Introduction:
A Worthy Life (Philippians 1:27-29):
- Stand firm in Unity . (Phil 1:27)
Phil 2:3-4 - Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
- Have no Fear . (Phil 1:28)
Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Phil 4:6-7 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus.
- Receive the Gift of Suffering. (Phil 1:29)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-01:02
Good morning That was better than I expected actually good job, so well done I don't have to have to have you do it again As Taylor said if those of you who don't know me My name is Brian and I'm not one of the elders or pastors here at harvest. In fact, just a couple years ago my family and I we just happened to wander into this church and honestly I don't remember much about the sermon. Sorry Jeff. I don't remember much about the service But what I do remember is it was the 11th anniversary of the church and you guys had a fish taco truck in the parking lot. And I tell you what, those fish tacos were Incredible and ever since then. we've had our assigned seats right over here first service at Harvest Bible Chapel. But in all seriousness, it's a it's a real honor and a privilege to be bringing the word to you this morning and service and tell you the real story of how my family and I were brought here by the Lord a few years ago.
01:03-01:07
So to start out this morning, I want to ask you a question. Okay, it's easy so you can relax.
01:08-01:15
But raise your hand if you've ever been a part of a group or an association or a club of any kind. Raise your hand.
01:16-01:22
Okay, that's what I thought. I told you it was easy, right? Every hand is up in the room or was up in the room.
01:22-01:26
We've all been a part of a group of some kind in our lives.
01:29-01:40
And another question you can kind of think about here to get us started is some of the expectations or the requirements of being in that group.
01:40-01:54
Some of them have been said or some of them were unsaid, but there's always these rules or these things that you need to do, some ways that you need to conduct yourself, some ways that you need to speak or even dress as being a part of that group or that club, right?
01:55-02:00
The fact is that almost all groups have these types of things, these types of club rules.
02:02-02:03
So let me give you an example for myself.
02:04-02:13
Maybe you can relate to this, but I think back to those really amazing, fantastic, life-changing, seventh and eighth grade middle school years.
02:14-02:15
They were great, right?
02:15-02:17
Maybe you had a similar experience.
02:17-02:20
Maybe they were good for you as well, but they left a really positive impression on my life.
02:21-02:29
And those seventh and eighth grade years, we had some club rules, whether you like them or not, and you were assigned into a club, right?
02:29-02:31
And you had to follow these rules.
02:31-02:37
And at least at the school I was in, at that time in seventh and eighth grade, a lot of these rules revolved around what you were supposed to wear.
02:38-02:43
And this drove my parents crazy when it came time for back to school shopping.
02:43-02:48
Because here's the thing, I didn't really fit really well into any one particular group.
02:49-02:50
I was more of like a survivalist.
02:51-02:57
I just wanted to get through the day, get through the year, get through seventh and eighth grade alive.
02:57-02:59
I did, thank the Lord.
02:59-03:02
I just wanted to skate through under the radar.
03:02-03:04
So what did that mean when it came to back-to-school shopping?
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Well, I couldn't buy corduroys because that's what the skaters wore, right?
03:09-03:11
I couldn't wear too many polos because I wasn't preppy enough.
03:13-03:19
And I couldn't buy too much Nike or Adidas because, well, I wasn't enough of a jock to wear that all the time, right?
03:20-03:24
And I couldn't wear too much black because, well, that was reserved for the emos, right?
03:25-03:36
If you don't know what an emo is, ask somebody who's around 40 years old, that's my age, and they probably still won't be able to explain it to you, but it was a thing and they wore black and so I couldn't wear the black, right?
03:39-03:39
Okay, well, how about this one?
03:39-03:40
We can all relate to this one, right?
03:41-03:50
Whether you embrace it or whether you kind of cringe at it a little bit, but those of us that are natives born and raised to Western Pennsylvania, like myself included, we're part of a club too, right?
03:52-03:54
You can always tell a Western Pennsylvanian by the way we talk.
03:54-03:58
And I'm not just talking about the, you know, the downtown Yinzer accent, not just that.
03:59-04:04
But if you're from Western Pennsylvania, you've probably used words like slippy or gum band, right?
04:05-04:16
Or maybe you order dippy eggs at the restaurant, or you call your shopping cart a buggy for some weird reason, maybe you even use the word yinz, or when you go to the deli, do you order chipped ham?
04:17-04:21
Try doing that at any other part of the country and you'll get some really strange looks, right?
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Or, okay, staying on the Western Pennsylvania thing, if you're part of that club, it's basically a requirement that you have to be over the top, passionate, borderline crazy in your love for all things black and gold, right?
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Am I right?
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Okay, all right.
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And if you don't believe me, just ask anybody.
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He's not here this service, but Brock Nardozzi, if you know him, right?
04:41-04:42
He's not from around here.
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Born and raised Florida guy.
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He's a Tampa Bay boy.
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And he has the privilege of watching sports with an over the top black and gold family, right?
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We're crazy.
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Any call that doesn't go our way, it's the ref's fault.
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Any game that we lose, it was rigged.
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Never our fault, right?
05:02-05:03
You get the point.
05:04-05:05
All right, one more example.
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bring it closer to home, right?
05:09-05:10
How about your family?
05:11-05:13
We're all part of a family in some way.
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Does your family have any club rules?
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Any ways that the members of your family are expected to conduct themselves, to talk, to carry themselves?
05:25-05:36
Maybe growing up your parents said things like, "Act like a Miller," or "Browns never do that." Or maybe it was like my family where the rules weren't really spoken so much, but they were exemplified.
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They were just things that you needed to live up to.
05:41-05:47
Based on your family culture, you had to watch your siblings and watch your parents and learn.
05:48-05:53
And if your family had a solid identity, then you were expected to toe the line.
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You were expected to do and say things that were consistent with your family identity.
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You following me?
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Club rules.
06:03-06:03
Okay.
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Now by this point, you might be saying, "Okay, Preacher Man Brian, this is great, but what's the point?
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This is Harvest Bible Chapel.
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We preach the Bible.
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None of this is in the Bible.
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So where are we going with this?" If that's your thought, I'm actually glad for that, because yes, we do preach the Bible here.
06:20-06:47
And what we're gonna look at today is a specific passage in scripture that's gonna give us some very clear instruction, some club rules, if you will, on how we, as members of this family, this club, this group, those of us together here today, that profess faith in Christ, how we are supposed to conduct ourselves according to Scripture.
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So we're gonna look at what Scripture tells us about living in a way that is worthy of the gospel that we love and proclaim.
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But before we do that, I do wanna pray.
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So if you would join me in a word of prayer, and just like Jeff and Taylor always ask, would you please pray for me, and I will pray for you.
07:09-07:09
Let's bow our heads.
07:14-07:23
Heavenly Father, I thank you for bringing all of these people together this morning, and those that are watching online or who will listen to the podcast.
07:23-07:28
God, it is by your divine appointment that we are all here and listening to this today.
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And God, that is not because of me or because of any individual in here, but it is because of your divine purposes, and we find so much comfort in that.
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God, I just pray for this time that your word would speak loudly as each person needs to hear it this morning.
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In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
07:49-07:51
Okay, so we're gonna be in the book of Philippians.
07:51-07:54
So if you wanna turn there, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of you.
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We're gonna turn to Philippians chapter one, And we're gonna look at verses 27 to 29, just three verses.
08:03-08:10
As you're turning there, I just wanna give you a brief context since this is kind of in between series and we're just jumping into a book here.
08:10-08:15
So again, we're looking at Philippians, the author of the book of Philippians, that's Paul.
08:15-08:23
He's writing this letter, or he wrote this letter while he was in prison, and he's writing it to members of the church of Philippi.
08:23-08:24
That's where the title comes from.
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That's a church that he founded on a missionary journey.
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And he's writing to them for several reasons.
08:30-08:34
He wants to show them, thank them for their support of him.
08:35-08:45
He wants to tell them about his circumstances, that he's in prison, and the fact that the gospel is still being advanced even though he is in prison, again, to encourage them.
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He wants to warn them of false teachers in their midst, and he wants to encourage and instruct them.
08:51-08:56
And that's where we find our passage today, in that mind, of encouragement and instruction.
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So, if you would read to yourself as I read out loud, Philippians 1, 27 to 29.
09:04-09:26
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
09:27-09:33
This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
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For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake." All right, so let's dive right in.
09:47-09:51
Starting at verse 27, Paul sets the stage for our instruction.
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In this phrase, "Only let your manner of life be worthy," there's actually a Greek word that kind of sums that phrase up.
09:59-10:00
I don't know Greek.
10:00-10:02
I'm not going to try to pronounce it, so we're not even going to go there.
10:03-10:22
But what this phrase, what this word is telling you, really, getting to the Greek meaning of it, is that we're to behave like the citizens that we are, not citizens of Rome like Paul, or citizens of Philippi or Americans or Western Pennsylvanians, right?
10:22-10:24
But rather, citizens of heaven.
10:26-10:35
In fact, Paul tells us later in the same book in chapter 3, verse 20, you don't have to turn there, but it says, "But our citizenship is in," where?
10:36-10:36
"Heaven.
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Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." to Christians. And he's saying that we are citizens of heaven and we need to act accordingly.
10:52-11:18
So just like the groups we were talking about a few minutes ago, the skaters wore corduroys, Pittsburghers are nuts for all things black and gold, and your family hopefully has a good and noble culture that you're all aspiring to live up to because you share the same last name. And Paul Paul is saying we are followers of Christ and we are to live in a manner that reflects that.
11:19-11:25
We need to, as they say, walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
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Now I want to be very clear here.
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Paul is not saying that we could ever live in a way that is deserving of Christ ultimately.
11:35-11:41
Nothing we could ever do can make us any closer to actually deserving Christ's mercy.
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If you've been around at Harvest for any length of time, you know this, and that's not what he's saying.
11:47-12:03
But he's telling us that because of our citizenship, because of our heavenly citizenship, because we are God's children through Christ, we should be acting in a way that shows that Christ is of infinite worth.
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We should be conducting ourselves in a way that shows that Christ is our supreme treasure, that He is worthy, just like the songs we were just singing.
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Now, before we go into the specifics of how we as citizens of heaven are supposed to behave here or our club rules, Paul gives us just a small check on our motivation.
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So if you look at verse 27, he goes on to say, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are," and then he goes on to list the things that we're gonna be talking about.
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But really quickly, he's telling the people of Philippi, "Don't do what I'm about to tell you because I say so, or because just because I'm going to come and see you." Paul doesn't know what the future holds.
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His goal, his desire is to get back and see them, but he might not.
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This is kind of like when there's a substitute teacher classroom, the expectation is that everybody's going to behave the same way, even though there's a sub.
13:09-13:20
Or if you're in an office environment, when the boss isn't there, the boss's expectation is that everybody's going to show up on time, leave on time, and do all of their same tasks.
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Or if the parents aren't home, and it's a babysitter, or maybe it's a sibling, the expectation is bedtime is at the same time.
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Same type of snacks, same type of TV shows, right?
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It doesn't matter if the person in charge is there or not, but sometimes we need to be reminded of this, right?
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And that's what Paul is doing.
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We need to be reminded that we're expected to hold the standard even when the person in authority isn't there.
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So these markers that we're going to talk about for living a life that is worthy of the gospel, they are to be present, here's the point of this, they are to be present in our lives at all times.
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regardless of where we are or who we're with.
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Why?
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Because Christ is our King and God is our Father and He is worthy.
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All right, how do we do this?
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That was the intro.
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How do we show that Christ is supreme and live consistent with our heavenly citizenship?
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Read 27 again.
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Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
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Like Jeff often says, that could be an entire sermon right there, or even a mini series, realistically.
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but that's not what we're gonna do today.
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Paul tells us that we are to stand firm in unity.
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That's the first blank in your outline.
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Stand firm in unity.
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Paul is telling us that we are to stand our ground, to not back down, to stand with our fellow believers with the same goal and with the same focus.
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To put it very simply, what is the goal, right?
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And I would write these down.
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To put it very simply, we're all supposed to be glorifying God by obeying his commands, loving him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving our neighbors, and making disciples.
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That's our goal.
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And Paul is telling us that we are to do this as believers of one mind, one spirit, striving together.
15:53-16:02
Not small factions or cliques or groups all striving for different things, it's somewhat similar if you've ever been on a sports team, right?
16:03-16:15
You've got lots of different people, varying skills, different backgrounds, different strengths, different weaknesses, personalities, but everyone on the team, they have the same goal, right?
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They wanna do whatever they can within the bounds of the rules of the game to win.
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Well, it's the same way here.
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Just because the players have their unique ways of training and their own preparation routines, that doesn't take away from their steadfast determination to achieve their common goal.
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So Paul is charging us in a similar way as believers to be united in that way.
16:42-16:50
And so you might be saying now to yourself, okay, that's great, but that isn't exactly what our global church looks like right now, is it?
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So many churches, denominations, factions, There's so many things that we can disagree over, even in a small church, a smaller church like ours.
17:01-17:04
And to a degree, you would be right to point that out.
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But Paul is not telling us here that we all, as believers, have to agree on everything.
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But he is reminding us that Christ is our Lord, and if we call Christ our Lord, we're all on the same team, and we should have the same goals.
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We have a bonding of the Spirit because of Christ.
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We are all heavenly citizens.
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And the best way, and here's the point of this, the best way, the only way, in fact, to stay united, and I would write these down, is to follow Scripture and to remain humble.
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How do we stay united?
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We follow Scripture and we remain united.
17:52-17:58
Paul tells us in chapter two of Philippians, verses three and four, and I think this will be on the screen, there it is.
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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
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Church, if we follow this command to elevate others, rather than looking to what we want.
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And if we stay grounded in God's word, we will remain united.
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I want to encourage you, Harvest, to say that I see this in many ways here.
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I see this church unified behind your support for missions in Thailand, for missions in general, but missions in Thailand with Barnabas and his wife, Martha, and their ministry.
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Your support for Choices Pregnancy Center, right?
18:58-19:01
With our prayer services, recently we had one that we invited other churches to.
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We prayed for those churches.
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That is unity.
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And we're serving regularly now at Urban Impact, a very diverse group of believers.
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And we are united at this church through expository preaching and intentional discipleship.
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So keep it up, Harvest.
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Keep doing what you're doing.
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Let's keep striving side by side to God's glory.
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But before we move on from this point, I want to encourage you, ask you, plead with you, in fact, to pray for the continued unity of our church.
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I can say without any doubt that we will be tested in this.
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You know, as the church grows, as we continue on with this building campaign, as Satan sees hearts and lives and minds changed, we had a baptism this morning, As he sees that, our unity is going to be tested.
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You will be tempted to put your own desires, your own preferences above this command.
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You will be tempted to put your own wants, your own feelings, your own emotions above someone else's in this church.
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You will be tempted to allow your pride to cloud your judgment and to allow your pride to be your guide when considering those around you. But church, pray and resist the devil in this. We have to remove our self-focus and look to Christ as the perfect example of humility.
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Where he emptied himself, set aside many of his divine privileges to live amongst us, to live amongst his people and to be murdered by them in submission, in perfect submission and obedience to his Father.
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So with him, with this as our example, if we keep our focus on the goals God has given us and we stay grounded in His Word, and if we stay humble, we will stay united.
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Paul goes on to give us our second piece of instruction for this morning.
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So verse 28 tells us that we are to strive side by side and not be frightened in anything from your opponents.
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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
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So the second point on your outline is to have no fear.
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Have no fear.
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How do we live a life that's worthy of the gospel?
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We stand firm in unity and we have no fear.
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Well, who were the opponents that Paul is referring to here of the Philippians?
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Who were they dealing with?
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Was it people saying mean things about them on social media?
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Was it people putting the wrong cream cheese on their toasted bagel from Pantera bread like they did to Jeff or whatever that was.
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No, no, no, no, no, no.
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It was much worse.
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Could it be any worse, right?
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It was much worse.
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They were living in and surrounded by a pagan society filled with debauchery and false teachers.
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They were living under Roman occupation and extreme oppression.
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And they were of course, dealing with extreme spiritual warfare.
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This is when the gospel is exploding after Christ's death and resurrection.
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And so the spiritual warfare was real.
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Translation, this is serious for them, just as it is serious for us today.
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But yet Paul is telling them this.
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He is telling them, even in the midst of these serious opponents, do not be afraid.
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And we have the same call on our lives today as citizens of the same heavenly nation.
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And you know, when I was preparing this sermon and thinking about this idea of living out our faith and striving for the gospel without fear, there's a family that I've known for years that came to mind, a missionary family that my wife and our family and I have supported for years now.
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And anytime that they correspond with us, they always ask if you ever talk about them not to use their real name.
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So we'll just call them John and Sarah.
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And at the time of this story that I'm gonna tell you, they were missionaries in a remote part of Pakistan.
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And their mission field was to Muslim shepherds, basically.
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And they were doing a lot of Bible translation and a lot of direct ministry to them.
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And they were dealing with some very extreme people, as you can imagine.
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It was inherently dangerous for them because they were white, they were American, and they were Christian, and they were living in a hostile place.
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So John and Sarah came home on furlough one time, and we were sitting on my in-laws' back porch and talking with them and hearing their missionary stories and what God was doing in their lives and in the lives of the shepherds over there.
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And they told us one particularly, in my opinion, frightening story from their missionary lives where, see, where they were living was outside of a city called Abbottabad.
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And some of you may remember the name of that city because that is where on May 2nd, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by US special operators.
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And here are some Americans, some Christians, living just outside of that city.
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And what they told us is that after that time, things got very tense for them.
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Much more tense than they even had been before that.
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The intensity was just dialed up in a serious way.
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And to make matters worse, at least in my mind, as I was hearing the story, they were living there with their young children.
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So after John was done telling us this story, you know, I asked him, I said, "Weren't you afraid?
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"Weren't you fearful of what was going to happen to you and your children in this hostile place?" And his answer to me, it was incredible.
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It still stuck with me to this day.
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But he said they did have fears, and there were many times where they were very stressed and nervous.
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But ultimately, they knew.
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They knew that God was with them.
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They knew that they were in His will, and so their fears didn't keep them from remaining faithful to God's call on their family.
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And he went on to tell me actually, that he feared more for my children being raised in this culture than he did for his children being raised over there.
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I'll never forget that.
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But what an incredible contrast, right?
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John and his family living without fear, continuing on in the Lord's purposes.
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What a comparison to the world around them and the world around us.
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They were living in obedience, and yes, they were nervous and stressed, and they even experienced the emotion of fear, but they stayed true to God's calling on their lives.
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Are you living in fear of anything this morning?
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Maybe you're sitting there and you're thinking, Actually, yeah, there's a lot that I am afraid of, that I am fearful of.
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Maybe you were afraid of COVID in a way that you realize now was not correct.
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Maybe you're afraid that if a particular political party stays in power, it's gonna ruin your life.
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Or maybe you're afraid that if a particular political party gets in power, that will ruin your life.
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Maybe you're afraid of running out of money.
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Maybe you're afraid of being rejected for your faith, or being alone, or being disliked.
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Maybe you're afraid that the world will influence your children instead of faith in God.
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Maybe you're afraid of what will happen to you at the office or at the school if you step out and share your faith.
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I could give so many more examples, but church, the world is afraid.
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And frankly, we've seen over the past few weeks from these sermons from Jeff and Taylor looking at what is to come from the book of Matthew, they have a lot to be afraid of.
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But we, as citizens of heaven, we are to be a shining light of hope and courage in the face of trouble.
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Not because we're strong on our own, church, but because Christ is in us and our God is sovereign and our fate is secure.
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Do you believe that?
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Is that a truth that you hold in your core?
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If it is, but like me, you still find yourself fearful at times, we can be encouraged still.
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We can be encouraged by verses like Isaiah 41.10, up on the screen for you, where God says, "Fear not, for I am with you.
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Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
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I will strengthen you.
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Yes, I will help you.
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I will uphold you with my righteous hand." Don't forget who is telling us this.
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The almighty creator of the universe who put all of this into existence with his words.
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It is by his hands that we are being helped and we are being upheld and we are being strengthened.
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He will strengthen and help you.
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verse that I have gone to countless, countless times in my life. Again, in the book of Philippians. Philippians is an amazing book, isn't it? If you haven't read it lately, go back, read it. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7.
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"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." And what? "The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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Just like John and Sarah, we will experience the emotion of fear, and we will get stressed, and we will get anxious, but this does not define us.
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It should not define us.
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We are citizens of heaven, and we know that our hope and our peace are outside of ourselves.
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They are outside of our circumstances.
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Our hope and our peace are in Christ.
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And finally, we come to our third instruction, our third club rule, if you will, right?
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So how do we live a life worthy of the gospel?
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Verse 29 says, "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.
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So how do we live a life worthy of the gospel?
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We stand firm in unity.
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We have no fear.
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And the third point in your outline is we receive the gift of suffering.
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Receive the gift of suffering.
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Okay, nobody left?
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All right, good.
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Okay, this is a tough one.
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So that tells me you're getting it, 'cause we are all going to stand in unity without fear as we move forward in accepting our gift of suffering, right?
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If you're wondering if the text really did just say that we are not only granted our faith, a gift that we all willingly, excitedly receive when we put our faith in Christ, not only are we granted that gift, but in the same sentence, in the same thought, It says that we are granted the opportunity to suffer.
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So this is a gift.
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And frankly, as citizens of heaven, to live a life worthy of the gospel, to show that Christ is supreme in our lives, our suffering for his sake has to be seen this way.
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It has to be seen as a gift.
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And in the same way that we freely accepted that gift of faith, we must also accept this gift.
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Church, this is a total, complete, perspective shift, isn't it?
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It is for me.
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What does our society tell us about suffering?
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It says that we are to avoid it, all suffering, at all costs.
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We're supposed to cut out toxic people and things from our lives.
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If it doesn't make us happy, we're supposed to shed it immediately.
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If it's not bringing us comfort and peace, then we're suffering.
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So we're supposed to dump it or dump that person or whatever it is and put all of our efforts into finding our peace. And unfortunately, this idea has taken some very strong footholds in many prosperity churches in America, too. They would contend that if you're not living your best life now, that you are, if you're suffering at all, that this is not God's will for your life. But we see a very different picture in the scripture. So as a quick example of this, let's remember back to the disciples. Acts chapter 5. You don't have to turn there necessarily, but here in this part of Acts, we have the very beginnings of the early church.
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Just after Christ's ascension and Pentecost, the apostles are performing miracles, they're preaching, and large numbers of people are coming to faith in in Christ, an incredibly exciting time for the early church, for the spreading of the gospel.
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But this gets some people very upset, right?
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The high priests, the Sadducees, they didn't like this.
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So what do they do?
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They threw the apostles into prison.
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They told them, "No more preaching.
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Into prison you go." And if you remember the story, an angel of the Lord comes and sets them free, gets them out of prison, opens the prison doors, and they're brought out.
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And what do they do?
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They keep preaching, of course, right?
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And that didn't go over very well either.
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And so the religious leaders, the teachers, the Sadducees got together, and I think scripture would tell us, I could be wrong, I think it was all but one wanted to murder them.
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But that was not God's plan for their life.
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So instead of that, they were flogged.
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I've never been flogged, thank God.
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But I don't think it's very pleasant.
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And if their original plan was to kill them, and now the backup plan is to flog them, you can imagine that it was quite a flogging.
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They were left very bruised and battered and in pain.
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In Acts chapter five, we see how they responded.
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In verse 41, it tells us that the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing.
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They were just in prison.
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They were just flogged and they left rejoicing.
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Why were they rejoicing?
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Was it because they hadn't been killed?
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Was it because they got to live another day, see their friends and their families?
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Was it because God let them out of prison?
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Was it because their suffering was over?
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All valid things to rejoice over, don't get me wrong, but no, what does it say?
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They left rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.
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Let me say that again.
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They left rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.
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They considered this suffering a privilege.
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They considered their suffering a gift, not a burden.
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So, if we're honest, when was the last time you rejoiced in any of your suffering?
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When was the last time you rejoiced because you were counted worthy to suffer for Christ?
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Well, if you're like me, you didn't rejoice.
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You complained to your spouse or to a close friend.
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You vented.
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You asked God, "Why is this happening?" And you asked him to fix the suffering, to take the pain away.
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But here we have Paul and the apostles telling us that that suffering is a gift.
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Church, if this was our perspective, please catch this.
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If this was our perspective, that suffering for Christ was a gift, that we should rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer, wouldn't that make us more bold?
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Wouldn't that make us less fearful?
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Wouldn't that make us more unified?
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So if these are our commands in order to live a worthy life, this is what we have to do if we start here.
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We start with shifting our perspective and putting our perspective within God's bounds of what suffering really is and how we are supposed to view it.
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That will make us unified as believers and it will wipe your fears away.
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By God's grace, our suffering in the US hasn't looked anything like the early church up to this point.
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But I say honestly, I'm not sure that we're that far off in the near future.
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I think that it will look more like this.
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I mean, in Canada, not that long ago, pastors thrown in prison for doing what?
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Preaching the word and keeping their churches open during mandated lockdowns.
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Have you seen in the news, the Christians and the Catholics alike being thrown into prison with prison sentences?
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For doing what? For supposedly blocking access to abortion clinics when really all they were doing was praying for those babies, praying that they would not be murdered in their mother's wombs. I don't think we're that far off. And do we have the perspective, the right perspective, to respond in the way that the Apostles did when we suffer. And if we're going to proclaim Christ is our Lord and live lives worthy of the gospel, we should expect this. We should expect the suffering, and then we have to accept our gift and rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer for His name's sake. And I would contend, if you're sitting here and you're having trouble relating to this, if you're thinking, "You know, things are actually really not that bad. I've got little stresses here and there, but I'm having a little trouble coming up with an example of the last time that I suffered for the sake of Christ." If you're sitting here and you're thinking that, I would challenge you to take a really hard, long, serious look at and whether or not you're actually living your life for Christ, if you are making Him your supreme treasure.
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Because as believers, we should expect and accept our gift of suffering for His sake.
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So, how are you doing with our club rules?
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How are you doing with living a life worthy of the gospel?
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Really, how are you doing?
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We have unity. Are you standing firm and striving for faith in unity and pushing on towards our goals of glorifying God by obeying his word, loving him, loving your neighbor, and making disciples?
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Or, Is there a brother or sister in Christ that you need to reconcile with?
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Is there some selfishness, some pride, some lack of humility that you need to repent of and eradicate from your life?
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Fear.
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Are you laying your fears and your worries at the foot of the cross?
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and are you finding comfort and confidence in God's grace and provision?
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Or are you living a life of paralyzing fear that you know, that you know is keeping you from accomplishing all that you could for God's kingdom through his power?
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suffering. Have you accepted this free gift? Have you rejoiced in it? Have you rejoiced in being counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake? Or are you rejecting this gift and replacing the rejoicing with anger and frustration and desperation? So, as we close, I'd like to take just a moment to give you an opportunity to reflect on what God's word has said to us today.
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If you have a relationship with Christ and you call him Lord, and you're struggling with any of these things, like I am, let me encourage you that you are not alone.
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The bar is set very high, but fortunately we're not called to do this on our own.
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Look around, we are not alone.
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But also, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you.
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And He has been given as a gift to help you, to strengthen you, and to encourage you.
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So how are you doing personally in these three areas?
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Which of these three areas do you need to allow the Holy Spirit to refine you today.
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So, before we pray, I'd like you to take just a moment after we bow our heads, take a moment of silent reflection.
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Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, and if you already know, pray to your heavenly Father that he would help you.
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So let's bow our heads, take just a moment, and then I'll close this in prayer.
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(sighs)
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Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for who you are.
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And we are so grateful, God, that you make it so clear to us how we can live in a way that is worthy of your gospel.
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And God, we acknowledge that this bar is set high.
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But we also rejoice in the fact that we are not left to do this on our own.
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We are so grateful, Father, that your Spirit is here.
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Your Spirit is our helper and our guide, and yet your word is so clear.
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Father, and I pray for each person hearing this message today or at any point, God, that whatever Your Spirit spoke to them today, that they would be obedient to do what You have called them to do.
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God, I pray for our church, that our church would remain united, that we would resist the temptation to put ourselves above others, but that we would stay united in our goal to glorify You.
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God, I pray that the fears that were thought of in this room today, God, that they would be wiped away and replaced with boldness, and they would be replaced with trust in You.
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God, and I pray for whoever is suffering today, that your Spirit would do a miracle and shift their perspective.
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That they would count that suffering as something to be joyful about because they have been encountered worthy to suffer for your name. God, we love you. We praise you. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Phil 1:27-29
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
We’re called to strive in unity with fellow believers. Read Philippians 2:3-4. In light of this verse, what specifically is keeping you from striving in unity with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? What can you do, or what do you need to change over the next month to improve in this area? Be specific.
We’ve all experienced fear, but let’s encourage one another on this one. Share a time in your life when you experienced the emotion of fear, but you trusted God and saw Him deliver you from your fears. How did you do this, and what was the result?
Read Acts 5:41. Have you accepted your free gift of suffering and rejoiced that you have been counted worthy to suffer for his name? Or are you rejecting the gift and replacing the rejoicing with anger, frustration, and desperation. Be honest. Be specific.
Breakout
Take time to lift each member of your group up in prayer specifically about what they’ve shared this evening.