Finding God’s Good Purpose

[00:00:00] Well, we have started the study in the book of Philippians and it is an incredible book where it talks about hope and confidence and, and optimism in the midst of difficulty. And this morning we're gonna be looking at just a few verses, verses 12 through 14 and chapter one. Uh, if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to open it up and keep it open during our time so you see.

Where it all comes from, where the points come from. I'm actually gonna start by reading not only those verses, but also verse six of chapter one, because that kind of sets some of the tone. We looked at that last week, but let me start with Philippians one, six and then go to verse 12, 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.

Verse 12. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. So it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ and most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak [00:01:00] the word without fear.

May God bless the reading this word. Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we have to now come and Father, to be able to look at your word here, father, to see the incredible encouragement from Paul, from his story, from his application of truth into his own life, and Father, how that challenges us.

I pray now that you would speak through me and in spite of me, father, help each one of us. No matter what, we've walked in here with what, how overwhelmed or discouraged, how worried. Father, help us to be able to be encouraged by, by your word this morning as your spirit speaks to each one of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Now, Paul was the founding pastor, the a book of, uh, or the church in Philippi. And, uh, and they were a group that, that he knew that were now confused and discouraged. You know, they're looking at Paul, he's been in prison for three to four years. They're, they're looking at the stuff that they're facing and, and, and they're worried.

And, and, and Paul knows that. And so he writes this letter of, of the book of Phil, uh, Philippians in [00:02:00] response to their concerns. And the incredible thing is, in spite of all the worries, this is a book that talks about joy. It's a book that talks about joy, how we can find joy and hope and confidence in the most difficult of circumstances.

And what we're gonna see is that it comes from learning to live life and see life from God's perspective. See, the challenge is this, how do we see life? How do, what is the, in a sense, the lens and through which we see life? I. Many people will say, well, we divide it into two groups. You know, you have the optimists and the pessimists.

The optimists focus on the good, then pessimists, focus on the bad. Uh, the old illustration, the, you know, the optimist, the glass is half full, pessimist is half empty. We, we all know the difference. I love Winston Churchill. He defined the difference between the two saying a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity.

The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. And there's some truth to that. I somebody else pointed out, you know, you kind of need both in society, you need the optimist to, to invent the airplane, you need the pessimist to invent the parachute. You know, there's some truth [00:03:00] in that. And so, so what, what, when we think about that, what is an optimist?

An optimist is someone who, who focuses on the good and on the opportunity. And when we apply to our faith, you know, it's also looking at it and saying, okay, this is where, this is the good things that God is doing. These are the promises, and the optimists will be the ones that will quote God causes all things to work for good.

You know? Yeah, I can do all things. Who Christ who strengthens me. God has his plans for you to prosper you. And, and they're looking at the op opportunities and, and they see the best in people. And because they believe in the best in people they, you know, they hope that the others will do well and. But there's disappointment that can come.

Why? Because, because you believe as an optimist, if you're nice to people, they'll be nice to you. And as an optimist, you believe, well, if I serve God, then God's going to bless me. And but the fact is that that doesn't always happen. Sometimes you know that we're disappointed. And in fact, someone has said that a pessimist is really an optimist with experience.

And, uh, why? Because the fact is this real life doesn't always work the way we'd hope. A [00:04:00] pessimist would say, well, no, they're realistic in their perspective. They focus on brokenness and challenges. Why? Because we live in a broken world. There's there, there's people have sin, nature, people are out to harm us.

And, and so they look at that and, and so they will look for the difficulty and the opportunity. I. They tend to see the weaknesses in people and or even, even kind of always looking for the shoe to be about to drop. I've talked to people who have said, you know, man, my life's going really well now God's really blessing, but, but it kind of makes me nervous because I'm afraid what God has in store for me.

See, that's a pessimist that's saying that, and when I think about a pure optimist, a pure optimist not only doesn't see the, you know, focuses on the positive, they don't even see the problems. You know, everything's gonna work according to plan. And I, I tend to be really a pure optimist. I mean, those who know me, that's not a great surprise.

I mean, as an example that when I drive somewhere, I not only assume there will be no traffic, I assume I will have all green lights. I mean, one [00:05:00] time, like seven years ago, driving from here, you know, from home to here, I got every green light I got here in 15 minutes. And I'm surprised that there's traffic.

And I, I, you know, I'm frustrated every time. I, I don't make it in 15 minutes. I mean, that's kind of the way I am now. My wife is more of a pessimist. She, she would disagree with me. She says she's not a pessimist, she's a realist. Um, I have to admit, there's a little bit of truth in what she's saying. Not that she's right, but there's just a little bit of truth and, um, you know, see the pessimist sees more the problems.

Now, I would say that I used to see optimism as a more biblical perspective, but I've grown in my study of God's word to see that that's not really true. Why? Because both optimism and pess pessimism are rooted in our own view of life. But what happens when things don't turn out well? Hey, I'm sure you heard the story about, you know, a man who had a, a child who was incredibly optimistic and the dad figured out how I'm gonna teach them a bit of reality.

So he puts the [00:06:00] child in a room filled with, with manure, and right away the child becomes ecstatic and jumps in and he says, with all this manure, and here the, there has to be a pony somewhere. Now the problem is sometimes we get in a full room full of a manure and there's no pony. There's just manure.

Yeah. And so what happens is that if we're optimistic, we get destroyed. See, as I've looked at the Bible and, and I've learned this over the years, I've learned to see that God really isn't optimistic or pessimistic. He calls us to a third option. It's an option that, on the one hand, is incredibly realistic about evil and about the challenges that we face, while at the same time being incredibly optimistic about the future.

And what we need to do is to learn to see the world and life through God's perspective. In fact, I've tried to figure this out and I've made up a word to describe it. I'm, I'm gonna call it a not an optimist or a pessimist. A sovereign, A sovereign is one who learns to see through life, through God's perspective, and then, [00:07:00] uh, focusing on God sees his good purposes.

The fact is that God is in control of everything. He's in charge of everything that happens in our life. He is sovereign and in a sovereign plan, he does allow evil. He does allow brokenness, but he only allows it when he can use it for good. It's the idea that Paul talks about in Romans 8 28 where Paul says this.

We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. That's the sovereignty perspective. Now, it's a passage that some people misquote or misunderstand because it doesn't say that God causes everything to be good. There are things that aren't good.

There are things that are bad, that are evil, but God works all things together for good. He takes even the bad, even the evil, even the brokenness, and he brings it together for good. See what he's teaching us here in what the Bible teaches is that it's, the Bible is very realistic about evil, but at the same time affirms that God is greater than evil.

That [00:08:00] God works everything to the purpose of the, of the council of his will. In other words, people will do sinful things. You will do sinful things. Sinful things will be done with done to you. But that's not the final word because God is bigger than sin. And God will even use sin and brokenness to his purpose when we allow him to turn it according to his will.

Now, I don't wanna downplay the bad things that happen in people's lives, but I wanna say in the midst of that, God is still in charge and God is allowing it for good purpose. And so it allows us to both be discouraged and to struggle and, and to, and feel the pain when bad things are happening at the same time, to have confidence and, and hope and optimism in the midst of that.

Because we know that God is bigger than Satan. He's bigger than us. He's bigger than our folly. He's bigger than rebellion. He's bigger than the opponents. Another passage it teaches I love it, is in Ephesians one 11. It says this in him, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who [00:09:00] works all things according to the council of his will.

He works. Everything out to the council of his will if we let him, God will redeem even our failures, even our brokenness, even our mistakes, even all the things that we regret, and he will somehow turn it around into something that is consistent with the purpose of his good, good will. Now, that's what Paul is teaching in Philippians one, six.

It's the same idea where he says, now 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. This is a promise that is at the foundation of everything that he's teaching us. It's the foundation that allows us to see the life with the realism about the problems we face.

That still has the confidence and hope and optimism that we know that God is greater than the problem. It's it's foundation to our faith. Now, what we're going to see in the coming weeks is that Paul is writing this letter to this group of believers who are in the midst of all kinds of problems. He's writing to a [00:10:00] group that is discouraged and he's going to address that and bring incredible hope and optimism.

But I want what, what I want you to see before he gets to any of the specific problems he gives this foundation. He says, okay, I want you to have this foundation that you can be sure that he who began a good work will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. And what we're gonna see starting this morning in the next few weeks, is that he takes this idea and says, okay, this isn't just theory.

Let me show you what it looks like in my own life. He says, because I really believe this principle, let me talk about my own confusion, my own brokenness, that the places where it seems like God isn't working in my life. And let me show you what this looks like when I apply it there. And what he's doing is here is he's showing us that the promises that God is sovereignly guiding our lives for good.

And he's showing us and then teaching us to interpret our lives through the lens of, shall we say, a sovereign is to see and interpret life with hope and confidence in the [00:11:00] midst of, at the same time being realistic about the pain that we deal with. Now there's incredible certainty in what Paul is saying here, though.

It. He's coming and he's saying, I'm sure of this. And it's all the confidence that comes, not with I know you can do it. You can make, pull it off. It's confidence in God himself. He's calling us to rest in God's sovereignty and God's goodness. We know that we're in God's hands now. Even as we try to apply that, we have to acknowledge that it can be difficult.

Why? Because? Because a lot of times I can know something in my mind, but yet I really have a hard time believing it in practice. And you hear me talk about there's a gap between my theology and my practical beliefs, and that's true for all of us. And, and it's brought, brought out especially to turn times of difficulty.

I have something I know theologically, but I really have a hard time believing so, so I know that God is in charge of everything. I know that God is good, and yet when I have a crisis, I panic as if God isn't. [00:12:00] I know it here, I don't practically believe it. So the challenge is how can I then take what I know, not just quote the ver verse that God, it began a good work and he's gonna bring it to completion.

How can I really apply it to our lives? Because there is a challenge in this. There's a challenge of faith that this is, this is not just something that, you know, we memorize it, we know it. The challenge we see here. Is in this context. People are having a hard time believing this because they're discouraged, they're confused, they're dealing with all kinds of problems.

Paul, again, himself, has been in prison between three and four years. He's writing this while he's waiting trial before Niro, and, and his words are not, you know, empty, glib optimism. Hey, things will work out. You know, if you have enough faith, God's gonna answer your prayers the way, expect no, he doesn't tell them that God's going to save them from their problems, that he's gonna make everything better.

But he says, God's going to bring salvation. He's gonna bring deliverance through [00:13:00] your problems. He's going to accomplish good things. You know, there are churches and pastors who teach that if you believe in Jesus, you know, then he's gonna bless you and he's gonna bless you materially and, and give you physical blessings.

And, and I've dealt with people that have been taught that, but that's not the teaching in the Bible. See if you look even here in Philippians at the end of chapter one, at the end of all the encouragement that Paul's gonna say, look at what he says as part of that encouragement, verse 29, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw that I had and now here that I still have is this encouragement we're gonna suffer.

You see, this isn't, again, glib optimism. It's, it's acknowledging that we're gonna experience difficulty. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world where we not only deal with the effect of the fall in general, but there are gonna be people that pose us specifically because of our faith. But at the same time, we can [00:14:00] help have hope and optimism and even joy because we know that God is in control.

Look what Peter says in res, in response to a people likewise, who were surprised by problems. He says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fairy fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised it's gonna happen. You see, the Bible teaches consistently that we should expect life to be difficult.

Now, Paul is teaching as Peter taught. Don't be shocked. Don't be surprised. Bad things are gonna happen to God's people, right? Because we live in a world that this isn't our final home. We're not in heaven. This side of eternity, we still deal with the effects of fallenness. And, and not only that with opposition.

Now here's what's key to this. We've gotta have the right understanding of this because if we don't, there've been gonna be people who expect only good things. I've, I've, again, dealt with friends who have been taught that, and suddenly there's problems and they're taught if I just have enough faith, if I just do this, and [00:15:00] then God's gonna bless me and why isn't God blessing me?

And if I assume that God is only gonna bless me, then God can't have a good purpose in the trial. But here, if we understand from the Bible, the Bible and its teaching, and then see life through the line lens of a sovereign, we're gonna see that yes, we should expect life to be difficult. We're gonna be realistic in life.

But at the same time, while we realize that while some things are truly bad, God is sovereign over everything, over the bad, over the sinful, over the broken, and he always has a good purpose. And if we see life that way, we will learn to learn. Look for that good work purpose. Now let's see what that looks like in practice.

'cause that's what Paul does, is he says, okay, let me show you through the model of my own life how I've taken that promise of God and I've applied it to my life. That's what we see in verses 12 through 14. In verse 12, he says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

And when he [00:16:00] says What has happened to me, we've gotta step back and say, well, what's happening to him? Uh, so let me put a little context here. We know this from the rest of the book of Philippians. From the Book of Acts. Uh, what had happened is that the Paul's in prison, the Philippians, had expressed their concern to him and sent this guy a paphitis and he brought a monetary gift to be able to share with Paul to help meet his needs at that time.

And from a paphitis. Paul also then hears about all, not only their problems, their concern for him, and uh, and in the midst of that he starts off and saying. I want you to know that God, you know that God is still working as good purpose. Now, the context, again, from their perspective, they're looking at Paul.

Paul, why are you imprisoned? When Paul planted the church in, in Philippi, in Acts 16, he was arrested that day. That day, God brought an earthquake, you know, sprung the prison open, released him. So they're looking at it and they're saying, God, we know God can release you if he wants. And that's what they prayed for, but it didn't [00:17:00] happen.

You see, Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem for preaching the gospel by enemies of the gospel who wanted to get him out of the way, and they made up a false, uh, false accusation against him. And so he was arrested. He's brought before the governor. The governor knows he's innocent, but doesn't wanna upset the Jewish people, so he just lets him rot in prison for two years.

Finally, another guy comes in, Felix, uh, Festus, comes in another governor, and, and he's, well, I'm gonna send you back to Jerusalem for trial, and Paul knows he's gonna be killed there if that happens. So he appeals as a Roman citizen for trial before the Emperor, before Nero. So then he sent on this long journey to Rome.

After a long journey includes a shipwreck. Finally he gets in Rome. He's put under house arrest where he's then assigned a guard. He's assigned part of, you know, of Niro's private guard. And uh, and they're chained to him at all times. And he then waits for trial for two years for the trial to even take place.

So by the time that Paul writes this letter, he's been under arrest by false pretense for [00:18:00] and under captivity for three to four years. And the process is dragged on and on without any sign of positive resolution, and everyone's gotten more discouraged. Why? Because it seems like the enemies of God have won.

They've chained the messenger of the gospel. They've changed the gospel itself. And, and Paul, his perspective, and he's, you know, he has no freedom. He has no privacy. He's chained to this guard at all times, and, and it sounds terrible. And, and if you look at it and Paul's saying, you know, I know that you know that he would began a work, good work.

We can bring it to completion. And you look at his situation and saying, how is this good? I mean, what is the good that could possibly come out of this? And what Paul says is, no, I believe that he who began a work, good work is bringing it to completion. And because I believe that he then says in verse 12, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

God is accomplishing his good purpose. Yeah, the path has been hard and unpleasant. It's not what I've expected, but [00:19:00] God is sovereign and he's accomplishing his good purpose. My friends, we've gotta see that this is a model. If we really learn to see life in this way, if we learn to understand that God is sovereign in every circumstance we face, that he always has a good purpose behind it, it's gonna totally change our perspective of life.

Now, some people might say, but yeah, it's easy for you to say you don't understand the circumstances I face. You don't know how bad it is. But again, let me ask you, was there ever a time where it seemed as if God was not in control more than in Paul's case? I mean, here we look at that and again, he's been, been arrested under false pretense.

He's, he's by the enemies of the gospel. You had a he, he had a governor who knew he was innocent, said he was innocent, but said, I don't wanna get the crowds mad. You know, finally he's sent over to Rome. He's, he's, you know, rotten in prison. How in the world is that good? I mean, the glass isn't half full.

The glass is almost all the way empty, but he's sitting there saying no, but God's the source of the [00:20:00] water and it's plentiful. And so look what he discovered in verses 12 to 14. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers have become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And he's saying, here's what I want you to realize. I've, I've, I see before God. That these change that they think bind me, they don't bind me. They're actually accomplishing God's purpose.

Right? Because awaiting this trial, before Nero, he would have as, as an a prisoner of the emperor. He would be chained. He would be basically guarded by, by the private guards of the emperor. By the imperial guard. By the Pretorian guard. Every day they would bring. You know, one to 'em and, and, and rotation probably 12 hour shift, and then they would go to another one.

So he was consistently had no privacy consistently with these guards. And Paul is [00:21:00] saying, okay, what I've realized is that every day they bring a guard to me. And so they ask me, so what are you here for? And I say, well, I'm here for preaching the gospel. Do you know the gospel? Let me tell you about the gospel.

And then he goes, and he tells him about the gospel. And every day he's, you know, for 350, he's got, you know, 700 people coming to him every year to a day. And, and, um, and he, and, and finally, I can almost imagine, you know, after a while the guards, you know, are, are in the, um, in the guard room. And they're talking and they're saying, well, who's got, who's got guard Paul today?

And he says, oh, you know, whoever it is, somebody says, yeah, you know, be ready. He's gonna tell you about the gospel. Somebody else. Yeah, he told me about it two times. I've heard all about it and someone else says, yeah, I've heard about it and I'm wondering if there may be some truth to it. And so what you've gotta realize is Paul is doing is he's taking advantage of this and seeing now through him sharing this, there are people in Caesar's own guard that are coming to Christ and what he's teaching us, we should like him.

We [00:22:00] should think like a sovereign. And if we do, we're gonna look for what is the good, where are the opportunities? I mean, look, think about Paul when he's facing this. This is not what he expected. This is not what he wanted. Now, I'm sure in fact there are other passages that tell us that he prayed this way, that he prayed, that God would bring him to Rome, that God would bring him to the center of the capital, the known world, so that he could preach the gospel.

I'm sure he prayed that God would use him to reach the halls of power, maybe even people in Caesars House, hou new household. But you know, I think in his mind he expected that to look like fun thing, you know, that he's out there preaching and, and he's got such a, you know, uh, so much attention that people are coming out to hear him.

You know, kind of like Billy Graham. But the hard part is when we think about that, even with Paul, if he was so fixated on his expectations, he would've missed the opportunity right? Be before him. You know, in the same way for us, if we're like, God, I'm praying for this and, and not [00:23:00] only that, I want you to do this, but this way I can miss the fact that God's answering the prayer in a totally unexpected way.

It was only once Paul was able to let go of the demand that God worked the way he expected, and that he chose to believe in God's character no matter what it looked like. Only then was he able to say, oh, my deepest prayer was to preach the gospel in Rome, and God's doing that. See, suddenly realized I wanted to go to Rome.

I've been sent to Rome on Rome's dime. I mean, they sent me here to preach the gospel and, and they think that they're chaining me so that I can't preach the gospel. The fact of the matter is I got a captive audience. You know, these guys are chained to me. They come to me every day and they can't leave.

They've gotta listen to everything that I say. And so they're there and he is writing letters, and he's praying and he is talking about the gospel, and suddenly he realizes. These people that may have walked away from me beforehand, and suddenly God's using me to lead, summing them to saving faith in [00:24:00] Jesus Christ.

In verse 13, he says, so that it's become known throughout the whole imperial, imperial guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. I think what the rest he's referring to, probably officials who were part of his trial. You know, these are people that you know that are part of Caesar's Inner Circle.

You know, maybe some even within his family, and over this two year period, he's saying, here's what's happening, you know, unexpectedly. Now the gospel is a topic of conversation throughout Rome. In fact, the end result of that is look at Ephesians uh, uh, 4 22 or Philippians 4 22. He says, at the end of the book, all the Saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

Now, do you get that? Some of the people that were being reached are people in Caesar's household. The people that he had been praying for, the people at the very center of power. God used him to reach it, but in a way that he never could have dreamed. Now, you might be thinking, oh, that's a powerful story, but what does it mean to me?

How do I apply it to my own life? What? [00:25:00] What's the practical application? And again, what we need to realize is that Paul is not just trying to tell us his story here. What he's doing is he's told the Philippian believers and us, here's the principle, here's the foundation that he who began a good work will bring it to completion.

And now he's saying, okay, here's what it looks like. You might not not understand it. Let me show you how it's working out in my life. Here's the example of how I'm living it out. And so that when you look at this example, I'm challenging you to believe this in your life. If, if, if this could be true in my circumstances, it could be true in anybody's.

But what we need to realize is that this perspective I don't think was natural for Paul. It's not natural for any of us. We have to make the intentional choice to go against our natural inclination to to see things negatively and to choose to see and and to, to believe, and then to see and to discover God's purpose.

I don't think it was natural for Paul. I don't think that when he was arrested, [00:26:00] it's like, Hey, great, this is arrested. Where do you know? Shift off to Rome? Hey, great. You know, I don't think he saw that. You know what? I think in the same way, it's not natural for any of us. Satan would love to discourage us.

He would like love to make us think that things are terrible, that we're on the losing side. He would like us to think defensively to why? Because when we get discouraged, what happens is we're gonna say, I'm not gonna share my faith with that person. They probably wouldn't believe they're gonna reject me.

I wanna invite that person to church. You know, they, they wouldn't like church. They wouldn't respond. And our focus becomes increasingly on the problems and not on the places where God is at work. And then we begin to share our discouragement and it becomes contagious. Till like the Philippian Church, it became a defining characteristic.

It stole not only the church's joy, but its effectiveness. And here's what we see with Paul. He's saying, no, we can see life differently. And Paul saw it, not because he was by, you know, by nature, an optimist, but because he learned to see life from God's perspective. He was in [00:27:00] this middle of this three to four year crisis that kept getting worse.

And I'm sure he prayed, God help me to see what's going on. God released me, but it didn't happen. But somewhere along the line, he started to say, God, if you really in charge. Then help me to see what your purpose is. Help me to see how this is part of your good work. And then he looked and he said, oh God, that's the opportunity.

But the key was faith. It's faith in the ability to believe God. I love Hebrews 11, one. Faith is the assurance of things hope for and the conviction of things not seen. It's the ability to believe God's promises, even when they go against what we seem to see. And again, from Paul's perspective, what did it look like?

It looked like the bad guys won. That all the prayers had gone and answered. It looked and felt like defeat, but Paul had a faith that was so deep that he was able to believe the promises of God in spite of the evidence, because he knew that God was sovereign. He knew that because God was sovereign, he must have a good purpose, and then he chose to [00:28:00] look for it.

Now, here's something that's even more exciting when you look at that. Paul was able to see part of God's purpose, but there were part that he didn't see. There are things that we can now see that he didn't see at that time. He was able to see, oh, God is bringing me the pretorian guard. I'm able to reach Caesar's own household through this opportunity.

But why was Paul really frustrated? 'cause he wanted to go visit the churches that he had planted. He wanted to go encourage them and teach them and help them deal with problems that they were facing. And he couldn't do that now because he had been arrested for multiple years. So he thought, okay, what's the next best option?

Well, I'll settle for, instead, I'll, I'll write letters to them. That's not as good as being there, but you know, that's all I can do. And what we need to realize is the letters that he wrote were letters, many of which under the influence of the Holy Spirit, were the letters that now we read that are a huge part of the New Testament.[00:29:00]

That God actually said, okay, I'm gonna put you here in prison because if you go there and you speak the words, that's gonna be lost, but I want you to now speak these words through the letters because they're going to be now carried by the Holy Spirit and be encouragement to the believers throughout all generations.

In verse 14, where Paul says, most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. What he didn't realize, what he couldn't realize. Something he could have never dreamed is that the brothers and sisters that he's talking about aren't just the people there in Philippi or in Rome, but they're the believers for 2000 years who have led the, read these letters and been encouraged by them.

We are sitting here today being encouraged in our faith because the result of Paul's imprisonment. Isn't that Acra credible? Yeah, I think, I still think it's something Paul didn't get until he got into heaven. I. And maybe gets to heaven and he says, yeah, God, I know you saw me to do this, but was it worth it?

And you know, and it was so long, and, [00:30:00] and Jesus kind of pulls him and said, let me show you something, Paul. Let me, you know, let me show you those letters that you wrote. The Holy Spirit carried them. They've been encouraging the church and instructing the church for 2000 years. I used you in ways beyond what you could ever dream.

Now my friends, here's what we need to realize is that Paul's experience teaches us something, not only about the way that God worked, but the way that God works. God's showing us the normal pattern of the way he works. God is always redeeming things and at times we may look for opportunities and, and we may see it and, but even if you don't see it or if even if you see it, you, you only see a part of it.

The fact is that God is going to take, we're gonna get to heaven and we're gonna look back and we're gonna say, oh, that's what you did through that. That's how you blessed that. And if you're here in the midst of, I, I've talked with somebody even after, and they said, man, I was going through this and I couldn't see, and, and suddenly, God, God's opening my eyes.

And suddenly it's like, God, help me to see and help me to believe the things that I don't see. Help me to believe that you will redeem the [00:31:00] opportunities in ways that I could never imagine. But how do we learn to do that? Well, it starts by praying that God would change us and reveal his good purpose. It changes the way that we pray.

Again, the way we, we pray oftentimes in difficulty is God. Change the situation, get the, you know, something's wrong here. I'm sure that Paul, you know, at first God released me from prison. The Philippians, God released him from prison, but they got to the point where they said, okay, Paul did. God, you allowed me to be here.

Why have you allowed me to be here? Help me to see the opportunity that's here and, and, and take advantage of it. Help me to believe that you're sovereign in this. And instead of just praying that God would change the circumstance, we need to pray that God would change us. Help us to see how he wants to grow us or use us.

We, we need to claim the promise of Philippians one, six, which means acknowledging God. You're sovereign. You, you have a good plan. You put me in the situation for a reason, and, and while I prayed that I wanna be delivered, I no, you, you [00:32:00] didn't mess up by letting me be here. Help me to see why you've allowed this to happen.

Why? Because I know that you know better than I do. I know that you have a plan, a good purpose behind it that I don't see. So God, I'm gonna pro to come to pray, not to change your mind, but to surrender and let you change my heart, to let you, I ask you to help me see things I don't see by, because until I surrender my agenda or my perspective, I will not be able to see his, his purpose until I'm insisting you gotta do it this and this way.

God help me to see why you have me here. And then God helped me to believe. Now we need to make that conscious claim to believe, uh, claim to on God's promises, and then look for the opportunities and then act. We need to choose to believe in a way that that defines our behavior. Why? Because again, look at Paul, you know, he's suddenly praise and he says, okay, these soldiers are coming, but then he had to witness to 'em.

And, and these were not, you know, like when you look at it, they were not the, uh, spiritually open group. I mean, if you think of the Roman soldiers, [00:33:00] this was not the group that say, Hey, I heard you have spiritual truth. Tell me about it. Now, these were probably closed men, but he had to be faithful and look for opportunities and pray and take the risk and step out.

And only when he did that, that God said, okay, now I'm gonna bless you. Now I'm going to use you. So we have to say, okay, God, what is that opportunity? God, how can I be faithful? And again, there are things in each one of our lives and wherever you're at, whether you're in a good place or whether you're in a difficult place, wherever you're at, God has put you there for a purpose, to grow you, to use you.

You have opportunities that are right in front of you that are unique to that place where God has placed you. We take advantage of them, and even if it's a difficult place, even, it's a disappointing place to realize that God may have you there for a unique purpose. We trust him. Will you, will you follow him in it?

Lemme just close. Even in just a story that I remember several years back of a couple that, um, [00:34:00] you know, they were so excited. A young couple, they'd gotten their first house ready to move into it, and like a week beforehand something fell through and, and, but they had already, you know, uh, committed to move out where they're at.

They suddenly had no place to live. Last second, they're trying to find a place they had kind of really substandard housing that they found, you know, that they were disappointed, they're frustrated. God, why do you close this door? I remember talking to 'em about that and just, you know, God wired and just really saying, okay, you just pray that God changes, but also pray that there might be an opportunity I.

And I remember them coming back like a couple months later and they said, you know, we're here. And, and over time, you know, we, we started to see this young woman that was living in the apartment below us and started talking with her and praying with her. And, and you know what? God's used us to lead, lead her to faith, and now she's getting involved in the church.

And, and so this young woman comes to faith and then after two months, God totally reversed this thing that fell through. They moved into the house that they thought had the dream had been destroyed. And the fact is that God put them aside. It seemed like God wasn't in control, but it wasn't [00:35:00] until they were able to say, God, change the house and say, okay, God, why do you have us here?

Suddenly it's like, oh, that's the reason. And suddenly they have this incredible blessing of seeing someone come to Christ who becomes a friend in the years to come because God was at work and accomplishing his good purpose. See, that's the challenge that we all have. He who began a good work will bring it to completion.

Do you believe it? No matter what you face, do you believe it? And it is hard at times to believe that there is a gap between our theology and our faith. But if we believe it, and if we trust, and if we look through the eyes of, of a sovereigns, the eyes of God, totally realistic about the problems, but at the same time seeing the blessing and the opportunity in the midst of it, we will discover.

God's blessing and the joys that come with that as well. If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 [00:36:00] 0 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash connect There. You can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you.

Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.