Better Decisions–Fewer Regrets

What this episode covers

Philippians 1:9-11 Blank Outline Completed Outline scroll to 35:20 for beginning of sermon Philippians 1:9-11 All right, our scripture reading is three short verses from Philippians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote from his prison cell a couple of millenniums ago. Let me read it. This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so, that you may be able to discern what is best, may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. I hope you’re excited to jump into the book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in the Bible. And so, let me just give you a little background, a little review. We’ve looked at the first eight verses. It’s called the Joy Epistle. Here’s the apostle Paul who’s in prison, and yet he’s rejoicing. And the word joy or rejoicing is found 16 times in those four chapters. And so, Paul is writing this thank you letter to the Philippians, and the theme is joy. In fact, the name of this series is Pure Joy. And we discovered and stated that what is pure joy? Pure joy is only found, lasting pure joy, in a relationship with God through Jesus. That’s where pure joy is found. That’s why Paul could rejoice, not based on his circumstances, not based on whether it’s 75 degrees and sunny out or six inches of snow out. No, it’s based on that relationship with Christ. So, we looked at the first eight verses last week. Let me just bring us up to speed. We looked at the salutation. This letter’s from Paul and Timothy. Describes themselves as servants of Christ. He uses the word Doulos. Means a bondservant. Means that one that doesn’t have any rights of their own. And then he’s writing to believers, to all God’s holy people in Christ. That’s their spiritual location, their physical location at Philippi with all the overseers and the deacons. So, what happened there? Paul visited about 10 years earlier, a second missionary journey to Philippi. Lydia became the first European convert. She was a businesswoman. Her whole household came to faith in Christ. The Philippian jailer, you know that story in Acts 16, he came to Christ and his whole household and a church developed. And so, now as Paul writes, there’s a church that’s organized and they’ve got leadership and Paul’s writing to them. And here’s his greeting, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week then we looked at the next few verses and we saw the sentimental relationship between Paul and these people. This is a love relationship between Paul, the founding pastor, and the people there at Philippi. And he makes three statements that we looked at in verses 3-8. First of all, he says, I have you in my thoughts. Verse 3, I thank my God every time I think of you, every time I remember you. And then Paul says, I have you in my prayers. Verse 4, in all my prayers for all of you, I pray always with joy. There’s the first-time joy is mentioned. Why? Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And so, here we are 10 years later, Paul’s in prison. What happened? The church at Philippi took up a monetary gift, sent it with Epaphroditus to help out Paul. And Paul’s thanking them because they’ve been partners in the gospel. He’s also thankful and praying with joy. Verse 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ. Paul’s joyful because he’s saying, God doesn’t start a task and not finish it. Unlike some of us, we have unfinished tasks. God’s going to complete salvation. So, there’s three parts to our salvation. Justification, I have been saved. When we put our faith in Christ and God declares us righteous in His sight. And then we could say, I am being saved. That’s sanct

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