Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You.
[00:00:01] Well, good morning, church.
[00:00:04] Obviously. I'm Adam, pastor of community. Also want to welcome those that are online that can join us. Going to start with a story from the book of the Martyrs.
[00:00:15] Cambodia in 1970.
[00:00:18] All during the night, the members of Haim's family comforted one another. They knew they only had a few more ours to live on this earth. The cambodian communists soldiers had tied them all together and forced them to lie down on the grass.
[00:00:35] Earlier that day, Haim's whole family had been rounded up for execution.
[00:00:41] Because they were all christians, the communists considered them bad blood and enemies of the glorious revolution.
[00:00:49] So in the morning, they were made to dig their own graves and the killers were generous. They allowed their victims a moment of prayer to prepare themselves for death. Parents and children's children held hands and knelt together near the open grave.
[00:01:08] After the family finished their prayers, Haim exhorted the communists and all those looking on to repent and received Jesus as savior.
[00:01:18] And suddenly, one of Haim's youngest sons leapt to his feet and bolted into the jungle, disappearing.
[00:01:25] Haim was amazingly cool as he persuaded the soldiers not to chase the boy, but to allow him to call the boy back.
[00:01:37] So while the family knelt, the father pleaded with his son to return and die with them.
[00:01:48] Think, my son. He shouted. Can stealing a few more days of life as a fugitive in that forest compare to joining your family here on the grave, but soon free forever in paradise?
[00:02:03] Let's pray.
[00:02:06] Father, we thank you for who you are and that you save us.
[00:02:13] As broken as we are that you send your son. We're about to celebrate the most miraculous thing when Jesus came as a baby to drag us out of the things we can't save ourselves from.
[00:02:29] Father, may we be found worthy of the gospel.
[00:02:33] May we be found like Haim and his family.
[00:02:37] Heaven, perspective on this earth until we leave it.
[00:02:43] Father, I ask that my words would be forgotten here, Lord. But, Holy Spirit, you would move in your people and may your will be done here as it is in heaven.
[00:02:55] Amen.
[00:02:58] If you want to open your bible, you can turn to Philippians, chapter one.
[00:03:04] I'm going to be mostly based there. I'm going to bounce around a little bit, but I first want to talk a little bit about the writer of Philippians, the apostle Paul, as we know him. But previous to him being the apostle Paul, he was called Saul, and his job was to hunt an arrest and ultimately kill any followers of Jesus he could find. In acts seven, Stephen became, was stoned to death and became one of the first christian martyrs and Paul was there, approving of that execution.
[00:03:40] Then in acts chapter eight three, a great persecution of believers began. But Paul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
[00:03:53] Then he had a powerful encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his life changed in a blink of an eye. And he played a major role in the birth and growth and spread of the early church.
[00:04:09] So in case any of you are sitting here right now with that lie in your heart, saying that you have no place here, that you don't belong, that you're not worthy of his love or the love of those around you, I would have a hunch that you're not hunting and murdering christians right now. And it's to put that perspective that we serve a God who is able to change the darkest of hearts and cover the most disgusting of sins and wash us as pure and white as snow. You have a place here amongst us.
[00:04:44] So Paul then traveled and planted churches all over the place. During his ministry, he faced beatings and shipwrecks, stonings, jail time, angry mobs, and more because of his faith in ministry. But he knew who he was, and he willingly accepted the price of following his savior, just as Haim and his cambodian family did.
[00:05:08] He ends up in prison in Rome near the end of his life, and he takes some time to write to a beloved group of believers. They were a little town in what at that time was a macedonian province. But if you know european geography a little bit, it would have been northeastern Greece.
[00:05:28] And Paul wrote this letter and other numerous letters from that prison because just as you and I, they had problems and they needed instruction and encouragement and correction. And if we're honest, that whole encouragement part, we kind of like that. We like doling that out. We like receiving that. That's easy. We're okay with instruction. We really don't want correction often it's the thing we need the most.
[00:06:01] So I want to read some of his final words going to Philippians, chapter one, and read verses 27 and 28 only. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm 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, living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. What does that really mean to us?
[00:06:38] And how do we do know? Looking at this chapter, a little bit of Paul's life and how he instructs these Philippians. I think it begins with identity, and it's worked out by our daily decisions to follow him. And then it's demonstrated by how we embrace the suffering that will come with those decisions.
[00:07:01] So I have a question. How do you identify, I can imagine how some of you feel hearing those words.
[00:07:13] It's a very prevalent part of our society right now.
[00:07:17] But I want to read Paul's instructions to the Philippians, his introduction at the beginning of this book, similar to how he addresses many of the churches in his letters.
[00:07:29] Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our father, and the.
[00:07:45] You know, these introductions are so easy to skim over as we're doing our own reading, and we just want to get to that meat of Paul's teaching, thinking. There's nothing too important or strategic about that introduction. But it's so important because it sets the stage and preps the people's hearts. It's reminding them who they are before some of those harder correcting words that can come later that Paul tends to bring. You know, in today's language, we're called Christians. And as with many words after time, that meaning can change or be corrupted as people's experience and cultural context. Reinterpret the title. So people's experiences with christians have changed their understanding of the world of the word, even if our definition has not.
[00:08:33] So while you may say a Christian is one who is a sinner, who has then repented and received the grace and been washed by his blood and been redeemed and born again.
[00:08:47] This culture, one of the definitions right now is that we're weird people who believe outdated things and that are now dangerous to the world.
[00:09:00] Back in Paul's day, they weren't called christians. They were called saints. As this introduction said, the word saint is used over 60 times in the New Testament and was customary word as to be called a Christian. And John Stott expresses a little bit about this term saint.
[00:09:19] Saint points in one direction to what Christ has done for us and in the other direction to the obligation which now falls upon us to live out that new position God has given us.
[00:09:31] And he also looks at the Greek a little bit. And behind that greek word haggios, it does double duty. As a noun, it means saint, or translated as saint as an adjective, it's translated as holy.
[00:09:44] You know, in the Catholic Church, they talk more about saints, maybe but we're familiar with the word holy simply defined. It's that idea of being separate and being apart. But it's not just being apart from the world or apart from something, but also belonging to a different order of things, living in a different sphere. Once you were dead, now you live. Once you were lived in this world, now you live in Christ.
[00:10:14] Holy is a word we ascribe to God and possibly the most intimate word to describe his divine nature and as a body of people, as his church. We are also called to be holy, as it's said so well in one Peter, two, nine, and ten.
[00:10:30] But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
[00:10:47] Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you've received mercy.
[00:10:57] Stott comments on being called a saint it would have been easy for Paul to address his letter to the Philippians to the people and not use the word saint. But this would not suit his purpose. He is not here concerned with what we are by nature in this world, but with what we are by grace in the sight of God.
[00:11:18] What he's saying is that our identity is no longer with this world and what it says we are.
[00:11:24] But in today's world, we have an identity problem.
[00:11:28] And beyond the church, it's a big issue. It's an issue in the church as well, because we are not clear and grounded in who we are. Confusion increases within our lives and our society. And, you know, once upon a time, parents were allowed and expected to shape kids identities. I think it's kind of in the job description. But, you know, society has swung to a point where we don't even dare to suggest the identity to a child, but rather they're supposed to discover it somehow on their own.
[00:12:02] We generally agree that kids shouldn't drive or drink or vote or hold a full time job, but the world accepts that we should let them decide who they are, that we want to control actions, but not the identity that will drive those actions.
[00:12:22] And proverbs teaches us that we are to train up a child in the way he should go even when he is old. He will not depart from it. We're to teach our children to be the primary guides of guides in life, and believers can run the risk of taking these types of verses and believing that it's all about our external actions and expressions. The child must be controlled and disciplined and obedient and respectful, and if I can get them to do that, I'm successful as a parent. Right?
[00:12:54] But how many of us have done all the right things? When we were younger and we were on the other way, we didn't have a clue of who we were or who God was.
[00:13:04] We did all the right things and had been miles away from knowing God and understanding what he made us to be.
[00:13:11] We can succeed at making children, or adults for that matter, to obey and act in a certain way and fail in the task that God has given us, to show people who they are, teaching them about their true identity. My own journey follows that path. I was raised in a christian home, and it was strict and disciplined, and I was taught what to do. But I missed understanding the why behind it.
[00:13:38] The way I should walk should stem from who I am or who I'm becoming.
[00:13:43] But I didn't know who I was. And after high school, I was adrift and not sure who I was. I also didn't really like whatever it was I was.
[00:13:54] But all that changed in a different story when I ended up at a Bible college in England. And in the first sermon I heard about Christ living in you, coming out of Galatians 220, I am crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
[00:14:24] Everything changed in that moment. And when I began to truly grasp my identity, who God created to me, who God created me to be, the why I should walk a certain way began to make sense and was important and had value.
[00:14:41] And don't hear me wrong about my parents. I love them, and I think they did a great job.
[00:14:47] And I don't blame them for the path that I was on.
[00:14:50] Rather, I'm just sharing with you, as many parents and teachers and leaders, what we have to tackle in our families, but also in the church. How can we, yes, teach our children that path and adults the way they should go, but from that proper place of who we are. And I would argue I can teach obedience a lot easier than I can teach identity and who we are and who we are in him matters most, and our actions are important, but they flow from who we are. Look at Jesus's warning he gives us in Matthew 721 to 23.
[00:15:33] Not everyone who says to me, lord, lord, will enter that kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, lord, lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?
[00:15:55] And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
[00:16:02] Our identity is everything, and I can't make light of this.
[00:16:06] Some did the right things, and they still didn't know him.
[00:16:11] So those of us that are trying to perform, constantly, trying to arrive at this arbitrary checkpoint for how we're acting and what we're doing, don't miss your identity in the relationship he's calling you to.
[00:16:28] As humans, we're quick to look and wanting to judge those external behaviors. But remember that sanctification being made holy as saints, it's a process. And just as those that look good and do all the right things can be so far from God, the opposite is true as well.
[00:16:49] Some people might not fit your box of what a proper, loving, good christian is, and yet they can still have an intimate relationship with him.
[00:17:00] We don't know where people are on in that journey with him, and gender and sexuality and identity is on the chopping block. People are not only being fed a lie about their identity, they want to live without identity.
[00:17:15] While I was sitting at a shop about two weeks ago with my wife, we overheard a conversation of a bunch of young ladies speaking about their romantic interests. And they were sharing, and one was sharing, well, whether they liked girls or boys or both or other.
[00:17:36] But what struck me at the end was one of them. She had picked a label for herself. And it doesn't matter what the label was, but she picked it, and she said it because the label didn't have a hard definition and that it allowed her to decide what it meant whenever she felt like it.
[00:17:55] She didn't want to be identified.
[00:17:59] And this young lady's words capture that pluralistic world we live in now.
[00:18:07] And so that basic idea of pluralism, that we have diversity here in this world, but we have no access to ultimate unity, no way to bring the diverse things of our experience into a coherent whole. We have particulars, but no universals, relatives but no absolutes. Isn't this how society looks right now? And it's just plain wrong?
[00:18:32] And when this happens, the world begins to spin out of orbit, so to speak. And, you know, what do we end up doing? We want to blame somebody, so we tend to blame those that lead us, tend to blame the government.
[00:18:46] We're blaming these people who actually aren't generally believers, that have no solid truth to stand on. And yet we expect them to make not just good decisions, but godly decisions. And how can we have that expectation? Can we expect broken, lost people without a compass to make the right decisions?
[00:19:09] Even if or when we have morally upright systems in place? Believers run a different risk of getting complacent, of getting comfortable and happily observing our society that looks and acts as we seem to think it should, but can still be completely lost without Jesus.
[00:19:28] Christians maintain, or can begin to believe that lie, that to be a Christian is to go to church instead of becoming the church.
[00:19:39] So to living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ begins by being transformed by who we are. You are saints, a holy nation, God's special possession to toss aside what lies and burdens the world is barraging you with and to live that worthy life for him. And don't think your identity is just totally resolved when you come to Jesus and no risk there. The devil might not be able to take our salvation, but he can still render us useless and cloud us into confusion and feed us.
[00:20:16] Know, it's kind of like that strangler fig, a plant that exists in Cambodia. I don't know if any of you have been there or seen pictures, but especially in the temple areas that are all collapsing. There's these beautiful trees, but how they grow is quite terrifying. They find a host tree and it's more like a vine and starts weaving around it and sending out more tendrils. And it's very subtle and actually to us it looks great, but it strangles the host tree and kills it. And all that is left is this vine tree with a hollow interior.
[00:20:51] And that's a little bit how Satan works. Some of his tendrils look good and look okay at one point, and they start weaving around us and our identities we need constant bringing back to who we are.
[00:21:07] So whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Conduct ourselves. Our actions start with how we make our decisions, and so we need to make the right decisions. And Paul has a prayer for the Philippians in verses nine and to eleven. Just after he's exhorting them for how they've been participating in the gospel and giving thanks for who they are. He ends with this prayer, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
[00:21:56] I want to give you a little bit of history on the town of Philippi at this moment. You know, Paul could have gone to Neapolis. Neapolis was the coastal city on the Adriatic.
[00:22:08] And it was way bigger than Philippi. And it's where all the commerce is going through. You tend to want to be on the water back in those ancient days to get all that growth and resources. But Philippi was 13 km inland. And it was small, seemingly insignificant. But it was important because it was on the route called the Viagnathia, the main overland route connecting Rome with the east, stretching from the adriatic coast to Byzantium, which we know in today's day as Istanbul. And Istanbul stands at the crossroads to two continents, Europe and Asia, but also links to Africa.
[00:22:47] And Philippi also grew in significance because of something that happened about 40 years before Jesus was even born.
[00:22:57] You know, it was in the time of a battle. And the consequential events that followed Julius Caesar. Some of you may know that famous roman general, who ended up claiming dictatorship over the empire, ruled for less than a year and was assassinated by Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius. And why that was important was because after they killed him, civil war broke out.
[00:23:24] And the biggest battle in roman history, and Romans are known for their army, happened at Philippi. Caesar's son, Octavian, had 110,000 men.
[00:23:36] And he fought against these assassin rebels with their 90,000 men at the place of Philippi. But the rebels lost, and Octavian set up the future of Philippi. With a military outpost there. But he also granted the city certain rights that allowed the citizens to own and transfer property, rights to lawsuits, and were exempt from various taxes. Not every roman city had those kind of rights. So Philippi was a proud, small city in Macedonia, but with strong ties to the roman empire. And because the starting and became the starting point for the gospel's move and expansion into Europe. But how did Paul end up in this strategic location?
[00:24:19] Paul had been working at this point, literally, to bring the gospel to Asia the opposite direction.
[00:24:26] And yet the Holy Spirit stopped him in his tracks. And then he had a vision. Looking at acts 16, six to ten, Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galithia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Messiah, they tried to enter Bithynia. But the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
[00:24:55] So they passed by Messiah and went down to troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.
[00:25:07] After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them.
[00:25:20] That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
[00:25:31] You know, Maxie Dunham points out regarding this verse, that you may approve the things that are excellent, to be able to differentiate not only between good and evil, which is important, but between the good and the better. Better and the best. Excellence is the quality we must seek.
[00:25:48] Paul's trip to Philippi only happened through the direction of the Holy Spirit. In him, listening and being willing to obey, he discerned what is best, but not on his own. The verse isn't specifically addressing our physical directions in life, but points to the spiritual compass we all need in each and every situation in all aspects of our lives.
[00:26:11] Dunham mentions about this verse that there's an opportunity of the Christian to impact with transforming power. The environment in which he lives comes, at this very point being confronted with a choice between the decent and the excellent, the good and the best.
[00:26:29] What we read, what entertainment we seek, how we relate the content of our conversation, the degree to which we discipline ourselves, how we respond to and participate in our sense filled culture.
[00:26:45] This tells the tales of our lives.
[00:26:48] Each decision we make through our days gives opportunity to change the environment around us.
[00:26:55] And while the impact is not up to us, we're not responsible for the results. Listening and responding is while our love should constantly be expanding and growing, it is regulated by knowledge and discernment to help us with moral decisions in the vast array of differing and difficult choices that are constantly presenting themselves to know. Paul was directed to go to Philippi. He had plans, not even bad plans, but he was listening to what the spirit told him. And God wanted Paul to plant a church on that busy trading route into Europe, which would become a catalyst for the birth and spread of the gospel across the continent.
[00:27:41] So we approve those things that are superior not in our own level of intelligence and wisdom that comes from man, but it originates in our love for God, as that grows and guides us not only in how to love well, but to discern the ways in which we should go.
[00:27:58] And Paul's example is quite dramatic. But whether it is to knowing you should be watching a movie or how to love a really tough person, or whether you should be dropping a habit you're clinging to or in Paul's situation, switching the literal direction of your life. In your work. The spirit of God is there to guide, and he speaks to us directly and through his word and through his church. And we don't always need a dream to know how to act. We don't always need a feeling to do what is right because we are blessed with his word.
[00:28:35] And on that note, our decisions should be guided by his word. And so I know this is a novel idea. The only way to know that and know that path is to read the word.
[00:28:45] And so actually, Paul mentioned last Sunday only at the first service, an idea to congregationally read through the Bible in a year. Some of you might already do that in your own devotions. You might do that with some friends or spouses, but we thought maybe we could encourage you as a congregation. So we've set up a web page that you can go to on our website that explains this. But we're going to group you into groups of about ten if you want to join in on this. And we're all going to read through the same plan together.
[00:29:20] And you can interact with those that are in your group, and you can comment and say what you've been learning through the word. And it kind of also acts as accountability, because sometimes we all just need a little bit of a push to keep us on task, to keep us in the word. We can catch up, can fall behind, but it just helps push us forward to get to know his word. So we thought this might be a fun thing to do, a way that could benefit us. So for some of you that want and are tech savvy, you can use your phone, you want to read off of it. It walks you through it on our web page, and we'll be starting that in the new year in smaller groups.
[00:29:57] But getting back to it to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Paul continues to expand on what that looks like, looking at the end of the chapter to verse 29.
[00:30:08] 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.
[00:30:21] Paul also wrote two other letters to Timothy, and he shared some harsh words with Timothy in these letters that I want to read to you from two Timothy 310 to twelve.
[00:30:34] You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at iconium and elystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
[00:31:05] You know, that's the same Timothy that Paul had just recruited before he went and planted that church in Philippi. He brought him with him.
[00:31:14] And it's the same Timothy that's at the introduction of this letter, Paul and Timothy to the saints at Philippi. So Timothy had clearly walked a decent amount of Paul's journey with him, seen these sufferings that he endured. And yet Paul still feels the need to remind Timothy of all those sufferings and persecutions he faced. And he's reminding Timothy that those of us that truly want to live that godly life are going to be persecuted. And these are just a few verses on persecution and suffering, not to include all of Jesus's words on that matter. But it occurs to me that Paul needs to speak about it so much because our human nature does not naturally accept suffering. We do not do well embracing hardship. Actually, I think if we're all honest, we'd work quite hard to avoid it.
[00:32:06] This plays back to making the right decision in all things, because it means accepting the hardships that will come with some of those decisions.
[00:32:17] Paul spends almost half of this chapter in Philippians talking about his suffering, not in a woe is me type of attitude, but with a heavenly perspective that I think only comes through his relationship with God. He saw that his hardship had advanced the gospel's plan and God's plan.
[00:32:38] Paul did not let suffering or the risk of suffering deter him from serving God. He kept choosing what is best, and his love and focus on God does not diminish, regardless of his situation.
[00:32:51] Paul reminds the Philippians of some of that purpose and impact of suffering and how it can have an impact on the world beyond you. Beyond you, as we see in verse twelve. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. What has happened to him personally has been a benefit for the world.
[00:33:16] But it's not just there. It doesn't just stop there. The impact is also within the community, within the christian community, as we see in verse 14. And most of the brothers, having been confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
[00:33:37] Maxi Dunham reminds us that the fruit of proclaiming the gospel are not only in the winning of persons to Christ, but the encouragement we give to others to be bold in their christian living and witnessing.
[00:33:50] But that opposite can also be true. Our neglect of proclaiming the gospel, of testifying of what he's done will not only not help further the gospel. Thankfully, God is sovereign and he can work, and his will will be accomplished without us, even when we disobey. But it also won't help to encourage your brother and your sister to be bold in sharing or obeying what God's asking them. Instead, it's going to breed a culture of complacency and comfort and fear within the body of Christ.
[00:34:28] When we come to Christ, he makes us new. And as we learn to die to our human nature and learn to live in the new life Christ has for us, guided by his Holy Spirit, we'll not only know who we are, our identity, but we'll also know how to wade through the confusion and lies of this world and have the courage and spiritual perspective to endure and rejoice in those sufferings.
[00:34:58] But you know what? There's some of us here that I think probably focus a little bit too much on what they don't know.
[00:35:07] I don't understand all of the theology around being a believer. This point or that point, or I haven't read the whole Bible. I don't get this part. It seems really intense or confusing. And so when it comes to an opportunity to disciple a brother or another opportunity to maybe pray for somebody or to share a little bit of your faith, you get caught up in what you don't know.
[00:35:32] And I think we need to put a stop on that and remind ourselves of what we do know, that God came as man to earth to save us who couldn't save ourselves, to redeem us, to renew us and to cleanse us. And that's enough.
[00:35:51] Maybe we need to stop thinking about all those little details that we can't give answers to and let God fill in those gaps and just be faithful with what he wants you to do. Step by step.
[00:36:03] We can say, Adam, it's too simple. Well, we make it too complicated. A lot of the time we get it in the way of what he wants to do because of our own doubts and fears and concerns. But then there's other types of us here who are maybe a little bit too confident in what they think they know about God. You know, they've put in the time, they've put in the effort, they've read the word, and they've got their theology worked out, and by their perspective. So they come bearing that cross. Well, they encounter somebody in the world or the world itself, and instead of, well, they start swinging the cross and beating people over the head with it. And being like, this is the truth. You must listen. And I'm going to hit you with it instead. I think you need to plant that cross and you need to climb up on it and die, because that's what Christ demonstrated for us, right? So that the world has to confront this divine love from a death on the cross and we have to do the same thing. That's how we're going to reach this world. That's how they're going to have to confront what's happening in front of them. They won't have an excuse, but they have to at least face it, speaking figuratively there, in case I was missed.
[00:37:24] But it might cost your life, and we can't discount that either.
[00:37:32] As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.
[00:37:38] You know, remember that Cambodian's family story at the beginning. And they demonstrate Paul's words so perfectly in Philippians 121. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
[00:37:54] And that's easier said than done, but it's why we don't do it alone. If you take some time to read, read Philippians one or read the whole book, it's short, and you're going to hear about Paul's love and support. Even that passage talked about living the gospel worthy.
[00:38:14] They're doing it together. They're being united in spirit. They're holding one another up.
[00:38:22] We're not meant to live that worthy life alone.
[00:38:26] And that is why knowing his word and learning to hear his holy spirit and being part of a strong God honoring community is so important. And it takes all of us to get there. Your identity can be refined and strengthened by those around you. And making the right decision sometimes is going to require those around you to help and make it, help you make it, and then support you with whatever the results or suffering that may come with it.
[00:38:56] So as we dive into this Christmas season, take some time to reflect on how and if Jesus'life but also his death, is directing your life.
[00:39:13] Can you honestly say in your heart, as Paul did and as the cambodian family demonstrated for me, to live as Christ and to die as gain?
[00:39:27] Let me pray.
[00:39:32] O Father God, we need you so bad.
[00:39:35] Lord, we thank you that you have come and you have saved a wretch like me.
[00:39:43] And you empower these broken people when they surrender their rights, when they surrender their lives and the direction to you.
[00:39:53] You do not fail. You are so faithful.
[00:39:57] Thank you for this family, this Haynes family who went to death knowing the cost and willing to take it.
[00:40:07] Help me to be like that in whatever decision. Don't discount the small hardships that people face. And some we're going to face greater.
[00:40:19] But I ask that you would move in your people, and you would help them to commit like this family did, and that Paul does, to count all his loss for the sake of your name. And we need your holy spirit to do that. In my humanness, I will fail time and time and time again. But you promise to be there. You are here, and you're present. You're at work. So touch your people. You help us open our hearts to be renewed, to walk in those paths, no matter how hard they are, knowing that it's worthy.
[00:40:54] We trust you with our lives, with our steps. This day, I lift it all up in your name. Amen. Thank you.
