Philippians 1:1–11 (ESV): Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
“Our addiction to stimulation, input, and entertainment empties us out and makes us boring - unable to embrace the ordinary wonders of life in Christ.” - Tish Harrison Warren
Philippians 1:4, 7 (NIV): In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy… whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel.
Philippians 2:7–9 (NIV): (Jesus) made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name.
“We love to sit and listen to the words that Jesus humbled himself even to death on the cross,
But how will you feel when your dream is the thing going up on the cross tomorrow? -Jay Kim
Philippians 1:21 (NIV): For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:1 (NIV): Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi
- Servants - slave
Holy people - saints
You cannot be saints in God’s world unless you turn yourself upside down
Philippians 1:2 (NIV): Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:19–23 (NIV): I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV): But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Philippians 1:3–6 (NIV): 3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 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.
“Believers in Christ are people of the future, a sure future that has already begun in the present. They are citizens of heaven who live the life of heaven, the life of the future in the present in whatever circumstances they find themselves.” - Gordon Fee
“Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” C.S. Lewis