The post Life’s Big Questions: Where am I headed after this life? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

In week 4 of Life’s Big Questions, we consider the question of destiny. It’s the question we ponder we’re reminded of our own mortality. What question is that? Where am I headed after this life? Is there something after this life? What happens after I die?

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Over the last few weeks, we’ve dealt with some rather deep questions about life. Where did I come from? Why am I here? How should I live? But I would imagine that if we ranked these questions in terms of how heavy each of them are, they would likely all be ranked below the question we’re going to consider today: where am I headed after this life?

What happens when we die? Where do we go? Do we cease to exist? Is it the ultimate and personal the end on the last page of the story of our lives? 

According to a study that Pew Research conducted in 2014, 7 in 10 Americans believe in heaven as a place “where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded.” 

That same study revealed that 58% of Americans believe in hell—a place “where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished.”

Notice the difference between belief in heaven and hell? Even among self-professing Christians, more people believe in heaven than believe in hell. 

According to research done by the Barna Group, those who are born-again Christians who believe that their eternal destination after this life is heaven because of what Jesus has done also believe a number of other things about death, those who are dead, and the way to heaven. 

10% of born-again Christians believe that people are reincarnated after death.

29% of born-again Christians believe that they can communicate with those who are dead.

And most staggering of all, 50% of born-again Christians believe that a person can earn salvation upon doing good works. 

And while most Americans believe in heaven and even more than half of Americans believe in hell, there are plenty of people out there who, if they were answering the question, where am I headed after this life?, they would have much different explanations.

Some people believe that life after death is a ceasing to exist all together. When your body fails to keep going, when your brain “powers down” everything that makes you you ceases to be. Death is the end. There is nothing else.

Others believe that life after death will consist of some kind of existence as a “state of mind” more than anything physical. 

Hindus and Buddhists believe in various doctrines of reincarnation with the goal for Hindus being to reach mokṣa which is a release from reincarnation and an experience of utter bliss and the goal for Buddhists is to reach Nirvana.

And many New Age belief systems combine a buffet line of different religious beliefs, kind of piece-mealing things together and this often includes some form of belief in reincarnation.

Many others, thought, aren’t sure what they believe about life after death. 

Nonetheless, the quickest growing belief in our culture today that is pervading the minds of young people and old people alike is that all paths lead to God. 

That as long as you’re a good person, it doesn’t matter what religion you believe in, it doesn’t matter really, we’re all headed to the same place. 

The really bad people? Those people might be sent to hell. 

But at the end of the day, if you’re a halfway decent human being, you’re headed to heaven.

But is this belief valid? Is it true? Does it have any ground to stand on?

Here’s the interesting thing to me…Vince Vitale puts it best:

“‘All paths lead to God’ is a tempting sentence. It has a certain positivity to it. But in actuality only Christianity even claims to lead to God.”

Islam doesn’t claim it. Modern-day Judaism doesn’t claim it. The Eastern religions? They don’t claim it. 

So what gives? Why do we believe that there is a heaven and that there is a hell?

Why do we desire to live beyond this life? Why does death feel so weird and misplaced? Why does it feel like it wasn’t meant to be this way?

It’s because it wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Indeed, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save,
and his ear is not too deaf to hear.
2 But your iniquities are separating you
from your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not listen.

Let’s go back in time a bit to the beginning. 

Where did I come from? Remember, I told you that our first question will impact all the rest. 

In the opening chapter of Genesis, it tells us that God created man in His image and in Genesis 2, it shows us a beautiful picture of God dwelling in the same place as Adam and Eve. In a real way, heaven and earth were together. These two different realms were one. They were together. God was with man and man was with God.

But Genesis 3 shows us that sin separated man from God because man missed the mark of living out the image of God. Man was removed from the Garden of Eden, the Temple where man and God were together. 

And let me propose something:

What if what we see in Genesis 1 and 2 is what things were supposed to be like? Heaven and earth together. God and man together. No sin. No death. No separation.

This would explain why we’re not satisfied with how things are. This would explain why we yearn to know God. This would explain why our desires go beyond what can satisfy in this world. This would explain why human beings, from that point and on, have been on a quest to experience transcendence. 

It’s because we were made to live with our Creator. 

The thrust of Scripture shows us time and time again that God continues to pursue us and seeks to bring heaven down.

The garden of Eden, God came to earth to be with Adam and Eve.

When the Israelites were rescued from being slaves in Egypt and began their exodus in the wilderness, God told them to build a Tabernacle. And what happened there? God was present with them in the Tabernacle and through the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire. In the holy of holies, heaven met earth. 

When King David came into power, he desired to build a house for God. Eventually his son, Solomon built it and it was called a Temple. And what happened there? God was present in the Temple. In the holy of holies, heaven met earth. 

Then what do we see? The word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh and tabernacled (dwelt) among us. In Jesus, heaven met earth. God stooped down to earth. God became man. And at His death? The veil that surrounded the holy of holies was torn from top to bottom. 

Then what happened after that? We talked about this a lot last week. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in His church. The Temple went from a garden to a tent to a building to a people. In the holy of holies, the church, you and me, heaven has met earth once again.

So what is next? 

What if I told you that your understanding of heaven might be vastly wrong? What if I told you that the truth about what is to come after this life is far better than what you have believed up to this point?

Let’s look at it.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? It should. Because God is undoing what was done in Genesis 3. He’s extending into eternity what was meant to be when He created all things. 

God will, once again, bring heaven down. 

A new heaven. A new earth. He is making everything new. 

In fact, if you take the time to do a wonderfully beautiful Bible study, read Genesis 1-2 and then read Revelation 21-22. 

Where am I headed after this life? Well, through Jesus, we will enjoy the reality of a new earth with God dwelling with His people of which we will be a part. Instead of experiencing evil, sin, and death, we’ll experience Him, the source of all things that are good. We’ll be His children. 

This corrects so many of our wrong beliefs about what “heaven” will be like. 

I believe that most American’s concept of the after life is more shaped by Led Zeppelin than it is Scripture. 

What do I mean?

Well, there isn’t a stairway to heaven. But there is an escalator and it’s coming down toward us because heaven is coming down.

That’s right. Once again. God is bringing heaven to earth. This time it’s a new earth, but it will be earth nonetheless. 

We won’t be floating on clouds playing harps. 

We won’t be simply existing in some transcendent state of mind. 

Our bodies will be raised, we will be given new bodies, and we will fully exist as new creations in God’s new creation with Him as He dwells with us and we dwell with Him.

Unfortunately, this beautiful place of no more death, no more tears, no more pain, and no more grief is not for everyone.

8 But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Verse 7 says those who will inherit the new heavens and new earth are those who conquer. And how do we conquer?

Through Christ, we are more than conquerors. It is only through Jesus. 

So for those who are still in their sin and not covered by the blood of Jesus, there is a different destination. It’s one that doesn’t sound pleasant in any way shape or form.

And the unfortunate thing is that this isn’t only a place for the really bad people. It’s a place for all sinners. Because when we understand the depth of even the smallest sin, the lake that burns with fire and sulfur is what we deserve.

We don’t deserve new heavens and new earth. We don’t deserve to be made new. But because of God’s grace, all people have an opportunity to receive eternal life. But not all receive it.

And Scripture is clear: the world will be judged.

Interestingly enough, Paul said these words when he was speaking to pagans who had no foundation for the God of the Jews.

30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Sometimes in our efforts to be relationally driven in our witness, we never share the hard truth of what God is commanding of us. 

Those who repent and surrender to Jesus will enjoy eternal life with God. Those who don’t?

Scripture describes a graphic reality:

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 — Eternal Destruction

5 It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, 6 since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, 8 when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed.

This isn’t a fun thing to talk about. It’s not a fun thing to preach. But the bad news of what we deserve without Jesus makes the good news of what’s in front of us through Jesus all the more beautiful. 

Make no mistake: our rebellion and our running away from God, our fighting against God and our denial of God has a penalty that none of us will escape on our own. 

That penalty is eternal destruction. It’s described as a lake burning with fire and sulfur. It’s described as a place with the gnashing of teeth, suffering, and punishment. It’s a place described as the second death. 

Those who deny God here will get their goal for eternity—separation from Him. Separation from light. Separation from goodness. Separation from life. Separation from love. Separation from joy. Separation from hope.

Jesus, the king, will return. Angels will be with him. And he will take a seat on his throne. All people will be gathered before him. And everyone of us will be taken to the left or the right. 

Some will be taken to his right and some to his left. 

Then Jesus, the King of kings, will tell those on his right to come to Him for they are blessed by His Father and they get to inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world, the new earth.

The reason being because they fed Jesus when He was hungry, they gave Him something to drink when He was thirsty, they took Him in when He was a stranger, they clothed Him when He was naked, they took care of Him when He was sick. And those people who are being welcomed into the kingdom ask Jesus, when did we ever do that for you? When did we see you and do that for you. And in response, the King says that whenever they did those things for the least of his brothers and sisters, they did it for them. 

What does He mean by that? There’s a beautiful reality that happens when we are rescued by God through Jesus. Scripture uses this wording all throughout the New Testament saying that we are “in Christ.” And since the church is the family of God and the body of Christ, when we serve our brothers and sisters, we are serving Jesus. More on that in our next series.

But then there is a group of people on the left of the King. And instead of saying come to me, He says to them, depart from me, you are cursed, and go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 

Why? Because I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, I was naked, I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t do anything to help me. 

And they will be surprised. Because in their eyes, they never saw Jesus in need. They never thought that the serving the least of these was serving Jesus. 

And Jesus says that those on His left will go away into eternal punishment and the righteous will go into eternal life.

What we see here is Jesus judging the world. We see that without Him, selfishness will rein. But with Him, we will be changed and will become people who live by the fruit of the Spirit. We will be people who serve those in need. Why? Because God has given us a new heart. As He has loved us, we love others.

But opposed to the love of Christ is selfishness. And it destroys. It is like pulling the pin of a grenade and letting that explosive fall to the ground at our feet without moving away. It doesn’t end well.

So… Where am I headed after this life?

There seems to be two options: with God or without Him. Eternal life or eternal punishment. 

God, from the beginning of humanity’s existence, has shown us time and time again His intention to dwell with us. He showed us in the garden, in the tabernacle, in the temple, in the coming of Jesus, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and He will show us once again, in the end, when all things are made new, and out of heaven comes a new city on a new earth where God will dwell with His family, His people, the church. No longer will we be separated in any way from our Father. We will be with Him.

There isn’t a stairway to heaven. But there is an escalator and it’s coming down toward us because heaven is coming down.

But for those who rebel against Him, who ignore Him, who fight Him, who rage against Him, who sin against Him (even a little), their path is a place known as hell. What will it be like? We don’t know for sure. We have pictures, though. A lake of fire, sulfur, eternal punishment, the second death, and separation from God. Separation from light. Separation from goodness. Separation from life. Separation from love. Separation from joy. Separation from hope.

And because of our sin, hell is what we all deserve. But because God loved us so much, He gave His one and only Son so that we wouldn’t perish, but have eternal life. 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were lost, He came and found us. While we were sick, He came as the Great Physician. And He has remained patient with us. 

Today is an opportunity to respond to God’s grace. Today is an opportunity to surrender to the King of kings. Today is an opportunity to draw near to the God who desires to be with you. But sin has separated you from Him. But the good news is that Jesus was victorious over sin and death. And He has given us a gift—salvation in His name. But we must receive that gift.

And all throughout the New Testament, we are told how we should respond to God’s grace. 

We are to surrender to Him in faith and trust. We confess our sins to Him because we see that we’ve rebelled against Him. And we turn away from the path we’ve been going down. We turn our attention to Him and let Him take over our lives. And then we take part in a powerful act of submission where we are baptized into Him. We go down into the water, immersed in it and this signifies Jesus’ death and in so doing, we are joining Him in His death. Then we are brought out of the water and joined with Him in His resurrection. 

The apostle Paul, a man who did all kinds of things wrong in his life—he persecuted Christians, taking part in arrests, beatings, and murders of Christians  was confronted by Jesus as someone who was persecuting HIM—was given a chance to respond to God’s grace and after it was made clear to him who Jesus was, a man named Ananias asked him:

“And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” — Acts 22:16 (CSB)

And so I extend that same question to you. Why are you delaying? What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name. Because it is only at the name of Jesus that you can be saved.

Where am I headed after this life? Jesus has made a way for you to be with Him. 

The post Life’s Big Questions: Where am I headed after this life? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

The post Life’s Big Questions: How should I live? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

In week 3 of Life’s Big Questions, we consider the question of morality. It’s the question we ponder when we’re faced with a difficult decision or we’re in a tough situation. What question is that? How should I live? What is right and wrong? How can I live a good life?

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Happy Mother’s Day moms. Today, we’re continuing on in our series, Life’s Big Questions. Throughout the last couple weeks, we’ve been considering a couple of life’s biggest questions. Those questions that we ask when we are deep in thought. Those questions that we are beckoned to ask when we are outside on a clear night, staring at the stars. Those questions that we ask when we are reminded of our mortality.

We started out by asking the question where did I come from? And then last week we asked the question why am I here? So we’ve covered the big questions of origin and meaning so if you weren’t with us in the last couple weeks, you can go to fccfamily.com and catch up by clicking the sermons tab. 

Messages are also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube so you can connect with it in those places as well. 

But today, we’re asking the question, how should I live? Which is really the question of morality. 

And moms, you know this to be true: a big part of our kid’s journey of morality is dictated by who they choose to surround themselves with. We were all in school at one time. At recess, in gym class, in class projects, we would take sides. We would choose to go with this crowd or that crowd. And depending on what side we take would depend on the kind of behavior we would engage in.

Taking sides. It’s an important thing.

For instance, with today being Mother’s Day, I know that we could have some fun. Moms, what would you rather receive for Mother’s Day? Flowers or chocolate?

Well moms, you’re welcome because I don’t want you to have to choose. When you walk out of the sanctuary today, you get to have both. And the moms said, amen!

But let’s include everyone on this taking sides thing.

You have to choose, okay?

Coke or Pepsi?

Dogs or cats?

iPhone or Android?

Morning person or night owl?

Phone call or text?

Cake or pie?

Big party or small gathering?

What’s worse: laundry or dishes?

Couch or recliner?

You get some extra money: save it or spend it?

As you can see, taking sides impacts how you live.

But what if I told you that this truth goes far beyond a fun list of this or that? What if this principle of taking sides was the key to living the way God wants you to live? 

Let’s look at what God’s word has to say.

If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. 

The book of Galatians is a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to Christians living in the region of Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. These Christians had become susceptible to a group of people called the Judaizers. This was a group of people that in answering the question how should I live? taught that in order to live a faithful life to God, Christians had to observe the Mosaic Law. Which essentially meant that non-Jews had to become Jews before they could follow Jesus. 

But Paul combats that idea very strongly, in fact, I’d encourage you to read the entire book of Galatians in one sitting later today or this week. It’s not a long book and it will be eye opening to see just how quickly people can try to replace Jesus with Jesus and something else. 

Here’s the challenge for us today. In discussing the question how should I live? we can easily jump to the idea that us being favored by God, us being saved by God, us being rescued by God may initially be through God’s grace through Jesus but then our ongoing status of remaining in His grace is through us keeping up with religious rule keeping. 

In other words, we can easily go from believing in amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me to I better be perfect or else. 

And that’s what a group of people were trying to convince these Christians in Galatia of. 

And all of us are susceptible to it. Because many of us want control. And keeping religious rituals and rules is something we can get immediate feedback on. Not to mention that’s how many of us were raised: do good, you’ll get a reward; do bad, you’ll get punished. 

But the crazy thing about God’s grace is that the only One who actually did do good, He got punished and those who are bad? They were the ones who get the reward.

So let’s dive in.

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

Here’s what Jesus does: He changes us, makes us free, and gives us the ability to love.

The Bible says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and “for freedom Christ has set us free.” 

In other words, without Jesus, we are in bondage to sin and death. Without Jesus interceding on our behalf and rescuing us, we are under the rule and rein of sin and death. We are in shackles to sin. We will not escape death. We will not be victorious over the things that plague us. We will continue to be broken.

But what Jesus did on the cross is He took all of our sin and put it on Himself. He paid for that sin by living a perfect life and being the perfect, eternal, infinite sacrifice to pay the infinite, eternal penalty of sin. And when He rose from the dead on the third day, He defeated death so that now, through Jesus, we enjoy a relationship with God as if we had never sinned. We are set free from the bondage of sin. It no longer reins over us. It still will hinder us because we are still on this sin-stained world, but God also gave us a gift—a gift of freedom—His Spirit. And because of that, we have the ability to love. We have the ability to, out of freedom, to choose God, to choose to walk in His ways. How? In Jesus Christ the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The whole law is fulfilled in one statement—to love your neighbor as yourself. And we CAN do that now because Jesus did it and the Holy Spirit now lives in us compelling us and leading us toward living the life of Jesus.

For those of you who are football fans, you know the name Tom Brady. And for most of us, because we’re not Patriots fans, and especially if you’re Colts fans, you don’t like Tom Brady. 

In fact, when Jesus says to love your enemy, some of you may picture Tom Brady. 

But regardless of if you like him or not (and let’s be honest, the reason those of you who don’t like him don’t like him is because he’s really, really good), he is someone who eats, sleeps, breathes, and bleeds football. 

There was a documentary done on him and it outlined just how dedicated he is to the game of football. 

And I remember watching one of the episodes that talked about his offseason routine. He takes football so seriously that he has used his resources to surround himself with people who will optimize his body in every way to be able to continue to perform at the top of the sport even while he is aging. He continues to break records. He is the oldest player to win a Super Bowl MVP (39) and the Regular Season MVP (40). And even though he is 41, he continues to be one of the best in the business.

Why? Because for him, football is life. 

Can you imagine if we were people who, when others looked at us, they would say wow, they just seem to eat, sleep, breathe, and bleed the love of Jesus?

I think that’s what Scripture repeatedly shows us. 

That because we have been changed by God, because we have been given a new heart, because we are people who get to walk with God, we get to be people who elevate love above everything else.

How should I live? It begins and ends with living the love of Jesus.

16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Taking sides impacts how you live. 

Parents, we see this with our kids all the time, don’t we?

Moms, you know this story line well. Your kids start doing something they shouldn’t do after you’ve told them not to time and time again, you repeat to them what is best for them, and they keep doing what they’re not supposed to do, and then they end up hurting themselves. 

This happened in very apparent ways this week with my daughter, Piper.

She is a vivacious little girl. She is full of energy and she often uses that energy to jump around, dance, and act silly. But sometimes that comes back to bite her.

The first time this week was on Tuesday. We’re sitting at the dinner table, enjoying our meal. And then Piper stands up on her chair and starts dancing. I tell her to sit down and eat because (a) we’re eating dinner and (b) she could fall and hurt herself. No more than two seconds later, I look at one of the boys who I was helping feed and then I hear a loud thud followed by a terror-filled, pain-filled cry. 

That girl kept dancing and fell off the chair and hit her head on the floor as she fell.

Then, not to be outdone by herself, on Wednesday night, I was in the kitchen after I got home from the office and she was acting silly and hanging on the oven door handle. Sara and I have warned her many times that that’s not a good idea and we don’t want her doing it. Well, this particular time, she decided to get a little more air under her feet and as she hung on to the oven door handle, the door opened and she smacked her head on the floor again. Same cry. Same pain.

In every moment, our kids have an opportunity to take our side and listen or to take their own side and do what they want to do. And oftentimes, it doesn’t end very well because they take their own side. 

But the thing is, we don’t just see that dynamic at work in our kids, do we? How many of us see that dynamic at work in ourselves?

I certainly do. And what Scripture is saying is that there is a decision we get to make every moment of every day. We will either walk by the Spirit or we will walk by the flesh.

And when we walk by the Holy Spirit, we get to enjoy the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives and through our lives.

When we walk by the Spirit, He magnifies Jesus to us. He leads us in walking in the way of Jesus. He gives us strength to fight against sin and to choose to walk in the good things God has prepared for us to do. He is our advocate, bringing our deepest longings and desires to the throne room of God. He leads us to love difficult people.

When we take the side of the Holy Spirit, we live out the life of Jesus. 

And again: How should I live? It begins and ends with living the love of Jesus.

As we read this, I want you to pay attention to the way the things of the flesh contrast the fruit of the Spirit. 

The fruit of the Spirit is what the Spirit is going to grow in us as we allow our hearts to remain tilled and ready to receive God’s leading. 

But again, we have a battle raging inside of us and around us to take the side of our flesh.

Read Galatians 5:19-26

19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

This is how The Message Bible, a paraphrase puts it (vv.19-21):

“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex;”

Here’s the thing: God knows that we’re tired of always trying to reach a point of pleasure that lasts and satisfies our desire to be loved.

And then compare that picture of living with the love of Christ which is the foundational flavor the Holy Spirit will grow in our lives as we walk with Him and He walks with us and is in us.

“a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion;” 

Instead of that, the Holy Spirit wants to give us joy. He wants us to be able to live with a satisfaction that goes beyond any thing we can accumulate, any resource we can hoard. He wants us to live with JOY.

“paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper;” 

Instead of that, the Holy Spirit wants to give us a peace that passes all understanding. A peace that is present in the presence of our enemies, a peace that is present in the presence of other’s success, and a peace that is present in the presence of things not being in our control.

“an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival;”

Instead of that, the Holy Spirit wants to grow inside of us patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. He wants us to experience the freedom of not being shackled to achievements, to power, to worthless goals, and to other people’s opinions and standards.

“uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.”

Instead of that, the Holy Spirit wants to give us the freedom of being able to take the side of Christ and be consumed with Him. He wants us to be able to, in the face of temptation, choose living the love of Jesus. 

Paul is clear: living by the flesh doesn’t lead to inheriting the Kingdom of God.

But make no mistake, Paul is not saying that our behavior saves us. He is saying that those who are saved have crucified the flesh because they belong to Christ Jesus. That when we surrender to Christ, when we are immersed into His life and go down in the waters of baptism, we die to our old selves, we are crucifying our flesh, and then we rise up and join Jesus in the resurrection and receive new life, we are also immersed into the Holy Spirit and He begins to take over our lives, giving us the desire and strength to take the side of Christ and deny the flesh what it wants to do.

In other words, we live differently because God’s Spirit lives in us.

We live out the love of Jesus because the Holy Spirit lives in us.

In a world full of sleeping around, taking advantage of people, objectifying women, and cheating, imagine what a people who genuinely love people would look like.

In a world that is looking for happiness in anything and everything but the real thing, imagine what a people who are full of real joy would look like.

In a world that is full of hatred and anger, imagine what a people who have a peace that passes all understanding would look like.

In a world that is full of divisions, envy, and rivalries, imagine what a people who live with patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness would look like.

In a world that is full of addictions and one-night stands and all the rest, imagine what a people who live with self-control would look like.

In a word, that group of people would be attractive. 

The world would want what that group of people have. 

And that should be our story, church.

That yes, sin still hinders us, but it doesn’t reign over us. We are becoming the people who God wants us to be, the people we were meant to be, the people who are living out the good things God has prepared for us to do—to be witnesses to a watching world.

My friends, we can start to fight against the flesh. You know, there’s a difference between practicing sin and sometimes sinning. 

Some of us in this room have things we’re practicing—things we’re not battling against. But we can choose to take the side of the Spirit and start fighting.

When you look at the flavors of the fruit of the Spirit, where have you gotten out of step with the Spirit?

Lately, for me, it’s been in joy and peace. I know God wants me to live with joy and live with peace, but oftentimes I try to take matters into my own hands and when the matters of life are in my hands, it never leads to joy or peace.

So what is it for you? Where have you gotten out of step with the Spirit?

Here’s a challenge for us all.

Just choose one flavor of the fruit of the Spirit to focus on this week and ask God to get you back in step with Him.

And just think:

Moms, imagine having patience when you’ve struggled to have patience. Imagine having gentleness when you’ve struggled to have gentleness. Imagine having joy when you’ve struggled to have joy. 

God will do it. He will do it.

I love how amazing this promise is because the fruit of the Spirit, what God wants to give us, is the character of Jesus. 

Jesus is love, Jesus is joy, Jesus is peace, Jesus is patience, Jesus is kindness, Jesus is goodness, Jesus is faithfulness, Jesus is gentleness, Jesus is self-control.

Taking sides impacts not only impacts how you live, it impacts every aspect of your life—both here and for eternity.

Next week, we are going to ask the question, where am I headed after this life? But if you noticed, this passage gives us a taste. Taking the side of your flesh and going against Jesus guarantees that you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Left to ourselves, we have no hope. We have no hope of living well. We have no hope of dying well. Left to ourselves, we are hopeless.

But with Jesus, not only will we live well, we will die well. And not only will we die well, but we will live well for eternity with Him.

Have you surrendered to Jesus?

Have you stepped into God’s embrace and received His love?

Without Jesus, we are enemies of God.

Through Jesus, we are children of God.

I pray that you’ll take a side—the side of Jesus.

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In week 2 of Life’s Big Questions, we consider the question of meaning and purpose. It’s the question that seems to chase us throughout our lives as teenagers, young adults, and for many, it continues to chase us as we grow older. What question is that? Why am I here? What is the meaning and purpose of life?

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The seats in the back of cop cars are not comfortable. At all. 

They don’t have any cushions, no leather, they are just hard plastic. Needless to say, it’s not a fun place to be—the back of a cop car. 

Some parts of that night I remember vividly. Other parts are foggy. 

We had gotten pulled over in Fort Wayne. And the next thing I knew, I was somewhere I never thought I’d be. I was worried. I was scared. What would my dad say? What would my mom say when she found out?

Did I mention those seats were uncomfortable?

It’s dark. It’s late. And we’re driving down N. Anthony Blvd. The view of familiar places becomes altered when you’re sitting in the back of one of those cars. 

What would my dad say? Well, I didn’t have to wonder about what my dad would say for very long. Because I was taken back to his house. Yes, I wasn’t arrested. But my step-mom at the time was. She had a warrant for something minor if I remember correctly. And I was with her while we were on our way to the store or something. 

Here’s the point: Why we are where we are matters.

Why I was there mattered. The why of my location impacted the purpose and the significance of that moment. 

And that brings us to this week’s big life question: why am I here?

When you’ve asked that question, maybe you didn’t word it that way. There’s all kinds of ways to ask it:

• What is the meaning of life? What’s it all about? Who are we?
  

When you boil it down, when we ask the question, why am I here? we are yearning for an answer to the meaning of life.

And meaning really has two parts to it. (1) purpose and (2) significance.

In other words, we’re asking, is there an intent to our existence and do our lives, does our very existence have any meaning beyond ourselves? Is our existence a piece of a bigger story? Are we a part of a grander narrative?

It has been shown that nearly 3/4 of the people around the globe think about the meaning of life on a regular basis. 

And since most of the people in the world are thinking about the meaning of life and asking some version of the why am I here? question, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be an assortment of answers offered.

• The meaning of life is to live your truth. What’s true to you? Live that out. Live your truth.

• To live your dreams. In fact, there are plenty of self-help gurus out there who will gladly help you decipher your life’s purpose and meaning. Here’s how the recipe goes:
  • Consider your dreams
  • Clarify your values
  • Set some goals
  • Figure out what you’re good at
  • Aim high
  • Go for it!
  • Be disciplined
  • Believe you can achieve your goals
  • Involve others
  • Never give up!

• The meaning of life is to achieve biological perfection. To live forever or die trying. To keep your consciousness even after your physical body dies through downloading your brain onto a computer (I’m not kidding).

• The meaning of life is to seek wisdom and knowledge.

• The meaning of life is to do good.

• Life or human existence has no real meaning or purpose because human existence occurred out of a random chance in nature, and anything that exists by chance has no intended purpose. Life has no meaning, but as humans we try to associate a meaning or purpose so we can justify our existence.

• And if all this talk about the meaning of life frustrates you, then join David Seaman in saying, “The meaning of life is to forget about the search for the meaning of life.”

• Or go with the American dream as it has evolved: work, retire, and get a hobby.

• Or feel free to look inside yourself. Your meaning is what you decide it is.

• The meaning of life is that this is all an illusion.

• The meaning of life is to keep doing this life over and over again until we get it right.

At the core of these answers are two categories: created meanings or discovered meanings. 

In other words, people have made a choice. They either believe that the meaning of life is up to them to create or it is up to them to discover. 

It is either a subjective creation of their own volition. Or it is objective and discoverable, but it is not up to them to dictate. 

And while many people have offered many different answers to the question why am I here? there is yet another answer to this question that we’re going to consider. And that is what God says about the matter.

I don’t know about you, but I’m convinced that He’s an expert on this matter.

So strap on your seat belt. You’re going to need it.

God is speaking to Israel here through the prophet Isaiah and in the midst of speaking to Israel, God drops a truth bomb of epic proportions that was true for Israel and is now true for the Jews and Gentiles who are in Christ Jesus, who are in God’s family called the church.

Here’s what He says.

6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who bears my name
and is created for my glory.
I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.”

Did you catch that?

They, we, were created for God’s glory. 

Why am I here?

I am here for God’s glory. What does that mean?

It means that I am here to magnify the truth about who God is. I’m here to honor Him, to magnify Him.

Think about this: there are two ways to magnify something. (John Piper gave this illustration and I think it’s helpful.)

You either use a microscope and make small things big. Or you use a telescope to make big things that are at a great distance closer to their true size.

Too oftentimes, we treat God like He is small. We consider Him a little here and a little there. He is on our mind a little here and a little there.

We do not glorify God by magnifying Him through a microscope. We magnify Him through a telescope. He is mighty. He is light. He is the source of all things. He is love. He is holy. He is beyond our comprehension. He is full of grace and truth.

And He created us for His glory. He created us so that we would be living testimonies and telescopes magnifying Him to all people. 

But let’s go back to the beginning because I think it shows us the picture of what God had in mind when He created us for His glory.

As we talked about last week, God created all things. And as He created, He would comment on the progress of the canvas He was painting. He created the Universe and He called it good. He filled it with planets and stars. He called it good. He created the earth, He created water, He created plants. He called it good. He created animals and fish. He called it good. 

But then He did something different. He made human beings in His own image. He made human beings to be like Him and then the canvas went from being good to great. And this was far before Jim Collins wrote his book. God’s creation went from good to great. 

And what do we see moving forward?

We see God being with Adam and Eve. We see Adam and Eve knowing God. They dwelled together in the garden. They enjoyed each other’s company. God walked with them. He dwelled with them. They knew their God. They knew their Father. They knew their King. And He knew them.

But then that relationship was fractured when they dishonored God by doing the exact thing He told them not to do. The beings that were made for His glory, that were made to honor Him, that were made to magnify Him, they dishonored Him, they ceased to live out their purpose. They elevated themselves above Him. 

And ever since then, we have had a relational void in our souls. 

So what do we see here? We were made for His glory. And what does that look like? It looks like knowing God and honoring Him.

But sin shattered our ability to do that. And so sin came in and separated us from the source of life. And with that came death. 

But God isn’t leaving us in our mess. He has been up to something ever since. And He speaks through the prophet Jeremiah 600 years before the birth of Jesus and tells His people about what He is going to do in the future.

33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

God is going to do something new. In fact, He already has. 

He’s saying, you need to be changed. I’m going to change who you are. Why? Because I want you to know me again. 

This is the beauty of what Jesus has done. 

He has bridged the chasm that separated us from God. Through His blood, we are brought back to God and we are able to KNOW God again.

In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about how this new covenant, through Jesus, includes both Jews and Gentiles. And what that means is that the question why am I here? has an answer for all people.

If you were here last week, I said that how we answer the question where did I come from? impacts the way we answer all the rest of life’s big questions. 

Here Paul connects the question of our origin with the question of the meaning of life.

Read Romans 11:36-12:1

36 For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

From God, through God, and to God are all things. He deserves all the glory forever and ever.

And in light of that, here’s what our response ought to be: to offer our everything to Him who owns everything as a living sacrifice that would be pleasing to Him, set apart for Him. And when we do that, what we’re really doing is worshiping Him.

But how do we do that? Scripture tells us.

19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

Do you see what this means?

The meaning of life is to glorify, know, and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We were created for His glory. We were created to magnify Him. 

But we can’t do that, we can’t live out our purpose in life, we can’t live out our why for existence apart from Jesus.

We can’t glorify God apart from Jesus. We can’t know God apart from Jesus. We can’t worship God apart from Jesus. 

In the same way, we can’t glorify God apart from the Holy Spirit’s power. We can’t know God apart from the Holy Spirit’s presence. We can’t worship God apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit.

It’s all about God. 

Why am I here?

It’s not about me. It’s about Him.

Young people, don’t waste your life. And those of you who are more seasoned in this thing called life, don’t waste it. 

Don’t buy into the lie that you can find purpose apart from Jesus. Don’t buy into the lie that you can find meaning in your life by simply looking within yourself and living your truth and writing your destiny and chasing your dreams. 

Don’t buy into the lie that your best life is to get a good job, pursue a lot of pleasure, maybe get a family, buy a house, work, work, work, retire, and then start enjoying life.

Your best life is lived when you come to the end of yourself and you realize an important truth.

God created us for His glory. We were created to be instruments of worship. We were created to be spotlights shining on Him. We were created to know Him and love Him and honor Him.

But what we tend to do is to diminish God, ignore God, and elevate ourselves.

But we are terrible ends. We are means. When we make ourselves ends, we become ugly living examples of selfishness.

No matter how we slice it, we have been influenced by the broader culture we are a part of in Western Civilization.

We believe in individualism and we oftentimes let that creep into how we understand our meaning and why we exist. 

We look out for what’s in it for me, what’s best for me, how can I get ahead, how can I live my dream, how can I be more free to do what I want, and all the while we are enslaving ourselves to a master that will inevitably let us down—ourselves.

But there is a better way. The way of our real why.

God created us to glorify Him and know Him. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin stained all of creation. And when God entered the garden, Adam and Eve, knowing they had dishonored God, knowing that something was wrong, knowing that their relationship with God was fractured, they hid from God. 

They were created to know Him. They were designed to be with Him. Their why was the way of knowing God. But because of sin, they hid.

But thanks be to God that He flipped the script of the story of humanity. That through Jesus, we no longer need to hide. 

Now we can what we yearn for and were created for…

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Humanity went from being with God and knowing God to hiding from God and now, through Jesus, we can draw near to Him and He will draw near to us.

Ami Ayalon said, “when a captain is without direction no wind on Earth will take him there.”

I’m curious. Who is the captain of the ship you’re on?

Are you trying to be the captain? Are you floating directionless in the middle of the sea?

Or are your sails full of air and is your direction headed to the heart of God? 

Is your life, as it is now, drawing near to God or are you avoiding Him? 

Are you mindful of Him or is He an afterthought? 

Is your life a means to glorifying and honoring and magnifying the awesomeness of God?

Or is your life an end in and of itself? Is your life characterized more by mindless wandering or by worshipful stepping?

Do you surrender to the Holy Spirit everyday and ask Him to have His way with you? Or do you only go to God for what’s in it for you?

Why are you here? I want you to really wrestle with that. 

Why are you here? Because why we are where we are matters.

Scripture is clear:

The meaning of life is to glorify, know, and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are to tell of His glory, to love people and tell them about what God has done in our lives and what He desires to do in theirs.

We are to magnify Him to others. We are to serve each other, love each other, encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens. Our togetherness, the church’s togetherness should be a witness to a world that is asking “is Jesus real and does He make a difference?”

Without Jesus, we cannot live out the why of our existence. — Invitation

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In week 1 of Life’s Big Questions, we consider the question of origins. It’s the question we ponder when we look at the stars and we are reminded of our smallness. What question is that? Where did I come from? Where did everything come from? How did everything that exists begin?

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Where we come from impacts who we are. You know this to be true. I know it to be true.

Let’s play a little game and we’ll see how stereotypical we all are…

Do you say pop or soda? If you’re from here, it’s likely “pop.”

Do you throw your trash in a garbage can or a trash can? Trash can if you’re from here.

What do you call one of those big trucks that pull large amounts of stuff? Semitruck. Other people in other parts of the country call them Tractor Trailers or Eighteen-Wheelers.

What do you call athletic footwear? Tennis shoes? Sneakers? Gym shoes? Probably Tennis shoes, right?

How many syllables are in this word: caramel? Two or three?

Where we come from impacts how we talk.

Today’s first question in our new series, Life’s Big Questions is “where did I come from?”

And depending on how deep you think about this, you might be able to answer it rather quickly.

Where did I come from? Well, I came from… my parents. I don’t want to think about that…

I’m from America. I’m from the Midwest. The state of Indiana. The city of Fort Wayne. I grew up on the south side in Waynedale. I graduated from Wayne High School. 

Where did I come from? 

But if you keep digging and rewinding…

I came from my parents, Chad and Vicki. But they came from their parents. And they came from their parents. And so on and so on and so on.

Where did I come from?

If you keep digging you’ll find that this question leads us down a path that stretches our minds. It’s a path that comes face to face with realizing that this single question, where did I come from? really is one of life’s big questions. 

Because how we answer this question will impact the way we answer all the rest of the questions we’re going to ask in this series. 

Much of our culture today is confused because when you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know who you really are. 

Where did I come from? This question naturally leads us to the question of the existence of God.

If you keep rewinding and rewinding and consider all the causes that led to you being born and alive today, you’ll reach a point where you ask what was the first cause?

And I think it’s fitting that the biggest question we could ever ask, the most foundational question for all of life’s other big questions is addressed in the first sentence of the book we Christians believe contain God’s words called The Bible.

If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to the first page, Genesis chapter 1. These are the first words we find on the first page on the first line. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning Elohim. In the beginning God. What happened in the beginning? He created the heavens and the earth. 

When nothingness became something-ness, God was behind it. 

When the Universe sprang into existence, God was behind it.

When, in an instant, energy and matter and space and time appeared, God was behind it.

When the laws of nature were written, God was the author.

The scientific world has put forth evidence after evidence that our Universe had a distinct beginning. When everything that is came into existence out of nothingness. That there was a point of singularity, a big mysterious bang. 

That in one moment, no dynamite existed and in the next, it had exploded.

How could something come out of nothing?

The Bible, from the first sentence to the last sentence never sets out to prove God’s existence. The fact of God’s existence is the Bible’s starting point. 

Genesis 1:26-27

But Genesis 1 doesn’t stop there. It gives us an amazing account into the mind of God and the motivation of God when He created the first human beings.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created man
in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.

In the midst of God creating atoms and molecules, time and space, stars and planets, plants and animals, God decided to do something shocking. 

He had saved the best for last. And I know this because He said everything was good. But then when He created human beings and He stepped back and looked at the canvas that He had painted, the beauty that He had crafted, the wonder that He established, He said it was very good.  

But why? Why did the addition of human beings make what God was creating go from good to very good? 

In other words, God created humans like Him.

Every human. Made in God’s image. Every single one. 

Unlike the rest of creation, human beings are rational and intelligent… like God. We are relational beings that function best within community… like God. 

God in Community: Notice in Genesis 1:26, “let us.” Here we see the first clue to the Trinity, that God is three in one. One God, three persons. 

We humans, also, are given the authority to rein and rule over the earth… like God reins and rules over all things including us.

Who we are has its foundation in where we came from. 

Who are you? Why are you? How are you? What are you?

You are someone made in the image of God by the hand of God. And so is every other person who has ever lived.

And I believe this explains our angst. It explains why we feel like the way things are not how they ought to be. It explains why we have this deep-seated sense of right and wrong called our conscience. It explains why you see people who don’t believe in God doing the very things that God does—caring for the needy, fighting for the oppressed, and giving a voice to the voiceless. 

Our angst is felt like a twisted gut because the world we live in has been tattered and stained by sin. When God created, it was very good. And our hearts yearn for that very good. Our souls yearn to be back in an unblemished relationship with our Creator.

Where did I come from? I came from God.

Where did I come from? A garden called Eden.

Where did I come from? Perfection.

Where did I come from? Goodness.

Because I am from God and live in a sin-stained world, I have a deep sense that I am in an incomplete land, a fractured location. 

We all have innate desires that correspond to things that satisfy those desires.

We have an appetite for nourishment that is satisfied by food.

We deal with tiredness and that is satisfied by sleep.

We have relational desires that are satisfied within friendships.

We have sexual desires that are satisfied in sex.

And as Timothy Keller puts it, “We have a longing for joy, love, and beauty that no amount or quality of food, sex, friendship, or success can satisfy. We want something that nothing in this world can fulfill.”

In other words, when you look up at the stars, when you look at something beautiful and it just feels right, when you stand on a mountain and look out at nature, when you stand on the beach and listen to the waves, there’s a reason you long for more.

It’s called beauty. It’s called joy. It’s called love. It’s those things in perfection. And we were made to crave that because we were made in God’s image. We were made by Him in a place of perfect beauty, perfect joy, and perfect love.

That’s why we not only yearn for perfection, but it’s why we are appalled in the evil we see in the world. It’s why we, sometimes, are appalled at the evil in ourselves.

You’ll notice something similar here.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him,and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

In the beginning… all things were created through Jesus. 

He wrote the laws of nature by hand.

Life emanated from Him. He’s the reason you have oxygen to breathe. He’s the reason you have water to drink. He’s the reason you have food to eat. He’s the reason you have gravity to keep you down. He’s the reason you have bones to hold you up. He’s the reason you have a heart to circulate your blood. He’s the reason you have blood.

He’s the reason the earth keeps rotating on its axis and keeps going around the sun. 

He’s the reason scientists can examine the beauty of His creation. He’s the reason for the consistency. 

He’s the source.

Because your life came from Jesus, you will be restless without Him. You will wander without Him. You will be dissatisfied without Him. You will be homeless without Him. You will be lost without Him.

Every one of our hearts yearns for perfect love, joy, and beauty and those are only found in and through the source of perfect love, joy, and beauty—Jesus.

For everything was created by him,

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities—

all things have been created through him and for him.

You are from Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. Your place of origin is a person and His name is Jesus.

God became flesh. When you see Jesus, you see the Father. 

You were made in His image. And not only were you made in His image, but He is the One who created you. You were created through Him. And you were also created FOR Him. 

No longer should we give ourselves a license to separate sacred from secular. 

Where you come from impacts who you are. You are someone who is fully and wholly created in His image. Sunday at 9:30 or 11am is not the only time set aside for Him. 

You, my friend, have been set aside from Him and for Him.

I want you to picture the scene… Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. And observing this, the religious leaders are criticizing him under their breath. 

And Jesus, knowing what was going on with these religious do-gooders decided to tell a series of stories, one of which about a father who had two sons. The younger son wanted his share of the inheritance which was the cultural equivalent of wishing your father to be dead. 

So the father divided his estate between his sons and shortly after, the younger son left his father’s home and traveled to a distant country where he spent all the money he had on wild living. 

So he’s broke and then to make matters worse, a famine struck the country he was in and the little bit he had left was now gone too. So he went to work for someone nearby to make ends meet. And while he was working for this person, they sent him out into the field to feed pigs. 

For a Jewish person, this was the bottom of a bottomless pit of horror. But he was so low that he even began to long to eat what the pigs were eating but he couldn’t even get any of that to eat. 

Jesus, with sinners and tax collectors around him and the religious leaders looking at him, tells them that this man came to his senses and began to think about where he came from. 

He thought about how even the hired workers at his father’s house have more than enough food to eat while he is here dying of hunger. So he started to think up a brilliant plan to return to his father’s home. 

He thought of the speech he would tell his father about how sorry he was and how he failed him. He was ready to ask his father to just make him like one of his hired workers. He ruined the opportunity to be his son. 

And then he got up and made his way back to his father’s home.

And Jesus, I think probably paused here. Then he goes on…

While the son was still a long way off, his father saw his son and was filled with compassion. The father ran to his son. Sprinting. And when he reached his son, the father threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. 

The son was in his father’s arms. The son’s heart, melting because of the love emanating from the father.

And the son, while I’m sure sobbing, began what he could remember of his speech and told his father how he sinned against him and is no longer worthy to be called his son.

And as the father is embracing his son who is reeking of pig, who is a complete mess, he has his BEST robe brought out, he put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. And then he threw a party because his son was dead but is alive again, he was lost but now he is found. And the celebration ensued while the son still stunk.

The older son, when he found out what was happening, grew angry that this party was being thrown for his younger brother who squandered his father’s wealth. And the father goes out to talk to his oldest son and he pleaded with him, come in and celebrate that your brother is alive!

But the older son told his father, I’ve been with you every day, slaving away year after year. I’ve never disobeyed you. I’ve never done you any wrong. And yet, you never threw me a party, dad. You never served me one of your goats. But he comes back and he gets a party?!

And the father looks at his son and says to him, Son, you’re right you’re always with me. But everything I have, son, it’s already yours. It’s already yours. We need to celebrate that this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and now he is found.

A father who has given everything he has to his sons. 

One son who ran away and forgot where he came from. He set his hope on money, on power, on pleasure. He went away and fell down hard. He lived for himself and then, in the middle of a pigsty, he thought his best move was to return home and try to convince his father that he should let him be like one of his hired workers. I’ll apologize with a great speech. I’ll show him how sorry I am. 

Many of us think that this was the turning point, the pivot in the story. But I’m not so sure anymore. I think the pivot point in the story is when the father ran to his son and embraced his son despite his son’s smell, his son’s past, his son’s sin. 

I see a father who will RUN to his son while his son is still in a world of mess that he brought on himself. I see a father who will RUN to his son when his son forgets where he came from. I see a father who PURSUES. 

And when that son was embraced, I believe that was the pivot point for that younger son. That embrace, in his father’s arms, with the love of his father surrounding him, that was his turning point. 

My friends, you don’t get to impress God with your eloquence and apologies. Just go to Him. And when He embraces you, your life is changed. 

Because you are from God, you will never be fully satisfied until you are with Him again.

But there’s this other son, too, isn’t there?

The son who tried to earn his father’s favor. The son who day in and day out, year after year, did the right things, said the right things. He’s the model kid in the youth group, he’s the model church goer. And he’s upset that the party isn’t for him. He’s upset that his father didn’t shower him with a party. 

But what does the father say to him? Everything I have is yours. In other words, why are you trying to earn my love? Why are you trying to earn my favor?

You can’t EARN IT, son. You can’t earn it. I’ve already given it to you. 

Son, you can’t earn it. Just receive it. Just open your arms. 

Uncross your arms, son. Open them up. I’ve already given you what you’ve been working for. You got it before you did the work. Your work didn’t earn it.

The post Life’s Big Questions: Where did I come from? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

The post Easter: Did the Resurrection Really Happen? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

On Easter, we looked at the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Because our faith hinges on it being true. So is there evidence for Jesus really rising from the dead thousands of years ago? I believe there is.

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Have you ever laid awake at night pondering your existence? 

I did this nearly ever day of my high school years, at least it seemed that way. I would think about time and how it’s so big. I would think about the decades that I would get to, maybe, exist on this colorful ball, spinning on an axis, and whirling around the sun over and over and over again.

I would zoom out even more. I would start to think about the past. The past that happened, that came and went, that I didn’t get to witness, but I heard about it happening. The pain, the sorrow, the joy, the struggle of human existence. 

I would zoom out again and go further back in time. I would think about how this all started. And then I’d ask the question: what about before all this?

Then I would turn my attention to the future. What about when I’m dead and gone? What then? Is that it? Just nothingness? 

And then I would get frustrated and think: well if it’s just nothing after this then what the heck was the point? WHY?

And then I would do something that seemed intuitive to me. It was something I never talked about with other people. I never had a conversation about it.

I would “pray.” 

Did I know who I was praying to? Nope. No clue. 

Maybe you’ve been there too. Maybe you’ve wondered why you’re here, how you got here, what’s the point?

Maybe you’ve questioned the existence of God. 

Maybe you grew up in church and you’re just not sure if everything you were taught is really that relevant to life. 

Regardless of your starting point today, I want you to consider something. 

There are many religions in the world. Ever since the beginning of our existence as human beings, we have gazed at the sky and have tried to understand and explain our own existence. 

People have worshiped just about anything and everything. It seems like we were made to worship something. 

And today, we’re going to consider someone. Because the Christian faith is built upon a person. A person who walked on this earth. A person who taught people. A person who performed miracles. A person who claimed to be God. Yes. That is what He claimed. And that same person? He was crucified on a Roman cross. 

But the interesting thing is that He didn’t just claim to be God. He told His followers that He would die and then rise again. They didn’t understand it at the time. 

But here’s the thing: if He did, in fact, rise from the dead then that puts an exclamation point on everything else He claimed about Himself. 

No other religious figure in human history ever gave their followers such an objective truth claim for proof of their wisdom or, in Jesus’ case, their divinity. 

So the question is, why Jesus? And to that I say the resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead after telling His disciples that He would do just that, then that changes everything. 

And that leads us to the question behind the question. And that is simply this: what do you do with Jesus?

You see, I am convinced that how we answer the question, what do you do with Jesus? hinges on the doorframe of eternity.

In the first century, some of Jesus’ apostles and people close to them set out to write down the testimony about Jesus. And we have those documents in the Christian Bible and they are the first four books of the New Testament. They are simply called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

Matthew was a former tax collector turned apostle of Jesus. Mark was a ministry partner of Peter, the close apostle to Jesus. Luke was a doctor and ministry partner of the apostle Paul. And John was, as he calls himself, Jesus’ beloved disciple. He was basically besties with Jesus.

John, when he wrote down his biography of Jesus, he pointed out why he took the time and money to write about Jesus’ life and testimony:

31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

So you see that belief, according to Jesus’ contemporaries, was of utmost importance.

So let’s get into some of the claims about Jesus and the claims of Jesus.

Read:

• John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
• John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

A fundamental claim about Jesus is that He is God. He is God putting on flesh and coming down to dwell among us. For the Jews reading this, they would have been reminded, based on the wording John uses, of the Exodus when God had them build a tabernacle for Him to dwell in the desert among them. 

And John points back and points toward Jesus as the Creator God who has come to tabernacle, to dwell, to be with us.

Right off the bat with Jesus we see a completely different message than the rest of the religious world. 

The testimony about Jesus is not that He beckoned us from heaven to climb the ethical do-good ladder to try and reach up to Him. No. The testimony about Jesus is that He, out of love, came down to us. Came down to you. Came down to meet us in the midst of our messes. Not as a vengeful dictator, but as the God who is full of grace and truth. 

But wait… There’s more.

Read:

• John 1:29: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
• John 1:34: “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
• John 1:49: “Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”

So not only is Jesus God in flesh, full of grace and truth, but he is the sacrificial lamb, sufficient to take away the sins of the world. He is the passover lamb who rescues His people by His blood. He is the once and for all sufficient sacrifice that pays the sin debt of all who would come to Him.

He is the Son of God, which means Messiah, which means king. He is the king who will rule and rein forever. He is the king the Israelites needed, but rejected for Saul, David, Solomon and a whole host of others. He is the king whose kingdom will never end. He is the king who is conquering the Devil and all his schemes. He is the king who is conquering sin and death. 

To put it simply, there is no one else like Him. There is no one else like Jesus, God in flesh, full of grace and truth. There is no one else like Him.

What do you do with Jesus? 

Here’s a quick list of what Jesus said about Himself:

• To know him is to know God;
• To see him is to see God;
• To believe in him is to believe in God;
• To receive him is to receive God;
• To hate him is to hate God;
• To honor him is to honor God

(John 8:19; 14:7; 12:45; 14:9; 12:44; 14:1; Mark 9:37; John 15:23; 5:23)

But up until now, someone could say, well that’s just a bunch of fantasy. That’s just a bunch of hogwash. That’s just a bunch of mythology about a guy that clearly had a following because of his unordinary level of charisma. 

But let’s simply consider Jesus’ defining moment – the resurrection.

Because here’s the thing: without this, Christianity is nothing. It is fantasy. It is hogwash. It is just a bunch of mythology. Because if Jesus is dead, he was a liar, he was a deranged man who thought he was God but wasn’t. 

But if this is true. If Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead, it makes this single question the absolute most important question you’ll ever answer: what do you do with Jesus?

If he really did rise from the dead, it changes absolutely everything. 

So let’s look at it.

According to the most analyzed, most scrutinized, and most proven-to-be-reliable documents from history, the gospels, Jewish leaders schemed against Jesus because He was disrupting their influence and their stronghold on the Jewish hierarchy. 

His teachings were subversive and He claimed to be the Messiah which would surely rob the religious leaders of their influence. Not to mention, he wasn’t clean like a good Jew was supposed to be. He hung out with sinners, He healed people on the Sabbath, He forgave people of their sins. He was blasphemous. 

So they put together a plan. They had Jesus arrested in the dark of night, they questioned him, and they turned him over to the Romans with the charge that He was claiming to be the Son of God, the King. When Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea questioned Jesus, he asked him simply, are you the king of the Jews?

Pontius Pilate didn’t see Jesus as a criminal, but the crowds were stirred and they wanted His head. So he had Jesus flogged. 

Dr. Alexander Metherell describes what a Roman flogging did to the human body:

The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed by the deep, deep cuts. The whippings would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs. It was just terrible.

Then the Roman soldiers were ordered to carry out the crucifixion. Jesus walked up to Mount Calvary, bloodied and beaten. 

Large spikes were driven into his wrists and his feet and then the cross was raised and there he hung, suffocating under his own weight. 

As he hung on that cross, he declared, right before he gave his last breath, IT IS FINISHED!

And there on that cross, with the words King of the Jews written on a sign above his head, the Messiah, the king died.

Once he was confirmed to be dead (he was pierced in the side just for good measure), his body was taken to a borrowed tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. 

A large disk-shaped stone was rolled in front of the opening to the tomb and Roman guards were stationed in front of the tomb.

Friday ends, Saturday comes and goes. Jesus is still dead.

Jesus’ followers are in hiding. They are afraid for their lives.

And then Sunday comes and as some of the women who followed Jesus made their way to the tomb to anoint his body with oils, the tomb was found to be empty.

Then he appeared to Peter, to the rest of the apostles, and then to over five hundred men and women before he ascended into heaven in front of the disciples.

“You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.” – Acts 3:15

“You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.”

They didn’t seek to make this up. They saw Jesus walking, talking, breathing, triumphant and victorious. 

This wasn’t some story they were trying to make up. They said that this whole thing, they were witnesses of it.

All someone needed to disprove it was a body. That’s it. No more Christianity. Just a body. 

After all, these were 11 unschooled, ordinary men. Could they have pulled off the greatest hoax in the history of mankind, keep his body hidden for centuries and centuries, convince thousands of people that Jesus wasn’t just some good teacher but that he was the resurrected Savior, and then die martyrs deaths?

What did they have to gain? Prominence? They didn’t seek power. And they didn’t get any either.

Instead they got beaten, ridiculed, and many of them were imprisoned, crucified, burned at the stake, or exiled from civilization.

All that for a made up story? Surely not. 

All that for what they knew to be true? Precisely.

You see, for the apostles, this wasn’t a thing in the realm of belief, it was a thing in the realm of 100% KNOWING it to be true. 

• Buddha said look to the wisdom of my teaching… [subjective]
  
• Muhammad said look to the beauty and eloquence of the Qur’an… [subjective]
  
• Jesus said after three days I will rise again (Matt. 27:63)… [objective]

My friends, I’m here to say that not only did Jesus declare He would rise from the dead, He delivered on his declaration. He called His shot. 

What do you do with Jesus?

Because…

The resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of eternity.

His message is unique. 

In Jesus we see God coming down, not requiring us to climb to Him. 

In Jesus we see the love of God on full display. He hung out with sinners like you and me. He said that he came to seek and to save the lost; to be the doctor for the sick; to be the hope for the hopeless.

In Jesus we see God establishing His rule and rein. Jesus is Savior, absolutely. He is also King. 

And His command to us is simply this: surrender and believe.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus is the miracle working king. 

Many of us in this room are walking miracles. Some of us are people who other people have their mouths hit the floor when they hear we go to church. 

Many of us were broken beyond repair. Until we met Jesus, that is.

Some of us were abandoned, but then we met Jesus, the king who says come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.

Some of us were angry at God, until we met Jesus.

Some of us didn’t believe in God at all, until we met Jesus.

Some of us were religious legalists, striving to keep the rules and keep in God’s good graces, and then we met Jesus who is more gracious than we ever could have imagined.

My friends, we worship Jesus because He is alive. He is not in the tomb.

He was not swallowed by death. No He rose victoriously and walked on out of that tomb. 

Because of Jesus, we can see that the evil in this world, the evil in ourselves will not prevail. We worship the God who came down and paid the penalty for our evil so that we could have life.

Because of Jesus, we have an answer to our deepest longings for transcendence. Each one of us wonders what our purpose is, what our destiny will be. We wonder those things because we were designed to desire our Creator. And because of Jesus, we see that our purpose and our destiny come into full focus in the fact that Jesus came down, He paid our debt, and He offers us the benefit of entering God’s presence as if we had never sinned.

Because of Jesus, we know that God cares for us. We know that He is with us. Because Jesus didn’t stay dead, because he was resurrected, we get to enjoy this life and the next life in communion with our mighty, loving God.

His promise is guaranteed by His victory over sin and death. Just as He was raised from the dead, we too will be raised to new life, for even though we die, we will live forever with Him.

Did the resurrection really happen? I’m staking my life on it because I believe the testimony of those who knew Him. Those who knew not only the Jesus before the crucifixion, but the Jesus who rose from the grave and gave a group of scared, trembling men and women courage to go proclaim His message to the masses despite being persecuted every step of the way.

If you’ve never surrendered to king Jesus, please go to the prayer room after service (off the foyer hallway) and we will have some caring individuals there to talk to you about that.

The resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of eternity.

Lord, we need you.

The post Easter: Did the Resurrection Really Happen? appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

The post Philippians: In Whatever Circumstances appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

From Philippians 4:10-23: Discontentment often drives us. It keeps us pursuing. It keeps us striving. But that’s a miserable way to live. In fact, it’s possible to find contentment in whatever circumstance we face.

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Discontentment often drives us. 

The idea that things are not the way they ought to be or that things ought to be better than they are, those ideas are what often drive us to discovery.

The thought of a better world, a better life, that’s what has led to virtually every invention and innovation in human history.

It’s why we have the ability to harness and use electricity. It’s why we can warm or cool our homes. It’s why we went to the moon (that and the Cold War). It’s why scientists took a picture of a black hole. 

Discontentment is also a great sales tactic. 

In fact, marketers do this all the time. It’s called building scarcity. And it’s a great way to get us to buy what they’re selling. 

You’re not happy enough. This will give you the happiness you’re looking for.

If you want a better life, this is what you need.

I’ve been duped into this a time or two…

I was on my way to becoming obsessed.

It started my first year at Cincinnati Christian University – my third year of college. It didn’t happen my freshman year and it didn’t even happen my sophomore year when I was a computer science major. 

No. For some reason it happened at CCU – the school that was full of people pursuing the vocation of ministry.

It started with an occasional glance. An every-now-and-again noticing. But it grew and grew and grew. At times it would flood my thoughts. But I knew I couldn’t have it.

What was it that had my attention? A MacBook Pro. Yes. 

That slick silver shell with that lit up apple with the black keyboard and all the “cool factor” that went along with it. All the exclusive apps that came along with it. The whole package had me itching for one.

The only problem was… I couldn’t afford one. Not even close.

But that didn’t keep me from researching it, thinking about it, and coming up with an internal list of all the things I could do if I had one.

Audio editing and mixing. Video editing. 

They last far longer than most PCs. Their system is far more secure than PCs. Apple Care is phenomenal. 

I had become an Apple fanboy before I ever owned a MacBook. Why?

Because everywhere I looked at CCU, I saw them. My friends told me how great they were.

They seemed like the Christian computers because everywhere I looked, these Christians had them. 

Now, fast forward…

I realize that while it’s a great computer and it is able to do all the things I thought it could and more, it’s just a computer. It hasn’t revolutionized my life. It’s just a tool. A great tool, but just a tool. 

I’ve written two books on them. I’ve prepared a lot of sermons and classes on them. But they are just a computer and I could have written those books and prepared those sermons and classes on a different computer too.

I know all this now that I have one. I can downplay it now. But when I didn’t have it? I played it up in my mind more than it should have been. 

Why?

Because I have a problem with discontentment.

Anyone else never satisfied with what is and is always focused on the next thing, the next challenge, the better this, the better that, the different this, the different that, the more this, and the more that?

Discontentment often drives us to discouragement. 

Ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden, we as humans have been on a quest to find full satisfaction in a world that has been fractured.

We live in a world that offers many things that will partially satisfy. 

But what if all the best things in this world were never meant to fully satisfy us? But at the same time, what if satisfaction, what if contentment really were possible?

Here’s what I know about contentment in our day and time:

Contentment is weird. But normal ain’t working. 

Always feeling angst, always feeling like there’s something more, always feeling cynical no matter how great things get or how terrible things become.

I don’t know, it just seems like normal ain’t working and maybe it’s time to get a little weird.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be content in whatever circumstances you find yourself in in the future? 

Game. Changer.

And that’s what Paul dives into as he closes out his letter to the Philippian church. 

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly because once again you renewed your care for me. You were, in fact, concerned about me but lacked the opportunity to show it. 11 I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. 12 I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me. 14 Still, you did well by partnering with me in my hardship.

Paul was prompted to rejoice in God because of the fact that this church was allowing God to work through them. 

Paul was confident that the One who started a good work in them was going to see that work all the way through to completion!

And Paul is going to eventually get to acknowledging the financial gift they gave to him, but he is careful to let them know that no matter what, his contentment, his satisfaction, his well-being does not depend on their gift. He appreciates it, no doubt, as we will see soon. 

But what does he say?

In whatever circumstances I find myself, I have learned to be content. That’s powerful.

Remember when he first came to them?

It doesn’t matter if I’m living it up, being hosted at Lydia’s home. I mean, that was nice. Her cook fixed up every meal like it was a five-star restaurant. You know, something featured on the travel channel. That was nice. But I had to leave.

Then, you remember this, right? I met a demon-possessed slave girl. I freed her from bondage and then I was beaten and thrown into prison. It doesn’t matter. I’m still going to rejoice and praise God. 

I’m content in a mansion or in a cell. In whatever circumstances.

Why?

Paul had to LEARN to be content. 

Now that it’s getting nicer out, I’ve been giving a lot more attention to our landscaping. And given that we have a new yard, there’s plenty of land, just not much scaping. That statement is probably technically wrong, but you get what I mean. It’s pretty basic. But you know what I have begun to notice?

In order to have a nice space, I’ve gotta put a lot of attention to it.

We have a nice mulch bed on the front of our house. Nothing has been planted there. Nothing at all. We haven’t gotten to that yet. But you know, we plan on making it look nice. But you know what? Plenty of little plants are growing up through that mulch. The weeds are rising. I didn’t have to do anything and there they are.

My lawn? I talked to someone this past week and he was telling me how I NEED to get my lawn fertilized right away. He was adamant that it had to happen as soon as possible. 

How many of you know that to get something other than weeds from your soil, it requires attention from the gardener?!

Charles Spurgeon pointed out that discontentment is as natural to man’s heart as weeds are to the soil.

Not only is discontentment available in abundance, not only does it grow without any attention, but it also chokes up anything good, anything positive, anything godly. 

Paul learned what it’s like to be content in whatever circumstances he finds himself in. He learned what it looks like to cultivate the soil of his heart so that good would grow no matter the season. 

But what did that require?

It required him to know ONE truth in TWO ways. 

Paul first learned that Christ is better. He’s better than what He doesn’t have and He’s better than what He does have. 

Nothing in this world is better or more satisfying than knowing Christ Jesus. Paul himself said that knowing Christ was his goal. That’s what he strives for. That’s what he is pushing toward. 

But it’s one thing to know that intellectually. It’s another thing to know it experientially.

A lot of us know a lot of true things. And for a culture that is still very much shaped by the Enlightenment, we think that if we know enough right things then we’ll be fine. 

So if we just read the Bible and stack up as much knowledge as we possibly can, then we’re going to be fine. We’ll become content in Christ if we KNOW that He is better.

But we know all kinds of things that we do nothing with, don’t we?

The problem is, when we know something is true, but don’t live out that truth and do that truth, then we haven’t yet learned it.

We’ve gotta get beyond the laboratory level of our faith.

Paul didn’t just test the truth of that statement—that Christ is better—in his head or in the laboratory. He tested it in life. 

When he had everything he needed and a ton of what he wanted, when he was living in luxury and abundance, he learned that Christ is better than everything luxury and abundance could offer. He left it all and kept following Christ’s call on his life. 

That’s where the rubber meets the road, that’s when you step out of the laboratory and find out if you’ve learned that Christ is better or not. Are you willing to leave it all behind if Christ told you to?

Would you, like Paul, count it all as loss? Would you count it as dung? That is, in comparison to knowing Jesus?

Everything you’ve worked for, everything you’ve saved for, all your investments, all your assets, all your prized possessions, all your most meaningful things, if Christ said let’s go, would you go? If Christ said give it all away, would you do it?

It’s one thing to know the truth of the statement, Christ is better. It’s another thing to LEARN that Christ really is better.

I am able to be content in all situations, I am able to do all things, I am able to choose Christ every time. HOW?

In Christ who strengthens me. Through Christ who strengthens me. 

He is where I get my strength from. While the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God gave them manna from heaven. Jesus is the never-stopping bread from heaven. He always satisfies. 

When I’m feeling discontented, when my circumstances seem to be full of darkness and I’m feeling down and out, He’s there to shine and show me that even though this moment may be discouraging, He is my light, He is my strength. Sometimes we need to let Jesus shine His light of truth and grace over our circumstances. He’s with us. He’s the light in the dark places and dark moments of our lives. 

When this side of things isn’t working well, we’ve gotta realize that Jesus Himself is the gate to the good things. He’s the gate that leads to salvation. He’s the gate that leads to wholeness. He’s the gate that leads to glory. When we’re feeling discontented and frustrated with our circumstances, it’s usually because we’re hanging out on the wrong side of the gate. 

He leads me beside still waters, he makes me lie down in green pastures, He stills my soul. He prepares a table for me before my enemies. He is with me through the valley of the shadow of death. I’m not alone!

When I’m dissatisfied with my life, when everything around me is frustrating me, when I feel like something’s missing, I’m reminded that this is not my home, this world is passing away, and all the things that somewhat satisfy me here are simply a spotlight pointing me to the ONE who CAN satisfy. This is not our home, friends. This life isn’t the end of the story. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Our citizenship is in heaven. And while we may be waiting for Him to return and bring us to the place He’s been preparing for us, we can wait with confidence and contentment because He’s got us. He holds the keys to life. He holds every molecule, every cell together. He holds every part of you together. He holds this earth together. He holds this Universe together. Life is in His hands. Not just this life, but eternal life. So be encouraged, friend. Be content. Let Him be your strength. 

When you feel like there’s a different path you should be on, a path that would lead you to a better place, a plan that would be better than what God is leading you down right now, understand that He alone is the way. Christ is better. Christ is better. Christ is better.

When you feel like you don’t have the strength to go on, are you connected to the vine? Are you abiding in Jesus? Because when we abide in Him, He tells us we will abound with Him. We will produce much fruit. Our work for God must flow from our time with God. Because being with Him is what satisfies and strengthens us.

15 And you Philippians know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent gifts for my need several times. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that is increasing to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul is making such a big deal about contentment because he wants them to understand that the gift they gave him was bigger than a source of supply for him. 

When they practiced generosity, they weren’t experiencing a loss. They were making an investment that has a great return. 

Something powerful happens when we take what God has given to us and reinvest that money into His kingdom. Think about it: if you’re looking at a list of stocks or a list of mutual funds and trying to decide what to put your money in to get the best return, if God’s kingdom were on the S&P, it’d be off the charts. 

Why? Because it’s always turning a profit, an eternal one. 

Want to have your money work? Put it in God’s kingdom. When you practice generosity, you’re not losing money, you’re investing it and experiencing an amazing return.

When we practice generosity, it’s like unleashing defused essential oils up to heaven. It’s a fragrant offering. 

It’s like unleashing the scent of a Yankee candle store and sending it up to the throne room where God is seated. It’s taking the best candles… Bacon scented candles, coffee scented candles, leather scented candles… and sending them to heaven.

I can remember when Sara and I started tithing—giving 10% of our income to God. It was kind of daunting. We didn’t make a lot of money and the prospect of living on 90% of our income with an already tight budget was intimidating. But you know what? God tells us to test Him in this. And we have. We’ve been able to increase our level of generosity. We’ve never gone without. God has proven to be faithful. 

So if you have never tried tithing, like actually taking your income and giving a tenth of that back to God, God is telling you to test Him.

Just recently, I was able to talk to someone who has just started tithing. The joy in her eyes was abundantly clear.

And there’s nothing more practical we can do to LEARN contentment than to trust God with our finances. Because it teaches us that He’s in charge, we are not. It teaches us that God’s got us, we don’t. 

Here’s what I want you to walk away with today:

We glorify God best when we are content in Christ most.

Because if we are content most in anything or anyone other than Christ, we have an idol. 

God will not stop invading the depths of your being. He will go deeper and deeper until everything in us has been touched by His love and grace. 

Jesus you’re better than anything this world has. Jesus, you’re better than my bank account. You’re better than my retirement plan. You’re better than my hopes. You’re better than my plans. You’re greater than my worries. Your grace is sufficient for me. 

All I have, it’s all yours. I don’t need anything else, I have you and I know you’re going to provide what I need when I need it. Your timing is perfect. Your love is infinite. Your power has no end.

Christ, you’re better. You’re better. You’re better.

I think our banner, our anthem, our song on repeat has gotta be just that… Christ, you’re better.

When we’re feeling like we’re incomplete without something. 

When we’re thinking that our life doesn’t measure up.

When we’re stuck in a rut and discouraged.

When we’re on top of the mountain.

When we’re walking through the valley.

Christ, you’re better. 

My home is with you. 

Make me content in you.

Church, we glorify God best when we are content in Christ most.

Paul discovered the secret of being content in whatever circumstance… He can do all things through Christ who gives him strength.

When Christ is our strength, we can be content no matter what. Because His strength is greater than any and all circumstance we face, whether in abundance or in need. Whether well fed or hungry.

Can you imagine the joy, the peace, that you’d have if you were content in whatever circumstances you faced?

Things going great? Content.

In the struggle? Content.

On the mountaintop? Content.

In the valley? Content.

Paul wanted them to know what he knew. He wants us to know what he knew. 

That Christ can give us contentment even in chains. 

Always feeling angst, always feeling like there’s something more, always feeling cynical no matter how great things get or how terrible things become.

I don’t know, it just seems like normal ain’t working and maybe it’s time to get a little weird.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be content in whatever circumstances you find yourself in in the future? 

Game. Changer.

If you want to learn contentment, one very practical thing you can do is practice generosity. Maybe you’ve never given a percentage of what God’s given you. You don’t have to start at 10%. Start at 5. Start at 3. Start somewhere. 

And as you honor God with your finances, you’ll begin to see how He really is in charge.

And that investment has a far greater return than anything else you can put your money toward in this world. 

If you’ve been rescued by Jesus, do you want that for others too?

The church is God’s vehicle for making His mission come to fruition. When we support the church, we are investing in God’s kingdom. 

But…

In order to learn contentment in Christ, we’ve gotta ask Him to do it in us as we go through life. 

Jesus, please make me content in you. This is what I want, this is what I yearn for. Search my heart. Find those places that aren’t surrendered to your Kingship. Find those places that I haven’t given up. Because I know that those places are going to be the source of my discontentment. Because wherever you are, there is freedom. God make me free from the bondage of always striving for more, always yearning for things other than you, always being jaded and filled with angst. Give me peace. Give me contentment. Jesus, you’re better. You’re better. Make that truth seep deep into my bones, into my heart, into my blood, make that truth reverberate in my ears, and echo in my brain for the rest of my days. You’re better, Jesus. You’re better.

21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you greetings. 22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

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The post Philippians: What to Do With Worry appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

From Philippians 4:2-9. What can we do with our worries? Well, our worries may hold us captive, but we also hold the key. More on that in this week’s sermon from the book of Philippians.

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Screen Time, Worry Time

Late last year I left team Android and joined team iPhone. I was quite excited. And if you have an iPhone, you know that there was an update still somewhat recently that added a feature called, Screen Time.

It has a lot of functionality, but the baseline purpose is to show you how much time you spend on your screen.

For those of you who have iPhones and you heard about this feature… Were any of you also worried like I was about seeing your results?

There’s something about seeing that report every week that serves as a nudge—hey, you don’t need to be on your phone as much as you’re on it!

But I wonder… What if there was an app for something different…

What if there was an app that didn’t show you your screen time, but it showed you your worry time?

I wonder how many would download it. I’d be too worried to see how much I worry that I would probably avoid downloading it. Anyone with me?

But think about that: if you could see a weekly report of your worry time, what would it look like?

Top Worries

We all have different things we worry about:

For those of us who are parents, we worry about:

One of My Major Worries

Beyond the basics, one of my major worries, or maybe one of the things that, when it happens, causes me to dwell on it or even obsess over it is when I am misunderstood.

Reddit thread

A number of years ago, I would post articles I wrote related to Christianity and theology to a site called, Reddit. It’s basically a giant forum that has all kinds of different topics.

And I would post my articles there because it would usually generate a good amount of traffic to the articles and every now and then it would spark some good discussion.

But it would also open the door to one of my biggest frustrations—being misunderstood. And it wasn’t just the fact that I would sometimes be misunderstood, it was that the misunderstanding was over the internet on a medium that required typing and attention. Or sometimes it wouldn’t just be someone misunderstanding something I said in an article, but it would be someone starting an argument because of something I said (or something they thought I said).

So instead of just letting it go and not diving neck-deep into an all-day consuming argument or debate over the internet and enjoying the day and enjoying the company of my wife and kids and going and doing something fun and rejoicing in the Lord for my salvation and focusing on those in front of me… Yes. Instead of doing that…

I would be consumed and obsessed over that Reddit thread, over those commenters who wanted to argue. I would read responses and reflect on how to respond with just the right amount of grace but also the right amount of gusto to show that I, in fact, was correct and they were not.

But then I would post that great response and just sit there, refreshing and waiting for them to respond. Yes. I would click refresh. But I wasn’t being refreshed. I was being consumed. I would dwell on it. I would worry about it.

Thankfully, I have a wife who can snap me out of those things. And from that day on, I decided to avoid Reddit.

How many of you know that Facebook and email and text aren’t good avenues for debate?!

And the church said, amen!

What to Do With Worry

Today, we’re going to see what God wants us to do with our worries, no matter how big or small they may be.

So if you’re a person who would be afraid of seeing your weekly report of worry time because you know you worry too much, lean in. And for everyone else, you should sit up and lean in too because you have a lying problem. Get it?!

Philippians 4:2-9

2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

How would you like to be called out in front of the entire church for an argument or a spat you’re having with someone else in the church?

That’s what happened with these two women. Because this letter would have been read to the entire gathering.

Let’s read that part again…

Philippians 4:2-3

2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.

From what we can infer from this, it seems these women were having a conflict of some kind that the entire church or at least a good majority of the people knew about. And really, for Paul to call them out like this, it is reasonable to assume that this spat they were having was causing problems in the church beyond just them two.

It was so bad, in fact, that Paul identifies a third party to mediate their conflict.

We don’t know many details about Euodia and Syntyche’s argument, but we do know that it was significant and likely about some secondary issue.

Secondary issues—the content of conflict in the church…

I find it interesting that even then, the church was plagued by secondary issues being the content of conflict. Because Paul doesn’t correct either one of them or take any sides. He merely urges them, encourages them to agree in the Lord. To find their resolution in God.

Even then, people elevated minor issues into major conflicts. And sadly, we do the same today.

Philippians 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The Lord is near

Notice that in verse 5? The Lord is near.

Paul just snuck that in.

They needed to be reminded that while they’re messing around arguing and worrying, the Lord is near.

And that should have given them a dose of motivation to keep the main thing the main thing and some inspiration to keep the main thing the main thing.

So rejoice in the Lord. Be happy in Him. Delight in Him. Enjoy Him. Celebrate Him. Exult Him. Revel in Him. He is near. He is alive. He is our hope. He is our comforter. He is our King. He is our friend. He is our Father. He is working in us. He is walking with us. He is strengthening us.

It’s hard to worry when you’re rejoicing. But it’s also hard to rejoice when you’re worrying. It’s probably even impossible.

Worry was holding them captive

As a church, Paul knew they were letting worry hold them captive. They were worried about the persecution they were facing, they were worried about Paul’s situation, and they were worried about Epaphroditus, one of their church members and leaders who took Paul supplies and was supposed to stay with him to help him with whatever they needed but became sick almost to the point of death.

But just like us, Paul knew that they had other worries that held them captive.

But when we worry (and are held captive), we also hold the key

But when we worry and are held captive to those worries, it’s like waking up in a dark room surrounded by bars. But when we get our bearings, we see that we’re holding the key to get out.

v.6 — Interrogate your worries and make them your prayers

Go with me here.

6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

What it looks like to me is that we’re supposed to take those worries, interrogate them, and turn them into prayers.

What are you? Why are you here? What’s your purpose? Where’d you come from? etc. etc. etc.

When we let worry settle in, eventually it destroys us.

It decays our hope.

It erodes our faith.

It cripples our resolve.

So interrogate your worries. Put them on notice. I’m gonna figure you out. I’m gonna take you to my dad and He’s going to deal with you. When He’s done with you, you won’t even recognize yourself. Because instead of being a worry, you’re going to turn into a testimony. A testimony of God’s power and His grace.

And that’s going to strengthen my resolve.

That’s going to solidify my faith.

That’s going to build my hope.

The things you’re worrying about should be the very things you’re praying about. And when we do that, something great happens.

vv.6-7 — Bouncer, the Peace of God

6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Do you see what happens when we stop, interrogate, and listen?

The peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. We’ll turn those worries into prayers and those worries won’t be let in.

It’s like outside of our hearts and our minds is a line of things trying to get in. You know, they’re waiting in line. The line is outlined by red velvet rope and at the front of the line is a big, powerful bouncer with a clipboard.

And you know who’s in that line?

Your worries. They’re waiting to get in.

But when we interrogate those worries and turn them into prayers, it’s like our God is standing at the front of that line with the clipboard and He’s checking to see if these people in line are on the list.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Hope Decayer” — sorry, sister. You’re not on the list.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Faith Eroder” — sorry, sister. You’re not on the list.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Resolve Crippler” — sorry, bro. You’re not on the list.

Paul goes on…

Philippians 4:8-9

8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Bouncer continued

Back to the line…

Hey, what’s your name?

“Honor” — come on in.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Justice” — come on in.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Purity” — come on in.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Lovely” — come on in.

Hey, what’s your name?

“Commendable” — come on in.

Hey, what’s your names?

“Excellence and this is my wife Praiseworthy” — come on in.

4 Antidotes to Worry and Bitterness

In this passage, I believe we see 4 antidotes to worry and bitterness. Because I don’t think Paul is addressing worry only, but bitterness too. Remember, this is in the context of him urging two women to agree in the Lord.

It’s likely that they had let their conflict and dispute take root and grow into bitterness. So to address that and the general worries of the entire church body, we see these 4 antidotes.

1. Rejoice in the Lord

We can’t lose sight of the character of God. We can’t lose sight of what He has done. We can’t lose our gratitude toward Him.

This is the foundation. Rejoice in the Lord always. Not sometimes. Not only when things are great. Not only when things aren’t and you’re trying to get away from your worries. Always.

Build a rhythm around rejoicing in the Lord. Listen to music that will propel you to rejoice. Think back to who you used to be before He grabbed you and rescued you. Rejoice. Think about those who you’ve seen be transformed by Him. Rejoice.

2. Let your gentleness/graciousness be known by everyone

This can be a tough one.

Many of us know how to let our gentleness and graciousness be known by those around us who aren’t closest to us.

You go to work. You’re conscious of the need to be gentle and gracious.

You go to school. You’re trying.

You have a family over for a meal. You’re on your best behavior.

But Paul doesn’t say just let your gentleness be known by some people. He says everyone.

And where this is often the hardest is at home.

Let your gentleness be known by your parents.

Let your gentleness be known by your spouse.

Let your gentleness be known by your kids.

Oftentimes, we need to slow our pace at home. Our schedules are full. Chores need to be done. Dinner needs to be cooked. The kids need to get to practice. Homework needs to be done.

Busyness often breeds stress and stress doesn’t breed gentleness.

What does, though, is slowing your pace enough to be mindful of the Holy Spirit’s nudges and comfort as He builds gentleness in us, a flavor of the fruit of the Spirit.

3. Pray (in everything, with thanksgiving)

As I’ve been saying, we must take our worries and interrogate them. Because when we do that, we’re setting up for a pivot from worry to prayerful requests.

And the reason this is so important is that we’re taking our hands off whatever is causing us worry and we’re handing it over to the God who has the power to deal with it.

In everything, with thanksgiving.

You know, not only can we pray *in everything*, but we can also thank God for handling our worries before we feel that worry leave us.

Why? Because He’s got this. And the only reason it’s a burden for me still is because I’m still trying to carry it.

If you’ve got a boulder on your back, let go of it and let Him carry it. He can squat more than you can.

4. Dwell on what is excellent and worthy of praise

Instead of dwelling on the worries of this world, we need to dwell on the character of God. We need to dwell on Him.

You might ask yourself, what is honorable? what is just? what is pure? what is lovely? what is commendable? what is morally excellent? what is praiseworthy?

And to that, I say, Jesus.

As the Hebrew writer said, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfecter of our faith.

Dwell on Jesus. Dwell on what would bring Him glory. Dwell on what would please Him.

If it doesn’t bring Him glory. If it doesn’t please Him. If it doesn’t reflect His character, it ain’t on the list so ask the peace of God to not let it in.

What’s your name? In reality, He knows the names of your worries.

What’s your name? It doesn’t matter what your name is!

But here’s a bonus… Get a 3rd party

But there’s one other nugget in here that we can’t miss.

In all this… Get a 3rd party. Get someone who can come between you and that person you’re in conflict with and speak the gospel into your conflict.

Get a 3rd party you can get real about your worries with and let them pray for you.

Get a 3rd party. Don’t go through life alone. Invite people to walk with you as you—and they—walk with the Lord.

Screen Time, Worry Time

Can you imagine getting your weekly Worry Time report and seeing it being 10, 20, 30, 70% lower than it was last week?

What if that Worry Time report weren’t a source of worry, but it was a prompt to praise and rejoice in God?

Stop. Interrogate. And Listen.

It can happen.

But we need to do what?

We need to stop. Interrogate. And listen.

We need to slow down, interrogate those worries, bring them to the Lord, and listen.

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From Philippians 2:19-30: What is more important? Competency or character? What does success look like? In this message, we see how Paul articulates success in the kingdom of God through two real-life people who he used as sermon illustrations.

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What is success? 

Have you ever thought about that? Or maybe I could ask you a question that will help you answer the first one: who do you think about when you think about successful people?

I found an article on Business Insider this week that was titled, “How Successful People Define Success.” And I thought, well that’s interesting. We can see the author of that article’s definition in the people they chose. In fact, the title that displayed on the page was an alternate title: “12 rich, powerful people share their surprising definitions of success.”

And guess who these people were, the successful people… They were business tycoons, a hall of fame coach, authors, a president, and a famous inventor.

They were people who had one or two things, at least, in common. Rich and powerful.

They were the type of people that if you had to make a list of “successful” people, many of them would probably make our list.

What is success?

You know, there’s a problem with being asked that question, though. When it comes to answering it, we answer it far more honestly with our actions, our goals, and our desires than we do with our words.

Maybe the better question is, if we’re going to get honest, what do your actions declare success to be?

Here’s my hunch: we all need to question how we really view success and consider that maybe we’ve got it all wrong.

A couple weeks ago I shared with you how I realized that I had a face-to-face encounter with my own sinfulness in a ridiculous way. I told you how I caught myself feeling down and frustrated because my house that we bought was one of the smaller ones in our neighborhood.

Right then and there, I realized that my picture of success was wrong. 

I was giving in to the idea that success is about one thing when in reality, all I was doing was being a sermon illustration for Jesus when He said “what good is it for you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?”

What is success?

If you answer this incorrectly, it will set you up for a life of frustration. 

But if you answer it correctly, it will set you up for a life honors Christ and makes a difference.

A couple weeks ago, we read in the book of Philippians where Paul told them that the way of joy is the attitude of Jesus. That the path forward for all Christ followers is to have the same attitude as Jesus. 

He talked about how God came down, became a human, and stooped to be with us. He talked about how Jesus emptied himself by becoming a slave and died a death by Roman crucifixion. He told us how there is coming a time when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And then last week, he went on to tell us something so important, so key for us to live the Christian life well. He said to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And the way to do that is to hold firm to the word of life. 

So I challenged all of us to get a Bible reading plan and to begin paying attention to the text of our lives—the story that we’re writing. We talked about how we need to pay attention and make edits in real time. 

Did you do that this week? Did you begin to pay attention? Did you get a Bible reading plan?

Well, let’s continue our journey with the apostle Paul in Philippians.

And as we read, remember our question, what is success?

19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. 20 For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests; 21 all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. 23 Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

25 But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus—my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need— 26 since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. 27 Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious. 29 Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

So here we get some more backstory to how this interaction between Paul and the Philippian church has come about.

They sent a man to minister to Paul in Rome and it seems like a couple things have happened:

Epaphroditus, the guy they sent to minister to Paul while he was under Roman house arrest became deathly sick. We don’t know if that happened while he was on the way to Paul or if it happened while he was with Paul, but word got around to the Philippian church that their brother, their minister was deathly sick. And while it appears that he was supposed to stay with Paul for the long-haul, Paul wanted to send him back to Philippi because he could do more ministry there and be an encouragement to them.

And the second thing we can see here is that Epaphroditus was the person who delivered this letter to the Philippian church after his health had improved. 

But beyond the backstory, what we see here is Paul taking his command for them to adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus earlier in this chapter to flesh and blood examples of people doing just that.

So let’s take a closer look at these two men.

19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. 20 For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests; 21 all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. 23 Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

With the backdrop of a lot of people who have let Paul down and have turned against him in the midst of his imprisonment, he points to Timothy and explains to the Philippian church why he wants to send him to them. 

He talks about how Timothy is the kind of person who genuinely cares about their interests. 

And not only that, how he, unlike many people Paul knows, seeks the interest of Christ Jesus. 

This commending of Timothy is interesting and telling to me, not only because of what Paul says about Timothy, but also because of what he doesn’t say about Timothy.

Take a look again at this. Do you notice anything missing?

He doesn’t talk about Timothy’s giftedness, even though he certainly is gifted.

He doesn’t talk about Timothy’s strategic thinking.

He doesn’t talk about, in any way, form or fashion, Timothy’s competence.

Instead, he talks about his character. He talks about his attitude. He talks about his faithful service along his side like a son serving with his father.

For Paul, it seems like character is more important than competence.

But let’s see what he has to say about this other guy, Epaphroditus.

25 But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus—my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need— 26 since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. 27 Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious. 29 Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Epaphroditus seemed to have made quite the impression on Paul while he was with him.

Not only did he travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to reach Paul, but he was faithful in his service to him and, most importantly, to Jesus. Even through a sickness that almost cost him his life, he was still focused on what he was called to do.

And Paul, this mighty leader, this apostle of Jesus Christ, ultimate church planter, looked at Epaphroditus as a brother, a coworker, a fellow soldier in the fight. He was the Philippians’ messenger and likely, one of their pastors, and a minister sent for Paul’s benefit.

And while he was sick, while he was facing death, Epaphroditus had his concern, not on himself, but on the church in Philippi. 

When the church found out that he was sick, they were, of course, concerned for his well being. And because Epaphroditus had the attitude of Christ, he was more concerned about them than he was himself. 

Paul says he was longing for them and distressed because they heard that he was so sick.

There seems to be a common thread between Timothy and Epaphroditus. And you know what it is?

A concern for others above themselves.

Almost like they had become living examples of what it meant to have the same attitude of Jesus.

That’s what happens as we surrender more and more to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings our concerns and our focus off of ourselves and onto others.

And we realize, then, what success is…

True success is Christ-centered selflessness.

Want to be a man of God? Want to be a woman of God? Get the focus off of yourself and place it on others.

Be concerned for the concerns of Jesus. Be concerned for the concerns of others.

Most of us aren’t successful in the economy of God’s kingdom because we’re too concerned about being successful.

29 Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Hold people like him in honor…

Paul is presenting us with this idea again… That character is more important than competency…

And when you find someone with high character, someone who has the same attitude as Jesus, honor them. Honor them.

But that’s often what we don’t do in the church.

Instead, we elevate someone just like the world does.

A gifted and competent pastor comes in. They are charismatic, they are passionate, the church grows, their leadership takes hold, the church grows, their preaching is dynamic, the church grows.

But over time, some cracks begin to show in their foundation, their character. But the church is thriving. Things are going well. Surely, that crack that someone saw was just an outlier, of course this gifted pastor is fine. 

Time goes on and their competency continues to shine, but little does the church know that their character is crumbling. And before the church realizes what is happening, their senior leader is being removed. 

It happens in small churches, medium churches, large churches, and mega churches. 

A leader’s high competency creates a celebrity culture where they are on a pedestal, high and lifted up. They begin to isolate themselves and surround themselves with “yes people” because life is easier that way and the lack of accountability leads to a crumbling of character. 

This happens all the time because we too often are infatuated by competency and we ignore character.

If I preach a great message but my character is crumbling, then I have no business being your pastor. 

Because success isn’t about being the most competent person. 

What Paul is saying is that an honorable person is a faithful person.

Think about this:

What if successful really means faithful?

And what if that’s true not just for me as your pastor, but what if that’s true for all of us?

What if successful really means faithful?

Would we be successful if we used this kind of measure?

Do you spend more time attending to your character as you do your competence?

What we often do is we have moments of sprinting faithfulness because we sin in some kind of way that hurts someone else or we get called out for that sin or we feel especially convicted about some sin and we then spend some dedicated time in prayer. We ask God to help us. We ask Him to change us. And then we spend time working on it. We make some progress and then we let our guard back down.

That’s called sprinting faithfulness and that won’t work in the marathon of life.

You see, life is far more like a marathon than it is a sprint. 

You can’t just have spurts of time when you’re working on your character and then take a month off and act like that’s all going to work out.

We need marathon faithfulness. We need to train. We need to work on it. And we need to run the race at a steady pace.

This world, this community, this church, your kids, your grandkids, we all need more Timothys and Epaphrodtus’. We need people who will be people of high character. We need people who will look out for the interests of others rather than their own interests. 

We need people who aren’t infatuated with “arriving” but are committed to serving throughout their journey.

You know these kinds of people. You’ve been around them. You’re thinking of them.

In fact, as I was writing this message, there was a person that just kept coming to mind. 

He’s one of the best men of God I know.

He’s, without a doubt, the most encouraging person I’ve ever met. 

According to him, every single one of my sermons have always been great and impactful.

And not only is he the most encouraging person I’ve ever met, he’s also one of the most prayerful people I’ve ever met. When he prays, you have no doubt that everything he says to you and everything he is pleading with God about is completely genuine. He’s the kind of guy you want to be on your side. He’s the kind of guy you can always depend on. His wisdom is off the charts. 

He’s not the most assertive kind of guy, but when he speaks, people listen. Why? Because his Christ-like character oozes out for all to see. 

And that’s what we need more of in this world. 

One of my dreams for our church is that there will be an overflow of men and women who will decide today and every day after this that Christ is enough. 

Because that’s what it takes to embody this kind of life.

People who believe that true success is Christ-centered selflessness.

Because if more people like that will rise up, we will run out of space in this building for people who want what they have. The amount of people in this community who will be touched by the love of Jesus will be beyond what we could imagine.

When we decide that our goal, our mark, our aim, is Christ-centered selflessness more people will surrender to Christ and more people’s eternities will be changed  because God’s people will be doing what God’s people are called to do.

So elevate your character. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Preach the gospel to yourself. Hold firm to the word of life.

And elevate people. Lift others up. Be concerned about them more than you are yourself.

And to help us do this, I want to issue a little challenge to us all. 

Identify one person in your life and as you go to God in prayer this week, before you ever ask God for something for yourself, bring that one person to His throne first. Ask God to bless them and to use you to show them the love of God.

What is success? It’s not being rich. It’s not being famous. It’s not being powerful.

True success is Christ-centered selflessness.

The question is, do you believe that? 

The post Philippians: Character Matters appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

The post Philippians: Stars in the Night appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

From Philippians 2:12-18: Paul calls the Philippian church stars in the night. But what comes first, what allows them to shine is the difficult work of joining God in the work He is doing in them. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That was Paul’s command to us. Let’s find out what that means.

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A couple of years ago, my 2000 Saab turbo-charged 9-3 SE decided that it had had enough. A number of things broke on it and it was going to cost substantially more to fix it than it was worth. So all of a sudden, I was in the market for a car. 

To make a long story short, I was able to make an offer on a 2008 Ford Fusion 5-speed, not turbo-charged, very slow, but much nicer car than my Saab. It was a great deal. I got to buy it from someone I trusted and pay them cash for it. 

It was a cool day. We drove from Cincinnati to Columbus, OH to pick it up so I had a good amount of time to drive it.

By the time we got back on the road to head back to Cincinnati, it was dark out and it was raining if I’m remembering correctly. 

And for all of us who have had to get used to driving a new car, it can take a little while to get acclimated to them, can’t it.

You know, I bought it. It was mine. We signed the title over to me. It was now my car. But in the darkness and during a rainy evening, I had to work out what it was like to drive it. 

I had to figure out where the windshield wiper controls were. Since it’s a stick shift, I had to figure out the clutch and get acclimated to where it started to grab. I had to get used to the way the car performs and accelerates and brakes. 

Every car is different and when you’re new to a car, even when you own it, it can take some work to work out how to drive it well.

And you know what? Christianity is kind of like that—only on a far more intense and pervasive level.

What do I mean by that? Well, when we become followers of Jesus, there are all kinds of new things for us to learn, not just intellectually, but also in practice.

And what we’re talking about today, if we don’t do this, we will stunt our growth. If we don’t do this, we won’t progress in our walk with God. 

We’ll think to ourselves, is this all there is to the Christian life? 

We won’t experience the kind of life change and transformation that God so deeply desires to bring out in us. 

In fact, if we neglect what Paul is going to explain to us today, we’ll be like the emotionally immature biblical scholar in the church who is unaware of their own issues, but completely aware of how to parse the Greek in the passage we’ll be looking at today.

We’ll be the driver who knows every detail about the traffic laws, every detail about the inner-workings of a combustion engine, every detail of a transmission, every detail of a car frame and suspension, every detail of what their new car can do, and yet when they get behind the wheel, they wreck at the first turn.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in your walk with God, this is the way to get unstuck. 

This is the way to get on the path that God wants us on. 

This is the way for us to live out our God-given purpose.

So let’s jump in.

In the first Century, one of the leaders of the early church, the apostle Paul, wrote a letter to a church, a group of Christ followers in Philippi. 

This was a church he helped start and is very familiar with. He’s writing to them in order to encourage them to keep walking with Jesus, to live with joy, to adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus and so much more.

He wants them to be unified and to live out the purpose that God has for them in this world that so desperately needs the message and the hope that they have in Christ. 

So if you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to Philippians 2.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing,15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

There’s a lot here so let’s break it down.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

So let’s think about where Paul has taken the Philippian Christians thus far. 

This church, of which began with a woman named, Lydia, a slave girl who was, at one time, possessed by demons, and a Roman prison guard, was working out what it meant to say no to themselves, to say no to the way they used to do things, the way they used to think, the way they used to make decisions—that’s what it means to deny yourself—were now working out what it means to drive this new car, if you will.

They experienced salvation, the promise, the gift, it was theirs. But now, the work that God was doing in them, this saving and sanctifying work—which sanctify-ing is just a fancy way of referring to the process of transformation that happens in us as we follow Christ—was to be worked out.

For Jews, they had to work out what it meant to love Gentiles when they would normally try to avoid them. 

For Gentiles, they had to work out what it meant to say no to all the pagan gods of their culture and say yes only to Jesus.

For men, they had to work out what it meant that in Christ there is neither male nor female.

For rich folks and poor folks, they had to work out what it meant to love each other.

And this is just scratching the surface…

It seems that Paul’s writing to them has been an outworking of his own working out of his own salvation. He has had life happen and has had to continually go back to the gospel and to Christ Himself to interpret and navigate what is going on beyond just the view of what he can see. 

I believe what we’re seeing here is that working out your salvation with fear and trembling is the work of interpreting the happenings of our lives in light of the gospel. 

It’s the daily choosings of lifting Christ up above ourselves, of counting others as more important than ourselves, of living in the body of Christ, standing firm with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and contending together for the gospel.

The truths and callings of Christ are clear from Scripture. But we must apply them and live by them. Because here’s the thing: our salvation in Christ pervades and invades every crevice of our lives.

It involves constantly re-working and tweaking our lives to be in harmony with what we see God calling us to.

Like a gardener working in his garden, we must attend to this. We must work the ground. We must identify the weeds and kill them at the root. We must attend to the soil of our hearts so that when God grows the seed of the gospel inside it, it will take root and thrive.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

As we grow more deeply entrenched in God’s word and as we spend time attending to the working out of our salvation, we begin to recognize the areas of our lives that need to be dug up and replaced.

I believe there are some major areas of our lives that are transformed through the process of God working in us and us working out our salvation. I’ve identified seven, but there are surely others.

• Beliefs // As we work out our salvation, we begin to realize that much of what we believed about life was wrong and those things need to be worked out in light of what God’s word says.

• Emotions // This probably pervades the rest of these that I’ll mention, but in Christ, our emotional maturity ought to grow. I read somewhere where someone said that you’ll only be young for a time, but you can be immature for a lifetime. Pastor and author, Pete Scazzero has said that you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. They both go hand-in-hand.

• Habits // As we work out our salvation, our habits change because we begin to prioritize the things of God more heavily in our lives. 

• Moral Standards // As we work out our salvation, we will see that our standard for what is morally acceptable will rise. We’ll expect more from ourselves and for ourselves. When we struggle with sin, we’ll begin to fight it instead of giving in to it.

• Finances // As we work out our salvation, we begin to see that our finances are given to us by God to manage and that He is the sole owner of them. We’ll begin to work out what it looks like to be generous in His word here on earth and how to be a blessing with this tool called money.

• Relationships // As we work out our salvation, we work to engage in relationships differently. We work to more quickly put on compassion and walk in other people’s shoes. We work to listen more. We work to talk less. 

• Reactions // As we work out our salvation, we will begin to work toward reacting differently to things. For example, when I started playing hockey again after I surrendered to Christ, I had to work out what that looked like because I wanted my playing to honor my King. And this was a tall order because in hockey, it’s not always the nicest and most kind of sports. It often includes moments of pure anger and passion that is usually accompanied with colorful and eloquent language. And so as a hockey player, I had to work out what it meant to play hockey in such a way where my reactions to people was different. 

And we work out this salvation that we have received from God while He Himself works in us to bring about His good purpose in us. 

The Holy Spirit is at work in each and every one of us. 

We work from His work. 

In other words, our work is dependent on His work. Our work moves the needle only because He is working. 

He is working in, we are working out. 

We work out what He is working in.

The work that must be done in us is initiated by God, it is sustained by God, and it is completed by God. And at the same time, we are not called to be passive, we are called to actively work out what God is working in.

Are you working out your salvation or is this a part-time, Sunday morning, whenever it’s convenient kind of thing?

14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing,15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

I love the imagery that Paul uses here in verse 15 where he says that in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation in which they live, they themselves shine like stars in the world. 

Stars in the night. 

Do you ever on a clear, warm, summer night, look up and just stare at the stars in the sky?

I love doing this. 

At Wayne High School, where I graduated from, they have a planetarium. And wow! It’s just so cool.

What do stars in the night do? 

They provide light, of course. But they do more than that, I believe.

I think they create in us a sense of awe and wonder. They remind us of how expansive the Universe is. They remind us of how mighty our God is. 

Stars in the night. 

Church, that’s what we are. We shine like stars in a dark world. We’re glimmers of light, we’re carriers of hope. We help people discover a sense of awe toward God. We are visual representatives of the work of God. 

When people see us, they should be reminded of the God who is at work in us. 

Stars in the night.

Why? 

Because not only has Jesus saved us, He has invaded us.

The salvation He has given us is not only in us but it is manifesting out of us. In other words, we are changed people living among a world that so desperately needs the change we have.

By holding firm to the word of life.

What is the word of life? It’s the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s the Bible. 

We work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we shine like stars, by holding firm to the word of life. 

So let me ask you…

We live in a time when access to Scripture and Bible reading plans are available for free and in abundance. And yet, while most homes in America have a Bible in them, those Bibles are rarely read. 

My friends, God has spoken. He speaks. He has given us His very words in this book we call the Bible. 

It’s what we need more of. 

So let me challenge you: Google Bible reading plans and begin to spend time in God’s word on a daily basis WITH A PLAN.

Part of working out our salvation with fear and trembling is conforming our actions, our thoughts, and our will to Christ.

When you get defensive, ask yourself why you reacted that way.

When the actions of others anger you and you begin to look down on others, ask yourself why that is.

When you give yourself excuses for disrespecting others, ask yourself why you thought that was okay.

In other words, working out our salvation with fear and trembling involves a constant editing of the text we’re writing with our lives in light of what God wants for us. 

When we start going down a path that doesn’t honor Christ, we must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, preach the gospel to ourselves and re-write what we’re doing and how we’re living.

Can you imagine if we truly shined like stars in this generation?

Can you imagine if when people interacted with us they were in awe, not of us, but of our God?

Can you imagine if people saw us and noticed Jesus at work in us?

We would hear more stories of people seeing us and being pointed to Jesus. We would hear more testimonies like mine… That they saw Christians living out their faith and God began to work on them and before they knew it, they were surrendering their lives to Christ, being called into ministry, and stepping into a vocation that they would have never, for a million years have thought they would be in.

Only God. 

God working in you. You working out your salvation. And people taking notice.

So what does the path forward look like for us?

Right now, if you have a smart phone, go ahead and pull it out, open your browser and search daily Bible reading plans. And keep that tab opened. When you get home, pick one, print it out or start it in the YouVersion Bible app.

AND, pay attention to the areas of your life that need to be worked out. There are likely a few for each of us..

1. Beliefs 
2. Emotions
3. Habits
4. Moral Standards
5. Finances
6. Relationships 
7. Reactions

The post Philippians: Stars in the Night appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

The post Philippians: The Way of Joy appeared first on Brandon Kelley.

From Philippians 2:1-11: What is joy? Have you ever felt like it has alluded you? Escaped you? In this message, we’ll see that joy is not an occasion, a circumstance, or a feeling. It’s a path. It’s a way.

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at a first-Century letter that a leader in the early church wrote to a church in Philippi. 

And we’ve been looking at it against the backdrop of our own world that can be full of discouragement. And the crazy thing is, the discouraging kind of world we live in today, for the people who received this letter originally, it could be argued that their world was even more discouraging.

But the reality is, the human experience has largely consisted of similar challenges throughout the centuries. 

Once our basic needs of survival are met, we experience sickness, relational conflict, power struggles, loneliness, inadequacy, pride, questions about our own existence like why we’re here, and then this thing called death. 

And what we’ve seen Paul describe to the Philippian Christians, this group, this church is that hey, God’s not done with you yet, Christ will continue to invade and advance in your life and in this world, that the best path forward for you is to serve people, and to band together in the work of the gospel.

That joy is found in living in light of and living in the story of Jesus. That joy is found in having our greatest desire be Jesus. Because if Jesus is our greatest desire then we’ll never be let down.

But that kind of picture isn’t always how we live our lives, right?

Paul’s been advocating for a mutual dependence relationship for us Christians. But the way we often live is self-centered, self-reliant, and independent. We often take our individuality to an extent that leads us broken, alone, and wondering why we have no support in our times of greatest difficulty.

All the while, Paul is saying, that’s not how Christ followers are supposed to live their lives.

We see how amazing it can be when we live the kind of lives that we see in Philippians. We see, in moments, what it’s like to stand firm together, to be of one mind, united by the Holy Spirit, and to contend together for the gospel.

We have fellow Christians in our lives who have truly become family to us and we spur each other on to honoring Christ. We share our struggles with those people, we get raw and honest with them, and we can sense Christ working through them as they contend for the gospel to be advanced in our lives.

But today, we’re coming to a moment in this letter, in Philippians, where Paul is going to show us the way of joy.

He’s been leading to this. And I believe this is the hinge point in this letter. It’s where everything hangs and moves. 

We can find joy in the midst of a discouraging world. 

But it won’t come through achievements, it won’t come through acquiring more stuff, it won’t come through the promotion you want, it won’t come through the raise you believe you deserve, it won’t come through the politician you want or don’t want in power, it won’t come through any of that.

So let’s see where it will come through.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Here we see Paul appealing to their collective heart.

Paul isn’t simply saying if there is any encouragement, consolation, fellowship, and all the rest as if it might exist out there, but he is appealing to their real-life experience of encouragement in Christ.

That Christ came and died so that you can have life that no matter who you are, what you’ve done, you can experience forgiveness of sins and abundant life in Christ. It’s not dependent on your abilities, aptitude, or your IQ. It’s completely dependent on Jesus and He’s perfect. 

So yes, they’ve received and experienced encouragement in Christ. Absolutely. 

He’s talking about the consolation or comfort they’ve received through the love of God and the love of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Of course they had been comforted by that. 

They’ve experienced the calming, comforting love of God that even though they were enemies of God, rebelling against Him, scheming against Him, working against Him, God loved them anyway. 

He’s talking about the fellowship they experience with the Spirit of God. The partnership, the togetherness, the closeness they have with God in a very real way. 

He’s talking about what they’ve experienced from God and with God.

He wants them to go back to their experience of salvation and their ongoing experience of communion, of togetherness with God. 

He appeals to that and turns back toward how they ought to live in light of that.

And he does this by giving them two pictures. 

The positive picture. And the negative picture.

Think the same way, have the same love, be united in the Spirit, and commit to one common purpose. 

This should sound familiar if you were here last week. This is the same idea that he ended chapter one with. 

In order for the church to thrive, it must consist of participants instead of passengers. In other words, unity requires us all to be involved.

But then he gives us the negative picture. At least the negative picture to avoid. 

And this is where things get really heavy and difficult for us. 

In fact, this is where our brokenness and our sinfulness and our constant need for Christ to continually intervene is made clear.

When I was growing up in Waynedale, I remember having this pride that the house I lived in was one of the bigger ones on the road we lived on. 

Like elementary age and I’m already operating on the premise of bigger is better. 

And you know what?

Every now and then this depraved, shallow, and sad way of thinking creeps back into my heart. 

When we were searching for houses here in Bluffton, the market seemed to largely consist of older houses that needed a lot of work and were very affordable or brand-new houses that were at the top of our budget or beyond it. 

So the house we ended up buying was a brand-new one because I’m not a gifted Chip Gaines when it comes to remodeling houses. You don’t want me on your construction crew unless it’s demo day. 

But the house we bought was quite smaller than the house we had in Ohio. But it has a full basement that we’ll eventually finish and will allow for us to have some additional square footage. 

But here’s the point to me telling you this… Our house is smaller. In fact, it might be the smallest in our little neighborhood. And you know what?

Early on, I found that sitting weirdly in my heart. Like I was bent out of shape that our house wasn’t one of the bigger ones in our neighborhood and I noticed that and I’m like what in the world?!

I had to preach the gospel to myself and remind my achiever, winner heart that NO, you’ve been made new. You don’t need to achieve or win because your identity isn’t hinging to the square footage of your house. 

I mean, it sounds so ridiculous when I confess it, but that’s just where I was. 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition.

I don’t know about you, but that can be hard to do!

A better way

And this is Paul’s point. Instead of giving in to selfish ambition or trying to one-up people or trying to manipulate people and gain something from them, we need to get the focus off ourselves and off our own perceptions of ourselves and our status and simply try to lift up others above ourselves and use whatever we have to serve them.

Philippians 2:5-8

To put it simply, Paul says (v.5)…

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.[a]
7 Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

The Eternal Word, second member of the Trinity, took on the form of a servant and became a human. 

And how did he do it?

How did he arrive on the scene of history?

Through a seemingly insignificant teenage girl in a little town named, Bethlehem. Born among animals. Not in a palace. 

And who found out first? Not the Israelite Enquirer’s paparazzi. Nope. Just some insignificant, ignorable shepherds.

This is how God works. This is how he does things all throughout Scripture and the incarnation of Jesus, when God put on flesh to live among us is no different. 

Jesus told people who wanted to follow him that if they were serious, they had better be ready to be homeless because that is what he was. 

The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. 

He lived simply. He taught people. He served people. He healed people. 

When someone came to him who was humble in spirit, he had mercy on them. When someone came to him full of selfish ambition, we see him dealing with them more bluntly. 

And not only did God put on flesh and become a human, embracing the limitations of human frailty, but he experienced death. And not just any death, but death on a cross. 

He died in the most humiliating of ways. 

Beaten, bloodied, naked, nailed to a cross for all to see. Slowly dying a heart-wrenching, painful death.

Paul’s saying, hey, that’s the lengths Jesus goes for us. God put on flesh and not only became a human, but became a servant which in this case means someone who lacked any human rights. 

So when Jesus became a human being, fully God, fully human, he left the glory of heaven and came as a man who had no glory, no rights, no recognition, and no reputation. 

He lowered himself, he stooped low, in order to deliver you and me. 

And because he did that, this is what is in store for him (and us).

9 For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
11 and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

He’s saying, I know that everyone now seems to be bowing down to Caesar/Rome and expressing allegiance to him/them, but a day is coming when every single knee will bow and every single tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that is who we are united to.

Jesus emptied himself, lowered himself, went to death, but in the end he is lifted up and everyone else will lower themselves and confess that he is Lord.

He’s like the undercover boss who comes out of his corner office in the high-rise and goes to the warehouse and works alongside of his employees, but he doesn’t stop there. He makes himself lower than his employees and at the very same time, he gives away all his salary to those who are at the bottom of the org chart.

He’s like the king who, instead of making the peasants in his kingdom die for him, he comes down and dies for them. 

Commentator R. R. Melick said, “The dramatic distance Jesus traveled from the “form of God” to “the death of the cross” dramatically reveals the servant mind that each believer was to have.”

The Creator of the world humbled himself, so how can we be proud? He took the form of a servant, of a slave, so how can we seek to dominate others? He accepted the greatest form of dishonor by dying on a cross so how can we strive after being honored?

All power is in his hand. All glory is his alone. All honor is due to him. And yet he chose to lower himself and become a servant.

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus…

The way of joy is the attitude of Jesus.

Instead of us seeking to advance our own agenda or to see my preference be brought back or implemented, the church can be a unified people focused pre-eminently on Jesus.

When the church operates in the way of joy—the attitude of Jesus—the church is truly the light of the world, a city on a hill, a beacon of hope for a hopeless world.

When I’m being a godly husband, it’s when I’m seeking to serve Sara, not be served by her. 

And that’s the attitude of Jesus—to lower myself and serve her. 

When a married couple seeks to serve each other, what results is a harmony that is foreign to the ways of this world. 

Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Married people, imagine if you and your spouse did that for each other. 

Think about how the attitude of Jesus impacts how we parent.

We’ll be more intentional with them. We won’t choose a distraction over quality time with them. We’ll enjoy them more because you know there’s a difference between loving your kids and enjoying them, right? More on that in another sermon.

But the attitude of Jesus changes how we parent our kids. It tells us that we need to honor Christ in the way we raise them and show them what it means to be a servant of God.

When we take on the attitude of Jesus in our friendships, think about how much better those relationships are. 

Instead of a friendship being built on take-take-take, it’s built on a posture of servanthood toward each other. 

That’s when a friendship honors Christ. That’s when we confess our sins to each other because we know it’s a safe place to do so. That’s when friends become family. 

Want to do well in your workplace?

Have the same attitude as Jesus.

Give and serve. Work with humility. Do what you said you were going to do. 

That kind of thing sticks out in today’s workplace. 

Christians should be the best people to work for. Why? Because business owners should run their businesses with the attitude of Jesus. 

Want your business to thrive? Start with integrity, treat your employees with dignity, respect, and care, and seek to serve them. 

Treat your customers with respect and you’ll stick out in the business world. 

That’s why Chick-fil-a has ruined every other fast food restaurant I’ll ever have. They’re so much better at customer service than everywhere else that it’s not even close!

The way of joy is the attitude of Jesus.

The Attitude of Jesus Pervades Every Area of Life

There’s a reason our response to God’s grace involves some pretty humbling elements. 

Because those who humble themselves will be exalted. 

Jesus humbled himself further than anyone else could ever do. And because of that, he is the most highly exalted one. He is the only way to salvation.

One of the hinge points for receiving forgiveness from Jesus is this idea of repentance. It’s when we are confronted with our own despicableness and brokenness and we confess our need for a savior, Jesus Christ.

And sometimes we see people who are on top of the world, come crashing down and that crash is the occasion for them to realize that they are in desperate need of rescue.

For those of you who are Nascar fans, you probably know the name Darrell Waltrip. 

Back in 1981 and 1982, he had two of his best seasons of his career. He won a ton of races and was on top of the sport. But people didn’t like him. He was off-putting to people and it was probably because of his arrogance.

But in an interview he talked about the day his life changed. He had always been someone who wanted to win and one-up other people. It’s the only way he knew. But in 1983 during the Daytona 500, coming out of the fourth turn, he got spun and was involved in a major accident. 

He said that he raced in the next two races, but would finish those races not remembering anything at all. 

All the while, he had met a minister who was talking to him about Jesus and about three weeks after he almost died in that wreck in 1983, Darrell Waltrip surrendered his life to Jesus. 

All that confidence, all that arrogance, all that invincibility, all that self-reliance, that was all shown for what it really was—fragile—when he got in that wreck. And he realized that he needed Jesus.

When he was humbled, he could see the truth. 

Do you see it?

The way that Jesus endured the cross and acquired our salvation was through humbling himself and taking on the role of a servant. 

The way that we enter into that salvation is by humbling ourselves before God’s mighty hand and receiving what we don’t deserve and what we couldn’t provide for ourselves. 

The way that God has made a way for us to experience joy is by following the attitude of Jesus—humbling ourselves and taking on the role of a servant.

The way that God wants us to live as his church as his children is through having the same mind, the same attitude, the attitude of Jesus.

The only way you’ll ever experience joy in the midst of a discouraging world is through receiving hope, forgiveness, and life through Jesus Christ. He is the only way. 

It’s only by going on his way that we’ll ever walk in the way of joy. 

God wants to rescue you. He loves you so very much. Will you humble yourself before him?

Will you surrender fully to him? Will you turn away from your own way, your own plans, and your sin? Will you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Will you humble yourself and be baptized into him?

Will you surrender to him? He’s ready to receive you into his family.

This week, if you’re a follower of Jesus, I want us to focus on one question…

How can I consider them as more important than me?

And then act in light of that.

The way of joy is the attitude of Jesus.

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