We may affirm that God is in control, but do we act like it?
Rejoicing When all Seems Wrecked, Because God is Working Beyond What we See
Philippians 1:12-18
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to Philippians 1. We will be studying verses 12-18. As you are turning there, I want us to think about the amazing fact that God is in control. I want us to go beyond the academic consideration of this fact, and really get the sense of how real it is. As we sit here right now, God is in control of every detail of what is going on. It is a simple thing to say, yet it is so very very deep and profound. It's hard to understand. When we think about passages like Romans 8:28, where God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, we recognize what the statement means in terms of God's sovereign power. God is the great causer. He sovereignly orchestrates everything that He causes. He controls it all. But in respect to His people, (His elect, saved people--us) there is a special way that God does this. God controls everything in our lives for good. He controls everything in our lives for His good pleasure, which also means, for the good of His church, which is the body of Christ, which also means, He controls everything in our lives for our individual good. We are the ones who comprise the body. Paul states it in plain terms in Romans 8 this way,
"28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;" Romans 8:28-29
Paul is talking specifically about us who love God. This is you and me and all Christians everywhere at all times. Paul is talking about those who are called according to God's purpose. Same thing--this is you. So, God talks straight to us with these kinds of passages. In fact, in His control, God has me preaching these things to us so that God will produce good to us, for us, in us, and with us. This is the main thrust this morning. God causes all things to work together for good to us lovers of God, especially in conforming us into the image of His Son, and that means everything. But this is more than an academic, or a deeply profound thought. This God-control is reason for us to rejoice in the Lord always. The big task, for us then, is to recognize this fact, (We've got to see it) then believe it, (We've got to have the faith that it is true) then embrace it, (We've got to hold onto it as being how we exist every moment) and then rejoice in it no matter what, (which means) in pain, and in happiness, in difficulty, and in ease, for richer or poorer, in health, and in sickness, until death do us part from this earth where we move on to more good that God is working forever. In our passage this morning, Paul takes this fact up to another level. He gives glory to God in His sovereign hand in the minute details of what can be considered to natural eyes to be tragic events. Please read our passage with me now to see what I mean,
"Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the good news, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brothers, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. 15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the good news; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice," Philippians 1:12-18
Please prepare your heart for the sacred preaching of God's word in this sermon titled,
Rejoicing When all Seems Wrecked, Because God is Working Beyond What we See
[prayer]
After getting his introductory comments out of the way, Paul quickly begins letting the Philippians know about his circumstances. Paul has been imprisoned for preaching the gospel. The Philippians already know this much. But, God thinks they need to know more. So, Paul says,
"Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the good news," Philippians 1:12
This ground breaking statement is the substance for the theme of this sermon--Rejoicing When all Seems Wrecked, Because God is Working Beyond What we See. What Paul is doing is teaching what he already knows in a deep way. Paul has walked in this truth ever since he was dropped to the ground when blinded by God on the road to Damascus. Paul knows what the Philippians need to know. He knows what you and I need to know. No matter how things seem. No matter how wrecked our lives appear to be, God has not left us nor has He forsaken us. In the midst of what we think is a wreck, God is working beyond what we see, and God has everything under control for achieving good. And this means every single little minute detail. Our problem is that we sometimes look too critically at the details. We look at the details in a certain way, and so we are seeing how everything exists in God's created order, but then as we are looking, we think that God can not be completely in control; Especially when it comes to sin. It could be our own sin. It could be the sins of others. It doesn't matter. It is sin, and so as we are staring at sin and its results, we think that God's will has been disrupted to such an extent that He can not possibly be in control and working it all for good through His grace. We look at human endeavors in any area. We look at mistakes. We look at decisions. We look at accidents, or errors. We look at our plans, and goals, and their accomplishment. It looks to our human perspective, like God created it all, and now it just happens. Every once and a while, God intervenes. We may not say it, but we act like God stands back, then steps in, then stands back, and then steps in, an infinite number of times as the days roll by. But this is not the way things are. It is just a fish bowl kind of human perspective.
From a human perspective, everything did not look like it was going well for Paul. We can relate to having situations where all is not going well, but let's consider Paul. Paul has been stopped from traveling as a missionary. And there is something else. Paul knows that he was called to be an apostle. Apostle means:
One who is sent out
Paul is an evangelist. He is a nurturer of the churches that God harvested for His glory. Paul was called and commissioned on the road to Damascus to fulfill these things as a special tool in God's hands. God said "I am sending you." And Paul was obedient to the commission. Paul went and went. As Paul would go, Paul would make plans, like we all make plans. In other words, he would use his brain. He would pray and ask God to open doors, like he told the Colossians to pray,
"2 Devote yourselves to prayer, ... 3 praying at the same time ... that God will open up to us a door for the word, ..." Colossians 4:2-3
So, Paul is operating normally. Normally, we Christians live, we think, we pray, and we move along each day. But, then suddenly, after years of work, Paul's apostolic ministry is seemingly thwarted. If we were in Philippi, this might be something that we would think. Paul has been arrested. He has been in prison for a while. He has been thwarted. You would hear stories of how Paul's arrest came about. You would already be familiar with how deadly the Christian persecution has been. The news would hit you as hard as if we had someone here in our midst go out to be a missionary to Iran, and then later, we received news that they were arrested. Now they are sitting in a jail somewhere waiting to be tried under an anti-Christ sharia law. One of our first thoughts is that more than likely they would be executed. Their ministry has been halted. They are gone. Now, hopefully, their execution will be quick and relatively painless--unless God miraculously releases them. This is the sense that the Philippians have. Keep this in mind as we look at the unfolding events of how Paul got there to the Roman prison (cf. Acts 21). Paul had been ministering in Jerusalem. When Paul was first arrested there, it was the apostate Jews who laid hold of him. They had a bloodthirsty ambition. It was to murder Paul. The Jerusalem Jews bound themselves with an oath until they saw Paul dead. Persecution like this was the norm for Paul in practically every region he ministered. But Jerusalem was particularly bad. The apostate Jews of the city of David had turned against Yahweh. Yet, ironically, in dark spiritual blindness, they still claimed to sit in the seat of Moses. They were the same ones who demanded the Messiah's crucifixion. In deadly deception, they wrongly thought of themselves as the true children of God, and yet at the same time, they hated the true children of God. Paul was arrested there while among them, and at this particular time, God's sovereign hand could already be seen through spiritual insight. Paul was aware of these things because Paul already knew that God is sovereign over every single action, event, and circumstance, no matter how wrecked it appears. Paul already knows all about the walk. Paul plans, but Yahweh is the great director bringing glory to Himself. You and I need to know this with the clarity that Paul does. We need to count the steps in the walk;
"The mind of man plans his way, But Yahweh directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9
Paul already knows this. He also knew that He had been called to walk by faith and not by circumstance oriented sight. It is also your calling, and mine. The faith I am talking about is faith in the Director of the universe as being that aspect of what He is. Now Paul's task is to teach this fact. The goal is to build us up with faith in the Director, rather than faith in what we think is a diverted direction. In the Scriptures, we see the hand of the great director in the events before Paul ended up in Rome where Paul wrote this letter. Paul had already tasted the sovereign hand of God at work in his initial arrest. What I mean is that when the Jews in Jerusalem bound themselves by an oath until they killed Paul, they were awaiting the perfect opportunity to assassinate him, but the opportunity never came. The reason is because Paul was under arrest under Roman jurisdiction. In other words, Paul's very arrest is something that God had planned to use to protect Paul from the Jews all along. At first, it did not seem this way to the eyes of the flesh, but God knew this all along. While in Rome's custody, Paul was safe from the Jewish hit men. This is so important to realize because it is from this arrest context, that Paul shares more of God's view of what God is doing, even though while Paul is going through it, there is that other view that competes for our attention. It is the wrong view, where it seems like men, and circumstances are the masters of our fate, and the appearance of everything seems heart breakingly gloomy. But Paul is walking by faith--not by sight. Paul recognizes that his arrest has not only become an opportunity for preaching the gospel, but what does Paul say? He says his imprisonment has turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. What this means is that what the devil and wicked men meant for evil, God meant for good all along. Our task is to recognize it no matter how bad it seems. In Paul's case, the good that God meant was even greater good in Paul's arrest than if Paul had not been imprisoned. This is the kind of revelation that identifies the original news of imprisonment, (which seemed to be bad news), as good news for Paul, the churches, the apostolic band, and us. It is where we get a glimpse of what God is doing in the midst of what seems like the fist of life in a temporal fallen world. We don't always get this glimpse in the faith walk, but God gives it to us in His eternal word. Actually, the Philippians saw this years earlier. It was when Paul and Barnabas first visited them in ministry. Both Paul and Barnabas were arrested and imprisoned at that time as well. But what was going on in God's sovereignty to bring a greater furtherance of the good news was that the Roman jailer in Philippi got saved. The thing about this principle is that when we are in the midst of the prison, or pain, persecution, and pot holes of everyday life, we can be so tempted to look at everything from our human perspective where we think that all is a wreck, rather than God's perspective, where everything is part of His plan for good. The principle is that everything that occurs in our lives that we put in the wreck category really has an ultimate reason behind it. So, instead of the wreck category, it is the reason category, and the reason is always in respect to furthering the good news of the glories of God. For us personally, all our circumstances are centered around God's will in respect to being His children. This fact is good news of the glories of God. We are His church. We are the body of Christ, and so unlike the events that happen to the unsaved who are immersed in the curse, we are the focus of what God is doing in bringing glory to Himself in the cause of Christ. the very fact that we exist is a witness of the good news of God. This is why our reaction as God's people is so important. God wants us to pray in intense moments--recognizing and proclaiming Him as the One we run to for guidance, comfort, understanding, and peace. God wants us to be the ones who declare that God is in control whenever our lives are wrecked and seemingly out of control. God wants us to be the ones who keep praising Him in the midst of it all. We saved people are the only ones in the world who are molded into maturity in Christ through our circumstances where the testing of our faith produces endurance. This leads us to see more of what God does by seeing what God was doing, where Paul says,
"13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brothers, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear." Philippians 1:13-14
This is where God is giving us the privilege to see the principle defined in so many dimensions. We know that by God's sovereign hand, the gospel is greatly furthered. But then we notice something else. Paul's imprisonment causes a majority of Christians in Rome to trust in the Lord in a greater way so that they have far more courage than they had before it occurred. Further, the courage that God gave them through all of this is courage that had them speaking the word of God without fear. Yet, think about this. Before Paul's persecution and imprisonment, this was not happening. Folks this is how God works when we don't think He is working. God does it in ways that we don't expect, and in ways that theologically, we may not always immediately recognize are things that He does. Let's think about this again. To be saved, we must trust in the Lord. So, all saved people trust in the Lord already. We also know that faith is a gift as we covered in the last couple of sermons (cf. sermom on Philippians 1:3-11). We find this fact asserted from Acts 18:27, 2 Peter 1:1, Romans 12:13, Hebrews 12:2, John 6:29, and later in this chapter, in Philippians 1:29. Faith is a granted gift. But we need to understand that God grants the gift of faith in many ways. In other words, those men did not trust in God like this before Paul was imprisoned. They did not have this extra courage to speak the word of the Lord. But now, Paul says, because of his imprisonment, those men suddenly have this boldness. All of this makes no sense to the natural mind whatsoever. You see, people want trust, boldness, and an intense God reliance to come from doing something--things like discipline, and being macho, and being strong, and tough, and all of that kind of thing. In human reasoning, we think that we are going to muster up trust in God in our own strength through self speak, self effort, and positive mental attitudes, or certain religious disciplines. You know, we think we are going to wake up in the morning and say,
"Today I am going to have more faith, and more boldness,"
and then presto, because we thought it, and said it, then it is going to happen. Then there are times where we want more revelation. We say,
"God hasn't told me enough."
"He hasn't revealed enough to me."
"I want evidence that God is in control. Then, and only then, will I believe that God is in control."
But the problem arises when we want to define what the evidence is. But, God has already given us enough evidence. And so, God slaps all that down and makes the very thing that should crush sensibilities, and scare Christians away, into the power pack that moves them to faith and action. It is a gift. Folks, we all need to get the revelation of this. We need to share in the power that God is encouraging us with from His word here in Paul's circumstances. It is just as much for us today, as it was for the Philippians. When we truly grasp this revelation, then our trust in God must increase. When that happens, our Christian walk becomes more dynamic. We start to recognize God's sovereignty in everything, and we get the boldness that this kind of trust brings. But here is what is so important about this principle:
We must embrace it as a God given doctrine concerning Himself, and the way He operates because most people are not going to tell you this, and most of the time, circumstances compete for our hearts.
What I mean is that it must be a principle with you that you recognize, grasp, and keep in your heart, because the way things appear to be, are not a true reflection of what God is doing in the midst of it all. So, unless you cherish the doctrine in the first place, you are simply going to think, and act, like life is really a reflection of the wreck. This is what the world is going to tell you. The world walks by sight, and not by faith. So to the world, what looks and feels like a wreck is really a wreck. But, God wants us to turn our back on the world and put our face toward glory, and it starts right here by living according to God's word rather than man's view of the world. Paul goes on to explain what I mean. He explains it next, where he talks about what is going on with some of the details in the greater furtherance of the gospel. Listen, and as I read, think about how seeing this from carnal eyes could change the whole recognition of God's reality concerning the situation. Paul says,
"15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment." Philippians 1:15-17
Okay, now think about this. There are people there who are preaching Christ, and they are doing it in evil, wicked, dark, sin. Anytime someone does something from envy and strife, impure motives, and pretense against the truth, it is sin. Further, these guys were preaching to cause God's apostle distress in his imprisonment, which is also sin. The way that God prescribes that the good news of Christ be proclaimed by His true servants is out of Holy Spirit led love and good will, as Paul says some are actually doing. Looking at this from a purely human perspective, it would be easy for Paul to get all bent out of shape by these false evangelists who were attacking him. The question, then, is:
How can we see God's sovereign hand in these things?
Actually, this is Paul's point. When it comes to our physical eyes, it does not matter whether we see God's sovereign hand in it or not. When it comes to the physical circumstances, to recognize God's hand requires walking by faith and not by sight. When we walk by faith, then we are walking in the gift that God has given us, and the way that we walk in the gift of faith is with spiritual eyes. To walk in trust, we must recognize that God's sovereign hand is in the details, and that is what I am urging us all to do in this sermon; but consider this activity for a moment. It looks bad. In fact, the only thing that Paul has said in this particular part of his point that blatantly pinpoints God's sovereignty, is that Paul states that he has been appointed for the defense and confirmation of the good news. God is the one who appointed Paul for this job, whether Paul is in prison or out. But, Paul wants us to know that the evil proclaimers of the Messiah are also in the sovereign hand of God. Certainly they appointed themselves for their evil deed, but God is the great causer, and so He has appointed them in the midst of what seems like the wreck, and He has had this appointment all along in His determination (which is seen in concurrence). Even in the midst of their evil action, God, by His divine appointment, is using the pretensive proclaimers of Christ to bring Him glory. It is the sovereign principle I am driving this morning, that what evil men meant for evil, God meant for good all along. Paul recognizes this, and so he says,
"18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice," Philippians 1:18
God is sovereign in every little area, and in every way. Rejoicing when all seems wrecked, because God is working beyond what we see, is the mindset that we want to have because it is the truth. Rejoicing is the opposite of complaining. But this is one of our biggest problems in the midst of what we think is the wreck. One of the first things we do is complain, isn't it? But think about this:
What if Paul had stewed over their selfish reasons of proclaiming Christ because they were wanting to cause Paul harm?
In other words, just like Paul could have taken his imprisonment personally, and stewed and complained over the oppression he was going through, and the hindrance of his ability to get out and be a traveling apostle, Paul could have also focused upon himself in respect to his mockers. If Paul had done this, then the mocking would not have been recognized as God's sovereign choice to be part of spreading the good news. Paul would have missed what God knew all along. The classic example of this is Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph's life is a story that reflects the fact that God acts in ways that He brings what appears to be a wrecked life upon His own people, and God does it through the actions of wicked people. Joseph was a man of God who was unjustly treated by his own brothers. As a young teenage boy, Joseph's father, Israel, loved Joseph more than his 11 brothers. We read in Genesis 37:4 that Joseph's brothers actually hated Joseph because of this fact. In a dream, God showed Joseph that all his brothers would bow down before him. This was an amazing revelation, and it was also something that Joseph's brothers did not like very much when Joseph told them about the dream. So, in their jealousy and hatred, Joseph's brothers planned to make Joseph's life a wreck. Most of the brothers planned to murder Joseph. After one of his brothers, (Reuben), prevented Joseph's murder, they sold Joseph to Midianite merchants who were traveling through the area. Later, the merchants sold Joseph in Egypt. Joseph was sold to one of Pharaoh's governing officials named Potiphar. While a slave of Potiphar, Joseph continued to serve the Lord, (which is what God wants us to do no matter how wrecked life looks--we serve our Lord) but Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife of trying to rape her, and so Joseph was thrown in prison. Joseph's life in prison was difficult. It was not a life that we would typically think of rejoicing about. Joseph had gone through one oppressive experience after another. Like the rest of Joseph's life that led to this point, it was something that most of us would typically complain about. From freedom, to slavery, and then to imprisonment over a false accusation. None of this seemed like the glorious visions that Joseph had as a young boy. Eventually, God enabled Joseph to interpret some dreams for Pharaoh. Part of Joseph's divine revelation was that God had given Pharaoh the dreams. The dreams meant that there was going to be a famine in Egypt. Because of the events, where God enabled Joseph to be a true man of God in his actions, and also to rightly interpret the Pharaoh's dreams, Joseph was freed from prison. Further, Joseph was instantly promoted from the lowest of the low (a slave prisoner) to the most powerful governing leader over Egypt next to Pharaoh. Joseph was no longer a boy living among his brothers. He was a man--and a very powerful one at that. The famine occurred like God revealed to Joseph. Because of Joseph, Egypt had stored up provisions for the coming famine. Egypt had more than enough surplus grain for the nation. It even had enough to sell to neighboring nations during the famine. In God's providential hand, Joseph's brothers were also touched by lack of grain during the famine, so they journeyed to Egypt to buy food. To buy it, they had to go see, guess who?; Joseph, (who went by another name given to him by the Pharaoh). By this time, Joseph looked completely different. He was unrecognizable to his brothers. It was at this time that Joseph revealed to his frightened brothers, who he was. But listen to what Joseph did; Joseph forgave them for what they had done even though he had been betrayed, hated, and had led a life of slavery, imprisonment, and hardship in rejection from his own family all those years. We find the proclamation in some amazing passages out of Genesis. It is not a remorse, but rather it is a rejoice. Pay close attention, because this is the substance of what we want to act like in our own lives. In Genesis 45 we read,
"4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come closer to me.' And they came closer. And he said, 'I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life." Genesis 45:4-5
We notice that Joseph encourages his brothers who are walking by sight. Joseph could have condemned them to death, but instead, Joseph gives them comfort. Not only does Joseph encourage his brothers, but he makes a proclamation concerning God that to earthly natural eyes does not equate with all the events that had transpired. Joseph states plainly,
God sent me before you to preserve life.
We think about this, and we think about what Joseph says and we must understand that Joseph had the revelation, but the revelation wasn't something new. Joseph was consistent in his walk with God. He was consistent in his reverence to God. He was consistent in his relationship with God, where his view of God was that God was intimately moving in the details throughout Joseph's life. Joseph lived like God wants you and I to live each and every day as His children in Christ. Back when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph, Joseph recognized God in the midst of the temptation. Joseph proclaimed to her,
"How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9
Joseph's focus was on God. It is the same place that God wants our focus, (even when life seems like a wreck). When Joseph was in the prison and the Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker had been thrown in prison, they had dreams. Joseph explained to them,
"Do not interpretations belong to God?” Genesis 40:8
Joseph's focus was on God. It is the same place that God wants your focus and my focus. When Joseph was summoned before Pharaoh, who told Joseph that he had heard that Joseph had the ability to interpret dreams, Joseph immediately responded,
"It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer." Genesis 41:16.
When Joseph gave Pharaoh the interpretation, over and over again, he kept reminding Pharaoh that it was God who had revealed what was about to happen. The point is that for us to recognize the sovereign hand of God in what seems like a wreck, we must be recognizing our sovereign God to begin with, and the way we do this folks is to walk with God, in focus upon Him, rather than focus upon the world and the way the world tells us to view everything. But, we remember that Joseph's brothers arrived in Egypt. We remember that Joseph said,
"do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life."
But Joseph said more to his brothers. He said,
"6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance." Genesis 45:6-7
Again, Joseph makes a rejoicing proclamation, but notice how the understanding must come. Joseph does not give a history lesson about how his brothers sent him away as a slave by Midianite traders, and all the pain that followed. Joseph says that God sent me before you to preserve for you, (Joseph's brothers) a remnant in the earth, and to keep you (Joseph's brothers) alive by a great deliverance. This is what turns remorse into rejoicing because it recognizes what is really going on behind the scenes by God's sovereign hand in everything. Joseph goes on,
"8 Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt." Genesis 45:8
This is the point. The brothers, in their evil, wicked, sinfulness, originally sent Joseph out as a slave--forgotten, lost, and doomed to servitude in some distant land to die in obscurity with no purpose. Folks, it is sin to think that we live and die with no purpose. But, Joseph says it again. Joseph says that God specifically sent Joseph there, though the brothers sold Joseph to the Medianites to be a slave. And even though Pharaoh set Joseph free and promoted Joseph to his high place of power and authority, Joseph does not recognize that Pharaoh made Joseph lord of all Pharaoh's household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Joseph says that God made him into all of that. Joseph also says that God made Joseph a father to Pharaoh. Joseph goes on giving more glory to God in His sovereign hand,
"9 Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.'" Genesis 45:9
Joseph wants his father Israel to get a very brief news blip. It is a report that packs a big punch. Joseph keeps God's glory prominent, as it should be. Then in Genesis 50, we read where Joseph says to his brothers after he receives news that his father Israel has died,
"20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." Genesis 50:20
This is the same thing that Paul is talking about concerning his circumstances in the Roman prison. This is the huge lesson that God wants us all to learn this morning in a deep abiding way: What the evil gospel proclaimers meant as evil against Paul, God meant for good in order to bring about this present result. Now the question concerning Joseph is,
What if Joseph had stewed over his brothers selfish reasons in selling off Joseph because they were wanting to cause Joseph harm?
In other words, Joseph could have taken his imprisonment personally. He could have stewed over all the oppression he had gone through. Joseph could have focused upon himself, his evil family, and his harsh life. There could have easily been remorse for the past instead of rejoicing over it. If Joseph had done this, then the rejection by his brothers, being sold as a slave, ending up in prison in Egypt, and all the oppression before becoming Pharaoh's right hand man, would not had been seen as God's sovereign work. Joseph would have missed what God knew all along. Instead of praise of God, and rejoicing, there would have been the futile, fading, empty complaints against man and circumstances that is so common among people who have the wrong focus.
Okay, think about both Paul, and Joseph and now take this over and think about our own lives. There are three things that we can focus upon when the wrecks seem like they are there and have piled up and destroyed everything:
1) We can focus on the wreck.
2) We can focus on our self. (It is the whole "woe is me" syndrome)
Or, we can do the right thing;
3) We can focus on God who is sovereign over the first two.
God is sovereign over the wrecks, and he is sovereign over me. If Paul would have focused upon how much the chains hurt his ankles, or how much he is being mocked as an evangelist by those who preach Christ out of pretense because they are wanting to cause him harm, Paul would have missed God, and folks, missing God is what the world does as a matter of its dark blindness. So, here is the principle abbreviated: It is a matter of focus. This is what we are learning from Paul's revelation. Instead of focusing upon what we want to call the wrecks, we need to focus on the God who called us in the midst of it all, but we need to go one step further. We need to focus on God in the midst of it all, and REJOICE! We need to immediately turn to Him, humble ourselves, tell our heavenly Father that we don't understand it all, but we trust Him in the midst of it all, and rejoice. We don't feel good, but we trust Him. We don't know what to do, but we trust Him, and as we trust Him, we add rejoicing in Him. Have you noticed how hard it is to rejoice if we focus upon ourselves, and we start getting off into thinking how much we are failing in our Christian walk? We quit recognizing that we are works in progress, but because there are times we fail, we think we are failures. We think we are useless in God's kingdom. The reality is that we are Christians who are temples of the Holy Spirit who were bought with a great price. But, bad happens in our walk, and we focus on the bad, and all of sudden, we can start thinking that we are meaningless losers, and all is ruined, and so there is remorse in our life instead of rejoicing in the Lord. It is more than unhealthy thinking. It is wrong thinking. It doesn't recognize the sovereignty of God in the midst of everything. Even when we sin, we need to repent and go on. Don't dwell on what you did and the wreck that you see that came from it all. Sure, there are consequences for sin, and we know it, but God is sovereign in the consequences where He still works all things together for good. The point is that if you sin, then repent, and thank God for hugging you in His Son, where you are His righteousness no matter what you do, and then praise God for His working good in it all.
Okay, at this point I want to share with you a revelation that came to me at the men's meeting yesterday. We were discussing these things, and it hit me that once we grasp this principle, it is easy for us to look at our circumstances that come about because of others, and acknowledge God's sovereign hand at work. In other words, we all have our Romans and Jews (so to speak) who persecute us. We all have our Joseph's brothers, and our Egyptians who enslave and persecute us. We all have our circumstances that effect us. And so biblically, we can see that God uses circumstances outside of ourselves to work the good. We see that God uses sinful people and their sinful actions in some way to ultimately work the good, right? But what about our own selves in the same equation? You see, we are harder on ourselves when it comes to the wrecks, than we are with others. But, here is what we need to do. We first need to see ourselves in Christ. Even when we sin, we are in Christ, and so we have the righteousness of God imputed to us in Him. So even when we fail, Christ is still triumphing in us. Secondly, we also need to see our own selves as the Romans and Jews Joseph's brothers, and Egyptians in our own lives. What I am saying is that we are not exempt from God's controlling process when it comes to our own lives just because it is us in respect to us. In other words, the principle does not change simply because we are the ones who created the wreck that we are in. The point is that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, and that even means your own actions concerning your own life. This leads us to think about our unique relationship to God in Christ. In Christ the New Covenant, we are special. (And I know there are some weird theologians who don't like saying that, but they don't know what they are talking about) You and I really are special in Christ, because God made us special as His special workmanship, and so God works in us especially to will and work for His own good pleasure. Paul says in chapter 2,
"12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with awe and reverence 13 because it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13
God works in special people that He made special in His Son. We are to practice, perform, and cultivate our saved lives according to what God, in His sovereignty, has already worked in us by His Holy Spirit in regeneration. We should do this with awe and reverence because of a unique relationship that we have in Christ. Since we are in Christ, God is at work in us, and God is always at work in us for his good pleasure.
The bottom line is that instead of remorse in the wreck, I encourage us all to have rejoicing on our lips. Sometimes it is not always apparent to us that our circumstances are being interpreted from a narrow, and negative viewpoint. Whether we realize it or not, the whole world influences us to look at life the same way they do. But, we must look to God. I urge all of us to be recognizing that when our situation is one where we are feeling like our life is a total mess, we must look past it. We must look to our God of the Universe and beyond, and rejoice. It does not matter whether you have offended someone, and so it seems like the relationship is lost and irretrievable. You may have lost your job, or you may have no money left, and so now you don't know how to pay the bills, or make it to work. You may have a horrible sickness. Your health is bad. You hurt. Your hurt depresses you every single day. Someone that you know may have died recently. Everyone dies, but when it happens to someone in our immediate sphere, it affects us in a pronounced way. But, even though all of these things may be true, God sees your circumstance in light of His hidden details. What seems like bad circumstances from our point of view are really good circumstances from God's point of view. What this means is that no matter what happens, there is always a reason that exists for rejoicing. When all seems lost and hopeless, we should never, ever, give up hope, and we should always seek to rejoice in our wonderful God. Let me close by encouraging us with the words of Paul in 1:18, where he says,
"... and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, ..." 1:18
but later toward the end of this epistle in Chapter 4, Paul makes this into a command that we should apply to ourselves, where he says,
"4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4Amen.
