Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #9: "The Joy of Pursuing Spiritual Excellence 2 (Phil 3:17-21)

Philippians chapter 3 and we're gonna be reading from verses 12 through to 21 on screen it should say 17 but as I was thinking

I was like it'd be good to get the context of what we're reading so Philippians 3 beginning in verse 12

Philippians chapter 3 beginning in verse 12 if you have one of those red hard back Bibles we give away should be on page 1042 page 1042

Philippians chapter 3 from verse 12 through to 21 if you're able to do so can

I invite you one more time to stand with me out of reverence for God's Word we stand because God's Word is worthy of reverence because it's coming from him and so we like to demonstrate that even with the posture of our bodies as we come to his word so Philippians chapter 3 beginning in verse 12 and reading through to verse 21 brothers and sisters these are

God's words not that I have already reached the goal or I'm already perfect but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus brothers and sisters

I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it but one thing I do forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead

I pursue as my prize the goal promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus therefore let all of us who are mature think this way and if you think differently about anything

God will reveal this also to you in any case we should live up to whatever truth we have attained join in imitating me brothers and sisters and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us for I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ their end is destruction their

God is their stomach their glory is in their shame and they are focused on earthly things our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly wait for a

Savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ he will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding let's pray ask for the

Spirit's help which we so desperately need and we will get into the message this afternoon let's pray together my heavenly father we thank you that we have the gift of your

Holy Spirit that not only does he open our minds to understand the scriptures not only does he open the eyes of our understanding so that they can be enlightened but father he also your word says in Romans chapter eight gives life to our mortal bodies and father oh how

I need that this afternoon especially so I would ask that your spirit be at work not just in the hearing but even in the preaching of this word which is so so important we pray that as we continue walking through this letter and we are challenged by so much of what it has to say father

I especially pray this afternoon that your word would find fertile ground in the hearts of your people

Lord I can prepare but only you can speak to hearts and so I ask that you would do a work of speaking to the hearts of your people through your word even now well we take a moment to pray for our sending church

Redeemer Gilbert this week they made some changes on their campus to accommodate more people and open their what is now their new worship center we thank you for your provision in that way well we know that they are still looking for a more permanent future home father your word says that you own the cattle on a thousand hills and since that is the case

Lord we pray that you would provide for them in the just wonderful work that they are doing and seeing the valley there in Phoenix reached for Christ pay for Pastor John and for the elder team there as they seek to give leadership continue to give them great wisdom continue to give them great grace thank you for the help that they are to us here in Medford and we just pray for your continued blessing on them we pray for your blessing on us now as we come to your word we ask it in Jesus name and for his sake amen amen please be seated well this afternoon we continue on in our summer series that we've been in in the letter to the

Philippians series that we have called deep joy deep joy the message of Philippians and I want to bring to you really was a part two of a message that I began last week that I've entitled the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence as most of you know because I talk about it incessantly

I'm Ghanian I'm a very proud Ghanian yes

I was born in the UK and that's home but I always credit my parents for instilling in me a love of my motherland even though I have been there let me not tell lies

I have been there but nowhere near as often as I probably should and so that means that though my parents instilled in me a love of my culture as best they could for a you know the child of well basically a second -generation child of immigrants living in one of the biggest cities in the world they did their best but it meant that because I wasn't always willing to listen

I haven't always been the most knowledgeable Ghanian that all changed when

I had a son when we realized we're gonna be having a son it hit me that he needs to know where he came from especially living in Medford he's pretty far away from that culture that's what

I realized that the little that I knew was not gonna be enough for me to effectively teach him the culture he came from so I for the last few years been on something of a cultural and historical kick if you will learning parts of Ghanian history and culture that I don't know quite as well and it's been fun

I've learned a lot and one of my favorite discoveries in recent years has been coming across just the wealth of Ghanian music that exists again not the most popular form of music in the world but actually there are a number of styles that have either been sort of freshly indigenous to what we now know as Ghana or has been a melding of various styles that exist already you know

Ghana has a colonial history as a British colony with that comes all sorts of interesting fusions and melds of things and music

I've discovered is one of them in my sort of cultural journey if you will come across the music of a composer whose name was dr.

Ephraim Amu. Dr. Ephraim or most people pronounce it dr. Ephraim Amu.

Dr. Amu was a lifelong Presbyterian and he became a catechist which is a they don't have them so much nowadays in Presbyterian circles but back in the day catechists were basically sort of lay

Bible teachers in the church and so he was a catechist but he was also in charge of singing in the church and bear in mind this is in the early 20s and 30s he began to long for a way to kind of fuse the very traditional

Presbyterian form of worship the missionaries brought with them with distinctly

African influences and he was pretty successful and over time he came to be respected as one of the fathers of modern

Ghanaian music in my research I discovered that his most popular song to this day is a song he wrote called and I'm gonna give you the tree title then

I'll give you the English title trees are one of the many languages spoken in Ghana he actually wrote it originally in another language called the every language and then translated it into tree the song has the title yenara assassini it literally means this is our land and some have called it the unofficial anthem of Ghana which is very interesting

I actually prefer this one this should be the national anthem but that's my opinion and in English the lyrics of the song call for Ghanaians to take their identity as a people seriously

I won't give you the tree version because I don't know it quite so well but here's the

English translation of it the song says this is our native land what's a priceless heritage acquired with the blood our ancestors shed for us it is now our turn to continue what our ancestors started bragging of educational achievement or useless greed for material things and bad lifestyles are destroying our nation and disgracing it very many wrote this in the 20s the course of the song very simply says whether or not this nation prospers whether or not this nation prospers clearly depends on the character of the citizens of the nation dr.

who rightly recognized that the quality of the nation is inherently tied to the health of its citizens as the people go the nation goes and one of the things that has been fascinating for me to think about as I've learned about this song and its history

I often wondered what would he say in 2023 he died in 95 so I was four years old but what would he say in 2023 and I couldn't help but think of that song as we came to this portion of the letter to the

Philippians because the the sentiment that dr. Amu puts so beautifully into song

I think is the heart of this passage his simple point is this that there is a way that citizens of a land that citizens of a nation that citizens of a kingdom should conduct themselves the

Bible describes believers as the citizens of a kingdom so in Colossians chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 the

Bible says that Jesus well the father excuse me in the work of Jesus has transferred us out of the domain of darkness we were in one kingdom and he's transferred us out of that domain into the kingdom of the

Son that he loves in Matthew chapter 5 verses 3 through 12 we commonly call this section of the

Bible the Beatitudes the Beatitudes essentially lay out what is the character of a citizen of God's kingdom

Matthew 5 6 & 7 that we call the Sermon on the Mount I prefer to call the king speech because that's what it is the king is laying out what it is to be a citizen of his kingdom and he starts with that short little section saying this is the heart attitude and heart character of a citizen of his kingdom in the middle of that sermon

Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 verse we call all the time seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you but actively told to seek and when he says seek the kingdom of God he means the priorities of that kingdom he says we ought to actively seek the priorities of that kingdom and in doing so everything else we need will be provided for us this isn't the time for me to go into a whole teaching about what the

Bible says about the kingdom of God actually when I get back from my sabbatical I'll be doing that in our men's

Bible study so if you're interested come and join me then but that kingdom is both present and future there is a present aspect to that kingdom and that all of those who have turned from their sin and turned in faith to Jesus who is the king of that kingdom they become citizens of that kingdom already and he's ruling and reigning in the hearts of his people and there is also a future aspect to this where that kingdom will come upon the earth a very physical present kingdom in a recreated world but in receiving the king by faith we become part of the kingdom now and that reality would not have been lost on our original audience here in Philippians for those of you who've been here regularly you know that I've talked about this letter and I've made the point that Philippi was a

Roman colony there weren't many of those around in the Roman Empire one of the things that made

Philippi unique as a Roman colony was that if you were born within its city limits you had automatic

Roman citizenship which again was not common in the ancient world and so the people of Philippi knew what it was to be citizens of Rome's kingdom and as we come to Philippians chapter 3

Paul pulls on that language as he seeks to remind the Philippians of what it is to be kingdom people if I can remind you how we've broken up this chapter up to this point we've said that Philippians chapter 3 is in essence describing for us the spiritual mind the mind that focuses on Christ and Christ alone and we've said that when you look at this spiritual mind it has three facets to it the spiritual mind has a new set of values we looked at that in chapter 3 verses 1 through 11 this spiritual mind has a new set of values it values

Christ's righteousness over its own that leads to a new vigor for this spiritual mind where we pursue

Christ's purposes over our own and what we want to consider this afternoon this spiritual mind has a new vision this spiritual mind has a new vision it lives out

Christ's identity over its own Christ's identity over our own as I put this message together

I realized that this is really the second part of what we talked about last week when we talked about this theme of spiritual excellence but it's a little bit different because where last time we looked at Paul's example and the attitudes that drove

Paul, Paul is now turning the corner away from his own personal example and now we're going to get very specific encouragement and exhortation from Paul now we're going to hear from Paul how do we do this it's one thing to hear from somebody else's example okay how do we go from his example to our own practice that's what we're going to consider in this message really the question that looms over us as we come to this chapter is how can we live excellent lives as citizens of the kingdom if you wonder where is he getting this citizen theme from look at chapter 3 and verse 20 so Paul says our citizenship is in heaven this is the reality that grounds the

Christian and if this is the reality and we'll come back to this verse in more detail later on but if this is the reality that grounds the

Christian the question is how does a Christian live an excellent life as a citizen of that kingdom if in the words of the song by Dr.

Amu that we just heard the prosperity of a nation clearly depends on the character of its citizens and I think that's true even in the church if that is the case how do we live excellent lives as citizens of the kingdom well that kind of leads to my big idea for this message how do we do this simply put living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples and staying focused on Christ living as citizens of the kingdom living as citizens of this thing we call the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples and it also calls for staying focused on Christ one more time living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples and staying focused on Christ for the rest of our time

I want to consider really just two vital actions of kingdom citizens that you should pursue if you're going to glorify

God if you're going to be the kind of citizen that lives excellently that lives in a way that glorifies

God out of this passage I want you to consider two vital actions that Paul gives us out of this passage two vital actions if you're going to glorify

God as kingdom citizens well that's that begins as we point number one reflect on our conduct reflect on our conduct verses 17 to 19 reflect on our conduct

Paul begins his encouragement and exhortation with a call to evaluate our behavior as God's people he's very specific which aspects of our behavior he wants us to evaluate

Paul's usual way of communicating he does this over and over and over again in his letters he gives us a positive and he gives us a negative here's what you should do and here's what you shouldn't do or here's what you should avoid probably a better way to put this so he gives us a positive and a negative what positively

Paul calls us to follow the example of excellent Saints follow the example of excellent

Saints so look at verse 17 Philippians 3 verse 17 Paul says join in imitating me brothers and sisters and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us the

Philippians were to imitate Paul and his mindset but not only to imitate Paul and his mindset but they were to also watch observe pay careful attention as the

CSB says to those who lived the same way that's the aspect of conduct he wants them to reflect on and it's interesting when you read the

New Testament there is this pronounced emphasis throughout the New Testament on imitating the example of godly people it comes up again and again and again for a few moments

I want us to see some of these passages I'm gonna read to I'm gonna have you look at two so for a moment turn to first Thessalonians 1

I will join you there in just a moment first Thessalonians 1 as you're turning there I'm gonna read a couple passages from Paul in first Corinthians where he talks about this idea of imitation so you turn to first Thessalonians 1

I'll be there in a second but in first Corinthians 4 16 Paul tells the church at Corinth who had so many problems so so many first Corinthians 4 16 therefore

I urge you to imitate me in what Paul was talking about the fact that he viewed himself as a servant not as a celebrity which is how the

Corinthians treated it or some of them did anyway this is therefore I urge you to imitate me be a servant just like you've seen in me first Corinthians 11 one same thing he says again imitate me as I also imitate

Christ the context there is chapters 8 through 10 he's talked about Christian liberty and how the Christian uses their liberty in a way that glorifies

God and doesn't tear down their brother or sister and right at the end of that section which our Bible's wrongly put as 11 one it should be the end of chapter 10 in my opinion he says imitate me use your liberties the same way as I also imitate

Christ who did not take his liberties for granted I told you join me in first Thessalonians 1 pick it up in verse 4 with me first Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 4

Paul is recounting his experience among the church in Thessalonica and he says this 1

Thessalonians 1 verses 4 to 6 for we know brothers and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power in the

Holy Spirit and with full assurance know what he says next you know how we lived among you for your benefit and you yourselves became imitators of us if you are the underlining type in your

Bible you might want to underline that phrase or highlight that phrase imitators of us and of the

Lord online that whole phrase imitators of us in the Lord when in spite of severe persecution you welcome the message with joy from the

Holy Spirit flip over to chapter 2 1st

Thessalonians chapter 2 pick it up with me in verse 10 once again Paul is reminding them of his experience with them when he first got to Thessalonica 1

Thessalonians 2 verse 10 he says you are witnesses and so is God of how devoutly righteously and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers as you know like a father with his own children we encouraged comforted and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory this is why we constantly thank

God because when you receive the word of God that you heard from us you welcomed it not as a human message but as it truly is the

Word of God which also works effectively in you who believe please note verse 14 for you brothers and sisters became imitators of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea since you have also suffered the same things from your own people of your own country as they did from the

Jews and we could pick up more passages and Ephesians this language comes up a bunch again and again and again this theme that was apparently very well known in the pages of the

New Testament that there was a pattern of living in a pattern of teaching that came via Christ were from Christ via the

Apostles and all of God's people were to imitate those who lived in that kind of way if I can pause for a moment there's a reality that I think sometimes even in our circles where we love preaching and Bible teaching at least

I hope we do there's a there's a principle that gets lost in our circles and it's the principle that there is a sense in which spiritual excellence this thing that we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks spiritual excellence is more caught than it is taught do you know

I mean when I say that that there are some things I can for example stand up here open passage of the

Bible and teach them and it can be very easy to say okay if you say so there are some things you can teach but some things are only learned by being muddled there are some things about this thing called the

Christian life that you only learn by watching other people do it and I think sometimes in our circles where we love

Bible teaching and we love theology and we love to dig it down into the Bible and rightfully so I think we sometimes forget this that there are some things where words just won't do there are some things that are only learned by observing and then doing what you've observed

I mean think about this every wonder why in Christianity so much of what we do is encapsulated in particular acts think about we sing we pray we study the scriptures we gather

Titus chapter 2 which I think is the forgotten chapter in so much thinking about discipleship the body is designed to be teaching the body how to be mature so much of what we do is not just things we hear and believe yes there is a doctrinal component to Christianity I of all people will be the last to downplay that but there is a very strong reality that's given to us in the pages of our

Bibles that there are some things you will only learn by having godly examples to show you how to do them and so if that's the case

I'll ask a very simple question whose example are you following whose pattern are you living in lighter who showed you the ropes so that you could be today where you are whose example are you following when

I was back in London my pastor used to ask two questions of all of us he also asked us all the time two questions used to ask all of us who were involved in any kind of ministry in the church whether it was a public front -facing one or one that was behind the scenes he'd always ask us the same thing

I can hear him now Kofus that was his nickname for me Kofus who are you discipling and who is discipling who are you decided he's asked the other way around who is discipling you and who are you discipling now he never asked it it was always kind of rhetorical he never wanted to actually give him an answer but he wanted us to always be thinking about that I was thinking about it just this week he lived it our growth group has been meeting through the summer and last

Wednesday I told the folks that I was watching my pastor back in London preach and it hit me for the first time in a while that as he was preaching

I was like he does so many things that I now imitate and I didn't even plan on imitating

I won't tell you which ones he don't know what to look for but I was humorously surprised just how much

I imitate him in preaching without even thinking about it well it makes sense I spent five years under his discipleship

I have not been at that church for almost six years pretty much the entire time I've been here in the US and the fingerprints are still there

I thank God that I had the privilege of a man who at times could be brutal not in an unloving way but he was a man who took very little nonsense and I thank

God for it because now I'm serving in ministry I'm beginning to realize that's why he got annoyed when

I did that okay I get it now and he's still faithfully preaching

God's Word he's had some health challenges and he's just pushing through it I thank

God for his example and I with that I lay this question with you again whose example are you modeling your life on and get this as they are following Christ I'm not saying just follow people because they've been around church a while don't just say

I'm following people because oh I like this person their personality jives with me no no no no notice what

Paul says look up 317 again he says join in imitating me and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us that's why

I enabled this up point follow the example of excellent Saints ain't everybody's example you need to follow follow those who are following the apostolic pattern that means also you need to know what the apostolic pattern is which means you need to be in this book because thankfully we have the teaching of the

Apostles or that the Spirit felt we needed to know anyway in the pages of book so if I want to know what the apostolic pattern for Christianity is

I don't go ask my friend I don't go ask scholars I don't ask any frankly I go to this book and I go to this book and I go to those who have lived in line of what this book says and of course the reality is if that's the case that means not everyone's going to be an example worth following yes you should follow the example of faithful Saints but watch out for the example of worldly Saints while you're at it watch out for the example of worldly Saints verses 18 and 19 so verse 18 why should we join in imitating

Paul and pay close attention to those who follow his example verse 18 for I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ now my sub point here might seem a little surprising like why did you say

Saints and put it in air quotes there's a big debate when it comes to this passage of Scripture who is

Paul actually talking about is he talking about false teachers is he talking about those who oppose the

Christian message they weren't Christians at all they were persecution persecutors from outside I don't think either of those work personally

I think Paul is very honest when he's talking about false teachers and if he's talking about those who persecute believers he wouldn't be weeping about it why because that's expected that's just normal everyday biblical

Christianity are we sure coffee are you sure that this is a reference to Christians or at least professing

Christians yeah I think I am and the reason why I land there is look at verse 18 again it's a small little word you'll miss it you're blinking miss it but let me read it again so verse 18 for I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ please note that Paul doesn't say they are enemies of the cross he says they live like enemies of the cross

I think the most straightforward way to read this is that Paul is talking about people who professed faith in Christ and yet their practice belied their profession you know

I mean when I say that that how they lived undermined severely what they professed that's why

Paul is again he says and now say again with tears he's more than likely weeping as he dictates this letter why would

Paul be weeping over them because I think the argument can be made Paul knew the people he was talking about there were specific people in that congregation that he was keenly aware of well living in this kind of way as enemies of the cross of Christ I think

I've mentioned that I've made a habit of in this series of reading a Spurgeon sermon every time at the end because if you read him before you want to copy him but at the end of my prep

I read a Spurgeon sermon and once again I can't improve him what Spurgeon says

I'm just gonna put it up on screen as I read it Spurgeon said on this very verse I never read that the

Apostle wept when he was persecuted though they plowed his back with furrows I do believe that never a tear was seen to be was never never a tear was seen to gush from his eye while the soldiers scourged him though he was cast into prison we read of his singing never of his groaning

I do not believe he ever wept on account of any sufferings or dangers to which he himself was exposed was exposed for Christ's sake

I call this and he's referring to the weeping in this passage he says

I call this an extraordinary sorrow because the man who wept was no soft piece of sentiment and seldom shed a tear even under grievous trials can

I be honest with you for a moment I read this sermon it's a hard sermon to read you can hear the pain in Spurgeon's voice as he preaches this and they convicted me because if I'm honest

I don't generally cry over things when I'm frustrated it has to be really bad like all hope is lost my general response to people like this if I'm really honest in my heart of hearts my general response is frustration not tears it's all too easy to complain to Lombard to get on the soapbox but it's hard to be moved to tears the way that Paul is this broke

Paul's heart to know and I think it broke his heart because he knew exactly how they were living look at verse 19 verse 19 he says their end is destruction after all if you claim the cross of Christ be a living like its enemy guess what you're going to get the result that comes to those who are enemies of that cross their end is destruction their

God is their stomach in the ancient world the stomach was considered the seat of your appetites these people lived only to satisfy their needs and their appetites and not to glorify

Christ the way that Paul has been talking about throughout this letter he says their glory is in their shame that that which should be considered shameful they celebrated and why are they like this the

CSB kind of has it as another thing in the list in the original language is actually separated by the way the grammar works what's at the core of this spiritual confusion because these are

Christians Paul is writing to he says they are focused

I'm gonna remove that word and in the CSB could just isn't there they are focused on earthly things at the core of their spiritual confusion was a confusion about where their focus should be unlike the folks we read about in verses 12 through 14 remember that from last week those folks who have the goal of knowing

Christ in front of their eyes who have the prize of eternity in Christ's presence in view unlike those folks the folks that Paul is writing about here these folks were fixated on the here and the now

I've quoted him several times in the series because his commentary is actually really good

Pastor Tony Morita nice easy to read commentary called exalting Jesus in Philippians Pastor Tony Morita put it like this they these saints just get excited about worldly things they aren't captured by Christ his cross and his resurrections now now now now

I'll pause for a moment because I can tell the objection Kofi are you saying a

Christian can't have other interests except Christian stuff there's a way to read that this verse that sounds like that it's

Paul calling for a sort of disconnection from the world you know what monks try to do if you know the history of the movement of monasticism so -called basically the movement to separate from the world because the world's an evil place it's gonna mess up your salvation so get away from the world as far as you can go live off in the desert which is how that started go live off in the desert and if you go live off in the desert you'll be far away from this evil evil world and all of its problems well first of all what's the phrase we have found the problem and the problem is us you deciding to go live off in the desert somewhere isn't gonna fix the problem no that's not is that what

Paul saying here is he saying that you need to basically disconnect from the world go like live out in the middle of nowhere where none of the bad bad things can get you there's people saying you can't have other interests other than just reading your

Bible all day well no Christians can be interested in all sorts of things within reason of course they can remember this is the same man who wrote 1st

Timothy chapter 6 that God gives us all things freely to enjoy so no

Paul isn't saying that you can't have other interests you can't have hobbies I have several hobbies I would be hypocrite to say that Paul saying that and then continue with my hobbies

I'm going to go home and watch a soccer match after this service because that's what I do to relax no no no no

Paul is not saying you shouldn't have other interests and you shouldn't care about things of this life please note the word that's used in verse 19 he says and they are focused on earthly things anyone got

King James version in the room what I version or first version translates this about these people who mind earthly things and I think that's a good translation that's what the word is it's the verb form of the word for your mind you see it's not that Christians have interest outside of Christianity that's the problem it's not that you do things other than churchy stuff that's the issue far from it the issue is when your mind is more focused on other things that's when we need to start asking some questions it's when your mind is consumed by other priorities then we have a right to be somewhat concerned as I do with most things

I study I always want to ask what are the Puritans have to say about this as you all know I'm big Puritan fan I think they were the greatest generation of Christians since the

Apostles that's just me and as is often the case you go looking for something you will find it turns out actually one of my favorite

Puritan writers wrote a whole book on this one verse we're looking at verse 19 didn't think you could get that much out of one verse could you

Jeremiah Burroughs wrote an excellent book called the rare jewel of Christian contentment if you haven't read it sell something and go get a copy

Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a whole book on this verse called a treatise on earthly mindedness a treatise on earthly mindedness and in chapter 2 of that book he lays out nine marks of earthly mindedness we don't have time for all nine so I'm not going to give you all nine

I'm just gonna give you his last three encourage you to pick up the book if you can what did

Burroughs say is are the marks of an earthly minded person these were his last three he has six more he said the earthly minded person pursues spiritual things only when they are convenient they have no capacity for the sacrificial the earthly minded person pursues spiritual things only when they are convenient they have no capacity for the sacrificial he says the earthly minded person finds their trials moves them away from Christ and further and further towards self it's not that trials come it is not that trials don't hurt they do but if your ultimate answer to trials is

I need to dig in deeper and you neglect Christ Burroughs argues that you might be an earthly minded

Christian his final mark that he gives and he spends almost two pages on this he says the earthly minded person will at times think about spiritual things but can only rise to the level of their carnal benefits the question he puts is they ask how would this benefit my earthly pursuits again

I encourage you to pick it up if you can one thing that I'm thankful for in our body is that we are by God's grace developing a culture where I hope this is the case

I pray this is the case and that in my conversations with some of you I see that this is the case so I feel like I can say this and if I'm wrong

God knows I tried but I'm thankful for our body in many respects one of which is we are developing a culture where hopefully we will not fit this kind of a mold we're developing a culture where we hopefully are pursuing

Christ with singular focus where we are living in line with the ideals of not the

Christianity we see around us but Christianity as we see it expressed by Christ and those who followed him

I know many of you are going through challenges and struggles because we talk you tell me things and even in the midst of those difficulties and challenges your eyes are on Christ so I'm encouraged by that and at the same time

I am no ignorant I also know as pastor again I don't know who and I'm not making any accusations but there will be some my father used to say this and I always thought he was weird when he said it but I need to realize what he said he said he's a son when the saints of God goes to church sometimes the devil goes with them

I think he wasn't entirely wrong

I'm not saying people are the devil by any stretch but the reality is even in the gallery of God's people you're gonna have those who unfortunately live like this

I don't know who's in this room that's true of and if there's nobody praise the Lord and the next few seconds you can tune me out but just on the off chance that a verse like this might be speaking to you can

I encourage you that it's never too late to reject earthly mindedness and start pursuing the spiritual life my mother used to say all the time where there's life there's hope

Africans love that phrase by the way where there's life there's hope and there's truth to that statement the beautiful thing about the gospel is this that the gospel is not for perfect people is for imperfect people even people who've been imperfect for quite some time but the beautiful thing is this for those of us who know the gospel and come back to the gospel regularly we come to a

God who I said this last week desires for you to grow more than you do no you don't need to look inward try harder and do better what you need to do is to go back and consider the one who's know is that Paul says this even he says it he says they're living not as enemies of the church not as enemies of God's people's as enemies of the cross of Christ this is a lifestyle that's opposed to the cross of Christ so how do you get out of that lifestyle looking at the cross of Christ well

Paul knew these Philippians he's ordinary everyday believers they were the real deal we've read it in chapter 1 he's encouraged by them that they're partners in ministry they're making progress they're advancing the gospel he had every confidence in them these were the kinds of believers that Paul could say we're living in line with the apostolic pattern and so Paul wants to encourage them yes he talks about these enemies of the cross of Christ and yes it hurts him but that's not his focus in this section yes he calls them to reflect on their conduct but he also called them and since we're reading that he's also calling you to point number two remember your citizenship remember your citizenship verses 20 and 21 now for the second week in a row

I have to complain about the Bible translation in front of me I love the CSB but once again I don't know what they're doing in Philippines because verse 20 in the

CSB just starts a new sentence our citizenship is in heaven small problem Paul has a word here that actually can be translated and for whatever reason they don't translate it so if you've got an

ESV the ESV says but our citizenship is in heaven once again you

American Standard fans your Bible got it right once again the

NASB fans cheer it says for our citizenship is in heaven

Paul starts this with a connective he's connecting this back to his argument why should you verse 17 join in imitating him and pay careful attention to those who walk according to the pattern you have in us why should you do that he says because verse 20 your citizenship our citizenship is in heaven right this is the foundation of a

Christian life that pursues spiritual excellence it's not guilt it's not brow beating it's not trying think about this there's a danger we're talking about spiritual examples which is sometimes as human beings we want to do we want to make the people who we are following proud

I'll admit this was I had struggled with this like very early on in ministry when

I was back in London like there will be times where I'd be dead nervous not about preaching but because my pastor was in the room and I didn't want to look stupid in front of my pastor that's not a great motivation for anything and actually he told me off one day for that so Kofi you're not preaching for me what are you doing

I'm trying to do a good job are you keeping you always used to ask is your life right yes are you preaching faithfully

I'm trying what does it matter what I think no it's not about trying to do the examples you follow proud why why should we pursue spiritual excellence we pursue spiritual excellence because it is fitting for citizens of God's kingdom we've already encountered this idea of citizenship in Philippines remember

Philippines 127 in the CSB rightly translates as citizens of heaven live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ remember how it was but this citizenship theme would have been very dear to the heart of the

Philippians and pool once again pools on that part of their hearts that love their citizenship and says guys yes you are

Roman citizens but let's be clear you have a closer link to the kingdom of God than you do to the

Empire of Rome sure Philip I was home for now and yes your

Roman citizenship is for now but that's not your forever citizenship the reality is for the

Christian your true citizenship Paul says is in heaven it's one of the great realities of the

Christian life that people who are growing in spiritual maturity know this world isn't their home and so it frames the way they faithfully live in this world

I don't often quote C .S. Lewis but I think he was right on this when he said if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world

I think he was on the money with that one if our pool makes this point up wish

I had time but won't read it if you're taking notes first Corinthians chapter 7 verses 29 to 31 Paul's talking about marriage there but in the midst of talking about marriage and whether it's a good thing to marry he says it is he basically tells the

Corinthians and I'm gonna paraphrase it because of time he says times limited so if you're married act like you on if you're weeping act like you are weeping if you're rejoicing

I like you're not rejoicing if you're in trade you know time for that he says verse 31 of those who may use the world as those as though they did not make full use of it why for this world in its current form is passing away now again

I want to be clear I know what happens there's always a difference between what I say and what people hear so please hear me clearly yes we are thankful to God for all that he graciously provides us we love our families we work hard at our job seeking to provide and I would argue the

Bible says raising inheritance for your children's children that's in Proverbs you're supposed to do that we even enjoy recreation and relaxation we recognize them to be valid gifts from a good

God but we also while we do all of that we also recognize that these things when you put them up if this if there were a scale as it were you put all of these things on one end of the scale they don't close to weigh as much in value when you put them up against our eternal home they're temporary and we would do well to remember that a discipline that previous generations often talk about and ours often doesn't sadly was the whole idea of meditating on the future life you go back as far as the

Reformers even and they talk about this I thought I'd share one quote with you John Calvin in his

Institute says whatever kind of tribulation presses upon us and by the way Calvin was a man who knew a lot of tribulations sick his entire life his wife dies relatively early in their marriage leaving him with stepchildren he dies

I want to say 50 59 with terrible sickness it was not a pleasant death so when the man says whatever kind of tribulation press upon us he knew what he was talking about whatever kind of tribulation presses upon us we must ever look to this end to accustom ourselves to contempt for the present life and to be aroused thereby to meditate upon the future life he goes on don't think

I added the second half he says for since God knows best how much we are inclined by nature to a brutish love of this world he uses the fittest means to draw us back and to shake off our sluggishness lest we cleave too tenaciously to that love what is

Calvin saying they're very simply those who recognize that this world isn't everything spend their time meditating on the world that is everything and it makes sense because let's face it as human beings we prioritize the things that we love and for the

Christian who's pursuing spiritual excellence our first and our highest love ought to be

Christ and that kingdom commands our affections because at its heart is not a set of rules but a person again look at verse 20 our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly wait for a savior from there the

Lord Jesus Christ the use of that language

Lord is intentional here Caesar referred to himself as Lord Kurios in Greek but Paul says nah

Caesar is not Lord of God's people wasn't then and isn't now Jesus is

Lord of his people why because know what Paul says we await for a sick we eagerly wait for a savior from there

Jesus is Lord of his people because he is the savior of his people he saved us from the penalty of our sins when that was hanging over us never to go away he saves us even now from the power of sin as he sanctifies us as his people and he will save us from the presence of sin and that's his focus here think about citizens of God's kingdom living in this world our experience more often than not is one of weakness it's one of difficulty it's one of challenge what does

Paul say in Romans 8 23 that we also grown within ourselves eagerly awaiting for adoption the redemption of our bodies creation groans and we grown right along with it but one day one day groaning will give way to glory look at verse 21 what does

Paul say Philippians 3 21 he the Lord Jesus Christ will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body we do not have time to do a whole message on the resurrection body we don't and Paul really doesn't do that he kind of says this in passing if you want to know more first Corinthians chapter 15 that's

Paul's teaching on the resurrection but for now let's focus on what Paul does say here

Paul says that one day this body that we have that is both physically and at times even spiritually beset with frailty and with imperfection one day as it were we will trade in this body or better yet the

Lord Jesus will trade in this body he will transform it into the

CSV translates our word into literally it carries this idea of in compliance with the likeness of his glorious body like I said

I don't have time to do the resurrection but just one thought experiment real quick when

Jesus rose from the dead we agree he had a glorified body right that he didn't have the body that he was battered and bruised in in the crucifixion kind of I say kind of why because it was a physical body it was a glorious but excuse me but it was a physical one too he still had the wounds of his crucifixion it was tangible think about it he meets people people can hold him they can touch him

John I believe is John 20 he even has a fish breakfast he's able to eat but it was quite a glorious body because it could do some things that the standard human body can't you could just materialize in places he does that in John chapter 20 they're all there and then there is like wait what he had a body that was real and tangible and yet this real and tangible body was glorified

I believe it's one of the verses at least in the older version of crowding with many crowns it says rich wounds now visible above in beauty glorified now if that was true of Jesus resurrection body that he had a body that was physical yet did not have the imperfections of humanity as we know it when

Paul says that he will transform our bodies into the likeness of his glorious body but if Jesus first Corinthians 15 makes this point

Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection he was the first one it should follow that all of us who will be the full harvest if you will also have a body like his does that thrill your soul does that encourage you as God's people some of you probably noticed last

Sunday I was walking around the limb I don't generally have a limp I woke up Sunday morning my hip was killing me

I don't know why and as I lay in bed trying to summon the water gal of the thing

I'm like I really can't wait for my glorified body I just can't this is the kind of hope that and I think this is

Paul's point in mentioning this it makes you reorder things with a glorious quickness if only you'll take it to heart

I'm pretty much done but why do I bring up this idea of reordering things well verse 21 he will transform the likeness of our who transform up the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself the term for subject here is a military term it means to put things in their proper rank think about it the

Bible says that right now Jesus keeps the world in order that's Hebrews 1 Colossians 1 Matthew 28 and if pretty much the whole

New Testament makes this point that right now Jesus is keeping the world in order and yet the

God who keeps all things in order by the power that he uses to do that one day put this entire world in order the way it should be he will return and his power to order will be in full effect as a world that is marred by sin is put right

I'll leave you with this thought for those who are in Christ that reordering has already begun that's

Paul's point in this section verses 17 to 21 we're citizens of the kingdom as citizens of the kingdom the priorities of our lives are now radically reordered and the reality is this you can choose to live in line with that regime or you can choose to fight it but the reality is this has happened this is why we ought to pursue spiritual excellence ultimately because we are citizens of another kingdom and God in his mercy leaves us here to represent him well as citizens of that kingdom the question is will we do so or will we not well that begins by placing your faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ if you haven't done that already it begins by recognizing that the kingdom of this world is bankrupt and it has nothing for you it begins by recognizing that everything that I once held dear

I have to count as loss because in the kingdom of God there is a person named

Jesus and in him I find all that and Heavenly Father we thank you that we are people who are characterized by our heavenly citizenship father we couldn't earn it and we didn't deserve it it's only by your grace it's only because of what

Jesus has done that we are able to be known as citizens of your kingdom and father we acknowledge that sometimes that's not easy in a body that is beset by weakness and beset by remaining in dwelling sin it can be easy to forget our citizenship and so father we would ask that you would help us that we would live like this

I thank you for my brothers who I am some of you I many of whom I know are living in this kind of way and Lord I ask that you would continue to strengthen us to live in that sort of way

I don't claim to know hearts I don't claim to know private lives only you know what's going on in the hearts of your people if there are any here who aren't living in this kind of way who for one reason or another have allowed the pressures and the difficulties of this world to get them off course father

I pray that you would bring them back to the cross bring them back to the message of the full and free forgiveness we have in you and made that inspire and challenge and spur us on to follow you with everything we have and father