In chapter one, Paul has explained how joy can be seen in various areas of our lives. He first tells us that we can joy in the church; then he teaches that we can have joy in our gospel partnerships; we can have joy in our adversity. In addition, joy can be seen in our living. Now, he argues that we can joy in the face of opposition.<\/p>\n
Paul knew that not only would the Philippians believers would face opposition, but the contemporary church would as well. We are in a battle\u2014this truth has resonated in the hearts and minds of believers as it should. We are not in a battle caused by sociopolitical or geopolitical conflict. We are in a spiritual battle \u2014 not as unknowing civilians, but as Christian soldiers. Rather than striving as skilled Christians soldiers, many have sat down as passive observers.<\/p>\n
There are several reasons why many of us are performing badly in the battle. (1) Some of us don\u2019t even knowing that a battle is happening. The only thing worse than being in a battle is to be in a battle and not know it. Scripture tells us of the reality of spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 tells us that our opponent is the Enemy and not flesh and blood, so we are to put on the whole armor of God. The Enemy is Satan who desires to be God, and he operates through killing, stealing, and destroying. (2) Secondly, others are doing well in the battle because they are fighting on the wrong team. If you have not trust Jesus as your savior, or you\u2019re a slave to sin, then you are on Satan\u2019s team. Ephesians two tells us that before we are saved, we are under the dominion of Satan. A sinner is opposing the agenda of Christ. A person living in permanent sin is under the rule of Satan, because there is freedom in Christ. (3) Thirdly, many are doing poorly in the battle because they are ill-prepared. By this I mean that they have are not dressed in armor of God, and they are using carnal weapons. Paul tells us that we can\u2019t fight a spiritual battle with carnal weapons. We can\u2019t rely on psychology; we must rely on the Spirit; we can rely on counseling; we must rely on Christ. We can\u2019t rely on doctors; we must rely on The Doctor who has never lost a patient.<\/p>\n
Sun Tzu in\u00a0\u201cThe Art of War\u201d<\/em>\u00a0argues that \u201cvictorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go toward first and then seek to win.\u201d God has already secured victory through Christ, but we are called to participate in the battle.<\/p>\n Exegetical Idea:<\/strong>\u00a0Paul urged the Philippians to be unified and courageous in the face of opposition.<\/p>\n Proposition:<\/strong>\u00a0You must be unified and courageous in life\u2019s battle.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s examine the strategies for winning the battle.<\/p>\n I.<\/strong>\u00a0Be consistent in your walk. vs.27 \u00a0 a.<\/strong>\u00a0There is a point to suffering vs. 28 PHILIPPIANS 1:27-30 In chapter one, Paul has explained how joy can be seen in various areas of our lives. He first tells us that we can joy in the church; then he teaches that we can have joy in our gospel partnerships; we can have joy in our adversity. In addition, joy can be seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vault"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BATTLE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimrestmemphis.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nII.<\/strong>\u00a0Be cooperative in your work. vs.27
\nIII.<\/strong>\u00a0Be courageous in your witness. vs. 28-30<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0 b.<\/strong>\u00a0There is a privilege in your suffering vss. 29-30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"