SERIES: Technicolor Joy: A Study through Philippians
MESSAGE: Can You Predict Your Future?
SPEAKER: Skip Heitzig
SCRIPTURE: Philippians 1:18-21

MESSAGE SUMMARY
If you were going to sit down and write a short description of what you wanted your future to look like, what words would you choose? Let me suggest four that come straight out of Paul's experience: joy, confidence, hope, and life. After musing over past events that brought him to prison, Paul looks ahead to his uncertain future. But these four words sum up what he expected his future to include--even if it meant his possible execution.

STUDY GUIDE
Recap Notes: June 25, 2017
Teacher: Skip Heitzig
Teaching: "Can You Predict Your Future?"
Text: Philippians 1:18b-21

Path

If you were to sit down and write a short description of what you wanted your future to look like, what words would you choose? Pastor Skip suggested four that come straight out of Paul's experience: joy, confidence, hope, and life. After musing over past events that brought him to prison, Paul looked ahead to his uncertain future. But these four words sum up what he expected his future to include—even if it meant his possible execution. Pastor Skip pointed out the thoughts that kept Paul anchored in Christ:

Points

Joy
Confidence
Hope
Life
Practice

Connect Up: In addition to the words discussed in this study (joy, confidence, hope, and life), what are some other characteristics that define believers (see Galatians 5:22-23)? How do they help us maintain an eternal perspective, focusing our attention on Christ and not on the world—providing us with a proper "up-look"?

Connect In: In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul tells the church to not be like those who don't have hope. In these verses, Paul linked our hope to Christ's return. How is the second coming of Jesus intricately linked to a believer's hope for the future?

Connect Out: In a world where many have no future or hope, how can we use this message to communicate to unbelievers that God does have a beautiful future for those who believe? How can you use Jeremiah 29:11 as a witness tool?

DETAILED NOTES

  1. Introduction
    1. Predicting the future has been a favorite pastime since antiquity
      1. People's desire to know the future makes horoscopes and fortune-tellers popular today
      2. We want to know what is coming in the future
    2. All forms of fortune-telling are forbidden in the Scriptures
      1. They are fake
      2. They call on nothing to predict the future they don't know
      3. Only God can predict the future
    3. You can predict your future responses
    4. Up to this point in Philippians, Paul spoke in past tense
      1. Philippians 1:3, 5, 12
      2. Paul wrote to the Philippians about what happened in the past and what was happening in the present
    5. The future was uncertain for Paul
      1. He did not know what the outcome of his trial would be
      2. He made predictions about his responses to those circumstances
      3. If you are a follower of Christ, you can predict your responses as well
  2. Joy (v. 18b)
    1. Philippians is a letter
      1. Originally there were no chapters or verse identifications
      2. Until the year AD 1227, all of the Bible was text
      3. Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, decided it would be easier to find things in the Bible with chapters and verses
      4. In AD 1382, the first English Bible to have verse numbers was the Wycliffe Bible
    2. Paul was saying that the things of the past would not rob him of his joy
      1. They had furthered the gospel
      2. Past circumstances
        1. He was arrested in Jerusalem
        2. He spent two years in jail at Caesarea by the Sea
        3. He went through three mistrials
        4. He was shipwrecked on his way to Rome to appeal to Caesar
        5. He was put in jail again in Rome
      3. Past and present people were also trying to rob him of joy
    3. Paul did not know what would happen in the future as far as circumstances went
      1. He would stand trial before Caesar Nero
      2. Caesar would either exonerate him or execute him
    4. Joy is an act of the will
      1. It is tethered to something different than happiness
        1. Happiness is a temporary feeling of delight if the circumstances go your way
        2. Joy is fixed
        3. The Bible mentions happiness about thirty times; it mentions joy 300 times
      2. The difference between happiness and joy
        1. Happiness is externally triggered; it goes up and down depending on the circumstances
        2. Joy is internally triggered; it is based on a relationship with God
        3. Happiness has its source in events, people, and things
        4. Joy has its source in God
      3. Though Paul may have been emotionally unhappy, he stated that nothing and no one would steal his joy
  3. Confidence (v. 19)
    1. Your outlook is determined by your uplook
      1. Paul saw not only the stars, but the God who made the stars
      2. If joy is an act of the will, then confidence is a statement of faith
    2. Paul knew he would be delivered
      1. Sótérian = deliverance, salvation
      2. Paul knew things would turn out for the best (see Romans 8:28)
    3. Confidence is developed by prayer and provision
      1. Prayer of God's people
        1. Most believers marginalize prayer
        2. If we really thought prayer had the power to change things, we would be doing it a lot more
        3. We should pray because:
          1. Spiritual work requires spiritual tools
          2. It produces confidence
      2. Provision of God's Spirit
        1. Epichorégia = supply, provision, equipment
          1. We get the word chorus from this
          2. It literally means one voice upon another
        2. The reason Paul was confident was because the Holy Spirit provided everything he needed to handle the future
        3. The hand of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you (see Zechariah 4:6)
  4. Hope (v. 20)
    1. Earnest expectation is like an intense form of hope
      1. It literally means to watch something with outstretched head
      2. Paul hoped more than anything else that he would be a faithful witness for Christ
    2. Hope looks for opportunities to point to Christ
      1. Paul wanted to express his faith and exalt his Savior
      2. He wanted to be bold
      3. While the world is breaking bad, the church needs to be breaking bold
        1. The world is bold about what it believes
        2. They want to get out there and get it in your face
        3. That is how Christians need to be about our faith
      4. Ask God to make you a bold Christian
    3. Paul hoped for Christ to be magnified
      1. How can you make the greatest Person in the world greater?
        1. To most people, Jesus was just someone from 2,000 years ago
        2. When you show up, Jesus is either magnified or minified through your life
      2. We should want God to be greater through our life (see Romans 12:1)
  5. Life (v. 21)
    1. Paul was passionate about Christ; he lived for Him
      1. Christ was the summation of Paul's life
      2. John 11:25
    2. Life happens even in the face of death
      1. Later, Paul was arrested again, placed in solitary confinement, and sentenced to death
      2. In one brutal moment, Paul went from the imperial city of Rome to the eternal city of heaven
  6. Closing
    1. The only circumstance you can predict is whether you will spend eternity in heaven or in hell
    2. John 3:3
Figures referenced: Dale Carnegie, Howard Hendricks, Stephen Langton, Abraham Lincoln, Leonard Ravenhill, A.T. Robertson, Charles Spurgeon, Corrie ten Boom

Works referenced: Wycliffe Bible

Greek words: epichorégia, sótérian

Cross references: Zechariah 4:6; John 3:3; 11:25; Romans 8:28; 12:1; Philippians 1:3, 5, 12

Topic: Joy

Keywords: future, joy, circumstances, happiness, confidence, prayer, provision, hope, boldness


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