Philippians - More Joy Less Stress

Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:11 A preacher was in Atlanta, several years ago, and noticed in the restaurants section of the Yellow Pages, an entry for a place called Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, "Hello! Church of God Grill!" The preacher asked how that restaurant had been given such an unusual name, and the man said: "Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. Well, people liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After a while we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that's Church of God Grill." When Paul prays for love to be an important factor in the lives of ...

and so be sincere and blameless in the day of Christ. Philippians 1:10b A story is told of a zoo that was noted for their great collection of different animals. One day the gorilla died, and to keep up the appearance of a full range of animals, the zookeeper hired a man to wear a gorilla suit and fill in for the dead animal. It was his first day on the job, and the man didn't know how to act like a gorilla very well. As he tried to move convincingly, he got too close to the wall of the enclosure and tripped and fell into the lion exhibit. He began to scream, convinced his life was over..until the lion spoke to him: "Be quiet, or you're going to get us both fired!" The world we are living in, is such a world. We all live with different masks for different situations. The Greek word used for pure/sincere has a couple of derivations. Literally in the original language it means, to judge by sunlight . In the first century in ancient Rome, fine pottery was very ...

So that you may approve what is excellent Philippians 1:10a A certain group of boys were going to do something they should not do. One of the boys resisted the pressure of the group and said he would not do it. They teased him saying, “he is such a coward, he is afraid that if his father finds out then his father will hurt him.” The boy replied, “No, I am only afraid that if my father finds out it will hurt my father.” How we love person determines the decisions we take with regard to them. We saw in our studies last days that Paul wanted the Philippians to have a deeper love and at the same time wished that they had the right perspective. To have the right perspective Paul prays that the Philippians may love with knowledge and discernment. Now why does Paul pray that they love with knowledge and discernment? He prays for a reason. It is for a purpose. The verse taken for today’s meditation helps us to understand the purpose. So that you (the Philippians) may approve the thin...

and it is my prayer that you love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment . Philippians 1:9 Once a family went for vacation and as they were about to reach the destination they came across a large sign that read, "Road Closed. Do Not Enter." The man proceeded inspite of the sign because he was confident it would save them time. His wife was resistant to the adventure, but there was not turning back him. As they were traveling he began to boast about his gift of discernment. But shortly his proud smile was quickly replaced with humble sweat when the road led to a washed out bridge. He turned the car around and retraced his tracks to the main road. When they arrived at the original warning sign he was greeted by large letters  on the back of the sign "Welcome back, stupid!" Paul wanted the Philippians to have a deeper love. Paul also prayed that this love might abound still more and more, that it might flow in abundance, that it might show...

and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment. Philippians 1:9 Last year our state Kerala witnessed the biggest floods ever. Water is life and water is a blessing. Rivers are one of the main source for getting water. But this same river when it just flows wherever it wants to, can destroy people's lives. We have seen that the main idea in the prayer that Paul prays here is love. Yesterday we saw that Paul prayed that this love should be overflowing and abundant. Now along with overflowing love, Paul wants this love to have knowledge and discernment. In other words Paul wants this love to have the right perspective. Just like overflowing river can cause damage, in the same manner overflowing love without the right perspective can be harmful than helping the others to grow. If our love is just pure emotion without discretion or direction it can bring devastation. Paul wants this overflowing love to be accompanied with two th...

and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more Philippians 1:9a Church historian Tertullian in one of his writings titled, The Soul's Testimony shares the following incident. When the church started growing rapidly in the Roman Empire, the government sent spies into different congregations because they were afraid that this new group of citizens, these Christians, would be very disloyal to the Roman government. So one of the spies, went into a church came back and wrote this report. "These Christians are very strange people. They speak of one by the name of Jesus who is absent, but whom they seem to be expecting at any time. And they love him like anything and also they love one another." Tertullian writes in the article, "Interesting that an unbelieving spy in a Christian congregation made note of the fact that they loved one another so intensely." Yesterday we saw that the main idea that flows through the prayer made by St. Paul's i...

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all 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.  Philippians 1:9-11 A young boy who was in love had a break up and this was the prayer that he prayed for his former girlfriend. "I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I'd like to. I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls. I pray you're flying high when your engine stalls. I pray all your dreams never come true. Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you." Our prayers might not have risen to that extent but if we analyze, sometimes, it falls on the same plane as the boy who prayed when he had a breakup. But Paul was different for all of us. As he begins this letter the first things that he does is pray for the Philippian...

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me . God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:7-8 Antony and Cleopatra, Hewlett and Packard, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Steve Woznaik, Laurel and Hardy. We are all familiar with these partners. Have you ever heard of the partnership of Gordon and Stebbins? Probably not. For most unknown partners, the recognition stops at the first name and ends before the 'and'. I hope many are familiar with Gordon, the famous preacher, writer and composer. If we fill in the blank after Gordon, we probably would leave the blank empty because we aren't familiar with Stebbins. George C Stebbins was a musician who served briefly as the music director at Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston, where A. J. Gordon was the priest. He...

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:7-8 Timothy Keller shares a story in his book Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City . As a young minister he was given leave so he could visit and study churches which were growing. He wanted to discover their secret. In his book this is what he says: "I did discover a secret but it was a secret which hindered their growth and didn't help it. Each of these churches had serious tensions in their pastoral teams. The first church had pastoral staff, just not a pastoral team. No one understood what others were doing. There was little co-ordination. The second church had great people, and they took their work seriously. But it was their own work they took se...

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 When I was in my 10th Std., the inter-school football competition was hosted by our school. We had a good team and we were sure of winning the cup. We reached the finals against Baroda High School. Unfortunately we lost the match in penalty shoot-out. But every time we remember the match we cannot forget the chance we go in the 10th min of the second half. Nayan Anjaria was the centre forward and he dribbled beautifully and cleared all the defenders and he was all alone about four or five feet in front of the goal post and still missed. Though we had more possession and shots on goal what ultimately matters in a game is finishing. When we examine our lives, we do not always finish what we start. Our lives are often filled with loose ends - home improvement tasks begun but not finished, books begun but not finished, promises made but not kep...

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now Philippians 1:5 Billy Graham once share a story of his crusade director. The crusade director's job was to get on planes and fly to different parts of the country and help organize huge evangelistic crusades for Billy Graham. One day the crusade director was flying across the country. And sitting next to him was Tom Cruise, the actor who asked the crusade director, so, what do you do for a living? Billy Graham says that this crusade director was always looking for way to get the gospel presented. So, he looked at Tom Cruise. And he said, "I'm in the security business." Now, that a huge buzz word for actors, because actors and musicians are always looking for good security people. And Tom Cruise responded, "Really, you are in security?" Billy Graham says that the conversation went on to tell him about how to have eternal security in Jesus Christ. And that was the platform that he u...

always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy Philippians 1:4 Paul, being in prison there wasn't a single positive circumstance that he could be happy about. Physically he was in a bad state and at the same time even in terms of his ministry things were not so good. We will be dealing with it later in the chapter where we see that people were really criticizing him without mercy and without kindness. Paul shouldn't have received these but he had to. So, he was undergoing all of this bitterness from rival preachers and people who had animosity toward him. Paul is not only thankful for the Philippians when he prays for them, but he is filled with joy. And notice that it's not in just some of his prayers. It's in all of his prayers. And it's not in just all of his prayers for some of them. It's in all of his prayers for all of them. And he doesn't just do this sometimes. In all this prayers for all of them, he always prays with jo...

I thank my God every time I remember you. Philippians 1:3 William L Stidger was the most famous preacher in America in the 1930s. Once he was sitting with a fellow minister in a restaurant talking about the worldwide depression, the suffering people, rich committing suicide and the jobless. His friend commented, "In two or three weeks I have to preach on Thanksgiving Day. What can I say?" Stidger said it was like the Spirit of God answered that question: "Why not thank those people who've been a blessing in your life and affirm them during this terrible time?" He thought of an English teacher who had instilled in him a love of literature, affecting all his writing and preaching. So he wrote to her. In a matter of days he got a reply in the feeble scrawl of the aged. "My dear Willy: I can't tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn l...

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. Philippians 1:1-2 This series of devotion is based on St. Paul's letter to the Philippians and I have titled the series as More Joy Less Stress. When we examine our lives, everyday struggles of all sizes creep into our lives, leaving us stressed, frustrated, anxious and sometimes simply miserable. The believers in Philippi were struggling. They were trying to grow in faith and live for Christ. Trying to deal with conflict and threats of persecution. The apostle Paul was stuck in a Roman prison when he wrote to this young church. His letter could have focused on his own troubles. Instead he wrote about living a life full of joy, peace and contentment. He reminds us of important biblical truths and points us to Jesus as the ultimate example. Paul's letter to the Philippians ...