Chains for Christ | Pastor Cody Harlow July 27th, 2025 Philippians 1:13-18

And so, you know, I know that I have a lot of guests here, but we believe public sin, public confession. And so, confess that. I do want to make it clear and the elders, we all, are unified in this that we're not in favor of the motion. Therefore, in a few weeks, we'd like to discuss that in depth with the church and vote on it again. Now we are looking today at how God may use difficult seasons for his glory. Today as a p as a pastor I have the privilege of seeing many Christians walk through very sanctifying situations. God he allows us to be placed in all sorts of difficult situations, doesn't he? And what I've learned is that there's really three ways. Can you There we go. There's really three ways that Christians we can respond to situations when God places us in them with difficulty. I want to start out with obviously the most like the best one that we should reach for which is a full reliance upon God. This is where we should start during those seasons of tremendous difficulty. The Scriptures say to

Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. And so whether it's sickness or whether it's a job loss or stresses, God, he permits things into our lives intentionally. And for the Christian, there is always a Gospel purpose behind why he allows us to go through certain situations. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. We can also resist, right? We can also resist the situations that God gets in allows into our lives. Some people they wrestle against the Lord. Some people they try every single door. Some people try to open every window or turn to every other option rather than just trusting in the Lord and his own understanding. And instead we rely on ourselves and our own understanding. And so that might be a way that you try to handle the difficult situations that God allows. Thirdly, resignation instead of walking along with active faith. Some people they just go with the flow and they say, "Well, I'm just trusting God instead of standing on his promises and seeking out his purpose for them." anyone ever gone whitewater rafting before? Whitewater rafting. Anyone? Okay. What about kayaking? Anybody done rapids on a kayak before? Okay. How fun is it if you're just gonna go along the flow with the flow down the rapids in a kayak? >> It's not going to end well for you. You have to navigate the rocks and the rapids and all that kind of stuff. In the same way, that's if someone just gets in a kayak and decides to float down the river, down the rapids, that's what resignation looks like if that's how we decide to go. If we look back at stories of faith, if people resigned themselves to their circumstances, Daniel in the lion's den would have gone much different, right? Esther would have been destroyed. Moses, he would have just remained in Midian,

Just going with the flow. God's will is not for us to just be resigned to the circumstances. But oftentimes we also find ourselves resenting the Lord. Some people they get angry with God because he allows for their lives to be radically altered because no one plans for a chronic sickness. No one wants to deal with hardships or difficulties. Bitter bitterness begins to spread. And many people, they ask the question, if God is so good, then why would he allow for this to happen? You see, we're not called to resent the Lord. We're not called to resign ourselves. We're not called to resist the Lord. We are called to rely on God. And today, we're going to focus on the right response, which is full reliance upon the Lord with active and living faith. And so if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Philippians 1:es 12-18, God's word says this. 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. Let's pray. Oh, no, wait, sorry. Excuse me. I was distracted. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfishness and ambition, 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. And so, Father, we do thank you for this time that we have together. I just pray that as we talk about this today that you would deal with our hearts

As you've dealt with mine. We're so thankful for the work that you're doing in our church. And we're just so thankful that we get to gather together and just tell you how marvelous you are. How wonderful and great you are. You are full of majesty and glory. You are holy. You are full of splendor. You are so marvelous. Matchless and full of love and abundant grace. You save us to the uttermost, God. It doesn't matter how dirty we are or how clean we think we are, Lord. You still save us. And you meet us right where we're at. In the midst of our sin, in the midst of our death, and in the midst of our depravity, God, you still save us. And we thank you for being a God that saves, a God that looks down on us with love, and a God that reaches out to us through the hands of Jesus Christ. And Father, right now we do want to just lift up to you just the missionaries that we know. Father, there's so many around the world that are gathering in your name. And we just want to lift them up to you. We want to pray for you to grow us, Lord. Grow us in our love as brother Steve talked about last week, that our love would abound more and more. Father, grow us in truth and in wisdom and in discernment and in knowledge. Grow us, Lord, and meet us where we're at, God. Because I know I don't love you, all the time, as best as I possibly can, 100% of the time. U and, and so, give me a heart, that grows in that love for you and, grows in that love for others, Father. Help all of us, as we struggle, as we go through it, Lord, to increase in that area. Father, we do want to just continue to lift up to you our brothers and sisters that are even meeting in our community this week. Our church is so blessed to have so many Gospel preaching churches and I just pray for the different pastors in our area that are that are

Going through it. Lord, meet them in the pull pit. Meet them and speak through them. Lord, empower them with your spirit. And we just ask that today that you would move freely among us here. Work in our hearts, work in our minds and help us to move with the Gospel as the forefront of our focus. We love you Lord. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Well, the way that this passage begins here is with a purpose statement. If you look at any of the passages that any of the letters back during this time you will see that after an introduction there is always a reason given as to why someone is writing a letter. We have recordings of soldiers writing letters home to mom and dad and what they do is they say this is why I am writing to you is for this. And so Paul he states here I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What has happened to Paul is that he has been put in jail. He's been put in prison and he has chains on his wrists and he is strapped to the wall. He's between soldiers and he's been put there and everyone looks at it from the outside and they say, "What an terrible, awful situation." And yet Paul here, he writes that what has happened to him has served to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's imprisoned as a criminal. And if you look at the Bible, that's what happened with so many righteous men. You look at Joseph. He was sold into slavery, placed into chains. Eventually, he found himself imprisoned in Pharaoh's household, put away and locked away in the dun in the dungeon for years. And yet, what happened to him actually served to save people and to advance the Gospel. There would be seven years of plenty. There would be seven

Years of famine. And God used that for a purpose. As for you, Joseph's talking to his brothers there. You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. Joseph had a wise view. He saw the sovereign hand of God in his life and instead of blaming Piper's wife or vilifying his brothers, he rested in the Lord and he continued to walk by faith and was a servant faithfully serving despite his situation. And notice what Paul is saying. While God was bringing good from his suffering, he's not saying that suffering in and of itself is good. While God uses our suffering and he allows it, he does not author the suffering. God, he never sins. He never tempts us to sin, but he does sovereignly ordain all the things that come to pass, even suffering, for his glory and for our good. And while there is joy to be found in suffering, he never says that we're not allowed to be sorrowful in our suffering. I want to make sure that said that, right? Okay, that way you hear me. God, he permits us to be sorrowful in the midst of suffering. This passage by no means negates the emotions that we feel when we suffer, but it shows us that God is with us and that even when you're suffering, God has a purpose in it. Now, how was Paul able to write this with such conviction and such ease and such purpose? It's because he had a glorious view of the Gospel of Christ. He knew that there was a reason behind all of the imprisonment. And instead of just going with the flow or becoming bitter that his church planting ministry had ceased, he looked for Gospel opportunities in the places that God had placed him. And he became so effective that the whole imperial guard became aware of the Gospel. Now that word for imperial guard here is the Greek word

Ptorian. Now a ptorian guard was part of the Caesar's household. They were the elite of the elite soldiers. They were the ones that were pretty much the police force in Rome. They handled all of the investigations. They were they were not they were above centurions, okay, in and legionnaires and all that kind of stuff. They were the most powerful men. And not only that, but there were nine to 10,000 of these men in the Ptorian Guard. And I want you to think about that. How wild do you have to be about the Gospel of Christ for 9 or 10,000 people to know that man is there for the Gospel? And everyone knew that's why he was there. Paul, he would later declare to Timothy, he would say, "Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David as preached in my Gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound." Let me ask you this. Do you have a Gospel perspective when you're suffering? I mean, if you look inside yourself, what you're going to find is turmoil. If you look at your situations around you, you're going to find despair. But if you look to Jesus, you're going to see the author and perfector of your faith, beckoning you to take his yoke upon you because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And when we suffer with faith in God's purpose in the Gospel, it leads others to become encouraged around us. Paul he writes most of the brothers having become confident in my in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. The second point that we see here is that courage was abounding. You see Paul he was suffering with Gospel purpose and that became a catalyst for others to grow in the Gospel as well. Paul he calls this boldness. It's often translated as and understood as dare.

These people became daring in their Gospel proclamation. It's a visible sign of confidence in the goodness in the faithfulness of God. The catalyst for this boldness was Paul's chains. It was his bondage to Christ. Are you bold to speak the word of God without fear? I mean, there's many people that are willing to speak boldly and share their opinions or some people that want to just sit back and be quiet, but what about sharing God's truth when you have the opportunity? We look at the Bible and we see men and women who were willing and able to stand and say, "Thus says the Lord." I mean, we look at the story of Moses. And Moses, he was standing before the most powerful leader on the planet at that time. And what does he say? Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. That's what he says. Jeremiah, called by the Lord. And here's what the Lord says to him. He says, "Stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words I command you to speak to them. Do not hold back a word. Not even one word. Don't hold it back. Even when it's unpopular. Daniel, he's he's there and he's there's a law that's been passed that you should not pray or worship any other God. What does Daniel do? He opens up his chamber towards Jerusalem. He gets down on his knees three times a day, prays and gives thanks before his God as he had done previously. We see Peter, J Peter and John who were taken and beaten, and they were told, "You better quit preaching about the Gospel." And what does he say or what do they both say? Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God. You meet must judge for we cannot speak for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. You see boldness is a flame and it spreads like fire through dry grass. As Paul became

Bold in his chains for Christ, the brothers became bold as slaves of Christ. Has there ever been a Christian or maybe a family member that loved the Lord Jesus that has emboldened your faith in your past? For most of us, we could probably say, "Yeah, but are you willing to be that Christian? Are you willing to be that example to be bold for the Lord Jesus Christ?" But it's not all wonderful, is it? Because we learn that critics arise. Many people they hold up the early church as the perfect church. That's based on the belief that, you know, was older, therefore better. And I just want to say that's far from the case. Far from the case. There were many things in the early church that were incorrect. There were good church, okay? Healthy churches, right? There's never been a perfect church on the planet, by the way. Like let's just let's just get that out there, right? If there's a perfect church, I can't go to it. Otherwise, it would cease to be perfect, right? That's just how it is. And so, there was never an early church, never a perfect church. And the early church had issues just like modern churches do. But Paul, he writes that some of the preachers didn't have the best motives. Some preachers, actually, Paul, he refers to these preachers as brothers in verse 14. The emphasis is on the negative here because he says that these preachers, they were bold to speak out the word out of what? Envy and rivalry. Perhaps these men thought that they could get a larger a larger following or a larger congregation now that now that Paul was imprisoned. It could have been that they were intimidated by Paul. Whatever the reason, we don't know exactly what their motives were other than, you know, envy and rivalry. We don't know the specifics. But they did reject his authority and that's what that's what led to the envy and rivalry.

Envy in the Greek here is thonos which means the feeling of resentment meaning that you want what someone else has or it could be used to describe a feeling of hostility like when someone has success and they use something to their advantage and you don't feel real good about it. So you call that jealousy. You call it spite. Rivalry is the Greek aerys which refers to an open rivalry. Meaning that these men, they were combative. There was a divisive spirit there. It could have been verbal. It could have been physical. Even envy and rivalry are ranked up there with the most heinous sins. Paul, he writes this. He says that now the works of the flesh are evident. You got sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy, there's that. Fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions, envy, and the list goes on. He goes on to describe a depraved mind as one like this, someone that's filled with all manners of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness gossips. And it's because of these attitudes that Paul, he rebukes the Corinthians who had all sorts of issues. You were still of the flesh. And while there was jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? This means that God expects us to behave not just in a human way but as in a son of God adopted, bloodbought, spiritually renewed, new mind, new heart, new nature kind of way. Now, the church has struggled in this area for a millennia at least. It's why the great schism of 1054 happened. That's where the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church happened. It's why the reformation happened because those in power were envious of average people being taught the word of God. It's why the Scottish covenanters they fought but

Then they had envy and rivalry and there was dissension and division and eventually that finished up. There was something called the marrow controversy in Scotland as well. And even though there were men that were theologically correct and they agreed theologically on so many different areas philosophically how it played out, they got into these camps and they divided and there was envy and there was rivalry and that died down. That's that's the way that humans behave. But let me tell you, it gets worse. There's a story of one of my heroes two of them actually. Anybody fans of John Wesley, the HIMYMwriter? All right, great man. Right. And, then you have, George Whitfield, wonderful preacher, powerful preacher. George Whitfield was a Calvinist. John Wesley was an Armenian. And man, their rivalry. I mean, they would they would stand in pulpits and they would insult each other and talk about how the other was going to hell. It was an awful rivalry. And men and I mean it was being published in papers just about all the terrible things that they were saying about each other and there was envy and there was rivalry and this guy's bad and this guy's bad and this guy it just it just was blowing up blowing up blowing up until one day George Whitfield put a stop to it and here's what he said he said let the name of Whitfield perish but Christ be glorified let us look above names and parties let Jesus be our all in all. I care not who is uppermost. I know my place to be the servant of all. >> Amen. Now, did that resolve their disagreement? Nope. Not at all. But it showed love. It showed honor. And it was such a massive change that when Whitfield did that, Wesley did that. And all of a sudden, instead of them becoming full of envy and rivalry and

Continuing down that path, what happened is they started to become champions of each other and they started to love each other and they started to do ministry together and it they became so close that John Wesley preached his funeral when Whitfield died and he said this. Have we read or heard of any person since the apostles who called so many thousands to the saving knowledge of Christ? Whitfield had the heart of an apostle. Now that's high praise, isn't it? Christian, the way that we honor the Lord is not through division, but through love based on truth. That's how we grow. That's how we love. And I think about this context in our own church where people they talk about public school or home school. They talk about conservatives or liberals or republicans or democrats or hymns or modern or patriotic or no. It all stems from the issues of envy and rivalry and their fruits of the flesh and ultimately against God's plan for his church. Is there envy in your heart towards a ministry or influence? How might God be calling you to repent of those criticisms? If you're harboring resentment toward a brother and sister, don't let it fester. Go to them. Repent. Seek peace because Christ is too glorious and the Gospel is too urgent to let pride linger. >> 1 Corinthians 13, it says, "Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. But, you know, in spite of the divisions, there were some that preached Christ from love in good will. These were supporters of Paul's ministry

And they're defined as those who know that he is there for the defense of the Gospel. You see, in every faithful ministry, there are going to be adversaries and allies. That's just how it's going to be. And we don't know here who the adversaries are. We don't know any of the specifics. And Paul keeps it that way, not because he's afraid, but because he is wise. He's not identifying people that are opposed to him in his ministry. And he's calling them out on that. They're not false teachers, okay? He went through and he would call out false teachers like Alexander and Deus and Elmus and so-called super apostles and things like that. He doesn't name names here because he's not dealing with heretics. He's dealing with brothers that disagree with him. He's identified people that are opposed to his ministry with flawed motives, not with a flawed message. And so, he doesn't name them. He does correct them and their flawed thinking, namely their selfish ambition and their lack of sincerity and desire to hurt him even more while he's imprisoned. And yet this attitude is that he goes with is so what? So what if their attitudes for him aren't necessarily the best for him? He doesn't have to be liked. And so his conclusion is this. If we look here, what then? What of it? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice and that's his whole thing is that Christ needs to be announced and that's the path of mature thinking not insisting on its own way not in using influence to get your way it's not in thinking poorly about the brother or sister and then greeting them warmly on Sundays that's double-mindedness and hypocrisy it's about authentic love being united in God's truth Paul's joy is deeply rooted in Christ being declared. He isn't concerned about his reputation. He's not concerned about

His personal desires. He doesn't even allude to a wish of being honored. He just wants Jesus to be king. He wants the proclamation of the Gospel to be supreme. And that's what brings him joy to know the Lord and make him known. And this leads to our last point which is celebration abiding. And Paul, he says, "In that I rejoice." Yes, I will rejoice. And so Paul, he declares it's his present joy and his cause of celebration. And it's also his future joy that can never be stolen. Paul, he is imprisoned and the chains become a means of joy because he sees God's plan through it to embolden other people to share the Gospel even in the midst of his circumstances. And so that causes Paul to praise the Lord despite all the pain that he's enduring. And just as those chains tethered him to a stone cold wall, the chains of the Gospel held him fast and secure in increasing joy despite all of his suffering. Mark Keon, he said, "When our joy is tied to the advancement of the Gospel rather than our physical conditions or others responses to us, then it remains firm even when circumstances are against us." The joy of the Gospel and the joy of Gospel proclamation is what brings Christian peace and joy that lasts forever. That's what happens. And so, let's wrap all this up, okay? A nice little package for us. Paul, he's in chains, but he's not defeated. His circumstances do not define him. Christ does. And because of that, he sees in every hardship an opportunity for Gospel advancement. And so, let's remember these five truths that we got from this passage. Even in prison and even in the midst of pain, Christ was advancing. The Gospel was advancing. It was not stopped. It will never be stopped. And so, Paul's chains were not a hindrance. They were ultimately a help. They were ultimately

Much more effective than his church planting ministry at that time. And so don't underestimate how God might be using your situation, your circumstances, and your suffering. Even the hard ones, even the unjust ones, God is using for his glory. But Paul's faith didn't make others shrink back. It made their courage grow and abound. His boldness and chains stirred up others to be bold as well. And as a result, that fire of courage began to spread all throughout Philippi. You see, when you suffer well and you speak God's truth boldly with faith, others are going to follow your example. And others are going to see that light in you and they're going to glorify God because of your faithfulness while you suffer. And even in church, there are those who operate from envy and rivalry. And even then, even when the motives are mixed, God is still sovereign. He's still in control. You see, Paul, he didn't get lost in all those critics. He stayed focused on the mission of Christ being announced. Paul, he rejoiced not in that comfort, not in his reputation, but in the fact that Jesus was being made known and his joy was tied to the message, not the messenger. Can the same thing be said about you and me? You see, despite chains, despite critics, despite challenges, Paul's celebration was abiding. Not just once, not just twice. He says it, I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. And his joy was not circumstantial. It was rooted in Jesus, anchored in the Gospel and fueled by seeing Jesus exalted. So what does that mean for us? It means this. It means that when hardship comes, and it will. When hardship comes into your life, you can resist God's plan. You can resign yourself to the circumstances. You can resent God for being placed in those situations or you can rely on God. You can look to Paul's example, which is

A good one. But more importantly and probably and definitely better is that we can look to Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who prayed, "Lord, if there's any way that this cup could pass from me, let it happen. But not my will. Let yours be done. And it was the will of the Lord to crush the son. And through that plan, the father saved the world. He redeemed the world through the Christ's faithful suffering. And he redeemed us and he gave us life and purpose. And so whatever your sufferings are, be sure to use them as a pathway to share the Gospel. As Paul says, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in we weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. See, as you find your joy in Christ and your life is full of the Gospel, you will find that your joy will increase and that joy in Christ will never be shaken. And so, let us as a church be a church that rejoices in the Lord Jesus, not in ease, but in eternity. Not in comfort, but in Christ. Let's be a people who rejoice in Christ being proclaimed no matter who gets the credit. Head, heart, hand, head. Here's what God wants you to know. God wants you to know that he uses suffering to advance the Gospel, embolden others, and deepen our joy. Not by removing hardships, but by giving us Christc centered purpose within it. See, God, he uses even the most difficult circumstances to advance the Gospel and shape his people. Just like Paul was in chains, your suffering is not wasted. It is a strategic part of his plan, his redemptive plan for your life. Heart. God, he wants you to believe that he is sovereign over your suffering. And

He will use it for his glory and your growth even when you cannot see how. And so believe that God, he is faithful even in the midst of your trials. And he is working them all out to glorify the son of God and to strengthen your faith. Even when others have wrong motives or your pain seems pointless, God, he has a purpose that never ever fails. And then hand God. He wants you to rely on Christ in your suffering and to look for ways to make him known through it. In every hardship, choose to rely on Christ instead of resisting, resigning, or being resentful. Look for opportunities to speak boldly of Jesus, knowing that your faithful endurance may encourage others and exalt your Savior. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this time. We thank you for your word and we just pray that you would help us to rightly apply it to our lives. Father, if there's anyone here that maybe they struggle with some of those areas, Lord, maybe they're rejecting or maybe they're growing resentful or maybe they're just kind of going with the flow. I pray that they would not do that anymore, but that they would choose to rely on you. Father, above everything else, Lord, we pray that they would believe the Gospel. We pray that they would trust in you, that they would turn away from their sins and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for their redemption, that they would lean every hope, every desire, every want upon you, and that they would take you up and declare you as the priceless treasure of their lives. We pray, Father, for our brothers and sisters that are in the midst of suffering right now. Lord, there's so many that are on our prayer list, Lord, that we know that are going through it. And Father, we pray that you would help them in the midst of the suffering and in the midst of all of their circumstances being very hard that they

Would look to you and that they would be encouraged knowing that you have a purpose. It might be sharing the Gospel with the nurse. It might be the faithful testimony towards a grandchild. It could be a host of things. God, help them to see the purpose in it and to endure with joy that people would look at them and that they would see the eternal hope of Christ shining through them. Father, we love you. And as we stand and we worship you, we just declare that you are good and that we love you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's all stand and let's respond in worship. [Music] I was a wretch. I remember who I was. I was lost. I was blind. I was running out of time. Sin separated. The bridge was far too wide. From the far side of the chasm, you held me in your side. So you made a way across the great divide. Left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside. There at the cross, you paid the debt I owed. Broke my chain, freed my soul. For the first time I had home. Thank you Jesus for the blood of life. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glory. [Music] You took my place, laid inside my tomb of death. You were buried for three days. But then you walked right out again. And now death has no sting. Life has no end. For I have been transformed by the word of lamb. Thank you Jesus to the word of life.

Thank you Jesus. [Applause] Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life from the darkness to glorious. [Music] There is nothing stronger than the water working power of the blood. Of God. They call to us sons and daughters. We are risome by a father through the blood. The blood. [Music] There is nothing stronger than the water working power of the blood. [Music] to call the sons and daughters. We are risen by our father through the blood. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you Jesus. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Thank you Jesus. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] brought me from the darkness into glorious life. >> Amen. Hey, if you got questions on what it means to follow Jesus Christ, be sure to come up, shake my hands after service, say, "Pastor, I just want to know how to get that started." Love to walk with you through that. It's my privilege to be here with you today. Go in peace. Love you church.