This is from my college friend Eric Butler. Admittedly, he and I may disagree on some points of theology and life as we all do, but I wanted to reblog this post because Eric takes a position that not many have considered, and it is worth pondering

Phil 1:12-18a-God’s Jewelry: Christ’s Chains-9/21/14

SECTION I

An idea worth going to prison is a dangerous idea but a commendable one.

Our brothers and sisters in Jesus who are being persecuted all over the world are seeing this. 

 Yes, they may suffer terribly, but God does a wonderfully beautiful and confusing thing: The gospel doesn’t retreat, it doesn’t even stay stagnant, rather it grows, advances, presses on, marches.

The church is exploding in places like South America, Africa, Asia, and others in the third world.

Both Jesus and Paul suffered so that the good news (gospel) would be carried globally, saving the world.

God’s kingdom does not retreat, for why would you retreat if your enemy is weaker than you?God’s kingdom presses on despite the hardships.

God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. Remember that, do not be closed-minded to ways that God is still working in the world.

Human circumstances are in God’s hands and He uses them to advance the gospel.

When difficult, even life-threatening, circumstances face us, we should take Paul as our example and look for how God might be working still.

How do we do this? We remember God is in control, and we remind ourselves of evidence from the past that God has been at work in the church.

From the beginning of the church in the New Testament to the present day, God has been acting mightily.

SECTION II

This new section talks about Paul’s rivals. There are basically two groups preaching. One is doing it by envy, the other by goodwill.

One group is motivated by love, the other is motivated by selfish ambition. One group is false, and the other is true.

Both preach Christ, and the wrong one probably wants to do it to get more power and to undercut Paul.

Yet even so, Paul can still rejoice. He does not have to fear, because the truth of the gospel is getting out there, and that gives Paul joy.

How? Well the answer is God has the power to make people with impure or even downright sinister motives still serve his ends.

Paul’s suffering was real, the same as your suffering may be today, but that did not destroy his hope that even if he hurt, lives were being changed for Christ. God can still take hurt and shattered pieces and create something beautiful.

Three Implications–

First-the passage demonstrates indirectly the value of finding believers who can serve as examples of how to grapple with suffering the way a Christian should.

Second–the passage demonstrates and important principle of truth, one often missed by modern Christians, particularly here in the U.S. God works not merely in spite of but through adverse circumstances. He chose the foolishness of the cross to accomplish his redemptive purposes (1 Cor. 1:18),

We think struggle is a bad thing: it isn’t always. God chose to work through the means of struggle, so in order to demonstrate that the advancement of the gospel was God’s doing rather than a matter of human ingenuity (1 Cor. 1:29; 2 Cor. 4:7)

Third-this passage shows that when our joy is connected to the advancement of the gospel rather than to our physical condition or to the responses of other people to us, it remains firm, even when these circumstances stand against us.

MAIN IDEA: Remember Paul’s example. Nothing can stop the gospel from going forward. Paul stakes his life on that. He is in prison, false preachers abound yet gospel prevails.

You may have chains. it may come in the form of persecution from people for your faith, from personal struggles, but if you are living for the gospel, then God considers those to be the chains of Christ, the shackles of the Savior, God’s jewelry.

For full sermon from Pastor Craig click faithinactionrichlandcob.wordpress.com/phil-112-18a-gods-jewelry-christs-chains/

Philipians 1:1-11-Attention All Saints

Like Joseph, Paul had known his fair share of struggles too, and it is with that in mind that we turn to our text here.

When Paul wrote Philippians, he was in prison awaiting trial whose outcome could mean his death.

Yet even among all that, Paul was thankful, and he was joyful, not because he was glad to be in prison, but because even as he lingered in his jail cell, even as the church in Philippi was persecuted, even from a worldly perspective that all seemed lost,

 …even then…the gospel of Jesus Christ was advancing! This good news could not be stopped for it was like a hurricane, blasting its way in changing everything it touched.

We may face struggles to live lives for Jesus, but you don’t need to sound the trumpet of surrender or retreat for we know and can testify that God is here, and HE has shown us ever since the cross and the empty tomb that He is on a rescue mission.

He is working to reclaim and renew everything. Do you remember when we looked in the beginning when God created everything and called it “good”?

Then humanity was created and said to God, our creator, “We’ll take it from here” and then fell into brokenness and sin.

That brokenness affected everything around us. Our bodies age and decay, our sense of reason, of justice, of love, mercy, even the creation itself is going through the effects of sin.

Yet, the Bible gives the good news: God demonstrates His own love in this, “that while we were still broken, still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God is on the move, putting into motion the plan to redeem all of creation; everything you see, and that is why Paul, and we, can be joyful, because God’s plan cannot be thwarted.

Three parts, and he stresses three items that we will examine: unity, faithfulness, and love.

In the Philippian church, they were all different, yes, but God had brought them together and they had no choice but to work in unity, because that is how they survived.

What makes us alike is deeper than what makes us different. We have been brought together by Christ in this place to worship him and do his work in the world.

In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, liberty, in all things, community.

Unity=putting others’ interests ahead of your own and the gospel mission as top priority.

Part 1 is unity, Part 2 is faithfulness-What Paul means as “saints” is that we as Christians are a unified people that God has called out from among others and set apart, for a purpose.

Paul calls the Philippians this and calls all Christians this term saints, and it is to remind us of who we are and how we are to act in response.

We are God’s treasured possession. God is working in our lives, each one of us, AND He will bring it to completion.

What is my role? Your role, your loyalty, your faithfulness comes by picking up your cross daily and following

Paul tells the church of his prayer, and it is basically that their knowledge of God and their love for each other will steadily increase.

His desire is that they might express their love in ways that show both a knowledge of God’s will and how to make moral decisions in everyday life.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Unity in the church, loyalty to God, charity to one another

Use what you are good at & show one another & world your faith, for it is attracts outsiders and strengthens church

Paul took a simple letter, and he made it to preach the gospel to this church. Paul took every opportunity, used every means available to show Jesus.

We can do that too…Church let us get creative. We do not need to carry a pulpit everywhere we go, our culture today likes the visual arts, both for entertainment and a search for meaning. So let us perhaps explore the new possibilities of sharing the news, using methods in this time to promote the One who is timeless.

For Full Sermon, click this link Phil. 1:1-11-Calling All Saints!