Philippians: Finding Joy - Greetings From Prison

Missio Church - Bismarck

Verses Used:

• Philippians 1:1-11

Takeaways:

Joy Looks Backwards

• Most of the time when we don’t have joy, it’s because we don’t like our current circumstances.
• Joy comes from remembering God’s goodness to us in the past.
• We can experience joy by remembering. Joy looks backward.

Joy Looks Forward

• Looking forward to God’s completed work gives incredible joy.
• We are able to understand that we are works in progress. That God is doing the work.
• So rather than focusing on all the things in us that are unfinished, rest in the one who started the work of transformation in your heart, and the one who will complete it in the end.

Joy in the Present

• The truth is, we get to partner with God’s work in us. We participate.
• I don’t try hard to be righteous, I am already because of Jesus.
• We don’t do good things in order to be better people - we are already righteous because of Jesus.
• Grow in your understanding of what is already true of you, so that the fruit of your salvation will be evident.

Joy comes from looking back at God’s faithfulness to us.

Joy comes from looking forward to God’s completed work in the future.

Joy comes from realizing our present relationship to God because of Jesus.

Discussion Questions:

• Why is it so easy to lack joy in our lives?
• How might your life be different if you lived with the joy that God wants you to have? What about your relationships?
• What kinds of things did you imagine the trinity discussing about you in our exercise?
• Did that exercise expose anything not currently true of you?
• What is true of you if you have trusted Jesus to be your savior?