It's good to connect. It's good to be here with you this morning. As we continue our series on Philippians Defiant. Enjoy. And, my attempt today is to one, keep it simple. I. Woo, keep it clear and bring this scripture to life so that we can actually engage in it and play around with some of the things that Paul is talking about. Before I do that, I just wanna acknowledge and welcome my very good friends who are visiting from Canberra, Christy and Steve.
And also Christy's parents, Kieran, Marian, they were my pastors growing up as a kid into adulthood, so I had to put up with me. Probably my worst time you guys have, you know, I'm pretty good now, aren't I? Well behaved. Don't say anything that I shouldn't. Their fault and, yeah, it's probably, it's actually their fault. But I just wanna honor you guys and thank you for loving me. Christie and Steve, I've known Christie since I was like seven, and, I consider her like a sister.
But, Steve came along a bit later in life, and I remember Christie. Coming and asking my opinion on whether she should marry him or not. And the first reaction was jealousy. 'cause I'd gotten to know him and I really liked him. I'm like, well, don't take him away from me. So I've, I eventually said yes, but I remember one Sunday, I had a, had a memory, had a, i, I was like, yes, you can have his hand. I remember one Sunday morning preaching at Langford.
And, I was preaching off a laptop and Steve, Steve's a bit of a tech guy, and, Steve goes, oh, can I just double check your, your laptop, make sure it's working all right. Unbeknownst to me, he'd sort of signed in and, and he was sitting on the, on the media desk and he was controlling my notes and adding. I think so that's, that's the sort of the relationship we have. And he's promised he's promised that he's gonna try and heckle me today as well. So excuse him if he does that. Shall we pray?
Yeah. Awesome. Well, we thank you so much for this time together. We thank you for your joy. I. We thank you that we can find joy with you together. We thank you Lord for this scripture and we just pray, Lord, that through the presence of your spirit, that you would make known the mysteries of this faith that we hold dear. Make Christ magnified to our hearts and our minds may capture us this morning we pray. Amen. All right, so let's start. Let's start by reading this passage.
It's a reasonably long beat of passage. It's, chapter two, verses 12 through to 30. So let's go. Are we ready? Yeah. Okay. Therefore, my dear brothers, my dear friends, sorry. Oh gee, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed. So now, not in only in my presence, but even more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work.
According to his good purposes, do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world By her holding firm to the word of life, then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing. But even if I'm poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with all of you in the same way.
You should also be glad and rejoice with me. Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I may too be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like-minded who will generally care about your INJ interests, all seek their own interests, but not those of Christ Jesus. You know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry, like a son with a father. Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.
I'm confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon, but I consider it necess necessary to send you a pitis, my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger. And minister to my need since he has, since he has been longing for for all of you, and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. Indeed. He was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
For this reason, I'm very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious. Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor because he came close to death for the work of Christ Ricking his risking his life to make up for what was lacking in your ministry to me. Run outta breath. Well, there's a lot going on here, isn't there?
Paul's trucking through some theological implications and encouragement, and then sort of at verse 19, you, you kind of feel like he goes off on this tangent. And, talking about Timothy and a Paphitis, and then Paphitis is sick and you know, he's dying, almost dying, but then he gets better and then he'll come and see you and, uh.
Some scholars actually believe that verses 12 through to 30 was actually an original ending to this letter of Philippians and that Paul May have actually come back to this letter and then continued writing chapters three and four. Um. But that doesn't actually mean that the flow of this passage from, in particular, from verses 19 through to 30, a tangent at all. It doesn't mean that because if you are reading this as a Philippian in the Church of Philippi, the flow is actually really good.
It makes sense. You know, deeply Timothy and, you know, aph. As Paul's mentioning them, they're, they're familiar to you. They're, they're intimate people that the, that you know, they, and they're mentioned by Paul for really, really good reasons. In fact, their mentioning helps Paul bring to life his theological encouragement. So should we just quickly go over the passage again?
Firstly, Paul brings this incredible passage that we see in verses five through to 11, the Christ Tim that Dale preached on last week. If you haven't heard that, you need to go back and listen to it. And then he brings, he says, after that, therefore he brings these huge, lofty theological visions and ideas. He brings them into sort of this tangible invitational posture.
He goes from big theological declar declarations and brings them into more of a welcoming place that we can participate in these things. He encourages the church, doesn't he? That they have lived lives similar to Christ. When he says, just as you have obeyed, and then he offers them little warnings or subtle warnings throughout, not to stray from this pursuit by being in Christ like humble posture, he uses that phrase, fear and trembling. Or you could say submission and reliance in Christ.
But the benefits of Christ's work on the cross, our salvation that we're working out should be held up, therefore, in the most humble posture. Before God and he then he finishes this thought that for it is God doing all this work in and through us. And then secondly, he weaves in more subtle warnings not to pursue the wrong things, but whole wholeheartedly rely upon the word of life, which is Christ himself.
Thirdly, he mentions these two guys, Timothy and Epaphroditus, and as I mentioned before, they're mentioned because they're known by the church and Paul uses them as examples of individuals who are adopting the mind and attitudes of Christ. Lastly, Paul mentioning Ro and his sickness was actually to make sure that the church didn't think less of the guy's character.
That he hadn't just left and disappeared, that he had in fact been a person that had demonstrated the character and traits of Jesus Christ. So the flow here for the church in the Philippians, the Philippi church is actually brilliantly sensitive and pastoral. Paul's love and warmth for the church is really, really felt in this passage. He's eagerly encouraging them in the midst of potential distractions for the church in Philippi to pursue this life in Christ. So what do we glean from this?
What is, what's the encouragement for, for us as a church in Coburn? Out of this passage, this passage offers us a vision for life with the mind of Christ, a life built upon and in him. But is that where we find ourselves? Is that where we start? Do do you, do we have like that, like that word, disposition. In, in life, like that disposition that we see that the Church of Philippi has, that Paul seems to reveal, is that, is that where we're at church?
Is that where you are at as a follower of Christ? Could you, could you have Paul write to us and say, just as you've always obeyed, it's a high calling, isn't it? So what, what are we pursuing church? Do you read this beautiful hymn of Christ and say, that is what I want to pursue in life. Are you pursuing this more way, more real way of being human displayed in Christ Jesus? Or are you pursuing other things that will be ultimately in vain? Are you laboring for nothing?
Are you prone to a life of grumbling and arguing a life that declares I will have it my way, self-seeking as opposed to humble service? Just stop for a moment. Just right now, you're not listening to me. Listen to the spirit of God. Just stop for a moment and ask, am I pursuing that life? Lord, what am I pursuing? What am I cultivating? What am I building in this life of mine? What is it? Search me. Oh, God, know me.
Reveal these things to me because sometimes we need to ask that pivotal question. It's not just asking, can we build something in our lives? Can we pursue something in our lives? But it's also asking the question that what I am pursuing, is it worthy of building? Is it worthy of pursuing? And, and this passage in some sense invites us into this conversation. Beware, beware not to devote yourself to building something in life that ultimately won't be worth building.
But as Paul's so convinced as he invites us in, he says, oh, there is only one life that is worthy of devotion and that is a life radiating and declaring Christ in all that we are. We can build things that ultimately lo won't last, can't we? Giving our whole lives to visions and projects that will fade and rot, they'll be lost. But this mind of Christ, this, this life of Christ is eternal. It is the, it is the very life that will continue forever. So let's bring.
To life, how Paul brings to life to the church in Philippi Philippi, this pursuit of cultivating a mind of Christ with the same attitude of Christ. Well, it seems to me. That we have a bit of work to do to pursue this life. However, it's not a striving type of work. It's not a sheer grunt type of work, but it is a work of letting go and submitting, and that's my first point this morning is that God is calling you and I to submit in gladness to his will. And that's where our work starts.
Church, A life found glad in God's will. And that word GLAD is really important that I've put it there because glad describes this type of posture of the submission that God is inviting us into. It's a free welcoming of submitting. It's a humble and secure realization that we are children of God. That God has made us, that he positions us like stars in the sky. The the stars don't make themselves be there. God by his sovereign will has made it so it is by his will that we are here today.
That we can enjoy his creation, that we have woken to live this very day. That the breath that you breathe right now is because of his good will. Amen. To be glad. We need to discover the overwhelming benefits of what it means to be submitted to the will of God. Have you ever thought about. This call of submission to God's will as actually being a life of gladness.
Have you ever thought about it like that or is it just hard and wary and that that, that in this life of submission to God, it's a life of delight, joy, cheer pleasure, as Paul describes that it's the pure life. What are the benefits of this submission to God's will? I've got three fruits that are Bo bought out of a life submitted to God's will. Are you ready to listen to them? Do you want them? Okay, I'll give 'em to you. All right. Force my hand. I was gonna give 'em to you anyway.
Number one, GLAD submission defies culture. In a world that champions free will and personal freedom, submitting gladly to God's will will seem upside down yet for the child of God. True joy is not found in independence, but in surrender, this gladness is not root in circumstances, but trust. Trust that God's will is always good, pleasing, and perfect. Submission to God frees us from this horrid reality that you and I have to build something worthy for ourselves.
Guess what His will does instead, his will invites you and I into the worthy building of his kingdom. Second fruit. His submission brings his presence. To submit unto God is to live. His very presence is to invite, sorry, his very presence into all of our lives. Unlike the world that says you're losing some something by having this type of relationship. In fact, we as followers of Christ, children of God are gaining everything 'cause we're gaining intimacy with God.
We begin to taste and see what that, what is it like to walk with God in the cool of the evening? It's that type of thing that we're invited into in Revelation 21, 3. It says, then I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them, and they will be their God. If you want, if you want the kingdom of God to break into your world, into your life.
Then you need to submit to his will and therefore invite his very presence into your life. His presence does the work of renewing our minds. As we often say here at Red Door, we strongly believe we're putting all eggs in this basket, that when we are with Christ abiding relying in him, we become like him. We believe that and we want to live that life. The third fruit is that a transform, transform, living reveals god's will.
The fruit of a submitted life is a life lived noticeably differently, radiating peace, joy, and contentment. And this life becomes an embodied testimony to others, making them say, I didn't know someone could live like that. And this work of renewal in our lives because of our submitted hearts, minds, and bodies under God means we don't just speak God's will, but we actually end up living his will as living sacrifices wholly and pleasing to him, faultless in a crooked and perverted world.
And that fruit sounds gloriously wonderful to me. It's something that I so want in my life because it, what it equals is freedom. Submission to God equals freedom. I mentioned these fruits first because by it we see the vision of what God has for us as humans. So today, today I, I wanna hope that this kind of thinking about the fruit, the benefits of submission life, submitting to God is the glad life. It's a life full of delight.
It's a full life, full of joy and peace and cheer and even pleasure. I want us to have that vision in our minds so that we can this morning together allow our imagination by the work of the spirit to be caught up with this. What do you want in life? Do you want a life that is surrendered, a life of gladness under the will of God? Do you want that church? Do you want that? Do you wanna be free? Are we pursuing this? How?
How do we pursue this mind of Christ joyfully surrendering to the father in heaven? Okay, let's get into the practice. How do we practice this together? We've spoken about the work of God, what he's doing, and now let's medicate, meditate upon the work we have to do. What is in our hands? Well, our work purely put, these are the boundaries of our work is always in cooperation with the spirit of God. It's in practicing the resisting of the flesh. That's a good one, isn't it?
I love that one so much. The welcoming of having one self humbled, the giving up position and title like Christ Freely Gave up. It's the welcoming of curiosity into the midst of those instinct instinctive needs that all of us have to defend ourselves at times, isn't it? And this work is done in the medi, meditating upon Christ, entering into his story like a disciple, watching them master their rabbi, demonstrating the traits and the characters and the ways of God.
It's like looking at the trial of Christ before Pilate gleaning from his actions as a teacher in this moment, in this scene. In his words, seeing the deeper ways to live like Christ lives. Living a life free of having to defend myself all the time. A free to be secure in the father's will. Yeah, a few nights ago. Beck and I were having a conversation that involved highlighting each other's weaknesses. Just a just a casual conversation. Casual, very casual.
And my flesh, so loves to have the last say in that type of conversation. Does yours, oh, it's so good. It's like, I'm like an addict. You know? Just needing that fix of winning the debate of who sucks. Just that little bit more, you know, that's where it's coming from, right? Let's just be honest. It's not good. And in this conversation, just this once, which, you know, I wanna, I want you to know that Beck does this way better than me. You know, way better.
But in this particular conversation, I just, I had, I had the whisper of the Holy Spirit and I, I was, and he said, just hold your tongue. And I'm like, oh, she said something. She said something and I've got the best rebuttal. It's so good Lord. It will, it'll just, it will silence her and I will be the winner. You know, if I hold, if I hold my tongue, she'll walk away from this conversation thinking that she won and that, that's eats me up.
But the reason why I use that example of Christ before Pilate is because in that split second I'm in that scene, the Holy Spirit takes me and he, he takes me to that scene of Christ before Pilate. And I didn't have to really think about that too much. And then I held my mouth and I felt the war of the flesh for about three seconds. And then peace.
And this is, this is just a mundane example of practicing, of cultivating, of welcoming the mind of Christ into our lives that we can all participate in. It's the devoting ourselves, yes to scripture. It's the learning that we are actually students under his word. Absolutely. In prayer. It's the holding all our needs and our wants before Christ, and then getting to a place where we relinquish them to him. And say, I trust you.
Yes, it's in the confessing absolutely to one another, but it's not just confessing, it's also dedicating and committing ourselves to that hard work of cooperating with the spirit and with each other to repentance to. But it is done in the most mundane ways, this practicing the mind of Christ. This is what I wanna do. Paul brings it down as tangible ways. I wanna bring it down to tangible practices that we can do today.
So let's think about something that we could just agree with this morning together. As a church, something we could work towards and embody. Just right now, super simple, super practical, you know? So do you believe that the mind of Christ, according to the Hyn of Christ, is rich in love and humility? Do you agree with that? Yes. Okay, good. Whew. I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. If they say no, just skip that part.
In verse three, the prelude to this is that Paul welcomes this, this hymn by saying that we need to consider each other more important than ourselves. Consider the interests. What he's saying there is, he's not saying you've gotta flog yourself to death. He's not saying that. What he's saying is he's, let me put it this way, it's to consider the interest and the concerns of someone else just as as important as your own. Yeah. Does everyone agree with that? That's what Paul's saying.
That's what we're hoping for. Right? So therefore, our being present, having the posture of giving attention to one earth of showing interest in one another is to act out the mind of Christ. Yeah. Oh, okay. Right. So you've agreed with all the premises. Now here's the cracker. So let's start practicing and I'm speaking to myself 'cause I'm terrible with this, with my wife. I'm shocking with it. Ugh. Let's start practicing putting our devices down or away when we are with each other.
I'm looking over at Mark's on his device, but he is, you're writing notes, aren't you? Yeah. I was like, mark, I'm gonna have to have a conversation with you now. I'm Jo. I'm joking. I'm joking. So this is, in our family, we call them Rules of Life, and I'm proposing that we have a rule of life as a family here. That if we find ourselves on a device, well, in conversation with another embodied human being distracted, we are not practicing the mind of Christ.
We're not convult cultivating the mind of Christ. And I'm quite good at doing this with others, but I'm terrible at doing this with my, with my beautiful wife. It's shocking. We're out for coffee. She's telling me something and I'm like, oh, you see? She said, what are you doing? So I need, I need to be called out. We are not saying in that practice, but we're actually living that. The other is, is of less importance than me of not primary interest to yourself in that moment.
Therefore, we are not practicing the mind of Christ together, and that's something super practical. As a church that we can just have a rule of life with each other, our friends, our families, and then if we see each other doing that, what can we do gently remind each other that we are cultivating a community here that is practicing the ways of Jesus Christ in love. Yeah. Is it okay? Yes. No, no, no. I just wanna say there is just, there's some disclosures to this rule of life.
If you're out in Fremont or doing the station of the cross, feel free to get a device out. Don't all just stand there and go. We're practicing the mind of cross Luke. Alright? So something, something practical we can do, right? And and we can encourage each other towards that. And that's simple. So simple, but it, it, it actually really pushes against the culture of the world, doesn't it? It so does.
It's quite a front and we, we love to minimize these things in our spiritual practices, but they're actually systems and practices we've adopted from the world, not from Christ, but let's be clear of that. Yeah. To be distracted. Distracted when with others is to live. Live. If my life is more important than theirs. Very good. So I'm really, really trying to convey to us that our work, yes, is very deep, but it's also very wide, very, very wide.
That our lived out actions, our interactions are also training ground to adopt this mind of Christ. In every time, in every place, the mind of Christ is available to us to cultivate. Yeah. Now, finally. We've gone through some work that God's doing. We've gone through the benefits, the fruit of that work in us. If we submit, we've gone through some practicalities, but I wanted to end off with this thought, this meditation.
Finally, I want to end with, with thinking about what our obedience declares to one another and to the world. Okay, so I wholeheartedly believe that in our living out, our obedience to Christ, our obedience, that that virtue of submission under God, of being obedient to his commands is in itself ministering. It's declaring the work of God. So that can be, apart from our words, it can be apart from our mental ascent.
But our lived lives in obedience becomes signposts, admittedly, broken signposts. We're not the best looking signposts are we? Some of us are. Some of us aren't, and that's okay. We're all signposts. It's the world that we live in, trusting lives. This is what we're doing when we live obedience. We are living and declaring that we are living trusting lives. Right? In God's ability to see his mission complete in the world.
That, that our obedience to God is actually the glorious beauty that you and I can radiate in our lives. That, that we begin, like Paul uses that picture like shining stars at night. We become beacons. We become, we become lightposts, lampposts, lightposts, whatever. They're all the same. And it's really that embodied devotion to the work of the good news. That's what it becomes.
It becomes this lived out work, this life, this fleshly witness to the work that, the good news that humanity can and is being liberated by. Its true king. Seeing our obeying as a sign of trusting love. Obedience means, doesn't it that sometimes we continue in devotion at times when we don't feel like it or we want to, and it's continued because of love. That's why we continue in obedience to God. It's fidelity.
And it's for faithfulness sake that we are obedient to God In John 1415, Jesus says this, if you love me, if you love me, not keep my commands, and then you'll love me. No, no, no. If you love me, if I have your affections, if I have your desires, then keep my commands. The love of Christ keeps us in obedience to his will. So maybe our struggles in obedience are less about time management, about just not trying hard enough. Maybe they're more about the affections of the heart.
We aren't obedient, aren't we? We are wayward because we love the wrong things, but Christ wasn't wayward. Why? Ah, because he loved the right thing, his father. And what did that love spur him on to do? To be obedient to even death when I got married to Beck. I was trapped in a form of addiction enslaved, unable to break this cycle, and I did the sheer grunt. I did the confession. I did the accountability partners, an addiction that was a decade long and I found no hope.
But in a room in the shops at, at Langford. I sat praying with someone and in a split second I realized my affections were wayward. Christ in that room came face to face with me and showed exposed his overwhelming love and devotion to me and my whole heart, mind, and body just for that moment. Was free for him. Free for him. And from that moment to today, I've never returned to that addictive practice. You see, my love and affections for Christ have guided and kept me.
Now, I have days when temptation comes, but can I testify to you church that his love now speaks far louder than that temptation? I have the spirit cooperating with me to keep me from returning to the mess. This is the work of God, that he is doing something in us, humbling us, capturing our affections so that we might. Be obedient and free. If you desire a life submitted and obedience to Christ, having the mind of Christ, then where does it begin and where does it end?
It begins and ends with love. Love. Andrew, do you mind just coming up and playing some keys for me? Thank you, my friend. So, right now I just want you to close your eyes for the next couple of minutes. I, and I just want you to sit there and I want you to, I want you to be open just at this moment in time. I want you to be open to tasting and seeing the love of Christ.
I just, just for a moment in time, let us have the imagination that the revealed presence of Christ's love can do the work in US people of God. Will you join me to take this moment to take a leap of faith? Trusting God can do a work in us that we cannot. And for this moment in time, as you are sitting there, I don't want you to be concerned about areas of disobedience, but I want you to gather them all up and I want you to lay them at the feet of Jesus.
All your disobedience you're prone to, to stray from the ways of God. And just in this moment of time, I just want us to just put them at the feet of Jesus, relinquishing them. I hand them over, Lord, because I can't, but you can. I hand them over, Lord. Trusting that you'll do this work. Now put him down and now turn your gaze towards this reality of divine love that the father, son, and spirit has towards you. Think about God as a pursuing God after you. He's reckless in his love towards you.
He's obsessed with you, witnessing his affections. Despite your wayward nature, he is literally dying to bring you home, giving you his body, his very life. With all the desire to bind you and I into the union of this eternal divine love that the father shares with the son and the spirit, Jesus stands before you. Right now. I'm stretched out, yearning.
Yearning for you to come into the deepest realities of acceptance this morning to taste it once again, to be revived by it once again, to have hope, return once again. So just for the next couple of minutes, Lord, by your spirit, speak your eternal love to each person here. Christ what you have started in us this morning.
We commit ourselves to continuing to live lives of discovering your love, cooperating with your will so that we may live lives obedience to your, to your commands, which is to love our God with all of our heart. Soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We pray that we would discover more of the joy, the cheer, and pleasure of living our lives submitted to your will, or glory and praise to you for your faithfulness and your continued devotion to us as your people.
Amen. All right, we're gonna end with praise. It's always good to end with praise, isn't it? Proclaiming who God is. Amen. So why don't you stand? Enjoy, because you are a free people. You are a liberated people. You are a glad people. You're a people that's going not by my will but his. Amen. Amen. Awesome.