150. For The Sake Of The Gospel Conference - Brett Sermon - "The Joy of Persecution"

I found my freedom in you I found a joy I can't lose And thank God it's true You wrapped your arms around me And heaven broke through From the moment you found me I found my freedom in you Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Safer and Brad Martin. Be here this morning with you. If you have your Bibles, turn to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. I just want to start by saying while you're turning to your scripture that I'm honored and privileged to be here today. And I'm very thankful to be here with all of you this morning. Listen, I want to say a special thank you to Hope Church for hosting our conferences here. Listen, if you're in the area and you need a good church, Pastor J.C. Groves has the hookup. He can hook you up. Okay? He'll pray to God that you get hooked up with a good church. Some of you don't know what's going on. I got a clip to show you. Philippians chapter 1. And we're going to read our scripture in just a minute. I want to start out this morning by talking about promises. Promises are interesting things. I made a promise to my kids. We go to Gatlinburg every year and we always pass this one restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp. And my boys have always, they've seen the movie and they've always wondered, what's it like in there, Dad? And so I made a promise to them. Look, when we go to Gatlinburg this year, I'll take you to Bubba Gump Shrimp. I promise. I make promises to my wife all the time. I promise my wife that I'll take her out for her birthday. And that is one promise I don't want to break. Listen, I don't know if any of you guys know this yet, but when Emily's happy, the whole world is happy. And so we definitely want to keep Emily happy. I pray I got a witness. So listen, hey, look, I promised JC $500 if you let me preach this morning. So that's why I'm up here. Some promises are made to be broken. But you know, Jesus has made us some promises. Jesus made us some great promises. Jesus promised us to turn to life. He said, if we confess with our mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised us from the dead, we will be saved. He promised us an eternal home in heaven if we put our faith in him. Jesus promised us a comforter. He gave us a guarantee of our inheritance. And we have a comforter that indwells us, something that the Old Testament saints did not have. And so we're so thankful that he promised us a comforter and he delivered on that promise. Jesus promises us peace. Not only peace with God, but he promises us the peace of God. So many great promises in the word of God. But there is one promise that Jesus makes us that he promised us. And he promised this a lot. Something else that Jesus promised us is he promised us persecution. He promised us hard times. He promised us trials. He promised us tribulations. He looked at us and he said, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. He said, they will hate you because they hated me first. So that brings us to the book of Philippians. Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And in fact, when I took my new church, it was one of the first books that I went through. And the theme of the book, there are two words in the book of Philippians that are repeated over and over and over. And that's, those are the words joy and the word gospel. Just the book is replete with these words mentioned over and over. You wouldn't think that Paul could mention these words that much in such a short book, but he does. And that's why the title of that, that series that I preached was joy in the gospel. And you know, that, that, that amazes me because you read about Paul's life and you read about everything that he went through. And it's amazing that with everything Paul had to deal with, that he never lost his joy. You know, maybe I'm talking to somebody in here today. You're experiencing some difficult circumstances. Maybe you've got people in your life that if you've, you've got family members, maybe that have turned their back on you because you took a stand for the gospel and against legalism. Maybe there's someone in here right now. Your parents, your parents have turned their backs on you. Maybe you've got friends that you thought were friends for life and now they won't even speak to you. They have forsaken you. Maybe you've experienced some sort of abuse in your life and now you're left to live with the after effects of that abuse. Maybe you're just discouraged because you've been fighting against people and you've been fighting through circumstances that you can't control. And it seems like everything in your life that can go wrong does go wrong. And my question is, is how in the world through all of this can we hold on to our joy? It's so difficult to hold on to our joy in situations like this. I propose to you this morning that if we shift our perspective just a little bit, you'd be amazed at how hard times can promote a joy-filled life and a gospel-centered life no matter what comes your way. I'd like to share this morning from this passage in Philippians three truths that Paul gives to help him experience joy in his persecution. And that's the title of the message this morning, The Joy of Persecution. Let me give you my first point this morning. I got a time limit. Number one, your circumstances progress the gospel. Your circumstances progress the gospel. Let's look at the Word of God, verse 12, Philippians chapter 1. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. Have you ever known somebody that you'd never ask them how their day was going because you was afraid they'll actually tell you? I mean, they tell you about every bump, every stubbed toe, every bruise, every ache, every pain, every complaint. They just store all this up when you ask them how their day is going. They just unload on you. So you've learned, you've learned not to ask that question. Paul could have spent a lot of time right here in this passage listing to the Philippians all the stuff that's happened to him. He could have spent a lot of time doing that. He could have talked about how he was going to be killed by the Jews in Jerusalem until he appealed to Caesar. How they took him to Rome by boat and the journey took one to two years. How they were going to kill Paul with all the other prisoners, but the centurion stopped him. He could have talked about how he was shipwrecked. He could have talked about how he was bitten by the viper. He could have talked about how he lived in Rome for two years with no privacy and no freedom. He could have just went on and on and on. But instead of making a long list of his circumstances, he basically just said, eh, things happen to me. Things happen to me. And these things happen to Paul. But even though these things happened to Paul, Paul wasn't down in the dumps about it. It's almost like he knew something and he understood something that me and you need to know and need to understand. And that is this truth. Adverse circumstances advance the gospel. Adverse circumstances advance the gospel. Paul did go in verse 13. He did go into his circumstances just a little bit. Verse 13 says, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard. And to everyone else. Paul has said, he said in the book of Romans that he wanted to go one day and preach in Rome. Well, he went. Didn't happen how he wanted it to happen. But it happened. He went to Rome. Not how he would have liked to went to Rome, but he went to Rome. And guess what else? Rome paid for it. They paid for it. Definitely not how he wanted to go. But he's in Rome. Now what? Well, to be honest, Paul could have been thrown into prison with everybody else. They could have took Paul and put him in gin pot. But they didn't do that. Maybe because they probably knew he didn't do anything wrong. So they put him in this house. They put him under house arrest. So he's in house arrest and he's living off and paying food and rent through the support and offerings of the churches. But there was one stipulation to this arrangement is he had to wear an ankle bracelet. Now, when we get house arrest today and we get our ankle bracelets on, Cory was telling me this. But when we get our ankle bracelets on, listen, we're good. I mean, we got Xbox and Domino's. We're going to live. Okay. But Paul, when he got his ankle bracelet, the stipulation was it had to be attached to a Roman soldier. Could you imagine being cuffed to a Roman guard for two years straight? Now, he wasn't cuffed to the same guard. They changed the guards out about every six hours. So in any given day, he was chained to four different guards. Now, who were these guards? The Bible says that they were the praetorian guards. Well, who were they? Well, the praetorian guards, they were the bodyguards of Caesar. They were the guards of the governors. These were the special forces. These were the secret service, if you will. And if you do your research into the praetorian guards, what you find out is these guards had the power to overthrow their leader, to overthrow Caesar and name his successor under certain conditions. So these weren't just any guards. These were the bodyguards of Caesar. These were the guards that they called the king makers. You see, God has a reason for everything that he does. Later on in the book of Philippians, we find out that Paul actually reached Caesar's household with the gospel. How in the world could Paul, being under house arrest, reach Caesar's household with the gospel? This is how. He was witnessing to their bodyguards. See, God has a reason for everything that he does. There's a reason why Paul was chained to four different guards a day so he could give them the gospel. Not only did he have a captive audience, but he had a new audience that refreshed every couple of hours. He had new areas to preach in because of his adverse circumstances. So the preacher became a prisoner and was given a pulpit in the prison to preach to the praetorian guards. That's a lot of alliteration. Amen. Listen, your disappointments are God's appointments. As a Christian, me and you are supposed to be a gospel spreading machine. So when God changes our direction, when he does that, it's so you can have access to people that you wouldn't normally have access to. It's to give you the ability to help people that you wouldn't normally be able to help. Maybe there's somebody in here today you've experienced some spiritual abuse in your life. Now you have a story. What does JC say all the time? There's power in a story. Now you have a testimony. Now you can relate to somebody. Now you have something in common with them. Now you can reach them with the gospel and help them through the gospel. Christians, we have to stop this thing of having horizontal vision. We gotta be like Paul. We gotta have that vertical vision too. Don't just look out but look up. We need to see everything in our lives, every circumstance in our lives in the context of heaven. We need to see it in the context of reaching people with the gospel. This is what people say. People say, God is wasting my time with this problem. No, God is not wasting your time with this problem. Let me let you in on a little secret. God doesn't know how to waste your time. He doesn't know how to do that. The gospel did not stop when Paul was in jail and you would think it would. Throw the pastor in prison? Throw the evangelist in prison? Man, you would think that would stop the gospel in its tracks but that is not what happened when Paul was in prison. The gospel actually spread faster. I will remind you today, Christian, that your obstacles are opportunities. Your roadblocks are stepping stones. Your struggles are shaping you. Your trials are training you. Your detours are destinations in disguise. Your challenges are channels for growth. Your pain is preparation for purpose. Your setbacks are set up for greater comebacks. Everything that God allows in your path is so that you can be a better witness for him is for the greater progress of the gospel. Point two. Your persecution promotes boldness. Your persecution promotes boldness. Let's read verse 14. And that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. So verse 13 discusses what happens outside the church. So we get here to verse 14 and it talks about what happens inside the church. And as a result of this persecution we see that the church got bolder. the church got more courageous because of this. How in the world? How does this happen? Well this whole passage today is linked back to verse 12 where it talks about the greater progress of the gospel. What does that word progress mean? Well it's a Greek word and it's prokope. Prokope is actually a military term and what it actually describes is the Greeks Army Corps of Engineers. See what would happen is before a battle the Army Corps of Engineers would come in and they would clear fields and they would build roads and they would build bridges and they would embolden supply chains giving anything the army need to fight the battle and that's what that's what the persecution was doing for the Christians. It was giving the army what they needed to fight the battle. Another word you could use to describe this Greek word prokope is the word pioneer. Paul was the pioneer. Listen the first one through the gate always gets the bloody nose. The first one through the gate always gets the black eye. But Paul was that pioneer that inspired others to pioneer as well. Let's talk about the word courage. What does the word courage mean? Courage means having the ability to stand and defy danger opposition and trouble. Listen persecution has the uncanny ability to push people to be courageous for the cause of Christ. And the Christians in Rome were persecuted and so were the Christians in Philippi. In fact look what it says in 1 Thessalonians 2.2 But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi as you know we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid such opposition. There we go again. Once again the Bible talks about boldness and persecution and the gospel amid much opposition. What's going on here? How in the world does this work? How in the world does persecution push us to be bolder? What's going on here? I heard a pastor say one time that if you want to know how something works you've got to reverse engineer it. So let's reverse engineer this. If persecution produces courage and boldness then what does comfort and luxury produce? Apathy, laziness, and fear. Did you know the seven churches in Revelation the only two churches that Jesus really didn't have anything bad to say about were the two churches that experienced persecution? persecution? Persecution pushes Christians. Now let me stop right for a second and let's bring that word persecution into perspective especially from a modern American viewpoint. Do we really know what persecution is? Let's talk for a minute about the underground church in China. It is extremely dangerous to be a church in China. China. The underground church in China is under intense persecution but it's growing. The underground church in China is growing bigger every day. I heard a pastor tell a story about a Chinese native pastor missionary and he was on a phone call with this Chinese pastor and the pastor said I am praying that the persecution eases in China. There was a pause on the phone. The Chinese pastor said back to the American pastor. I am praying that America comes under more persecution. Why is that? Because our Christians don't have to fight because we have never had to. You see American Christians have never been told they can't preach or provide religious education. American Christians have never been told they can't broadcast religious rights pictures or recordings. American Christians have never been arrested for having church over a Zoom call. See the registered churches in China have to put the government first. If the government comes up to a registered Chinese pastor and says if Jesus was here today would he submit to the Chinese Communist Communist Party if that pastor doesn't immediately answer yes he's thrown in jail. That's why the past that's why the churches go underground. And here we are in America. in our comfort and our luxury sitting on our biscuit never having to risk it. We float away on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas. We sit on our pillow and we ignore the spiritual war around us. Persecution should push us. Maybe the American church does need a little more persecution. Number three your joy is proclaiming Christ. Your joy is proclaiming Christ. Verse 15 some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed don't this beat everything with everything Paul has had to deal with in his life he's had to deal with pain he's had to deal with persecution and now Paul's got to deal with pettiness pettiness he's got to deal with other Christians kicking him while he's down he has to do with people who want him to lose out to them you see they were jealous of Paul's recognition they wanted it for themselves they wanted to be the ones who headlined the revival meetings they wanted to be the ones who were the keynote speaker at the national conference they wanted to be the ones who bought the theology books that everybody bought they wanted to be the one who were the celebrity pastors but what did Paul say Paul said my joy doesn't come from any of that my joy doesn't come from preaching the revival my joy doesn't come from writing the theology books my joy doesn't come from getting the recognition at the national conference my joy doesn't come from being a celebrity pastor my joy does not come from being a household name my joy comes from Christ and Christ alone only from Christ Paul says you may have bad motives but if Christ is being preached your motives don't matter to me you want more joy in your life well then we need some Christians today that say I don't care about the credit I don't care if somebody else steps in and takes recognition that was meant for to be mine as long as Christ is preached and the gospel is given because my joy Paul said doesn't come from any of that stuff my joy comes from Christ and Christ alone I like the way James puts it in James 1 2 through 4 consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing James claims here that trials mature us and so we should consider trials joy because anything that has the ability to bring you closer to the Savior should be considered joyful I want to talk for just a minute about Isaac Watts we've all heard the name Isaac Watts Isaac Watts was a famous hymn writer and pastor but what a lot of people don't know about Isaac Watts is Isaac Watts was extremely disabled he needed help and assistance to get up to his pulpit to preach he couldn't live by himself he had to live by with a friend because he was just so disabled so many times it seemed like he was just sitting by the sidelines while everyone else fought the fight there are many battles many wars that happened in England during his life and he couldn't lift his finger for any of them he saw so many other pastors around him able to do so much more for their people and so much more for their congregants and he just felt like he couldn't do any of that so Isaac Watts spun into a depression he had no joy in his life he was convinced he couldn't contribute he complained about his condition constantly you know what Isaac could have stayed down he could have stayed down and nobody would have blamed him if he gave up with everything he had to overcome everyone would have said it's okay Isaac you don't have to fight anymore you've got too much coming against you you can take a rest you can give up you can retire you can go home but Isaac Watts didn't give up and instead he wrote these words am I a soldier of the cross a follower of the lamb or shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas are there no foes for me to face must I not stem the flood is this vile world a friend the grace to help me unto God since I must fight if I would reign increase my courage Lord I'll bear the toil endure the pain supported by thy word in the name the precious name of him who died for me through grace I'll win the promised crown whatever my cross may be don't let persecution hard times trials and tribulations don't let your circumstances push you down let them propel you forward because adverse circumstances advance the gospel this this problem is not a mistake God is giving he's changing your direction to give you access to more people to help and when you proclaim Christ that is your joy but on the flip side don't let a lack of persecution make you complacent gain the right perspective we are in a spiritual battle and it is all around us and persecution can not only progress the gospel but it can also fill you with joy found my new name found that good grace found that healing and the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending found that second chance found my best friend found my forgiveness found my happiness I've been singing ever since about my freedom in you thanks for listening to the for freedom podcast if you enjoyed our content do us a favor by liking subscribing or sharing our podcast or whichever podcast platform you use be sure to join us next time for the for freedom podcastkom Thank you.

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