This week we launch into a 4 week series on one of the most important and least talked about topics on planet earth: conflict! We’ve all experienced it, and there’s no avoiding it. In week one, we’ll look at the origins of conflict by going all the way back to the beginning. One little event so many years ago injected brokenness and conflict into our relationship with God and one another. Nothing has been the same since. Shalom has been shattered. By looking back at the fall in the garden, we’ll see some patterns that play out over and over again in our own lives. We will see that conflict typically flows from things like a shallow trust in God, developing a god-complex and full-blown rebellion against God. Once conflict has a grip on our lives, we tend to hide/retreat and then blame shift just like the 1st humans ever created did so long ago. We live in a state of brokenness and conflict, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to get ourselves out of this vicious cycle. That’s the bad news. Come back next week for the good news!

Paul closes out this powerful little letter to the church in Philippi by encouraging and challenging the believers there in several specific ways. In this section of his letter, Paul really hits home on his gratitude for his church family, the secret to contentment, and the importance of partnership in advancing the mission of Jesus around the world. He finishes the letter by circling back to the grace of Jesus. In all of Paul’s letters it’s interesting that he always brings it back to the gospel of Jesus. The truth of the matter is that it is impossible for us to live contented lives full of joy apart from the power of the gospel. May we constantly come back to the glorious news that our Savior lived a perfect life for us, died to pay the penalty for our sins, and rose to give us abundant life now and in eternity! This is our hope and this is our fuel to live a sold-out life for Him!

It’s easy to do. We look at our life and the lives of others and begin to focus on behaviors. We try harder to control our own behaviors and we slip into condemning others for their bad behaviors. However, Romans teaches us there’s something else going on behind all these behaviors that’s critical to understand. It turns out our behaviors are simply indicators of who is really ruling our life, and Romans exposes who those rulers in our life are and how they operate in our life. Therefore, it’s critical to realign our life with the understanding that relational obedience will always come before behavioral change.

Spiritual Realities in The Lord's Supper - Dr. Steve Harris, Guest Teacher 08 18 19 by New Life of Asheville

You may remember that last week Paul challenged believers to run their race well in chapter 3. To press, strain and strive to the finish line of knowing Jesus & becoming like Jesus. As Paul launches us into chapter 4, he’s going to give us 5 keys to running that race well. Five simple and yet life changing keys to spiritual health. If you’ve grown up in church, little of this will be new to you. But it’s only as we take truths like: standing firm in Jesus, guarding unity, fighting for joy, killing anxiety and fixing our minds on good, and begin to apply them, that life change actually happens. And when we imbed these truths into the rhythms of our everyday lives, we begin to live in the joy God intends for us, as His peace becomes a mainstay in our hearts and minds.

Paul is going to close out this portion of his letter to the church in Philippi by giving them (and us) a really vivid mental picture of what a life given to the pursuit of Jesus actually looks like. Paul is going to encourage us to acknowledge that we haven’t arrived or become perfect in our faith. He’s going to inspire us to press into the race of pursuing Jesus by forgetting our past and striving forward in our faith. He’s also going to point us to the importance of anchoring our life in the gospel and living our lives in this world as citizens of heaven, unlike many who claim Jesus with their mouths but deny Him with their lives.

Philippians - When Loss is Gain - Joe Dillon, Guest Pastor 07 28 19 by New Life of Asheville

Thus far, Paul has spent the bulk of the first two chapters of Phillipians laying out a clear and compelling picture of what the Jesus-centered life looks like. We’ve seen that the Jesus-centered life is characterized by joy, fearlessness and a focus on others rather than self. This Jesus-centered life should also be absent of qualities that are not compatible with the gospel. Things like: rivalry, selfish-ambition, grumbling and complaining. In this section of his letter, Paul puts forward two real-life examples of people who are faithfully living this life as examples we can emulate. From the life of Timothy and Epaphroditus we see clearly that the life of the Christian should be deeply marked with things like: gospel faithfulness in the ordinariness of life. We see that we actually love and serve Jesus by loving and serving our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we learn that our lives should reflect sacrificial risk for the sake of Jesus as we live humbly and honor one another.

We ended last week with Paul pointing us to Jesus as the power source to live a gospel-worthy life. This week, Paul points us--again--to Jesus, as he encourages us to work out our salvation. This verse has been misunderstood by many to mean that we should work in order to earn our salvation and that we are at risk of losing it if we don’t. Instead, Paul is simply saying that what God has worked in us, we should work out or live out in a tangible way. Our faith should result in more than mere words, but a life lived in pursuing Jesus and His mission for us. The way we live our lives matters. Obedience to Jesus is a fruit of a heart that’s being changed by Him. The only way we can live this life of authentically working out our salvation and shining as lights in a dark world is by holding fast to the “word of life” as we look to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith. We rest in the fact that our salvation is secure in Jesus, while at the very same time, working hard to shine His hope to the world around us!

In this portion of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, Paul tells them--and us--that there are certain qualities or distinctives that should be marks in the Christian’s life. He will compel us to live lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus. We don’t live this way in an attempt to earn our salvation or to pay God back in some strange way, but this is the life that overflows from a person being transformed by Jesus from the inside out. Followers of Jesus should be marked by unity, fearlessness, the ability to suffer well for Jesus and a life of humility as we put others ahead of ourselves. This life is radically different from anything and everything we see in our culture. It is the opposite of the selfish “me first” mindset we see in our world. The motivation and power to live this type of revolutionary life only comes as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who modeled this life of self-sacrifice perfectly for us. This is the worthy life, may we live it well and make Jesus look big!