I thank my God every time I remember you.I thank my God whenever I remember you,I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you,
3 sermons cite this verse
… letter to the Philippian church, this extravagant group, 800 miles from him as he is in prison. And he says, I thank my God. Every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you, I pray with joy, say joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Joy. That is a weird word to put in a prison letter. The man is looking at prison walls and he's got four guards on four hour shifts around the clock as he's waiting to go to trial. Here he is looking at his circumstances and he writes a letter. And the first word that comes out of his mouth is joy. Say joy. Paul teaches us a lesson to see it differently. He's looking at his circumstances and realizing my joy does not come from my circumstances, but my joy determines my circumstances. And he sits there and he thinks about this because he will use the word joy or rejoice 16 times in this letter. The letter is only four chapters. It's 104 verses. It's not a long book. About every seven or eight verses, the word joy makes an appearance on the scene. …
… and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you all are partakers with me of grace, grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and with all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit and the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. …
… like his letter to the Philippians and he says I thank my God every time I remember you and all my prayers for you always pray with joy and then you get to Philippians 4.1 he says you are the ones I love and I long for you are my joy and my crown it's the way he writes the Thessalonians he says the same thing you are my joy and then he says at one point in chapter 3 he says my heart overflows I thank God because my heart overflows with joy whenever I think about you and this is another one of those parts in this verse that I thought well how how do I preach that? Like, You are commanded to make me happy. If you say anything to me that does not put a smile on my face, then you are disobedient. So don't even get close to it. Is that what this is saying? I don't think it is. Today marks three years for me by God's grace as leading this church's pastor. …