Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 150. For The Sake Of The Gospel Conference - Brett Sermon - "The Joy of Persecution"

Transcript

150. For The Sake Of The Gospel Conference - Brett Sermon - "The Joy of Persecution" · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:10
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
0:20
thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
0:24
and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me.
0:29
I found. Welcome to the Four Freedom
0:33
podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
0:37
freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
0:40
everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
0:44
Seyfried and Brett Morris be here this morning with you.
0:51
You have your Bibles turn to Philippians Chapter 1,
0:55
Philippians Chapter 1. I just want to start by saying
0:58
while you're turning to your Scripture that I'm honored and
1:01
privileged to be here today and I'm very thankful to be here
1:05
with all of you this morning. Listen, I want to say a special
1:09
thank you to Hope Church for hosting our conference this
1:12
year. Listen, if you're in the area
1:14
and you need a good church, Pastor Jay Segroves has the hook
1:19
up. He can hook you up, OK, Just
1:21
he'll pray to God that you get hooked up with a good church.
1:25
Some of you don't know what's going on.
1:26
I got a clip to show you Philippians chapter 1 and we're
1:30
going to read our scripture in just a minute.
1:32
I want to start out this morning by talking about promises.
1:36
Promises are an interest are interesting things.
1:40
I made a promise to my kids. We go to Gatlinburg every year
1:43
and we always pass this one restaurant called Bubba Gump
1:46
Shrimp. And my boys have always, they've
1:48
seen the movie and they've always wondered what's it like
1:50
in their dad. And so I made a promise to them.
1:53
Look, when we go to Gatlinburg this year, I'll take you to
1:56
Bubba Gump Trim. I promise.
1:59
I make promises to my wife all the time.
2:01
I promise my wife that I'll take her out for her birthday.
2:04
And that is one promise I don't want to break.
2:08
Listen, I don't know if any of you guys know this yet, but when
2:10
Emily's happy, the whole world is happy.
2:13
And so we definitely want to keep Emily happy.
2:17
I, I pray I got a witness. So listen, I, hey, look, I, I, I
2:21
promise JC $500 if you let me preach this morning.
2:25
So that's why I'm up here. Some promises are made to be
2:30
broken. But you know, Jesus has made us
2:34
some promises. Jesus made us some great
2:36
promises. Jesus promised us to turn to
2:39
life said if we confess our with our mouth Lord Jesus and believe
2:43
in our heart that God has raised us from the dead, we will be
2:46
saved. He promised us an eternal home
2:49
in heaven if we put our faith in him.
2:52
Jesus promised us a comforter. He he he gave us a guarantee of
2:56
our inheritance and we have a comforter that and dwells us
3:00
something that the Old Testament Saints did not hot did not have.
3:04
And so we're so thankful that he promised us a comforter and he
3:08
delivered on that promise. Jesus promises us peace, not
3:13
only peace with God, but he promises us the peace of God.
3:17
So many great promises in the word of God.
3:21
But there is one promise that Jesus makes us that he promised
3:26
us, and he promised this a lot. Something else that Jesus
3:30
promised us is he promised us persecution.
3:36
He promised us hard times, He promised us trials, He promised
3:41
us tribulations. He he looked at us and he said,
3:44
if they persecuted me, they will persecute you.
3:48
He said they will hate you because they hated me first.
3:52
So that brings us to the book of Philippians.
3:56
Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible.
3:58
And in fact, when, when, when I took my new church, it was one
4:01
of the first books that I went through.
4:04
And the theme of the book, there are two words in the book of
4:07
Philippians that are repeated over and over and over.
4:10
And that's those are the words joy and the word gospel.
4:15
Just the book is replete with these words mentioned over and
4:19
over. You wouldn't think that Paul
4:20
could mention these words that much in such a short book, but
4:24
he does. And that's why the title of
4:27
that, that series that I preached was Joy in the Gospel.
4:32
And that that amazes me because you read about Paul's life and
4:37
you read about everything that he went through and and it's
4:40
amazing that with everything Paul had to deal with that he
4:44
never lost his joy. You know, maybe I'm talking to
4:50
somebody in here today. You're experiencing some
4:54
difficult circumstances. Maybe you've got people in your
4:58
life that if you've you've got family members, maybe that have
5:03
turned their back on you because you took a stand for the gospel
5:07
and against legalism. Maybe there's someone in here
5:12
right now, your parent, your parents have turned their backs
5:15
on you. Maybe you've got friends that
5:17
you thought were friends for life and now they won't even
5:21
speak to you. They have forsaken you.
5:26
Maybe you've experienced some sort of abuse in your life and
5:30
now you're left to live with the after effects of that abuse.
5:35
Maybe you're just discouraged because you've been fighting
5:38
against people and you've been fighting through circumstances
5:41
that you can't control and it seems like everything in your
5:45
life that can go wrong does go wrong.
5:49
And my question is, is how in the world through all of this,
5:53
can we hold on to our joy? It's so difficult to hold on to
5:58
our joy in situations like this. I proposed you this morning that
6:05
if we shift our perspective just a little bit, you'd be amazed at
6:10
how hard times can promote a joy filled life and a gospel
6:16
centered life. No matter what comes your way,
6:21
I'd like to share this morning from this passage in Philippians
6:24
3 truths that Paul gives to help him experience joy in his
6:31
persecution. And that's the title of the
6:34
message this morning, the joy of persecution.
6:37
Let me give you my first point this morning.
6:40
I got a time limit #1 your circumstances progress the
6:46
gospel, your circumstances progress the gospel.
6:49
Let's look at the word of God, verse 12, Philippians chapter 1.
6:54
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances
6:56
have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that
7:00
my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has become well known
7:04
throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else.
7:08
Have you ever known somebody that you'd never asked them how
7:12
their day was going because he was afraid they're they'll
7:14
actually tell you. I mean, they tell you about
7:17
every bump, every stubbed toe, every bruise, every ache, every
7:22
pain, every complaint. They just store all this up.
7:25
When you ask them how their day is going, they just unload on
7:28
you. So, so you've learned, you've
7:32
learned not to ask that question.
7:35
Paul could have spent a lot of time right here in this passage
7:39
listening to the Philippians. All the stuff that's happened to
7:42
him. He could have spent a lot of
7:44
time doing that. He could have talked about how
7:47
he was going to be be killed by the Jews in Jerusalem until he
7:52
until he appealed to Caesar. How they cook took him to Rome
7:56
by boat and the journey took one to two years.
7:59
How they were going to kill Paul with all the other prisoners,
8:02
but the centurion stopped him. He could have talked about how
8:05
he was shipwrecked. He could have talked about how
8:07
he was bitten by the Viper. He could have talked about how
8:10
he lived in Rome for two years with no privacy and no freedom.
8:15
He could have just went on and on and on.
8:19
But instead of making a long list of his circumstances, he
8:23
basically just said things happened to me, things happened
8:27
to me, and these things happened to Paul.
8:31
But even though these things happened to Paul, Paul wasn't
8:33
down in the dumps about it. It's almost like he knew
8:38
something and he understood something that me and you need
8:42
to know and need to understand and that is this truth.
8:45
Adverse circumstances advance the gospel.
8:49
Adverse circumstances advance the gospel.
8:52
Paul did go in verse 13. He didn't go into a
8:56
circumstances just a little bit. Verse 13 says so that my
9:00
imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become a well known
9:03
throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else.
9:08
Paul has said he said in the book of Romans that he wanted to
9:11
go one day and preach in Rome. Well, he went didn't happen how
9:17
he wanted it to happen, but it happened.
9:20
He went to Rome, not how he would have liked to went to
9:23
Rome, but he went to Rome. And guess what else?
9:25
Rome paid for it. They paid for it.
9:29
Definitely not how he wanted to go.
9:32
But he's in Rome now. What?
9:34
Well, to be honest, Paul could have been thrown into prison
9:37
with everybody else. They could have took Paul and
9:40
put him in gin pop. But they didn't do that, maybe
9:43
because they probably knew he didn't do anything wrong.
9:48
So they put him in this house. They, they put him under house
9:50
arrest. So he's in house arrest and he's
9:54
living off and paying food and rent through the support and
9:58
offerings of the churches. But there was one stipulation to
10:02
this arrangement is he had to wear an ankle bracelet.
10:06
Now when we get house arrest today and we get our ankle
10:10
bracelets on, Corey was telling me this, but when, when, when we
10:14
get our ankle bracelets on, Listen, we, we're good.
10:18
I mean, we got Xbox and Domino's.
10:20
We're going to live. OK?
10:21
But Paul, when he got his ankle bracelet, the stipulation was it
10:26
had to be attached to a Roman soldier.
10:29
Could you imagine being cuffed to a Roman guard for two years
10:35
straight? I wasn't cuffed to the same
10:38
guard. They changed the guards out
10:40
about every six hours. So in any given day, he was
10:43
chained to four different guards.
10:45
Now, who were these guards? The Bible says that they were
10:49
the Praetorian Guards. Well, who were they?
10:52
Well, the Praetorian Guards, they were the bodyguards of
10:55
Caesar. They were the guards of the
10:57
governors. These were the special forces.
11:00
These were the the the Secret Service, if you will.
11:04
And if you do your research into the Praetorian Guards, what you
11:07
find out is these guards had the power to overthrow their leader,
11:12
to overthrow Caesar and name that his successor under certain
11:16
conditions. So these weren't just any
11:19
guards. These were the bodyguards of
11:23
Caesar. These were the guards that they
11:25
called the king makers. You see, God has a reason for
11:30
everything that he does. Later on in the book of
11:34
Philippians, we find out that Paul actually reached Caesar's
11:38
household with the gospel. How in the world could Paul,
11:41
being under house arrest, reached Caesar's household with
11:45
the gospel? This is how he was witnessing to
11:49
their bodyguards. See, God has a reason for
11:53
everything that he does. There's a reason why Paul was
11:57
chained to four different guards a day so he could give them the
12:00
gospel. Not only did he have a captive
12:03
audience, but he had a new audience that refreshed every
12:06
couple of hours. He had new areas to preach in
12:10
because of his adverse circumstances.
12:13
So the preacher became a prisoner and was given a pulpit
12:16
in the prison to preach to the Praetorian Guards.
12:20
That's a lot of alliteration. Amen.
12:24
Listen, your disappointments are God's appointments as a
12:29
Christian, me and you were supposed to be a gospel
12:32
spreading machine. So when God changes our
12:35
direction, when he does that, it's so you can have access to
12:39
people that you wouldn't normally have access to.
12:43
It's to give you the ability to help people that you wouldn't
12:46
normally be able to help. Maybe there's somebody in here
12:51
today. You've experienced some
12:53
spiritual abuse in your life. See, now you have a story.
12:58
What does JC say all the time? There's power and a story.
13:03
Now you have a testimony. Now you can relate to somebody.
13:06
Now you have something in common with them.
13:09
Now you can reach them with the gospel and help them through the
13:13
gospel. Christians, we, we have to stop
13:16
this thing of having horizontal vision.
13:19
We got to be like Paul. We got to have that vertical
13:22
vision too. Don't just look out, but look
13:24
up. We need to see everything in our
13:28
lives, every circumstance in our lives in the context of heaven.
13:32
We need to see it in the context of reaching people with the
13:36
gospel. This is what people say.
13:39
People say God is wasting my time with this problem.
13:42
No, God is not wasting your time with this problem.
13:46
Let me let you in on a little secret.
13:48
God doesn't know how to waste your time.
13:52
He doesn't know how to do that. The gospel did not stop when
13:57
Paul was in jail. And you would think it would
14:00
throw the pastor in prison, throw the evangelist in prison,
14:04
man, you would think that would stop the gospel in its tracks.
14:07
But that is not what happened. When Paul was in prison, the
14:10
gospel actually spread faster. I will remind you today,
14:15
Christian, that your obstacles are opportunities.
14:18
Your roadblocks are stepping stones.
14:21
Your struggles are shaping you. Your trials are training you.
14:24
Your detours are destinations in disguise.
14:27
Your challenges are channels for growth.
14:30
Your pray, your pain is preparation for purpose.
14:33
Your setbacks are setups for greater comebacks.
14:37
Everything that God allows in your path so that you can be a
14:42
better witness for Him is for the greater progress of the
14:47
gospel .2 Your persecution promotes boldness.
14:53
Your persecution promotes boldness. 3 verse 14, And that
14:59
most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my
15:04
imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God
15:08
without fear. So verse 13 talk discusses what
15:12
happens outside the church. So we get here to verse 14.
15:15
It talks about what happens inside the church.
15:19
And as a result of this persecution, we see that the
15:22
church got bolder. The church got more courageous
15:28
because of this. What?
15:29
How in the world? How does this happen?
15:32
Well, this whole passage today is linked back to verse 12 or
15:37
talks about the greater progress of the gospel.
15:39
What does that word, what does that word progress mean?
15:42
What's a Greek word? And it's prokopay.
15:45
Prokopay is actually a military term and what it actually
15:49
describes is the Greeks Army Corps of Engineers.
15:53
See what would happen is before a battle the Army Corps of
15:57
Engineers would come in and they would clear fields and they
16:01
would build roads and they would build bridges and they would
16:04
embolden supply chains giving anything the army need to fight
16:09
the battle. And that's what that's what the
16:12
persecution was doing for the Christians.
16:13
It was giving the army what they needed to fight the battle.
16:17
Another word you could use to describe this Greek word pro
16:20
capay is the word pioneer. Paul was the pioneer.
16:24
Listen, the first one through the gate always gets the bloody
16:27
nose. The first one through the gate
16:29
always gets the black eye. But Paul was that pioneer that
16:33
inspired others to pioneer as well.
16:37
Let's talk about the word courage.
16:38
What does the word courage mean? Courage means having the ability
16:42
to stand and defy danger, opposition, and trouble.
16:47
Listen, persecution has the uncanny ability to push people
16:53
to be courageous for the cause of Christ.
16:56
And the Christians in Rome were persecuted, and so were the
17:00
Christians in Philippi. In fact, look what it says in
17:03
First Thessalonians 22. But after we had already
17:06
suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we have
17:11
the boldness in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God, amid
17:15
such opposition. There we go again.
17:18
Once again the Bible talks about boldness and persecution and the
17:23
gospel amid much opposition. What's going on here?
17:28
How in the world does this work? How in the world does
17:32
persecution push us to be bolder?
17:35
What's going on here? I heard a pastor say one time
17:39
that if you want to know how something works, you've got to
17:42
reverse engineer it. So let's reverse engineer this
17:46
If persecution produces courage and boldness, the what is
17:51
comfort and luxury produce apathy, laziness, and fear.
17:59
Did you know the seven churches in Revelation, the only two
18:03
churches that Jesus really didn't have anything bad to say
18:06
about were the two churches that experienced persecution?
18:11
Persecution pushes Christians. Now let me stop right for a
18:17
second and let's let's bring that word persecution into
18:20
perspective, especially from a modern American viewpoint.
18:25
Do we really know what persecution is?
18:30
Let's talk for a minute about the underground church in China.
18:34
It is extremely dangerous to be a church in China.
18:39
The underground church in China is under intense persecution,
18:42
but it's growing. The underground church in China
18:45
is growing bigger every day. I heard a pastor tell a story
18:49
about a Chinese native pastor missionary and he was on a phone
18:53
call with this Chinese pastor and the pastor said, I am
18:56
praying that the persecution eases in China.
19:01
There was a pause on the phone. The Chinese pastor said, back to
19:06
the American pastor, I'm praying that America comes under more
19:10
persecution. Why is that?
19:14
Because our Christians don't have to fight.
19:18
Because we've never had to. You see, American Christians
19:21
have never been told they can't preach or provide religious
19:25
education. American Christians have never
19:27
been told they can't broadcast religious rights pictures or
19:31
recordings. American Christians have never
19:34
been arrested for having church over a Zoom call.
19:39
See, the registered churches in China have to put the government
19:41
first. If the government comes up to a
19:43
registered Chinese pastor and says, if Jesus was here today,
19:47
would he submit to the Chinese Communist Communist Party?
19:51
If that pastor doesn't immediately answer yes, he's
19:54
thrown in jail. That's why the past.
19:58
That's why the churches go underground.
20:02
And here we are in America and our comfort and our luxury.
20:08
Sitting on our biscuit, never having to risk it, we float away
20:15
on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize
20:19
and sail through bloody seas. We sit on our pillow and we
20:27
ignore the spiritual war around us.
20:30
Persecution should push us. Maybe the American church does
20:34
need a little more persecution #3 your joy is proclaiming
20:40
Christ. Your joy is proclaiming Christ.
20:44
Verse 15. Some, to be sure, are preaching
20:47
Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from
20:50
goodwill. The latter do it out of love,
20:53
knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel.
20:56
The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than
21:00
from pure motives. Thinking to cause me distress in
21:03
my imprisonment. What then?
21:05
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
21:10
is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice.
21:13
Don't this beat all. Don't this beat everything.
21:16
With everything Paul has had to deal with in his life, he's had
21:20
to deal with pain, He's had to deal with persecution.
21:23
And now Paul's got to deal with pettiness.
21:28
Pettiness. Come on, he's got to deal with
21:31
other Christians kicking him while he's down.
21:35
He has to do with people who want him to lose out to them.
21:40
You see, they were jealous of Paul's recognition.
21:43
They wanted it for themselves. They wanted to be the ones who
21:46
headlined the revival meetings. They wanted to be the ones who
21:49
were the keynote speaker at the national conference.
21:52
They wanted to be the ones who bought the theology books that
21:55
everybody bought. They wanted to be the one who
21:58
who were the celebrity pastors. But what did Paul say?
22:03
Paul said my joy doesn't come from any of that.
22:06
My joy doesn't come from preaching the revival.
22:09
My joy doesn't come from writing the theology books.
22:12
My joy doesn't come from getting the recognition at the national
22:16
conference. My joy doesn't come from being a
22:18
celebrity pastor. My joy does not come from being
22:22
a household name. My joy comes from Christ and
22:25
Christ alone. Only from Christ.
22:32
Paul says you may have bad motives, but if Christ is being
22:37
preached, your motives don't matter to me.
22:43
You want more joy in your life? Well then we need some
22:47
Christians today that say I don't care about the credit.
22:52
I don't care if somebody else steps in and takes recognition
22:56
that was meant for to be mine as long as Christ is preached and
23:01
the gospel is given. Because my joy, Paul said,
23:06
doesn't come from any of that stuff.
23:09
My joy comes from Christ and Christ alone.
23:14
I like the way James puts it in James 1/2 through 4:00.
23:18
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter
23:21
various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces
23:25
endurance. Let endurance have its perfect
23:28
result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
23:31
nothing. James claims here that trials
23:36
mature us, and so we should consider trials joy because
23:42
anything that has the ability to bring you closer to the Savior
23:48
should be considered joyful. I want to talk for just a minute
23:53
about Isaac Watts. We've all heard the name Isaac
23:57
Watts. Isaac Watts was a famous hymn
24:00
writer and pastor. But what a lot of people don't
24:02
know about Isaac Watts is Isaac Watts was extremely disabled.
24:07
He needed help and assistance to get up to his pulpit to preach.
24:12
He couldn't live by himself. He had to live by with a friend
24:16
because he was just so disabled. So many times it seemed like he
24:20
was just sitting by the sidelines while everyone else
24:23
fought the fight. There are many battles, many
24:26
wars that happened in England during his life, and he couldn't
24:29
lift his finger for any of them. He saw so many other pastors
24:34
around him able to do so much more for his peep for their
24:37
people and so much more for their congregants, and he just
24:41
felt like he couldn't do anything, any of that.
24:44
So Isaac Watts spun into a depression.
24:47
He had no joy in his life. He was convinced he couldn't
24:52
contribute. He complained about his
24:55
condition constantly. You know what?
24:58
Isaac could have stayed down. He could have stayed down and
25:02
nobody would have blamed him. If he gave up with everything he
25:06
had to overcome, everyone would have said it's OK Isaac, you
25:10
don't have to fight anymore. You've got too much coming
25:13
against you. You can take a rest, you can
25:16
give up, you can retire, you can go home.
25:21
But Isaac Watts didn't give up, and instead he wrote these
25:24
words. Am IA soldier of the Cross, a
25:29
follower of the Lamb? Or shall I fear to own his
25:33
cause, or blush to speak his name?
25:35
Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while
25:39
others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?
25:44
Are there no foes for me to face?
25:46
Must I not stem the flood? Is this file world of friend,
25:49
the grace to help me unto God? Since I must fight if I would
25:54
reign, increase my courage, Lord, I'll bare the toil, endure
25:58
the pain, supported by Thy word in the name, the precious name
26:03
of Him who died for me. Through grace I win the promised
26:06
crown. Whatever my cross may be, Don't
26:13
let persecution, hard times, trials and tribulations.
26:20
Don't let your circumstances push you down.
26:25
Let them propel you forward because adverse circumstances
26:31
advance the gospel. This, this problem is not a
26:34
mistake. God is giving.
26:36
He's changing your direction to give you access to more people
26:40
to help. And when you proclaim Christ,
26:43
that is your joy. But on the flip side, don't let
26:50
a lack of persecution make you complacent.
26:55
Gain the right perspective. We are in a spiritual battle and
27:01
it is all around us. And persecution can not only
27:07
progress the gospel, but it can also fill you with joy found.
27:13
My new name found that good grace, found that healing, and
27:19
the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no
27:23
ending. I found that second chance,
27:25
found my best friend, found my forgiveness, found my happiness.
27:27
I've been singing ever since about my freedom.
27:44
Thanks for listening to the Four Freedom Podcast.
27:47
If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking,
27:51
subscribing, or sharing our podcast or whichever podcast
27:54
platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for
27:58
the Four Freedom Podcast.