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Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good. Well, we maybe we'll sing them in from the vestibule. Scott, would you come on up here and yeah.
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We're gonna try to sing them in here. So we're gonna sneak into Christmas here. Start off, leaning on the everlasting arms. It's hymn number five seventy five. If you want to look up your notes and sing along or if you just want to sing off the wall, then feel free.
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Alright?
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Speaker 2I'll sing. Whoop.
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Speaker 1Let's sing off the wall. Hot mic.
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Speaker 2Might as well stand up and sing,
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Speaker 1shall we? Stand and sing. Yep.
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Speaker 2Yeah. Good morning. What a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms what a blessedness what a peace is my leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all arms, leaning leaning on the everlasting arms oh how sweet to walk in
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Speaker 1Amen. How about a joy to the world? Judy was saying earlier, Isaac Watts wrote this song. Isaac Watts was on his way home from church one day and he told his dad, I don't think the music is very good at our church. And his dad said, well, Isaac, if you don't think the music is very good at our church, do something about it and write some good music.
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And he wrote, how many? Hundreds, hundreds, and hundreds of hymns that we sing. But this one, he did not write for Christmas, but we sing it for Christmas. So here we go. Joy to the world.
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Speaker 2Joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her and heaven and nature sing joy to the world the savior reigns let men their songs employ. Wild fields and floods, rocks, hills, and blame. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat.
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Repeat the sounding joy. Heroes the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders wonders of his love
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Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have I a few announcements this morning. We'll pop on through these. Two weeks from today, December 10 is going to be a combined service and it will be happening at 10:00.
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So, if you come the same time you came today, you're going to be an hour late, alright? It's 10:00, two weeks from today, combined service. There'll be a Christmas play, the spirit of Christmas, and then later in the evening that evening, we're gonna do caroling at 04:30 and a chili cook off at six. So bring an example of chili and have fun. We'll go Carolyn first, and then we'll come back and have sort of a I think we've called it the Buzzard Breath Chili Cook off in years past.
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That's an annual event. We're gonna do it this year on December 10 in the evening, the same day as the Christmas play. Ladies, there is an a ladies Christmas luncheon. All you need is love and his name is Jesus is the theme. It's gonna be Wednesday, December 13 at Snow King's Grand Ballroom at noon, noon to 02:00, and then please do RSVP.
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If you wanna go to this, please call Nancy Irwin. Her phone number is on that. This is the the invite. If you didn't get one or haven't gotten one yet, if you'll see me, I'll put one in your hand. Okay?
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I have one. If you haven't got one yet, you will soon. And if there's anybody out there who would like to volunteer for taking care of some babies on Christmas Eve, the Christmas Eve services from 04:30 and six, There are a lot of folks I know that have signed up to help in the nursery and have already been cleared our child by our child protection team, but Bailey is the one who coordinates all that. So getting in touch with Bailey Kay Larson, her name is Bailey Morley now, but Bailey Kay Larson is still her email address, so gmail dot com. And if you would, that would be very helpful.
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Monday nights at first beat. You never know what you're gonna get. Actually, you're pretty much guaranteed you're gonna get meal, music, and a message. And this week, what is your what is your message this week, Carl? Letting the light shine through you.
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So there you go. Monday nights at first be meal, music, and a message. And for all of the other announcements, they should be in your bulletins. So if you didn't grab one on the way in, you can grab one on the way out and put it up on the refrigerator and you'll know what's going on. Anybody else?
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Did I miss something? All right. Well, how about y'all stand up and greet one another, and Judy and I and Scott will bring you back together with a pepe song.
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Speaker 2Amen.
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Speaker 1Hymn number 284 is the birthday of a king. How many of y'all know this song? There's one hand that went right way up really fast. Good. Good.
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Sing loud.
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Speaker 2Come on up. Yeah. Here
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Speaker 1we go. In the little village of Bethlehem.
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Speaker 2In the little village of Bethlehem there lay a child one day little and the sky was bright with the holy light
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Speaker 1Amen. Can I have a seat? I'm gonna invite the frontline team to come forward. Would you all pray with me as I pray for the offering this morning? God, I thank you that you've given so, so graciously.
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We're recalling a song this morning, freely, freely, Lord, we have received. And Lord, I pray that you'd lay it on our hearts to freely, freely give. Lord, whether it's our time, our resources, our talents, Lord, or right now during this time where actual money. God, would you bless this, the gift and the giver? Would you multiply this offering to do your kingdom's work, Lord, to advance the gospel here in Jackson and in the surrounding area, Lord, but to the uttermost parts too, to all of those missionaries that are serving you lord that are striving together.
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In Jesus name, lord, we ask that you would bless and multiply this to do your kingdom's work. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. So this today, Philippians one twenty seven to 30 is where we are and our continuing chronological study of the New Testament.
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We've been going forward for almost five years now. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Five years. No. Five years, we've been going forward in the New Testament.
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We studied the life of Jesus in the book of John first, although John is a late book, it was written later. And then we studied the life of the early church in the book of Acts, and we've used Acts as a sort of a framework so we could go forward in the order that the books were written, each one of the epistles. And so we're up to Philippians one twenty seven through 30, and I have a confession to make. This 27 through 30, I was just gonna get through it because I love Philippians two. Philippians two is like the absolute center point of of my whole theology.
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It really is. It really is so good and I think of it so often. It's my favorite scripture by far. Philippians two three through 11. That's where I spend a lot of time and so I was kind of just given this the short shrift.
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Honestly, in my mind, I thought, well, I'm going to have to go through it because that's what we do and I was surprised by God this week with how amazing it is. It's really really good. So, we're going to jump right into it and I I think, I mean, we we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So I wanna take seriously every single word that's on this page, and we've already gotten through 26 verses of it. He starts off with only let your, and I have to just stop right there.
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The only there, he's following up last week's message. Do you remember when he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's the way that I'm going to live my life. The things concerning me have served to advance the gospel. Although it was difficult and the circumstances were really hard and he's suffering because he's literally in prison in Rome at this time and he says, this the things concerning me have served to further the gospel.
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Later on in this passage, he's going to say, now the things concerning you. He's equating two things and he's hoping that they'll answer the question that I asked you all to answer last week. I asked you to answer the question, for to me, to live is blank and to die is blank and I had several people text and Email and call last week after the sermon and they said, I have gotten things out of whack in life and for me, lately, I have not really been considering Christ, and I haven't really been considering death as gain either. And so I just wanna say that as sloppy, as sloppy as the presentation felt from my end last week, God still was able to work with it. And there were a lot of people that responded to it.
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Only let your. When I got to your, I started thinking about this. Singular yous and plural yous. We are Americans for the most part. I know most of us in this room are, not all of us, but most of us.
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And we tend to think individualistically rather than collectively. It's my mind and my this, my that. I was looking up singular yous and plural yous in Philippians, and there are no singular yous in Philippians anywhere. And so some of the things that we hold on to, and I think we hold on to them with good reason, it's like Paul saying, being confident of this very thing that God who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Well, that's great and we appropriate that personally a lot of places and I think that that's reasonable to do so But I want you to consider that he's writing to a group of Christians, and I'm speaking right now to a group of Christians.
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And when he says that I have started a good work or that he who has started a good work in y'all is going to complete it. That's a big thing. It's collectively and so, I'm going to back up for just a second before I go forward. I want you to hear in its entirety, okay? The first part, just ramp up to this.
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Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ. This is Philippians one in the New King James Version of the Bible. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and the deacons, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of y'all. Okay?
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It's y'all. Whenever I hit it, it's y'all. It's not just you. I thank my God upon every remembrance of y'all, always and in every prayer of mine making requests for all of y'all with joy. All of y'all is an even intensifier.
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It's even bigger. He's making the point that it's all love you. Okay? For your for all of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in y'all will complete it till the day of Jesus Christ just as it is right for me to think this way of all of y'all because I have all of you in my heart in as much as both in my chains and in the defense of the confirmation of the gospel, all of y'all are partakers with me of grace. Do you hear?
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This is over the top, and he's doing this with a rhetorical point. It's the group of y'all. For God is my witness. How greatly I long for all of y'all with the affection of Jesus Christ, and this I pray that y'all's love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment that y'all may approve the things, y'all may approve the things that are excellent, that y'all may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. But I want all of y'all to know, brothers and sisters, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.
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So it's become evident to the whole palace guard and to all of the rest that my chains are in Christ. Most of the brothers and sisters in the Lord having become even more confident by my suffering in chains get much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed do preach Christ even from envy or strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ Jesus out of selfish ambition and not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains. But the latter do so out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
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What then? Only that in every way, whether it is in pretense or in truth, Christ is being preached and in this I rejoice and I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and through the supply of Jesus Christ. It really makes a difference. He's saying all of y'all are supplying for the needs based upon the spirit of Jesus.
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Do you get this? It's not just individual, and I think we tend to read it individually. According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death, for to me to live as Christ and die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, that will mean fruit from my labor. Yet, what I shall choose, I cannot tell, for I'm hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better.
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Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you, all of you. Do you get it? Had somebody come up afterwards at the front service. He said, Paul's expressing his confidence that he's gonna not be ashamed before Christ, but it sounds like he's nudging them a little bit. Listen to this part.
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For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, but if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor. Yet what I shall choose, cannot tell from hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh, for me to remain in the flesh and keep on living is more needful for all of y'all. And being confident of that fact that it's better for you, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for all y'all's progress and joy of faith. That y'all's rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Christ Jesus by my coming to you, and then we pick up where I left off.
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Only let your conduct, y'all's conduct, as a body of believers, as the continuing body of Christ, let y'all's conduct, this word right there, the conduct, you see politics in that word? Poly is about a city. So it is to be living the life of a citizen or to be conducting yourselves as citizens. It's not the normal word that you'd use for be living your life or be conducting your life. He's saying be conducting your life like a good citizen.
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The question is whether it's a good citizen of Philippi or a good citizen of something else. Later on in chapter four, Paul says, you're citizens of heaven. Act like it. You're citizens of heaven. Act like it.
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This is to be conducting yourself like a citizen. So only, Paul says, just this, only this, let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. I'm gonna skip ahead for just a second to this, the R. McD version of these two verses. This is my own translation of this.
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Just this, folks. Alright? Y'all be conducting yourselves worthily as good citizens of the gospel. We live in the gospel. We live in the good news that Jesus has redeemed.
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He's made the way. He's made it possible. Y'all, just this, Paul is saying, this is what I want for y'all. Be conducting yourselves worthily as good citizens of the gospel so that whether having come or having seen you or being absent because he's already told him he's coming if he can but he's in prison. He doesn't know when he's going to get out.
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This is the nudging that he's doing. It'd be great if I see you and I know, he says later on in the book, I know that when I'm there, you've always been obedient, you've always been good little boys and girls while I'm there. But what if I'm not there? Having come and having seen you or being absent that I might hear the things concerning you all, that y'all are standing firm in one spirit with one soul striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now Blake, can we back up to where I left off there?
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Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now does that sound familiar? If you've been here with us for very long, you've heard that let your conduct be worthy or walk worthy several times. It should be familiar. Thessalonians, we covered it.
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Walk in a manner that's worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. We saw it in Colossians just a few months back. Walk in a manner that's worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Then we saw it in Ephesians, walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called. Is this worthiness saying, live your life in such a way that you're worthy of salvation.
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God will give it to you. Is it saying that? No. You cannot live your life in a way that's worthy of receiving salvation, but once you have received it, you can live it out and you can make the gospel more appealing to other people by the way that you live your life. We're going to go forward in this and see that it even gets into suffering.
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If you suffer for Christ's sake with joy in your heart, it's even more appealing to others. Only let your conduct be worthy. Act like a citizen of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you or whether I'm absent that I may hear, so that I may hear of your affairs. Literally, is so that I may hear the things concerning you.
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The things concerning me have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, and so that I may hear the things concerning you, how do you finish that sentence, are for the furtherance of the gospel. That you stand fast. Does that sound familiar? It should. Galatians, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
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He breaks the power of canceled sin. Live in that unity. Stand fast that you have been forgiven. Don't pick up legalistic interpretation to the point that you are in bondage again. Ephesians six thirteen, therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand fast your ground and after you've done everything else, to stand.
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Stand firm. Stand firm then, next verse, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. That breastplate of righteousness as I was presenting it a few weeks ago, that is this walking worthily. Now, Paul says to them what walking worthily looks like. It is this that you stand fast in one spirit.
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And I think I'm changing that to a capital S. I do believe that is the Holy Spirit. There is one Holy Spirit. God does not speak out of both sides of his mouth that you stand fast in one spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. You've been baptized in to one faith, one body, one spirit.
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One spirit with one mind. Actually, the literal word right there is soul. Into one spirit with one soul, you are to act body of Christ as if you are one, complete unity. What did Christ pray for in the Garden Of Gethsemane? Lord, that they would be one just as you and I are one.
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That you'd stand fast in one spirit with one mind and striving together. I love this word. So the word there is sunathlontes. Sunathleta is it's athlete. Do you see that in there?
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Athlo, right there. It is competing together with others, not competing against others. Okay? It's competing together. It's only used a couple of times in the Bible.
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In this form, it's used twice, both of them in Philippians, and he's talking about competing with other people, being on the same team, to be cooperating vigorously and putting forth effort. It actually is effort. Now, I spend a lot of time up here saying it's not about what you do. That's not what gets you in to the kingdom of God but once you are in the kingdom, effort helps. It does.
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Paying attention to what the spirit's leading is saying and putting effort behind that. Lord, it seems as though you are directing me to do X, Y, Z, whatever it is. Go to Romania. Come to Jackson, lead well in my business. This is cooperating vigorously with the body of Christ in order to advance the cause of the gospel So that you stand fast in one spirit.
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This is what Paul wants to hear about them, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel and I might say, what Paul is hearing right now from the letter to the Philippians from the four chapters that we have here, what he's hearing is Euodia and Syntyche can't get along. Does that make sense? Euodia and Syntyche are two ladies' names, and they can't get along with each other, and apparently, factions are building up. Well, that's why all of y'all, y'all, y'all comes through over and over and over again because he's like, this is a complete body of Christ and y'all are to be standing fast in one spirit. That's the Holy Spirit.
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Humility needs to be a part of what you're doing with one soul, not striving against one another or competing with one another, but striving together. And this next phrase right here, the faith of the gospel. This is not about your own personal individual faith. This is the faith, the Christian faith. It's the content of the gospel for everyone who has ever believed on Jesus and been redeemed by him.
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That's what we're striving together for, for the advance of the actual gospel, the faith of the gospel. Are you with me? I see a few people nodding. Not nodding. Nodding like this.
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Not nodding like this. Okay. You stand fast in one spirit, one mind striving together, vigorously cooperating with one another for the actual advance, the faith of the gospel. So this is what we wanna hear. That's what Paul wanted to hear.
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This is what I wanna hear that we, that y'all stand fast in one spirit, one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now I say the faith of the gospel over and over because this is not about the Baptist doctrine. Baptist faith and message 1952. This is not about the Lutheran doctrine. This is not about the Catholic canons.
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This is about the faith of the gospel. It is a very, very specific thing that we're striving together for, and whether Lutheran, Baptist, even Catholic, we are to be striving together for the actual faith of the gospel and if we had enough humility to get together and talk about these things where we're talking biblically and try to come together and strive together to get to what are is the irreducible minimum of the gospel, I think we would be better off, especially if we can humble ourselves. And Paul goes into that in chapter two. That's the next thing that we'll hit, but this is what we wanna hear, that you're standing fast. You know that you've been saved.
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You know that you have the Holy Spirit. Tune your heart to sing that grace with one mind. Strive together for the faith of the gospel. And he goes on, and he says, and not in any way terrified or frightened by your opponents or adversaries because there will be people who oppose. Do y'all agree with that?
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I had somebody come to me a few weeks ago and say, you know what? I don't suffer very much. Well, thank you for being honest. I don't suffer much at all. I don't suffer for my faith at all.
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I feel like I live in a place where we have religious freedom, and really, I don't suffer for it at all. Okay. Have you talked to anybody outside this church in a while? Because if you present what it is that you believe and you have accepted the gospel, it is either gonna be the aroma of life or the stench of death. And it's the stench of death for a lot of folks that surround us.
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It is offensive. The message of the cross in from first Corinthians one eighteen says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, what is a first century Jew being killed on the cross have to do with you? That's just foolishness for those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it's the very power of God. This is the difference in heaven or hell, in life and death, in the advance of the gospel, or the retreat.
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Does that make sense? This is what we have. This is the message that we have, and the faith of the gospel is about this. It's not about morality as such. It is about the message of the cross.
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Christ lived a perfect life, owed no sin debt, yet he gave his life as a ransom for many. He took the penalty for the sins of everyone who would put their faith in him, and that is the gospel. Not in any way terrified or fearful by your adversaries. I I read something by John Piper this week that I really liked. He he stated it two different ways, and the word worthily that I was talking about earlier.
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He says, are living worthy or we're living worthily of the gospel when we are striving for the faith of the gospel with fearlessness and unity. Or stated differently, the mark of living worthily of the gospel is a unified and fearless striving for the faith of the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I agree with that. I like his way of boiling things down. Paul continues to the Philippians and not any way terrified by your adversaries which is to them a proof of perdition that in some versions you might see error or you might see destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God.
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Actually, the proof of perdition, the word there is the word for sign. It is a sign of their error if they're arguing with you over the simplicity of the gospel. It is a sign of their destruction, and it is a further sign for your salvation. If you stand fast with one spirit and one mind and cling to that faith of the gospel. And that's from God.
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It was his plan originally. It was not yours. Your having accepted it means you will have adversaries and opponents. But the fact that they oppose you on God's terms means their destruction. There's the old R.
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McD version. Again, might hear so that I might hear the things concerning y'all, that y'all are standing firm in one spirit with one soul striving together that is cooperating vigorously for the faith of the gospel. I have to stop right there again. The faith of the gospel, once we make up our mind that we've got it all figured out, absolutely all the way figured out, our doctrine is the only pure doctrine, we have eliminated that we care about the actual faith of the gospel. We stop listening at that point.
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Not being frightened in any way by those opposing y'all, which is to them a sign of destructive error, but to y'all of salvation and that from God. And here we go into a difficult teaching. For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ. And it says it has been granted, not given right there, because granted is typically a free gift, and it's a free gift of a good thing. There are a couple different ways you can say to be given something in Greek.
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One of them is didymi, and didymi is you can be given something. You can be given, you know, a puppy that you didn't want. Okay? You can be given a kick in the groin. You can be given something, but charitza mai is the word here.
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It is something that is a good gift that has been graciously given. Not because you deserved it, but because of the goodness of the giver. The giver has shown favor to someone. Charisma is the word. And it says, for to you, Philippians, and I would say to you, Christians, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, you are now in the kingdom of light versus being in the kingdom of darkness, but also to suffer for his sake.
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So suffering is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God, but suffering goes right along with that. And that's a hard place that you have been graciously given this suffering. Is Paul a prosperity gospel guy? No.
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Having the same conflict which you saw in me. If you think back to Acts 16 and you see Paul going into Philippi meeting Lydia, having Lydia, the seller of purple, wealthy merchant lady accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and come into the family of God, seeing the demon possessed slave girl have the demon cast out of her and coming into the family and the Philippian jailer and his whole household come in to the body of Christ. You know the beginnings of the Philippian church having the same conflict which you saw in me. These people saw Paul get arrested after he cast out the demon from that young lady. It changed the economy for her masters, and they had them put in jail.
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Said that they were breaking the citizen rules of Philippi. Paul is saying, act out your citizenship because you're citizens of heaven. You're citizens of the gospel. You will have in your native land, the same conflict which you saw in me. I was jailed, I was beaten, and I suffered there.
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And now I'm in jail, chained to a guard, writing this letter. You now hear that it is in me. You're gonna have the same conflict. There will be external forces that will oppose you, and we get to see in the second chapter, and the third, and the fourth, that there will be internal forces that are opposing. To the extent that we resist the one spirit of God, we will aggravate each other.
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Do you agree with that? Having the same conflict which you saw in me and you now hear is in me. He's already talked about how there are some who preach the gospel from wrong motives, and he is gonna praise God because the gospel is being preached instead of holding it against them. The same conflict which you saw in me and here. Now a while back, we went through Ephesians, and we talked about the will of God, by the will of God.
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Ephesians one one and two, Paul says, I'm an apostle by the will of God. That's what he named me to be. If we're to be striving together, striving together, we need to be striving together for the will of God, the advance of the gospel. This sermon keeps coming back to mind, so I I wanted to hit the points of it. There's six clear declarations of God's will for our lives in scripture.
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In the New Testament, we see em. God wants us to be saved. First things first. Right? He wants for us to be taken out of the kingdom of darkness and put into the kingdom of light.
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He wants for us to be spirit filled, led by his Holy Spirit. He wants for us to be pure, That is to renounce and release our sin. He wants for us to be thankful. We saw a while back at the end of Ephesians how to be thankful was the antidote for sexual immorality, impurity, coarse jesting, covetousness, filthiness, all of that. Thankful, submissive, and ready to suffer, seeking God's wisdom and applying these next decisions you face.
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He wants people to be saved. In our day, the foolishness that people see in the message of the cross begins with not feeling like they're in peril. Does that make sense? You have to get somebody lost before you can get them found. If they don't believe that they're lost, they're gonna continue on their own, not known.
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God wants for people to be saved, and that is true. God wants for his people to be spirit filled, pure, submissive. That's a whole different message. Thankful and ready to suffer. Why?
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Why is it that he wants for him to be ready to suffer? Paul's already told us earlier in chapter one that the whole palace guard had heard the gospel because he's in jail. He's suffering through this process. Have you all heard of Corrie ten Boom? Is that story moving to you?
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Does it advance the gospel or does it retard? It advances it. How about the tip of the spear? The Elliot missionaries down to the indigenous endings of South America. How about the guys recently in the past two years that were lined up in their orange jumpsuits by ISIS in Egypt and they were beheaded on film for the world to see?
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Do you believe that that has hurt the cause of the gospel or it has advanced it? It has advanced. For those guys to die was gain, to live with Christ. God wants for his people to be ready to suffer. There is a greater joy from knowing Jesus than our mere earthly physical circumstances.
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So standing fast in one spirit, one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. That's what I'm taking away from this message. That's my one point really. I could add fearlessly to it, to fearlessly, unashamedly be able to say that this is what I believe, because if the gospel's worth having, it's worth sharing. In my church that I grew up in, we had three different kinds of sermons.
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One of them was evangelism, you ought to be doing it more. Reading the Bible, you ought to be doing it more. Sinning, you ought to be doing it less. Okay? Those were the three types of sermons.
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In the sin, you can pick your sin, but you ought to be doing that less. If the gospel's worth having, if you have any comfort in Christ, if there's any consolation in the love of God, then it's worth sharing. So here we go. We're living worthy of the gospel when we're striving for the faith of the gospel, open to what God would show us that is, complete and utter reliance on Jesus and his provision with fearlessness unity. And I think that's it.
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Any questions? Here we go. There's one more slide. Thank you. Oh, this is good.
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Thank you, Blake. So I changed my question a little bit. I've been asking you all through Ephesians, I ask you, would you rather that God work through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? And I just changed two words because of the striving together in this. That really hit me that striving together, cooperating vigorously, working together, competing on the same side, competing on the same team.
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Would you rather have God work through your striving together, putting forth effort, or in spite of your indifference? Landed with me this week. I wanna work. I wanna do something, not to earn it. I know I can earn it.
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But I do want for other people to know what I know. I do want for other people to see what I see. I do want for other people to be filled with joy over the things that fill me with joy because of knowing Christ. God, would you help us all? Would you help us as we seek out what it is that you would the role that should have us play?
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We know in Ephesians two eight nine, you say it is by grace through faith so that no one should boast. It's a gift of God and we know salvation is a complete and utter free gift but God, you also say in two ten that we are your workmanship. We were created in Christ Jesus to do good works which you have established beforehand that we should walk in them. Lord, would you show us what works you would have us walk in and do? And lord, give us the strength to do em, to strive to do them, to work out our salvation.
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God, I thank you for this letter to the Philippians. I thank you for all of the little intricacies of it that you're applying them to our lives. And God, would you give us a greater capacity to strive together and not be against. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright.
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Judy, I think joyful, joyful, we adore thee is what we're gonna sing. Right? There's a lot of joy in Philippians. And would you stand with us as we sing this one?
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Speaker 2Reflect thy rays on such angels sing around the center of unbroken praise field and forest veil and mountain flowery metal flashing sea chanting bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in thee
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Speaker 1Amen. And I have little Christmas benediction here. Let's do this, alright? Let's stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. In Jesus name, Lord, would you empower us to do just that?
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And would you surprise us with the joy that comes from getting together and dwelling in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.
