This study on Phillipians over the past few weeks have taught us to love more, to be more joyful, to place our trust in God, to live as citizens our heaven, to be humble in our citizenship, to honour God and to develop a mindset like God’s.
This book has been very challenging and full of incredible wisdom. I hope that you have enjoyed studying it with us.

Looking into chapter four of Phillipians we find another great truth that will help us in our walk with God. Peace!

Phillipians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It is the peace of God that will help us to guard our hearts. In other words God’s peace protects you. How? Verse eight gives us the answer:

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

Peace comes from focusing on worthy, lovely, commendable and excellent things. Focusing on the things of God brings peace. We guard our hearts by focusing on Godly things which bring a peace to us.

Think about this a bit more. The reason peace protects us is because it “transcends understanding!” When we try to understand something we are trying to achieve something. We do it in our own strength. Peace in our hearts comes from trusting in God regardless of our understanding of current circumstances.

It’s easy to trust in God when you focus on Him. He is great, powerful, mighty, graceful, loving, peaceful, trustworthy, reliable, constant and merciful. When you focus on Him you begin to trust Him as He reveals Himself to you. Our need to understand is superseded by our love for Him and our trust in Him. Peace comes from a decision to trust God and not trust in ourselves.

Trusting in our own ability often brings anxiety and doubt. Trusting in God brings peace because He has proved Himself undoubtedly trustworthy.

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As we study Phillipians chapter three we can find three main point that show us how to live as citizens of heaven.

1. Be on your guard
2. Know your heritage
3. Move forward

Be on your guard
Verse to tells us to ‘watch out’ for people you do not honour God (vs 2). It is important to be aware of those people who live in such a way because it stops us from being caught up in their ways. We need to be constantly on our guard from any idea’s, concepts, ways of life and actions that do not honour God.

Know Your Heritage
To know God and what He has done for you will always put your heart right in every circumstance. To understand that your righteousness comes from God and not your works (vs 3-7) keeps us humble. God is able to use a humble person because they are more reliant on Him than themselves.
Knowing our heritage as a citizen of heaven gives us an better understanding of who we are, what we believe and how we should live. The only place that explains our heritage is the Word of God and this is why we need to spend quality time reading His word. In order that we may know our heritage in Christ Jesus.

Move Forward
Paul asks us to move forward continually. To press on toward the goal (vs 14). In our lives as Christians we should always be seeking and striving for more. More fellowship, more intimacy, more obedience, more understanding and more wisdom from Christ. We do this because we have seen Christ in our lives and we have chosen to live in for Him in His kingdom. According to His purpose.
As citizens of heaven we acknowledge God as our King. We are proud of our heritage in Christ and we stay on guard of those who come against our King.

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Take a look at the sky on a clear day, there are no stars. Where have they gone? Why are
they not there any more? Look up at a patch of sky on a clear night (especially away from
the city) and see the stars, see how brightly they shine! What changed? Lets take a look at
you and your life, please read Philippians 2v12→18.
You are a Christian, you have been saved by Jesus, you have repented and have faith, but
now what is there to do. People say that Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a way of life,
but what exactly are they talking about. Here in this section of scripture Paul is writing
to his friends in a place called Philippi, while he is in prison, and what he tells them
will help us.

Work it out…
Paul tells the Philippians Christians to work out their salvation (remember that Paul is
speaking to Christians here) that is to say, that since God has saved you, go and figure
out what He (God) wants you to do for Him. And the same is true for you today, if God has
saved you He won’t leave you, He’s going to put you to work. God has saved you to do great
things for Him (using His power working in you!).

…and see what will happen…
Once you’ve figured what God has wired you to do for Him, and you set that as the greatest
desire of your life, do it without grumbling or complaining! This is a very rare thing in
this world, a person living their life doing what God has built them to do, and loving it.
These people are like the stars, God wants you to be like the stars; while the rest of the
world fade back into the black background, you will shine out like the stars.

… you will overflow with joy!
Remember Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter, that’s why he says what he says
here. Yet all the external circumstances were on little significance to him, he was doing
what God had built him to do, and his joy was untouchable! This is what God has for you,
this is what you should be seeking. But how often do we trade the untouchable joy that God
has for us, for a fleeting moment of happiness, that’s what we do when we sin…

So where do the stars go in the day time, well the foreground becomes to bright, when the
sun comes up, the sky gets bright and the stars fade out. But when the sky goes dark, the
stars shine out bright! We so often see the sin that our culture offers us as something
good, we want it, and when we do choose sin we don’t stand out as Christians, we’re like
the stars during the day. But when we choose to reject sin, and follow Jesus with our
lives, all of a sudden we will stand out from our culture, we will be like the stars on a
dark clear night!

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Phillipians 2: 1-11

Imitating Christ’s Humility
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Christs humility is described for us in this passage and we are asked to follow this example because of our love for Him.
The challenge here is to become completely focused on the things of God that our our selfish desire becomes non existent. Particularly difficult when the world around us is continually seeking to serve itself.
Becoming humble like Jesus would lead us to a place where our hearts are moved by God’s heart and would inevitably lead us to serving others. Just as Christ took on the very nature of a servant.
So this is an attitude of the heart that directly opposes the world view we live in. Therefore it is important to acknowledge and use the power of prayer here. Continually pray for God’s guidance in your life,  ask Him to guide and lead you, ask Him to share His heart with you.
I love the prayer that John Piper gives us:

“Lord, work so deeply in my heart that I am freed from the bondage of self-centeredness and given the disposition to look not only to my own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
A tough call, but what better way to be felt by the world than to go against its selfish principles. The world will stand by in amazement as God heals the broken-hearted, the sick and lame and the hurting souls that plague this planet.
You cannot help people unless your concern is for the people.Concern for people comes through a humble attitude.

The depth of healing that this world needs can only come from God, who works through a humble heart.

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Paul carries on in his letter to the Philippians and as we read through Philippians 1v19→26 we get an awesome sense of how Paul just totally trusted Jesus, He knew that everything would turn out exactly as it should. We can learn some awesome lessons about who God is, and how we should live in light of that, as we go through this section of Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi.

Paul is sitting in prison as he is writing this letter, and yet he is rejoicing. The reason that Paul could rejoice was because he didn’t let his life be directed by the circumstance he found himself in, he let God direct his life. That is why as Paul was sitting in horrendous conditions he could rejoice! Paul’s greatest concern was not for himself, it was not for material things, it was not for anything except that Jesus would be honoured. Paul’s greatest desire in life was that God would use him, all of his life, to bring honour to Christ, Paul’s drive was to make Jesus famous.

Because of Paul’s motivation in his life, he could honestly say those famous words – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Paul’s earthly life was sold out to Jesus, and when he died, Paul knew that he would be with Jesus; so whether Paul lived or died, there was no loss for him! Imagine living your life like this, knowing that everything in your life is working towards the one thing that you are most passionate about, and that when you die, that passion will be ultimately fulfilled! Welcome to Christianity, this is what it is to be a Christian…

However, there should be a question bugging you; how can every single moment and aspect of your life bring glory to Jesus? The answer to that question is not found within you, rather it is found in God. God is sovereign, everything that God sets out to do, He will do. No person or thing can get in the way of what God sets His will to do. Acts 4v24→30 speaks about God’s sovereign plan in sending Jesus, even though the rulers of the day thought they were thwarting Jesus’ plan, they were in fact fulfilling it! Because God is sovereign, you can trust that, if you desire to live for Jesus, that God can use every moment of your life to make Jesus famous, even when you are mowing the lawn, or whatever you’re doing.

Therefore, we see that Paul trusted in the sovereignty of our awesome God, and that he knew that whatever his circumstance was that as long as he tried to live as God would have him to live that his life would be of eternal value. Christian, this is what God is calling you to today, that you would really trust Him, and fully surrender control of your life to God, that God will take every moment of every day of your life, and make it count towards the ultimate purpose, God’s glory! There is no other way you will find joy.

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Paul is in prison, things weren’t going well, he was living in the will of God, he was ministering for God, his heart was set on God, and he was in prison. Today as we carry on into Paul’s letter to the God worshipers in Philippi, we’re going to be looking at Philippains 1v12->18 and seeing Paul’s example of living in joy. In this passage we will look at two aspects of Paul’s reaction to what was happening around him and to him.

What happened to him…
Paul was in jail, and we would expect that he would be a little depressed because of the situation in which he finds himself. God has called him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and now he is stuck here in a jail, how frustrating! But this isn’t how Paul reacts, in verse 12 we see that instead of expressing his frustration, he sees God’s sovereign hand in what has happened to him. Paul knows that God is sovereign, and that God had allowed Paul to be in the situation that he found himself, so Paul doesn’t spend energy and emotion questioning and advising God, rather he throws all of himself into making the most of the situation that he finds himself in. Paul speaks about Jesus to the palace guard and his fellow prisoners, and Paul hears that other Christians are becoming more and more bold in proclaiming the Gospel because of what happened to Paul.

What motivated him…
Even though there is all this good news in Paul’s situation, there is still some bad news, some people are telling other people about Jesus out of impure motives. Some people were preaching the truth about Jesus, but they were doing so to try and gain things (status, recognition, profit, etc) for themselves, and to try and hurt Paul. But how does Paul react to this news? Again, he does not throw himself a pity party, nor does he feel hard done by because it is just so unfair. No, rather Paul is deeply joy-filled at the situation because Jesus is being spoken about to people who didn’t know Jesus.
This is the secret to Paul’s joy, and this can be the secret to your joy too; Paul was more concerned about Jesus than he was about himself. Right there, that is how Paul could live in unshakable joy, how even when everything around him was falling apart, as long as he had Jesus, and Jesus was being made famous then Paul had true (not fake) joy. This can be you in your life, God wants you to be joyful, in what do you honestly find your joy, if it isn’t in Jesus then you will never ever have true joy.

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Today we start a study on the book of Phillipians. This book is full of joy, in fact, joy is mentioned sixteen times in the four chapters. I am excited to get into this study because sometimes we miss out on the joy of being a Christian. Hopefully this book will help us to experience joy. The Life Application Study Bible has a great definition for joy “Joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives – that He will be there no matter what!”

Please read Phillipians 1: 1 – 11 and we will specifically focus on verses 9 – 11.
Chapter 1 expresses the thanks that Pauls has for being in fellowship with the phillipian church. He excited to see God’s good work come to completition inside each person in the church (vs. 6). Paul then concludes the introduction with a prayer for those whom he is writing to.

1 Phillipians 1: 9-11

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Paul shares with us two very important ways in which we should pour out our love for God.

Knowledge

The greek word for knowledge here is Epignosis which means to have a decisive knowledge of God. In other words we should read God’s word and decisively apply it to our lives.

We are asked to make decisions about the word of God, not to sit back and accept any old silly notion. Thats a trait of a weak person and we are called to be like God who is not weak. We are asked to decisively learn about God, to test His word until it makes sense to us, to know God’s word to such an extent that it becomes our word.

That way we stand by it because it makes sense to us, it is our decision – because we have started to think the way that God thinks – because He has become our teacher who is imparting His wisdom to us.

Don’t follow the bible and don’t follow God because you have to. Follow Him because you want to, because you have decided to.

Remember Free Will – God gave you that – You need to exercise that in your faith. Freely choose to live for Him, by His word and you will never be embarrassed about your belief, never feel pressured into Godless living. Because it was your decision.

Discernment

The word discern here is a verb “dokimazo” which means to put to the test and then to accept as tested. To actively test and accept as tested would mean to have no doubt in the truth of something. It is no longer a grey area, no longer a stumbling stone to you, no longer a conversation stopper with a non-christian, no longer an obstacle to you getting to know God more.

Every discerning action is helpful in bringing you to a better understanding of God. One at a time your discernment will grow and improve as God works in you as you work out, test and approve the things of God. Your perceptions then will be based around the truth of God’s word.

Neither knowledge or discernment can improve in your Christian walk unless you read God’s word. You need to read and study the bible. It is the life line for you as a christian. Nothing else will help you grow.

READ GOD’s WORD – thats all I am asking!!

• Knowledge is the decision
• Discernment is the action

Both lead to a lifestyle that will show the world God’s hearts

If you would like to listen to a sermon about this click here

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The devotion that we will look at today is again a counter cultural call that Christ has placed on us as Christians, it is the last in the beginning of the Beatitudes that speaks about our attitudes. We are going to look at four verses today, Matthew 5v10-12. It is possible to split up verses 10 and 11+12, but there is merit in looking at them together, as we’re going to do today.

Let’s all just get along…
“Blessed are the peacemakers…” What do you think of when you hear the word “peacemakers”? For myself it was the idea of a weak person who really hates conflict, and is willing to do pretty much anything to avoid it. Many think of peace as meaning the absence of war, but is this really what Jesus means when He talks about peace? It isn’t; Jesus said that He didn’t come to bring that kind of peace (Matthew 10v34-39), but it was prophesied (Isaiah 9v6) that He would be called “Prince of peace”. So then, obviously Jesus has a different definition of peace to us, what then is peace?

Peace?
The peace that Jesus brings, is not a “…why can’t we all get along…” peace, but rather a peace that resolves the conflict between God and us. Through what Jesus did on the cross, taking the undiluted wrath of God on our behalf, He bought peace between God and us. This peace is such that not only is there no more enmity between God and those who have accepted Him, but now we are called His children, He has adopted us! So when Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers, He is saying those that take the message of the peace that God is offering to humanity (the Gospel), they are sons of God.

War!
In the verses following this (V10→12) Jesus gives us a clear warning; when we become Godly peacemakers, when we take the Gospel to the world, we will suffer for it! This is hard, we have this difficult tension, we desire to see God’s grace spread in the places where we are, but we know that some people hate it. However, as people who are living out this counter cultural revolution call of Jesus here in the beatitudes, we desire to please God more than we fear people, and therefore Jesus comforts us. Suffering will come in many different forms, some of it is severe physical suffering, like Gao Zhisheng is currently suffering for Christ, for others it may not be so severe, but as Paul wrote to Timothy: all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2Timothy 3v12).

But…
He doesn’t deny the difficulties that we will face in this world, but in order that we can get through them, Jesus reminds us that we aren’t living for the here and now, our home is in heaven with Him. We aren’t the first people to suffer on God’s behalf, and we probably won’t be the last. So when that opportunity arrises for you to share the Gospel of God’s peace with those who have not received it, don’t be shy, remember that this is what God has called us all to. Although you may suffer, although you may get ridiculed, don’t be not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes!

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If someone makes us a promise, we expect them to keep it. When God makes us a promise, we know that He will keep it. We, as Christians, love the promises of God, go into any Christian bookstore and you will see how many books you can find written about the promises of God. I went in recently and managed to find eleven in a short space of time.

Do you promise me?
As Christians it is important that we treasure the promises that God has given to us, but we need to ensure that they are for us. It’s important to remember that the every book of the Bible was written to a specific people in a specific place, at a specific time, so when we read it we must keep this in mind. Also, we need to try and realise that we live in a specific place at a specific time, and we understand things in our own specific way, and this affects our understanding of what we read in the Bible. It is important to read a verse in its context, so instead of just reading a single verse, read a few before and a few after.

I promise you.
Read through 2Timothy 3v5→10 and see if you can identify the promise that God is making to us… It’s in verse 12; Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted… The only requirement for this promise is that you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, if that is the case for you, then God promises you that you will suffer persecution. We spoke briefly about this verse in last weeks devotion, but this week it will be good for us to look at the comfort and the conviction that this verse brings us in our walk with God.

Believe this.
This verse is convicting for us if we live a life calling ourselves Christians, and we have no idea what persecution actually is. Many Christians have given in too the cultural teaching that we must avoid persecution at all costs, but this is not the case. God is calling us to be a witness where we are, in our office, school, with our friends, and in our families, wherever we find ourselves. We are not supposed to seek out persecution, rather we should seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, and persecution will find us. There is comfort here, for those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, and are suffering for it, take comfort! You are living as God would have you to live, persecution is not a curse from God, no, rather it is a blessing (Acts 5v41), through persecution we grow stronger in our walk, and closer to God. Remember this, God has promised us, that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer some form of persecution, check your life.

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Today we’re carrying on making our way through the beatitudes of Jesus, and we can see how He is calling us to a style of life that is opposite to the culture that we live in.

Mercy is not something that the culture that we live in is known for, if someone dents your car it is only fair that they pay for it. Yet this is what Jesus is calling us to in this next part of the counter cultural revolution, not to pay back an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, rather to show mercy. But, why should we be merciful?

Isn’t it the right thing for someone to repay you when they wrong you, if they broke it, then they should fix it, if they stole that then they should be punished, etc, etc… But let’s take a step back for a second, what if God was like that with us. What if God was up in heaven with an all seeing eye, a clipboard marking down all the times that we messed up, marking down all the times that we messed up and making sure that we pay that back fairly. He isn’t like that, God has shown us mercy upon mercy, and grace upon grace… God is merciful, that is why we should be merciful.

The story goes that there was a boy and his dad on a camping trip, they were camped next to a river that was known to contain crocodiles. The dad said to his son can fish as much as he wants, but he must only fish from the jetty, and not take the boat out, because of the crocodiles. By the second afternoon the boy couldn’t contain himself anymore, and he took one of the boats out. A while later the dad heard a loud scream, followed by splashing, and he knew. The dad raced down to the waters edge and saw his son being attacked by the crocodile, without thinking he dived into the water and grabbed his son, swimming him to safety. The boy stands up, and sees his dad’s leg bitten almost clean off, steps over his dad laying there and gets into the other boat to carry on fishing.

That is obviously absurd, the boy would have been completely heartless to do that! This is the second charge of Jesus here, to those who have been shown mercy by God because of sin, will desire to be pure in heart. Notice this, pure in heart, not only in what they do, but in their very heart. God has saved us, and we receive mercy upon mercy from Him day after day, shouldn’t it be our greatest desire to live for Him with a pure heart, or are we like that boy in the story, do we look at the cross of Christ, and carry on doing those very things that He died for?

Let’s be a people, who love mercy, and desire purity, that is the opposite to what the culture is trying to teach us, but it is what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is…

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