Discerning Joy

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. I'm hoping you've seen how joy makes a difference and what joy is, and that it is not only a present reality, but it is our future. The fact that because of Jesus Christ and how he broke into the middle of this world into a world that was going off the rails in the wrong direction, and how through his death and resurrection he has opened up a new way and a new future for us, where he is that future. As the book of Colossians will state, everything holds together in him. Everything finds its purpose in him. Everything finds its direction and fulfillment in him. And that is our future. He is our future. And that can bring us joy even in the midst of some tough situations in this world. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it on my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Okay, wow. You know, the more I was thinking of this passage, the more I realized this is Paul's story, his narrative. And I guess the question this morning is, you know, I think my wife said this before, I don't know where you got this, what's your story, morning glory? Haven't you said that? Yeah, what's going on? What's your story? We all kind of, in fact, human beings are narrative creatures. We put a story together. We have to put a story. It's the way we make meaning of our lives. It's not just one thing after another, but it's like how they interact, how they connect together, makes all the difference to who you are and what you're about. And the question is, what is your story? And what's going on? Because the story you tell yourself about your life makes a huge difference. Okay. And I'll tell you this. Just like Paul, we all tend to make a story that's kind of a broken story of glory. You know, how we're going to attain glory, how great we're going to be, how everything's going to work out. And then it doesn't. It doesn't. So from this section of the Letter of Philippians, we're going to be exploring these three points, and I hope you see how it ties in. The broken glory story we're prone to believe, the cross story that makes a difference, and the joy that comes from story transformation in your life. The glory story. What's fascinating is Paul, this becomes the only time he really has a sharp rebuke in this wonderful Letter of Philippians. And it's in this second verse in this text that says, Look out for the dogs. Whoa. Now, we think of dogs as puppies. Yeah. No. The dogs were like unruly strays that were considered unclean and not to be put up with. Okay. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Three different ways of saying, look out for those outsiders that are coming in, and they look righteous, but they're really doing something bad. And they want to wound you. Okay. They want to wound you. It's quite the break from what he says at the beginning of this. Finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord to write the same thing to you is no trouble. In fact, that's why a number of commentators have mentioned that this disjoint between these two verses seems to be so stark. Is it coming from two different le...