In Philippians 1:12-18, the message centers on the gospel advances through adversity. Explore Philippians 1:12–18 and discover how God can advance the gospel through adversity, opposition, and circumstances we would never choose. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The message presses toward an active response to the gospel. Faith is presented as something that reshapes priorities, decisions, character, and obedience, not simply something we affirm intellectually. Listeners are challenged to examine whether their lives are increasingly aligned with what they say they believe and to respond to God's grace with courage, humility, and faithful action.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Philippians 1:12-18, the gospel advances through adversity, philippians 1, circumstances we would never choose. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Philippians 1:12-18 teach about the gospel advances through adversity? It also considers how should the gospel advances through adversity shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Philippians 1:12-18 teach about the gospel advances through adversity? | How should the gospel advances through adversity shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Philippians 1:12-18 in everyday life?
Philippians 1:12-18, the gospel advances through adversity, philippians 1, circumstances we would never choose
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I want to I want us to learn today and look at what it means to be faithful to Jesus no matter what. I I've watched people over the years just growing up in the church and being in ministry. I've watched people go after God when everything is going right in their life and then they run from him when things get hard. And I'm all about some pain and suffering. You know, I I've talked about that because it grows my faith, but I really personally I hate being hurt. Anybody else? >> Yeah. >> Hate being hurt mostly in situations that I can't control. Like I can muscle through like physical pain. Like I we were doing games and stuff at camp this week. I have a giant scar going down my leg from getting dragged in the grass by a dude twice my size. It was it was a blast. I had a lot of fun. But I am in pain this morning and I'm going to try not to move. Um but I can muscle through it, right? I can muscle through the struggle. But it's it's the moments when you go, why, God? Like, why is this happening? I'm I'm following you and yet you're letting all this stuff happen to me. And and again, I like to say that, you know, pressure is a a privilege until I don't see an end in sight, right? Or when there's too many unknowns. And here's why I don't like it. It's because I get good people in my life coming to me and saying dumb things. Y'all are gonna know what I'm talking about here in a second. If if anyone else is like this, just just please shout amen or something. Like, don't tell me that everything is going to be okay. >> Or or like someone coming up to you saying, "Oh, you'll look back on this hard moment and it'll be the greatest day of your life." Y'all, I hate that. I feel like Nacho Libre, you know, with like a holding corner of my face. Get that corner in my face. It's like I don't want to hear that from you because you're you're turning my my struggle into some bumper sticker, right? Anybody else been in that place? Am I just talking to myself here? Like like my wife is is still learning this about me. She's here on the front row. I love her so much. When I'm discouraged, like I don't need words of affirmation. Like I usually know the truth and I know the thing that I that I need to be doing and how I should be responding, but I really just want silence. I love you, baby. You have a beautiful voice, but I don't always want to hear it when I'm struggling. Oh, I need silence. I need a presence. I need a listening ear because I can like talk it out and and God will begin to guide me to the solution in those moments, right? That's just that's just me. Anybody else like that? Anybody? Okay, praise the Lord. Maybe you're walking through something right now and it does not feel good. It's stressful. It's painful. It's giving you this unsettled feeling about the future of your life. And I want us to see today as we get into this this second part of Philippians 1 that we can choose to make the conscious decision in spite of our circumstances. We can choose to make the decision to trust God and know that God is faithful no matter what. Whether it's really good or really hard, I want to be faithful to the Lord. I want to trust him. Amen. But there's just before we get into the the message, um if you didn't know this, we love praying for you as a church. And and when we know things are going on, like we're praying. We're praying for you as a church, our our elders and our board, we're praying for every time there's a need that comes that I hear of, I'm sending it out to our people to begin to pray. We have pastoral care here at the church. Um I feel like my grandfather like lives at the hospital. whenever someone's in the hospital, he's there. You know, he's he's there praying for somebody. He's there being there with you in those tough moments. Um but maybe your health is is failing, maybe you need counseling, your job situation is unsure, you're dealing with some kind of relational pain, whatever it might be. Um you're in a low spot personally, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it looks like. Um we want to be able to help you guys. And uh I've watched so many people over the years when things get hard, one of the first places they pull away from is the church. And they'll say, "Well, I'm embarrassed or they're they're they feel like a failure or I shouldn't be this way because, you know, I've been a Christian for x many years, whatever. I don't want to be a burden to anybody or I don't want to deal with the shame, the church shaming me and all these things." That's not this church. >> We're all on a journey of living worthy. Yeah. >> And I I don't know what church you came from or what background you came from, but we're not going to shame you. We're going to surround you. >> We're going to come around you. We're going to hold your arms up and we're going to we're going to be there for you. We're going to pray with you. And so, if you're in a in a hard spot, I've got a number here on the screen that you can text. This this is actually the number that we use to text you guys about updates and things like that. But if you actually text back, I get the text messages. So, if you can see it, 6158132225. You can write it down. Um, if you ever need anything, just text us and if I'm not able to to help you or if our our pastoral team isn't able to help you, like we'll connect you with with counselors, we'll connect you with with good Christian therapists and all these different things. Um, and and I'll be honest, like I love meeting with with with so many of y'all. I love crying on the golf course with with people, especially if you're paying for golf, you know? It's great. And I love I love I love hanging out in coffee shops and even here at the church like I'll just it it was really funny. I met with somebody the other day and I just put two chairs in the middle of the sanctuary and it was this big open room and it kind of freaked him out but it was awesome. It made a it made an impact. All right, we're in Philippians here. Philippians has a theme of choosing joy no matter the circumstances. The whole the whole book of Philippians is about joy. Everybody say joy. >> Joy is a noun. It's a belief. It's a confidence in the Lord. It's a trust in God. But the action verb form of joy is the word rejoice. Somebody say rejoice. >> It's the outward action of an inner reality. That's good. If you're taking notes, you should write that down. It's the outward action of an inward inner reality. Joy as a noun is a deep assurance that God is in control and that we can trust him completely. Joy has way more to do with Jesus than it does with your circumstances. And when joy is on the inside of you, rejoicing is what comes outside of you. We can learn and choose and decide that no matter what happens, that we're going to choose to rejoice. We're going to choose joy. And it's not like faking it until you you make it. It's deciding that my God is greater than what's happening to me. >> Praise God at the grocery store. Praise God in the hospital, at the office. Praise God in the DMV line, somebody. >> I don't care where. Just rejoice. >> But what about finding joy in rejoicing when life is hard? Praising God when the relationship fails? When health falls apart, when accidents happen beyond your control, or when pain enters the picture? When we choose joy and we choose to rejoice, we choose faithfulness in hard times. It actually releases us from always having to have the answers. It's good when we can choose. I I don't know what's happening. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm going to choose joy in this moment. I don't have to have all the answers. My God is good and that's all that matters. And I know there's stories in this room where maybe your child has left the faith or the doctor diagnosis threw you or the business deal fell through at the last minute, the relationship split or some of you even lost everything overnight from floods and fires and all these things. >> The greatest response that we can have in those situations is recognizing who you are and recognizing who God is. >> Yes. And we can say, "God, I'm your son. I'm your daughter. And this is your problem because you're my daddy." >> Yeah. >> This is out of my control. So God, you got to handle this. Again, we put it on ourselves all the time and then we're having anxiety and we're feeling this pressure and all this sort. But when we put it on God and say, "I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to have joy in this moment." It puts it all on the Lord. I can't fix this. So, I'm going to choose to worship God. I believe that he's good. >> I believe that he's going to walk me through this and so I'm going to choose to worship him. And it's one of those things like we can come into moments like like what we had in worship today and we can go do I have a reason to praise him. And then we start thinking materialistically that God bless me in this way that God give me the finances. I didn't get the job. I I don't think I need to be rejoicing right now. I didn't see the the miracle take place. So why rejoice? And this is just such a wrong mentality because we're not in a transactional faith >> where I do this so that I can get this outcome. No, that's not what God is calling us to. And and and it can feel really counterintuitive to to live this life and live worthy in this way. But if we can take it off ourselves to have all the answers and just rejoice, God will begin to reveal to us what he is doing. Think about this. This is so good. I read this verse earlier in Psalm 139. This is what prayer really needs to become for us more and more. God already knows you. >> He already knows your thoughts. He already wrote your story. He knows all the things that are happening. God's not up in heaven going, "Oh, snap. What just happened? >> Oh Lord, you search me. You've known me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path. Am I lying down?" I love this. Verse four. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it alto together. He already knows what you need. He already knows what you're wanting to pray about. So what if our prayer life became rejoicing in the story that God is revealing to you? That's good. I'm not good. He's good. >> Yeah. When we can go to him and just praise him and rejoice no matter what's happening. When we're pursuing him and not his hands, that's when he begins to reveal his plan. Scripture tells us that he directs the steps of the righteous. >> But you have to take steps of rejoicing for him to actually direct those steps. >> Right? We see Paul would rejoice in miracles, salvations. He would rejoice when his spiritual sons Timothy and Titus were pastoring churches. But Paul could also rejoice even when he was chained to the wall of a Roman prison cell. >> Yeah. >> And held for crimes he never committed and endured so much pain. Church, God can give purpose to your pain. >> Yes. >> We love to see the purpose and the pleasure. Pretty sure that's like a that's an R&B song. Purpose and the pleasure. No. M God's blessed me, right? I'm so blessed. God's so good. But I love this. Paul Paul shows us in Philippians 1:12. He says, "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." >> We're going to get deeper into all the things that have happened to Paul here in a second, but again, he's in prison. He's been in there for two to three years. He's been beaten with rods. He said all these things happened to him and he's saying, "I'm in prison and it's good because it's advanced the gospel." >> It's interesting. Look at this. I'm going to read it again. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. It's interesting to me that Paul is finding purpose for others in his pain, >> not just for himself. And that's again, joyful people are selfless people. Some of us when we go through pain, we go, God, what are you trying to do for me? Oh, this is just a learning experience. Oh, God's just testing me right now. He does. I'm not saying that he doesn't do that. We'll see here in a moment. We But we can make it all about ourselves sometimes. We can go, God, what are you trying to show me? What are you trying to show me? But what about if we would begin to pray, God, what are you trying to do through me for someone else? Could there be a greater purpose to the pain that I'm experiencing right now? Could there be a greater purpose to the blessing that I'm that I'm receiving right now? Philippians 1:13. So that it's become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to the rest of all my imprisonment is for Christ. Paul's saying, I want you to understand that what happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. All of the Roman officials, the imperial guard have heard about Christ because Paul is in a Roman prison. What do you think? What do you think Paul's doing in prison? Talking about Jesus. Well, I mean, he's got nothing else to do. All the Roman officials, all the leaders of the Roman military, the entire, it says the whole imperial guard and all the rest, they have come to know that my imprisonment is for Christ. Can we throw that photo up there again? I actually found out something really cool. So, I don't know if you can see it with the stand there, but I I know it's a big photo. It's a big screen, but that ceiling is only about 5t tall. I would not fit in there. I'd be like this the whole time in the in the cell. And then he's got his little potty hole right here. There might be some light coming through, but this is where he's been for two to three years. He's sitting there chained to the wall. He can't stand. There's rats and other prisoners. There's convicted murderers, rapists, really bad people all there in the prison as well. And while he's there, he's preaching about Jesus to the Roman guards. And he says, "I want you guys to know that all this has happened to me. It has really served to advance the gospel." That's an amazing attitude. like that. That's a glass half full silver lining cool side of the pillow perspective. But I really want to paint this picture for you because this means way more when you get the full scope and story of the life of of Paul. I'm going to go really quickly through this. So I'm in 2 Corinthians 11:23. It says, "I know I sound like a mad man, but I have served him far more. I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, that's crazy, and faced death again and again." It says times without number. Like how do you how do you quit remembering how many times you've been whipped and physically beaten? It says five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. That 40 lashes minus one that happened to Jesus before he went to the cross one time. And for Paul it's happened five times. Paul said, "I've been through this five times for preaching Jesus as Messiah." And it was at the hands of the Jews. Like Paul used to be a Pharisee. Paul used to be a Jewish leader. Like he's getting whipped and beaten by guys that used to be his brothers in the faith. Sometimes when I when I read scripture like this about Paul, I look in the mirror and I even sometimes look at other believers and I just want to go, your life is not that hard. Oh, you're being persecuted. Paul, look at his life. It says three times he was beaten with rods and once he was pelted with stones. He got stoned. Not not not the Colorado, California stones. Okay. No. Bad joke. Nobody got that. Okay, cool. Large rocks were hurled at him like baseballsized rocks were thrown at him. Three times he was shipwrecked. Spent a night and day in the open sea. He says, "I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in dangers from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. The very people that Paul was trying to reach with the gospel he was in danger of. They were trying to kill him. I have labored in toil and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Like, we as a church, we choose to fast. But Paul's like, "No, I'm starving because no one will feed me." Paul's the real deal. He's the pastor of pastors. He's the Christian of Christians. But then it says in verse 28, "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." Wow. In spite of the physical toll on Paul's body physically and even mentally with all of the beatings, all the lashings, all of the the things, the imprisonment, he actually cares more about what the church is going through. What a life. What a perspective. I don't know about you, but that's some serious pain. And Paul shows us how to choose joy and how to decide to have joy. Again, he's sitting in a Roman prison and I have to just put myself in Paul's shoes with all these things that have happened to him. He's probably thinking in this prison, "At least I'm safe in here. I only get beat, you know, every so often, but at least I'm safe here." Philippians 1:12. Again, I want you to know, brothers, that what's happened to me has actually helped serve to advance the gospel. that everybody has realized that my imprisonment, all my beatings, my danger, my risk, all this of this is to make much of Jesus. Like here, here's what I want to remind you again. Joyful people are selfless people. If you want to walk in joy, we have to be selfless. And even in suffering, you can say, "God, what are you going to use this pain for in my life, but then also for others?" I can I give you some examples? I did ask these people before I wanted to share these things, but there's some people in our church that have really stirred my faith because of what they walked through. I remember going to the hospital to visit Josh while he was barely able to breathe. And even you were talking about I could die. I mean, it was serious. It was tough. It was real. I remember sitting with Sydney there and listening to both of them saying, "We trust God. We trust God. And I I remember Josh whispering because he could barely talk, saying, "God isn't done with me. I have to fight for my family. >> I trust in God." There was pain, but he was full of hope and joy. And in that moment, it stirred my faith. I left the hospital weeping. so stirred up because of the the pain and how he was facing the pain in those moments. I love you, dude. I remember sitting with Chadwick at his workplace after his mother suddenly passed away and hearing him say, "I know God has a plan in this. >> I trust God and I rejoice that my mom is with Jesus right now." Yeah, >> there was pain, but he trusted God and he was full of joy in that moment. Like I expected to go and sit with him and just like weep with him, but he he was cracking me up. He's just like, I God is good and I know there's a plan in this. And again, I' I've met with women and men in this church who've received promotions and bonuses, huge sales on their their properties, commissions beyond their needs, all these things, and then they give it to ministries in this church or other nonprofits and missions around the world, and they're rejoicing in giving glory to God, saying, "God has blessed me, and I must bless others." And that stirs my faith that it doesn't become all about me in this moment like, "Oh, I must be doing something right because God has blessed me." No, God has purpose in the pain and he has purpose in the pleasure. >> Yeah. Again, I I shared some of this already, but this past week at youth camp, like seeing all these miracles take place, seeing demons get cast out of kids and deaf ears open and lumps disappearing on people's bodies, tumors that were like abscesses on people's bodies shrinking, and then all of them get up and they testify and rejoice of the goodness of God. >> Amen. >> Your testimony has power. >> Yeah. And I would say your testimony in the pain has even more power. Look at what the Lord has done. Look at what God has done. In pain or in miracles, I HAVE TO TESTIFY OF THE GOODNESS OF Jesus so that others can be stirred up in their faith. This is what I love about Paul. Like he's going through all of this stuff. He's getting beaten. He's getting broken down. and and everyone is seeing this happen in his life. And this beautiful boldness is coming out of people because man, if if Paul is willing to be beaten and whipped and go through ALL OF THIS HARDSHIP, HIS GOD MUST BE REAL. I posted that funny video on on our full life uh Instagram the other day of the disciples talking about Jesus. I don't know if you've seen this video. They're they're trying to put up the hoax of of, you know, Jesus being alive or resurrecting. You know, like when atheists think that Christianity started this way, the joke is, uh, okay, let's all get together. All the disciples, all 11 of them are together, and they're like, okay, let's let's steal Jesus's body, and we'll go hide it, and we'll tell everybody that he resurrected. Okay, all all this. It's hilarious. All right, they're all just like, "Yeah, let's do it. It's going to be the greatest hoax ever." And then they they I'm sorry, I'm laughing at it. And then they're like, "Okay, but in order to make everybody believe this, we're all going to have to be brutally tortured and die." And they're ALL JUST LIKE, "YEAH, WAIT, WHAT?" LIKE, people don't die for lies. >> People don't lay their life down for something they don't believe in. And when I look at the life of Paul, he believes and he's shown it with his life. Paul chose to let his pain point become a touch point for others to meet Jesus. What can God do with your life in your pain? What can God do to advance the gospel in the blessing that is on your life? Again, some of you in this room, you become like the most successful person in your career, and that's fantastic. But what can God do with it? Is it only for you? Some of you are going through hard stuff that no one in your family or no one in your circles have ever walked through or can even understand. What can God do with the story that he's writing with your life? What can God show you and show others in the circumstances? There's power in it because Paul's going, "I'm just glad that God is letting others be blessed by my suffering." That's the joy that he's living in in that moment. It is powerful. It is beautiful. And and we were in James this past this a couple months ago. Um and I love this verse and I hate this verse all at the same time. James 1 2 through3. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We get more mature as believers when we go through stuff with him. if we'll choose joy and choose to see God's purpose. But again, like I don't want to hear this verse. Like I remember talking to some of y'all when I was in James and I was like, "This is so hard. Can you please stop?" Like I love Look, you can throw that verse back up real quick. Sorry. Just everyone soak it all in to count it joy when you meet trials. Like let's just let's just be honest. Like I don't want to hear this because I don't want that like glass half full bumper sticker stuff from people. But we need to have this mentality. >> It doesn't just say like laugh it off and fake it because because guess what? It's not joyful to go through pain, right? >> Not naturally. It's a joy that God's in it with you in the pain. >> Again, God's not surprised. He's saying, "Let's go through this together, you and I, the father and his children." And what will happen is as you lean into the Lord in the midst of a trial, God's going to begin to build strength in you. He's going to build some steadfastness, some faithfulness in you, and you will mature, and he will help you in your life. And again, it's not this like like sarcastic, oh, this is just my trial. I guess I need to have some joy right now. No, no, no, no. That's just like naming and claiming and faking it. I may be beat up and heartbroken, but my God is with me, and I'm going to rejoice in that. >> He's with me. Can you trust and believe that today that God is with you? >> Paul would write to the church of Rome in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for th for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Other translations say God works everything together for the good. We got to look life in the face and go, God's going to do something with this life of mine. God's doing something. It's all working together. We take it all to him in prayer and we let God reveal his purpose to us one step at a time. Paul found purpose in his imprisonment. He found the good news in spite of the bad news that God was still good. Remember, he's advancing the gospel to the Roman officials. But then it says this in Romans 1:14, "And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear." So people are getting bolder in preaching the gospel because of Paul. Again, if Paul can endure this, then we can endure this. >> This gospel must be true because look at Paul. Paul is going through hell in his walk with GOD AND HE'S NOT QUITTING. >> Paul's saying that's the reason I'm going to go through this is so that they can preach it more boldly. Listen, you might have to walk through some stuff so that your kids, your family, your co-workers, and your friends, people that are watching your life, you're going to have to go through some stuff so that they can learn how to trust the God that you serve. Your walk inspires and motivates others to walk with God. And it's not just actions, it's words, too. So, we need to pray this often. Pray God, how can the pain that I'm experiencing or the success that I'm experiencing, how can it bless others? How can I how can I grow from this, but how can others grow from this as well? That needs to become our prayer. Every day, every moment, whenever the phone call comes and and your whole world just shifts on a dime in a moment, pause and talk to Jesus. Don't get fixated on the situation. Get fixated on the God who is above the situation. >> Amen. He's good. Again, this is so cool. Just like I have in my notes here. Pause and take a breath because I know this is heavy today. Take a breath. Sa. There you go. This is my Salem moment. This is where it's going to get more fun. Paul's in prison. He's locked up and he's no longer preaching outside of the prison guards. Right? When you enter a season where you lose a position or you lose your influence or you're in a transition season or it feels like everything in your life is stalled, Paul hears and we'll see here in scripture in a second. Paul begins to hear that there are other ministers that are rising and trying to tear down Paul. They're taking advantage of his hardship in the moment. Like, have you ever have you ever had someone take advantage of you when you were in a difficult season? I have. You're vulnerable, you're struggling, and then people walk all over you. Paul's been in prison for 2 to three years, and he says this in Philippians 1:15. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. There's like there's like guys getting bold saying, "Okay, I guess I'm going to fill the gap for Paul and now I'm going to get all these followers. Now I'm going to have all this influence." It's like these preachers are saying, "Look at me. Listen to me. At least I'm not in prison like Paul. Like, I must be doing something right because nothing bad is happening to me." Isn't it fun when people like pull karma into Christianity? like they pull karma in the conversation when things aren't going well for somebody like when you're when when you're gossiping, you know, because we do that sometimes and we we need to pray for repentance. But when we start talking about somebody in their hardship and we go like, man, there must be some secret sin in their life because they're going through all this crap. >> Oh, there must be something that we don't know. God must be trying to work on their heart because there's some there's something there's something there that's not right. That's why they're going through this hardship. And they're like they're throwing shade at Paul really in this moment. And it's so unbiblical for us to think in this mindset. >> Amen. >> For us to again bring Buddhist karma into Christianity and being like, "Oh, what goes around comes around." No, it's unbiblical because it says there's people doing it from envy and rivalry. And then it says here, "Some are doing it from goodwill. My pastor is in prison, so I'm going to pick up the mantle and keep preaching. Like, if I GET THROWN INTO PRISON, I hope that one of you steps up and goes, I'm going to preach. If I get really sick or I'm in the hospital, like, and my dad's out of town or something, like, I hope somebody in this church goes, "We're going to make this happen." >> Because the word of God needs to be preached. The word of God needs to be let loose into the earth. Philippians 1:16-17. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. That's dirty. Some have taken Paul's imprisonment as an opportunity for themselves to take over his platform. And then some have done it out of love. Paul, again, he wasn't preaching about himself. He wasn't claiming to be the Messiah. He was preaching Jesus. And what makes me sick is when someone takes advantage of someone else when they're in a tough spot. Especially believers taking advantage of believers. Like, there's a lot of people online right now that are causing more division in the church than unity because they're in it for themselves. Y'all, we can monetize anything now. And and let me just tell you, we're a small church, but we are not a weak church. >> Like, we've had people show up over the years with ulterior motives, conmen, charlatans, people wanting platforms and not the presence. >> Yeah. >> Like when people come into this church and they're gossiping about another church or the pastor that that was at this other church. Oh, he he hurt me. He did all this all this stuff. They're crying. Church hurt. Man, I will walk with you as a pastor, as a shepherd. But but if your church or your pastor is your source of joy, your source of your faith, and not Jesus, that's a recipe for church hurt and burnout. >> I'm sorry, but I I'm I'm I'm a cool dude, but I am not your source. >> Jesus needs to be your source. >> 100%. Like Like you will get church hurt if I'm your daddy. cuz I will spank you. No, I'm just kidding. >> And again, this isn't just this isn't just true in the church. It's true in in business as well. >> In the workplace, in the marketplace, what is your source? Who is your source of joy? Again, in business, we can internally celebrate when somebody has a hard day or they mess up on the job. And now I can jump in and take the opportunity. Oh, the manager did something weird. I guess I could be the manager now. Like I remember playing soccer and and and I got I was a utility player so I got put in at at certain moments like to mostly to foul other players. That was my job. Um I was a goon. And um I remember we had this kid fall and he it looked like he got hurt and the guy next to me was like, "Oh man, I hope he's hurt. That means I get to play." Why do we have this mentality? Paul could have named names in this scripture. He could have said, "Don't follow that guy. Don't follow that guy." But I love that Paul did it completely different. Again, he could have demonized people. He could have been frustrated. But here's what he said. This is just just sit in this for a second. He said, 'What then? Only that in every way, whether it whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Let me just break this down. There's so much maturity here in him. He's saying, "Hey, you can throw shade all you want, but if they're preaching Jesus and people are getting saved, who cares, >> right? You want to talk smack about the pastor down the road? Are they preaching Jesus? Great. Who cares? People are getting saved. People are living worthy. I'm here. I'm all about it. Christ is being proclaimed. Paul realized my life is not my own. I serve at the pleasure of of God and
