The Happy Prisoner - Part A

Godly passion is commendable. Paul had a passion in life.

That seems to be a very popular question. What's your passion in life? Paul had one. He had a master passion. If you know anything at all about Paul the Apostle, you know he was a pretty determined guy. He had what we would call a type A personality, highly motivated with a single focus. Generally people like that are highly successful people because they never quit. They never say die.

They never give up. Everyone, including you, has a master passion. What drives you?

People can be passionate about the strangest things like extreme irony, competitive dog grooming, and even filing lawsuits. Today on Connect with Skip Heitziger, Skip explores the best thing you can be passionate about, the Gospel. But before we begin, reading the stories of the Bible is a very good thing. Walking where these stories took place is at a whole other level. Skip Heitziger is planning his next tour and you can be on it.

Here's the invitation from Skip. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. Now I've been to Israel a number of times over the years and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship.

The Bible will come alive to you in a way it never has before. I hope you'll join Lenny and me on what is always an unforgettable trip. I can't wait to see you in Israel. This dream can come true for you. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitziger. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q.

That's inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Now, we're in Philippians chapter one today as we get into the teaching with Skip Heitziger. So a guy went to prison and on his first day he heard somebody yell out of one of the cells a number. He said, 43! And the whole cell block broke out in laughter. He thought, well that's odd. A few moments later another prisoner yelled out, 75! And everybody broke out in laughter again and then 56! And everybody broke out in laughter. So he turned to his cellmate who had been there a long time. He goes, I don't get what's happening.

What am I hearing here? He says, well you know, we've been here so long and we've been telling the same jokes to each other over and over and over again that we've just numbered them all. So now all we have to do is yell out a number, we think of that joke and we laugh. So the prisoner said, wow can I try that?

He said, sure give it a shot. So he shouted out, 12! Dead silence.

Again 12 dead silences, what's happening? And the guy said, I guess some guys just can't tell a joke. In Philippians chapter one verses 12 through 14, I'm giving this a message title, the happy prisoner. Now that sounds like an oxymoron because you don't associate happiness generally with being in prison. In fact prison is a place where usually joy is absent. It's a place where life is unpleasant.

It's a place where dreams go to die. I found a website for the criminal justice system called corrections.com in which this statement was on it. Most prisoners are unhappy. Many of them are unhappy all the time. Many contemplate or attempt suicide or self-mutilation.

The suicide rate for American prisoners is between five to fifteen times greater than it is for the general American population. End quote. I'm sharing that with you to begin with because I just want you to keep in mind that we are reading the letter of a prisoner. Somebody who is incarcerated for his faith in Christ. Let's look at our verses this morning and we'll see what he has to say. Chapter one verse 12, it's a new paragraph of thought now. But I want you to know brethren that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.

And most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So Paul is a prisoner. He's a prisoner in Rome. These are not the best conditions that he has ever been in. This is not the happiest place. Paul is physically bound.

And Paul's ministry is severely restricted. And yet, do you remember what the theme of this book is? Tell me what it is. Joy. It's a letter oozing with joy. Four chapters, 104 verses, and one of the themes, the major themes is joy.

Let's look at a few things. Look at verse three of chapter one. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy. Verse 18, what then? Only that in every way whether in pretense or truth Christ is preached and in this I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice. Chapter two verse 17, yes, and I will and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Chapter three verse one, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Chapter four verse four, rejoice in the Lord and I say it again, rejoice. So he's a prisoner incarcerated in a jail saying, rejoice, rejoice, I'm glad, rejoice.

Now either he's a nutcase, he's been beat up one too many times so now his brains are addled or number two, he's lying through his teeth. He's putting on a good Christian face, oh Christians are supposed to act this way, rejoice, smile, wee, or he's onto something and we need to find out what it is that makes him so joyful. And so that leads me to give you a statement that I think sort of encapsulizes the whole book and that's this, spiritual maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal your joy. Spiritual maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal your joy. What does it take to end the experience of joy as a believer to the area of anger, bitterness, whatever it would be?

Spiritual maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal your joy. The other night my grandson spent the night, it's always a joy and we got up in the morning, I was making breakfast for him and so he was watching cartoons and he came and goes, I'm looking for Winnie the Pooh. We love watching that and we both love Winnie the Pooh. So well, we didn't find it but that's what we were looking for but I've often wondered if life were a Winnie the Pooh episode, what character would you be? Would you be perhaps the timid piglet? Would you be Pooh Bear himself who likes to eat a lot? Would you be the important but pushy rabbit?

Would you be the wise but boring owl? I'll tell you who Paul the Apostle would be. You know who he'd be? He'd be Tigger. Paul the Apostle would be that exuberant, ebullient, resilient, bouncy tiger character named Tigger.

You see, Paul has every reason to be Eeyore. He has no outward reason at all to be joyful but he is joyful. I found an article I wanted to put up and have you see it as I read it to you from Psychology Today that said, quote, people are unhappy because they view their lives as prisons. Many people feel trapped by aspects of their life, trapped in an unhappy relationship or trapped in an unfulfilling job or generally unhappy with their life despite basic needs being met, end quote.

So don't you find it interesting that this dude is in prison, he is not licking his wounds, he is not sending out invitations to a pity party but he's saying rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. Now to find out why we need to follow the progress of his thinking in these three verses. So I'm glad we only have three verses because we're going to begin with his passion, move on to his problems and end with his perspective. You have to understand his passions to really understand his problems because one led to the other but then we'll end with his perspective man.

There's enough information here for me to draw out three principles. Let me share the first with you. Godly passion is commendable. Godly passion is commendable. Paul had a passion in life, that seems to be a very popular question. What's your passion in life? Paul had one, he had a master passion. If you know anything at all about Paul the Apostle, you know he was a pretty determined guy.

He had what we would call a type A personality, highly motivated with a single focus and generally people like that are highly successful people because they never quit, they never say die, they die, they never give up. Everyone including you has a master passion. What drives you? What does your mind think of when it's in neutral and you've got nothing going on?

All the activities are gone. What is the one thing above everything that you want or seek for or want to do more than anything else? For some people it's a career and for those people who make that their master passion, everything else takes a back seat.

Sadly even relationships will often take a back seat. For other people it's power, for other people it's money. Let me remind you of what Paul's passion was. Paul's passion can be summed up by two words, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. The message that changes people's lives was what he lived for. It was his master passion.

How much was this on his mind? Well, look at verse 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Now look at verse 7. I have you in my heart and as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are partakers with me of grace. Look at verse 12. I want you to know brethren the things which have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Verse 17, but the latter out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. Look at verse 27. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Now that is only this chapter. If you were to add up all of the times in all of Paul's writings that he mentions the gospel, it's 72 times. The gospel, the gospel. How you doing Paul? The gospel. What's up? The gospel. What do you want out of life? The gospel. What are you doing? The gospel.

That is his master passion. Now that can be summed up by two verses both found in the book of Romans. The first is Romans 1.15 where he says, as much as is in me I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

Did you get that language? As much as is in me to the fullest extent of my being. It's what I want. That's my passion. The second is in Romans 15 verse 20 where he said, for it has always been my ambition. You could substitute the word passion. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ is not known lest I build on another man's foundation. Question, why is that his passion? Why would that thing that at one time he tried with all of his might to stop be now his passion? Remember Paul went around putting out the fire of the gospel, keeping it from spreading. He went to Damascus to stop the gospel. Why is this now his passion? Simple to answer that because the gospel was the only thing that could change him. Nothing else could.

Nothing else did. On that Damascus road when he saw that light and heard that voice and he received that Jesus, his life was never the same. That's important because until you've experienced the gospel's power, you will never have a gospel passion. It's only people who have seen and felt and experienced the power of the gospel in their own lives that it becomes to them a passion. William Booth who started the Salvation Army said, some men's passion is for gold. Some men's passion is for art.

Some men's passion is for fame. He said, my passion is for souls. If Paul would have stood there when Booth said that, he would have stuck out his hand and said, put her there. You and I track because that was Paul's passion as well.

In fact, Paul said, Romans chapter 1 verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. Paul had seen its power, now Paul has its passion. Let me just say that a godly passion like this is commendable. So much so that I look for it in people. And I've gotten good at noticing it when I find it.

And whenever I find it, I exploit it. If I find some young person who's got that fire in their eyes, that sparkle, that real deep desire to know God and serve Christ and learn the Bible and preach the gospel, I want to bring that person as close as I can under my wing and train that person, equip that person to get out and do what is their passion. So godly passion is commendable.

But that brings a second movement. We go from Paul's passion to Paul's predicament or his problems. And he mentions them in verse 12. Before we jump into the verse, let me just say that one always brings the other. A godly passion always invites great problems.

Did you hear that? A godly passion always involves or invites great passion. Why is that? Well, because when you're passionate about souls, you are entering a battleground on which Satan has been fighting a long time.

He's got a lot of experience. So when you say, I am passionate about the gospel, I want to save souls, you are painting a bullseye on you. You are a target. Satan will be after you. It's a war he's been engaged in.

So the Great Commission will always bring great conflict. In fact, Jesus even said, faith can sometimes be fatal. He promises disciples, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. So here is Paul, he's got this passion, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel.

But then he says in verse 12, but I want you to know brethren, that the things which happened to me, stop right there. Something happened to Paul. He's mentioning it. Something happened to this passionate man.

What was it? He's in jail. Again. That's what happened to him. He's been there many times before.

He's been beaten many times before. He's had hardship many times before all because of his passion for the gospel. That's what happened to him. So now he has a jail ministry, a prison ministry, but not like he expected. You know, if you have a prison ministry, you go to the prison, you visit the prisoners, you go home and have a nice meal with your family. Not Paul, he lived there. That was his prison ministry. It is not what he expected. Now, sitting in a Roman prison, he does not have the freedom to go out and plant churches and share the gospel here and train up leaders there.

He's stuck. You should know that Paul, he's in Rome, he always wanted to go to Rome. It was part of his passion.

He wrote to the Romans and he said, pray for me that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. But that's not exactly what happened. Something bad happened to this man.

And here's what happened. After his third missionary journey, he goes back to Jerusalem. He's in the temple area with another fellow going through a ceremonial ritual. Some of the leaders spot Paul there.

They start a riot and they attack him. A Roman soldier arrests Paul, not to punish him, but to protect him from the mob. Takes Paul, is about to have Paul beaten. Paul pulls his Roman citizenship card out so he can't beat me, I'm a Roman citizen. So he is then taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea by the sea where he spends two years and he goes through three trials in two years. He stands before Felix, he stands before Festus, he stands before Herod, Agrippa.

And after two years he finally says, I'm done. This judicial process is crazy. I appeal my case to Caesar in Rome.

Every Roman citizen had that right. So they put him on a ship. It is not a cruise ship. It's not a princess cruise. It is a prison cruise. They put him on this boat and they send him to Rome. He almost doesn't make it to Rome. The ship sinks. He has to swim to shore, but he finally goes to Rome where he's put in jail again. All of that is under this banner, but the things which happened to me, that's what he is referring to.

Now that set of circumstances is enough to change any Tigger into an Eeyore pretty quickly. You know that incarceration will always challenge your joy. Restriction of any kind is a challenge to your joy. Confinement of any sort will challenge your joy. Some of you feel chained to a job.

It's a tyrant to you. Some of you feel chained to a relationship or a set of responsibilities you didn't sign up for. And maybe because of that your passion is gone.

It's dried up. This is not what you had in mind. You're thinking back to that moment when you finally said, I surrender my life to you Jesus. And I don't know, it just means salvation. Maybe you came to the point after salvation where you said, now I'm going to get serious. I'm going to really live for Christ from this day forward.

But here you are today and you're thinking back to that day. This is not what you had in mind that day. In fact, could it be, is it possible that when you said, Lord, I surrender to your plan that you said that like the couple who went to the architect and asked the architect to design a house for them, the architect discovered the couple already designed it for themselves, just wanted the architect to sanction it. Maybe when you said, Lord, I surrender my life to you, what you meant is I surrender my will. I hope it is your will, Lord. Here are my plans for my life.

I just want your stamp on it because you must want what I want. And now you're going, this is not what I thought I signed up for. Well, Paul is about to say something very revolutionary.

This is where we really need to listen. So we move from his passion to his problems to his perspective. How does he view all that has happened to him? Now, as we dive into this, I'm just going to review, what is the theme of this letter? Joy. 16 times, 16 times in this letter, the word joy, the word rejoice or the word rejoicing are found no less than 16 times.

That's Skip Heitzing with a message for you from the series Technicolor Joy. Right now, here's a great resource that can help you access the power of the Holy Spirit to live victoriously. The Holy Spirit is mysterious.

In the Bible, Jesus even said he moves like the wind. Even so, Christians are instructed to know and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and his help, counsel and comfort. As Skip Heitzig reminds us, you can't neglect the Holy Spirit since the scripture is full of the Holy Spirit from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. Not only is the Bible full of the Holy Spirit, you can be too. The Holy Spirit is a divine person who helps us. How many of you think you need all the help you can get to live your Christian life?

Yeah, I'm with you. We need help. Discover who the Holy Spirit is with Pastor Skip's DVD study, Expound Holy Spirit. And for a limited time, you can also get a copy of Lenya Heitzig's booklet called Empower, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts. Both resources are our thanks for your gift of $25 or more to help expand this Bible teaching outreach. To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Many people around the world are experiencing a new life in Jesus thanks to your support.

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Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heitzig shares how you can have the right perspective when you encounter obstacles doing God's work. There's always an obstacle involved. It's going forward, forward, forward, but in the midst of obstacles. So what Paul wants them to know is, I want you to know, brethren, that all that has happened to me, the incarcerations, the beatings, the mistrials, the further incarcerations, none of that has stopped the advance of the Gospel. In fact, it cleared the way. It actually got furthered in.

It made progress in it. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.