Philippians 3:17-21 Reforming "Citizens of Heaven"

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people today Cannot define and that's an unfortunate thing.
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So today we're gonna be in Philippians chapter 3 Verses 17 through 21.
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We're going to finish chapter 3 today in the book of Philippians as You are turning your way there
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Philippians 3 verse 17 through 21. Let us go ahead and begin with a word of prayer Lord God, I would ask today that our minds our thoughts our heart our intention our actions everything about us
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Lord would be attentive to your word today Lord that you would convict each one of us to be more and more
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Following the example of Paul even as Paul says in this text Lord. So God let us continue to press on Let us continue to reach forward
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Let us continue to walk in the same standard in which we are first called Lord God We ask these things in your mighty name
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Jesus the Christ. Amen Philippians chapter 3 verse 17 through 21.
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Let's read that for the day Brothers join in following my example and Look for those who walk according to the pattern you have in us
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For many walk of Whom I often told you and now tell you even crying as enemies of the cross of Christ Whose end is destruction whose
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God is their stomach and Glory is in their shame Who set their thoughts on earthly things?
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For our citizenship is in heaven From which also we eagerly await for a
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Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Who will transform the body of our humble estate into conformity
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With the body of his glory by his working through which he is able to even subject all things to himself
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Let's pray again Lord, I would ask today That as we are sanctified each one of us on each one of our walks in different times and in different seasons today
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Lord that We would recognize the joy it is To be a citizen of heaven Lord we eagerly wait your return
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Lord let us Think on this of what it means to be an enemy of the cross of Christ today
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Lord convict our minds of these things keep us to the tax Let us not go an ounce away from what you have prepared for us today, and we ask these things
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Wanting your will to be done and we say this in the mighty name of Jesus the Christ who subjects all things to himself.
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Amen Philippians chapter 3 verse 17 through 21
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Paul again is writing this letter to the church of Philippi while he himself is in prison while he himself is suffering
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While he himself is bearing the brand marks of the Lord Christ Jesus quite literally on his own flesh
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Last week We discussed in the previous verses of this chapter dealing with the ongoing
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Sanctification that consists of us can to continue to walk in the same standard by which we are first saved and how that looks
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We continually walk in this life knowing that we are undeserving Sinners saved by our
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Holy Savior in the grace that lies within him That's how we continue to walk in this life and that everything we do
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Whether it's next week or the week prior however we go about these weeks We have to continue to walk in that same standard that that's the walk that we could have that's the continually pressing on It's the continual
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Reaching ahead of what it lies ahead of us and it is in Reminding of ourselves that Paul himself even says that he counts all things as a loss in the surpassing value of knowing
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Christ Jesus So that text that we read last week is not a text that teaches a workspace salvation
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It's a text that's talking about us continually walking in grace Seeking sanctification knowing that we are saved undeservingly by Jesus Christ And so on the backbone of this we approach verse 17
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Which listen to what Paul says in here Brothers, so again, he he reaches out to the
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Church of Philippi a church that's a Miles away from him and he what is he calling them brothers.
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He sees them as family He sees them as one in the body of Christ. He says brothers join
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In following my example Join in following my example
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This right here again as we've seen over and over and over again in every single text of the
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Bible Should teach us to avoid any sort of prosperity gospel or prosperity ideas
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The thinking of as I'm in Christ and I seek and I have faith in him and I pray this prayer I'm gonna get a
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Corvette or whatever. The example is is obnoxious Is what does Paul tell us to do follow in his example?
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Where's Paul at in this text? He's in prison. He's not in a Corvette. He's not in the
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Porsche. He's not in any of these things He's in prison and the question of why is he in prison?
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Is he in prison because he is being belligerent and disobeying willy -nilly the law that was in that day
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He's in prison because he has been preaching Christ crucified So the example that we are to follow in this is
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Preach Christ crucified all the time to all people in all places Knowing that this world is going to most likely what?
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reject us Most likely will reject us as they did our brother in the faith
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Paul the Apostle in this text join in My example, this is not him saying to to not preach
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Christ crucified to not do evangelism not to be bold He's saying join me in what
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I have done For I am giving you an example of how to be Christ like in this life follow me in these things church this applies to us today and It's so important that we remember this that this this is something that goes to us 2 ,000 years later after the life of Paul that we are to follow in his example and look for those who walk in the
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Pattern that you have in Paul himself that that we are to follow the example
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That's laid out of for us in Scripture. And what is that example that we have? Where is it recorded for us that example of life of Paul?
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I hope each one of us has that recorded example open on our laps today We go to the
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Holy Scripture to perform our lives to live a life that is Christ -like to live a life
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That is living in a in a in a state of grace Look for those who walk according
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To the pattern you have in us Follow my example church follow the example of Paul's what
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Paul is saying in here follow Myself and not only this but you were to look for other
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Christians other believers other brothers other sisters in the faith That disregard the example of Paul that live a different life than the example of Paul No To look for those that live a life like Paul himself
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There's a saying That I love and I enjoy a say quite often
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It is Latin and every time I try to say Latin behind the pulpit. It does not come out correctly So let's try this
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Ecclesia Semper Reformanda S That Latin saying comes about from a gentleman in 1947 named
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Karl Barth Who allegedly got it from a guy in a 300 AD period named
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Augustine? and that saying Is a certain it you usually find that saying in certain reform
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Protestant Theologies or theologians, but the saying teaches that the church must always be reforming
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What does that mean? Why why should the church always be reforming if it's it's work 20 years ago?
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Why do we need to change it today? Brothers and sisters. Let me ask you this it how many of us in our
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Christian walk Are the same person that we were 10 years ago? Would you be okay with a
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Christian saying I'm the same person I was 20 years ago Would you think that that's a good thing? No, that's a
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Christian that hasn't grown. In fact, that would actually be the opposite of what we should be seeing in a Christian's life
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See a Christian that's growing in knowledge of Jesus Christ when that's continually seeking him when that's killing sin one
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That's changing his life to be more like Christ We've talked about this oftentimes in the book of Hebrews in our
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Bible studies that sanctification is this ongoing Process where we've been set apart and we seek to be more like Christ It's continually shaping ourselves to the example that we have in Scripture So we ourselves know that the
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Christian ought to be changing themselves to be more like Christ That too should apply to the church
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So the church just changed to change or should the church change to be more what? Biblical just as the
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Christian shouldn't change to change, but the true Christian should change to be more like Christ Likewise if there's local bodies
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There's certain churches all across the world each one of these churches that know Christ They ought to have men and women in their body that want the church to be more
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Biblical and that's what this whole Latin saying is meaning is that we must always be reforming ourselves
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We must always be examining what the church is described as in the scripture, and that's what we ought to seek
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What are the examples of this that we could even see in our local body? Do we do church petitions that we did this morning?
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Have we done that? I know everyone's been in this church for a while. Have you done that prior to myself being a pastor here?
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No, she said no we didn't do that I saw a need for saying as Christians were to encourage each other in good works
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And this is an opportunity for us to come together and praise God together and the things that affect us weekly
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It's an attempt to be more biblical. Is there an example of that happening in Scripture? Not necessarily, but there's there's good reasoning for doing something like that What about singing songs should we just be singing songs that are popular of the day or should we be singing songs that have deep?
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meaningful theology I Hope you say that you want is we're seeing the second one over the popularity
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Why? Would you be okay with your pastor or an elder having a surface level understanding of the
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Bible? Or do you want a pastor or yourself to know the deep things of God?
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I? Hope you yourself want to know the deep things of God. Why do we sing deep theological songs that are not popular today on Sunday?
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Because our church must always be reforming Church must always be shaping ourselves to be more biblical another great example of this was guarding the table again
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How many of us in this church would be okay if if brother Ron elder Ron who's not here today?
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if elder Ron was going out and baptizing members of the LGBT community who are openly living in sexual sin who reject the
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Christ would you anybody in here be like oh, that's That's problematic What about if elder
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Ron was going out and laying hands on women to be pastors Would we be okay with that?
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Would we like that idea? No, we have We we see baptism laying on of hands as this ordinance that is special and unique Something that's supposed to be revered which is amen it is it is
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It's not so it'd be something that toss the wayside that we we we baptize Willy -nilly we examine individuals make sure that they're in the body of Christ before we administer such an ordinance such as baptism the
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Lord's table Likewise should be the same So the three elders of us we talked about it
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We said well what happens if we have somebody that is openly a part of the LGBT community in our church How do we prevent somebody says such in participating in an ordinance?
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Like that What happens if we have an individual from another church who joins our body because they are in church discipline
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And they didn't like their last church they were in How do we prohibit somebody from just willy -nilly doing an ordinance that is special and unique?
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guarding the table this is an example of Reforming the church trying to be more biblical in our thinking trying to be more guarded in what the text has to say for us
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There's example of this over and over and over again How many of us did have we noticed here in the last months that we've been singing the same song the fourth song every single?
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Sunday the law gospel doxology song Praise God from whom all blessings flow
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Praise him all creatures here below Why do we sing that?
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The elders thought it might be important to have a song that we know off the top of our heads that clearly demonstrate the gospel
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So that if a new person comes to our church at least they leave every single Sunday hearing the gospel for the last song that They sing where is that said in the
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Bible that we need to do that nowhere? but the point of it is is that the elders the church the Elders are trying their hardest to look at something and say this seems to be the most biblical thing that we can do
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This seems to be the right thing to do this has biblical thinking behind it We are trying to follow in the example of Paul And we're trying to look for those who walk according to the pattern that we have in Paul and the
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Apostles themselves brothers and sisters what I'm trying to get at is that when we Paul is here saying follow my example the example that Paul's laid out for us is in Scripture itself
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We go to where in order to see how we should live our lives to the
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Word of God itself Each one of us must be conformed to the image of Christ and look to seek to be sanctified in him
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We too as a church must be doing those things Always always doing these things trying to be more biblical trying to be more
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Seeking truth in these things so when we come to verse 18 now this
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Hurts to read Let's read it After he just says look for those that walk in the in the pattern that you have set before you for many walk of Whom I often told you and now tell you even crying as enemies of the cross of Christ We have to rationalize this brothers and sisters.
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I Say that calling you brothers and sisters because last week you had the appearance of being a brother or sister but what
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Paul is saying is that there are individuals who had that appearance that I look to and said brother and Sister and now who are they?
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An enemy of the cross I've shared the story in the example that before in in sermons and messages
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Early on in my Christian walk. I had a brother that I thought was in Christ and as time went on He was actually an enemy of Christ You think
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Paul loved these individuals? Why did
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Paul love these individuals? Every single week every single month even when he's in prison himself
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Who is he thinking about and who is he praying about his brothers and his sisters in Christ? Where is
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Paul at right now? This should actually elevate this meaning even more for us Paul who's in prison and suffering has mentioned very little about his current state right now
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He's not wallowing in his own shame in his own in his own pain. He's not wallowing in those things
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What is he wallowing in this text about? The brother the sister that has actually walked away from the faith for many walk
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Of whom I often told you and now tell you even crying as enemies of the cross of Christ So why should the church always be reforming and refining itself to the
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Bible? Because many walk away from the faith when why why why is that they were never saved in the first place
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We'll talk about this here in a moment It's because they were never seeking to be reformed to the
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Bible never seeking to refine their own Understanding of who God is to the Bible. It says for many walk
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Paul talks about this often. He does not he's not quiet on this topic. He says well whom I often told you
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And he's saying that while in prison and I'm suffering I'm crying over this reality that these individuals who
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I thought were in Christ are actually enemies of the cross of Christ Brothers and sisters we have to we have to we have to cover a couple of things in this text
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You already should know this and I hope this is your stance as well But I believe in something called perseverance of the
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Saints or once saved always saved Meaning that if Christ has paid for your sin
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There is no sin that you can ever commit that would undo the blood of Christ that would make your sin more powerful than the blood itself
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We all go on sinning if we could lose our salvation. We would be damned
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Not only that But the blood of cry across the Christ would be trampled under our foot
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Continually and we would be more powerful than the all -powerful Son of God It's a terrible view to have on these things there's a few texts in the
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Bible that sound something like losing your salvation This is one of them Many walk of whom
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I often told you now even crying now. They're enemies of the cross of Christ. I want to read to you
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John 1st John 2 18 through 19 because we have to take all the texts of the Bible and put them together and think on these things together 1st
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John chapter 2 verse 18 through 19. This was read last week Children, it is the last hour and as just as you have heard that the
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Antichrist is coming even now Many Antichrists have appeared from this.
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We know that it is the last hour they Who are they talking about who's who's
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John saying this about they are Brothers and sisters in body of Christ is what it seems like the former people that went to church
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They were actually not really of the body of Christ. They went out from us But they were not really of us
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For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us But they went out so that it would be shown that they are all not of us
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Enemies the cross of Christ This is what we've been talking about in the prior text that when we talk about justification between God and man
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It's this vertical thing How many of us saw our sin get lifted off of our shoulders and placed on the on the shoulders of Christ?
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We ever see that take place that transaction take place. No, we have faith that that transaction took place
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We have faith that the imputed righteousness of Christ now covers us as believers, what do we see though?
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We see a Christian's walk we see a
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Proven worth we see their fruits. That's what the Bible this So that's what Philippians is already talked about as a walk and a proven worth in the prior chapter
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So as time goes on and time progresses It reveals these things to us and Paul himself is suffering this very thing that I have even myself suffered and seen as a
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Christian Time reveals these things. This is not talking about God justifying the sinner
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This is talking about justification between man and man and knowing if somebody is truly saved or not
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One way that we can tell if somebody is truly saved or not is actually I would argue as in this text as enemies of the cross of Christ brothers and sisters
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Run from any theology run away from any theology that lessens the power of the blood of Christ there upon the hill of Calvary Run away from that Why Has Paul not already argued this for us beware of dogs beware of false
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Circumcision mutilation and beware of evil workers. What is he talking about?
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People that say you have to look do and act in this way in order to be a real Christian Paul saying run away from that And now he's saying many walked who are actually not of the body of Christ and their enemies of the cross
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Why are the enemies of the cross? It's because they actually deny the power of salvation that reigns from there
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Brothers and sisters, it's so important that we refine our theology Continually to the what the Word of God says because if we don't we're gonna come up with silly ideas
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We're gonna come up with every form of legalism and work -based Salvation that we possibly can that would deny the blood of Christ as we if we let go of the
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Word of God Avoid any and all heresy that denies the power of the cross verse 19 listen about the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is
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Destruction Does the enemies of the cross of Christ get a second chance?
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Do they get happiness Do they obtain joy? Do they have a forever peace and the obvious answer is what?
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No, they do Not says that their end is destruction that that's everything that they have in this life
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Every form of supposed righteousness that they have is going to come to the end and the ultimate
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Climax, which is destruction for them and their story in their life and their walk
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It's going to end in destruction Now listen, this is interesting
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John Gila. I was reading a commentary He's a Reformed Baptist like myself he has some interesting things to say in commentaries in the 1800s
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He says in this text, which I thought was very Interesting something I'd never thought of or seen before whose end is its destruction whose
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God is their stomach I thought that was a really interesting saying so that's why I looked at this commentary and he notes
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That just as Paul often does as he refers to The false gods of his day
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There was a false God in that day named Cyclops who's heard of Cyclops before right in Greek mythology, right?
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The the one eye on the forehead dude, right Cyclops They believed the the Greek followers of these grit
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Greek pantheon of gods They believed that Cyclops wouldn't fall or worship or sacrifice animals to the false
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God Zeus They they said that Cyclops would only sacrifice animals guests to whom and to where to himself in his stomach and So John Gil says that most likely this is in a reference to the false
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God Cyclops in Greek mythology Why is Paul referring to these things?
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It's because the individuals That supposedly looked like they followed Christ at one time were actually never fought but worshipping
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God But they were actually worshiping a false God not even just false
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God But they were worshipping themselves the whole time through it Why because they thought they had a supposed righteousness in and of themselves
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They they were sacrificing things Items, maybe let's talk about the foreskin example with the whole circumcision things.
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They were sacrificing their foreskin to whom? Themselves They were they were seeking the
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God of their stomach very interesting. I thought that was very unique Their God is the
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God of their belly. They sacrifice things there and it says and glory in their shame
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Who set their thoughts on earthly things The best that they can offer the very best the things that they do
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For others to see or the things that they do in secret actually only are bringing about Greatness.
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No, it says shame Their shame their end is destruction. Their shame is actually their glory.
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It's nothing of true value There's no reward or joy awaiting them. There's only going to be the end of destruction
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It's actually all shame that they've been doing these things They think they walk around thinking that they have done something mighty in their own eyes they've abstained from things or they have acted upon things because they think that in it they are made righteous and Actually, they're only standing as in shameful individuals before God Now this can who is this that set their minds on earthly things?
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Who is this? What does this look like it can look like many different things again? This was written in a different context in a different time period with different things going on But I think the the implication for us is very obvious that this can come in any shape or size
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It can be seen in the person that divests themselves from all worldly possessions such as monks
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Right or Amish people that that while we got to do this in order to be righteous, right?
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We can't have these things or those that can't part or those that that's
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Those that are participating in sexual perversions of all kinds they're seeking after earthly things
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They're not seeking after where God in heaven Their mind is not focused on God, but rather in his creation
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Now I want you to look here at verse 20 through 21 For our citizenship is in heaven
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From which we also eagerly wait for a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Who will transform the body of our humble state in conformity with the body of his glory?
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By his working through which he is able to even subject all things to himself This is a mighty mighty text to talk about I'm going to try to get over these things if we are not able to get through this we will probably pick up Next week in this text.
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I hope to be able to get through this Where is the Christians ultimate citizenship at?
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Obviously the text says it's in heaven, right? It's in heaven Where is our ultimate home at in heaven?
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Brothers and sisters, there's sometimes Christians that can forego everything else in life
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Thinking only that their citizenship is in heaven, which it's true. Their citizenship is in heaven
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How many of us in this room are fathers? How many of us in this room are mothers
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How many of us in this room are husbands or wives sons or daughters brothers and sisters?
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Is being a husband not more important than Being an employee at work.
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I Would say so there's there's a certain level of more importance that's placed on that. Does being a husband
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Undo you being an employee at work? No, does it? Doesn't it all plays together with itself
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Is being a Christian more important than being an employee Absolutely, right
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Does it undo the fact that you're an employee at work? No, it doesn't Paul is not saying in here to lose all love to lose all association with the world in the sense of ties and and Being in something right an example of this
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I turn with me actually to Acts 21 39 turn with me there real fast Because Paul is not saying in here that you as an
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Idaho and in Idaho can't say that you're an Idaho, right? He's not saying that he's saying that our ultimate home is in heaven
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That's our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, but he's not saying you can't be a citizen of Idaho in this text Acts chapter 21 verse 39
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We Could read a whole bunch of this text I'm going to some summarize some of it for us, but Paul here in verse 39 of Acts 21.
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He says this But Paul said so this Paul the same author of Philippians the same inspired writer and author the same one that is an apostle of God.
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He says this but Paul said I am a
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Jew of Tarsus and Cecilia a citizen of no insignificant city and I beg you allow me to speak to the people which then
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Paul goes on to speak to Hebrew in front of The people and impresses them shows that he is from this place shows that he has an affiliation to this town
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And it gives him the right to speak the gospel to these individuals Isn't Paul a citizen of heaven though What's getting said at in this text of Philippians 3 you can turn back to Philippians 3 now what is being said in this text is that our ultimate home is heaven and How should that affect then the way we live in Idaho?
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We should live in Idaho As citizens of heaven We should be an
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Idaho in That is a citizen of heaven just as you are a husband or a mother
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Doesn't negate That you also might be something else in the same position it doesn't eliminate another affiliation
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Only it should enhance those things. It should make it so you live those things differently
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Because you are a citizen of heaven now When we look at this from verse 20 from which we also eagerly awaits
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For a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory
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By his working through which he is able to even subject all things to himself This text is dealing with the big word that a lot of Christians fear which is eschatology
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The study of end things and end times, right? There's a lot of things that we can go into in depth in this text about But I want to talk about maybe some of the obvious things that we can see in this text
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One thing that I would I would say to look at there's a there's a heresy out there
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And I call it a heresy because it is a heresy. It's historical heresy. It's called hyperpredatorism
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It says that all things Even in Christ coming again
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His second coming was fulfilled in 70 AD that Christ is never again coming physically to earth and that the state that we're in right now is the eternal state and this life that we live is just gonna keep
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On going and keep on going and keep on going That's denying what?
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Let's read this again. We eagerly await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our body
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Our humble body state into conformity with the body of his glory have any of us been conformed to the body of his glory the body
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Listen the body the very physical body the very body that Christ was resurrected with we too will obtain a glorification state like that That's what this text teaches.
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Do any of us live in that glorified state today? No, so the hyperpreterist this text denies
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Again there's gonna be some big words in here that that we have to we have to think about and think through So hyperpreterism is not okay.
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There's a term out there called partial preterism or sometimes people just refer to it as preterism That's not heresy.
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That's very much within orthodoxy It's a it's another topic for another day But if you hear somebody say that Christ is not coming again that he came in 70
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AD That is heretical and it denies this text right here very obviously
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Why do we talk about this? The Bible just told us to follow in the example of Paul in many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ We have to be on alert against these kind of things
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So what else does this teach us about eschatology in this text this Paul saying here that we in this life
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Our prideful state will be turned into a state of glory in the future. No, he says our humility
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Will one day receive? conformity our humility
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One day will be rewarded with the very Conformity that is found in Christ Jesus That we one day will see our
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Shepherd because we are his sheep Humility to Paul is what?
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Where is Paul at right now? He's being persecuted in jail, right? humility to Paul is persecution for the sake of the advancement of the gospel
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I Would say that this should teach us to expect something in this world that in the fallen world that awaits
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The revealing of the sons of glory Romans 8 19 that there will be persecution until the day that Christ comes
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Humility will receive conformity It doesn't say that humility one day will receive something greater and greater and greater
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I would say that that's not what this text is teaching Paul saying that his humility that he's suffering right now is
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Going to be rewarded when Christ comes again What's another thing that this teaches all things will be subject to him when he comes again
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Romans 8 19 which again we we have Read this in the past and it's a text that I enjoy very much for the anxious longing of the creation
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Awaits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of glory that Christ Jesus when he comes back not only us
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You and I as Christians will receive a body of glory, but all of creation will be anew all things will be glorified
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Also it appears that in this text when we read this when
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Christ comes back it's all done When Christ comes back.
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There's not going to be a time where people are living unglorified lives But when the shepherd comes back
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According to Matthew 25. He will ship separate the sheep from the goats
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The sheep will be rewarded with everlasting life and the goats will receive an everlasting damnation
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Destruction is what this text has already said this should Eliminate many ideas for us in our mind
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But that's what the things I see in this text very clearly teach that when Christ comes back
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It is done. It is wrapped up. It is finished Christ himself will reign with us forever and ever and ever in a glorified state
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And that's an important takeaway. I think from this text Brothers and sisters,
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I think that the ultimate thing that we have to take away from this is our hope and longing for our
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Savior to return the whole reason that we come to church on Sunday is to celebrate the
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Resurrection of Jesus Christ and we do this until we see him again
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We don't come to church because they're shared meal. We don't come to church because there's pretty songs that are sung
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We don't come to church because of the nice flower arrangements. We don't come to church so we can help out in VBS We come to church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ until he comes again
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Participating in the ordinances of God in the reading of his word and time of prayer
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Fellowship being with another one another encouraging each other in good works until he comes again
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Brothers and sisters today is the day to remember to be humble to have humility
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Because truly there will be a day where you will receive conformity And it's not because of your humility that you will receive it
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It's because you walk in the same standard in which you were first called and that is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
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Let us as a church Recognize that we must always refine and reform our worship our time spent here
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Our time spent outside of here that we always reform it to what the
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Word of God has to say. Let us pray Lord God, I thank you for your word
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Lord, I thank you for what this text offers for us Lord, I thank you
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For the truth and the knowledge and the knowing and the conviction and the faith that you will come again
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Lord God I would ask you Lord that you would come quickly
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But Lord in the time that you are Tearing in the time that is fitting according to your purpose and your plan
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Lord the time that we don't know That we would seek to advance your kingdom Lord That we would fall in the example of Paul himself
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Lord I would ask that each one of us today would walk away Running from any sort of theology any sort of teaching any sort of idea any sort of worldly Thoughts that denies the very blood of Christ That seeks our own righteousness rather than the righteousness that's found alone in Christ Jesus and Lord I would ask all these things
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Will be done why we continue to reform as a church and I ask these things in your name Jesus Christ.