Jan 29, 2010

Series on Philippians #10

A Call to Holiness
Philippians 2:(9)12-13

Let’s Pray…

Last week we ended with verses 9-11. We need to go back and see that again before we get to verses 12-13:

As we begin, I am trying to zero us in; I’m trying to plug your mind and heart into this socket from verse 11, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

That is key, that’s the framework for our understanding of tonight’s passage in verses 12-13. If we don’t get that, it will throw everything else out of whack.
Jesus Christ is Lord.

In the Greek, Lord (kyrios) means:
2) …the sovereign, prince, chief, (or at the time this letter to the Philippians was written) the Roman emperor

Now, I was going to stand up here and say that we don’t have something that we can look to in the same way today.

In the government and in our families in most of the political realm we have gone to the point of questioning every decree from the government. As a culture we are quick to slander and mock the politicians and office holders.

So, we just can’t grasp the power that the Roman emperor had over the people back in day. At that point, life was cheap and there was no way people could get by with the kind of things we do toward authorities today.

But I think we need to look closer to home than Washington, D.C., or even the state capitol.
I am going to define this in our time this way. Instead of a head of state or some other governing authority, I want you to think of a lord in our time – in your life – as the person who (or thing that) calls the shots in your life.

And at first you may say, no Ken, no one calls the shots. I’m my own person. I’m the master of my destiny…

To that point I often like to reference Bob Dylan’s song, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” I would say somebody or something.

And every one of us serves somebody or something. If it’s not THE LORD, Jesus Christ, then it’s something else.

The functional lord, or lords – plural – in the lives of people today, yours, mine, everyone’s are the things that I’ve pointed to again and again and again.

They are the things that direct the actions, thoughts, words and relationships in our lives. If it’s not Jesus it’s someone or something else. Let’s unpack it.

For some the functional lord is your job (either keeping it or career advancement), or family, or kids, or husband or wife (boyfriend or girlfriend), or political affiliation, or your nationality, or your group of friends, or your pets or whatever, it’s something that is external and it’s usually something morally neutral.

For others it is something darker. Maybe your lord, the thing that controls you is addiction to drugs or alcohol, or sex, or porn, or gambling.

Maybe you’re controlled by anger or hurt that you refuse to let go of, or anger and hurts that you don’t think you can let go of. They control you.

The functional lord in some people’s lives is their past sin, or bad decisions. If that’s you, then you may think they you’re defined by how society has labeled you, and so you act like the thug or prostitute or killer, or some other sort of misfit – whatever they told you you’d be or told you that you still are.

And that controls everything you do and even how you think of yourself.

Now, one of the most damaging and socially acceptable lords in our lives today – one that is constantly distracting us from Jesus Christ — is the lord of SELF.

If you were the one scoffing when I said you’re going to have to serve somebody, and if you were the one to say, “No, I’ve got free will, I’m my own chooser”, then this may be you.

It’s very likely.

When we become our own lord, we operate in our day-to-day lives with the express purpose of making ourselves ultimate.

If that is the case, we hang out with people who make us feel good about ourselves; people who make us feel superior physically, mentally, emotionally, or superior in talent and ability, or…

And church folk who are bowing to SELF instead of Jesus, might tell you all about their faith, but then they’ll give a million reasons why they don’t follow what the Bible says, and why they aren’t producing what Scriptures describe as the fruit of that faith, the fruit of the Spirit.

There are times when this is me and this may be you. If it is you, then there are times when you will have a million excuses for not joining a church, or not serving, or not supporting the church financially, or not taking correction from brothers and sisters in the faith when they see that you are off kilter in your walk.

These are also the people who refuse to correct their brothers in sisters because they are afraid of hurting feelings and it goes on and on and on.

Just to make it clearer and as simple as I can. The churchgoer who bows to self instead of Jesus is the one who picks and chooses what they will follow in the Scriptures. It is the person who will say amen to the verses they agree with and then complain to everyone that will listen when the pastor preaches on something they don’t want to submit to.

These are the people who look at the word of God like a buffet. They load their plates with the passages and the preaching that tickles their ears but leave the teachings off the plate if they might convict their hearts over sin in their life.

These are the people who love the idea of salvation and staying out of Hell, but the idea of sanctification and growing in holiness here in this life — they can do without that.

And we usually see this play out in one of two ways, either we love the teachings on social justice and helping the poor, and showing mercy and compassion and then we want to avoid or ignore or run away from, or even fight against the teachings on sex and marriage and purity and church discipline.

This is the camp that I’ve fallen into historically. Instead of having my heart life transformed by the Word of God in these areas, in the past I have wanted to toss those portions of Scripture out because they didn’t conform to my worldview.

So that’s one camp. The other camp loves the teachings on sex and marriage and purity and church discipline, but they lack compassion and mercy and grace and really aren’t looking to grow in those areas.

Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City deals with this in his area all the time and he has said that most people love when you teach on half of the Bible and want to punch you in the mouth when you talk about the other portions.

If you are in the church and your functional lord is SELF instead of Jesus Christ, you probably fit into one of those two camps.
We’ll move on now, but here’s what one pastor said about this SELF as Lord, instead of Jesus as Lord problem.

“Submission to Christ without submission to the Scriptures is submission to a self-made Christ, not submission to Christ.” (John Piper)

I’m getting ahead of myself, but what we’re going to see is that salvation leads to sanctification. If you or I refuse to allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to bring us into ever increasing levels of holiness and purity, I would question who our Lord is.

And I mention the church in this area specifically, but what I want to make clear to all of us tonight is this,

Our God is a jealous God when it comes to Lordship. He doesn’t play around in this area. It’s Lord Jesus, or something else. He doesn’t share His Lordship.

In Exodus 20:3-6, God makes this point clear at the outset of His commandments:


So, if you are still a pagan, if you still think this Christianity is a bunch of nonsense than know this, you’re serving something. Something is controlling your life.

But I want to talk to all the Christians in the house. The pagans and heathens are not your concern at this point. I want you to ask yourself this question: Am I handing the Lordship of Christ to someone or something else?

No one else can answer that for you.
Now let’s get to tonight’s Scripture, Philippians 2:12-13:

Now, I unpacked the word Lord. I don’t think I need to unpack the word obey. But, let’s be clear about what we are talking of.

Let me read you something Jesus said, and we’ll take that as our guide when we think of obedience.

In John 14:15 Jesus tells His followers,

Where do we find what He commands? In the bible, in the Scriptures. And then He repeats the idea in John 14:21:

So, when Paul says obey to the Philippians (and now to us), He’s saying if Jesus Christ really is Lord of your life, than obey the commands of your Lord.

And, when we interpret Scripture with Scripture to get a full-orbed understanding we see another element.

The people of that time obeyed the Roman emperor, whom society called Lord (think of a king). But NOT because they loved him. Because they feared for their lives if they didn’t obey.

The Roman emperor would line the roadways into cities with the crucified corpses of the disobedient or disloyal subjects. So the people obeyed out of fear.

But Jesus wants us to obey first and foremost out of LOVE.
John 14:15:

And, Paul says do it when people are watching and when you are alone. Paul says, if Jesus is Lord of your life, He’s the Lord all the time, 7 days a week every hour of the day and night. He’s not just your Lord and the one you need to obey when you are around church folks, or around your mama or when you’re in public. No, out of Love, obey His commands everywhere around everyone and when the only one around is you and God.

Now for a tip on where to start this obedience walk. Out of the gate, we have the commands to Love God with everything we are and to Love others as we love our self. If all of the rest of the commands were a door, they would hang on that hinge – love God and love others. If you are doing that, the rest of the commands become more clear.

Here’s the way it plays out. God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.

The first way we show our love, which is obedience, the first way we do it, is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. The first outward evidence of our Love for Jesus is our faith in Jesus.
That is to say that we not only believe that He came down from Heaven and lived a sinless life and died on the cross to absorb the wrath that was due to sinners.

We also trust that He did it, not only to save the world, but also to save us individually from that wrath and that we were individually adopted into the family of God by the work of Jesus on the cross.

And then that faith stirs the love that we’ve been called to, and it produces gratitude in us, not a fear of retribution like the subjects of Rome had.

And that love and gratitude and that faith – faith that He, Jesus, God has our eternal best interests at heart will cause us to turn to His design for our lives, His general revelation, the Scriptures.

If you are fighting the Bible and teachers who are proclaiming the words we find there, then first go back and ask yourself, are you submitting to the Lord?
Now a preacher may be a compassion-less jerk. And I’m not excusing them for that, but even then remember that God has been known to use unlikely messengers for His truth. He used an actual donkey (what’s another name for a donkey?) to get to Balaam in Numbers 22.

So when you hear something that you don’t like, go past the delivery, go past the imperfect person telling you and test the message with the Scriptures themselves and make sure you are submitting to the will of God, to His Lordship and not rebelling in order to bow to the Lord of self.

And PLEASE remember His love for you and see all of the Scriptures, even the ones we don’t readily agree with, see them through the filter of trust in the love and goodness of God.

None of the commands are there to hurt you. They may sting us and we might not understand them at first, but we submit to the will of God because we trust God.

Without that trust, you and I will never have the love and gratitude that produces the kind of obedience that God is seeking IN ALL AREAS OF OUR LIFE.

Now lets get back to the passage. After the act of salvation has happened. After the instant that we put our trust in Him, the sanctification begins.

Sanctification is a call to the holiness of God. It’s the call to glory that we will finally reach when we come face to face with our Lord at the end of this age. And that’s what the rest of verse 12 is talking about.


Why fear and trembling? Didn't I just say obey OUT OF LOVE? Am I contradicting myself?

Why fear and trembling? This is why. Because Jesus is LORD. I can’t pound this into our hearts enough.

So often we think of Jesus and all we ever think of is the pictures of the flowing, feathered hair and we picture him as this meek, soft-spoken guy. And there is a part of the meek and mild thing, but remember what we taught in the Sermon on the Mount series, MEEK is not Weak.

When people see Jesus in His glory, when people come face to face with the holiness of God in Heaven, there is a reverence. And that reverence is what we translate in the bible as fear and they don’t just tremble when they see Him. They fall face down. Isaiah talks about it in the book of Isaiah and John talks about it in the book of Revelation.

When our knees are bowed and our tongues are confessing that He is Lord, we’re not going to see the Buddy Christ from the movie Dogma.

He’s not just winking at sin with a playful nudge to the ribs! Jesus is God! He is Holy and completely Righteous and the bible is clear, He HATES sin!
So work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Don’t take this as an optional part of the Christian Life. No!

Make sanctification your pursuit - Kill the parts of your heart that still cling to idols and smash the functional lords that have tried to distract you from Jesus. And flee from the sin that you’ve tried to juggle while still trying to be a “good” person. Moving on…

Paul says all this. And it’s strange to me how Paul always seems to know what my next objection is going to be.

My next thought is, "But what about the fact that I sometimes don’t want to kill that sin?" What about the times when, if honest, I am not obedient to the Call of Jesus on my life and the commands that He gives me in the Bible?
How do we live this out?

To all of that, Paul reminds me that I am not alone in this fight. We are not alone in this path to Holiness. It all starts and is carried through and ends through the power of God in us. Read verse 13 again:

You see, on our own — I would, we would never will to act in accordance to God’s purposes and plan for our lives. The scriptures make it clear that we were born with a sin nature (Psalm 51:5) and our hearts are full of deceit (Jeremiah 17:9). So Paul says obey, but never lose that faith and trust that brought the original salvation. In the same way that we could not save ourselves, we also cannot walk out our sanctification without the Assistance and guidance and sometimes the parental discipline of God. Two more quick passages to back that up and then we’ll be done. Write these down next to Philippians 2:13 if you have your own Bible.

Isaiah 26:12

And Acts 17:28

Understand that we have been called to obey, that we have been called to holiness. But also understand that this is a glorious call.

Unlike the old false lords that we bowed to and took commands from, this Lord, Jesus Christ is giving us commands that lead to life and freedom from the bondage of self that used to hold us down.

His commands are for our good and for God’s glory.

And even though it will be hard — because we are battling our old sin nature and we are battling the culture of a fallen world — we can do it. Not because of who we are, but because of who Jesus is and because He has promised to carry us through to the end.

Let’s pray…
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Jan 21, 2010

Series on Philippians #9

By the Power of the Holy Spirit, Be Like Christ
Philippians 2:5-11

Let’s Pray…

Last week we went over this:

Now, I ask Monica (my wife) what she thinks of the sermon each week just to get an honest evaluation. Last week she said it was a good sermon, but, very convicting. Believe me, I understand how she felt. There are times when, even as Christians, we don't like what we see when the light of God is shined on us.

When we ask the questions of, “Am I operating out of pride or humility in specific areas? And, Are my actions thoughts and words motivated by selfish or self-less intentions of my heart?” We usually see many areas where we still cling to sin.
And like we said, those times of discovery and illuminations are hard to digest. But they are pivotal to our growth in this new Christian life.

Now if you remember, after the seeming flood of reasons to feel bad about yourself, we ended with the key to it all. Remember, what did write on the other side of our paper?

We wrote “But, God...” In other words, Ken, you are still far from the perfection and Christ-likeness that you've been called to. And Ken, there are still a lot of times when you are tragically selfish and prideful.

BUT, GOD knows you, knows your faults. He has always known what you would do and when you would do it, both good decisions and sinful ones, but God sent His son to die for you anyway.

And that is where we are camping out tonight. If you reviewed this week like I asked you to, or if you saw your condition last Wednesday during the service and didn’t want to do any more soul searching – either way — if you felt convicted last week, I pray that this week will be a time of healing and growth toward God for you (for us, because I need it too).

As I've said before, we can't come close to grasping the goodness of God – including His mercy, and grace and love, unless we first see how far we are from Him without the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So here's what we are doing. We have seen what we've been called to be in Philippians 2:3-4 (Humble and Self-LESS).

And by reviewing the last year during the service last Wednesday (and I hope during your personal time this week); we discovered how we haven't been humble or self-LESS in several areas of our lives.

So we know where we are. This week we're going to dwell on the “But God” aspect. The “Good News” of the Gospel. We are going to read this next passage in Philippians 2:5-11, in what we call the Hymn of Christ, which Paul wrote to remind us of the humility and self-LESS nature of Jesus.

And before we read it, let me stack the deck. Let me tell you what I see here because it is beautiful and helpful. I pray that this passage will bless you in a few different ways.
— First, I hope you see the Gospel in this passage. It's there, I pray that you see it and are filled with joy by it. As Christians, as Spirit filled Christ followers, there is something in us – something in our hearts — that should respond when we hear the Gospel message, even traces of it. (The smoke detector in my kitchen is overly sensitive. If there is even the slightest change in temperature from the stove or the toaster, the smoke alarm goes off. Our hearts should be just as sensitive to the Good News). I pray that it never gets old for you. It’s our life. It’s our joy. It’s the power of God which can save us all from our sins!

That’s the first thing I hope you get out of this passage. Holy, overwhelming JOY from the Gospel. But there’s a second piece to it.
— Secondly, I hope you see that Jesus is not only our wonderful Savior; I want you to see — I believe Paul desperately wanted us to understand — that Jesus is also our perfect example. Remember, to be a Christian is to follow the way of Christ.
— Third, I pray that you see that there is a benefit to following Jesus, even in the areas that might not seem as immediately beneficial as other things that we might be doing. Let's read it and then we'll unpack those three areas.

First another prayer… Father God, focus our hearts. Aim Your Word in a way in which it hits right on target of where we are — as a body of believers and where we are individually. I pray that Your word would not come back to You void this evening. Holy Spirit, help us to understand and discern Your truth, in order to build us up and to point all the praise back to You. Amen.

Here we go:


First, this passage should fill us with joy. This is a reminder of what God did for you, and for me and for anyone else who believes. If you read this as a newcomer to our faith, you might ask “WHY?! Why would God become so lowly?”


If you are just kicking the tires on Christianity, you might look to this and just scratch your head. You need more information. I’ll give you that in a moment.

To those of us who are in the faith, I said earlier that this should cause our hearts to respond — to leap — in JOY. Why, because when we hear this, it is a reminder of the promise of God in the Old Testament being fulfilled in the New.

See, God created everything perfectly in the beginning and He gave the first man dominion over all the earth. Over the creatures and plants — it was great.

But Man, and his wife, sinned against God and caused a break in all creation, their sin caused the peace and the tranquility to shatter. Sin broke the relationship between man and wife, man and self, and most importantly. It fractured the relationship between man and God.
But God didn’t leave everything broken, He immediately promised a redeemer. He promised that one would come to set things right. Only one was able, only God, in the flesh.

So with all of that back-story filled in, we see this passage in Philippians 2 and we get the answer to why.

Why would God take the form of a human servant to live a life of humiliation and degradation? To fix what was broken by sin. To absorb the wrath of God that was due to us as a punishment for the sin that we were born with and the countless sins we commit in our lifetimes.

He came, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, was buried and rose again on the third day to conquer sin and death for all who believe.

This should be a reminder of the beautiful and familiar passage in John 3:16-18.

This passage in Philippians 2 should remind each of us that although we are far from the perfect plan of God, and (as we discovered last week), we live lives that are still not perfectly lined up with His design for us – even though all of that is painfully obvious and true, His love for us is not contingent on a fault-free life. His love for us is based on faith alone.

So, we can take what we discovered about ourselves last week and mourn over it and repent of it. We are called to repent, so don’t hold back from doing that.

But then, having a clear picture about how badly we need Jesus to help us, we can also re-affirm, or for the first time, trust in the fact that Jesus Christ is not condemning us for those sins.
He paid the price for all of your sins. Past, present and future. He is not mad at you. He has done it all.

It’s the reason He humbled Himself and took the nature of a servant. He did what you and I cannot do for ourselves. He did it to save us.
If you trust His work, His merit, His sacrifice for your salvation and not your own; If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead then YOU ARE SAVED!

When we read this passage, let the truth of your salvation through Christ pour into you and renew your joy. Is there joy in your heart for the love of Christ? I can yell and swing my arms and do all kinds of things, but I can’t put that joy there. I can’t make a non-believer believe and I can’t stir the heart of a Christ follower to this kind of joy.

It has to come from somewhere else; it has to be stirred from the Holy Spirit. I pray in Jesus name that the Good News might stir your heart tonight!

Okay, I said that in addition to joy that I also hope you see that Jesus is not only our wonderful Savior; I also want you to see that Jesus is also our perfect example. Remember, to be a Christian is to follow the way of Christ.
Let’s read verse 5 again:

Okay, so we’ve seen that we are not the best role models for our own lives. We’ve seen that we are not very good at this self-LESS gig. So what, do we beat our selves up and wallow in our own self-pity? No. That would add to our self-centeredness.

Instead, just stop being who you have been, your attitude isn’t working. Instead take on the attitude follow the example, be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Jesus says it like this in Matthew 11:28-29:

And look, what is the benefit of taking on His attitude, for taking on — by the power of the Spirit — a gentle and humble heart? “…you will find rest for your soul(s).”
Would anyone like that kind of rest — rest for your soul? That rest comes when we stop looking out for ourselves as number one and we start looking out for others. And that only truly works if we look out for others for the same reason that Jesus did, to bring them closer to God.

By the way, as we guide others closer to God through our humility and self-LESS lives, we are also drawn closer to God.

But, don’t just do it for those reasons otherwise you’ll be serving out of selfish motives and then I’ll have to preach these two sermons all over again.

What Paul does in verses 5-8 is he gives us a case study in PERFECT humility; remember that’s the point of this whole chunk of the Scripture. Humility.

First off, remember that Jesus didn’t have to come down here at all. He is infinite, powerful, creative, Holy God. He could have simply wiped us off the face of the earth, and would have been justified if He had simply deleted the entire universe and started over.
But not only is He Holy and Righteousness, He also possesses a level and depth of LOVE that we can’t fathom. We can’t wrap our minds around it.

And in that Love, for us – And in order to set all eyes on the glorious grace of God the Father — Jesus thought it nothing to empty Himself of His rights to be worshiped and praised and honored and adored by the angels in Heaven.

And He came down to this speck of a planet and took on flesh and with it, all of the pain, all of the temptations, all of the constraints and all of the suffering that is beyond being beneath Him.

And did He place Himself into a rich family in a palace? No, you know the story. He was born into a poor family, in an outlying town, to a mother who people suspected of being a whore.

And was He honored as who He was, fully God in human flesh? No, He was misunderstood, mocked, slandered, beaten, spit upon and eventually killed — by the people He loved, by the people He came to save.

And was the killing done mercifully? No, it was the most excruciating and humiliating and degrading form of torture leading to death that has ever been devised.

But, He says this is the easy yoke? How? With our eyes on eternity, always beyond the suffering that humility might come with in this life.

We are told to be like Jesus Christ in His humility.

He is our perfect example.
And listen, it’s not always going to be easy. If you’re looking for your “best life now” You might be on the wrong train. Jesus promised that if we follow Him, we will be treated the same way He was in this life. But, like our Lord, like Jesus, there is so much more to the story.

Let’s see what happened after the Jesus’ suffering and death

In another portion of this letter, Paul, who wrote Philippians tells us:

Paul’s not telling us that we will have the same benefits as Jesus. We will never usurp Jesus’ authority. We will not be exalted to the Highest place. That is for God alone. But we will follow Jesus to where He has been raised up to.

The suffering the trails of this life are nothing, the humility that we live out is such a small price to pay for the glory that will be revealed to us.

This is a promise of heaven and eternity with our Lord for all believers.

One more thing and then we’ll be done.

As in so many other passages, we see a call into the mission field. This is what I mean, lets go back to John 3: 16-18.

We love the first part. That God so loved the world…those who believe won’t perish…Jesus wasn’t sent to condemn, He came to save.
But don’t lose sight of WHO will be saved. It is those who believe.

I say all that and then point you back to Philippians 2:10-11
The Bible is clear that one day this present reality that we are living in, all of this right here, is all going to be over. And at that point EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.


There are those who don’t believe, and even those people who mock God and mock you for your belief will be there on the day of the Lord’s return. And there will be no argument left, their rebellion will be finished, their knees will bow along with ours. But then, it gets ugly for them, and for you if you did not come to faith before that point in time.

In Matthew 25, Jesus puts it this way:

So, since we know this is true and since we are now going to heed the call of Christ on our hearts and in our lives to care as much about others as we do ourselves, take this truth and hang up your pride and hang up your hang-ups about evangelism and look at the mission field you are in right now and share the GOOD NEWS!

Share the truth that there is a way out of Hell. Share the good news that there is a way to have meaning in this life. Share the good news that there is living water that truly satisfies in a way that the things of the world never can.

Share in humility and selfLESS-ness so that when we are all bowing and confessing in front of Jesus Christ in all of His glory there will be more of us sheep than goats.

Let’s pray…
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Jan 15, 2010

Series on Philippians #8

One Year, Summed Up in Two Verses
Philippians 2:3-4

Okay. Open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2.

Let’s pray…
Today is January 13. One year ago, tomorrow, the Church in the Grass began. For all practical purposes, this is our anniversary. So Happy Anniversary.

Now, before we get into the message from Philippians tonight, I want to review or sum up what we’ve focused on in the first year. I’m not going to take a tremendous amount of time.

Specifically, there have been a lot of challenges that we have read about in the Scriptures; challenges or calls to re-adjust our lives to conform with the Word of God.

While we have had several stand-alone sermons, most of our time has been spent in the Sermon on the Mount, three weeks on our church mission and — so far — the first section of Philippians.

So we’re going to focus on those three areas in this very brief recap. I’ve made a list of some (not all) of the calls we’ve had on our Spiritual walk this year. Go along with me (included below the sermon notes).

In Matthew 5 we were told to be merciful (v. 7), peacemakers (v. 9), who rejoice when we are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel (vv. 10-12).

Also in Matthew 5 We are told to live lives that reflect the light of God into the darkness, whether that be in the schools, in the workplaces, in traffic, in the home, at family reunions. Wherever we go, we’ve been called to be mirrors that reflect Jesus Christ THERE in THOSE PLACES (vv. 13-16).

In Chapter 5:19, we’re told to follow the commandments found in the Bible and to teach one another to so the same.

We’re told not to murder, not to stay angry at people, not to hold grudges, and we are told to apologize for our part in any conflict (vv. 21-26).

We’re told not to commit adultery (v. 27), not to look at other people with lustful intent (v. 28), not to break or marriage bond (vv. 31-32), and not to break our word (v. 37)

We’re told not to take revenge when people attack our dignity, possessions or freedom (vv. 38-42). We are instead told to love our enemies and pray for them (v. 44).

In Matthew 6 we are told to give to the needy, pray to God and Fast, all without being showy about it (vv. 1-8 & vv. 16-18).

In verse 12-15, we are told to forgive those who sin against us. Forgive EVERYONE who sins against us.

We are then told not to be greedy (vv. 19-24), not to worry about our provisions of food or clothing (vv. 25-34).

In The beginning of Matthew 7, we are told to be careful not to be judgmental when we do offer correction to a brother or sister in Christ (vv. 1-5).

In verse 12 of Chapter 7, we get the Golden Rule:

I highlight that text because it is key to where we are going tonight in Philippians 2.

Let’s continue.

After we finished the Sermon on the Mount series, we had several stand alone sermons, three of them centered around the mission of this church, to present God’s message of salvation (Ephesians 2: 8-9; John 3:16-17), the importance of a church family, (Ephesians 2:19, Romans 12: 4-5) and the proper expression of God’s love into the world (Colossians 3:17, Romans 15: 5-6, 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21).

After that, after those sermons we moved on to Philippians 1. that’s here in the more recent past.

We started out by reminding ourselves to serve one another (v. 1), to partner together in our Gospel Mission (v. 5), to be willing to suffer for the Gospel (vv. 7, 12-18), to pray for one another (vv. 9-11), and to rejoice when we see progress or success in the church, other churches or individual Christian’s lives (v 18-19).

And Paul ended Philippians 1 with several examples of how we live our lives in a way that brings joy to our brothers and sisters in the faith and points all the glory and praise toward God (vv. 19-29).

Finally, last week we talked about finding unity as Christians by clinging to our knowledge that we are individually and collectively UNITED with Christ through the Holy Spirit. And with that fact established, Paul charges us to live in the unity that exists. It’s there, he says. So, seize it! Live it! (vv. 1-2).

That’s the recap. That’s what we’ve been called to do. And now that we’ve heard these things in the past year — now that we’ve seen what the word of God says, we have no excuse for living lives that don’t reflect these calls, right.

And remember these calls or commands of the Scripture are universal for the people of God — All the people of God.

None of these challenges are just for the “super Christians” They are for us.

Now, I’m calling this sermon, “1 Year, Summed Up in 2 Verses” because of what we’re about to read in Philippians 2:3-4. If you look at all of those things that I just read (they are all on that sheet of paper on your seat), you will see that they all are possible ONLY when we follow the call of this little passage.

Let’s read it aloud together.


Now there are some passages where the words don’t really fit the way we talk, so we have to go back to the Greek and dissect the verses to see what they are trying to say. But, it’s pretty easy tonight.

Sometimes we know the right thing to do, you know, you hear something like this and you think, “Sure. Of course. That’s right. AMEN!”

We hear this passage or the Golden Rule passage and we say, “All right let’s move on to something hard. Let’s get to the meat!”

But what I saw in my life when I looked back over the last year’s worth of messages, is that when I pushed back against one of the truths that we uncovered; when I found myself wanting to skip over something or found that it would be easier not to preach a particular message because I knew what it was calling me to, (like being a peacemaker, or cleaning off my side of the street in a personal conflict, or loving all Christian brothers and sisters…)

Then I tried to make excuses for my behavior or my words or my thoughts.

And, when I tried to talk my way around something – it was ALWAYS, it was ALWAYS because I wasn’t following Philippians 2:3-4.

That’s what I found when I reviewed the last year of my life in the Word. Now, don’t get me wrong, I also saw more growth in my spiritual walk than at any other time in my life.

But, in the review, the Holy Spirit, allowed me to see that, the work’s not done. That’s me. Where are you? It’s a dangerous question. Are you willing to look back. Will you pray and meditate over this review list tonight, and through the rest of the week?

Read this passage and see it as a filter, for your choices, words and actions of the last twelve months.


See, I’m not going to ask you if you do things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit (or as we would say it, out of pride).

And I’m not going to ask if you look to the interest of others on a level that is EQUAL with your own interests. In other words I’m not going to ask you are you conceited or humble? Are you selfish or self LESS?

Because if I did, at least on first glance, I think most of us would say no.

We’d say, I’m not one of those people who go around pushing their way into situations so that, no matter what, they come out on top. I’m not that guy.

I’m not the one who cares so much about keeping up appearances and how I look and how I’m perceived that I would throw someone else under the bus.

But when we distill all of those commands from the past year, through this filter. And look at the list — When we ask in each case, “did I follow that call from Jesus on my life, in my life, after that truth was taught?” then we’re going to get some “no’s.”

Just go down the list for yourself.

And when and if the answer is no (and I pray that there are more yes’s than no’s on the list for you)

When you and I honestly answer NO in any section of that list, then we need to HONESTLY ask ourselves, why?

And when we ask that question honestly. When we clear out any excuses, and we drive through any smoke screens, then I believe that we are going to see selfishness and pride rearing their ugly head.


Now, let’s move away from the list and just get down to your life. My life.

Let’s get the Bible language out of our heads and just look at our lives and ask the questions on a very modern context.

Look at your checkbook ledger. Spend some time doing some basic math and ask yourself, “How much of my money went to my comfort, my convenience and my wants and my pleasures? And, how much went to building up the church, to helping the down and out of the community, to helping charities that promote the Kingdom of God and the glory of Christ?”

This isn’t a question designed to make you give more to the Church in the Grass? What about your home church? Are you tithing, which means ten percent? Are you fifth-ing?

What about the food banks, or children’s homes? What about paying for gas of the next person over oat the station or other random acts of kindness?

If you say that you are more self-LESS than selfish, would your checkbook ledger call you a liar?

I don’t want to see the ledger. This is on you. It’s between you and God.
What about your relationships. Maybe write down the top five or top ten relationships in your life. It could be with your Mama, your wife, your best friend from college or high school or church. Just make a list and track the last year. Track the conversations, track the time spent together, track what you did when you were together.

How much time was spent on surface conversations that never allowed you to feel any vulnerability? Some of us keep our defenses up most around the people we’re closest to.

Why? Because some Joe off the street can’t hurt me like some one that I care about.

Did you keep it surface with them so you could avoid being hurt or avoid looking weak?

How about those people on your list who are far from God. Those people that either don’t believe or who have fallen away from the faith and away from the family of other believers. These can be brothers and sisters, co-workers, you name it.
Have you avoided the God talks when there were obvious opportunities? Why?

Look at the filter again, was it because you didn’t want to seem like the “holy-roller” or the “Bible-thumper?”

Was it because you were afraid they would be offended and you might not be as close anymore? Was it because you were more concerned about they’re feelings in the here and now and how they relate to you more than you cared about their eternal soul?

Why?

In the light of Philippians 2:3-4, what do your relationships reveal about you?

We could go on and on. Job performance, service work in the community, prayer, time in the word. You name it, put it through this filter.

And I know those were hard questions. I’ve been asking myself those questions and I see so many times that I’ve been selfish. I see so many times when I look to my own needs when I care way too much about my appearance (not physical).

And here’s the other side that cut me just as deep.

Even when I saw obedience in my giving, and in my work ethic and in my school performance, and in all these areas; even when I said yes, if someone saw this they would not think of me as selfish or conceited.

Even in those times when I looked Honestly (remember only an HONEST evaluation counts). I could not always say that even my good deeds were done with a God-centered and others-centered heart.

I found several areas where I was like those Pharisees in Matthew 6, who did stuff for the applause of men. What’s that – it’s conceit, and it’s so dangerous, because I can mask it with false humility SOOOOO easily.

Are you depressed yet?

If you look again at that recap page, you’ll see that there is something missing that we must NEVER leave out.

Flip it over and write, “But God...”

And then write these verses Matthew 5:3 and Matthew 5:4.

Let’s turn there and read together.

Matthew 5:3-4 (New International Version)


Listen, if you are ever truly reading the Bible with any level of Honesty, then you are going to be brought to your knees by your own brokenness. The Scriptures show us exactly how our lives were designed to be lived.

Full of love for God and full of love for others. Full of a love that makes EVERYTHING that we’ve covered possible.

But the Scriptures, the Word of God also cuts us like a sword, dividing us with it’s truth, right down to our core and we are left exposed to the truth of how far we are from the perfect will of our Holy God.

BUT, GOD! But, God tells us with the same Scriptures that just brought us to our knees — Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:3-4 that once we get to that point of acknowledging the truth that we find in our HONEST evaluation,

And once we confess the sins that we find, and once we are truly repentant and we have been turned back to Him desperate for Him, seeking to have our sin guilt quenched by the only spring that can quench it, by the Living Water, by the atonement found in Christ, by the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of the son of God, He promises what?

That we will be comforted! When we Thirst for the righteousness of God found in Christ and we look to Him for our satisfaction MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, we look to Him, verse 6 says we will be filled — we will be Satisfied.

Paul tells us in the book of Romans, Chapter 7, that the Law of God, as reveled in the Scriptures, shows us our sins so that our need for a Savior can be made undeniable.

It has to happen. It has to happen before a non-believer will ever come to Jesus, and it has to happen to us who are in the faith, so we never loose sight of who we were, who we are, and who we will be.

We were dead in our sin.

We were made alive and adopted into the family of God by the grace of God that gifted us with faith in Jesus.
We are being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit.

And on the day Jesus Christ returns, we will be made PERFECT, free from sin and guilt, free from the trappings and distractions that still plague us right now.

Oh! May He return soon!

Let’s pray.

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A year at a glance (this was our handout)
In Matthew 5
We were told to be merciful (v. 7), peacemakers (v. 9), who rejoice when we are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel (vv. 10-12).

We are told to live lives that reflect the light of God into the darkness
Wherever we go, we’ve been called to be mirrors that reflect Jesus Christ THERE in THOSE PLACES (vv. 13-16).

We’re told to follow the commandments found in the Bible and to teach one another to so the same (v. 19).

We’re told not to murder, not to stay angry at people, not to hold grudges, and we are told to apologize for our part in any conflict (vv. 21-26).

We’re told not to commit adultery (v. 27), not to look at other people with lustful intent (v. 28), not to break or marriage bond (vv. 31-32), and not to break our word (v. 37)

We’re told not to take revenge when people attack our dignity, possessions or freedom (vv. 38-42). We are instead told to love our enemies and pray for them (v. 44).

In Matthew 6
We are told to Give to the needy, Pray to God and Fast, all without being showy about it (vv. 1-8 & vv. 16-18).

We are told to forgive those who sin against us. Forgive EVERYONE who sins against us (vv. 12-15).

We are told not to be greedy (vv. 19-24), not to worry about our of food or clothing (vv. 25-34).

In Matthew 7
We are told to be careful not to be judgmental when we do offer correction to a brother or sister in Christ (vv. 1-5).

In verse 12 we get the Golden Rule:

The Mission of our church
…To present God’s message of salvation (Ephesians 2: 8-9; John 3:16-17), the importance of a church family, (Ephesians 2:19, Romans 12: 4-5) and the proper expression of God’s love into the world (Colossians 3:17, Romans 15: 5-6, 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21).

In Philippians 1
We started out by reminding ourselves to serve one another (v. 1), to partner together in our Gospel Mission (v. 5), to be willing to suffer for the Gospel (vv. 7, 12-18), to pray for one another (vv. 9-11), and to rejoice when we see progress or success in the church, other churches or individual Christian’s lives (v 18-19).

We are told to live our lives in a way that brings joy to our brothers and sisters in the faith and points all the glory and praise toward God (vv. 19-29).

In Philippians 2
We are to find unity as Christians by clinging to our knowledge that we are individually and collectively UNITED with Christ through the Holy Spirit. And with that fact established, Paul charges us to live in the unity (that already exists). It’s there, he says. So, seize it! Live it! (vv. 1-2).
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Jan 10, 2010

Series on Philippians #7

The Christian’s “if-then” Gauges
Philippians 2:1-2


Let's pray...

Every car has a set of gauges on the dash. Some cars just have the bare minimum: how much gas, engine temp and speed.

But, I was in a rental car the other day that told me more than I wanted to know.

Besides fuel, speed and temp, it told me how long before my next fuel-up, what kind of miles-per-gallon I was getting, what the temperature was like outside, whether or not my tires were properly inflated and more and more and more.

One guy honked at me because I was sitting still at a green light, switching through all these gauges on the little digital screen.

There is a point to all this. You see, all of those gauges are important if you want the car to do what it is designed to do and if you want it to do what it is supposed to do at it’s top performance.

In Philippians 2:2, Paul gives us a snapshot of what we look like as individual Christians and as the CHURCH when our gauges are all in check.

But, we can only run at that level as individual Christians and as the CHURCH if we monitor the “gauges”. And we find those gauges with each “if” in verse one. Let’s read it again and then we’ll unpack it.


If you wanted to title this message, I think a good title would be: The Christian’s “if-then” Gauges. Or, if you are a Christian, you can personalize it: _________’s “if-then” Gauges.

And we’re going to dissect these two little verses and I pray that you will see that — just like ignoring the oil pressure light will devastate your engine — ignoring your spiritual “warning lights” will cause your discipleship to malfunction. And it will bring your spiritual walk and the effectiveness of the church to a halt.

First, let’s look at each “if” in verse one as a spiritual gauge for each of us as individuals and for the church body as a whole.


Encouragement, in the Greek, is Perakleesees – which means more than just encouragement, it also means a stirring address, but also a comfort. So the first gauge measures with the question for you; Does your union with Jesus Christ stir your heart with affection and boldness in the Gospel Mission and does your union with Jesus Christ comfort and sustain you, or encourage you when things do get difficult.

Think of your own dashboard now. Picture it with this gauge. Are you full or empty (or somewhere in between) with encouragement that comes from a knowledge and reliance on your union with Christ?

Moving on Paul finishes verse one by fleshing out some of what comes with being truly united with Christ.

In the last weeks we’ve been clear that a good portion of our union on this side of eternity is struggle and hardship and suffering and persecution. But there is so much more, even on this side and it all rests in our hearts.

The next gauge is comfort

In our union with Christ we begin to feel – really feel the LOVE of Jesus.

Oh! I pray that you might not go another night without feeling His love for you. And this is more than some greeting card and candies type of emotional love. This is a deep love for you that translates into a deep and abiding commitment to your betterment.

We talk week after week of His love. Of course it is most clearly a love demonstrated on the cross, where He showed such a deep commitment to our betterment, such a deep love that He actually died to save us.

But also, before that His love is seen in His humanity; where we know that He suffered under every temptation that WE suffer under.

His love is not some ivory tower love, where He looks down and “feels for us”, but doesn’t understand us.

No! He understands completely and that is why He is at the right hand of the Father, right now, interceding on our behalf - on your behalf (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 1 Jn. 2:1).

And not only the humanity, where He took on flesh; and (though I hate to say only) not only His death on the cross;

There is also the love demonstrated by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, Who was sent to us and who now wades the waters of this world with us.

His love guarantees that we are never alone. In the crowded streets and in the quite solitude, He is with us in His Spirit. I pray that God would take my ineffective words and some how stir your heart so that Christ’s love would be much more than head knowledge for you tonight.

I pray that His love would INVADE you! And look again why I want to see that invasion in your heart:

Friends, look again at your gauge. Do you find comfort in His love? Are you full of comfort, or empty? Are you somewhere in between?

This gauge can only be filled if we continue to fill up with the Gospel.

Remember, the bloody cross and the empty tomb aren’t just things we need to hear once and then we’re done.

The Gospel is the life of the Christian. We are filled up, but as many pastors like to say, we leak.

As God fills your tank with knowledge of His love through the Gospel, the world comes in and tries to displace that fuel with gallon upon gallon of worry and doubt. And what is worry and doubt except us forgetting that God loves us and has our best in mind. We may struggle here, sure. But this isn’t it. He says lose you life and gain me! He says keep your gauge on full by preaching the gospel to yourself everyday.

When you wake up, remind yourself, “God loves me.”

When you’re getting dressed, “He proved His love for me at the cross.”

When you’re holding back a snide comment toward your boss or a co-worker; or when you find yourself in an opportunity to cheat our steal, or gossip, “I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a child of God.”

When the doctor gives you that bad report, “Through Christ all things are possible.”

When it seems that your life is close to an end, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

If you do this, your comfort gauge will stay closer to full than empty.

And as we as a church, as the body preach the same Gospel truths to one another — in regular conversation and in corporate worship, our church gauge will remain full as well.

Now back to he text:

We talked about fellowship or Koinonia a few weeks back. Remember it is a partnership that is bonded by a common goal. What’s our common goal with the Spirit and with each other?

The goals are to glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:20, 31); to win souls (Matt 9:35-38), and to be sanctified in our own walk’s with the Spirit (Jude 1:22-23; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Thessalonians 2:13; Galatians 6:1-2).

And listen to this passage from Hebrews 10 where we see that As His ambassadors, as the family, as the CHURCH we not only benefit from the love of Christ through union with Him — We also participate. Here Hebrews defines fellowship with the Spirit

First the writer of Hebrews reminds us of the source, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Always important:

Hebrews 10:19-25

Then through Faith in that loving gift, we take action. Having fellowship with the Spirit provides us with a call to action today.


Church, that’s fellowship with the Spirit.

Here’s how you make sure this gauge remains full or gets filled.

The next time you are talking with a fellow believer, from whatever church, start prompting and pushing and persuading them. Be like Christ, co-labor with the Holy Spirit and stir the brother and sister’s hearts toward love and good deeds. And, be open to prompting yourself.
Be like that encouraging teammate on the sidelines, or the coach, if you’ve been put into that level of authority, but prompt them, encourage them, persuade them to get in gear for the Gospel.

A lazy Christian is responsible for his or her own lack of passion, but the mirror’s going to have to turn on us at some point if we see a lazy or half-hearted disciple and we don’t say anything; and we don’t do anything.

This motivation, this stirring isn’t just the job of the preacher to get you motivated. Let’s all get to it.

Now for the last gauge:

This goes back to our talk from Philippians 1:8


If you remember “the affection of Christ Jesus” has also been translated, I long for you “in the bowels of Christ Jesus” – That was an old time way of talking about the innermost point of the soul or spirit where our most honest feelings are found. The same Greek word for “affection” in 1:8 is used in the English translation of “tenderness” here in 2:1

My question to you then is similar now. See, Paul keeps pointing us back to fellowship and asking, is your fellowship Christ-like? Is your fellowship Christ-honoring?

He says if…you have a deep compassion for other Christians. That’s the gauge that you need to look at on the dashboard of your spirit.

Do you feel this way? Do you feel this deep – core level compassion for other Christians?

Some of you might honestly say, "I’m not sure." That’s fine; we’ll get to you in a minute.

But first onto those who know you don’t feel this.
If not, why not? Maybe it’s because you are more concerned with your own comfort or wants? Maybe it’s because you’ve been wounded before and now you don’t want to get close?

Why aren’t you more compassionate? Why isn’t that gauge full? I can’t give you the answer. But I know you can find the answer if you begin to pray earnestly to God for clarity.

It may be because you have never truly experienced the truth of God’s saving grace in your life.

As a friend likes to say, “You can’t give away what you don’t have.”

Maybe tonight is the night that you need to step over from the category of an enemy of God, to the category of His adopted child.

You do that by recognizing your own sinfulness and placing your trust in Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life that we could not live, then died the death that we should have died in order to absorb the punishment that we should have received.
And through Jesus’ death and His resurrection, we are made into new creations, with a clean spirit and a promise of eternal life with Him — with God. Instead of in Hell without Him.

If you’ve lacked compassion, if that gauge is empty or running on fumes, and you know that it is because you’ve never truly known Jesus Christ as your Savior, then I pray that you would place your faith in Him tonight.

But again, that’s just one camp, if you are doing these things that Paul has in the “ifs” category. Then where do you go from here? You’ve checked all your gauges and you say okay, I’m ready to roll.

What’s is it to operate at top performance? In this analogy of the car and the dashboard gauges, what is the driving experience in the Christian life and in the life of the church body as a whole?


Any preacher will tell you, one of the hardest things to do in a sermon is to draw out useful applications from the lesson that fit with the Scripture. Paul makes it real easy this week.

At least, he makes it easy for me to give you a charge. He makes it easy for me to file marching orders as you go out.

You’ll have to report back how easy these order are to execute. And the ease or difficulty that you find in living out this command should give you a pretty good clue as to where you stand on those “ifs” that we just went over. You can quickly glance at the gauges and say, Yup; I think I’m good to go. But when you actually take to the road, you’ll find out quickly if one of your gauges was broken. He says IF all those things are true:


Paul says if all the “ifs” are in you, then bring him joy by being like-minded. Unified in Love. Unified in spirit. Unified in purpose.

All of these are group dynamic issues. You will find out if your gauges are right, when you look at your relationships and your effectiveness and contribution in the church.

By like-minded, Paul is saying, be in agreement together, cherish the same views, and be harmonious.

And when He says having the same love, another way to say it is Maintain the same love, the Greek implies that this isn’t like a yes I love them. Like you love someone in the abstract, more obligation than real feeling or dedication.

No this is something that you cling to. This is a love, that you would be alarmed if it was taken from your hand.

1 John 4:7-8 says this:

Do you Maintain A Christ saturated love in the fellowship? Are you forming those kinds of bonds with the people around you at church?

And here’s where it will probably sting some of you. Do you realize this love is to be shared among ALL, ALL, ALL, ALL Christians?

Are you clinging to this kind of love with other Christians in the workplace?

Here’s where it stings me – Are you forming that kind of love and clinging to it with other Christians in your own neighborhood?
Do you even know the other Christians in your neighborhood?

Let’s move on. In addition to clinging to the love for one another, are you, ARE WE one in spirit and purpose?

“Purpose” at the end of verse two is the same word as what is used to say like-minded in the middle of verse two.

Anytime the Bible repeats itself take notice. What’s the idea between like-mindedness? Again, be in agreement together, cherish the same views, and be harmonious.

One more time. It is a call to unity. Unity in the Spirit.

That’s the clarion call for us as a church. And Paul says IF we check our gauges and they are full we will perform as we are designed to, as a body and it will complete our joy on this side of eternity.

We’ve taught about the gifts of the Spirit here before. I point you there again. Dwell on these words this week in your quiet time. While you pray and while you stop and listen. Ask the Lord, Am I empty in any of these areas?

If so Lord fill me up, so that I can do my part as a part of the body, as a part of the church, as the part of the mission to DRIVE the Gospel into the dark night and bring on as many new riders as we can find.

Let’s pray (for a filling of encouragement from being united with Christ,
A filling of comfort from his love,
A filling of fellowship with the Spirit, and
A filling of any tenderness and compassion)…
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Jan 2, 2010

Series on Philippians #6

You Are Worthy
Philippians 1:27-30


Let's pray...

New Year's is coming up and I don't know about you, but I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. I think it's a waste of time.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals. Goals are good, setting benchmarks to reach, and bringing in accountability partners to make sure you are keeping track is wonderful. It's great in every arena of life.

Goals are good for your spiritual growth – developing a discipline for individual and group Bible study, for prayer and meditation times.

Goals are good for your health, for your job performance, for your relationships, for your investments. Goals are great!

My problem with resolutions set to January 1 stem from the fact that discipline doesn't come from a specific date on a calender. It comes from a heart that is truly ready for a change.

Setting a future date from today says, “my heart's not ready, maybe on that day later on I'll feel up to doing this.

My heart's not ready, maybe on that future date I will make the change that I've know all along that I need to make.

My heart's not ready, maybe I can have some more fun doing what I know I shouldn't do if I promise myself, or promise someone else that I'll stop next week, or next month or whenever.
Listen, if you want to eat healthier, or pay off debts, or watch less T.V., or join a gym (or actually GO to the gym that you've joined), or stop smoking, or stop drinking, or stop cussing, or whatever; just start tonight, don't wait.

Your not even guaranteed that you have until New Year's.
Tonight's passage sums up the main points of the letter to the Philippians so far, but it also fits in well this week by giving us one of the best goals or “resolutions” that we can have in our lives.

A goal that I am going to take seriously and charge you to make in your own life starting NOW. It's an ongoing goal that you will never do perfectly in this life, but I'm telling you STRIVE FOR PERFECTION. Don't let imperfection be an excuse.

Let's read. Paul says:

Conduct in the Greek is politeuomai (Poly-two-o-my): and means to “to behave as a citizen: to conduct one's self as pledged to some law of life”

Just as a citizen of the United States must conform to a set of rules and behaviors to remain a free person and consider him or herself an American, so to should we AS CITIZENS OF HEAVEN live within the boundaries of God's Law. Which is summed up best by loving God and loving others as we love ourselves.

You may ask, how does a “citizen worthy of the Gospel of Christ” make us “Citizens of Heaven”? To answer that, I'll read from Ephesians 2:18-19

That verse sums up the Gospel of Christ, that through Him, despite our sins and in faith of God's grace and Jesus' righteousness alone, we get to the Father. And...


And, latter in this letter, in Philippians 3:20, Paul actually tells us:

So here, at the end of Paul's first chapter of this letter, he tells the Philippians and – I'm charging you – to live your life as though you are a citizen of Heaven already.

And Paul says: 27

We've been gathering together with the Church in the Grass for almost a year now. And if there is any one message that I've tried to get across to the Christians in the crowd

It's the message for us to live as proper reflections of Jesus Christ in every place and in every situation. When you are at church or at work, whether you are on top of the world or the world seems to be crashing down around you – LIVE BY FAITH and Don't hinder the Gospel.

You, and you, and you, and I – WE have all been placed in the positions, and relationships, and in the time that we live in, for the purpose of glorifying God and drawing others to His light.

And I'm just trying to echo Paul is saying, which is an echo of what Jesus said.

So IF you are a Christian, set this as your resolution, not to start on January 1st - Set it in your heart, mind, words and action tonight, that
Whatever happens, from this point on, you will conduct your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Brothers and sisters start behaving like the citizens of Heaven that you are.

And I mean, start doing this in every aspect of your life, even the one's you've been holding onto.

The time is now to let go
- Let go of the baggage of un-forgiveness,
- Let go of the arrogance,
- Let go of the self-pity,
- Let go of the temptations that you have yielded to again and again,
- Let go of all the distractions, to all the crap and turn it over to Jesus tonight so that we can start tonight to be FULLY devoted to the mission He's called us to.

Let's move on in the text:

Quick note here, Paul was the one who established the church in Philippi, we've talked about that before. Here he reminds them in a subtle way that he may never see them face to face again.
But, he still hopes to hear that they have been faithful to the cause.

We should never look to an earthly leader as anything more than a person positioned by the sovereign hand of God for a set time and a set mission and as one who POINTS US TO CHRIST.

Any pastor, elder, deacon, trustee or anyone else is replaceable and expendable according to God's will. We must never look to a person as an intermediary between us to God.

And in the same way as parents, or husbands, the same is true. We are to show our families that we are here for them and that we take our position as servant leaders very seriously.

We must build our families up and let them know that we will do everything in our power to be with them.

But at the end of the day, and at the start of every new day, we must instill in their hearts a dependence on God alone for their ultimate security and well being.

And back to the church, this church; I pray that God would not only bring churchgoers to the Church in the Grass, but that He would send the next wave of church leaders.

And if you later find out by a call in your spirit into pastoring or the like, I want you to always guard against letting others look to you as irreplaceable.

I've heard of too many churches that were devastated when their pastor left. Remember we don't follow a person, we follow – depend on and find our hope – in the Savior. Amen?

And with all that said, Paul does still want to hear that the Philippians are standing firm. And I can relate.

In other words. I'm not your priest, but I am with you and fully invested in this mission, so, just as Paul exhorts the Philippians, don't let my work be in vein.

If you have been called to lead something in the Gospel mission, but you wouldn't be hurt if it fell apart, I would question how much of your heart, mind, soul and strength you have out into the mission.
If God calls you to something, then for His sake and the sake of the people He's called you to help, pour your life out for that mission.

Don't waste your life, The gospel is all there is in the end.

Moving on...

How do we continue on without being frightened by those who oppose us (v 28 a)?

In your world, you are going to face all kinds of opposition.

Your faith and the Great Commandment are going to force you to make decisions that may affect your job, are going to force you to say things in situations that may make for awkward moments or that might bring ridicule, are going to force you to walk away from relationships that turning you away from the faith and others will walk away from you because there are aspects of the Christian walk that are repugnant to the non-believer. They may love what the Bible says about social justice and stewarding the earth, but they will hate the Christian understanding of sex and marriage and submission to authority. They will love the biblical mandate of forgiveness, until they are asked to forgive. They will love the biblical teaching on justice, until they are called to the carpet.

If you follow this word of God. If you don't pick the parts you like and throw out the rest, than you will have opposition.

In the world outside of this little town, opposition means more than problems with jobs, and relationships. Opposition means loss of life or freedom. Let me read a few recent news articles:

“In September 2007, the Chinese government closed Alimujiang Yimiti’s business and accused him of using it as a cover up for “preaching Christianity among people of Uyghur ethnicity.” He was later arrested in January 2008 and accused of “subversion of the national government and endangering national security,” a crime punishable by death.
Yimiti, a former Muslim, became a Christian more than 10 years ago and has been an active Christian in the growing Uyghur church.
After having his charges changed over and again, On Nov. 7, Yimiti was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “providing state secrets to overseas organizations.”” http://www.persecution.com/public/newsroom.aspx?story_ID=MjEw
“On Nov. 14, the body of a 23-year-old Christian convert, Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf, was discovered in Mogadishu's Yaqshid district, according to Compass Direct News.
On Oct. 28, members of al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group, detained Yusuf and searched his home for Christian materials. A 15-year-old Muslim boy had accused Yusuf of trying to convert him to Christianity...the extremists knocked out all of Yusuf's front teeth and broke several of his fingers. They then shot him twice in the head and dumped his body on an empty residential street.”



This story actually had a happy ending:

Those stories all come from www.persecution.com, a Web site that acts as a clearing house for news about martyrs and persecution against Christians today. Just a few of the other headlines were:
Russia: Pastors fined for Worship
Colombia: Pastor Martyred
India: Pastor Attacked
Somalia: Christian Leader Killed
Nigeria: Pastors Beheaded
Bangladesh: Pastor Tortured by Police

So, with all of the opposition, which comes in all varieties,
Even if it doesn't mean loss of limb or life, if it means losing your job, it can still deter us from the Gospel Mission – How do we keep going?

How do we continue on, as Paul says, without being frightened by those who oppose us (v28a)?

We do so together in fellowship by faith (contending as one man for the faith of the gospel {v 27 b})

In Ephesians 6:16 Paul says it like this:
Paul is transparent throughout this letter that the Gospel Mission, to bring the message of salvation to every nation, tongue and tribe, is HARD WORK.

There will be persecution (vs. 7,12-14) , there will be infighting (v. 15, 17). There will be the possibility of death (v. 20).

But, Paul points to his fellowship with them, with other believers, with other co-laborers in the faith, and says that through that fellowship and faith, that he will stand fast, that he will remain courageous and that he will see his mission through to the end.
He states it beautifully in verses 19 and 20, which we studied a few weeks back. Listen to it again:


We are called to be strong and courageous as believers, but courage doesn't come from self-reliance, courage comes from reliance on God and the encouragement and strength of the body of believers.

If you are a believer, but have written off joining a local church, then I would suggest that you have never truly read this book, or that you are in outright rebellion, which is foolish at best or is a sign of a lack of saving faith at worst.

We absolutely need one another. If you've been betrayed or let down or in some other way – hurt by a local church in the past, than don't let that stop you from looking for another.

The church needs your particular Spiritual giftings and you need the church. Join here or find another local body, but do it right away.

And if you are a member of a church and are not doing your part. I would say today's the day you get up and get to work. The mission is to vital, the lives to precious, the alternative to horrifying for those who don't hear the Good News, that your inaction is unacceptable.

Get to work so that YOUR church, which ever church that may be, can be the most powerful force for change that it can be in it's sphere of influence.
Don't be a parasite.

We must be on mission with a clear objective and with others in line for the same goal. And we can do nothing apart from the power of the Spirit of God guiding and ordaining our steps.
Moving on...

Another quick note, Don't make the mistake of thinking that being opposed by others, in and of itself, saves you. It doesn't. Even if they are in opposition to the Gospel message. As Paul quickly reiterates, Salvation comes from God. Alright? Back to the text, we're almost done:


Continuing with his theme, Paul reminds us that God's grace provides us with faith and the ability to suffer for that faith. As John Calvin says, I'm paraphrasing, our adoption into Christ's family cannot be accepted without the cross any more than Christ can be separated from Himself.

And, do not forget the words of Jesus:
Matthew 5:10 -11

I'm afraid that we as a church in America and in the West have become more and more irrelevant as we have become more and more comfortable.

Comfort breeds cowardice.
I am asking myself this week,
“Am I a Christian by name or association, but a coward in demonstration?”

How about you?
In my own life and in the churches around this area, is see that most of us (myself included).

Most of us, instead of running to Jesus and running to pick up our cross, I am afraid that many of us instead run to easy messages of love and harmony and away from any hints of discomfort, any chances of real heart change that mean repentance and cutting away unrighteous behavior.

I'm preaching that to myself tonight. Anyone else there?
Paul ends the chapter in verses 29-30 by reemphasizing once again, that


Let me end it this way tonight. One way or another, whether you are a Christian or not, Or whether you are a Christian walking boldly in your faith or a Christian that hides only by association and church attendance and little else
Whatever your status, and whoever you are, you are going to have struggles.

People will die, others will betray you and you will be opposed at different times in your life because your principles or ideals will go against the principles or ideals of another human being.

That is life. That is inevitable. BUT, Paul says if you are suffering under the same struggle that he had, namely the struggle to proclaim the Gospel in season and out of season, then your sufferings will not be in vein.

They will be like – not equal to – but like the sufferings of our Lord, and as Scriptures say in Romans 8:


Keep that truth in your hearts. That our present sufferings – no matter how great or how relatively trivial our suffering may seem – our present sufferings are NOT WORTH COMPARING to the GLORY that will be revealed to us.

Keep that truth closer to your heart than your love for others, than your desire for comfort or a worldly concept of security. And let the promise of the coming Glory enable you to stride boldly into whatever the Lord is calling you to do this year.

And by all means, behave as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let's pray...
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