JoyFULL // Working out what God has worked in you // Philippians 2:1-18 // Pastor Josh Evans

Philippians chapter number two. We are continuing a series that we started.

In fact, we're in week number four of this series. It's entitled Joyful and we're talking about how each one of you can have fullness of joy in your life. Fullness of joy. How many of you want the fullness of joy? Raise your hand. How many of you want to be a joyful person?

Put your hand up. How many of you don't want to be joyful? You just are kind of cool with the whole miserable state. Any of you?

Okay, so a couple of you. And listen, we all want to be joyful, right? We all want the joy of the Lord. We want to have joy in the midst of difficulty, right? We want to have joy in the midst of suffering. We want to have joy regardless of what our circumstances throw at us, right?

Right? You want to have joy regardless of what's happening at work, right? Can I get an amen for that, okay?

And all the teachers in our school are like secretly saying amen to that, right? You want to have joy regardless of what is happening. And really, this series is all about that. In fact, the book of Philippians is all about how you can have eternal and lasting and fullness of joy. And it's found very simply, it's found in a specific verse that the Apostle Paul, who's the writer, he's writing to a real church, and he's writing to this church at Philippi, and he says in chapter 1, we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, he says this, verse number 21, he says, for to me to live is Christ. For to me to live is Christ.

And let me tell you, that is the secret to finding joy in your life. It's right there in that verse, Philippians 1 21. If you want joy, what you have to do is you have to take that verse and you have to insert it into every situation that you're coming in contact with. You got to insert it when you go to work, you got to insert it when you're parenting your kids, you got to insert it when you're speaking to your spouse, you got to insert it when you're talking to your boss, you got to insert it when you're dealing with situations at your school, you got to insert it in all those situations, for to me to live is Christ. And what Paul is saying is that the way that we can have this fullness of joy, regardless of what you have going on in your life, regardless of baggage, regardless of difficulty, regardless of your circumstance, the way you can have fullness of joy is by living for Christ. It's adopting the theme of your life for to me to live is Christ.

Nothing more, nothing less. And the entire book of Philippians is about that. In fact, the four chapters in Philippians, it all actually is Paul's response to Philippians 1 21, for to me to live is Christ. And so in the four chapters that we have, Paul is unpacking what he means by that statement.

He's unpacking it and explaining what he means by that statement. And here in chapter number two, he really gives us how, so if you're into practical sermons and things like that, like these sermons that you can literally take some nuggets and some truth and actually apply them to your situation, this is the sermon for you. Because in chapter two, he talks specifically about how we can make our life about Christ. In fact, this is the big idea today from Philippians chapter two that we're going to look at.

It's this. Joy, fullness of joy, it is found through working out what God has already worked in you. Okay?

Joy is found through working out what God has worked in you. Let's do this. We don't always do this, but let's read that together because I want to make sure that you're awake, alert. It's a beautiful day outside, so so like I hope you're not tired, but let's let's read this together. Alright?

Joy is found through working out what God has worked in us. Okay? In you, in us. Alright? So here in this text, in Philippians chapter 2, we're gonna look at verses 1 through 18.

And in this text, he mentions four specific things about how you implement this, how you live this out. And by the way, I think it's worth saying is that in in Paul's day, it was not a popular thing to preach in the name of Jesus. Okay?

It was not an exciting thing. It was not this popular thing that if I stand for Jesus, everybody's gonna be my friend. If I stand for Jesus, everybody's gonna want to be around me.

No, in fact, you could lose your very life if you stood for Jesus. And so I think it's important that you understand context, what he's about to show you, and how you apply this. It is so important for a lost and dying, and I'd say it this way, a dark world that we live in for them to see the church, for them to see Christians, for them to see followers of Jesus living out this idea for to me to live as is Christ. And so we're gonna unpack that. The first thing that you see, how do you live for him?

What does this look like? How do you shine in this dark world? The first thing that he says here and found in verses 1 through 4 of Philippians chapter 2, it's this.

It's seek. You have to seek to preserve the unity of the church. You have to seek to preserve the unity of the church. Now, if you were here last week, I'm just gonna go ahead and say this or whatever, if you're, you know, new to our church, you might not have known this, but I spoke specifically on verses 1 through 8 last week, okay? So last week we're in Philippians 2, 1 through 8, and so I kind of touched on this idea that joy is found in humility. I want to include that point, which I very rarely do week to week, I want to include that to kind of share just a couple of more things from those first eight verses that I think applies to the entire chapter here in chapter number 2. But the first thing that he says and how we live out this life that's lived for Christ, we have to seek to preserve the unity of the church. Look at verses 1 through 4 of Philippians chapter number 2. It says this, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies.

Now I want to stop you right there. The phrase, if there, could literally be translated in its original language because of, or you could say since this has happened. So in other words, he's making this assumption. In other words, the ones that are receiving this letter, the letter to the Philippians, they're followers of Jesus. They've experienced the consolation of Christ. They've experienced the comfort of love that is found in a relationship with Christ. They've experienced the fellowship of the Spirit. They've experienced the affection and mercy and love and grace of God. By the way, if you've experienced it, can you say amen this morning?

We have as well. And so he says because of all of that, then he goes on in verse number 2, he says, because of that fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Here's what Paul's saying. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on verses 1 through 8 because we did touch on this last week. Here's what Paul is saying, okay? When he talks about the unity of the church, here's what he's saying. Our bond in Christ Jesus should be stronger than any secondary disagreement that you have with somebody else. Do you understand that?

Does everybody get that? Kind of nod your head if you're with me, okay? So what he's saying is, is our bond, our relationship in Jesus, in other words, what unifies me and you with Christ, that bond of what unifies us together with Him should overtake any secondary agreement or disagreement that we have, okay? And by the way, in churches, I'm just gonna be honest, in churches a lot of times there can be disagreements, right? How many of you would agree with that?

Raise your hand. There can be disagreements, okay? And some of you that didn't raise your hand, you didn't grow up in a church like I did, okay? And so there can be disagreements, alright? And many of you, we've kind of joked about this and stuff, but many of you have been in a church with a lot of disagreements, okay? You have disagreements about everything, right?

You can't align on any songs we sing, you can't align on anything, you know, everybody has a preference, everybody has a thing that they want to do and stuff like that. And here's the point, is what he's saying is all those preferential things that we think are so important to us or whatever, he says every single one of those things should be secondary to the bond that we have in Jesus. What unifies us in Christ should be more important than all of those secondary issues that we spend our time arguing and bickering about. And he says the key to this is one word, and we looked at this last week, it's humility. It's humility, right? There cannot be true unity in the body of Christ if there is not humility in all of us. If there's not humility in all of us, I'll say it this way, you show me division within the church and I will show you a lack of humility somewhere.

Paul is saying that that division in churches happen when church members start to think of themselves more highly than they should. In fact, let me say it this way, that for us any type of disagreement is usually a lack of a lack of humility somewhere, right? Think about how many of you are married in here, raise your hand, okay? So my hands raised there, and here's what I'll tell you, is that when we disagree on certain things, it's usually because I'm not humble, okay? You see how careful I was with that? Yeah, you guys can laugh all you want, you don't have to be up here and talk about stuff like this, okay? But listen, like prime example, and I'm always having to be careful about things like this, I don't even remember what this was about, but me and my wife had a discussion this week, okay? And I'm talking, it was kind of one of those discussions where we disagreed, okay?

It very rarely happens and I'm very rarely at fault, but this week we actually happened. And how many of you, just to make me feel better about myself, how many of you sometimes have these kind of disagreements with your spouse? Raise your hand, okay?

All right, every hand's up. All right, so we had a little bit of a disagreement. Honest to goodness, I can't really remember exactly what it was about and stuff.

It's as far as the East is from the West in my mind today, okay? And I can't really remember, but here's what I'll tell you, it was one of those disagreements that you didn't want to give up. You know what I'm talking about? One of the ones that just kind of lingers for no reason, like you're not even mad, you just don't want to say you're wrong.

You like go to work and things like that, you're kind of thinking in your head the whole time, you're like, hey, ball's in her court, you know, that kind of thing and stuff. And don't ever say that, by the way, but you see, it's one of those things. Here's what I'll tell you, that we can't live in our relationships in harmony if there is a lack of humility, right? And here's what humility requires, I was wrong, it's my fault, I'm sorry, right?

That's what it requires. And here's what I want you to know, okay? Just like that's true in your marriage or with your kids or with your brother, sister, with whoever, right? All of those things are so important is that you can't live in harmony with one another if there's a lack of humility in someone in the relationship. What Paul is saying here is that the key to unity in a local church is actually humility.

It's thinking of ourselves less than anybody else, it's really giving everybody else the preferential treatment. Could you imagine how beautiful the church would function if all of us gave one another the preferential treatment over our ourselves? I want to ask you a question because I think this will drive the point home with what the Apostle Paul is talking about. I want you to think of this.

This question will be up on the screen. Who is the worst sinner that you know, okay? Now here's the thing, if you're kind of nudging your spouse right now, it's not good, okay? We'll start a marriage series in a few months, alright, or something.

But here's what I'll tell you, who's the worst sinner you know? And here's the point, for some of us, here's what you thought, you immediately put somebody's face in your head. You immediately thought of a name. You immediately possibly looked around, right? Dare you look around right now.

You guys are all looking at me right now, so I'm a little nervous. But here's the thing, what Paul is saying in these four verses, he's saying this, is that unity in the church happens is when all of us put ourselves in that blank. It's preferring everybody else above ourselves, thinking the reason why we can prefer one another is because nobody is a greater sinner than us.

Imagine if all of us viewed ourselves as the answer to that question, because here's what I want you to know, and this is why it's easy for us to prefer one another, is because at the end of all time, when all of us enter into the kingdom of God, I'll tell you this, every single one of you are gonna enter the exact same way if you're gonna be there, and it's only by God's amazing grace that any of us are gonna be there to begin with. And so what Paul is saying here, is he's saying this, is that the way that we can live out and live for Christ and find fullness of joy, is we have to preserve the unity of the church. And the way to do that is for us to start thinking of everybody else above ourselves, laying aside our preference, our preferences, laying aside the disagreements that we have that are secondary, and we put the mission of God in what binds us together in a relationship with Christ, we put that primary and everything else falls short of that.

That's what he's saying. The second thing he says here is found in verses 5 through 11. Not only do we need to seek to preserve the unity of the church, but the second thing we need to learn from the example of Christ. We looked at this last week, look at verse number five, he says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, the way that you apply verses 2 through 4 of what we just read is actually found in verse number 5. So verse number 5 is the way you apply verses 2 and 4.

You want to think of everybody else the way that you should, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Think like Christ. Because he, and then he goes on to say verse number 6, who being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Verse number 9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, so the second thing that you do if you're going to give your life away to Christ, you have to learn from him. You have to learn from his example. You got to learn from his example. And here's what I want you to understand. You say, what example did Christ set before you? It's very simple.

You find it right here in this text. Christ humbled himself for us. Christ humbled himself for us. It says, who being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. You say, what does that mean? Here's what that means.

I want you to get this, okay? Jesus did not use his deity for his advantage. Now, when Jesus came to earth, he came from heaven, he came to earth, he became like us, but here's what I want you to know is that at the same time he was 100% God and he was 100% man, okay? And so he did not lay down his deity when he came here. He did not forfeit his deity to become you. No, the point is what it says here in verse number six is that he didn't use it for his advantage.

Here's what Paul's saying, is that if Jesus wanted to, he could have said this, his life is too sacred to lay it down for sinners. Here's what he could have said, his blood is too holy to shed it for sinners, right? He could have said all of that, but why in the world would he come and not use his deity to his advantage?

Why would he come to this earth and not use his deity at his advantage? He still was 100% God. He still was too holy. He still was too good. His life was too sacred.

Why would he do it? For you and for me. And the point is, is that's the truth of what we learned for him. He laid all of that down and humbled himself for you. That's the example that is set before us.

That is how we should live. Listen, if you write things down, I want you to know this, at the cross here's what happened for you. God treated Jesus at the cross as if he committed all of the sins that I have committed. So that by faith in him, God could now treat me as if I had performed all of the righteous acts that Jesus had. That's the great exchange of the gospel. It's the fact that Jesus humbled himself, came from heaven down to earth, gave his life, 100% God, gave his life for you. And there on the cross, as Jesus hung there, and he could have got off of there, right?

We know that. The old song says he could have called 10,000 angels if he wanted to. He laid all that aside, hung on a cross, and was treated by his Father, God the Father, forsaken from him. God said he was treating him as if Jesus had committed all of the sins that Josh Evans would have ever committed. So that by faith in his finished work on the cross of Calvary, I can now be treated as if I've committed all of the righteous acts that Jesus committed. You see, that's the great exchange of the gospel.

That's what he's offered to you. And what Paul is saying, he's reminding the Philippians, he's saying this, he's saying, listen, for you, if you want to live for Christ, you got to learn from his example. You got to treat other people the way that you have been treated. And let me just say this, when we think about how Christ has treated us, we cannot begin to imagine how low he had to become to get to us.

We cannot even begin to fathom that. And so Paul, instead of speaking a lot of times about how low he was to come to get to us, he instead exalts him, because I'll tell you this, just as much as you can't fathom or begin to imagine how low he came to save and to rescue your soul, we cannot begin to imagine here on this side of eternity how high and lifted up and exalted he is today. And what Paul says in this passage is he says this, wherefore, verse number nine, God, because of this reason he laid aside everything, he became sin for you who knew no sin, so that you could be made the righteousness of God in him. And then here in verse number nine, he says, and now God hath exalted him, given him a name which is above every name.

We sang about that name today. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Every knee should bow.

I looked that up to decide exactly what that means. Here's what every knee means. Every knee. You say, and you know, the Philippians, they're no different than you and me.

I got questions, you know, like, hey, what knees? What about the ones who have already passed away? What about the ones who have already trusted in Christ? How many knees are going to be bowing? And Paul knew that there was going to be questions about that. He said this, you want to know what knees are going to bow? The knees that are going to bow are the ones in heaven, they're going to be bowing. The ones in earth, they're going to be bowing. The ones under the earth, all of them will bow. Because here's the point, what he's saying at the end, everyone will submit to the lordship of Christ. Every single one that has ever walked the face of the earth, everyone that has died before us today, every single person that will be born from this point forward, every single one of them, they're all going to stand before God and we will all bow in submission to the lordship of Christ.

But here's the point, if you're not a believer in here, maybe you slipped in, you don't know Jesus as your Savior, I want you to lean in for just a moment. Because when we think about bowing before God, right now, you're invited to bow. You're invited to bow, but if you wait until then, you will be forced to bow. That's the difference.

Right now, you're invited. And by the way, if you bow now, you receive grace. If you wait to bow then, you're gonna receive judgment by God. That's the point. That's what he's saying. And so he's making this case, he's saying this to Christians, to the church people. He's talking to us. He's like, listen, while we're here, we got to be living for Christ, learning from his example that he has set before us, putting other people before ourselves, laying our lives down, laying our preferences down, forgetting the things that we care about for the thing that he cares about the most. And that's the mission of God. The third thing is this, it's found in verses 12 and 13. You got to trust the work of God in you.

You got to trust the work of God. Look at what he says, he continues in this text, says in verse number 12, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Here's the point, the phrase, work out your salvation. Paul says that we should work out our salvation. Now, if you know the scripture, here's what I want to be very clear on, we are not saved by our works, okay? The scripture says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy and grace, that is how we can be saved. For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. That means anything that you can do, fall short.

Everybody understand that? So that means on your very best day, the very best thing you could muster up in and of yourself, still fall short of the glory of God. Because of his holiness and our brokenness, they could never mesh together. That's why there had to be a sacrifice of Jesus so that your sins could be cleansed, so that your sins could be forgiven, okay?

And so that's the point. So when he says work out your salvation, Paul cannot be saying work for it, it's work out. In other words, it's the salvation that you've already experienced.

Here, Philippians, they're Christians, they've trusted in Jesus, it's written to church people, so if you're in here today and you know Jesus as your Savior, this is written for you, okay? Work out your salvation. In other words, the phrase work out, it literally means to strive for completion. It's to strive. So so that what you say, what's the completed work of salvation?

I think you could find it in Romans chapter 8 when it talks about God's will for your life. You know what his will is for your life? What he has predetermined for your life is that you could be conformed into his son's image.

In other words, the completion of your faith is actually becoming like him. It's to look like him. It's to act like him. It's to behave like him. It's to treat people like him. It's to parent like he treats us. It's to treat our spouse the way that he has treated you. It's this idea that we are to work it out, we are to be more like him. It's this progressive sanctification would be the theological term of what this is talking about. It's that you should be more like Jesus today than you were a year ago.

It's this constant striving to look like him in everything. But he says in verse number 13, for it is God which worketh where? In you.

Both to will and to do of good pleasure. Listen, think about it this way. You should be becoming more like Christ. You say, how in the world do we do that?

It's only through the the power of God in your life. You say, where is God? He's in you in the form of the Holy Spirit. You say, what's he doing inside of us? He's working.

He's working. He's accomplishing his will in you, which is to conform you so that you can look more like him. And then you say, why in the world is he in us in the form of the Holy Spirit? God the third person of the Trinity inside of us, indwelling us, working.

Why is he doing that? End of verse number 13. To will and to do of his good pleasure. You see, God is pleased when he works in you. God is pleasured when he works in you. He finds joy in this.

He finds pleasure in this. You say, pastor, you don't know me. You don't know what goes through my head. You don't know what I have done. Let me tell you this, that if you come boldly to the throne of grace today and you find the salvation that is freely offered to you, I'll tell you this, God can turn your life around.

He is powerful enough to take something that is broken and the fragmented pieces of your life and he can draw this magical picture. Something that you could never do on your own. You say, I've screwed up my family. Yeah, we all have. I've screwed up my kids.

Yes, done there, done that as well. I've done all these bad things. I'll tell you this, listen, the beauty of the gospel is that not only does he forgive you of all the bad things and broken things that you have done, they are washed as clean as possible. But you know what he does for you in the midst of that? He doesn't just forgive it. He actually gives you his son's righteousness in your life. He gives you the power of God to where you can change and you can look like him. That's the power of God. That's what he does in your life. Don't tell me that somebody's too far gone for God's grace because there's always more grace in him than there is sin in this world.

That's the point. Everybody is not too far gone because God is with us and let me tell you this, for us, for some of you Christians, how do you live for Christ? You got to trust the work of God in you. You got to trust what he's doing in you is to develop you to be more like him.

That's hard sometimes, isn't it? Because you know how he works in us sometimes? Through trials, through bad news, through difficulty, through things not going your way. And sometimes what he's doing is he's trying to kind of chisel off some things in your life so that he could make you a beautiful masterpiece, this picture of his blessed son so that you can look like him. The last thing that we must do if we're gonna live for Christ and give our life for him, Paul, he says in verses 14 through 18, we have to daily live on mission for him.

We have to daily live on mission for him. Look at verse number 14. He says this, do all things without murmurings and disputings. Let me read that again. Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

I think we need to read it a third time. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. Do you guys want an altar call right now?

Is now a good time for that? Like, let's just be real. We all struggle with this, don't we? Like, to some degree, we all look at everything, you know, the way that the perception, we want to see it, and we all complain. We can all find bad in something, can't we? Great worship service, you leave here. Man, I didn't like the song. I didn't like that song. I didn't like who was on that praise team this week. I didn't like what pastor said.

Choir didn't sing this week, Bob. Didn't like that. I didn't like, right, we can find anything, right?

You can come from the most successful thing we've ever done and guess what? There's going to always be people that can find something terrible to talk about, isn't there? And here's the thing, I'm right there with you. I'm no different than you.

I'm the same way. Sometimes I have to remind myself, hey Josh, remember, live on mission for Him. Here's what that looks like, do all things without murmurings and disputings.

It's hard for us to see that. So he's talking about the daily life for your life. Verse number 15. So he says this, that ye may be blameless.

He goes even further into your life. He says, now I want you to be blameless. I want you to be harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke.

Paul is laying it on thick right now. In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, how many of you would say we're there? Among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. Paul, this is enough. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same calls also do ye joy and rejoice with me.

Let me tell you what what he says and then I'll be done. The first thing he says when he talks about daily living on mission for him, and by the way, remember, remember this, because it'll understand in context, the world is watching. You don't think the world's watching what's happening in churches?

They are. You don't think that the world grabs hold of churches that can't get along and run stories around it, right? They love that. When things are wrong in here, the world, the dark, the lost, they love to hear stuff like this. So Paul's saying, hey church, he's saying Philippians, he's saying listen, here's what you have to do. When you live for Christ, it means that when you wake up you're gonna daily live on mission for him. It means that when you wake up every single day and you go to work, you go to school, you go into your community, you go wherever the people that you come in contact with, when you go to the restaurant today, when you go to the store, when you go wherever, here's his point, daily live on mission for him.

Daily live on mission for him. And here's what that looks like. The first thing, believe it or not, here's what he says. He says, don't complain. Don't complain. And here's the thing, I know for all of us we think complaining and we immediately look to, you know, our circumstance, here's the problem with complaining. And when you work with a lot of people, you can find critical people everywhere, okay?

And people that just can't say good about anything. Here's the problem with complaining, here's the problem with murmuring, is when you murmur and you complain, you doubt God. You say, what does that even have to do with God? Here's the thing, do you believe that God knows exactly where you are? Yeah. Do you believe God has kind of led you through this?

Yeah. So what happens is when we complain about the circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in, here's the thing, we're doubting God's plan for us. And I want you to know, I know I'm the one preaching today, like like the fingers are pointed at me. I've been in this for the last several days and I've been preaching to myself on like, man, like can you not find any good? Like I can find negative in everything. I can find a negative in a restaurant menu. I can find a negative in everything that happens in our Christian schools.

If I want to, I can find some negative in every coach that my kids have had. But the point is, what he's saying is, is he's saying this, he's saying that when we doubt all those things, it's like we're doubting God. When we complain about those things, we're doubting God's plan for us. We're doubting that God has good for us. We're doubting the working that God is trying to work in us. And sometimes, God perhaps is wanting to take you through this moment, whatever that is, to try to perfect something and try to complete something and try to work out something in your life, what he's trying to do inside of you.

And for some of you, you're gonna miss it all because you can't stop complaining about the situation that he's bringing you through. But then the second thing that he says is this, we got to honor God. Verse number 15 says, blameless, harmless, act like sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. I have a feeling that when Paul was writing this, perhaps God gave him a glimpse of where we would be today.

I don't know. But I'll tell you this, it's like it was wicked and perverse then, it's wicked and perverse now, and if you read Scripture, it's gonna get even worse. And what he's telling us is like, what do we do in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation? Like how do we live? How do we live on mission in a place like this?

Honor him. Paul is saying that one day, and by the way, this is true of every single one of us, one day we are all going to live as bones in a box beneath the ground, right? You believe that? That's where the end's coming. And until then, or until Christ comes back to call us up to be with him, here's his point, until that moment, and by the way, I don't know when that is, and if you're curious about when it is, I'm not the guy and nobody else is. If you go to a church and you hear them say, hey, I believe God's coming back this day, I'd go find another place to worship, that kind of thing, because none of us, the Scripture says none of us know when he's coming back.

We don't. But what Paul's saying to the church is he's saying this, in the wicked and perverse nation that we live in, the darkness all around us, what he needs, what we need, where joy is found, is by honoring God with your life. Living a blameless life, without rebuke, a harmless life, live in a way that pleases and honors him, so that when your time on earth is done, you can hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You see, what Paul was doing, Paul gave his life for Christ, and he gave it all, and he's saying this, that joy is found when you give your life away to him. I ask you this question by way of introduction, how many of you want to be joyful?

All of us, right? There's not a person in here that truly doesn't want to be joyful. We want to be joyful. How many of you want to have joy even when you suffer?

Yeah. How many of you want to have joy when the bad news comes into your life? My hands raised. How many of you want to have joy when things do not go your way?

My hands raised. Paul's saying that the secret to finding joy is while you're here, give your life away to the mission of God. Give your life away to God's mission, and to live for him, for to me to live is Christ.

Nothing more, nothing less. You see, joy, you'll start lacking joy when you start getting your eyes off of Christ, and on to the toys that you can achieve here on this earth. You get your eyes off of Christ, and you get your eyes on yourself. You get your eyes off of Christ, you get your eyes on your circumstances, you get your eyes off of Christ, and you get your eyes on the things that aren't going well in your life.

That's where you lose your joy. But he says when my eyes are fixed upon him, when I'm looking to him, when I'm living for him, that's where eternal joy is found. And I'll say it this way, is that what you find in him is way greater than anything you give up for him. Because, like, listen, I've been I've been a believer for a long time.

I've heard, man, I can't become a Christian. I can't live my life for him. I can't give up my evening for him. I can't, you know, give up extra time to serve. I can't, you know, give of my Sunday morning. It's my time. It's my day off. I can't possibly serve with kids ministry.

I can't possibly watch the nursery. I can't possibly do any of these things because I'm not giving up anything of mine. What Paul's saying is that what you get in a relationship with him, it's just so much greater and there's so much fullness of joy found in giving your life away than anything you could find living for yourself.

That's what he's saying. So I ask you, do you have joy? Do you have the fullness of joy?

If not, it's only found in a relationship with Christ and it's only found in a life lived for him. Can you bow your heads with me? As the instruments, they're gonna be playing here in a moment. Let's do this. Let's all stand at this time. How many of you would say, pastor, today I've kind of lost sense of joy in my life. Maybe I've got my eyes on circumstances. I got my eyes on things that aren't going my way. If that's where you're at here today and you want to be honest, listen, I'm not embarrassing anybody in here because I'm just as guilty as you are, but if you're in here today and you say, pastor, that's where I'm at today, would you please just slip up your hand?

Just be honest. That maybe your joy, you admit that you're placing your joy in things that aren't Christ. Listen, I see hands going up. I'm with you. I want to pray for you here in a moment. If you're in here today and you say, pastor, like honestly, I think the reason why I'm not finding that joy that you're talking about is because I've never trusted in Jesus as my Savior. I've never trusted in him. I've been trusting in my own works.

I've been trusting my own will. You say, pastor, that's where I'm at here today and I don't know Jesus as my Savior. Would you be honest before God lift up your your hand high enough for me to see it, long enough for me to recognize that anybody anywhere say, hey, that's where I'm at this morning. I don't know Jesus.

Anybody, kids, students, adults. Listen, I'm gonna pray for us and maybe maybe you need to come to this altar and you need to just be reminded of what Christ came to this earth, lowered himself, humbled himself, gave up so much so that he could get you. Maybe your next step is just to come pray and thank God for that and say, when our eyes are on that, what he did for us, the example of Christ, when we see that, listen, everything else that we're complaining about, it pales in comparison to that.

All the problems we have with others, it pales in comparison to that. Maybe we need to come and rejoice in him tonight because that's where fullness of joy is found. Father, bless in this invitation time. Give us the courage to respond. Speak to your people today. God, I pray, Lord, that you would just convict us where we need to be convicted and speak to our hearts this morning. Bless in this invitation time for it's in your name we pray.

Hey, listen, nobody's looking around. If God speaks to you, come. This altar is open. You can pray in your seat. You can pray down front, wherever you feel comfortable, but this altar is open. If you need somebody to pray with you, we're here. Like, we would love the opportunity that we could pray and help you. We got people that just love the Lord, that I would love to connect to you with and be able to pray, but listen, he's where the joy is found. It's not found in anything else. It's found in him, and it's found in living and giving your life away for him.

Most miserable people are the ones who live for themselves. Paul's saying that, no, hey, there's a better way. There's a way. Our world needs to see a bunch of Christians in this church and in great churches all around our city. They need to see them giving their life away for ministry, giving their life away to missions, giving their life away to the mission of God right here in this community, but also around the world until we see him again. Amen.

You can look this way. You can have a seat here today. Hey, listen, thanks again for being here. Pastor Bailey's gonna come.

He's gonna share just a couple of prayer updates with us this morning, just some things that we can pray for. Hey, if this was your first time, thanks for being here. Don't forget, take one of those New Here cards and take it to our Welcome Center. It's out that door right back there, and we would love to get a gift in your hands just as our way of saying thank you for being here, and we would love to connect a little bit more with you.

Thank you, Pastor. Before I get into the prequests, a few announcements I need to make, but there is a time of celebration. The flowers are placed here in front in honor of Mae Woosley's 90th birthday.

Let's give her a hand. By George, of course, and the family, and we get to celebrate. If you don't know who Mae is, you're missing out. She is the sweetest lady.

George definitely married up, that's for sure. But we appreciate them so much, and our church have been very, very faithful and continue to be so. Just a couple of reminders. Remember, starting point will be this evening at 530 down in Grady Hall. If you've already signed up, it's a reminder for you, but if you're here and you say, what is starting point?

It gives you an opportunity to know more about what Union Grove is and what we do and let you know a little bit more about us. If you are interested in that, you can see myself, either one of the pastor's staff, we can give you information about that. Also happening tonight, the doctrines, the Bible study, the major doctrine Bible study, it's at six o'clock tonight, be in the cafeteria, so anybody's welcome to come to that. So if you would like to do that, we would invite you to be here for that. Also for our, we've been planning a trip for the Grove seniors, that's those 50 and older, but now we're, we got a few seats left if you're interested in going with us, adults. We can't take children, so Roger can't go, so anyway, so remember that. But if you would be interested in going, we open it up to not just our people, outside people, a few going outside. Have any questions, there's information back there at the back. We'd love for you to go.

We have a great time. That's coming up October 1st through the 4th. As far as a prayer quest, before I turn it back over to pastor, I do continue to pray for Shirley Hillard. That's Renee, Renee Weaver's mom, been in the hospital this week, so you continue to pray for her. She has COPD, asthma, and having a difficult time breathing, and so they've been trying to help with that, so do continue to pray for her. Cindy Vanhoy had her test. They're waiting on the results from that, I believe, this this coming week.

They'll find it out. Also Joanne Morfield, she was in the service early this morning, had outpatient surgery, did well, just trying to recover from that. Also be in prayer for some of our members' family. Pat Wilkins' daughter, Cindy Zimmerman, will be having hip replacement tomorrow, so be in prayer for Cindy there if you would.

And then Nancy Holifield's mom, Myrtle Brandon, in the hospital in Alabama, dealing with AFib, pneumonia, and some other things, so do be in prayer for them. And then missionaries we're praying for this week as we do each week, Taylor and Mary Harmon, the Dominican Republic, and then Chad and Ashley Harwell with local church ministries. Okay, pastor.

Amen, amen. Well listen, I appreciate you being here, and I'm excited about what God is doing in our church. Like Pastor Bailey said, tonight we have another starting point, and this is just an opportunities membership class. It's an opportunity for us to share a little bit more about what God is doing in our church, and we've actually had three of those this calendar year in 2024, which is awesome. Just so many new families wanting to connect with us, and we welcome that.

We get excited about that. We're not a closed country club church. We're a church with wide open doors to people from our community, and we're grateful for that, and so I'm gonna ask Nick and Kendall to come. They've been attending for a while, probably the last five months or so, and and this is Nick and Kendall. Everybody say, hey Nick and Kendall, and they have been attending, and it's Eden as well, right? Am I right on that? And so they've been attending for a while. In fact, this is Leah Brown's sister.

Am I right on that? And so we are grateful to have them, and they have both been saved and baptized, and they attended our starting point membership class, and they're ready to take this step and join our church family here, which I'm super excited about, and we're looking forward to that. Do I have a motion to receive them? Let's go Gray Folk right here. A second. Clay, did you have your hand up, Clay? Okay, sweet.

If you didn't, I need you to real quick, if you don't mind. So, but listen, we are so excited. All in favor say amen, and we're super excited to have them.

They've been attended going deep in our church, connecting with people here, and we're super excited about that, because like Pastor David said, this is a way better place to belong than just to attend, and that's what we desire with our members. We want you to go all in and what God wants for for you. So listen, let's stand. We're gonna be dismissed in prayer, and here's what we have to do. Nick and Kendall, I hope you guys are ready for this, and but listen, anytime we welcome somebody into our family, we want to welcome them.

We want to treat them as such. So after I pray, I'm gonna invite all of you to come down front, and hey listen, lunch can wait a few minutes to welcome our new members today, and so take just a moment, pop up here, introduce yourself, and get to know them a little bit. Let me pray. Father, we love you. We're grateful for what you're doing in our church. I thank you for sending Nick and Kendall and their beautiful family with us, and God, I pray that you would bless them. I pray that you would use our ministry and the people in our church to help sharpen them and to grow, and that we could grow together and just continue to reach our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ right here. We love you. We thank you for this day today, for it's in your name we pray, amen. You are dismissed. Thank you for being here.