Philippians 1:27-2:16 (A Life Worthy of the Gospel)

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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As you know Moving towards being a pastor in Vermont And I prepared this sermon actually as as a sermon to be preached up there

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But a great opportunity to go back through it again. And as usual as you go back through God's Word there's always something new always something rich so The theme this morning is

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From Philippians. I'm looking at Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 through chapter 2, verse 11 and This is an astonishing passage

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You know, you often as Kendall preaches you hear him start to geek out. You may hear me geek out a little bit here because there's there's there are things of astonishing beauty here and And statements that Paul makes that are shocking in a way

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Because they're not the way that we usually think they're not the traditional way that we sort of phrase things so I hope that this

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This word will bless you as it has been Paul is talking in Philippians here about something so important so life or death

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That it rivals in importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Now you're thinking what could possibly rival the definition of Jesus have

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I finally lost it What could be so important that it would compete with the importance of Jesus's redemptive work

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Only one thing which is the thing that God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit agreed together was worth the price of his death the redemption of a bride a people for God's for God's begotten

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Son to the glory of God The value of the church to God cannot be overstated given the price that he was willing to pay

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Now it's tempting after making that kind of an observation to speculate about why God chose to pay that price through his son

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Speculate about the values of an omnipotent and infinite being And there is in fact an entire book in Scripture dedicated to the dangers of doing that That's the book of Job and to quote from the last chapter of Job Job says therefore

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I have declared that which I did not understand things too wonderful for me Which I did not know and later.

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I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now man I seize you therefore I retract and I repent in dust and ashes

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As I have sufficient experience in creating opportunities to repent in dust and ashes I will not be attempting to explain the mind of God However, my sermon topic today is a life worthy of the gospel drawn from Philippians 127 and that phrase straight out of the text

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It's about the life of the church. So The very notion of us living a life worthy of the gospel

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Should make every Christian pause Our Sinfulness our unworthiness are at the heart of our understandings of gospel

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Verses like this come to mind right all of us like sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to his own way from Isaiah Paul himself points out for all the sins that come short of the glory of God We are wretched sinners.

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We love the word wretched as Christians, right? We are saved by the grace of God alone

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And at this point you might be thinking forward into passages about the Holy Spirit's work in our lives towards sanctification

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And it is true that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature old things have passed away behold new things have come

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But Paul also wrote later in the book of Philippians Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect But I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which

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Christ also lay hold of me Brethren, I do not regard myself as having great hold of it yet So here is

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Paul telling us to live a life worthy of the gospel when we know that none of us are worth So let's look at the text to see what

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Paul means reading from Philippians 1 27 through to 16 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ So that whether I come and see you or remain absent

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I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel in no way alarmed by your opponents

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Which is a sign of destruction for them, but a salvation for you and that too from God For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake

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Experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ if there is any

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Consolation of love if there is any fellowship of the spirit if any affection or compassion

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Make my joy complete by being of the same mind Maintaining the same love united in spirit and intent on one purpose

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Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves

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Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus Who although he existed in the form of God Did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped

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But emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men

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Being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross

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For this reason God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name

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So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow Of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father Dear Lord, thank you for these passages.

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Thank you for your inspired word Lord, thank you that you have put us and you have saved us

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With a miraculous gift we long to understand

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What it is to live a life worthy of the gospel Teach us through this passage father help us to get a glimpse of what that means

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And how we are to approach it Lord as always let your glory be first So as we look at this passage, we want to understand the context, right?

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We always want to look at the context of the passage of scripture So let's look at how this came about in the book of philippians

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After his greeting to the church paul talks about his circumstances in rome where he's a prisoner

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And he wonders about whether he will be there and die there or whether he will be freed to continue on in ministry

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And as he ponders this and as he ponders his life, he realizes that for him

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Great statement to live is Christ And to die is gain Right that that has rung out

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He looks forward to being with the lord in death because he knows that that will be better But as he ponders this he realizes

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That god's plan is likely to be that he's going to be freed from more ministry to continue to build up the church to exalt christ

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That naturally begs the question. What is this thing? We call church and how does it exalt christ?

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Since paul's introduction begs the question it should not be surprising that the rest of philippians is answering that question living a life worthy of the gospel of christ

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We'll look at it from three different perspectives. What is the life worthy of the gospel? Why do you want it?

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And how do you live it? So starting with what is the life worthy of the gospel right up at the beginning paul answers it with three statements three phrases standing firm in one spirit

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Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel And not frightened by anything in the world.

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So i'm going to take a little bit of a side path here Before we come back to look at each of those statements in detail but one of the things

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I noticed when I looked at those three statements is You can characterize those three statements as a method standing firm in one spirit for the statement of being

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And then a mission striving side by side for the faith of the gospel And then a context not frightened by anything in your opponents

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So a method you can almost call it a strategy, right? How are we going to accomplish something then a mission the desired outcome the objective?

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And then the context the environment and the other players the other people involved So before we even look at that The order tells us a lot

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It's not the order that you would expect if you think about it Normally, you would expect to get the mission first.

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What is it? We're going to do? Then we get the strategy. How are you going to do it? And then you get the context and some uh, some so Um picture if we if if you will, right?

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Here's a here's an example of how we would expect it to go All right church we're going to take that hill spiritual forces of wickedness in high places as a camp on the left side

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Elder derrick Lead the charge directly into the enemy's teeth using your huge seal of faith and your breastplate of righteousness

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You can take down the enemy's fire deacon dan gird your loins Flank the enemy running with your boots of peace

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Everyone else get out your helmets of salvation get out your bible swords maintain continuous prayer communications

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Keep your feet when you encounter the enemy because they will do their best to trip you up with their schemes If you encounter a roaring lion

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Who needs the ego when they devour? Run away do not engage

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We almost always start with the mission and then the objective And then we talk about the strategy and then we talk about the context but god's ways are not our ways

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And we see this pattern starting with the method And the identity before we get to the mission and the behavior

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In john chapter 14. He even said I am the way the truth and the life

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He starts with the way he's the method. He's the means He's the truth the mission

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And he's the life the context The disciples were looking out for instructions on how on how to find their way to the destination and jesus said fix your eyes on me when the lord

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Wherever the lord leads his church. He doesn't want our eyes on the destination. He wants our eyes on him

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But we have a mission. We only have a mission when we are in the ten commandments begin with I am the lord your god in branch of out of egypt

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He establishes that relationship first Then he addresses behaviors If he's not your lord the ten commandments are simply the ten reasons you deserve to die

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If he is your lord, they are the ten reasons that jesus died to save you In the gospel of luke when jesus gave the great commission, he told them to wait until the spirit came

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When they were born again in the spirit the method Being led by the spirit That would enable the mission

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All these examples kind of point to the same truth the mission is god's not yours or mine

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We don't have a mission. We're the ones being saved So that was a bit of an aside from the passage but hopefully worthwhile to highlight that every nuance of scripture

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Bears study to properly understand the spirit's intent in the passage So let's get back to the passage

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Let's look at the method and the mission in the context of paul The method standing firm in one spirit the mission striving side by side for the faith of the gospel

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And the context not frightened in anything by your opponents So let's look at standing firm in one spirit

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To stand firm there has to be a foundation upon which we stand Okay, what are we standing on?

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Paul talks to the foundation in chapter one Chapter philippians 1 6 says for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you

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Will perfect it until the day of christ The foundation that we stand on is the power and purpose of god in you

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If you want an unshakable place to put your feet A place where you can stand firm look no further than god himself

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The word is always the world is always scheming for the church's attention Trying to get us to engage in battles of their choosing

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Tempting us to put our hopes in anything other than god himself Sort of looking back at the american church over over the last 100 and 150 years

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In the 19th and early early 20th century the world challenged the church intellectually With philosophy and science and much of the church fell trying to stand on those foundations trusting them more than god's word

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Is there anything wrong with philosophy and science no They are excellent and noble pursuits

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But they are a terrible foundation because they change with the times I was reading an article last week summarizing some of the impact of the james webb space telescope

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Observations over the last two years it actually launched and was first used on christmas day two years ago Here are a few quotes based on data that has been coming in from the james webb

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From what existing theories and models tell us the galaxies that the james webb telescope found

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Are too big And the mature red stars and they're too old That the study authors said this defined creates problems for science

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Another quote it calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation in question study co -author joel leija said in a statement

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I don't care what the value of the hubble constant comes out to be said adam rice an astronomer at johns hopkins

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And a nobel laureate I want to understand why our best tools our gold standard tools are not agreeing with each other

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And particle physicist david gross a former director of the godly institute for theoretical physics in california said

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I wouldn't call it a tension within the community or a problem but a crisis

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And good good christians are still falling prey to depending on science and logic and philosophy

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Rather than on the word god But as though scientific support will add to the gospel or cause them to be saved

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In the mid 20th century the world challenged the word world world to challenge the church morally

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With civil rights and social justice and much of the church fell trying to stand on morality and ethics trusting in humanism social science and politics

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Rather than god and his word as though political alignment with scripture will cause them to be saved

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Today the world is challenging the church culturally with identity politics and many churches have fallen or are falling

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Trying to stand on cultural influence either by incorporating Or moralistically opposing identity politics

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As though cultural alignment with scripture will cause them to be saved brothers and sisters

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We stand on god alone By grace alone which comes from christ alone through faith

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Revealed by scripture alone We do not carry the banner of christian ideals or christian morals or christian culture

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We carry the banner of the risen son of god the alpha and the omega the first and the last

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We don't stand firm in righteousness and truth We stand firm in the indwelling spirit of god

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It is he who has begun a good work. What is this good work that god has begun in you upon which you can stand unshaken?

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It is reasonable to look at what jesus prayed for his church I think it's a safe bet about what god will do if jesus prayed for something

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There's a pretty good chance that god is going to answer that prayer So we look back at jesus's prayer, which we looked at in chapter 17 of john

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When kendall was preaching through that i'll read his prayer

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I do not ask on behalf of these alone disciples But for those also who believe in me through their work

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That they may all be one Even as you father are in me and I in you

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That they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me

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The glory which you have given me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one

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I in them and you in me That they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love them

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Even as you have loved me The good work that jesus asked god to accomplish in you in me

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Is that we would be made perfect in one? His purpose is that we would be fully grafted into his church that we would live lives of love for one another that mirror the love between god the father and jesus

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The good work he has begun in you isn't to make you a better person Nor is it to build up your knowledge of the word of god.

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These are good things And he will do those things But they are not there for your glory

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God's good work in you together with all the saints Is to is to gather you together with all the saints in full unity demonstrating love and charity and righteousness

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Using our knowledge of god to proclaim the gospel And to disciple new believers that will be seen among the nations

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And bring glory to god That they may be perfect in one

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The perfect bride of christ A life worthy of the gospel is the church in unity

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As I stepped back and I thought about all the parts of that I was realizing one of the remarkable things about god's truth is that the whole is beautiful and integrated

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But every part is good in of itself as well. There is no limit to the goodness of god

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It's like it's like a hologram no matter how you look through it. You see the scenes and different perspectives God is good from kernel all the way out to the wholeness of everything

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What I mean by that is that our unity in itself is good for us It's the very purpose of our being and it is a deep deep blessing in and of itself just to be in a community of loving friends and fellow family members

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But it also accomplishes a good thing Proclaiming god's glory to the world Which is a good thing in and of itself as well

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By itself it is great for god to be glorified in this world And that proclamation is used by the spirit to convict others of the truth of the gospel

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Who were discipled into the church into the unity of the church? And so it comes full circle back around to the church again so the

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This purpose of unity in the church Is is it's like a perfect sphere.

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Every piece of it is perfect all the way around Magic In the world we start with the mission and if the mission is important enough

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We pursue it by any means necessary and we see that all the time in the world with politics and cultural wars jihads

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And you name it For the church our methods our mission and our context Are all holy

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And all bring glory to god We love our enemies And pray for those who persecute us

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Because in god's kingdom the method unity of the church Is the end state of the mission?

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making disciples of all nations Who are also the context of the church our opponents? So we love our opponents

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And we disciple them into the church and so The method the mission and the context are all part of one the work that god has begun in you and I That paul is confident will be completed is that you would be in his church

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In perfect unity that mirrors the unity between god the father So we stand firm in the church

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And paul says in one spirit what spirit unites the church the holy spirit the third member of the trinity

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And paul picks up that theme over in romans for you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again

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But you have received a spirit of adoption As sons by which we call out abba father

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The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of god If you are in christ

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Stand firm in god's purposes To unite you to his church through the holy spirit

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And not a church, which is a club that you will join but a family into which you will be born born again

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Crying together abba father, right? We think about our born -again experiences all about our relationship with christ

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But we are born again into christ's church We are born again into this family

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Are you seeing? The beauty of god's plan in the church Is unity

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Are you catching the vision god's perfect vision of a perfect beautiful unified church that is worthy

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Of the gospel of christ worthy of christ coming Let's look at a little bit more into the mission.

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Paul says we are striving side by side for the faith of the gospel This family into which we've been born has a lord and he is the lord.

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Jesus christ the firstborn of creation the promised messiah The lamb of god this family has in its head the word made flesh god's purpose incarnate

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Years ago there was a popular christian book called the purpose -driven church The heart of the purpose -driven church was suggesting that if the church would just align itself with the central message of the gospel

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It would be successful But our gospel is not a message Our gospel is jesus christ himself

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Remember, jesus said I am the way the truth and the life No one comes to the father but by me

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The gospel of christ is christ himself. He didn't send us the right When kendall's on here, it's much

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Because he's louder and he didn't bring riches from heaven to pay the price He was the price

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When we strive side by side for the faith of the gospel, we are side by side with him

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Holding out his battered agonized pierced killed body for sinners

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And we are holding out his resurrected body as proof of the promise of eternal life We are pointing to him as the right hand of god interceding on our behalf for the assurance of salvation

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And we point to him as coming king As assurance of justice and victory when every person will kneel and bow and with their tongues confess

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That jesus is lord That is what it means to strive side by side for the gospel

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Is to strive side by side with jesus in his mission to save And we confirm that by going back in chapter 1 when paul says

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I thank my god in all my remembrances of you Always offering prayers with joy in my every prayer for you

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In view of your participation in the gospel From the first day until now

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That is the mission Striving side by side for the gospel And finally we look at the context

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Paul says that you and I will live this out Not frightened by our opponents.

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So we live in unity and strive together for the gospel in the presence of opponents Not surprising.

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I think we all feel that right There are several opponents that paul could be talking about but what's clear is that they are opponents of the church

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Not directly of god paul says your opponent not god's opponent

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The fact that the church has opponents Means that we have a purpose That is opposed.

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Notice. Paul doesn't use the term enemies Opponent implies someone who's working against your goals and objectives.

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You when you sit down in the game of chess you have an opponent They're not your enemy per se they're not trying to bring you down They're trying to defeat your purposes satan is our enemy

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Looking to devour us But who are our opponents? Our opponents could be many things and i'll list a few possible opponents that we should consider

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The soul enslaved by sin is an opponent They are looking to resist the lordship of jesus christ to escape the hearing of the gospel

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Other faiths and religions are opponents They are looking to bring a false gospel

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Almost always self -salvation through effort or compliance false preaching in the church is a frequent opponent of the true church

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Looking to bring the truth of the gospel under the authority of human wisdom And there's atheism in its various forms that deny salvation altogether

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Along with the very existence of the union All of these opponents are looking to prevent the growth of the church from worshiping god declaring jesus as lord

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And making disciples and bringing the gospel to the nations So i'm not going to go into each of those opponents, but what they have in common

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Is that they're utterly toothless and bankrupt in the face of the church. We have the truth of god revealed in scripture

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We have the person of jesus christ We have the unity of the spirit that demonstrates the very love that is the very character of the triune god

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And we are led by the lord jesus who is the author and the finisher of the gospel What do these opponents have against that?

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Human ideas incoherent thoughts and lies with no better purpose or meaning beyond do good

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Or make the world a better place or eat drink and marry for tomorrow we die We have no need to fear these opponents or the poor people enslaved by them

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Indeed, we are called to love our enemies and pray for our opponents They are the very nations to whom we are called to bring the gospel

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So a life worthy of the gospel is believers standing fast in one spirit With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

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I'm afraid of the opposite. Why do we want it?

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Should be somewhat clear by now Part of the answer to why every believer should want that life is the phrase worthy of the gospel

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As we said at the beginning the life being described by paul is worthy It has worth

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How much worth? Enough for god the father the son and the holy spirit to plan and execute the gospel from the beginning of time

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Enough for jesus to humble himself and die for the sins of man What worth has god ascribed to saving men through the church?

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He emptied himself for it if that phrase is not enough paul points out the effect

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Only conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ so that whether I come And see you or remain absent.

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I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind Striving together for the faith of the gospel in no way alarmed by your opponents

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Which is a sign of their destruction for them But of salvation for you

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And that too for god from god A unified church is a sign of the destruction of opposition and a sign of our salvation

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As the church comes together in unity. We are united with christ as christ is with the father

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Our unity is the ultimate family resemblance As the father and son are one we are one and if we are one

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We must come from the father and son That kind of unity only exists in god's family

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And jesus prayed that we would be made perfect as one we wanted because we will be made perfect Continuing in that passage

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For to you it has been granted for christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake

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Experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me falls continuing on Pointing out that in joining this family and having the same unity of mind and purpose as jesus himself

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We will also suffer for his sake as he suffered for our sake We will have the same conflict that the philippians see paul having which is the same conflict that brought jesus to the cross

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The conflict of bringing the gospel against opposition in malign. This is also a sign that you are part of god's family

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But given the chance to be made perfect to be worthy of the gospel of christ Sacrificing for such a prize is truly an honor and a blessing

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We are made perfect only in the church and that should make us so how do you live it?

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Well, the beginning of chapter 2 paul fleshes out practical elements of the unity of the church, let's read that again

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Therefore if there is any encouragement in christ If there is any consolation in love

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If there is any fellowship of the spirit If any affection or compassion May graduate complete by being of the same mind

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Maintaining the same love United in spirit intent on one purpose Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind

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Regard one another more important than yourselves Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others

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Having this have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in christ. Jesus Who although he existed in the form of god did not regard equality with god something to be grasped but emptied himself

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Taking the form of a bond servant Being made in the likeness of men Being found in appearance as a man.

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He humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death even death on the cross For this reason also god highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name

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That in the name of jesus every knee will bow Of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth

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And every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord. I'll just note a few things here

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Although obviously that passage should be a sermon of its own First stating the obvious in case you've missed it a life worthy of the gospel is only lived in the context of the church

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No individual christian And live a life worthy of the gospel without being fully within christ's church

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That's challenging Now look at the strong relational words that paul uses consolation comfort fellowship love accord

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The unity of the church is bound up in deep commitment and love for one another. This is not an intellectual unity

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This is familial Paul says we must look out for one another not just protecting but also participating in the interest.

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We are a family The second stands out in the example of jesus If you were in any doubt at this point about the importance of the church in the mind of god

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Take note of the structure of this passage The holy spirit breathing out his word through paul the philippians

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Relocated jesus to an example for his main subject, which is the church The king of kings and lord of lords was just used to make a point

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About the importance. So let's not miss the point of the example

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If the one who holds all things together Humbled himself to the point of being what is being called out is jesus's self -perception jesus in very nature god

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Humbled himself to take on our interests. Jesus was not at risk of mockery But he was mocked for our sake

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Jesus was not under threat of death But he took our death Jesus looked to our interests rather than his own and so was exalted by god

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The path to unity in the church is one of humility Any grasping of power and any exercising of pride?

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Any assertion of righteousness has no place on the church because it has no place in jesus Our unity is in commiseration in sacrifice in comforting and in interceding for one another

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It is not in winning the war of ideas and defeating the mockers in debate Jesus did none of these things and paul set him before us as the example of how we live

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Jesus is both the example of the life worthy of the gospel And he is the gospel

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The unity he shares with the father is the same unity that he has that he plans for the church With the meaning of making us perfect as one

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Unity in the church doesn't make the church better. It is the essential characteristic Of the true church

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It is not optional for the believer No disunity in the church will be in the bride of christ as his return

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She will be perfect as he prayed If you are causing disunity in the church for any reason other than the reformation of the church back to conformity with scripture

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You should be worried about the validity of your position in the bride of christ Yeah If you're harboring distrust over that If you're allowing gossip or innuendo to exist within the body

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If you're holding yourself aloof rather than building up the body if you're too busy to participate in discipleship and church events

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If you're not investing any of your worldly wealth to benefit god's church If you're viewing church as the job of the elders and deacons understand

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That jesus prayed for you about this He took the betrayal and the beatings and the death that we deserve because we've all done all those things

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And he even now sits at the right hand of god praying for your interests About his own do not hold yourself back.

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I'll end with psalm 133 which derrick started this with Psalm 133 is a very short psalm only three verses

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But it's a beautiful summary of what paul has been talking about in philippians a remarkable summary actually

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Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in heaven It is like the precious oil upon the head

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Coming down upon the beard even aaron's beard Coming down upon the edges of his robes

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It is like the dew of herman coming down upon the mountains of zion for there the lord commanded the blood

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Aaron was the brother of moses And was the first high priest of israel The oil poured over his head and running down his beard symbolizes lavish lavish blessing

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And then so aaron was the high priest who is our high priest

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It is jesus our lord and savior When we dwell in unity We are a blessing upon jesus

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Like the ultimate spa treatment We are being made worthy of his death and resurrection

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And the last verse is remarkable there in the unity of the church in the blessing of The lord commanded the blessing life forever

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Our unity is the place of blessing of eternal life While each of us may enter eternal life at a different moment in time.

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We will live forever more together in unity with our Father Father sometimes your scripture is overwhelming we get a glimpse of the magnificence of your

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Get a glimpse of this church that you have called it and it can be overwhelming because we know how false short we fall

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Where we are sometimes is stubborn and a stick that is different than people and yet we have the king of king

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Lord, do you view your church and the unity of your church? Father sink the truth into our head we often so often rightfully

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Focus our attention on worshiping you and on your son jesus You lose sight of the magnificence of what you have to work help us in humility to love one another