Latest / Mount Eaton Church / Perseverance of the Saints Pt2 - Philippians 1:19-30

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Perseverance of the Saints Pt2 - Philippians 1:19-30 · Mount Eaton Church

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  We are going to finish our journey in chapter one of Philippians. There's a lot to really
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  cover through this entire book, a lot of doctrine. We will be hitting some more doctrine today.
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  If I was to exhaust this, you can't exhaust it, I'll say that. So we will stick with where
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  God has taken us in this conversation and again we'll get to it another day. But this
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  is part two of the perseverance of the saints and the importance of the perseverance of
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  the saints is the reason why we should persevere. Okay? The reason why we will persevere and
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  I want to thank the Lord for this amazing doctrine, the perseverance of the saints that
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  not only will we persevere when it's all said and done, we persevere every single day of
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  our lives. So he keeps us. That being said, we're going to go back a little bit into verse
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  15. I'm going to read that so that when we get into verse 19, you kind of understand why
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  it reads the way it reads. Okay? I'm not a real big fan of subtitles. I get why they
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  do it, kind of gives you an idea of what possibly is being said. But it kind of takes away from
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  really the continuance of the conversation that Paul is using here. You guys know already
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  we talked quite a bit about Philippians and this is the one church Paul has nothing bad
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  to say. He doesn't rebuke them for anything they've done wrong specifically. He actually
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  exhorts them, encourages them to continue. It's one of the things I love about this letter
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  and you will hear today again if God calls you to be a good Berean, study the word. He
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  also calls you to be a good Philippian, to preach the word. So be a good Berean and a
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  good Philippian. Verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from
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  goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the
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  gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict
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  me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
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  Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice for I know that through
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  your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance
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  as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with
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  full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by
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  death. What do you see? There's this constant clear message that Paul starts, not really
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  starts, he's clarified throughout this entire chapter that the gospel is our purpose. The
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  gospel is our mission. The gospel is what we focus on. I know it's going to bother you
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  a little bit, I don't care. You're like, yeah, that's mean pastor. No, there is no other
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  purpose for your life besides gospel. Okay, as you guys know, I don't like Rick Warren,
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  to say the least. Why? Because there's no such thing as a purpose-driven life in a purpose-driven
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  church. God does not have a particular purpose for you and a particular purpose for our church.
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  Every church and every believer has a single purpose. What is your purpose? Gospel. That's
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  your purpose. There is no other purpose. Now there are things that we do, right, that we
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  participate in, but the whole purpose of those things is the gospel. If you look at spiritual
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  gifts, the purpose of spiritual gifts is the gospel. The whole purpose of our existence
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  is to proclaim the goodness of God, the gospel. That is what we do. If we don't focus on that
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  truth, then we will try to find other reasons to find purpose in our lives. And people wonder
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  why, well, I can't figure out what my purpose is. That's because you don't like the purpose
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  that you've been assigned, instead of just doing the gospel. If you do the gospel, you're
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  going to find joy, contentment, happiness, excitement. But pastor, you're preaching every
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  Sunday morning about the gospel. That's my purpose, right? If you're a dental hygienist,
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  it's gospel. Clean teeth with the gospel. You know what I mean? If you do other stuff,
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  it's about the gospel. If you're a teacher, it's about the gospel. Every opportunity you
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  have is about the gospel. You're like you're a Jesus freak. That's the point. That's the
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  point. And Paul clarifies this over and over again. So I have three principles that we're
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  going to learn specifically through the rest of this chapter. Okay? First principle, whether
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  we live or we die, Christ is our ultimate prize. Christ is our ultimate prize. If I
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  live, I live for Christ, and he's my prize. If I die, I die to Christ, he's my prize.
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  Either way, Christ is the answer, right? Whether we live or we die, Christ is our ultimate
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  prize. In life, all you should want and need is Christ Jesus. In death, all we will have
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  is Christ Jesus if you know Christ. So if you're going to live, all that you should
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  want and need in this life is him, and when you die, all you'll have is him. Because you
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  won't need or want for anything at that point. What more do you need? We were like, well,
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  I want more. If you want more, then Jesus isn't going to be enough for you. And this
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  is what it says, Philippians chapter 1 verse 19 and 21. And yes, I will rejoice for I know
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  that through your prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit and the help of the Spirit
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  of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. As it is, my eager expectation
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  and hope, I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ
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  will be honored in my body by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is
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  gain. Everybody knows this Bible verse. If you're a Christian, you've heard this. Probably
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  have it on your desktop or somewhere in your house. For to me, to live is Christ, to die
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  is gain. Though that is true, are we going to miss the point of why Paul gives this statement?
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  We talk about to live is Christ and to die is gain. And then we read a book by a gentleman
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  who tells you, now you have a different purpose. See, if we really focus on what God calls
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  us to do, which is gospel, then to live is Christ and to die is gain is everything that
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  Paul says it is. But if we're trying to find more, then you're going to miss the wonderful,
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  beautiful, majestic God of all creation. So I want you guys to think about that. Is really
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  living to be alive, is it really Christ? And if I was to die, am I really going to gain?
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  Or am I really trying to find something else? Second principle. If in life, make the most
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  of every opportunity for the sake of the gospel. We all have a ministry. It's called the ministry
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  of the gospel. So give it away. Yes, there is no other purpose for your life but the
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  gospel. Whether you're going to work doing anything else, the whole purpose why you're
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  there is for the sake of the gospel. That's your mission. We all have the same mission.
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  There is no other mission given to man, given to mankind who belongs to the body of Christ
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  than that one mission. We all have a ministry. That's called the ministry of reconciliation,
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  called the gospel. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 through 5 says this, preach the word,
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  be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and
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  teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching and having
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  itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they
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  will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always
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  be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
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  Pretty clear. So not only does Paul clarify this in the reality of Timothy's life to
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  the church in Ephesus but he also deals with this in Philippians. What's amazing about
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  the Philippian church is they understood what their purpose was. All of them were committed
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  to this one purpose, this one goal. But we know, because we live in the days that we
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  live, there are all kinds of stuff going out there. All kinds of gospels. Philippians chapter
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  1 verse 22 through 26 says, if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for
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  me. Yet, which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I want you to think about that. Paul's saying,
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  if I'm to live in this body, then that means fruitful labor. Christ is gained. Which one
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  would I choose? I'm having a hard time with that. I'll be honest with you. I think we
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  all would say that. I mean, if I could be with Jesus now for all eternity, then I think
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  I'm in with that, right? I mean, we would say that, I hope. And that's what Paul says
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  here. I don't know what I would choose. I mean, I get Jesus or I get Jesus, Jesus is
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  wonderful labor. Either way, I get Jesus. Verse 23, I am hard pressed between the two.
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  I want you to get that. He's so torn between the two that he's like, you know what? One
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  or the other would be great. My desire is to depart and be with Christ. And that is
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  far better. Why? Because he doesn't have to deal with sin, he doesn't have to deal with
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  being persecuted, he doesn't have to deal with suffering, he doesn't have to deal with
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  pain, he doesn't have to deal with any of that stuff. Along with all the other stuff,
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  it comes along with people. He won't have to deal with any of that. But then he says
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  in verse 24, but to remain in the body, to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your
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  account. So if I was to stay, it's more important that I stay because it's necessary for you.
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  And verse 25 says, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all.
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  I will finish the work that God has for me to do. And for your progress and joy in the
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  faith. In other words, me staying is for your growth and for joy in the faith. I find joy
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  in the faith because of you. So that in me, verse 26, you may have ample calls to glory
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  in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. In other words, I'm going to stay around
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  because I have a purpose to stay around. I'm going to give you the gospel. You notice he's
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  giving the gospel to a church that's already been gospelized. Why? Because we should be
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  reminding ourselves all the time of this wonderful gospel. It's important. It's our purpose.
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  When you wake up, do you think about gospel as soon as you wake up? Is Christ on your
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  mind when you wake up? Are you worried about all the other things happening? Have you reoriented
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  yourself to the purpose by which God has called you? Or are you reorienting yourself to another
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  purpose? Principle number three, the highest motivating factor of all believers must be
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  the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the one thing that should keep you going and get you going
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  in the morning. Wake up, gospel. So I have three questions for you. This will help you
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  to see if the highest motivating factor for you is the gospel. How are you living? Second
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  question, how are you in Jesus? And then third, are you living in a manner worthy of the gospel
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  or living a life of excuses and compromise? Well, that's for you, pastor, because you're
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  a pastor. Nope. Listen, my responsibility to God is much higher than yours. But there's
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  one thing that motivates me every single day, Jesus and his gospel. Nothing else matters.
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  And that motivates my love for you, that motivates my love for others, and motivates why I do
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  what I do, gospel. And this is what he says in Philippians chapter 1, 27 through 30,
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  only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So I put some parentheses
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  here. I want you to hear this. Your life should only be lived in a manner that is worthy of
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  the gospel of Christ. How do you conduct yourself? How are you living? Because you have a name
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  by which you represent. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would say, you know, you
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  carry my name. My dad would say the same thing. You carry, you're a cane. Listen, cane don't
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  mean jack. There's a name that I carry that has a much higher value than cane, and it's
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  not cane enabled. It's Jesus. Jesus' name is on my life. And the gospel which he has
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  given the mission, the purpose of my life that he has given to every believer is on
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  my life. And how am I living? How am I representing him in my life? Am I living in a way that's
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  just full of excuses and compromise? Or am I really living in a way that honors him and
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  lifts him up and makes him known? Look what it says here. So that whether I come and see
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  you or I'm absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one
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  mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. This is what he's saying to the
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  Philippians along with what he said to the Ephesian church. We have one Lord, one faith,
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  one baptism, one spirit, one mission, one God. That's what he's saying here. We have
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  churches all over the country who have their own gospel, their own Lord, with their own
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  faith. Well, that's not my faith. I really don't care about your faith. I care about
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  his faith. This is his gospel. It's not yours. That's what he calls it here. So that you
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  will strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. It's his gospel. It's his faith.
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  It's his church. I wonder how many times we really think about that. I have a tendency
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  to think sometimes we don't because we're too wrapped up in our life, living a life
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  of excuses and compromise. Verse 28, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
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  So if I am standing in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of
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  the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents, this is a clear sign to
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  them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. So I want you to kind of
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  get that. If we are committed as a church, as a people of God, to the attitude and the
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  mind of the gospel, if we're committed to the one faith, the one gospel, and we're striving
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  side by side, working side by side for the sake of the gospel, everyone who is an opponent
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  of ours will fear. And they know that they're going to be destroyed. Why? Because we have
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  salvation in Christ. Notice what he says in verse 28, but of your salvation and that salvation
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  from God. There it is again. You can't outrun it. The doctrine of election is all throughout
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  the scripture. You can't outrun it. He even clarifies it again. For it has been granted
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  to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for
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  his sake. God has granted to you for the sake of himself, for the sake of Christ, that you
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  should believe in him. He granted it to you. It's a privilege. And if it's a privilege
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  to know him because he has made himself known to you, then why would we live in a way that
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  contradicts that gospel? Verse 30, parentheses. Here's what I want to say. The parentheses
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  are my words. If we are living for him and we are suffering for his sake, engage in the
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  same conflict, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still
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  have. In other words, we are all engaged in the same conflict. We are at war. Have we
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  really thought about that? That every day you wake up and you're at war. You're battling
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  every single day. You're contending for the gospel. You're fighting for the gospel every
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  single day. Where does the war start? It starts with you. Why do I do the things I do not
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  want to do? But the things that I hate doing, I keep on doing. So guess what? You're literally
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  at war with yourself every single day you wake up. Every single day you're at battle.
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  Why am I doing this stuff? I don't want to do this stuff. And what do you continue to
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  do? The same stuff. So you're at war with yourself. Not only are you at war with yourself,
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  you're at war with the culture. Just because there's wars happening overseas doesn't mean
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  there's not a real war happening in your life right now. All of us are at war. Just because
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  you sit at home, you're able to make, on a cold day, make some grilled cheese with tomatoes,
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  have a bowl of soup. That doesn't mean you're not at war. If we wake up and we go out into
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  the day and we realize, you know what, I need to gird myself today. I need to be ready for
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  battle today. Something's going to happen today that I need to be ready for. That's
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  a war mentality. Have we really thought about this? You're at war with false doctrine. You're
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  at war with culture. You're at war with yourself. You're at war with politics. You're at war
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  with everything that's contrary to God. And that's why Paul says in verse 30, engage in
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  the same conflict that you saw I had. If you are a contender for the gospel, you will be
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  at conflict. It will be a battle. How important is that conflict? You see, if my highest motivating
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  factor is the gospel and the most, and I take the most of every opportunity for the sake
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  of the gospel, whether I live or die, Christ is my ultimate prize, I'm willing to go to
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  battle every single day. We're at war. Everyone else knows they're at war with you. You experience
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  it every day. We sit behind our televisions and we go, well, see, and you point out all
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  the things that the culture's doing and you're angry and you're frustrated. They're at war
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  and they're winning the war. Do you know why? Because they understand their mission. And
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  the world culture does the same mission all the time. They're one spirit and they're one
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  mind. That's to destroy Christian value. Let's be honest. We're losing the battle. Why? Because
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  we got churches creating their own gospel and creating their own God and creating their
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  own doctrine because they don't like the gospel and they don't like the God and they don't
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  like the doctrine that God has. They want their own doctrine, their own ways and their
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  own things and their own ideas. I can do it better. And that's what Paul's reminding the
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  church of Philippi. Continue to contend, continue to fight, continue to be at war, continue
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  in the gospel. That's the point. I want to close with this last statement. Turn to Revelation.
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  And this is what Jesus reminds the church in Ephesus. It's interesting when you read
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  Revelation chapter 2, you have the church of Ephesus, the church of Smyrna, the church
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  of Pergamum, the church of Thyatira, the church of Sardis, the church of Philadelphia, and
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  the church of the Laodiceans. Guess who's not mentioned in this list? Philippi. So everybody
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  looks, oh, there's the seven churches. But Philippi still existed. Do we forget that?
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  Why aren't they mentioned in this list? Because they had no issues. Not that they're perfect.
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  Look what it says to the church of Ephesus. The reason why I picked Ephesus to share this
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  with you is because it's the same kind of message that Paul gives the church of Ephesus
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  as he gives to Philippi. But church of Ephesus, it's a rebuke. Church of Philippi, it's an
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  exhortation. It says to the angel of the church, to the pastor of the church of Ephesus. That's
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  what that word angel means, messenger. To the messenger of the church in Ephesus, the
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  words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven
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  golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how
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  you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles
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  and are not, and found them to be false. We can assume, first of all, this is the church
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  that Timothy was overseeing. He did a pretty decent job getting these people to this point.
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  There's one thing that's missing here. I want you to see this. I know you are enduring patiently
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  and bearing up for my namesake and have not grown weary, but I have this against you,
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  that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you
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  have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove
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  your lampstand from its place unless you repent. What have they stopped loving? I'm sure there
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  have been, I know when I first came across this, I kept having this idea that I had left
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  Jesus. I hadn't loved Jesus. And so I had this idea that I had to go back and do all
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  the things I was supposed to do as a believer in order to fall in love with Jesus more.
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  You know what they are, right? Prayer and studying the Bible. You get this list of do's.
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  But that's not what Jesus is saying here. What was the first thing you fell in love
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  with? When you came face to face with the living God, the Holy Spirit, not literally
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  face to face, what did you fall in love with about Jesus? Was it him? Did you love Jesus?
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  No, it wasn't Jesus. See, if you really look at Jesus, you would not want to love him at
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  all because he's an approach to me in the condition that I was before I came to the
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  realization of who he is. You know what I fell in love with? His gospel. I fell in love
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  with the story. I fell in love with this amazing, why would this man die on a cross, was buried
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  in the rose again? And how did I come to love the gospel? The Holy Spirit. And what happened
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  when I came to love the gospel? The Spirit came and dwelt in me and he illuminated me
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  to the truth of this wonderful gospel. And my response to that wonderful gospel was to
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  surrender my life to this King. And the only way I can understand that wonderful gospel
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  is that the Holy Spirit had to be present for me to understand this wonderful gospel.
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  It's the gospel and that's what he says to the church of Ephesus, you left the gospel.
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  You left the thing you loved at first. And do you remember what happened when you first
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  came to Christ? What did you do? You went and told people. Shouted from the mountaintops.
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  You went and told people. It's the first thing you're going to do. Jesus is Lord. You need
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  to know there's Jesus. You want an example of that from scripture? The woman at the well.
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  Did she say a prayer? Did she say, Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know you died on
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  a cross for me, man. If you would, kid, if you would, would you forgive me? No. I'm not
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  a sinner. She came face to face with the living God and ran to the city and told the people,
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  come and see this man who told me all about my life. A prayer don't save you. God saves
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  you. And your only response to an awesome and living and loving God is to proclaim him
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  to everyone that you come in contact with. That is your responsibility. That's what he's
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  telling the church of Philippi. Contend for the gospel. Keep the gospel. Fight for the
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  gospel. We are struggling together for the gospel. That's all he keeps saying in chapter
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  one. Perseverance in the gospel. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is not just
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  that God God perseveres us when he returns. He perseveres us every single day in the gospel
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  and in Christ. Isn't that an amazing thought? Every day you're persevering in Christ. Okay?
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  Father, I want to thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness. Thank you, Lord,
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  for your word. Thank you for this wonderful gospel. Help us to love you supremely for
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  your glory. Amen.