Joy in hardships

Transcript (Auto-generated)

The bible reading this morning comes from Philippians chapter 1 and I'm reading from verse 12 to the end of the chapter and I'm reading out of the Amplified Bible now I want you to know and continue to rest assured Brethren that what has happened to me this imprisonment has actually only served to advance and give a renewed impetus to the spreading of the good news the gospel so much is this a fact that throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest here my imprisonment has become generally known to be in Christ that I am a prisoner in his service and for him and also most of the Breen Brethren have derived fresh confidence in the Lord because of my chains and are much more bold to speak and publish fearlessly the word of God acting with more freedom and indifference to the consequences some it is true actually preach Christ the Messiah for no better reason than out of envy and rivalry party Spirit but others are doing so out of a loyal spirit and good will the latter proclaimed CL Christ out of love because they recognize and know that I am providentially put here for the defense of the good news the gospel but the former preached Christ out of a party Spirit insincerely out of no pure motive but thinking to annoy me supposing they are making my bondage more bitter and my chains more ging but what does it matter so long as either way whether in pretense for personal ends or in all honesty for the furtherance of the truth Christ is proclaimed and in that and in that I now Rejoice yes and I shall rejoice Hereafter also for I am well assured and indeed know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ the Messiah this will turn out for my preservation for the spiritual Health and Welfare of my own soul and Avail toward the saving work of the Gospel this is in keeping with my own eager desire and persistent expectation and hope that I shall not disgrace myself nor be put to shame in anything but that with the utmost freedom of speech and unfailing courage now as always here to for Christ the Messiah will be magnified and get glory and praise in this body of mine and be boldly exalted in my person whether through by life or through by death for me to live is Christ his life in me and to die is gain the gain of the glory of Eternity if however it is to be life In the Flesh and I am to live on here that means fruitful service for me so I can say nothing as to my personal preference I cannot choose but I am hard pressed between the two my yearning desire is to be is to depart to be free of this world to set forth and be with Christ for that is far far better but to remain in my body is more needful and essential for your sake since I am convinced of this I know that I shall remain and stay by you all to promote your progress and joy in believing so that in me you may have abundant cause for exaltation and glorifying in Jesus Christ through my coming to you again only be sure as Citizens so to conduct yourselves that your manner of life will be worthy of the good news the gospel of Christ so that whether I do come and see you or am absent I may hear this of you that you are standing standing firm in United spirit and purpose striving side by side and contending with a single mind for the faith of the Glad Tidings the gospel and Do Not For a Moment be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and adversaries for such constancy and fearlessness will be a clear sign proof and seal to them of their impending destruction but a sure token and evidence of your deliverance and salvation and that from God for you have been granted the privilege for Christ's sake not only to believe in adhere to rely on and trust in him but also to suffer in his behalf so you are engaged in the same conflict which you saw me wage and which you now hear to be mine still and this is God's word good morning thank you Julie good morning church it's good to see you all this morning before you get too comfortable can everyone jump up for me I want everyone on their feet if you're able to I'd love everyone to stand with me we're going to do a little bit of an exercise don't worry it's not star jumps okay we're going to do a little bit of an exercise and we're just going to see what happens this should be a helpful observation for each of us okay what I'm going to do is in a moment I'm going to list I think it's something like eight statements okay and I don't want to single anyone out so you can wait till the end of all the statements before you do what I'm going to ask you to do okay but listen to each of the statements that I'm about to say and if even just one of them relates to you if you go yeah I've experience that what I want you to do is at the end I want you to sit back down okay everyone understand what we're doing yep cool if you're at home stand up I I can't see you but stand up be involved it'll be great okay these are the statements have you ever been thrown into jail unjustly have you ever lost your job unexpectedly or experienced a messy relationship breakdown maybe a marriage or maybe a friendship Group which was just pushing you out it was messy it got complicated it was difficult that relationship broke down have you ever experienced a time of rejection where it felt like you would never fit in despite your best efforts have you ever had a week where everything that could have gone wrong actually did go wrong it was just one of those weeks have you ever not had enough money in the bank account to pay the bills to put food on the table to be able to get through the week have you ever suffered from a significant injury or sickness or has someone Close to You suffered a significant injury or sickness have you ever experienced the death of a loved one if any of those apply to you would you sit down for me church have a look around the room there is not one person left standing I'm standing but I would be sitting down as well okay I knew someone would say that not one person is standing because none of this applied why have we started like this what what is the purp purp what are we trying to achieve through this exercise look around the room we just did a case study and the case study shows that not one of us has experienced life so far without any hint of hardship each and every person in this room and I'm going to take a while guess everyone online okay has experienced hardship in some way shape or form in their Liv life and this isn't a new idea right the Bible warns us of this it's a Biblical truth the Bible reveals that we live in a sinful Fallen World and that the consequence of that is that things aren't the way that God designed them to be we experience difficulty and hardship and so looking around the room acknowledging that there's not one person in here who can come ly say I've not experienced anything wrong in life before we dive into this topic can we pray would you join me in that Heavenly Father Lord God in this room this morning we can sense the heaviness that can come with the topic of hardship and yet Lord my prayer is that as we unpack this Lord that each of us would be filled with joy father God there may be some in the room who are experiencing hardship right now and my prayer is that for each of them Lord that your hand would be upon them Lord that you would comfort them by your Holy Spirit Lord for each of us would you give us hearts and ears that are open to hear what it is that you you want to say to each of us this morning we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.