Philippians 3

How are we doing? Good to see everybody. Yeah, really good to see everybody. I just keep, this is a little off topic and not totally what we're talking about today, but I just want to mention I'm very thankful for this community, and I keep hearing from people over and over again how thankful they are for this community. So yeah, I just want to recognize that, and just, I can't see you guys because the light's shining in my eyes, but I know you're there.

And yeah, I just very thankful for this church and the community. And yeah, so let's pray. And then we're going to dive into Philippians today. Father God, we just dedicate this morning to you. As we open up your word, God, I just ask for soft hearts, open hearts, and just allow us to receive what you have for us today. Allow us to walk out of here feeling blessed and victorious. And yeah, God, just use Use this morning, use me, and use your word for us today. In Jesus' name, amen.

We're back in Philippians every time. Well, not every time, but most of the time that I've had the opportunity to be up here. We've been kind of chipping our way through Philippians. Probably have another three or four sessions in Philippians, so it'll probably be another eight months. But we'll get there, and yeah, we're doing it. So we're in Philippians 3. If you want to flip there, you have a Bible in front of you. Philippians 3 we're starting in verse 17 and going through chapter 4 verse 1.

Paul says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us.

For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. So, Paul's writing this letter to a group of people, to a church, probably a relatively, well, relative to today, a small church that he had started in the city of Philippi. He had started about 10 years ago. He's now imprisoned in Rome, and he's writing back to them.

And I've mentioned this before, he's repeatedly expressed how much he loves and appreciates and is encouraging this group of people. So from this passage, just a couple things jump out, and then we'll kind of dive back deeper into these things. First thing is that there are people out there who we are to imitate. Okay. We're going to talk a lot about this idea of imitation. And as he mentions, there's also people out there who we are not to imitate.

And it's actually a very, it's a tearful thing. It's a sad thing. And then the second thing is we look to something greater than what we see here on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're going to talk a little bit about what that looks like. And then we're going to end with an encouragement. Paul, these words are so encouraging of Paul's about this crown of victory. So we're going to talk about imitation, citizenship, and a crown of victory.

So first of all, this idea of imitation. I'm looking out and not all of us in this room are parents, but many are. And as a parent, one of the most encouraging and also one of the scariest things that happens as a parent is when you catch your kids saying or doing things that you say or do. And I see heads nodding. Yes, Yes. It's like, it's, it's, it's incredibly, yeah, it's a fun moment. It's also really scary.

We had a moment just a couple of weeks ago, we were, we were traveling, we were, we were going to SeaTac airport. I don't actually remember where we were going to, but we had parked the car and we were getting on the light rail train to head to the airport, all four of us. So Cheryl, Eli, and Abby and I, and for some reason that I, I, I don't know, I was like just out of sorts. I don't know know if you've ever felt that way, especially when you're traveling.

Like I didn't have the bag that I usually have and stuff was just in the wrong place. And it was just, I was just, I was kerfuffled, if that's the word to use there. And it, it. It came up because one of the things that we say in our house, or that I say, kind of as a joke, because we're not great at this, but I say often, a place for everything and everything in its place. I don't know if maybe your mom said that back in the day. A place for everything

and everything in its place. But I was out of sorts. Nobody's fault. I just was. And so we get on the train. We're riding the train. We just take it one stop, and then we get off at the airport. And I had one of those moments where I'm standing 10 feet from the train, realizing my headphones are on that train. And as soon as I realized it, that train is gone.

And there's zero chance of getting those headphones back, right? Because that train's going all the way to Seattle. Lost and found is not a thing, especially for something of any value. They're just gone. And I was like, oh, shoot. My headphones are gone. It's my fault. I didn't have them in their place. And nobody really said anything. We go down the escalator and then Abby Abby kind of turns to me, sweet Abby, who's up here playing piano.

She's a sweet girl. She says, daddy, a place for everything and everything in its place. And I was just like, yep, you got me, kid. You got me. And it just, in that moment, it was like, you realize the power. It's really cool, the power that you have as a parent to have influence over them. It's also really scary, the power that you have as a parent. And so that's this idea that Paul's getting at here of of imitation.

Paul says, join in imitating me. To be honest with you, at first glance, this seems egotistical. That was my, when I first read this, I was like, how am I going to explain this? But then you look five verses earlier, and I don't have it on the screen, but just five verses earlier, Paul has said to this group of people in his letter, he says, not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made So Paul has very

clearly said, guys, I'm not perfect. I don't have it all figured out. But yet he is able to say, imitate me. There are things about him that are imitatable. And he's an imperfect person, and he can say, imitate me. And so I've done a lot of reflecting on that the last couple of weeks of like, am I imitatable? Can I stand up here and even just read the words, read somebody else's words and say, imitate me? That's been really, really hard. But I think God does want us to be imitatable.

Another key thing here is, who does Paul want us to imitate. It's not just him. So he very quickly says, keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. So there's a group imitation here. He's not just holding himself up and say, hey, you guys should all be exactly like me. Absolutely not. He's saying there are people around you who are walking in the right way. Notice those people, look at them and imitate them.

He has a group of faithful followers. So, and then imitate how? What does imitation look like? Well, he uses the word walk. It's a walk. It's not a list of rules. We are called to imitate a walk, not to follow a list of rules. And it's not as if lists of rules aren't in scripture. There are some. I just think this idea of imitation gets us away from the idea that there is one list or five lists or whatever it might be that when put together encapsulates everything.

And that's just not true, but there are lists. So we're going to look at just a couple, just so that you guys know that I'm not saying that we're making this up as we go along and that there is no kind of solid foundation for our walk. There are lists of rules. So one is in Deuteronomy 10, 12. It says, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? And this is actually a a statement that's in the Old Testament four or five times. What does the Lord your God require of you?

And in this case, it says, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good. Okay? There's a nice, solid list of some expectations. There are some rules. We've got the 10 commandments. Okay? It's in Exodus 20, 10 commandments, you got 10 rules, pretty clear, don't murder, check, okay?

Some of those are more difficult. And then Paul has a couple different places in the New Testament where he has lists of vices, lists of don't dos. In 1 Corinthians 6 and also in Galatians 5, lists things like fornication, idolatry, stealing, drunkenness, exhortation, adultery, lewdness, hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissension, and envy, and some others. My point in laying that out is there are lists, okay?

We do have some walls around us and that is a really healthy thing, but those lists don't cover how we walk in every situation, okay? I can't look at that list and know exactly how to behave in every moment and how to prioritize things. And that's why this idea of imitation and imitating somebody else's walk is a part of that. And I love how God works. God shows us things sometimes. When we think we know things, God's like, you have no idea.

Last weekend, we were in Oakland, California, and I was sitting in this hotel lobby, okay? And I'm writing. I was working on this sermon. I was literally writing those exact words. There aren't a list of rules that covers everything you need to know for every situation. I'm typing that. And this kid rides his bike out the hallway through the hotel lobby, does a circle around the kind of furniture area where I'm sitting. And my first reaction is that's got to be against the rules.

There's got to be a list of rules that has no bike riding in the lobby on it. And, but that was, that was my very human and wrong instinct because the reality was Because this kid was great. He wasn't causing any trouble. His bike was clean. His dad was right behind him. And his dad said, slow down. And he slowed down. And they parked his bike over in the corner of the lobby. And then they had a great breakfast together as a family. It was a great moment.

I wish I, as a parent of younger kids, had discovered the idea of hotel bike riding. I think it's a great idea. But my first reaction was, that's got to be against the rules. But that was off base because they were fine. They were great. But we have this deep-seated desire to want a list. We want to see the list. And Trey said it from up here before, and it's kind of been something I've been noodling on since then. We think we want the list, but we don't actually want the list.

If we had the list and could do all those things and just check the box and know that we're good, we're done, that's actually a really scary thing. Because for one thing, then what? For another, what if we're missing something? What if we're not perfect? And guess what? You're not. So it's not the list of rules is everything that we need to follow. It's actually the gospel. It's the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of your Lord Jesus Christ.

That is what we're seeking that brings us to righteousness with God.

That is what we need, okay? The road that you could follow to have the list of rules and follow that all the way that you can, that road is a dead end when it comes to actual righteousness with God, but God has solved that problem by the death, burial, and resurrection of his son. And this is, this is great news. This is, and I, like, I was so like, that is, that is, we could just stop right there. Hallelujah, man. And, and, and go home.

But that actually doesn't solve the problem of what do we do in a given moment? We're kind of back in the same situation of, of how do I walk? How do I, how do I walk in this, in this moment? So, so we're still back, back to this idea of imitating. Walking is an action. It's every day. It's repeated. it. It's constant. It's purposeful. Walking is a metaphor, by the way. We're not talking about an actual Christian walk.

We're talking about how do you live your life? How do you decide what to do in a given situation? And this is where Paul says, keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. I'm going to get a little, maybe overly personal here and give you you an example of somebody that this is for me, somebody that I keep my eyes on. My mom is suffering from a degenerative neurological condition. It's called multiple systems atrophy.

You've never heard of it. It's super rare. There's like a thousand people in the U.S. that have it. And it's gotten to the point where she has lost pretty much all motor function. She can barely speak even though her brain works completely well. So it's really hard. And she just recently went on hospice. She's in a, we had to put her in a care home so that she could get the care that she needed. And it's hard. And a lot of you guys have been through situations like that.

And when you are, it causes you, and I think a really good way to reflect back on somebody else's life. And so I've been kind of living in that and doing a lot of reflection. And I just got to say that kind of situation combined with trying to speak on this idea of imitation, it really helped me put two and two together there. And man, my mom is somebody to imitate. She raised three boys, which means that she was the only female in the house. She survived.

And she taught elementary school. She taught piano. She taught hundreds of piano students out of our home, and some of them up into their early adulthood. She was like the most involved person in a church I have ever seen. She was just always around. She led youth group for us, played piano, just Bible study leader. I still have like older women coming up to me and say, I so appreciated being in your mom's Bible study all those years. She just had such an incredible impact on people.

The way that she loved the Lord and the way that she loved the people around her is just phenomenal. And she's still, I kind of told you where she's at and her condition and stuff. She still, to this day, meets with a group of moms to pray for their kids and their grandkids. It's just phenomenal. So she is somebody that I look to as far as how to walk. And I hope, and I'm confident, if you don't have somebody, let's talk. But I hope that you have people around you who you look to.

It may or may not be family. It may or may not be people who are in the room right now. But I hope that you have people around you that you can look to and say, I want to walk like them because that's what Paul's telling us here. We need that. We need that. We don't have the list of rules that we can look to and check all the boxes and be good. The gospel is amazing and we are saved. That is great. How do we live that out though? Imitating others is a big part of that.

It's just how this works. So find those people, find community. That's another reason I'm so thankful for this community. Let me say one more thing about this idea of imitation. And I needed to kind of be told this myself this week. It is okay to desire to be imitatable. You have permission to want to be able to be imitated. Okay? Don't do the overly humble thing and know nobody should imitate me. We, as the body of Christ, if I'm saying, if Paul's saying imitate others,

what's the other side of that equation? We need others to imitate. It is okay to desire to sharpen yourself. Iron sharpens iron. And just, yeah, don't feel like you're not worthy of being imitated. As time goes on and as sanctification happens and the Lord works in your life, you actually should become more and more imitatable as you go along. Okay, I think we can go to the next slide. The other thing we see here is this

contrast between those that are imitatable and Paul's got this heart for people who are not following the Lord and who are enemies of the cross of Christ. And he says their end is destruction, their God is their belly, their glory and their shame with minds set on earthly things. And he says that with tears. That's kind of the counter example of being imitatable. And just a couple of things to say about this. first thing is don't take sin lightly.

Don't take sin lightly, okay? We have the gospel, we have salvation, but that is not permission to sin. I heard one podcast sermon, I don't know, and by the way, I have zero original thoughts. So I had an original thought once, but I forgot it. So anything I say is coming from, especially if it's wise, it's coming from somebody else. But I heard it, I was listening to some podcast or sermon, and I think it was talking about temptation.

But the speaker made the point that it is okay as a thought experiment to. How do I say this, to think through where your sin leads, okay? To think through, if I continue to indulge my lust, if I continue to live in anger, if I continue to lie, where is that going to lead me? And I think if you think about that rightly and honestly, you get to the same conclusion that Paul does, that it ends in some form of destruction. So don't take sin lightly.

And it's not a coincidence. The opposite of that would be, I could say, it's not a coincidence that God has laid things out such that if we live rightly, we live a fruitful and fulfilling life, okay? Not perfect, not easy, not like health and wealth kind of stuff, but God wants us to live the right way. So if sin leads to destruction, living rightly will lead to better things that might be hard, might be different than what we think, but it's what God wants for us.

Okay, so our first point is to imitate and be imitatable. Our second kind of big idea here, I promise you, I will not do justice to this. I will not attempt to do justice to it, partly because Trey's going to spend a couple weeks coming up on politics. And so we're going to talk about citizenship in heaven, but I will not attempt to cover everything that you might need to think about as a Christian politically.

I just want to make a couple points. So the next part of our passage here is, but our citizenship is in heaven. So he's just mentioned those whose minds are set on earthly things, okay? And how their sin leads to destruction. He's just said that. And he says, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to have our citizenship in heaven? Paul Paul is writing to, like I mentioned, this little church in Philippi.

Philippi is about 800 miles from Rome. It was a Roman colony, 800 miles away. So just like a two-hour flight, right? No, it's like a six-week walk in those days to get from Philippi to Rome. So their citizenship, the citizenship of the people in Philippi was really far away. But that's where they would look for what it meant for their citizenship. And so their citizenship means that's where their help comes from, okay?

They could, you know, by horse call up Rome and be like, hey, we need help, and help would come. And it's also where their allegiance lied, okay? Their political allegiance lied in Rome. And so Paul's talking to them, and he's... He's pointing out that their true citizenship is not in Rome, that it's in heaven. Their citizenship in heaven is where their help and their allegiance come from. N.T. Wright says this better than I will, so I'm just going to read this quote.

Paul has described the church and its Lord in such a way that the Philippians could hardly miss the allusion to Rome and Caesar. This is the greatest challenge of the letter, that the Christians in Philippi, whether or not they were themselves Roman citizens, would think out what it means to give their primary allegiance, not to Rome, but to heaven, not to Caesar, but to Jesus.

And to trust that Jesus would in due time bring the life and rule of heaven to bear on the whole world, themselves included, they must think out, and so must we, what this allegiance to Jesus will mean in terms of the other claims to allegiance that press upon us.

So when Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, he's saying that ultimately our allegiance is to Jesus and ultimately our help comes from Jesus. He's saying to the Philippians, hey, that's great that you're Roman citizens. There's, you know, whatever, that's great. That is not where your ultimate allegiance is. And I think that that applies to us as well. Where is our ultimate allegiance, okay?

And in an election year and with all the stuff that is happening, I think it's really important that we keep that in mind. Now, there's a reality, and I can say this about a lot of different things. I happen to be talking about politics, so you'll think politics, but this is true of anything. Anytime you have two options, one might be better than another, okay?

And that's true. I'm not going to argue with that fact, but if we think of some some national political figure or party or issue as where our help comes from, I think we fall into a trap of setting our mind on earthly things. I think it's really important, you know, always, but especially as we enter this time, where is your true allegiance? Where is your true help coming from? Let me say one more thing about politics. It's a little off topic,

sorry. Just last thing on politics, and then Trey's going to clean up the mess next week, I promise. us. Politics is like, technically, it's just how humans organize and lead themselves. Okay? That's what politics is. And yes, there is national politics, but that plays out all over the place. Humans organize and lead themselves in lots of different arenas. We heard about a women's Bible study that's coming up and a men's dinner. Guess what? That's political.

That's people getting together, organized, leading, learning, doing things together, okay? There's all kinds of opportunities to do that. You can lead a group, join a group. We talked about the Bible study, join a book club, join the PTA, join them. You don't even need to lead anything. Just join something that's already happening and be a contributing member. Anybody that's ever tried to lead a group knows how important those contributors are, those solid contributors.

There's so many opportunities to get involved in things. Coach a youth sports team. One opportunity that we're going to start talking about more is starting October 2nd, we will restart our MOPS ministry, Mothers of Preschoolers. And MOPS was awesome. We had a group of moms here last year throughout the school year that came, and they get fed, they get mentored, they get taught, and most importantly, they get some rest while their preschoolers are over in the kids' house getting watched after.

It is an awesome ministry, and it has brought people into this church, and it has provided needs. It's something that Cheryl took part in back in the the day. And it's something that there's opportunities to get involved in. They need mentor moms. I'll say it again. They need mentor moms. They need childcare. They need people to bring food. If it doesn't work in your schedule, it's Wednesday mornings, by the way, for a couple hours, one or two Wednesday mornings a month.

And we'll get more info in an actual signup sheet out there.

I just want to say, there are things you can do to get involved that are, in my opinion, okay warning here just my opinion there are things that you can do to get involved in in people's lives and in groups that are more important and more impactful than say voting the right way just my opinion okay i'm not claiming that this says that but i just there's there's so many opportunities to get involved and and i think have a greater impact than how we might vote.

Moving on. We're going to talk about my joy and my crown. In the last little verse here that we'll look at, it's chapter four, verse one. Paul calls the Philippians his joy and his crown. He says, therefore, my brothers, and I love this emotional language. He says, therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Beloved he loves this church right he loves these people they are his joy and his crown crowns were given in this time as a as a sign of victory okay you you earned a crown for achieving something great and paul is saying you guys you're you're the thing you're like my prize the fact that you're doing so well and walking in the lord and imitating each other you are my prize so this comes full circle he's he's telling these

people to imitate him and imitate those around him who who are are imitatable. And then he gets the victory of that. And then they get to be imitatable to others. And you get this whole circle and cycle of just people of joy and Paul's crown of victory. We get to experience that same victory, guys. We do. We get to experience seeing others walk in the Lord. And not out of pride, like, hey, look what I've done. But no, this is awesome when we see the people around us walking in the Lord,

becoming contributing members of society, like it's great. It is a joy. Let me say something specifically to parents. I don't know if you guys saw this. The U.S. Surgeon General on Wednesday came out with a statement, what's the term they use? A Surgeon General warning. Okay. So there's now an official Surgeon General warning that parents have reached disproportionate levels of stress and loneliness. I mentioned this with a group of friends the other night, and somebody said,

oh, we learned on Wednesday that parenting's hard? Interesting. But it's official. Parenting is hard. And then the article that I read about this went on to say, Surgeon General Murthy has suggestions to lighten mom and dad's load. And I perked up like, oh, okay, what are the suggestions? This this is going to be great. What is the solution to the problem? I can't wait to read it. And it was child tax credit, paid family leave, and some other things like that, which are fine.

That's what the government can do. And okay, I'm not criticizing those things, but those don't actually make parenting any easier. And so I want to throw out just a thought. It's not a solution because there's not a solution to this, but a thought for parents, And that is just never say the word just when it comes to the work that you're doing with your kids. Never, never say or catch yourself thinking, I'm just raising these two kids. I'm just making dinner for the family.

I'm just a stay-at-home mom. Never feel like there needs to be ands on there. Never feel like it needs to be, I'm doing this and rising to the heights of my career and making their dorm room look fantastic for the Instagram photos or whatever the pressures are that you feel. And I know those pressures are real. I just, there's, if you are raising kids in the Lord, there is nothing insignificant about what you are doing. There's not a just on that statement.

So I am giving you, not that you need it from me, but I'm giving you permission to release the expectations that you might feel and focus on your family. There's no just there. I literally cannot think of a better gift that you could give society and give to the community around you than raising up kids in the Lord and as contributing contributing members of society. That is amazing. And that is imitatable. We have parents whose kids are long gone.

We have parents whose kids are tiny and up here in little holders making announcements. We have the whole range. And so there's parents, I think there's a lot of opportunity for imitating there as well. So yeah, just maybe moms especially, take it easy on yourselves and don't feel like you ever should put the word just in front of what you're doing. It's important.

Okay, worship team is going to come up here and I have just a couple thoughts. It's because all of us, whether we're parents or not, and hopefully as I was talking about parents, those of you who are not parents can kind of like think about what that looks like in your lives. lives, we can experience the joy and crown that Paul has. We can all be imitatable, not perfect, okay? If you're trying to be perfect, stop.

But we can all be imitatable, and we can all imitate others in the way that we walk. I think we can put ourselves in positions to have an impact on others too, to be able to say, my joy and my crown. I want to look back at the whole passage again, and I'm going to read it one more time, but I'm going to make some comments specifically on the emotional language that Paul uses. This is not just like, you know, he's laying out an argument and it's logical.

Paul does that sometimes. This is like emotional stuff. This is heart stuff that he's talking about. It says brothers. So there's like close relationship here, okay? And he's talking to women too. So it's brothers and sisters. Join in imitating. Imitating is like a, that's an an intimate thing, right? Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears,

like he sheds tears over people who don't do this. This is like. What he's wanting people to do as far as their imitation of him, like it's high stakes. It matters. And he sheds tears over those who don't and walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with mindset on earthly thing. But our citizenship, where our help comes from, where our allegiance goes to, our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it, from our citizenship, we await a savior, a waiting, a longing, right? It's not a here and now. Somebody said this morning, we live in a microwave society with a crockpot God. And I thought that was really cool. We're waiting, okay? And God uses that waiting sometimes in such beautiful ways.

We're await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly, our imperfect, our sometimes sickly, our frustratingly aging body to be like his glorious, his perfect body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, and just think about the emotion of this language, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. of it. Jesus had a similar moment.

When he met with his disciples right before he was crucified, he knew he was going to be leaving them, and he asked them to do something in remembrance of him and to do it regularly. Most of you know what I'm talking about. We're going to be taking communion today, which is just a chance to remember and recognize what Jesus has done for us and to be be obedient in doing that.

Jesus, as he's telling people, he's telling his disciples to do this in remembrance of him, I think he's kind of thinking of them as his joy and his crown as well, right? He's trained up these disciples. He's asking them to carry on his earthly ministry, to go out and spread the gospel and be imitatable. They are his joy and his crown. And what an incredible gift it is to be someone's joy and crown, let alone if we can be Jesus's joy and crown.

So we're gonna remember and celebrate communion today. We'll worship. And while we're worshiping, you can come up and grab the elements, take them back to your seats. And then kind of in the middle of the first song, I'll come back up and we'll take communion together. And then we'll pray at that point, we'll close in prayer. So let's worship.