Piece of Work: Philippians 1:1-11 (Everything is a Tool)

It is so good to see you today and what a wonderful honor we have to worship the Lord and also to begin a brand new series entitled Peace of Work.

We're gonna have some fun with that one.

And so if you have Philippians uh with or if you open your Bibles with me to the book of Philippians, we're gonna be talking about that throughout our entire series.

Uh if this is your first time joining us, welcome.

What a day to join us.

You you you made it through all the snow you got here today.

What an honor.

Make sure at some point in the service you fill out your Connect card and you drop it off at the Welcome Center.

We have a free gift for you today and want to invite you to the craziest party you're gonna see all month called RLC Connect.

It's so much fun.

And real quick before we do anything else, I want to uh say hello to all of our online audience.

Uh, we have so many people who said that they would love to be here but couldn't.

So when I count to three, I want everybody to say hello to our online audience.

One, two, three.

If you didn't hear that, they just said hello super, super loud.

It was awesome, okay?

And we are glad you are here.

Let us know in the comments that you are there, but do not put any cat emojis, please, okay?

Or the Lord will not be good to you today.

That's not true.

All right, but it's so good to have you with us.

And so we are not jealous at all that you're in your jammies and have your hot chocolate.

We're glad to be here today.

And also to let everybody know that today is Live Group Launch Day.

Can we put our hands together and celebrate that?

We love that so very much.

And so make sure before you leave today, you stop by one of our kiosks or you see anybody who's got a shirt with this logo on it.

They may not have the right answer, but they will help you find the right answer.

And we want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to get in groups.

And uh, we do have people who have said, hey, the group I wanted to get into is now closed.

What do I do?

Well, if you want to be in a life group, we will find a way.

So make sure you stop by the Welcome Center and we will let you know which groups are still open and what might be the best option for you.

If you want to get together in relationship, we will do our best to absolutely make that happen, okay?

All right.

Well, now if you got your Bibles, your journals, all this, I want to go ahead and tell you something that we talked about last time we were here in person, and it's still true, and that is this that even in the Arctic wilderness, this will be your best year ever if somebody say if it's your best year spiritually.

And I know some of y'all are going, Arctic wilderness.

Listen, I'm from Alabama, okay?

I haven't seen ice ruts in the road like that until last week, okay?

I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm just glad that the Lord is good, okay?

So it has been an Arctic wilderness for me.

But the reality is, no matter how you found yourself through the six-month-long journey called January that we had, we it is still possible for you to have the best year of your life ever if it's your best year spiritually.

What my hope is, is that our journey through the book of Philippians will be something that will help you to take that next step in your walk with God.

But to kind of get this started with you, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever been minding your business, just working, just trying to get through, just kind of just kind of just do what you got to do, and then you get a postcard from somebody while they're on vacation?

And and they just send you something like this, you know, and just wish you were here.

Don't you just love them and not like them at the same time?

Okay.

Like I'm so thankful that you are enjoying your smoothie on the beach, but do you want them to kind of just just drop it?

You know, just just have one bad thing happen to them just to make you feel better.

Just me.

Okay, y'all pray for me, my sanctification process.

I'm so thankful that they are enjoying it, but I'm not.

And sometimes I will, I look at that and I'll go, you know, you can't relate to anything.

I was talking to a guy one time that he had the opportunity to go to Hawaii, and he was in his little hut thing that he was specially was there, and he was talking about all this beautiful stuff, and he was angry because he had he had door-dashed some food and they were five minutes late.

And I said, Brother, in Jesus' name, I'm hanging up on you now, okay?

You're in Hawaii, okay, and I'm not.

And the reality is, is sometimes we think that like that's what's going on in in our Bibles.

We think that, you know, uh Paul is gonna be talking about all this great stuff, and we we forget sometimes.

We think that Paul is like sitting on a beach somewhere, you know, drinking his smoothie, enjoying watching the seagulls go by, and we're going, Paul, how can you say the things that you are saying?

He's gonna talk about joy, he's gonna talk about contentment, he's gonna talk about all the things that we think must be nice a lot of times.

And if we're not careful, we'll be like, Paul, it must be nice for you.

Sitting in your coffee shop, drinking your latte.

All right, that's nice.

Here's the reality I want to start off with.

The reason why the the God, the the message to the church at Philippi, why the Holy Spirit can use it so much, is when you realize where Paul's writing from.

Paul is writing from prison.

It was written in about 61 A.D.

during a time when the church is going through crazy persecution, and he is in a Roman prison waiting to have an audience with Caesar, knowing that if it doesn't go his way, he can be put to death immediately.

So you could almost say it's almost like he's on death row.

He's just waiting to see what would happen.

He is in this prison, and this is a Roman prison, which means they didn't have cable TV, they didn't have hot meals.

Matter of fact, you they didn't supply your food.

Somebody else had to do that, or you basically didn't eat.

And one of the reasons why he is writing to the church of Philippi is they had sent him the means for him to continue to live.

And the reason why many of the letters he will say that I am writing this along with somebody else is because it's likely that he was having to speak outside of the prison window, telling them what to write down.

And at the very end, he'd stick his hand out to write down that it was his name because he's in prison.

And the reality of it is, is even when he's in prison, we also got to think about who he's writing to.

He's writing to a church in Philippi, and it was about 50 to 75 people.

So I know sometimes we think about it, we think of this vast megachurch of thousands.

It is a it is a high estimate to say there might have been 75 people.

Some people say it could have been between 30 to 50 people that have gathered together that he actually had a chance to plant the church 10 years ago, and after 10 years, they're still there and they're still being faithful.

And it was mainly retired military people.

Because what would happen is after they would get out of prison, after they get out of the military, they would want to make sure these military people would stay loyal, and so they would give them land in Philippi because it was a strategic city, and so they're very loyal to Rome, and so they've got this loyalty to Rome, but now they got this new thing called Christianity.

They're trying to figure it out, and their world looks very different, it'd been very embarrassing for them to have Paul in prison.

And so here's the question: there's a guy in prison writing to some people in Philippi trying to figure it out.

What in the world do they have in common?

And what in the world would the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to write to the church of Philippi?

And this is the whole point of the letter.

That is this that we can have joy because God is working on us.

That Paul in prison is saying, Man, I got some good news for you.

And he's not talking about the warm meal he had that morning.

Instead, he's instead of looking around and seeing this maybe one window prison he's in that's that's that's musty and dirty, and there's all this bad stuff that's going on around him, instead of that, his body may be in prison, but his heart is free.

And he is saying, Man, I'm so excited to tell you that we can have joy because we know that God is working on us.

And if I'm honest with you, one of the number one reasons why I think that even today, the Holy Spirit continues to inspire his word and why the book of Philippians can be so powerful for us when we realize that this guy is in prison, but he's writing as though his heart has never been more free, is because what we realize is that there are many different kinds of prisons.

Only some of them have walls that we can see.

I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but everybody you know has a private battle that only they know about.

Look at your neighbor and say, he needs to stop talking about that.

But it's true, everybody has got some kind of circumstance in their life that they probably would rather not be in.

Can you imagine how Paul would probably rather not be there?

His body may be in prison, but his heart is free.

And he is writing to these people in the church of Philippi, and he is saying, Man, there is so much joy when we realize that God is working on us.

Well, what does that mean when we talk about joy?

Here's the definition of joy we're gonna be working with throughout this series.

Is joy is the sigh of contentment because God is in control.

It's the sigh of contentment.

Not because everything is going okay, but because we know that God is the one who has the ability to make everything okay.

We want to kind of disconnect the idea of joy from an emotion.

It's it's not, we're not talking about happiness because happiness depends on the happenings in our life, okay?

We had snow.

Some of us were happy.

I don't understand you, okay?

But you were happy.

I was very unhappy.

And that that is okay that we had different happenings.

We had one happening that caused all these different emotions in our life.

Coming up this week, it's going to melt.

That is gonna make me happy, okay.

For some of you, it's gonna make you sad.

All of that is happiness, not happiness based on emotions.

Joy is a state of mind, it is a sigh of the soul, it is a oh, thank goodness.

Matter of fact, I want you to take a deep breath in and then sigh it out.

That's what I'm talking about with joy, but in your soul, not in your lungs.

The ability to be in a circumstance you don't want to be in, for your body to be in chains, but your heart to be free.

That's what Paul is talking about when he's saying, I, when I think about the fact that God is working, it helps me to have such a, because I know that God is in control.

We're gonna talk about this over and over throughout our time together.

So let's jump into Philippians chapter 1, verse 2.

Philippians 1:2

He says this.

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

Now, once again, remember in the future, anytime you're reading one of the uh one of the epistles, when he names multiple people, that probably could mean either they are writing for him outside of jail or that joker's in jail with him.

Okay, so either way, something's going down.

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

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

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.

Whenever I pray, I make my request for all of you with joy, a sigh of relief.

For you have been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.

I am certain, somebody say certain.

I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you.

For you have been a special, you have a special place in my heart.

You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the good news.

God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep growing in the knowledge and understanding.

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.

And may you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character that's produced in your life by Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Wow.

He opens up with saying, Sup, y'all.

I got Tim of you over here with me.

We're chilling in prison.

It's fine.

And every time I start thinking about you, I get so excited.

I have so much joy.

There's all this that's going on.

I'm waiting for Caesar to call me.

I know that it could end with my death.

I hear that the church is being persecuted.

I hear all these different things that's going on.

I'm in here in prison.

I can't physically do anything about it.

But every time I think about you, I get so excited when I realize that God is in control.

And in the first 11 verses, he teaches us that when we see our world through the eyes of joy, everything becomes a tool in God's hands.

When we see our lives, when we see our world through the eyes of joy, everything becomes a tool in God's hands.

When we realize that he is in control and that God is working in our life, then we are his piece of work.

Now, I don't know how that phrase works where you grew up.

For piece of work for us, when I was growing up, if if I looked at somebody and I said, Man, you are a piece of work, okay?

That meant I can't figure you out.

I don't know if I like you or if I don't like you.

I just know that you're confusing.

You are a piece of work.

Can I tell you?

Look at your neighbor and say, You're a piece of work.

That means I don't know if I like you or not.

Don't tell them that, okay?

That means I can't figure you out.

You know why?

Because God's still working on you.

You remember that old song?

Only the old people know this one, and that is that God's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

Remember that one?

It I don't know the words to this song.

It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.

And faith, patient, he must be.

I should learn the words before I ask you to sing it.

He's still working on me.

Right.

It took him six days to make everything.

And it's taken him a lifetime to fix me.

That's a me problem, okay?

But the amazing thing is, is God's here for it.

And every time we see our world through the eyes of joy, when we do everything, does it no longer our enemy?

Because God's greater than that.

He has many enemies, but no rivals, and so God's able to use everything as a tool in his hands.

This is what Paul was saying as he was saying, May the God and our Father, may the God our Father and our Lord Jesus give you grace and peace.

Every time I think about you, man, it gives me joy.

Every time I think about what's going on in your life, and no matter what's going on around me, it causes me to go, I'm so glad God's in control.

It gives me a sense of contentment because I know God is in control.

Why does he get like that?

Because he says, because I am certain.

Somebody say certain again.

I'm certain that God, who began a good work, say good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

You know what he's saying?

Is he saying, number one, I get so excited.

I have so much joy when I realize that God is doing something good.

You ever have somebody who said they're gonna cook you a special meal and you weren't so sure how special it was gonna be?

They said, I've never, I know you've never tried this before.

I'm sure you'll like it.

That's hard.

Okay, I don't know.

But the great thing is, is God says, I'm working in your life and I promise you it's good.

Then he said that God is gonna continue it.

Have you ever been in such a hurry that you forgot your phone at home?

Have you ever been in such a hurry that you were distracted by everything else and you left something here or you left something over there?

If we're not careful, sometimes we think that God has a hard time multitasking.

And we see God working in somebody else's life and we think that he might have forgot us and left us on simmer for a while.

But the reality is he doesn't forget anything, he doesn't leave anything behind, he continues to work.

And then my favorite part is that he says he will do it until it is finally finished.

In other words, God is not gonna change his mind about you.

It doesn't matter how human you and I are, it doesn't matter how many times we mess up.

God's not gonna say, well, we'll try again with somebody else.

But instead, he is gonna continue to work in our lives until it is finally finished.

And what Paul is saying is he is saying that we can have joy when we realize that God is working on us and that it is a good work, and he is actively doing it.

And he was not, he's not gonna change his mind about us.

And he says, whenever I think about it, when I stop seeing my world for all of its problems, and I start seeing my world through the eyes of God is in control, man, it just gives me joy to know that everything in my life is part of what God is doing.

Can I tell you, everything in your life, I'm not saying that God did it to you, I'm saying he has the ability to use it to do something great in and through you.

And that's why I can't wait to get through the book of Philippians together, because over and over, Paul, who is imprisoned in his body, is free in his soul.

And he's gonna say it's because when I see that God is working on you and on me, it gives me joy.

And he actually starts with talking about some of the different tools.

And so I want to ask this question what are some?

Somebody say some.

This is not all of them, but what are some of the tools that God uses to work his will for his work in our lives?

You know what I'm trying to say, okay?

That he works in our lives.

Here's here's three, but there's a bunch.

Here's the first one, and that is this that God will use our relationships to form us.

Amen.

God will use our relationships to form us.

Lean over somebody and say, I know that's right.

I know that's right because God's really, really forming me for having to deal with you all the time.

Don't tell them that.

That's what you're thinking, and it's okay.

All right.

But here's the thing is God is at work in our life.

And when we realize that God is at work in our life, it can bring us joy.

That sigh of contentment because we know that God is in control, that he can use even this to do something amazing.

And one of the things that he will do is he will use our relationships.

He said it like this He says, I am certain that God who began a good work within you will continue.

And then he says later, he says, You have a special place in my heart.

You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the good news.

God knows how much I love you and long for you with tender compassion of Christ Jesus.

I pray that your love will overflow more and more.

You know what that sounds like?

That sounds like somebody who has been there and done that with somebody, they've come out on the other side and they go, Man, I'm so thankful for the ups and the downs and that we had a chance to do it together.

Paul planted this church 10 years before then.

And he was the actually the first church that he planted in Europe.

And now, 10 years later, when he is in prison, they sent him a gift to help sustain him.

And he's saying, Man, I'm so thankful I can still count on you.

I'm so thankful you're not ashamed of me.

Because they were Roman citizens during the time, it would have been considered an absolute just shame to know anybody who was in prison.

But yet not only did they were they aware, but they sent gifts to him to say, we still believe in you.

We're still going to try to take care of you.

And Paul, looking back at them, is going, Man, haven't we been through this together?

Isn't it amazing that you and I have been able to share in the things that's been going on both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming.

So in the ups and in the downs, you and I have been together, and it has been amazing to watch what God has done.

Can I tell you that's what God wants to do in our life?

But here's the truth of it, though, and this is the thing that maybe nobody will tell you, but we all know it, okay?

And here's the thing many times when it comes to relationships, we have this idea that the relationships that God wants to put in our lives are only beautiful relationships.

That the relationships that God wants to put in our lives are only perfect ones.

People that agree with us all the time, people who do everything we want, and and they they are just basically our amen corner.

They're our hype person.

That's what we think.

The reality is, I'm gonna tell you something you already know, and that is people are messy.

Somebody say amen.

Just like me and you.

Just like me and you, okay?

Well, not me, but you.

Okay, no, just like God, but here's the thing: God can use messy for his glory if we do life together.

If we do life together.

That's one reason why I love life groups so very much.

Is because when my messy and your messy get together, it's almost like sandpaper and we get to working on each other.

And you don't see that in the first two or three weeks because everybody's on their best behavior.

But you wait about four or five weeks in and somebody's gonna get on your nerves.

And you're gonna have the opportunity to realize is is this a problem or is this God is this God using a tool to be able to do something amazing in my life?

Because here's the reality I'm messy.

I need somebody to come and work on me.

I need I need somebody else that I can speak into, and that happens in our relationships.

Relationships are messy.

You can see this all throughout the Bible, but one of my favorites is how God really uses everything for his good.

And he often does it through messy relationships.

There's a story, it's like the second half of the book of Genesis.

There was a guy named Joseph, and he had a whole bunch of older brothers, and they hated him.

They hated him so bad that they were gonna kill him.

That's called messy.

But then they decided instead of killing him, we should make some money off of him.

So they sold him into like human trafficking down to Egypt.

That's called.

Very messy.

And he gets down there and he's a slave.

And he starts being a slave at a guy named Potiphar's house.

And while he is there, he is faithful.

He's going to grow where he's planted.

Everything is going well until Potiphar's wife decides we should hook up.

And Joseph was like, No, I'm not going to hook up with you.

That's really messy.

And she actually tells on him and says, You tried to assault me.

And he's like, uh?

Yes, you did.

And so instead of believing Joseph, who is innocent, they throw Joseph into prison for a crime he didn't commit because a lady lied on him.

That's messy.

And then he spends, some say between seven, some say up to 14 years in prison for something he didn't do.

And while he is there, God gave him the ability to interpret some dreams, and he interprets these dreams and he said, Hey, God's going to restore you back to Pharaoh.

Just don't forget about me.

They forgot about him.

That's that's bitter messy.

But then through an amazing set of circumstances, Pharaoh has a dream.

The guy who is in prison remembers that Joseph is good at that.

And he comes out and he spent his morning in prison.

He spent his afternoon in the palace, and he became the second most important person in all the land of Egypt.

And God gave him a plan to prepare for a famine that was coming in.

And during that famine, it went everywhere, but everything was okay in Egypt because of Joseph.

So then fast forward a few years, and his family has to come to Egypt because they ran out of food and they run into Jojo.

They run into Joe.

And while they are there, that's really messy.

And so the guy who they sold into slavery now chooses whether they live or die, and he actually helps them.

And when it is all over with, they're worried that now he's going to wreak vengeance on them.

Because think about it.

He was lied on, he was put in prison, he was sold into slavery, he was, they were gonna kill him, all these bad things that happened, and now it's time for vengeance.

And look what he actually said back to them.

He said, Don't be afraid of me.

Am I God that I can punish you?

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.

He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Wow.

Do you know what kind of joy I want to have?

A sigh of contentment because God is in control.

That when bad things happen to me, I want to be able to look at them and say, God's gonna take care of you.

I'm gonna release him.

That's what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is not saying that what somebody did was okay.

It's saying I choose to not let what you did to me define who I am and who I'm going to be.

But instead, I'm gonna let God take care of you and I'm gonna let what happened to me be used by God to do something great.

That's what forgiveness, the first steps of forgiveness are.

I want to have such a confidence in God that when I look back at my messy, I can see the fingerprint of God moving in my life.

And the reality is, is God can take something messy and make something amazing if we'll give it to Him.

If we'll say, God, I'm gonna have joy.

I'm gonna have the sigh of contentment because I know that you are working in my life.

And watch what God will do.

And that's what relationships give us the opportunity to do.

And if there's ever been a time in our world when we need God-honor relationships, it's now.

I heard someone say this the other day that we live in a world of comments, not conversations.

God-honoring relationships dare us to slow down and do life together.

That's the amazing thing about doing relationships with one another, is because when we comment on something on social media, there's nobody there to say that's crazy.

That's not good.

We just have a whole bunch of likes.

You go, girl, that's awesome.

I need somebody in my life to say you should probably delete that.

I love you enough to say, go touch some grass.

Okay.

That's what God-hored relationships do.

So here's my question for you: Where will you allow God to form you through God-honoring relationships?

Where will you allow God to form you through God-horing relationships?

Let me give you two answers.

One of them, I don't know if you heard me talk about this yet today, but life groups.

We think that life change happens in the context of relationships because everybody needs a place where everybody knows your name.

And they're always glad you came.

People want to be where they can see troubles are all the same.

Anyone else that old?

Okay, yeah.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, praise the Lord.

Okay, yeah, if you know, you know.

But here's the thing: we need a place.

We need a place.

And here's my prayer for you is at some point during the semester, somebody will give you the opportunity to grow.

With other words, somebody will challenge you.

But in the process of it, you'll realize wait a minute, is this person evil or are they just messy?

And is God giving me the opportunity to kind of work in my life?

Here's the other one: a men's chili cook-off.

This coming Saturday is our next men's event, it's our men's chili cook-off.

I'm not talking to you guys, I'm talking to you wives.

Wives, go uh sign your husbands up for the men's chili cook-off coming up, and you cook their chili.

We don't want their cooking, okay?

You eat you cook their chili.

You want to talk an opportunity for relational discipleship when a bunch of men get together, eat somebody's chili, and they're looking at you.

Did you like it?

You got a choice to make, okay?

And I choose that you say that mine was the best chili in Jesus' name, okay?

Because my wife is gonna cook it and it's gonna be awesome.

But here's the question: where are you going to allow if we truly trust that God is in control, that God is working on me and he's working on you, and he's making a piece of work, he's on the move and he's moving in our life.

Then what are we gonna put in our lives so that God can move?

Because many times he will move through our relationships.

And the reality is that we can have joy when we understand that God is on the move and he's working in us, and when we see our world through that lens of joy that God is moving, then we see everything as a tool in his hand to do what he wants to do.

Look at somebody and say, You're a piece of work.

Go ahead and tell them.

You better believe you are, right?

I'm not so sure what that means yet, but you're a piece of work.

He's gonna move in relationships.

Here's the other one.

He will use his word to clarify what really matters.

If I had a handkerchief, I'd go old school preacher and go preach it, brother, okay?

If there's ever been something we need, we need more of God's word because we need somebody to help us clarify what really matters.

And I'm gonna do everything I can not to get on my soapbox on this one.

We need God's word to clarify what really matters.

Let's make sure we know what God's word says.

He says this, I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue.

So my prayer is that you will keep growing in knowledge and understanding.

For I want you to understand what really matters.

Somebody say really matters.

So that, like there's a reason, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the return of Christ, until Christ's return.

In other words, I want you to know what really matters so you can have peace, so you can have joy, so you can go to bed at night without having to worry about who you should apologize to, without wondering if I truly live for God today, that I can actually have a pure and blameless life.

And what God's word does is God's word gives us the opportunity to filter, because I don't I don't want to speak to you, but I'm gonna speak about me.

And that is right now that there is so much information that's just constantly flowing.

I don't maybe that's not you.

Maybe I just need to turn off like all technology a little bit more in my life, but it seems like there's so much more information.

There's more information than I ever wanted to know about New Zealand right now, Australia.

If you want to know, it's there.

Like there's information about everything that's going on in all of the world.

It's all right there, and everything can have the same level of access in our life because if everything is important, then nothing is important.

If everything matters, then nothing can matter.

And so, you know what we all tend to do because whether we realize it or not, we get overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information, is we try to create filters in our life to help us filter through things.

But if we're not careful, we don't we don't choose our filter, therefore we let the algorithm choose our filter.

And if we're not careful, we put all this information into this algorithm, and we act it actually tells us what does not matter.

If you don't know what the algorithm is, that's just the way that social media, YouTube, and all of that is it will give you more of what you like, more of what you watch, more of what you agree with, and before you realize it, you think everybody agrees with you, everybody's on the same page with you, everybody doesn't agree with you, it's horrible, and before you know it, you're you're you're really ready to plant your flag and stand for truth about stuff that does not matter.

I am so sick of seeing those cat videos.

Stop sending them to me, by the way.

Okay, in Jesus' name.

You're not if I told you how many videos anyway, anyway.

All right, the Lord is good.

So you know what, you know what God's word says?

How about this?

This was still happening 2,000 years ago.

This isn't a new thing, they just didn't have an algorithm.

And so they it was happening.

So way back then, Paul is telling them, I pray that you will grow.

Other words, that you will have a filter called God's word, and that you will grow not just in knowledge but in understanding, so that you will know what truly matters.

And so we don't want the algorithm to tell us what is true, we want God's word to tell us what is true.

One of the reasons is because it doesn't change.

Like it doesn't care what public opinion thinks, it it's pretty set, and it has been for a while.

And what happens is as we read God's word, it's unchanging, then we find out what really matters.

Because there's so many things that's going on, and if we're not careful, we don't know what to do.

But if we go to God's word, what starts to happen is it slowly starts to develop a biblical worldview in our life.

I mean, I gotta tell you, here's the thing too.

You can't go to God's word treating it like Google.

Because there are some direct answers in God's word, but God is not interested in just giving you knowledge, he wants to give us understanding.

And so the more we read God's word, the more he bends our will to his and we start seeing the world through the eyes of joy because God is in control, and so everything becomes a tool in the hands of God to bring about what he wants to do in all these different things.

And so we start to see what God's word has to say, and it brings us a level of, oh, now I know what to do.

When we hear about what's going on in Minnesota before we go to Instagram, what if we went to God's word and said, God, what would you have when we talk about the international stuff that's going on and then locally broken families, financial crisis, storms, and the fact you need to get rid of your cat.

We can go to God's word.

God's word says they overcame him with the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

God's testifying to get rid of your cat.

How about this one?

When it was snow, I heard that meow in Jesus' name.

When it was snowing outside, here's how you know God's word is true, okay?

When it was snowing outside, I was looking at my dog and wondering if that thing could pull a sled.

Nobody thought that about your cat, did you?

Okay.

You were wondering if you could pull your cat with a sled, like you were gonna be the one pulling it, all right?

All right, at least at least my dog was up for it, okay, if I wanted to.

But the reality of it is, can I tell you it breaks my heart so many times when people will come to me and they have done deep dive research on TikTok and then dare me to prove it wrong.

And so I'll be honest with you, I'll say, well, isn't the isn't the Lord good?

Who's gonna win the Super Bowl?

Like, like we're starting off on the wrong foot.

If you took the time that you spent researching the goodness of God and you took it not from other things, but instead God's word, I'll tell you, there's life there, there's joy there.

Can I tell you?

Right now, we're reading through God's word.

If you'd like to read God's word with us, you could text RLC Bible to 94,000 or scan that QR code.

And if there's ever been an amazing message for God's church right now, we're gonna read it this week.

That just kind of clears away all the junk and helps us see what really matters because it's amazing that for some of us, yes, we are very invested in what's going on all over the world.

And I tell you that there's a place for that, there's a place to intercede and to pray and to take next steps.

There's others of us, we ain't got time to think about what's going on out there because right in our own homes, we're trying not to give up.

We're trying to keep going.

And you know what God's Word says?

He says this He says, You don't know why we never give up though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long.

Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.

So we don't look at the troubles that we can see now, rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen.

For the things that we see now will soon be gone, but the things that we cannot see will last forever.

Can I tell you?

When we dig into God's word, we find out that for a long time God has said, I am with you, I am for you.

It's okay to be to be concerned, but never live in fear.

It's okay to be disappointed, but never be discouraged, and that we can actually have joy when we realize that God is working on us, and that we when we begin to see the world through the eyes of God as in control, then we start to see everything as a tool in the hands of God to do amazing things.

And here's my question for you what habits will you put into action for God's word to continually filter your world?

What habits will you do?

Let me give you an idea if you don't have one.

What if you were to engage with God's word first?

I had someone challenge me the other day and they said, I want you to keep a record this week, and I want you to keep a record of how much time you spend in your Bible, and then how much time you spend checking the news.

After one day, I told him it was stupid.

Because it was not even at all.

And here's the thing: what if, what if, just for the next 21 days, what if you and I made a commitment to one another, and that is before we checked our social media feeds, before we checked our the our social media person that we want to figure out their hot take on something, before we do any of that, what if we went to God's word and spent time in fellowship with Him?

Do you know how many times we would say, I don't need that?

Just just let me just let me take a break from all that other stuff because God's word is good.

That doesn't mean we turn a blind eye to the things that are going on in this world.

It does mean we have proper perspective of what really matters and how we can best intercede for the world around us because God has given us this tool that we can use called prayer that can truly make a difference.

But are we spending more time praying or more time scrolling?

So we have to be so very careful because God says there's joy there when we see everything through the eyes of the fact that God is moving and that then we see tools, all this is tools in his hand, and he's making in us an amazing piece of work.

One more time, look at your neighbor and say, You're just a piece of work.

Of course you are, and I am too.

And God is moving in us, and he's gonna use all these different tools as we are discovering what it is to watch how God works in our life and the tools that he uses, our relationships, both good, bad, and indifferent.

His word to clarify, and then one more, and that is this that he will use his work in us to bring him glory.

He will use his work in us to bring him glory.

I like to think of this one as almost like what my first several cars I had, there was no such thing as a rear defrost.

I can't tell you how many times I almost got in an accident because it was cold outside and I was impatient and I didn't want to wait for all the windshields to defrost.

I'm the guy who's going through, y'all pray for me, who's going through, and there's a hole that big in the front windshield, you know, that that's me.

I'm working on it.

But for the longest time, I didn't have a rear defrost, and so I can't tell you how many times I almost got an accident.

And then the Lord allowed some smart person to put a button in my car.

And if I'll just be patient, it will clear so I can see what's behind me.

And that helps me to know where I'm going because I can tell where I've been.

And many times it's seeing where God has brought us from that can actually be one of the most encouraging things to bring Him glory also as other people see our lives.

God's Word says it like this I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue it.

And may you always be filled with the fruit, the byproduct of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ.

For this will bring much glory and praise to God.

In other words, may you always remember that your salvation never came from you, it came from Jesus.

And because of that, he is the one that is sustaining us all along the way.

God's word says it like this as God love saved you by his grace when you believed, and that you can't take credit for it.

It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

He's saying when you remember the miracle of salvation, then you no longer take credit for it, you just celebrate it.

Matter of fact, it's important to realize that salvation is not a result of good works, it produces good works.

Salvation is the result of surrender.

That when we come to God and we say, God, I can't fix this on my own.

I don't know.

I don't have a clue what it is that you're doing.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

All I see is all the difficulty and all the danger in front of me.

And then God saves us, and then God begins to work on us, and God begins to take us through hills and take us through valleys, and sometimes we forget, which is why it's so important to turn on that rear defrost.

And every once in a while we look back and we go, Wow, this whole time I thought I was doing that.

But rather, God was moving in my life.

All glory to God.

And it gives us this testimony that says, I'm I'm not yet who I want to be, but by God's grace, I'm no longer who I used to be.

And when we realize that I'm not where I want to be, I've still got those private battles, I've still got those difficulties, but you know what?

I used to have worse battles, I used to have other things.

And if God was faithful to me then, God will be faithful to me now.

And when we begin to realize that, not only does that help us realize that even the remembrance is what God uses to work in us, but it also gives us the courage to then tell it to other people.

And I wonder if that's kind of what's going on, why Paul is so excited about though about these people is because he's known them for 10 years.

And actually, I wonder if he's thinking back to the very beginning to remember how it all began.

Because the Bible teaches us that God's past faithfulness brings joy in our current trouble.

And that is this this is how Paul actually met the people at Philippi.

He was passing through the area, and there was some random fortune teller who was trying to mock Jesus and mock Paul, and finally Paul had enough of it, and he turned around and he rebuked the devil in Jesus' name.

Well, for some reason, people didn't like that.

And so, as they do with Paul, they beat him up and threw him in prison.

That's just Paul's thing, okay?

Paul and Silas got beat up and thrown in prison just for trying to help somebody.

And they were in there and they were trying to figure out what to do with them.

And what's amazing is while they were there, the Bible said that around midnight that night, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

And suddenly there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations, and all the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

The first time they met Paul, he had chains dangling from his arms, going, Look what my Jesus can do.

Who wants some Jesus?

Me.

The first person to get saved was a jailer.

And according to Jewish uh uh church history, he was still in the church of Philippi ten years later when they received this letter, along with some other different uh between 30 and 50 other people.

And I wonder if Paul is going, guys, y'all remember how all this started?

Y'all remember when I was in prison before?

And God had need of me elsewhere, and so he broke me out.

And so if God has need of me elsewhere, he will break me out.

But as long as I'm here, my body might be in prison, but my heart is free and my heart is full because I know that we can have joy, a sigh of contentment, because I know that God is working on us.

And there's been times when God has worked on me by getting me out of that situation, and there's been times when God has worked through me by sustaining me in the middle of a situation, but either way, God is working, and when we can begin to see the world through the lens of joy, then we can see everything as a tool, even the darkest thing, as God using it to do amazing things in our life.

And here's the reason why is because God's word says we are God's masterpiece, He has created us anew in Christ, in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Notice he's also about those good things he's still working on, and that he is making us into something beautiful.

Now, I want to make sure before we end our time together, I am not saying that God is happy when you're suffering.

I'm not saying that we should mourn difficulties that we go through.

I'm just denying its ability to define what God can do through it.

I'm saying that God is bigger than every pain, every difficulty.

And God is so big that He's able to take the worst moments of our life and turn it into the greatest testimonies.

If we stay with it, if we don't give up.

Did you know that I heard the other day that for some people, they the masterpiece for them is not just a painting, but it is supposed to be the culmination of all their talent, all their skill, all of their maturity.

And so for some, it could take between five and ten years to paint a masterpiece because they will go through test pieces and they will look through different things until they finally sit down and they will go and they'll look, they'll make one brushstroke and go away because this painting is so important that they're willing to take their time.

What if we saw God like that in our life?

You are so important to Him that He's willing to take His time.

It reminds me of something I saw this past week, and it was this idea of how many times we feel like God's not always with us, and we don't always know what's what's going on.

I I saw this and it started off like this.

If you can see, there's this cross that's there.

And isn't that how our lives begin?

Is with Jesus, with a cross.

God, I'm yours.

I'll do whatever you want me to do.

Are you sure you want me to do whatever you?

Absolutely.

I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna be right there.

And God starts moving.

God starts changing things.

We go, okay, God, what exactly are you doing?

That is not what I thought.

I was hoping you were gonna make me into a beautiful butterfly.

No, just keep going.

But this is weird.

I know.

You're a piece of work, not a finished work.

Stay with it.

Okay, God, I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna keep going.

Okay, I'm looking weirder.

It's getting worse, it's getting nasty, it's getting messy.

Okay, I kinda see, kinda see.

It's not what I wanted.

I really hoped you would do something else.

Use my favorite color.

Okay, fine, fine, fine, fine.

Wait a minute.

I didn't tell you I was done.

You're a piece of work, not a finished work.

So let me keep working.

Okay, God, but I don't know what you're doing.

I don't understand.

Okay, it's fine, it's fine, it's good enough.

I'm tired of the pain.

No, stay.

I've got a big idea about you.

I'm not done.

Okay, fine.

Okay, good.

That's good enough.

That's good enough.

Quit, quit.

It's good enough, but I'm not done.

I see so much more in you than you can see in yourself.

You want 99%, but 100% is what I'm going for.

Will you stay?

Will you trust me?

But God, this is not what I had planned.

I know it's not what you had planned.

It's not what I have planned yet.

You're in the middle.

You're not a you're not a finished work, you're a piece of work.

Stay with it.

Okay, God.

It hurts, but I'm gonna stay with you.

I'm gonna stay with you.

I'm gonna do what you want me to do.

I'm gonna keep going.

I'm gonna keep going.

Done.

Don't you look beautiful?

Don't you look like something that you didn't realize?

The only way you get from here to here is you gotta stay.

You gotta trust.

You gotta trust that every time he went left instead of right, he had a reason.

Every time he brushed up instead of brushing down, he had a reason.

Every time he waited a little bit longer, he had a reason.

God's got an amazingly big idea.

And you may look like this, you know why?

It's because you're a piece of work, not a finished work.

But God's not gonna not gonna stop until He makes you into everything He has purposed you to be.

So for many of us, the number one thing that we need to pray for is something you should never pray for, and that's patience.

But since we need it anyway, God's Word says in James chapter 1, it says, consider it all joy when you enter into troubles and trials of every kind, because it produces patience.

James 1 · chapter mention

So I say, let it grow.

Because once it has had its full work, you will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

That's God's plan for your life.

But it's gonna take time, and that's what Paul is telling the church at Philippi.

He's saying, Man, I know I may be imprisoned in my body, but I'm free in my soul.

And the reason why is because a long time ago I figured out that God's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient he must be because he's still working on me.

It took God only six days to make everything, but he's gonna spend the rest of our lives working on us.

That's how much he loves you.

And so my prayer for you is that you will be absolutely transformed over the course of this series by God's word as he teaches us that he is working on us.

And because of that, we look at every mountain and every valley as God's faithfulness.

In just a moment, the band's gonna lead us through a song of worship.

And I don't I don't know how you need to respond to this message.

There's so many things going on in our world, so many things going on in our individual worlds.

I don't know what the Holy Spirit may be speaking to you about, but I trust that He is.

I trust that He wants to speak to you more than you want to hear from Him.

Can I encourage you to take a next step with the Lord?

Maybe you're in here and you love Jesus, but you're so weary about what's going on in the world.

Maybe you just need to ask God, God, will you give me a proper perspective to see what really matters on how I can make a difference through what you've called me to do?

Maybe you're in here, you don't care about what's going on in the world.

You wish you could.

It feels like your life is falling apart.

What if you said, God, will you open my eyes to see your faithfulness?

May your word says, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won't be afraid because you walk close beside me.

I think if God opened our eyes to see how present He is, we'd never have another bad day because we knew that the King of the universe is right beside us.

Maybe that needs to be your prayer.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Can I tell you, you cannot earn salvation, but you can receive it through surrender.

Inside your worship God, on the back of that connect card is the plan of salvation, and it's about surrender.

It's about giving God everything.

Giving him your sin, giving him your joys, giving him everything, and saying, God, I want you to be the Lord of my life.

If that's you, I got bad news, and that is I can't I can't fully explain to you what the love of God is like because you got to experience him for yourself.

But what I can tell you is that if you've ever experienced a love of God, there's nothing else like knowing you are loved, seen, and known by the King.

In just a moment, as the band leads us in a song of worship, your next step is gonna be that when we stand to worship, in just a moment, I want you to grab this card and I want you to stand as well, and I want you to meet us back at the prayer table because we would like to lead you through this prayer.

We want to watch you as you are born into the kingdom of God, to watch a miracle take place, that one more person has come into the kingdom.

It is our honor to celebrate this with you.

Today is the day of your salvation.

Let's pray and prepare our hearts right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you are with us and that you are for us and that you see us in every way.

I'm so thankful, God, that as many people that are in here right now are the many different things that you are able to do.

Lord, there are those of us that we are so concerned about things going on in our lives, and we need you, God, to show yourself strong in us.

Others, God, that there are so many things going on in our personal world with jobs, with families, with finances, with health, all these things.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will come in like a flood.

Your word says you are near to the brokenhearted, you give us joy, for it's in your presence that we find the fullness of joy, that sigh of contentment, because we know that you are working and that you are in control.

I pray that as we worship you, we will feel the breath of heaven over us, singing over us and reminding us that you are with us and that you are for us.

God, I pray for the one who maybe today is the day of salvation for them.

Lord, I know that the enemy would like to lie to them, would like to tell them things that are not true.

We just silence the voice of the enemy in Jesus' name.

We ask you, Holy Spirit, you'll be the loudest voice.

And for every doubt and for every fear, the answer will be, but I still love you.

I still want you.

I haven't given up on you, I haven't changed my mind about you.

Today's the day of salvation.

Give them the courage to take that next step.

We celebrate in advance all that you are doing and all that you're going to continue to do.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is going to lead us in a final song of worship.

I don't know exactly what it is that you need to do.

Maybe there's just something going on in your life right now, and you'd like for someone to pray with you.

The prayer table is not only for salvation, but it's about laying burdens down before the Lord.

It would be our honor to pray with you.

Maybe you would just want to find a quiet place up here.

In the Old Testament, they would visit the house of God to lay things at the altar.

Maybe that's what you need to do.

Maybe today is a day of salvation for you.

It will be our honor to walk with you into the kingdom of God.

But whatever you need to do, let's take the next few moments and worship the Lord.