The Life Lived Worthily - Philippians 1:27-30 (Jan 14) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can open them up to Philippians chapter 1, verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

Now, I'm always getting kind of like a, I don't know, what you hear on the stage is not always the right thing.

But am I really loud out there?

Are you guys like, is that like deafening or is that just me?

Maybe in the back.

Give me a thumbs up, thumbs down.

Am I loud?

Thumbs up if I'm too loud.

This is confusing, eh?

Too loud?

Too loud?

Okay, maybe we can turn me down.

Because I feel like I'm just yelling and I'm not even like at level three of passion yet, okay?

So Philippians 1, verse 27 to 30.

Philippians 1:27–30

If you don't have a Bible, the ushers are gonna come to the front and they're gonna put a Bible into your hands, and you can keep that.

This is our gift to you.

We pray that you would read it and that your life would be changed.

If you're here and you are a Canadian citizen, there are things about you that if you were to go elsewhere, it would really reveal quickly that you are Canadian.

This is gonna be like that commercial we all saw growing up for a few minutes in this message.

You know, the I am Canadian commercial.

But there are certain things about being Canadian that you kind of carry with you as a Canadian, aren't there?

You'll go to other places and you'll be accused that you don't say about, you say about.

You'll go to other places and you'll be sorely disappointed with what they call coffee because you know that real coffee comes from Tim Hortons, and then it's got two creams and two sugars.

I love that in the presence of many Canadians, they're nodding their head, disgusting, disgusted with me that I'd call that real coffee.

Well, at least we can all agree on this.

You know that real syrup is not table syrup, Aunt Jemima stuff, it's maple syrup.

That's what it means to be Canadian in many ways, right?

Like we we know what syrup is.

You know that the greatest sport on earth is played on skates, and we're not talking about figure skating, we're talking about hockey.

These are things that just kind of kind of come along with the reality of being Canadian.

And as a citizen of Canada, there are certain manners, certain cultural notes that will stick to you no matter where you go.

Now, if that's a reality of being Canadian, what Paul wants to kind of ingrain in our life this morning is that if our Canadian citizenship changes the way we live, how much more should the reality of our heavenly citizenship be visible in the way that we live?

See, in many ways you could define the Christian pursuit, the Christian life as this.

To be a Christian is to live with the ethics, it's to live with the manners of heaven on display in your life at all times.

So then in many ways, as a Christian, you're walking in the manner of your heavenly citizenship, and you are constantly kind of like this anomaly to unbelievers who are seeing you and wondering why you're living like this.

In fact, in many ways, this is God's mission in the world right now, isn't it?

God's mission in the world right now is to conform the lives of believers to the image of his son, and for those lives to be a witness of the glory of Jesus Christ, of the worthwhile nature of following him.

See, your life is supposed to be shaped by something that the world doesn't have access to, the very realities of heaven.

Now, this is kind of, if you think about it, it's it's astounding to wrap our minds around, isn't it?

That right now, even though you and I are on earth, we we look around ourselves and very much we're constantly reminded that we are on earth, we are called in Scripture to live according to our heavenly realities, according to our heavenly citizenship.

Even though you and I are probably Canadian citizens, we're called to live according to our heavenly citizenship.

And the more and more we think about this as believers, the more and more we're like, this is awesome.

Because we look around and we think about our earthly realities, and this is kind of what we saw last week.

Everywhere we look, we just see depression, sadness, anxiety.

I mean, where can you look in this world and find something that is deep enough to truly satisfy you and give you joy?

We don't know.

And in fact, the writer of Ecclesiastes that he did this experiment where he had all the resources available to him.

He used everything on earth.

He was trying to find joy, like a conveyor belt, all the things of the world coming along in front of him.

Relationships, money, materials, jobs, joy, everything, laughter, everything.

And at the end of the day, all that he could say was that it was all vanity.

And you and I have experienced this, haven't we?

There's like this certain emptiness of the things of this world where we we just have it's like we have not experienced what we long to experience yet.

And we wonder, maybe, maybe we can experience, you know, maybe if our life situation changes a little bit, maybe if we get that promotion or this person in our life changes, or this situation or circumstance changes, maybe then we'll experience it.

But the reality is that none of us have in this in and of this world experienced it yet.

And yet there's such good news here.

Paul has such good news here that your calling as a Christian is not to live according to your earthly reality.

Your calling as a Christian is not to be consumed by your situ your your earthly situation.

You are called to live to a different reality.

And so you look at your your heavenly reality, and you know this.

You know in heaven there there's gonna be no sinful struggle.

Right?

Sin is like sin is wiped away.

And yet on earth we we struggle constantly, don't we?

We we have these sins like we just we don't want them anymore, but they just kind of they they rear up their ugly head constantly.

And Paul says, you don't live to your earthly reality, you live to your heavenly reality.

And you think about this life and all the things that there are to be anxious about, and you think, man, in heaven there's gonna be nothing to be anxious about.

You know, the sovereign God's gonna have everything under control.

And Paul says, You live according to that reality.

You know, and in heaven we get this sense of like it's gonna be forever, everlasting, eternal joy, satisfaction, peace, all the things we lack in this world.

And Paul looks at us and he says, live according to your heavenly reality.

What Paul's calling for, we're gonna read this in a moment here, but he's really calling for this heavenly mindedness.

And you and I have heard about heavenly mindness mindedness.

You've heard the critics who have said, you know, that person, you know, that criticism we often give of people, they're so heavenly minded, they're of no earthly good.

In my life, I've always been motivated by this C.

S.

Lewis comment.

He says this, and if you read in history, you'll find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

It's since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they've become so ineffective in this world.

He says this aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth, and you will get neither.

And I look at that and I think, I want that.

I want that effectiveness that comes when your mind is consumed with your heavenly reality.

And Paul is telling us just how to do that in Philippians 1, verses 27 to 30.

Philippians 1:27–30

Let's read this together.

Follow along with me.

Philippians chapter 1, verse 27 to 30.

Philippians 1:27–30

Paul says this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is 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, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Paul's pointing our lives to this heavenly reality and showing us how we live a life really that is worthy of this reality.

And the first thing that he's calling us to is here, is this that in order to do this, I must become who I already am.

I must become who I already am.

Now notice what Paul says here in verse 27.

He says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel.

Now, by saying this word only, Paul, what he's what he's really doing is focusing all the attention of our Christian life on this one thing.

You could kind of say it like this there's one thing I want you to get.

You could boil down everything you hear about Christian living, you could boil down every action of the Christian life, and you could boil it down into this one thing.

Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel.

Now, the Greek word for manner of life, it's gonna sound familiar to many of us.

It's poletusethe.

This is the Greek word.

It comes from the Greek word paulis, which means city, and it carries tones of citizenship.

Now, here Paul uses the verb, you're likely familiar with Philippians chapter 3, verse 20.

Philippians 3:20

You can look over it there with me.

Paul uses the noun form of this verb in verse 20.

He says, But our citizenship is in heaven.

This word refers to citizens, it refers to practicing your citizenship.

And so even some of your translations likely say, live as citizens here.

And so what God is doing right now is he's looking at our life and he's pointing out that there is a reality concerning our citizenship that should form and shape the way that we live.

And Paul is really saying that you can boil all of the Christian life down to this reality that you are a citizen of heaven, and that because of that reality, you should live as one.

Now we understand this, don't we?

We understand that the reality of our citizenship affects the way that we live.

And so, as Canadians, you and I, very likely, if you're looking at your weather apps, you were ready for a big snowstorm.

As Canadians, we're prepared for that.

You're looking out the window, you got your hand on the shovel, you're saying, bring it on.

I'm ready.

Yet it didn't come, but but needless to say, we're ready for the white stuff to fall from the sky.

We're prepared for that.

This is what it means to live in Canada.

In fact, whenever we fly to somewhere south, we we land, we get off the plane, we say, Why do we live in Canada?

Why do we deal with this reality?

Now God's looking at us, and he's saying this, you, because of what Jesus Christ has done, you have a new reality, and that new reality should shape the way that you live.

You need to live in a way that's consistent with your new reality.

And so then our question becomes what's our what is our new reality?

Well, look at what Paul says in verse 27.

Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

See, this new reality for you and I, if our faith is in Jesus Christ, this new reality is the gospel.

We live according to the new reality of the gospel.

Now, this word gospel, it means good news.

And Paul, throughout Philippians, has been talking about this good news.

You'll remember in Philippians 1, verse 2, when he talked about the good news that we can be holy if we're in Christ.

Philippians 1:2

He called us there saints in Christ Jesus.

He reminded us of the good news that if your faith is in Jesus Christ, God looks at you and you are perfectly holy.

As sinful as you are, as much as you struggle, God only sees holiness.

He'll be reminded of verse 6 when he reminded us of the good news that if God began a good work in you, He's it's as good as done.

He's gonna bring it to completion.

You'll be reminded of last week when we spent time in Philippians chapter 1, verses 18 to 26, and we're reminded of the reality that Jesus has already delivered us.

Philippians 1:18–26

And Paul lived in a way that even though he was in prison, he was confident that he would be delivered.

This is all good news.

In Christ you're holy, in Christ you've made it, in Christ you are delivered.

And so what Paul is doing is then looking at our life and saying, saying, live like it.

This is the whole of the Christian life.

It's it's stepping into the reality of what has already been purchased for you.

And this is an amazing, this is amazing news.

This is like it's like comparable to going to the grocery store and discovering that everything you need has already been purchased for you.

You don't even need to buy it.

That's the Christian life, and so and so really the Christian life it's it's like going through the grocery store, and all you need to do is to collect the things that are already yours.

It's already been done.

Do you hear Paul saying this?

Christian growth is walking in a manner worthy of the gospel.

The gospel is already yours, and so live in a way that shows it.

I love what Martin Lloyd Jones says.

It was gonna come up on the screen.

He says, holiness is not something we're called upon to do in order that we may become something.

You ever think that?

You think I gotta be a Christian in order that I might become more holy?

He says, holiness is not something we're called upon to do in order that we may become something, it is something we are to do because of what we already are.

I am not to live a good and holy life in order that I may become a Christian.

I am to live the holy life because I am a Christian.

Now, this is this is such good news for us because it reminds us that anytime we take up the pursuit of something that is not Christ, anytime we take up the pursuit of idolatry, we've become a fool.

Because the the pursuit of Christ is this.

He is calling us to embrace everything that he has already won for us.

And idolatry says this rather than walking in in the newness of life that Christ has already purchased for me, idolatry says, I'm gonna try to gain some new stuff.

I'm gonna try to get what I don't yet have.

And Christ is looking at us, he says, I've already purchased everything you need.

See, this is what C.S.

Lewis is talking about when he says, When you aim at earth, you get nothing, but when you aim at heaven, you get earth thrown in.

The pursuit of idolatry is foolishness because you are working for things that you do not have and you may never get.

The pursuit of Christ is gospel, it's good news because when you walk in Christ, when you live the life of faith, you are just collecting the things that Christ has already purchased for you.

Now, how does this practically work?

Let's get really practical for a second.

What if what you're after in life is control?

Say that your idol is control.

Like your life is all about, I just want to control every single detail.

It's really all about power, isn't it?

You want to have the power in your life to be able to exercise control in every area of life so that every detail is kind of like under your surveillance.

Now, if that's your idol, you can walk in that idolatry of control and power, and you can actually get a lot of control in life, can't you?

Like if that's your thing, you realize there's a lot of ways where like you can you can get control in life.

And so, in in terms of your finances, you can kind of like coordinate your life in a way that you have a lot of control.

You work a lot of hours so that you can get a lot of money, and you can put some money in an RSP, and so you can have a pension, so that you feel like no matter what happens, I have control over my retirement.

And if control is your thing, you'll even kind of coordinate the relationships around you so that you know you have control of the people around you.

You know their schedule, you know what they are doing.

And in any area in life that you don't have control, you kind of have to you put all this effort to make sure that you know exactly what's going on, that you're in control of what's going on.

You know what the problem is?

You've spent a lot of time, you spent a lot of energy working to get control.

And the reality is that you may have gotten a little bit of control, but we know that all it takes is one unforeseen thing and we lose all control.

And so, sure, you can kind of like build up all the your your finances so that you're financially set, and yet it takes one economic downturn and you suddenly have no control at all.

It takes the loss of your job, and you've you've lost all this feeling of control.

It takes the the the sickness of that person that you are in a relationship with, and and you suddenly realize you have no control at all.

You've been walking down this path, trying to get as much control as you can, and yet it has been nothing but a sham.

You have really, at the end of the day, you have nothing.

Now, how does the gospel speak to this?

God's good news for you.

If your thing is control, you know what God's good news for you is?

Is that there is someone who does have all the control, and it is not a sham.

He has control of everything.

See, God looks at the universe, he looks at the galaxies, and he says, I control it all.

The Milky Way, the galaxy, he says, I uphold that by the word of my power.

It's like I only need a pinky to control all those things.

I've been controlling them for the whole history of the universe.

Every star has been held in its place by me.

God looks at control in our lives and He says, You want to talk about control?

Every speck of dust that has ever landed for the whole history of humanity, I have controlled where it goes.

From the smallest detail of your life to the largest detail of your life.

God looks at your life and he says, I have control.

And you know what the good news of the gospel is, is that God calls you into a relationship with this one who is truly in control.

And when the gospel is rightly planted in your heart, you know what it makes you do?

It makes you think, why would I ever walk in idolatry when God is calling me to everything I long for?

God has purchased for me everything I need.

Why would I not just rest in his embrace?

Why would I work hard to gain what I cannot ever actually have?

See, the gospel, it confronts us over and over and over again.

And Siri wants me to say that again, if he heard that.

And so I will.

The gospel confronts us over and over and over again.

It says, it says, I don't I don't need my boss's approval, but I already have the approval of Christ.

It says, I don't need my spouse to be my savior.

I already have a savior.

See that see, this is your gospel reality.

You already have everything you need.

This is why in Psalm 23, David says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Because in him I have everything I need.

And we've shared this illustration before, but I just find it so powerful if you can imagine for a moment that you adopted a child into your family, and this child was from a third world, and you gave this child everything that he or she needed.

You brought her into her house, so uh there's warmth, there's food, there's edge- everything they need is in your house.

And you wake up the next day after you adopt them and they're they're gone.

And you look at it, and they're going down your street and they're knocking on your neighbor's doors, and they're begging for money, they're begging for shelter, they're begging for food.

What would you do in that scenario?

Well, well, you'd go and you you'd take this child into your loving embrace and say, Listen, everything you need, you have here.

And so your job then is to stay home.

Your job's to stay home.

Stay here.

I have already gotten you everything you need.

And God's looking at you this morning and saying that everything you need is in Him.

And the pursuit of idolatry, as though it can win you something that you do not have in Christ is foolishness in light of it.

The second thing I want you to see is that when we embrace our heavenly reality and we're living a life that's worthy of the gospel, Paul tells us we need to advance what's already been won.

And so, first he tells us that sanctification is becoming who we already are.

So then the process of sanctification then is like that illustration of walking through the grocery store and taking what's already ours.

And so Paul's gonna explain exactly what that looks like.

Notice what he says: he says that he wants us to walk in a manner worthy of the life of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I'm a hero.

That you are standing firm.

Paul says, this is what it's going to look like.

If I come and you are walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, this is exactly what your life is going to look like.

And so this makes it really practical.

What does it look like to actually walk in a manner worthy of the gospel?

To live in a manner that's worthy of the good news of Jesus Christ.

What does that actually look like?

Well, notice the first thing Paul says.

He says that if we're going to do this, we need to stand firm.

He says that in verse 27, that I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit.

Now, this action of standing firm, it's a military word.

The Philippines would have understood this.

This was like a military word used of armies when they had taken a territory.

They were to stand firm.

They were not to yield an inch of territory, of ground to the enemies.

You need to hold that fortress.

And what God is doing then by calling us to stand firm is He's looking at our faith and he's showing us that a necessary element of every Christian's walk is this undetermination, unshakable determination to keep walking in Christ.

And so this is like the Christian life, this is like Braveheart.

This is William Wallace, the Sterling Bridge, the English are coming.

You gotta hold the bridge.

You want to get more historical for a moment?

We can talk about Lord of the Rings.

This is Aragon.

Some of you guys are like, he's convinced this is history, and I might be.

This is Aragon at Helm's Deep, holding the walls.

God's looking at our faith, and he's saying, This if you're gonna live in a manner worthy of the gospel, there are certain actions that are absolutely necessary, certain habits that are absolutely necessary in your life if you are gonna keep the faith.

He says, stand firm on these actions.

And so the question for us then is how do we stand firm?

What does this look like?

Well, I believe what Paul has in mind here are really the disciplines and the habits of the Christian faith.

He says, keep doing the things that cause you to draw near to God.

Now we understand that about goals that we set.

We understand that about accomplishing things in our life, don't we?

We understand that if we have a goal set, there are certain habits, there are certain practices we need to do in order to achieve that goal.

And so, you know, it's the new year.

Probably most of us have given up on this resolution by now, but some of us maybe have decided, well, we're gonna lose some weight this year.

And so we understand that's gonna need to change things.

Things are gonna need to change in our life.

Like we can't just keep eating all the cookies that we were eating at Christmas, all the turkey that we were having at Christmas.

We gotta change things.

And so there are certain habits, there are certain disciplines that that take place, aren't there?

We stop, maybe, maybe we stop eating sugar.

Maybe we start going to the gym, maybe we start going outside and walking.

We recognize that if this goal is going to be accomplished, it's gonna take certain habits and certain disciplines to be put in place in our life.

Now, how much more important is it then in terms of our spiritual progress that we have certain habits, that we have certain disciplines in place?

Well, Paul tells us exactly, he says to Timothy, he says, bodily training is of some value, but exercise godliness.

And God is looking at us tonight this morning and he's saying this.

If you're gonna make progress, there's gonna need to be certain habits and disciplines in place that are regularly happening in your life that cause you to draw nearer and nearer to God.

And that's the question we need to ask ourselves.

Do I have the habits and disciplines in place this year that are going to cause me to draw nearer and nearer to God this year?

Let me just talk for a moment about really the foundation of Christian growth, about Bible reading and prayer, the personal discipline and habit of reading the Bible and praying.

When it comes to those habits, can I ask you this question?

Are those things that are like mainstays in your life?

Let me just tell you that this is step one of Christianity.

This is like new believer, this is the first thing I'm telling him to do.

Get into a regular rhythm of reading the Bible and praying.

They're fundamental to Christian maturity.

If these are not in place, there's no Christian growth, there's no Christian advancement.

Now, if you're at a place where you're standing firm in those habits, like you've got it locked down.

I do this every day.

I want to let you know you're in a great place.

But if you don't have those habits in place, can I just say this in great?

Like, this is not about shame.

You need to get back to step one.

You need to get back to step one.

And I'm talking like this afternoon, you need to carve out some time this afternoon where you look at your calendar and you say, How am I gonna do, how am I gonna do this?

You gotta stop trying to fit it into your day and you gotta start planning your day around this.

This is the most important thing you can do.

This is like step one of Christian growth.

Get in the word and pray.

Practice these personal disciplines.

See, the problem is that many of us have mistaken spiritual maturity with like the length of time that we're Christians.

That's not the way that the Bible looks at it.

The Bible looks at your walk to talk about maturity.

The Bible looks at the disciplines and the habits that you have in place that are growing you, that are changing your character.

And so the reality may be there there may be Christians in here who you've been a Christian for 50 years and still this is not a reality in your life, and I just need to tell you in love, you need to get back to the milk.

You need to get this in place.

You know, I've been in a number of small groups over the last 10 years of my life, and and time and time again, I've been walk, I've walked with believers, and this is not my screw, small group, by the way.

My small group always gets so scared when I start talking about small group, maybe I'm gonna be exposed.

This is not them.

And yet I've walked with people who I you know, I've been in their small group for three years, and every week they're coming and they're just saying, I just can't, I just can't read the Bible.

I just can't fit, I just, you know, I just was not in the Word today.

And part of me wants to say, like, all your energy needs to go into this.

This is the most important discipline of the Christian life.

You cannot deal with any other thing without this discipline in place.

If you, if your life is filled with anxiety and worry and you are not regularly reading God's word and praying, well, it's like obviously that's what's gonna happen.

When we don't have an intake of God's perspective in our life, that is just what's gonna happen.

And so we say this, not to heap shame on anyone, anybody, but to say this like if you are in a place right now where there's there's this conviction of like, I've got to get this in place, you are in a good place.

You are in a place where you are primed for serious growth this year.

Nothing will change your life, like the regular habit and discipline of taking up God's word and reading it and praying and experiencing your relationship with Him.

We need to stand firm.

Now notice that Paul's next call here is to strive.

He says we stand firm in one spirit, and then notice what he says at the end of verse 27 that you are with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Now, here Paul has changed illustrations where standing firm is a military illustration, striving forward is this athletic illustration that the Philippians would have understood.

This is Usain Bolt running the hundred-meter dash, and every ounce of effort is going into every step of him, making sure that he can run the race with the greatest speed possible.

Or, if you want an even more historical illustration of this, this is like Lord of the Rings in the Fellowship of the Ring, when Aragon and Legolus and Gimli and the Hobbits are pushing forward to Mount Doom to get rid of the ring.

I know what some of you are thinking like this guy talks about Lord of the Rings a lot.

And that's the reality.

We do talk about the Lord of the Rings a lot at this church, and so I'm just saying one of the helpful things you can do for your growth is maybe watch it this year, like watch all three movies.

That's why the elders, we've decided step three, you know, step one of the church is come to the lunch, step two of the church is come to the class, step three of the church is a 10-hour Lord of the Rings movie marathon.

We just sit down, we plug through all of them.

You're really gonna understand the sermons a lot better after you kind of download this information.

Now, notice this is what Paul is saying.

We embrace our Christian faith by striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Now, this is what the attentive reader asks.

Paul has just asked me to stand firm, to hold my ground, and then in the very next verse, he's told me to strive forward.

And so the question then is, well, which one is it?

I can't stop and go at the same time.

And yet this points us to real a reality of the Christian life that if you are not progressing in growth, you are actually going backwards.

The Christian life, it's like biking uphill.

As soon as you stop putting effort into your walk with the Lord, you actually start going backwards.

I love how Mark Dever says it.

He says, Some today seem to think that one can be a baby Christian for a whole lifetime.

Growth is seen to be an optional extra for particular zealous disciples.

But be very careful about taking that line of thought.

Growth is a sign of life.

Growing trees are living trees.

Growing animals are living animals.

When something stops growing, it dies.

And so it is with the Christian life.

The Christian who has life is constantly looking at areas of their life that they can progress.

Now, notice that Paul points out exactly how this is done.

He says that with one mind, we are striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

You cannot do this apart from community.

That's why one of the most important things that we find as a church, the best way that we can serve you is to plug you into a small group community where there are believers who know you, where there are believers who you can look at and you say, Hey, what could I do to grow?

And you know, if you have a small group leader who's been following you for even some weeks, they'll be able to look at your life and say, Hey, listen, I'm noticing some themes, and maybe these are some things you can do to grow.

See, we need community for these things.

We need other people.

If we're gonna strive forward, Paul says, You need believers.

You are not an island.

I want you to see the third way we embrace our heavenly reality, third way we live in a way that's worthy of the gospel.

Paul says this, we accept it will be hard.

We accept it'll be hard.

Notice what Paul says in verse 28.

He says, Not frightened by anything.

We we live in a manner worthy of the gospel, not frightened by anything, in anything by your opponents.

This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

God's saying this, when you live this way, when your life is worthy of the gospel, there is going to be every reason for fear.

There's gonna be every reason not to do it.

But don't back down.

Do not fear.

The life that you are living, where you are standing firm, where you are striving forward, the world is watching and God is using it.

So don't let the world watch and cause you to question the way that you are living.

This is the picture he paints.

He says, when you live like this, when you stand firm on the habits and disciplines of the Christian life, when you advance in growth and community, he says that to the watching world, this will be a clear sign to them of their destruction.

God's using this.

Now, the question we need to ask is this how is this a clear sign of unbelievers' destruction?

Well, one option is that maybe unbelievers are looking at us, they see the way that we live, and they say, oh man, I'm on the path of destruction, and they're on the path of life, and maybe I need to change the way that we live.

I'm living.

I don't think that's what Paul's talking about here.

I think what Paul has in mind here is that unbelievers are gonna look at our life and they're gonna say, What are they doing with their time?

Why are they using their Sunday mornings like that?

Why are they gathering in community?

Why aren't they taking that promotion that would take them away from their family?

Why are they so adamant about pouring into the discipleship of their family?

Why are they doing these things?

See, unbelievers will look at our life and they will think that we're living the life of destruction.

The picture Paul paints here is as though you were to look at a sign.

Imagine I was looking at a sign, and on this side the sign said life.

But on your side, you saw the same sign and it said death.

It'd be the same sign, but as we look at it, it would point to two different realities.

And the unbeliever looks at the Christian life and they say, That's not for me.

That's the that is the path of destruction.

I will never walk on that path.

Christian looks at their life and all the time that they spend in the community, all the things they forsake for Christ, all the ways that they use their times, their talents, their treasures to serve the church, and they realize they're doing this because it leads to life.

This is them living out their heavenly reality.

This is how Paul said it would be.

But I have like this allergy to Febrize or something in Febreze.

I don't know what it is, but I can walk into a house where Febreze was sprayed like three days ago, and I will immediately get a headache.

It's like, it's like kind of like Spider-Man's, you know, his senses, like my spidey senses are tingling, but it's like for freshness, is what I have, and it's a headache instead of my spidey senses tingling.

I just I don't know what it is.

Some some sort of chemical in Febreze I'm allergic to.

And so other people will spray it all over their house, you know, thinking this is gonna make it smell so good, smells so pleasant, like a spring bloom, whatever that smells like.

I've never smelt it, but in a Febreze bottle.

And so they spray it all around, and to them it's life.

I walk in, and that same smell, something's broken in my body that I smell, it's like death.

Smells okay, but my head just starts pounding.

And Paul is looking at the gospel here, and he's saying, Because of your sinful state, you cannot smell what is actually good.

The aroma of the gospel is life, but if you are outside of Christ, it will be to you death.

Living for Christ will be the last thing you've ever wanted to do.

And so this needs to be a call to maybe you're here and you're not a Christian, and maybe you're not living for Christ.

Can I just tell you something?

That because of your sinfulness, God steps into your life and he says, there's a brokenness here.

Something is broken inside of you, it's the same thing that was broken inside everybody in this room at one point, and it's causing you to think that the things that are actually life are death to you.

It's causing you to pursue things that will actually only ever lead to your death.

This is what happened for Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve were in the garden, and God told them, if you tree eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die.

And you know what happened?

In Adam and Eve, this switch flicked where they looked at something that the only thing was promised to them was death, and they said, This will be good.

And it was a delight to their eyes.

And you need to know that if you don't have faith, if you don't have the glasses of faith on, everything you look at in life that you think will be good for you will actually only lead to your death.

And God is here now calling you, calling you by faith to believe in Jesus Christ, to believe in the one who died so that you might be fixed, so that that switch inside of you might be turned on, so that you might look to Jesus Christ and see that he is actually worthy of your life, that he is actually beautiful, and then you look to everything else in your life and you see it's nothing but vanity.

It's all a waste.

And there's a Savior who died for you so that you could have life.

That's also necessary for believers to hear this and not get distracted.

Do not get distracted, pursuing the things that only lead to your death.

Instead, live your life with great urgency, pursuing the things that lead to life.

We have such need, such need to be aware of the things and the temptations that might tangle us up in the pursuits of this world.

It can happen so quickly.

It happened to me this week.

I was walking, and I do this often where I just I walk and I'll maybe I'll have a psalm on my phone and I'm just praying, and I you know, have cards and I'm praying for for people, and and and I'll walk for a good amount of time, and I live in the country, so I'm walking on the road.

And I was walking and praying, and as I was walking, a car started driving towards me.

It was a really nice car.

And I looked at the car and I said, wow.

And I caught myself thinking this, I'm like, that guy has the life, that guy's got it made.

You know, you drive a 2004 Toyota Corolla and you start to think these things whenever you see pretty much any car.

But then I thought, well, if I had that car, I also wouldn't have any sermon illustrations, and so I need to drive the car I have, otherwise I won't have anything to preach about.

But the spirit also in that moment kind of convicted me and it made me realize like you are so much richer walking on the road with Jesus than you are driving with the greatest luxuries of this earth.

You're so much richer.

If all you have is Christ, you are richer than if you were to have all the riches of the world.

Those things, now I don't know, this guy might have been a Christian, so I might be making a big judgment of him, but but but those things, when you pursue those things as though you can actually squeeze joy and satisfaction and life out of them, all you will ever get is death.

And yet Jesus calls you to him.

And he calls you to will to life.

It's only then that you can make sense of what Paul says here next.

He says, For it has been granted to you.

It's like what Paul's saying is like, this is this is God's gift to you.

Are you ready for this?

This is God's gift to you.

That you should not only believe in him.

We understand that, right?

We understand how faith is a gift, but look what he says next.

You should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

Engaged in the same conflict you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

You see the language here?

God is looking at our life, and he's saying, the suffering that has been given to you, where you have to forsake the world in order to follow Christ, where you have to take up this, your cross, this instrument of brutal death in order to follow Christ, theologically, this suffering is a gift.

The fact that living for Christ is hard is a gift.

Because it leads to Christ, Paul says.

It leads you to Christ.

Belief and suffering, he says, look at these words.

They're for the sake of Christ, so that you may have what truly brings life.

Isn't it true that there's a type of suffering in life that's so worth it because of the reward you get?

And that's what Paul is pointing our mind to.

That there is a suffering that that in light of the reward, the suffering is like not even suffering at all.

Parenting's kind of like this, isn't it?

Like, if we were to look objectively at parenting, those of you who are parents know this, and those of you are who babysit also know this, and those of you who have younger siblings also know this.

Parenting entails a lot of suffering.

In fact, my wife was reminded of that this week.

She was making lunch for our kids, and the lunch had turkey bacon in it.

And so she gave the turkey bacon to my youngest kid, and my youngest child ate it, and she thought the same thing we all think when we eat turkey bacon this is a fraud.

This is not bacon at all.

And so she took a bite and she decided she was going on strike.

She ate the whole thing, put the whole thing.

Her mouth, but she did not swallow it.

She just kind of like put it in her cheeks like a chipmunk.

It was a protest.

Now, many minutes later, while she was on the ground, she vomited up this concoction of gross turkey bacon.

Some of you are like, this sermon's getting really gross.

I know it's got a some gross turkey bacon concoction, and my wife was scarred for the rest of the day.

And she realized that like you would never sign up for this if this was all you got.

And yet there is a sweetness to parenting of watching kids grow, of watching them succeed.

There is a sweetness of parenting that makes you say, Well, I would sign up for this thing a hundred times over because of the reward.

If this was it, like I would never do it.

This is disgusting, but I would sign up for this for the reward.

It is so worth it.

And Paul's looking at our life and he's saying, there is a suffering, there is a hardness to the Christian life that, in light of the reward, the fact that it is for the sake of Christ makes it entirely worth it.

Suffering is so worth it.

And Paul reminds us what our suffering is for.

It's for his sake.

It's a suffering that draws us closer to the reward that is Christ Himself.

And it's a suffering done for his sake because of the suffering that he did for our sake.

And it's that suffering, the suffering that Christ did for the great reward of our salvation that brings us to communion.

And as we enter into this time of communion, you should have got a cup on your way in, but if you didn't, the ushers are going to bring a cup to the floor to the front of the worship center, and you can just flag them down and grab this.

And this is for believers.

If you are an unbeliever, the scriptures actually say that by drinking of this, you're actually heaping judgment on your head.

And so we just ask you to let this pass, and we would love to talk to you about that after this service.

We'd love to show you how Jesus offers you eternal life.

Second reason you might not take this is because you're walking in unrepentant sin.

Maybe you have sin in your life where you're just not willing to deal with it.

This clear way that God is revealing to you that you're not walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, but you're saying, God, I don't care.

Now I'm not talking about sin that you've repented of but struck you're struggling with.

That's all of us.

I'm talking about the sin that you're hardened to, that you just are unwilling to listen to God about.

And if that's you, you need to let this pass.

Let's pray as we take this.

Father, we praise you for this cup and for this bread.

And God, we thank you that you have suffered for a great reward.

And Lord, in Hebrews, it says that it was a joy, it was for the joy set before you that you endured the cross.

And God, we think the only reason you endured it was because of our sin.

Lord, your reward was our salvation.

God, we take up this communion cup to celebrate that, Lord, that there's life for us.

There's hope for us because of the blood that Christ shed, because of the suffering that he endured.

God, we get to participate in the great reward of salvation.

And so we give you all the praise, Lord.

Thank you that as we take this symbol, it reminds us of our reality, that we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We have been made new, and that our new reality is a heavenly reality where we are told that we are seated right now with Christ in the heavenly places.

And so we give you all the praise, Lord.

And we thank you for this gift.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

You'll notice that there's two layers.

If you take the top layer, you'll get to the bread.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you.

That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he broke it, when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

The same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup.

Father, we thank you.

God, thank you for our union with you.

And we stand now, Lord, to proclaim God that you have won every battle, you have done everything we need.

And Lord, we want to live in the reality that you have purchased for us in Christ.

And so, God, we praise you.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.