Leverage Point #6 - Spiritual Integrity: Philippians 1:25-30 - Philippians: Joy Leverage

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from pastor teacher Steve Holt.

We're in the book of Philippians, gang, and I want you to look at this diagram that I have up here.

This is a metaphor for this letter, this manifesto of joy.

You were here.

How many were here at uh Easter?

How many were at Easter?

Okay, so you heard my message on joy, and that we are called to a life of joy.

And the book of Philippians is about joy.

It's a joyful book.

I've had at least four couples.

I think there's been more, but I can recall four couples in the last few weeks that have come up to me and said, we as a couple are reading Philippians every day.

Because you can read through the whole book of Philippians, those four short chapters in about 25 minutes.

And so they, as couples, have decided to read through Philippians to get more joy into their marriage.

And if there's one area that we need more joy in, we that are married, is our marriage because we spend so much time in it.

You kind of can't escape it.

You go to work and you come back and you're married.

And then you sleep with that person.

And then you wake up and you go to work, you come back and you're married.

And so why not make it a joyful place, right?

So that's what Philippians is about.

And this illustration shows what I'm calling the leverage of joy.

Why we need leverage of joy.

And so I have some bricks here to represent problems, struggles, weights in our life.

And then, as you know, from a seesaw, that if you can get the fulcrum closer to the heavy point, you can lift the other side very, very easily.

And so here's my thesis.

My thesis is the more we work on our joy and push joy into our problems and into our issues, the easier it is to lift those issues in our life.

And so it's a point of choice.

You have to make a choice to rejoice.

You have to make a choice to be joyful.

It is not natural, it is not normal to be a joyful person, even as a Christian.

And sometimes we get joyful in praise and worship, and that's great.

That's a super good start.

But I'm talking about even greater than that, how do we take the worship service?

How do we take our devotional time of the Lord into our job and into our marriage and into our problems?

And we all have, if you're doing anything significant in your life, you should have a lot of problems.

So if you're if you're living this problem-free life, you need to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that there's more to life than your comfort.

Because the reality is, is the more we press in to trying to be as effective as we can as a witness for Christ, and as effective as we can in the things that we do, we are going to have problems.

People create problems, circumstantial problems are all the time.

And so we've got to learn through the power of the Holy Spirit to press joy, the joy of Jesus, into that, and it's not easy.

This is not easy stuff at all.

And so Philippians is written from prison by a guy named Paul who really has this figured out.

So look at it.

We're at the last part of chapter one, and what we've been doing for the last two months is looking at these leverage points, these passages, these parts of the letter that give us leverage points into joy.

And today I want to talk about spiritual integrity, this issue of having integrity.

People who have integrity are joyful people.

It doesn't mean they don't go through hard times at all.

Matter of fact, they go through harder times than the average person because they're choosing the right way when their flesh and circumstances would actually lean the other way.

So spiritual integrity is not easy, but they're joyful because they have a clear conscience.

Spiritual integrity, you have a clear conscience.

You know you've done the right thing, whether people agree with you or not, and here's what we see Paul talking about.

So let's look back at verse 25, and we'll work our way through this last part of chapter 1.

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for your progress and joy of faith.

That in your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Christ by my coming to you again.

So he's anticipating coming to see them.

He's anticipating joy when he sees them, he's excited about their testimony, he's excited about what's happening in Philippi.

But he's also aware that this excitement, this faith that has been growing in Philippi, even under great suffering, if they're not careful, they could lose that edge.

Verse 27 only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me.

You know, church, it's been interesting over the years, living in this city for some twenty-three plus years, to see how many churches have kind of come and gone or risen up as significant, and then through some kind of moral failure, some kind of an issue of integrity, some kind of an issue of compromise, that that church that once had great influence begins to lose its influence.

I've seen businessmen, Christian businessmen, um, who have had great impact in the city, but then they go off and have an affair, or they do something like that, and suddenly they you never hear them again.

You never hear, and on the national scale, this is really true.

Um there's several authors, well-known authors, that I would know about.

You might not have read a lot of their stuff, but but they were kind of up-and-coming pastors on the kind of Christian church scene, and then because of doctrinal issues or sexual issues, they're never heard from again.

They're just gone.

They're just out of here.

And so, and so what Paul is saying is that if you guys aren't careful in Philippi, this can happen to you.

Men and women, this can happen to any of us.

Some of you may be in the midst of something right now where you have compromised your integrity and you're holding a secret.

And your spouse doesn't know, or your girlfriend doesn't know, or your family doesn't know, but you know, and it's just the worst place to be.

And I'm gonna challenge you today to get right with God.

To come up, come up front at the end of the service and get prayer and see that thing get broken off of you, to start the breaking off of this stronghold of demons that might be over you that has created a situation in which you feel trapped.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

You ever felt trapped?

I have.

I felt trapped and and to be in like a almost like you're in a room, a dark room, and you just want to get free, but if you but it's almost like if I let people know, then it's gonna be worse than if I keep it hidden.

And I want to say that's absolutely a lie from the enemy, and that when the light shines in the darkness, you do get set free.

And it's called vulnerability.

And learn to be vulnerable about our stuff instead of hiding it.

When you hide it, it's like a cancer.

It's like a cancer that grows.

You need an operation.

You need to get it, you need to get it exorcised out.

It needs to be cut out, and it can't be cut out if you don't know you have it.

And if you know that you have it, you give it to us, you give it to Jesus, we'll pray for you.

We've heard it all around here.

We're not shocked over people's sin.

I think what I'm shocked of again and again is how many times we're unwilling to get healing when we can.

So let's go for it.

Let's go for it.

So that's what he's talking about.

He's talking about this issue of what I'm calling spiritual integrity.

So this is a joy leverage point, church.

This is a joy leverage point for us that if we'll walk in spiritual integrity, if we'll walk in holiness, if we'll walk in godliness, as best we know how, because we're all in a journey, and where you are today will not be where you are next year, and hopefully where you are today is further along than you were last year.

But there's joy in that.

There's joy in the progress because Paul is saying in verse 25, man, I'm rejoicing.

I can't wait to see you because I want to see your progress and your joy of faith.

And so, church, we have to look at it as a joyful thing, not as a sad thing in our life by which, yes, there's sadness and repentance for sure, but here's the only way I know to tackle this is to see joy on the other side of our sadness.

To see joy on the other side of our repentance.

If we just focus on the repentance, you won't do it.

Generally, you won't do it.

But you say, Man, I want to be free.

I want to be free again.

I want that freedom that comes because I've got integrity, a clear conscience, I'm doing the right thing.

And so then you press in and it's super hard, and it's and it stinks, and ah, you hate it.

But you're looking for the joy again, and you know that that's the only way through joy is to press in with what that thing is that's called causing an obstacle between you and God and maybe others.

So he says, only let your conduct, he says, only let your conduct, verse 27, be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

And the Greek only has almost like an exclamation point.

Only remember this, your conduct matters.

And the word he uses for conduct has this little phrase, this little Greek phrase, polis.

Polis.

P-O-L-I-S.

Polis is in it.

Polis where we get the word political, and he's talking about being a citizen.

He's speaking of being a citizen, and he's talking to one of the leading provinces in Rome at that time, Philippi.

And the Philippians saw themselves as little Romes.

Little Romes.

And the citizenship of a Roman, not unlike before that, the citizenship of Greeks, was that you subjugated your own personal interest to the state.

So it was more important that you were a Roman than that you were an individual.

And so those in Philippi, many of them retired military, lots of retired military in Philippi at the time, who had been Roman soldiers, who had fought in Roman legions, they just considered it such an honor that they were in this little Rome called Philippi.

And so what he's doing is he's pressing into this citizenship, this idea of a citizenship of privileges that come with that that's greater than themselves.

And you see this in Paul in Philippians 3.20.

In Philippians 3.20, he says, our citizenship is in heaven.

Same word.

Same word he's using here.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

And this was a theme of Paul in calling forth conduct, integrity in the church.

In Ephesians 4.1, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

Colossians 1.10.

In a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Men and women, when we walk in integrity, you increase in the knowledge of God.

Your fruit, you bear fruit in your life.

I say, Well, I'm not, I don't know what it is, man.

I don't feel, I don't see anything happening in my life.

I don't see God moving in my life.

Anybody feel that way sometimes?

It might be that God is actually pressing into you with his spirit that he wants your roots to grow deeper.

You know, we we have property and we've tried transplanting trees, and it's hopeless.

You know, I've tried everything that you can read about, and I've had really good people tell me how to do it, and I'm terrible at it.

And I don't know if I don't water it long enough or the ground is bad in Black Forest.

I don't know.

But not good.

We're not good.

Then my daughter, Deborah, comes along, she's like 12 years old, and she goes out into the woods and she sees a rose bush, wild roses.

She's never read anything, never studied anything, nothing, zero.

Doesn't know what fertilizer is.

And she goes and she gets a shovel and she just shoves it in to the rose bush and pops it out, cracking every one of the roots, I'm sure.

Goes and plants it at this strategic place on our fence line, it's been growing for years.

I don't get it, man.

I do not get it.

So that's that's anointing from God upon my daughter.

So I don't have the green thumb anointing.

But here's what I do know.

I do know this.

That if you're always getting uprooted, you don't bear a lot of fruit.

If you're always getting uprooted, you don't bear much fruit.

Men and women, we've got to let our roots go deep.

You need your roots to go deep in the church.

You need your roots to grow deep in a marriage.

You need to quit running.

We're a vagabond nation.

We're a gypsy nation.

As soon as something happens in the church that we don't like, I'm gonna get you.

And then the same thing's gonna happen at that church because you never changed.

You're the same person.

And so gotta start getting the roots down, man.

You know, I don't like her.

I don't like him.

So then we just ditch that relationship instead of doing a covenant of harmony and working on stuff.

You don't have to like everybody, but you can get along with almost everybody if you have a heart for integrity and you believe in letting your roots grow deep.

Don't you want to be known somewhere?

I mean, some of you, seriously, you've been so you're such a gypsy with your life that when you die, nobody's gonna come except, you know, your those that are getting your inheritance.

They'll come because they want to know what they got, right?

I'm serious.

Man, I want for you guys, I want us to have packed funerals.

I want I want my funeral to have a lot of people because I've influenced a lot of people.

I want your funerals, I want to do your funerals because I'm gonna outlive you.

I'm gonna outlive you guys, okay?

And so I'm gonna be up here doing your funeral.

I want it packed because of your influence, man.

Because your roots ran deep.

So hang in there.

Fight, fight for your legacy, fight for fruit, so that we can rejoice with each other and say, man, I'm excited about your progress in the faith because I'm still with you.

And there's there's a group of us, like between 25 and probably 40 guys, and we we do morning fire.

We're kind of getting to know each other.

We get up early, and we show up at 6 a.m.

from 6 to 7.

And by the way, I'm gonna start a series this Tuesday.

I'm excited.

I'm gonna start a series for you guys.

I'm pumped about it.

It's gonna be it's gonna be good.

It's gonna be really good.

And um, and so we just keep doing it, right?

And sometimes it's really hard, and we come in and uh, you know, it's like the coffee wasn't that good that we had at home, but then Matt's coffee is awesome, and then we get that, and so it wakes us up, and then other times we come and we're just not all there, but we just do it, right?

That's roots growing deep.

That's roots growing deep.

So he's seeing here that he's saying, gosh, you guys, in Philippi, if you don't do this, you may not withstand the pressure of the Roman culture.

Men and women, if we don't do this, we may not be able to handle the transitions, huge transitions that are happening in American culture right now.

It's unbelievable.

It's going to affect your kids.

It is affecting some of you millennials in a huge way.

So here he says, here's three characteristics.

I see three characteristics here for spiritual integrity.

So let's look at three three characteristics.

The first, he says, is stand firm.

He says, you gotta stand firm.

If you don't stand firm, you're not going to last.

And the way to stand firm is that we have to have a conviction.

Folks, you gotta have a conviction about something.

Not just a conviction, I want to be happy.

That's my conviction.

I want to be a millionaire before I'm 40.

That's my conviction.

No, I'm talking about a conviction of beliefs of what matters about what happens with our heart.

Convictions about our heart.

The same word here is used for a soldier, a legionnaire, a Roman legionnaire who digs in to fight and is not going to be moved even unto death.

It's the same word.

He's saying, stand firm.

Stand firm against enemies that are coming your way.

Some of you've got to stand firm on porn.

And the way you stand firm on porn is you get that device on your phone that either blocks it or it lets someone know what you've been on.

And they get a report.

Like the like the uh, what is it called?

Covenant of eyes is the one that we use and everything.

So if you're not serious, that means you're not standing firm.

You gotta stand firm, you gotta dig in.

Ladies, when when if you struggle with talking too much, with gossip, then you've got to stop that.

You've got to start laying down your feet into some solid soil and say, I'm gonna stand firm, I'm gonna have integrity, I'm gonna quit listening to that stuff, I'm gonna quit being a voice in the conversation, I'm gonna start building new relationships with new women that are built on integrity.

Because you're more joyful anyway.

I've never seen a gossiper who's joyful.

They're like, did you hear about?

You guys know what I'm talking about?

I mean, got big old, got elephant ears.

Those are they got Mickey Mouse ears.

I say you have Mickey Mouse ears when you hear from God, not when you're listening to rumors and stuff.

So shut it down, man.

Shut it down.

And start letting positive stuff come forth.

And then the key to that is being in the word.

Read Philippians every day.

Read it, speak it, talk about it.

Hymns and spiritual songs and psalms.

That's what it says is the nature of the spirit filled life in Ephesians 5.

So stand firm.

And you know, standing firm is positive and negative, it's always positive and negative.

You stand firm for truth, but that means you stand firm against falsehood.

You stand firm for positive discussion, that means you stand against negative discussion.

If you're gonna stand firm for patience, then that means you're gonna stand against anger.

Some of you guys have an anger problem.

And you're just ruining the joy in your home.

And the problem is not her or him, it's you.

Because there's always something that can get you angry.

But why are you an angry person?

Let's get down to the roots.

Let's get down to the foundations of our anger.

By the way, everybody's angry.

Okay?

But many of us have actually conquered that sin in our life, and we don't get angry hardly anymore.

It is possible to not be an angry person.

Because what we do is we manipulate people with anger.

That's how you manipulate people.

I don't want to get into psychological therapy here, but I'll just tell you that's what you do.

And so what God wants to do is He wants to build in you to start standing firm against your anger and ask God to use some bloodstained allies in your life.

Maybe you need counseling, but you need to get to the what's the issue from your childhood?

What's the issue from your problem, from your issues of the past, that you have to control everything?

And when you and when it feels out of control, you get angry.

Some of us struggle with jealousy, and we're always comparing ourselves with other people.

We're never good enough.

We're never good enough.

We never have enough.

We never make enough.

We never have a nice enough car, or we never have a nice enough house.

What's going on there?

What is it there that God wants us to become vulnerable about so that we can start standing firm with a new joy through being content with what we have and content in Christ.

See, I just I just really believe this that we bring the most glory to God when we are the most joyful in God.

When we are the most joyful and content in Him, it brings Him the most glory.

The Lord needs joyful saints.

Church, Jesus wants joyful saints.

And that comes through a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with him.

Then he says this in one spirit, with one mind, striving, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Really interesting Greek word for striving together is soon ato.

Soon athleo.

It's the word for athletics.

Soon athleo.

It's the word for athletics.

He's saying, here's what he's saying: striving as a team.

One mind, one heart, working together as a team, all for one, one for all.

He's saying to the church, you guys, let's do this together.

Let's be unified together.

Not for the sake of unity, by the way.

Not being unified for the sake of, oh, we got to get unified.

No, it's a unity of striving together after a goal of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You see, church, the way we become unified as a church is we do the springs initiative together this summer.

We go out and paint those houses together.

We go to the morning fire and we pray together and we worship together and we come here on Sunday morning and we worship together and we go to Guatemala together and we work with the youth and we work with our middle schoolers and we work with our children.

That's where unity comes from, we're working and ministering with a common goal.

Not saying I just want to be, I want to be a unified church.

I've never once prayed for this church to be unified.

What I have prayed is that we would take the gospel forward, that we would move out with the gospel.

That in and of itself will bring unity.

That's what he's talking about.

He says striving together.

This is teamwork, working together as a team.

Now, 1 Corinthians 12 is a very, very interesting chapter on spiritual gifts.

Let me read it to you.

He uses the body as an example of the unity of the body.

For the body, the human body, is not one member but many.

If the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body, it's not for this reason any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, because I'm not an eye, I'm not part of the body, it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.

Like, duh.

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.

If they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members but one body, and the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Or again to the head, to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are the most necessary.

So who's the head?

Christ is the head, right?

Christ is the head.

Christ is the head of the body.

But Christ can't get to the other side of this room without feet.

Christ can't pick up this Bible without.

And so God has limited himself to work through the church.

I don't get it.

It's really it's kind of we're kind of weird.

We're weird people.

We're the church.

And you know, look at you.

You're all weird.

You know, you look at me, and I'm weird.

And so, like, that's we're a peculiar people, is what the scripture says.

So I'm just saying, using a more vernacular for the 21st century.

We're weird.

So, but God chose for us to be the hands and feet to move the body forward with the gospel of Jesus Christ, striving together in the gospel, limiting Himself.

Actually, limiting healing, for example.

Now, God can just supernaturally heal.

And there's probably some stories out there like that.

But 99% of all the stories of healing are because one of you laid hands on someone and prayed for healing, and the power of God came through there, and they got healed.

Billy Graham was raised up for stadium venues all across the world because God didn't use angels, he uses you and me to be evangelistic tools that go to the world.

And some of you are administrators, and some of you are gifted in helps, some of you cook food, some of you help out in teaching and instruction.

So, I mean, there's more gifts than you can imagine out there that is God working through you.

Even to the point where Paul says that the ones that seem to be the least of all are the most necessary.

So I see that because I'm getting older.

And I got a big toe.

I got one, my right toe is like really, it's like twice as big as my left toe because of arthritis.

Now I know what's gonna happen.

I'm gonna get all these emails about how what I need to be doing about my arthritis.

And and that that is okay because some of you guys have great ideas and all that.

But but I noticed that you know I can tell if I'm not wearing sort of soft shoes, it hurts.

That's that's just that's just that one knuckle on my big toe, on my foot, which is attached to my to my leg.

I mean, that's really tiny down there, but you feel it, right?

So who cleans this place during the week?

Somebody cleans this church.

Someone who cared brought ferns here, doesn't even go to this church, but had a heart for spicing it up a little bit.

And so she took the time, hours and hours, to go out and get the ferns and to make this look beautiful.

And then she had all of the um Chris Sinclair, she had all of the um uh Easter lilies up here, and then all that food back there that we chow down on.

Somebody makes that, someone does that.

In the children's ministry, there's somebody there waiting for your kid, ready to take your kid.

We just we can't take for granted how striving together and how beautiful teamwork is.

It's what makes the world the great place that it can be.

It's what makes a church the greatest movement in the history of the world.

The church.

So standing fast, striving together, and now he gets to an interesting part.

Verse 28.

And not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer.

Church, suffering is a part of integrity.

So he's saying here in verse 28 that just like we were given the gift of salvation, look at the last part of verse 28, we were given the gift of salvation by grace.

Actually, there's another gift, and the second gift that God grants his children, for Christ's sake, he says here, is not as appealing as the first, but nevertheless, it's an integral part of divine grace, and it's called suffering.

You will suffer, you will go through difficulties.

2 Timothy, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Jean Guyon writes, I love this quote by her.

You must be patient in all of your suffering that God sends your way.

If your love for the Lord is pure, you will love him as much on Calvary as on Mount Tabor.

The Lord Jesus loved his father on Mount Tabor where he was transfigured, but he also loved him no less on Calvary where he was crucified.

So let's look at verse 28.

I want to give you the amplified version, because this is really important.

Amplified Bible says this about verse 28.

And do not for a moment be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and adversaries.

For such constancy and fearlessness will be a clear sign or a proof and seal to them of their impending destruction, but a sure token and evidence of your deliverance and salvation, and that's from God.

I felt like in the prayer room before we started today that there's a number of you today that are intimidated by something that's happening in your life.

You are intimidated right now.

You're frightened, you're fearful.

And I want us to pray for you today.

I want to pray, when we come to the end of the service, I want to pray for you for a new confidence, a fearlessness in your heart that in Christ you can do all things through him who strengthens you.

That all things are possible through you.

Man, I know that feeling of intimidation.

I've been intimidated by certain kinds of people my whole life.

And to begin to grow and break out of that was finding my satisfaction and finding my confidence in Christ at a deeper level.

Through a lot of brokenness.

Men and women, I want you to break out of that.

I want you to break out of intimidation.

Intimidation is the worst because what it does, it builds fear.

You have fear towards certain kinds of people.

You're fearful of them.

And God wants you to walk with love for them and fearlessness in Christ.

Not arrogance, not pride, but that sense within your spirit, God's got this.

I may not have this, but God's got this.

And I'm going to walk with a clear conscience, with integrity, and what I do, believing that God's got this.

And by the way, you don't have to answer everybody.

Church, you don't have to answer everybody.

You don't have to answer every email.

Now, some of you need to answer the email, or you need to answer the phone call because that is what God's doing in your life to face that.

But sometimes you don't have to do that.

Because it's not the right timing, and you shouldn't feel intimidated to always respond to everything.

And sometimes there's intimidation in our homes because, and I think it's true in all of us, that we build up this common assumption of the other person that disables us from confronting the real problem.

And so we become kind of, we become captive to an environment that's common to us.

And God is saying to us, don't be intimidated anymore.

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom to break the power of that intimidation in your life.

So, spiritual integrity.

Stand firm, strive together, and suffer for the gospel.

You'll be happy, you'll be joyful.

You've been listening to the road with Pastor Teacher, Steve Holy.