Sermon
Philippians 3
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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How are we doing? Good to see everybody. Yeah, really good to see everybody.
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I just keep, this is a little off topic and not totally what we're talking about
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today, but I just want to mention I'm very thankful for this community,
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and I keep hearing from people over and over again how thankful they are for this community.
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So yeah, I just want to recognize that, and just, I can't see you guys because
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the light's shining in my eyes, but I know you're there.
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And yeah, I just very thankful for this church and the community.
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And yeah, so let's pray. And then we're going to dive into Philippians today.
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Father God, we just dedicate this morning to you.
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As we open up your word, God, I just ask for soft hearts, open hearts,
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and just allow us to receive what you have for us today.
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Allow us to walk out of here feeling blessed and victorious.
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And yeah, God, just use Use this
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morning, use me, and use your word for us today. In Jesus' name, amen.
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We're back in Philippians every time. Well, not every time, but most of the
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time that I've had the opportunity to be up here.
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We've been kind of chipping our way through Philippians. Probably have another
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three or four sessions in Philippians, so it'll probably be another eight months.
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But we'll get there, and yeah, we're doing it. So we're in Philippians 3.
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If you want to flip there, you have a Bible in front of you.
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Philippians 3 we're starting in verse 17 and going through chapter 4 verse 1.
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Paul says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk
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according to the example that you have in us.
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For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears,
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walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction.
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Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.
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But our citizenship is in And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
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who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body,
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by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
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Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm
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thus in the Lord, my beloved.
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So, Paul's writing this letter to a group of people, to a church,
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probably a relatively, well, relative to today, a small church that he had started
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in the city of Philippi. He had started about 10 years ago.
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He's now imprisoned in Rome, and he's writing back to them.
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And I've mentioned this before, he's repeatedly expressed how much he loves
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and appreciates and is encouraging this group of people.
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So from this passage, just a couple things jump out, and then we'll kind of
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dive back deeper into these things.
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First thing is that there are people out there who we are to imitate.
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Okay. We're going to talk a lot about this idea of imitation.
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And as he mentions, there's also people out there who we are not to imitate.
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And it's actually a very, it's a tearful thing. It's a sad thing.
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And then the second thing is we look to something greater than what we see here
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on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're going to talk a little bit about what that looks like.
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And then we're going to end with an encouragement. Paul, these words are so
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encouraging of Paul's about this crown of victory.
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So we're going to talk about imitation, citizenship, and a crown of victory.
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So first of all, this idea of imitation.
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I'm looking out and not all of us in this room are parents, but many are.
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And as a parent, one of the most encouraging and also one of the scariest things
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that happens as a parent is when you catch your kids saying or doing things that you say or do.
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And I see heads nodding. Yes, Yes. It's like, it's, it's, it's incredibly,
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yeah, it's a fun moment. It's also really scary.
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We had a moment just a couple of weeks ago, we were, we were traveling,
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we were, we were going to SeaTac airport.
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I don't actually remember where we were going to, but we had parked the car
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and we were getting on the light rail train to head to the airport, all four of us.
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So Cheryl, Eli, and Abby and I, and for some reason that I, I,
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I don't know, I was like just out of sorts.
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I don't know know if you've ever felt that way, especially when you're traveling.
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Like I didn't have the bag that I usually have and stuff was just in the wrong place.
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And it was just, I was just, I was kerfuffled, if that's the word to use there. And it, it.
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It came up because one of the things that we say in our house,
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or that I say, kind of as a joke, because we're not great at this,
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but I say often, a place for everything and everything in its place.
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I don't know if maybe your mom said that back in the day. A place for everything
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and everything in its place. But I was out of sorts.
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Nobody's fault. I just was. And so we get on the train. We're riding the train.
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We just take it one stop, and then we get off at the airport.
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And I had one of those moments where I'm standing 10 feet from the train,
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realizing my headphones are on that train.
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And as soon as I realized it, that train is gone.
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And there's zero chance of getting those headphones back, right?
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Because that train's going all the way to Seattle.
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Lost and found is not a thing, especially for something of any value. They're just gone.
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And I was like, oh, shoot. My headphones are gone. It's my fault.
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I didn't have them in their place.
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And nobody really said anything. We go down the escalator and then Abby Abby
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kind of turns to me, sweet Abby, who's up here playing piano.
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She's a sweet girl. She says, daddy, a place for everything and everything in its place.
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And I was just like, yep, you got me, kid. You got me.
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And it just, in that moment, it was like, you realize the power.
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It's really cool, the power that you have as a parent to have influence over
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them. It's also really scary, the power that you have as a parent.
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And so that's this idea that Paul's getting at here of of imitation.
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Paul says, join in imitating me. To be honest with you, at first glance,
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this seems egotistical.
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That was my, when I first read this, I was like, how am I going to explain this?
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But then you look five verses earlier, and I don't have it on the screen,
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but just five verses earlier,
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Paul has said to this group of people in his letter, he says,
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not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect,
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but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made So Paul has very
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clearly said, guys, I'm not perfect. I don't have it all figured out.
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But yet he is able to say, imitate me. There are things about him that are imitatable.
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And he's an imperfect person, and he can say, imitate me.
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And so I've done a lot of reflecting on that the last couple of weeks of like, am I imitatable?
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Can I stand up here and even just read the words, read somebody else's words
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and say, imitate me? That's been really, really hard.
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But I think God does want us to be imitatable.
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Another key thing here is, who does Paul want us to imitate.
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It's not just him. So he very quickly says, keep your eyes on those who walk
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according to the example that you have in us.
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So there's a group imitation here. He's not just holding himself up and say,
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hey, you guys should all be exactly like me.
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Absolutely not. He's saying there are people around you who are walking in the right way.
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Notice those people, look at them and imitate them.
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He has a group of faithful followers. So, and then imitate how?
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What does imitation look like? Well, he uses the word walk.
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It's a walk. It's not a list of rules.
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We are called to imitate a walk, not to follow a list of rules.
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And it's not as if lists of rules aren't in scripture. There are some.
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I just think this idea of imitation gets us away from the idea that there is
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one list or five lists or whatever it might be that when put together encapsulates everything.
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And that's just not true, but there are lists.
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So we're going to look at just a couple, just so that you guys know that I'm
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not saying that we're making this up as we go along and that there is no kind
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of solid foundation for our walk. There are lists of rules.
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So one is in Deuteronomy 10, 12.
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It says, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?
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And this is actually a a statement that's in the Old Testament four or five
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times. What does the Lord your God require of you?
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And in this case, it says, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his
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ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
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your soul, and keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord,
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which I am commanding you today for your good.
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Okay? There's a nice, solid list of some expectations. There are some rules.
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We've got the 10 commandments.
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Okay? It's in Exodus 20, 10 commandments, you got 10 rules, pretty clear,
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don't murder, check, okay?
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Some of those are more difficult. And then Paul has a couple different places
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in the New Testament where he has lists of vices, lists of don't dos.
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In 1 Corinthians 6 and also in Galatians 5, lists things like fornication,
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idolatry, stealing, drunkenness, exhortation, adultery, lewdness,
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hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissension, and envy, and some others.
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My point in laying that out is there are lists, okay?
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We do have some walls around us and that is a really healthy thing,
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but those lists don't cover how we walk in every situation, okay?
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I can't look at that list and know exactly how to behave in every moment and
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how to prioritize things.
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And that's why this idea of imitation and imitating somebody else's walk is a part of that.
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And I love how God works. God shows us things sometimes. When we think we know
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things, God's like, you have no idea.
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Last weekend, we were in Oakland, California, and I was sitting in this hotel lobby, okay?
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And I'm writing. I was working on this sermon. I was literally writing those exact words.
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There aren't a list of rules that covers everything you need to know for every situation.
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I'm typing that. And this kid rides his bike out the hallway through the hotel
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lobby, does a circle around the kind of furniture area where I'm sitting.
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And my first reaction is that's got to be against the rules.
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There's got to be a list of rules that has no bike riding in the lobby on it.
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And, but that was, that was my very human and wrong instinct because the reality
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was Because this kid was great. He wasn't causing any trouble. His bike was clean.
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His dad was right behind him. And his dad said, slow down. And he slowed down.
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And they parked his bike over in the corner of the lobby. And then they had
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a great breakfast together as a family. It was a great moment.
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I wish I, as a parent of younger kids, had discovered the idea of hotel bike
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riding. I think it's a great idea.
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But my first reaction was, that's got to be against the rules.
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But that was off base because they were fine. They were great.
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But we have this deep-seated desire to want a list. We want to see the list.
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And Trey said it from up here before, and it's kind of been something I've been noodling on since then.
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We think we want the list, but we don't actually want the list.
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If we had the list and could do all those things and just check the box and
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know that we're good, we're done, that's actually a really scary thing.
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Because for one thing, then what?
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For another, what if we're missing something? What if we're not perfect?
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And guess what? You're not.
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So it's not the list of rules is everything that we need to follow.
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It's actually the gospel. It's the good news of the death, burial,
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and resurrection of your Lord Jesus Christ.
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That is what we're seeking that brings us to righteousness with God.
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That is what we need, okay?
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The road that you could follow to have the list of rules and follow that all the way that you can,
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that road is a dead end when it comes to actual righteousness with God,
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but God has solved that problem by the death, burial, and resurrection of his
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son. And this is, this is great news.
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This is, and I, like, I was so like, that is, that is, we could just stop right
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there. Hallelujah, man. And, and, and go home.
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But that actually doesn't solve the problem of what do we do in a given moment?
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We're kind of back in the same situation of, of how do I walk?
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How do I, how do I walk in this, in this moment?
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So, so we're still back, back to this idea of imitating. Walking is an action.
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It's every day. It's repeated. it. It's constant. It's purposeful.
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Walking is a metaphor, by the way. We're not talking about an actual Christian walk.
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We're talking about how do you live your life? How do you decide what to do in a given situation?
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And this is where Paul says, keep your eyes on those who walk according to the
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example that you have in us.
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I'm going to get a little, maybe overly personal here and give you you an example
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of somebody that this is for me, somebody that I keep my eyes on.
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My mom is suffering from a degenerative neurological condition.
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It's called multiple systems atrophy.
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You've never heard of it. It's super rare. There's like a thousand people in the U.S. that have it.
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And it's gotten to the point where she has lost pretty much all motor function.
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She can barely speak even though her brain works completely well. So it's really hard.
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And she just recently went on hospice. She's in a, we had to put her in a care
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home so that she could get the care that she needed.
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And it's hard. And a lot of you guys have been through situations like that.
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And when you are, it causes you, and I think a really good way to reflect back
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on somebody else's life.
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And so I've been kind of living in that and doing a lot of reflection.
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And I just got to say that kind of situation combined with trying to speak on
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this idea of imitation, it really helped me put two and two together there.
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And man, my mom is somebody to imitate.
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She raised three boys, which means that she was the only female in the house. She survived.
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And she taught elementary school. She taught piano.
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She taught hundreds of piano students out of our home, and some of them up into their early adulthood.
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She was like the most involved person in a church I have ever seen.
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She was just always around. She led youth group for us, played piano,
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just Bible study leader.
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I still have like older women coming up to me and say, I so appreciated being
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in your mom's Bible study all those years.
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She just had such an incredible impact on people.
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The way that she loved the Lord and the way that she loved the people around her is just phenomenal.
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And she's still, I kind of told you where she's at and her condition and stuff.
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She still, to this day, meets with a group of moms to pray for their kids and
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their grandkids. It's just phenomenal.
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So she is somebody that I look to as far as how to walk.
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And I hope, and I'm confident, if you don't have somebody, let's talk.
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But I hope that you have people around you who you look to.
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It may or may not be family. It may or may not be people who are in the room right now.
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But I hope that you have people around you that you can look to and say,
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I want to walk like them because that's what Paul's telling us here. We need that.
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We need that. We don't have the list of rules that we can look to and check
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all the boxes and be good.
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The gospel is amazing and we are saved.
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That is great. How do we live that out though? Imitating others is a big part of that.
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It's just how this works. So find those people, find community.
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That's another reason I'm so thankful for this community. Let me say one more
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thing about this idea of imitation.
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And I needed to kind of be told this myself this week. It is okay to desire to be imitatable.
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You have permission to want to be able to be imitated. Okay?
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Don't do the overly humble thing and know nobody should imitate me.
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We, as the body of Christ, if I'm saying, if Paul's saying imitate others,
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what's the other side of that equation? We need others to imitate.
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It is okay to desire to sharpen yourself.
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Iron sharpens iron. And just, yeah, don't feel like you're not worthy of being imitated.
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As time goes on and as sanctification happens and the Lord works in your life,
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you actually should become more and more imitatable as you go along.
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Okay, I think we can go to the next slide. The other thing we see here is this
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contrast between those that are imitatable and Paul's got this heart for people
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who are not following the Lord and who are enemies of the cross of Christ.
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And he says their end is destruction, their God is their belly,
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their glory and their shame with minds set on earthly things.
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And he says that with tears.
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That's kind of the counter example of being imitatable. And just a couple of
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things to say about this. first thing is don't take sin lightly.
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Don't take sin lightly, okay? We have the gospel, we have salvation,
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but that is not permission to sin.
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I heard one podcast sermon, I don't know, and by the way, I have zero original thoughts.
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So I had an original thought once, but I forgot it. So anything I say is coming
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from, especially if it's wise, it's coming from somebody else.
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But I heard it, I was listening to some podcast or sermon, and I think it was
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talking about temptation.
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But the speaker made the point that it is okay as a thought experiment to.
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How do I say this, to think through where your sin leads, okay?
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To think through, if I continue to indulge my lust, if I continue to live in
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anger, if I continue to lie, where is that going to lead me?
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And I think if you think about that rightly and honestly, you get to the same
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conclusion that Paul does, that it ends in some form of destruction.
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So don't take sin lightly.
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And it's not a coincidence. The opposite of that would be, I could say,
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it's not a coincidence that God has laid things out such that if we live rightly,
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we live a fruitful and fulfilling life, okay?
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Not perfect, not easy, not like health and wealth kind of stuff,
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but God wants us to live the right way.
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So if sin leads to destruction, living rightly will lead to better things that
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might be hard, might be different than what we think, but it's what God wants for us.
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Okay, so our first point is to imitate and be imitatable.
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Our second kind of big idea here, I promise you, I will not do justice to this.
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I will not attempt to do justice to it, partly because Trey's going to spend
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a couple weeks coming up on politics.
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And so we're going to talk about citizenship in heaven, but I will not attempt
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to cover everything that you might need to think about as a Christian politically.
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I just want to make a couple points. So the next part of our passage here is,
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but our citizenship is in heaven.
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So he's just mentioned those whose minds are set on earthly things, okay?
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And how their sin leads to destruction.
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He's just said that. And he says, but our citizenship is in heaven and from
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it we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So what does it mean to have our citizenship in heaven? Paul Paul is writing
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to, like I mentioned, this little church in Philippi.
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Philippi is about 800 miles from Rome. It was a Roman colony, 800 miles away.
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So just like a two-hour flight, right?
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No, it's like a six-week walk in those days to get from Philippi to Rome.
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So their citizenship, the citizenship of the people in Philippi was really far away.
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But that's where they would look for what it meant for their citizenship.
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And so their citizenship means that's where their help comes from, okay?
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They could, you know, by horse call up Rome and be like, hey,
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we need help, and help would come.
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And it's also where their allegiance lied, okay? Their political allegiance lied in Rome.
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And so Paul's talking to them, and he's...
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He's pointing out that their true citizenship is not in Rome, that it's in heaven.
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Their citizenship in heaven is where their help and their allegiance come from.
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N.T. Wright says this better than I will, so I'm just going to read this quote.
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Paul has described the church and its Lord in such a way that the Philippians
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could hardly miss the allusion to Rome and Caesar.
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This is the greatest challenge of the letter, that the Christians in Philippi,
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whether or not they were themselves Roman citizens, would think out what it
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means to give their primary allegiance, not to Rome, but to heaven,
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not to Caesar, but to Jesus.
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And to trust that Jesus would in due time bring the life and rule of heaven
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to bear on the whole world, themselves included,
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they must think out, and so must we, what this allegiance to Jesus will mean
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in terms of the other claims to allegiance that press upon us.
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So when Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, he's saying that ultimately
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our allegiance is to Jesus and ultimately our help comes from Jesus.
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He's saying to the Philippians, hey, that's great that you're Roman citizens.
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There's, you know, whatever, that's great. That is not where your ultimate allegiance is.
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And I think that that applies to us as well. Where is our ultimate allegiance, okay?
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And in an election year and with all the stuff that is happening,
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I think it's really important that we keep that in mind.
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Now, there's a reality, and I can say this about a lot of different things.
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I happen to be talking about politics, so you'll think politics,
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but this is true of anything.
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Anytime you have two options, one might be better than another, okay?
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And that's true. I'm not going to argue with that fact, but if we think of some
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some national political figure or party or issue as where our help comes from,
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I think we fall into a trap of setting our mind on earthly things.
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I think it's really important, you know, always, but especially as we enter
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this time, where is your true allegiance? Where is your true help coming from?
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Let me say one more thing about politics. It's a little off topic,
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sorry. Just last thing on politics, and then Trey's going to clean up the mess
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next week, I promise. us.
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Politics is like, technically, it's just how humans organize and lead themselves.
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Okay? That's what politics is. And yes, there is national politics,
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but that plays out all over the place.
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Humans organize and lead themselves in lots of different arenas.
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We heard about a women's Bible study that's coming up and a men's dinner.
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Guess what? That's political.
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That's people getting together, organized, leading, learning,
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doing things together, okay?
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There's all kinds of opportunities to do that. You can lead a group, join a group.
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We talked about the Bible study, join a book club, join the PTA,
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join them. You don't even need to lead anything.
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Just join something that's already happening and be a contributing member.
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Anybody that's ever tried to lead a group knows how important those contributors
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are, those solid contributors.
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There's so many opportunities to get involved in things. Coach a youth sports team.
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One opportunity that we're going to start talking about more is starting October
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2nd, we will restart our MOPS ministry, Mothers of Preschoolers.
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And MOPS was awesome. We had a group of moms here last year throughout the school
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year that came, and they get fed,
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they get mentored, they get taught, and most importantly, they get some rest
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while their preschoolers are over in the kids' house getting watched after.
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It is an awesome ministry, and it has brought people into this church,
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and it has provided needs.
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It's something that Cheryl took part in back in the the day.
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And it's something that there's opportunities to get involved in. They need mentor moms.
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I'll say it again. They need mentor moms. They need childcare.
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They need people to bring food. If it doesn't work in your schedule,
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it's Wednesday mornings, by the way, for a couple hours, one or two Wednesday mornings a month.
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And we'll get more info in an actual signup sheet out there.
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I just want to say, there are things you can do to get involved that are,
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in my opinion, okay warning here
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just my opinion there are things that you
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can do to get involved in in people's lives
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and in groups that are more important and more impactful than say voting the
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right way just my opinion okay i'm not claiming that this says that but i just
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there's there's so many opportunities to get involved and and i think have a
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greater impact than how we might vote.
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Moving on. We're going to talk about my joy and my crown. In the last little
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verse here that we'll look at, it's chapter four, verse one.
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Paul calls the Philippians his joy and his crown. He says, therefore,
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my brothers, and I love this emotional language.
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He says, therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown,
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stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
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Beloved he loves this church right he loves these people
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they are his joy and his crown crowns were
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given in this time as a as a sign
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of victory okay you you earned a crown for achieving
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something great and paul is saying you guys you're you're the thing you're like
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my prize the fact that you're doing so well and walking in the lord and imitating
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each other you are my prize so this comes full circle he's he's telling these
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people to imitate him and imitate those around him who who are are imitatable.
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And then he gets the victory of that. And then they get to be imitatable to others.
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And you get this whole circle and cycle of just people of joy and Paul's crown of victory.
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We get to experience that same victory, guys.
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We do. We get to experience seeing others walk in the Lord. And not out of pride,
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like, hey, look what I've done.
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But no, this is awesome when we see the people around us walking in the Lord,
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becoming contributing members of society, like it's great. It is a joy.
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Let me say something specifically to parents.
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I don't know if you guys saw this. The U.S. Surgeon General on Wednesday came
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out with a statement, what's the term they use? A Surgeon General warning.
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Okay. So there's now an official Surgeon General warning that parents have reached
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disproportionate levels of stress and loneliness.
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I mentioned this with a group of friends the other night, and somebody said,
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oh, we learned on Wednesday that parenting's hard? Interesting.
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But it's official. Parenting is hard. And then the article that I read about
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this went on to say, Surgeon General Murthy has suggestions to lighten mom and dad's load.
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And I perked up like, oh, okay, what are the suggestions? This this is going
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to be great. What is the solution to the problem? I can't wait to read it.
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And it was child tax credit, paid family leave, and some other things like that, which are fine.
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That's what the government can do. And okay, I'm not criticizing those things,
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but those don't actually make parenting any easier.
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And so I want to throw out just a thought. It's not a solution because there's
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not a solution to this, but a thought for parents, And that is just never say
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the word just when it comes to the work that you're doing with your kids.
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Never, never say or catch yourself thinking, I'm just raising these two kids.
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I'm just making dinner for the family.
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I'm just a stay-at-home mom. Never feel like there needs to be ands on there.
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Never feel like it needs to be, I'm doing this and rising to the heights of
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my career and making their dorm room look fantastic for the Instagram photos
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or whatever the pressures are that you feel. And I know those pressures are real.
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I just, there's, if you are raising kids in the Lord, there is nothing insignificant
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about what you are doing. There's not a just on that statement.
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So I am giving you, not that you need it from me, but I'm giving you permission
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to release the expectations that you might feel and focus on your family.
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There's no just there. I literally cannot think of a better gift that you could
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give society and give to the community around you than raising up kids in the
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Lord and as contributing contributing members of society. That is amazing.
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And that is imitatable. We have parents whose kids are long gone.
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We have parents whose kids are tiny and up here in little holders making announcements.
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We have the whole range. And so there's parents, I think there's a lot of opportunity
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for imitating there as well.
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So yeah, just maybe moms especially, take it easy on yourselves and don't feel
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like you ever should put the word just in front of what you're doing. It's important.
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Okay, worship team is going to come up here and I have just a couple thoughts.
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It's because all of us, whether we're parents or not, and hopefully as I was
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talking about parents, those of you who are not parents can kind of like think
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about what that looks like in your lives. lives, we can experience the joy and crown that Paul has.
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We can all be imitatable, not perfect, okay? If you're trying to be perfect, stop.
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But we can all be imitatable, and we can all imitate others in the way that we walk.
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I think we can put ourselves in positions to have an impact on others too,
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to be able to say, my joy and my crown.
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I want to look back at the whole passage again, and I'm going to read it one
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more time, but I'm going to make some comments specifically on the emotional
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language that Paul uses.
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This is not just like, you know, he's laying out an argument and it's logical.
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Paul does that sometimes. This is like emotional stuff. This is heart stuff
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that he's talking about. It says brothers.
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So there's like close relationship here, okay?
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And he's talking to women too. So it's brothers and sisters. Join in imitating.
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Imitating is like a, that's an an intimate thing, right? Join in imitating me
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and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
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For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears,
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like he sheds tears over people who don't do this. This is like.
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What he's wanting people to do as far as their imitation of him,
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like it's high stakes. It matters.
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And he sheds tears over those who don't and walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
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Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame
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with mindset on earthly thing.
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But our citizenship, where our help comes from, where our allegiance goes to,
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our citizenship is in heaven.
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And from it, from our citizenship, we await a savior, a waiting,
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a longing, right? It's not a here and now.
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Somebody said this morning, we live in a microwave society with a crockpot God.
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And I thought that was really cool. We're waiting, okay?
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And God uses that waiting sometimes in such beautiful ways.
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We're await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly, our imperfect,
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our sometimes sickly, our frustratingly aging body to be like his glorious,
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his perfect body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
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Therefore, my brothers, and just think about the emotion of this language,
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my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown stand firm thus in
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the Lord, my beloved. of it. Jesus had a similar moment.
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When he met with his disciples right before he was crucified,
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he knew he was going to be leaving them, and he asked them to do something in
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remembrance of him and to do it regularly.
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Most of you know what I'm talking about. We're going to be taking communion
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today, which is just a chance to remember and recognize what Jesus has done
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for us and to be be obedient in doing that.
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Jesus, as he's telling people, he's telling his disciples to do this in remembrance
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of him, I think he's kind of thinking of them as his joy and his crown as well,
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right? He's trained up these disciples.
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He's asking them to carry on his earthly ministry, to go out and spread the
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gospel and be imitatable. They are his joy and his crown.
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And what an incredible gift it is to be someone's joy and crown,
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let alone if we can be Jesus's joy and crown.
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So we're gonna remember and celebrate communion today.
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We'll worship. And while we're worshiping, you can come up and grab the elements,
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take them back to your seats.
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And then kind of in the middle of the first song, I'll come back up and we'll
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take communion together.
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And then we'll pray at that point, we'll close in prayer. So let's worship.