Sunday Morning Sermon Series - Pastor Jeff Shipley (Date: May 5th 2019)

Steps to Maturity in Philippians 1

Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size. It wasn't the type of people they were down here with.

I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you. Always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer. Because you are partnered in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians chapter 1.

We're going to look at these 10 verses. And we're going to look at steps to maturity. As you know, I just got back and one of the places, and most of you are going to know what I mean by this. I was honored, and it was a privilege, not a right, to walk the ground on Ford Island.

If you don't understand that, you probably need some help. I thought the whole time I was there, I'll be honest with you, I was not prepared for what that place did to me. As I sailed past the USS Arizona, I mean we got within from here to the wall.

The walk bridge that's so famous was broken and has been for about a year. And the government's working really hard to fix two stairs. But anyways, as we sailed past that, there were 300 and something men who were still entombed in that ship.

For days after, as they were trying to rescue, they could hear the men beating on the hull. Jeremiah, Jeff, Hayden, and Hunter's age. Young men that had never got to have a family. Young men that didn't know what it was to grow old and retire and to see children and grandchildren.

It was hallowed ground. It was a graveyard. So we went to Ford Island and we went into this hangar. And in the hangar, there were actually the holes from Japanese strafing runs in the hangar. They were still there in the glass and the steel.

As we were walking around, I was still trying to unjumble my thoughts. That I wasn't in a national park, I was walking on a living graveyard. There were a family from France. I know they were from France.

Because they sounded like they were from France and smelled like they were from France. Their two children, both boys, were godless, undisciplined, heathens. Now, that by itself annoys me. People, please discipline your children.

If you can't, keep them away from me. God, because I'm serious, man. I want to backhand them. But what was worse was not their behavior, but their behavior in this particular place. Lack of reverence.

Lack of respect. Guys, those young men need some maturing. And I'm here to tell you that they're going to mature physically, but what I saw in the parenting skills or the lack thereof in their parents thus far, they will never mature in their heart, their spirit, and their core.

And those little boys will be 40-year-old little boys. Christians, we too must examine ourselves in that same line of maturity. Our maturity is not marked by the longevity of our church attendance. Well, I've been a member here since...

If I had died for every time in my 27 years of pastoring I have heard that as a validation of some unspoken right, I'd be a very wealthy man. The thief on the cross showed a lot of maturity. And he wasn't a Christian more than a couple hours before he went to heaven with Jesus.

Guys, what are the marks and steps of maturity? Look at three things with me. First of all, we need to mature our testimony. Starting in Philippians 1, starting in verse 3, as I read earlier, I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you.

Always praying with joy for all of you in my prayers because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Guys, in every remembrance. This is not Snapchat. Christianity are not Polaroids or snapshots of what we did at last week's fair or what we did on a mission trip or what we did.

Those are snapshots, right? That's not the remembrance he's talking about. The remembrance of what's happened in here. Thinking not of themselves but thinking of others. And guys, I'll be honest with you.

Some of you are lacking joy in your life. Your testimony is what needs to be matured. But the greatest part about your testimony is joy is the energy that gets your testimony out. If you don't have joy, man, when you got joy, you don't need any more motivation.

Let me tell you about Jesus. Now, here's the thing. People, we still don't understand what joy is. Joy is not happiness. Joy is not an emotional feeling. Guys, joy is peace in the soul. It is that resting comfort.

It is that unrelinquished idea that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and no matter what happens, one day I'm going home. That the cares of this world, the worries of this world, the power of sin are mere trickling of broken chains at my feet because I have the peace of God, the joy of God, that passes all rational understanding.

Now, if you want to develop and mature your joy, I'm giving you a little acronym for you. Think of it like this. J-O-W. Put Jesus first, others second, and yourself dead last, and your joy—what? What did I say?

Y 'all are all wrong. I said J—thank you, Mama Louise. Thank you. Guys, put yourself last. I promise you, your joy will increase. Watch this. Fellowship is partnership. Unless you're advancing or unless you're encouraging the body of Christ, you're not really having koinonia.

Koinonia doesn't happen in a container. It's supposed to overflow. It's supposed to empower. It's supposed to advance the gospel and the cause of Christ. But so many times people get jaded. Well, no one paid attention to me.

No one paid attention. No one said hi to me. I want to help you in your maturity. I'm not being mean to you. I say this with all the authority of the gospel of Christ, with all the love that I have for my people.

Please, remove me from that sentence. I promise you, your life is going to be a lot happier and you're going to be a lot stronger and more mature Christian. We are here today for one reason. For us to encourage each other and then by default, to advance the gospel to a lost and dying world.

That is it. Guys, we need to work on our maturity. And that maturity is our testimony. The second thing, look at verse 6. Paul says this, I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on until the day of completion, until the day of Christ Jesus.

It was back in 2000 something, 2001, 2002. I was a pastor at Hillhurst Baptist Church in Nashville. This guy asked me, would you please come speak at this retirement home? And I said, well sure. I don't know that that's going to be a good thing.

And he was like, oh no, you need to come speak. So I chose this verse. Philippians 1 .6. He that began a good work in you will complete it. Will complete it. And so as I got there, it was a pretty big retirement home.

And there was a couple hundred people out there. So I'm sitting there and I asked them, were you there? Okay. I asked them, I said, how many of you are Christians? And of course, you know, they raised their hands with their insurer bottles or whatever.

I know, I'm not politically correct and I don't care. And I asked them, okay, y 'all are all Christians, great. Where do you go to church? Well, you know, I used to go to, I used to go, I used to go, I used to go.

Why don't you go? Well, we can't get out. No, but that stupid bus over there takes y 'all to Walmart once a week. Hmm. Yeah, probably the casinos too. I won't say that anybody specific would be on that bus as she cowers down behind someone.

I always laugh when people say, well, you know, I can't go to church. Look, you are the church. If there's 200 of you in a room, the church is already there. You ain't got to go nowhere. If 200 people can't get up and preach the gospel, then there's a serious problem.

If you can't sing a song, well, we don't have a piano. You don't need a piano. You don't need a worship leader. You don't need a pastor. What you need is a ministry and a heart that seeks to know God and advance the gospel and encourages people.

That's all you need. You need a little maturity. You need to pull your shoulders back. Guys, what's y 'all's retirement program? How many of y 'all got a retirement account? Yeah, most of y 'all are in this set.

Jake, you have a retirement account? Did you raise your hand, Jake? You don't even work. Guys, I have zero money to retire on. People say, well, that's bad financial planning. We do have a small one? Oh, I didn't know.

How much? Like a grand? Well, wait a minute. My question is, why don't I know about this? Char, you know about this? How did you, Char and Rebecca, know about my retirement account? I don't know nothing about it.

God, like I can see the vultures just circling. Well, I don't know what it is, but I guarantee it ain't that much. You know what my retirement pro, huh? That is a distinct possibility. Guys, you know what my retirement program is?

Jeff Shipley and Ashley Shipley. Jeff's gonna be an engineer and Ashley's gonna be a Fortune 500 businesswoman. That's my retirement program. One of them two are moving me in. That's it. But I'll be honest with you guys.

You know what I can retire from ministry? When you die. Pastors who retire are fooling themselves. Christians who retire are fooling themselves. Here's what's sad. Look at the mutants over here at table nine.

Sorry, bad movie. Wedding singer, very good. I got a senior adult group that does more witnessing than some of you folks do. Our senior adults are our smallest demographic in this church. They're our smallest demographic.

But they, from what I am told, give more and work more than our 20 and 30 year olds. That's a problem. Guys, that's a problem. Your attendance on Sunday morning is not ministry. And if you feel like ash in your mouth and a void of joy in your life, it has nothing to do with music or sermons.

It has to do with the level of maturity you have in ministry. You want to feel content in the glory of God? Go to work for Him. Suffer persecutions. Be laughed and mocked at. And praise His name anyway.

Charge a hill and hear the sound of the guns and run towards Him. And you will know the joy of what it is to serve the living God. Stand up for something. Do something. Besides wallowing in your own self-pity.

Because all that does is bring about doubts. And those doubts will bring about destruction. Stand up. Put God to the test. Test Him in this way, He says. Have a little faith. And move forward. Guys, our testimony and our ministry has got to come first.

Look at this. It says, being confident of this. Guys, Paul when he says in verse 7 is, write for me to think this way about all of you because I have you in my heart and you are partners with me in grace both in my imprisonment and defense and establishment of the gospel.

You know what our whole ministry revolves around is this. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do y 'all understand what that word means, that phrase? Someone tell me what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. Truth.

Who said good news? The white trash redneck got that. The biker chick got that. And you guys didn't. Hey, what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Seriously. Don't say the Bible. Don't say the Bible. What is the gospel?

The gospel is this. Good news, and that good news is this. Is that God has extended a way for man to be reconciled back to God. If you want to understand what that means, go to take your Bible, turn it to the very front cover and just write the word redemption and reconciliation on it.

That is the entire word of God. That is the gospel. Guys, our ministry is not about martial arts. Our ministry is not about teenagers. Our ministry is not. If it's not advancing the gospel, then it's not doing jack.

And you got to start asking yourself in maturity. Am I doing this more for me so I can have friends or I can do this or I can feel secure or am I doing this to advance the gospel because if the gospel is not being advanced, you're wasting your time and fooling yourself.

Last thing. We need to mature in our testimony. We need to mature in our ministry. And the last thing, we need to mature in love. Verse 8. For as God is my witness, how deeply I miss... Thank you. How deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

I was on a ship for five days in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It would have been enjoyable if I could have called Char. I know y 'all think I'm crazy sometimes. I know Char and Rebecca do. And Carrie.

That came from you? High praise indeed. Guys, I was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for five days. You know what was driving me crazy? I couldn't find out how Rena was doing. It was driving me nuts.

I didn't know how David and Kim's move went. I didn't know if Hunter had left for pilot school or had he been pushed back again. I didn't know how Joey was doing in the new baby. I didn't know how many donuts Shane had eaten.

I didn't know if Justin and Kayla had finally decided to join our fellowship and actually do something. By the way, did they come forward last week? See, you're not going to hell now. Here's the deal, guys.

People say, oh, pastor, you're a control freak. Come here. Let me let you in on a secret. No, I love you. You call it what you want. I am not here for a paycheck. Okay? I love Richard. I love watching this old guy learn.

I love watching him learn and then still feel bad about it because he's not learning fast enough. And then you've got to kick him and go, Richard, stop it! You're doing good! Keep going! I'm watching our babies grow.

You know? Look, Edward's here. Yeah, he's asleep. Well, he's in good company. Guys, I'm finishing up. Listen to me. I love you people. And I know for some of you that sounds weird. It sounds foreign to you.

How can you love a group of people? You need to check your salvation because I love this group of people. I'm sorry. I do. Maybe that's pastor juice. Maybe it's the Holy Spirit. Maybe, you know, I'm codependent and insecure and I need the love returned so that I'll feel good about myself.

I'll just eat a pizza. Never mind. Paul writes, he says, I deeply miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And I pray this, that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and discernment.

Guys, listen to me real quick. This last verse is very important because we have no idea what love is. Think of this. Think of love as like a powerful, raging, torrential river. That's not a bad thing.

That's a good thing. Water, hydraulics are awesome. The power of water moving is incredible. But you see, God said, let your love grow. Now think about that river. How does it grow? Well, it begins with even more power.

But then he says this, but grow in discernment and knowledge. Think of discernment and knowledge as the banks of that river. It's what keeps it guided in a strong direction. When you don't have discernment of the Holy Spirit and you don't have knowledge, what happens is those banks erode and the river loses power because it spreads out all over the place and it turns into what we like to call a swamp.

It becomes stagnant. There's no juice. There's no power. There's no up because there's not boundaries of absolute truth guiding that and pushing that in a specific direction. Are you with me? Guys, what do you love in here today?

I love my wife. I love my wife. I do. Where are you? There she is. I love her. But I can tell you right now, I'm not feeling like... I mean, if I flex, she would. But I... I don't feel that way, guys.

I know the movies tell you to feel that way, but come here, let me tell you. Stop it. That's not love. Love is sacrifice. Love is action. You know how I love my wife? I don't go, I'll take you to the Cosby and whatever Pepe Le Pew used to say.

Love is me putting my needs, wants, and desires dead last for her. And I want to aim that love. I want to aim that. I want it to be stronger and stronger. And the way I get it funneled into the right direction, the thing I want it to be, the object of my love most of all, is the faith, ministry, life, and calling that God has on me.

I want so bad to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. It is a passion of mine. It's not one that I have to make up. It's like a driving force in my chest, in my head. Son, is God going to be pleased with that?

And those discernments, when I look and say, should I do this? Should I do that? That knowledge and discernment doesn't allow my banks to get eroded, and I don't start loving everything as I move along, because if I do, it gets all jacked up.

Have any of you been in a codependent relationship? You know what you're really loving? You're loving the sense of value as fleeting as it is. You're loving the sense of security. You're loving the sense of dependency.

You're loving, all of those things are falsehoods. Falsehoods. Guys, if you love Jesus Christ first, everything else will come after that. I think it was Tertullian that said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then everything else will be added unto you.

Or Matthew 6, verse 33. One of the two. I close with this. Music people, come on up. Listen to me. Verse 11 says this. The summation of everything we just read is this. Last few words of that verse says, To the glory of God.

Guys, Witten Baptist Church is going to die. It will. The United States of America is going to die. Your name and everything that you work for is going to die. The only thing that's going to be left standing is the glory that the whole universe will give to Him on that day.

Glory to God. The whole universe will cry out in praise and worship. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord. Trust me on this one. Oh, I know this atheist. Trust me on this one.

Okay? All the hardened atheists and everybody that say Christians are stupid, they will be kneeling and confessing Jesus is Lord. And there's going to be a few angels with mobs and buckets, because I promise you, that area of judgment is going to be wet.

Because all the tough guys and all the egotistical intellects that say that I'm stupid for worshiping God are going to come face to face in reality, not with a religion, but an almighty, powerful God.