Sermon Cloud

So as well as starting a new year we’re starting a new series this week, since Easter we’ve been asking ourselves each week “do you really believe that?” And from now all the way up to December we’re going to ask “Church: what exactly is that?” and to do that we’ll be looking at a personal letter that was written by an old bloke a couple of thousand years ago to his friends – it’s a book in the bible called Philippians, and we’re going to explore it in 8 chunks.

Now maybe you’re thinking flippy what, what’s that all about?

Well this was a letter written about 60AD by a bloke called Paul, who was in prison in Rome at the time, to some friends who happened to be the first church he planted in Europe, in Greece, in a big City called Philippi, named after Alexandra the greats dad. It was a tough place to be seen to be getting involved in a church, but this lot were really confident, and they knew what it was they were confident about, and the church grew and grew.

In a minute we’ll look at our first chunk, but first let’s sing again.

• Worship
• Worship

Prayer

Quotes, discussion etc. What do you put your confidence in?

Reading:

Philippians 1: 1 -11 Page

¹ This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.

I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and deacons.

² May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

³ Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. ⁴ Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, ⁵ for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. ⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

⁷ So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favour of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. ⁸ God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.

⁹ I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. ¹⁰ For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. ¹¹ May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

So what have we got here then? Well Paul kicks off in the standard way for emails of the day, he says who the letter is from, it’s from him and his young friend timothy who are happy to say they’re slaves to Jesus – weird or what? No not weird at all, what they’re saying is that, they willingly put Him first, because He has given up everything for them and us.

He says who it’s to – God’s holy people in Philippi including the church leaders – sounds a bit pompous doesn’t it? But actually here’s or first hint of what a church should be, holy could be translated as saints – you see a saint is someone who is a Christian, not someone who is perfect but someone who is willing for God to get going with that job of making us ready for heaven.

Then he says God give you grace and peace – what’s that some throw away line? No it’s a real prayer – Paul knows that these people need grace and peace just as much as he does.

Mind you, maybe you’re thinking, “if he’s going to go through this word by word, I’ll need more than peace!”

Well don’t panic, much as I’d love to we don’t have long enough for that, no what I want to do is just distil these few verses down for us to see the big picture, the major point of what Paul’s saying as he starts to talk through this letter to his friends:

Yeah, I know, I’ve already given the game away, it’s confidence, but confidence in what?

Well God of course, this is a church so surely that’s the answer…Paul writes And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

So it’s God right? Well that’s a good start, and if you stick with it you can’t go wrong, but there’s something else going on here and it’s crucial stuff if you are as serious about God as He is about you!

Check out the bit of the letter we’ve called verses 9 & 10

⁹ I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. ¹⁰ For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.

For I want you to understand what really matters,

That is exactly what I want for you today. I want you to understand what really matters

Are you serious about finding out more about what God has done for you? Are your eyes wide open? Or are you looking for God with your eyes and ears shut?

⁹ I pray that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. ¹⁰ For I want you to understand what really matters.

You see Paul and Timothy are writing to a group of people who have been having a seriously tough time, there are times when they’re probably not feeling that on top of life all the time – so they need encouraging – do you need encouraging? Yes of course you do, because there are times when you’re not feeling that confident, about this, or about that about life.

And that’s the way it was for the Philippians, and Paul knew that He knew how they were feeling. He knew how they were feeling, but not once does Paul mention feelings, not once, why is that, is it because he’s a hard hearted uncaring miserable little man? Of course it isn’t, they’re his friends, and he’s made clear just how much he loves them, the trouble is he knew that feelings can become a real problem, can’t they?

Now perhaps you’re sitting here this morning thinking what he is going on about, we always feel something, sometimes we feel happy sometimes we feel so low that we don’t think we can get any lower, but every second of every day we feel something. And that’s true isn’t it?

It’s not only true, but it’s the whole point.

What does Paul Say: I pray that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. ¹⁰ For I want you to understand what really matters.

Now of course it matters how you feel, but consider this: You don’t have to feel confident to be confident. Let me say that again, you don’t have to feel confident to be confident.

To be confident you need to understand what really matters.

So what do I mean?

I mean that you can’t base your life on the way you feel – to be confident in life and to be confident in God you need to put your confidence in what you know to be true.

Sometimes I just don’t feel like it, sometimes I feel that I can’t do this or that, sometimes I feel I can’t cope, sometimes I don’t know what to feel. Perhaps you’re like that too; I somehow guess you might be. But God says understand what really matters – you see when you understand what really matters and you live according to that, you WILL Be CONFIDENT.

Perhaps though, perhaps, you think well it’s easy for you to say that, you’re naturally confident, and it’s easy for this religious bloke Paul to write that, but I just can’t cope, and you don’t know about my past.

Maybe you’re feeling that right now?

If that’s the case let me encourage you.

There are days when I stand here to speak and I don’t feel at all confident, not at all, not even slightly... but of course there are other times when I can feel clearly God’s blessing, now it’s wonderful to know that, but whether I feel it or not, I know, I know that this is God’s work, I know in my heart, that this is what I must do and so I do it, and you know what, when you stop thinking about how you feel and trust in what you know, you start to feel the truth of what you know, let me say that again:

When you stop thinking about how you feel and trust in what you know, you start to feel the truth of what you know:

But you don’t know about my track record, I hear you say.... I’ve got a dreadful past, have you, have you really, well let me tell you that this Paul, who wrote this letter, had a past life as a mass murderer, he’d spent years fighting against God, this Paul was damaged goods, he had been a really nasty piece of work.

Did his past haunt him? No it did not, he never forgot it, but it didn’t weigh him down and hold him back because He knew that God had forgiven him and He knew that whatever He felt like God never, never breaks a promise.

Are you ready to put you’re past behind you today and let God sort out you’re today?

Are you ready to start afresh again?

Are you needing to move from trusting what you feel, to trusting what you know? If so it’s time to get serious about what you know.

So what do we know –?

• I know that without God I’m a loser
• It doesn’t matter what I feel
• I know that God loves me
• It doesn’t matter what I feel
• I know that He is alive and in control today
• It doesn’t matter what I feel
• I know that I have been saved by Him
• It doesn’t matter what I feel
• I know that I don’t have to live in my past
• I know that God has set before me an amazing future
• It doesn’t matter what I feel, it doesn’t matter what I think, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks what they say or what that do, I know that God who has started a good work in you and me, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus returns.

I know that, do you, I know that that if you let Him, God will be your victory, God will be your everything, God will never never never fail you, DO YOU KNOW THAT?