THIS CAN'T BE MY LIFE (Philippians 1:27-30)

From

dawn

to setting sun, you

fade and sound

again.

Your glory far exceeds the dawn.

So with each breath, I'll bless your name, oh.

Glad to be in church this morning?

I'm glad to be in church.

He is greatly to be praised.

Well, you can go ahead and be seated.

I just want to say welcome.

Welcome to church.

Welcome to the gathering of the saints.

As the writer of Hebrews, as we remind ourselves every week, says don't neglect this.

If you are in Christ, he says, do not neglect the gathering of the saints as is a custom of some.

And it's for the purpose of what?

What's the purpose of us gathering for worship together?

What are we called to do?

To encourage?

To encourage one another all the more until we see that day drawing near, until Christ returns.

We declare his glory to each other, to ourselves.

We declare the gospel to each other, to ourselves.

And so thank you, members, covenant members of this church.

Thank you for your commitment to this, obedience to Christ in this.

I'm encouraged by you.

I hope you are encouraged this morning.

And I just want to remind you of something that the world can't truly tell you,.

That you are loved.

You are loved here. We love you. Christ loves you.

Amen.

And I also want to say a special thank you to any of our guests that are here this morning.

If you're a first -time guest, we do have a connection card back in the back.

If you have a prayer request, there's a section on the back.

There's a little next steps if you want to ask questions about the faith, if you want to ask questions about the church.

But also, everybody needs prayer, right?

I need prayer.

All of us need prayer.

So there's a section you can write down.

What does that prayer need?

And I can promise you, we gather.

There's a group of us that gather every Tuesday morning and pray, and we will certainly pray for that prayer request.

So please fill one of those out, and we'd love to get to know you.

But the purpose of gathering for the saints and encouraging one another all the more until we say the day of

Christ drawing near is so that we may grow in the knowledge and

love of the triune God.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

You hear a lot about that around here, don't you?

You go to church, sometimes you hear a lot about Jesus, or you'll hear a lot about the Holy Spirit.

But here we worship a triune God, three in one.

We worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We want all three persons of the one Godhead to be honored in our worship, don't we?

We have a special time this morning, one of the ordinances of the church that we get to

participate in.

So I'm going to ask Pastor Jeremiah to come on up here and lead us in this before we

prepare to go to a call to worship.

All right, today is such an exciting day because it's Baptism Sunday.

And Joe, if you would, please come up here.

So I just want to, yeah, give it up.

Give it up, Joe.

This is an exciting time.

So I just want to talk a little bit about what baptism is.

Baptism is a wonderful gift.

It's a ceremony to the church body that is a picture of the work of God that's already

begun in someone's heart and in their life.

And so this is something where an individual gets to proclaim their faith to the church and to the watching world.

It's their faith going public.

Now, we understand baptism does not wash away sins.

It doesn't cause us to be born again.

Scripture is so clear that we are saved by grace through faith, and it's not of ourselves.

It's a gift of God.

It's not of works because then we can boast about the things that we've accomplished and the things that we've done.

But this is a beautiful picture of the gospel.

And so, Joe, would you like to share a few words?

It's funny that you had mentioned going public because that was going to be my first joke.

So guys from the 90s, audio adrenaline fans, I'm going public.

Okay.

So I've been baptized before.

Grew up in church of Christ environment.

So before I went into the military, I was baptized, but just in case because it was Gulf War time.

And it was kind of like, so I believe in God just like all Southerners do, you know.

And so I was a Christian, but my life didn't show it.

And my wife and I, we've been married 31 years, and I have put her through the ringer.

Because I've been in the church for a long time, and I thought about

Danny and Ryan.

I could go hang out in their shop, and I could make noises like a lawnmower.

And people might even think I'm a lawnmower, but I'm not a lawnmower.

And that's kind of how it was.

I could regurgitate it.

I could play the part, you know, and tried and tried and tried and tried to get my

behavior.

Had lots of unrepentant anxiety and anger and

things towards family.

And about eight years ago, after putting my family through all kinds of stuff, just

angry.

Good guy at church, funny, gregarious, engaging.

You think that, man, he's awesome.

But I was a monster.

And so it's not about changing behavior.

It's what I really tried to do, just change my behavior and be good enough and do the Christian

thing.

And eight years ago, we were separated.

You know, my wife kind of had enough.

She had left many times before to run to escape and to seek safety because I was, you know, verbally and

emotionally very abusive to my children.

And praise God that my son and his wife, my daughter, her husband and family are here.

And I know they've seen a difference.

Not that it's all about change behavior, but eight years ago, something happened.

I had an encounter with the risen Lord where I had been

baptized unto Jesus as my Savior, and I had faith almost like I had faith in faith.

I loved the gathering.

I loved the family.

I loved just being with the church and being a Christian because it was what kept

me from being, you know, in the world, I thought.

But when we were separated, I made a decision that I am going to seek him.

So I spent four or five months just by myself in the Word with other guys.

I called in guys for accountability and seeking him.

And when it really took, I don't know, a light came on, something just hit where

he revealed to me or showed me just that he had made me pure because I've been trying to be pure.

And he had made me pure and that he loved me and accepted me.

And from that moment, I was no longer at war with

everybody.

My whole life I spent at war with my family, with my kids, trying to

make things the way I wanted them to be.

So I surrendered.

And so today, I want to be baptized unto that faith because I need

accountability, guys.

So later, we're going to be joining the church.

Spoiler alert.

But part of what that means to me is that I am declaring to you that I

give you permission to speak into my life because we're here to seek him and righteousness and

holiness, and I want us to grow in faith in him.

So I need you.

I love you guys, and I'm committing my life and our family to this body.

And whatever gifts that he would use or whatever, however that is, I don't know.

But here am I.

Send me.

So that's about it.

I love him, and I'm doing my best to serve him with all my heart.

I'm

going to now baptize

you with my

blood in the

name of the Father, and

of the Son, and of the

Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Praise God.

Praise God.

Pastor Jeremiah just a couple of weeks ago preached.

He made a statement.

He said, Baptism is not the gospel.

But, oh, man, is it a beautiful picture of the gospel, isn't it?

Amen.

Well, let's stand.

Let's start our service off together officially with a call to worship.

We usually do a read in response.

Today, we're going to read a passage, and I want us to read this together from 1 Peter 2,

verse 9.

It says, We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may

proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his

marvelous light.

Amen.

Called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Brought us into union with the triune God.

Don't lose sight of that, saint.

Don't let that become something that you're numb to, and you just think, well, this is just the

norm of life.

I'm just a Christian, and that's the way it is, and this is my faith, and I go to church.

If you're numb to that this morning, I ask that you go to the Lord in prayer as we pray here in a moment and ask

him to soften your heart towards this.

Because if you have been brought into the marvelous light, if you've been taken from darkness, and you've

been made a chosen race, a royal priesthood, we've been made a holy nation, the

church.

We are a holy nation.

We are a people to God here on earth.

And all God's people said, amen.

Let's pray a prayer of adoration this morning.

Dear Heavenly Father, oh God, we come to you now, and we acknowledge who you

are.

A triune God.

A father that has set his love and affection upon his children

before he'd even created this earth.

A son that stepped down,

setting aside his prerogatives of

condescending and being like man so that he may

be a representative for the creature that he himself created

to die a death that we deserved.

And he is only able to do so because he lived a life that we couldn't live of perfection,

fulfilling God's law to the T, and then dying as a representative for us children that

God the Father has loved from eternity past.

And that son declaring, oh, death

has no claim on me.

Death had a claim on Adam and all of his posterity, all of us standing here, but oh, death didn't have a claim on

Christ.

And he rose again, declaring victory over what Adam had broken, becoming

the true and better Adam as our representative.

Oh, and then the person of the Holy Spirit then indwells each one of us

as a guarantee, as a down payment of our inheritance that will one day come.

So Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we honor you this morning.

We thank you for all that you have done.

God, you are sovereign, and your hand is over all things.

You are altogether separate from us.

We are but creatures, and you are the creator.

You are the potter, and we are the clay, and you do with the clay as you see fit and as you desire,

and all that you do is good.

So I pray that we would worship you as such this morning, that we would honor you with our singing, that

we would honor you with our prayers, that we would honor you with our preaching, that we would honor you with our reading.

Oh, Father, oh, Son, oh, Holy Spirit, be honored that this would be a sweet -smelling aroma

that comes up before you and worship, mold us as your people in Christ's name.

Amen.

Be our

teaser,

place on top of my

passport.

More than I'm worth, place on top

of the sound of what's lost.

Starting in verse 11 where the apostle Paul says,.

And he gave the apostles and prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the

saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all

attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature

manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that

we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about

by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes,

rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him

who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together

by every joint with which it is equipped.

When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up

in love.

And all God's people said,.

We won't fear the battle.

We won't fear the battle We won't fear the night.

We will walk the valley with you by our side.

You will go before us You will lead the way.

We have found a refuge.

Only you can save.

Sing with joy now.

Our God is for us.

The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress So raise your

voice now.

No love is greater.

Who can stand against us If our God is for us.

So when I

stumble.

When I turn back.

Forcing me onward.

Never ending joy now.

Your love is greater

Than death

As He who gave His Son to free us

Holds me in tight.

No death can separate us Hell and death.

Who gave His Son

to me.

Sing with joy now.

Our God

is for us.

Come up and take

up

our

morning

offering.

Father, Lord, we come to you now, Lord.

We just thank you for this awesome service, Lord.

That you have already blessed us with this morning, Lord.

With the baptism.

Just words that were spoken Just

this awesome worship service, Lord.

We pray that we have brought you honor and glory this morning, Lord.

I pray this morning as we get prepared to hear your word, Lord.

I pray that you would just give Pastor Nathan the words to speak, Lord.

And open our eyes and our hearts and our ears As we hear the

gospel this morning, Lord.

I pray that you would bless this offering, Lord.

We love you.

Thank you for loving us In Jesus name, Amen.

Today we're going to be taking a brief detour.

From our study through Ephesians to look at a corresponding text.

Over in Philippians chapter 1.

After all, both of these letters are written by the Apostle Paul himself.

Because last week we finished up our 7 -part sermon.

Entitled, There is no I in One.

I know that seems a little confusing.

But where we've seen the Apostle Paul grounding this unity.

That he had previously charged us to maintain as Christians.

To guard the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

And he's grounding this unity in oneness.

The oneness of a triune God as we speak of this morning.

Or one body One spirit One hope One

Lord One faith One baptism One God and Father of all.

Where we've seen that this unity is not some individualistic endeavor.

Where all Christians are united through a common goal.

That's not how Paul grounds it.

It's not just a common goal that unites us.

We're united because we are one.

Because God is one.

And we, all of us, if we are in Christ Each one of us individually are

united with him.

Amen.

It's a beautiful truth.

And Paul is getting ready to, in Ephesians, expound upon that By switching gears a bit And showing how

that unity that he's speaking of is not uniformity.

We'll be talking a little bit more about that over the next few weeks.

The fact that we may be united as one Because we're united to a triune God.

However, each one looks and functions differently Just as the triune

God has differing roles and functions In which each person of the Godhead functions.

So before we dive into that over the next few weeks I'd like for us to take a look at Philippians chapter 1

Starting in verse 27, a few verses here.

If you have been with us since day one Which there are very, very few of you.

You may remember us going through Philippians.

And I addressed this text.

But since there were so few of you We thought, let's go back to this text.

Because we're going to see very similar language by the Apostle Paul As he wrote this letter to the saints at

Philippi To what we've been studying in Ephesians.

So open your copy of God's word, if you haven't already.

To Philippians chapter 1 Starting in verse 27 where the Apostle Paul says.

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 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.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ You should not only believe in him But also

suffer for his sake.

Engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had And now hear that I still have.

These are the words of the Apostle Paul Inspired by the Holy Spirit And given to us, the

saints, for life and godliness.

So let's stop for a moment As we always do.

And ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate these truths to our hearts and minds.

Bow with me please.

Dear Heavenly Father we come to you.

And we ask that you would work in our hearts and in our lives.

We ask Holy Spirit that you would illuminate these truths

These glorious truths from your word to our minds.

But don't let us just be doers of Or hearers of the word and not doers only as James says.

Let us be a people that you permeate our minds with this

truth.

That we'd see it clearly, that we would understand it clearly.

And it would percolate into our hearts.

And as it sets in our hearts and changes us from the inside.

That it would just come out from us.

Lord give us wisdom today.

In Christ's name, Amen.

Well the title of today's sermon is This can't be my life.

This can't be my life.

It's a bit of a play on words I know.

As to the way we have a propensity to think.

And the way we should be thinking.

There's two different ways we can see this.

Either say it out of discontentment.

Because we're living our lives for ourselves.

We're not designed to do that.

But we often do, don't we?

We live our lives for something other than what we were created for.

And we're living our lives for something else.

And when life doesn't live up to our expectations.

What do we say?

This can't be my life.

This can't be my life.

Why is my life going like this?

Why did this go wrong?

Why is this not going the way I want?

After all, I'm Lord of my life.

Why can't it just go the way I want it?

Or we can see it as a declaration.

We can see it as a declaration that our lives don't belong to us.

Oh, this can't be my life.

This can't be my life.

Leading up to verse 27 of what we just read Paul has made this famous declaration.

Most of you are very familiar with it.

Where he says, oh, for me to live.

Oh, that's for Christ.

But for me to die.

Oh, that's gain.

For me to live is my life is for Christ.

For me to die, I win.

It's over, the struggle is over.

I no longer have to deal with all of this.

I go into glory.

Is essentially what he's declaring.

We see this example of Paul.

That he knows that this can't be his life.

His life belongs to Christ.

He has been purchased.

He has been bought.

He is a servant, he is a slave to Christ.

And Christ alone, and his life does not belong to him In any fashion, in any way.

And he lives as such.

And if you and I are brought into one body That we've been talking about for weeks in Ephesians.

If we've been brought into his body With Christ as the head We too belong to him.

We are just like the apostle Paul.

We belong to Christ.

So today I want us to see this principle Worked out in a very practical way.

Within this body.

Specifically within true community.

What God has called us to As a representative of his body on earth.

Because if we want to be content.

And let's face it, all of us want to be content, don't we?

Who in here is okay with not being content?

None of us, right?

We long to be content.

It's in our hearts, we desire it.

We were created as worshippers.

And we long to be content.

We have to be able to declare This isn't my life.

This can't be mine.

And when we can truly make that declaration We are aligning our lives with the will of God.

Aren't we?

We're aligning our lives with what he has called us to in his word.

And when we're aligning our lives with the will of God We will only then find true contentment and joy.

After all, that's what the whole purpose of this letter to the church of Philippi is.

It's a letter of joy.

If you've studied this letter, you know.

The funny thing about this letter being written As a letter of joy Is the apostle Paul's

writing it.

As he's chained to a Roman guard and imprisoned wrongfully.

And he's declaring I have learned to find contentment in all things.

Because I don't belong to myself.

God does with me as he pleases.

This isn't my life.

So I want us to see three things in these four verses today.

I'm going to give you the three things.

And they'll be up on the screen here in a moment.

So don't try and just jot them down.

I just want them in your head.

I want us to see finding contentment in selfless, unified allegiance.

I want us to see finding contentment in bold fearlessness.

And finding contentment through voluntary suffering.

Those all sound like really good contentment things, right?

They sound like the antithesis of contentment to our minds and our worldview.

We can't understand that.

But prayerfully we'll see today why.

This is the only way to contentment.

The only way to joy.

This is what we've been called to as a body.

So let's look at that first one.

Finding contentment in selfless, unified allegiance.

Finding contentment in selfless, unified allegiance.

Look at verse 27 there in Philippians 1 Paul says, only

let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

This is a bit confusing.

Only, we tend to read this as kind of a flow of thought.

Maybe Paul's contrasting something that he has previously said.

And even though he is continuing a thought that he has previously talked about.

This is not the purpose of Paul's phrasing here.

The word only in the Greek is an emphatic exclusivity.

Emphatic exclusivity.

What do I mean by this?

He's saying, what I'm about to say to you.

Is the only, the exclusive way for a Christian to live.

What I'm getting ready to write here to you.

Is the only option.

That's it.

Why would that be necessary?

Why would Paul need to give them this emphatic exclusivity

of what he's about to say?

I believe it's so that we the readers, specifically the church at Philippi that he's writing to.

They can't say, yeah, well that's what Paul's been called to.

He's an apostle.

Paul's been called to this only way of living.

Whatever he's about to tell us, of course that's for Paul.

But that principle maybe just doesn't apply to me as an everyday

Christian.

Maybe I'm not called to something that extreme.

Paul wants to crush that right from the beginning of what he's saying.

Paul is telling them, if you are not living your life in this way that I'm about to tell you.

You are in disobedience to King Jesus.

That hits hard, doesn't it?

Especially in light of what we're about to say.

That hits hard because.

Now for some of you that have been here for any amount of time.

You've seen that we take this whole Christian thing very seriously around here.

It's a bit of an extreme Christianity.

In my opinion it's the only option for Christianity.

We follow King Jesus.

If he's king, he's king.

So we obey him as such and that's what Paul's calling us to here.

So what are we exclusively called to?

We'll look at the text again.

Only let your manner of life.

The main verb here in the Greek is polytomai.

It's interesting because we get the word politics from this.

This word essentially kind of rooted in a word that means live according to the law.

It comes from the root word in the Greek polis.

Which simply means city.

This word usually referred to the city or government.

That the citizens gave their primary allegiance.

Paul's using this word very specifically for a reason.

You see in that day, the readers of this letter originally in Philippi.

Being a citizen meant far more than just patriotism.

It's hard for us to get in the context of just how deep what Paul is saying here is.

Remember this is not an individualistic culture like ours.

Roman society like Greek society before it was highly community conscious.

The individual was subordinate to the state.

We get it the other way around nowadays, don't we?

The state is subordinate to the individual.

But this is not the way these readers would have read what Paul is writing here.

They couldn't understand a concept like that.

They were subordinate completely to the culture and the state in which they lived.

A person's skills, their talents, their energies, their endeavors were devoted first of

all.

To the interest of the society at large.

Sounds very socialistic, right?

But this is how they understood citizenship.

This is how they understood this word polytoami that Paul is using.

This is quite different from our culture today, of course.

We live for ourselves.

When you're growing up, what do your parents say to you?

They say you can be anything you want to be.

Whatever makes you happy.

That's the only paradigm that we have to work with, isn't it?

That's not the way it was then.

The parents basically looked at the children and said Oh, you're going to be this because this is best for the whole of society.

You might hate the rest of your life.

But what comes first is the society and the culture.

Everything else falls in comparison.

There has nothing to do with any kind of individualistic mindset.

And Paul is using this word specifically.

They would have fully understood him saying polytoami.

Because he's using it as a stark contrast To the level of commitment and service.

Being a citizen of a community would have been in that day.

At the beginning of this letter Paul told them That their allegiance is not to Rome.

That's all they've ever known.

Their allegiance is not to Rome.

It's not to the city of Philippi.

Their allegiance is to Christ.

Their allegiance is to Christ and Christ alone exclusively.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Some say well that's a bit extreme.

Maybe we can understand the word a little bit differently.

The problem is Paul could have used a different word here.

That would have given the same idea but not as extreme.

And I think he chose this one on purpose.

Because he wants the readers to understand the gravity Of what it means to live a manner

worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe implied in his reasoning for this word Is the same idea as when Paul refers to

himself as a slave At the very beginning of the letter, right?

And that's what he says right there at verse 1 of chapter 1.

In his greeting he says.

Oh Paul and Timothy, the two of us.

Me, Paul, and my protege Timothy with me Servants of Christ Jesus.

Some of your translations say slave.

It's translated slave of Christ Jesus.

He sets it off right at the beginning.

He says I don't belong to myself.

I am merely a representative of the king.

Period.

And the people of Philippi were immersed Like I said in this Roman culture.

The Roman culture of that day is Far more patriotic than anything we could

comprehend.

As a matter of fact it was so patriotic.

It came into government worship.

They worshipped Rome.

They worshipped its gods.

They worshipped its leaders.

I mentioned a few weeks ago how Christians were killed.

Because they wouldn't declare Caesar as lord As master over all.

They worshipped this culture.

Just like the people in Ephesus.

And this world view would have permeated their entire life.

I mean these people once lived in this entire mindset Before they come to Christ.

But yet they're still in the world.

The Christians there in Philippi Would have struggled with what I refer to as dual citizenship.

They struggled heavily with this.

Yes they belong to Christ.

Yet they also see this cultural Roman identity and allegiance.

And they live in light of these two contrasting worlds.

It's like riding the fence right?

I have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.

And that's how I'm living my life.

Paul crushes this world view under the weight of the gospel.

There is no such thing as dual citizenship.

You are not an American.

You essentially have a visa to be in America.

You are a citizen of heaven if you are in Christ.

Period exclusively.

The only way.

The only manner of life.

Obviously he refers to himself as a slave.

And in chapter 3 of Philippians in verse 20 He drives it home.

And he says.

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are sojourners in this land.

We are foreigners in this land.

We've been brought into something greater.

And I think what Paul is really trying to get across Is the fact that we can't serve two masters.

You will either serve this world or you will serve the kingdom of heaven.

You will either serve yourself or you will serve the king.

You will either serve an idol or you will serve the one true God.

You cannot serve both.

Period end of story.

Oh that hits hard doesn't it.

Because so often So often I worship at the altar of an idol.

So often I leave the kingdom in which I've been called to In which I've been made a part of.

And I sacrifice at the altar of a false God.

Whether it be myself, whether it be my comfort.

Whether it be something that I love.

Whether it be my family, whether it be my job.

Whether it be politics, whatever it may be.

So often we fall prey to this don't we.

That heart, that perpetual idol factory.

Constantly turning from it.

But oh but no this is the only way.

This is the only polytulami.

The only manner of life worthy of the gospel.

The idea that this is our life is not biblical.

He tells the church in Corinth.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 He says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy

Spirit within you.

Whom you have from God.

You are not your own.

You don't belong to yourself.

For you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

And everything, everything your body does Is called to glorify the

creator.

Now we may not live in the exact type of culture that they did.

But we do certainly struggle with.

What I mentioned a moment ago of dual citizenship don't we.

Being an American and a Christian is sometimes seen as synonymous.

Specifically in our culture.

In the south right.

And I meet people all the time.

And I'm like, do you know Christ?

They're like hey I'm a Christian.

I'm an American aren't I?

There's this intertwined patriotism.

And Christianity that is godless.

That's interwoven.

And it's diluted the gospel to next to nothing.

And powerless.

It's disgusting is what it is.

And it's the exact same thing that I promise you.

These Roman citizens that are now brought into the kingdom are struggling with.

Because they don't know how to make that distinction.

Our skills, our talents, our energies, our endeavors.

Are to be devoted first of all to the interest of the kingdom alone.

If that ever contradicts your American position.

You've got a very serious problem.

I think we have a hard time understanding what Paul is saying here.

A manner of life.

The church of Philippi would have understood this completely.

Yeah.

I rendered a Caesar what is Caesar's.

But like we said a moment ago you are a foreigner here.

Now the question is what does this have to do with my contentment and joy?

Pastor.

I thought that's what we're talking about here.

Finding contentment and joy and you just went on a political tirade.

What does this have to do with it?

Because honestly this sounds like the opposite to me.

Sounds like you're adding law to me.

You're adding more things for me to do and to beat myself up for.

That's what it sounds like.

That doesn't sound like contentment.

Does it?

The answer that we must answer the question.

What is the manner of life worthy of the gospel?

What is this?

Why am I bringing this to the table?

Why am I bringing this to light?

The answer is to obey God's law.

That just set heavy didn't it?

Obey God's law.

How about I just leave you there?

Go do that.

You think you'll leave this place today with contentment and joy?

I can't do that.

What do you mean obey God's law?

That feels like a weight pastor.

Well here's the deal.

Just like earthly citizens have laws.

We are citizens of heaven.

God's kingdom has perfect laws.

We're not only to obey them but we're also to love them.

Sometimes I don't love the law of God.

Sometimes I find myself hating the law of God.

Because I feel as though I'm being crushed under the weight of it.

But I'm to love it.

I can't even live up to it.

How am I to love it?

Turn with me to the Old Testament.

Psalm chapter 1.

We're going to look at the first three verses Of David's psalm here.

Psalm chapter 1 in the Old Testament.

If you're not familiar with that.

Sometimes your Bibles will be dead center.

You just kind of open it up and you're really close to psalms right there.

The psalmist says Blessed.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

Nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Oh but his delight Is in the law of the Lord.

His delight Is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and its season.

And its leaf does not wither.

And all that he does he prospers.

Have you ever read that psalm and went.

I get the psalmist feels that way.

But I don't delight in the law of the Lord.

Not always.

Now I will say prior to salvation.

There's no way to delight in the law of the Lord.

Is there?

The law of God can only condemn you.

You're a sinner.

You are dead in your trespasses and sins.

The law of God condemns you.

It cannot save you.

It can't help you.

You can never live up to it.

You can't fulfill it.

You can't even obey one little speck of it At any moment.

For you are a slave to sin.

But because of Christ.

This is why we need Christ.

The only one that could bear the weight of the law mind you.

That's why he had to come and be as us and man.

And bear the weight of the law of God because he fulfilled it.

And because of that if you are in Christ Here's the thing we're a new creation.

Before the law could only condemn.

Now all of a sudden we're a new creation.

You now have the ability to do as the psalmist just said Is to delight in the law.

And we often times still don't do so.

But here's the thing.

You are no longer under condemnation of the law.

You've been delivered from it.

You've been freed to obey God's precepts.

You've been given a new nature.

You've been given a new desire.

Don't hear me wrong.

I'm not talking about perfectionism.

I mention that every week.

This is not perfectionism.

But just like the psalmist When we seek to align our life with God's precepts and law You will be

blessed and prosper.

When you are blessed and prosper You find contentment.

When you delight in the law of the Lord You meditate on it day and night.

When you love the law of God You obey it.

You prosper.

You find the contentment and joy that you were created for.

Now here's the thing As blessed and prosper.

They're kind of the same idea.

But they look very differently.

According to Paul's view of Christianity.

Than our current view.

Because here's what I mean by that Blessed is the man who

Delights in the law of God essentially.

Blessed might mean losing a loved one.

Blessed might mean being persecuted.

Blessed might mean suffering.

Wait a second pastor.

That's not contentment.

Wait a second.

No, no, no.

That can't be blessed.

Blessed is I have a nice fancy house.

And everything's comfortable.

And my children are all obedient.

And my spouse is wonderful.

And does anything and everything that I could ask of them.

And everything is hunky -dory.

That's blessed.

No, no.

Not according to scripture.

Blessed may mean suffering.

Prospering.

Prospering might mean losing your job.

And being stripped of all your earthly goods.

So we have this earthly Americanized version of blessed and prospering.

And we read it into the psalm.

But that's not how Christianity is portrayed in scripture.

That is not the beatitudes that Jesus laid out At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, is it?

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

This is completely counter -cultural.

This goes against everything we can imagine.

It's a perspective change.

One in which God is sovereign and in control of all circumstances.

And I know every Christian says that.

We say it all the time.

But do we really mean that there's not a molecule in the universe That moves or does a single

thing without his sovereign ordaining purpose.

Even our suffering.

Because that's the God that scripture defines.

And I'm called to live for You and I are called to be obedient to.

To love Christ with all of our being.

To obey the law of God.

To delight in the law of God.

To meditate on it day and night.

And we've been given the power to because of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us.

Because we've been brought into union with that perfect triune.

God, right?

I will be able to find contentment in whatever circumstances I go through.

When I'm in the will of God.

Look at the text again, Paul goes on to say.

Back in Philippians 1.

He says, so that whether I come and see you or am absent.

I think what Paul is saying is no matter who's around.

Paul doesn't know if he's going to be able to come and see them again.

He's previously mentioned that He desires to come and see them again, he hopes.

But he doesn't know if he's going to have his head cut off.

He's in prison.

He doesn't know what's going on.

He just knows that, hey, I would love to be able to come.

But he might not be able to.

And he says, 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.

He's standing firm there.

Unmovable, unwavering.

Standing firm in what?

One spirit.

Now notice in your Bibles the spirit is not capitalized.

It's commonly capitalized when it's speaking of the Holy Spirit.

There's some discussion as to what Paul is talking about here.

Is he speaking about the Holy Spirit or is he speaking about the spirit of unity that he's talking about?

I believe he's speaking of both.

Here's why He's speaking to believers.

What is the spirit of unity?

That's what he said in Ephesians, right?

To maintain the unity of the spirit.

We have no ability to stand firm apart from Him.

He's the one doing the sanctifying work in us.

We call it the perseverance of the saints.

I don't even like that term.

It's the perseverance of a triune.

God is what it is.

We're not persevering, He's persevering through and in us.

I understand the context in which Paul is using this phrase.

Brings it into question.

But as I just said, we have no ability to stand firm apart from Him.

Hence, why would Paul be talking about anything but both?

The spirit of unity and the Holy Spirit here.

Over in Romans chapter 14.

In the second part of verse 4 it says.

It is before his own master that he stands or falls.

And he will be upheld.

For the Lord is able to make him stand.

That's God working in us.

Paul can tell the church at Philippi to stand firm.

Because he knows the one that is able to make them stand.

He knows the one that is working in and through them, right?

And it is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And the unity that we share in that.

He says, 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.

With one mind.

The mind of Christ.

What's the mind that he speaks of?

Is it some common goal?

We've already talked about that.

That's not the unity that we're striving for.

It's Christ as the head of the body.

Christ is the mind.

It's His will, it's His purposes.

Over in chapter 2 of Philippians it says.

Complete my joy by being of the same mind.

Having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

It's the mind of Christ.

Look to Christ.

This is obviously the one mind that Paul is referring to.

He's telling them to maintain unity with that mind of Christ.

Have you ever been in a church where there's disunity?

Backbiting, slander, gossip.

Constant disagreements over every minor thing.

It's hard to have contentment and joy in that circumstance, isn't it?

It shows that that church is not of one mind.

So how are we to maintain this one spirit and one mind?

First of all, God is the one that maintains it.

But He uses means.

He uses means.

Look at what He says.

Striving.

Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

This is not an individualistic endeavor.

He's not talking to an individual that says.

Hey you, Adam, strive.

You just strive.

You try and walk the Christian life.

Go out there, away from the body.

And see how long you delight in the law of the Lord.

It's not going to happen.

God uses means.

Not going to happen.

You will fail very, very quickly.

I have people that tell me they're Christians all the time.

And they very rarely are in church.

They're very rarely a part of the gathering.

They're very rarely in discipleship.

If at all.

And they have no idea why they have no power over sin in their life.

They're not striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

You see, this requires selfless, unified allegiance.

Side by side, with one spirit, with one mind.

This is why Paul used that word, polytoami.

You don't belong to yourself.

This is something far greater than you.

We can only stand firm in one spirit, one mind Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

When our skills, talents, energies, and endeavors Are devoted first of all to the interest of the kingdom alone.

You see, Paul's singular citizenship and focus.

There's no mistaking that Paul's life Is about the greater progress of the gospel.

Carried out by the bride of Christ.

The body.

Particularly the local representation.

The church.

And our allegiance to the kingdom alone Is an allegiance to that bride.

If our allegiance is split elsewhere We are outside of the will of God.

And finding true contentment and joy Will continue to elude you.

There's imagery all through scripture of the church.

The body, the bride, the building.

I love the imagery of the bride.

With a bridegroom Who bathes her in the word Cleanses her.

Cares for her.

If you say you love me.

And then immediately turn around and say You hate my bride.

Guess what?

You hate me.

Because we're two people that are one flesh.

You hate my bride.

You hate me.

And by the way, I have a serious problem with you.

Because you're a psycho if you hate her.

But my point is.

So often people say, I love Jesus.

I just don't love his bride.

I think the church is a bunch of hypocrites.

Oh yes, we are.

For certain.

Make no mistake about it.

We're a bunch of broken people.

That sin against the bridegroom.

Day in and day out.

And fail him every turn.

But that's the beautiful part.

He comes in and he bathes us in the word.

Right?

That's the church.

So you can't say you love Jesus and not love his bride.

We have to have him.

That we are finding contentment and selfless unified allegiance.

Because we love the bride.

Because we love Christ.

Alright, I gotta get to the second point.

We're gonna move on guys.

Finding contentment in bold fearlessness.

Finding contentment in bold fearlessness.

Look at verse 28 there in Ephesians 1.

He says, I'm not frightened In anything by your opponents.

Not frightened.

Nothing kills joy like fear, does it?

Well it ties back to this idea of side by side, right?

Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Right?

An example.

You can't tell it now because of all the donuts I eat.

But I was a scrawny kid.

Scrawny teenage boy.

With a big mouth.

And I ran that big mouth.

And my body couldn't back up what my mouth said.

But I'll say this I had an uncle just a little older than me.

Who had the body to back up the big mouth.

And guess what?

I felt fearless.

To run that big mouth.

Because I knew That even though I can't back it up My uncle can.

And he's got my back.

Right?

I know this is a stupid analogy.

But you get the point, don't you?

When we know that our brothers and sisters are with us.

And walking through this life with us.

There is a fearlessness.

There is a boldness that comes with that.

Side by side striving, isn't there?

You can't do it alone.

Not to mention Even greater than you and me.

All together having each other's back.

We have a triune.

God that's for us.

And if God is for us, who can be against us, right?

Well, the Christians in this time They had legitimate reason to fear.

We fear not being liked.

That's about the extent of our persecution.

Let's be honest.

These people They had real fear.

They were losing their lives.

Their families, their jobs.

Their ability to provide in any way.

They had great fear.

The object of their joy is not affected by their circumstances.

Because their contentment is contingent on something eternally transcendent.

This is what Paul is calling us to.

Why is it important to have this fearlessness?

Look at what he says about it.

He says this is a clear sign to them Of their destruction.

Whose destruction?

Their opponents.

It's a clear sign of them Of their destruction.

I find it interesting that we like to talk about the world.

We don't like to talk about the world as our opponents nowadays.

We talk about them as our friends.

And of course we're called to love them.

Or to treat.

Not to treat them as enemies.

Or to not treat anyone as an enemy.

Or to love our enemies.

But make no mistake.

They are not indifferent about you.

If you think for a moment That the people in the world that are not in Christ Are indifferent about you.

You're fooling yourself.

They may put on a show Because of the cultural dynamic of our lives today.

But they are against you.

They hate you because they hate your savior.

They hate your kingdom.

Praise God we have the power to respond in love.

Otherwise we'd merely revile back, right?

But Paul tells us this is a clear sign to them of their destruction.

What's the clear sign?

Your bold fearlessness.

A contentment.

And fearlessness.

When the world sees that your joy, that your contentment Is not affected by your earthly circumstances.

They have no reference point for that.

They only have the here and now.

And when the worst thing they can do to us is kill us.

Literally, think about it.

That's the worst thing they can do to us.

And we can say what Paul says.

For me to die, that's gain.

By the way, yeah, kill me.

I'm here to die.

Here I am.

You kill me.

I win.

It's the best you can do.

No concept for that.

No understanding of this.

But this is a clear sign to them.

Don't you think that God used this as conviction.

On some of those Roman soldiers guarding Paul?

These men are having to be chained to this man.

Who has contentment in his circumstances.

The gospel is being proclaimed boldly through all of that.

Because look at what Paul says.

But of your salvation.

And that from God.

We know them by their fruit.

Your bold fearlessness is a fruit.

It's a sign of your salvation.

And the work of God that is wrought in your heart.

Alright, let's move on here.

Third, finally.

Finding contentment through voluntary suffering.

Look at verse 29.

For it has been granted to you.

I love how Paul says this.

For it has been granted to you.

You've been gifted with it.

Oh, it's a wonderful gift.

Praise the Lord for this.

That it's been granted to you.

That for the sake of Christ.

You should not only believe in him.

Oh, that's wonderful.

I love it, believe in him.

I've been granted to believe him.

You've also to suffer for his sake.

Hold up.

This is not contentment, pastor.

This is contentment according to Paul.

You want to be content?

Take joy in the fact that you have been chosen to suffer.

Paul goes on in verse 30.

Look at it.

He says, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had.

And now hear that I still have.

Remember how I said a moment ago.

Paul really wants these readers to understand.

That they can't go.

Well yeah, that's the extreme Christianity for Paul.

He's an apostle.

But not for me.

No, he's saying.

Oh, guess what.

All that suffering that I've just undergone.

Shipwreck.

Beatings.

Threat of life.

Stoned.

Imprisoned.

Suffering after suffering after suffering.

Hey, Christian, engage in that same thing.

You want to find contentment?

You want to be joyful?

You want to follow Christ?

Do the same thing.

Engage in the same thing.

This is where the voluntary part comes in.

Paul is telling them and us to engage in the same thing.

We'd rather avoid that conflict, wouldn't we?

Because we want contentment.

Now here's the thing Paul's not telling us to go looking for persecution.

Don't go pick a gospel fight with your lost neighbor today.

Just so you can be persecuted.

And say, well, I'm obeying what Paul said.

Paul's not telling us to go looking for it.

What he's saying is When you are obedient to what God has called you to be.

Persecution will certainly come.

And I've often wondered in my own life.

Why I wasn't suffering persecution.

I'm going to be honest with you.

I would hear things like this.

And I'd be like, well, I'm not really suffering anything.

Life's easy for me.

And many of those times, I'll be honest with you.

I look back and go.

I wasn't delighting in the law of the Lord.

I was riding the fence of this world and the kingdom.

I wasn't seeking contentment through voluntary suffering.

I wanted to avoid suffering.

And delighting in the law of the Lord led me to it.

So if you're not suffering.

It might be because you're not really living for the kingdom.

Sometimes God gives us these glorious times.

Mountaintop experiences, right?

Where we don't suffer and we get to be with Him.

But those are far and few between.

I'm sorry, Saint.

They just are.

God, being gracious, has not only granted us to suffer with Him.

But here's things.

Also suffering unity with each other.

We suffer with those that suffer.

We mourn with those that mourn.

We grieve with those that grieve.

We rejoice with those that rejoice.

That's what it means to be a part of a unified body.

Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

You can't do it alone.

This is important.

We've been talking about oneness.

We've been talking about unity.

We've been talking about the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

You want to know where that bond of peace is?

You want to know what contentment is?

You want to know what joy is?

It's not what you think.

And it can only be done in community.

I'm sorry.

It's as cut and dry as that.

You're not going to do it alone.

The church at Philippi has been participating in the suffering of the gospel with Paul.

Praise God.

They walk with Him.

They send help to Him.

Knowing that that help may, in return, point the arrows of Rome right at their

front door.

They suffer with those that suffer.

Now to us.

The American church.

The American church has some of the most discouraged, depressed, and discontent people.

Yet we have it easier than any other Christian throughout history.

Something to this, isn't there?

I believe the reason for that is that we have Americanized the church.

We are individuals who only unify when it benefits us.

This can't be my life.

Not only do I belong to Christ.

If I belong to Christ, I belong to His bride.

Only then can I find true joy and contentment by laying down my life for others.

We're not citizens of this world.

We're not citizens of America.

We're citizens of the kingdom of heaven alone.

These are our brothers and sisters.

Live life with and for them.

Because this is precisely what our elder brother did for us, isn't it?

Christ did not come and live for Himself.

What an example Christ had the ability to come to earth, to condescend.

Becoming in the likeness of man.

And show up and go, you know what?

You rebellious creatures.

I'm going to smite all of you.

And I'm going to sit on the throne of David.

And I'm going to rule from here with a heavy hand.

He'd have been just in doing so, right?

He said, I live for myself.

I am here now.

But that's not what He did, is it?

And we're called to live like Him.

We don't show up to church going, Pastor, what you got for me today?

Me, give me, give me.

No, I want to be like my Savior.

How do I lay my life down for His people?

Only then will we be aligned in our lives with what God has called us to.

And in that, finding true contentment and joy.

It's the antithesis of our earthly thinking.

But we must delight in the law of the Lord.

Meditate on it day and night.

We only do so when looking to Christ, our Savior.

That has bought us and brought us into this kingdom.

And we will fail.

You will not always delight in the law of the Lord.

And that's when you look back to Christ.

And when you see the beauty of what Christ did.

Oh, then you love His law.

You love His law.

And you find joy and contentment.

One of the ways that we get to look to our Savior Is weekly we go to the table.

We go to the Lord's Supper that He has called us to do.

Every week when we gather He has called us to this.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, he says.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread.

And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way He also took the cup after supper.

Saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

And Paul says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup.

You proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

We are sojourners in this land waiting for our King to arrive.

And when we gather in our embassy this morning We can remember that He is

going to return.

What He did to purchase us and bring us into citizenship.

And that is promise of return.

Let's pray that God will be honored in this.

Me and Pastor Jeremiah will be down here.

If you are in Christ this morning.

And you are in good standing with an evangelical church.

You are welcome to the table.

And if you need prayer Pastor Jeremiah and myself are here.

We are willing to pray with you.

If you have questions We are willing to walk with you through those things.

If you need intercessory prayer.

Come to us with this.

You are not distracting us from the task at hand.

This is part of being in community.

Amen.

Lord be honored in our worship through the table.

These elements, the wine and the bread Guard our hearts from idolatry

And help us to worship you in spirit and truth Through this beautiful ordinance that you have prescribed for us

That you would show yourself uniquely to us your people As we partake

in Christ's name.

Nothing

that

we do represents that truth.

That yet not I but Christ in me.

Like this ordinance, amen.

It's beautiful.

Well this morning we've gotten to enjoy.

The beauty of the ordinance of baptism.

The ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

See the word, sing the word, pray the word, preach the word.

All of these things, read the word.

But today we also have another special moment.

Where we have some new member recognition.

Joe kind of spilt the beans earlier a little bit on us early.

But that's alright.

But Joe and Angel, why don't you all come up here.

Justin, why don't you make your way up here.

Maybe we can stand up right up here.

In front of the, don't fall backwards.

Joe you can get baptized again.

Alright.

Y 'all know all three of these here.

Obviously Joe and Angel here.

They, y 'all felt like part of the family already.

As a matter of fact I've had numerous people come up to me.

And say something about y 'all.

And when they find out you're not members yet.

They're like, oh wait a second I thought they were already members.

So that's been wonderful to see God working in your lives.

We've loved to get to know you.

We are excited to see how God is going to use your gifts.

We obviously see some wonderful gifts in both of you.

That are beneficial.

Christ is building his church.

And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And so what he's doing is He is growing this particular body.

And he's saying, hey this is the body part that you need right now.

This is the body part that you need right now.

And we trust his providence.

And so going through the class.

Having many conversations.

Y 'all have taken this as seriously as anyone has ever taken it, right?

Y 'all have taken this very seriously.

And I'm very, very grateful for that.

Because this is a serious matter.

Y 'all saw the four week class.

And all the stuff that we go through.

And the membership covenants.

And all of that.

We're not joking here.

This isn't play Christianity.

And I think that y 'all have done well.

In being very considerate of that.

And for your own lives.

And so, here in a moment I gotta figure out which bible is which.

Oh, perfect order.

Alright, I got it.

Alright, and then we got Justin here.

Justin's been with us for a bit here.

He got baptized, what, maybe five, six weeks ago?

Somewhere around that point He came to us, he said I've been saved.

My faith is in Christ and Christ alone.

And we're like, praise God.

What's next?

He's like, baptized.

So, we were able to baptize him.

And he then went through the new member class.

And you've walked through that whole thing.

And you've been on it, man.

He'd call or text.

And he'd be like, alright, I'm gonna be there.

I got this.

And praise God.

Because he too has been taking this very, very seriously.

And y 'all know Adam and Tari's son -in -law.

I'm gonna throw you in on that one.

Adam and Tari have been praying for this man.

For quite some time, haven't you?

I know that we've been praying.

And God is working in your life.

And now, through the obedience and baptism.

The next step, you're like I gotta be a member of a church.

Praise God.

And we're so glad We're excited to watch how God does work in you.

Just like with Joe and Angel.

And bringing you into this body.

And using the gifts.

And being encouraged.

So, members of 12 .5 If you affirm Justin and Joe and Angel.

As members of this covenant body of believers.

Please stand in affirmation.

Amen.

Alright, praise God.

Praise God.

We are thrilled to have y 'all as part of this.

And like we do every time Sorry, the two of y 'all have to share.

So y 'all gotta fight over which one.

We have ESV study Bibles That we commission each member with.

Because this is our source.

We wanna know life and godliness.

We wanna know what God's called the church to.

This is it.

This is our source.

And we wanna give you that.

As we commission you and Justin The same thing.

And we make sure that we got it in here.

We got it signed.

We got it.

Look at there.

We got it right, Justin Warren?

Alright, we got it.

From 12 .5 church on this date.

That way y 'all can look back at this.

Hey buddy, come here.

We can look back at this And praise God for what he's doing.

And I can't wait to see 10, 20 years down the road How God is working in y 'all's lives And others' lives through the

process.

So let's pray for them.

And we will also pray for our time of fellowship As we continue our worship today.

Lord, thank you for how you are growing The people of this church.

You are bringing saints here.

Lord, we pray that you would bless this body.

That it would be honoring to you That it would obey you as King Jesus.

Lord, I pray for Justin That you would grow him and mold him And that he could raise

up his family In the fear and knowledge of you Loving you and serving you And serving this body.

Lord, I pray for Joe and Angel As they serve diligently As they get involved

And use their gifts to further kingdom purposes.

Lord, bless that.

Lord, help us as a people to bless them.

We thank you for all that you have done.

Lord, we thank you for our time of fellowship.

Be honored as we worship you through this In Christ's name, amen.

You know what I forgot?

Let's sing the doxology together.

Y 'all ready?