that God is still on the throne. that his kingdom is still going forth, that they can rest secure in the Lord and they can be filled with joy, even in increasingly dark days. So that's his heart. He wants him to know how he's doing. So it's really, it's a missions update. He's saying, he's gonna tell them about the work and he's gonna tell them about how he's doing. In fact, that's what he's gonna do in the passage we're looking at right now. So the text for tonight, 112 to 20, and now there's two main outline points. The first is the urgency of the message. The urgency of the message. Now we're looking at chapter one, verse 12. That first blank is urgency. And the key word in this first sentence is the infinitive to know. To know. He said, I want you to know. So it's those two verbs together, I want or wish, I desire earnestly that you know. He wants him to know something. In fact, in the text, the word order in the original language, the first word in the sentence is the infinitive to know. So it's like, we say, I want you to know brethren, right? In English, I want you to know. fourth and fifth words, right? In the Greek, it's literally one word that we translate to know. And it says, you, I want brethren. So, and what this does, the word order in Greek emphasizes, the reason you put that word first is you're saying, this is the most important word I want you to get. It's you knowing, I want you to know this. And so the word order is key, and also the tense of the verbs. I want and to know are both in the present tense, the Greek present tense. And the present tense, remember, is not about the time of action. In Greek, tense is not so much about time. It is that, but it's secondarily about time. It's primarily about the kind of action. And the present tense is continuous, ongoing action. So he's saying, I am wanting you to know and keep on knowing. And I'm so, this is what I want. He's like, I want you to see this. I want you to understand this. So that's the urgency of the message. That's the first thing we see as we look at this. Now, the second main point here is the content of the message. And he really answers two questions in verses 12 to 20. There's two questions he answers. The first question is, how is the ministry going? It's a missions report, right? How is the ministry going? The second question on the next page is gonna be, how is Paul doing? How is the ministry going and how is Paul doing? Essentially what he's doing in verses 12 to 20. He's telling them about His ministry and He's telling about Himself. Because what are they concerned about? They're concerned about both. And He wants them to know that the ministry is advancing and that He is doing fine. And how encouraging that's going to be for them to know that. Because they love Him. They're concerned about Him. And they had, even they added stress. I didn't read that second, I stopped short on verse, chapter 2, 25 to 29, when he's talking about Paphroditus, the guy who had been sent from Philippi to him, stayed with him a while. Remember, Paphroditus then got sick and was near death. And word had gotten back to the Philippians that not only is Paul in prison, but our messenger who went down there is sick and may be dying. So they were even more anxious. You know, one of their key leaders is about to die. Paul's in prison. He could be about to die. This is bad. Well, he sends a paparazzi back with this message. Okay, so first question is, how is the ministry going? His answer is, and this is the new American standard, my circumstances, that blank there, answer, my circumstances have resulted in the greater progress of the gospel. So in a nutshell, how's the ministry going? My circumstances have resulted in the greater progress of the gospel. In fact, this sentence is pretty emphatic. It's basically saying, it uses a comparative word. It doesn't really come through. You could say rather, and the idea is, uh... my circumstances rather than you would expect have resulted in the greater progress of the gospel you would expect that my circumstances are hindering the gospel but on the contrary my circumstances are furthering the gospel that's what he's saying right here at the front my circumstances have resulted in the greater progress of the gospel The other translations say, now what has happened to me has resulted in the greater progress of the gospel. That's the idea. His circumstances, what's happened to him, his imprisonment again has resulted in the greater progress of the gospel. This is a surprise. This would be a great surprise to them. I mean, think about it. Just stop and think about this. Paul is in prison. How could that be helping the ministry of the gospel? I mean, this is a man who's been spending the last 15 years of his life traveling across the Mediterranean world planting churches. He's a powerful preacher and writer, and he's gone you know, into dark areas like Corinth, Ephesus, and God has brought great fruit through his ministry. And now, while he's still able, bodied, the Lord's allowed him to be imprisoned. I mean, doesn't that seem like a bad situation? Doesn't that sound like a bad plan? I mean, Lord, If you have a high view of the sovereignty of God, and of course we do, it's clear the Bible teaches He's sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over this. What are you doing, Lord? Why have you allowed Him to be in prison? And they were probably wrestling with that question. And he's saying, listen, contrary to what you'd expect, my circumstances have actually propelled the gospel forward. In fact, the word he uses that's translated progress means to cut or forge ahead. The gospel is actually forging ahead in a way that you would not have suspected, but it's absolutely the reality. So that's the initial report summarized there in verse 12. Now, he's going to explain what he means by that. How is it that... because this is really the content of his message. How's the ministry going? Hey, it's going great. It is going great. Paul, are you... somebody hits your head? I mean, are they making you say this? Is it like one of those videos that they send out that they're making you say that, hey, they're really good to me here in prison, you know? It's what it seems like, but it's not. Paul's really saying, no, I'm of my right mind. I write to you on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you, this is true. God's gospel is going forward. So, How so? Well, you got several points or two main points underneath this, under A, how's the ministry going first? It's going good because number one, the cause of my imprisonment has become well-known. The way the gospel is going forth is that the cause of his imprisonment, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well-known. Throughout the whole Praetorian Guard, that's the next line, to the whole Praetorian Guard, you don't have the numeric standard, it's P-R-A-E-T-O-R-I-A-N, P-R-A-E-T-O-R-I-A-N. NIV translates as Palace Guard, ESV translates it Imperial Guard. The idea is the soldiers that were assigned to guard the emperor. We know during the Emperor Tiberius reign, the Praetorian Guard was 10,000 strong. It was soldiers in Rome to protect the emperor. And so they were the elite troops. They were paid basically double what all the other soldiers were paid. They were, you know, very influential. And so Paul in Rome probably chained one of them 24 seven, different guys coming in, working their shifts of being chained to the apostle Paul. Think about if you're chained to the apostle Paul, you are gonna hear the gospel, aren't you? And so what's happening is some of these guys are getting saved. And then more and more of them are hearing, this guy's in prison. He shouldn't be in prison. He's not the kind of criminal that we always have in prison. He's not a rabble rouser. He's not trying to revolt. He's just preaching about Christ, the Jewish Messiah. And so the word is spreading that this man is in prison for the cause of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. And that itself is creating interest. And he's gonna say, remember at the end of the letter, we pointed out that he tells them, those in Caesar's household greet you. There's people saved in Caesar's own household. That had to be so cool to say that he said that for the end, you know. Those in Caesar's household greet you. Some of the folks working in Caesar's household, they're your brothers and sisters. Wow. the gospel has indeed gone to the very apex of society at that moment. So he's saying, at this point, they know why I'm in prison. And so the very fact that they know why I'm in prison, it's gaining a hearing for the gospel, the gospel is advancing, and he says there's a second reason that you can rejoice in the fact that the ministry is going well, the greater progress of the gospel. And it's seen here in the next verse of chapter one, when he says in verse 14, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Here's another counterintuitive development. He's saying, because I've been imprisoned, people are more bold in sharing the gospel all around Rome. Now think about that. Isn't that completely the opposite of what you'd expect? The key leader is put in prison, so he's not out having his preaching times. And if he's been arrested, And he knows, as we see later in the chapter, he may die. He's wondering if he's going to be ending, his life's going to be ending, and he's going to say, I don't know which to choose, whether to go on and be with Christ or to stay here in the body for your sakes. Because he knows, he's saying that, not because he's sick, he's ill, he knows that his death could be imminent because of his imprisonment. And yet he says that even though I've been imprisoned, maybe under threat of death, imminent death, the Christians in Rome are even more bold than ever before. That's supernatural work of God. But this is the kind of thing God does. He always goes, our way of thinking, is almost always upside down. And when we just naturally are the natural course of how we think about things, right? So this is terrible. But in reality, no, it's not. These folks are thinking about it, they're watching his example. And apparently they're sensing and seeing God's hand. Now think about that. Like I said, at first glance, oh no, Paul's been imprisoned or they're coming for me next. Some other guys in the Roman church wondering. Maybe we should go into hiding, keep a low profile. But these Christians, prayerfully considering what's happening, thinking about what they're hearing, hey, did you hear that one of the guards got saved yesterday? Did you hear, Caesar's cook is now a believer. Did you hear what's happening? That God is working like that. And what they see is the hand of God is at work in ways you would not expect or anticipate. And so it's, he is doing this. Now you think about the Bible, just the history of scripture. Our way of thinking is so often not how God does it. You know, The Lord calls Joseph to be the second in command in Egypt. Remember, he's gonna give them the dreams. You're gonna rule over your brothers. You're even in a way gonna be over your father and your mother, those two dreams, remember? And then what happens? He's taken and sold into slavery. He spends years as a slave, years in the dungeon, 13 years in all. Between 17 and 30, he's either a slave or in the dungeon. What's with that? God was preparing him. Remember it says the Lord was with him at each of those points. The Lord was with him when he was in Potiphar's house, when he was in the dungeon, the Lord was with him. And so he's growing in his knowledge of God and becoming more connected to the Lord and he's becoming more fruitful. Affliction is producing greater weight in his heart. He's seeing the unseen. He's becoming more faithful to God. Same thing with David. We go throughout the scriptures, we see this pattern that the Lord uses our afflictions and suffering and things not going like we'd want them to go to actually deepen our understanding of His grace and the way we cling to Him and He makes us more fruitful. So they're seeing that in Paul and they're doing the same thing. They're praying and they're seeking the Lord and they're becoming bolder. He said, so this has turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. They have far more courage. Not just more courage, far more courage. In fact, the language is really extreme. I mean, they are over, above and beyond more courageous is the idea. They have an abundance of overflowing courage. They're not just hanging in there. They are more bold than ever before is the idea. Now then, again, something kind of counterintuitive, he hits us with verse 16, because things aren't all good, Satan's still at work. But he says, some to be sure, in verse 15, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife. So that next blank, most of the brethren trusting in the Lord have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. And that B was into everyone else. So A was to the whole praetorian guard, B and to everyone else. The whole praetorian guard knows why I'm in prison and everyone else knows why I'm in prison. And then the second thing, most of the brethren trusting in the Lord have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. And he says, some preach, A to A, some preach from envy and strife. That's the new American standard. Envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. This is kind of interesting. And he's going to tell us In verse 16, about those who do it out of goodwill, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than for pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. This is a really odd thing. He's telling them And they would have known about this to some extent because people, there was kind of a PR campaign against Paul in prison. Here he is being faithful to God and yet people who claim to be Christians are slandering Paul. They're saying he's not a true apostle and they're using as evidence his circumstances. If he was a true apostle, he wouldn't be in prison. You see, God's got him because he is unfaithful to God. And so, and Paul's saying essentially what's happening here is, he's basically saying these are false brethren, professing Christians. I think when you look at chapter three, as well as this, that may necessarily everyone in this group is unsaved, but probably the most of them are. And so they're deluded, deceived themselves, but they're professing Christ, but they don't really know the Lord and they are, They are actually now slandering him, but the very fact that he's in prison and they were against him has made them more bold. They're more vocal. They're getting out saying, see, we told you so. And then they're having their own little evangelistic campaigns or whatever. They're preaching more. And so they're talking about Jesus more, but they're doing it out of wrong motives. But his imprisonment has caused that. I mean, God has used his imprisonment to cause that. And then the other brothers who really are of the Lord's and love Paul are preaching more boldly because they've seen God's hand at work. So they're preaching more boldly. These guys are preaching more boldly. And Paul says, this is awesome. Even my enemies, who want to cause me distress in my imprisonment. I mean, think about that. That's, isn't that terrible? I'm in prison, I'm chained to a Roman soldier 24 seven, and I got people on it who are doing a slander campaign against me all over. But he's not focused on the negative. He doesn't sit there and have a pity party. He thinks about the fact that even these guys who may have completely wrong motives are more bold to preach because I'm in prison. Isn't it amazing to turn it around and think about your circumstances, your suffering, you have someone that maybe in your family, a friend not mistreating you or maligning you, you don't have it going on now, you will at some point, it's gonna happen. And when it does, We can sit there and think, oh, I can't believe I'm going through this. How long is this going to last? Lord, this isn't fair. This isn't right. Well, maybe so. It's probably not fair. It's probably not right. But it doesn't honor God to stay focused on the negative. But say, Lord, what are you doing in this? What is your purpose in this? And if we step back from it, we can often, maybe not at the moment, but if we keep praying and trusting ourselves to the Lord, Lord, I trust you, you're sovereign, you know what's going on, you could stop it if you wanted to. And Paul must have thought the same thing, you could stop these people from slandering me if you wanted to. I don't even understand why they would be slandering. I mean, think about it. These are probably deceived people who think they're Christians, but are not. And they're professing to be Christians in the first century in Roman society. That's illogical. They may be persecuted, but they don't know the Lord. You could change it, but you haven't. So what are you doing in this Lord? And so what he's been able to see is, God is even using this to have more people talking about Jesus. And he says in verse 18, what then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this, I rejoice for people to talk about Jesus. That is what I want. They're talking about Christ. They're proclaiming Christ. And he says, and in this, I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. Paul's just determination. He's even preaching to himself, even as he does that. I was thinking about this, the words of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, they're so helpful when he talks about how we can, He said, our greatest problem is that we listen to ourselves when we should be talking to ourselves. And what he means is, we go through circumstances, things happen, and immediately our minds start responding to that. You start thinking, right? Why is this happening? What's happening? I wonder if what they're doing. And he says, what happens is we let that conversation go and you can't let that and just keep listening to thoughts in your mind. What you've got to do is in a sense, take yourself by the scruff of the neck and say, self, I'm going to tell you what God's word says. So you gotta stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. So this is, you know, what's happening to me? Why are these people doing this? Lord, I don't understand. Wait a minute. Okay, I start talking to myself. It's not about me having, right? We have to say this kind of thing to ourselves. It's not about, God is not telling me that I'm gonna have a pleasant life. His purpose is not for every day to go like I want it to go. I know that, because I'm a slave of Jesus Christ, like we talked about last week. Paul says, bondservants of Christ, right? We're not here for ourselves, we belong to Him. Not only that, but his purpose is to advance his kingdom, to advance his gospel. This isn't even my home. Why do I wanna be so at home in this world? This world is passing away. See, you're talking to yourself, you're thinking like this, and suddenly as you do that and you keep at it, God opens your eyes to say, wait a minute, I can see what's happening now. Now, it doesn't always come first time you do that. A lot of times you have to talk to yourself for a while, and it's better not to talk to yourself out loud. Well, actually now you can do that because people think you're on your phone, right? In the old days, if you talked to yourself, they just thought you were crazy. Now they think you must be on your phone. Anyway, so, but talk to yourself. And he's done that, and he now is able to rejoice. And he's saying, I rejoice. And he's saying to his own soul, yes, I will rejoice. He's saying, soul rejoice in this. And we have to do that to ourselves. The word of God, preach the word of God to ourselves. So now, B, second question. How is Paul doing? We said, how's the ministry going, right? How's the ministry going? It's going great. Surprisingly great. How's Paul doing? And so when he says what then in verse 18, he's kind of saying, what am I doing with all this? How am I doing? And here he basically says, the answer to the question, how is Paul doing? He is joyful and confident. He is joyful and confident. This is what he's gonna say in verses 18 to 20. I mean, I am happy in the Lord and I am confident in the Lord. That's what he's saying. You guys are worried about me, don't be worried. I am happy in the Lord. You're worried about me, don't be worried about me. Pray for me, yes, but don't worry about me. I'm confident that God's gonna see me through. So let's think about this. He's joyful and confident. So first, number one, the source of his joy. verse 18, what's the source of his joy that Christ is being proclaimed? He's taking joy not in his circumstances again, he's taking joy in the proclamation of the gospel. He's tying his hopes not to earthly values, worldly values, he's tying his joy, his happiness to the advance of Christ. This is the secret. to a joyful life, no matter what happens in the world. We'll continue to decay and just get darker and darker and darker, but we know that if that happens, the light will shine brighter and brighter and brighter. God always, when he brings judgment, he brings salvation. He's a God of mercy, right? So we keep our eyes on his kingdom and his gospel and we'll have joy. So the source of his joy is his hope is in the gospel. That's what he's rejoicing in. Number two, the source of his confidence. So the source of his joy, the source of his confidence. The source of his confidence, there are really two things that make him confident or that he knows will enable him to be confident, and that is first the prayers of the Philippians and the provision of the Spirit. I know that this will turn out for my deliverance. That's his confidence. I know that all of this that's happening is gonna turn out for my deliverance. Literally, it's my salvation. He doesn't mean salvation from, he's already saved. What he means is salvation from his circumstances, salvation through his circumstances, the work of God continuing his life. In fact, what he means by deliverance is what we're gonna look at in just a moment. What does he really mean? What's he saying? My deliverance. But he's saying, first, that the deliverance is gonna come. I know this will turn out for my deliverance through the instrument through which my deliverance is going to come. It's through your prayers. This is the balance. A high view of the sovereignty of God, God's gonna do what God's gonna do, does not mean we aren't supposed to pray. In fact, it should make us more bold in prayer. God works through prayer. And Paul is saying, listen, he's basically saying, he's gonna talk about, I wanna stand firm and not shame the name of Christ. And I'm confident that I won't because you're praying for me. And because the Holy Spirit is with me. It's not either or. It's not that I'm confident because I have the Holy Spirit. I mean, that would be enough, but God doesn't just work through the provision of the Spirit. He works through our prayers. Our prayers really make a difference. So if we don't pray, you have not because you ask not. Right? So we've got to pray. And when we have brothers and sisters who are in challenges, we must pray. And for them to be bold and faithful to the Lord and not shame the name of Christ, they need us to pray. We need to pray for each other. We need to pray for our missionaries. We need to pray for brothers and sisters that we don't even know who were persecuted in parts of the world that they're being persecuted for their faith. They need us to pray for them. Paul says, we need your prayers, right? So it's prayer. The prayers of the Philippians. He's confident. He knows they love him and they're praying for them. He's already shown their love for him by sending Epaphroditus to him. He knows they're praying for him. Keep praying for me, he's basically saying. And I know that God will deliver me. And the provision of the Spirit, it's always not by personal strength, personality, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. Trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so those two things. Now, number three, the nature of his deliverance. He's confident, he knows it's gonna turn out for his deliverance. But what is the nature of his deliverance? What is he confident in? It means to be saved, to be delivered from, and I think if you look at this passage carefully, he was not confident that he would be delivered from death. That first A there, the three A. The nature of his deliverance, he's confident he's gonna be delivered, but his confidence in being delivered is not that he will be delivered from death. He's gonna tell us in a little bit, he knows he may die. So he's not a name it, claim it preacher. This says, I know that God's gonna save me from death. In fact, that's just no place for that in the Bible. I mean, even when you have bold faith like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, remember when they're about to be killed by the king, Nebuchadnezzar, remember what they say? Oh, king, we're not gonna bow down to you. Our God is able to save us from you. He's able to deliver us from your hand. But if not, Let it be known to you, we will not bow down and worship your idol. God will decide what he's gonna do, and I don't know that he's gonna deliver us, is what they're saying. He may not deliver us from death, but he will deliver us in death and through death. because he's promised that. And so he's not deliverance from death. Secondly, it's not deliverance from prison. He doesn't know for sure he's gonna get out of prison either. He's not claiming he's gonna be delivered from prison. But he says, but deliverance from shame, that's number C. It's not deliverance from death, not deliverance from prison, but deliverance from shame. He knows that God will enable him not to bring shame on the name of Christ. That's God's will. When you ask anything according to my will, according to my name, you have it. When you ask to not bring shame on the name of Jesus Christ, you are praying in the name of Christ. That's in line with Christ's character, his glory, his person. And you know that you have that which you ask. So we should pray that ourselves. Lord, don't let me shame your name. And we should pray for one another because our prayers are used by God to strengthen each other. But when you pray that, you know that you'll be delivered. That's his confidence, that he will be able, like he says at the end of this, verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. See, it's not, I may die, but he's gonna be exalted. I may live, he's going to be exalted. I may stay in prison, he's going to be exalted. They make me lay out, he's going to be exalted. That's his desire, to exalt Christ. So when we align ourselves with the Lord, we make our joy in the gospel, we put our hope where it needs to be, in his grace, in his power, we pray for one another, then we can be joyful. So he's saying, listen, I want you to know, I'm urgent for you to know that I'm doing fine. I don't want you to worry. I am doing fine. And not only that, he starts off before that telling you the message is going forth. The gospel is going forth. Even though it looked like it was a defeat, it was a victory. And isn't that just God's way? I mean, think about it. The cross looks like the greatest defeat of all. The Son of God is rejected, abandoned by God to all the powers of hell. Men do horrible things to the precious son of God. They hang him on a cross. They slander him. He suffers in agony, the wrath of God upon him. And yet the greatest defeat is actually the ultimate victory. This is the way God works. He works through things. When he breaks us down, he builds us up. And so we can have joy. And we gotta learn to think that way. so that we won't be discouraged. If we find ourselves in prison, or we find ourselves in circumstances we never thought we would be in, align ourselves with the Lord, trust in him, pray for one another, he'll be faithful. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the hope that we have through the scriptures that Lord, we're just passing through this world. This is not our home. Help us to hold it, the things of this world and the things of this life more and more lightly, and help us to yearn more and more for the return of our Savior and for our eternal inheritance in his presence. We pray that you would give us grace to, Lord, not to be so affected by our circumstances, It's so easy to be discouraged and downcast, depressed. We think about our lives, things that we struggle with, things that we see happening around us, darkness. It's easy to be discouraged, Lord. Help us to have eyes to see. Help us, Lord, to see what you were doing, that even as Satan does his work, he only does what you have ordained that he do. And what he means for evil, you always mean for good. for your glory and the good of your people. Help us to rejoice in the Lord and to rejoice in the gospel, to be more and more happy in Jesus. And Father, we do pray that you'll help us be more bold. We wanna be more like this, to be more bold in our witness, more loving and kind to unbelievers, more attractive, that they might see the joy of the Lord and the peace that passes understanding in our lives, in genuine love, and that they might want Christ. So Lord, make us fruitful and do this all for the glory of your son. We pray in his name, amen. All right, we've got for small group time and there's handout questions.