Progress & Joy

Philippians 1:21-24 ESV — For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Our life in the flesh is to demonstrate Christ, to produce godly fruit, and to benefit others. Once we come to believe and know Jesus, to depart from these bodies is going to be far better, but for now every follower of Jesus has a three-part mission:

1. To demonstrate Christ
2. To produce godly fruit
3. To benefit others

The past three weeks we’ve discussed each of these points. Today I want to wrap up by moving to the next verse, Philippians 1:25.

Philippians 1:25 ESV — Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith

Convinced of what? What is Paul convinced of? The verse right before this said, “to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” Convinced comes from the Greek word that we translate as “faith”. Paul has faith that his life in the flesh is necessary for other members of the church.

Have you ever found yourself asking, “God, why am I alive?” You are alive today to benefit others. The Lord doesn’t pull Paul’s spirit out of his body because the other believers need him. In verse 25, Paul says what they need him for: their progress and joy in the faith.

You and I are here today in this first flesh to demonstrate Christ, to produce godly fruit, and to benefit one other. Each of our lives is necessary for our spiritual brothers and sisters around the world. “I live for your progress and joy in the faith.” Speak these words as your declaration to someone else in the church.

Progress is a Greek word made of two parts. The first means “in front of”, and the second means “to cut or chop down”. This word “prokopé” literally means “advancement by chopping down whatever impedes progress”. Once we have faith in Jesus Christ, we immediately receive His supernatural grace to advance and grow in faith, but none of us is meant to advance alone. Together we’re a community of lumberjacks working to cut down and remove everything that stands in the way of our individual and corporate growth. As we chop down the things that stand in our way, our joy increases. And the joy of the Lord is our strength, therefore our power to chop and advance increases. There is Kingdom synergy between progress and joy. We are joy-powered Kingdom bulldozers!

There is no fear in this equation. Fear causes us to operate in defensiveness, building walls around us which actually create more hindrances. Faith is offensive and advances. During World War II, General Patton gave the directive, “Always advance. Never dig in.” He famously told the Third Army, “Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy… I don’t want to get any messages saying that ‘we are holding our position.’ We’re not holding anything… We are advancing constantly…” This is Kingdom progress, and this is why you and I are alive today, to partner together to chop down every hindrance in our joyful advance.

There are both personal and corporate hindrances, and we must recognize that personal hindrances become corporate hindrances because we’re in this together. The enemy of your growth is our enemy. Your hindrance is my hindrance. We are one body.

1 Corinthians 12:26-27 ESV — If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Let’s imagine together that you and I are building the King’s highway. Trees, rocks, and even mountains may stand in our way. Some may seem small and some may seem impossibly huge, yet these are hindrances that must be removed.

Have you ever seen protesters stand between loggers and trees? The term “tree hugger” actually derives from a group of Hindus in India in the 1700’s. They wrapped themselves around trees, and ultimately died because they would not allow the king to chop down trees. They chose their trees over the king. Sometimes we act like “hindrance huggers”. We have our “pet impediments” that we cling to. If we’re going to advance together, we have to be willing to listen to our brothers and sisters when they point out our “pet impediments”. Otherwise, we’re choosing those things over Kingdom progress. Together we must acknowledge the hindrances and impediments, remove them by the authority of Jesus Christ, and advance. Remember, in the Kingdom progress and joy come together. When we’re hindrance-huggers, progress feels like grief because we love the very things that are holding us back.

Isaiah 40:3-4 ESV — A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

Mark 11:22-25 ESV — And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Notice that removing impediments and releasing forgiveness come hand in hand. A few of the more common impediments in our modern American church are complacency, comfort, distractions, busyness, pride, laziness, fear, self-centeredness, offense, ignorance of the Word… What is standing in the way of your spiritual growth?

Again, to quote Patton, “Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing.” And to paraphrase Paul, “We have faith and we know that we live to joyfully advance together, cutting down and removing everything in our way.” What does joyfully advancing look like, and what stands in the way? Partner with another believer and briefly share a personal hindrance, and then pray for one another. In faith, do three things: receive God’s grace, remove the hindrance, and release forgiveness.

Isaiah 57:14 ESV — And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”

Seeking His face!
Matt

Matt Neese
Wellspring.Live

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