This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day five of our look at Philippians chapter one. We're finishing our look at this chapter this week talking about the places that you and I find joy. The beginning of the chapter we talked about it being a matter of finding joy in relationships, the way we look at those, and the latter part of the chapter focuses on finding joy in circumstances. So many times we let things that we won't even remember a week later steal our joy. We've got to find a way of looking beyond the temporary to see the eternal, to see the things that really, really last. How do you find joy in circumstances? Well yesterday we talked about it's a matter of looking beyond. You look beyond the circumstances to see the result. You look beyond the personalities to see God's plan. In verses 20 to 30 of Philippians chapter one there's two other ways to look beyond. You look beyond the temporary to see the eternal, and you look beyond the bad news to see the good news. Look beyond the temporary to see the eternal. Philippians 1, 20 to 26, "I eagerly expect and hope," Paul wrote, "that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. " If I am to go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful labor for me, yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you, again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Verse 21 rings in our hearts. If you replace in that verse, you replace the word Christ, then the last word is inevitably changed. To live is money, to die is loss. To live is self, to die is loss. To live is pleasure, to die is loss. To live is doing good things for my community, to die is loss. The end is always loss, if you change the first word. To live is suffering and tragedy. Some people feel that way, and for them, then, to die is escape, but again, that's just loss. There's no gain in that. There's no gain in escape. Paul's not talking about escaping life here when he says to die is gain. Some long to escape to heaven. Others long to be with Jesus in heaven after they've done fully well the work that he's given them on this earth. That was Paul. Paul's not talking about escaping this life. He's talking about being with the one who loves him most. To live is Christ. He's saying that Jesus Christ is my reason for living. The uncertainty of life has been replaced by the direction of Jesus. That's how you look beyond the temporary to see the eternal, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul didn't fear death, but neither did he invite death. The truth is, he defeated the fear of death by experiencing the confidence that death just meant being in the presence of God. For him, it was just a simple transition. So how do I activate this principle in my life, to live is Christ and to die is gain? The active word to me is live, live. It's how I live. This is not a choice about how I feel or even how I think. It is a choice about how I act, about how I live. He wasn't saying to live is thinking about Christ. He was saying to live is Christ. He's talking about a lifetime commitment to ministry. He's talking about an unselfish love for others that resulted from his attitude towards Christ. It's always amazed me that when Paul talks about this decision, he's in a Roman prison, he might get killed. He knows that. He doesn't know whether to pray, "Jesus, take me home right now. Let the Romans decide that I'll be executed," or to pray, "Keep me on this earth longer so that I can serve you longer. " He says in verse 25, "I'm going to pray. I know that I'm going to remain, and I'm going to continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, your progress and joy in the faith. " What amazes me about that is when I think about remaining on this earth, I think it's for my progress and joy in the faith. I'd like to stay longer so I can achieve other things, so I can serve in other ways that make some real progress and growth in my life. This unselfish thought that Paul has, "I want to remain and even remain while I'm facing imprisonment and suffering for you, for your progress, for your joy in the faith," that's looking beyond the temporary to see the eternal, to see what God wants to do in others' lives through you, to live as Christ, to die as gain. There's no joy in my life unless I can answer yes to these two questions. Can I face my life with purpose, and can I face death with confidence? You can answer yes. Can I face life with purpose? Yes. To live is Christ. You can't have purpose every day of your life, built on the love of Christ and the plan of God in your life. Can I face death with confidence? Yes. To die is gain. If I know Christ, if I have a relationship with Him, I don't have to worry about death. Jesus came to earth to give us the ability to answer yes to those questions. I look beyond the temporary. I see the eternal. Then in Philippians 1, 27 to 30, Paul talks about looking beyond the bad news to see the good news. Let me read those verses. "Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you're standing firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him, since you are going through the same struggle that you saw that I had, and now hear that I still have. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. " The word gospel, you may know, means good news. There was bad news for the people in Philippi, but Paul says the bad news can be overwhelmed by the good news. Now, sometimes we let the good news be overwhelmed by the bad news. That often happens. So we have to look past the bad news to see the good in the good news, because it's so much bigger. It's so much, well, let me use the word gooder. It is so much better. And the good news, here's the key in this passage, the good news is a message. It is the message that Jesus Christ came to save us and give us life, but it is more than just a message. It's a lifestyle. He says, "I want you to conduct yourself to live in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ. " Don't just tell the good news, live it. That is where joy comes from. Fact is, if you're not living it, you don't have much to tell. And Paul talks about the decisions in our lives in these verses that result from good news living. He talks about the challenges that God sends into our lives and the decisions that I can make that are going to result in joy in my life. He talks in these verses about standing firm in one's spirit, the end of verse 27. Standing firm, what's the decision that's behind that phrase? The decision for me is I will continue to trust, no matter what I'm facing. I will continue to trust in God. As I continue to trust, I continue to experience joy. Now, it's interesting that he's talking to them together here. When it comes to trusting God, I found oftentimes you can't do it by yourself. You need the fellowship. You need the relationships with other people. I will continue to trust. He also talks in these verses about contending for the faith. And the decision that's behind that for me is I will not concede to criticism. That's a joy stealer. When criticism begins to overwhelm your thoughts, it steals your joy. I will not concede to criticism. I will instead contend for the faith. I'm not going to spend my life, waste my life just fighting for myself, how people see me. When I feel criticized, I'm going to turn my thoughts to contending for the faith, to fighting for what really matters. That's what you do when criticism steals your joy. He says you are unafraid of those who oppose you. The decision that's behind that is I will not be controlled by fear, unafraid. In Philippians, as we read through this book, those who opposed, Paul's going to talk often about people who oppose you, enemies, they were false teachers that had come to Philippi. And they were saying that a relationship with God was built more on the good works that you can do than it's built on faith. That's a false teaching. It's a very attractive false teaching because it appeals to our pride to think that we can do enough good things to get closer to God. That's not how you get closer to God. You get closer to God through the love of Jesus Christ. And so Paul says, I won't be controlled by fear because I realize that I have a good news message. And then at the end of the chapter, Paul says, one of the challenges that God has allowed in our lives in this planet is that he has granted it to us to suffer. And what's the decision that I have? When I go through suffering, especially suffering for my faith, what do I do? Paul says the decision is, I will count it a privilege. Oftentimes we get confused by suffering. We look at it and we think, is this my fault that I bring this on myself? You know what I found? If suffering is my fault, God's going to let me know. If I'll just ask him, he will with crystal clarity point me to the reason I might be going through that. But I've also found this, suffering we go through in this world, it's usually not a punishment. Instead, Paul says, count it a privilege. It's what we go through. And one of the reasons we go through it is we are privileged to suffer just like Jesus suffered. Now, you might be hearing me talk about this and think, how in the world? How in the world could God bring good out of suffering? Well, that's what the cross is all about. You want the perfect example of joy in circumstances? No matter what the circumstances, look at the cross. Hebrews 12 says, for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross. You want the perfect example of joy in your circumstances, no matter what? And looking at the result that's beyond the circumstances, look at the cross. Jesus looked at what would happen in our lives, so he endured what happened on that cross. And so he had joy. You want to see the perfect example of looking beyond the personalities to see God's plan? The personalities around the cross ridiculed Jesus, but Jesus saw God's plan. You want to see the perfect example of looking beyond the temporary to see the eternal? If you've been there that day that Jesus died, the temporary circumstance looked bleak. It was about death. But that wasn't the story that day. It was a story of Jesus giving his life so I could find forgiveness and enjoy eternal life. It was eternal good news that was happening that day. When you look at the cross, from the human perspective, it was bad news. But from God's perspective, pure good news. So yes, even through the difficulties of life, even through the suffering of life, God can bring joy. He can bring joy in our circumstances. Let's take a minute to talk to him. As we pray today, as we talk to Jesus, let's thank him. Thank him for what he did for us on the cross. Jesus, thank you. You loved us enough to look beyond the circumstances to see the joy, the joy of what would happen in our hearts and lives, the joy of forgiveness, the joy of life, the joy of heaven. Lord, forgive us for those times when we think the circumstances have to be perfect in order for us to enjoy joy. Jesus teaches us different. Paul teaches us different. You teach us different. And so today, right here, right now, we pray that in whatever circumstance we're facing, we would see beyond that circumstance to see the joy of how you're working, who you're working in, the fact that your plan can never be, never be taken away, and to see the fact that you're working for good news, even when we face bad news. Thank you that joy is beyond our circumstances. I pray this in your name, amen. Be sure to join us next week. We're going to be looking at what I have to honestly say is one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible, Philippians chapter 2.