II.  Purpose   (chapter 1)  1st key to victory: Joy and Peace
    A. If asked man on street why he’s living what responses you likely to hear?:
        1. Self  (happy, fulfilled)  - natural goal but easily frustrated by circumstances
            a. To make money, never happens
            b. To become famous, never happens
            c. To get married, never happens
            d. To have children, never happens
            e. To lose weight ----
            f.  To stay off alcohol, drugs, food (commendable goals, focus: SELF)
      2. Others  (family, church, community, world: make better)
            a. More commendable than living for SELF
            b. Wrong focus
            c. Frantic trying to juggle responsibilities
            d. Often fail (lose health, family, influence)
     3. God  (answer from more spiritually mature)
            a. Goal for which God made us (not self, not others)
            b. When live for this goal, other goals fulfilled
                1) Self fulfilled (in ways greater than if living for self)
                2) Others influenced greatly (for eternity)
            c. You yourself have JOY and PEACE (even if lesser goals frustrated)
     B. Paul’s purpose: living for God
        1. Paul’s fear of failure   2:16  “That I may boast on the day of Christ that I did NOT run or labor for nothing”
            (emptiness written over life)
            a. Not the case   2Tim 4:7  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”
             b.   Reason:  right purpose   Phil 1:21   “For to me to live is Christ”
                1) Fill in blank with what turns you on (happiness is….) This tells what we   are living for in most instances.
                2) If “Christ” our focus, we also can be invincible like Paul, like Job:  “Though He slay me”
                    a) Nothing can frustrate these zealots
                    b) They praise God as they are dying
        2. Even in adverse circumstances: no longer sources of frustration but opportunities to glorify God
            a. “As people watching me; that they may see Christ”
            b. “When people asking me questions; may they hear the gospel from me”
              1)  Phil 1:12-14 “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel”  Bad for Paul…..good for God
                    a) Chained to different guard four times each day (6 hour shifts)
                    b) New meaning to “captive audience”
                    c) Result – “saints in Caesar’s household”
            2) Phil 1:19   “What has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance”     Bad for Paul…..good for God.
                    a) Question: What is meant by “deliverance”?  (out? through?)
                    b) Delivered FROM prison this time
                    c) Delivered THROUGH prison experience next time (into presence of God)
                    d) How God delivers us is up to Him, not us (When let Him choose – JOY, PEACE. Sooner grasp,
                        life more serene)
    C. Whichever option God chooses, we’re the channel for His glory (exciting!)
EG.  Stuart Briscoe:  “Things happen to me, in me, through me”
        1.  We all want things to happen “through” us
        2. First things must happen “in” us
        3. The way for things to happen in us is for things to happen “to” us
        4. Adverse circumstances then fill us with expectation
            a. “How God use this?”
            b. Upbeat way to live (everyday exciting)
    D.    Questions:
         1. Am I willing to live for God’s glory, whatever the circumstances?
         2. Am I willing to let God work out the circumstances? (pressure off)
         3. Real benefits from adopting God’s purpose
III. Perspective  (2nd key to victory: Joy and Peace)  READ  Chap 2:5-11
     A.  Phil 2:5   “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”
        1. What was Christ’s attitude?
            a. Was willing to suffer if that was God’s plan (link between suffering to glory)
            b. He saw purpose in pain
EG  “If people see purpose in their pain, they can go through  anything”  (child birth ratifies)
            c. He was willing to settle for blessings that were not immediate (“For the joy set before Him, endured the cross,
                despising the shame”  Heb 12:2)
      2.  Greatest blessings often deferred: (have to wait)
            a.   EG Jeff, 2 yr master’s program at NW
            b.   He learned waiting for the best required painful endurance – But WORTH IT!
            c.   Can awe learn a lesson from Christ himself in 2:5-11?
     B. States of Christ   (Slide)  Christ’s identification with us (downward, upward)
          Humiliation (v.6-8)           Exaltation  (v.9-11)
          1. Birth (hardest step)    4. Return (to place of suffering, prison)
          2. Suffering (mocking)   3. Session  (right hand, interceding for us)
          3. Death (nailing)           2. Ascension  (Mt. Olives – no rocket)
          4. Burial (over!)            1. Resurrection  (40 days – ate) no weight
    C. Question: What does this have to do with me?  gain (fish!)
    D. Answer: Everything! Christ identified with us (our pain) that we might identify with Him (His victory).
    E.  Our identification with Him
        1. New birth (conversion – must leave self glory) - want to skip directly to power of resurrection; can’t do it.
        2. Suffering (anything about which we say “Oh NO”: Elizabeth Eliot)
        3. Death (of personal agenda of how we want life to go) Must submit to Sovereignty
        4. Burial (with funeral for those personal agendas)
        5. Resurrection  (to life under Spirit’s control in Sanctification)
        6. Ascension  (see the bigger picture: get God’s perspective of life)
        7. Session (close to God, feel His concerns for us, we now engage in intercessory prayer for others as Christ does for us)
        8. Return (to our place of suffering, our prison – victorious!)
  F.  Going Christ’s route is not a one-time experience
        1. Every time pain comes, must die to a dream
        2. Over and over again
        3. But result leads to Christian maturity (Christlikeness) “conformed”
  G. Scripture support for this principle
        1. Gal 2:20  “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body,
            I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
        2. Phil 3:10  “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings,
            becoming like Him in His death and so somehow to attain to resurrection from the dead.”
            a. Human desire to stop quote with “resurrection”
            b. If want Christ’s victory, must go Christ’s route (through sufferings)
            c. Suffering: a privilege  1 Pet 4:13  “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be
                overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”
            d. Not suffering alone – Holy Spirit with us, working through us
                1) Someone who understands what we’re going through
                2) Someone who’s with us in the midst of our suffering
  H.   Question: Am I willing to go Christ’s route to experience Christ’s victory?
IV. Priorities   (chap 3 “things”- mentioned 11x KJV)  The 3rd key to victory: Joy and Peace
 A.  Question:  Do people know me as one who puts first things first?
EG.  Guatemala – Ixil tribe – Christian taken captive by rebels, (watched rape of wife and torture of children) several years in
        same clothes, surviving on berries. One day returned (living skeleton in tatters)
    1. Missionary: “Your needs are so great, what do you want me to do for you first?
    . Guatemalan Christian: “Read me the Word of God” (had priorities right!)
    3. Me? Do I pant after God “as the deer pants after the waterbrook?”
(Ps 42:1)
      B. Types of things that detract us  (things to: accumulate, do, control)
  1. Things to accumulate
   a.   Houses, cars, TV’s, clothes, jewelry, PC’s, shoes-22  (Imelda Marcos)
b. Riches not wrong
  1) Abraham and Job were wealthy (had “things”)
  2) But things have problems: fade, rust, malfunction, wear out, break, go out of style
  c. Danger of things:  “Choke the Word”   Mk 4:18
1)   Ever run to store, left Bible on table unread? (good intentions)
2)   If no Word, no real JOY and no real PEACE
3)   Things we’re buying can be to our profit, not God’s
d.   Paul  (collected honors – has 6 certificates)  3:4-9   “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
1) “Is this thing for my profit and only my profit?”
2) If so, I may need to get rid of it.
e. Jesus    Mt 6:33   “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”
   f.     It’s a question of priorities: does it have eternal value?
  2. Things to do
   a. Satan’s tactic: to keep us running (doing GOOD things)
   b. Danger:  activities can become substitutes for relationships
   c. How solve problem?  3:13   “One thing I do”
1) Eliminate in order to concentrate (say no to good to say yes to best)
    2) Keep eternity’s values in view
        3. Things to control    Phil 3:20
a. Things out of our control – aging - creams, accidents – seat belts, illness – vitamin C, death, if you could control, which age you pick? (60, 70, 80?)
b. Things under His control:  3:20  “And we eagerly await a Savior from  heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” (right time)
 (Glorious body worth waiting for!)
C. Question:  Am I willing to trust God to work all things for my good in the end? Am I willing to relinquish those things to Him?
V. Perseverance   (4th key to victory: to Joy and Peace)
 A.  Paul
1. 3:14 “I press on toward goal”
a.  “Press” = effort (my personal effort)
b.    Rule of the road: When going uphill, give it the gas  (downhill too)
2. Holy Spirit:  gas (always sufficient to handle task at hand)
a.     My foot on pedal  (cooperation) KEEP foot on pedal
b. Promise when persevering: Phil 4:13   “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”
1) One of the characteristics of saving faith: perseverance
2) It has this ability from the beginning
B. The promise of completion – Phil 1:6  “He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
1. God never leaves anything half done
2. If He has begun the slightest thing in you, He will finish it.
3. A glorious security!
VII.  Conclusion
A. Questions:
1. What enabled Christ to endure the pain of the cross?
2. What enabled Paul to go through his prison experience triumphantly?
3. What will enable us to go through whatever life throws our way?
B. Right principles: live according to -
1. God’s purpose – to glorify Him
2. God’s perspective – follow Christ’s route through life
3. God’s priorities – seek 1st His kingdom
4. God’s perseverance – He will complete the work He has started in you
C. Relinquishment of control
D. Trusting in the One who brings everything to completion.