Coggin Church Podcast

The Gospel is worthy of a life lived in appreciation that others can see.

The term “conduct” is a very interesting term in Greek as it’s somewhat of a term of citizenship… Basically it’s used to urge a citizen of a city or nation to discharge their expected obligations in a worthy manner as said citizen.

As citizens of heaven… we are expected to conduct ourselves in a certain way so that everyone can tell that we are foreigners in this land and but passing through on our way to our homeland in the presence of Christ.

This conduct should reflect well of the Gospel and the name of Christ. Jesus already paid the price… If you could earn it, then Jesus would not have had to die. But you can live in a way that shows appreciation. Dallas Willard once wrote, “Grace is not opposed to effort but opposed to earning.”

What happens when we live a life in appreciation of Christ's Gospel work? Steadfastness, unity, and courage. These are military terms that carry the idea of unwavering commitment to the mission. It’s terms like this that remind me that we are in a war and our enemy is cunning. War-like imagery has fallen by the wayside in our current cultural climate, but maintaining a battle-ready attitude is not only ok, but a godly characteristic WHEN and ONLY WHEN we remember who the enemy is. often we label a political party, a political leader or a social justice warrior as the enemy. When we do this we miss the point and we often bypass Gospel proclamation and grace and go on the attack hating individuals and groups of people.. Don’t confuse your civic duty or political stand with you gospel duty otherwise the very people you should be loving and reaching with the Gospel you will end up hating and alienating them from the message you were sent to share. With Gospel living and Gospel proclamation, we wage war.

Most of us understand that we can only have faith in Christ because God has given us this faith to believe

You don’t earn it, but you can receive what has been offered. Salvation is a easy gift to receive, but what about suffering? God never wastes your pain but will use it to advance his kingdom. Understanding suffering for Christ as a gift and seeing God’s purpose in struggle will allow you to suffer well.

As we seek to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel, may we show ourselves as Steadfast, standing firm in the Gospel, Unified as we work and fight as a team for the Gospel and Courageous as we face those that oppose the Gospel. And when they attack and we suffer that we would see suffering as an opportunity to draw near to our Savior and be reminded that we are His.

Deacons are servants and servants serve humbly. In some ways, we all are called to serve with humility as Christ is our example of a humility and service… as we will learn from Phil. chapter 2. Yet, the Deacon is given a particular responsibility to be a servant for the ministry needs of the local church.

In the New Testament, we have basically two offices of leadership in a local body of believers: the office of Pastor or Elder and the office of Deacon. How they function and have functioned in different churches across the world is varied, but biblically and how we strive to function at Coggin is pretty simple. The Pastor serves by preaching and leading while the Deacon leads by serving.

What is it that forms the basis of your life? What is the thing, desire, or idea that is at the bottom of everything for you? What is it that drives your decision making? "To Live is Christ and to die is gain" is Paul's way of answering that question.

The reason Paul is able to honestly declare "To live is Christ and to die is gain," is rooted in two ideas:

1) The Assurance of Deliverance. Deliverance here can mean rescue from harm, or it can mean preservation. What Paul is getting at is the outcome doesn’t dictate his deliverance. It doesn’t matter whether he gets out of prison or dies for his faith—either way he is delivered. This assurance spills over into the second thing—Paul's hope.

2) An Eager Hope that Paul would honor Christ in his body, whether by life or by death. His hope isn’t on his 401k, his kid’s sports team, his marriage or singleness, his wealth or his health. Simply this: in whatever comes my way, may Christ be honored in my life or my death.

These two ideas enable Paul to say honestly, "to live is Christ and to die is gain." If you and I were able to say that along with Paul, what an incredible amount of freedom we would have, because what can really happen to a person whose soul aim is to honor Christ in life or death? Nothing. Nothing can happen that can rob you of Jesus.

But we do not stumble into being the types of people who can say "to live is Christ and to die is gain." You can't treasure money, sex, and power and one day wake up finding your soul fulfilled in the person of Christ. The bottom of our joy is constructed, manicured, and cultivated. So to become this type of person we must first come to Jesus. Continually and repeatedly, we must come to Jesus. Living in pursuit of our own glory and pleasure comes naturally and it is only in the presence of Jesus that our appetites change. Second, we must cultivate an awareness of Jesus presence in the everyday stuff of life. You will never honestly say “to live is Christ” if you do not learn to enjoy the presence of Christ. This is prayer's primary aim. If we stop at petition, then we miss the sweetness of prayer because at it's very core, prayer is a posture of the heart before God that expresses our longing to know Him and experience his presence.

Motherhood is a high calling, and its not just for those who have children. The church is a spiritual family filled with women who give of themselves for the building up of the body. From Proverbs 31, Pastor Todd speaks about Mighty Mothers, both physical and spiritual.

In Philippians 1:12-18, Paul opens up about his imprisonment and you would expect to find a man in crisis, pleading for the Philippians to pray for him as he is in chains. But as we saw last week, Paul is the one doing the praying and instead of finding him depressed and defeated we find him rejoicing.

Why was Paul able to rejoice while imprisoned? Because he knew the ending of the story. He knew that the success of the Gospel was guaranteed and he knew that even as he was in chains, the message of Jesus was being unleashed—even to the imperial guard!

Joy is multiplied where victory is secure. Like Paul, we can have joy in trial because the victory has already been won in Jesus. Our eternal hope, joy, and peace come from the finished work of Jesus.

Philippians is a book where Paul shows us that to know Christ is to have the amazing option available to us to “Choose Joy,” no matter what is going on around us.

In Philippians 1:1-11 we find certain characteristics that marked Paul and the Philippian believers as a Faithful Followers. We should desire to share in these traits to find true joy. These characteristics are 1) Selflessness and 2) Intercessory Prayer.

We end with 4 questions:

1) Is your life marked by selflessness?

2) If your life marked by Support for the Gospel in both word and deed?

3) Do you participate in Gospel work spiritually through Sharing and Defending His message

4) Do you support the Gospel Physically by giving and going?

Have questions or want to respond to this message? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Resurrection Sunday remembers and rejoices in the reality that Jesus Christ conquered death. We can know that nothing in this life can truly overcome us because Jesus has overcome our ultimate enemies—sin and death.

In this message, Pastor Todd Gray leads us through 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul gives his most lengthy description of why the resurrection matters, and continues to matter over 2,000 years later.

In the resurrection, Christ won the victory so the Gospel could be yours, so doubt could be erased, and death would have no sting.

The Garden of Gethsemane is the darkest hour in the life of Jesus before the cross. He begins to feel the weight of bearing the sin of the world and his heart is grieved.

Jesus does two very important things in the midst of his grief. One, he draws near to his Father. Pastor Todd uses the illustration of woodshop tools—the clamp and the wedge. The clamp brings two pieces of wood together, while the wedge drives them apart. Suffering operates like this in our lives. For some, it binds us to the heart of God, while others distance themselves. Jesus shows us how to pray our fears.

Secondly, Jesus draws near and invites others to bear his suffering with him. Though the disciples fail in this regard, Jesus' invitation to the disciples to walk with him through this dark valley serves as an example for how we are to invite others into our suffering. Again, a helpful metaphor is the olive press, which takes olives and presses them so that what comes out brings multiple benefits.

Jesus entered the olive press of God's judgement toward sin, so that what flows from him is healing and nourishment. His life and example leads us into a new way of viewing our suffering.

If you want to respond to this message, or if you have questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Jesus is the greater temple and is worthy of Worship… so worship Him with focus and authenticity.

1. Through Christ, Worship God with Integrity Filled Focus

When Jesus comes into the Temple… He enters the most outer court, which would have been the court of the gentiles and sees what most would consider, expected commerce: people buying and selling goods needed during their Passover worship. In an interesting and surprising turn of events… Jesus immediately starts driving out both the buyers and sellers from the temple area. It was not just about the commerce… it was about distracting from worship and the nefarious intentions of some of those involved. All of that commerce was loud, distracting, and took away from the intended purpose of connecting with God through sacrifice and prayer. The situation was taking glory and honor away from God.

So Jesus cleaned house. Jesus took Worship seriously and so should we. He was willing to remove barriers to worship… And I am sure He is still willing to remove barriers in your heart and clean house as often as needed.

A courageous question today would be… “Jesus would you come in and cleanse my heart and remove distraction?”

Not only does Jesus clean house to remove distraction and wickedness… He really disrupts the whole sacrificial system… pointing to the fact that He is the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice and that He is greater than the temple.

2. Worship Jesus in Authentic Appreciation for Who He is.

Just after Jesus cleanses the temple… we find Him healing the blind and the lame and receiving praise due to God alone. It's here, that Jesus shows Himself to be God in the flesh… He’s Messiah King of the Universe. Right there in the temple… He starts healing people.

Your life is worship. It was worship in the garden when Adam cared for God’s creation, and it is worship when you put in the hours at work, when you are at school and when you are at home with your family. Be authentic… Don’t pretend at church and be something different during the week.

The Triumphal Entry sets up the idea that Jesus' reign will be different. It won't be categorized by spectacle, might, and what we often deem as victorious.

We learn that Jesus has come to rule our hearts, and the invitation is to welcome Him with open-handed obedience and public celebration.

This week, we encourage you to publically praise your humble, victorious King by using the hashtag #CogginPraise. With all the bad news in our world, let us see the world as it really is, and yet stubbornly persist that there is good news.

Have questions or want to respond to this message in some way? Reach out to us at [email protected].