Relationships 101: Part 1

Relationships 101 - Marriage & Singleness

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're heading into a relationship series. Tell me you're married without telling me you're married. when you show up to church in the same color. (audience member speaks off microphone) Generally unintended. We were getting dressed this morning, we're like, "Uh, this wasn't planned." That's okay, it's appropriate, 'cause we're talking about relationships today. We took a break from our Philippians series to have Palm Sunday and Easter. We will be heading back into that here in a few weeks, but we are doing our Relationships 101 series, as you've heard this morning, and we are just so excited about this. This has been something that's been on our hearts for a while and just something that we think is really valuable that we can all glean something from. We're all in relationships of some shape or form, right? So we can all grow in this area. So we're gonna be kicking off today talking about relationships in general and also I'm gonna be touching on marriage and singleness. And then Pastor Chris is gonna come in next week and hit on boundaries in relationships. Yes, believers can have boundaries, it's good. And then week three, as he mentioned, Corinne will be here on Sunday morning and then our workshop in the afternoon. But if you have questions about relationships or about anything pertaining to relationships, we would love for you to fill out one of the question cards in the back over the next few weeks and just drop it in there. And Corinne is gonna hit on those during the workshop. So we would love for you to leave your questions. We're gonna be covering a lot of different kinds of relationships and relationship situations, But relationships are as unique as the people in them. So there's no possible way in this three week series that we can cover every unique situation and scenario. So as things come up, as we're talking, as you're thinking, maybe you have some questions that are just kind of brought to mind. We would love for you to drop those questions in the back and Corinne will be able to get to those during our workshop.

Our goal with this series really is just to equip you. We want to equip you with biblical principles for all of your relationships to help you have strong, healthy, kingdom-minded relationships. That's the goal with this. We want them to be strong, healthy, and kingdom-minded. Now that doesn't mean that every relationship you're in will be with other believers, right? You can be in relationship with other believers and that naturally would be a kingdom-minded relationship because you're growing together in your faith. But when you're in relationship with a non-believer, who's someone who doesn't know Jesus, that can also be a kingdom-minded relationship in the way that you speak to them, act around them, respond to them. That can point them to Jesus. So we want all of our relationships to be kingdom-minded. So that's our goal for this series. So let me open us up in prayer. Jesus, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this topic. God, you created relationships. And so we pray that you will help us to have the best relationships that we can that are glorifying and honoring to you. Bless this time together in your name, amen. Well, ironically, we are on a break from our Philippians series, but our passage today is from Philippians. So we are going to actually just dive right into that here at the beginning. But this part that we're talking about is in chapter two. And it really, when we reference this verse, it's really about Christ as it should be. The Bible should be mostly about God, right? We see, we try to put ourselves in the Bible and really we should be looking for God in the Bible. And this is referencing the nature of Jesus. But something, a little shame to admit, that I had not caught before, like until very recently, like embarrassingly recently, is the first line of this verse, all right? So let's read it together. This is chapter two of Philippians. We're gonna start in verse five. It'll be on the screens. You can pull it up on your phone or in your Bible. The first verse, “In your relationships with one another,” that's the part I missed, okay? “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Y'all glad you showed up today? Y'all ready to be like Jesus in your relationships?

He is a prime example of how we should be in our relationships. It is not very likely that we will have to die for our relationships, but are we willing to be like Christ? The key things that I wanna pull out here are humility and obedience. He humbled himself. He took on humanness. He lowered himself to be like us. And then he was obedient to God's plan, to the point of death, to sacrifice for us. So in our relationships, we can be humble and have humility with others while having obedience to God. When we have humility and obedience in our relationships with God and others, it's gonna solve a lot of the problems just right off the bat. It'll just take care of a lot of things, right? So we want to practice humility and obedience in our relationships. It's interesting, statistically in the church, the number of single people is actually rising. People are getting married later. We have, you know, there's other circumstances such as divorce or death, but people are just staying single longer. And so we have, in our congregation, we have a lot of married people and we have a lot of single people. And then we have a lot of unique situations within that. Maybe you've been married for a long time, maybe it's just been a short time. Maybe you are divorced, maybe you're widowed, maybe you're on your second marriage. For singles, maybe you are single out of choice, or maybe you're single not by choice. Maybe you are, again, widowed or divorced. Maybe you just haven't found the right person yet. Lots of different scenarios. but both are so valuable. And that's, I want you to hear me on that. Both are valuable in the church and in the kingdom of God. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. Okay, we all have something to bring to the table. Both are good and both are hard. Each of them has their own things that are hard about them. We're not gonna play the hard Olympics to see who has it harder. But we understand that there is hard parts of marriage and there's hard parts of singleness, just like there is goodness and joy in marriage and there's goodness and joy in singleness.

Romans 12 talks about how we're all part of the body. It says, "For just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function, So in Christ, we though many form one body and each member belongs to all the others.” We're all part of the body of Christ. It is not about our relationship status. It's about the status of our relationships. How healthy are our relationships? Our romantic ones, our friendships, our familial relationships, even coworkers and neighbors, how healthy are our relationships? So talking to the married people here for a minute. Married people have certain obligations to their spouse, to their family, if they have children, that often means priorities look different with work and finances. It's a beautiful picture of the gospel. You know, the church is called the bride of Christ. So it's this beautiful image of marriage, of how the church is married to Christ.

Paul talks about this in Ephesians, talks about marriage, says, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord." He goes on to say, "Husbands, loves your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy." He quotes back to the Old Testament, says, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ in the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband." He's laying out here what a marriage relationship looks like. It takes humility or mutual submission and obedience to God for the way the marriage should be. Marriage is good. Marriage is God ordained. The Bible basically starts off with God creating marriage with Adam and Eve. He says, "Adam, it's not good for him to be alone. I'm gonna give him a helper. I'm gonna give him a mate." And so he creates Eve. It is good. There is value in that. But for the single people, it is good and there is value in singleness. I don't know if you know, but Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament was single. There's a lot of single people in the Bible. Most of the disciples were single. People in the Old Testament, Rahab who helped the spies, the Israelite spies, she was single at the time. She ended up getting married because we know she was in the lineage of Jesus, but she was living in her parents' house when she helped the spies. God can use you regardless of your relationship status. Jesus was single. Let's not forget, There is nothing lesser than or greater than marriage or singleness. They're just different, but they both have strengths.

Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians. He says, "I wish that all of you were as I am," being single, "but each of you has your own gifts from God. One has this gift, another has that," meaning marriage or singleness. "Now to the unmarried and the widows, I say it is good for them to stay unmarried as I do." Did you catch that though? He called it a gift. Both marriage and singleness are a gift from God. Those who are single have different obligations and responsibilities. A lot of you have more resources that are just available because it's just you. Maybe not finances, yes, but even just your time and your energy, You're able to live differently, to give differently, to meet people's needs differently. If there's someone in the church who needs a meal or needs a ride or needs help, you very likely may have more availability than a young mom with a million kids who just can't. Hi, I'm that mom with a million kids. But you just have a different availability And that is beautiful. And that contributes to the kingdom of God. Both though, the singleness is also a picture of the gospel. Because it is this image of being complete in Christ. Marriage, you don't get married to be complete. You get married to compliment each other. But in singleness, you get to live out being fully complete in Christ and being that picture that you are whole and complete in Jesus. Your identity is in Christ, whether you're married or single, it should be in Christ. It is not in your marriage, it is not in your singleness, it is not in your divorce, it is not in your past, it is not in any of your relationships, it is in Jesus. Both are good, both are hard, both require humility and obedience and selflessness.

Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter seven, verse 17, says, "Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them." He's called you to your relationship status. Now that doesn't mean it can't change. Single people get married, and unfortunately, sometimes married people become single again. It happens. So he's not saying your identity is in your relationship status, but he's saying that you should live as a believer in whatever situation God has called you to be in. In this season of life, you can do it so well in whatever season you're in. We're called to steward our lives well and point people to Jesus in all of our relationships. but strong relationships require that humility and obedience. For married people, there's a selflessness that comes with living with somebody else, with considering your spouse's needs and desires, thinking of others in that way, of those that are in your home, and what is he maybe making sacrifices of what you want to provide for your family. For single people, there's a selflessness in the sense that you could very easily do whatever you wanted. You have less to other people to consider in your home. It's just you. But you don't live on an island. You can choose selflessness by how you interact with the people around you, by how you choose to spend your time, by getting out of your home and into the community or into your church. That still requires selflessness.

Humility and obedience are required for relationship within Christian community. So Christian community is this, it is the church. It's coming on Sunday mornings, it's being in relationship with other believers. This is Christian community. And we're all broken human beings who bring our own stuff to the table. And so it requires us to choose humility and obedience to God. We were created for community though. God is a communal God. He is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is in relationship within himself. And so our communal triune God created us for community with Him and with others. When we are pursuing holiness, or sorry, pursuing humility, it allows us to pursue holiness in a much better way. Holiness is the process of becoming more like Christ. It is growing in our behavior, in our heart posture, and allowing Jesus to transform us to be more like Him. And the best way to do that is in community. Some ways that we do this through discipleship, small group, midweek small group, diving into the word, Bible study, practicing spiritual disciplines, accountability relationships, to hold each other accountable to the things that we say we're gonna do or not do. coming to church, being here, serving on a Sunday morning or in the community.

All of this is you growing in holiness. But all of these things outside of a few spiritual disciplines you do in community. When we invite Jesus into our relationships, Those relationships become more fruitful. They're thriving. They can be more intimate. We can be more authentic with each other and they build the kingdom. 'Cause when we're in relationship that has Jesus at the center of it, we're gonna build each other up. We're gonna be encouraging. We're gonna pray for each other. We're gonna be honest with each other and hold each other accountable. We're gonna allow people to speak into our lives as we speak into their lives. But it only works if we have the mindset of Christ. If we choose humility, if we put on the nature of a servant, he became like us, but in order to have healthy relationships, we have to become like him. and becoming obedient to God, in whatever that looks like.

I was listening to a podcast this week, specifically it was about singleness, but there was some really good stuff for everyone. And he wrapped up the podcast episode with this analogy. And he talked about, some of you may even have heard a similar analogy before, but he talks about who is on the throne of your heart. Right, so if you imagine you have your heart and it's Jesus' or someone is on the throne, it should be Jesus, spoiler alert, but someone is going to always be on the throne. Is it you? Is it another person in your life? Is it something you love very much? Perhaps it's a goal or something that seems good, but it's become higher than God in your heart. Is it a sin? If it's anything other than Jesus, you're gonna have problems. He said, when we are on the throne, we play defense because everything is about protecting your own little kingdom. When Jesus is on the throne, we learn to play offense. We get to be on offense when Jesus is on the throne of our heart, because we're not trying to defend our own little kingdom. We're not worried about other people being a threat to us and a threat to this kingdom we have set up. Because when we're on the throne, everyone is a threat to that. Can't really have real, authentic, kingdom-minded relationships when you see everyone else is a threat to your own personal kingdom. But when Jesus is on the throne, He can defend Himself. You get to go on offense. You get to go into relationships and love people. Out of His love for you, you get to love people. You get to walk confidently into those relationships to have the strong, healthy, kingdom-minded relationships that we're after. Because your identity is in Him, not in anything you can do, not in the relationship itself, it's in him. He is on the throne. So you get to be confident in those relationships and you get to continually choose humility and obedience and Christ likeness. So that together, either on your own, if they're not a believer or with that person, you get to grow in holiness. You get to be more like Jesus. And those relationships can help you grow as well. So who's on the throne of your heart? The beautiful thing of it is it can change. If it's not Jesus right now, you get to pick, you get to decide. You get to put him on the throne. And you're gonna be able to enter into relationships in such a healthier way. and a healthier mindset and more like Jesus.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this topic. We thank you that you created us for community, for relationships, for marriage and singleness. We thank you that you created the body to work together, that everyone brings something to the table that is everyone is valuable. God, we thank you for the relationships you've given us. We pray for the ones that are struggling. God, help us as far as it depends on us to live at peace with everyone. God, that you will just change our hearts so that we can infuse love and kingdom mindedness into our relationships, God. And the ones that are doing well, God, continue those relationships, build them up, grow them, help us to grow in holiness because of the relationships you've given us. We thank you. We thank you for Christian community. We thank you for community with you, that you, the God of the universe, want to have a relationship with us. Help us to walk in this truth this week as we head into our relationships. Help us to bring peace and your love into our relationships this week. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday - Hope is RISEN!

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Easter morning, a Sunday school teacher to ask the kiddos what they knew about Easter. And so she said, "Does anybody know what Easter is about?" And this one little boy raised his hand, he was so excited, he said, "Yes, yes, Easter is when "all my aunts and uncles come over to my house, "eat turkey, watch football, and take naps." And I said, "Well, no, that's kinda not it. "You're thinking of Thanksgiving." And then Susie, she raised her hand, she goes, "Oh, oh, I know, I know." She goes, "We celebrated Easter last year. "We decorated a tree and we had presents and there was milk and cookies. And the teacher goes, "No, I think you're probably, you're thinking about Christmas. Does any," and she's real nervous by this point. She's like, "I don't know if any of the poor kids know what Easter is about." And so she goes, "Okay, anybody know?" And Mina kind of sheepishly raised her hand. She goes, "Well, well, Easter is really about the special day when Jesus hung on the cross and he died and they put him in a tomb for three days. And the teacher goes, "Mina, that's awesome, that's great." And then Mina says, "And then we wait "and Jesus, when he comes out of the tomb, "if he sees his shadow, there's three more weeks of winter." That poor Sunday school teacher. Yeah, yeah. Right. Got some work to do. Yeah. So we're not talking about Groundhog Day today, we're talking about Easter. And before we get started, I love to just pray with us once more. Jesus, thank you for today, God. We continue to give you praise, the honor, the glory, God, that you rose that very first Easter and we celebrate that today. God, we are so excited to be here with you. You are here present, we know it. Your Holy Spirit has been felt this whole morning in this space. And so Jesus, we give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. God, be with us. Help us to transform who you want us to become. God, you have something for each of us today. Maybe we knew that, maybe we're here not by our own personal choice, but we're here maybe with somebody else who invited us, or we woke up and jumped out of bed and we couldn't wait to be here at church today. God, you have a word for each of us. God, may we leave this place different than when we walked in this morning by your power. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Before we get to our passage this morning, I just wanna get us all on the same page as far as what's happened in the life of Jesus. So we're going to recap what's happened to Jesus since he was betrayed by Judas in the garden of Gethsemane. So since that time, Jesus was handed over, he went through a couple trials, and Pilate, even though he was found innocent, they couldn't really find anything wrong with him, because of the pressure and the politics, he handed him over to be crucified. And at that time, the Roman soldiers mocked him and tortured him to extreme extents. And at that point, after dealing with all of that, and physically reaching the point of exhaustion, his body being tortured, he then has to carry his own cross to the top of the hill. He can't make it all the way. So Simon of Serene helps him carry that cross to the top. And at that time, having to endure all of this, having gone through all of this, reaching this point of exhaustion, he speaks with some women there, Mary and Mary and some of the other women. And even in this moment, he's being Jesus. He's meeting them where they're at, comforting them, offering them grace and love. Pilate puts this sign on Jesus's cross that says, "This is Jesus, King of the Jews.”

He's then crucified and bystanders continue to mock him. A criminal hanging next to him asked Jesus to remember him. And Jesus, again, hanging there on the cross, Dying offers salvation and promises that he will see him in heaven that very day. Jesus dies on the cross. The women have been watching the crucifixion from afar. There is an earthquake and the veil in the temple is torn. And at this point, even some of the dead from nearby tombs are raised to life. Soldier wants to make sure that Jesus is dead And so he pierces the side of Jesus, confirms that Jesus is dead. Joseph of Arimathea, who opposed the crucifixion of Jesus, he's a leader, he asked Pilate to take the body of Jesus and Pilate agrees. And so Jesus' body is placed in a tomb. And at that point, the rock, the stone is rolled in front. It is sealed and there are guards placed to make sure that nothing can come in or out. And then this time, this journey from the cross to the cross, and it just shows what Christ had to endure, what he had to persevere. It's the ultimate humiliation for the Creator being humiliated by His creation. And then on Holy Saturday, just yesterday, this is a day of grief, of sorrow, of pain, of mourning, Jesus is dead, and it's Sabbath. And so no one can do anything about the body. Imagine this agony for the people who love Jesus, his followers, having to take a Sabbath, having to take a day of inactivity, just sitting in their emotions. I don't do that well. I'm a person that if I'm feeling something, if I'm feeling off, I need to resolve it. I need to go make it right. If that's talking to a person, I will drive over, I will text them and say, "How do we do this right now?" I don't do well with sitting in emotions. And I can't imagine the followers of Jesus having to sit in their agony. When they wanted to do something, they wanted to address Jesus' body. They just wanted to do something to express their grief and their love. Saturday must have been one of the hardest days after losing Jesus. It had to be overwhelming to the point where their emotions are swelling and so the first thing after Sabbath was over, they wanted to do something.

So we're in our passage, Matthew 28 verse 1 says this, "After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb." The very next morning. They finally get to do something for Jesus, for their savior who had died. So the women wanted to go embalm Jesus. We know this from Mark's gospel, that they had brought spices to start this process. They were there to grieve, but they were not at all prepared for what was about to happen. They went there to continue their mourning, to honor and to continue in their adoration for Jesus, but instead.

Verse two says, "There was a violent earthquake, "For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven "and going to tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. "His appearance was like lightning. "His clothes were white as snow. "The guards were so afraid of him, "they shook and became like dead men." This was not the scene that they expected to find when they showed up. They had expected to find, honestly, quite the opposite. another gospel talks about is the women are on their way, they're like, who's gonna move? Oh yeah, who's moving the stone for us? We can't move it. But God had other plans, right? God had a different plan. He wanted to do something different that day. He wanted to do the unexpected. The tombs of those days were much different than a mausoleum or maybe a traditional grave site that we think of today. These were basically caves that were hewn into stone by hand and were basically corked or sealed with another rock because as a body decays, it lets off an unpleasant odor. And so these places were basically to be the only way that they could have something to be sealed in the manner that would not disturb the rest of life around smelling dead bodies all the time. And so this rock, in a sense, there's a couple different theories of what these rocks were like. We have the traditional round stone and the kind of rail that kind of rolls back and forth, but when you say stone, we don't realize like how big these things were. We're talking one to two tons, eight feet in diameter, one to two inches thick. There's even some studies in archaeology that did this and they found these tombs that were sealed with basically just ten-foot boulders. And they were just kind of like shoved in there almost like a cork.

And so for Mary and Mary to show up and to see this thing moved was pretty impressive. This is not what they expected to find whatsoever. And I love what even it says, this verbiage here, that the stone rolled back. There's some scholars that actually see that in the tense of the original language and the original account written down. Some would translate as thrown aside. So this rock just wasn't just like, "Oh, nice. Nice little ramp it rolled over to." literally thrown aside to a place where like you walk up and go, "That rock's not supposed to be there. That's supposed to be over there." And so they show up and this is the absolute unexpected. The rock was trying to hold Jesus back. As Pastor Andre said, there were guards there keeping watch. The Pharisees and Pilate were so scared that Jesus was either gonna do what he said he was gonna do or that someone was gonna try to steal Jesus to make it look like like Jesus had done what He said He was going to do. And so they had the elite of the elite, the top soldiers of the day keeping watch over this tomb. I'm sorry, but no fisherman is taken out of it, a Roman soldier in that day. And then on top of all of that, it is actually sealed with a royal seal that basically says, "Do not enter upon death," essentially. This was not traditional. This was out of the ordinary. This was strange. When people buried people, they put the stone there and they walked away. There was no further activity that took place at graves. But there was something special that God was doing. See, they put Jesus in the ground. They rolled a stone in front of the entrance. They proclaimed a royal decree to seal the tomb. They had guards watching and yet it was all undone. Hope that very first Easter overcame anything that humans tried to do to stop Jesus from being alive. Hope has overcome. So why do we say all this? Everything humanly possible was done to contain Jesus in that grave. And yet the hope of that very first Easter overcame it all. Physical barriers, soldiers, kings, political leaders, powers, authorities on earth said, "This story is over." But God said, "I still got something to say. I still have something to say about this and the resurrection of Jesus was not a quiet one. We just read about earthquake and shining like lightning and divine heavenly beings, angels coming down. This was a loud, loud event. There was not one person, thing, power, anything that was gonna do to push back against that. The hope of Christ was proclaimed that very first Easter. Hope overcame everything in order to change everything for the glory of God.

Our passage continues in verse 5 when it says, "The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who is crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples He has risen from from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you." In Luke's account, it says, "In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen.'" Church, hope is alive in the person of Jesus Christ. For the women at that moment, all they were trying to process was that their friend, their beloved, their Messiah was still alive. Just a complete 180 in their hearts and minds. I don't know if you've ever received good news after maybe expecting or sitting in the worst news, but it kind of takes a while for your heart and mind to catch up with what you've just heard. And you're just, wait, hold on, I was in this place and I was prepared for this, my mind was already here, I was making plans for that. And then you get told the opposite And it just doesn't like, "Oh great, now we're good." It takes a while, like, "What? What are you saying?" And so I think in this moment for the women, hope is sinking in. In Jesus, there is hope. And because Jesus lives, hope is alive. In the past three years of Jesus' life, he was sharing the good news, the good news about the kingdom of God, about how he would reign, and what this kingdom would look like. the news of salvation. But that news changes now. We go from the gospel, which used to be this common word in the Roman Empire, talking about this herald that would go from town to town, sharing the gospel, meaning any victory that the Roman Empire had, that's what they would share. Rome won, that was the gospel. Well, Christianity hijacked that word, which I love and said, this is ours now. We have the best news. And we're gonna go and share it with everyone. And so gospel goes from little G to the big G. The gospel is the best news that Jesus is alive. Their savior, their Messiah, their Lord, their teacher, their friend, their hope is not dead, but is alive. Hope is alive.

And church, I want us to realize this too, without the resurrection, there is no hope. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life, we have hope in Christ. We are of all people, most to be pitied, but Christ indeed has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. See, without the resurrection, our faith is worthless. True faith has power because of who we believe in, not just in the fact that we believe. A lot of people will just say, if you believe in something, that'll get you somewhere in life. No, true power comes in who we believe in, which is Jesus. Without the resurrection, we don't have the forgiveness of sins. Without the resurrection, there is no hope of heaven. But because the resurrection is real, because Christ did indeed raise from the dead, we have hope. We have hope that we are forgiven. We have hope that our faith in God matters. And we have hope of a future where there is no more sin, where everything that is marred and stained and damaged and destroyed by sin will be undone. Hope is alive. And in our passage, the angel had instructions of what to do with this hope. And what are they to do with the news? With this new reality as it's sinking in, well, they're to go and share the gospel. These first witnesses, these first believers, We're tasked by the angel to go and tell. And so what do we do with that news today? Well, for us, when our reality has changed by meeting the one who is hope, Jesus, and the one who gives us hope, we too have been tasked with the responsibility.

Matthew chapter 28 continues on in verse 8. It says, "So the women hurried away from the tomb, "afraid yet filled with joy," these paradoxing emotions. And they ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly, Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. I almost wanted to use salutations. The most formal way of saying hello. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me." Jesus's resurrection that very first Easter changed eternity. For the very first time, death had been defeated once and for all. We have the account of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, but at some point, Lazarus dies again. 'Cause that was not a permanent resurrection. That was a temporary. See, up to this point, All that people knew was temporary hope. You get good news one day, you have hope, and then the next moment it's shattered. You wake up and you think this is gonna be a great day, and then something happens. You get the phone call, you get the email, you get the text, and our lives are thrown into ruins. But the hope that Jesus brought that very first Easter was one that was permanent, was one that was eternal, the one that was everlasting. So what is our response in this hope that is eternal? Our first response is the same of those who saw Jesus along the way. They bowed down and they worshiped him. That's our response. They came face to face with this eternal hope in Jesus on that encounter, and Jesus changed their life. and they fell down and they worshiped. They understood the weight, the significance of Christ in that moment and saw very much of when they last saw him being different. See, the last time that they saw him, they had put him in the tomb and walked away. Very much dead, very much permanent, very much hopeless. And then on their way, He shows up and says, "I'm alive. I'm risen. The story's not over." the temporary in that moment became eternal.

The second way we can respond is to go and tell. Our calling and our purpose for each and every one of us is to spread this hope all around. Your calling is to be a hope dealer. Your calling and where you live, where you learn, where you work, where you play, wherever you go, you are taking this hope of eternity with you. And you are sharing it with everyone that you come into contact with. That's what Jesus said here to go and tell. For those of us who have experienced this hope in Christ, we have to be sharing it with others. The world around us is hurting. The world around us is in dire need of Christ. There's hurt, there's misery, there's panic, there's uncertainty, there's despair all around us. And I see it this way. I see it as us standing on the shore of a rushing river, in a river that is filled with fear and trepidation and worry and anxiety and pain and stress, suffering and failure. And these waves are trying to pull people down and to drown them in this rushing river. And you and I, for those who have the hope in Jesus, are standing on the shore with a rescue buoy in our hands. That is the gospel of Jesus. Would we not throw it to save those who are drowning? See the best part about that is we don't have to do the rescuing. That's the buoy. That's Jesus. Jesus does the rescuing. But we have to throw it. We can't help but just stand there and hold it in our hands. Who needs to know? Who in your life needs to know this story of hope? Maybe for others of us, you'd say, "Pastor, I'm in that river. I'm drowning every day. day. I got fear, I got anxiety, I got worry, I got stress, I got problems on top of problems, on top of problems. There is no hope in my life. Well I want to tell you today that Jesus has a life buoy to rescue you today. Now Now it's not gonna fix everything overnight, but what I will tell you is the temporary hope that you cling to from moment to moment as you drown will become a permanent hope in your life, a hope that is eternal, a hope that nothing can ever take away, a hope that will be with you through every single thing that you walk through in every single thing that you face. And I'll tell you, it's the greatest hope that you could ever have. And until you experience that hope, and step into that hope and say, "God, you know what, I'm done. "I can't do this anymore, I need you." You don't know what this true hope is like. There's so many of you in this room that are just nodding along with me, 'cause you know that hope. You have that hope every single day, and it changes your life. Not only here, but it changes your life in eternity. This hope continues on forever and ever and ever and ever. That very first Easter, God's love shone through the cross in Jesus's death. And the darkest day that we thought all hope was lost, God said, "I still have something to say." And love conquered death. In Jesus conquering death, you and I can live in this new life. We can have this new life free from pain, suffering, uncertainty, despair, hurt, fear, to live in a new life with purpose, with freedom, with hope. This is the story of Easter. This is the story that God wants you for this moment and right now. And that feeling that you're having inside of you with struggle and uncertainty, but there's this drawing that you have. That's the love of God. That's Jesus saying, I want to take care of you. I wanna fix it. I wanna make it right. You just gotta let me in. Let me, God is saying, give you new life today.

Our prayer is that all of you would be reminded or would know undoubtedly that hope has overcome, that hope is alive and that hope is eternal. And we have hope because Jesus shares his resurrection with us. And so we know that even as we endure this life, that is full of pain and sorrow and man, There's just so much sadness that doesn't end. But we know that after we die, we too will experience what Jesus experienced, where we get to be with God in heaven. We're so thankful for the fact that Jesus shares in his victory with us. And that's what we celebrate on this day. We celebrate Jesus' victory and the fact that we are a part of that victory too. So as we close in prayer, Let's remember and praise God for the hope that we have in Christ. If you guys could bow your heads with me. God, we come before you with joy, with humility, and with full confidence, knowing that you raised Jesus from the dead, that the resurrection is real, that the resurrection has very real implications for our lives, ones that bring us joy and hope, a hope that allows us to endure through this life, to live it for you, to join you in eternity. Lord, we praise you because without you we have no hope. We praise you for defeating sin and death and extending hope to us. And we pray that you would fill us today with hope. There are some in this room who need hope desperately. You know exactly what's going on in everyone's life. You know those who came here with joy, and for that we praise you. We know that there are some who came here barely being able to come here, Lord. Just took everything for them to show up. And God, I pray that you would fill them with your hope. Church, if you're here with your eyes closed, heads bowed, If you're here and you are in need of change in your life, if you're in need of Jesus and you're in need of that hope, I want you to pray this prayer silently to yourself in your heart. Repeat after me in your heart, say, Lord, give me hope. I need you and I can't do this life without you. The only hope in this world is in you. "God, forgive me of my sins as I surrender my life to you. "Thank you for your salvation." And God, we pray for anyone who just prayed that prayer, we praise you, God, that you can look forward, that they can look forward to an eternal life with you. And in that eternal life, in eternity, in heaven, they are free from pain, free from suffering, despair, and hurt. God, give them a new life with purpose, freedom, and hope.

And church, for the rest of you, as Pastor Chris shared, I want you to think of someone in your life who needs to know about this hope that is found in Jesus, only in Jesus. And I want you to pray this in your hearts, just quietly to yourself. God, give me strength and boldness and humility and vulnerability in moments where your spirit is leading me to share. God, give me a heart that cares more about others' eternity than any judgment we can face here on this earth. God, help my heart to yearn for this hope to be seen through my life, the way I live and the way I talk. And Lord, give me the words to say to share this hope when that time comes. God, we give you all the glory. We give you all the praise. Thank you for Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. And thank you for the hope that we have in Him. Amen.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday - Jesus’ Triumphant Entry Into Jerusalem

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome! We're so excited that you're here joining us on Palm Sunday. Wow, it's so full, I love it. If you're new, we would love to meet you. So Pastor Chris and I will be under the green tent after the service, and if you could just introduce yourself, we would love to say hi and get to know you. So thank you for being here this Sunday. We're taking a break, as Pastor Chris said, from our Philippians series. We'll come back to that in about a month and finish off the letter, but for now we're going to turn our attention towards this final week of Jesus's life as we approach Easter.

I want to begin by telling you a funny story I heard from another pastor recently. It tells a story about a five-year-old boy named Sam who one weekend gets sick. And so he decides to stay home from church, and he stays home with his dad, and his mom takes his two siblings to church. And when they get back, Sam notices that they're carrying palm branches in their hands. And so he says, "Mom, what are the palm branches? What do they mean?" And his mom said, "Well, today was Palm Sunday." And when Jesus walked by everyone, waved palm branches, and said, "Hosanna, praise the Lord." And the five-year-old Sam thinks about it for a second, and he says, "Great, but one Sunday I don't go to church and Jesus shows up.”

We want to be like Sam. We don't want to miss what God is doing on Palm Sunday. And so that, like, again, Pastor Chris said, this begins Holy Week. And our prayer for all of us is is that this week we pay attention to the ways in which God wants to meet us this week. We want to begin with this question today of what is Palm Sunday all about? Why do we, meaning even the global church, take time out of whatever series, whatever we're covering, and everyone around the world is taking a break to have a Palm Sunday? Let's acknowledge its significance. And so this is the day, as you know, that Jesus was hailed as king, and he would bring a new kind of kingdom to the world. At the time, where this is happening, there were two separate ideas of what that kingdom would look like. The one that Israel had in mind, and the one that Jesus knew, he would be ushering in. From Israel's perspective, you have to know their history a bit. And so, hundreds of years before this, they've fallen away from God. The Israel's kings over and over again have rebelled against God, have chosen their own way. The people would not listen to the prophets that God had sent to try to get their attention, to try to get them to repent. And so God eventually let them suffer the consequences of their actions by letting them be defeated by other nations, by letting them be taken captive. And in captivity, God is still sending prophets to say, "Hey, I have a plan. I have a plan of redemption." And these prophecies pointed to a future redeemer, a savior, a Messiah, a rescuer, a king. And so in their minds, if you're Israel over hundreds of years, you kind of have these pieces to the puzzle. And for them, they assembled those pieces in a way where they thought of the future king being a warrior king, someone who would establish a new earthly empire.

They thought that this new king, this leader, this rescuer, would release them from any oppressive regimes and kingdoms that ruled over them, that this new king would conquer anyone that opposed them, just like the kings of old, like Saul and David and Solomon. However, Jesus, in a different perspective, in the true perspective, he taught about a different kind of kingdom. He was also teaching and showing them that he was gonna be a different kind of king, though they didn't realize that at the time. So he'd been teaching for three years. He's had run-ins with religious leaders. He's performed miracles. He's been discipling a close group of people. And now as we come to our passage this morning, the pace of Jesus' story quickens at a breakneck speed to the climax at the cross. So I'm gonna go ahead and pray, and then we're gonna dive into our passage this morning. Would you guys pray with me?

God, thank you for this day. Thank you for the chance to gather with each other, to praise you, to learn more about you. And we do come before you, Lord, with humble hearts on this Palm Sunday, recognizing your triumphal entry to Jerusalem. And God, I pray that as we study your word, you would help us to realize the significance and the sanctity of this passage and what is happening here in the life of Jesus. And at the end of this time together, we'd be drawn closer to you and have a deeper appreciation and understanding of who you are and what you've done. We pray this in your name, amen.

All right, I'm just gonna go verse by verse. We're gonna be in Matthew 21. We're gonna start in verse one. And so you can follow along. I think we'll have the verses on the screen. But verse one says, "As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth, Bahaag, I cannot say this word, Bethphage, on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples. Pause right there. The disciples, if you picture this scene, the disciples and Jesus are on the final ridge at the Mount of Olives and they can see the city in the distance. But they're not alone. This is Passover season, where thousands of people are heading to Jerusalem by the same route. And Jesus knows, is aware of this upcoming scene and what this will look like for the people that are with him and for the religious leaders that are in Jerusalem. He knows the scriptures and the prophecies, so this is a very loaded scene for him. He knows what is happening. But for the people, this is a huge group, thousands upon thousands outside, going with Jesus to Jerusalem. Verse 2 says, "Saying to them," to the two disciples, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. "If anyone says anything to you, "say that the Lord needs them, "that he will send them right away." This is, this little scene right here, even just with this donkey, is hundreds of years in the making, and we'll get to that in a second. But this is where those expectations for the people of Israel come into play in approaching Jerusalem.

Right here in this scene, scripture starts to be fulfilled. Prophecies begin to be fulfilled. Jerusalem is of huge significance. It's the capital city, it's the central place of worship, it's the central place of politics where people would travel for Passover, it's where the king back in the day would reign. It's the central location for Israel's self-understanding of life under God. This will become truer than ever imagined. Jesus coming to Jerusalem means so much, And Jesus' approach is full of purpose and meaning, and the Jewish people pick up on that. They just have a different conclusion than what Jesus is actually saying and doing. Verses four and five say, "This took place to fulfill "what was spoken through the prophet. "Say to daughter Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, "'gentle and riding on a donkey, "'and on a colt the foal of a donkey.'" Right here, Matthew is quoting Zechariah 9:9. Old Testament prophet from long ago, telling that this is how the Messiah would enter. I wanna focus on how this king is described in this passage here. It says lowly, which can be translated as peaceful or humble or gentle. And this picture of humble and peaceful is in stark contrast with the aggressive military and leader of popular messianism. Instead of aggressive and offensive, Jesus is gentle and compassionate. Instead of overpowering and power hungry, Jesus is approachable and humble. This hearkens back to earlier words in the Gospel of Matthew, as Matthew has tried to paint a picture for the readers of who this Messiah is. In Matthew 12, quoting Isaiah 42, he says that Jesus is a servant. In Matthew 11, he says that Jesus has a gentle and humble heart.

Again, just trying to paint the picture that even though people are expecting this kind of leader, one that will take over, one that will lead an uprising, Jesus is actually a very different kind of leader. And if his demeanor and character are any indicators of how different of a leader he is, it also shows just how different his kingdom will be. Verses six and seven, we continue, it says, "The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. "They brought the donkey and the colt "and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on." So disciples show a lot of respect and reverence. I don't know, how many of you have ridden a horse before? Yeah, oh wow, quite a bit, oh my goodness. All right, I've only ridden a horse like once or twice, But I was very thankful for a saddle. It was very comfortable, and I can't imagine doing it without. If you have, props to you. That seems pretty legit. But in this scene, Jesus gets the treatment, right? He gets some cloaks, makes a very soft saddle for him. And again, just more painting the picture that this is special, right? This is something to be revered.

Verse eight says, "A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. This is like the red carpet scene, right? We see, kind of have images maybe of people lining whatever street they're on, and now the road is just covered, and Jesus is on this donkey, and he's approaching the city. I was trying to think of something similar, and maybe it's like those motorcades. Maybe, I don't know, we don't live in San Francisco. But the last time the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, the city celebrated, and all the team is in the streets, and people are crowded around the streets, and the confetti's falling down from the sky, and it's just a party. It's like, yeah, I was cheering, and yay for the team. That's kind of maybe similar to what is happening here, but probably tenfold, because the meaning of this scene is way more important than the Giants winning a World Series. But this is huge fanfare. This is massive, and it's a crowd. It's exciting. It is a huge scene, a joyous scene. Verse 9 says, "The crowds then went ahead of him, and those that followed shouted, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, "Hosanna in the highest heaven." Hosanna is a Greek form of the Hebrew word translated save us which sounds like a plea, but in this case, it's more of just an exclamation, acknowledging of who this person is and what they could do. Save us, Hosanna. And they're shouting, save us, son of David, which is a reference and a way of saying king, sent by God. They are giving praise to the Lord of Heaven, to Jesus, which is the right response. This is what they should be doing. They get this part right. They have the Messiah before them that God sent, and they are just praising him with everything that they have. They just have a misunderstanding of what this next week in Jesus' life will look like.

This is 10 and 11 read, "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, "the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?' "The crowds answered, 'This is Jesus, "the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.'" So once this crowd reaches the city, the city itself is like, what's going on? There's a party coming towards us. Who are we celebrating? What's happening? And so the crowd informed, you know, the rumor just starts spreading, like, hey, this is the prophet, this is Jesus. And prophet of Nazareth doesn't sound as exciting as king, But for the people, this would definitely have overtones of this is the Messiah. This is the one that we have been waiting for. After years and years of silence from God, finally, He has sent the one that we've been waiting for. Jesus was here to bring about His heavenly kingdom into reality, but the road to glory for Jesus has to get a lot darker before it gets any better. because he knows what entering Jerusalem really meant.

I wanna walk through the life of Jesus together in this week following Palm Sunday, in our week coming up here. Jesus would enter into the city on what would become Palm Sunday, then the following day is Monday, and on Monday, Jesus enters the temple, and he's angry, he's very upset. He's upset that the religious leaders have allowed the temple, this place that is supposed to be holy, that is supposed to be a very unique place where God and humanity meet, where there is shalom, which means everything that God intended, it's happening there, but instead the religious leaders have let the temple become a place of worshiping money and corruption, and Jesus is not having it. And so he expresses his anger, And he would further upset the religious leaders who were already pretty upset with him. And the tension between them would reach a point of no return.

Tuesday, in Jesus' life, he would continue to teach at the temple, trying to heal the corruption that had been present for so long. Teaching this is what it's supposed to be. Teaching about his kingdom, what's going to happen. But as he's doing that, the tensions continue to rise.

And then Wednesday of Jesus's life, this is the day where plans are set in motion to capture and to kill Jesus.

The next day, Thursday, Jesus's life, we call it Maundy Thursday. Maundy, which comes from the Latin to mandate. And he would gather his disciples. He would wash their feet. He would break bread with them. And then he would command them or mandate them "to serve and love one another." What he knows is such a significant meal with them, that's his most important command, "to serve and love one another.”

And then that night, things get very dark. And he goes to the garden to pray, and then we go into Good Friday. And as Pastor Chris said, it's a very dark day. This is the day where people's cries turn from, From Hosanna, praise Jesus, return to crucify him. He would stand trial that morning, he would be tortured, he would carry his own cross to the top of the hill, and there he'd be crucified and give his life, becoming the ultimate sacrifice to save people from the punishment of their sins. It's the darkest day in history. It's the day that the Son of God died. And yet, it's a part of God's plan. As dark as it is, this is what God intended. And Jesus, who has been given the royal treatment almost a week before this, on Palm Sunday, knows that this is coming. He's entering the city, being celebrated, Having people shout Hosanna and knows what this week looks like.

And then in this week of Jesus' life, there's Saturday, what we call Holy Saturday. And this is a day of in-between. This is a day of lament, between lament and hope, where Jesus is still in the grave, but we, being on the other side of this whole event, know that he wants to come the next day. And so it's just the day of in-between. we're in between sorrow and joy, between grief and hope, between loss and gain, between death and life. We don't wanna rush past this day. Everyone is so excited to get to Easter, and rightfully so. It's the biggest day, as Pastor Chris said, the Super Bowl of our Christian faith. But being present in each day is so important. And so this Saturday, be present in this in-between, where we're grieving what happened and yet hopeful for what is about to happen, what we're going to celebrate.

And then on Sunday, Easter Sunday, we know that when the tomb, this is when the tomb where Jesus lay would be found empty. And the world would discover that Jesus lives, that he is truly God, that Jesus would begin his reign in this new kingdom. And so next week we get to celebrate the best day. And it means that death is defeated, that Satan and sin do not win. And that means for those who believe, we have eternal life with God. So I wanted to walk through this week, and especially today, because for Jesus, Palm Sunday ushered him into the toughest week of his life. And on this day, in this passage, we learn some important things about Jesus. Palm Sunday teaches us, first, that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. God is sovereign and he is in control. And he has had a plan of redemption since Genesis 3, when sin entered into the world, he had a plan. And that plan was fulfilled in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. The savior who has been foretold for years, all throughout the Old Testament, comes to fruition here. And God's plan never fails. What he says will come true.

Secondly, Palm Sunday teaches us that Jesus is worthy to be praised. Just as the people were praising Jesus on the road, shouting Hosanna, giving their utmost respect and reverence to Jesus, this is truly what he deserves. Jesus is worthy and requires our worship. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Messiah. What other response do we have but to praise Him for what He's done for us.

And thirdly, Jesus, Palm Sunday teaches us that Jesus is not always what is expected. The Jewish people, when praising Jesus on this Palm Sunday, on the road, we're expecting this new earthly kingdom. And we're expecting this in the next days for it to go very differently, for there to be an uprising, for them to be in weeks time on top of the world. this is the new power that's in place, our lives are gonna change, we're gonna become top dog in the known world again, just like we were back in King David and Solomon, we're going to reach new heights of earthly glory, is what they thought. They were thinking like Caesar or King David. You see, often when it comes to leaders, we're drawn towards big personalities, powerful communicators, result producing leaders. rather than persons of beautiful character. Jesus is humble, meek, lowly, and gentle. Maybe not the first words that we would use to describe a great leader. And yet Jesus is the ultimate leader.

An author and pastor, Paul David Tripp writes this. He says, "Do we really look for leaders "who are known for their gentleness? Do we esteem leaders who have their vision and emotions under control so that they're not controlling, demanding, or easily corrupted? In Jesus, we no longer need to look horizontally for what can only be found vertically. Jesus wasn't the militaristic leader or influential political leader, but he was gentle and lowly, peaceful, a servant come to sacrifice himself. The next week in Jesus' life is not at all what the Jewish people expected. It's not the kind of leader they expected, it's not the kind of kingdom they expected, and yet it's exactly what they needed. It's exactly what God had planned.

So, given what we've learned about Jesus from our passage, let me ask a few things that you can talk with God about this week as you reflect on these truths. First, do you trust and live knowing that God is in control? It's easy to say it. Yes, I know that God is in control. Yes, I believe that. But do we actually live that way? We are all fighting worries and anxieties. And oftentimes those worries and anxieties lead us to wanting to take more control. The more the world around us seems out of control, our grip gets firmer. We say, "I gotta do more." But we have to remember that Jesus knows everything, knows us, knows the situation, and he has a plan. Even when we think we have control, and then things, often things later go sideways, things get chaotic, it becomes very challenging, overwhelming, we have to remember from the very beginning that Jesus is in control. So do we trust and live knowing that he is in control? Trusting that the plans that he has made and the work that he is doing in us, he will finish. Sometimes we do. If you're reflecting right now, you're like, yeah, sometimes, that's good. And that's part of the Christian faith and the Christian life, is to learn how to do that more and more. To continually give up control, to surrender to him, submit to him. All right, that's the first question.

Secondly, is Jesus king in your life? Is he receiving all the praise, all the reverence, all the worship that he deserves? It can be easy for us reading these, the Bible and the stories here, to criticize the Jewish people for turning their words of praise, of hosanna, to words of crucify him. but can also be easy for us today to go from praising God on a Sunday in the middle of a service, to then the very next day living a very different life. To living a life that is not at all dependent on Jesus, where he is not reigning over our lives, where we are living out of selfishness, out of pride, independent from God, only giving God a few moments of our day, if that, when really we should be living with him as our king every moment of every day. So do we give him our praise continuously, worshiping him with every facet of our life, living for him daily? Is Jesus king in your life all the time?

Last question. What are our expectations of Jesus? Do we try to define who we think Jesus should be and what he should do? Maybe like Israel, we have thoughts as to what Jesus will do for us. It's like, oh, God, I'm sick again. Can you, Jesus, I think you should make me better right away. This is my plan. These are my thoughts that I think are great. So if you could do that for me, I think we're on the same page. Or Jesus, I'm having relationship issues. Can you please help that other person to see that I'm right? That would be great. This is our will, right, God? Maybe we're feeling stuck at work. We're like, Jesus, if you could get that promotion going for me, get that ball rolling, please. I've been working faithfully, being quiet about it, just a humble worker, can you please do the things that I want you to do?

We often think that we know who Jesus should be and what he should do in our lives. But just as he was a different leader than the Jews expected, different from the way of the world, we must recognize that Jesus works in our lives Probably differently from what we expect or what we may think is best. Because he calls us to the path of compassion and love. He calls us to serve and to sacrifice. He calls us to put others before ourselves. And he calls us to endure and to submit. Heading into different seasons of life, we think, God, I think this will go best if, and fill in the blank, and we give God the answers and expectations, when really our hearts and our prayers should reflect what Jesus taught us, which is, "Lord, not my will, but yours." It's a prayer that Jesus would pray himself in the garden before being betrayed, and it's hard. It's hard to pray that prayer, "Not my will, but yours." but we wanna walk like Jesus as He has walked before us, walk in His footsteps and surrender to God. So that's our prayer this week. We wanna be aligned with what God is doing in our lives. And again, our prayer today and this week is to pay attention to the ways that Jesus wants to meet us this week. We went through those days of Holy Week to encourage you to walk that with Jesus this week. So tomorrow when Jesus years ago gets angry, think about those emotions. Think about what Jesus is going through. He's got angry at the temple. He has a righteous anger because he wants the people to have a place to commune with God. And then on Tuesday, he's trying to heal. He's trying to make things right and sit with that, dwell on that, meditate on that on Tuesday. And every day this week, Wednesday, where plans are made for his capture and his death on the cross. And then Thursday, the command for all of us to serve and love one another. Sit with everything that Jesus did this week so that when we come together on Friday to mourn and to grieve, we can be there with the full emotion of what is happening. And then on Sunday, we can come together with the biggest praise that we can ever muster because we know fully to the best that we can what that meant and what Jesus endured through this week to get to that point on the cross and then to rise again. This holy week, pay attention to where Jesus wants to meet you.

Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your word that encourages so much. And God, we do wanna walk with Jesus this week. It's so encouraging to know that every emotion we feel, Jesus has felt. And so this week I pray that we would feel close to you, God, wherever we're at, whether it is a great week and we're having lots of joy and excitement and happiness, God, I pray that we would be rejoicing with you. And God, if it's a difficult week, if it's challenging, If we feel like we're the end of ourselves, God, I pray that we would be reminded of what Jesus endured and be close with you in that, to suffer whatever we're suffering through with Jesus by our side. God, I pray that you would deepen our relationship, that you would deepen our love for you so that we can come together and worship fully with you in this next week. We give you all the praise. We love you with everything we have. Help us to worship you. Help us to recognize that you are king. God, make us better servants of your kingdom. We pray this in your son's name, Amen.

Philippians: Part 4

Philippians: Part 4 - Lights in the World

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Good morning. We are so glad you're here today. If I haven't met you, I am Pastor Lauren. and I'm just one of the teaching team here. I'm often back with the kiddos, but today I get to be in here with the grownup kiddos. So that's fun. So we are in our Philippians series. If you haven't been around yet, we are on our fourth week, and we're talking about the joy that endures. So really just, Paul talks a lot in Philippians about maintaining a joyful heart and letting that endure despite our circumstances. So some things we've covered. we talked about being grateful, just a general attitude of gratefulness. We talked about choosing joy despite our circumstances, that happiness is really circumstantially dependent, but joy is not, that is eternal. And then last week, Pastor Andre talked about imitating Christ and how he came as a human and he died on the cross, and so his obedience, we can imitate him in our obedience. So today, we are going to continue on with chapter two. and we're gonna be in verses 12 through 18, so if you wanna pull that up in the Bible or the app, we'll have it on the screen. We're gonna be jumping around to a bunch of different scriptures today, so we'll make sure we have them up on the screen for you, but if you wanna follow along in our Philippians passage, you can do that. Chapter two, 12 through 18. And we're just gonna kinda break down more of the how-to of imitating Christ.

So first off, before we get started, I'm just going to read the whole section of scripture for us, and then we're gonna dive deeper into it. So read along with me. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me." All right, so let's break this down.

All right, so verse 12, "Therefore, my dear friends, "as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, "but now much more in my absence, "continue to work out your salvation "with fear and trembling." If you haven't noticed, in a lot of Paul's writing, he likes the word therefore. He refers back often. Basically, the book of Romans is just a constant therefore over and over again. And same with Philippians. I was scrolling back up and I was like, "Okay, that section has a therefore, okay, that section." We're just gonna keep going all the way back to the beginning. But here, he is referring back to the earlier passage in chapter two that Pastor Andre talked about last week, the imitating Christ. And he's connecting it back because he wants us to make the connection that Christ's obedience should be connected to our obedience. Because of Christ's death and resurrection, because he was obedient to God's will, we too must be obedient to God's will. And we can choose obedience as we work out our salvation. Now notice this doesn't say work for your salvation. We're not doing a workspace salvation here, okay? We're not trying to earn our way to heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourself. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." It's by God's grace and through our faith in Him that we have been saved, even before we do a thing. We work out what God works in us. So God has done the work of salvation in our hearts. He has gifted us. It is a free gift that he has given to us. And we accept that gift. And then we go out of that gratefulness, out of that love, out of gratitude for the free gift. We work out our salvation. It's kind of like a muscle. If you don't work the muscle, it'll start to atrophy. Working out doesn't create muscle. It builds it. But if you don't work out, if you never use it, it's just, it's gonna atrophy and be not functional. Another word that we can use here is to activate. We are activating our salvation. We're living it out in our everyday lives. A kind of a churchy word here is holiness or sanctification where it is to be a part, to be set apart for God's purposes. Upon our salvation, we are consecrated to Him. We are set apart for Him and for His will. And then we activate our salvation by partnering with Him. We allow him to make us more like Christ. That is working out what God has worked in. And it goes on to say that we do this with fear and trembling. This isn't like a fear of failure or a fear of like punishment in hell. It is this all reverence of God. One commentator said, it's an awful reverence of God and a trembling with joy of an encounter with the glory of God. I loved that. You know, when you get so excited, you just like can't even handle it. That's how it is when we have an encounter with the glory of God. You should be different when you encounter God. God is working in us and He will never leave us the same.

Onto verse 13. It says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Again, God is working in us for his glory and for our good and the good of those around us. God is doing the work, but we are receiving his power in order to activate our salvation. Second Peter 1:3 says, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness, everything we need. So by His grace, we are able to receive salvation. And then by His power, we are able to live it out. We are able to work out that salvation. So good news, guys, it's not up to us. It's not reliant on us. We don't have to be enough. He is enough. He's the one who gives us the grace and the power to live out what he has done in our hearts. John 14:18-20, just a paraphrase of what Jesus said. He said, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will be with you and you will realize that you are in me and I am in you." He has given us the Holy Spirit. We have our own work to do as followers of Jesus, but he gives us the power. He indwells us with the Holy Spirit so that we are able to work out our faith.

All right, now onto verse 14 and not gonna lie, it's a bit of a doozy, so hang with me here, okay? It's only six words, but it gets me every time, okay? Do everything without grumbling or arguing. Some translations say complaining or arguing. I'm gonna say it again. do everything without complaining or arguing which things? Everything, all of them, all the things. Do them without complaining or arguing. I recently had our kids memorize this verse and I memorized it with them. And if I could just tell you or show you the I rules that are in my house, when I bring up this verse and I remind them of this verse, when we start to complain, It stinks sometimes. It's easy to complain, right? It's easy to get caught up in what's going wrong or what's just frustrating or not right. First Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ." How many circumstances? All of them. All of them, every last one of them. Doesn't mean we're gonna like it all the time. Doesn't mean it's gonna feel good. I tell my kids all the time, you may not feel like doing something. You may not enjoy this particular thing, but hard doesn't mean bad necessarily. We can still give thanks. We can still choose gratitude. Psalm 119:1-2 says, "Joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. Psalm 3:1-2. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. That's us. For those of us who have received the gift of salvation, this is us. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. Because we have been saved by Jesus, we always have a reason to be joyful. It doesn't mean it's always gonna be easy. We may have to be really intentional in choosing that joy, but we always have a reason for it. Why, why though? Why should we choose joy? Why should we give thanks in all circumstances and do everything without complaining or arguing?

Well, good news, Paul gives us the answer right here. Verse 15-16, "You may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life." It's so that you look different. As Christ followers, we're not supposed to look like everybody else. We're not supposed to look like the culture or the world around us. We're supposed to look different. These words blameless and pure, it's like the innocence of children, or it can also have this connotation of a sheep that doesn't have horns, a hornless sheep that can't even do harm if it wanted to. Our words, our complaining and grumbling could do harm, maybe to our own souls or maybe to those around us. So if we are blameless and pure, we can be like innocent sheep who are not doing harm. This even goes back to chapter one of Philippians, verse 27 says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Complaining, arguing, grumbling, that is not in a manner worthy of Christ. Now, a little caveat here, this is different than processing. This is different than maybe stating facts for a situation that you may be experiencing. Sometimes we need to share what we're going through. Sometimes we need to process with someone. But there's a difference. When you are just complaining or whining or trying to be difficult or divisive, You're not looking for a solution. You just want to be upset. That's different than crying out to God. There's a whole book of the Bible called Lamentations where the author is lamenting to God. It's not called complaining, it's lamenting. He's pouring out his heart to God. There are seasons that we're gonna go because it hurts just plain hard. And we can lament, we can bring those things to Him. We can say, God, here's what is going on. Can you help me please? But we're looking for a solution. And more importantly, we're looking for more of Him. We're taking our circumstances to Him. We're taking our struggles. We're taking our list of complaints maybe, and saying, God, I really wanna complain about this, but can you help me with this? Be enough for me. Be with me in this situation. We don't have to look very far to find complaining. It's an election year. We don't have to look very far to find complaining, arguing, divisiveness. It's easy to find. But we're called to be different.

Paul here in this passage, there's quotation marks. I don't know if you've noticed in your Bible, what it says, in quotations, it says, "Children of God without fault "in a warped and crooked generation." Here he's quoting Deuteronomy 32:5. And this is Moses talking in the Deuteronomy passage. He's talking about the nation of Israel. At first I thought, just thinking, not without researching it, I thought, oh, he must be talking about the neighboring nations of Israel. No, no, no, no. He was talking about Israel, the chosen people of God. He was saying, "You are a warped and crooked generation." Because they were grumbling. Because they were constantly complaining to God and not trusting Him with their circumstances. Paul saying, "Don't be like rebellious Israel." The thing about complaining and arguing is that it's a form of rebellion in our hearts. When I was reading this passage and I realized that Paul was referring to the Israelites here, I thought, "Oh man, these are the people of God and they're complaining and they're rebelling." So when we complain, when we grumble, when we choose that over gratitude and over trusting God, it is a form of rebellion in our hearts and all that hurts, I hate that. because I can't tell you how many times I have a spirit of arguing and complaining and grumbling. But when we choose to be joyful, when we choose gratitude, when we flip the script and say, "I could very easily complain about this, but I'm gonna take it to God instead," we are pushing back against our innate bent towards rebellion. And then we stand out like stars, like light in a night sky. I love what a commentator wrote on this part of this passage. He said, "We are to fulfill our place as lights in the world." Lights are used to make things evident. Lights are used to guide. Lights are used as a warning. Lights are used to bring cheer. Lights are used to make things safe. Paul knew that the lights were in a bad place. Instead of excusing the lights for not shining, Paul knew that their position made it all the more important that they shine. Being in a dark place is a greater incentive to shine. We don't need an excuse to not shine. We need to go out into the dark world and be a light. I'm not talking about toxic positivity or brushing things under the rug because you wanna put on a face and look like you have it all together. I'm saying true joy, when we experience true life transformation, we shine. We can't help it. And we do this by holding firmly to the word of life. Scripture, the Bible. We have to be in the word, we have to study it, we have to know it. So when we are tempted to go towards that bent of rebellion, when we're tempted to complain or be divisive or argue, we have scripture to call upon. That's why I had my kids memorize it so that they know, oh no, I'm complaining or arguing, but no, I can choose a different option. We hold fast to it. We hold strongly to it and don't let it go. so that we are prepared and equipped to choose joy.

Paul wraps up this section by saying, "And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Paul here is saying that if the people of Philippi, people he's writing to, the church he's writing to, if they choose joy over complaining and they continue to work out their faith, all of his sacrifice will be worth it. He has poured himself out. He has emptied himself for this ministry to spread the gospel and he's saying, I'm good. It's worth it because you're working out your salvation. you're paying it forward and spreading the gospel beyond what I can reach. He knew Christ was coming back. He didn't know when, but he knew that Jesus was coming back.

So his heart's desire was that the people that he ministered to would live out the heart transformation that God did in their lives. He hopes that whatever transformation and the therefore behavioral change that came of that, that they would go and continue to spread the gospel, that they would share what God did in their hearts and lives and that other people would hear about Jesus. So how do we have hope or sorry, how do we have joy that endures? We work out our faith like a muscle. We work out our salvation. We choose gratitude over complaining, even when it's hard and even when it's unpopular. It's easy to get caught up in the gossip or the complaining when you're hanging out with friends or when you post on social media and you just wanna jump in. So easy. Maybe unpopular to change the conversation or to not partake in it. But we can choose gratitude instead of complaining. And lastly, be a light to those around us. Like a star guiding others to Jesus, pointing them to Him. Because He's our joy. He is our joy regardless of our circumstances, regardless of what we're going through. So like Paul, we can know that Christ is coming back. And so therefore we should choose joy too. When we're working out our faith, when we're striving to be more like Christ, and then others around us will see it. Be like a beacon, like a lighthouse, pointing the way to Jesus and a relationship that can be found with Him.

Philippians: Part 3

Philippians: Part 3 - Imitation & Limitation

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

The great philosopher Aristotle says, "To imitate is code natural to human beings from childhood. And in this, they differ from other animals because they are the most imitative and produce their first acts of understanding by means of imitation. Also, everyone delights in imitations. I was a great philosopher, Aristotle. If you think of a baby's first memorable interactions, some of them, most of them, are probably when they're imitating mom or dad. When they're growing up learning and maybe mom or dad are in their face saying "mama" or "dada" and then they say and they're imitating, and they bring such joy. Babies imitate facial expressions, tone of voice.

For any parents or those of you who have been around children, you know that part of their play is sometimes imitation. Whatever happened in their life, they're gonna imitate it and they're gonna play that out. I know for us, when Kinsley was going to preschool a couple years ago, we noticed that when she started coming home, and just from coming from preschool, she would want to play preschool. And so she'd bring all of her stuffed animals into the room and that she'd line them up, and she was imitating preschool. And so she was the teacher though, and one of us back here, I was a teacher's aide, and then all the stuffed animals were different kids, even to the point where some of the stuffed animals were ones that got in trouble, like the ones that got in trouble in real life. So she's like, "Hey, go put that bear in timeout," because it was not following instruction.

So imitation is a part of how we learn. You may have also heard this other quote, which is, "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery." You guys heard that? Yes? Well, I didn't know this, but did you know the full quote from Oscar Wilde says this, "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." Yeah, a little more negative outlook on things. That imitation is only a shell or a shadow of the original greatness. And at the same time, or sometimes people who imitate, people will think, does that person have anything original themselves? Are they just imitating because they can't do something great themselves? But at the same time, we know that imitation can be really positive. It can help someone become great. You think of an athlete or an artist. An athlete, someone who maybe is a kid who looks up to one of their favorite athletes, are going to do all the same drills, all the same techniques. Maybe they'll have the same diet. They want to practice how they're--maybe it's Steph Curry in basketball or something like that. They're going to shoot the way that Steph Curry shoots because they want to be like him. or an artist who is learning how to paint, they're going to imitate their favorite art. So they're going to paint the same scenes, they're going to use the same tools or the same kind of paint. Imitation can help people to become great. Imitation is a key in our cognitive development. Again, think of those babies or those children. They're learning for years and years from imitating emotion or responses, language, skills, even more. And so in many areas of our lives, we are called to imitate until we can do it ourselves, until we can own it and say, this is the way that I do it. Like artists finding their own style or even parenting. Are you parents out there? You're maybe copying what your parents did until you kind of find your own rhythm, figure out now this is the way that I wanna do it. But you start in a place of maybe imitating. Imitation is something that God created. It's a fundamental part of how humans learn, and it's also a fundamental part of the Christian life. As followers of Jesus, who do we imitate? Maybe we imitate someone who's discipling us or a mentor. Maybe we have a favorite character in the Bible and we imitate them. Ultimately, we are imitating Christ. However, unlike these other areas of our lives where eventually we move on from imitating, in the Christian life it's a bit different. We never grow out of imitating Jesus. We imitate Jesus for life. Imitation of Christ as God has been in the Bible since the beginning.

In Genesis, the Trinity says at creation, "Let us make humanity in our image." We have examples like Elisha who imitated Elijah. Some of the good kings in the Old Testament were trying to imitate the best kings, David and Solomon. In the New Testament, we have the disciples who were taught to imitate Jesus. In our passage today in Philippians, Paul is instructing them to imitate Jesus as well. The problem is when someone is a new believer today and they don't know who Christ is, how can they imitate someone that they don't know? And people today don't have the privilege, as the disciples did, of walking with Jesus, being around Jesus, they gotta spend three years with him, learning the way he responded, learning his characteristics and his thoughts and how he processed. We don't have that. So how are we supposed to do it? How are we supposed to imitate Christ if Jesus isn't walking the earth today? Well, Paul addresses that in his letter. And so the goal for us today is to learn who Christ is in order to imitate Christ in our lives. Just pray with me again. God, thank you again for your word, for your truth. We pray right now that you would open up our hearts and minds to receive what your spirit is guiding us to. We want to have a deeper understanding of who Christ is and what he does, and so that we can live out being Christ in our lives. God, I pray that through your spirit, you would convict where conviction is needed. You would encourage where encouragement is needed. that we would rely on you for everything. We pray this in your name, amen. All right, so we're gonna go, if you wanna open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter two, and we're gonna start in verse five, and we're gonna go verse by verse and see what Paul says.

So it says in verse five, "In your relationship with one another, "have the same mindset as Christ Jesus," verse six, "who being in very nature God "did not consider equality with God "something to be used to his own advantage." We'll pause right there. First of all, we see that Paul is explaining that Jesus is God. We believe in the Trinity, three persons, one God, and Jesus is God. And so for the Philippians hearing it, knowing that there was a God out there, and if they're Christians, they know of God, and they think of the Old Testament, and all the stories they may have heard of the God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel who did all these things and was this certain way, Paul is trying to make the connection, Jesus is that God. We know that God is loving and kind, compassionate, slow to anger, a redeemer, merciful, a sustainer, and so much more. And Jesus is that very person. Jesus is God. And almost immediately, Paul also gets to Jesus's humility. Jesus does not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Paul here is trying to compare Jesus to all the people who came before who made that mistake of trying to, who considered equality with God something to be achieved, something to be had. If we go all the way back to the very beginning in the garden, we think of Adam and Eve. When they took that fruit, we're thinking, this is what it's gonna take for me to be like God. I want this. I can be like, I can be God. I can do this on my own. We think of the Tower of Babel, and them building this tower to the very top, to the heavens to say, I can be at this, we can be at the same level as God. We can be like God. Think of Pharaoh in the Old Testament, another cheap imitation of a God who thought himself at that level of God. Or the Israelites making their own gods kept falling away from Yahweh and trying to do it themselves. All of them considered equality with God something to be grasped. And Jesus, who absolutely is equal with God, because he is God, well, he, even he knows his role and knows what he has to do and he humbles himself.

You're taking notes on who Jesus is and therefore what you're supposed to do. First note, don't consider equality with God something to be grasped. It never works that well. Let's continue in verse seven. It says, "Rather, he made himself nothing "by taking the very nature of a servant "being made in human likeness." He didn't arrive as a king. He didn't arrive as a demigod or some sort of in-between, but he took on the lowest role, a servant. Jesus empties himself to serve humanity. And we see Jesus instruct his disciples to do the same in Mark 10:45, it says, "For even the Son of Man came "not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life "as a ransom for many." So that instruction that Jesus gives his disciples goes for us today too. We are to serve others. Jesus emptied himself to serve, taking on human flesh, what we call the incarnation, what we celebrate every Christmas. Jesus came to do that, lowered himself to serve others. Verse eight, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. We are now moving from Jesus' pre-incarnate humility to Jesus' incarnation and passion. So in verse six, we see what Christ did not do, which was consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but in verse eight we see what Christ did do, and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And Paul makes that emphasis because he knows that his audience, the church in Philippi, would know that that punishment, that death on a cross, is beyond just "he died." That death on a cross says something. It was significant because it was reserved by the Romans for the worst slaves, the most gruesome and horrifying and humiliating death. Cicero, a Roman philosopher and statesman, writes this about crucifixion. He says, "Crucifixion was the worst extreme of the tortures inflicted upon slaves. To bind a Roman citizen is a crime. To flog him is an abomination. To slay him is almost an act of murder. To crucify him is what? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed. And while Christ isn't a Roman citizen, that description of Christ's death still is true. This was absolutely the worst thing that Christ could have endured. Paul also says that Christ was obedient to the point of death, And so thinking of Christ's obedient death brings us to one of the most significant moments of Christ's obedience, and that is in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is having a conversation with God. If you remember, He took His disciples there, and He went off a little bit farther, and they were supposed to pray, and they fell asleep. So it's okay, even disciples fall asleep. Just know that today. But He goes a little bit farther, and he's praying with everything he has to God, asking God, "Is there any other way?" And he knows that there isn't, but he's having this intense discussion and he submits himself to God the Father and carries on. And the rest we know. He's taken away, goes through the trial, he's punished, he's tortured, and he's crucified. "but Christ was obedient continuously." Gordon Fee, a theologian writes this, "Here is where the one who as equal with God "has most fully revealed the truth about God, "that God is love and that his love expresses itself "in self-sacrifice, cruel, humiliating death on a cross "for the sake of those he loves." Paul is writing to the Philippians, hammering this home in their heads that the Christian life is one of humility and sacrifice. Humbling yourself, even to possibly humiliating extents, sacrificing yourself to love others. That's what the cross represents. That's what we are called to. It's the life Jesus lived, and that's what we are to imitate.

Verse nine, "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place "and gave him the name that is above every name." Paul has shown how Jesus has emptied himself, humiliated himself by obedience to the point of death on a cross. And now we see that God the Father drastically changes the status of Jesus, exalting Jesus to the heavens. God exalts him to the highest place and then gives Jesus the name that is above every name, Lord or Christ. In verse 10, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. So we have this picture in our minds of all of humanity, all of creation, bowing down to Jesus, worshiping and submitting to the sovereignty of Christ. And then in verse 11, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. You think of all the times that humanity's words, God's own creation has spoken against God, has rebelled against God, has paid lip service to something evil, to themselves, to their own desires, and how much that pains God, how much that hurts Him and saddens Him, And yet there will be a time when all of heaven and earth will be praising Jesus. It's a beautiful picture. And going to our larger series of Philippians, it's one that gives us hope and joy in the midst of suffering. So Paul has answered this question in a very short form. Who is this Jesus that we are supposed to imitate? Well, Jesus is God. He humbled himself by becoming a servant. He was obedient to the point of death and then exalted by God and will be praised by heaven and earth. So we follow kind of a timeline of Jesus. He starts up high, he goes to the lowest of lows and then he's exalted again. We are to imitate that. We don't start up high, we start here on earth, which is a lowly place. But then we have the same destination. If we believe in Jesus, we also get to be exalted with Christ to heaven. So this section, verses six through 11 that we just read, is actually an early hymn. We don't know if Paul wrote it or if he's quoting someone, but it is a beautiful synopsis of the gospel. You get everything. If someone ever asks you, who is Jesus? You can bring it right here. Philippians 2:6-11. They'll tell you exactly who Jesus is and what he did. And it's really, this part is also pivotal to the whole letter. It's kind of the central point that Paul puts at the center of his letter. And the whole theme of unity, of joy, of enduring suffering is gonna come back to this. If you understand who Christ is, it will help you in whatever situation you find yourself in.

As you try to imitate, as you try to endure, as you try to be unified as a church, as we remember that the Philippians were dealing with the possible division, if you come back to this, if you remember who Christ is, and therefore who you are supposed to be, it will tell you and instruct you and guide you in those situations. And so, now I wanna go back to the beginning of our passage. Given that we have this understanding of who Christ is, let's read verses one through five. It says, "Therefore, if you have any encouragement "from being united with Christ, "if any comfort from His love, "if any common sharing in the Spirit, "if any tenderness and compassion "that make my joy complete by being like-minded, "having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind, "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. "Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, "not looking to your own interests, "but each of you to the interests of the others, "and your relationship with one another "have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." If you were to even go back to chapter one and read, now having read verses six through 11, there'll be more for you to get out of those passages. But Paul gives three specific requests or instructional asks to the Philippians, and it's what we as a church need today too. So the first one is be unified with Christ. Have the same love. Be one in spirit and mind. Again, remember the church in Philippi is going through a rocky time There's possible division, and Paul has spoken for the need for unity before in this letter, and he's emphasizing it again. As Christians, we are to be unified in Christ, in spirit and in mind, and have the same love that Jesus had. Be unified with Christ.

We talked about this in week one, this partnership that we have with Christ. We are partners in the ministry. He is doing a work for his kingdom, and we get to partner with him and do that work as well. So work together with Christ. Number two is be humble. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Value others above yourself. Now we hear that and we're like, yeah, got it, done. I will try to think of others. It's a lot easier said than done. When we get into life, when we were at work or whatever situation, we very quickly think of our needs. We very quickly become selfish. I don't wanna do that. That does not benefit me. That's not gonna happen, 'cause I will then suffer in this way, so nope. But Jesus lived a different life, and Paul is calling us to also live a different life. Be humble, value others above yourself. You know who doesn't do this? Are people who consider themselves the best, or people who think that they are the most important and the world revolves around them. People who, whether consciously or subconsciously, might consider equality with God something to be grasped. So don't do this, be humble. And if you're thinking, man, it's really hard to be humble, to humble myself, think of Jesus in the garden before dying on the cross. And if Jesus can humble himself to that point, surely we can humble ourselves in the moments that we have in our lives. And why do we need to humble ourselves with the third point that Paul says is to be a servant. Not looking to your own interests, but looking to the interests of others. We need to serve as Christ served. And Christ served and loved and reached everyone, not just the convenient people in his life, not just the ones of a certain status or who made a certain amount of money. Jesus served even the least of those around him. The ones, and those are the ones that we should have in mind for us. As we go about our days and our lives, we should be looking to serve those who are in need. So, like Christ, as we imitate, we are to be unified in Christ, be humble like Christ, and be a servant like Christ. And I wanna end with some questions. Just as you are taking this all in, as the spirit I'm praying is working in you, I want you to reflect on your life.

So the first question is this, in your situation in life right now, whether at work or in your marriage or in friendships, at school, with your neighbors, as a leader, or maybe as a follower, how are you participating in the life of Jesus? Do you have the same heart and mind that Jesus had? Are you imitating Christ in your situation? Now you may not be called to die on a cross, please no, we don't want that, but are you dying to yourself every day? Becoming humble and becoming focused on serving others. I said at the beginning of our series that Paul over and over again is going to invite to participate in the life of Jesus. And after hearing who Jesus is, he immediately says, all right, are you gonna do this? Are you gonna be like Jesus? Second question is what would it look like if we imitated Jesus in every aspect of our lives? This is the point where you just kind of, you play that out in your head, whatever situation that you were drawn to, that is maybe that God is putting on you, what would it look like if you were to truly imitate Jesus? I don't know if you grew, I grew up with this certain bracelet and it was called, "What Would Jesus Do?" I loved it. I had a book, used one as a bookmark, had like four of them on my wrist growing up. And it's a simple question, but I love the question. What would Jesus do? Whatever situation you find yourself in, whether it's the need to respond or whether it's to act or not act or whether it's processing inside, what would Jesus do? How would Jesus process what just happened? How would Jesus respond to what just happened? What would Jesus not do? I want to do this, maybe Jesus wouldn't. What would it look like if you imitated Jesus in every aspect of your life, being selfless, loving, serving others? You're not considering equality with God, something to achieve in that moment, but your obedience to God, even to the point of earthly humiliation. Being humiliated is not easy for anyone. None of us like it. It's not good. Not a fun situation to be in.

But I like this quote from Charles Spurgeon, a great English preacher. He wrote, "Do you expect to be honored "in a world where your Lord was crucified?" I read that one and I was very convicted. What am I expecting of the world? How am I expecting the world to view me if even the world crucified our Lord and Savior? Part of partnering with Jesus in this life is accepting the fact that we may be humiliated as we serve, as we love. Next question is, do you live with the future hope of being glorified as Christ and being with God in heaven. I have a dad who is slowly fading away due to Alzheimer's. And heaven is on the mind a lot, not for me, but for him. And I was having this conversation with Chris Lindsay this week, just more about heaven and how close it really is. So does the future reality of your exaltation to be with God in heaven bring you joy in your current situation? Does being with God in the future bring you joy in your suffering, knowing that this is whatever experience, it has an end. It's not gonna be forever. And that God tells us, he gives us glimpses of what being with him is gonna be like. no more pain, no more suffering, no more sadness, no more sorrow, no more brokenheartedness. I know for me it makes me so joyful to think of my dad whole again with God. So whatever situation you find yourself in, Think of that future joy and cling to it. Rest in it, rejoice in it. And the final question for you this morning is are you trying to imitate Christ on your own? You see, our imitation of Christ has limitations. We can't be like Jesus without Jesus. We need him to pour into us, to give us strength, love, mercy, compassion, grace, whatever it is, in order for us to give that to other people. We are finite, we have the limits, we have an end. So after loving so much, we're like, I'm drained, I'm done, I have nothing else to give. Exactly, maybe some of you are coming here this morning like I'm exhausted, I got nothing to give, I'm showing up. That's okay, be poured into in this moment. That's what this is for. But even throughout your week, You have to rely on God. You have to rely on him to be your source in order to love other people. So whatever situation, again, that you find yourself in, the one that is testing you the most in life right now, depend on Jesus, rely on him. Ask him to give you what you need. If you know you're going into a situation, you're like, "God, I got nothing. "You know where I'm on, the tank is on E." Pray, "God, give me what I need right now. Give me words to say, give me the energy, give me love to have with these people who are annoying to no end. Give me the grace, ask God, be talking with him, but you can't do it on your own. You have a limitation, you're finite. It's just the way it is. And that's okay because really that's a good thing that makes us rely on God. So remember that you're not God, but we have God within us through his spirit who dwells within us and gives us what we need and guides us through our day. And for that, are we not grateful? Amen?

Let's go ahead and pray. God, thank you again for your word. Thank you for Paul's words, who gives us a very clear image of who Jesus is and how we need him, how we're not God, but how we are called to be like Jesus. And that's our desire. I pray that that desire in each of us would grow. And God, I pray that through this week, you would help through your spirit to guide us. Whatever we find ourselves in, in conversation or in a situation where we have to make a decision or with our kids where we need to be a good parent or be a good husband and wife, whatever it is, God, I pray that you would help us to know how to be like Jesus in those moments. Such a simple thought and yet it's so hard. Help us to rely on you. Give us what we need. We pray that prayer of the Lord, give us our daily bread, not just physical food, but Lord, what we need to get through each day. God, you are good. We praise you for that. We trust you. We know that you are working things out for your glory. Thank you for the opportunity to partner with you. God, I pray that you would encourage us along the way, empower us along the way. And that you would use each of us to further your kingdom. We give you all the glory. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.

Philippians: Part 2

Philippians: Part 2 - Moving Toward A Positive Attitude

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Just a great opportunity to be here and share with you this morning. Now last week, we started this Philippians series that was started last week by Pastor Andre, and I had a chance to listen to that online because I wanted to get a little idea of what he was talking about. He did a great job of giving an overview of how the church in Philippi started, but he had a statement that he used in there that was kind of the key, I believe it was, to what he was sharing with, and he said that we have talked about partnerships that we have, and he says we have a partnership with Christ and with each other. And that's vital to grab a hold. I want to remind us of that, that we have a partnership with Christ and with each other. And that's so vital to a faith community, to understand our partnership with each other and with Christ. And I'm excited to be a part of this series because Philippians is my favorite book in the Bible, and my favorite verse in the Bible is Philippians chapter two, verse five. I remembered it and memorized it out of what's called the J.B. Phillips translation when I was in high school, and that was about a minute ago that I was there. And here's how I memorized it. I've never forgot this. It simply says this. “Let Christ Jesus be your example as to what your attitude should be.” And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

We're going to talk about how Paul helps us to understand the imperativeness and the importance of having the right attitude. And I love the fact that Paul talks about this because you think about where he's writing from. He's not writing from an ivory tower. As was mentioned last week, he's writing from being imprisoned. He is chained between two guards. He can't go anywhere. And then around him swirling is all this controversy that's happening in the church. And so he's writing from that perspective, and I think that's important for us to see and to hear, because sometimes we think, well, only time people talk about having a good attitude and when things are going well for them. And Paul talks about this in his context. And I will say this. This is something I've learned, and maybe you've learned this as well, is that it is It's much easier for me to have a positive perspective about your problems than my problems. Ever find that to be true? Oh yeah, when with someone else's problems we have a good attitude towards that and we also somewhere if you're like I am in the back of your mind you're going, "Man, I'm better you than me in that situation." And so we're going to talk about how Paul talks with us and shares with us about how how we can move towards a positive attitude that we can choose, foundational in our relationship with Jesus Christ. And we, you know, we hear like today, you know, some people will say, "Well, it's partly cloudy or can it be partly sunny?" We say, "Is the glass half full or half empty?" My dad used to always say, "A tire is only flat on the bottom." Which is actually true, but still odd, by the way. So we have these perspectives that we begin to gear in life. Sometimes we say, well, we have all these problems, and some people say, no, you really have opportunities. And a lot of times that's just it. It's just very contrasting kind of situations that we find ourselves in.

And Paul, as he is talking about this, he gets to a point where he allows us, through his word as he's writing this letter, and we're going to be looking at Philippians chapter 1 verses 12 through 26 as we begin to look at this and as Paul talks to us. So if you have a Bible with you or if you happen to be having it on your app or whatever it might be, open it up as we can follow along together. Now I'm using the New Living Translation, so if yours is a little bit different than what mine says, that would explain that particular thing. And I just want to share several practical things about how you and I can move toward a positive attitude as Paul talks to us from his situation. And I want to remind us again, even though I've already said it, that he is writing from a difficult situation. He's writing from prison. He's where he doesn't want to be. He's in a situation and his circumstances are not the best. And in the meantime, around him is all this controversy, and it's from this context that Paul writes and we can pull principles for us from his life as he shares it along the way. The first thing is this, if we want to move towards a positive mindset, then we need to change our attitude, or excuse me, change our outlook, change your outlook. Verse 12 says this, "And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to to me here has helped to spread the good news. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear." So what was he doing? In the midst of this situation, he was saying, "Yeah, I know where I'm at here." But he chooses to look at the, I guess you could say, the bright side of the situation. He changes his outlook. He moves from just where he is to what's happening out there. He says, "Well, yes, I'm here, "but the gospel's being spread." He said, "I'm here, but the believers who are not here "are getting boldness and confidence in their sharing." He chose not to look at his current reality, which was his imprisonment. Instead he looked at what that imprisonment was providing for the greater perspective. You see, Paul refused to see him as a captive. In fact, here's what I think I think. I think he actually saw the guards as the ones that were imprisoned. You see, he's chained between these two guards, and he's there and he's sharing his testimony. He's telling about Jesus. They can't go anywhere. Maybe you're at the office sometime and you have the opportunity to share your faith story and people say, "Well, excuse me, I've got to go over here right now." They can't do that. They're more in prison than he is. Because they have a job, they have to stand and listen to him as he shares his story. And so, as we go through our life, there are times when we just have to simply choose to change our outlook.

Now, some of you here know Joni, my wife, and we've been married. Are you ready for this? I haven't said it yet. This is pretty good. I know. Well, this coming June, we'll be married 49 years. We got married when we were 10, but that's okay. We're, you know, 49 years. And back in the '80s, this is the 1980s, not the 1880s, okay? Back in the 1980s, Joni was having some problems with her neck. We didn't know what it was, and she was, we were going to some doctors and chiropractor and everything, and trying to get this. She even went to a dentist and he said it was your wisdom. Anyway, all these problems in her neck. And finally, we got it diagnosed. And we found out that she had had, in her top part of her spinal column, the vertebrae had collapsed on itself. that's what was causing it, she didn't have any feeling in her hands, the whole thing. We found out really in all intents and purposes, she had a broken neck. And so when we got it taken care of, of course we saw we had to get it taken care of, and we found out later that the problem was that she had this slow growing tumor that had been there, benign thankfully, that had been there since she was probably a little girl because it's typically there in the lives of young people, kids, not adults. And so the perspective was that probably over all these years, slowly this tumor was growing and hollowing out this vertebrae, and it collapsed upon itself. So she went in for surgery. They had to pull her neck, stretch her neck like this, put in a-- she actually has a cow bone in her colon. I said, well, I thought it might be the bone of an ass. I'm really glad that that's what it is. We won't go any further than that. Anyway, and so she had to be in some form of a neck support for a year, for 12 months. And so when we were-- finally she got home. We had some friends of ours, Jim and Mary Ann. And Mary Ann was a wonderful lady, a good friend of Joni's. And so for many weeks, she came over at least once a week, and she cleaned the house. Because Joni couldn't do it. She looked at me and said, I know you're not going to do it. We had little kids, of course, at that time. So she came over every day and cleaned the house and was and would visit with Joni Well, we were with them just about a week ago Hadn't really hadn't seen him in many many years. We reconnected that actually had a memorial service So mutual friends and so we got together and Mary Ann told this story She said when I would come over and and and Joni would have this neck brace on She said Joni would always say to her I can be a pain or I can be a blessing and I'm choosing to be a blessing. You see Joni changed her outlook in that situation and then Mary Ann went on to say she goes Joni I've never forgotten that. In fact, I tell people constantly when they're going through challenging times you can be a pain or you can be a blessing.

So that's what we're talking about here in everyday life and situation that we encounter and circumstance that we don't anticipate And it may not even be that big of a thing in your life, but it's big to you. Here's the thing Problems are always bigger when there are problems Which is true But yet Paul says that regardless our situation we can change our outlook Then he goes on and gives us the next thing that we can do and apply to our lives that we want to clarify the situation In verses 15 through 17 it says it is true Now look how Paul lays this out He says it is true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry But others preach about Christ with pure Motives they preach because they love me for they know I have been appointed to defend the good news Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition not sincerely intending to make my change more painful to me So so what are you doing? He is he is laying out the reality of the situation see sometimes people say when you have a more of a positive than a negative bent in your life is Because you are a pie in the sky kind of person which means that you just are living in a dream world world. That's not what it means. Paul is so aware of his situation. He's imprisoned. Some are preaching the gospel out of pure motives. Some are preaching because they have an ambition to be known as a speaker or a preacher, whatever it might be. And so he's very well aware of his situation. But the difference is that he's going to to make the decision to be positive anyway to look at what really is happening in all this situation he doesn't ignore this situation he is simply refuses to allow the situation to inform how he is going to respond and I recognize this is much easier said than done because well you're in the fire of a situation. Even though we know that we can be the ones to choose how to respond, it can sometimes become very difficult for us. And this was what Paul was talking about. I love the story. It's a parable. I don't think it's true, but it makes a point. There were two shoe salesmen that were sent to an island to sell shoes, to expand the business of the company they worked for. When they got there, they discovered that everybody there was barefoot. So one of the gentlemen texted back to his company, said, "I need to come back. Everybody here doesn't wear shoes." The other salesman texted his company and said, "Send more shoes. No one here wears shoes." Same situation, different perspective. That's all it is. And Paul says that here's the situation, but this is going to be my perspective. Thirdly, he says, choose response, choose your response to life. Because he just laid out all these things that are going on. Some are preaching the gospel for good reasons, Some are out of impure motives and selfish ambition.

And then he says in verse 18, "But that doesn't matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached. Either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice, for I know that as you pray for me in the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, "This will lead to my deliverance." I love that. He says, "This is what's going on, but what does it really matter? The important thing is happening. Jesus is being proclaimed. The gospel is being preached. That really doesn't matter. We'll let everything else sort itself out at this point, but we see what's really going on here." And I love how he says this. He says, "Christ is being preached either way." And at least this is how I kind of see or sense how he might be saying this. He says, "So I rejoice." And then I kind of envision him pausing for a minute and thinking, "And I will continue to rejoice." Like, "Let me give you some thought, "and I'm gonna keep doing this, "'cause it's the right thing to do." James Clear, who is a business author, I don't know if he's a believer or not, but he wrote a book called The Atomic Habits, and here's what he says. He says, "I can't control the other person's behavior, but I can control my response. Their actions may be rude or unacceptable, but I will want my response to be measured and thoughtful. Even if they aren't doing what is right, I will want to make sure I'm doing what is right. That's what Paul is saying. He actually is parodying Paul. He may not know it, but he is. I used to tell my kids, and now I tell my grandkids, I say, "You cannot control what people say about you. you can control if what they say is true. That's all you can control. People may say, I mean, I can call all kinds of things. Probably you have too. Throughout my life, some things have been said to me that I knew were rightly not true, but you know what? I can't control that. All I can control is what that person has said is true. And the same with any of us here. People may talk about us and talk about you or whatever, but you can't control that and try to go back and try to control it, it will just cause frustration. Instead, all you can control is if what they're saying is true. Number four, he says, he has confidence in the outcome. Confidence in the outcome.

So, verse 20, "For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ as I have been in the past and I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ whether I live or die." See, Paul was confident. He had an expectation that everything was going to work out well. It's another thing I learned from my wife. She always says everything's is going to work out. Sometimes when she says that, I'm thinking, I think you're really wrong on this one. I'm not really sure everything's going to work out, but it usually does. I can remember as a kid, and my dad was a roofing contractor, self-employed, had his own business, and those of you who have had your own business know this principle in life. When you don't work, you don't make money. So when I grew, growing up, I never knew what a vacation was. 'Cause we didn't take vacations. We'd come back from summer break, and of course you'd get to school, at least when I was a kid, they'd always say, tell us about your summer vacation. And I always thought, well, it was pretty much like it was before I left, I didn't, nothing. However, we did do one thing most summers. We lived in San Diego, by the way, and we would make a trip to Disneyland up in Anaheim. We'd drive up there. Now, back in the day, we didn't have the freeway system that we do now, so it was a little bit longer to get there. And back in the day, Disneyland wasn't surrounded by all these hotels and other things going on. As we would drive up there, the thing that you could see first was always the Matterhorn. Do they have the Matterhorn anymore? I don't know, but Mountain, the Matterhorn. And so as we got closer, my dad knew we would be getting closer, he would always say, "Who's gonna be the first one to see the Matterhorn?" So we had this expectation and we would anticipate it, and we would look because we knew as soon as we saw the Matterhorn, we were almost there. And here's Paul talking about, "I have this expectation that I will not be ashamed. I will continue to be bold for Christ." He has this expectation and when we have that we can have more of a positive mental perspective on things. And then lastly he says we have to be controlled by Christ. See when when you hear this and if we don't we don't understand the foundation of all of this, I think well that's just kind of a rah-rah positive mental attitude kind of sharing. No, it is, but it's not because what we can conjure up, it's because of that we are controlled by Christ.

It says in verse 21, "For to me living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more faithful work in Christ, so I really don't know which is better. I'm torn between two desires. I long to go to be with Christ which would be far better for me, but for your sakes it is better I continue to live. Knowing this, I am convinced that I remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. And when I come to you again, you have even more reason to take pride in Christ Jesus because of and what He has been doing through me. See, knowing our standing in Christ allows us to stand in any circumstances that we encounter, but the foundation is our relationship with Jesus Christ. Knowing God is sovereign, which literally just means He has everything under control, ultimately. Even though there are times it seems like He has nothing under control. But he has everything under control. When we know that God is sovereign and ultimately he has everything under control, we can rest and trust in what he is doing and will do. When we know Christ, we know that he wants to do things in us and through us. In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 15 and 16, we read these words. So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Because we know Christ. Because we have a foundation in Him, then we can live wisely. We can make the most of every opportunity that comes across our paths in Christ. Now on most school days, I would go over and pick up my nine-year-old grandson to take him to school. when I drop him off on the curb at school, I always say two things, always, two things to him. I say, "Miles, I love you, and," ready for this, "make it a great day." And I want to emphasize the fact that I ask him to make it a great day, because what do usually people say? "Have a great day? That kind of leaves a lot to chance, doesn't it? Have a great day, well maybe something goes on you don't want, but I don't know if I can have that great year, but if I say, make it a great day, I'm communicating, no I get it, I get it, he's nine, I get it. So maybe it's more for me than for him, I don't know. But when I say, make it a great day, I'm saying, Miles, you got a lot of choices during this day, you're gonna have a lot of opportunities. Make it a great day. You choose the kind of day you're gonna have. You take responsibility for your day. Now again, I don't say all that stuff, but that's the underlying meaning. Maybe when he gets older, he'll understand that. I get it. Like I said, he's nine. When we begin to look for the best things that can happen daily, it's making the most of every opportunity. So no matter what encountered throughout the day because you may have a foundation in Jesus, you can look and say, "I'm looking for the opportunity in this. I'm gonna look and see what God is doing in this. I'm gonna see how I might be used by God in this. I want to see what God has to teach me in this." And so you begin to understand that life is and Jesus is what we make it and as we're open and responsive to him as I mentioned before foundational to all of this foundational to all that Paul was talking about in this passage was he had a relationship with Jesus Christ that he knew Jesus in an intimate way and he had the relationship with Jesus so that in In all these challenging times, he can be confident in who he is and who Jesus wants to be through him.

Now this morning you may have a, already have a relationship with Jesus, but yet maybe there are things that you haven't begun to realize that you can trust Jesus with, that he can help rearrange how you look at the things happen in your life. And this morning you may want to realize that, "Boy, I want to do what Paul says. I want to make sure I have more of a positive perspective because of what Christ is doing in me and through me and all the things that I encounter throughout any given day." Or you may not know Jesus in a personal way. You may know about Jesus, but you don't know Jesus. And you would like to have the opportunity to ask Christ to come into your life and to begin to transform you from the inside out. And I wanna give you that opportunity. So there actually are two things I'd like you to consider doing this morning. The first one is this, if you are a follower of Jesus, but you haven't really locked into the fact that God wants to use every situation in your life to build you up, to glorify his name, no matter how difficult they may be at any given time, then you want to commit yourself, Lord, help me to see things from your perspective. Help me to look for the positive in anything I come to grips with. Help me to know. And if you don't know Jesus, Very simple. You just gotta ask Him to come into your life and transform you and restore you in the right relationship with God. So in a moment, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna ask you to bow your heads. And prayer is simply talking to God. There's no magic formula. It's simply in your own words talking to God. So I'm gonna just give you just a few moments, And if you've not asked Jesus Christ into your life in your own way, ask him to come into your life and begin to transform your life. And if you know Jesus, then take this opportunity to just ask him to empower you to have the right perspective in the life that you encounter going out through this week. Just take a moment, quiet and do that. Father, you're doing a work in people's lives this morning. Father, for some it's the realization that they really haven't known you. They've known about you, but they haven't known you, and today they asked you to come into their life and to transform you, transform them to forgive their sins, and make you into the person that you, Lord, created them to be. And then, Father, there are some here who have been walking with you, but yet they've not trusted you in situations that they've encountered, they may be encountering right now. So God, I pray that you would simply confirm that you are present in their circumstances, confirm that they are your children, and that you want to be with them in everything, no matter what it may be, no matter how difficult it may be, that you want to be there with them. So Father, we give you honor and glory for what you've done in the lives of people this morning. And we ask that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Philippians: Part 1

Philippians: Part 1 - The Gift of Partnership

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I want to tell you a couple quick stories. In 2009, the CEO of Taco Bell began thinking that they needed to prioritize fresh new ideas for their business. They were doing well, but he thought they needed to keep pushing new things for Taco Bell customers. And a partnership was made in 2009 with another big company to collaborate on a product. That product is still around today. Any guesses on what Taco Bell and this collaboration might have, what they could be? Yes, okay, so this product wasn't introduced for another three years, but finally in 2012, the famous Doritos Locos Taco was introduced to the menu, and it quickly became a staple. The immediate success was so great that Taco Bell had to hire 15,000 new employees and start four new production lines at the Doritos Taco Shell company. So this, it was just huge. And yeah, it's still around today. Maybe some of you have had that taco. Different partnerships, Starbucks. Starbucks and Kraft, we all know crab, maybe mac and cheese, used to be partners. And Starbucks, great coffee. Kraft, massive food production company. And so they partnered together to help get Starbucks into the homes of people, not just at the stores, but they wanted to start selling whole beans to people so they could take them home and grind them up and have coffee at home. Well, in 2010, Starbucks wanted out of that partnership. They wanted to start making K-Cups for people that those new machines were coming out. And Starbucks said, we want that too. But they couldn't produce the K-Cups with Kraft, because the contract did not have that in there. And so Starbucks wanted to get out of their agreement. Before the contract was up, Kraft was not agreeing. And so they tried to have this settlement of, hey, we'll pay you this much if we can get out now. And Kraft said no. So Starbucks decided it was worth it anyways. They broke their contract and started making K-Cups. And it ended, or it went on for three years. This clash between the two companies, and it ended with Starbucks having to pay Kraft $2.75 billion.

So, I share these stories to say that a partnership can make or break a business, an adventure, and a good partnership, a healthy one, is beneficial for both sides. And today we're going to talk about the importance of good partnership. We just finished our Pre-decided series. We are very excited about that. How many of you from that series were encouraged or challenged to follow God in a new way? Or just, how many of you think that your year this year is going to be better because of the quality of your decisions? Yeah, raise of hands. Good. Yes. That is our prayer, that God would continue to speak to you and guide you through His Word and our time together. Well, as is our rhythm at Spring Valley Church, we're shifting now to go through a series, through a book of the Bible, and we're going to be beginning our series in Philippians. You may ask, "Why Philippians? How did we arrive here?" Well, as a pastoral team, a few months ago, as we were planning out this year, what we were going to cover on Sundays, we were praying about it and trying to decide or discern what God had for us. And we kept coming back to conversations that we were having with many of you. And at that time, the conversations revolved around hardships that you guys were going through, or hardships that you foresaw in the future going through. And the common question was, "How do I go through this hardship honoring God? How do I go through this thing well? Can't get out of it, this is kind of inevitable, it's happening right now, or I foresee that it's going to be happening, I know this is coming up and it's very difficult. How do I do that in a way that glorifies God?" And so as a team, as we were praying about that, we were drawn to the book of Philippians. Because as you were all talking about family or work or health-related issues, finances, living situations, children, the list goes on, we wanted to say, "What's a series that can meet all those things and talk about how to endure hardship?" And Paul writes a letter to the Philippians about having to endure hardship with joy. And the secret is that that joy is founded and sourced by Christ. So we're going to start this eight-week series. We're going to do it in two parts. We're gonna go four weeks starting now, then we're gonna stop for Easter, have a little Easter series break, and a small series after that, then we're gonna come back at the end of spring and finish our book of Philippians. And we're gonna be doing so, going verse by verse, an exegetical series, just drawing the truth out. And so our goal in this series is to connect and reinforce in our minds that being a Christian means participating in the life of Jesus in some way. Jesus lived a life of service, of suffering, of compassion, of generosity, of kindness, ministry, and so much more. And our lives in different seasons reflect some part of Jesus' life. We're going to learn that every aspect of our lives, whether service to sacrifice, can be used for God's kingdom, and in that, there is joy. And as we participate in the life of Jesus, We are deeply transformed by the Spirit's work in us. So there's an invitation at the beginning here, there's our series, to partner with Christ, and will you accept that partnership, that invitation? It's a foregone conclusion, as you well know, that we face hardships in life, but we have the decision, how are we going to endure them with joy? So that's what we're going to discover each week.

Let me go ahead and pray as we get started. God, thank you again for our time together. Thank you for everyone here, everyone who's watching online. We pray that you would meet us. As we come with humility and joy and eagerness to hear your word, we pray that through your spirit you would speak to us, draw us closer to you, and transform us to live more like Christ. We love you, God, and we pray this in your name, amen.

Before we get to our actual series, I wanna help us understand more of where Paul, the author of this letter, and the church of Philippi are at, the recipients of this letter. So, we have Paul. This is happening long, long ago. Around 8051, Paul's been doing ministry in Asia Minor, and he makes a big decision to shift gears and head towards Europe. And so, he starts heading in a new direction. His first stop is Philippi. And he meets a group of faithful women. He preaches the gospel, and he establishes the first congregation in Europe. Timothy, at this time, if you've heard of Timothy, there's other letters in our New Testament addressed to Timothy, played a huge role in this period of Paul's ministry. And the Church of Philippi is among the first believers to serve alongside and suffer with Paul. Specifically, Lydia, Euodia, and Syntyche. Don't check me on those. Those are people. Paul was in prison during this time for preaching the gospel. But God is with him because when he's in prison, the jailers were converted to Christianity. And this is evidence of how much the Spirit is at work through Paul in his ministry. Paul's then asked by the authorities to leave, and so he leaves the church in the hands of Luke, and he heads to Thessalonica, and it's a difficult trip. It's not easy. And so while he's there, the church of Philippi, that he's left, sends materials to Paul. And it's of great encouragement to him, both physically with those things, but also just spiritually, having that support from Philippi was a huge encouragement to him. Then Paul flees to Berea, to Athens, to Corinth. He's there in Corinth for 10 months where he again receives help from the church of Philippi, and then he returns to Antioch. And so Paul has this continued relationship with the church in Philippi. Wherever Paul went, despite the hardships that the church was facing, they had pre-decided to be generous and to support Paul. And so whatever they were going through, they were facing their own hardships. They still loved and encouraged Paul. Well, Paul's away. Unfortunately, the leadership of the church of Philippi falls into the sin of dissension. There are two leaders, two leaders that worked very closely with Paul, start to be pinned against each other. And so there's division, cracks of division in the church. And the general health of the church has just deteriorated. But here's where they made a great decision. Instead of letting that happen and letting the church divide and crumble and fall, they reach out for help. They know that they needed some spiritual help, and so they sent out Epaphroditus with a gift and asked Paul to say, "Hey, Paul, here's a new servant that you can use, a new helper. Can you send back Timothy? We love Timothy. Timothy was here with you while you were here. Can you send back Timothy to help?" Unfortunately, there are some complications as Epaphroditus gets sick, and he's unable to reach Paul, and Timothy wasn't able to return, and so, given all that, that storyline, now we reach the letter to the Philippians. This letter is what happened in lieu of all those things that were supposed to happen. Paul wanted to be there, whether by, in person or by sending someone, but the best he could do was write this letter to the church to encourage them. So, we haven't even opened the letter yet, but hopefully we have a fuller understanding of where the church is at, where Paul is at. The church needs help. They have a desire for truth and restoration and guidance, and Paul can't be there, but he wants to give that to them. So now let's open up.

If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians 1, or you can read along the screens. Today in our passage, Paul is going to teach us that partnership with each other is one one of God's gifts to experience a joy that endures. Partnership with each other is one of God's gifts to experience a joy that endures. Let's take a closer look at Paul's opening words and how important his partnership with the church of Philippi was. I'm gonna read the first two verses. It says, "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll pause right there. So again, Paul and Timothy, beloved disciples, give the Philippians their greetings. And compared to other letters, Paul at the beginning of other letters we'll read in the New Testament, he usually flexes his apostolic authorities. Like, hey, I'm Paul, I'm a big deal, and this letter is not good news. You're in trouble, let me set you straight. But this is different. This letter of Philippians is a friendship letter. Given that these were people, this was a church that suffered with them, served alongside him, he approaches them more as peers and say, "Hey, brothers and sisters in Christ, beloved ones." Also, Paul is trying to unify the people, reminding them of what connects them together, their partnership with Christ. As with any situation with tension or possible division or dissension, Paul wants to bring everyone in and get them on some common ground before addressing the issue. "Hey, all of you that I love, that you guys love each other in Christ." So he's establishing some common ground. And now Paul shares his thanksgiving and a prayer for the church. Let's continue reading in verse 3. It says, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart, and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Paul's now speaking in encouraging and loving words to his partners in ministry. I want to pause here and just ask what does a partnership in Christ mean? Well, as believers, we have a partnership with God. 2 Corinthians explains that we are co-laborers with Christ.

So we partner with God, serving God in His kingdom. Well, because we have a partnership with God, it also means that we have a unique partnership with each other. We are co-laborers too. So just like Paul is expressing to the early church in Philippi, we today have a special connection with each other as believers in the same church family, serving the same God and on the same mission, to serve His kingdom. Well, outside these walls, outside of a Sunday, we all kind of go our own way. Sometimes our lives intersect, but we, despite all that, we don't necessarily see each other every day like family typically does. We are a church family because we share this unique connection. We serve along God. We serve God alongside each other. And so this partnership in Christ with each other is essential for our Christian lives. I'm I'm gonna highlight a few things about this partnership. Partnership in Christ with each other is to be appreciated. Partnership in Christ with each other helps us endure. And partnership in Christ with each other encourages inner transformation. So that first one. Partnership in Christ with each other is to be appreciated. This is found in verses three through six. Paul is giving thanks for his ministry partners in Philippi. and he expresses that even in his difficult situation, being imprisoned, the thought of this church, miles and miles away, supporting him, praying for him, is of immense encouragement and brings him joy. And he takes time to appreciate them. We've preached this here before at Spring Valley Church that it is so important to appreciate good things in life, specifically those things that God brings into our lives. The world is so full of negativity, of complaining, of bickering, and this is what comes naturally. We are selfish, sinful people, and our hearts lean towards our own desires and can revolve around what we want, and we can make the whole universe revolve around us, and this usually ends up with us being discontent. But gratitude and thankfulness are vital to combating that. The more grateful we are, the more perspective we have, the more we surrender to God and realize that things are out of our control, the more trust we have in him. And so we can take Paul's example here and see that having partners in Christ is something to be thankful for. If you belong to this church, you can look around this room and say, "These are all people to be thankful for in your life." We have a community here at Spring Valley, a community based solely, primarily, on our belief in Jesus. We are united together in our love for him. Praise God for that. Partnership in Christ with each other is to be appreciated.

Secondly, partnership in Christ helps us endure. Remember that Paul is in prison during this time. He's in the midst of serious challenges and hardships, and yet he is remaining faithful to his mission to share the gospel, and he can do so because of the encouragement and support from his partners in Philippi. You see, on our own, we will come to the end of our limits very quickly. We have no one to lean on when we need rest. We have no one to encourage us when facing discouragement. We have no one to spur us on when we have no more desire left within us. On our own, it can be so hard to see the hope that is found in Christ. We are not meant to be alone. God acknowledged this with Adam in the garden all the way at the beginning of our Bibles by creating Eve as a co-laborer in the garden. I'm not just talking about romantic relationships. He gives Moses Aaron, he gives Naomi Ruth, He gives David, Jonathan, he gives Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas, other partners in ministry. God has created his people and his church in the same way. We are meant to be together. And it helps us endure all the hardships that we inevitably face. Romans 12 says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, "weep with those who weep, "live in harmony with one another." Those words are instructions for people who are meant to live in community, partnered together in Christ. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, we're all going through things. The common theme for many of us is going through situations that call for us to endure. They're not just one day problems that, hey, this one thing is coming up. It's, we're often going through seasons, long seasons of hardship. And that is taxing. Maybe it's a thing that we got from COVID, but some of us got used to being alone. Some of us hated the distance that COVID kind of put in this world and we missed people. We missed the relationships, we missed seeing people. Some of us didn't mind it, if we're being honest. Some of us were like, "Oh, less people, this is nice. I haven't seen people in a long time, no stress.” But maybe some of you got stuck in that, got used to something that wasn't good for you, and that's isolation. When you're isolated, you can't endure the hardships as long as you can with partners in Christ, in a community with Christ, at least not in the most healthy way. And the enemy loves to get people isolated. He wants them to feel alone and hopeless. If you go back into the Old Testament, into the Bible, so many of the issues where the enemy is confronting someone, they are alone. They aren't around the community they were supposed to be with. All the way back to the garden, and Eve, where's Adam at that point? She's alone. Enemy loves to get us isolated. But the Bible says, "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated. Two can stand back to back and conquer, but three are even better, for a triple braided "The immediate cord is not easily broken." Partnership in Christ with each other helps us endure those things. We are meant to be in community because in community we can endure.

And then thirdly, in verses nine through 11, partnership in Christ encourages inner transformation. This is found in the prayer that Paul prays to the people in Philippi. You see, there is work that the Spirit does within us that only really happens in community. How can we practice having compassion if not around people who need compassion? How can we practice generosity if we're never around people and have the opportunity to give? How can we love like Jesus has first loved us if we're not around people who need the love of Jesus? The opportunities that come from being in community are unique and are necessary in order to experience the inner transformation from the Spirit. Notice Paul's words here at the end. It says, his prayer for the church is that, their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. That love that Paul is talking about is not just an intellectual understanding, but an experiential understanding, acquired through acts of loving other people. Church, it's one thing to know that Jesus loves us through reading his word. That is good, and it's necessary, but it's a whole other thing to know Jesus loves us by experiencing the love of Jesus. And one of the biggest ways we experience the love of Jesus is through other people. And when this happens, what's produced within us is a sincerity of faith in Christian living. It's often easier to love others when first being loved, receiving love yourself. And so if you are a believer, if you claim to be a Christian, and you've received the love of Jesus, you are then able to share that love with other people. The language here that Paul uses also shares this idea of love that grows exponentially, abounding and existing in abundance. Paul wants the Philippians to have lots and lots of love in that church. A theologian, George Guthrie, writes, "Paul wants the Philippians to have loads of love "in their community. "He prays that this dynamic, super abundant love, "might be ever increasing, as the Philippians themselves "grow in the faith and as the community grows in size "through the advancement of the gospel." That should be our desire too. Here at Spring Valley, we want to be growing in faith and size as a community as we share the gospel. And also that our church here is known for how much we love each other. If people come and visit and they see how much we love each other, that is pointing them directly to Christ. And there's something that draws them in, I need that love, I want that love. Paul is praying that for the church in Philippi, and that's our prayer too. Partnership in Christ encourages inner transformation from a life of sin to a life following the way of Jesus, being able to love other people. Partnering with Christ means knowing who Jesus is. And as we know who Jesus is and what he does more and more, we have a better understanding of what we're supposed to do as followers of Jesus, and therefore we know how to live. So as we live like Christ, each of us inside can experience the work of the Spirit, and that just happens more and more as we are together in community.

So, what's the relation between Paul's opening words of his letter and us today? Well, I have a couple things that I want us to reflect on today and going forward in this week. Remembering that partnership with each other is one of God's gifts to experience a joy that endures. I want to ask you this first question. Who are you thankful for? Who are the people who have encouraged you in the faith? Maybe in life, or maybe recently. Who are those people that you're thankful for? And have you shared your appreciation with them? Take the time this week. Send a text, write an email, whatever it is. Take the 30 seconds it takes to share with them your appreciation for them. how you were encouraged by them. Show your appreciation for your fellow partners in ministry, because without them, you wouldn't be able to endure the things that you have endured, or the things that you will have to endure. Secondly, are you relying on your partners in Christ to endure? Don't make the mistake of being the lone wolf in life who just goes it alone, says, "I can handle it all," Because at some point you will reach your limit. At some point you will be feeling like I wish there was someone here with me. I wish I had support, encouragement. Depend on your fellow partners in faith. Allow them to encourage you. Be vulnerable, let them support you. Remember, a strand of one can break easily, but a cord of three, not easily broken. So are you relying on your partners in Christ to endure them? The last question, how are you experiencing the transforming work of Christ through community? How are you experiencing the work of the Spirit that happens when you are living life with your partners in ministry? If you're having trouble thinking of how you're experiencing that, then ask yourself this. Are you involved, participating, partnering with God's people enough to the point where you're noticing work of the Spirit within you? Do you need to be more involved? Do you need to immerse yourself more into a community where you can feel their support? I invite you to do that. If that's where the Spirit's leading in any of those answers, follow the Spirit where He's guiding you.

As we contemplate these things, know that we as a church, we're here. This is our prayer. We want to to be a church, a community that supports each other, that helps each other endure. Just this morning we were praying and things that go out through the prayer chain, we know that people are going through tough things. We know that people are battling seasons of sickness or recovering from surgery or are dealing with hard family issues. And we are so thankful when we get the chance to pray for you. When you share with that and say, "I need prayer for this." That is you leaning on this church family, and that is so good. We wanna do more of that, so keep that coming. And if you haven't shared yet, do that. Lean on us. Use this family around you to help you endure whatever you're going through. As we do that, we can rest assured that Jesus will provide a joy for us that can endure through all things. It doesn't change the situation. It doesn't mean happiness, that all of a sudden you are no longer in that difficult time, but it's a deep, deep joy knowing that God is using you, knowing that you are a part of His plan, and knowing that you're not alone. And that joy can just help you get through the next moment, to the next day, into the next week. Pray with me.

God, thank you again for your word that encourages us, that lifts us up. And as we begin our series, our prayer is that we would know or remember that we are partnering with you for ministry. God, that we, our lives are to be used for your kingdom, even the hard parts of life, even the difficult moments. God, we want to surrender all of it and say, "God, use it, Lord, for your kingdom." And we pray that you would help us. Give us what we need, whether it be energy, whether it be joy, whether it be wisdom, guidance, discernment, whether it be a change of heart, a change of attitude, words to say or the discernment of not to say anything. God, give us what we need. We want to rely on you and we want to rely on each other. I pray that no one in this room would feel that they are alone, but they would know that these people are here for them. We are here for each other. We want to be known for our love that we have that comes from you that we pour out to each other. Help us to love each other well. Help us to support each other well. God, we trust you with our lives, knowing that you have good for them and knowing that you will finish the work that you have started. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Pre-Decide: Part 7

Pre-Decide: Part 7 - I AM A FINISHER

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So we've been in this series talking about pre-decide and we're going to wrap that up this week but but first I want to kind of maybe talk to those in the room who have ever felt like giving up. You've felt like you want to give up. You got you got into a place in life maybe maybe you at one point... Oh wonderful thank you sir. Maybe at one point you had a dream or you had a goal you had a vision maybe you started with great anticipation you're all excited about you kicked it off. It was going great, but then you hit a wall. You hit resistance and then all of a sudden you found yourself in a place with little to no progress. Frustration started to set in. You felt like discouraged. You wanted to give up. Anybody ever been in a situation like that? Maybe this week. Maybe yesterday. Maybe this morning. I don't know. But maybe you found yourself in a situation where you had a relationship where you really wanted to restore it. You wanted amend it and you tried everything you could you poured energy and time and effort into it and then you found yourself with an even more broken relationship on the other side maybe you're fighting to save your marriage you're doing everything you can you're pouring everything into it but you're just running out of fight you're maybe you're believing for a miracle you have something that you have been praying about every single day for God to do in your life maybe your kids live maybe in a friendship maybe a healing a financial situation like God I need you to do something here I need a miracle you need God to help you overcome maybe an addiction and you tried and you've prayed and you believe but you have seen little to no results and you're losing hope I want to talk with those today who have ever felt in that place or maybe you're in that place today and I want to if you're gonna write something down this morning I want you to write this down when you want to give up we're gonna talk about that today. If you would pray with me. Jesus we thank you for this morning God thank you for those who are here to be able to gather with us God we pray for those who aren't able to be here but are still watching us and joining us through the awesome thing called the internet Jesus we thank you for your blessings in our lives every day and Jesus I pray that the word that you have for us today that you would make it absolutely 100% clear that we would know exactly what you want us to do you know exactly how we're supposed to take that first step today we thank you Jesus, Amen

Well we are concluding a series today and called pre decide and we've been in for five, six weeks or so. And we've been talking about this idea of our decisions. And we first started off, the first week we talked about the quality of our decisions, of your decisions, my decisions, determines the quality of our life. Problem is, we're not good decision makers, right? We try really hard and there's times where we just nail it. We knock it out of the park, we kill the decision. we're like, yeah, look at what I did right here, yes. But then other times you're like, I'm just so, just, I can't. And we just make the wrong decision. Well, our series we're focusing on the statement we've been talking about and this idea of when we're faced with a certain situation, we have pre decided to take a specific action. So when you find yourself in this place, but beforehand without emotion, with the leading of God's will on our lives and His word and prayer and focus and encouragement from our community, we have pre-decided to make this specific action when faced with this certain situation. We've had this statement, we had this circle, we handed out stickers. And if you want one of these cool circle stickers, we got some in the back on the table, we'd love for you to take one home. But we have these six things that we're focusing on. And we've been talking about how I am ready. Say it with me, I am ready. Oh, you're ready, I love it. Talking about I am consistent, I am devoted, I am generous, I am faithful, and by the will of God and His faithfulness in our lives, we will be a finisher. And that's what we're talking about today. I know one thing about the desire to finish. I'm a project guy, I love projects, I love to do things, I love to get my hands dirty, but the desire to finish, it is so easy to start, right? So easy to start, but it is so not easy to finish, right? My wife, God bless her heart, has been living in a kitchen now for over a year. She's got really awesome countertops, painted cabinets, new appliances, but no backsplash. It's just cement board. Just basically plywood on the walls. Everything else looks awesome. New sink, garbage disposal, it's beautiful. No backsplash. I am famous for starting things, but never getting to the point of finishing them.

See, this idea for us is a lot more important than I think people understand, right? Because I want to ask you a certain question, and I think you'll be able to understand, is what do you think separates average people from amazing people? What's the difference from those who are really fulfilled in life and those who are often empty, maybe those who struggle or those who succeed? I will tell you, it is not their intelligence, it's not their appearance, it's not their It's not their education. It's not who or what they know It the difference is their perseverance their perseverance Their willingness to stick to it their grit to finish their drive to preserve Persevere the refusal to quit there was this big study that was done recently that that interviewed successful people And we're talking talking a fortune 500 business leaders. We're talking successful military leaders We're talking teachers, we're talking even like spelling bee champions, like the whole spectrum of people. They did this research and all this was down to one quality that separated unsuccessful people and successful people. And it's one quality and it is this. It is grit. Grit. The definition of grit, if you don't know what word I'm talking about, is the strength of character that refuses to quit. If you follow the NFL, there's a team out of Detroit right now that is all about grit. They got into the playoffs, but not very far in the playoffs, okay? I'm just kidding. It's going against my whole sermon. But the lady who did this whole research, her name is Angela Duckworth, and she has this quote with this giant study that she did. She said, "Enthusiasm is common." You can find it everywhere. Everybody's excited about something, right? So excited for this. I can't wait for this, can't wait for this. This is happening, I'm really pumped. But endurance is rare. Endurance is extremely, extremely rare. Grit is this difference that it is not what you know or who you know, but it's your willingness to stay in the fight. Easy to start, it's hard to finish. And this is why we wrap up our whole series with this one statement we just said, it said, I am a finisher. We are pre-deciding to be finishers. And by nature, we wanna take the easy way out, right? We wanna take the simple road, the easy path. The one of least resistance, that's like boom here to there. Like I am constantly when I drive on ways with my app. Why? Because I wanna know if there's traffic, or something in the road, I want the easy way, I wanna get home as quick as I possibly can. We live in that world today.

But our big decision today that we are making when we pre-decide to be a finisher is this. It says, "When I commit, I don't quit. "I am a finisher." Say this with me, he says, "When I commit, I don't quit, I am a finisher." a finisher. And why is that? Well because us as disciples of Jesus, how do we persevere? How do we strengthen? Because the devil wants to pull us back, right? The devil wants us to quit. The devil wants us to throw off our game. So how do we strengthen ourselves so when we get to the point where we want to quit that we don't? There's this moment, I want to look at the words of Apostle Paul. And he's in prison, and he's writing this letter to basically his spiritual son Timothy. And he's in jail under the Emperor Nero, and he's basically waiting to be beheaded. And he's in a dungeon, well really more of like a sewer. So he's like underground in a sewer, and he's just waiting to be killed. And this was a really common place for these people to wait to be executed. And a lot of them honestly wouldn't even survive just being in the sewer. They would just die even before their execution. But Paul is writing this letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, with all of his emotion and everything that he has. Essentially, these are his last words. And he writes it to Timothy. We see this in 2 Timothy 4:5. He says to him, Paul, “Do not be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry that God has given to you.” You think I'd be here to encourage you this morning? I am, but we gotta get through some stuff first. But here's the reality. If we're gonna finish like we say we are, we're gonna likely suffer. We're likely gonna go through some hard times. And honestly, being a Christian doesn't mean that you don't have hard times. It actually means honestly the opposite, that being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a disciple of God Almighty means that we're probably most likely absolutely going to suffer. And in other words, Paul here is trying to tell Timothy that don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, but carry out the ministry that God has given you, even if you're going to suffer. He continues on, "As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have remained faithful." Paul here is saying, I've been in the battle. I've not given up. I fought the good fight. I have remained faithful and I have pressed forward even in the face of suffering. Here is what is really powerful about this. And I think Paul here has finished his race. There's nothing that's gonna save him. There's nothing that's gonna rescue him. History shows us that after this point, he is beheaded, he is killed, he no longer lives here on earth, but in heaven.

And what is powerful is that it's obvious that Paul has finished his race, but you and I have not finished ours. You and I have not finished our race yet. And if you find yourself in a place of discouragement or feel like giving up, maybe God might be saying to you even today, if you're not dead, you're not done. If you're not dead, you're not done. There is more for you to do. God has more for you. I see some of you checking yourself. Am I alive in this moment right here? Yes, you are. God's got more for you to do. He still has more plans, more assignments. He's got more stuff for you to do. He's got more ministry for you to do. He's got more business for you to do. He's got more content for you to take. He's got more hope for you to share, more friendship for you to make, for more addictions to break. Turn to the person next to you and say, "God's got more for you." Come on, come on. God's got more for you. If you're not dead, you're not done. There's more for you to do. And Paul here is encouraging Timothy, I might be done, but you aren't done yet. fully finish, fully finish the work that God has started in you. But you don't get it, Pastor Chris. I'm tired. I'm tired, and not just tired, but I'm turd. I am tired, I'm tired. I know, I talked to some of you guys. Hey, how was your week? I'm tired. How you guys doing? I'm busy and I'm tired and I'm tired and I'm busy. I'm tired, I'm busy. I'm tired, I'm busy. I'm tired. A lot of us feel like there is so much to get done, right? So much still to get done. Author and speaker, David Allen has this quote I think might help encourage us today. “It's as much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do, it comes from not finishing what they've started.” Maybe some of you have this just constant stress in your life that what you have to do isn't getting done. and that you don't know how you're gonna move forward.

If you guys would with me, just kind of have, just mentally right now, just kind of shift into this posture of prayer. I wanna read some scripture of you and ask you a question, but kind of just have this moment of posture or prayer is that I want you to set yourself up for maybe what God wants to share with you this morning in this moment today that you would be listening to him and maybe something that God is prompting you of something that you haven't finished. And I'm not talking about like, oh yeah, pastor, I haven't finished season four of that on Netflix. But like, I'm talking about something really spiritual, okay, something spiritual. Jesus says this to the church in Sardis in Revelation. He says, "I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead." Maybe you feel like that this morning. Someone would say, "Oh, you're such a good Christian, but deep down inside, you're like, I'm just not feeling it." Jesus says, "Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of God." Here's the question I want to ask you. What is your unfinished business? Maybe it's a unfinished assignment. What is it more specifically though as a follower of Jesus? Maybe you once were prompted to do something, you know you were supposed to do it, you thought you were going to do it, you really wanted to go and do it, You hoped to do it, you thought about doing it, and you knew you were supposed to maybe say something, you were prompted to give something, maybe you were looking to reach out to someone. What is it that you were prompted to do? Maybe you were supposed to reach out and mend a relationship. Maybe you were supposed to step out in faith and take a step that you didn't know all that was gonna happen after that, but God said, I need you just to take this step. Maybe you were something as simple as you were supposed to go finish your degree, but you just, you haven't yet. Maybe you were supposed to start some kind of hobby or you're supposed to start join a community group. We're kicking off on Wednesday. Maybe you're supposed to start serving in the church in a way with the gifts and talents that God has given you. Maybe you were supposed to follow through with something, but you just never got there? Maybe a physical goal, a spiritual goal, maybe even to just apologize to someone, but you just never got there.

What's the unfinished business that you have in your life that God has asked you to do? What just, let that kind of sink in for a moment. What would God be saying to you? Paul has some really incredible advice And this in 2nd Corinthians, he says, “Here’s my advice It would be good for you To finish what you started a year ago church.” and Corinth got off to this great start They were doing all these amazing things and it kind of just Like all of us it just fizzles out, right? “Last year you were the first who wanted to give and you were the first to begin doing it Now you should finish what you started.” What's your Maybe you're thinking about it right now. Maybe you're like, "I don't even know what you would want me to do right now." But I think we have to answer the question of, "What if we don't do it?" What if we don't follow through? I mean, honestly, there's some things in life that we should quit. So I'm not talking about those things and we can't do everything, but each of us has something that we are called to do. Some of us have divine assignments on our lives, but we have yet to finish them. So what does it matter if we quit? Today, you are going to face an opportunity to determine who you are. You're gonna show that, let's put it this way. You are going to cast a vote for your future self in this moment, that you are going to either decide to do what you're supposed to do and cast a vote to be a finisher, or you're gonna decide not to do that, and you will then in turn cast a vote for being a non finisher.

So the question for us is, who are we? This is why it's important. You're gonna come, you're gonna face a moment in life, whether maybe some of you have faced this before, you're probably gonna face something in the near future where you're gonna have to make a tough decision. And you're gonna have to decide the kind of person you are. you are going to cast a vote into which camp of the person that you want to be. And you're gonna face something and some moment where it's gonna seem like impossible odds. It's gonna seem like everything is stacked against you. It's gonna seem like you're gonna have people and friends in your life that are gonna turn to you and say, there's no chance that this is ever gonna come through. But God is standing there saying, I want you to take this step of faith. And you're gonna have to decide, will I face this adversity? Will I overcome the greatest pillars of faith in the halls of history have faced this and chosen correctly? Was it easy? Absolutely not. Was it all fun and celebration did a confetti cannon go off when they made the right decision? No, most likely not, maybe. But they at some point had to make the tough decision. It didn't mean they didn't struggle through it, but you didn't see them quit. Just because I'm up here with the carpet, the table, and the podium doesn't mean that I have it figured out. Can I be honest with you? I wanted to quit yesterday. I did. I 1,000% wanted to quit, but then I knew that I was going to have to be here at 10 a.m. to give a sermon to myself and you guys. This sermon is so much, just as much for me as it is for you guys here today. Saturdays for some reason in our house have just been chaos. And I think it's because the devil knows that Sunday's coming, right? The devil knows Sunday's coming and he's like, I gotta knock that pastor off of his path. 'Cause if I can, then I can start messing with Spring Valley. So if you guys are thinking of Pastor Andre and myself on Saturdays, people will be praying for us. We covet your prayers, you guys are amazing. I know there's so many of you that pray for us every single day and we feel it, we feel it. But I wanted to quit yesterday. But I knew I couldn't. And I struggled through it. So you may see me struggle, but I'll tell you 100% here today, right now and forevermore, I will never quit. I will never quit.

And the apostle Paul is this incredible like superhero of the faith. He's just this stellar pillar of the early church. And he even himself struggled, but he never quit. He fought through day after day after day. And he shares what I would consider his life motto in Acts chapter 20 at the end of his life. He says, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. "My only aim is to finish the race "and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, "the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace." "My only goal in life," Paul says, "is to finish the race." But there's this little phrase in there of this power-packed verse that I think some of us just kinda gloss over real quick. And it answers the question of, how could Paul finish the race? He says this right at the beginning, because he wasn't running for himself. He says, I consider my life worth nothing to me. Paul says, it's not about me. It's not about my dreams. It's not about my desires. It's not about his popularity. Paul says, "I consider my life worth nothing." And I had this thought yesterday in the midst of wanting to quit. Me wanting to quit what God has called me to do was maybe because I cared something about more than running God's race. And I think for some of us, we might find ourselves in that place. That there might be something that we care about more, whether we want to admit it or not, than God's race that he's called each and every one of us to run. And we have to really wrestle with this. And this concept of, I consider my blank worth nothing to me. What would that be? Maybe your comfort. Maybe your net worth, your opinions of others, social media follows, your personal hopes and dreams that you can only finish the race that God has called us to run when we commit to him and we don't quit. So how do we run our race? How will you and I finish? We can't run it for ourselves. We can only run it for God. And when you run it for God, the only way that you can is to take it one step at a time. So I want to encourage you this morning, take the next step. Take the next step. And here's what's even greater. You don't have to finish your race today. This is a life long journey day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out. centurion in, I don't think we'll get there but just take the next step. This is how Paul lived his life moment by moment. If you've read his story it is crazy.

When we look at the greatest example of Jesus, he lived this life. He took it one step at a time. And Jesus is on the cross right before he looks up to his heaven and basically cries out, "Into your hands, God, I commit my spirit," and he breathes his wrath. Just before that, he says, "Telestai, it is finished." finished He's saying I did everything you sent me here to do dad I'm coming home. I finished my race Jesus wasn't running for himself He was running for his father Day by day week by week month by month year by year painful moment after painful moment, he just took the next step. When they hated him, he just took the next step and loved them back. When they struck him on the cheek, he just took the next step and turned the other cheek. When he was carrying the cross up the hill, he fell down. He stood back up and took the next step. When he was hanging there on the cross and they cursed him and they mocked him and they shamed him He took another step and says father forgive them. They just don't know what they're doing From that very moment Jesus decided that he is going to always be ready He's always gonna be consistent He's always gonna be devoted. He's always gonna be generous He's always gonna be faithful, and he's always gonna be a finisher. So what are you and I gonna do? The trajectory of our life is always towards what is easy, what's convenient. And the devil's gonna want you to quit, I'll just be honest here. He's gonna want you to give up on what God has called you to start and to do. So you and I are going to have to pre-decide that no, we're not gonna do that, but that when we commit, we will not quit. When you run for God, you run one step at a time.

There's the story of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. And there's this runner sprinter by the name of Derek Redmond. And he was basically the shoe in for the 400 meter. He was gonna win it hands down. There was no other competition. There was nobody that was gonna even come close to him. It was all his, it was basically you might as well and put the gold medal on him before the gun went off. And the gun goes off and they start the race and about halfway through, he collapses to the track and he ruptures his hamstring. All the training, all the early mornings, all the late nights, all the perfect meals, all the perfect schedule, all the travel, all the meeting with coaches and doctors and trainers, everything that he had put into this moment in an instant is completely shattered. Everything is gone. The Olympic hope and dream doesn't exist anymore. And as he lays there on the track in pain and agony, his dad is there to watch him. And his dad gets up out of his seat, gets down on the track, walks up to his son, picks him up, and the two of them hobble to finish the race. Here's what I want you to get. You and I running this race don't run alone. We don't run alone. The Father is there with us every single step of the way. So when we slip up, when we fall down, when we mess up, when we don't make the right choice, God is there with us, carrying us along. It says in Philippians, "Be confident of this, "that he, being God, who began a good work in you, "will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

You never run alone. So, you may see me struggle. You may see me want to quit, but I won't quit. Because when I commit, I don't quit. I'm a finisher. And you, because you're a disciple of Jesus, and he is the ultimate finisher, he is the author and perfecter of our faith, that when he says he started it, he will finish it. 'Cause Jesus says, "When I commit, I don't quit. "I am the finisher." Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we are so incredibly grateful for your grace, your mercy, your hope. And so Jesus, today I pray that you would speak truth into our lives. God, that you would reveal where maybe we have unfinished business. That God, you would reveal this to us right here, right now, today, in this moment, or maybe this week, God, that you would reveal of where we need to finish. And God, I pray that you would give us the strength for us to be faithful. That every day that we would find ourselves running for you, not for ourselves, not for our own glory or our own recognition, but running for you, God. Taking that next step, even when we don't understand, even when it might not make sense, even when we don't fully understand how the race is going to finish, God, but that we would just take the next step in you and that we may at the end of our life here on earth when we see you in heaven that we ourselves may be faithful as Paul and as Jesus and as so many others before us have been so faithful to finish that race God made we to finish the race that we may be faithful to you that we may be be a finisher. Jesus, thank you for being the ultimate example of a finisher.