Joy In Pretense Or Truth

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Well, it's good to have you here. We're talking about joy today, and we're going to be talking about that for a while. I think we need it. Well, we really do need it. Paul's inviting us into it. A Christian life can be a life of joy, but what does joy mean? That's going to be part of the term that we're going to have to figure out. What does joy mean? I don't think it just means frivolity or goofiness or even happiness. You know the word happiness is from happenstance, which means it goes up and down with circumstances. Joy is something that's a constant, but joy, I think, can be had in all circumstances because joy is far-sighted. What I mean by that is it's looking at the end goal of everything and knowing what God is going to do, what God has promised, what God is going to do with you and me, and therefore we can get there. No matter what's in between, we can have that view of eternity. According to the Bible, the future of this world and this universe is not a tragedy. It's actually more of a comedy, if anything, because there is going to be a day when you are going to laugh, and you are going to dance, and you're going to even giggle and just probably be crying for joy at what God is doing when he comes in glory, and when Jesus comes in glory, he's going to be dancing and laughing and celebrating over you and welcoming you into his kingdom and into the love and the joy that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have had from eternity that started with creation and will finally finish with redemption and salvation for all of us. Isn't that amazing? So that's the perspective Paul has, and that's why I believe the synonym for joy is not happiness, and it's not even the frivolity we did yesterday, although I think there was a lot of joy yesterday. The synonym, I think, for joy is going to be this word that we're going to look at for the next few weeks as we go through this called wholeheartedness. And the definition of wholeheartedness from Merriam-Webster is to be completely and sincerely devoted, determined, and enthusiastic, to be marked by earnestness, free from all reserve. That's Paul in this letter. Even while he is chained to the Praetorian guard in Rome, he is free, without reserve, in his love for the Philippians, his love for God's kingdom, for what God is doing, and he knows what that's all about. Isn't that amazing? That's yours. That's what he invites you into. So we're going to be reading through the whole letter in the next six, eight weeks. I can't remember how long this one is. Maybe only six weeks. Parts of the letter, we're starting at the beginning today, because it's the beginning. Philippians chapter 1 and following, okay, through verse 11. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy. See, that word already comes up. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. See the farsightedness of this? It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, wholeheartedness. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. There's so much in this passage, we're going to focus on a few ideas in it. I bet I could do probably a series of about three or four weeks just on this. But today, what we're going to look at is Paul's prayer, which is at the end of this section. Then Paul's perspective, which is kind of in the middle, and then Paul's persuasion. You like those three Ps? Yeah, well, it's trying to make you remember things. PPP, yeah. Price, price, price. Is that what people say? It was location, location, location. Yeah, something like that. But Paul's prayer, his perspective and persuasion. So Paul's prayer. So this is what it said. My prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. Now, that word excellent in the Greek. Yeah, I know I'm already going to the Greek. But when we think of excellent, we just think, I don't know. What do you think? Excellent. Something excellent. Perfect. Great. Wonderful. The word actu...