Rejoice! United in God's Redemption We all want to be happy. We search for happiness. We make decisions throughout our day to do what we think will make us happy.

Phil 1:12-14 What has happened to me: 60-62 AD. From his Imprisonment at Jerusalem through his imprisonment at Rome.

Paul expected suffering. He talked about it being normal to the Christian life.

Paul saw God's redemption in both goodness and suffering. V. 13 The guards are coming to know that Paul is imprisoned because of Christ. V. 14. Most brothers were speaking more courageously and fearlessly. God was working through Paul's suffering.

Philippians 1:15-18. Brothers were encouraged to speak the word of God. Some for good motives, some for impure motives.

Paul saw his life united with God's great redemption. Philippians 1:19-21 "i might die as a martyr or I might be freed." Whichever, I will bring honor and glory to Jesus.

Paul's understanding of his circumstances caught up in this divine narrative where God is overcoming evil and giving life to the dead.

Paul saw his life - both suffering and good times - as part of the overarching message of the unconquerable Jesus Christ.

He found satisfaction in uniting his life to something much bigger to himself. His life was more than Facebook, video games, even being absorbed in his own pain, more than his own consumption. We have lost being caught up in a bigger story. Sean Kelly, chair of the department of philosophy at Harvard University "the most significant threat to our culture... is nihilism - the death of meaning and stories. Where there is no more adventure, no more meaning."

Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, mathematician, political activist and Nobel laureate, before his death said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

How can we find meaning, peace? Suffering is inevitable. How can we find joy in suffering?

In Jesus, here is a story of a redeeming God Who graciously offers Himself to bring peace, well-being, forgiveness. Our lives, like Paul's, can be seen from the view that life is no longer about myself, but about God, the source of life and new life.

May we participate in God's great story of redemption through the grace we show, the way we give ourselves to others, the way that we live for the honor and glory of Jesus.