This week, Paul gives us insight to a Christian’s Secret to Life, the ONE THING! Many people try to figure out what the one thing is and live out this philosophy. They make their spouse, their kids, or their family their “one thing.” They spend most of their time, energy, and resources focusing on providing, supporting, encouraging those people. Other make their one thing their job, their company, their corporate dream. Others, make it some materialistic dream or idealistic lifestyle, their own created utopia. The problem is we really don’t have the power to make life what we want it to be. We are not the source of our lives, the ruler of our lives, and we don’t ultimately determine the goal of our lives. Yahweh is the creator of all things and the source of our life. Before his encounter with Jesus, Paul found his identity in the law and his religious ambition. He was a Jewish Pharisee who thought the one thing was carrying out the law and persecuting anyone who disagreed about that being the one thing. But, after Jesus intervened, Paul came to know that the one thing in life is Jesus.

This week, Paul gives us two great models of what we’ve been studying over the past few weeks - Timothy and Epaphroditus. They lived lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ (Phil 1:27); they lived in unity with Paul and the church (Phil 2:1-2); they humbly considered others more highly than themselves (Phil. 2:3-4); they had the mindset of Christ, being willing to suffer in order to bring life to others (Phil 2:5-11); and they did all of this without grumbling or complaining (Phil 2:14-15). When we look at the example of Jesus or even Paul (His supernaturally gifted Apostle), we can feel intimidated or skeptical about living out that kind of life. So, Paul gives us two examples of people just like us who are living proof that it can be done by ordinary people. Timothy and Epaphroditus show us that we can not only live out that kind of life but have tremendous impact for the Kingdom. They both grew up in cultures engrossed in idol worship and false religion, yet they surrendered their lives to serve the one true God and His Gospel. Just like them, we too can live counter culturally in a world full of instant gratification, self-centeredness, and other idols when we live a life that is unselfish, humble, “counting others more significant,” and for the sake of the Gospel.

This week, we dive into chapter 2, verses 12-18 and learn what it means to reflect Christ light in a dark world. After reminding the Philippians of Jesus example, Paul instructs them that they are not just to try and imitate Jesus, but incarnate Jesus into their world. He reminds them that grumbling and fighting hinders their witness and they need to “hold fast” to the Gospel to be the lights they were intended to be and have the joy they were intended to experience.

Our world is very dark and our country is not in a good place spiritually. What we’ve seen happening over the past 50-60 years is God’s judgment. 1)Sexual revolution-60,70’s, 2)Homosexual revolution-80s,90s, 3)Transgender insanity - we now have laws that protect all kinds of unrighteousness. We call right wrong and wrong right. When you have leaders who have promoted godless and unbiblical values in state leadership, congressional leadership, even our highest level, the presidency, it is a sign of God’s judgment right out of Romans 1:18-32. It started when we began to turn away from His Truth as a nation and we received the wrath of Divine abandonment. But take heart, Jesus’ rule is not determined or diminished by any earthly authority or source. His Kingdom cannot be hindered by any leader, court, or tyrant. For now, His Kingdom is visible in the church. However, God says, there will be some (His Kingdom Citizens) who are different who will distinguish themselves from the darkness around them. Our world is dark, but we are called to be LIGHT! We are the people of Mal 3 and we live in a Rom 1 world! So, how do we …live out a “life worthy of the Gospel?” Reflect His light in the darkness? Follow HIS model of Gospel obedience? Join us to find out!

This week, in verses 5-11, Paul reminds the Philippians of the ultimate and only perfect example of humility, loving others, and someone who counts others “more significant” by pointing them to JESUS! If Jesus, the King of the universe, can willingly lay aside his rights, privileges, and freedom for us, who are we to make selfish demands on others! Remember, Biblical unity is not externally driven, but internally fueled by the holy Spirit and is supernatural. We are not naturally humble or unselfish. Unity is a result of humility and love!

This week, we continue looking at this section that really runs from Ch. 1:27- Ch. 2:11 and deals with unity, harmony, and living out a life that reflects Christ’s values. Specifically, we see the “why” of living out a life worthy of our calling and “marks” of a life worthy of our calling. Paul is really driving down deep with the Philippians into the idea of unity within the church. There have always been unity issues in the church. In fact, in Romans, Ephesians, Colossian, and 2 Corinthians, Paul stressed pursuing unity and unity is not externally driven, but internally fueled by the holy Spirit. When we focus on Christ, he pulls us together. Division in the church is rampant today for many reasons, but God wants us to be unified in our hearts and mindset for the Gospel! Verses 1-4 is actually one long sentence that reminds the Philippians of their blessings and calls them to unity from love and humility as they serve our great King!

This week, we finish up chapter one with another challenging teaching on our stewardship of the Gospel. Paul reminds the Philippians to “live a life worthy of their calling.” This phrase or a variation of this phrase is found in Col. 1:10, Eph. 4:1, 1 Thess 2:12, and 2 Thess. 1:11. It conveys the idea that you were redeemed and your life should correspond to your Heavenly Citizenship. We now have different values, a different loyalty, and are called to live a life that corresponds to our profession of faith in Jesus. In 1 John 3:18, God calls believers not to "love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." God is not so much calling on us to live out a life that “earns” the salvation He gave us as much as He calling us to a life of integrity. A person of integrity doesn't live out a "private” life that contradicts their "public" confession of faith.

In 2002, Pat Tillman, safety for the Arizona Cardinals, left the NFL in 2002 (and almost 4 million dollars) to enlist in the army after 9/11 and ultimately gave his life for freedom. Many people followed Tillman’s example and signed up to be military warriors, law enforcement, firefighters, and other dangerous career fields because their life was not as important as their cause. The cause was great than their safety or their lives. This week, we go into Ch. 2 vs. 19-26 and read that Paul’s commitment to the Gospel was greater that his desire to live. His safety or his life wasn’t as important as the Gospel. What about you and me? Is Jesus and the Gospel important to us? How important? Joy in our lives flows out of Gospel purpose! Living for Christ’s Kingdom!

As we look at today’s text, we’ll see that God calls us to serve Him… 1) With a Savior Exalting Purpose – everything for His glory (vs. 19-21) and 2) As a Selfless, Encouraging Partner –serving and strengthening others (vs.22-26) .

This week, we move into a new section and will be looking at part 1 of Serving with Joy. Our Spiritual maturity can often be measured in how easily we lose our joy in Christ. The joy that is produced by the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure another human has suffered for the cause of Christ like Paul, except Jesus and the whole purpose of this letter is to remind the Philippians to not let Satan steal their joy. The joy comes not from our circumstances, but in being included in the Kingdom of God, serving our King, and His great cause – the Gospel.

Last episode, we looked at verse 1 and 2 and the theme of unity and God calling us to unity in our view of ourselves, our view of the church and our view of God and Jesus. The foundation for all of these is humility. Paul records Jesus’ model of humility in chapter 2 for us to take note of.

In this episode, we see Paul affirm the Philippians for their partnership with Him in spreading the Gospel. He mentions this idea several times in today’s text, as well as, his love for them and his call for them to love each other. We see in the text that our partnership in the Gospel is based on a God's mission - the Gospel, Fueled by His Love, and Fortified by His Word.

Philippians is a letter written to thank the church at Philippi for sending financial aid to help Paul during his 1st imprisonment in Rome. It’s theme is often referred to as Joy, but it is a specific joy related to Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus is mentioned over 50 times in this “joy” letter and joy is mention 16 times in this 4 chapter book. Paul also addressed the sufficiency of Jesus because Gnosticism was starting to spread. Gnosticism – the belief that the material world is evil and Jesus was only a messenger/angel that brought “secret” knowledge to help us escape our body, which has trapped our souls. They believed that Jesus wasn’t human, He just appeared human. Paul wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians to address Jesus as truly God and truly man and His sufficiency to save us. In this letter, Paul emphasizes the sufficiency of Christ and the joy that produces in us. In addition to dealing with the Gnostics, and the Philippian’s concern about Paul’s welfare, he also deals with a problem they have that plagues lots of churches today – disunity. Paul deals with this in every chapter. So, as we look at our small portion of text today, it really is straightforward, but there is a lot of meaning in it, especially as it relates to unity and harmony.