| The Epistle Of Joy – Part 2

Philippians is known as the Epistle of Joy.  Paul’s first encounter with the people of Philippi is found in Acts 16 where Paul received a vision of a gentleman from Macedonia asking him to come over there.  Philippi was a chief city of Macedonia.  It is referred to as a colony, a colony was a Roman city for their war veterans.  The people of Philippi were not Jews but gentiles.   

The theme of Philippians is Joy in the midst of every situation.  Paul suffered imprisonment, yet he had joy.  This joy is above and beyond what the world can have or understand.  

Part 2 – In this message, we study through verses 3 through 6 in chapter 1 of Philippians.  From the Scriptures we see:

• Thankfulness is the offspring of meditation on God! Complaining is the offspring of meditating on poor circumstances.  Naturally, Paul could have justified complaining being he was in prison. 
• Paul demonstrates to us that by grace we can pray for the needs of others with joy regardless of our circumstances.  
• We see that fellowship (communion) is a source of great strength during these difficult times.
• We can have confidence and safely place our trust in Christ’s ability in us to finish what He began when we were born again.