Complete Joy - Part 2

Bryan Chapell: There can be peace in you now because God who made all things, who continues to control all things by the word of his power, that same God is for me now. And he's going to work all things together for good. I don't even understand how that happens, but that's his word's promise and I believe that now. And when you believe that, you have grace and you have peace.
Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares the second half of a lesson from Philippians Chapter 1. Dr. Chapell investigates the joy that comes with being clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Despite our pain and weakness, we can find hope and joy in him. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for the children's book Anyway and Always, written by Pastor Bryan and his wife Kathy. Through this book, the Chapells present the promise of the covenant's fulfillment by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the second half of the lesson, Complete Joy.
Bryan Chapell: When you think Philippians, think jails because Paul is writing this book of Philippians, a letter that he is sending to a church, a house church back in Philippi. He is writing this letter from a jail in Rome where he is imprisoned. This letter is written to a group of people whose circumstances are described first in Acts Chapter 16. You may remember the Apostle Paul is actually in another part of the world, in the Middle East, and he gets a vision called the Macedonian vision where a man from Greece, that Southern Europe, says, "Come over and help us." Paul and Silas begin what we think of as the second missionary journey and they begin at Philippi, this Greek town where Paul crosses all kinds of boundaries—a Middle Eastern Jew going to a Greek Southern European city. He meets with a group of women in prayer, not to Jesus Christ, but we're not quite sure what they're praying to by the riverside. As he begins speaking, a Jewish man to a European woman—strange things in those times—he tells her about Jesus Christ. Her name is Lydia. She is a seller of purple cloth, a businesswoman, and she believes. From that point not only begins to support Paul financially in his mission to the world, but spiritually as well, supports him and others in the church. That's not the last woman we see at Philippi. Paul and Silas begin to minister inside the town, and there's a slave girl who begins to follow after them. She has a fortune-telling demon within her and she follows Paul and Silas day after day saying, "These men are from the most high God!" and she mocks them saying, "They will tell you the way of salvation!" Finally, Paul has had enough of it and he says to the demon, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." The demon comes out of her, but so does her fortune-telling ability. So her handlers are deprived of their income, they get mad, they take Paul and Silas to the authorities, and they have them beaten with rods. It's not just an old custom. In a few months, you will send me to Malaysia and you may remember Malaysia occasionally makes the news when Muslims convert to Christianity in Malaysia, they are beaten with rods by the government as well. Still happens. Still happens in our world. Paul and Silas are not only beaten with rods, they're put into jail. And at midnight after they have sung their songs, an earthquake opens the doors. Paul and Silas do not leave, knowing if they leave it will mean death for their jailer. And the jailer, when he discovers they have not left, says, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul and Silas say, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your household." The whole household is baptized that night. After that night, Paul continues on his mission. It's supported by years from those at Philippi as they continue to say, "We want to tell others the good news and help you to do it." Paul is betrayed by his own countrymen. To save his own life, he appeals for a trial before Caesar and so he's sent to Rome where he's waiting for years for his trial. It's while he's waiting that he writes this letter. If you've ever liked going through the letters in your grandmother's attic and finding hopefully the one from Abraham Lincoln to her, or going to ancestry.com and looking at those documents of your heritage, this is the letter to the first church of Europe. The Apostle Paul is writing to these people who are the great grandmother church of us all of European heritage or of those touched by European missions. This is that early letter. Let's stand in honor of God's word as we see Paul's word to the first European church of all time. 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 remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer 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. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for faithful Christians in the world today who under oppression are still strong for the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for the heritage of our forebears who because of faith in Jesus Christ witnessed against trial and persecution so that we might name the name of Jesus and become part of his mission to the world even now. Would you help us this day to see not only the precious gift that is ours, but the gift to share? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Reading recently in John Leonard's book Get Real about sharing our faith not with just standard words and phrases that only Christians understand, I couldn't help but think about how do you get real about telling people about your faith? He describes an example from his own experience and I've seen this reflected in what some of you do when you go out to eat. John Leonard describes just sitting down at a table to be served by a waitress and as she took the order of the people there, he said, "We're from a church and we're going to pray for our meal afterwards. Is there anything that we could pray about for you when you bring our meal?" The waitress kind of went, "No, I can't think of anything I want you to pray about." He said, "Well, that's fine. Maybe just when you bring our drinks, if you've thought of something by then, just tell us and I'll pray for it." A few minutes she came back with the drinks and she kind of looked furtively around the restaurant and then sat down very close to him so that she could speak very softly. She said, "I've been a drug addict almost all of my adult life. I have only been clean for six months. Would you pray that God would keep me clean?" He said, "I can pray for that." Then he said she turned over her left hand with the palm side up and pulled back her watch where he could see the scar of her recently having tried to take her own life. She said, "And would you pray that God would make me happy?" He said, "Yes, I can pray for that too." Is that real? Does God really bring happiness into such troubled lives? If you believe that you are nesting in Christ Jesus, that the sin and the weakness and the shame is somehow covered by his righteousness, that you are robed in the reality of who Christ is and what he was willing to do for you so that what you do is you stand before God pure and right and shameless, then you begin to say there can be peace in you now because God who made all things, who continues to control all things by the word of his power, that same God is for me now. He's going to work all things together for good. I don't even understand how that happens, but that's his word's promise and I believe that now. When you believe that, you have grace and you have peace. It is the intention of the gospel and when it really comes upon you the way it did to those people at Philippi, you don't just want to kind of hold it, you want to tell somebody. Let me tell you about the grace and peace that I know. Let me share this with you. It's the very thing that Paul is praying about with such rejoicing. He says in verse 3, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you," that is the church at Philippi, "always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this: that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. I'm rejoicing in all of you. Not just the officers, not just the recognized good people, the long-term prayer warriors, I'm rejoicing for all of you in Christ Jesus." Because I recognize that that work in you has made you want to be partners in the work of the gospel from the first day until now. It's a literal statement. Lydia, from the first day of perceiving the grace of God for her, took her business earnings and began to support the life mission of the Apostle Paul so that what had touched her heart would touch many more hearts. That was from the very beginning. Paul, toward the end of this letter, will begin to thank the Philippians for their gift of giving and receiving. So that as he went from their place to minister across the world, they never forgot him. They said, "The grace that's touched us, that saved us, that freed us, we want other people to know." Their hearts were so changed that their priorities changed and they wanted their partnership, their giving in the gospel to spread the mission of grace and peace. Because they recognized if they were eggs in that nest, God meant them to fly and sing. They were going to enable every way they could the message to fly and sing across the world. The reality of that is still hard for us. Sure it is, because not a mystery to you if you look at the back of the bulletin, right? We're struggling financially in a community that's struggling financially. The great temptation is to fold our tent and pull in our wings. Instead of saying, "No, listen, is there ever a better time for a community to hear the wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives you grace and peace, joy in the morning even while you're still in the dark?" It's in the time of the struggle that the joy and peace can make so much. Our leaders of this church, the deacons and the elders, I'm just going to tell you they have struggled nobly to put together next year's budget to say, "How do we steward well and at the same time not forget our mission? How do we keep both pieces in play?" Wonderful watching men of faith struggle in unity for the work of the gospel and the protection of the church and doing both so the gospel can fly and sing. It's part of the beauty of being a church of Jesus Christ as people are saying, "I'm in partnership with the gospel. What can I do to maintain this great message?" Paul tries to encourage them by saying, "I'm telling you why you should do it because I am sure," verse 6, "of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion." Maybe it's hard to hear that here. What if you were one of those Chinese pastors who by the hundreds are singing "Great is Thy Faithfulness"? They will go home to worship in secret, not in a place like this. God is working all things together for good and he's shown us his grace and peace and the gift of Jesus Christ. Great is Thy faithfulness regardless of what the world brings. I know what heaven holds and I will say great is Thy faithfulness. So he gives praise for the church. Remember again, the very first church of Europe, who they can't possibly perceive it, are going to multiply and influence so that you and I are sitting here today. This is the promise that God is making to his corporate church, not just back then but even now. He's not just talking about finishing off the work of the gospel. That word completion is also about filling up the work of the gospel. All churches who are faithful to the mission of God, of the testimony of Jesus Christ, are part of the completion that God is doing. I just rejoiced in this week to see the many ways that God has taken this church, not just sending me off somewhere to do something for the gospel, but what people here are doing for the sake of the gospel, completing, being made complete for the purposes of God that he gives to this church. I was with some of you last Monday night as Mike Jackson was doing the evangelism seminar. I listen to Mike talk about evangelism and I go, "How does he do that?" He is so able and skilled and zealous and I think I don't have those gifts. But he does. I look around the room and there are people from their teens to their seventies. There are singles and there are marrieds. There are young couples there that just had babies days ago and they are still here to learn to evangelize. I think God is completing his work. He's filling up the church by all the kinds of people who are coming to say we're meant to sing and fly this message of the gospel. I think of Mike Flynn who's doing such an amazing job not only reaching men in this church, but across the region trying to help men understand how important the gospel can be to him. I think of Sarah Alkyre who is working with women not just in our church, but women across our region who are considering what it means to be ministers for the gospel, to work with women who know Jesus and don't know Jesus. Through the programs have children and women by hundreds meeting here on Tuesday mornings. We always say, "What? It doesn't serve us." It's not meant to serve us. It's meant to say God is doing something through his people that helps the gospel to shine and flow. There's just this divine intercession whenever you perceive it. God has entered my life to bring the message of his grace and his peace. That divine intercession when you perceive it creates kind of a supernatural selflessness where we're no longer just concerned about our bank account and our worship style and our church process. We are saying, "How can we multiply the gospel?" When we begin to see God doing that through all generations and ages and people and races. As I look at all the things that God is enabling you to do, that you're so willing to do for the sake of the gospel, I just have to back up and say, "My, oh my, you are saints." Well, not every day in every way, but in Christ Jesus, you are saints. You have to believe that, that you are holy ones for a holy purpose. Because you are holy ones for a holy purpose, I praise God that the prayer of the Apostle Paul is one that I can say when I'm in China or Malaysia, wherever you send me. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer 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. I praise God for you and the God who claimed you and the work that he's given us to do. Praise God. Will you say Amen? Amen.
Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor and Author Bryan Chapell. Raising children to love the Lord can sometimes feel like a daunting task. The physical, mental, and emotional energy needed to engage with a child can also lead to feelings of inadequacy and doubt for parents. How then can you effectively talk with children about Jesus or demonstrate to them his love? Written by Pastor Bryan and his wife Kathy, Anyway and Always is a heartwarming children's book designed to help explain the love of Christ to a child. The Chapells present the promise of the covenants fulfilled by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand. Page after page of beautiful illustrations complement Bryan and Kathy's captivating storytelling. Whether you read this as a bedtime story or share it around the family dinner table, this book is sure to become a favorite of children and parents alike. You can request your copy of Anyway and Always when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.
Bryan Chapell: Hi friend, this is Pastor Bryan again. Today we've considered how the Bible encourages us to trust our Savior. If you find yourself in a situation today where you need to trust Jesus more with what's going on in your life, then I want to pray for you. Will you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, as we begin to grasp the power and the love of Jesus' passion for us, we reach toward him and we know that's what you want. You want us to turn to our Savior with the confidence that he can and will hold us through all of life's trials and for eternity. When we see how Jesus gave his life in order to save sinners like us, we love him, we turn to him, we trust him. Help us to do that right now, even if our circumstances are tough and our sins are great. Help us to believe that no matter how great is the difficulty or how heavy is our baggage, how deep may be our shame, there really is hope for each of us when we trust in Jesus. Your Son has your heart and your power. So we ask that your Son, Heavenly Father, this Jesus Christ that we're turning to, would pardon our sin, help us to live for you, and hold us for eternity. That's a big prayer, but his grace is big enough. And so we ask that you would apply it to our lives as you know is best, for then we will be truly blessed. And so we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. When you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. While you're there, you will find a collection of videos, podcasts, and more. Also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Bryan Chapell and his wife Kathy called Anyway and Always. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.