Why Bethlehem Bible Church Exists (Part 2) - [Philippians 1:27-30]

The Church Exists for the Faith of the Gospel

Now, most people ask the question, Why do I exist? Pretty much everybody, eventually, they ask the philosophical question, Why am I on the earth? What's my purpose here? There's billions of people and why am I alive?

But not so many people ask, in my opinion, the question, Why does the church exist? Why are we here as a church? Not many ask the question, What's the purpose of the local church? Maybe it's just assumed, but not many people ask the question.

And so, last time, two weeks ago, we looked at the question, Why does Bethlehem Bible Church exist? I'd like you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Philippians chapter 1, and we want to answer that question.

Of course, it doesn't exist because of a committee or a denomination. They're not determining the factor. It's what does God say in His Word? He is the Creator. We are the creatures, and we are more than creatures.

We're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And we want to make sure that we do what the Lord wants, and that is to understand what's the main thing when it comes to Bethlehem Bible Church. Why do we exist?

Now, we've been in the Gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, as you know. Working through our passages, we'll be there in, not next week, because Pastor Phil will preach, but we'll be back in two weeks, Lord willing.

I want to take a short detour into the book of Philippians, because Philippians tells us explicitly why we exist. Why are we on the earth? What's the purpose of Bethlehem Bible Church? And there are not ten purposes.

There are not seven. There's not four. There's one. By the way, whenever I hear child today, I'm going to be thinking it's my grandchild. And so, my grandchild gets to do whatever he wants, so all the children get to do whatever they want.

When I would say my son's or daughter's name in a sermon, I'd always give them a dollar. But I think if I mention my grandson, he probably gets five, right? That's the way it works. If I say the word Amos, he gets five dollars.

Now, the book of Philippians, Paul is writing underneath the spirit of God's inspiration, and he's in a jail, most likely in Rome, and he's trying to encourage the church. Philippi is a city, and he wants to try to tell the church there, that God sprang up in Acts chapter 16, how to think rightly.

Now, some people think this book is only about joy. It is about joy. That would be a right way to think. Some people think it's about unity. And since we're all so different, how can we strive together with unity?

That's good. It's important. It's part of the book. But at the core, at the center of this book, by the way, like every other book in the Bible, it's about the Lord Jesus. The Sunday school answer is the answer.

What is this book about? It's about Jesus. The good question asked after that is, how is it about Jesus? Right? If you ask yourself, what's Genesis about? It's about Jesus. How is it like Jesus? That's true.

But the book of Philippians, as we saw two times ago, it's much more than be joyful. It's much more than be unified. Jesus Christ is at the center of everything. We have one goal and that is found in chapter 1 verse 27, which is our key verse today, along with verse 28.

Philippians 127. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side and here it is, for the faith of the gospel.

Everything's revolving around the faith of the gospel. Paul writes this way in Philippians. He writes this way in Colossians. He writes this way in the book of Romans, where he said the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to flesh, who was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Paul is consumed by the one who met him on the road to Damascus. Remember, Paul is off to persecute Christians, ravish the church, destroy the church. That was his mission. And he is intercepted on that road.

The bright light, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul, the persecutor, is now Paul, the humbled one. And it's been many, many years since Paul has seen the Lord Jesus face to face on that Damascus road. Yet Paul is obsessed with the Lord Jesus.

And everything for Paul drives himself to, not only Christ's death and resurrection, but of course his life, his person, his character, his work, his soon return. That was the dominating thing for Paul.

And Paul, of course, if he, the apostle, is dominated with that thought, he wants that thought to be dominating every thought of every Christian. And what I love about this book is Paul's kindness, Paul's pastoral heart.

He wants the best. I don't know what I've done in the past. It's my desire, certainly now. I want your best, dear congregation. I want you to excel as you walk by faith and not by sight. I want to be for you.

I want to be like a grandpa to say, way to go. Keep going. Here's how you excel in the Christian faith. And if I have just a little of that, Paul had a lot of that. Look earlier in chapter 1. You can just sense his kindness.

And of course, this is the kindness he received from the Lord Jesus. Verse 3 of chapter 1. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It's right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so 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.

You can read that. You can sense that Paul's love for these people. He has the love of God through Jesus Christ to him and now he wants that for other people. And so Paul in this book is one of those kind of fatherly figures wanting his children to do the right thing.

And what Paul does which is kind of like a fatherly thing to do or grandfatherly thing to do is he says this is how I do things and so I want you to do that. I'd like to model my behavior. I'd like to model my attitude so you see in me what you should desire in you and does he not do that in verse 12?

I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me, chapter 1 verse 12 has really served to advance the gospel. Verse 13 at the end, my imprisonment is for Christ. Verse 15 he's talking about preaching Christ.

Verse 17 proclaiming Christ. Verse 18 Christ is proclaimed. What Paul says, if you watch my life you'll see that I have a desire for the gospel of Jesus to be advanced. That I say to myself whether I'm in prison or in a trial or a difficulty I still have a goal and that goal is not released from the trial to get out of the circumstance but it's the gospel needs to go forth.

And then we come to verse 27 and it kind of sounds strange there in verse 27 verse 1, only let your manner of life be worthy and so we come now to not Paul's autobiography but what Paul says happened in my life as I model it in my life, I want model in your life.

So remember last time we asked four questions, four essential questions every church member and every church must ask and answer and so three will be some review with some extra stuff put in there and then we'll have the fourth one today.

The One Thing Bethlehem Bible Church Must Be About

So four questions for your outline today that every church and every church member must ask and answer. Question one we saw last time found in verse 27 what should BBC be all about? What should Bethlehem Bible Church be all about?

People say what's your mission statement at the church? What's your driving purpose? What's your vision for the church? This is it. There are not two great commissions, there's only one. There are not a dozen things that we're trying to do, there's only one.

And he says right here in verse 27, only take note it means, pay attention here's just one thing this is at the top of the list by itself it's not three things at the top, not five things this is the one thing, there's nothing else.

Vincent's word studies translates it this way this one thing I urge as the only thing needed. If everything else falls by the wayside, fine whatever becomes of me, Paul says this is the one thing I want in your legacy.

Don't forget this one thing and this one thing only because everything revolves around the faith and the advance of the gospel for the faith and the advance of the gospel. This is for believers, this is for unbelievers, this is what the church is about and this should dominate our curriculum for Sunday school, it should dominate our songs as we sing them, this should dominate the pulpit ministry this should dominate everything we have and everything we do is proclaiming and preaching the gospel.

Remember I said last time, this means you don't even have to like everybody at the church you just have to love them. Did you know Paul knew that the Philippi church needed to proclaim the gospel and advance the gospel but there's a couple people that didn't get along.

Go to chapter 4 if you will and if you say to yourself I'm not really getting along with somebody at the church but we have a higher goal than me getting along so I should put myself to the side, I should put my disagreement to the side.

It's minor anyway, probably in 2 months I won't even remember what it's like. Has that ever happened to you by the way? You get in an argument with your spouse or a friend or something and it's some big deal, pressure cooker, dealing with it and then 3 months later you go, I can't even remember why I got in an argument.

It's crazy but if we're deferring to the bigger goal of the gospel proclaimed then we need to all get along chapter 4 verse 2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche he could say I entreat Euodia and Syntyche but to make it firm, I entreat, I entreat to agree in the Lord.

Yes, I ask you also a person who we don't know their name, true companion help these women, by the way they're good, they're faithful they've labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life if the mission is to advance the gospel then everything has to be subsumed underneath that and then we need to get along because we need to win the Superbowl and we might not like everyone in the locker room but the Superbowl is the Superbowl how much greater is the gospel than the Superbowl so that's the first question asked and answered.

What should BBC be all about? And that is the gospel. Question number 2 good question when you say Pastor Mike, you made up the question so you're going to think it's a good question good question, what's the gospel?

I mean we hear gospel centered church, gospel centered ministry we're all about the gospel, together for the gospel, gospel coalition gospel, gospel, gospel. What's the gospel? That would be a good question to ask.

Six times in chapter 1 he uses the word gospel. Everything must be subsumed underneath the gospel then what is the gospel? You can keep your finger here in Philippians but flip back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and if you'd like a succinct definition of the gospel of course, you'll see it in 1 Corinthians 15 when I hear the word gospel it means good tidings, it means good news.

You put a smile on your face and say I have good news for you what could be the good news? What's the good news? It's the free grace of the triune God for sinners, it is the personal work of Jesus sent by the Father to redeem lost sinners enslaved to sin the good news of Jesus who is under the law born of a woman, born under law that he might redeem those under the law.

It's all about what God has done. Is there better news than this? Are there more glad tidings? 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3, 4 and 5 notice that the subject of almost every verb in this section is Jesus and instead of saying he was buried, it says they buried him.

So you see the focus of the activity of the gospel is God's work and not ours. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3 for I delivered to you as of first importance, there's nothing more important in all the Bible than the gospel, everything is important but this is the most important, no wonder the church is having a mission for the most important thing that Christ died, that's the Messiah died for not his own sins he didn't sin, for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and of course Pastor Steve read chapter 52 of Isaiah today we can get into chapter 53 and see that very thing that he was buried.

Why does it say he's buried? Because he was really dead, they buried him and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to many, many people. There's more to the gospel than this.

But this is at the essence, this is the kernel people say, well what about Jesus' life? Of course that's there, what about his compassion? Of course that's there, but Paul is focused right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 because his discussion is on the resurrection.

Jesus really died, he was really buried and he was really raised from the dead. When I say the word gospel, I want you to think of kind of a zip file some zip drive, something that's small and compact, but once you open it up, it just opens up now I'm tempted to buy one of these new beds that you order online, that just come to your house all smashed down, pushed down and all of a sudden you just take your razor blade knife and open it up, and it just kind of unfolds.

So then how do you get that thing back into that? That would be my question when I need to return it after I probably don't like the way it feels in my back, but my wife loves the bed. You have something like this here and it's a zip drive, the word gospel, it's a small little word it just means good news, but all of a sudden it takes Genesis through Revelation to figure out, this is why it's such good news it's such good news, because the bad news is we're so depraved we're so far from God, we're so much an enemy of God and yet God in his condescending love rescues us at his own cost.

And so when I see the word gospel, I'm thinking triune God, I'm thinking free and sovereign grace. I'm thinking Jesus paid it all. I think the Father sends the Son, the Spirit of God applies the work of the Son.

I'm thinking even though I was enslaved to sin in some kind of straight jacket of sin God's rescued me. I'm thinking about the tears of sin and hell and judgment and the bliss of God and his work. And so the gospel is all about what God has done in Christ Jesus.

Listen to Romans 8 that talks about this. For the law was impossible and that it was weak through the flesh. Here's some good news. So when I say good news I'm talking about Jesus. When I say Jesus, you think who sent Jesus.

You say who applied the work of Jesus. Of course when I say good news, it's triune manifested specifically in Jesus. There's a catechism that I like, it's by John Brown. By the way, there are so many Scottish John Browns you have to add their last names via their city John Brown of Haddington.

What is the gospel strictly taken? Answer, it is the glad tidings of salvation to lost sinners through Christ. What parts of scripture belong to this? All these that offer Christ or promise any good thing through him to sinful men.

Wherein do the law and gospel differ? The law requires good in us and from us. But the gospel declares Christ has done and will do all for us and in us and freely brings all good things to us. Question 3 what's BBC all about?

The gospel. What's the gospel? It's the work of the triune God, his person work, nature, essence number 3, what does the gospel do as we advance it? What does the gospel do as we advance it? Back to Philippians chapter 1.

Please now when the gospel reaches the ears of the unbeliever, and God is so pleased to grant faith to that person that person receives this good news and God does many things he justifies, he declares not guilty.

He begins to sanctify and all kinds of things happen, there's regeneration, there's redemption there's propitiation, all these things for the unbeliever. And so when we're preaching the gospel remember, let's just step back for a minute.

The number one goal of the church is to proclaim the gospel and so we go evangelize, and we're out evangelizing folks. Kim and I went up to see the there's so many things in the sky these days from northern lights to total eclipses.

We went to see the eclipse up in Vermont and the tire gauge on the car said tires low or whatever so I pulled aside, I'm filling up the tires and two ladies come over, and they said, they're young, probably 30's with backpacks, and they said, we noticed your license plate, say Massachusetts.

Can we get a ride to Boston? First of all I thought, you're doing something. My spidey senses are up, so we talked to them a little bit and eventually we said Kim and I said, let's just give them a ride and so I said, you know what, you're going to be safe with us.

I'm a pastor, this is a pastor's wife but we're probably going to talk to you about the Bible a little bit and if you want to talk about the Bible, I'll give you a ride, not to Boston, but to Burlington because there's a train station there, a bus station there, and I'm not going to Boston.

They said, ok, get in, I said, what's your background? She said, Muslim, what's your background? I don't believe in anything and so I'm thinking, what's the mission of the church? The mission of the church is, when we go out, we evangelize we edify, we're edified here, and we go out to evangelize and so we got to talk a lot to them.

The one lady from a particular part of the world where I just think of terrorists she put a backpack in the back of the car and I so stupidly said, is there a bomb in there? Like, what am I doing? So for all of you when you have that opportunity, you're thinking you know your spouse, or your children, or your friends or your grandparents, they're not believers.

And you're thinking, how can I preach the gospel? Because there's nothing more important than the gospel. How can I tell them about Jesus, because the gospel is about Jesus. It's in all of you, sometimes we're a little more reticent.

Sometimes we're a little more afraid. I know many of you, you'll tell me the stories about how it was your desire to proclaim the gospel. And so, that's what we do. But I think sometimes while preaching the gospel to unbelievers is something we realize that's a priority, great commission.

We sometimes forget that Jesus preached to Christians is part of that priority. It's Christ proclaimed, that is, to believers, or to unbelievers. And so Christ isn't just for pardon. That is, I'm forgiven, I'm an unbeliever, I'm ungodly.

And now by faith and faith alone, through grace and grace alone. I'm a Christian, but Christians need the gospel too. Christians need to be reminded of who Jesus is. So we say with the reformation, it's not Christ just for pardon.

It's Christ for power for you to have the ability to say no to sin. You're not meant to live your Christian life on your own. Horatius Bonar says in his wonderful book God's Way of Holiness the secret of a believer's holy walk is now whenever I hear that, I've got a secret for special Christian living.

I've got a secret for obeying I've got a secret for righteous living. I always think, oh yeah, what's the secret? He's right though the secret of a believer's holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the lamb and his daily communion with the crucified risen Lord all divine life, that means your life that you live and all precious fruits of it.

Pardon, peace and holiness spring from the cross. All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of Christ is nothing better than being a Pharisee if it's just try harder. If it's just buckle up.

If it's just we're going to do things on the external and we don't care about the internal. That's like being a Pharisee. Did you know dear Christian that it's important for the pastors to preach to you who Jesus is for many reasons, obviously it's a biblical proclamation.

But if I were only to give you practical sermons better living, how to's and I don't give you the power to be able to do that that is who Jesus is. It makes no sense, it's just sheer law. It doesn't help you at all.

That's why pastors have to preach who Jesus is. So you realize I actually have the power to obey because it's not Jesus just for forgiveness. It's Jesus for power because Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit.

So we can actually do those things for Paul here in first chapter of Philippians he moves straight into chapter 2 and talks about who Jesus is when it comes to not being selfish and not being ambitious.

Who's our model? Jesus chapter 2 verse 6 and following. Who's our motivation? Jesus chapter 2 verse 6 and following. Did you ever think about it this way. What if you didn't know you were really forgiven wouldn't all your energy be devoted to that.

When I meet people who struggle with assurance it's hard for them to do hardly anything else because that's the dominating thing it just takes over, rightly. So but if you know you're forgiven because you're proclaimed Jesus once again from the Christian pulpit when Paul says in Romans chapter 1 I'm eager to preach the gospel to you, to remind you that you stand before God, this week Christian, this day Christian as sinless in Christ even though you sinned this week you're ok, you're good with God.

You may be disciplined for lack of obedience but you're not going to be cast out. I will never leave you nor forsake you, God says that frees you now to live a holy life that frees you from saying, you know what I can't really do much, can't get along with people that well I'm having struggles in my marriage.

I'm having struggles with this and that and the other. And therefore if I can't just like perfectly obey, why even bother. Well we have the spirit of God in us. And even though we should shore up those relationships you are free to serve.

Ok, I'll say it, you're free to serve and even fail. You're free to serve and fail because it's Christ for pardon and Christ for power. The gospel sets you free to pursue God and holiness. You have a safety net.

I haven't contributed anything to my salvation except sin. Now God's given me his spirit. What does the gospel do? The gospel saves unbelievers and it gives believers power. And now we come to the main part of our passage today.

And that is question number four. How do we respond? How do we live in light of the gospel and advancing it? So what? The gospel is the most important thing. It's the main thing, so what do I do? And now we'll do a little bit more of dealing with the text at hand.

The first three questions were kind of theological. And now we'll get into the exposition of the text. How do we live? Let me read the verse again. Chapter 1 verse 27 and 28. The verse is only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ Jesus so that whether I come or see you or I'm absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from God. Ok, I've been saved. I've been redeemed, now what do I do? You know what Paul doesn't do? He doesn't give you a list of a hundred things.

He doesn't give you a list of ten things. He doesn't give you a list of anything except he says see it early, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel, that's it go, it's fine. Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel, that's all he says.

I mean he expands a little bit but that's the main thing he says now I don't know why most translations have a hard time with this. Because it's not that difficult. Literally the Greek is live your lives as citizens.

It's got the word where we get politics, polity police live your lives as citizens. Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of your citizenship. That's what he's saying. You're a citizen. Act like it. You're like, why would he say that?

Why wouldn't he say Ephesians chapter 4 live your life worthy of the manner of the gospel. Walk in a manner worthy, he doesn't say walk here he says, have good politics. Think politically, why would he do that?

How many people here have been to Philippi? Ok, a couple have been to Philippi, a few, that's excellent. When you go to Philippi you think you're in Rome. When you go to Philippi you think you're in Rome, you're like, what in the world?

Because if you are a Roman citizen if you were a Roman soldier and you retired you would go off to a nice place to retire. You'd go down Cape you'd go to Martha's Vineyard. You'd go to Nantucket where the millionaires work for billionaires.

That's where you'd go, but if you were in Rome get out of Rome, there's only so long you can be in New York City and you've got to get out of the country someplace. But when you go to Philippi, you bring Rome with you.

The architecture is like Rome, the language is like Rome the customs like Rome, and they were very proud of that. So now you're living in Philippi, which is like Rome. And Paul says, if you're a Roman citizen you would, in Philippi, act like a Roman citizen.

You would defer to the government, you'd pay taxes. Everything that a Roman citizen should do in Rome he or she would do in Philippi. So by the way, dear Christian bought by the blood of the Lamb when you think about life you ought to live like a citizen.

What kind of citizen? Of Rome? Sure, pay taxes. But can you not hear Paul say in chapter 3, verse 20 what does he say? Your citizenship is in what? Heaven. So if you have a duty to act a certain way as a citizen on earth, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts you pay your taxes, you show up to vote.

You do this or do that, Paul is basically saying the gospel, the triune God who's loved you and saved you and redeemed you, live in light of that you're a citizen now, not just of Rome, of Philippi your citizenship, chapter 3, verse 20 your citizenship is in Heaven.

And you also as a citizen of Heaven should await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That ties right into what Paul is saying in chapter 1, verse 27 if I'm there or I'm not there here's how you live. Because you're waiting, you're waiting for the Savior.

And when you're waiting for the Savior, you're going to do the right thing. Citizens have benefits and citizens have duties. The benefit of being a citizen in Lancaster, Mass is, I don't know clean water, police plow the roads, and more duties, pay taxes.

Duties, be a good citizen. You're a Roman citizen you have privileges and you have duties. How much more. If you're a bud-bought son or daughter of the Savior you have privileges in Christ, forgiveness.

Can you believe you're forgiven for every one of your sins? Every one of your sins forever has been forgiven. If you say that's not a big deal, then you don't really think about your sin in a big deal.

But then in light of that, how do I live? So what Paul basically does is, he says let me remind you of who Jesus is. Let me remind you that I'm praying for you, chapter 1 let me remind you that I'm here to advance the gospel, even in jail.

And so, how do you live? Live like a citizen. Let your manner of life be worthy of your calling. How would a gospel citizen live? Unholy, unrighteous grumbling, factious, ununified is that how a citizen should live?

Of course not. If the Holy One of God has redeemed you with His Holy Son a citizen should live in light of that and be holy. Spurgeon said we must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. It never excuses sin, it pardons it but only through an atonement if our life is to resemble the gospel, or walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, we must not shun merely grosser vices, but everything that would hinder our conformity to Christ and so if I'm going to be a citizen of heaven what does that mean?

Well, live a holy life, that's true live out of gratitude, that's true but also, it's going to mean not living like the world Paul says, don't be a citizen of only Rome, be a citizen of heaven. By the way, that's why we at the church and the leadership, and of course you, we don't say you know what, how can we be attractive to the world to get people to come?

How can we kind of draw people in? No, no, that's not what we do we say we're different than the world, we're otherworldly and we believe the spirit of God will draw them in you have a new citizenship in heaven, that's amazing and because of that, how do we flesh it out?

How do we flesh this out? And it's found in the rest of verse 27 and 28 let me give you three ways this fleshes out three components of this walking in a manner worthy of our new citizenship. Number one, stand firm.

It's right there in the middle of verse 27 I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit this is military language hey, there's a bunch of Roman soldiers at Philippi, everybody knows the Roman soldiers, so he uses soldier language and you stand firm there's not retreat, there's standing firm this is dig in this is, I'm thinking of Gladiator the movie, and Russell Crowe says, hold the line, hold your ground firmly, determinedly this word is used in John 8, 44, of Satan not standing in the truth, the battle is going to be fierce, the opponents are strong, but living in a manner worthy of the gospel, if these Roman soldiers in Philippi are called to duty, they have been taught not to back down not to retreat, not to put the tail between the legs and run, but to stand their ground how much more for us as Christians the battle is raging and we stand our ground.

I think it's been said, we won't back down we'll stand our ground, that's the idea standing, firm, you can think of the soldiers cleats that they would wear, right? Meant to go that way, meant to be stable if God loves, the Father loves the Son and if God loves the gospel he loves himself, as it were don't you think Satan is going to attack, don't you think there's going to be persecution don't you think there's going to be people like Paul who for a while ravaged the church.

The firm foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ unites Christians and they stand together with one goal standing, committed, with conviction. The world attacks, the world assaults and we need to persevere, Bethlehem Bible Church needs to persevere with the gospel truth.

We're not going to back down, we're not going to say in a pluralistic world with many ways to Jesus we agree with that, we're not going to, we're going to stand biblical ground. Well, there's many genders and there's this, this and that we're not going to believe that, we're standing our ground.

Well, what about homosexual marriages, we're not believing that we're standing our ground, and the list could go on and on and on as the flood of sin imbibes churches just this last week and last 10 days, the Methodist church votes overwhelmingly against biblical marriage and biblical roles with men and women.

What's interesting, dear Christians, this isn't pastor to do this he's writing to the church at Philippi it's the pastor and you this is all you, this is not, well, I'm glad Abendroth's going to take the hits and we'll just sit there and by the way, most of you I know will stand for truth and you'll stand for truth at the cost of your own job.

You'll stand for truth at the cost of your own reputation and I commend you, and it's only going to get worse and how do we live in light of the gospel, how are we citizens of heaven, he says first, you stand your ground and by the way, it's a lot easier when other people are doing it with you, what's the text say, standing firm in one spirit, and that's easy because we have one purpose, and the purpose is the faith of the gospel so we can stand together, what are we fighting for the Lord Jesus, at the very bottom line that's it, we're fighting for Jesus, not the Jesus of somebody's own thinking, but the Jesus found in this Bible whether it comes to women's roles, homosexuality, anything else we are going to stand firm, locking shields together, well that's soldier language he goes on secondly to use athletic language how do you become a person that walks in a manner worthy in light of the gospel to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Well one, you act like a soldier, two, you act like an athlete see it, with one mind, striving side by side striving is where we have the word athleto in it, sound familiar athlete with athleto, sin athleto, together we talked about this earlier, you've got a team, they work together for the purpose of winning the game, so we not only stand firm like we would in a military battle it's like a game, like the Ismith games, the Olympic games that these people in Philippi knew all about standing together in the idea of unity.

How do we stand together in unity? Well we know what our mission statement is and we know what not to do after that, no wonder it says in chapter 2 verse 14 for instance hey we're fighting a common enemy.