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0:01 Welcome to the Daily Blade. 0:03 The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. 0:11 Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. 0:17 Let's sharpen up.
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0:20 All right, welcome back, day two. 0:21 We're doing a deep dive. 0:22 Philippians 2, 17 to 21. 0:25 I read it every week so that we can hear it in its context and get more familiar with the total text. 0:30 So when we dive in to one particular text, it'll have more meaning. 0:35 Always, always, always read the scripture in context. 0:38 Philippians 2 17 and following, even if I am being to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 0:49 Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. 0:54 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 1:02 For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 1:11 Verse 18 simply says, Be glad and rejoice with me. 1:16 Now, just as a reminder, Paul writes this letter to the church of Philippi from prison. 1:23 He is glad and he is rejoicing from prison. 1:27 In fact, the book of Philippians is often called the book of joy because the word joy here is used more times per capita than any other place in the scripture, because the joy that the Apostle Paul has is not based in his happenings. 1:42 That's where you find happiness. 1:44 Happiness is found in happenings. 1:46 So if things are going your way, you can be happy. 1:48 And if things don't go your way, then you ain't happy. 1:50 But the scriptures offer us through the blood of Jesus something so much greater. 1:54 The scripture offers us joy because joy is found in Jesus. 1:59 And our happenings change day to day, sometimes minute by minute, and Jesus never changes. 2:04 And so Paul commands us be glad and rejoice with me. 2:09 Let me just ask you this question. 2:12 Are you a joyful, glad kind of person? 2:16 Are you a negative, not glad kind of person? 2:20 I mean, be honest. 2:21 Do you celebrate with others or do you always find fault? 2:26 Do you choose to trust the best in other people? 2:30 Or do you fill the gap of understanding that you may have with suspicion and negativity? 2:36 Because the Bible says that love always hopes. 2:41 It's okay to have a critical eye that you can look at a situation and see what is right and see what is wrong, or maybe have a critical eye about your job or your family or a friendship or whatever, because a critical eye could be used to maybe fix a situation so that it could be more godly, it could be better. 2:56 That's okay. 2:57 But do you have a critical eye or do you actually have a critical heart? 3:01 Are you the kind of person that is just a knee-jerk no kind of person? 3:06 One of the best examples of this is your kids, they just say to you, Hey, can we go to get ice cream? 3:11 And before you ever even consider rejoicing and being glad, your immediate answer is just no, no, we can't do that. 3:18 Why? 3:19 Do you lead with gladness? 3:21 Listen, gladness and rejoicing is a choice. 3:25 So are you this kind of person? 3:28 Are people glad to see you? 3:31 Or do they get kind of nervous and pucker up when you walk in because peace does not walk in with you? 3:37 Misery and criticism do. 3:40 When you come home from work, men, are your people glad to see you because you walk in with gladness and rejoicing? 3:50 Are they glad to see you come home? 3:51 Are the people that you work with glad to see you walk into the door? 3:55 Are the people that serve under you that you employ, are they glad that you're there? 4:00 The people that decide to employ you, are they glad to see you there because you are the kind of guy that is glad and rejoices with other people? 4:11 You see, Dr. 4:13 John Piper, probably one of the pastors that has influenced me as much as any other human on the planet, one of his most famous quotes is that John Piper says that he is a Christian hedonist, that he thinks that God wants us to be glad, God wants us to be blessed, God wants us to be fulfilled, God wants us to be satisfied, 4:36 but not satisfied in the things of this world. 4:39 His quote is this God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. 4:45 So if you are actually glorifying God by finding your satisfaction in him, then shouldn't it show up on your face? 4:54 Shouldn't you rejoice every single time God blesses somebody or God does something awesome? 5:01 Shouldn't your normal disposition be that of gladness? 5:06 The Bible says that we are to enter his courts with gladness. 5:11 And so may we not be a bunch of pessimistic doomsday, everything's going to hell kind of people that is not the message of the gospel. 5:21 May we be the kind of people that are glad and rejoice with others. 5:26 Amen.