Sower Church

Hey, let’s go. Let’s do this Church, have a seat. I was worried about you as a second service. Honestly, just before we start, I’ll be honest. The first service was has been amped the last couple of weeks and y’all came in kind of slow rolling and now you’re starting to get more excited. You slept in, you know, you should be fresh, refreshed, ready to go. So thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. My name is Michael with the five pastors here at our church. I think I’m ready to go our uh, I think I’m right, but I’ll just little disclaimer if you hear me sound congested. I had 18 years ago or so in high school wrestling at Battle Creek, michigan and the national wrestling Championship. My armor’s hyper extended, my elbow, my ankle was taped, my, I was like split and my nose got adjusted to the left and the russell about consolation rounds and my coach moved it back for me but the inside of my nose stayed there to anyway, so my, my wife told me to talk to my doctor. My doctor told me to talk to ear, nose throat doctor. And on monday an ear nose throat doctor move my nose back and reconstructed my right. Scientists. Naval thanks was collapsed and 60% my left was was blocked as well. So I should have maybe a different voice in the future is what they said. So maybe we’ll be really high in the future. It would be great, but welcome. Good morning. I’ll if you hear me or something, I’m okay. It’s just so welcome. Good morning. If you’re the livestream. Thank you for checking us out. If you’re here in person, thank you for checking us out or if your name is anne and you’re my wife, Thank you for checking me out. It’s good to be a few all this morning. It’s an honor to be with you today. Shane dan, Derek Ben and I are the five pastors here and we’re pumped and excited. You chose to be with the people of God this morning. We are, you find us in week two of our three weeks series called simply sewer. It’s our core value series. Looking at what makes us tick, what gets us up in the mornings. Um, we’re excited to look at that with you today. Last week dan hit a walk off, Grand Slam on the Gospel. It was amazing. Had a home run. It was amazing. Um, today I just got to get on base today. So our hope is to work through community culture, which is our second culture, first cultures, Gospel culture that was last week. If you missed it, you missed you missed something important. Go to jump on livestream down, watch the sermon on youtube. You can subscribe and see all that stuff but dan took us deep into the gospel and as a church, if we need to go deep into the Gospel as leaders and his followers of God should be able to be transformed by the Gospel. It was excellent. There is clarity, strong words, a huge heart for the gospel. It was excellent. You missed out if you missed it last week but Youtube is there so you can go find it. So thank you for coming today. Today. We’re looking at community culture, it’s our core value. Also communities for us in the church and those outside the church. When I first moved a Lincoln, let’s pray, Let’s pray, I’m ready to go. Let’s pray God, thank you for these men and women. Thank you for what you’re doing their lives. Thank you for the story you’re writing in their lives. I pray that we would just simply look at scripture and look at scripture and respond and is this true? What does it mean? And how do I apply this in my life? I pray that we would digest the word of God. As we look at these passages I pray, we just really may be transformed into the image you have for the people of God through the word of God. That’s what you just used today to glorify your name, make your name famous. We commit this time to you in jesus name amen When I moved to Lincoln nine years ago, I was told by locals that Lincoln is the bigg…

Good morning. So a church. Good morning. Good morning. How are you guys doing this morning? Who? You guys are doing? Really good. You’re enjoying your fellowship. That’s also good. My name is dan. I’m one of the five elders here. Um, if I haven’t met you yet, Look forward to meeting you. And if I have met you and I forgot your name, please forgive me. Um, I don’t do that on purpose as a part of my Brokenness, as a human being. And on that note, I’m going to talk about the privilege I have of kicking off a new three weeks series here at sewer that we are entitling simply sewer and what we’re gonna cover each week is one of our core values, Gospel community and generosity. And so I’m so thrilled that I get to kick it off talking about the gospel. Hey man, that’s exciting. Yeah, well you guys are really awesome. I’m guessing you got the 20 I hit under the chair. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. So yeah, I get to kick off this series talking about the gospel and uh, my aim with the teaching this morning is to answer three questions for you. The first one being, what is the gospel? What is the gospel was the first question I want to answer for you. And then the second one is why is it so important to us? Why is the gospel is so important to us? And thirdly, how can you help create a thriving gospel culture in this church. How can you play a part in helping to create a thriving Gospel culture in this church and so on that note. Open your bibles to first Corinthians chapter 15 I’m going to reverse this one through four. First Corinthians chapter 15 vs one through 4. If you have the bible app on your phone, you can turn their I’ll be reading from the SV translation um or you can read along on the screen to my left or right. On that note, I’m going to begin the reading of the passage Beginning in Verse one, A paul’s letter to the Corinthians to the church in Corinth Chapter 15: verse one Paul begins this chapter by saying now, I would remind you brothers of the Gospel. I preach to you, which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance. What I also received that christ died for our sins. In accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day. In accordance with the scriptures? Let us pray father. We thank you for your spirit. We thank you for your word. It is true. It is truth. Lord. Would you remind us today of the power of the Gospel? Help us to see it with fresh eyes will help us to be encouraged by it And God I pray that through this teaching this morning, we would be able to stand more firmly on the powerful truth of your gospel message. I pray this in jesus name Amen. Hey man, have any of you ever had problems with your gps when traveling in a small town um, or a more rural area? Yes. Um, you’re like, yes, yes. I’ll have you know that I have, my wife coached me up on how to say the word rule. Um, and I’m still not sure that I’m saying it correctly. Um, too many ours and too many dialects that I’m juggling in my head being from the southern part of the country and then a little patois in the background. So I’m gonna say remote places. Um, because that’s easier for me. But you guys are shaking your head. Yes. You’ve had problems with your Gps in those places. You, you may be set out on a trip to, to go and visit a third cousin and the GPS told you to turn left and you found yourself in the middle of a cornfield and you said this isn’t uncle charlie’s place. Where am I? This thing is stupid. It’s broken. It doesn’t know what it’s talking about. I hate this thing. Right? You ever had that happen? Maybe that’s just my experience, pray for me. Maybe I need som…

Amen. Let’s give it up for our college. Please be praying for Alex Chloe Ryan Zain faith Derek john as they are doing collegiate ministry on your behalf at U. N. L. This next couple weeks. This is go time. So welcome college students. If you’re on the livestream, welcome. If you’re from Solar Church, welcome. If you’re from Restoration City Church, welcome. If this is your first time visiting us welcome. There’s a lot going on this morning. It’s our first ever joint merge church worship experience. So if you’re new or you like more info, we have questions you have or would like to have coffee if one of us staff or one of the pastors at our church, we have a connect table there in the lobby, feel free to fill out some physical card or a QR card or, or you can meet people the old fashioned way handshakes and scheduling on your own discretion. So welcome. Thank you for coming. It’s an honor to be a few this morning. My name is mike. I’m on the five pastors that leads Solar Church and this is an exciting morning for all of us. First impressions are being made and it’s good. I’ve uh, I don’t always hit on first impression. Sometimes I swing and I miss heavily on first impressions. Um, I think a couple of years ago, I don’t remember exactly a while ago, I went to a gospel coalition training lunch teaching and I saw dan coke and I thought I want to shake dance hand. So I went over today and I shook his hand. I took a neon like dan, just confession. It’s good for the soul dan. I uh, I can’t sleep at night some nights and you know his past three of things in your mind and so what I do is I, I listened to you preach and dan looked at me and I’m like, and then I listened to three or four of your sermons and you wrecked my whole night and you wreck the next morning because I didn’t sleep at night and we have a, it’s an honor to be a few, it’s an honorable to split the first service together, split our time. Um, uh, split this message with dan coke so we’re in for a treat. I’m glad dan is gonna be my pastor, I’m glad dan is going to be in my life going forward. This is a blessing for us on many levels church. So dan and I want to kick off a joint shared church service together with a shared message. This is a big moment for us. So let’s pray, let’s pray. There’s a lot going on but there’s a lot more going on God’s mind. So let’s, let’s pray God, we just commit this time to you, we just want to glorify your name, make your name famous, we just wanna be used by you um, at your capacity that you want us to be used. We just want to be available for you, use us to advance the cause of christ to advance the mission to make disciples help us to live a life and be found faithful at the end of our life. We just love you. We thank you for the RCC faith family and thank you for the solar faith family. Thank you for the new family members that are new to our church that walked in this morning. I thank you for college kids Lord, I pray you’re writing a story in all of our lives. I prayed you would write and unite our stories together as one unified front to reach the lost and advance the cause of christ we purchased bless and lead us and protect us as a church. We commit this to you in jesus name, amen. All right. I have 12 more minutes that I’m going to wrap it up so I’m gonna move quickly into my passage that I’m looking at if you would read with me up here or turn to Ephesians for I think this really sets the stage for what this message is going to be about. The title Damn and I have picked is one in christ and this is from Ephesians for starting a verse one, it says this therefore I paul a prisoner in the Lord urge you to live worthy of the calling you have received with all humility and gentleness with patients bearing with one another in love, makin…

he was in the form of God did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every morning, so that at the name of jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ his Lord to the glory of God, the father. Yeah. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, welcome. Thank you for coming. Changes in the air. And just to answer the very first question, yes, This is a new shirt. Um, Annie, Annie finds these shirts for me at all different places in this city and it’s been, it’s fun to be able to, we’re a new shirt, but new shirt, there’s new days and there’s change in the air. We are transitioning as a church from summer time to go time. I mean fall time, Big red welcomes in the future back to school. If Lincoln public schools is happening, changes in the area. So changes are loved and embraced by some and they’re hated and dreaded by others. I understand that, but we are concluding our Book of Philippians and we’re going to stop and pause and take a few weeks and look at our vision for who we are as a church and where we’re going to the church and what got us here won’t get us to the next level as a church. And so we’re transitioning and changing as a church. And so it is fun to be with you. We are experiencing several changes. One is uh, we’ve been from the one service world to the, to service world and that brings about change and growth, were experiencing the structures that smaller churches have to midsize church structures and if you’ve been with jesus one year or many years, you can attest to that. There’s great change that occurs in the life of a disciple, alert or leader is just part of growing up as a church, growing up as a person is to expect change. We, we are, it seems like a lot of kids pre covid and the post covid, some kids grew, it felt like 68 inches over the last covid break and so kids grow and that’s normal and healthy and churches grow and change and develop things that are different than what they used to do versus what they’re going to do going forward in the future. Um, lifers will tell you at this church expects great change and that’s just, that’s normal, That’s healthy. That’s, that’s part of the process of being a people of God, our church is about to embark on a great and grand change that will forever change who we are. And the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing as a pastoral team is mission purpose driven. It’s the why behind the vision is compelling us to step out in this. The waters have changed again as a church. We believe that this changes for better and for our good as the people, as a church, to advance the mission, the cause of christ, to expand the gospel. We believe that is definitely exciting for us. And so I’m going to pause and pray and we’re going to look at the passage and I’m going to cover what I’m excited to talk to you about this morning. So let’s pray God, you, you changed everything when you said in the beginning, let there be light. You changed everything. When jesus said it is finished, you’ve been leading the people of God through seasons of change, out of a chapter, into a different chapter, time and time again through every chapter of our bibles, you are a god of great change you’ve been bringing about new covenants have been closing and moving on and doing new work. Lord your God, who never changes, but also who brings about constant change in our lives? And you grow and you form us into your i…

couple things that I think are kind of ironic this morning. Um first and foremost, somehow I got the early morning time slot with a bunch of teenagers who were out late last night, having fun and I feel like that’s easily the toughest time slot in the group. But um, that’s okay. The ironic thing about that is that those of you that know me well, have heard me say this before. Um, I I am not a motivator. I don’t see myself as someone that should be a motivator. In fact, I think it’s a mistake for leaders to really position themselves as motivators and part of why that is, is going to come out here in a little bit because a big part of what we’re going to cover in our scripture today is the fact that the love of christ compels us and if you understand all the theological truths, that really undergird that you’re going to be in a better place than someone who has a lot of great hype videos. Okay, so here’s what I want to say to start with, like as a football coach, these guys can tell you, you know, I am not the pregame speech guy, Like I’m the head football coach, but that’s not how I see myself. I addressed the team about an hour before the game with some basic theological truth that should support all that we’re doing and get us excited to compete for the glory of the Lord. But right before the game, we do this big for lack of a better term high prayer, which what is a high prayer. I feel kind of weird even using that phrase, but we do this thing. It’s more like a chance, but it’s kind of a prayer because that’s who we are. And I do. I lead that guys. No, no. In fact I if it’s happening over here are assistant coach cold work, which if you know him at all, you know, he’s the guy for the job, He’s over there doing it with everybody, they’re all huddled up, it’s loud and fun. I stand over by this garage door that comes out of our weight room where everybody exits and I’m just ready to open the door when they’re done and fist bump people and say enjoy it, have fun. Um, love you. You know those kind of things. I am not a hype guy and, and, and I think it’s important for you to just sort of see that I’m not here when we talk about the love of christ motivating us, compelling us. I’m not here to be over the top. You remember me um with this with this topic, I’m I’m here to show you that the deepest truths of the universe should compel you and control you to be God’s ambassadors and live for his glory. So I’m going to read our text and what’s going to ultimately happen is that we’re going to read through Second Corinthians 56 through 62. But we’re really gonna park ourselves on 5 14 and 15 because that’s where everything sort of hinges. That’s the heart of what we’ve got here. And so after we read, I’ll pray and then we’ll really unpack this. So let’s get started. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must or for we must all appear before the judge judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive what is due for him or do for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God. And I hope it is known also to your conscience. We’re not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you, for the love of christ controls us. That’s the first phase we’re go…

all right in my arms. Sweet. Well that’s some people gather in. Hey guys. Uh man, it’s fun to be here. My name is while people are coming in, I’ll tell you a little bit about who I am. Believe it or not. I’m not a high school student. I know, I look like one, you know, don’t worry. I was a counselor at a camp one time and I was playing basketball and one kid came up to me and he was like, you know, man, you’re pretty good for like a 14 year old kid. And I was like, this was like two years ago and I was like, ok, what? So yeah, I am uh I am, you know, at the same time though I say that and then, you know, I don’t really feel like an adult a lot of times just to be 100% with you guys. So I don’t know where I’m at. You know, I’m in that middle, you know, between stage, but I am married. Uh, my wife is back there. She’s amazing. If you get a chance to meet her and then we helped you, we run a college ministry here at the campus, you know, and here at so a church. And so, um, man, I just, I’m so excited. I uh huh. My passion is college students, but right after that, you guys are my favorite, you know, you guys are amazing and that’s kind of a joke, but in all seriousness, um, just watching you guys worship be together, the energy that um, high school, middle school people bring. Uh man, I just love it. I think there’s nothing like you guys. And um, if you don’t believe yourself, like if you think I’m just a kid, um, I just want to tell you guys, like your opinions and your perspectives right now, like are important and I want you guys to really take yourselves seriously. Like you guys have um this mentality, you have a brain, you have experiences and things that you’ve done individually. Um that has a lot of value seriously right now. Um and and I am so excited to just be in the room with you. I think I can learn things from you just as much as you can learn from me and I’m just excited and all that. I would ask. Um just right right now, is to be honest, um you guys are here for whatever reason, I don’t know if you want to be here. I wish, you know sometimes I wish this could be a conversation. I wish I could talk one on one with every single one of you and no, like what’s your story, what is your passion, what are you doing where you at right now, like, but I can’t and so I don’t know if you want to be here or not, but to be honest with you, you are, you’re here. And so all I would ask is that you would take yourself seriously and you would give yourself the same respect that I really think that you deserve and you would just zone in right now for the next couple of minutes and tomorrow on. Like, you like really? I know there might be some cute girl across the aisle in front of your some cute boys, you’re like, oh, I gotta, I gotta make sure I like my hair is looking good, so I don’t know, you know what I mean? Like, I don’t know what’s on your mind. I don’t know if you’re like, man, I really summer’s ending and I’m just morning and I can’t, Oh man, this is terrible. School’s about to start up. I don’t know, you know like where you’re at right now, but I would just ask you to lean in a little bit. Like just lean in and zonen with me on just what’s going on with you today? Like seriously? What’s going on with you? Like what, like, what do you believe? Like what are the things that you have decided to do or not to do? Um, like just think about this is what’s crazy to me. Just think about for a second. Like imagine when you were seven years old or something, right? Like if I asked you, hey, when you were seven and some random day, like what were you thinking about? What were you doing? You probably couldn’t tell me because honestly you guys weren’t like, you know, you’re probably playing video games or hanging out with friends or doing…

Good evening. It’s great to see all of you here this evening. I would ask you now if you would turn in your bible or turn on your bible to Second Corinthians Chapter Three I have the privilege of teeing it up for Z and kurt and brad And we’ll be working our way through 2nd Corinthians tonight and tomorrow morning. So, uh, you have a bible open. I want to introduce this passage 1st of all. Want to, I want to thank Ben for giving me the most uh, difficult text of the four. It brings me right back down to earth. Their personal life stories would read like a mature audiences only posting on Tiktok or reels before the Gospel was brought to this sin capital of its day. What happens in Coron stays in Corinth. They have been helpless and hopeless slaves of sin, abused and powerless addicts to every imaginable form of decadent behavior, in their desperate pursuit of meaning and significance and inner peace had convinced themselves that life without boundaries or responsible relationships was actually their freedom and their liberty. But the reality was that they were miserable. They were sick and tired of being sick and tired of their sin. In his first pastoral communication with them, Paul had described their lives before hearing the good news as unrighteous, sexually promiscuous idol worshipping marital lee, unfaithful L. G. B. T. Q. Participants, money, loving, money, grubbing alcohol, abusing Gangsters and cheats. Such were some of you, he wrote, but you were washed, you were sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord, jesus christ and by the spirit of God. But now these formally unsaveable sinners have turned against the very man who had so faithfully served them, taking great personal risk to live among them, to walk with them and their newfound relationship with the living God, to establish them as a faithful fellowship of saints. Though it endured trials and threats and suffering for them for over 18 months, they had discredited the very one whom they owed their very souls. So now in the second handwritten letter, paul finds himself having to defend his message. His methods and his motives, Paul reminds them that the message he brought to them was a word of life and not a word of death. Returning to the story of moses on Mount Sinai and the meeting with God, he describes the difference between a salvation by obeying the law and the salvation that is based solely upon faith. Second Corinthians chapter three, the phrase leading into our text is this for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life Now. If the ministry of Death, carved in letters on stone came with such glory, you want to mark the word glory. I think you’re going to find it 14 times in our short reading that the Israelites could not gaze on moses face because of its glory which was being brought to an end. Will not the Ministry of the Spirit have even more glory. For if there is glory in the Ministry of the condemnation, the Ministry of Righteousness must be far exceeded in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come now to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory much more Well, what is permanent? Have glory now? He picks up a new word. The word veiled. I think you’ll market seven times since we have such a hope. We are very bold. We are not like moses who could put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlisted because only through christ is it taken away? Yes, to this day, whenever moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is …

All right, good morning. It’s good to be with you if you’re joining us online, Thanks for joining us. It has been really fun. It’s been a pleasure to be working through Philippians and so today we’re gonna reach the last chapter we’re in, starting chapter four and this is really just been paul all throughout talking to the Philippians church as he is encouraging them, he is exhorting them to live a godly life in christ, jesus, right? That’s what he’s been calling them to do the whole time and they’re facing a lot of challenges, right? They got these external challenges. They have some internal challenges. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought to yourself, I believe I have at some point where it’s like, man, if I could have just lived in the time of jesus, with, you know, to see jesus, I mean, faith would be so much easier, or at least the time of the apostles and the disciples, it would just be so much easier, right, because the historical gap wouldn’t be there, and and it was just faith would be so much different. And then you look at some of the challenges and trials that these churches and the christians were going through, and you’re like, you know, but I would pass on that, I would, you know, so every epic of time, every period of time has its challenges, and there are external forces, there are internal forces that wage war against our soul. And so paul’s really talking to the church saying stand firm, right, if you get this chapter four in the first nine verses is what we’re covering. Chapter four, verses one through nine. It just seems kind of like a shotgun approach where he’s hitting this and then he’s hitting this and he pivots over here. And then it’s like, what draws this stuff together? How is this connected? And it’s really by verse one where he’s saying to stand firm, right, this is what’s gonna hold our topic together today, as he calls us, just as he called the Philippians to stand firm. And so we’re gonna work verse three verse. So if you have a bible, open your bible Philippians four, I’m gonna start right here in verse one Verse one says this. So then my dearly loved and long for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown in this manner, stand firm in the Lord Dear friends any time we see it, right? So then it’s very similar to a, therefore it’s connecting, it’s a connecting word where it’s saying, hey, I’ve been talking about all these things. So then right therefore do this. What did he tell us? He says stand firm. We’ve been talking about all these things and I’m gonna reiterate and I’m going to summarize all these things I was just talking about. But ultimately I need you to stand firm in the Lord, right? Not in your knowledge, not in your friends, not in this church, not in science and nothing else, but the Lord. Everything else is on shaky ground If it’s not firmly planted in the Lord. So he tells us to stand firm in the Lord. And this is a common phrase that’s going to get used throughout Philippians four. And if you’ve ever heard kind of a threefold attack on our faith would be, you know, they would say, hey there, the devil, the world in your flesh. But these these things are going to fight and wage war against living a faithful life. Just these are areas that we have to be engaged in the battle. Otherwise they will take us out. And he’s going back again to chapter one verse 27 says, as citizens of Heaven live your life worthy of the Gospel of christ, then whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending for the faith of the Gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents. And we talked about it a couple weeks ago about how paul uses this battle language, this war language. We have opponents that are waging war agai…

selves which is yours in christ, Jesus who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ is Lord to the glory of God. The father. Hey amen, Amen. Welcome. So good to see you all. Welcome to those of you who are online and joining us there. My name is Ben lee Nandor Pastor here at Solar Church and so excited to continue our series in the book of Philippians. And so uh as you, as you sit there and as I give this introduction, turn to Philippians chapter three versus 12 through 21 that will be our passage today, Philippians 3, 12 through 21. And I’ve got a question for you, Do you as you think about your life, do you think as you sit there, and you think about who you are? And do you do you want to become a better person? Do you want to be a more christ like christian? You want to grow in maturity uh and not be an infant in the faith or a toddler in the faith, you know, that kind of thing, But a mature believer, I trust that just the fact that you’re here this morning or you’re attending online, that that is somewhat your desire, you wouldn’t be here right if you didn’t have a desire to learn and to know. So even if you’re just investigating what Christianity is about or you’re learning or at the very beginning stages of what does it mean to follow christ? Or if you’ve been here a long time and you’ve followed christ for a long time, I trust that you really do want to be a better person. You want to grow and become mature in christ and to live like christ. And the Apostle paul is talking about that in our passage this morning and he uses running and this this athletic competition. He uses that illustration in our passage today and throughout several other books to talk about an illustration for us and help us identify and to kind of see what this looks like. Life is a marathon. It’s a long race and it’s a race for running and we’re in it for the long haul. And it illustrates this connection spiritually of running, this race of life with christ this, this athletic contest. And he’s talking about pursuing maturity and growing throughout this race of life, pressing on keeping after it, pursuing it with all that you’ve got pressing on for the goal. That’s what he’s talking about today. And there is that kind of element in athletics were working out where you’re always trying to improve your, trying to get stronger, you’re trying to get a better pr personal record, you know, you’re trying to set a better time. You’re trying as a runner to go longer to go farther to get faster, you’re striving right, And and that’s the picture here that paul is using, and you’re always trying to get a little bit better at the game, and we see that in the olympics that’s going on right now, these athletes have committed their lives to getting a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better and striving for that, right. And in our passage today, paul talks about the balance and the tension that we see in life of, you know, working striving and putting forth this effort. And yet also trusting christ to transform us to knowing him and to let having been filled with him and having him transform us. And it’s like this athletic competition where we’re striving after christ were knowing him and he’s changing us and helping us to get better and better as we strive as we go forw…

found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above everyone. So that at the name of jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ his Lord to the glory of God the Father. Good morning. Good morning. Morning. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you for coming. My name is Michael, one of three pastors here at so our church, it’s a joy to be a few today, repetition is key. Any marketing media admin will tell you that they have to repeat a message multiple times before their target audience. Here’s a message and it actually sinks in. And so to test that theory, we’re gonna do a little test here. So it’s uh, you gotta fill in the blank for who it is. So let’s start off. He knows a thing or two because we we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two who says this. Farmers, farmers. Yes. You guys got it. Good job way to participate. Next group 15. You also get this 15 minutes or more. Could save you 15% or more on car insurance. Geico. You guys, do you ever watch Tv back there? Geico Geico? All right. Here’s the last one. Rogers rate. Everyone gets the Rogers rate the denver bronco fans that are out there. They’re iron Rogers really heavily. Yes, Yes. All right. Let’s pray. Let’s pray God. Thank you for having fun. I thank you for being reminded of things. I thank you for a repetition. I need it. We all need it. Lord, I pray you just help us to be reminded of good things. This morning. I said you would show up and convict encourage instruct challenge. Lord, Every time your word is open or people that are discouraged or encouraged, people that are getting off the road, get back on the road, your word does not return void period. Your word with your spirit would do your work with your people this morning. The church, we just humbly present ourselves before your Lord use us Lord to here here like we should speak like we shouldn’t act and live like we should we commit this time to you in jesus name. We pray Amen. Amen Philippians three is where we find ourselves as a church. This morning. We are working through the book of Philippians. Paul wrote this letter, this personal intentional letter to a church. He helped start in the Book of Acts. And we’re picking up in Philippians three verse one, If you look with me at verse one, he reminds them of things. This whole section that we’re looking at today is a reminder of what he already wrote and or already preached to the church in philippi. So he’s using the same leadership style vision casting, reminding, encouraging. You’re supposed to say something over and over and over again until people just get sick and tired of hearing it. That’s when the message is finally signed a secret to people’s minds. So paul is reminding the church in philippi in verse one, it says this. In addition, my brothers and sisters rejoice in the Lord to write to you again about this is no trouble for me and as a safeguard for you. This is the verse that many older pastors, including myself will probably repeat as they get older and I recycle content. I already wrote. Maybe we’ll see. I haven’t preached through the whole bible yet, but I’ve noticed other men that love the Lord seem to remind people of Peter. Does it paul does it jesus does it communication as an occupation? You need to be reminding people of things over and over again. And so today we’re gonna roll through this content that these people should be familiar with. I do think uh, this passage is full of satire, humor in some shock sections in there. And so if you’re new, you came on the right sunday. It is a fun sunday to come to church. It should be …