Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It is Wednesday, it is December 17th, and Christmas Eve is one week away from today. One week from today, we will be meeting as a church at 4:00 PM at Founder's Classical Academy, which is where we normally have church, and we will be gathered there for a candlelight service at 4:00 PM by the way, four, keep that number in mind because children four and under there is gonna be childcare four. But for everybody else, we would love for you to join us. It's only gonna be an hour long service, and so it's gonna be abbreviated, but it'll be a great time. We'll sing some songs together. There'll be a shorter message and there will be a candlelight finisher to it as well. So, 4:00 PM Christmas Eve, that's one week from today. If you're listening to this and you're thinking to yourself, oh, I got plenty of time for Christmas to get gifts from my family, gifts from my friends, gifts for whoever you don't have as much time as you might think. And so make sure that you're on Amazon looking at when you can get next day delivery and everything else. And man, what did our parents' generation do without Amazon next day delivery a Black Friday? They did, yeah. Probably went out shopping and then just had to brave the crowds. True fighting people, avoiding being stomped on. It was a dangerous road back then. Yep. I remember growing up I was too old for it at that point, but the tickle me Elmo. Craze. Do you remember when that thing happened? Yeah. That was in the nineties maybe. Yeah, nineties, right? Yeah. Parents were stampeding one another to get to the toy and the Toys R Us aisle and everything else. Yes. And that was gnarly. Yeah. Yeah. That was no good. That was not humanity at its best, that's for sure. No kidding. Well, speaking of humanity, not at its best, and simultaneously also at its best, there've been multiple shootings happening lately. There have been, it seems like there's just. An incessant flow of new shootings all over the place. And granted, we've said before, one of the things that's changed is that we have access to all of them, not just some. We can hear all of them all the time without fail. The one that's particularly striking is the one that happened in Australia where there was a gathering for Jewish people and celebration of Hanukkah and two armed gunmen shot down a bunch of people, father and son combo, and one was thwarted. By a guy named Ahmed Al Ahmed, I believe, who tackled the guy. Let's talk about that guy for a second here. What do we think about that? Yeah, from a secular perspective. Jesus himself said greater love has none, no one than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. The Apostle Paul says in Romans, one would scarcely die for a good person though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. So there is something noble that is wired, hardwired into humanity about intervening and saving, playing the hero. It's why. There's so many movies that exist out there that are on a hero arc where you have the main character delivers, the people saves the day. And so what we see in this individual and I think it's appropriate as well, that it was a man acting the way that, that God has even hardwired into humanity to. Protect the defense list to intervene, to stop evil from happening. And so even though we would look at this person and probably say, you know what? We disagree with your view on eternity and your belief in God and your tenets of what you are holding to, we can look at what he's done and say, man, that's evidence of a creator who's wired that in you to do what we should do. And so it's commendable. What he did is a commendable thing. It's a noble thing. It's a heroic thing. And there's a lot of people alive right now. Because he acted that way. Yeah. I didn't know those things about some of his theological belief systems. I heard that he was a Christian of sorts, didn't know which one he was, but I was stoked and I showed my sons and I said, that's what a man does. A man jumps into the fire knowing that he can get burned or possibly even lose his life entirely, and steps into the fray on behalf of others. That is so Christlike. Yeah, that is exactly, man, that was my heart. I was so thankful to see that. Grateful that this man stepped in. What's interesting is that. Sydney Australia rather, not just Sydney, but they have very strict gun laws I saw, and that did not prevent the bad guys from fighting them and utilizing them against others. That's been one of the biggest arguments that's happened here, that outlawing guns doesn't necessarily prevent it. It just means that the good guys don't have them anymore. And so you see here at least one example of the laws not necessarily being as helpful as you might hope, but I do appreciate this man stepping into the fray and putting his life on the line. He's now. I think I last him, I looked he's a millionaire because people have donated to his GoFundMe in response to what he's done, his efforts of heroism, and they're saying we affirm that. It's interesting because I think one of the things that's looked down upon today is an expressions of manhood that are deemed threatening or scary or unfitting for today's. Yeah, toxic is the word that they often use. And I think sometimes though that toxic masculinity can be painted with such a broad brush that guys like this could be painted with that same brush. Mm-hmm. And it's like, no, you want this. This is exactly what you want. You want men who step into the fray, jump into it and are unafraid to do that. Or maybe they're afraid, but they're courageous enough to do it for the good of others. So I'm grateful. For this man, I'm grateful for what he's done. Terrible that this even happened in the first place. But man pray for the people that you're around. You can't assume any longer that you're safe just because you're in a certain place in the country. You live under a certain government. There is no safety. We live in a different world than things are changing. I'm not trying to fear monger, but I am trying to say, look, you, you need to make sure that your heart is right with the Lord. Because you never know when your time's up. You need to be prepared. We just heard about someone this week who, whose friend died in front of them. Unexpected, un unprepared. Yep. We can't assume that we have another day, so be sure that you're right with your Lord. Make sure this Christmas you're taking advantage of the opportunities that you have to make Christ known. This is the time that people expect it. We're they're singing songs about 'em. Yep. Let's talk about 'em. Let's make sure that we let our people know what this life's really all about. Yeah. I was gonna say the same thing I even saw yesterday, I was looking on Twitter and apparently the owner of Hutchins came out and made some comments about. Muslims and how he is not in favor of all of the influx of Islam and things. I didn't read the post directly. Wow. But it's enough that there's now this growing call for people to boycott Hutchins and not to show up anymore. And I also was thinking to myself, man, you just don't know if people are gonna. Target him, right? The cry of the Islamic, I don't even know that I would call them extremists. I think they're truly, the adherence to the Quran is globalize. The anada. They're wanting to take out people. They're wanting to bring jihad to everywhere they possibly can. And so I'm with you, we don't wanna fear monger, but we do wanna live ready. To stand before the Lord, because we never know when that might happen. Amen. To that, bro. And if we're honest I mean we, we have something in common with Islam. We want Christianity to expand. Yes, we do. We want everybody that we know to become Christians and we're not afraid to say that. And I think those who are honest to themselves under the banner of Islam would say the same thing. Yeah. They want everybody to be become Muslim. Yeah. As they should. If they believe what they believe is true, then they should want that. And we're okay with that idea. We're not okay with the ideology. We're okay with the idea. So all that said, we're both fighting a similar kind of battle in that we want our religion, we want our savior to be the one that everyone looks to for salvation. Of course, there's only one God, or rather there's only one way to God, and that's of course through Jesus. Acts four 12, John 14. So we wanna point that out. We're not different in the sense that we both believe we're right. But we are different in the way that we pursue that. Yeah. Amen. Well, somebody else that wanted everybody that he was around to come to Faith in Christ is the Apostle Paul, and we come to the book of Philippians today. One of my favorites. One of your favorites. Yeah. It's it's phenomenal. Like the others too, though, a lot. They're all right. Yeah. No, Philippians is such a good letter. You've often heard that the theme of Philippians is rejoice, and that's because the word appears time and time again in the Bible and in Philippians specifically, Paul repeats this idea over and over again. But what's unique is Paul's writing this letter from jail. He's not writing it. In a situation that he is living on Easy Street. And that shows up right away when he's talking in chapter one about his conditions and her his circumstances. And he's trying to encourage the Philippian Church not to be discouraged, but to know that what has happened to him is actually served for the advancement of the gospel, which is revealing his heart. He's going to say one of the most famous lines in chapter one to live is Christ and to die is gain. And we see him. Modeling that by this attitude that says, you know what, I may be in jail, but I'm not gonna let that stop me from sharing the gospel. I'm not gonna have a vacation because I'm in chains. I'm not gonna stop. Preaching Christ because I've been inconvenienced. In fact, I'm gonna do it all the more and I'm just gonna make my audience those that are my jailers. And so he's preaching Christ to the Imperial Guard. He's trying to spread the gospel far and wide. And he's also writing something interesting to the Philippian church here. He's saying, look, I don't know what's gonna happen. I'd like to depart and be with Jesus for that as far better, which even that mentality, can we get there? Can we stop for a minute and say, man, Lord, would I have the mentality that says I want to leave no matter how good life may be. Even right now for me, I want to leave and be with Jesus. His, that is far better. I think the Apostle Paul would've said that during his mountaintop experiences, just as much as he's writing that in the jail cell. But then he goes on and he says, but I'm convinced I'm gonna remain for your sake because I still have work to do among you. And so Paul has this mindset, like we talked about a couple episodes ago, he's immortal until his work on earth is done. And he's convinced, at least right now, that his work on earth is not done. So Paul's writing then from a Roman prison at least Harris Pretor, whatever that means. He's connected to Rome. He's having some kind of experience. This is probably his first prison his first imprisonment with Rome. When Paul got to Rome, that was the beginning of the end for him, but it actually wasn't the full end because he's last, I don't know, five years of life are separated by two Imprisonments. One. Is the first one that he gets imprisoned. Where he makes its way. We will learn about that in the Book of Acts. He's released eventually, and then he's recaptured. And we think that because his second letter to Timothy, his tone changes dramatically. Mm-hmm. Here he is like, I'm confident I'm gonna be released for your good, your, so we think that Paul probably goes on another missionary journey, wherever that is. Mm-hmm. Only to be recaptured again. And this time beheaded by probably Nero. And second Timothy gives us the sense of, I'm gonna, it's time for me to go. I run my race, I finish the, I finished the whole thing. This is one of his letters separating him between the first and second imprisonments. But notice the whole thing, man. He's, I don't think he changes this in second Timothy. His whole demeanor, his whole constitution is, man, I'm happy whatever the Lord chooses to do. In fact, this is the famous passage. I can do all things through Christ whose strength is me. That's chapter four. Yeah. And it's not. I can conquer mountains. I can score touchdowns, or jump over the canyon. It means something very different. We'll get to that very soon. But I love the tone and demeanor of Philippians because it says, no matter what the SE season is, no matter what the situation, I can have joy, real, tangible, heartfelt joy, regardless of the circumstances. Yeah, yeah. Chapter two is probably most well known for the passage that we covered this last Sunday, which is the emptying passage, the kenosis passage, and if you were with us at church on Sunday I tried to explain a little bit of that, that this was not a yielding of any part of his godness. He didn't become less God when he, when born to marry, but rather he. Emptied himself by taking something on, by adding, and that is his humanity. In fact, we're gonna talk this Sunday a little bit more about that in some of the puzzling questions, the head scratchers about the incarnation that Paul explains here in a rather poetic way as he talks about taking on the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men, humbling himself to the point of death. Even death on a cross. And in response to that, now no longer is he humbled, but he has been exalted by God and given the name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow under the earth, on the earth and in heaven and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of the Father. So, the kenosis passage here in Philippians chapter two, we get the word kenosis from the Greek word for emptied himself. And that's probably the most well known section in chapter two. Yeah. But tell us what it means here in verse 12 where it says To work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It seems like a lot of what Paul says is that your salvation is by grace through faith. That's Ephesians chapter two, and yet here he says to work out your salvation. So which is it? Is it a gift of God or is it something that we're called to do ourselves? Yes. Ooh, really? I tried to set that one up where you couldn't say yes to both, where I couldn't say yes, no. It is fully a gift of God, but it's a gift of God that involves our work. Mm. And even in that passage in Ephesians two that I don't think we, we touched on as much, but he goes on to say in Ephesians two 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. So even the by grace you have been saved. Passage is followed up by, you've been created for good works. And so that's similar here in Philippians chapter two. Paul is saying in verse 12 you need to live out your salvation, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And then he cushions it by saying, knowing that it is God who's at work in you, both the will and to work for his good pleasure. So we are obeying and we are obedient because the spirit within us is producing that obed. In us. And so we obey as a result of the spirit taking up residence in us. He changes our affections, he changes our desires and gives us a heart to obey the Lord. And so it is by grace, you have been saved, but that grace that saves you is a grace that also prepares you for works that God has for you to do. How much works should a Christian be doing to know that they have a genuine salvation every day? Every day. I think it's intentional that the Bible doesn't say, Hey, you need this number of works. we talked about Islam. Islam has the five pillars and people can do those things. And there's different marks in there that can help you know, with more certainty that you're gonna get to paradise. And the greatest thing that they would say, that the greatest work that they could do is to die in service of Allah. Right? Which we know to be through largely terrorist attacks. And that will guarantee you your virgin paradise there. The Bible doesn't give us anything like that because the Christian life is a life of constantly wanting to grow in Christ's likeness, constantly wanting to work out our salvation. I've been reading First John, just on my own in the mornings and that's kind of the message of First John, Hey look. Sin shouldn't characterize our lives at any point. We should always be battling sin, putting it off. Are we gonna sin still? Yeah. But hey, we've got a mediator to intercede for us. But we should always be saying, I wanna grow more in Christlikeness. And I think that's the idea there. So there's no set number where our tank fills up and we're like, oh, great. I get a vacation from having to be holy now because my tank's filled up. We always have to be continually trying to work out our salvation. Yeah. And it's. Actually not even a good question to say, how many works do I have to do? How much do I have to Right. Give to the Lord? It's like asking how much food do I have to eat to live? Mm-hmm. Well, I guess there's probably is a number, right? But the point is that if you're alive, you eat right. 'cause you're alive. If you're alive in Christ, you'll produce acts of faith because you're alive. A baby cries because they're alive. And so it's not so much a number that you do, it's just a way of life. It's the way that you live. It's an act of love because of what Christ has done for you. Doesn't mean that your love can't grow. It should grow year by year, day by day. You want it to grow. You want a fan and inflame the gift of God. Paul says to Timothy. And the goal is, of course, throughout the duration of your Christian life that you're constantly expanding in your faith, your hope and your love for the Lord and for others around you. Yeah. He talks about a couple of names here, including Timothy, and we're gonna be in one Timothy, I believe, tomorrow and at ROIs, and he commends both of them for the way they served him there while he was in prison. And then in, in chapter three, he gets into a threat to the church there was that. They might boast in their flesh, that they might boast in their own selves and what they can do, and Paul is going to go on and say, look, and this is the key issue, verse three of chapter three. I put no confidence in the flesh. And then he's gonna list all the reasons why he could put. Confidence in the flesh, and these are all in, in the eyes of a Jewish person. These would've been great things that he lists here. And he says but whatever gain I had, I counted as a loss for the sake of Christ. And that's the idea of an accounting log, something that you might put in the positive versus something that you might put in the negative. And he's saying, whatever I might've counted gain I actually count as a loss, as something that would damage me rather than to help me. For what? For the sake of knowing Christ. And so Paul in chapter three is really holding Jesus out as he. Is not only enough, but he is better than anything else we could ever bring to the table. And so while, yes, we are called to work out our salvation our chief righteousness, our prize is Christ. And chapter three is about making sure that we understand that. Chapter four then gets into Paul addressing a specific situation in the Church of Philippi there, UDIA and Tiki, which back in chapter two, by the way, when he talks about make my joy complete by being of the same mind and having the same love. So in chapter four, verse two, he says, I entreat udia, and I entreat tiki to agree in the Lord. That's the same concept there, to have the same mind and the same love. He's applying that. Command is specifically to a situation where there is conflict within the church there in Philippi. But then he goes on and calls them to a particular way of life and he's writing this from a prison and he's calling them to say, Hey, whatever it is that may be causing you anxiety. And this is the well-known passage where he says, be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and God will grant you peace. That will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. This is a well-known passage we talk about a lot. Anxiety is something that we deal with a lot though in our culture. Alright, so verse four then. Is this. Or verse four and five verse four, five, and six. Now, they don't look at the whole thing here. Is this a promise of God? I believe it is. It's similar to Romans 8 28 when we say God works all things together for good. Mm-hmm. Right. We can't define good in Romans 8 28, nor can we define or instruct God to say, this is what I want. The peace that you're promising me to look like in this situation. We have to trust that he will give us peace. But we can't necessarily define the parameters of what that piece will look like. Okay. Expand on that a bit. So, if verse seven says that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding maybe that's connected to it, if that's gonna guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus, is there not a sense in which I should expect some kind of relief, some kind of tranquility a serene response? What does it mean then if it doesn't mean. What I think it means. Yes. It's like the meme with the dog and the house drinking a cup of coffee and the house is burned down? The house is burning. This is fine. This is fine. Yeah. Sometimes the peace comes while the house is still burning down around you. And that piece is a different piece in the world's gonna offer you. 'cause the worldly piece is gonna say peace comes when tension is resolved. When the. That which would challenge pieces is taken away. That's when I will really have peace. This piece is a piece that surpasses understanding. This piece is one that's transcendent of our circumstances, transcendent of our finances, transcendent of our family situations, such that when we go to the Lord in prayer. With Thanksgiving and cast our burdens on him. As Peter's gonna say, the piece that we can have is knowing that he cares, that he knows that he's got us, and that he's going to care for us no matter what. That may not mean that we see the light at the end of the valley, of the shadow of death, this side of eternity. We may be in the shadow for the rest of our lives here, but there's a piece that we can even have in the shadow knowing that this world is not all there is. And that this is temporary, like Paul has written pre before the light momentary affliction is preparing for me an eternal weight of glory. And a lot of those things can bring us peace. Sometimes it will be that the thing causing us tension is gonna be taken outta the way, but other times it's gonna be he's gonna grant us peace even in the midst of the tension. Yeah, I would agree with that. It seems more like what God is promising here is that the peace that he is going to give is the piece that helps us endure through the scenario, whatever that happens to be. In fact, I would just look at the next verses. To make the point. He tells us in verse eight to think about a certain thing. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, honorable, just pure, et cetera. He says, whatever is commendable, worthy of excellent or worthy of praise, think about these things. And then he says in verse nine, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me that is this way of life that I've taught you practice these things and here you go again. The God of peace will be with you. So God's peace is a subjective experience that we. We enjoy, but that subjective experience is also based on the things that we do. It's not divorced from a life in Christ. If you're not experiencing the kind of peace that God provides, well there's something that's not connecting. It doesn't mean that you're always gonna feel close to God and that you're always gonna have seasons where you're walking on clouds and there's sunshine and there's rainbows, and there's birds singing. Sometimes the house is on fire. Right. Sometimes the kids still do run away from Christ. Sometimes the spouse is still going to challenge you and make life difficult. The piece that he talks about is an inner peace that allows you to love and trust God and to go with the punches, whatever that looks like, even if times are tough. And part of that is managing your mind so that you can manage your emotions in that situation. Paul says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Rejoice. Rejoice. In other words, rejoice despite the circumstances, not because of them. And the way that you think about it really will change the way that you. Emotionally perceive it. Right. And that piece is gonna lead into what he talks about next, which you alluded to earlier, which is that confidence to say, I can do anything that I need to do through him who strengthens me. Because right before that, he talks about some exam examples of situations where he's had a. To face times of want, in times of need, in times of abundance, in times of plenty. And he says, look I've learned in both of those situations that I can be content, I can have that peace, I can have that confidence. I don't need to be anxious because I know that I can do everything through him who strengthens me. So this isn't about the football player getting to ready to go out and before the game putting it. On his eye, black going, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, like go to win this game. This is more I, man, whatever life is gonna throw my way, I'm gonna be okay. Because the one who's going to strengthen me to work out my salvation in this moment is the Lord, the one that's gonna gimme the peace that's gonna guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus is the Lord. So whatever comes my way, I'm ready for it. Yeah. I love this because what Paul says is so critical and people miss it all the time. We love our Philippians four 13. Yep. And I just feel such a passion to make sure that we understand what he's saying here. Notice what Paul says. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need effect. Before that, let me just back up a second here. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger. Imagine that the apostle Paul is hungry. He's not getting his daily portion. Jesus says, pray for your daily bread and the Lord will grant it to you. Mm-hmm. But you'll notice even that has an asterisk here because Paul, I'm sure was a man of prayer and God still saw fit to make him hungry. To not let him have his daily bread. Isn't that amazing? Because later Paul's gonna say first Timothy at chapter six, he's gonna say, look, if we have food and clothing with these, we'll be content. Mm-hmm. So God doesn't promise us riches and health and happiness, although let's just be honest, bros. We have a lot of that. Yep. We have riches and health and happiness. And I wonder if maybe that's not always good for us. God knows. But here I want you to see what he's promising is to be with you. He's your contentment. He's the one that sustained you, not the stuff. And that means that stuff is always vulnerable in God's hands. He's gonna decide to it. Give you things and he's gonna decide to take them away. It's up to us to say, I'm gonna choose to have joy in Christ. I'm gonna know that he is my contentment. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Not the food, not the clothing, not the cool car. He strengthens me. Did did you just say bros to everybody on the podcast? I think you just referred to everybody collectively. I did. And here's why. Allie and Angelo, they, they, they're like, you know, sometimes we say to each other, we say, bruh, they say bra to each other. I'm like, you know what? That is a pretty, it's like saying, dude, so I feel like this one works. Gonna call the gals and the guys. Bras, you know how people are like, Hey, when we come to your church, we feel California in your church. That's not it. That's not it. I never said bruh in California, so I don't even know what that's like. I don't think I ever, I did say, dude, I don't think I ever will say bruh. I, I can't, I said bros. I can't. I said bros, but I, dude is California. I don't, I I think Bros is more transcendent. It's more youthful than it is California bro, though is I said, bro. Yeah. They say, bro. I say, bro, yeah. I. Anyways, let's pray, then we'll be done. God, thanks for reward. And we want to live like Paul did in in Philippians. Here. We want such a desire to be with Christ that we would say no matter what comes, we'd rather leave and go be with Jesus. And while we're here, we wanna do everything that we can do for Jesus to live His Christ, to die as gain. Lord, give us such a mentality. Lordie, especially during this season where we can be distracted by everything that we want or need or is thrown at us Lord, and help us live in such a way as to honor Christ with our lives. And so we ask this, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Please come back y'all. Bye.

​Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said