18. Philippians 3:17-4:1 Part 1

You're listening to the sermon podcast from Christ Community Church in Artmore, Oklahoma

Our mission is to equip people to be true to Christ be kind to all people and be the body of Christ to our community and beyond

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Now here's Pastor Artie with today's message

The year 2000 and I remember it was a year 2000 because I

Was sitting in the airport

While I was watching the country go crazy over chads that were not clumped correctly in Florida and they were messing up the election

And just I think began a series of elections that we would have to wait weeks or months to find out who actually won

And and so I was sitting there and I and I pulled open a book and

It was one of the first times that I really read about and considered the idea of discipleship in contemporary America

Particularly in evangelicalism and this book was pointing out and then of course after that there were many other books that were pointing out

the fact that we

We had reached a point where we weren't doing a great job with discipleship and one of the diagnoses is is that when we make discipleship

Primarily academic about primarily about information that we have then we are missing the heart of the people who are

Information that we have then we are missing the heart of the radical

Relationality that is the heart of our faith and what's such a blessing about being able to gather in a community that doesn't just

Target market one particular generation

But in fact tries to create space for intergenerational

Relationships is we create the opportunities for mentoring to be part of our spiritual formation

And I think that obviously you know

87.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot and so I am not saying that this is a

Scientific statement. This is just an anecdotal response to what I've seen

Healthy discipleship is about 10% information and 90% practice

I believe that if we would make practice our primary form of spiritual

Formation then we would find that there would be the encounters of the Holy Spirit would begin to make more sense because as we learn

To follow the spirit keep and step with the spirit as Paul says then we become more comfortable the more you take

Take the courage to listen to the teacher in your soul

The more that teacher is going to instruct you but you've got to step out and sometimes you have to have that

Modeled so that you can see how other people have learned to grow and keeping and step the spirit because some of those practices

Might be helpful for your own journey

But what we know for certain the problem is if your discipleship is primarily through books sermons and podcasts

Then you are being

Discipled into a theoretical spirituality and the theoretical or hypothetical

Hypothetical spirituality will never have the power to to to enable you to encounter the grace and mercy of God in life

transformative ways

So I think that we need to all consider as we look at the scripture and we look at the model of Jesus and

Even we look at the model of what we call Christian education in our churches and start considering

Is it heavy on just the transference of information or are we actually?

creating relationships

Where people can be

Mentored into the spiritual life by by doing life with someone else who's a little bit further down the road than them

Salvation is the fruit of a way of life and is therefore best understood

Through imitation rather than mere information

Therefore seek a guide and learn to be a guide

Seek a guide and learn to be a guide. You remember just a few weeks ago

We were referencing that story that we're all familiar with that Jesus told that there was a wise man

That built his house on a rock and the storms came

And but the house stood and there was an affoolish man who built his house on the sand and the storms came in his house

Collapsed there was disaster and Jesus sums that up saying the difference between the wise and the foolish is this

The wise man heard the words of Jesus and acted upon them and the foolish man

Heard the words of Jesus and did not act upon them

Salvation is the fruit of a way of life and is therefore best understood through imitation

rather than mere information

information

Because what God has created us for is to experience what I would call a healthy

Interdependency it's not dependency so that it's codependent and unhealthy

But neither is it independent so that we cultivate a life of it's us and no one else and it breeds arrogance and pride and frankly

Causes us to live in delusion

It's easy to be a spiritual perfect even a God when your reference point is only yourself

God gifts us with the gift and he's created us to learn to pursue a healthy

inter interdependent

Relationship so I personally don't have the time to learn everything that I need that I need to know

I don't have time to go deep into study about everything that really will will enhance my life and empower me to flourish

I am dependent upon those who are authorities in their field and I think that we all understand that when it comes time for

An attorney we're not gonna read a Wikipedia article and then say I've done my research and so now I can just represent myself

Or we're not gonna just well we actually we do do this

think of the disaster of instead of turning to a medical authority and just

Well reading a few articles on web MD and thinking now that you're an expert over your health which either leads you to a

dangerous place of not addressing something you need to address or

Worse it leads you into absolute peer and fear and panic and you might as well just take the tractor and dig a gate grave and go lie down in it

But we so we have we recognize this in certain fields that there are people that have been trained

We want to look to those authorities

But that but what about those people who have given themselves over to be authorities in the art of living?

What about the art of living from an awakened awareness of one's highest self that has been hidden with Christ in God?

Where are those who don't do do not merely tell me information?

But who can model a way of life worth?

imitating

This is very much a New Testament scriptural perspective on how healthy

Discipleship evolves it happens when there are those who have become skilled in the art of living

Those who have given themselves to understand what it means to live from their highest self who is hidden with Christ in God and

then finding those people and and and and

Creating relational connections so that those people can pour into our lives so that we can maybe one day do the same

imitation is a key ingredient for healthy

discipleship

So what about you how have you found solutions to this dilemma?

Who can you point to and say they are living an authentic life?

they seem to embody wisdom mercy and love and I

Would do well to imitate their way of life of faithfulness to Christ

When I ask that question did anybody immediately come to your mind?

Do you have to think about it?

But after pondering it do you recognize that those people are at somewhere perhaps even on the periphery of your life?

or

Have we become so radically privatized in our spirituality?

That it's hard to find models in public of people who are living the spiritual life and to which we can say I

Want to imitate at least a particular aspect of who they are

Because they are skilled in the art of living from the highest self hidden with Christ in God

And I need to learn something more about what they've figured out that

Should be when we become the community that God wants us to be that question should be very easy to answer

And if it's not easy to answer then my friends

We have to listen to what that information can tell us before the Holy Spirit and repent because we've done something very very wrong

If the intergenerational community can't look and find those people who can mentor us in the spiritual life

Particularly in one rooted in Christ and bearing the fruit of faithfulness to Jesus

Well Paul speaks to this very issue in our next section of the lipeans

Lippians 3 17 through 4 1 would you take a moment to read this with me?

He writes

join

in

irritating me brothers and sisters and

Pay careful attention

To those who live according to the example you have in us

For I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ

Their end is destruction

Their God is their stomach their glory is in their shame and they are

focused on

earthly things

Our citizenship is in heaven and we eerily wait for a savior from there

The Lord Jesus Christ he will transform the body of our humble condition into the lightness of his glorious body

By the power that enables him to subject everything to himself

So then my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters

Make my joy and crown in this manner stand firm in the Lord dear friends. I feel like I need to make a quick explanation

I'm only 50 but my body is falling apart

Some of that is visible to those on the outside, but it's also crumbling from the inside

And so I have a tooth that is dissipating and this week

I ate a very healthy almond flower cracker for which I was very proud

But when I bit into the darn thing the tooth that is dissipating cracked again

Only this time just for fun. It created a razor sharp point that's pointed toward the inside of my mouth

And so I woke up the next morning and my tongue was hamburger meat

So I'm trying to I've got it packed with wax and so I'm trying to talk around it

But if it's a distraction, I apologize. I'm doing my best to speak normally, but anyway, so

back to the scripture

When you look at this paragraph and there's lots of there's lots of

There's lots of emotive language in this paragraph. There are lots of theological reflections about the nature of

Our future and the and the glorious bodies that we will one day have I'm looking forward to that myself

Nah, I'm pretty content with this one to be honest. This is a gift of being 50 years old

so

But if you look through all of it, there's really only three commands in this long paragraph and it is

Imitate me

Imitate those who imitate me and stand firm

Imitate me

Imitate those who imitate me and stand firm

You know, we like to hear those words those inspirational words to stand firm in our faith, but we so often

read those words from a place of

individualism

and

And and and it robs us of the real power from what of the gifts that the church really has to offer

Which is finding those who are worth imitating now

Can you imagine this? Let me and ask yourself this question. Don't answer that loud. Would you become comfortable telling someone?

imitate me

You'll do just fine if you imitate me

If the answers no

Then we need to recognize and diagnose there's something really wrong with our spiritual formation

Because the expected end of the way we engage with Christ in spiritual formation

ought to build within us the confidence not the arrogance

But the confidence in the grace of God to say I don't have it all figured out

But in this area you would do well to imitate me

And I would be happy to share the grace of God that has been shared with me in this particular area of my life

my friends

if we are not

If we are not comfortable saying imitate me

Then our spiritual formation is deficient and we need to engage in new

Practices that form us into a way of life and the reason why most of us aren't comfortable with that idea

It's because

Our spiritual formation is all information up here that we know hasn't transferred into the heart and into our lifestyle

But if you do that then the Holy Spirit will bear fruit and

You know what that fruit can nourish the people around you

the expected end of salvation

Isn't my own

Individualized comfort and knowing that if I got hit by a bus I would fly to heaven and become an angel so now

That's all I need to worry about no

No

You've been called to join a movement and that movement is not primarily about you although you respond as an individual

But the end of the day isn't for you to feel comfortable with answering the question

Do you know if you would go to heaven when you died?

That is not the point the point is to encounter the living Christ like the Apostle Paul did that you get knocked off your

Donkey blinded to your old way of living and you're willing to let Jesus heal you and transform you so that you can then impart that grace

Into the lives of other people around you you're supposed to bear fruit that nourishes other people

That is the end game of the end go this whole

If I were the enemy

And I knew the power of the people of God I

Would come up with an alternative gospel. That's just about them going to heaven

So that then there's no danger of them actually

Incarnating the love and grace and power of God in the midst of the people that they do life with

But that's what we're called to do

So

Look at this text. Let's follow some of his logic as we walk down it. Do you guys despair with me as we go through this I

Love you, but I'm not willing to make my tongue suffer because of you

Look at what Paul says fine people

worth

imitating and follow their exam example

fine people worth imitating and

And follow their example now

Don't overthink this

You're gonna have to trust your intuition because no one is gonna be nailing it in all areas of their life

We're all in on a journey

But the thing is we have different temperaments and gifts and strengths that we can lean on one another and so maybe I've got one

Area of life kind of conquered, but there are three in chaos

And I might need to find someone who's not living in chaos in those other areas and say will you mentor me?

Will you teach me?

You look like you've got something figured out here and you're worth imitating and I want to be near you

So I can learn how to imitate that now. How do you do that? Don't overthink it trust your intuition

Let's pause right here lest we over complicate this. It's as simple as

Sorry this wins got me all messed up, too. I'm just a mess this morning pray for me saints

You ask God to bring the people in your life

and then you reflect on your week because most of the time I

Don't recognize those new mentors immediately when they're in my life

It's at the end of the week when I'm reflecting on who I've met who I've interacted with

What I'm thinking about the prayers I prayed before asking God to bring wisdom into my life and then I realized oh my goodness

That lunch Tuesday at noon

That was someone God's brought into my life. That's worthy of imitation. I

Am not going to ask them to start a class and to assign a book

I'm just gonna see if I can buy them lunch more often and ask questions. Will you share your life with me?

You would be surprised once you're open to being taught and mentored if you're sincere

You ask the God to bring them into your life. He will begin to bring those people into your life now

They may be unexpected

They may be a couple of decades younger than you or

They may be a couple decades older than you and you might feel that they can't even possibly

Understand the pressures and the stresses of your own life

But if you pay attention and if you listen and if you take the guts to respond

God will increase the circle of people in your life that are worthy of imitation

And he says this

Not everyone is worthy of your imitation

He says do not imitate those who live only for the pleasures of the flesh

You see he said don't don't imitate the ones whose God is their belly

Recognize the difference between what is inspirational and what is life affirming?

No, because sometimes people who can inspire us from a distance when we get close we discover

Man their lifestyle is that life affirming at all

Way easier to be the sage from the stage than the guide in the Bible

Age than the guide at your side

Sometimes those who inspire from a distance live toxic lives of chaos and dysfunction

I think I love to read biography because I do think that that's one of the ways I can be mentored

It's reading the live stories of people who've come before us

It's always disappointing when I get a new book

And I'm thinking about two or three of them that I just remembered the excitement in my heart when I pulled those things off this

shelf, you know with Starbucks

Aroma in the distance as I walked through

Barnes and Noble Brick and Mortar bookstore

And

Read these people that have inspired me and find out

They don't know how to live a self-disloving relationship with someone else like all the relationships are dysfunction after dysfunction after dysfunction

And then I realized that's not it. I

Don't want to succeed in this area and then not be able to love the people and support the people and prioritize the people

That God has put in my life. So not everyone

Is worthy of

imitation

Regardless of what they know

It is only if they've allowed that spiritual knowledge to begin to address the actual dysfunction of their lives if they have

Grab ahold of those people

Buy them a burger or a Rubin and

Ask them can I do life with you so I can learn a little bit of wisdom?

Number three he says don't imitate those who live for pleasure rather imitate those whose life in the flesh is

rooted in the higher experience of living as a what a

citizen of heaven now you know my temptation here and

I'm gonna try to discipline myself because we have food across the hall

But it is important for us to pause and acknowledge what Paul is saying here my friends

We do not become citizens of heaven someday in the afterlife

We are citizens of heaven today if heaven is our homeland and Jesus is our Lord

That's not something in the future. It is right now and it's a really important right now because what it he's using the word citizen

Now this would have been a challenge in Philippi

We cover this a little bit at the very beginning but remember this was not at one time part of Rome

But because after military conquest they had all these soldiers out in battle

They didn't want them all to come back to the city

So they designated Philippi as a Roman colony that then was populated by some of these

Active or reserve or retired military personnel. So over time

I'm Philippi, Ben. I am so sorry. I

Was hoping this would just be an attractive spring steam kind of thing, but it's not going in that direction

So Philippi was extremely proud of its status as a Roman colony and

Those within Philippi who were Roman citizens were extremely proud of their Romans Roman citizenship

Just like some of you are really glad that you're never gonna vote one way or the other

Because one political party party. Yeah, that's about right

That wasn't a fruiting sip that was a Holy Spirit slip

Because one particular party is supposed to embody the totality of your value system and who you are

What he's saying is

Your ultimate citizenship is not in the physical land of your origin

It exists somewhere else

Somewhere higher and above all of this and so your citizenry and your politics ought to be informed to that land to which you

ultimately belong

And so he says our citizenship is in heaven. So

We imitate those whose life in the flesh is rooted in the higher experience of living as a citizen of heaven on earth

We don't become citizens someday today. We are citizens and to live

As a citizen of heaven does not require us to demonize life in the flesh because so often in religious circles

That's how it's interpreted

I'm not gonna enjoy all any of the pleasures of this life because I'm gonna be like a human being

Like a stoic monk and be faithful to God

That's not necessary. You do not have to demonize life in the flesh. Remember God created a tasty and aesthetically pleasing world

In which we are destined to flourish

To demonize it is to disrespect the Creator

Look, he could have just said if you want to live even more than you can live in the flesh

Look, he could have just said if you want to live eat

That's not what he did

He gives us taste buds

So the thing that I have to do to sustain my life is actually one of the highest joys of my life

Making imagine what a fajita would be without taste buds

Now we could go on to other areas of our lives that sustain existence

That don't have to be pleasurable, but our Creator chose to make them pleasurable

For his glory and for our good. So he made a tasty and aesthetically pleasing world

In which we were destined to flourish

Know all it means to live as a citizen of heaven is to allow the atmosphere of heaven

To

To season our life in the flesh. It's where the atmosphere of heaven

Seasons our life in the flesh

You know we think of the image of a party and often that something is demonized and understandably so

some very undisciplined and harmful things can happen at parties

But it's also where you'll find the kingdom of God

Brick-oven pizza and a good bottle of wine around a table with friends

Where two or three you are gathered in my name there I am in their midst

That doesn't just mean church

It might mean a good dinner party where you're doing live and sharing life with other people who are traveling this road of

faithfulness to Jesus along with you

This too is the kingdom of God

So the question is

Are you willing to trust someone and seek out a guide

But even more importantly

Are you willing to be that guy?

Are you willing to give yourself to spiritual formation to the extent that you can say?

imitate me as I imitate Christ

Because that is the goal

so as

We begin to close

Let's begin with answering a few questions

Who are you imitating?

Not are you imitating someone please understand this

You don't have an option of whether or not you're being discipled

You only have an option of whether or not you're gonna choose to be aware of how you're being discipled

For some of you it's Jesus

For others of you, it's Fox News

For others of you, it's the Guardian

For others, it's your podcast

Or what's playing in the background on your television set

Some of us are just being discipled by better call Saul

You have to be aware of who you are

I'm not trying to demonize that the Holy Spirit can use better call Saul to share truth with you

I'm I believe I don't think God's limited, but the point is you've got to begin with being aware

Who are you imitating?

Secondly, who's imitating you?

Because there's someone whether you intend for it or not

Who is imitating you?

Here's a challenging question. Is it wise to imitate you?

Would you prescribe your rhythm of life to someone else in crisis because you know it will help them?

Are you aware of the way you live your life because I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about us being aware

Are you even aware of the way you live your life? Are you willing to become the guide that you needed when you were young?

It is not uncommon to work with young men and hear them say

I looked for a mentor and I looked for a father figure and I never found one

And I would hope that the church would see that as a call to make some correction

But whether they do or do not at some point every young man or woman that I'm working with the question comes down to

Yeah, you didn't get that and now it's too late. You can't go back and be 28 again and get that

But what you can do is cultivate a vision at 35 to being the person that you needed when you were 28

Are you willing to do that?

And then are you willing to then make yourself relationally available to those who would do well to imitate you as you imitate Christ?

So my suggestion is this this is an idea that I've been working with for about two years now

And it came about because I realized

That so much of what the church does is spiritual bypassing

We don't know what to do with the person that went through the prayer line and

Memorize the scriptures and they're still addicted to pornography

We don't know what to do with the person that is repented and went to revival service, but still can't get control of their anger

Let me just say loud and clear from my personal pastoral perspective

Sometimes you need Jesus and a good therapist

Sometimes you just need Jesus and a sandwich or a nap

But we over spiritualize the instruction we give to people almost to the point that we don't even expect it to be practical anymore or

It's tinged with guilt and shame

It's not enough just to share our wisdom, but there's this understood thing if you deny my wisdom then I will reject you

And that is common I was just talking to someone who desperately needs interaction with the church

And they said I just can't do it. I love God

I want to find help in the church, but every time I've turned I've only been met with condemnation

If I'm not perfect in responding to what's being said, I don't want to do that anymore

Help me find somewhere outside of the church where I can get help and granted sometimes we do

I mean, we're not medical doctors or psychotherapists and so there's a place for that

but

Spiritual bypassing is a problem that we need to name

so I

Would suggest that you think through

Getting a mentor getting a tribe of mentors who can guide you into four dimensional flourishing

four dimensional flourishing

Because it is a mistake to let people think that if you are spiritual

But you're not thoughtful about your health then your life will be just as flourishing as God intended it to be

because it's not true

The fact of the matter is I can flourish in one area and have chaos in two areas of my life

And that chaos will eventually become a cancer that will choke out the good. I'm doing in the one area

And so we have to recognize we are total beings and we need to pursue a vision of four dimensional flourishing

So when you're looking for mentors, I

Would suggest that you think through you don't have to use these words

I don't really like them, but I'm told that alliteration helps the memory

So in the area of faith family fitness and finances

Faith family fitness and finances in your faith ask yourself is this person spiritually awake?

If you're seeking a guide and if you're seeking to become a guide then ask yourself

Are you aware of living from the higher self that is hidden with Christ and God?

Because that's your only source of usable wisdom

What about family do they cultivate healthy relationships?

Family is just a placeholder word, but beyond just the family relationships in relationships in general

Do they prioritize healthy relationships?

Can you see the fruit of that in their lives or if you're seeking to become a guide?

Do you purposely communicate your love for the people in your life? That's all I'm suggesting not perfection

We're gonna constantly have to go back and say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it that way

I said something to my daughter yesterday and immediately I texted back that was completely inappropriate

It was none of my business and I feel ashamed. Will you forgive me?

That too is healthy relating. It's not not making the mistakes

It's being willing to own them and practice and model humility

So are you communicating your love?

Love for the people in your life and what about fitness or the physical body?

Do they honor the temple of the spirit and again, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not talking about

Aesthetics I'm talking about

Making choices that liberate the body to function correctly rather than hinder the functioning of the body

That's all clearly. I'm not trying to make a case for physical perfection

But I'm 15. I don't care anymore. Sorry, babe

But if you're wanting to become a God are your choices making your body more efficient or less efficient in

Doing its job of connecting you to the physical world in life affirming ways

That's what it's there for

You need it. It is not who you are. You are a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body

But this is the thing that local locomotes me

Unless I get the ministry of Phillip where I can just transport

I gotta take care of this thing because it's going to locomote me as I seek to accomplish the mission that God has for my life

and finally finances if

You're looking for a guide

Don't just ask for financial stability

But rather do they practice a stewardship that empowers generosity?

And if you are becoming a guide does your current stewardship empower generosity?

I'm not saying that it has to be the perfect portfolio

I am just saying are you learning a stewardship so that you're a worshipping in this area of your life in such a way

That you can practice contentment and generosity

Not putting a number on that but as a value is it bearing fruit in your life?

My friends can you imagine the freedom you would experience if your faith

Relationships physical health and financial contentment were affirming and abundant

Here's the deal most of us are probably really good in one of those areas

If we're lucky and I imagine these people exist I am not one of them

There may be those who master who have mastery in two of those areas

But most of us are not equipped to have mastery by ourselves in all four areas

Because we're called to live

Interdependent lives where we get to share our strengths and knowledge with one another and help each other through mutual submission

Grow together into maturity into the fullness of who God intends for us to be and

That we recognize we have a healthy theology of the body

Well, we're not gonna say the ball at the body and the mind and emotions can be healed as long as I'm spiritual

That is not true

You can have faith in Christ and be redeemed and be so emotionally toxic and dysfunctional that you're harmful to other people

It's not enough to just say their sinner's prayer

You have to pursue a larger vision to the person that's calling you to be not in perfection

But in submission to the Lordship of Christ

Can you imagine the blessing our church could be if we prioritize holistic flourishing

Rather than mere

ideological conformity I

Think we could change the world. I think that we could be the body of Christ at home and beyond

Seems like there's a good mission statement that says that

It won't happen if we can parmark compartmentalize and pretend that being spiritual is all that matters

Jesus

Was to liberate you into holistic

flourishing

He wants to bring you into four-dimensional shalom

not just one or two

Don't sell yourself short and don't discount the power you have

To be a mentor in someone else's life in one of these areas

Would you stand with me as the worship team comes forward and we get ready to close and communicate?

I kept the application generic because I

Don't want to come up with some kind of narrow

Legalistic idea that everybody's supposed to follow because I believe there's a teacher in your soul

You all have access to inner lucidity if you would just begin to have the courage to question it and respond to it

So that's what I'm gonna ask you to do is we take communion

as we place off their music and dim the lights and we

Come to the Lord's table and we have a moment to reflect

Ask the Holy Spirit

In one area of your life, do you need to seek out a guide or a mentor worth imitating?

But don't stop there

Ask the Holy Spirit how he's equipping you

To be a mentor and a guide for others in some particular aspect of life that he's gifted you with wisdom