Philippians 3:15-21; 4:1-3

We're jumping into Philippians.

We're sort of nearing the end of our series, and so this morning, as in

this afternoon as well, we're gonna be from chapter three verses 15.

So the end of chapter three into the very start of chapter

four, verses one to three.

So we're gonna read it together, says this, all of us, everyone

say, all of us then who are mature should take such a view of things.

Full stop.

And if on some point you think differently, that too,

God will make clear to you.

Only let us live up.

Everyone say live up.

Let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you

have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do for, as I have

often told you before, and now I tell you again, even with tears, many live

as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their destiny is destruction.

Their God is their stomach and their glory is.

In their shame, their mind is set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in

heaven and we eagerly way a way to savior you from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control

will transform our lowly bodies into that, so into our body so that

they will be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you who my love and long for my cr joy and

crown stand firm in the Lord in this way.

Dear friends, I plead.

With Odier and I plead with you.

Sin tiki.

Tiki sin.

There we go.

To be of the same mind in the Lord.

Yes, and I'll ask you my true companion help these women since

they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with

Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.

That's our reading for today.

And so I, wanna begin,

this way.

There's a story of a man in the early 19 hundreds who'd lost everything.

We're talking about London, England here.

He'd lost family and France home possessions, work.

He'd lost everything, including his hope.

But the only thing he did have was a ticket on a large

passenger cruiser to America.

The caber he was in was in the lowest part of the boat, the cheapest room

with a hammock for a bed, and the trip took for over a week, and as the ship

pulled up at the dock in New York, the exiting passenger shook the hand

of the captain as they disembarked, and the captain met this man.

And he asked why did he not see him eating in the hall during the Atlantic crossing?

And the man replied, oh, I'm sorry, sir. My, my ticket was just for the ride.

I, I couldn't afford the food.

So I stayed in the cabin and the captain informed the man that all the food,

even a meal at the captain's table, was included in the price of the ticket.

It says here Paul's saying, only let us keep in.

Step, step into live, up to step into what you have already attained.

You've not just been given a ticket, you've been given a life that is to

be lived with Christ and with Christ.

There's so much more to experience.

Paul's saying, actually, it's possible for you to believe in the finished work of

Jesus, but still miss out on the abundant life that Jesus offers every single

one of us, his children are you living?

This is a question for us this morning.

Are you living the life that you think God has imagined for you?

Are you living a life like you read in the New Testament that you hear

about in the early church history?

Maybe moments in.

The history of the church, the last 200 years of evangelical

missionization of the word.

Are you living a, a life that's kind of on purpose with passion and vision

seeking first the kingdom of God, or are you seeking first your own kingdom?

Or have you started to believe, well, I'm just a second class

kind of citizen, Christian.

Citizen in the kingdom of God.

Have you started to believe, well, that kind of thing, you're

describing this kind of abundant life, this on mission kind of life.

Well, that's just for the special people.

It's not actually for me.

Paul is.

I think Paul was telling us here that these stories that he talks about,

that he's experiencing, that these sort of stories can be your stories.

He's calling us to live up to what we've already attained.

That's what it says in verse 16.

And so Paul, what is he referring to?

What is it that he's already attained?

What does he have?

Well, based on the earlier part of chapter three, verses eight through to 12, we're

told Paul believes that he's already attained Christ, that he can know Christ,

know him, know God, and be found in him.

And Paul lists kind of in this moment, in the buildup to what we're just read,

he's listing the things that in his prior life, he attained his accomplishments.

And then he says from verse eight, which was.

What we read, a couple weeks ago, I'm gonna read it

again from Earth verse eight.

These prior accomplishments, he considers them garbage.

That he may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of

my own that comes from the law, but that which is in faith through faith

in Christ Jesus, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

I wanna know Christ yes, to know the power of his resurrection and

participation in his sufferings becoming like him in his death.

And so somehow attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

Don't miss this.

Not that I've already attained all this or that I've already arrived at

my goal, but I press on to take hold that which Christ took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it,

but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what

is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has

called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Is there real authenticity as you, you read that it's quite inspiring.

Do you feel your heart stir?

Like in the reality they like, this is Paul speaking and he's like, I

haven't even already attained it, I'm still working towards this.

What, what is he already attained?

That's kind of this question mark that's lingering and, and he

points at it in different places.

But I kind of wanna summarize it in this way this morning and I wanna.

Potentially introduce you to, three theological concepts, just to

help us grasp what he's attained.

And many of you'll know these words.

I've got them on the screen.

These words are very theological.

They're justification, sanctification, glor, glorification.

Now what, what are these things?

I've, I read this week this way, and I thought this was quite

interesting.

Say justification

is this, you saved from, from the penalty of sin.

Sanctification is you saved from the practice of sin and glorification

saved from the presence of sin.

Just, kind of explain those a little bit more Justification reminds us

that Jesus Christ has done everything necess necessary for our salvation.

He's paid the penalty that our sins deserved by

sacrificial death on the cross.

His death satisfied God's justice and turned away his wrath from us.

And, but Jesus also lived the perfect life, and by his righteous obedience

to God's lo, both Christ's, sacrifice.

He's, he satisfies the.

The penalty of judgment.

He satisfies that, but he's also, his perfect righteousness is given to us.

It's words, ideas imputed to us.

It's credited to us.

It's ours by grace, through faith, and we're all meant to take comfort

in the fact that this has all been done for us, and that when the

father in heaven looks upon Jesus.

Actually, he looks upon us as though we are completely free.

We are completely sinless.

We are as perfect as Jesus is.

That's how the father looks upon us.

Justification, sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby

we are renewed into the whole man.

The whole image of God.

We are enabled, more and more to die to sin, to live unto righteousness.

When you are in the middle of process of sanctification sin, the

practice of sin begins to look so repulsive because you've got this

beautiful new affection in your life.

It's called your desire to seek after God.

And as.

Those gone before us said there's like this explosive power of a new love.

I love Jesus.

And so the attractiveness of sin gets less and less.

This is the journey of sanctification,

glorification.

This means

that there's the sin and consequences of sin.

No more sickness, no more fear.

Where sanctify sanctification is the transformational process.

Glorification is this kind of idea that we are arriving more and more

into the actual body of Jesus.

We're actually becoming glorified, like Jesus is glorified.

And this is an interesting dynamic because we can talk about that as in

it's kind of happening today in part, but we know there's gonna be a day

where that is gonna happen in full.

Is this making sense to everyone?

The reason why I speak like this is 'cause sometimes when we read these

ideas, we think about the idea that justification has already been done.

It's like a, like a past concept.

And then we think about glorification, we think, well, that's

definitely in the future, right?

And then sanctification.

Well, that's kinda like what we're in right now.

And I wanna submit to you today that all three are currently

happening here and now.

Right now it's not like.

So I think in the, in the church generally, there's been an emphasis

on justification and glorification.

And sanctification.

Well, that all seems like a lot of hard work, so we'll try and sort of

downgrade that a little bit because the first, the first and the last kind of

have this great sense of hope, right?

But the reality is we are all in this process.

So the Bible says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

that's happening even right now.

I need Jesus today just as much as the day I first believed for my justification.

Would you agree?

So it's not just like a past dynamic.

And this glorification dynamic is a sense, yes, the fulfillment of

it might be in the future, but the reality effect of it can actually sit

and affect me in the here and now.

Does that make sense?

Like should I live in hope today, that I have a future that is

perfect with God that should.

Move my heart.

I just wanna quickly add to this, 'cause someone, when we read this,

which I love the language there by the way, that's fantastic.

But the, one of the common words there is the idea we're saved from,

I just wanna give you a another quick way of thinking about it.

That we're actually not just saved from, we're saved to something.

And so justification is we're saved to forgiveness and righteousness.

We are children of God.

Sanctification we're saved to a life of holiness and obedience and

glorification we're saved to an eternal perfection in God's presence because

sometimes if we don't have a vision for what we're actually after, sometimes

this idea we're saved from something actually doesn't lead us with vision.

And what's Paul's starting here?

He's saying live up to what you have already attained.

So we've gotta understand what we've already attained in order

to live up to that very thing.

Would you agree?

Awesome.

You're with me.

I'm liking this.

Well done Paul.

You are making this nice and clear, but there's a lot, like sometimes when we

read scripture, you gotta understand like the foundation before you can kind

of go and rip into where are we headed.

Okay.

In a general sense that church has been emphasizing kind of one over the other.

But the reality is they're all at play right now.

These three things, it's this journey of sanctification we

find ourselves in right now.

It's this journey of justification we find ourselves in right now,

but you've gotta understand that what is motivating us?

It is powered by the spirit.

It's powered by joy and peace because this is what we've already attained.

It's either gonna be that as your motivation, joy, and peace, and the

spirit of God, or it's gonna be motivated by obligation and insecurity in order

to get something from God, right?

The latter will never transform you like the former.

Sanctification is the work that's going on now.

Justification is a work that's going on right now.

Glorification is the work that's going on right now.

But my question to all of us is this process in you, in forming a joy, is

there a joy in the midst of this process?

For instance, has this process become onerous to you, become

heavy, become a sense of, ah, it's just all bit hard, you know?

Because this process is actually forming us more and more into the person of Jesus.

So it is becoming more like Jesus is a, is that a joy to you or a burden to you?

That, that's a really good question.

Maybe you feel that it's a burden because, well, as, as much as I do this

journey, I feel like I never arrive.

I don't feel ever feel like I've become like Jesus yet.

Okay, now.

What's been interesting in this series, and you know I have Dale to blame on

this particular front, is she's divided the scripture into certain ways.

So last session we did chapter three, verses It ended on verse

14, and today we're kicking off from chapter three verse 15.

So.

Where we ended, which I kind of, I

already read.

I do not

consider myself to have taken hold of her, but one thing I do, forgetting

what is behind straining forward press on towards the goal, which Christ has

called me, Heatherwood, E Christ Jesus.

So like newsflash, not even Paul attained it, so.

That's interesting.

Now have that in your mind.

Pick up verse 15, which says, and we read it before, all of us then who are

mature should take a view of such things.

What?

What things.

Paul is actually being directly ironic here.

Paul's saying true Christian maturity is knowing that you have

not fully arrived at maturity yet.

Yeah, I thought I, I thought I'd have that request 'cause I had to

think about it a couple of times.

So you've gotta remember Paul's talking about what is he attained?

He then tells us to, I haven't already attained it.

I'm working towards it, but I'm pressing on.

But he's pointing to, remember the arch, the arching goal here is to become

Christ-like having joy, maturity, unity.

And he's saying here, Christian maturity, as I repeat the quote, Christian

maturity, is knowing that you have not fully arrived at maturity yet.

So what does that build into your heart?

That thought should build into humility.

It should build you into you like a constant openness to be ready to

grow, to ready to understand, not just mentally cerebrally, but step

into experientially more of what it is to know Christ and be formed by him.

Now, there's some of you out there that might go, Adam, the moment

you believe you become fully transformed into the image of Jesus.

And you might reference Second Corinthians five 17 and go.

It says, well, if anyone's in Christ, they're a new creation.

The oldest come.

The oldest passed away.

The new has come.

You know that scripture, I've been fascinated by this transformational

journey that we're all on fascinated because I think part of my accountant

brain kind of wants to create process and categories and how does this all work?

And part of it honestly is like the mystery, but part of it is we can also

grapple with it to, to cooperate with what the spirit is doing in all of us.

Okay?

So I want you to think about.

The transformation of the all of you, a hundred percent of you, not just 5%.

All of you now.

All of us have been made in the image of God.

And one way to think about how we have been made is that we

are made as mind, body, spirit.

Now, when you say yes to Jesus, when you invite him into your world, I do believe

that your spirit man becomes brand new.

The problem is you've got a brain and a body attached to this thing,

like you're one, your whole, you're a whole person, right?

And so.

There is a journey to go on in terms of your mind to be renewed

to the pattern of God's thinking.

God's way of doing.

God's way of thinking about things, God's way of seeing the world, and that's

called Renewing Your Mind, Romans 12.

We could read that together and we could spend a whole other

message on that, but we won't.

But then there's also this body, this flesh bag that you carry around.

Would you agree?

Some of us feel less, more like that, and as we get a bit older, but your, your

body, not your flesh bag, let me rephrase.

Your body is actually on a, a process of obedience.

Right.

So the transformation of our flesh is actually a journey of willing

submission to God's ways because you've renew your mind to it, right?

In obeying, but we don't.

And so we're not just listening to God's word, we are doing what it says.

James one talks about this Q slide, verse 22.

Do not nearly miss, listen to the word.

So deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Oh, I love this picture.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is someone who looks

like, looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and

immediately forgets what he looks like.

Great imagery.

So good.

I love to do like a short film on that moment.

It's like something outta the Matrix, you know?

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law, remember the

perfect Lord is God's word.

God's word is a mirror.

Shows us who He's, shows us who we are.

Right.

That gives freedom and continues in it.

Forgetting what they, not forgetting what they've heard, but doing it.

Transformation of the flesh doing it.

They'll be blessed in what they do.

Why are you blessed in what you do?

'cause you're starting to walk to total transformation of

spirit, mind, flesh bag, right?

Sorry, I know it's humor.

Sorry.

So let me say like this, the process of transformation is to be with Jesus

through prayer, through word, through fellowship, to become like Jesus.

I. The reason you may not see how this is connected to joy, which is

the theme of our series, right, is because you've forgotten who you are.

You've forgotten whose you are, you've forgotten more accurately.

Who is it that lives inside of you?

The creator of the cosmos lives inside of you.

So it's important to remember that as we engage in this transformational

journey into the person of Jesus.

That maturity is not measured by, I'll use a new phrase.

You might not have heard this before.

Maturity and transformation is not measured by your watering method.

Watering method.

What are we talking about?

We're talking about your reading of the word, your prayer life, your.

Coming to church life, your fellowship life, it's not measured

by your capacity to do those things.

It's measured, measured by the fruit that's coming out of that watering space.

Does that make sense?

So the fruit that's coming out of your life is how we discern whether the

transformation is unpacking or not.

Now, praise the Lord.

We have a bit of an idea of how to measure that, to measure that fruit love.

Second word is.

Four.

Four of us know the didn't you go to Sunday school?

They spent so much time on this love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Did I get it all?

No.

What'd I miss?

Goodness.

See, I need to go back to Sunday school too.

The most joyous person who is living in you is the creator of the universe.

Do you see that?

That person living in you is joyful?

Like you can't get any more joy than the source of joy who's living inside of you.

He's the source of joy.

Well, how do I know that?

Because it's the fruit of the spirit is him.

The fruit of the spirit is describing Jesus, and if he's living inside

of you, it's only natural to see joy emanating out of you.

No joy, no fruit.

Mm. Question to ask yourself is going, is Jesus taking up ance?

Is he fully alive?

Story.

Oh, there's this great guy, he's passed away.

Bill Ballantine, everybody I wanna tell you about this young man, such a champion.

Edna and Bill used to come to Red Door, some of you know who I'm talking about.

And Bill, got the privilege of doing his funeral and his son got

up there and was telling how Bill used to act and he was a builder.

So like houses, you know, so.

Concrete pad, bricks, all that stuff, and he's, I just have this picture

of, you know, when the building's just got the pad and then you got

the piles of bricks on the pad.

And this the son, I can't think of the son's name, don't remember.

No, missed it.

He's describing Bill as singing hymns all day long, walking

around the pad of this building.

And these workers are just like, who is this guy?

But all of a. Sudden they begin to see, just like Chris, who comes

down the front and starts raving like a small 4-year-old child.

It's great.

It's good by the way, you know, because we've gotta be a childlike faith, right?

It's all good.

But Bill would do this, right?

Bill had joy emanating out and he didn't care.

He didn't care because what we, our lives are like a 45 degree mirror, right?

What happens is.

As we are transformed, that mirror that's meant to reflect God.

And showing the world God through us is the mirror Bill experienced

something that not all of us have experienced a clean mirror.

The clean mirror just is this purity space where he can't help but reflect

the joy of the Lord to others around him.

He's just so clean.

Does that make sense?

Now, remember, I'm not saying you gotta be clean to get God to love you.

No, he loves you.

He wants to make you clean.

The question is, will you cooperate with the transformational

process to make yourself clean?

Lemme rephrase, make yourself clean.

That's not correct.

Jesus wants to make you clean.

He's doing the work.

You just gotta surrender your mirror.

And let him clean you up.

Now, why was Bill like this?

Oh, another great story.

Bill Belline, his dad was, you know, in England the culture is like the pub,

you know, being down the pub bill's.

Dad was like that, right?

And so, Bill's mom and Bill and, and his sister, I'm pretty sure used to pray

at home while Bill's dad was at the pub.

And one day they were just so sick and tired of coming home drunk.

You know, all this whole thing that comes with that culture.

And so mom and the family are praying one night that Bill Bill's dad, I

don't know Bill's dad's name, but Bill's dad, when he has his first beer

that night, would taste like vinegar.

This is what they're praying, like specific prayers.

So bang straight through the door and everyone's like, you know, just

gripping their, their hearts with what, what are we gonna get tonight?

And so.

Bill's Dad comes in, he goes, oh, I'm never going back to that pub.

First Pint, tastes like vinegar.

I winched and complained.

So they gave me another one.

That one tasted like vinegar, different tap and everything, and he's like blown

away and, and everyone's listening to this story just like completely blown away.

That's exactly what they've prayed.

From that point on Bill's dad never went back to a pub.

He received Jesus the joy the Lord hit him.

The reason why Bill was like that is because he saw his dad transformed

and became like that Bill was just doing it like his dad did it full of

joy because he'd been so transformed.

If you believe, do you believe that your transform transformational

journey in Christ has ended?

Like, is that it?

Like right now, the condition of how, who you are today is that it?

Are you fully, are you, you're done.

I'm good.

Okay.

Or have you kinda like, ah, it'll, it'll, it'll be enough.

It she'll be right.

I'm just saying there's more.

And would you believe that there's more for you to be

transformed to become like him?

Jesus is way bigger than the box you put him in.

And so there's more to discover in this transformational journey.

And and be assured, one of those dynamics is joy.

And Paul goes on to say, Hey, follow my example, brothers

and sisters, as you've seen us.

As a model, keep your eyes on those who live.

As we do.

Keep your eyes on to, to live as those, as we do 2025.

How much do we sit and rest on the podcast culture of our world?

It says, imitate and follow.

Hard to imitate and follow a podcast.

If what you wanna become is a podcaster, creating more content.

We don't need more content in 2025.

Everybody.

What we need is authentic community that causes followship and

transformation because I'm imitating someone I live and breathe with.

Why did Jesus, Jesus didn't give the disciples a podcast?

It's fine.

You're not gonna, you're listening to the podcasts, but

not at the expense of community.

Not at the expense.

Don't do that.

Jesus didn't.

One way of thinking about Jesus and, how he, he did this kind

of followship in imitating him.

Um.

Yeah, I remember Josh and I were talking about this the other day.

Jesus kinda said, I do you watch?

Jesus said, I do.

You help.

Jesus said, you do.

I help.

Jesus said, you do.

I watch, you know, this sort of journey.

We walked, walked with people, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Paul then goes and clarifies this new way of living because in the moment

there's other ways of living that are very pressing and, and relevant and prevalent.

And so in verse 18, I read it before.

Here it is again, as I've often told you, and I tell you again with tears.

So see the emotion here, he's crying about this.

Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach and their

glory is the in their shame, their mind is set on earthly things.

And so Paul is highlighting this and by highlighting those who

live like this, he's teaching us.

To look with new eyes at ways of living that up until now, we

might have taken for granted.

Yes.

This is the way people go about their lives all around us.

And Paul is saying, pull back the veil.

And look, these lifestyles are dehumanizing.

These ways are corrupting and destroying these beautiful

creatures called human beings.

Who the living God made and loves and wants to rescue.

It's here as in many places that Paul writes about.

He's wanting the church in Philippi, Philippi to and to

us today to think differently.

To say no to all of that way of living and to come alive in a totally

new way of being a human being.

And Paul feels is so deeply to the point of tears, he's passionate

about people who are blindly just living like the world and they have

no idea that this system of living.

Is destroying you.

It's destructive.

Paul is

revealing that, we can become

so it can be some so easily hidden in the dark that you don't even

this destructive way of living that it kind of passes as well.

That's what everyone does.

Well, that's very normal.

And Paul, and this person is acting like a, like a bit of an alarm right now.

Like, we need someone to sound the alarm around destructive practices

of how we shouldn't be living.

Does that make sense?

We were in, South Africa.

I was remembering this

last night.

In 2010,

the Mighty Men's Conference, over a hundred thousand blokes.

There.

It

was Mint.

It was such

a powerful time and there was a group of Australians

there and I got an

opportunity to be there.

It was in, I think it

was Gray Town, somewhere in that area.

I, I believe that is, um.

Amazing time.

I'll tell you lots of stories.

One story was that we're all sort of packed up.

Most of the locals are just all, they're all left, you know, they're all gone.

And us, us Australians are trying to find something to do.

So we're stacking hay bales or something mucking around anyway,

like it's a huge area, right?

So it's a, it's just paddocks, paddocks, hills, just massive amounts of space.

Lots of people, but they're pretty much all gone.

And all, all the week, all the week long, you know, they've been concerned

that the weather was gonna just change and the weather just held up.

It was fantastic.

And we're all, we're just about to leave.

And then a local man starts running down.

Kind of like one of the, the pathways in sort of the, the driveways, John Farrell,

I'm trying to say like huge paddock areas.

He's, and he's screaming, run, run.

And we're looking there going.

Okay.

He's sounding an alarm of some description, but we have no

idea what you are talking about.

So we stand there watching, observing, what is this alarm he's speaking of?

We get there and all of a sudden.

Heaven breaks loose in the atmosphere and hailstones the size of cricket

balls start coming out of the sky to the point where we're now running

for cover because all the tents have kind of been packed up and so forth.

But this guy saw something that we didn't see, and I think Paul is

sounding an alarm here to, to, to a, to a, to a, to us, the church.

Don't fall for that

thing where, that's how

people live.

This emphasis towards hedonism and pleasure and food and possessions

and comfort and earthly things.

Paul's revealing that something that can be so that's dark, that's so easily

hidden, this destructive lifestyle that it passes for everyday life.

If all you ever think about.

Is what is in the here and now.

You actually, like, you are earth bound.

You, you're stuck.

You, you're just sitting in an environment where all you see

is the physicality, the physical things, and you think you conclude

that that's all there actually is.

And so Paul goes through and now he's got in verse 20, he says.

No, no, you're not citizens of earth.

You're citizens of somewhere else.

You're citizens of heaven.

You see,

one of the challenges when we use the word citizen of heaven, we

get this impression that, we'll, someday we're gonna leave this space

that's broken and we're gonna go.

To heaven.

We're gonna go, we're gonna return to the place where we were always meant to be.

But the truth is, the direction is

not, earth to

heaven.

The direction is heaven to earth.

Where actually the life, the culture, the civilization of heaven, is to birth in

this very contested space here that we call Earth, so that the people who are

earth bound may be surprised to discover there's actually another way to live.

A heavenly way, a way of the kingdom of God, which is what happens when the

spirit goes to work in us and through us.

'cause Paul says, and we eagerly await a savior from there.

So we are eagerly awaiting on earth a savior from there.

So.

If we were meant to go there, probably Jesus would've taken us there the

day we said yes, but he didn't.

He's left us here, but not alone.

We have his spirit, the spirit of Christ living inside of us, Jesus himself, living

inside of us, and we're here for a reason.

We're here to reveal.

The king of kings in our lives and through our lives, the goal is

for us to be a people of this new earth, this new place, the earth

like it was always designed to be.

And we don't take up that role by lording it over people controlling in some sort

of self-righteous posture that, Hey, I'm a citizen of heaven, and you all.

It's not the posture.

The posture is to take up a servant posture.

What did we read earlier?

Philippians chapter two, the Hyn of Christ.

This beautiful depiction of his servanthood.

We are meant to embody the same thing.

And Paul then says, you know, my brothers and sisters whom I love

and long for my joy and my crown.

There's that word again, joy.

Stand firm in the Lord in this way.

Dear friends, joy and Crown.

Paul's actually experienced a transformational work in the Jewish

culture, and now this place called Fify.

It ain't, it ain't.

In Israel.

Okay.

We're outside the realms of that.

We're in a new realm.

It's called the Greek land, the land of the Greeks.

And he's, it's not just Philippi, but he's experiencing something

fresh in this new space.

And I think what's, this is my personal per position, but you can.

Bagg me later.

I think he's so in awe of the fact that the God, the king of the Jews is

not just the king of those in Israel.

He's going, dang it.

He's the king of the whole wide world.

And he's starting to see the vastness of his kingdom is not

more than just this little pocket.

He's seeing it spread and move.

And I just think he's like, oh, there's something new here for Paul.

And he's realizing, man.

Yes.

Like he's discovering it and it's exciting to him that there's

so much more to experience

that should excite you.

I think so a church family, red door stand firm in the Lord stand firm

that you are a citizen of heaven.

You are called not to live like the pagans, so that means

does your life look different?

Yeah, that's normal.

That's fruit.

Live with eyes open to a new way of being, a real human being.

The the way you always meant to be like Christ, he's the real human being.

Actually live with an expectation that our bodies will be actually transformed

when Jesus comes back to renew all things.

So there is gonna be a day, it's gonna be absolutely perfected.

Restored.

How can you tell if you're not living up to what you have already attained?

Did I say that too

quickly?

Yeah.

How can you

tell if you are not living up to what you have already attained?

Quick little list.

Eight things.

Not gonna go through it in too much detail.

Number one, you are living with unrealistic expectations.

It's an interesting way of thinking about it, isn't it?

Because you're actually asking this world to be something that it can never be.

Number two, you are focusing too much on yourself.

You are not the center of the universe.

Number three, asking too much of others so we can fall under the trap of

expecting others all around us to provide the paradise, which our hearts crave.

Others will not.

Jesus will.

Number four.

Being controlling or fearful, we can ignorant ignorantly, try to

control the world outta fear that this world can't provide what our

hearts actually long for the most we, we can question God's goodness.

We don't understand God's agenda.

We tend to end up questioning his character.

Living more disappointed than thankful.

Unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment.

It's kind of an extension of the first one, lacking motivation and hope.

The gospel helps me not to feel numb to this life and moves my heart to a posture

of participating, experiencing for myself.

Last one, living as if life doesn't have any consequences.

The spirit forces me to face the fact that life does have consequences, so I end up

experiencing life in a thoughtful way.

Joy, what is your experience in this life?

Is it happiness based on circumstance or is it an abiding joy that

goes beyond circumstances to be your default operating system?

Ah, got joy.

We get to the end of the letter and suddenly it feels

like there's this departure.

Suddenly it feels like, man, what?

Who are we?

Who are these people?

Euodia, ity.

Who are these?

Who are these people?

Well, Paul begins to wrap up this letter and this short kind of, it seems a little

bit pastoral advice kind of dynamic, and in one way it kind of feels separate, but.

I really think that what's happening actually is, Hey, you

know, I've told you all about that.

Well, let's just see how you're going.

It's a bit like a tester.

So you can imagine if there's this massive argie barge between two of

the people in our church family.

I'm trying to

think of who, who could

be that in red door.

No, I won't

do that.

It's Dale

and Adam Dial.

And Adam.

Yeah.

I appear to you, Adam and Dale to come to agreement in the Lord.

So Paul's making this urgent appeal to come to a common mind in the Lord.

Okay.

It echoes the previous themes we've talked

about unity, frustratingly.

Paul, you, you read it and you think, oh, well, what's the deal?

Give us more details.

Mm. He doesn't, and it's probably on purpose because he's wanting to focus our

attention on the reconciliation aspect of this, not the, what's the issue?

There can be such a misunderstanding around unity.

Let's be clear.

The call is not to be unified around personal preference or how we think,

think things should be done, not even around secondary matters of the faith, but

around the person and the work of Jesus.

Anything else is just conformity.

It's not unity.

Paul is calling us to value unity above being right.

If you write down anything today, write down the words.

Holy Spirit, help me to value unity above being right.

'cause our differences prove that our unity in Jesus is actually the real deal.

So we can have our differences, but how we still unified, how we still friends?

How are we still connected?

How are we still be in the same room without, it's

because Jesus is at the center.

That's it.

He's at the center.

Paul is calling us to value unity above being right, but how to come back to

unity in the Lord when you are feeling so hurt, so disappointed, so misunderstood.

Even maybe betrayed

in the middle of the hurt, in the middle of the discouragement.

We gotta put our mind on what Jesus actually accomplished for us.

The thing that we've already attained.

Live up to it by seeking unity above being right,

live up to it.

This

week, I, had a front

seat into a very concerning, um.

Division in a, in a, in a church in our

city.

And, again, I'm

gonna do Paul, not gonna go into details, but what I saw

and heard and and witnessed were the people who were really hurt and damaged

holding that pain.

Accessing the mind of Jesus in relationship to what he's accomplished

on the cross and saying the words to, in this case, a perpetrator, which FYI we're

all perpetrators, saying, I forgive you.

And then they said in the face of the wrong, the sin done to them.

Then they said, can you please forgive me for the things I've

thought about you this week?

And Paul is saying, live up to the thing that you've already attained.

You are so free that you don't need to push your righteousness or your being

right on anyone anymore because you have his righteousness in you and in

you, and in you, and in you, and in you.

It's yours.

So the need that our flesh continues to go towards, around.

I'm trying to justify my position, justify my thing.

Do you think this doesn't happen at Red Door?

Mate, there's lots of things our eldership don't necessarily see eye to

eye to, and some of them

are sitting here today, our eldership, and I wanna say the times when I

have pushed what I think is right above the mind of the Lord, what

he's accomplished, what he has done.

Which has then created levels of division and thoughts.

I wanna say, please forgive me

because how we do this is so much more important than the

small things of what we do.

Does that make sense?

Please don't mishear me.

I'm not saying that what we do is unimportant, but I'm saying the things

that we can, you know what I mean?

Just.

Kind of get bent outta shape about those things in this, in the light of eternity.

Just do not matter.

And I know as I'm saying this, you've probably got a couple things coming

to mind in your own world, would you?

So what we're gonna do right now, so can you see how Paul's just like legend?

No.

It's actually in spite of the spirit, right?

He's laid this out and then he's just bringing his example for you to go.

You wanna test this?

All right, let's go.

Let's see if we can actually live like that is true.

So just close your eyes right now.

And so Father Paul's got this thing that he says about.

This loyal comrade.

He says, come loyal, comrade, and help us to this true companion.

And there's no indication of who this is, like which, which person in the church is

this loyal comrade, this true companion.

And today we stand here together as broken people, but children of God,

recognizing we have a true companion.

We have one who is always loyal to you and to us.

Holy Spirit, come right now and Bria be our two true companion.

Help us right now to step across the line and say, God, I want to value unity

above being right for every hurt, every disappointment, every pain, every injury.

We present that today to you, holy Spirit, and say, soothe

our hearts, comfort our hearts.

To know that these things that have happened, yes, they deserve penalty,

but the penalty's already been paid.

It's been paid at the cross, and Jesus has already paid for it.

And will we trust in that payment for that very thing?

Father, forgive us for holding on to this need to be right

so that we could find freedom.

And return to a posture of joy

in Jesus' name, amen.