Sermon Notes and Thoughts

"One of the surest measures of a Christian's spiritual maturity is what it takes to rob him of his joy." This is a quote from Sunday mornings sermon by Pastor Robbins. He is preaching through Philippians in the mornings and was on Philippians 1:12-18 last Sunday.
"I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,  so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,"Pastor Robbins talked about how Paul, even while he is in jail and has no idea what is going to happen to him, is full of joy. How Paul points to Christ instead of drawing attention to himself.
He talked about how even the palace guard knew his chains were because of Paul's union with Christ. How Paul would be chained to a different soldier every four hours and could them tell them about Christ.
Paul accepts where God has him at the time and uses it to further His kingdom.
Pastor Robbins gave four points for Paul's rejoicing:
1) Because all things working for the furtherance of the gospel
2) Because everyone knows he is in chains because of his union with Christ
3) Because Christians are growing bolder and more confident in their witness
4) Because Christ is being preached
How often do we rejoice in these things? Instead of dwelling on our problems all the time we should rejoice in Christ. Not that we aren't affected by our trials because we are, they change our lives, but constantly dwelling on all the bad things in our lives will bog us down and we will miss the things we could have joy in.
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