Philippians, Gospel perseverance through gospel partnership - Who Could Have Predicted That - Php 1:12-18a

We've been in a series called Philippians, Gospel Perseverance Through

Gospel Partnership. And it's Paul's letter to the church in Philippi,

or Little Rome, as they called it. And it's a

letter that's full of joy, it's full of rejoicing, and

it's full of gratitude. You can just see it as

you're reading through it, how much joy and rejoicing and gratitude.

But it's all over this partnership that Paul shares with

the Philippians in gospel work. It's a mutual partnership that's

actually encouraging them to stand firm in in the faith.

And our hope is that as we're going through the

book of Philippians, that it would also encourage us in

the same way that we would see how crucial or

how critical it is to have gospel partnership in our

life so that it helps us persevere in our faith.

Because God uses this partnership as brothers and sisters in

Christ to help keep us on the narrow path. It's

a blessing. It's a grace that God gives us for

one another. So I hope that we see this love

and care that Paul and the Philippians have for each

other to see their partnership in gospel work and gospel efforts.

And it would encourage us to do exactly what he's

telling the people to do, but to live their life

in a manner that is worthy of the gospel. So

we want to partner together in gospel work and persevere

in gospel work together. Amen. All right, so today we're

going to be in Philippians chapter 1. We're going to

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

be reading verses 12 through the first part of verse 18.

So that's Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 18. So

Philippians 1:12–18

if you'll grab your Bibles and start turning there. And

if you need a Bible, we have a bunch on

the table in the back there stacked up. And Gabe

will actually run it to you. If you wave your

hand at him, he'll run a Bible to you right now.

So please get that Bible. Keep it. We want you

to have God's word in your hands. It's our spiritual food.

We need it. All right, we're going to be in

Philippians chapter 1, verses 12. If you guys would stand

Philippians 1:12

with me, please, if you're able, while we read today's text,

and we stand to receive and to respond to God's word.

Verse 12, 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, having become confident

in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold

to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ

from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter

do it out of love, knowing that I am put

here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim

Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to

afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in

every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed,

and in that I rejoice. Let's pray together. God, we

thank you for your word. We thank you for this

moment to set aside all other distractions and focus our

eyes and our hearts and minds on you. God, we

thank you that you've given us this letter to the

Philippians so that we might learn more about who you are,

who you've called us to be, and this love and

partnership and gospel work that we see so clearly in Philippians.

So God, give us ears to hear what you'd have

for us today and the boldness to step out in

faith and apply it to our lives. We thank you

for all this and give it all to you for

your glory. In the name of Jesus, everyone said, amen.

You guys may take your seats. There was a man

named John Harper. Does that name ring a bell to anyone?

Don't spoil the surprise if you know who that is.

His name is John Harper. He actually was a Scottish evangelist,

so he's someone who preached the gospel in fervently, and

he's from Scotland, but he also was a pastor of

a church in London. And this guy, John, was invited

to come to America for the second time to preach

and teach at a church called Moody Church in Chicago.

And so he went and boarded a ship in Southampton, England,

and this ship was headed to New York City. And

during this trip across the Atlantic, the ship actually struck

an iceberg. So yes, the ship we're talking about is

the RMS Titanic. And as the ship began to sink,

John put his daughter on a lifeboat and he was,

his wife had already passed away, but they were traveling

with his daughter. And I think it was a cousin,

but he puts his daughter on a lifeboat. And as

the ship sinks, he goes into the freezing cold water

with the ship clinging to wreckage. And as the waves

are kind of pushing people around, he gets pushed by

a wave and floats over towards a man. And he

goes to this man and calls out to him and says, man,

are you saved? And the man replied, no, I am not.

And he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and

thou shall be saved. And then a wave kind of

pushed him away. And after some time passed, another wave

pushes John back towards this exact same man. He comes

to this man and says, man, are you saved now?

And the man says, no. And he said the exact

same thing back. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and

thou shall be saved. Shortly after that, John slips beneath

the surface of the water and dies in the freezing

cold water of the northern Atlantic. But there, still clinging

to the wreckage, is the man he gave that answer to.

And he's still floating in the wreckage. And at that moment,

that man trusts in Jesus as a savior. And this

is the last convert of John Harper. And he went

on to survive and actually tell this story. Now, if

you ask this man, this last convert of John Harper,

in all the possibilities that you could have ever imagined,

Was this one of the scenarios that you thought possible

for the Lord to reach out and save you? That

in the midst of a sinking ship, freezing to death

in the northern Atlantic Sea, that God would use that

situation to reach you with the gospel message? There's no

way that he could have imagined that possibility. Who could

have predicted that? Who could have predicted that God would

use the sinking of the Titanic to reach you? a

lost person. Even in the midst of something so tragic

and so crazy, for those who watch the movie, you

get one picture of it from the movie, but from

the historical readings of it, you get a much bigger picture.

In the midst of something so tragic, God was still

at work. God was still spreading his gospel message through

ways that no one could have ever predicted or even imagined.

But now, considering the text we just read, I want

you to think about all of what Paul's going through.

The persecutions that he's experiencing because of preaching the gospel.

The beatings from the mobs being put in jail and

locked up when he was called by Jesus to bring

the gospel to the Gentiles. Do you think that he

could have predicted that this is how God was going

to do it? There's no way. There's no way that

he would have predicted that. What Paul learned was that

God uses words. unlikely means to advance his gospel. God

uses unlikely means to advance his gospel. And I want

you to keep that in mind the whole time we're

talking through our text today, because God will always get

his mission accomplished. He does. God always does. And his

mission to advance the gospel is no different. He will

spread his gospel to the ends of the earth, and

he will do so using some of the most unlikely means.

He'll do it through circumstances that we could never imagine.

He'll do it through people that we never would expect

or picked. And he'll do it through situations and experiences

that are unpredictable or that we couldn't even fathom. God

uses unlikely means to advance his gospel. Listen to what

Paul is arguing in our first verse here, verse 12.

I want you to know, brothers, and anytime you see

that word brothers through our text today, he's talking about

brothers and sisters, fellow Christians. So I want you to know, brothers,

that what has happened to me has really served to

advance the gospel. And another way to understand this sentence

would be, fellow Christians, I want you to know that

my circumstances have done no harm to the gospel. No,

what I'm going through actually is helping the gospel. And

I think this is really helpful for Paul to point

out because if Paul's goal is to preach the gospel

everywhere he goes, all over the place, Then at first glance,

going to jail, that probably seems like a huge setback.

That just looks like a setback. But he's pointing out,

this isn't the setback that you think it is. 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

the imperial guard is the praetorium or the Roman governor's

official residence. So it has become known throughout the whole

imperial guard and to all the rest, so everyone else

around me, that my imprisonment is for who? It's for Christ.

That's what they all now know. Paul is locked up,

and now the gospel is spreading through the place that

he's locked up in Rome. All the guards and even

the people in Caesar's household, we read towards the end

of Philippians, if you guys read ahead, the final greeting says,

and the people in the household of Caesar also send

their greetings. So it's not just the guards, it's also

Caesar's household They all know why Paul is locked up.

But I want to pause here for a moment and

talk about Paul's multiple imprisonments, because I think it's pretty robust.

That guy was busy. This is not the first time

that Paul has been locked up. He's actually been locked

up in Philippi. He was locked up in Jerusalem, sent

to Caesarea, and now he's in Rome. And he actually

mentions getting arrested many other times in 2 Corinthians 11,

but we don't get the details about all these other imprisonments,

the way the how's, the who's, the what's. But every

time that Paul's imprisoned, it's always for the same thing.

It's always for the same reason that Paul gets imprisoned.

His imprisonment is for Christ in defense of the gospel.

He's locked up for preaching Jesus. for spreading the gospel,

and the Jews want to kill him for it. So

I want you to hold your place in Philippians, and

I want you to turn to Acts chapter 21. And

Acts 21 · chapter mention

we're going to look at how Paul ended up in

prison in Rome. Now we're going to go through, I'm

going to read some of the text, and then we're

going to summarize a bunch of his story here. So

kind of buckle up for this history lesson. For those

who don't like history, I'm sorry. I hope you like

history a little more after this. So Acts 21, we'll

start in verse 27. When the seven days were almost completed,

these are days of purification Paul was going through in

the temple. The Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple,

stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying,

men of Israel, help. It's a cry for help. This

is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the

people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even

brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.

For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him

in the city. And they supposed that Paul had brought

him into the temple. So supposed means they don't know

if he actually did it. And if Paul actually did

do it, this would be a huge no-no. But he

never actually did. So verse 30, then all the city

was stirred up and the people ran together. They seized

Paul and dragged him out of the temple. And at

once the gates were shut. They threw him out and

shut the gates. And as they were seeking to kill him,

so this isn't just throw him out of the temple,

they're trying to kill Paul. Word came to the tribune

of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He

at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.

And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they

stopped beating Paul. So this mob stopped trying to beat

him to death. That's what was happening. Paul was trying

to be beaten to death by this mob. Then the

tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to

be bound with two chains, If you know, you know.

He inquired who he was and he inquired who he

was and what he had done. Verse 34, some in

the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. And

as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar,

he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And

when he came to the steps, he was actually carried

by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd.

For the mob of people, the mob of the people

followed crying out away with him. This is no peaceful

gathering here. They're trying to kill Paul. He gets seized

by the Jews in the temple in Jerusalem on some

bogus accusations that he brought some Gentile into the temple,

which he didn't. And then that he was also teaching

the people to ignore God's law and temple practices, which

he wasn't, because if you listen to Paul's teachings, he

consistently pointed back to the law and the prophets to

show that Jesus is the Christ, the awaited Savior and Messiah.

But this mob has grabbed Paul and is trying to

beat him to death. trying to beat him to death

at least until the cops show up to stop him.

But because this mob is so violent, Paul has to

be carried up the stairs into the barrack. But from here,

Paul actually spends time arguing that he hasn't done anything wrong.

He's brought before the authorities and argues that he didn't

do anything wrong. The Jews still don't care. And they

actually come up with a plan here to ambush and

murder Paul. So he's snuck out of the city of

Jerusalem and sent to a nearby city not too far

away in Caesarea And there he spends two years imprisoned.

So here's kind of like the quick summaries. We're kind

of moving through a little bit of Paul's journey here.

But because when he gets brought to Caesarea, he hasn't

technically done anything wrong. He's actually given some freedoms. So

he gets to have conversations with lots of people. And

so he has a ton of conversations with this guy

named Felix. And Felix is the guy in charge of Caesarea.

But he's still not free to do whatever he wants.

He's still locked up. But as a favor to the Jews,

Felix actually leaves Paul in prison. And after two years,

another guy gets put in charge named Festus. And it's

in this process of Festus becoming in control and in

charge that Paul appeals to Caesar. And what that means

is he wants to go stand before Caesar to plead

his case. He's like, I want to plead my case,

but send me to Caesar to do it. But before

he gets sent to Rome, he actually gets to tell

his story to two more people. It's King Agrippa and Bernice. Now,

Rome being the ultimate authority in the area, so they're

over everybody, but King Agrippa is actually over the temple

in Jerusalem and over some other surrounding areas in the region.

And he's also, this guy, King Agrippa II, is the

great-grandson of, drumroll please, Herod the Great. Herod the Great

was not great. He's the guy who killed all the

infants in Bethlehem when they were trying to kill Jesus,

the infant Jesus. That's in Matthew chapter 2. So Herod

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

the Great is not great. And also Agrippa II's dad

and grandpa, so Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, the first

and then the second. They're the guys responsible for the

death of John the Baptist, the death of James, and

the imprisonment of Peter. This is not a good family.

This is a rough family. But Paul gets to testify

in front of Agrippa II and his sister Bernice. So,

That's two more people in high positions of power getting

exposed to the gospel. Because what's Paul doing every time

he's brought in front of the authorities? He's testifying to

who he is, what he's preaching, who Jesus is. The

whole works. But finally, Paul gets sent to Rome by Festus.

And it's funny because you read the account of this

in Acts. And Festus is like, okay, I'll send him

to Caesar. But I don't even know what to write

as the crime. Like I'm sending him, but I don't

know what I'm saying he did wrong. But either way,

this is really great news for Paul because Paul was

told by the Lord to go testify in Rome the

same way that he testified in Jerusalem. So this is

a win for Paul. Paul's like, sweet, I'm gonna go there.

So he's sent on a ship. And although this ship

doesn't hit an iceberg like the Titanic, it does run

into some problems. There's a severe storm and they have

to run the ship aground on an island and an island,

it's a crash landed and it's on an island called Malta.

And they spent three months there with the natives. And

Acts 28 actually tells us that Paul ends up praying

for the father of a chief there on the island,

and he gets healed. And then all of a sudden,

they're bringing all of the people with diseases to Paul

so he can pray for them and that they would

be healed. But after these three months, the natives actually

resupply them and send them on their way on a

new ship that's sailing for Rome. And it's when he

finally arrives in Rome that he has some freedoms. Now,

he's still under guard, so this isn't like all kinds

of freedoms. So people can come and visit him. And

so I like to think of it more as a

house arrest, but you're still kind of chained to a guard.

So he's not free. So I want you to, still

holding your place in Philippians, I want you to turn

over a few more pages in Acts to chapter 28.

And we're going to look at how the end of Acts,

how the book of Acts ends. And we'll start in

verse 23. When they had appointed a day for him,

they came to him at his lodging in great numbers.

From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to

the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus,

both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.

And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made

one statement. The Holy Spirit was right in saying to

your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, Go to this people

and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand. And

you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's

heart has grown dull. And with their eyes they can barely,

excuse me, with their ears they can barely hear. And

with their eyes they have closed, lest they should see

with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand

with their heart and turn and I would heal them. Therefore,

let it be known to you that this salvation of

God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.

He lived there two whole years at his own expense

in Rome and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming

the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus

Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Now, why did

I just take all the time to talk about Paul's history?

Why do we look at such a big chunk of

his history from his imprisonment in Jerusalem all the way

to his imprisonment in Rome, which really is, even though

it seems like a big chunk, it's actually a small

part of his life. But we're talking about it all

because what was Paul's point back in our text in Philippians?

He said, what has happened to me, so everything we

just talked through, what has happened to me is serving

the gospel. It's serving the gospel. Look at how the

gospel has been spreading everywhere because of the circumstances, because

of what Paul is going through. Because even all the

people around him now in Rome, the guards, Caesar's household,

they're all being exposed to the gospel message of Jesus.

Everything that has happened has helped to advance the gospel.

What's our main point for today? God uses unlikely means

to advance his gospel. God uses unlikely means to advance

his gospel. When Paul was first put in jail, do

you think that he thought that that was going to

help the gospel spread? Probably not. He probably viewed it

as a hindrance until God worked in it and God

worked through it to spread the gospel. How unlikely of

a means God used to advance his gospel. But it

doesn't stop there because our text keeps going, doesn't it?

It doesn't stop there. Look at what Paul says next

in verse 14. And most of the brothers, this is

our Philippians text. And most of the brothers, having become

confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more

bold to speak the word without fear. So the brothers

and sisters in Christ are speaking the word of the

Lord more boldly because Paul is in prison. Because of

his imprisonment, it's encouraging them to preach the gospel, what?

Without fear. They're not afraid. It's crazy. It's just emboldening them.

It's making them more bold. But this is where it

gets actually kind of funny, because not all the brothers

are preaching from a good place. That's what our text says.

Verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from what? Envy and rivalry. Rivalry.

So some of them are on Paul's side. Some of

these brothers are on Paul's side. They're preaching the gospel

of pure motives, desiring to do good and for good reasons.

But there are others who are literally boldly preaching the

gospel without fear. They say all the people are starting

to do this. So there are some that are boldly

preaching the gospel without fear out of jealousy or in

spite of Paul. Their desire is to preach the gospel

to prove themselves better than Paul. I'll show that guy

locked up. Watch how many people I convert to Jesus

while he's locked up. I think that's hilarious. They think

they're hurting Paul by boldly preaching the gospel. But what's

Paul's response? What then? Only that in every way, whether

in pretense or lies or in truth, Christ is proclaimed,

and in that I what? Can't steal Paul's joy. He

can't steal Paul's joy. All that he cares about is

that Christ is proclaimed, that Jesus is preached. He doesn't

care how, or I should say he cares, he's a

lot less concerned about how. I can't tell you how

many times I've told my boys, I don't care how

you guys do it, just get it done. That's like

a regular conversation. I mean, Jackson can confirm this. Boys,

it's time to go to clean your rooms. But what

part do we do first? I don't care. Start wherever

you want. Just clean your room. That's the part that matters.

I don't care how you get it done. I just

want you to get it done. I think that's kind

of what Paul's saying a little bit here. He's keeping

the main thing the main thing. His eyes are fixed

on the goal. They're on the mission. He's way less

concerned with how it gets done, only that it gets done.

But I do want to make something really clear here.

What Paul is not saying is that it's okay to

sin in order to reach the goal. But I do

think he's okay with you doing anything less than that

to get it done. And I think that's kind of

the same mindset we ought to have. I think we

should be ready to do anything short of sinning to

preach the gospel to others. Be ready to do whatever

it takes, as long as it's not sin, to preach

the gospel, to get the good news out there. But

how crazy is it that God would use even people

who are trying to stick it to Paul to spread

the gospel? I think it's hilarious. Using people who have

less than pure motives to preach and advance his gospel message.

God uses unlikely means to advance his gospel message. But

here's the thing. He doesn't just use unlikely means to

advance it, but think about the actual gospel itself. And

Pastor Duncan and I were talking this past week about this,

and he actually pointed this out. I was like, this

is amazing. The gospel itself, the whole thing is actually

through unlikely means. If you think about it, God, the

creator of all things, preexistent, preeminent over everything, would choose

to enter into his own creation. Why would a creator

do that? Why would a creator do that? Why would

they choose to do that? And not only just choose

to enter into his creation, but not even as an adult.

To enter into creation as a baby, the most humble

and helpless position you could actually take. And born of

a virgin. That is not how things normally work. From

all outside appearances, he's just another guy. But he wasn't

just some guy. He's Jesus. He's God in the flesh.

And just when the people start to believe that he

is the Messiah, God's anointed one, what happens? He dies.

He's brutally murdered on the cross. So what now? Is

it all over? Did God's mission fail? That's a question

in everyone's mind. But no, it didn't fail. This was

all a part of God's plan. He planned out all

of this. He's using, God is using unlikely means. Jesus

chose to lay down his own life for people who

did nothing to deserve it. That's unlikely. People who could

never do anything to deserve it. It's not just that

they didn't deserve it. It's that they could never ever

do anything to deserve it. The debt that we owe,

he chose to pay it. No other king does that.

Every other kingdom You work to serve the king. Now, granted,

we serve Jesus. That's what our life is all for.

But he literally died for us. That is unlikely. But

he didn't stay dead, did he? No, he raised from

the grave, defeating sin and death forever. No one could

have predicted it to be this way, that God's plan

of redemption for his people would have played out this way.

No one could have predicted it. And what's funny about

that is he actually told everyone his plan through the prophets.

So they should have predicted it. They should have guessed it.

But if you didn't have God giving you the plan

in all the prophets, there's no way you would have

picked like, oh, that's how God's going to redeem his people.

Who would have thought that? No one. The fact that

there are no works that we can do to save ourselves,

that is not how anything else in this world works.

You have to do something in order to get something.

This is just so backwards. It's so different. It doesn't

make sense. But it's literally the way God did it.

Salvation is achieved by the grace of God through faith

in Jesus Christ. So unlikely of a means. I mean,

I even think about the men that Jesus chose as

his disciples. How unlikely were them? They weren't educated men.

They weren't popular men. They're fishermen. They're fishermen. Tax collectors.

Why would he choose them? God chooses the foolish things

of this world to shame the wise. That's how God works.

Unlikely means. God uses unlikely means to save his people,

and God uses unlikely means to advance his gospel. And

if I can have the worship team come up, please.

One of the most incredible things about that Titanic story

that I opened up with. So John Harper floats up

and asks the man if he was saved, and he

said no. To which John replied, believe on the Lord

Jesus and thou shall be saved. But what was John

quoting there? I want you to turn to Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 16, and we're going to start in verse 25.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

God uses unlikely means to advance his gospel. At about midnight,

Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there

was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the

prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened.

And everyone's bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke, he

saw the prison doors were open. He drew his sword

and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners

had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice,

Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And

the jailer called for lights and rushed in. And trembling

with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then

he brought them out and said, Sirs, What must I

do to be saved? And they said, What? Believe in

the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and

your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord

to him and to all who were in his house.

John Harper was quoting Paul and Silas when they were

locked up and in prison. And can you guess, just

take the wildest guess, which city they were locked up in? Philippi.

It's almost like this whole Titanic, John Harper thing happened

just so we could preach this message today. They're locked

up in the city of Philippi. Could it be that

God orchestrated this entire situation, these extremely unlikely means to

advance his gospel, making sure that Paul and Silas were

in the prison, then shaking the earth to free them

all now so that they have a captive audience, this

Philippian jailer. all so that they could preach the gospel

to him and the Lord would save him and his family.

This was one of the first families to become Christian

in Philippi. This is one of the first stories we

get in scripture of who was converted in Philippi. It

was the start of the spread of the gospel to

the Philippians, the church that Paul is writing to from

prison in Rome. God uses unlikely means to advance his gospel.

And what I think that means for us, because it's

really important to say, okay, what am I supposed to

do with this? If this is how God does things,

then I don't think we should ever count ourselves out.

I don't think we should ever count ourselves out. Don't

think that your own circumstances can't be used for the

advancement of the gospel. If God used Paul's false accusation

and imprisonments and being beaten and all the bad things

he went through, his being shipwrecked, and even the people

who are trying to afflict him while he's in prison,

all of that, he used all that to advance the gospel,

then what can't God use? What can't God use? There's

nothing he can't use to advance the gospel. That's the answer.

There's nothing that God can't use to advance his gospel.

And I'm talking everything. Even the hard stuff. The bad stuff.

the painful stuff, the heartbreaking stuff, the stuff that we

willingly just walk into, all of it, even our persecutions

and sufferings. I want you to ask yourself this question.

Do I have eyes to see gospel opportunities no matter

my circumstances? Do I have eyes to see gospel opportunities

no matter my circumstances? Are you looking for them? Are

you looking for the gospel connections in your life? Or

are you stuck staring just at once right in front

of you? As Paul was looking at the goal, his

eyes were set on the finish line. He was looking

all the way out there. He wasn't looking at the

sufferings right in front of his own eyes. And he

had plenty of them to look at. He had plenty

of sufferings to pick out of the long laundry list

of sufferings he had. He could have picked any of them.

So are we looking past our current sufferings or circumstances

for the sake of the gospel? Are we making the

most of every opportunity and preaching the gospel? No. Because

I want you to know that God has placed you

exactly where he wants you. Good, bad, or ugly. It's

exactly where he wants you. Either by placing you there

or allowing you to walk somewhere. Because he could have

stopped you. So it's all on purpose. There is a purpose.

There is a reason. There is a reason. why you

are where you are. Just like there was a, Paul

was in prison. That's because God wanted him in prison.

And it's for the purposes that he had for him.

It's the same way with us. But do we have

eyes to see the gospel opportunities while we're here and

in it and walking through it? Do we have eyes

to see them? Because God is working to advance his

gospel message and he will do it through some of

the most unlikely means. And yes, even you, as unlikely

as you think that is, he will advance his gospel

message through you. And listen, if that freaks you out

a little bit, I want you to take a deep

breath and let me set you free. The question is,

are you a Christian? Yes? Then just tell people what

you believe. Just tell them what you believe. Tell them

what makes you a Christian. You don't have to make

it more complicated than that. You believe something and you're

a Christian. Tell them that. What did John Harper say? Man,

are you saved? The guy said, no. He said, then

believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.

That's what he said. Jesus died on the cross and

he rose from the dead and anyone who believes that

is forgiven of all their sins, saved from the wrath

of God and will be raised to eternal life. This

is the gospel. Can I get an amen? Yes. This

is the gospel. And if you're still struggling, I want

you to be brave. I want you to be obedient.

I want you to pray for boldness and just bring

him to church because we'll definitely tell him the gospel.

Tell him about Jesus and bring him to church. God

uses unlikely means to advance his gospels. He uses the good,

the bad, and the ugly. So let's have eyes to

see those gospel opportunities in our life and preach the

gospel to all creation. Amen? Can you guys please stand

to your feet?