Community Bible Church Manchester Michigan Podcast

Philippians 3:17-21

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All right, well if you can remain standing, we’re going to read just a few verses from Philippians chapter 3 verses 17 through 21. This is what Paul wrote to the Philippians 2,000 years ago and to us today. Join together in following my example brothers and sisters.

Just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For as I often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.

Their mind is set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our holy bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

We have been journeying through the book of Philippians and this morning we’re going to come to the end of chapter three. Of course, next Sunday we’ll think about a resurrection day message and then we’ll in the following weeks finish off chapter four of the book of Philippians.

And you know the background by now. Paul’s writing from prison. He’s under house arrest.

He’s in Rome. He wants to have a trial before Caesar and so he’s waiting for his trial. He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die.

His life’s really kind of up in the air. Paul ended up being under house arrest in Rome for two years and he makes wise use of that time. He writes four books that we have in scriptures.

They’re called the prison epistles. The book of Philippians is one of them. He begins to share the gospel and he leads some of those in Caesar’s household to Christ.

And so, Paul is writing this letter partially as well as a thank you note because the church at Philippi had taken up an offering and they had a gift and they sent it with Epaphroditus and he traveled 800 miles from Philippi to Rome to deliver this gift to Paul and now Paul’s sending a thank you note back to them and that’s really a nutshell what the book of Philippians is all about. This morning, we want to think about four reminders. Four reminders that Paul gave to the Philippian church and I have to tell you as I look at these reminders these four reminders are just as applicable to us today as they were 2,000 years ago and we’re going to look at all four of them this morning.

So, let’s start with the reminder number one and it’s found in verse beginning in verse 17 and here’s the first reminder that Paul wanted to remind the Philippian believers and you and me. Follow godly believers. Here it is verse 17 we just read it.

Join together in following my example, Paul writes, brothers and sisters and just as you have us as a model keep your eyes on those who live as we do. So, Paul’s encouraging the believers there to model their life after the apostle Paul and to find other godly believers that that you can look up to and can use them as a role model for your life. This is really we’re talking about discipleship mentorship but Paul says I need you to follow godly leaders.

Now on our day of social media today we have a lot of followers. I’m on I’m on Facebook. I very rarely post on Facebook but I’m on Facebook because it helped me keep up with what’s going on in other people’s lives and in all of your lives.

Just a reminder I read all your Facebook posts so just remember that but then I’ve not gotten beyond the world of Facebook until this last week and early in the week Diane my wife sent me a link that was only on Instagram. I’ve not been on Instagram so like I want to see what that is so I quickly joined Instagram and guess what I started to get this rush like oh I’ve got now I’m getting notifications. I have followers now.

I think immediately I was up to 15 and so I hate to disappoint anybody on Instagram. I’ll never post anything on Instagram but I just did that to learn the link but it got me thinking about this social media world in which we live in. Did you know there are people that have millions of followers on Instagram on Twitter or X? So, I looked this up just I hope you remember more of the sermon than this but who has the most followers?

Here’s the top five you’ll recognize some of these names Ariana Grande 511 million followers. Isn’t it amazing you can communicate with that many people with a post on social media? Guess number four some of you have heard of this lady Taylor Swift 549 million, Justin Bieber I thought he was long off the radar screen 596 million followers. Selena Gomez 686 million followers, the number one person you’ve probably not heard of this person some of you have if you’re a sports fan his name is Cristiano Ronaldo.

He is a Portuguese soccer player and he has over 1 billion followers that is one out of every eight people. There’s about eight billion people on the planet who follow Cristiano Ronaldo well Paul didn’t have social media back then. It was more of a one-on-one type of influence and discipleship but what he is saying is I want you to follow godly believers. And boy does the generations behind us need godly role models our children need godly role models our grandchildren need godly role models.

And Paul sets his life up and says you can follow my example in fact he writes that five times in the New Testament at least not only here in Philippians chapter 3. But 1st Corinthians 4:16 I urge you to imitate me to the church at Corinth later on he writes follow my example as I follow Christ to the Galatian believers, I plead with you brothers and sisters become like me. 2nd Thessalonians 3:7 where you yourselves know that you ought to follow our example. And so, Paul’s plea is to follow godly believers and there is great, great power in the example of a godly life that people can look up to and and use as an example.

None of us are perfect but a consistent day-by-day walk with Jesus will make a huge difference in the lives of others. I’m so thankful in my formative years that I had some men that I could follow that were godly, godly men. Obviously the first one was my dad I grew up in a pastor’s home and my dad was in ministry for over 60 years. And growing up in that that home where he was pastoring a church in Cleveland Ohio for 18 years.

I just saw as a young person as a teenager a man who not only preached on Sunday but was the same person at home who loved God and walked with him every day. And just set a great example for my life I think of another man by the name of Tom Ladd. Tom Ladd became our youth leader in the church that I grew up in and he was vested in that. He had some young people growing up and for many many years, he poured his life into the lives of those teenagers at the church that I attended growing up.

I think of a fellow by the name of David Graham David Graham I attended a Christian school that my dad and some of our other pastors started back in 1961. They started a Christian school there was 43 of us original students in that school and then they started kindergarten through fourth grade. They added a grade each year and all the way up to high school but I had a bible teacher and a soccer coach and his name was David Graham. David was a solid godly man he went on to pastor some very large, large churches still around today and is probably in his late, late 80s.

David Graham made a huge influence in my life when I got to seminary. The godly role model became someone that I worked for as I Diane and I were living in Grand Rapids going to seminary. His name was Louie Kanopka and Louie was about five or six years older than I was at the time. He had pastored a church and then felt like he needed more schooling so he came back to seminary was married with two kids and I ended up working for him in a painting business. And they just kind of took us under their wings and were godly, godly role models for us. I learned a lot about parenting just being in his home and watching how he they disciplined their two kids. Louie Kanopka was a huge, huge influence in my life, and I went on to pastor a church in Grand Rapids and north of Grand Rapids in Rockford.

God just blessed that church in incredible ways it became like a mega church of a couple thousand people and eight pastors and God used Louie in a great, great way. Well, this is what Paul’s saying we need to follow godly believers and he tells us why verses 18 and 19 why we need these godly believers. Look at it for as I often told you before and now tell you again even with tears many live as enemies of the cross their destiny is destruction their god is their stomach their glory is their shame their mind is set on earthly things. So, Paul says we need godly leaders because there’s people out there who are opposed to Christianity, they’re enemies of the cross and of the gospel.

You have to understand that in the first century the cross was an offense to people. The cross was a symbol of torture and death and to many people it was an offense. In fact, Paul writes about that to the Corinthian believers in 1st Corinthians chapter one. He says the cross is foolishness to others 1st Corinthians 1:18.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Verse 23 but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles. And so, in Paul’s day there are enemies of the cross in fact when he preached on Mars Hill in Athens and he preached about the gospel and the resurrection. Some of the Greek philosophers they mocked him enemies of the cross and we have them today as well don’t we. People who are opposed to truth people who are opposed to Christianity and today we face the same thing that there are enemies of the cross. So, Paul’s first admonition here is to follow godly leaders.

But then he gives us a second reminder that our citizenship is in heaven remember that your citizenship is in heaven. It’s a direct contrast to what he just talked about these enemies of the cross who ultimately are headed to destruction. They ultimately just live for themselves and they live for today their god is their stomach they’re just living for the material things of today. But he says our citizenship is in heaven so if you know Jesus Christ as your savior you have a dual citizenship.

You are citizens of whatever country you were born in most of us the United States but we also have a heavenly citizenship. When I got to Cedarville university as a young freshman, I was 17 years old when I started my freshman year. And I played soccer in high school and ended up playing soccer for Cedarville university it was a goalkeeper. and our soccer team nine of the 11 guys that were starters on the soccer team were either foreign exchange students or they were missionary kids.

Grew up on the mission field grew up in Brazil grew up in south America and so you know what game they played. They’ve been playing soccer their whole lives there are there are only two of us that were like born and raised in the United States of America. So, I got to know all these guys and you know I kind of envied them. Some of them had this dual citizenship they were born they had Brazilian citizenship they had American citizenship they often talked in Portuguese.

You know when they didn’t want us to know what’s going on they’re talking to each other in Portuguese. Well, we have a dual citizenship if we know Christ is our savior he reminds us that our citizenship our primary citizenship is in heaven. So, we need to keep that in mind don’t we, we need to be careful that we don’t associate Christianity with only the United States of America. It’s called Christian nationalism no Christianity is worldwide and our ultimate focus and citizenship needs to be focused on heavenly things.

Now we need to be good citizens don’t we need to obey the laws of the country and lest they directly contradict what scripture has to say. We need to pay our taxes we need to vote biblical values we need to seek justice but ultimately, we need to keep our focus on eternity. That’s what Paul writes about in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18. He writes these words don’t lose heart though outwardly we’re wasting away inwardly we’re being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. So, Paul’s trying to help us that we need to live and but we can get so bogged down in in life and making a living that we forget about eternity. He reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven well the bible also talks about proof of citizenship doesn’t it. I don’t know if you guys all have your real id’s that you need to have by in about two or three weeks or you might not be able to fly.

You’re going to need some like added security proof on your license with that little gold star up in the right-hand corner. I’m trying to get that for Diane and we went to the secretary of state and then they said we need proof that you’re married. So now I contacted the courthouse in Fort Wayne and they’re sending us birth certificates and go back in and get this official license. Well, we also need to realize that we need to show some proof of citizenship in our life, in fact the book of first john gives three litmus tests for a true believer.

There’s a doctrinal test you need to know that Jesus Christ is the one and true son of God put your faith in him. What else is a mark of a true believer? There’s a life of consistent obedience to god’s word not perfectly we all fall short but consistent, a desire to consistently obey God. A third mark is you love other believers and so our citizenship is in him.

Here’s a third reminder this is a really good one, they’re all good but we need this one this morning and it’s reminder number three and Paul reminds us that Jesus is coming again Jesus is coming again our citizenship is in heaven verse 20 and we listen to these two words eagerly await a savior from there the lord Jesus Christ so he’s talking about our hope our anticipation he’s saying we need to remember that Jesus is coming again so this, the timeline of the Easter story. Remember, Good Friday, Jesus dies on the cross. Sunday morning, resurrection, the empty tomb, six weeks of post-resurrection appearances.

Read about it in 1st Corinthians 15:3-8. He made all these post-resurrection appearances, Paul says, to 500 people at once. They actually saw the risen Christ.

And then Acts chapter 1, after 40 days of post-resurrection appearances, what happens? They’re on a hill outside of Jerusalem, and Dr. Luke records it in Acts chapter 1. Jesus ascends to heaven. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. The angels appeared, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? Because Jesus just levitated up, that’s why.

Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This, here’s the promise, this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him going to heaven. So, what’s the promise? He’s coming back. He’s not sending a representative.

Jesus is personally going to return back to the Mount of Olives someday. His feet will touch the Mount of Olives. And so, Jesus is coming again someday.

And then what happened then? 10 days later, Pentecost happened. The Holy Spirit came, and the church was born. The Bible calls it the blessed hope.

Blessed hope. He’s coming again. I shared this a number of weeks ago, but it just struck me.

And about six weeks ago, I was working with some of the TNT boys, third, fourth, fifth grade boys in our Awana program, helping them with their handbook time. And the young man I was working with, he was looking at, it was Titus chapter two, verses 11 through 13, that talks about the blessed hope that Jesus is coming again. And he had to answer some questions from the verse.

And then I said, do you know how we just celebrated Christmas? He says, yeah, yeah. I said, you know what this verse is saying? He said, what? He said, it’s saying that Jesus is going to come back a second time. And he looked at me, he says, he is? I said, yes, he’s coming back again.

And his eyes just lit up because he’d never heard that before. Well, the Bible says over and over and over again, Jesus is coming again. Revelation 22, three times, John writes in verse seven, look, I’m coming soon.

It really means quickly. Verse 12, quoting Jesus, look, I’m coming soon. My reward is with me.

Verse 20, he who testifies to these things says, yes, I’m coming soon. Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

And so, here’s the reminder that we need to focus on this morning that will hopefully encourage our hearts is that Jesus is coming again. We don’t know when, but that’s his promise. He’s coming a second time.

All right, let’s look at one more reminder here from reminder number four from Paul writing to the Philippian believers. Again, verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s verse 21. Here’s our reminder, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. So, here’s their fourth reminder that should encourage our hearts. Someday our bodies are going to be resurrected, changed.

That’s going to happen at the return of Christ. Our bodies will be transformed. Paul says they will be like his glorious body.

And so, Jesus resurrected body is the template for what our new bodies someday are going to be like. First John chapter three, verse two, dear friends, now are we the children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when he appears, when Jesus appears, we will be like him or we shall see him as he is. Our bodies will be transformed.

We’ll have a resurrected body and it’ll be a perfect body. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. I remember years ago, and if you’ve been at community Bible church for a long time, some of you may remember this individual.

He passed away 15 years ago. His name was Jerry Klein. Jerry lived down the road on Sharon Hollow and Jerry was a single fellow in his late 50s, early 60s.

He had no family around. Didn’t have any kids, wasn’t married. He had one brother who lived in Ecuador.

And so, he had no family. And so, he was a part of our church for a number of years. And we kind of reached out to Jerry and became his family.

Jerry was an interesting fellow. He was a security guard. And I remember him telling me one week that for whatever reason got laid off, lost his job.

And so, Jerry went through some hard times. And he went through some very, very difficult financial times. Very difficult as I found out.

And so, one time Jerry is here at the church and I knew that he was struggling financially. And so, he asked me a question. He says, would it be okay if I brought my trash and garbage from my house? I don’t have the money to really pay for a garbage service.

And is there any extra room where I could put it in the church containers? I said, yeah, you could do that. Occasionally we have some meals here where they might be full, but we usually have some extra room. And so, here’s what happened.

Jerry, I told him garbage pickups on Wednesday. And so, every Tuesday, Jerry would show up and Jerry would bring his trash and he would put it in the trash cans. And then Jerry would find me in my office.

I could tell he wanted to talk. I knew that Jerry, was very, very lonely. And so, I talked with Jerry and what I discovered and not in a negative way is that Jerry had a lot more time on his hands than I did.

And so, what I ended up doing was when Jerry would come in and he came in every Tuesday, I began to call it Tuesdays with Jerry, like that book I read, Tuesdays with Morrie. Every Tuesday, Jerry would show up and look at the clock when he came in and it was 9:30 in the morning. I said, you know what? We’re going to spend an hour together.

And at 10:30, I’m just going to tell Jerry, I appreciate you coming in. Let’s continue this next week. I kind of need to get on with my day.

So, Jerry and I had lots of conversations because we met for probably, I would say over a year, almost every Tuesday. Jerry was kind of a portly guy. He had some rather thick glasses as well.

And I remember we were talking about the hope of Easter and the promise of the resurrection. And Jerry’s telling me, he’s like, I hope my new body is like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. I’m hoping to get an Arnold Schwarzenegger body in my resurrected body.

I don’t know if Jerry’s going to get that new body or not. What happened with Jerry, and this is after we’ve been meeting weekly for a long, long time. I remember getting a phone call and I don’t know, don’t remember the exact details, but somebody went into Jerry’s house.

He lived by himself. They found Jerry on the floor in his bedroom, called 911, airlifted to Toledo Hospital. I get the phone call that they found Jerry on his floor.

He’s airlifted to Toledo Hospital. I said, okay, I’m going to jump in the car and drive to Toledo, get to the hospital, get up to the floor that he was on. And I always remember the conversations of the faces, I’m Jerry Klein’s pastor, here to see Jerry.

There was an awkward silence. They said, I’m sorry, Jerry passed away. Well, someday we are all going to have a resurrected, transformed body.

There’s a book on heaven and our interest in heaven usually peaks when a loved one of ours passes away or someone that we know well passes away. Randy Alcorn, I brought it up here. Randy Alcorn wrote this book on heaven, 492 pages long.

If you have any question about heaven, I guarantee you it’s probably answered in this book. He took 25 years of research. Chapter 29 was, what will our bodies be like? What will these transformed bodies be like? Just a few thoughts here.

Our resurrected bodies will be real physical bodies. Jesus was not a spirit when he resurrected. It was a real flesh and blood body.

He ate food. It’s a physical body. Our resurrected bodies will be free of sin’s curse, redeemed to their original beauty and purpose.

Here’s some other questions he asks and answers. Will we all look alike? Are we going to look alike in heaven? Some of this is sanctified speculation, but he writes in the book, no, we’ll probably have differing heights and weights. It seems as likely as different skin colors, racial, ethnic identities will continue.

Revelation 5 talks about people from every tribe and tongue that’s in heaven. There’s no marriage in heaven. I don’t know if that encourages you or discourages you.

However, heaven, he says, won’t be without families, but will be one big family in which all family members are friends and all friends are family members. We’re going to have a huge, huge family. I was up at the hospital yesterday, at Henry Ford Hospital.

Bud’s there and Barb’s there, but Bud and Barb have six daughters, six married daughters. There were six daughters there. There were five or six sons-in-law there.

There was a raft of grandkids that were there all in that room just kind of loving on each other and supporting one another during Bud’s final hours. Heaven’s going to be this one big, big family. He asks a lot of other questions.

Will our resurrected bodies have five senses? Will they have new abilities? Will our bodies shine? Will we keep our gender identity of male and female? Will we all appear the same age? What will we do in heaven? We’re going to have new bodies. I guarantee what we’re going to do in heaven is we’re going to do a lot of worshiping, and we’re going to do a lot of serving. What a privilege it’ll be to serve the King of Kings.

Imagine you get a phone call and it’s from the President of the United States, and he wants you to do some sort of service for him. You say, man, what an honor. We’ll have the privilege of serving the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Well just a few application questions as we wrap this up, then we’re going to listen to a song that I know is going to probably be the best five and a half minutes of your day or your week.

Here’s the first question. Am I a citizen of heaven? That’s where it all starts, doesn’t it? Paul’s reminding these Philippian believers that your citizenship is in heaven, and Paul writes, examine yourself to make sure you’re in the faith.

We’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And so that’s the most important decision we can make, to turn from our sins and put our faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross for us as we reflect on that on this coming Good Friday and his payment for our sin. Am I a citizen of heaven? Have I made that commitment?

Secondly, can I say along with the apostle Paul, follow me as I follow Christ? Some of us might say, I’m not comfortable with having people looking at my life and imitating my life.

Well, you’re an example, whether you want to be or not. You’re either a positive example or a negative example. We all are examples.

Believe me, if you have kids, they’ve got eyes watching you all the time. They’re watching your life and they’re watching what you say and watching what you do. Boy, we desperately need people who will be able to say to others, I’m not perfect, but I’m on my journey with Jesus. And would you follow me along with me as I follow Jesus?

The third application question is this. This is the reminder this morning about the second coming. Am I eagerly anticipating and awaiting the return of Christ? Revelation 22, three times Jesus says, I’m coming soon. I’m coming quickly. 1st Thessalonians 4 talks about it, doesn’t it? The rapture of the church. And Jesus is going to descend with a shout, with a trumpet, voice of the archangel.

Dead in Christ are going to rise first. And then we who are alive and remain will be snatched up. The word rapture is not in the Bible, but the Latin translation of the word snatched up is the word rapturo.

That’s where we get the word rapture. And so shall we meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the lord.

Think about how our kids and probably when we were younger, we all anticipated like the celebration of Christmas and just that anticipation and the advent calendar and the countdown and the excitement and the anticipation. And while the Bible says we don’t know when Jesus is coming again, the fact of the matter is he is coming again and we need to be ready and we need to be watching and working and waiting because Jesus is coming soon. We don’t know when, but it’s one day closer than it was yesterday.

And he is coming again. Well, 1st Corinthians 13 verse 12, the love chapter, the apostle Paul writes these words, for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then we’ll see Jesus face to face. There’s a day coming either with the rapture or when we die.

I believe absent from the body, present with the Lord. I believe a person that dies translates if they know Jesus immediately into the presence of God, Jesus to the thief on the cross. He said today, this very day, you will be with me in paradise and we’ll get to see Christ, get to see him face to face.

That’s what Bud Lane experienced at 1:30 this morning, released from a life of difficulty in the last few months to the glorious presence of the Lord.

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Philippians 3:12-14

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All right, thank you for your singing. We’ll read a couple of verses from Philippians chapter 3. This is Paul telling his life story and we’re going to focus on just these three verses this morning. Here’s what Paul writes to the church at Philippi.

Not that I have already obtained all this. He’s talking about his Christian Walk and knowing Christ better. Where I’ve already arrived at my goal but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All right, we are plowing our way through the book of Philippians and just a reminder, this is one of Paul’s prison epistles and he was sent to Rome because he wants a trial there and he’s a Roman citizen and he’s under house arrest for two years and what’s Paul do? He makes some good use of his time there and he writes four letters.

One of them that we’re looking at this morning is really a thank you note because the Church of Philippi sent a man by the name of Epaphroditus with a gift for Paul. Paul also shared the gospel and so at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, I bring you greetings from Caesar’s household and through Paul’s witness, some people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Jesus and so this morning we’re going to look at a couple verses from Philippians chapter 3, just three verses and think about some principles of spiritual growth. I love springtime.

It is spring, isn’t it? It doesn’t quite feel like it yet. It’s coming in about four or five days. Temperature’s going to warm up but I love the changing seasons and we get to spring and a little warmer temperature, longer daylight, there’s some signs of life, greener grass, budding trees, flowers that bloom and it reminds us of a basic principle that where there’s life, there’s some evidences of life.

That’s true in the natural material world but that’s also true in the spiritual world and so the scriptures give us some analogies to describe what happens when we invite Jesus into our life as our Savior. There’s a tremendous change that takes place. Ephesians 5:8 says, we pass from darkness into light.

That’s Ephesians 5:8, you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord live as children of light but earlier in the book of Philippians, Paul gives the reference of passing from death because Ephesians 2:1 says, before we knew Christ, we were dead in our transgressions and sins but now because of Christ’s mercy and our salvation, we have what? We have a life. We have life.

We’ve passed from death to life and so here’s our main point this morning that we’re going to look at. After our spiritual birth, I hope you have two birthdays. For me, a physical birthday, November 5th, 1955. I tell people you multiply the number of the month times the day and you get the year so that’s my claim to fame.

11 times 5 is 55 but I also have a spiritual birthday, November 23rd, 1963, eight years old. Now some people can’t remember a specific day when they came to know Christ and don’t let that, you know, get you a little upset. Not everyone can remember a specific time.

The important thing is to know that at some point in time, you put your faith in Jesus to be your savior and your sin bearer. So, after our spiritual birth, God’s desire for us is to grow, to grow spiritually. If we’re not growing spiritually, there’s two possible reasons.

We’re either still dead spiritually or we’re dormant or stagnant and that’s very easy to fall into that in the Christian Walk and the Christian journey, just to be dormant or stagnant in our Christian growth. And Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 1st Corinthians 3, he says, I wish I could address you as spiritual, as mature, but you’re still babies in Jesus, babies in Christ, you’re still infants. And so, God wants us to grow and this morning in these three verses, we’re going to look at four principles from the Apostle Paul that will help us on our growth journey with Jesus.

So, let’s look at the first one. Here’s principle number one, principles of spiritual growth. In order to grow spiritually, I must not be content or satisfied with my spiritual growth.

In other words, where I am in my Christian Walk. In order to grow spiritually, I must not be content or satisfied with where I am in my walk with Jesus. What I find interesting, here’s the Apostle Paul, you know, three missionary journeys and started all sorts of churches and wrote 12 or 13 books in the New Testament.

And what does Paul say here? I’m not satisfied with my Christian Walk. And that’s where he starts out. Not that I’ve already obtained all this and that’s a reference back to the previous verses where he says, I want to know Christ.

I want to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings. He’s talking about sanctification and he says, I’m not there yet. I’ve not arrived.

I still have a ways to go. So, here’s the Apostle Paul and he is still struggling saying I need to become more and more like Jesus. In fact, in Romans 7:15, he very honestly admits the things I want to do, I don’t do.

The things I don’t want to do, I do. And he says, oh wretched man that I am. And Paul’s in this struggle between the spiritual life and those still sinful pull of the flesh.

So, in order to grow spiritually, I must not be content or satisfied with where I am in my walk with God. It was Dr. Warren Wiersbe who said, a sanctified dissatisfaction is the first essential to progress in spiritual growth. So, the first step toward growing spiritually is that I have room to grow and I’m not happy or satisfied with where I am.

And that will put us on the pathway of spiritual growth. And so, the fact of the matter is we never get to the point where we say, well, I’ve arrived. I’ve reached sinless perfection.

That’s not going to happen on this side of heaven. That will happen someday when we’re in our glorified bodies. And John says, we will be like Jesus because we’ll see him as he is and our lives will be totally transformed.

And our journey in heaven, there’s no what? No sin, no suffering, no sorrow, no sadness. But on this side of heaven, we’re never going to arrive at that point of sinless perfection. Well, that’s the first principle, not to be content or satisfied with my spiritual growth.

Here’s principle number two. In order to grow spiritually, I must be focused on God’s purpose for my life. So, I need to not be satisfied and content with where I am, but I also need to focus on God’s purpose for my life.

Notice what Paul says in verse 12. Not that I’ve already obtained all this, I’ve already arrived at my goal, for I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Sometimes when people give their testimonies of coming to faith in Christ, they’ll use a phrase like, well, God got a hold of my life.

And we know what they mean. Your life has changed and you’ve come to know Christ as your savior. And Paul says, God got a hold of my life.

And he certainly did. Acts chapter nine, that dramatic conversion. Paul was on the road to Damascus to get Christians out of their homes and persecute them and put them in prison.

And then Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And so, Paul says that I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me. And so, what is God’s plan and purpose for our life? There’s, in one sense, a generic one for all of us.

And there’s also a more individualized plan that God has for your life. So, what’s the, what’s the overarching purpose that we could say, God wants, this is God’s plan for all of us, if you know Jesus, is to become Christ-like. And that’s Romans chapter eight, verse 29, that wonderful passage of scripture.

And verse 29 says that God foreknew, for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. And so, God wants all of us to grow in thinking like Jesus and talking like Jesus and acting like Jesus. We’re to be what the hands, the feet, the lips of Jesus to other people.

That’s the generic goal. But God also has a specific purpose for our life. And what was Paul’s? Paul’s purpose, why did God get a hold of Paul so dramatically? Because Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles.

And God’s goal and purpose of his life was to be this missionary statesman. And yes, Paul’s modus operandi when he got to a town was to go to the Jewish synagogue first. But ultimately, Paul was known as the apostle to the Gentiles.

And so, Paul’s specific plan and purpose was to be called by God to be a missionary, to take the gospel to the Gentile world. He was the very first one to preach the gospel in Europe. And Lydia, that woman who was a seller of purple, a businesswoman, became the first European convert through Paul’s witness.

The apostle Paul talks about this in the New Testament. Let me just reference a couple of verses, Acts chapter 9, verse 15. The apostle Paul, God’s talking to Ananias.

This is right after Paul’s conversion. Go, this man, Saul, is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles. Galatians chapter 1, verses 15 and 16.

The apostle Paul writes, but when God who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. So, Paul was specifically chosen, God’s plan for him was to be the great missionary statesman to the Gentile world. Well, our character goal is Christlikeness, but then God has a specific plan and purpose for each of us.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. I love verses 8 and 9 that basically says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

A lot of times we stop there, but here’s what verse 10 says, for we are God’s handiwork. The original word is poiema, God’s writing a story in our lives, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And so, God wants us to become like Christ, but God also has a plan and a purpose, a unique giftedness for each of us so that we can what? Do good works.

We’re not saved by good works, but we are saved what? To do good works. And that’s all part of God’s plan for our lives. And so very important, and if you’ve ever done a study and never done a study on spiritual giftedness, one of the key studies in scripture, there’s three sections of the New Testament that talk about spiritual gifts that God has given us.

And if you know Jesus as your savior, you have at least one. And there’s all sorts of gifts, the gift of serving, the gift of helps, the gift of giving, the gift of preaching, the gift of teaching, the gift of administration. There’s 12 or 14 of them.

And what we need to find is our giftedness. And then when we operate in our giftedness, we feel fulfilled and we feel satisfied and God uses us in that way. So, in order to grow spiritually, I must not be content or satisfied with my spiritual growth.

I must be focused on God’s plan and purpose for my life. Two more to go. Here’s the third one. In order to grow spiritually, I must let go of my past. I must let go of my past. This is what Paul says as he writes to Philippians in this section of scripture.

Verse 13, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. I’m not there yet. But one thing I do, and he mentions two things, but he’s focused here.

One thing I do, forgetting what is behind. Now we need to learn from our past. But many Christians struggle with the whole matter of forgiveness.

And many Christians have a hard time forgiving themselves. And that will hold you back in your Christian Walk with God. And so, we need to learn to let go of our past.

What does the Bible say when you come to faith in Jesus? Your sins are paid for. You are forgiven. The apostle Paul in 1st Timothy 12, he’s giving his testimony.

He says, I was the chief of sinners. I was the worst sinner in his view. I was the worst sinner on the planet.

And he stood there while Stephen, the first martyr, was being killed and gave his approval. And he was persecuting the church. And Saul then met Jesus, and his life was changed.

And he didn’t let his past hold him back. Now some believers had a hard time accepting Paul, because when Paul became saved and they said that Paul wants to meet with you, they were like, we’re not meeting with that guy. And Barnabas and some others had to vouch for him, that no, this guy’s life has changed.

But we need to let go of our past. What does the Bible say? He’s removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. He’s buried them in the depths of the sea.

He says, I will remember them no more. Not that God forgets our sins because he is omniscient, but it means he will not hold them against us anymore. And so, we are forgiven by the wonderful grace of God.

Just think about some of the Bible characters in their past. Abraham, the father of the Gentiles, who at 75, God called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and God had a plan for Abraham that he revealed to him at 75. And I remember part of Abraham’s story.

At one point in time, they were down in Egypt and Abraham was afraid that his beautiful wife, Sarah, would be looked at in a wrong way. And so, he comes up with this plan. He lies.

This is my sister. And Abraham tells a lie. We think about Moses.

God used Moses, the great deliverer. Well, he committed murder. He killed an Egyptian.

Tried to hide him in the sand. Think about Rahab in the genealogy of Jesus. Well, she was a prostitute, but she came to faith and became part of the genealogy of Jesus.

David committed adultery, came up with a plan to hide his sin and sent Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, into the front line of the battle and told the rest of the soldiers to back away so that he’ll be killed so that David could have Bathsheba. And yet David’s called eventually a man after God’s own heart because he confessed that sin in Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. He’s writing those wonderful psalms of confession that he wrote and forgiveness.

And we mentioned Paul, the chief of sinners. And so oftentimes we let the past hold us back and we’re like, God could never use me because what I’ve done. And just the opposite is true.

God will use your pain, your past probably to develop your strength of ministering to other people. So as Dale Witherington, and I like this poem, it’s called The Life Builder’s Creed. It’s rather long, but I’m going to read it this morning.

Here’s what Dale Witherington writes. Today is the most important day of my life. You know, you don’t make much progress if you’re driving the car, and you’re looking in the rearview mirror all the time.

In fact, that’s kind of dangerous. He says, today is the most important day of my life. Yesterday with its successes and victories, struggles and failures is gone forever.

The past is past, done, finished. I cannot relive it. I cannot go back and change it, but I will learn from it and improve my today.

Today, this moment now, it is God’s gift to me and it is all that I have. Tomorrow with all his joys and sorrows, triumphs and troubles isn’t here yet. Indeed, tomorrow may never come.

Therefore, I will not worry about tomorrow. Today is what God has entrusted to me. It is all that I have.

I will do my best in it. I will demonstrate the best of me in it. My character, giftedness, abilities to my family and friends, clients and associates.

I will identify those things that are the most important to do today. And those things I will do until they are done. And when this day is done, I will look back with satisfaction at that which I have accomplished.

Then and only then will I plan my tomorrow, looking to improve upon today with God’s help. Then I shall go to sleep in peace and contentment. Well, letting go of the past is an important step.

And if you’ve ever struggled with God’s forgiveness, I’d encourage you to have some sort of little bonfire in your backyard and write that whatever issue is holding you back on a piece of paper and then add that to the bonfire and just say, thank God that that’s done, that’s forgiven, that’s under the blood of Jesus and move forward. That’s what Paul had to do. Forgetting my past.

But then there’s a second part and that’s our fourth principle of spiritual growth here. Number four. Here it is.

Keep looking ahead with my focus on the prize. Keep looking ahead with my focus on the prize. Again, Philippians 3 verse 13-14.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. And so, Paul says, stop looking in the rearview mirror. You’re forgiven.

And now I want you to look forward, look ahead, look heavenward to what God has called you to do. Focus on the prize. The NIV here in verse 13 uses the word straining toward what is ahead.

The New King James Version, reaching forward to what is ahead. And the word literally means to stretch forth. The picture is of a hundred-meter dash.

And if you’ve ever seen a photo finish, when they get to the finish line, with all the energy they have, they lean forward because the winner is not like the first person to have maybe a hand cross the finish line, your torso, they base it on your torso. And so, they lean forward with all the energy that they have. And that’s the picture that Paul’s picturing here, that he is invested in effort and discipline and his spiritual walk and his spiritual growth.

And so, he writes to young Timothy, who’s a pastor in Ephesus in 1st Timothy chapter four. And here’s what Paul has to say. Last part of verse seven actually says, train yourself to be godly for physical training is of some value.

There’s value in a physical workout, but godliness has value for all things. Paul describes his spiritual discipline in 1st Corinthians 9. And it’s a reference to an athlete.

Here’s what he writes in 1st Corinthians 9:24 through 27. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run? So, he’s picturing the Christian life as a race and it’s not a sprint, is it? It’s a marathon. It’s a long, long journey.

Everyone runs, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last. He’s talking about the Isthmian games that started in Greece years ago and maybe a reference to the Olympic games. I don’t know if they were going on when Paul was writing this.

I know the Isthmian games were, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself not be disqualified for the prize. Some translations translate this where Paul says, I strike a blow to my body. I buffet my body.

And then some translators or pastors say in America, we say we buffet our body. He’s talking about discipline here, disciplining his body. Why? So, he can win the prize.

And so, Paul is laser focused on the prize. Now what’s the prize? In the context of Philippians 3, it’s not salvation. You already have that.

He’s writing to Christians. The prize that he’s referring to is rewards. Rewards.

So, I don’t know if your school did this. I went to the small private Christian school and we didn’t have that many students. And man, we got awards for everything.

And at the end of the year, we had these assemblies and we got ribbons and certificates and all sorts of things, the awards assembly. And in one sense, the Bible says there’s going to be an awards assembly someday for believers. It’s called the Bema Seat Judgment.

It’s not a judgment for our salvation, but Paul says in Romans 14:12, we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the rewards for the things we’ve done for him in the body. And so, Paul says, I press on toward the prize. I don’t know if you’ve ever gave much thought or have given much thought to what it must be like someday.

This is, you know, we’re already going to go to heaven. We already have our entrance ticket to heaven through what Jesus has done. But we’re going to have to stand and we’re going to have to give an account of our time, talent, and treasure to Jesus.

I’ve stood before a judge once in my lifetime and I was 19 years old and involved in an assault and battery. I was the battered one, by the way, not the assaulting one. Had to stand before a judge and man, I was 19 and I was nervous.

I wonder what it’s going to be like to stand before Jesus and give an account. And so, Paul says, I’m focused on the prize and I’m disciplining my spiritual walk so that someday I’ll win the prize. So, what are these prizes? What are these rewards? And we’re going to wrap this up in just five minutes here.

So, three C letters. First one is commendation. What is the prize? Commendation.

Matthew chapter 25, verse 23, Jesus says, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the presence of the Lord. Wouldn’t you like to hear those words from Jesus someday? Words of commendation. You’ve been faithful.

None of us are perfect, but you’ve been faithful and well done, my servant. That was, that was what Paul was looking forward to, the commendation of Jesus. So, words of commendation.

The second part of the prize, our C letter is crowns. And the Bible says there’s five crowns, specific crowns that are mentioned in the Bible, rewards. Paul writes about it in 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

His last epistle, Paul’s ready to die. He writes his final words, for I’m already being poured out like a drink offering. The time for my departure is near.

I’ve fought the good fight. I’ve finished the race. I’ve kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me that day. And not only to me, but to all those who have longed for his appearing. And so, Paul refers to this crown of righteousness given to those who have been faithful, those that are anticipating and looking forward to Christ’s return someday, the blessed hope, return of Christ.

So, it’s commendation, it’s crowns, but here’s the third one, the letter C, and I’m just going to say it’s the person of Christ. Is our reward. Genesis chapter 15, verse 1, where God’s calling Abraham to be the father of the Jewish nation, says to Abraham, do not be afraid, Abraham.

I am your shield, and I am your very great reward. I’m your reward. And someday our reward will be to see Jesus’ face to face.

I love that song that Fannie Crosby authored, and she wrote, you know, I don’t know, a thousand hymns, a thousand songs, from a young blind girl. And she talks about, writes about the very first face that I’m going to see in my life and remember is going to be the face of Jesus. We’ll see him face to face and he will be our reward and our prize.

Well, four principles of spiritual growth. Number one, don’t be content or satisfied with where you are in your spiritual journey. Secondly, be focused on God’s plan and purpose for your life.

God has a plan. He wants you to be more and more like Jesus and he has a specific plan of things that he has for you to accomplish for him. Number three, we need to let go of our past.

Those are gone. Those sins are under the blood of Christ to be remembered no more. And we need to look ahead with my focus on the prize.

Now, God always designed the church to grow in the context of community. And I’m so thankful that you’re here this morning because that indicates you have a desire to grow spiritually. But if I would encourage you to maybe take the next step, I would also say that one of the ways that we can grow, too, is in smaller groups and Bible studies.

And a lot of churches have small group programs. We’re not there yet. Maybe that’s something we need to think about in the future.

But in the meantime, we have lots of Bible studies and lots of opportunities for you to get together with other Christians and to grow through Sunday school classes, through Monday night Bible studies, through Beyond Awana, through a Wednesday night ladies Bible study, a Thursday afternoon Bible study, through men’s fellowship breakfast, ladies fellowship breakfast. Lots of opportunities to grow. If you’re not comfortable with any of that, I would strongly suggest, if you don’t have a prayer partner, take initiative and just get to know somebody and just say, hey, could we get together every now and then, maybe once a week and pray together? You can even do it, I mean, ideally in person, but certainly you could do that over the phone.

I’ve prayed with hundreds of people over the phone. I’ve learned when they call me and they have a need and they ask for prayer, a lot of times I say, well, let’s just pray right now. And so that’s going to help us in our Christian Walk, in our Christian journey to take steps of growth.

We’re going to close by listening to a song, and I keep coming across these songs that are written right out of the book of Philippians. And this is one by a group called Selah, and it’s talking about pressing on. And oftentimes there are times in our Christian life where we all face stuff that’s hard stuff.

And the easy thing to do is sometimes just to quit and to say, God doesn’t care and not continue on in our walk with God. The Boston Marathon is going to be run two weeks from tomorrow, and it’s 26.2 miles. There’s a place in the Boston Marathon in mile number 20; it’s called Newton’s Heartbreak Hill.

And it’s called Heartbreak Hill because you’ve gotten a mile number 20, you’re totally exhausted, and the next half mile is upgrade, uphill. And it’s either going to make or break you. The fact of the matter is in our Christian Walk, and we could, all of us could probably tell stories of disappointments and heartaches that we go through in life and sometimes wonder why, and what do we do when that happens? Well, we do what Paul says here.

We don’t quit, but we press on.

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Philippians 3:7-11

Outline with Blanks

Completed Outline

Well, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read just a few verses from Philippians 3. This is Paul writing from prison to the church at Philippi, and this is his testimony about coming to Christ as his Savior, at least a part of it. Let me read these four or five verses. Paul writes, but whatever were gains to me I now consider lost for the sake of Christ. 

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. To be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 

Well, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, who pastored Moody Church for many, many years, used to say when it came to sermon time, he says, well, my job is to speak, and your job is to listen, and let’s hope that that ends at the same time, and that would be good. I’m sure you have all heard about the pastor that was looking out, and halfway through his sermon, he noticed someone that was sleeping halfway down the right side of the auditorium, and so he stopped the sermon, and he asked the person next to him, he says, would you happen to nudge him and wake him up? He fell asleep during the sermon, and the man responded, you wake him up, you put him to sleep. So, but really, I don’t mind, I really don’t mind if people sleep during the sermon. 

I say, you’re either going to wake up spiritually refreshed or physically refreshed, and I’ll take either one, so. I won’t tell the story of years ago when our kids were young, and you’re not getting much sleep at night, and my wife was snoring during the sermon, so that was a little distracting, but didn’t happen often, but anyways, we’re looking at the book of Philippians, and just a little context, it’s the joy epistle, Paul’s writing from prison, he’s appealed to Caesar for a trial, and so he’s in Rome, he’s under house arrest, he ended up being there for two years, eventually was released, but during that time period, he wrote four letters, they’re called the prison epistles, and he shared the gospel, and people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Christ, and at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, all God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. So, Paul used his circumstances that weren’t the greatest as an opportunity, what, to share the gospel, and so we’ve been working our way through these four chapters in Philippians, and this morning we’re in Philippians chapter three, verses one through 11. 

This is really Paul’s testimony about how he came to faith in Christ, and not necessarily the details, we get that in Acts chapter nine, but just the change in his life, and as I say that, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, all of us have a story, all of us have a testimony to share of, this was my before-Christ life, this is my after-Christ life. Some of those stories are more dramatic than others. I grew up in a pastor’s home, I’ve been going to church since I was two weeks old, and I remember I’d hear these stories of people who were all sorts of trouble, and made all sorts of bad choices in their life, and they came to faith in Christ, and I’m kind of like, my story’s a little boring.  

Well, you realize that if you were saved young, you could take confidence in the fact that God’s maybe saved you from going astray, and there but for the grace of God go I. So, we all have a story to tell, that’s Ephesians 2:10, we’re God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus, the word workmanship there, some translations say masterpiece, the literal Greek word is poiema. God’s writing a story in our life, and this is part of Paul’s story, and so he had a dramatic change in his life, if you know the life of Saul, who was persecuting the church, and then he met Jesus in Acts 9, and became the great apostle. So, we’re going to start with the outline, and then we’ll have some application questions at the end, and then we’ll look at a video to close.  

So, this is Paul’s commands, Philippians 3:1. Now my translation starts with the word further, my brothers and sisters. Some of your translations might say finally, the word can be translated either way, but Paul’s just in chapter three, beginning of chapter three of four chapters, so it’s probably better translated further. We’ve all heard sermons, and the pastor says, and in conclusion, and 25 minutes later, is that message still going? Paul has this finally in closing the end of the book in Philippians 4:8, so probably further is a better translation, but notice what he says, further my brothers and sisters. 

I’ll just stop there for a moment. He uses that phrase six times to refer to the Philippian believers. He says, you’re my brothers and sisters in Christ.  

So, we sing that song, I’m so glad I’m part of the family of God. And it’s true that if you’re a believer in Jesus, then another believer is your brother or sister in Christ. We’re part of God’s forever family. 

Now if you go to church down south anywhere, if you’ve been there, you know how they’re going to refer to you, don’t you? They don’t call you by your first name, they refer to you as Brother Alan and Sister Michelle. That’s how they do it down south. We don’t tend to do that up north, although I have friends that refer to me as Brother Ron.  

So, it’s the concept that we’re part of a family. I’ve talked many times about my pen pal, Steve, that’s in Jackson Prison. He will never get outside of Jackson Prison.  

I’ve been a pen pal of his for probably almost 30 years now. And so, I get four or five letters a year from him. He quarterly sends a financial gift to our church from his job.  

He considers, although he’s never been to Community Bible Church, he considers this church his church family. So just got a letter about 10 days ago from my friend Steve. Let me read just a little portion to you because it fits right in here with Philippians 3:1. Dear Pastor Ron, greetings to you and my brothers and sisters at Community Bible Church.  

You didn’t know you had a brother in Jackson Prison, but you do, yeah. So, I’ll just jump to the last paragraph here. Soon to reach 71 years old, I’ve done 31 of them confined within these fences. 

But the Lord has been by my side all along the way. I sure wish I had known him before causing people so much grief. In a way it reminds me of Saul persecuting the early church before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and changing Saul’s life forever.  

He sure has changed mine. Send my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Community Bible Church. There’s a little parallel there, isn’t there? We’re reading a letter from Paul from prison and here’s my friend Steve that considers all of us his brothers and sisters in Christ.  

Well, the outline, Paul’s commands, he gives us two. Here’s the first one. Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.  

Now the word joy and rejoicing are found 14 times in the book. I think this is the first time where Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. He’s given other commands to rejoice.  

We’ll get to chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. He repeats it often. But he really gives us the key to our source of joy.  

Where is true joy found? And it’s not found in our circumstances, but it’s found in Christ and the blessings that we have in Christ. I had an article in the mail this week from the Christian Legal Association and they had an article called Joy. And let me just read some of it.  

It says, this Easter season let’s remember that true lasting joy is not based on circumstances but is deeply rooted in a personal relationship with Christ and the assurance of his sovereignty. Then he lists all these things. Where does our joy come from as Christians? Joy comes from Christ, not circumstances.  

There’s joy in trials. Not that we rejoice in the trial, but what God is doing in our life through the trial. He reminds us that joy is a choice.  

Joy comes from obedience to God. Joy is rooted in the hope of salvation. Joy is found in serving others. 

Joy is linked to gratitude and on and on. And this is what Paul’s saying, I want you to rejoice. Maybe your circumstances are really good.  

Maybe you’re going through a real hard time, but our joy is found in Christ and who he is and all of his promises and all the blessings that we get from knowing him. But there’s a second command. And if you read Philippians chapter 3 verse 2 by itself, it’s probably one of the strangest verses in all the Bible. 

But we got to try to put some context to it. So here’s what Paul writes. Watch out for those dogs. 

What in the world are you talking about, Paul? Watch out for those dogs. Then he goes on to say those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh. So what you have to realize that back in the first century, dogs were not household pets. 

Not like we have today. Dogs were outside. They were scavengers.  

And so he’s not being complimentary here. Watch out for the dogs, evil doers. Watch out for the mutilators of flesh. 

What’s Paul referring to or who is Paul referring to? And Paul’s referring to a group of people known as the Judaizers. So this is very important to understand. They were false teachers.  

The whole book of Galatians deals with this. And apparently after Paul started the church at Philippi, there came some false teachers into the church. And they were trying to preach something different from what Paul preached.  

So here’s what Judaizers believed and tried to impose on others. In the early church, those who taught salvation by a combination of God’s grace and human effort were called Judaizers. The word Judaizer comes from the Greek verb meaning to live according to Jewish customs.  

A Judaizer taught that in order to be saved, a person must conform to the Mosaic law. Circumcision especially was promoted as necessary for salvation. And so he would say in order to be a follower of Christ, you have to first of all convert to Judaism basically.  

You have to follow the law and all those regulations. So it’s God’s grace plus human effort. Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes first and then they could come to Christ. 

The doctrine of the Judaizers was a mixture of grace and works. The false doctrine was dealt with in Acts chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council. And as I mentioned, strongly condemned in the book of Galatians.  

In fact, let me to read you some of Paul’s strongest words that he ever wrote. And he’s writing to the believers in Galatia who had started to follow Christ. They came out of Judaism, and they were tempted then to go back to follow the old ways, the old customs and to keep the law.  

And so, this is Galatians 1:6 through 9. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one, we preach to you, let them be under God’s curse.  

As we have already said, so now I say it again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you have accepted, let them be under God’s curse. Those are some pretty strong words from Paul. Why would he be so harsh? He’s being so harsh because someone that preaches a different way of salvation other than through faith in Christ, by grace alone, in Christ alone, you are leading people to condemnation.  

You’re leading people astray. And so, Paul is very strongly condemning those that preach other than the true gospel. So back to Philippians chapter 1 and the two commands.  

He says, rejoice in the Lord. And hey, I want you to be aware of those Judaizers. They’re really evildoers.  

They’re mutilators of the flesh and that refers to the right of circumcision. So now Paul comes to a conclusion in Philippians 3:3. Here’s what he says, for it is we who are the circumcision. Those of us that have put our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone now in the New Testament under grace, we are the circumcision.  

Not those who have gone through a physical rite, but genuine Christians have had their hearts circumcised and opened to the gospel. And then he gives three descriptive phrases of those who are true believers. We serve God by his Spirit.  

We boast in Christ Jesus. We put no confidence in the flesh. So our confidence is not in a system of works.  

It’s not in doing good works. It’s not in circumcision. It’s not in all these religious acts, but our faith and trust is in Christ alone.  

And so, we are the true circumcision. In fact, back in Deuteronomy chapter 30, the book of the second law, here’s verse 6. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart, with all your soul and live. If we go to Acts chapter 2, Peter’s Pentecost sermon and the day the church was born, here’s part of Peter’s sermon.  

He says, therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.  

They said, what should we do? Now, we’re not talking about a physical cutting of circumcision, but a conviction of the heart. And so, Paul says, those that have put their faith in Jesus have been convicted of their sins, are the true circumcision, the true believers. And the Judaizers are evildoers.  

They’re simply mutilators of the flesh. Well, Paul goes on to verse 4, and he talks about confidence in the flesh. And he basically says this.  

If anybody had a spiritual resume, a pedigree that would earn them into heaven, it would be me. So, Paul goes on to now talk about, let me tell you my spiritual background, my spiritual pedigree, because if anybody could work their way or earn their way into heaven, it would be me. So, Paul gives seven or eight descriptions here of his background. 

And let me read it in verse 4. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, if someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I the more. So now he goes on to list his resume, his religious resume. And it’s very impressive from a religious standpoint. 

Here’s what Paul says. Circumcised on the eighth day. We’re going to camp on that just for a little bit because I find this fascinating.  

That was the Jewish law, wasn’t it? That was God’s command that male children are to be circumcised on the eighth day. That’s Leviticus 12:3. 3,500 years ago, God said on the eighth day, a boy is to be circumcised. Now did you ever wonder why God said the eighth day? Why not the third day? Why not the 14th day? God never explains it in the scripture why he says male children should be circumcised the eighth day. 

The number of years ago I came across this and I reviewed it again this week, an article called from a website, Bible Apologetics. It says, why the eighth day? Well, here it is. Not until fairly recently did we have any idea if there was any medical reasons for the eighth day.  

Here’s a hint. It all has to do with the way blood clots. If vitamin K is not present when a baby boy is circumcised, the baby will bleed to death.  

The reason God established day eight for circumcision is that vitamin K peaks in a newborn at eight days of age. The eighth day is the optimum day of circumcision because of the highest presence of the clotting factor, vitamin K. Today when baby boys are circumcised within a couple days, day two or day three of birth, they are administered vitamin K to help their body. I found that amazing. 

That God knew, the creator of the universe knew that you need to do this on day number eight because that’s when vitamin K peaks and that’s when the optimal day to do that. And so we go back to the point of, we’ll just say father knows best. And as I thought about that, I thought about, you know, sometimes there’s some things in scripture that God tells us to do and they don’t make sense to us.  

I would say, you know what? Do it anyway because God knows what’s best and we don’t have to figure it out. Sometimes we like to figure out reasons. God just wants us to obey.  

So this is Paul’s pedigree, circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel. So he was part of God’s chosen people of the Jewish nation of the tribe of Benjamin. That’s the right family of all the 12 tribes.  

The first king of Israel, Saul, came from the tribe of Benjamin. So that was a favored tribe out of the 12. He was from the right religion, the Hebrews.  

He had the right education concerning the law. He was a Pharisee. He was trained under Gamaliel, the leading Pharisee of the day, the teacher of the day. 

He had the right zeal as for zeal persecuting the church. Paul thought he was doing the right thing until he met Jesus. But he was zealous for his religion just like many people today that unfortunately don’t believe the right truth and the right doctrine.  

But guess what? They’re out knocking on your door. They’re out on a two-year missionary trip. They’re zealous but not according to truth and that described Paul. 

And so he had the right zeal and then he had the right morality as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. The Pharisees came up with 612 do’s and don’ts that they added to the law. Paul says, I’m trying to keep them all.  

And so Paul basically says, if anybody could earn their way to heaven, it would be me. But that moves us on to Paul’s new calculation, verses 7 through 10. And here’s where it all turns with that three-letter word B-U-T. 

But now he’s referring to his experience where he came to know Christ as his Savior. This is Paul’s post-conversion story from Acts chapter 9. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old things are passed away.  

Everything becomes new. So now Paul has a totally new perspective. And when he writes these verses 7 through 10, he’s writing about a new value system and the context is salvation.  

He’s talking about salvation. And so here’s what he has to say about his new value system. And it’s basically everything that I used to put on the left side of the ledger that I thought was a positive to try to earn salvation, I’ve now got it on the other side of the ledger, the big fat zero. 

Here’s his new value system. But whatever were gains to me, that’s those verses we just read, I now consider them loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom’s sake I’ve lost all things. 

When Paul uses the word loss, he uses the Greek words, zemia, it means it’s worthless. Not, that there’s not value in that, but there is value in education. There is value in other things, but not to gain salvation.  

And so, he’s talking about as far as gaining salvation, all that effort is a big fat zero. In fact, he goes on to say in the last part of verse 8, I consider them garbage, rubbish. King James uses the word d-u-n-g, dung. 

This Greek word is used only here in the New Testament. It’s the word skubala. This is worthless.  

It’s garbage. Two weeks ago, Keith Bennett arranged for us to have, what is it, 1-800-CALL-JUNK. And just like in your house, every couple years, where’d all this stuff come from? And we need to get rid of it.  

And so, we have to do that occasionally in the church because we tend to collect things. And we had two big trucks, and man, we got a lot of junk that had just been sitting around. No one’s used it for years and emptied out our hopefully soon-remodeled youth area out here. 

And then that got hauled to the dumpster and got hauled to the dump. That’s what Paul’s talking about here. As far as gaining salvation, it’s worthless, it’s useless, it’s rubbish, that I might gain Christ.  

And then here he is in verse 9. Here’s the key phrase, to be found in him. There’s two groups of people in the world, those that are in Christ and those that are outside of Christ. Those that are in Christ, what happens when we put our faith in Jesus? The righteousness of Christ gets credited to our account.  

He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might what? Have the righteousness of God. God’s perfection gets credited to our account. And we have the assurance of heaven.  

And Paul says that’s the true value in life, that I might be found in him. And so Paul’s talking about salvation, be found in Christ. But then in verse 10, he begins to talk about sanctification.  

That’s our growing in Christ. That’s growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and learning more about Jesus and becoming more like Jesus. And so, here’s what Paul writes as far as his desire now.  

He says, I want to know Christ. That was what the first opening song was all about. And we’ll hear it again at the close of the service.  

Paul says, I want to know Christ. And then he lists three things. To know the power of his resurrection.  

And I want to know the resurrection power of Christ that rose again from the grave. And someday if you know Jesus is your savior, that’s going to happen to your body and my body. There will be a literal, physical resurrection of our bodies. 

But Paul here is talking about the Christian walk and the power of his resurrection, and Romans 6 talks about this. He’s talking about what? Having victory over sin in our life. And Christ’s resurrection power, you can read Romans 6:11 through 14, we won’t take time to do it, but victory over sin in our life, the power of his resurrection.  

Paul says, I want to know the power of his resurrection and the participation in his sufferings. I don’t know if I’ve ever honestly made a statement like that. I want to participate in the sufferings of Christ, but oftentimes God allows us to go through times of suffering, whether it’s physical suffering or emotional, relational suffering. 

Paul says, I want to experience the suffering, participation of the sufferings of Christ. And Paul did suffer. 2nd Corinthians 11:23-26, I’ll just read a portion of it.  

This is what Paul experiences as a missionary and a great apostle. He says, I’ve worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews, 40 lashes minus one.  

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked.  

I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I’ve been constantly on the move. I’ve been in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my fellow Jews, in danger from the Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger in the sea, on and on it goes.  

He says, I went through a lot. And he says, I want to experience the sufferings of Jesus. And then he goes on to say the third thing that he’s talking about as far as his sanctification and becoming like him in his death and so somehow attained to the resurrection from the dead.  

So, Paul’s not uncertain about the resurrection because he writes about that in 1st Corinthians 15. I think here he’s saying he’s unsure of the way he was going to die. Is he going to be executed in prison or is he going to die of old age? But Paul says, someday I want to experience the resurrection of Jesus. 

Well, this is Paul’s A.C., B.C. – A.C. story, before Christ, after Christ. And he says, as far as salvation is concerned, the only thing that matters is what Jesus has done for us on the cross. So, this morning I want to ask just a couple of two very important application questions that are from the text here.  

Here’s the first one. Am I rejoicing in the Lord? I mean, Paul mentions it like 14 times here, so it’s kind of hard to miss the message. But do I, am I choosing joy in my life? And can I be joyful even though life isn’t always good. I have an aunt in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Went through heart surgery nine weeks ago. She’s 78 years old. I’ve shared this with some of you. 

As my youngest, my dad’s got one brother left, my youngest dad’s brother, and this is his wife. And had some little bit of complications post-surgery, and then in her recovery, could not get off a ventilator. And after like 10, 12 days, then they, you know, did a tracheostomy.  

Now she’s hooked up to a ventilator, you know, through her throat, and it’s helping her breathe. She’s in the ICU for like five weeks, and they finally moved her to a recovery hospital. And after two days, they sent her back because she just got pneumonia, got some infections.  

Nine weeks later, she’s still in ICU. And we’ve been in contact with her family and my cousins and my uncle. And my cousin texted me, I think it was Thursday, and said, hey, can you give me a call? And I’m like, oh man this, this isn’t good. 

And she says, yeah, we’re at a crossroads here, and we’re going to do another breathing test. And can you just pray? And so, we have been. But I tell you, for my uncle, my two cousins, they’re twin, twin girls, beautiful, beautiful people that love the Lord.  

It has been agonizing. You don’t know what the future, future is. Doctor asked my aunt, do you want to keep fighting? She can’t really talk.  

She’s mouthing words. And she said, yes. How certain are you about that? And she says, on a scale of one to ten, she said eight. 

Okay. We’re going to keep fighting. It’s going to be a lot of work.  

We’re going to keep fighting. Well, in situations like that, it’s incredibly difficult to choose joy, but the joy is in knowing that where Nedra is going to be if God takes her home. So, am I rejoicing in the Lord, or am I just focusing on my circumstances? And if we just focus on our circumstances, we’re going to get discouraged.  

We’re going to begin to compare our lives to others. But joy is found in knowing Jesus and his promises, and that he’s got a plan for our life, even when we don’t understand the pain sometimes. Here’s the second question, and it’s probably the most important one. 

And this is the evangelism explosion question that they teach. Have you ever gone through a class about how to share your faith? I’ve asked this question dozens and dozens of times to people, maybe at this point hundreds of times to people. It’s the most important answer you will give in your whole life, because it’ll determine your future destiny.  

Here’s the question. If you’re standing before heaven’s gates and God were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven? What would your response be? As I mentioned, I’ve asked that question dozens or hundreds of times, and sometimes I have to give people a little chance to think about it and to answer that question. Other people know the answer right off the bat. 

But here’s what many people have told me. Well, you know what? I think I’ve lived a pretty good life, and I’ve not really done anything really, really bad compared to some other people that I know, so I think I’m going to be good. I have to tell them, well, I have some news for you.  

I’ve got some bad news, and I’ve got some good news. The bad news is that’s the wrong answer. That’s not going to get you into heaven. 

That’s what Paul was relying on. Look at me. Look how good I am.  

I went to Pharisee school. I’ve got all this alphabet soup after my name. As far as earning heaven, it’s a big zero. 

The only answer that’s the right answer is the only reason I can get into heaven because I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be my savior, and he paid my sin debt, and my trust is in him and him alone for my eternal destiny. And so that’s a crucial question that I hope you can answer the right answer to that. If you have any question about that, any question at all, we’d love to talk to you right after the service and take care of that this morning to know for sure.  

First John says we can know for sure that we have eternal life. You don’t have to like, I hope I make it. I wonder if I make it.  

No, we can have that certainty. Am I rejoicing in the Lord? Do I know Jesus as my savior? Nothing to the cross I bring, simply to the cross I cling. For by grace are you saved through faith in that and out of yourselves. 

It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And let me just add one other encouragement when we’re thinking about our B.C. – A.C. story. Because this is your story, you might think your story’s boring or not important and nothing could be further from the truth.  

I love to hear people’s testimonies. I love to hear how they came to know Christ. And so, if you’ve never taken time to kind of concisely put your story in maybe a two-minute, at the most, three-minute verbalization to people, I encourage you to do that or just write it down. 

God can use that to impact other people. And so, 1st Peter 3:15 says. Always be prepared to give an answer, an apologia for the hope that is in you. And so, I would encourage you, you need to be ready to tell your story and watch how God uses that in the lives of other people

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Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

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Well, one of the ways that he revives us again is by living in community, because the Christian life is not designed to be lived alone. And you get isolated in your Christian Walk, it’s going to become discouraging. And that’s one of the reasons why we gather together here on a Sunday morning to not only to worship, but to encourage one another.  

Well, let me read from Ecclesiastes chapter 4, 9 through 12 and this is what Solomon writes about two being better than one. Verses 9 through 12, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.  

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. We’re going to dive into the gift of friendship this morning in the book of Philippians.  

Well, we’ve been journeying through the book of Philippians, and we’re going to conclude chapter two this morning. There’s four chapters in the book of Philippians. The first couple chapters are longer than the last two, so we’ll probably be about 60 percent of our way through the book of Philippians.  

And so, this morning we’re going to think about the gift of friendship, the gift of friendship. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the TV series Friends. Very popular TV series on NBC.  

It was from 1994 to 2004. I’m not sure I’ve ever watched the whole episode of it to be honest with you, but you’ve probably seen Friends. It followed the lives of six young people.  

They were in their 20’s and 30’s. They lived in New York City. You’ll be familiar with some of these names.  

Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt Lebak, the late Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer. In its eighth season, it was the top-rated TV show in all of television. Won 62 Emmy Awards.  

Its final season finale, which was May 6, 2004, so it’s been in reruns for 20-some years, was the fifth most watched TV series finale in TV history. 52 and a half million people watched that last episode of Friends. And when I say that I know you’re dying to know what were the other top four, so I threw that in as well.  

So here it is. Number four was Seinfeld. Number three, the top-rated last show of the series was The Fugitive.  

Number two was Cheers. I know somebody knows number one. What do you think? M.A.S.H. It was M.A.S.H. 105.9 million people watched that last episode of M.A.S.H. Now I hope you’re going to get more from the sermon than talking about that afterwards, so that’s just extra.  

So, in our passage this morning in Philippians chapter 2, and we’re going to be looking at, I believe verses 19-30, we’re introduced to two of Paul’s friends. They were not only friends, but they were also ministry partners. One name we’re familiar with, the other name maybe not so much, but it’s Timothy and Epaphroditus.  

Timothy and Epaphroditus. So, this morning we want to think about a couple of main points here. Here’s the first one.  

Genuine friends. I’m not talking Facebook friends. You go on Facebook and someone’s got 2,500 friends.  

Those aren’t all your friends. I’m talking about genuine friends are a gift from God. Genuine friends are a gift from God.  

James 1:17 says, every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. So, if you have some genuine friends in your life, you’re blessed. They’re God’s gift to you and they enrich our lives.  

The passage we read in Ecclesiastes that Solomon wrote tells us what some of the benefits of friends are. Well, you can get more work done. Two people can accomplish more than one. 

As we go through that passage that we read, when you’re in need, there’s someone to help you. If you fall down and there’s no one to help you, you’re in trouble. A couple weeks ago, my sister-in-law’s mom, who’s been having all sorts of health problems, fell in the middle of the night.  

She’s living alone. Lives close by to my brother and sister-in-law. And it was 3 o’clock in the morning.  

She ended up breaking her, it’s either her hip or her femur. So, they have it set up where, you know this Alexa thing? They have it set up where all she had to do was say, Alexa, call Susan, which is her daughter. And 3 o’clock in the morning, Susan’s phone rang, and she dashed over and called the emergency and helped her.  

She had surgery and is in recovery. But yeah, help in need. The third thing is body heat.  

How can one stay warm being alone? Well, that was written before electric blankets, so it can be done. And then a better defense. So, there’s lots of benefits to friends.  

So, the first thing we want to think about is genuine friends are a gift from God. But secondly, ministry involves partnership. Ministry involves partnership.  

So, this whole letter that Paul wrote is really a thank you note to the Philippian believers who sent a financial gift to Paul. And he talks about partnership all through the book of Philippians, the beginning of chapter 1, verse 5. He says, I pray with joy because of what? Your partnership in the gospel. He talks about contending for the faith as an athletic team.  

We’re working together, striving together for the same goal. They partnered with him financially. And so, ministry isn’t designed to be done alone.  

It’s a partnership. And thank God for those ministry partnerships. Well, this morning we’re going to look at four characteristics of genuine friends and ministry partners.  

And I’m really taking them from the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus. So, we’re going to dive into Philippians chapter 2, verse 19. And here’s how Paul starts.  

Remember, he’s in Rome. He’s under house arrest. He was there for two years, eventually got released. 

And now he’s writing a thank you letter back. So, here’s what he has to say beginning in verse 19. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.  

So, the distance between Rome and Philippi, 800 miles. So, this is not an easy journey. But Paul says, I can’t come visit and encourage you, but I hope to send Timothy, my son in the faith, to you to encourage you. 

You know, texts are nice to get from friends, letters are nice, emails are nice, but nothing beats a personal visit. Just a personal visit from friends. And so, Paul says, I’m going to send, I’m hoping to send Timothy to you soon so that he can encourage you and also bring a good report back to me. 

Now let’s look at the first character trait of these four-character traits of genuine friends, ministry partners.  

Here’s the first one. It’s selfless, being selfless. Notice what Paul says about Timothy. I have no one else like him. I have no one else like my partner Timothy. 

What made Timothy so unique and so special? Well, the text goes on to say, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. Timothy is one who cares deeply about other people. He’s authentic.  

He’s real. He shows genuine concern for other people. A friend cares. 

And genuine friends really, really care. It’s Proverbs 17:17. A friend loves you all the time. 

So, if we’re going to be a good friend, selflessness. And maybe the first step in that is to be a good listener. James chapter 1 verse 19 says, everyone should be what? Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry.  

Our natural human tendency is just the opposite. We’re quick to speak or we’re slow to listen. We’re quick to speak and we’re sometimes quick to get angry.  

And so, Timothy had this selflessness about him, and he cared deeply. And Paul says, I have no one else like him. Verse 21, for everyone looks out for their own interests, but not those of Jesus Christ.  

So, everyone else is kind of looking out for their own concerns and their own interests. And Paul says, Timothy is concerned about the ministry. Isn’t it interesting that just early in the chapter, Paul is talking about humility and what humility looks like.  

And in Philippians 2:3-4, he says, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of others. And then Paul goes on to talk about the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? It puts others before self.  

And so, Paul talks about Timothy, and he says, he’s selfless. He has genuine, authentic desire to care for other people. I hope you have some friends like that in your life. 

I hope you’re willing to be that kind of friend that genuinely cares for others in your life. Well, the second trait is faithfulness, faithfulness. Friends are dependable. 

Friends are people that you can count on. And notice what Paul writes in verse 22, but you know that Timothy has proved himself. So, my friend Timothy, who I’m going to hopefully send to you, has this track record of being faithful.  

There are some friendship relationships that I would describe with the word transactional. And by that, I mean that they’re friends with you as long as they can get some benefit from you, as long as there’s something beneficial coming into their life because of this friendship. But as soon as that comes to an end, that friendship kind of goes by the wayside. 

Quite frankly, I’ve seen this in church ministry over the years where sometimes people come and they have needs, whether it’s a financial need or some other type of need, and the church helps them financially and maybe does some counseling with them and they’re in crisis. And then that crisis is over. Guess what else is over? They’re not here anymore. 

That’s a transactional relationship. I’m getting benefits, so I’ll be your friend, but Paul says Timothy was faithful. It says he has proved himself because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.  

So here is Timothy, who’s Paul’s right-hand man, and he’s got a proven track record. So where did Paul meet Timothy? Well, Paul and Silas were on a second missionary journey, and they get to a place called Lystra. This is Acts chapter 16, the first few verses.  

Let me just read it to refresh our memories. Acts 16, verse 1, Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. His mother was named Eunice.  

We found out later his grandmother Lois that built into Timothy’s life. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the rest of the journey.  

So, Paul is introduced to Timothy. The people there in Lystra say, hey, this is a really good guy. And so, Timothy joins Paul on the second missionary journey, and Paul’s got some track record with Timothy.  

And unlike John Mark, who on the first missionary journey bailed on Paul halfway through, he’s like, this is too hard, I’m going home. No, Timothy was faithful. And so, Paul says, Timothy has proved himself because as a son of the faith he served me with the gospel, with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.  

So, verse 23, I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. So, remember, Paul’s life’s up in the air. He’s going to face a trial soon.  

He thinks he’s going to live and be released, but he doesn’t know for sure. So, Paul says, I’m hoping to send him soon, and I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon. And Paul did.  

Paul was released from house arrest. He later on, and this is later on in the book of Acts, missionary journey number three in Acts chapter 20, he did see the Philippian believers again personally, to encourage them. So, first two characteristics of genuine friends and ministry partners.  

They’re selfless. They put the needs of others before their own, and they are faithful. They are dependable.  

They can be counted on. Well, here’s the third one, and this is as we move into the life of Epaphroditus. Characteristic number three of genuine friends and ministry partners is that they share core values.  

There are some core beliefs. There are some essential beliefs that they are on the same page with. Note Paul’s descriptive terms of Epaphroditus, but I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus.  

Remember he had brought the gift. Now Paul wants to send him back. Notice his description, my brother.  

He’s not talking about physical brother. He’s talking about spiritual brother. So, they share what? Faith in Christ.  

They share salvation. In fact, all through the letter of the book to the Philippians, Paul addresses them as what? Brothers and sisters. He uses the phrase seven times, and so there’s that core value. 

They’re one in Christ. Then he goes on to describe him as a co-worker. We’re sharing together on the same mission.  

He says, he’s my fellow soldier. He recognizes that Christian life is a spiritual battle. Ephesians chapter six talks about that.  

That our enemy isn’t flesh and blood, but it’s what? It’s a spiritual dynamic that we’re fighting against. The more you get involved in ministry and trying to make a difference in the kingdom, probably the greater you’re going to sense that. So, he says, he’s my fellow soldier.  

In fact, when Paul writes his last letter to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter two, this time he’s in a prison and he’s not going to get out of prison. He’s going to die. He encourages Timothy, who’s now pastoring in Ephesus, endure hardness like a good soldier for Jesus Christ.  

So here are these core values. Epaphroditus is my brother. He’s, my co-worker.  

He’s my fellow soldier. That describes genuine friendship. There’s these essential core values that you share together.  

Now in the Christian faith, there are five fundamental truths that some people call bullet theology. That means you’re willing to die for. These are five truths that we must agree on.  

There’re other truths about eschatology and when the rapture occurs, and we can agree to disagree, but the five fundamentals of faith, here they are. The inerrancy of Scripture, that Scripture is God-breathed, God-inspired. The deity of Christ, that’s a core belief that Jesus is God.  

The virgin birth, a substitutionary atonement, the physical resurrection of Jesus, and the second coming. Those are all core values and beliefs that we must hold on to. And so genuine friends are selfless, they’re faithful, and there’s a certain core value system that they share.  

Here’s a fourth one. Characteristic number four from Philippians chapter two. We’re going to pick this up in verse 25, reading verses 25-27.  

I’ve already read part of it. It’s necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 

Indeed, he was ill and almost died, but God had mercy on him, and not only him only, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.  

Let me just get this fourth characteristic point up there, and then we’ll finish the passage. Genuine friends and ministry partners are willing to go the extra mile to meet a need, or in Epaphroditus’ case, we would say the extra 800 miles to take the gift from the church at Philippi to Paul.  

And now Paul’s sending him back with this letter, and he says, hey, welcome him back, because guess what? Epaphroditus got sick. Epaphroditus almost died, and God spared his life. Therefore, verse 28, I’m all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again, you may be glad, and I may have less anxiety.  

I may have less anxiety. That phrase struck me. Paul’s being honest here.  

I’m thinking, wait a second, Paul. Aren’t you the one in this letter who wrote, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God? And now Paul says, I’ll have less anxiety. Paul’s being real here.  

Paul’s being honest here. I’ve discovered that in my own life, and people are going through all sorts of trials, and you can quote this verse like, oh, Bible says don’t worry, but just pray. And then something in my own life or my family life happens, and all of a sudden, it’s like, that’s not easy to do, is it? And so, Paul’s saying, I’m going to send him back, and when he gets back there, I’ll just be so relieved.  

I’ll have less anxiety, because Epaphroditus has made it back. So then welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me, so he brought that financial gift, and he almost died. 

God spared him, and now Paul’s sending him back. I mentioned it’s 800 miles from Rome to Philippi, a long hazardous journey, probably took six weeks one-way, treacherous terrain, across the Adriatic Sea by boat to Italy, and then via the Roman road system to Rome, and then Epaphroditus has to go back home another six weeks. So I don’t know how they determined who’s going to make this trip in the church meeting at Philippi, but they might have had a business meeting and said, well, will anybody volunteer to give up three months of their life away from family, make a hazardous journey to go visit the Apostle Paul? And I don’t know if Epaphroditus volunteered, but obviously I guess he did, and he risked his life for the cause of the gospel, and he made this trip. 

We’re all different. I don’t know about you, but I’m a homebody. I don’t, I mean, I’m not a big traveler.  

I like to be in my own bed at night, and here’s Epaphroditus, three months from home, risked his life for the cause of the gospel. What else is interesting about Epaphroditus is that his name is of pagan origin. It means belonging to Aphrodite, which was a Greek goddess, and so here’s this man by the name of Epaphroditus, who probably was an unbeliever, probably was worshiping the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and he hears the gospel and his life is changed, and he’s willing to go the extra mile and make this long journey to go visit the Apostle Paul.  

And so, four characteristics of genuine friends and ministry partners, you want to be a genuine friend or have a genuine friendship, that person needs to be selfless, faithful, sharing some core values, willing to go the extra mile to meet needs.  

Well, this morning, we want to think about, really quickly, just a couple of action steps, because one of the dangers of hearing messages is just to say, well, that’s nice, but what do we need to do? What’s the application point? What’s an action step I can take? So, I’ve listed two, and they’re quite simple here. So, this is, again, from the book of James warning to us, don’t just be hearers, but be doers of the word.  

Here’s the first one from the text here. Take initiative in getting to know someone in the community Bible church family. Take initiative. 

Proverbs 18:24 says a man that has friends must show himself to be friendly. If you want to have friends, you need to take some initiative, and that comes easier for some of us than others. I remember a long, long time ago that there was somebody that had been attending the church, and I hadn’t seen him for a while, maybe four or five weeks, and I actually called him up and just tried to encourage him, and actually, he was kind of quite bitter, and he says, well, nobody cares about me at that church. 

You know, nobody cares about me, and I said, well, wait a second. I just called you. You know, I’m reaching out to you, and he was a little bit combative, and so I finally said, well, who do you care about there? Have you ever reached out to anybody and tried to make a friend? He said, no, no. Well, we need to take initiative in making friends. As I said, this comes more naturally from others, from those that have that outgoing personality. And if you have a little different personality, this is going to be a little bit more challenging because it will take you out of your comfort zone.  

But it could be quite simple, like on a Sunday morning, you could say this. Well, don’t say exactly this, but something similar. Hey, my name is Pastor Ron.  

I don’t think we’ve met. Don’t say you’re Pastor Ron. You put your name in there. 

So, we need to take initiative. And I’ve learned that one of the ways to get to know people is ask questions and just ask some questions and get to know them. And so that’s very, very important.  

I’ll tell you how important that is because statistics tell us that if a new person comes to a church and after three or four months, they don’t know the names of six or seven people, I don’t care how good the programs are. I don’t care how good the preaching is. I don’t care how good everything is.  

They’re not coming back. Because nobody wants to go to a church where they really don’t know anybody, and they feel like a stranger and outsider all the time. And so, a man that has friends must show himself friendly.  

And so, you know, maybe my challenge to all of us, and all of us probably have somebody here that we really don’t know by name, and one of the things I’d like to try to work for in the next several months is a pictorial directory that will help us learn people’s names and identify with their picture. But just try to get to know one person that you don’t know every Sunday. And that’ll be a great blessing and a great encouragement in your life and in our church life.  

I always find it interesting when God puts things on the same page. I was downstairs this week and we were setting up some things for our Wednesday night program and I came across this. This must be something that was taught in our, maybe in either in Sunday school or our junior church program, but this is from last week, I think.  

It says, here’s what they were teaching on. Choose godly friends. Word friends across the top.  

How are we to treat friends? Luke 6:31, 1st Thessalonians 5:11, Ecclesiastes 4:9 and 10. How does God say to pick your friends? Proverbs 12:26. How do godly friends make you feel? Great stuff.  

Take initiative in getting to know somebody in the church. Here’s the second one and then we’ll bring this to a conclusion here. The second one is this. 

Get involved in being a ministry partner. And take a step to get involved to being a ministry partner. There’s lots of different ways that we can do this.  

But I’ll tell you what, nothing happens in God’s work without three things. There are prayer, finances, and workers. And so, here’s ways to be a ministry partner.  

You could be a prayer partner. Pray for your church. Pray for your pastor.  

Pray for church leaders. Pray for one another. Join up on our prayer chain.  

We can get your email. And when people need prayer, we try to get that request out. That’s a great way to partner.  

And Paul and the Philippian church had this mutual prayer support. Paul says, I’m praying for you. And I’m sure they were praying for him. 

But you can be a ministry partner through prayer. And prayer is vital. But there’s also financial partnership.  

And this is where God has blessed us so much through your faithfulness. Jesus said in Acts 20:35, Dr. Luke’s quoting Jesus, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And as you grow a little more mature in your life journey, you discover that the blessing in life is in giving.  

That the giver as well as the receiver gets blessed. But Jesus said that the greatest blessing comes in giving. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. 

I was just thinking over the last four months, and this goes back to December 1st when we had our, what we called our Acts 1-8 project, where we channeled some funds. I don’t know if you were here that Sunday, but we had five ministry groups here. We were able to give them checks for their ministry in a total of $35,000.  

Now this is over and above our regular missions giving. And we support 14 missionaries on a monthly basis. But between December 1st, Acts 1-8 giving, between our Awana Youth Ministry project where we just gave $10,000 two weeks ago to, the Community Bible Church just funneled in the last four months $45,000 into missions through you to touch Southeast Asia, to touch kids’ lives in the inner city of Detroit, to touch the lives of school kids in the country of Uganda. And so, thank you for being a faithful financial partner that makes a difference in lives around the world.  

Well, the third one and the last one is a service partner, and prayer partner, financial partner, and service partner, and that’s just the meaning plugging into some sort of service ministry needs here. And one of the key things is to find your giftedness of where God has made you and how God has made you and then plug you into that type of ministry.  

We’ve got some opportunities here, Sunday School Ministry, Awana Ministry, Beyond Awana Ministry, Bible Studies, Junior Church, Tech Team Ministry, Greeter Ministry, Youth Ministry, Men’s Ministry, Women’s Ministry, Nursery Ministry, and find out where can I serve. I was encouraged this week because I met with somebody earlier in the week and we worked our way through some conversations and at the end he told me, he says, well, you know what? He says, I want to get involved here. He says, I’d like to just find an avenue where I can serve.  

And so, we’re praying about that. I’m going to meet him in another week and just kind of see how God has made him and where he can be plugged into ministry here. And that doesn’t happen very often when someone comes to you and says, hey, where can I serve? And so, action steps.  

Take initiative in getting to know somebody. Man, that has friends must show himself friendly. And then the partnership ministry, prayer ministry, financial ministry, and service ministry.  

Well, I trust that’s an encouragement to you. And I would say a place like this is a great place to make some friends. And also, good to make friends outside of our Christian circle, isn’t it? And so, to develop the relationships with other people that are lost so what we can share the good news with them.

The post The Gift Of Friendship – Philippians 2:19-30 appeared first on Community Bible Church.

Philippians 2:14-16

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We’re going to read three verses from Philippians chapter two. These are great instructions, not only for our kids, but for all of us.  

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, amen, having raised three kids, so that you might become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life, and then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.  

We are continuing our journey in the book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in all the Bible, called the Joy Epistle, because the word joy and rejoicing is found 14 times in the book. And just a little bit of a review.   

Paul’s in Rome, and he’s on trial, and he’s appealed to Caesar, and so he’s taking him to Rome, and he’s soon going to stand trial. He’s under house arrest. Able to have visitors.   

He’s sharing the gospel. Some of the Roman guard has come to faith in Christ. He’s also being productive.   

He writes four letters while he’s in prison there. They’re called the prison epistles. You have them in your Bible.  

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And so, Paul is writing a thank you note, really, to the church at Philippi, who sent a financial gift to him through one of their members by the name of Epaphroditus, and we’ll look at that more in detail next week.   

But this morning, we want to look at chapter 2. We’re going to look at verses 12 through 18. And this is entitled, Don’t Whine, but Shine for Jesus. So, we’re going to talk about how we can do that this morning.  

Here’s the main point, and it’s taken right from our text here. God wants our lives to shine like stars in the midst of a dark world. God wants your life, my life, to be different, to shine like a star in the midst of a dark world.   

Or as the NIV translation says in verse 15, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault. Here’s how Paul describes first century, a warped and crooked generation. Some translations say a perverse generation.   

And so sometimes we think that, you know, our world has drastically changed and it’s never been this bad. Paul’s describing the world in the first century, and he says it’s warped and perverse. It’s crooked.   

One of the reasons our world today can be described in those terms is because in our culture today, there’s no, for the most part, belief in absolute truth. We kind of live in a day like is described in the end of the book of Judges, where the last verse in the book of Judges said that every man did that which was right in their own eyes. And so, when you have no absolute standard of truth, then everything becomes relative and you have your truth and I have my truth.   

And that’s how we get to a warped and crooked generation. Well, Paul writing to the church at Philippi that he was the founding pastor of, he uses this imagery and he says, God wants you to shine like stars in a dark world. Now that’s an imagery that’s all through scripture.   

Jesus talked about it in Matthew 5:16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see what your good works, your good deeds, and glorify your father in heaven. Now we’re not saved by good works.   

The Bible’s very clear about that. But Ephesians 2:10, we are saved to do good works. And that’s part of the Christian life.  

And in Hebrews, it says one of the reasons we’re to come together is to, the King James uses the word provoke one another, but it’s not to get each other mad, it’s to provoke one another. What? To love and good deeds. It’s to encourage our kids on Wednesday night to bring some coins together in a little box.   

So what? So, we can make a difference all the way across the other side of the world. That’s what God saved us for. So, he wants our lives to shine like stars in the universe.   

Daniel writes about that imagery in Daniel chapter 12, verse 3. Here’s what Daniel writes, last chapter of the book of Daniel, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens. And those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. So, God wants your life to shine.  

Someone has said the darker the night, the brighter the light. And so, as our culture moves darker and darker and further away from God’s standard, it gives us an opportunity to shine, shine brightly for him. Now one of the things I like about living out in the country, and I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, so I grew up in the city, but if you walk out on a clear cloudless night and you look up in the night sky, man you can see those stars just shining.   

And I’ve done that a few times just to, you know, just to look up in the heavens and you see God’s incredible creation and the brightness of the stars. And you feel really, really small when you begin to think about how big the universe is. And so, let’s look at Philippians chapter 2. We’re going to start in verse 12.   

Paul makes an initial appeal here to the Philippian believers. He’s 800 miles away from them. He’s under house arrest.   

So, he writes, therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence. So, Paul’s saying like, hey I’m your founding pastor. You’re living for Jesus, but don’t just do it while I’m here.   

Don’t just live for God when your spiritual leader is watching you. Live for Jesus all the time. And so, the book of Colossians talks about that and the employer-employee relationship.   

How do you become a good employee? Colossians chapter 3, the context of slaves and masters. Slaves obey your earthly masters and everything and do it not only when their eye is on you, not only when the boss is watching, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord.   

So, Paul says, hey, don’t just live for God when I’m around. He’s the master and he’s watching you all the time. And so, obey even when I’m not around.  

Reminds me of elementary school. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and I went to this very small private Christian school. There were 43 students in the original founding of the school, K through third grade.   

First through third grade, we’re all in one room. I tell people I grew up in a one-room schoolhouse, kind of true. But I always remember, you know, like second, third grade, the teacher would say, now I’m going to leave the room for just, I have to leave the room for like five minutes.   

And so, you have your assignment and I want you to work on your assignment and I’ll be back shortly. That would hold for about a minute and a half. And then after about three or four minutes, kind of all chaos would break loose.   

So, Paul’s saying, don’t just obey when I’m here, when I’m with you, but do it at all times. So now we’re going to look at how can we shine like stars in a dark night? What does God want us to do to make our lives different and shine brightly for him? So, we’re going to think of four things that are talked about in the text here. So, let’s look at the first one.   

Four commands or imperatives in order for me to shine like Jesus. Number one, I have to work out my salvation. I have to work out my salvation.   

Notice we didn’t say work for your salvation. That’s already been purchased for us. Remember what Jesus, his victory cry on the cross, it was Aramaic word, to telestai, it is finished.   

Jesus paid it all. And we just need to receive that free gift, don’t we, of eternal life when we put our faith in him. So, it’s not working for your salvation, but Paul here uses the imagery of working out your salvation because God wants us to have, what, fruitful productive lives.   

And that takes effort on our part. I saw a post on Facebook, I think it was earlier this week, Fusilier’s, which owns a piece of land at the corner here and has some farming land in the area. And I noticed it was a post and they were out before the sun was up and they were starting to rototill the fields, drag the fields because they’re going to soon plant some onions in those fields.  

And so, they’re out before the sunrise, this is what, beginning to prepare the soil because they want some productivity. And the farmers understand that. That’s kind of the imagery here.  

We need to work out our salvation. It’s called sanctification, three tenses of salvation. Justification, I have been saved.   

Sanctification, I am being saved. A t-shirt that was popular years ago, be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet. We’re hopefully becoming more and more like Jesus.   

And then the third tense is our final part of salvation, glorification when we’re in heaven and we’re like Jesus because we’ve arrived and our salvation is complete. But notice in the text here, it says, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Well, why would Paul write that? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.   

Well, I looked up, go to one of my favorite websites, it’s called Got Questions. It’s a great biblical site for questions. And so, here’s what they said about that phrase, fear and trembling.  

What does it mean to work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Paul can hardly be encouraging believers to live in a continuous condition of anxiety. That would contradict his many other exhortations of peace of mind and courage and confidence in God. The Greek word fear in this context can equally mean reverence or respect.   

It’s an awe of who God is. They say trembling is the attitude Christians are to have in pursuing this goal. A healthy fear of offending God through disobedience and an awe and respect for his majesty and holiness.  

Sometimes we forget about the main attribute of God and one of the main ones is God is holy. Remember in Exodus chapter three, when God was calling Moses to be the deliverer, leader of the nation of Israel and to deliver them out of Egyptian slavery, Moses was 80 years old and he sees that burning bush and God begins to talk to him out of the burning bush. And one of the things that God says to him is, take off your sandals because you’re standing on holy ground.   

And so, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 1st Timothy 4:7, train yourself to be godly. The word train is the word gymnas in the original Greek.   

We get the word gymnasium from there. And so, we all or a lot of us try to have some sort of physical workout program. I finally begun to think maybe I should be doing some exercise that becomes more important as you get older.   

I try to spend 15, 20 minutes on a treadmill five or six days a week. It’s not a lot, but keeps you moving. Some of you hopefully have a physical workout program or a gym membership.   

And so, the question is, what is your spiritual workout program? What’s your plan for spiritual growth, spiritual development? It really consists of two things. In the spiritual workout program, it’s diet and exercise. Very similar to physical workout.   

Diet is our intake of God’s word and exposure to the word of God. The navigators came up with this for years. There’s five ways to take in God’s word.  

You can meditate on it. Bible tells us to do that. You can memorize scripture.  

You can study it. You can read it. You can hear it.   

We’re doing a couple of those this morning. And so, it’s the intake of God’s word, but it’s also exercise. What is exercise? It’s using our spiritual giftedness to advance God’s kingdom.   

That’s our spiritual workout program. And God has given us very clear in scripture, 1st Corinthians, I think it’s chapter 12, 1st Peter 4. God’s given each of us at least one spiritual gift, one ability to be used to advance God’s kingdom. Last verse in Ephesians 4, talking about those spiritual gifts, it says, we want to grow together in the faith as each one does its part.  

And so, the spiritual workout program is reading God’s word and studying God’s word and hearing God’s word, but it’s also asking God to use the gift that he gave you to advance the kingdom. Probably 20 years ago, I was in a morning session over at Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference. There’s about 150 people in that morning session, and the speaker that was preaching was talking about this very topic, how God has gifted each one of us with a gift.   

Now, I want to say this to people that might be newer in attending a church. I think it’s okay to kind of spend a year or two attending and then kind of find that source of place of giftedness. That’s okay.   

But at some point, in time, God wants us to serve. And so, near the end of his message, he tells people, okay, now I want you to get in groups of three or four, and I want you to share with each other what is your ministry in your local church. And some people were very eager to share that.   

For others, it was kind of an awkward silence. So, in order to shine for Jesus, I must, what, work out my salvation. You need to grow in Christ is another way of saying it.   

Well, there’s a second way that we can shine for Jesus in the midst of a dark world. I love this verse. Quoted it to my kids all the time when they were growing up.   

Philippians 2:13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in accordance in order to fulfill his good purpose.   

So, you’re not alone in this spiritual growth thing. God’s your partner in this. He’s going to help you.   

But then here’s point number two. In order to shine for Jesus, I must stop whining and complaining. Do everything, what, without grumbling or arguing.   

The New King James Version, complaining and disputing. Now, if anybody had the right to complain, it would have been the Apostle Paul. You read about his life, and he writes an autobiographical section, and he says, man, I was in prison frequently.   

I was beaten frequently. I was stoned in Lystra, left for dead. He goes on and on and on.   

And here’s Paul in prison. He could have said, this is what I get for serving Jesus. Two years of house arrest.   

But he didn’t complain. And so, he’s writing to the believers, and he says, do everything without whining and complaining. Don’t you love to be around people that complain all the time? You know, just love that.   

No, it kind of drives you away, doesn’t it? Everybody just, person just complains about everything. And so, Paul says, stop whining and complaining.   

In fact, in Chapter 4, he talks about learning to be what? Content. Paul says, I know how to have a lot. I know how to have little.  

I’ve learned the secret of contentment. And of course, that was his relationship with Jesus. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1st Corinthians Chapter 10, because it’s kind of an interesting passage that kind of sheds some interesting light on this whole matter of whining, grumbling, and complaining.   

Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth, and he’s reviewing Israel’s history. And he’s talking about all the spiritual blessings that God gave to the nation of Israel. And in spite of those blessings, it says in verse 5, God was not pleased with most of them.  

Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. So, a whole generation died off. And so now Paul begins to list these incidences in Israel’s life, and he says, I’m sharing this as an example.  

Verse 6, now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things, as they did. Don’t be like the Israelites. And then he lists four sins.   

I’m just summarizing the text. Don’t be idolatrous like the Israelites. Remember when Moses was up on the Mount, getting the Ten Commandments, and they were getting impatient? What did they end up doing? Golden calf.   

They ended up worshiping it. Don’t be idolatrous like the Israelites. Don’t get involved in sexual immorality.   

We’ll say, yep, that’s idolatry’s bad, sexual immorality is bad. Verse 9, don’t be involved in unbelief’s, lack of faith in God. Nope, that’s not good.   

And then you get to verse 10, and do not grumble as some of them did. Interesting. Idolatry, sexual immorality, unbelief, complaining.   

Don’t do that. Don’t do that. When you go through the book of Exodus, there’s at least 15 or more instances of the Israelites grumbling and complaining.   

And here they were rescued from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and they get out of the wilderness, and they start to complain about the manna. Oh, we had better food back in Egypt. And yeah, you’re also slaves in Egypt.  

And they complained and complained and complained. God wasn’t happy with them. Paul, in writing to the Philippian believers, says, if you’re going to shine like Jesus, don’t whine and complain.   

I’ve been in the ministry long enough to, hear some complaints. Now, not from anybody here, but these are a list of actual complaints I’ve heard over the years. I’ve just jotted a few of them down.   

One family stopped coming to church because the lights in the auditorium were too bright. They’re too bright. Well, put on some sunglasses maybe.   

I don’t know, or we’ll adjust the wattage. Messages are too long. Messages are too short.   

Too many hymns. Not enough hymns. Too many newer songs.   

Here’s one. There’s a weird smell in the church. Well, maybe it’s following you.   

I don’t know. You moved the family Bible off the altar, and we donated that, Bible. We kept it there for like a year and a half and finally moved it.  

I thought that was a mortal sin. So, Paul says, stop it. Stop whining.   

Stop complaining. In order to shine for Jesus, I need to work out my salvation. I need to grow in my faith.   

I need to stop whining and complaining. Here’s the third thought, command. Let me just pick it up in verse 14.   

Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault, in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. Here it is.

Here’s our verse 16. As you hold firmly to the Word of Life. As you hold firmly to the Word of Life.   

And so, in order to shine for Jesus, I have to hold fast and hold forth the Word of Life. Hold fast and hold forth the Word of Life. Now, I don’t know what your version of the Bible uses as a translation but the NIV says, hold firmly to the Word of Life.   

But the Greek verb translating holding fast or holding firmly has two thoughts. The first one is holding fast to the Christian doctrine, to the fundamentals of the faith. The fact that we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.  

And we need to stand firmly on that. We need to contend for the faith, the truth of the gospel. But the second aspect is holding forth the Word of Life.   

What’s the Word of Life? It’s the scripture. It’s what? The gospel is the Word of Life. And so, we need to hold onto that firmly, that doctrine.   

But we also need to hold forth the Word of Life to share the good news of the gospel. I love 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21. Paul, again, writing to the believers, and he says that Christ, or God, has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors. So, we’re an official ambassador for Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And now, let me start that over.   

We’re therefore Christ’s ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. And then here’s the gospel in a nutshell.   

God made him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him, we put our faith in him, we might become the righteousness of God. That’s perfection. God’s holy.   

You have to be perfect to go to heaven. Nobody’s perfect. That’s why we need the righteousness of Christ.   

That’s the gospel. So, the apostle Paul says, if we’re going to shine like a star in the dark world, we need to, what? Share the good news of the gospel of Jesus. I’m looking for a tract here that I had.   

Here it is, under my Bible. I don’t know if you noticed, these are on that little white table as you come into the entryway of the church to your left, if you come in the double doors there. And this is a tract that I’ve used for years.  

That’s Billy Graham Association. If you have a tract that you’re familiar with and like, use it. This is one I’ve used for many, many years.  

And it just explains the gospel in simple steps and then explains at the end how to receive the gospel. I’m kind of encouraged because I put like six or eight out there on the that white table and then I come in on Monday sometimes I’m like oh you know some of those are gone and I’m resupplying it so I don’t know who’s taking them. Somebody is.   

What’s been interesting over the last few years is that you know MEC has been putting the internet all around this area and so there’s the guys that are out in the field working. Guess what they need an occasional place to use the restroom. So, we’ve kind of been known in the area now like the guys from MEC stop all the time and they’re like hey can we use your bathroom? Certainly.   

And I’ve had a chance to interact with some of them and maybe they’re picking some of these up. Some of the delivery drivers do it as well. You know they come into the church.   

So, all that to say I’m encouraged that these keep disappearing. A great way to just share God’s truth with others. And one of the things that just excites me is when I have opportunities to share the gospel.  

This last Wednesday every week I have a little 10-15 minute teaching lesson with the kids. We usually show a little video and then story of the Bible and then talk about it. But this last week I just took the time to share the gospel and kind of a wide age group of kids and sometimes you wonder you know are they even listening and they are.   

It’s a wonderful opportunity to just share God’s truth and plant that seed in the lives of those kids that are here Wednesday. Friday morning, I had the opportunity to share the gospel. So, one of the things that I’ve always done over the years in the community that I live in is sometimes funeral directors will call me up and say hey we have a family, lost a loved one, they don’t have a pastor, need someone to do a funeral service.   

And if my schedule allows it, I always say yes, I’ll do that. You know why? Because I get to share the gospel with people. And if there’s ever a time when people are kind of maybe tuned in a little bit to the gospel it’s that it’s at a funeral.   

At a funeral Friday morning at the Manchester funeral home here. The family that I’d done a service for about four or five months ago, one of their relatives, and then the dad in the family died suddenly. 71 years old, heart-wrenching to see his kids get up there.  

They gave a tribute to him and two young grandsons under a year that you know he’ll never be able to see those grandkids grow up. And so, when I was there, I noticed like why are there so many police officers in the parking lot? And found out that the youngest son is a police officer in Lansing. And so, there were 25 police officers from Lansing that were there seated as part of the group that was there to support their comrade.   

And I had the gospel, a privilege to share the gospel with not only everybody who was there, with 25 police officers from the city of Lansing. God wants us to what? To hold forth, hold fast the word of life, to share Jesus with others. If I’m going to shine for Jesus, I need to do that.   

Lastly here’s the last one. If I’m going to shine for Jesus like a star in the midst of a dark world I need to live for others. I need to live for others.  

Second part of verse 16, talking about holding the word of life. Paul says, and then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. So, Paul’s saying as you live for God someday when I have to stand before God and give an account of my ministry, I’m going to be able to boast that I did not waste my life.  

All my life was vested in the gospel and the spiritual growth of other people. Day of Christ is the day when our salvation is complete. Paul says I’m going to be able to boast that I didn’t run or labor in vain.   

I don’t know about you but I hate to waste stuff. I mean I’m just like; I don’t like to throw like any food away. I hate to waste time.   

I like to feel productive. I certainly hate to waste money. Paul says I didn’t waste my life because I invested my life in you and you’re living for God and I made a difference in the kingdom.   

And so, here’s his analogy. He says, but even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming for your faith, I’m glad and rejoice with all of you so you too should be what glad and rejoice with me. What’s Paul talking about? He’s using the illustration of a drink offering.   

This is in the Old Testament that after a sacrificial animal was offered on the altar oftentimes you would take a vial of wine and pour it out on that sacrifice and the hotness of the altar and it would offer up a drink offering sacrifice to God. Paul uses that imagery at the very end of his life in his last epistle. He’s back in prison and this time he’s not getting out.   

He’s going to be executed. He writes for I’m already being poured out like a drink offering. The time for my departure is near.   

Then he says, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I’ve kept the faith.   

Now there’s in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only me but to all those who have longed for his appearing. I’ll use a sports illustration. This is what Paul’s saying.  

If you follow sports or maybe played sports and the intensity of a lot of sports, sometimes someone that’s given it their all in an athletic event and at the end of the event they are just like, I left it all out on the field. In other words, like I gave everything I had to try to win this athletic event. That’s what Paul’s saying here.   

I poured out my life for God and therefore there’s going to be a reward for me someday. Well, God wants our lives to shine like stars in the midst of a dark world. Paul says, I want your life to shine like a star in the night sky. In order to shine for Jesus like that, I need to keep growing in my faith, working out my salvation.   

I need to not be a whiner or a complainer. I need to hold out the word of life and I need to live for other people. When you do that, your life will shine in the midst of a dark and corrupt and crooked world and will give honor and glory to Jesus.  

The post Don’t Whine … Shine! Philippians 2:12-18 appeared first on Community Bible Church.

Philippians 2:9-11

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All right, if you’ll remain standing, we’ll read some scripture here. This is Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. Perhaps some familiar verses to you but let me read it for you. 

Therefore, God exalted him, that’s Jesus, to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God the Father. Well, I’m looking at the clock on the back wall and it looks to me like I have an hour and 40 minutes to preach. So, we close at about 11 and it’s 9:21 or 22, so no we won’t do that. 

We won’t go that long. But glad you’re here this morning on this sunny Sunday afternoon or morning, I guess it is. I’m missing that hour of sleep as well. 

Hey, we’ve been looking at the book of Philippians. And so, I like to just kind of review and bring us up to speed and kind of set the context. And so, let’s do that this morning. 

This is message number five, I think, on the book of Philippians. It’s called the Joy Epistle. And one of the reasons is because the word joy and rejoice is found 14 times in this short letter. 

And it’s written from Rome. Paul’s under house arrest. He’s been on trial, and he requests a hearing with Caesar. 

And so, Paul always wanted to go to Rome and preach the gospel. I’m not quite sure this is how he expected to get to Rome as a prisoner. Isn’t that the way God works sometimes in our lives? We have these expectations. 

We think what’s going to happen. And oftentimes God has a different plan. But Paul did get to Rome and he’s a prisoner and he does get to preach the gospel. 

And so not only does he preach the gospel and some of Caesar’s household comes to faith in Christ. Because if you get to the end of the book, Paul’s sending greetings to the church at Philippi. And he says, all those in Caesar’s household greet you. 

And so, through Paul’s witness in prison, some of Caesar’s household came to know Christ as their savior. And Paul also, he was there for about two years under house arrest. He was able to have visitors come and go. 

He also used his time wisely. He wrote four letters. We have them in our Bible. 

They’re known as the prison epistles. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, not Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and then Philemon. Those are the four prison epistles. 

So, Philippians is basically a thank you note. The church at Philippi had taken an offering and sent a gift with a fellow by the name of Epaphroditus. He makes his way from Philippi to Rome, and he gives that gift to Paul. 

And Paul the apostle is writing now a thank you letter that he wants to send back with Epaphroditus to thank the church for their giving. Philippians is also Paul’s most personal letter. He was the founding pastor of the church there. 

It was Lydia who was the first European convert at a woman’s prayer meeting that came to faith in Christ in her household. It was the Philippian jailer that came to faith in Christ in his household. And Paul ministered these people, and he loved these people. 

So, when he writes this letter, it’s a personal letter, and he says, I have you in my thoughts. Every time I remember you, I thank God for you. And then he said, I have you in my prayers. 

Paul said, I’m praying for you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And then Paul says, I have you in my heart. 

He loved these people. He says, it is right for me to feel this way. This is Philippians 1:7-8. 

Since I have you in my heart, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Jesus. So, Paul had a very close relationship with these believers in Philippi. Well, then we looked at verses 9-11. 

Paul said, I’m praying for you. And verses 9-11 is one of the prayers that Paul prayed for the Philippian believers. He prayed for three things. 

He says, I want your love to abound more and more. And we said, is Paul praying that their love for each other would abound, that their love for God would abound, that their love for unbelievers would abound? And I would say yes to all three because God wants us to increase in our love in all of those areas. Secondly, he prayed that their knowledge and depth of insight would increase. 

And then he prayed for discernment. I want you to be able to discern and make wise choices so you can live your best life. And that takes spiritual discernment. 

And as we study the prayers of the Bible, and especially the prayers of the Apostle Paul, and God convicted my heart, and we talked about having a balanced prayer life. Because I find most of my prayer life is kind of like an organ recital, and we need to pray for people who are sick. But Paul also prayed for what? Spiritual growth and people to come to faith in Christ and spiritual development. 

Well, then we looked at verses 13 through, I believe it’s 26. And Paul, three things Paul wanted us to know. Three declarations that Paul makes to the Philippians. 

And first of all, he said, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the things that have happened to me have happened for the furtherance of the gospel. He’s saying, don’t feel sorry for me. I’m in prison, but God’s got a plan and a purpose, and the purpose is that he’s witnessing to the Roman guards. 

And then he makes a second I know statement, and it has to do with Paul’s deliverance. Paul says, I know I’m going to be delivered. What did Paul mean by that? Paul’s saying, I don’t know if I’m going to live. 

I don’t know if I’m going to die, but I know I’m going to be delivered. I’m either going to be delivered from prison, and I’ll continue to minister to God’s people, or if I die, I’m going to be delivered to heaven. And so, Paul makes this wonderful life purpose statement. 

If you don’t have one, here’s a great one. That’s Philippians 1:21. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. 

He talks about heaven. And then Paul makes a third I know statement, and it’s found in verse 25, and it’s Paul’s dilemma. And so, Paul, as he writes this, he’s like, man, I kind of feel like I’m torn between the two. 

I want to go to heaven, which is, he uses a triple superlative, which is far, far, far better than planet Earth. But I also feel this tug to be here. And maybe God still has some work for me to do, and it’s necessary for me to encourage the Philippian believers. 

So, Paul’s third I know statement is, I know that I will remain. Paul felt this confidence that God still had a plan for him and to minister to people for years to come. And that’s what happened. 

Paul was released from prison, and he continued to minister. Well, last Sunday, we looked at the last few verses of chapter one, how should we then live? And this charge from Paul to the Philippian churches, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. And that’s a theme all through Paul’s writings. 

He talks about the worthy walk. So, you call yourself a Christian, this is how you’re to live as a Christian. And please make that calling and that walk with God and walk with Jesus, make that look good to other people. 

And so, we talked about what that looked like. And Paul continues with this theme. And that brings us to chapter two, Philippians chapter two, and titled this, How to Get Along with Others. 

Although there’s lots of other areas, we could go in Philippians chapter two, verses one through 11. It’s a great passage about who Jesus is. But we’re going to talk about relationships today. 

How to get along with others. And Paul’s writing to a church family. And as we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, he actually calls out two ladies toward the end of the book by the name of Euodia and Syntyche. 

And he says, I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. I don’t know what was going on between the two ladies in the Philippian church, but they weren’t getting along. And so, Paul calls them out. 

And so, Paul’s talking about relationships, how to get along with people. There’s a little poem that says, oh, to live in heaven above with those we love, that’ll be glory. But to live on earth below with those we know, well, that’s a little different story. 

Sometimes we find that other people are difficult to get along with. Now, nobody’s secede here. 

Let’s just make that statement right there. But sometimes there’s people in life that are challenging to get along with. And so, we’re going to look at some principles that Paul lays out here for our relationships. 

But first of all, I want us to think about the fact of this whole matter of joy and what brought Paul joy. And it’s found in our text here. And it’s found in verse two where Paul says, Make my joy complete. 

And Paul’s asking for these believers to live in such a way that would bring him joy. And so, here’s the premise or the principles that the apostle Paul found joy in the spiritual development or growth of people. That’s what brought Paul joy. 

As he saw people that he ministered to, and as he saw them, what, growing in Christ and making spiritual progress. And so, Paul is saying, would you make my joy complete by growing in Christ and living a Christ-like life? And by the way, and it’s very clear in scripture for pastors and spiritual leaders. And Hebrews 13:17 talks about spiritual leaders having to give an account for God of their ministry and their people. 

And the author of Hebrews is basically saying, pleading with people to live in such a way so that when the spiritual leader has to give an account for God, he’ll do it with joy. And I’m very cognizant of that fact that someday I’m going to have to stand before God and I’m going to have to give an account for my ministry. I want to do it with joy. 

And so that’s what brought Paul joy. In fact, in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20, Paul says, for what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you, Thessalonian believers? You indeed are our glory and joy. The apostle John writes in his third epistle, 3rd John, verse four, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. 

So, what brought Paul joy? It was people who are walking with Jesus. John says my greatest joy in life is to see my children walk in truth. I don’t know what brings you joy, but I hope that brings, that’s the target of your joy. 

See your kids, your grandkids, those under your sphere of influence to live for Jesus. So where does Paul start here in Philippians chapter two? Well, he starts with attitude, because our actions flow out of our attitude. And perhaps you’ve heard this statement from Dr. Charles Swindoll. 

It’s been around for a long time but let me read it. It speaks to attitude because our attitude is so key. Dr. Swindoll writes, the longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. 

Attitude to me is more important than facts. My past, education, money, circumstances, failures, successes, more important than what other people think or say or do is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. Attitude will make or break a company, a church, or a home. 

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will choose. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. 

We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I’m convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, 90% how I react to it. 

And so, it is with you. We are in charge with our attitudes. So, Paul’s going to talk about our thinking and our attitude here in this passage and what mindset we need to have. 

And so, let’s look at this outline here in Philippians chapter two. And we’re going to start with the commemorations. That means some reminders. 

I had to go with a little different word here to fit our alliteration that starts with C. So, commemorations, Paul’s reminding the believers of something. He gives them four reminders. Let’s look at it beginning in verse one of Philippians chapter two. 

By the way, if your translation says the word “if”, really the better translation is “since”. And in the construction of the Greek, Paul’s saying if, but really the meaning is since this is true. And so, the better rendering is the word since. 

So, since you have any encouragement from being united in Christ. So, he’s reminding the believers that you’re in Christ. That should encourage us. 

What encouragement should that bring? Well, we should be encouraged that being in Christ means your sins are forgiven. We’re going to remember that this morning as we close with the Lord’s table that he’s removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. He’s buried them in the depths of the sea. 

The scriptures say he will remember them no more. It doesn’t mean that God forgets our sins. It means he won’t hold them against us. 

And so, do you have any encouragement from being in Christ? Your sins are forgiven. You’re a child of God. You have access to God’s throne at any time. 

You’re part of God’s family. There are so many blessings from being in Christ. So, he’s reminding them. 

Do you have any encouragement from being in Christ? Do you have any encouragement from Christ’s love? Since there’s any, since there’s encouragement from his love. Dr. David Jeremiah in his book, God Loves You. He always has and he always will. 

Reminds us about God’s love. It’s a universal need. Every human being born on the planet wants to be loved, wants to feel loved. 

The greatest love there is, is God’s love. Dr. Jeremiah reminds us God’s love is uncaused. We love him because he first loved us. 

God’s love is unending. God’s love is unlimited. God’s love is unchanging. 

God’s love is unconditional. There’s nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God. In fact, the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 writes this great portion of scripture in Romans 8 beginning in verse 35. 

He writes to the Roman believers, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? What can separate us from God’s love as believers? Paul writes, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And then he makes this great declaration. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present, the future, any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. 

You’re a child of God. There’s nothing you can do that can separate you from God’s love. And so, Paul’s reminding them of the benefits of being in Christ. 

And Paul’s reminding them of the encouragement that they have from God’s love. And then he reminds them of the indwelling Holy Spirit that lives within them. And he reminds them of God’s mercy and compassion. 

And then he says, since you’ve experienced all this, since you have all this, I want you to make my joy complete. And so, then he tells us how to do that. And he gives us some commands, some do’s and some don’ts in the next couple verses and verses two through four. 

There’s two negative commands and a couple of positive commands. Let’s look at the negative ones first. And here’s the first negative command. 

He’s saying, don’t do this. And this is found in verse three. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition. When we’re born into this world, we are born fallen, sinful creatures, and we are born selfish. Just spend a little bit of time around some young toddlers. 

You know, what’s the first words that a lot of kids learn after mommy and daddy? It’s like, mine, mine. I remember, this is a long, long time ago. We’re having a ladies Bible study here at church. 

And we had childcare lined up and ladies showed up for the Bible study. And a childcare provider, something happened last minute and there was no one in the nursery. And I was here and I said, you know what? No, I’ll watch those kids for like, you know, the Bible study about an hour and a half. 

And I’m down in the toddler room and there was like four toddlers. I’m just watching them. And even though there was like dozens and dozens of toys, they all wanted the same one. 

And for an hour, it was like a power struggle the whole time and put it down and someone else went for it and they would run like, no, you’re not getting that. And it was just classic, you know, that’s just the way we’re born. And then what does Paul say? Don’t do anything out of selfishness. 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition. And the sooner we learned, the sooner our kids and grandkids learned that it’s not about them. Life is not all about them. 

The better off they’ll be. What does God want to do? He wants to move us from selfishness to a life of selflessness. It was Abraham Lincoln; the story is told. 

He was walking down the walkway and he had two boys with him and they were all fussing at each other. And one of them was crying and somebody said to Abraham Lincoln, what’s the matter with your boys? He says, I have three walnuts, these two boys and they each want two of them. You know, so there you go, selfishness. 

So, Paul says, don’t do anything out of selfish ambition. One negative example of that or an example of selfish ambition. And let’s just take a moment to go to Matthew chapter 20. 

You remember this story perhaps in the gospels. Jesus is ministering, he’s got his 12 disciples and there’s a little bit of a power struggle going on. And a well-intended mother, Mrs. Zebedee comes up to Jesus with a request. 

This is in Matthew chapter 20. Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, could my two boys, James and John, could one of them sit on the right hand and the other on the left hand and kind of be there in those power positions? Would that be okay, Jesus? When the other 10 disciples heard that request, they were furious, they were mad. Some commentators think they were mad because they wanted that position. 

And so, Jesus tells Mrs. Zebedee, number one, you don’t really understand what you’re asking for, but then he uses it as a lesson to teach about humility and greatness. He says, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life for many. 

So don’t do anything out of selfishness, selfish ambition, me, me, me. And the second don’t is don’t do anything out of vain conceit. The word there really means pride, arrogance. 

Isn’t it interesting that the middle letter in the word pride is the word I? Jesus’ harshest criticism was reserved for religious leaders who were proud. They were proud of their standing. They were proud of their positions. 

And Jesus’ harshest criticism was for religious people of his day. What’s the warning of Scripture? Pride goes before fall. That’s in Proverbs 16:18. 

We just studied the book of Daniel. Remember King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel warned him and King Nebuchadnezzar did not heed the warnings of Daniel. And so let me just go to Daniel chapter four, verse 29 quickly, and here’s what happened. 

So King Nebuchadnezzar, he’s on the roof of his palace in Babylon. He says, is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? In other words, King Nebuchadnezzar’s saying, look at me and what I have done. And it says, even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven. 

This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken away from you. And so, God judged him. 

And God judged him harshly because of pride. I like sports, grew up in a family of all boys. But at one point in time, the most recognizable name on the planet of earth was Muhammad Ali from St. Joseph, Michigan, not far from here on the other side of the state. But what was Muhammad Ali? What was the statement he was known for? I am the greatest. 

He proclaimed that over and over and over again. Muhammad Ali passed away a few years ago. We happen to get to know his caretaker in his final years. 

He’s a good friend of our daughter-in-law. Name was James. James was the caretaker for Muhammad Ali in his closing years of his life. 

And Parkinson’s ravished his body. If Muhammad Ali never came to know and bowed the knee to Jesus, he found out that he’s not the greatest. So, Paul says, don’t have selfish ambition. 

Don’t do things out of arrogance and pride. But then he tells us some things that we need to do. Verse two, then make my joy complete by being like-minded. 

Talking about unity, the same love, love of Jesus, being one in spirit and one mind. We talked about unity of position. We’re all part of the body of Christ. 

We talk about unity of purpose. What’s our purpose? The gospel, to share the gospel. Why do we send $10,000 over to Southeast Asia? Because those kids need to feel loved and come to know Jesus. 

And so be like-minded, have the same love, being one in spirit and one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, here it is, rather in humility. 

There’s the key word here. We’re going to learn about humility. In humility, value others above yourselves. 

Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of others. Okay, so there’s a key in our relationship. Paul’s saying, don’t just care about yourself. 

Don’t just live a life that’s all about me. You need to value and be concerned about others. Put others first. 

I’ve not watched the movie, but I’ve heard this line from the movie, and it’s a movie, Beaches. And Bette Midler is having coffee or tea with one of her friends, and they’ve been talking for about a half hour, and Bette Midler, her character, has been talking the whole time, and she turns to her friend and says, well, enough about me. Tell me, what do you think of me? What do you think of me? You know. 

No, put others first. Isaiah 66 verse 2. These are the ones I look on with favor. Those who are humble and contrite in spirit and those who tremble at my word.  

Those who are humble. And what is humility? It’s putting the needs of others first. It’s serving others. 

Humility is sometimes having to make an apology. And we all think what we think is right. Otherwise, we wouldn’t think it, right? We always think we’re right.  

But I’ve discovered that we’re not always right. And I’m sometimes not right. I’ll date myself.  

You know, when I was growing up, the show, I’m not, I don’t mean that, you know, I’m giving my age away, happy days and remember Fonzie, he couldn’t even, he tried to say I was, he couldn’t even say it.  

I was wrong. And humility sometimes means going and making an apology. I got a letter probably about three months ago.  

I think I shared this at one of our board meetings. It was from someone that was in a previous church and an incident that happened. It didn’t end up going well and there were some hurt feelings, some wrongs. 

And this was 35 years ago. And I opened this letter. And first of all, it’s, in there’s a donation to the Gideon’s ministry of $100 in my name.  

I thought, well, that was very generous of this person. I haven’t had any contact with them in years, decades. And then there was a little piece of paper in there.  

I’ll read, I’ll read you some of it. Pastor Ron, I want to apologize for any pain and grief I have caused you and your family. And then he kind of goes into the specific thing. 

I believe it was significant and difficult for you. Time has mellowed my perception of things, especially in the shortness of life. I cannot undo what was done.  

I give it all to Christ who knows my nature, my weakness, and many more actions that have not been Christ-like. I make this gift on this card with the hope that God can use it to help others and find a better way. It’s not often you get an apology 35 years later.  

That’s what he was doing. That’s humility. And that rarely, rarely happens, but it’s never too late to make those apologies. 

Well, now we’re going to look at the classic example of humility. And if we could all take a guess, this is like the answer that’s the answer for every question in Sunday School. The little kids think Jesus is the answer to every question.  

And Jesus is the classic example here. And so, Paul writes to the Philippian believers, here it is, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as who? Jesus Christ. I want you to think like Jesus, the attitude of Jesus. 

And what was the attitude of Jesus? And this is so counter-culture to where we are as a country and a nation, where everyone wants to what? Demand their rights. What did Jesus do? Rather than demanding his rights, he relinquished them. He willingly gave them up.  

And so, here’s this classic passage that we could spend several messages on, talking about who Jesus is, and that Jesus is God in the flesh. But here’s how Paul describes the humility of Jesus. There’s really seven steps downward, and this passage is known as the kenosis passage, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.  

Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to death, even the death on the cross. The greatest example of humility is what Jesus did when he left the glories of heaven and willingly became what? A human being, 100% God, 100% human, yet without sin.  

What did that mean? That being human meant experiencing all that we experience, pain, physical pain, emotional pain, rejection. He came into his own and his own believed not in him. The Jews rejected him.  

His own family rejected him and ultimately led him to the most horrific death that we could conceive of. The Romans invented it, death by crucifixion. So, the greatest example of humility, the example of Jesus. 

Perhaps the next greatest example of the humility of Jesus could be found in the Gospel of John. Just a few days before Jesus went to the cross, he’s in the upper room with his disciples. They’re there to observe the Passover.  

Jesus puts a whole new meaning into the Passover, and we’re going to partake of the cup and the bread in a few minutes here. But what did Jesus do while the disciples were in that upper room? The common courtesy would be that there would be a slave there who, as the disciples came in, the slave would wash their feet, especially before a meal. If you’ve seen pictures of the Last Supper, you know that that table’s very low, and they kind of sit lounging, and so your feet are kind of close to another person.  

So really important to wash the feet. There was nobody there to do that. What’s Jesus do? He gets up, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, and one by one washes the feet of the disciples. 

Even Judas Iscariot, who he knew in a little bit was going to literally betray him and kind of knife him in the back. And the Apostle Peter, who in just a few hours was going to deny that he even knew Jesus. Jesus demonstrated what? The humility of a servant.  

Well, that brings us to the close of the passage here, verses 9 through 11. It’s the commendation, the commendation, these great verses that we read. Therefore, God has exalted him to the highest place.  

So, where’s Jesus now? When he ascended to heaven, he’s sitting at the right hand of God the Father, is where Jesus is. That’s the highest place. And gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and heaven on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  

Wow, those are some powerful verses. Let me just take time to read what one commentator, Ray Pritchard, is his name says about these verses. It says, God has given Jesus the name above every name.  

God has ordained that one day his Son will universally be recognized as the Lord of heaven and earth. When that day arrives, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. All creation will physically bow before the Son of God and acknowledge his Lordship.  

Note how universal this will be. It will include all creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth. That would include angels and saints in heaven, all those living on the earth, and the dead and the demons, and Satan himself under the earth.  

No one will be left out. All will be included in the universal declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord. Bowing the knee means submission to him as Lord. 

Confessing with the tongue means that there is no other Lord but Jesus. So, fix this thought clearly in your mind. Jesus will have the last word.  

He will be vindicated before the entire universe, even his enemies will bow before him. In the end, no opposition will stand against him. Key point here, this is not universal salvation.  

So, you can either do it now or you can do it later. And if you do it later, it’s too late after you’ve died. But it’s universal confession. 

Not all will be saved, but all will confess that Jesus is Lord. Every knee will bow someday. Every tongue will confess he’s Lord.  

So very quickly in just the last five, seven minutes here, three quick life lessons, and we’re going to zip through these and then get to the Lord’s table.  

So, what are some reminders, some life lessons we can learn from this? Number one, always remember that God hates pride. That was the original sin of Lucifer, was pride.  

Proverbs 6:16 through 19, seven things that God hates, number one on the list, God hates pride. And so, God wants us to embrace humility. Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount and talking about spiritual disciplines.  

And he’s talking to his followers and the disciples about prayer, about giving, and about fasting. So, he says, when you pray, don’t do your righteous acts to be seen by men. Let me just read some of Matthew 6. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. 

If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues on the streets to be honored by others. So, when you do your giving, don’t do it in a way that you want everybody looking at you.  

And just an illustration of this, some think that when Jesus says, when you give to the needy, don’t announce it with trumpets, he’s talking about maybe how some of the religious leaders gave their offerings. Does he mean a literal trumpet? Here’s a trumpet from back in that day. This would have been a trumpet.  

It’s a ram’s horn. Is someone going to blow and get everybody’s attention? Now a rabbi so-and-so is going to give his offering. You want everybody to pay attention.  

Some people think that when he says about do not announce it with trumpets, that it talks about in the temple and there were some metal receptacles where people would give their giving and announcing it with trumpets meant that you stopped and you kind of made a really loud clanging noise. Oh, they’re giving lots of money. Something like, I just brought this illustration in case anybody’s sleeping this morning, something like this, you know, come in, okay, I’m giving my offering today, (pours coins into a metal bowl). 

Thank you. Don’t do that. What was he saying? Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.  

And he goes down through all those spiritual disciplines and he says, when you pray, don’t pray on the street corners. When you fast, don’t make your face look funny. And what’s wrong with you? Well, I’ve been fasting for the last few days.  

No, God hates pride. Secondly, don’t forget to acknowledge the source of every blessing. So sometimes in life we forget to thank God, don’t we? And so, this is just an attitude and a mindset that we need to have. 

1st Corinthians 4:7 asks a very interesting question. What do you have that you did not receive? The church I grew up in, my dad pastored in Cleveland, Ohio. Every Sunday we started out our service by singing the doxology, praise God from whom all blessings flow.  

It’s a reminder that everything in life is a blessing from God. James 1:17, James writes about this in James 1:17, he says, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights. God had to remind the Israelites about this before they go into the promised land. 

They’ve been 400 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Now you’re going to go into the promised land and you’re going to live in houses that you didn’t build and you’re going to enjoy all the wonderful benefits of the fruits of the land and you’ll be tempted to be proud. And don’t forget that it’s God who gives you the ability to get wealth. It’s God who’s given you the health and the intellect and the ability to earn a living. And so don’t forget to acknowledge God.  

And thirdly and lastly, last life lesson is this. In God’s kingdom, and there are a lot of paradoxes in the Bible, in God’s kingdom, the way up is down. And that’s true for the life of Jesus. He first chose to obey the father and humble himself and became human and became obedient even to death on the cross.  

And then what happened? Then God exalted him, gave him that name that’s above every name. And so, in God’s kingdom, the way up is down. It’s the pathway of humility.  

So, the apostle Peter writes to persecuted refugee believers, you who are younger, submit yourself to your elders. All of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand.  

He may exalt you in due time. So, as we live a life of humility and service to others, guess what? Someday that’s going to be acknowledged, that’s going to be rewarded, and we’ll be exalted. God’s not going to forget any work you did in his name.  

And that conversation in Matthew 25, he’s welcoming people into his kingdom and he’s basically saying, well, you did all these things for me. And the person says, well, when did I do those? Well, when you cared for the lowly, when you reached out to those that were hurting, and the poor, and ministering to people, it’s as if you did it to me. And so, the Bible talks a lot about rewards.  

And so, in God’s kingdom, the way up is the way down. And so just in summary, how to get along with others, we could boil it down to this. Think like Jesus and act like Jesus.  

And you’ll get along well with your fellow brothers and sisters. Now, with those that are outside the kingdom, you can think like Jesus and act like Jesus and you’ll be persecuted. But this is in the context of the body of Christ and the family of God.  

And I just want to say, and I’ll just close with this, thinking about demonstrating humility and acts of service. And I see this every week in our church family. That’s something that we stand up and talk about.  

But I see people visiting those that are sick, financially helping those that are in need. Someone this week taking a couple of meals to somebody in our community that are not even associated with our church, but they’re hurting. People who humbly, quietly serve.  

People who these last six months have volunteered to make a meal for 60 people on a Wednesday night. Some folks that spent some time this week doing a humble task of helping just clean things up around here. Nobody asked them to do it.  

They just wanted to contribute their time and their talents. And so, the way up is the way down and God will reward you for that. 

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Philippians 1:27-30

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All right, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read a few verses from Philippians. This is chapter 1, the last four verses. This is what Paul writes from prison. 

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God.  

The Lord has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.  

Well, we’ve been in the book of Philippians, and I think this is message number 5. We did an introductory message, and then I think this is number 4 on chapter 1. So, let me kind of get us caught up to speed, just a little bit of review of the book of Philippians. Paul’s writing this from a prison. He’s really under house arrest in Rome.  

He’s been on trial, and he makes an appeal to Caesar. And so, he’s sent to Rome, and he ends up being under house arrest. He can have visitors, and people are coming and visiting him.  

And actually, Epaphroditus, part of the Philippian church, came and visited him and brought a gift. And the book of Philippians, in one sense, is a thank you note that Paul writes for the gift that they brought to Paul. So, he’s under house arrest, and he’s being productive.  

He’s making wise use of his time. He writes four letters while he’s in prison. He was under house arrest for like two years.  

They’re called the prison epistles. And it’s Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And so, Paul writes this from prison. 

On Wednesday, I was working with some of the Awana boys, and they were trying to memorize the books of the Old Testament. You know, you get into those minor prophets, and it gets kind of tough sledding. But the New Testament, some of these epistles are easy to remember.  

Here’s how I remember the order of some of the New Testament books. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. All you need to remember is, George eats pork chops.  

That’s how I remember that. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, George eats pork chops. Somebody told me that years ago, and I still remember it.  

Anyway, so he writes this letter from prison, and it’s his most personal letter. We looked at verses three through eight, where Paul says, I have you in my thoughts. He writes in verse three, I thank God every time I remember you. 

Isn’t it nice when you get a text or a letter or a note, and it lets you know somebody’s thinking about you? And Paul says, I have you in my thoughts. And then he says, I have you in my prayers as well. He goes on to say, in all my prayers for all of you, I pray with joy.  

So, he’s not only thinking about them, but he’s also praying for them. And he’s thankful for them, for their partnership in the gospel. They were partners in advancing the gospel.  

And then Paul says, I have you in my heart. Later on, in the passage here, he says, it’s right for me to feel this way. Verse seven, since I have you in my heart, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  

So, Paul had been there, had started the church there, and he had a very close relationship with the Philippian believers. And he says, I have you in my thoughts, I have you in my prayers, and I have you in my heart. Well, we looked at one of Paul’s prayers then, in verses nine through 11.  

It’s a very short prayer. He says, this is my prayer. He prays for three things, that your love may abound more and more for God and for one another, that you might increase in knowledge and insight, and that you can discern what is best.  

And isn’t it interesting, as we study the prayers of the Bible, and we mentioned this, that most of the prayers of the Bible are focused on spiritual growth and progress. And that challenged me because our prayer lives, and yes, we need to pray for those that are sick and those that have physical needs, and the list is very long, but it challenged all of us to balance our prayer life with what? Spiritual growth. Praying for our family and praying for our kids and our grandkids, for what? That they may grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, that they might make spiritual progress.  

That was the focus of Paul’s prayer. And then last Sunday, we looked at verses 12 through 26, a message entitled, Three Things Paul Wants Us to Know. And here he’s writing from prison to the Philippian church, and he says, I want you to know three things.  

And number one is found in verse 12, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. Paul says, don’t feel sorry for me. God has me here for a purpose and a reason.  

And guess what? The gospel’s going forward because I’m able to share the gospel with the Roman guards. And you get to the end of the book of Philippians, and Paul closes the book of Philippians, greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus, the brothers and sisters who are with me, send greetings, all God’s people here send greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. So, he’s writing to the Philippian churches, Caesar’s household is sending you greetings. 

And so, some of the people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Christ. So, Paul says, I want you to know, we called it Paul’s declaration. And then Paul’s deliverance, Paul says, I know I’m going to be delivered either by life or by death.  

If I die, I’m going to be with Christ. And that was Paul’s dilemma. He’s going to go on trial.  

He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die, but he gives a life statement. It’s a great life verse if you don’t have one. It’s Philippians 1:21, Paul’s verse, to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.  

And then he talks about this dilemma that he feels trapped. I’m torn between the two. Verse 23, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.  

It’s a triple superlative. Because heaven’s going to be far, far, far better than planet earth. But then Paul says in the next verse, convinced of this, I know that I will remain.  

So, I think Paul knew that his time wasn’t up yet. And he was going to use his remaining time, what, to minister to others and to encourage the Philippian believers and to continue ministering. Well, that brings us to the last four verses of chapter one, verses 27 through 30 that we read earlier, and simply this is entitled, How Should We Then Live? How Should We Then Live? Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a great Christian philosopher, apologist, wrote a book a number of years ago with this title, How Should We Then Live? And it really is a question of once we come to know Jesus as our Savior, that’s just the beginning point, isn’t it? God’s not finished with us yet, and God has a plan for us and a purpose for us. 

And so, we’re going to ask this question this morning, how should we then live? In one sense, we’re like, what’s the job description for a follower of Jesus? I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this position, and I remember I only had one job that I worked a number of years ago, but job descriptions are important because it gives you a clear focus on what the expectations are. And if you don’t know what’s expected of you, then you never really know if you’re hitting the target. And I remember one job I was in, and it can be very frustrating because you don’t know if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. 

Well, the scriptures give us job descriptions. In fact, outside of the Gospels, a lot of the New Testament is really telling us a job description. This is how I want you to live. 

And it’s a whole new way of life, isn’t it? Once we come to know Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians, if any man be in Christ, he’s what? A new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become what? New.  

It’s a new way of life. Ephesians chapter 4, when Paul writes to the Ephesian believers, he puts it in these terms of putting off our former way of living and putting on something new. And he writes to the Ephesian believers, we’re to be made new in the attitudes of our mind and to put on a new self, created to be like God in the righteousness and holiness.  

Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truth to your neighbor. No more lying, you got to speak truth, be a truth teller. No more stealing, but I want you to work with your hands so that you might be productive, so that you might have extra to minister and to help those that are in need. 

No more rotten speech coming out of your mouth. The end of chapter 4, Paul says, I want you to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, slander, be kind and compassionate towards one another. So, that’s all part of our job description.  

And here in Philippians, the last part of chapter 1, Paul gives us a job description. He gave it first to the Philippians and in turn, it speaks to us as well. So, we’re going to look at four thoughts here of our job description or how should we then live.  

So, let’s pick it up in verse 27, chapter 1. Paul starts off by saying, whatever happens. So, the context is, and we’ve already mentioned it, he doesn’t know if he’s going to live, he doesn’t know if he’s going to die. Paul says, regardless, regardless if I ever see you again, here’s how I want you to live.  

And he gives this charge or this imperative in verse 27, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Conduct yourselves, live your life in a manner that is what? Worthy of the gospel. It’s a major theme throughout Paul’s writings.  

Paul talks about the worthy walk, Ephesians 4:1. As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. To the Colossian believers, Paul says, we continue to ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all wisdom and understanding so that you might live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way, being fruitful in every good work and growing in the grace and knowledge of God. That’s Colossians 1:9. By the way, just on a personal note, 47 and a half years ago when Diane and I stood up in front of a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana and expressed our vows to one another, when we were dating, we came up with a verse that kind of wanted to characterize our lives. 

We picked Colossians 1:9 and 10. I had it engraved on the inside of my wedding band that we would live lives that are worthy of what God has called us and that we would be fruitful for Him. So, Paul’s talking about this worthy walk.  

Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. The Greek word there is axios. It really means suitable.  

One commentator writes, the word worthy refers to balancing the scales, meaning to live your life so that your life gives proper weight to all that God has done for you. Here’s the message, the paraphrase of the message, live in such a way that you are a credit to the message of Christ. So, what’s the worthy walk look like? Well, Paul tells us there are four things here. 

Let’s look at the first one that’s found in verse 27 at the end. Paul says, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit. So, here’s the first aspect of living a life worthy of the gospel is standing firm in the Spirit. 

He’s talking about unity of our position, that when you come to faith in Christ that you are put into the body of Christ. This is Galatians chapter 3, 26 through 28, talks about the baptism of the Spirit. What is the baptism of the Spirit? A lot of confusion on that.  

It’s when we accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit places us into the body of Christ and we’re one. We’re one family. There’s no distinction between races or gender.  

We are one in the Spirit, and the Apostle Paul is pleading with the church at Philippi to stand worthy of the gospel means to be united in our oneness in the body of Christ. Now, there’s a difference between unity and uniformity. We are to be united in the fundamentals of the faith, but there are times within the body of Christ that we can agree to disagree on some non-essentials.  

And so, it’s the unity that we need to acknowledge, and Paul writes about it to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 4:3, make every effort to keep or maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Sometimes you have to work at it, and the church is simply one big family, and just growing up in a family, sometimes the kids don’t get along. Sometimes there’s some sibling rivalry, and well, we need to work through those.  

And so, Paul talks about the unity of the Spirit. Stand firm in your oneness in Christ. In fact, when we get to chapter 4, and we’ll get there probably in a couple of months, Paul actually calls out two ladies in the Philippian church who weren’t getting along.  

Now, these letters were read publicly. Can you imagine on a Sunday morning, and they’re reading, they’re excited to get this letter from the Apostle Paul, and you get to the end of the letter, and Paul says, I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind. He’s like, hey, you two ladies, you need to get along.  

You need to have oneness. You need to have unity and acknowledge that. Stand firm in the Spirit.  

Well, the second aspect of the worthy walk is found in the last part of verse 27. It goes on to say, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. So, stand firm in one Spirit.  

Now, he says, I want you to strive together. Some translations say contending together. It literally is the Greek word is sunathleó. 

It’s an athletic term. It means I want you to work together. For what? For the gospel to achieve the same goal, the advancement of the gospel. 

Somebody once said, the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is what? The gospel. 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4, Paul says, I want to tell you what is of first importance.  

It’s the word priority, that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day.  

That’s the gospel. And that’s our focus. We always need to keep the gospel primary.  

Yes, there are social issues. Yes, there are political issues. But we can’t get distracted from the gospel.  

I was just thinking about our AWANA program on Wednesdays and Beyond AWANA. And we’ve gotten away this year from saying the pledge, the AWANA flag. We used to say it every Wednesday.  

We’re just a little different format this year. But part of the AWANA pledge is that the goal of AWANA is what? To lead boys and girls to the gospel of Christ. That’s the focus.  

And so, Paul says, I want you to work together, strive together as a team, T-E-A-M, together each accomplishes more to remember that our priority, our main focus is what? The advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine a sports team that doesn’t really understand what the whole object and purpose of the game is. That we don’t realize the rules and what the focus is, and that would be utter chaos.  

I went to a small private Christian school back in the dark ages in Cleveland, Ohio. And we were so small that like, here’s how you made the basketball team that hold up a basketball. Like, can you identify this? Like, that’s a basketball.  

Like, all right, you’re starting. You know, we barely had enough guys to put a team together. And I remember one JV game, we were playing a game, and we had one guy who was tall.  

His name was Dan Hurst. He was six foot four. He wasn’t really all that coordinated, but he was our tallest guy.  

And he goes up and he gets a rebound and we’re all excited. Dan gets this rebound and he puts it in the basket. And we’re like, um you just scored for the other team, Dan.  

Our basket’s down here. You need to know what the goal and the purpose is. And we need to be reminded that it’s the gospel. 

Well, the worthy walk, to walk worthy is to stand firm in the spirit. That’s unity of position. It’s to strive together to achieve the same goal.  

That’s the gospel. That’s unity of purpose. Then Paul goes on to list another aspect of the worthy walk. And let’s look at it. Striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, verse 28, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.  

The third thought here, the worthy walk. It’s part of our job description is to share the gospel without fear of opposition, without being frightened. The word there, frightened, is a word that was used to describe a horse that gets spooked and it kind of rears up and then it runs the other direction. Paul’s saying, share the gospel without fear of those who oppose you, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.  

And when we read the word oppose, you might say, you mean there’s opposition? Yeah, there’s opposition. If you haven’t encouraged or encountered rather opposition in your Christian Walk, it might be because maybe you’re an undercover Christian, if there is such a thing. Maybe nobody knows you’re a Christian, or maybe you’ve never shared your faith with anybody else.  

So, if that’s the case, you’re not going to have any opposition. But if you are sharing your faith, if you are bold in your stand for Christ, there will be opposition. Jesus talked about it in John chapter 16 verse 33, in this world you will have trouble.  

You will have opposition. But nevertheless, I’ve overcome the world. You know, the apostles in the book of Acts are a great example of this.  

You know, you read through Acts and the early church and here’s Peter and John and they’re preaching the gospel and the religious hierarchy. The Sanhedrin calls them in and tells them not to preach the gospel anymore. And what does Peter say? You know, we ought to obey God rather than man, so we’re going to keep preaching.  

Later on in Acts chapter 5, there again, apostles brought before the Sanhedrin. They’re told, hey, I thought we told you not to preach the gospel. This time they are beaten, they are whipped, and then they leave the Sanhedrin, and they say we are grateful that we can suffer for the cause of Christ.  

They were rejoicing that they could suffer for Christ. So, share the gospel without fear of opposition, without being frightened. 2nd Timothy 1:7, when Paul writes his last letter, this time he’s back in a Roman prison, and this time he’s ready to be executed.  

But he writes, the Spirit of God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a self-discipline. The fear doesn’t come from God, that the Spirit of God wants to give us peace and wants to give us boldness as we share the good news. So, we’re called ambassadors, 2nd Corinthians 5:20, therefore you are what? Ambassadors for Christ.  

Here’s our message, be reconciled to God. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God, we might receive the gift of eternal life. And so, share the gospel without fear of opposition.  

This is something we all need to work on and can do better at. We’ve got some tracts back on the table there, and when you come in it’s just to your left at our main entrance there called Steps to Peace with God. That’s a tract that I like to give out, I’ve used that for years.  

And we just have six or seven of them back there, we need to order some more. But I’d encourage you to pick one of those up and pray about who you might be able to share that with in the coming days and weeks. And so, the job description, stand firm in one spirit, that’s unity of position, strive together to share the same goal, achieve the same goal, that’s the gospel.  

Share the gospel without fear of opposition. And then we come to number four, job description number four, how should we then live? And here’s the last part of Philippians 1:27 through 30. Recognize that suffering may be part of your job description as a Christian.  

Recognize or realize that suffering might be part of your job description as a Christian. There are some preachers, TV preachers that preach what’s known as the prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel says God wants you healthy, wealthy, and wise. Well, he does want you wise, but the healthy and wealthy part may not be part of the package. 

And here Paul writes to the Philippian believers, and he says, God’s not only given you a gift, the gift of salvation, it’s been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Since you are going through the same struggle you saw that I had and now here that I still have, about three years after Paul writes this, the city of Rome burns. And Nero’s on the throne and Nero is looking for a scapegoat, like a good politician. 

Who does he blame? Blames the Christians. And shortly after Paul writes this, the persecution of Christians is going to be ramped up. They’re going to be in the Colosseum fighting the lions and losing.  

They’re going to be human torches in Nero’s garden. And so, Peter writes the book of 1st Peter to these believers who are now scattered because of persecution. And the whole theme of 1st Peter is pain with a purpose.  

I know you’re going through a difficult time, but God has a purpose in your pain. Paul writes to these believers and says, recognize that suffering might be part of the job description as a Christian. Your life on earth might be more difficult after you come to Jesus than it was before you did, possibly. 

Jesus talks about that in John chapter 15 verse 20 there in the upper room discourse, Jesus talking to the disciples before He goes to the cross. And He says, remember I told you; a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. 

2nd Timothy 3, all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. So, the message of the New Testament is that suffering might be part of the job description. I want to say for the most part, any suffering or persecution that we might experience here in the United States of America is very mild compared to what’s going on around the world.  

What persecution or suffering might we experience for being a Christian and being bold in our faith? Well, you might be known at work, I’ve known some people that are known at work, and they share their faith and they’re called preacher boy. You know, hey, your preacher boy, kind of a derisive term. 

Um, you may lose some friends when you come to Christ. Now you, you know, you’re not going to do that party scene that you used to do. And some, you might lose some friends. 

Could lose your job. Years ago, um, I don’t remember the fellow’s name, but this is like 35 years ago, he was the editor for the Dayton Daily newspaper. And there was some advertisement that was, came across his desk and this fellow was a Christian and he kind of drew the line and says, you know what, we’re not putting those ads in our newspaper. 

And, uh, created quite a stir and the people that own the newspaper ended up saying, well, um, then you’re, you’re not going to be the editor of the Dayton Daily News anymore. And he, he lost his job, for taking a moral stand. A couple months later, um, Moody Bible Institute and Moody Press was looking for, uh, an editor and somebody that could help them in a position that was open. 

They found about this guy like, hey, that’s the kind of guy we’re looking for, you know, somebody that’s got morals and standards. And so, he ended up working for Moody Publishing, but he lost his job because he, he took a, took a stand. Our suffering in this part of the world, in America is very mild, but what we need to realize this morning is that there are places worldwide where to become a Christian is extreme, um, opposition and suffering. 

So Open Doors Ministry every year publishes a world watch list. And these are the, these are the top countries in the world where persecution for Christians is the most intense. I made a copy of it to just, they list 50 countries, but here’s, here’s the top 10. 

North Korea, thousands of Christians in North Korea that are in prison as we sit here this morning. Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, Maldives, Iraq, Syria, the list goes on and on where to be a follower of Jesus means you’re, you’re putting your life in your hands. Here’s what that might look like. 

Again, just doing some research on Christian persecution, defining Christian persecution. While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ. From Sudan to Afghanistan, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith. 

In what ways are Christians being persecuted? They are attacked. They are discriminated against at work and at school. They risk sexual violence, torture, arrest, and much more. 

Examples, a woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead. A man in North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious. 

Then the beatings begin again. A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram who kidnapped her. 

She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby. A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast. 

It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. And so, worldwide, in many places, it costs everything to be a follower of Jesus. And Paul’s writing to these Philippian believers and he’s reminding them that it’s not easy to be a Christian. 

Part of our calling might be to suffer for Christ. Paul gives us a job description here in Philippians 1:27, how should we then live? He encourages us to be one in the Spirit, unity of position. We’re all part of the same body, the body of Christ. 

He encourages us to be reminded that we’re all working toward the same goal, unity of purpose. It’s what? The advancement of the gospel. And by the way, don’t be afraid of opposition you might face. 

Don’t be frightened, but be like Paul who says, for I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it’s the power of God. And then fourthly, he says, I want you to recognize that part of our calling may be to suffer for the cause of Christ. The story is told of the great conqueror, Alexander the Great, who conquered the world at a young age and actually died at the age of 32. 

The story is told that Alexander the Great amongst his army was a young soldier who was skilled in fighting, but during one particular fierce battle, he became frightened and afraid, and he hid in a cave rather than fighting. And when he was found, he was brought before Alexander the Great, the great warrior and conqueror, and Alexander the Great asked him, soldier, what is your name? He said kind of sheepishly, Alexander. And Alexander the Great asked him again, this time with a little more force and he says, what is your name? What did you say? And the young soldier said, Alexander. 

And Alexander the Great looked at him and he said, change your name or change your conduct because you’re being a bad reflection on a name that is my name, the name Alexander. And in one sense, that’s the message of the New Testament that those of us that call ourselves Christians must live a life worthy of what God has called us to. After all, he gave his one and only son to die for us. 

So, he says, stand firm in the spirit, strive together for the advancement of the gospel, don’t be afraid to share the gospel even when there’s opposition and recognize that you might suffer and therefore, we suffer well for the cause of Christ. 

The post How Should We Then Live Philippians 1:27-30 appeared first on Community Bible Church.

Philippians 1:12-14

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scroll to 38:30 for beginning of sermon

All right, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read a couple verses from Philippians chapter 1. This is verses 12 through 14. The Apostle Paul writing from prison. Here’s what he writes. 

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it’s become clear throughout the whole palace garden to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. 

All right, we’re going to jump into the book of Philippians. And it’s the joy epistle. And the theme of the whole book is joy. And the word joy and rejoicing are used 16 times in the book. It’s amazing. Paul’s writing this from prison. He’s actually under house arrest in Rome.  

And he’s writing this letter, and it just exudes with joy. And it’s Paul’s most personal letter. As you read through the book of Philippians, you can see that there’s a love relationship between Paul and the church there at Philippi.  

And we looked at the first eight verses a few weeks ago, and Paul basically says, I have you in my thoughts. I thank my God every time I remember you. So, Paul’s reflecting back on his second missionary journey and this group of believers that came to know the Lord.  

And obviously a church developed from there, because he addresses the overseers and the deacons. So now there’s a functioning church there in Philippi. He says, I have you in my thoughts.  

And then Paul says, I have you in my prayers. And Paul’s praying for them, and he’s praying for them and thanking them for their partnership in the gospel, that they partner with him through prayers and through finances to advance the gospel in Philippi. And then Paul says in, I think it’s verse 6 or 7, he says, it’s right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. 

And so, Paul loved these people, and there was a mutual love relationship between the two of them. So now Paul writes this letter as a thank you note, because the church at Philippi has sent a financial gift to Paul in Rome through Epaphroditus. And then last week we looked at Paul’s prayer.  

Paul says, I’m praying for you. And a very short prayer, it’s recorded in verses 9 through 11. Paul asked prayer for three things.  

Here’s his first request. I’m praying that your love may abound more and more. So, Paul prayed that their love would grow.  

He doesn’t say who the love is, who’s the object of that love. He says, is this love for God? Is this love for fellow believers? Is this love for unbelievers? The answer is yes, because we’re supposed to love all of those. So, he says, I pray that your love will grow.  

But secondly, he asked a prayer request that they would grow in knowledge and depth of insight. I pray that you will get to know God more. And then thirdly, his prayer request was this, that you may be able to discern what is best. 

I want you to learn discernment. I want you to learn how to make what? Right choices and the best choices. And that’s what we want for our lives.  

That’s what we want for our kids. That’s what we want for our grandkids, that they will choose what? God’s best for them. That’s Paul’s prayer.  

And we looked at some application truths. One of the things that challenged me as I looked at this prayer and thought about my own prayer life, one of the points was we need to have a balanced prayer life. And oftentimes our prayer life is all focused on physical needs and people that are sick.  

And we certainly need to pray for them. I’m not saying don’t pray for them. But the prayers of the Bible are all focused on what? Spiritual development and spiritual growth, that you might know Christ, that you might know Him better, that you might grow in love. 

So, I’ve been challenged to kind of balance my prayer life and begin to pray that way for our church and our families and our kids and our grandkids. Well, that brings us to Philippians chapter 1 verses 12 through 26 we’re going to look at this morning. It’s simply entitled, Three Truths that Paul Wants Us to Know.  

So, if you like to mark in your Bible, Paul uses the word know three times in this passage. Verse 12, now I want you to know, brothers and sisters. It’s also found in verse 19 and it’s also found in verse 25 toward the end of passage.  

Paul says, convinced of this I know. So, Paul says, there’s three things while I’m here in prison that I want you Philippian believers to know and in turn us some 2,000 years later. So, here’s Paul’s declaration.

Here’s our outline. Paul makes a declaration. He’s writing from prison. Now, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me. Now, let’s stop right there. Paul says, what has happened to me.  

He also uses that phrase a little later on in our text in verse 19, what has happened to me. He uses it twice. I want you to know what has happened to me. 

And when I read that phrase, what has happened to me, it reminds us that in one sense, we’re out of control in some areas of life and a lot of areas of life. Life just happens, doesn’t it? Life is, one sense, is totally out of our control. As we heard this morning.  

And so, the phrase indicates that Paul’s like, yeah, this isn’t what I expected. Paul was hoping to go to Rome to preach the gospel. He really didn’t expect to come as a prisoner.  

That’s how he got there. He says, I want you to know what has happened. Life happens. 

Sickness happens. Unexpected financial setbacks happen. Relationships break down and happen. 

Loss of job happens. And I’m grateful that there’s a sovereign God who’s in control of all that, even though life kind of happens. We’re up in Grand Rapids visiting Graham and trying to help with the other grandkids.  

We’ve got five grandkids, now six grandkids in Grand Rapids. And so, we’re kind of trying to help manage the other five while mom and dad are up at the hospital. Our youngest son and daughter also live up there, so there’s six kids between the two of them. 

And our youngest son works for the Internal Revenue Service. And he’s in the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Internal Revenue Service, which is, I found out, a very interesting job. He’s got some interesting stories to tell.  

But so, we’re up there on Wednesday, and I’m watching the news, and the news comes on. It says, well, yep, they’re going to cut 6,700 jobs from the IRS today. And Andrew gets home from work and says, how are you doing? And I said, I got one question for you.  

Are you still employed? Yeah, I am for now, for now. Life happens. And Paul says, I want you to know that what has happened to me, here’s his next statement, has actually served to advance the gospel.  

Ah, I didn’t expect to end up in prison but let me tell you what’s going on here. The gospel’s going forward. How is that happening? As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I’m in chains for Christ.  

So, Paul could have felt sorry for himself. He could have been having a pity party and like, well, this is what I get for being a missionary. This is what I get for preaching the gospel.  

I end up in prison. No, Paul looked at it as an opportunity. When you’re in prison, you have a captive audience, and Paul had guards that were with him.  

And what did Paul do? Paul shared the gospel with them. And so, when we get to the end of the book of Philippians, Paul’s giving his final greetings as all God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. Oh, wait a second.  

You mean there’s some Christians in Caesar’s household? Yes. How did that happen? Because Paul shared the gospel, and the gospel made inroads into Caesar’s household. Not only that, but Paul also says in verse 14, because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.  

So, not only am I witnessing and telling these guards about Jesus, but as word gets out, other Christians are thinking, well, I guess if Paul can witness in prison, maybe we can share the gospel too. And they became bolder in their testimony and their witness. Now, we won’t take time to read the next couple of verses, but Paul basically says, I’m not sure about the motives of everybody who’s sharing the gospel, but I’m going to rejoice because if it’s the true gospel, even though maybe their motives aren’t correct, I’m going to rejoice because, what, the gospel’s going forward.  

And so, Paul makes the declaration, I want you to know, I want you to feel sorry for myself. I want you to know that this has happened and it’s part of God’s plan and the gospel’s going forward. So, he makes a second I know statement, Paul’s declaration, and this has to do with Paul’s deliverance, Paul’s deliverance, verses 19 through 21.

For I know, here it is, second thing Paul wants us to know, that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. So, Paul says, because you’re praying for me, never underestimate the power of prayer, and because of God’s provision and plan, I know something, I want you to know, I’m going to be delivered. Paul was confident in that.  

Now, what does he mean when he says, I’m going to be delivered? I’ll always go back to a commentary of Beth Moore on a study of Daniel, and we just went through the book of Daniel not too long ago. And Beth Moore writes that there’s three scenarios when we face trials in our life. There’re three outcomes, possible outcomes.  

She says, we can be delivered from the trial. God could certainly have intervened in Paul’s house arrest and miraculously delivered him, and that would have been an encouragement, Paul’s faith would have been built up. Or secondly, we can be delivered through the trial.  

In other words, when we’re going through a trial, our first response is always, Lord, just take it away. But oftentimes, God allows us to go through it for our spiritual maturity, and we endure that trial, and then our faith is strengthened and refined. That was the result of Paul’s situation here. 

Paul eventually was released from house arrest. He spent about two years in house arrest. He was actually delivered through that, and then Paul was released. 

The third option is we can be delivered not from the trial or through the trial, but by the trial into God’s presence. That could have been a result. Paul could have been executed for his faith.  

That was out of his hands. And in that case, our faith is perfected. So, when Paul says, I’m going to be delivered, Paul says, I’m either going to be released from prison or I’m going to be delivered into the presence of God.  

So, he talks about that in verse 20. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage, so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Paul says, my goal in life is to exalt Christ, whether I live or whether I die. 

And then he comes up in verse 21 with this great statement. It would be a great life verse. If you don’t have a life verse, this would be a great one.  

Paul says, here’s the summary of his life. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul says, if I’m going to live, I’m going to live for Christ. If I’m going to die, I’m going to be in a better spot. So, Paul writes, the gospel is going forward, and guess what? I know I’m going to be delivered one way or the other.  

Now, we’ll look at Paul’s dilemma because there’s a little internal dilemma now going on with Paul in prison, and he writes about it in this next section of Scripture. And he eventually says in verse 25, I know, here’s the third I know, I know I will remain. But let’s back up to verse 22. It says to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.  

Verse 22, if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I don’t know. So, Paul’s in a little bit of dilemma here.  

Am I going to die or am I going to remain here and live and encourage others in the ministry, in the gospel? He says, I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is, my NIV translation says, better by far. In the original, it’s really a triple superlative.  

Paul says, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far, far, far better than living on this planet. If we had a lot of time this morning, we could go to what the Bible says about heaven and Revelation 21 and 22 and what heaven’s like, and there’s no more curse, and there’s no more sin, and there’s no more sorrow, there’s no more sickness, there’s no more sadness. The best is yet to come.  

And Paul says, so, I’m kind of torn between the two, between life and going to be with Christ, which is far better. So, he goes on to say, verse 24, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. And so, Paul says, I’m ready to go to heaven.  

That’s going to be much, much better, but I’m kind of torn between the two. But I really think, in Paul’s mind, he’s saying, for now, I think it’s best that I stay here so that I can encourage the churches and continue ministering to other people. I don’t know about you, but if you’ve thought about this, but that’s kind of the way I feel.  

I mean, I’m ready to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven, just maybe not today, because I’ve got some kids I want to encourage. I want some grandkids, eight of them now, that I want to see them grow up and come to know Jesus and live for Him.  

And I’ve got a church family I want to encourage, and there’s still some work for me to do, I think. So, yeah, I want to go to heaven someday, but that’s what Paul’s saying here. In verse 24, it is more necessary for you that I remain here. 

And so, how does he conclude this? He says, convinced of this, I know, there’s a third one, I know that I will remain. So, Paul was pretty confident he’s going to go to trial, pretty confident that he’s going to remain on planet earth for a while. Consequently, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for what your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again, your boasting in Christ will abound on account of me.  

And so, Paul’s saying, I’m looking forward to continuing on in ministry and seeing your faith grow and encouraging you. And then he goes on to use this interesting word here in verse 26, so that through my being with you again, your boasting in Christ will, what, abound on account of me. What’s he talking about boasting in Christ? Well, there’s an old hymn written by Isaac Watts, published in 1707, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, stanza two says, forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. 

The hymn writer says, if I’m going to brag or boast, I’m going to boast about who Christ is. And so, the prophet Jeremiah, this is Jeremiah 9:23 and 24, we read this, this is what the Lord declares, Let not the wise boast of their wisdom. Don’t go around boasting how smart you are, how wise you are, or don’t let someone or the strong boast of their strength, their physical strength, or the rich boast of their riches, how much money you have.  

Don’t boast about those things. Now, as I thought about that verse, a little insert here, it doesn’t say don’t boast about your grandkids though, does it? So, I think we can get a pass on that, or your kids. Be proud of your kids, your grandkids.  

But Jeremiah is saying, don’t boast about how smart you are, don’t boast about your strength, don’t boast about how much money you have, but let the one who boasts boast about this. If you’re going to brag, here’s what you can brag about, that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight. Paul says, if you’re going to boast about anything, boast about who your God is, boast about who Jesus is.  

Relatively new song by artist by the name of Ann Wilson, and it’s entitled, My Jesus. Here’s some of the words, lyrics, he makes a way where there ain’t no way, raises up from an empty grave, there’s no sinner that he can’t save, let me tell you about my Jesus, his love is strong, his grace is free, and the good news is I know that he can do for you what he’s done for me. Let me tell you about my Jesus, and my Jesus changes my life.  

Hallelujah, hallelujah. You can wipe away the tears from broken dreams and wasted years and tell the past to disappear. Oh, let me tell you about my Jesus, on all the wrong turns that you would go and undo if you could, who can work it out for all your good, let me tell you about my Jesus.  

There’s Ann Wilson boasting about who Jesus is. That’s what Paul says we need to do. And so, Paul writes to the Philippian believers and says, I want you to know three things.  

What’s happened to me has really served God’s purpose. The gospel is going forward. Second thing I want you to know, I’m going to be delivered one way or the other.  

Thirdly, I think I’m going to remain because I still have some work to do and to encourage you. Well, let’s look at some, in closing, three life lessons that we can learn from Paul’s writings here in Philippians chapter 1.  

Here’s the first one. God has you where he has you to advance the gospel through you. I have to tell you that saying was something that my good friend, John Tovey, used to pastor at Michigan Center Bible Church. He’s now retired. I’ve known John Tovey for 40 years, and John used to say this all the time over and over again.  

In fact, I texted him this week and said, what was that saying you used to say all the time? I had it close, but God has you where he has you to advance the gospel through you. So that’s where Paul says, well, I’m in prison. I guess there’s a reason, and the reason is what? Because there’s some people in Caesar’s household, there’s some Roman guards that need to hear the gospel.  

And so, Paul used it as an opportunity to share Christ. You know, our perspective and mindset are crucial in our attitude. There’s a little poem about two prisoners who were in prison, and they had an outdoor, small outdoor window with bars on it, and they were both in the same cell.  

It says two men are in prison. One saw the bars, the other saw the stars. One just focused on his limitations and that he was in bars.  

The other one looked up and saw the stars. That’s how Paul was. He used this as an opportunity to share the gospel.  

So why do you live where you live? Maybe there’s a neighbor next to you that needs to come to know Jesus. That’s why God’s planted you there. Why are you in the family that you’re in? Well, I would imagine there’s probably some people in your family and some extended family members that need to come to know Jesus and need to see Christ’s love in you and give you an opportunity to share God’s truth with them. 

Why do you work where you work? Probably some co-workers there that probably need to hear about Jesus. And so, God has you, where He has you to advance the gospel. The old saying is bloom where you’re planted. No matter where God takes you, look at that as an opportunity to love others and to share the gospel.  

Here’s a second thought, second life lesson. The prison population is fertile ground for the gospel. So, here’s Paul. He’s in prison a lot. In Philippi he led the Philippian jailer to Christ. And here he’s leading the Roman guards to Christ. Why is that? Because the prison population is fertile ground for the gospel. 

Worldwide, there are 10 million people incarcerated. The United States of America has by far the highest incarceration population in the world. 1.9 million to about 2 million people in the United States are currently in prison. 

And what I want to say is that the prison population is fertile ground for the gospel. When we were in Chelsea many years ago, there was a correction facility just north of Chelsea called Cassidy Lake Correctional System. And so, for a number of years, on Saturdays, they opened up for people to come in and do studies, these Bible studies with the prisoners there. 

It was an optional thing; they weren’t required to go. And for many Saturdays, I was inside that kind of low-level prison facility, and we would do some Bible studies. But I had some friends that were like committed to that ministry and they went every Saturday. 

They’re sharing Bible studies and God’s truth. In fact, I kind of got a little jealous because I was pastoring a church there, I was jealous in a good way. Then they told me they had seven prisoners come to Jesus yesterday. I’m like, wow, you’re doing a lot better than I am. 

Why, because the prison system is fertile ground for the gospel. You all know Chuck Colson’s story and what prison fellowship has done. And here’s, let me just give you Chuck Swindoll’s story really quickly. 

As a new Christian, Chuck Colson voluntarily pled guilty to obstruction of justice in 1974 and served seven months in Alabama’s Maxwell Prison for his part in the Watergate scandal. In his best-selling book, Born Again, Colson wrote, quote, I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea that God had put me in prison for a purpose and that I should do something for those I had left behind. So, in 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, which is now the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit, equipping the church to serve currently and formerly incarcerated people. 

It’s had a huge impact on lives. There are many, many prison ministries. One that we’ve become acquainted with because of our ministry at maranatha in the summertime is an organization called Crossroads Prison Ministry. 

I know they’ve got an office in Grand Rapids. I don’t know if that’s their headquarters, but Crossroads Prison Ministry matches up believers as mentors to people in prison. And what that entails is you become a pen pal to this prisoner and they’re very careful about how you do this and you’re not sharing personal information or anything, but you’re writing a person in prison. 

And so, you know that I’ve had a 30-year pen pal relationship with somebody in Jackson Prison for many, many years. In fact, this week we got a, we get a quarterly check from him, for Community Bible Church. He’s in there for murder. 

He’ll never get out, but he considers himself part of Community Bible Church. He turned 70 about six or eight months ago and we had a card out there. Many of you signed it and we sent it to him. 

But it’s a prison encouragement writing ministry and you also help them with some Bible lessons. And you can make a huge impact from your dining room table by just writing a letter every now and then. I put their website on the back ministry table if you’re interested in checking this out. 

cpministries.org and you can check out their mentorship program. But the prison population is fertile ground for the gospel.  

Here’s the third one and the last one. And I hope this encourages you because it encourages me. Because Christ has won our final victory. We sing a song, Victory in Jesus. 

Tetelestai, it’s finished. In 1st Corinthians 15:55, you know, oh death, oh grave, where’s your victory? Oh death, where’s your sting?  We’re going to celebrate that in a couple months on Resurrection Day. Because Christ has won our final victory, the Christian is in a win-win situation. 

If you know Jesus, your kind of like Paul. If I live, I’m going to encourage others and live for Christ. If I die, I’m going to be way better off because of what Christ has done. 

We’re in a win-win situation. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. And so, while we’re here on earth, God’s got a job for us to do. 

And Paul says, hey, it’s necessary for me to remain and encourage you. I really don’t think there’s any retirement in the Christian life. We don’t get to the point where we say, well, I don’t need to serve Christ anymore in any way. 

I don’t need to use my spiritual gift. My good friend, Joe, he pastors on the other side of the state. Two weeks ago, he gave his last message and he’s retiring now. 

And I watched it online because I kind of wanted to see what Joe had to say for his last message at that particular church. And so, then I’m finding out, well, what’s Joe doing now? So, two weeks ago today, he gave his last message. I found out on Wednesday; he hopped on a plane and he’s in India for two weeks and he’s sharing at a Bible school seminary in India. 

He’s not like saying, well, I’m done now. I don’t need to do anything. So, because Christ has won our final victory, we are in a win-win situation. 

Fact of the matter is Hebrews 9:27, it’s appointed unto man once to die. Unless Christ comes back in our lifetime, we are all going to face death. But we can do it confidently. 

We can do it courageously. All because of what Christ has done for us, we know what’s beyond the grave. We know it is far, far better than anything on this planet. 

So let me close by telling you about our friend Cam, C-A-M. We’ve known, Diane and I have known Cam and his family for lots of years, at least 20 years, through Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference. Cam and his family are from Indiana. 

And part of our role there when we’re over there in the summertime is we’re dorm parents for college kids that are working there in the summer, so we get to know some of them. And we’ve gotten to know Cam very well. Cam is an outstanding young man. 

25 years old, loves Jesus, loves to serve others. He’s a musician, he writes some songs. I didn’t know they had this, but there apparently is a professional ultimate Frisbee league. 

And he’s a very good athlete. And so, for a year or two, he played professional Frisbee. I’m sure they didn’t get paid a lot of money for the Indianapolis Alley Cats. 

And they played in arenas. And I don’t know how it all worked, but he loved doing it. About two weeks ago, we get an email from our connections over there, and they pray for Cam. 

He’s got some physical challenges, and he’s going in for surgery, and there’s something going on, on his back that they need to look at and remove, and ended up he went through surgery, and its cancer, and because of where it is, the nerves and everything, they weren’t able to remove all of it. So, we’ve been praying for our friend, 25-year-old Cam. Here’s what Cam posted on Monday on Facebook. 

And this epitomizes what Paul says in Philippians 1, and I’m just going to read it to you. It’s like three paragraphs long. Today I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

I’ve been processing this for a little bit now as I’ve been going through tests to determine exactly what’s going on through the small part I’ve gone through thus far. It’s been amazing to me how my family and the church body has rallied around me in support and prayer. God is so good. 

Hodgkin’s lymphoma happens to be a fairly common and treatable form of cancer, and my outlook is pretty good with treatment. But you could tell me that I only had 40 days to live. Parentheses, not the case right now. 

And my response would be the same. God is so good. Because I would say I had 40 days left to be a witness for Christ and to bring glory to God, and then I’m going home. 

Nothing in this life could compare to what awaits in the one to come. Paul said it best, to live is Christ, to die is gain, Philippians 1:21 to suffer is human. It’s part of this broken world. 

But I’m so grateful that I don’t have to go at it alone. Jesus, my great comforter, walks alongside of me and gives me peace. For his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he takes any stress or fear that I may have, and he puts it on himself, and he gives to me in exchange his perfect peace. 

Though I may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for he is with me. For all of my life, he has been faithful. All of my life, he’s been so, so good. 

With every breath that I am able, I sing of the goodness of God. That’s from a 25-year-old young man who has some deep spiritual insight and discernment. You can look cancer in the face and to say like the Apostle Paul, I’m going to be delivered. 

If I’m here, I’m going to serve. If not, I’m going to be far, far better. Because of Christ has won our final victory, we’re in a win-win situation. I trust you know that confidence. 

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Philippians 1:9-11

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All right, our scripture reading is three short verses from Philippians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote from his prison cell a couple of millenniums ago. Let me read it.  

This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so, that you may be able to discern what is best, may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.  

I hope you’re excited to jump into the book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in the Bible. And so, let me just give you a little background, a little review. We’ve looked at the first eight verses.  

It’s called the Joy Epistle. Here’s the apostle Paul who’s in prison, and yet he’s rejoicing. And the word joy or rejoicing is found 16 times in those four chapters. 

And so, Paul is writing this thank you letter to the Philippians, and the theme is joy. In fact, the name of this series is Pure Joy. And we discovered and stated that what is pure joy? Pure joy is only found, lasting pure joy, in a relationship with God through Jesus. 

That’s where pure joy is found. That’s why Paul could rejoice, not based on his circumstances, not based on whether it’s 75 degrees and sunny out or six inches of snow out. No, it’s based on that relationship with Christ.  

So, we looked at the first eight verses last week. Let me just bring us up to speed. We looked at the salutation.  

This letter’s from Paul and Timothy. Describes themselves as servants of Christ. He uses the word Doulos.  

Means a bondservant. Means that one that doesn’t have any rights of their own. And then he’s writing to believers, to all God’s holy people in Christ.  

That’s their spiritual location, their physical location at Philippi with all the overseers and the deacons. So, what happened there? Paul visited about 10 years earlier, a second missionary journey to Philippi. Lydia became the first European convert. 

She was a businesswoman. Her whole household came to faith in Christ. The Philippian jailer, you know that story in Acts 16, he came to Christ and his whole household and a church developed. 

And so, now as Paul writes, there’s a church that’s organized and they’ve got leadership and Paul’s writing to them. And here’s his greeting, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week then we looked at the next few verses and we saw the sentimental relationship between Paul and these people.  

This is a love relationship between Paul, the founding pastor, and the people there at Philippi. And he makes three statements that we looked at in verses 3-8. First of all, he says, I have you in my thoughts.  

Verse 3, I thank my God every time I think of you, every time I remember you. And then Paul says, I have you in my prayers. Verse 4, in all my prayers for all of you, I pray always with joy.  

There’s the first-time joy is mentioned. Why? Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And so, here we are 10 years later, Paul’s in prison.  

What happened? The church at Philippi took up a monetary gift, sent it with Epaphroditus to help out Paul. And Paul’s thanking them because they’ve been partners in the gospel. He’s also thankful and praying with joy.  

Verse 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ. Paul’s joyful because he’s saying, God doesn’t start a task and not finish it. Unlike some of us, we have unfinished tasks.  

God’s going to complete salvation. So, there’s three parts to our salvation. Justification, I have been saved. 

When we put our faith in Christ and God declares us righteous in His sight. And then we could say, I am being saved. That’s sanctification, where God wants us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and become more and more like Jesus.  

Someday our salvation will be complete. That’s glorification, when God calls us home or Christ returns. And we will be like Christ because we’ll see Him as He is.  

We’ll have a glorified body and a renewed mind and life will be Garden of Eden 2.0. And so, Paul’s rejoicing because God’s going to complete His work in the Philippian believers. He’ll complete His work in us. That brings us to verses 9 through 11 and Paul’s prayer.  

Paul not only said, I’m praying for you, but here’s his first prayer. It’s a very short one. I’ve entitled this, Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. 

All of us make hundreds of decisions a day. I’m glad you decided to make special effort to be here this morning. And we made a decision to get up and we make decisions about what clothes to wear, what to eat and the rest of our day.  

Most of our decisions aren’t earth life changing decisions, but many decisions are. There are many decisions in life that determine the pathway of our life. And I’ve discovered over the years that one bad decision in a rash, angry moment can change the course of someone’s life.  

Better decisions, fewer regrets. Our life and legacy will ultimately be what the sum total of all the decisions that we make in life. And if I were to summarize Paul’s prayer that he prayed for the Philippian believers here in verses 9 through 11, this would be the summary.  

Paul is praying for spiritual discernment and wisdom so, that believers will make wise decisions. Paul wants these believers to make wise decisions based on what? Spiritual wisdom and discernment. That’s what we want for all of us. 

That’s what we want for our kids. That’s what we want for our grandkids to make what? Wise decisions based on God’s truth and God’s wisdom. We’ve all made decisions in life. 

We look back on and we regret. You know, in golf, and I’m not a golfer because I can’t hit the ball straight, and I found out I’m getting very, very frustrated and paying a lot of money to do it, so, it doesn’t make too much sense. But in golf, if you hit a drive and it goes off to the right or off to the left and goes into the woods or goes into the high grass, you can just say, well, I’m going to take a mulligan.  

That means I’m going to get another chance at my drive and we’re going to forget that one. Unfortunately, in life, there are a lot of decisions where you don’t get to take a mulligan. And so, we want to understand Paul’s prayer here.  

I want spiritual discernment so, that what? You can make wise decisions, better decisions, and not have regrets in life. As I thought about this topic this week, I just started to think, well, maybe all of us have some decisions that we regret. I’ll share a couple of mine.  

Diane and I were newly married. This was many, many years ago, back in 1977. We were living in Grand Rapids and we were living in student housing for the seminary students there on the campus of Cornerstone University. 

And it was basically two small rooms. And when Diane first saw where we were living, I just accepted this without seeing it. It almost ended the marriage right there, but we got over that.  

And I don’t know, two or three months after we were married, a couple of insurance salesmen, I don’t know if I made an appointment or they just showed up, and here I am, a young married person, and they’re like, well, now you’ve got financial responsibilities for your wife. And what’s going to happen if something happens to you? And you need to buy this insurance policy. And bottom line, make a long story short, I bought this insurance policy, which was the most expensive insurance policy you could buy. 

Later on, I found out that they were selling that because they made the most commission off of that, and you don’t need that kind of insurance. And so about three or four months later, I just canceled it. Perhaps all of us have regrets of buyer’s remorse when we make a bad financial decision, oftentimes based on impulse.  

What I came to do, and I’ve done this most of our married life because salesmen can put pressure on you, when I’m making a financial decision, I finally learned to say, you know what, I’m going to think about that for 24 hours, and then I’ll get back to you. And the salesman hated that, but it just helps you kind of process things. I regret buying that insurance.  

I go back to 1981, graduated from Grand Rapids Seminary in June, and looking for a church assignment, and waiting for the hundreds of churches that would contact me saying, will you be our pastor? Finally, one letter came, and it was a church in Ohio. We went and visited, spent a couple, a weekend there, spent another weekend there, and church voted, and for four years, we were assistant pastor in Strongsville, Ohio. It happened to be a little bit of a difficult assignment.  

I asked zero questions because I didn’t know what question to ask, and I was just eager to get into ministry. Looking back on that, and now I obviously know a lot more questions to ask, I regretted that I didn’t ask a lot of questions. Better decisions, fewer regrets.  

My dad was in ministry for 60-plus years toward the end of his ministry. He wrote a paper on some of the regrets that he had in ministry. If I had to do it all over again, these are some things I would do, and I’ve got that list here.  

I’ll just read one of them. This is what my dad wrote about 10 or 15 years ago. If I could go back, what would I change? Number one, he says, family time. 

Although I was able to attend many of my son’s sporting events, I still regret a pattern that I fell into for many years. Because in the ministry, the to-do list is never completed. That’s just a part of ministry.  

There’s always more preparation you can do. There’s always another sermon you can work on. There’s always another visit you can make.  

There’s always another phone call you can make. He says, because the to-do list is never completed, when it’s time to leave the office for the day, I have this mental picture of a briefcase full of books and folders that I lugged home every night, night after night. While my wife and sons played games at the kitchen table, I was engrossed in a book or sermon outline.  

I missed interaction and family time. Those nights cannot be recaptured. The only thing I can do is share my regret and then hope that others will not repeat the same mistake.  

And so, there’s a regret. That family time, your kids are young only once, and you want to capitalize on that time. We’re going to look at this prayer in just a little bit, but Andy Stanley, in his book, and this is the title of his book, Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets, on this topic, shares that there are three categories of decisions that create the majority of our regrets.  

They all start with the letter D. Here they are, dumb purchases. That’s that buyer’s remorse. I remember when VCRs came out, we had a friend that was eager to get into that new technology, and there were two different types of VCRs.  

There’s a beta VCR, and when it first came out, and he spent $800 on a beta VCR because it was new technology and the cost was really high. Dumb purchases, doomed relationships, that’s the second one, and thirdly, destructive habits. Well, let’s look at Paul’s prayer here in Philippians chapter 1 verse 9. He makes three requests, and then there’s three results.  

Here’s request number one. We’ve already read it. Verse 9, this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more.  

So, where does Paul start? 1st Corinthians 13, three great virtues in the Christian faith, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is, Paul says, is love. And chapter 14 verse 1, pursue love.  

And so, Paul’s prayer for these believers, that their love would abound. Now, we could ask Paul in this prayer because he doesn’t clarify this for us, I pray that your love might abound. Is he talking about that our love for God will abound? That our love for one another will abound? That our love for the unbelievers who don’t know Jesus will abound? And Paul doesn’t specify, but I would just say, yes, yes, and yes.  

Because if you read through scripture, the scriptures tell us we need to grow in love. What are the two great commandments? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.  

Love your enemies. So, no matter what category we want to assign this to, Paul’s praying that the Philippian’s believers love would grow, more and more. And by the way, what’s the identifying mark of a Christian? Jesus told us in John 13.  

By this, all men know that you are my disciples if you, what, have love one for another. And so, the defining mark that has defined us as followers of Jesus is love and loving one another. And Paul says, I pray that your love will grow, that your love will abound. 

Request number two, he goes on to add on to his request, this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more, first of all, in knowledge. So, my request is abounding love, that you love each other more, love God more, that you’ll grow in knowledge. And so, the more we know God, the more we know who he is, his character, and the more we know what he’s done for us, the more we should love him.  

If you’ve not read J.I. Packer’s classic work, Knowing God, one of the classic works on this whole topic. The more we know somebody, the more we can love them. That’s not only true of God, but that is true of one another.  

God initiated this whole love process. We love him, why? Because he first loved us. Romans 5a, God demonstrated his love toward us while we were yet sinners, what? Christ died for us.  

How do we get to know God more? Well, it’s in his word. The scriptures reveal the character of God and who he is and his attributes. So, God speaks to us through his word, we speak to him through prayer.  

The more we know who God is, the more we love him. That’s not only true of loving God, but it’s true of our personal relationships. The more you know someone, the more you know what’s going on in their life, the more you know perhaps their struggles or what they’re dealing with in life or even the joys of their life, the more you can encourage them, the more that you can love them. 

And so, Paul says, I want you to grow in knowledge, Thursday I was at the dentist’s office, and they had a lot of cancellations that day because that was kind of a snowy day, and so the office was really quiet, and they kind of had a more relaxed atmosphere. And so, I got to get a cavity filled, and the dentist comes in and gives me the Novocain shot, and then I’m in the chair there, and the dental assistant sometimes is running back and forth, but I was like the only person there.  

So, we had like 20 minutes till the numbing took effect, and so I began to chat with her and discover that she has two daughters that go to Clinton schools, a ninth grader and a sixth grader. And I said, well, our grandkids go to Clinton schools. We began to talk about that, and as time went on, we’re talking about busy schedules, and she says, well, it’s hard because I’m a single mom.  

Oh, I didn’t know that. And we talk a little bit more, and she says, yeah, and she’s in her, probably in her 40s, and says, my husband died three years ago in March. I’m so sorry to hear that.  

Here she is working and trying to raise two girls, and we had more conversation, and I got to know who she is and some of her struggles, and I was just able to try to encourage her. That’s how love grows. That’s why we kind of encourage you when our service is over or maybe come a little early and just kind of hang around and get to know other people because the more you know them, the more you can love them and the more you can pray for them and their needs.  

Paul says, I want you to grow in love. I want you to grow in knowledge. Thirdly, I want you to grow in increasing discernment, in discernment. 

This is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best. And so, Paul says, I want you to grow in discernment. Some people take a verse in the New Testament in Matthew out of context, and it’s a short verse, judge not lest you be judged.  

It says, no, you can’t make any judgments. You can’t judge other people. Leave that up to God.  

Well, we have to make judgments all the time. That’s what this word discernment means. It’s the Greek word Anakrino, to distinguish, to separate out, by diligent search, to examine.  

And so spiritual discernment means that we look at something carefully through the lens of Scripture that will help us to make what? The best choice. The old Sears catalog years and years ago had three categories, good, better, and best. And God wants for us what is best.  

And in order to do that, to make those wise choices, we have to have discernment. It’s really what the whole book of Proverbs is about, especially the first 10 chapters. Let me just read to you.  

Here’s the goal and the purpose of Proverbs, Proverbs 1:2-5, for gaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for receiving instruction in wise behavior, for doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young. Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance. All right, here’s the goal of the book of Proverbs.  

And if you’re kind of looking like, well, what can I do for devotions? A chapter a day in Proverbs would be a great place to start. It’s all about wisdom. It’s all about discernment.  

Proverbs chapter 3 verse 21, Solomon writes, my son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight. Preserve sound judgment and discretion. Psalm 119:125, I am your servant, the psalmist writes, give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.  

So, Paul’s praying for these believers, I want you to grow in love toward God, toward one another, toward the unbelieving world. I want you to grow in knowledge, knowledge of who God is. And as you grow in knowledge of what’s going on in other people’s lives, your love will grow.  

I want you to increase in discernment. And when you do that, those three requests are made, that leads us to three results, three results. Let’s look at the three requests, abounding love, increasing knowledge, growing discernment. 

Here are the results. This is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.  

So, here’s the first one, a pure and blameless life. ESV translates it so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. What is the day of Christ? Paul mentions it three times in the book of Philippians. The day of Christ is when our salvation is complete, that we will be pure and blameless, yes, in our standing before God, we’re pure and blameless because we’re in Christ, but at the day of Christ, there’s also going to be a final exam. 

There’s also something called the Bema Seat Judgment, and Christ is going to evaluate our life. This is not for salvation. This is for rewards or loss of reward, and Paul says, I want you to be pure and blameless on that day of Christ. 

When he evaluates, how have you spent your time, talent, and treasure to make a difference for God’s kingdom? And so abounding love, growing in knowledge, increasing discernment will help us to make wise decisions so that we can be pure and blameless. Not talking about perfection, but there’s a couple people in the Bible, in the Old Testament, that were described as being blameless. Daniel was one of them. 

We looked at this when we studied the book of Daniel, just finished a month or so ago, Daniel chapter 6. Remember, they were looking for something, they were jealous of Daniel and his position in the government, and so they said, well, we need to find something that we can find against Daniel, because we can’t find anything against him, so let’s think about something of his religion. And so they made a law that you can’t pray to any other god other than the king or any other person of the king of the Medes and Persians, King Belshazzar, for 30 days. That’s how they got Daniel. 

So, let’s find something to do with his prayer life. Job was considered blameless in Job chapter 1. Satan comes into God’s presence. God says to him, have you considered my servant Job? He’s a blameless man. 

Satan says, oh, of course he loves you and he’s blameless. He’s rich and has a family and he’s got his health, start to take some of that away and see how Job does. Job was described as blameless. 

By the way, it’s one of the qualifications of a pastor, 1st Timothy 3:2, that a bishop or an overseer should be blameless. Not perfect, but when you look at the totality of their life, there shouldn’t be any outstanding area that says, well, look at this, look at this, if they do make an accusation, it should be a false one. You have to have integrity in every area of your life. 

What’s result number two of this prayer? Pure and blameless life. Secondly, a fruitful life or a productive life. Look at it in verse 11, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. 

Righteousness is our standing, but it’s also before God, but it’s also a practical term of how we live. You could say and translate that, paraphrase, filled with right living that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So filled with the fruit of righteousness. 

What is spiritual fruit? The Bible uses that term a lot. John 15:5 talks about Jesus is the vine and we’re the branches and that he wants us to have a productive, fruitful life. So fruitfulness is, first of all, our character. 

Galatians 5:22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long suffering. Nine characteristics that God wants to develop in our life. Fruitfulness is our conduct, our behavior. 

Fruitfulness is converts, people that we have the privilege of sharing Jesus with and leading to Christ. Here’s one commentator that writes a paragraph about what this fruitfulness is. So what does spiritual fruit look like? Spiritual fruitfulness is seen in a change in our disposition, attitudes, affections, and actions. 

Those sins which we formerly loved became loathsome to us, Romans 6:21. We begin to love others with the love of Christ. We more easily forgive. We seek to do good to everyone. 

We exercise our spiritual gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. We share the good news of salvation. We’re grateful and give praise to God. 

We seek to do all things for God’s glory. We confess our sins to God and pray for His continual work in us. We strive to know God and to do the things that please Him, knowing that we can bear no true fruit apart from Him. 

And so Paul’s prayer, the second result is, I want you to have a fruitful life, a productive life. There’s a last result here. We look at it in verse 11, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, here it is, to the glory and praise of God. 

So here’s the third result of abounding love, growing in knowledge, increased discernment. You’re going to have a pure and blameless life. You’re going to have a productive, fruitful life for God, and then you’re going to live a God-honoring life, to the glory and praise of God. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever written out a life purpose statement. Somebody challenged me to do that 35, 40 years ago. Have you written a life purpose statement, like, what is your purpose in life? It could easily be summed up in one phrase, to know God and to make Him known is our purpose in life. 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism and the first question of many is, what is the chief purpose of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That’s why God created us, and so Paul says, my prayer is that you would abound in love and grow in knowledge and discernment so that you can have a life that brings honor and glory and praise to God. That really should be our goal every day. 

Our goal is to make God look good as we glorify Him in the way we live, in the way we talk, in our behavior. Well that’s Paul’s short prayer for the Philippians, and it’s really a prayer for all of us. It’s a great prayer that we can pray for one another, our kids, our grandkids. 

So three quick questions here, and then we’ll conclude. Three application questions, we’ve got them on the screen here. Here’s the first one, a question, and this really challenges me because I fall far short in this. 

Do I have a balanced prayer life? What do you mean by a balanced prayer life? And I mentioned this last week, our prayer life tends to be a rehearsal of lists, and there’s nothing wrong with this. James 5:16 says, pray for one another that you might be healed, but our prayer life sometimes is predominantly just praying for the physical needs of others. We have a long list of sicknesses and illnesses, and we all have that in our own church, in our own extended family. 

We have an aunt, my dad’s youngest brother’s wife, they live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we’ve been praying intensely for her for three and a half weeks, late 70s, went through open heart surgery, things did not go well, still in the hospital today, was on a ventilator for 11, 12 days and they couldn’t get her off the ventilator and she was fighting for her life. Diane and I have been praying for our Aunt Nedra every day. And we all have those family issues, the physical issues, but when I say balanced prayer life, I mean this, when you look at the prayers in the Bible, they’re praying for what? The spiritual needs of each other. 

This is Paul’s praying for what? Spiritual growth and spiritual development, praying that people would know God more. What a great prayer to pray for our kids and our grandkids, that they might know God, that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and live a life that is fruitful and productive for Him. So I’m not saying don’t pray for physical needs, we should, but we also need to balance that out, praying for the spiritual needs of our family, of our church, of those that we come in contact with. 

Secondly, is my love for God and others increasing? Is my love for God and others increasing? This is Paul’s prayer, that you might abound in love more and more. And so we should be able to look back in our life a year ago, three years ago, and today we should be able to say, I love God more and I love others more than I did last year or two years ago or three years ago. Is my love for God and others increasing? That was one of the issues in the seven letters of the seven churches, especially the church at Laodicea. 

And this is the words of Christ to the believers there, the church at Laodicea, and in each of those seven letters, Jesus starts out with a commendation, but then He includes a condemnation. And for the church at Laodicea, they had gotten very lukewarm about their relationship with God, and Jesus says, I wish you were either hot or cold, because lukewarm, I just want to, basically, He says, I want to vomit. You’ve lost, the church at Ephesus, you’ve lost your first love. 

It’s easy to do, my love for God and others increasing. And then lastly, the third question is, am I increasing or growing in biblical wisdom and discernment? Am I growing in my knowledge of God? Am I growing in the knowledge of God’s Word? Am I growing in wise living and spiritual discernment? That’s God’s goal for all of us. So here’s this prayer, it’s what God wants to do, it starts with abounding love, it manifests itself in knowledge and discernment, resulting in the ability to make wise spiritual choices, and it results in the visible fruit of what? A righteous life that comes from a living relationship with Jesus Christ, so that God alone gets the glory. 

That was Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers, that’s my prayer for you, I trust that’s your prayer for those that you’re praying for, your kids, your grandkids, your extended family. 

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Philippians 1:3-8

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scroll to 29:32 for beginning of sermon

All right, thank you for your singing. Remain standing, we’re going to read some Scripture. Here’s a loaded question. 

How many of you like to read other people’s mail? Don’t answer that. But that’s what we’re doing this morning. This is a letter from Paul written 2,000 years ago to a group of believers in Philippi. 

And I’m just going to read four or five verses here from the first chapter, and then we’re going to jump into it. Here’s what Paul writes. I thank my God every time I remember you. 

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. 

Whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  

All right, you may be seated. So, last Sunday we gave a little bit of an introductory message. It was entitled, Pure Joy. 

And we talked about the fact that God has given us all things to enjoy. That’s 1st Timothy chapter 6. Paul writes that to Timothy, that God’s given us everything for our enjoyment. Solomon writes about that in Ecclesiastes. 

So, we can find joy and pleasure in this life. We can find joy and pleasure in a good meal. We can find joy and pleasure in friends, in sports, in many areas of life. 

We said for true joy, for pure joy, for a joy that is lasting and sustainable, it’s only experienced in a relationship with God through Jesus. He has made us and created us to know Him, to have fellowship with Him. And the psalmist writes in Psalm 16:11, that at your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. 

So, we experience true joy in knowing Him. And I really believe that the only people that can really experience true joy are believers. Who know that their sins are forgiven. 

Who know that they’re headed toward heaven. And God wants us to have this joy in our life. In fact, Jesus said in John 10:10, I’m come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly or overflowing life. 

And so, last week we looked at some pathways to pure joy. What are some steps to pure joy? We looked at four of them. They all start with the letter S. First one is salvation. 

That the feeling and the joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven. Jesus took our place on the cross, that He paid our sin debt. He paid our penalty, and we are forgiven. 

Romans 8 verse 1, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. We can find joy in the fact that our sins are forgiven. Secondly, we said we find joy in this pathway of joy in sanctification. 

That is our fellowship with God. 2nd Peter 3:18, grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. And we can find joy in this intimate relationship with God. 

In fact, Jesus defines eternal life in John 17:3. This is eternal life that you might know God. So, sometimes we think of everlasting life as quantitative. We’re going to live forever in God’s presence. 

Yes, we will. But it’s also qualitative. Eternal life begins at the moment of salvation. 

And this relationship that we can have with God as we know Him and the more, we study His Word and read His Word, the more we know Him. God speaks to us through His Word. We speak to Him through prayer. 

Thirdly, we said we can find pure joy in salvation, sanctification, and serving. Acts 20:35, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And I think as we mature individually and spiritually, we discover that pure joy is found in giving. 

And as we give, as we serve, we find joy. Lastly, we said the pathway to pure joy, and this is the graduate level class, pure joy is found in suffering. Paul wrote about that in Philippians chapter 3. I want to know Christ. 

He uses the word epignosis. I want to really know who Jesus is, and I want to experience what? The fellowship of His sufferings. Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I’ve overcome the world. 

We looked at the apostles in Acts chapter 5 who were brought before the Sanhedrin, who were flogged and beaten, and then finally released and said, don’t speak any more about Jesus. And Acts 5:41 says, they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they could experience what? Suffering for Jesus. So, the joy isn’t in suffering, but the joy is knowing what God wants to do through our suffering, that there’s pain with a purpose in our life. 

God wants to conform us more to the image of His Son, Jesus, and we can find joy in suffering. Now, is joy an emotion or is joy a decision that we make? I’m going to say yes to both. Sometimes joy is this emotional feeling, but there are other times where joy is simply a choice that we make. 

It’s a choice that Jesus made when He faced the cross. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Jesus didn’t enjoy crucifixion. 

What He enjoyed and was looking forward to was what? Purchasing our salvation, dying for the sins of the world, and that brought Him great joy. Well, all that was kind of an introduction to the book of Philippians. We’re going to study the book of Philippians. 

It’s one of the great books of the New Testament, and it’s called the Joy Epistle. In these four chapters, the word joy or rejoicing is found 16 times. Here’s the apostle Paul who had some physical problems. 

Don’t know what they were. Many people think it was eye difficulties, and Paul asked God three times to take his infirmity, his physical affliction away, and God said, no, no, no, but what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you grace to endure. So, here’s Paul dealing with physical problems. 

We know that wherever Paul went on his missionary journeys, he ran into some conflict. He had some enemies against him. He ends up in jail frequently, and in the context of the book of Philippians, he’s in a Roman prison under house arrest, and he’s in jail. 

And with all that, Paul does what? He’s rejoicing. He’s rejoicing. He’s experiencing pure joy.  

So, this morning, we’re going to look at a brief outline and then just think about some application truths. So, Philippians chapter 1, let me read the salutation, the greeting. Verses 1 and 2, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So, this is Paul and Timothy. Timothy was Paul’s son in the faith. He eventually was a pastor in Ephesus. 

Paul writes two letters to him. In fact, his very last letter that he wrote from a mamertine prison in Rome was to Timothy, 2nd Timothy. And Timothy was Paul’s right-hand man. 

They took missionary journeys together. And notice how he describes both himself and Timothy. We are servants of Christ Jesus. 

Now, there are a lot of ways we could self-describe who we are. I could say I’m a husband. I’m a brother. 

I’m a father. I’m a father-in-law. I’m a grandfather. 

I’m a pastor. All those would be true. The Apostle Paul could have said, I’m a missionary. 

I’m a Hebrew. I’m from the tribe of Benjamin. I’m a Pharisee. 

I’m a tent maker. That would all have been true. Paul says, you know who I am? I’m a servant of Christ Jesus. 

And he uses a particular word for servant there that is the word Doulos, that means one who is subservient to and entirely at the disposal of his master. In fact, when Paul was writing this, there were millions of slaves in the Roman Empire. Under Roman law, a Doulos slave or servant was considered the owner’s personal property. 

They had no rights at all except what their master told them to do. And Paul says, Timothy and I, are Doulos, we’re servants of Jesus. We live in a culture where everybody likes to demand their rights. 

Paul and Timothy said, we’ve given our lives to Christ Jesus. He is our servant, or he is our master. We are his servant. 

And so, Paul and Timothy wrote, are the authors here of this letter, Paul specifically, notice who they’re writing to, the recipients to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and the deacons. So, here Paul identifies who he’s writing to. First of all, he talks about their spiritual location. 

You’re in Christ. Then he talks about their physical or geographical location to God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi. So, he’s writing to this group of believers. 

And if you go to Acts 16, you can read the background of the church at Philippi. And he’s writing to these group of believers who on Paul’s second missionary journey came to faith in Christ. It was Lydia, a businesswoman. 

It was the Philippian jailer and his household. And apparently out of those conversions, a church developed because now he says, you have overseers and deacons. By the way, what’s the difference between just a Bible study and a church? Well, a church is organized. 

A church has elected officers. A church practices the ordinances of communion and baptism. And so, there was actually a church that developed at Philippi. 

And now Paul’s writing years later to this church and he’s sending them greetings. What are the greetings, the salutation? Well, Paul’s familiar greetings. Grace, that’s the Greek greeting. 

Peace, that’s the Jewish greeting. That’s the word shalom. So, Paul says, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Well, now we move into the next section here. And I call this the sentimental relationship because you’re going to see as we read this letter that there is a deep love between the apostle Paul and these believers at Philippi. Paul was their founding pastor, and Paul had a deep love for these people. 

Paul’s writing from prison. He’s under house arrest in Rome. And quite frankly, Paul doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die. 

But he writes to encourage these believers in Christ. And we’re going to see this personal relationship that he had in these next three or four verses here, verses 3 through 8. So, here’s the first thing that Paul says. 

I have you in my thoughts. I have you in my thoughts. So, Paul’s writing to these people, and he says, hey, I’m thinking about you. I thank my God every time I remember you. Who’s he remembering? He’s remembering Lydia. 

Remember when Paul got to Philippi, his normal pattern was to go to the synagogue. He said, I’m taking the gospel to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. In order to have a synagogue in a city, you had to have 10 Jewish households. 

When he got to Philippi, apparently there were not a great Jewish population. So, on the Sabbath, he goes down to a river and he finds a woman’s prayer meeting. And there’s a businesswoman, her name’s Lydia. 

She was a seller of purple and she comes to faith in Christ. And so, Paul says, I’m thinking of Lydia and her family that came to faith in Christ at that Riverside prayer meeting. Paul says, I’m also thinking of that Philippian jailer because Paul ends up in jail in Philippi. 

And you know the story. There was an earthquake, and the chains were loosed on all the prisoners. And Paul and Silas say to the jailer who was about to take his life because if he lost a prisoner, he was going to die. 

And he said, hey, don’t kill yourself. We’re all here. Paul leads that Philippian jailer to faith in Christ, his entire household. 

And so, Paul says, I thank my God for Lydia and her family. And I thank my God for the Philippian jailer. It’s nice to be thought about, isn’t it? Nice to know that other people are thinking about you. 

And in the church, God wants us to have these relationships where we’re thinking about each other. I got a call on Tuesday mid-afternoon and there’s someone from the previous church I pastored. I’ve told Carl’s story here many, many times, but had the privilege of leading Carl to the Lord many, many years ago. 

Long, long story of how that happened. But Carl, even though I’ve not been his pastor for 25 years, Carl was driving through Manchester, calls me up and he says, hey, are you free later this afternoon? Driving through Manchester, maybe we can grab a bite to eat at Frank’s. And I said, well, I’ve got a time window between four and five, I’ll meet you there. 

Drive down to Frank’s and Carl and I spent about an hour just catching up with each other and encouraging one another and so, encouraged that Carl is still walking with Jesus and is making an impact in his church for the kingdom of God. Paul says, I’m thinking of you, and I thank my God every time I think about you.  

But then Paul says this, I not only have you in my thoughts, but I also have you in my prayers. Notice the next section here. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray for joy. So, there’s that first time joy is used, first of 16 times in the book of Philippians. 

And Paul says, when I pray for you, I have joy in my heart. And now he tells us why. I always pray with joy, verse five, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 

So, Paul says, I’m thankful for you Philippian believers because we’ve partnered in the gospel. We’ve partnered in the good news, the advancement of the kingdom of God. And so, when I pray for you, I’m filled with joy. 

Paul prays with joy, not only because of their partnership with the gospel, but because of the confidence that he has. That’s in verse six, being confident of this. So, I’m thankful for the partnership that you’ve shared in the gospel. 

And really this is a thank you note because the church at Philippi sent Paul some gifts while he was in prison. They’d been a faithful financial partner of his ministry. But now Paul says, I’m confident of something. 

What’s he confident in? That he who began a good work in you, that’s God, that’s Jesus, will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. So, that brings joy to Paul. I have a confession to make. 

Maybe some of you can identify with this. But I have a habit of starting things, not finishing them. I’ll start to read a book, and I’ll get, you know, through about half of it or two thirds, then life gets busy. 

I never finish it. I’ve got a few projects that I’ve started, and I get halfway and then I get distracted, and I don’t finish. Paul’s saying, God’s not like that. 

When it comes to salvation, what God started, He’s going to complete. And so, there’s three tenses of our salvation. You know Jesus as your Savior. 

You can say, I have been saved. For me, it was November 1963 as an eight-year-old boy. I have been saved. 

Sins are forgiven. That’s justification. But we could also say, I am being saved. 

And that means that those t-shirts that used to say, be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet. That means God is still in the business of what? Conforming us to become more and more like Jesus, like the image of His Son, Jesus. And so, there’s this process of growing in Christ. 

And we could say, God’s still working on me, and I am being saved. But then there’s a third part of our salvation that has yet to come. It is called our glorification. 

And that means there’s a day coming when our salvation will be complete. When God calls us home and we’re in heaven and we get a new body and our salvation is complete and there’s going to be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering. And Paul says, I pray with joy because you’re partners in the gospel, but also because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the God who began a good work in you is going to carry you all the way to the completion. 

What does Paul write in Romans chapter 8. What shall separate us from the love of God? And then he goes through down this long, long list of things. And let me read it rather than trying to quote it here from Romans chapter 8. He writes these words, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, there are some doctrines, denominations that believe you can lose your salvation. 

We believe that the scriptures teach eternal security, that our salvation is secure. And John talks about the picture that we’re safe in Jesus’ hands and God the Father’s hands are around His hand and nothing can separate us from God’s love. And so, Paul says, I have you in my thoughts and I have you in my prayers. 

And then thirdly, he says, I have you in my heart. Look at it in verse 7. It’s right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. And whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, those are legal terms. 

So, Paul’s been arrested, and he’s been in Jerusalem on trial and they’ve sent him to, he appealed to Caesar and now he’s under house arrest in Caesar and he’s going to have to go through a trial. And he’s talking about defending himself in a legal court. Whether I’m in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you sharing God’s grace with me. 

God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. The New Living Translation puts verse 8 this way, God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. So, Paul is literally heart sick, longing to see these Philippian believers again. 

And he has this deep personal relationship with, you’re in my thoughts, you’re in my prayers, you’re in my heart. Well, next Sunday we’ll look at the next section here because then Paul goes ahead and prays for those Philippian believers. And we’ll study that prayer next Sunday. 

And it’s interesting what Paul prayed for. And we can take some great instruction in our prayer life by studying the prayers of the Bible. And I’ll just give you a hint. 

And nothing wrong with praying for physical needs and people that are sick, we need to do that. But most of the prayers in the New Testament and Old Testament didn’t have to do with that, all had to do with our relationship with God and growing in Christ and growing in love and growing in our spiritual walk. So, we’ll look at that next Sunday. 

This morning, our last 10 minutes, just think about a couple of application questions from Philippians 1, 1 through 8. And I simply have two of them. And let’s take a look at them. Here’s the first one, it’s crucial. 

Application question number one, am I in Christ? Am I in Christ? So, notice when Paul wrote this, he writes to all God’s people who are in Christ. And so, there’s a doctrine in the New Testament, and it’s called the baptism of the Spirit. And quite frankly, that’s caused a lot of confusion, maybe in some circles, well what is the baptism of the Spirit? And so, let’s look at that, because what it really means is, it means to be in Christ. 

So Acts chapter 1, before Jesus ascends up to heaven after His earthly ministry, He’s meeting with the disciples. They’re on the mountaintop, He’s about to ascend to heaven. But what does He say in verse 5 of Acts 1? John baptized with water, but in a few days, you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 

Ah, you’re going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. That took place on Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, the beginning of the church. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It’s the act that at the moment of salvation, the Spirit of God places us in Christ, in the body of Christ. 

It speaks of unity, it speaks of oneness, it speaks of knowing that our sins are forgiven. And so, Paul, writing to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 12:13, he writes these words, for we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, we were all given the one Spirit to drink. We’ve all been baptized by one Spirit. 

In other words, we’re all in the body of Christ when we put our faith in Jesus. Galatians chapter 3, verses 27 and 28, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. Then he talks about unity. 

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all what? One in Christ. And so, in Christ simply means we’ve put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and the Spirit of God has put us into what? The body of Christ, the church. We have unity within that. 

So, this morning there are only two positions you can be in. You can be in Christ, it means you’re saved. Your sins have been forgiven. 

You’re a child of God. You know where your future is. You’re going to heaven to spend eternity with Him. 

The other category is you’re outside of Christ. It means you’re still lost. You’re dead in your transgressions and sins, Ephesians says. You’re not forgiven, and you’re destined for a Christless eternity separated from God forever. So, we need to ask ourselves, am I in Christ?  

I hope everybody can say yes. If anybody has any question about that at all, I would urge you not to leave here this morning before you know for sure your sins are forgiven and you’re in Christ. That’s the good news of the gospel 2nd Corinthians 5:21, he who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we might become what? The righteousness of God that declares us forgiven.  

The second question I want to think about this morning is this, not only am I in Christ, but secondly, am I a servant of Christ? That’s how Paul and Timothy described themselves.   

We’re bond slaves. We’re servants of Jesus. He’s, our master.  

He’s, our Lord. Really the question, who’s on the throne of your life? We’re either living a self-directed life and doing what we want when we want, or we bow the knee to Christ. And He’s on the throne of our hearts.  

Many people that have their entrance ticket to heaven, they’ve put their faith in Jesus, but they’re living for themselves. Paul and Timothy said, we’re servants of Jesus. And so, Luke chapter 6, Jesus asks a very interesting question.  

As part of the Sermon on the Mount, before he told the story of the wise man and the foolish man, Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don’t do what I say? Why do you call me master or Lord, but you’re not doing what I say? And so, the question is, am I a servant of Christ? Paul reminds us in 1st Corinthians 6:19 and 20, that we don’t belong to ourselves once we come to faith in Jesus. Paul says, don’t you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you’ve received from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. 

Honor God in everything that you do. You belong to me now, God says. So, am I a servant? Now, let’s think about a couple of questions that can kind of be a little bit of a checklist to see, well, what does that mean and am I a servant? And so, here’s a couple of questions that we can look at and ask ourselves as we conclude this morning.  

Here’s the first one, am I involved in the partnership of the gospel? So, here’s Paul praying with joy to these Philippian believers and what’s he thankful for? Because you partnered with me in the advancement of the gospel. How did they partner with Paul? We don’t have time to study Acts 16, but I’ll just tell you how. Number one, hospitality.  

And when Paul was in Philippi and Lydia and her family came to know Christ as their Savior, guess where Paul and Timothy stayed? Lydia says, I’ll tell you what, Paul, you’re not from here. Why don’t you stay in my house? And that became home base for Paul while they were ministering in Philippi. So, Lydia opened up her home to the missionary team and so we can partner with the gospel by offering hospitality to others, to having people in our home, to housing missionaries that might be coming through town or guest speaker and just being hospitable.  

And hospitality is partnering with the gospel. You can also partner with the gospel through acts of kindness. Back in Acts chapter 16, after the Philippian jailer came to faith in Christ, now Paul ends up in his home and his whole household comes to faith in Christ and they’re all baptized.  

What does the Philippian jailer do to his former prisoner? This is Acts 16:33. At that hour of the night, and it was very, very late, it was probably early morning, the jailer took them and washed their wounds. So, he’s helping heal the wounds of Paul and Silas who had been flogged.  

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them. And he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. And so, acts of kindness partners with the gospel.  

I mentioned earlier that the whole reason for the book of Philippians to be written is because the church at Philippi sent one of their members, Epaphroditus, to Rome with a financial gift for Paul. And so, Paul is writing this note, this letter, partially, perhaps mainly as a thank-you note to the church at Philippi and to what Paul has received as a gift from the church. And so, we can partner with the gospel in a financial way.  

That means supporting local church ministries, that means supporting missionaries and partnering with them in the gospel. So, how can we partner? We can partner in the same way. We can partner through hospitality.  

We can partner through food. The Philippian jailer gave a meal to Paul and Timothy. I’m so thankful we have a sign-up sheet for our Awana Meals and Beyond Awana Meals, and we’re doing that every Wednesday night, and so many of you have graciously signed up to prepare a meal, and it’s no easy undertaking. 

Ann and Ken Walton provided a meal last Wednesday, and afterwards, Ann said, I think we had 70 people go through the line. But that’s a ministry, and it’s been a vital part of our ministry to kids and to families. And when you do that, you are partnering with the gospel.  

And so, we can partner through hospitality. We can partner through meals. We can partner through our financial giving.  

We just mailed out financial giving statements for 2024, and many of you that give so faithfully to this church that enabled us on December 1st to have what we’ve done for three out of the last four years, and Lord willing, we’ll do it as long as we are able, the Acts 1:8 Project. For last December, we had all these organizations, and God had blessed us through your giving, to be able to give $5,000 to Samaritan’s Purse, $2,500 to the Manchester Community Resource Center, $5,000 to Youth Haven Ranch, $5,000 to the Life Builders Ministry in Detroit, $5,000 to the Great Lakes Justice Center, $10,000 to Lasting Smiles Uganda, a school in Uganda that has 600 kids that they’re sharing God’s love and truth with, $2,500 to Bridge to Life Michigan. I wish you could read all the thank you notes that we got from all seven of them thanking you for what? Your partnership in the gospel. 

When Paul thanks the Philippian believers, he thanks them for the gift. He says, not that I want a gift, but I want fruit that is credited to your account. What does Paul mean by that? He means that when you invest in a ministry through prayer and through finances, whatever happens in that ministry, God says, you did it as well.  

God’s keeping track of that. There’s going to be reward or loss of reward someday. And so, am I involved in the partnership of the gospel? That’s how we determine whether we’re a servant of Christ.  

Secondly, we can ask the question, am I participating in the ministry of prayer? Paul says, I’m praying for you all the time. I’m praying for you with joy for what you’ve done. And we read all through the Scripture.  

Ephesians 6 says, praying always with all prayers and supplication, pray for the saints. 1st Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. James 5:16, pray for one another.  

And so, my servant of Christ, my praying, one practical way, and we just kind of closed the window on this, but we can certainly add people to it. So, we have about 35, 40 emails on our community Bible prayer chain. For when needs come up, we can just send out an email and we can rally prayer support very quickly. 

And so, if you’d like to be a part of that, just make sure you give us your email. We’ll be glad to add you to that list. So, am I participating in the ministry of prayer? Am I a servant of Christ? Am I involved in partnership of the gospel? Am I participating in the ministry of prayer?  

Thirdly, am I growing in my passion for God’s people? Paul says, it’s right for me to feel this way about all of you. I have you in my heart. He’s basically saying, I love you. By the way, that’s the defining mark of Christians.  

What did Jesus say in John 13? How will people know that we’re followers of God? By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Then Jesus adds, I want you to love one another as I have loved you. And so, God wants us to grow in our passion for each other, our love for each other.  

In fact, that’s Paul’s first prayer request. We’ll look at it next Sunday, verse 9. I’m praying that your love may abound, what, more and more. How can we practically love one another? Well, lots of ways.  

Starts with, I would say, a priority to be together in corporate worship, making that commitment. Already talked about praying for one another. Practical acts of kindness. 

Paul says, I’m thinking of you. I’m praying for you. You’re in my heart.  

We all have these smartphones here. Easy to send a text to somebody. Just encourage somebody.  

How are you doing? I’m Praying for you. Let them know you’re thinking of them.  

There are so many avenues that we can do this. And so, am I growing in passion for God’s people? What is love? Love is self-sacrifice. Love is described in 1st Corinthians 13:4 through 8. I’ll basically put it like this. 

Love is putting the needs of others before you. Love is putting the needs of another person before you. And so, we’re all naturally selfish. 

Even when we come to faith in Christ, that selfishness doesn’t go away. I’ve told this story many, many times, but Diane and I got married. We were 21 years old, and I was a big sports fan. 

And so, part of our honeymoon was in Chicago. And I thought, oh, what can we do in Chicago? I know, I like baseball. Let’s go to a Chicago White Sox baseball game.  

Wouldn’t that be exciting? And Diane was reading a book by the third inning, you know. She doesn’t care about baseball. But what does the marriage relationship do as you grow in that relationship? You learn to hopefully put the needs of your spouse ahead of your own needs. 

And then God blesses you with children, and guess what? Then you get put further down the list because then you’ve got these kids and their needs and self-sacrifice. But that’s what love is. And so, two quick questions.  

I trust that everybody here this morning is in Christ. I trust that you’re growing in your relationship with Christ, that you might describe yourself as a servant of Christ because I’m partnering with the gospel. I’m praying for others.  

I’m growing in love for people in the body of Christ. 

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