Fearless Unity

Well, hey, so we're in closing up Philippians.

And as you look at this passage, you're tempted potentially to just see it as some travel plans, right?

Me and my family were getting ready to go to Universal Studios in October.

And we're making travel plans.

And so we've had kind of these conversations about, hey, when are we going to get there and who's going to get there first?

And we're going to follow up afterward, and then what are we going to do on these days?

And all these types of things.

Why are we going in the first place, right?

That's the question I keep asking.

But nonetheless, I've been told, just show up.

So I'll be there and we'll have fun.

And I love it.

And I'll probably dress like a wizard.

But you can be tempted to read this as just travel plans, right?

Here's Paul saying, Hey, I can't really come.

See, I'm kind of being held up in prison.

So I'm going to send Timothy at some point in time.

Before I do that, I'm going to send Epaphroditus.

I hope you guys welcome them.

I'm excited to send them.

But that's missing a bigger picture of what Paul is helping us understand in this letter that he's writing to the church at Philippi.

What I want to present and submit to y'all this morning is that what we're reading is actually a culmination or a summation of everything that Paul's been laying out in the letter thus far.

That he's using Timothy and Epaphroditus as these exemplary disciples that he has been communicating should look like as they try to be citizens of heaven that they have become because of their faith in Christ Jesus.

And so we named this series a colony of heaven.

Colony is this like organization, this gathering of individuals who make up this place, this dwelling, this culture.

And we have been brought into this citizenship that's transcendent from this world, that resides in heaven because of the finished work of Christ and our faith in him.

And as citizens of that kingdom and not this one, we are called to create this counter-cultural reality, this colony of heaven in the way that we live, not mimicking the culture that we reside in, but mimicking the culture of heaven of which Christ has made us citizens by the power of the Spirit.

And so Paul is going to really lay out for us the summation, the culmination of everything that he's been talking to us about, what it looks like for us to be a colony of heaven.

So as we start out, verses 19 through 24, talking about Timothy, I think the summary of this section of the text is a life that's worthy of the gospel.

Timothy, a life that's worthy of the gospel.

Paul knows that if he's going to be able to be with the church at Philippi physically, it won't be any time soon, right?

He's in chains, he's under house, Roman house arrest, uh, and he is chained to Roman guards.

He is, you know, struck stuck in this position, and his trial is awaiting.

That's kind of what he opened up some of the letter with.

His trial is awaiting to see what's going to happen.

Is he going to be released and able to continue fruitful ministry for the sake of the gospel?

Or is he going to be put to death?

Is he going to become a martyr for the gospel of which he has proclaimed throughout that region?

And so he's awaiting this kind of final decision of his trial.

So he knows that if he's going to visit the church at Philippi physically, it's not going to be anytime soon.

So he says, I'm going to send Timothy.

I'm going to send Timothy to you.

Timothy is arguably the greatest co-laborer of the gospel with Paul.

Constantly, Paul refers to Timothy.

He's written two personal letters to Timothy throughout the New Testament scriptures, right?

First and second Timothy.

Then he has the letter to Ephesians.

Well, Ephesus was the church that Timothy was the lead pastor of.

And so Timothy is a major character throughout the entire shaping of the New Testament scriptures that we have.

He's arguably the greatest co-labor of the gospel that Paul has.

And Paul was introduced to Timothy in his visit to a city called Lystra.

So Timothy isn't a direct convert of Paul, but he is a disciple.

A disciple to the degree that Paul calls Timothy a son in the faith.

He refers to himself as a father over Timothy.

And so we get introduced to Timothy in Paul's relationship in Acts 16.

It says this: Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra.

A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra in Iconium.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him.

And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Let's talk about missional engagement for a second.

No, we're not going to get there.

But after the service.

Anyway, so Paul meets this young man named Timothy.

And what is really highlighted in this passage is how well the brothers at those church communities spoke of Timothy.

That kind of caught Paul's attention.

And then he invites Timothy to be on his journeys of seeing the gospel advance throughout this region with him.

Here in this letter, he wants to send Timothy, the son in the faith.

And Paul says, so that he might be cheered of the news of you.

This word cheered is literally mean encouraged, to have courage built into Paul by hearing the news of what's happening in Philippi be brought back to him.

You can imagine courage was probably an unlimited supply in Paul.

He doesn't know if he's going to be set free or if he's going to face the guillotine.

If he doesn't know what his future resolves, and not that he was afraid in such a way that he was cowering back from proclaiming the gospel or that his fear was create uh allowing his uh actual, you know, kind of presence of the gospel in Rome to be uh uh um uh brought down or to be kind of snuffed out, right?

Uh but there was definitely limited supply of courage as he was found himself in chains.

And so he's hoping that as he sends Timothy to bring back the news of how Philippi is progressing in their faith, the genuineness of their faith, that courage would literally be built into Paul through news of them.

And then Paul brings us here into the true reasoning for desire to send Timothy to them.

So Paul says, I hope to send Timothy to you at some point in time.

Then he's gonna give us the reason of that hope.

And it's this for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Why does Paul want to send Timothy?

Not just because they're tight, not just because they're close friends, not because he's the only other minister of the gospel in the area of where Paul is residing.

The motivation is I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Paul's love for the church at Philippi restrains him from just sending anyone.

Look at the affection of Paul for these Christians, these believers that he's writing to.

It literally restrains him from just sending anybody to visit.

He must send someone he trusts that's not after their own interest, but who truly has the welfare of those he loves as a top priority.

This should remind us of something.

Should remind us of the opening of this letter to the church of Philippi.

Paul warns us about these ministers who are not after the welfare of the church or the gospel, but they're after their own welfare.

He says in Philippians 1, 15 through 17, he says, Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ, what?

Out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

And so Paul is laying out that this is kind of his reality.

There's many ministers of the gospel who are preaching the message, but with wicked intent, selfish ambition to draw followers after themselves, not seeking the good of the people of who they're preaching the gospel to, but for their own interest and gain.

He says, Timothy's not that.

Timothy is a man who is after your welfare.

This is why I can send him.

This is why I have trust in sending him to you.

Paul addresses this again as his reason for choosing Timothy to be sent to them.

For he says this, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

So we see how we've come full circle, right?

Paul warns us about these ministers of the gospel in the opening of the letter, and then we come full circle and he says, There's why I'm sending you Timothy, because he's not that.

Timothy lives in a way that's contrary to those who seek after selfish ambition and self-interest.

Timothy lives in a way that's worthy of the gospel.

He lives in a way that's worthy of the gospel because he's not motivated by selfish ambition or self-interest.

But he's willing to lay his life down for the good of those he's called to serve.

His other's oriented life is a reflection of the selfless unity Paul calls the church to live also.

Philippians 1 27, he says this.

Remember this text, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

What's Paul saying?

Let me be cheered by good news that you have unity among you, not being selfish in your motivation, but unified as the church under the Lordship of Jesus.

And what's Timothy?

Timothy's someone who's lived that out.

Timothy is someone who has had evidence of this way of life that is worthy of the gospel.

Philippians 2, 3 through 4, he says, do nothing.

This is a charge from Paul to the church.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Because Timothy embodies this kingdom culture.

Paul desires to send him to Philippi.

And the church there has confidence of his character.

Look what Paul says.

But you know Timothy's proven worth.

How as a son with a father he has served me in the gospel?

What's he saying?

He's got a track record of living this way.

He has evidenced among you of living this way a life that is worthy of the gospel.

And so, Timothy, he's proven to live this life among them.

A life whose weight of character lines up with the weight of the gospel itself.

A life that's not after their own selfish ambition or self-interest, but one that makes followers of Jesus Christ and seeks the good of the church, first cultivating unity in the body, right?

This is the life that Timothy has lived.

It is a life worthy of the gospel.

Then we come down to 25 through 30.

And we're introduced to a man named Epaphroditus.

Now, he's only mentioned twice in all of the New Testament.

So we're not looking at a major character, we're looking at a minor character.

But don't let that fool us into thinking that he's not a significant character.

So in this passage of the text, we look at summaries of 25 through 30, a life that deserves to be held in honor.

A life that deserves to be held in honor.

Before Timothy would ever arrive at Philippi, there would be sent back to the church a man named Epaphroditus.

Now Epaphroditus was first sent from the church at Philippi with a gift offering, a financial gift that he was supposed to deliver to Paul.

And then he was supposed to minister to Paul as he was there in Rome with the intention of being sent back to Philippi at some point in time.

So Epaphroditus is going to be sent back before Timothy, and he's going to arrive back at Philippi, his hometown, before Timothy ever gets there.

While in Rome, Epaphroditus had become very ill, even near to death, Paul says.

And this caused Ephroditus to be distressed because he knew that his church family would be worried about him.

Paul says this, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed, overwhelmed in soul, because you heard that he was ill.

Anxiety and anguish has filled Epaphroditus' mind and heart.

He loves his church and he knows that they love him.

And with news of getting back to them that he was ill, even to the point of death, he's worried that they might think that he didn't make it through, that he didn't overcome, that he didn't fulfill the mission that he was sent for, that all of this tragedy had inflicted him.

So Paul's desire is in part to send him for both Ephroditus' relief and the church's joy.

He says, I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again.

But Paul characterizes not just the circumstances of Ephroditus, but the person he is for the gospel.

So we can't just focus on Epaphroditus got sick, and this is a bad situation, and hey, praise God, he made it through, and now we get to send him back.

He doesn't just focus on that, he focuses on the character, the person of who Ephroditus is.

He calls him three different names.

My brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier.

As a brother, he's a family member of the faith through Jesus.

Paul had a very uh extensive and radical understanding of what it meant to be in Christ.

That we were family.

Family that eternally transcends even the physical family that we have here and now.

And often that's hard for us to kind of reconcile.

That's hard for us to navigate in this life.

But the brothers and sisters who are around you who are in Christ will eternally transcend the physical family that we have here on earth of those who are not in Christ.

And so we are more brothers and sisters than we tend to realize or tend to live out in our natural lives.

We are kinfolk.

He says also that you're a fellow worker, a co-laborer for the furthing of the gospel.

So apaphrodice didn't just come and like some courier deliver a gift and then he's being shipped back.

No, he's a co-laborer in the furthering of the gospel.

But then he calls him a fellow soldier, a comrade in mission.

And this language denotes one who endures hardship in the cause of Christ.

To think that this illness was the only thing that Epaphroditus endured as a fellow soldier of the gospel, realize this.

Paul only uses that language of fellow soldier twice.

Once he uses it for Epaphroditus to describe his character.

And then the other time he uses it in the letter of Philemon to this man named Archipus, who had a church gathering in his home.

Paul doesn't just throw this characterization around flippantly.

He reserves it to communicate with high intentionality.

This brother has suffered hardship for the cause of the gospel.

He is a fellow soldier.

And so it's not just the illness.

Philippians 1 28, he says, about us and not frightened.

We should not be frightened in anything by your opponents, because this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

To assume that illness was the only hardship Epaphroditus faced would be a very narrow view of the scope of his ministry to Paul.

The illness was an element that could have made him give up, but in all he endured to finish the assignment.

Paul's gonna show us later in this letter, I have received full payment and more.

I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

But even in this passage that we're studying now, he says that Epaphroditus risked his life to do what?

To complete what was lacking in your service to me.

It wasn't just a financial gift that Epaphroditus brought to the table of gospel mission.

He was a soldier, he was fearless.

This type of man, a brother, a fellow worker, a fellow soldier, should be both received and honored among the church community.

These are the only two imperative commands that Paul gives us in this whole text.

It is to receive or welcome and to hold in honor.

Those are the only two commands that were received in this whole section of the text.

And what Paul says is not just Epaphroditus.

He says, such men like this.

He's helping us understand that there should be a culture within the church community of men who stand up for the cause of the gospel, who live lives that are worthy to be honored, to be held up in high esteem amongst the community.

Why?

Because not only are they brothers in the faith, but they're co-laborers in the gospel and they're soldiers for the cause of Christ.

These type of men are the ones that we should hold up.

These type of men we should receive and welcome with joy.

These are the men that we should look up to, who are willing to sacrifice for the advancement of the gospel, who are willing to lay down their own preference, self-interest, and selfish ambition, so that the gospel might go forth in society and the ruling reign of Christ might be made known in the hearts of men throughout this region.

Paul's not asking them to just have sympathy for some dude who got super sick and almost died.

Paul's saying this man is one that should be received joyously and held up in honor.

And each and every single one of you should strive to be like that.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy.

And honor such men.

Why?

Because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

He was a life risker for the sake of the gospel.

He was not frightened, but he persevered through trials and hardships to be found faithful.

And because of these attributes, Paul says to receive him, to honor him.

A man to be emulated among the brothers.

So at the crux of this passage, what we see is this citizens of heaven live for fearless unity.

Citizens of heaven live for fearless unity.

Placed before us in the text are two men who should be emulated for their lives that are worthy of the gospel.

Men that have proven worth of contending for fearless unity within the kingdom.

Paul's holding up these men as an example of all that has been writing about this far in the letter.

Because he knows that personal examples have a powerful effect, right?

He's instructing us.

Hey, there's these type of dudes, right?

That that that call themselves ministers of the gospel, but they they do their laboring with wicked intent, selfish ambition, self-interest.

They create division and disunity.

And he says, Don't be like them.

Here, be like this.

As a matter of fact, be like this in such a way that you emulate Christ because he has put this mind in you, because you are found in him by grace through faith.

And then, even more than that, he holds up these two brothers and says, You want examples of what this looks like?

Look no further than.

Timothy and Epaphroditus.

He instructed the church to let their manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ in chapter 1, verse 27.

How?

How is he going to live in such a way that's worthy of the gospel?

Creating unity by not striving for selfish ambition, pulling followers away to yourself, or by self-interest, looking after your own good first, but through humility, serving one another and seeking their good before their own.

Philippians 1 27b says, that I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Unity.

Then he says in Philippians 2, 2 through 4, that complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, unity, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

But he doesn't just call them to unity, he calls them to fearlessness also, remaining steadfast in the midst of trials and hardships that we face for the sake of the gospel.

Philippians 1 28 through 29.

He says, For us that we should not be frightened in anything by our opponents.

For it's a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

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.

And so we counted, we talked about this double blessing of God, right?

I come from a Pentecostal background.

And when we got double portion blessings, uh it did not have any hardships attached to them.

It was like your bank account's gonna double or something.

It was goofy.

Anyway, uh what's he saying?

Here's the double blessing.

The double blessing is you've been given the faith to believe in Christ, and you've been given the privilege to suffer for it.

Now that's double blessing.

And that's what Paul is saying in the face of that.

Be fearless, be united together by humbly serving one another, and be fearless in the face of opposition.

So why is Paul hoping to send Timothy?

And why is he so eager to send Epaphroditus?

Ultimately, because these men live in a manner worthy of the gospel through fearless unity.

They are citizens of heaven, in which the colony of heaven are called to receive and honor.

In this letter, Paul's calling the church of Philippi to live in a manner worthy of the gospel through fearless unity in 127 through 30.

But then he then communicates to them what a life of fearless unity looks like in 2, 3 through 4.

And he roots that expression of fearless unity in the identity of the person of Christ who empowers us to be able to live in such a way in 2, 5 through 11.

And then here in the closing of chapter 2, Paul lifts up for us two men who embody fearless unity for the cause of the gospel.

So in this letter, we have the charge, we have the explanation, we have the authority, and we have the example of a citizen of heaven.

All summed up to this point.

Live in a manner worthy of the gospel through fearless unity.

Yet many of us live in a manner that is not reflective of the gospel.

A life whose weight of character lines up with the weight of the gospel itself.

Right?

This is what it means to live in a way that's worthy of the gospel through fearless unity, that the weight of your character matches or identifies with the weight of the gospel.

We fail to exhibit fearless unity.

And not only jeopardize the legitimacy of the gospel message, but we create harmful division within gospel community.

Some of us, we live self-oriented lives.

We live self-oriented lives.

Timothy was a man who lived others' oriented life.

Why was Paul eager to send him?

Because he had faith that Timothy was for their well-being.

Timothy lived an others-oriented life.

He says, For I have no one like him who will genuinely concern for your welfare.

It is this reason that Paul entrusts Timothy to be sent on mission and to care for the church at Philippi in his own absence.

Paul's looking to be able to send someone who would mirror or reflect, mimic his very presence there with them, even though he wasn't physically able to.

And so who does he trust?

He trusts Timothy to do that.

He is set apart from the other ministers of the gospel by this very characterization.

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

And so the call of the gospel is to be others-oriented, to have your life be spent on the glory of God and the good of others.

To be poured out for the welfare of your brother and sister.

This is what the call is to us as Christians.

It's not to seek our own comfort, it's not to seek our own protection, it's not to seek our own good, but it is a life, as Paul said in Philippians, even if I am poured out as an offering for your faith, I will rejoice and be glad.

We are called to be an others-oriented community.

A community of people that the very good that we desire for ourselves, we desire to seem build into those around us.

And we work to that end.

And we say whatever good we would desire for our own life can be set on the back burner.

I've got to help my brother or sister get to that good.

I've got to pour myself out.

I've got to be others-oriented.

A self-oriented life is fundamentally an anti-gospel life.

There is no harmony, there is no unity in what the gospel calls us to in a life that is lived in self-interest or self-orientation.

Not only can they not harmonize, they are at war with one another.

Because it fails to both believe and express the core truth of the gospel, that Christ loved us and gave himself for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God according to Ephesians 5.2.

What is the core truth of the gospel?

That even though he counted equality with God as something to be grasped, he let go.

And he sought our good before he even sought the good of himself.

He was poured out.

We must repent of living self-oriented lives.

They fail to represent the gospel and they foster disunity within the gospel community.

Instead, we should emulate the character of Timothy.

An others' oriented life who is genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Some of us, though, we live fear-fostered lives.

We live fear-fostered lives.

Epaphroditus was a man who lived a fearless life.

And referring to him as a fellow soldier, Paul speaks to a war-battered saint who persevered through opposition.

He didn't give up.

He didn't quit.

He finished the call that was placed on him.

Whether it was illness, trials, persecutions, he didn't let that be a cause for giving up or for retreating.

And many of us, we have a retreatism mentality.

We're looking at the culture around us and what's going on in society, and we're saying we've got to retreat.

We've got to pull back.

We've got to make sure that we stay safe and preserve because we don't know what's on the other side of this wall.

And so we shut ourselves in, fortify ourselves so that we might be protected from what culture is doing.

No.

Epaphroditus, he remained and pressed on toward the cause of the gospel.

Because the gospel eradicated fear all through the conquering of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Who has freely given to us as saints, as believers, the spoils of his victory.

2 Timothy 1.7 says, For God has given us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

What is that?

What is that giving up?

It is the conquering reality of Christ the King who freely gives to us the spoils of his victory.

And one of those is not a spirit of fear, but it's a spirit of power.

The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you.

Why should we be afraid?

Why should we live in contradiction to what Christ has done in us?

A life that fosters fear is a life that fails to believe the fullness of the gospel.

Because here's what they're trying to, here's fundamentally where we're at.

Sorry about that.

When we live a life of fear, here's what we're believing.

We're believing that the throne is empty and the tomb is full.

That's what we're believing.

When we live a life of fear, we're believing fundamentally that the throne is empty and the tomb is full.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is the tomb is empty and he sits on the throne reigning.

And that should cause us to not fear.

That should give us confidence in our King.

To have a life that fosters fear in the mind and heart is inevitably a life that fosters fear in others.

So not only do they believe in function that the throne is empty and that the tomb is filled, but they tempt others to believe the same thing.

We're called to encourage one another, not foster fear in one another.

That's not coming through fear the weight of the gospel.

It's living in a manner unworthy of the gospel we proclaim.

But our hope is that Jesus forms a fearlessly united church.

Jesus forms a fearlessly united church.

And as we survey the accomplishment of the finished work of Christ, this is what we see.

And at times I understand that it doesn't seem to match our personal experience.

But we cannot, that's what the here's what the culture wants to do.

They want to establish truth through personal experience and emotion.

Why are we diving into the same fallacy?

Well, we're allowing personal experience and emotion to dictate the truth of our lives.

No, the truth is here in the text.

And we're called to submit ourselves to it and then walk in light of it.

This truth transcends experience or emotion that we might feel.

And so what do we do?

We don't act out of emotion, we submit our emotions to the truth of the gospel and we walk out of that.

And so Christ, he forms a fearlessly united church.

Remember what he said to Peter as he was asking, who do they say that I am?

And Peter, you know, some say you're this Elijah, some say you're Moses.

Well, who do you say that I am?

Well, you're the Christ.

And what does he say to Peter?

What's a promise that he gives them?

Matthew 16, 18b, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What is that?

That's a fearless church.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What is a gate?

A gate is a defense mechanism.

It either keeps stuff in or keeps stuff out.

We tend to think of that passage as some type of advancing, of the of the of the kingdom of darkness advancing.

All throughout the New Testament, we see the reality of the kingdom is that its light is advancing and the darkness is retreating.

Right?

That's the whole introduction of John.

The light was coming into the world and it was pushing back the darkness.

What Jesus is saying is that my church will be a church who advances the gospel, who shines the light and continues to advance, and as hell itself tries to put up gates to keep you out, that they will not even prevail against the power of God's Spirit in us as we seek to see his kingdom expand throughout our world.

Why should we be afraid in this world?

Why should we be fear-filled in this life?

It's because we don't believe the gospel.

We are the ones who are advancing.

Hell is trying to stop us.

And its gates will not prevail.

It will be unable to stand against the power of his kingdom.

That should cause us to be fearless.

Jesus has promised us, you have no reason to fear.

Hell's gates will not prevail.

But Jesus also promises us that we'll be unified.

In John 17, 23, he says, I and them, and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Let me ask you a question.

This high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17, do you think Jesus' prayers get answered?

Maybe?

I don't know.

Shot in the dark, right?

Maybe, maybe Jesus' prayers get answered.

We kind of live in a reality where, you know, if we're honest with ourselves, good theology would tell you every prayer you pray gets answered.

Just not in the way that you want it to.

Because God knows better than you.

But every prayer gets answered.

But we're tempted to believe that our prayers don't get answered, right?

Because we don't get what we want, because we're tiny terror toddlers, right, in the spiritual world.

Jesus' prayers are answered.

You think that he spoke one word that would not come to pass?

Is there not a greater reality of unity in his body than we are often willing to be experiencing because of our own sin?

There is unity in his church.

We are members of his singular body.

The gospel creates a greater unity than our own sinful experience.

And so the truth of the gospel is that Christ has made us and he is forming us into a fearlessly united church.

Because the throne he is seated on, and the tomb it remains empty.

This is Jesus' church.

And the reality of it that has been ratified through his finished work is that it is a church of fearless unity.

So our hope for us, what is the gospel hope, the gospel vision?

That we would live for fearless unity.

That we would be a church who live for fearless unity.

What's that gonna take?

That's gonna take more understanding and belief and solidification into the truth of the gospel.

We need to dive deeper into the reality of the gospel than we ever had before, to be able to become a fearlessly unified church.

As we saw early in Philippians, what was the what was the gospel reality of unity?

That we would humbly serve one another.

Why?

Because Christ humbled himself.

But he didn't just humble himself to obedience to the point of death, even death on the cross.

He was then raised and highly exalted.

And he sits on the throne and we are exalted with him in Christ, seated in the heavenly places.

And what's the root of disunity?

Our own desire for exaltation.

We want to be exalted.

Why do we have selfish ambition or self-interest?

Because we desire to be exalted in our own self.

What does the gospel help us realize?

You've been exalted.

And not because of anything you've done, but because of everything that Christ has done.

So now what do you get to do?

Joyfully humble yourself and serve one another.

That's how we're gonna have unity.

What is that?

A deeper exploration to the eternally faceted truth and beauty of the gospel.

And why can we be fearless?

Because of Christ.

As we deep dive into the gospel, we see the truth that Christ has overcome.

He has conquered.

We can be a church who impushes back darkness.

Why?

Because we are called, as Philippians said earlier, Paul told us, because we are lights in the world.

Church, you have no reason to be afraid.

And we get so easily fearful.

But why?

Why are you afraid right now?

You're afraid that people are gonna come and take your children, you're afraid that the economy is gonna collapse, you're afraid that all these things are gonna come and be, you know, perilous times.

And oh man, let it all go.

And walk in fearlessness.

Because it doesn't matter what happens in the culture around us, it does nothing to the truth that Christ reigns, and he is coming back, and he will establish a new heaven and new earth, and everything that you're afraid of right now will be burnt away.

Why be afraid of something that cannot stand?

And we should be unified because that doesn't mean times aren't gonna get hard.

We're called to be fearless in the midst of hard times.

But you and I are gonna need one another.

We're gonna need one another to encourage one another, to build up one another, to strengthen one another.

And that's gonna cause me to lay down my life to serve you in humility.

It's gonna call for you to lay down your life to serve me in humility.

And in that, we'll be a fearlessly united church.

Amen.

Let's pray.