Philippians – Pt 2

Joy is living with a deep confidence that what God starts, He will finish.

Philippians 1:12-19 (NLT)

¹² And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. ¹³ For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. ¹⁴ And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.

¹⁵ It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. ¹⁶ They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. ¹⁷ Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. ¹⁸ But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. ¹⁹ For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.

True joy in allegiance to Jesus comes from living as citizens of heaven, worthy of the gospel.

Philippians 1:20-30 (NLT)

²⁰ For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. ²¹ For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. ²² But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. ²³ I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. ²⁴ But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.

²⁵ Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. ²⁶ And when I come to you again, you will have even more reason to take pride in Christ Jesus because of what he is doing through me.

²⁷ Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. ²⁸ Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. ²⁹ For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. ³⁰ We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 8-9 (NLT)

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

⁸ We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. ⁹ In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.

1. A citizen of heaven relies on a powerful God.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 13 (NLT)

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

¹³ But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”

2. A citizen of heaven is compelled to tell others what God has done.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. ¹⁷ 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! ¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

3. A citizen of heaven sets their mind on things above. They have an eternal perspective.

4. A citizen of heaven offers comfort.

 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NLT)

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

5. A citizen of heaven lives a life worthy of the Good News about Christ.

Romans 3:23-25a (NLT)

²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. 

Romans 10:8-10 (NLT)

⁸ In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: ⁹ If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

SMALL GROUP MEETING OUTLINE

Where your faith intersects with real life!

Reconnect:

Each person shares a recent high and low from their life.

Explore:

Review the message notes.

Big Idea: True joy in allegiance to Jesus comes from living as citizens of heaven, worthy of the gospel.

Consider:

Choose one or two questions for your Group to discuss as time allows.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Pastor Heather shared this quote: “The unspoken story of Western culture is that suffering is a problem we can avoid or annihilate if we work hard enough. When suffering lingers, we feel we have failed to reach the allegedly reachable American Dream. Held in the invisible grip of this story, lives including pain are problems to fix.”

▶ In life’s challenges, how do you set your mind on things above rather than “working harder” or “figuring it out” (the Lancaster County Method)? How do you balance doing your ‘part’ and trusting God?

▶ Joy is living with a deep confidence that what God starts, He will finish. When have you experienced joy during a storm? Have you seen God complete what he started?

▶ True joy in allegiance to Jesus comes from living as citizens of heaven, worthy of the gospel. How are you choosing to live as a citizen of heaven? What does this look like for you in this season?

Activate:

Spend a moment in silence to consider your response, then share with the Group.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Share which of these applications will you choose to activate in your life beginning this week.

– A citizen of heaven relies on a powerful God.

– A citizen of heaven is compelled to tell others what God has done.

– A citizen of heaven sets their mind on things above. They have an eternal perspective.

Prayer:

Thank God for the highs and lift up the lows.

Help us to live lives worthy of the gospel (the good news), always keeping our focus on who we are called to be as followers of Christ and taking advantage of every opportunity to comfort others as we have been comforted.