Union Sunday
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. Today is an exciting day. We get to celebrate what Chet was talking about in our welcome announcements that we are getting ready to join with the saints at KC First. And today is a celebration of that as we are becoming one church.
Together as we're unifying. It's also an exciting day because of Baptism Sunday. We get to celebrate two young lives that have placed their faith in Jesus. They've said, I want Him. I don't want the world. I want to follow Him.
Today is an exciting day that we get to pause and celebrate what God has done. Which means we're going to take a break from Matthew. We're going to spend today talking about unity and the importance of it as we move forward with our two churches becoming one. So, we'll be in Philippians 1, which is on page 570, I think, in your blue Bibles. Go ahead and flip there and we'll get to it in a moment. During this time where we've been approaching becoming one church with KC First, we've used a lot of language, a lot of marriage language, to help explain what is happening.
Which is important for a lot of different reasons. When you get married, you bring different traditions, different values, different histories, different patterns of behavior to the table. It's the small stuff like, how do you do the toilet paper? Is it the front? Is it the back? It's never been a big deal to me.
I know it's been a big deal. A lot of people on Facebook have been very angry about it. But we bring different patterns. I got to hear about one this week. One of Phoebe Garcia's, she heads up our Connect team. One of her friends got married.
And she got married to her husband. And they moved in together. And they're organizing the house the way that they're getting it ready. And he said, I'm going to organize the kitchen, which probably was his first misstep. And he organizes the kitchen. And she's trying to find where the baking sheets are.
And he says, all right, where are the baking sheets? He's like, there's this cabinet right here. She says, well, why aren't they under the oven? A lot of people, like our family, we put our baking sheets under the oven, the warming drawer. He says, no, that's the potato drawer. You say, what?
And they open up the drawer. And it's lined with potatoes. Because he came from a family with a lot of siblings. And potato was the starch that they ate. So their mom packed the warming drawer full of potatoes.
And her family came from the family that thought, what kind of psychos eat this many potatoes? And why would you put them in the warming drawer? That happens. Like, when you get married, there are things you bring to the table. Different traditions, different patterns. And last week, Casey first.
Basically, the last few months have been kind of our proposal. This is who we are. You know, been dating a little bit. Do you want to get married? Do you want to become one church together? And last Sunday, they said, yes.
And we're very different. We have different traditions, different history, different things that we bring to the table. And there's going to be some fun, awkward moments. Like this week, we had a fellowship meal with them at Casey First. We had the new building. Everyone's getting ready to eat together.
And we're setting out drinks and food. And I realized very quickly that the way that we set out drinks and stuff, like family meetings, is a little bit different than the way that they did. And then some older ladies came back in the kitchen. We're like, hmm. And I was like, yeah, we're figuring it out. We're going to work through this together.
There's going to be fun kind of moments like that. And there's going to be more serious moments that come up. And what is going to be important throughout all of it is that we remember the bigger picture. The bigger picture of why we are doing this in the first place. So we're going to see that today in Philippians 1.
Let me pray and then we will jump in. God, I'm thankful that you have done so much in this season. I'm thankful for where we are going. God, I pray that you would give us ears to hear this morning as we seek your will and what happens next. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right. So in Philippians 1, this is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. He has a pretty good relationship with this church. In the beginning of this, he's thanking Jesus for what's happening. Thanking God for the advancement of the gospel. He goes through his one section.
To live is Christ. To die is gain. Which is the denial of self and gaining Christ. And then he gets to this passage right here. Verse 27, he says, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel.
That is the hope that we have as Christians. That Jesus came and sought rebellious sinners like us. That he lived the life we couldn't live. Died the death on the cross that we deserve to die. And he conquered death at the resurrection. So that we could have life with him for eternity.
He says, Live your life in a manner worthy of that. So that phrase, Let your manner of life be worthy, Really comes out of one word in the Greek. It's the Greek word polytouma. And it is the word citizen. But it's not in the noun form.
It's the verb form. It's a little bit like citizen-ing. He took citizen and he just verbalized it. Made it a word for the purposes of explaining this. Which we do in the English language. We do that with Google.
Google used to be a company. It used to be a website. And then you Google things. Centuries ago, They were catching fish. And like, What are we going to call this? And they just said, Fish.
Fishing. We do this. You could take Chet, for instance. Who was up here giving our announcements earlier. You make that a verb. You said you chatted it up.
You know exactly what I was talking about. I would take a simple concept That takes 30 seconds to explain. And two illustrations in, You'd be like, Man, that's really good. And then ten illustrations in, You're like, Man, I don't know what we're talking about anymore. We can do this. Language is flexible.
And that's what Paul's doing. He took citizen, And he verbalized it. This is what he's getting at. That your life would reflect the very essence, Of your citizenship. That we have gospel, Citizenship. For those who have trusted in Jesus, Our citizenship is with him.
So that, Our manner of life, And how we live, Should be reflective of that. That's what he's getting at. So, Let's look at the manner of life. Only let your manner of life, Be worthy of the gospel of Christ, So that, Whether I come and see you, Or am absent, I may hear of you, That you are standing firm in one spirit, With one mind, Striving side by side, For the faith of the gospel, And not frightened in anything, By your opponents. This is a clear sign to them, Of their destruction, But of your salvation, And that from God. For it has been granted to you, That for the sake of Christ, You should not only believe in him, But also suffer for his sake, Engage in the same conflict, That you saw I had, And now hear that I still have.
So he says, I want to hear reports, Of this type of gospel citizenship, And what does it look like? Unity. One mind, One spirit. What freedom is, To being an American citizen, Unity is, To being a citizen of, The gospel. He says, One mind, One spirit. So, The Holy Spirit in us, That binds us together, As Christians, And one collective, Mind.
I, I don't like Clemson, For a lot of reasons. It's fine, We don't have a lot to celebrate, Don't get too excited. Mostly bitterness right now, This Saturday is not going to be good. Anyways, There is something, That Dabo's done, That's really, Really good, And really, Good for their team. He gets them, All unified together, Around one, They have one mind, They have one message. He took the phrase, All in, Which I used to love.
It was a really good phrase. And then, Man, Now in South Carolina, It means a whole other thing. But the players, Buy into it every year, They bring their chips, They're all in, They're unified behind, Winning championships, While Gamecock fans, Were unified behind something, I don't know. But every year, He gets his team, Rallied around this message. And they're collectively, Together, Side by side, They're all in. It's unity, It's important sports.
Now in South Carolina, It means a whole other thing. But the players, Buy into it every year, They bring their chips, They're all in, They're unified behind, Winning championships, While Gamecock fans, Were unified behind something, I don't know. But every year, He gets his team, Rallied around this message. And they're collectively, Together, Side by side, They're all in. It's unity, It's important sports. It's way more important, For us as Christians. Because here's the deal, When you keep the thread,
Of what binds us together, We will never unravel. And that is what Paul, Is trying to teach this, Church in Philippi, That they are, Bound together, I love listening to, Chet's sermon a few weeks ago, He taught on, The calling of Matthew, And it's the, He was a tax collector, Which was the worst of sinners, In their culture, And towards the end of the sermon, I just kind of stood, In the back of the room, And I just watched us, Collectively listen, Because what he got to was, Is that we are all, Like the tax collector, That we're all,
Broken, Sinful, Foreign from God, But because of his grace, He brings us, Into faith with him, That's the gospel, And I watched our whole church, Collectively, Nod, A collective, Amen, Because we are all, Bought into that message, As a church, I love that, That is the message, That unifies us, When we stand, Firmly in that message, We stand side by side, And what that means is, Is what we see in this passage, That we are unstoppable,
With the Holy Spirit in us, Bound by that message, We are unstoppable, And things will not unravel, Hell will throw everything at us, That's what he's getting at, With this end of chapter one, That they're in the midst of suffering, In the midst of persecution, In the midst of facing, All kinds of threats, From the outside, But he's saying, No, no, no, If we have one mind, One spirit, Standing together, Side by side, There's no reason to fear, Hell can throw everything, He wants at us, But we will stand strong, I had a friend from high school, His name's Kyle,
Played baseball together, He's my throwing partner, My senior year, He is, He is a goofball, He was not a super serious guy, He just, It's fun to be around, I went off to college, He joined the Marine Corps, And, A few years in, To be in the Marine Corps, When I was in college, I remembered hearing this, I remember, Being in my friend's dorm, And getting the news, Kyle was on the rooftop, Of a house, In Afghanistan, He had a couple of soldiers up there, They were in a firefight, And they're on this rooftop,
And a Taliban soldier, Threw a grenade up on the rooftop, And in a split second, He jumped on the grenade, And most of the time, When that happens, You don't live, But he did, I remember hearing, That he was in Germany, Going through surgery, And another surgery, And another surgery, Blew off half of his face, Mangled his arm, And about 30 to 40 surgeries later, He is, He's doing great, He received the medal of honor, It's the highest honor, You can get in the military, And a lot of people asked him, Like what, What possesses you,
What possesses you to do that? And it's the same reason, When you ask anyone in the military, They are bound by a higher calling, It's not about you, It's not about the individual, And the military, It's about the collective whole, It's about defending your country, It's about standing side by side, With the brothers in arms, Who are right beside you, And how much more so, For us as Christians, That have an eternal calling, A much bigger calling in life, How much more should we stand, Side by side, Unified, In the gospel, That is what Paul is getting at here, In the face of anything, In the face of, Any suffering,
Any persecution, The way the church prevails, Is we stand together, So that's the end of chapter one, He hits this again, But from a different angle, In chapter two, Verse one, He says, So, If there is any encouragement, In Christ, Any comfort from love, Any participation, In the spirit, Any affection, And sympathy, Complete my joy, By being of the same mind, Having the same love, Being of full accord, And of one mind, So it's the same points again, He says,
Same mind, Same love, He hits it again, Full accord, One mind, He is hammering home this point, That we as a church, Need to be unified, One mindedness, But I had a caveat here, One mindedness, Does not mean, Uniformity, Called to be, Unified, We don't have to look the same, When I became a Christian, I know I've told this story before, But when I became a Christian, I thought I was 17, I thought that I had to listen to, Certain type of music, Look a certain way, So I downloaded,
And burned a CD, With all the latest, Christian music, Which was really good, Burning a CD, Like if, If it's like a Spotify playlist, But you put it on a CD, Which is a compact disc, Or it was like a tape, That you put in the boom box, And you hit record, When the radio comes through, Caught us all, I remember, I burned this CD, And listened to it, I was like, This is really, Really good, But then all of a sudden, I met some other Christians, That listen to different music, They listen to Christian Screamo,
This is back in the 2000's, And, And I was like, Man this is great, I don't have to listen to that stuff, I can listen to this, Which if you don't know, What Screamo is, It's like emo music, Which if you don't know, What that is, It's like emotional music, Where you work out your emotions, Angsty teenagers, These are a lot of bands, Back in the 2000's, It's working your emotions out, But you scream them, Which if you knew me when I was 18, Made a lot of sense, But I listened to this, And I was like, Man I love it, That I don't have to look a certain way,
I don't have to be a certain way, And then over the years of following Jesus, I got to see so many different expressions, Of following Jesus, I've gotten to see Christians in Egypt, Worshipping, In a completely different way, Completely different feel, And I've worshipped with hipsters, In an abandoned school in Louisville, Kentucky, Which, Is completely different, I've fellowshiped with, Presbyterians, Who I share a ton of theology, And love with, That believe spiritual gifts, The extent of spiritual gifts, In the New Testament, Is mostly teaching and preaching, Get a little bit nervous, About any other spiritual gifts, And I've fellowshiped with,
Charismatics, Who have private prayer languages, I've been led by bluegrass worship bands, And gospel hip-hop groups, And over, Just seeing these different aspects, Of the church, What I've learned, Is that unity of the mind, Does not negate diversity, Of the body, Because we don't, We're not unified, By a style of music, A brand of church, Or a collection of people groups, Our unity, Comes from one faith, One belief, In Jesus, That means, That everything else, Takes a back seat, The gospel becomes so central,
That everything else, Takes a back seat, It's second tier, It's third tier, It's down the line, Which means, We make the gospel, Primary, And that is important, Because of what Paul says, Next in verse 3, He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition, Or conceit, Selfish ambition, Is the motivation to elevate self, Conceit, Is thinking of yourself more highly, Than you should, Paul understands human nature, The effect of the early church, It affects us, That self-centeredness, Is at the core of humanity,
It's a problem for all of us, Which means, That we will either, Elevate Christ, And make much of him, Or we will elevate self, And that's what we do, In the American church, We've seen lots, Of this, Lots of divides, Lots of church divisions happen, Over making much of self, And self and preferences, I mean, Churches have divided, Over the style of music, Over versions of the Bible, Every now and then, I'll be driving down, A road, And I'll see a, A fundamentalist church, That has a sign up front,
That has the, The name of the church, But then it has like, 15 different theological positions, And some of them are really good, It's like, Yeah, We would believe that, Hold that, That's important, And some of them are like, How the world's going to end, End times theology, And what they're saying is, Is that this is who we are, And if you want to be in, This is it, And they've made much of, Some of the minor issues, That only happens, When you've made much of yourself, Of your preferences, And you've not made, The gospel central,
That's a more extreme example, But that happens to us, In everyday life, When we get pressed, We go through, Suffering, We go through trials, Whatever that is for you, Self-centeredness, Can rise to the surface, My wife has gotten to see, A lot of this recently with me, Currently we have, Three kids four and under, Four two and new, And, I think they have, A concerted effort, To destroy our sleep, They are sleep terrorists, Our newborns are newborn, And our newborns, Don't sleep well, She wakes up sometimes to eat,
Sometimes I think she wakes up, Just to let us know, We don't deserve sleep, Have a two year old, That has a new pattern, Where he likes to strip down, And take what's in his diaper, And smear all over the walls, That's fun to wake up to, Got a four year old, Who is going through, A sleep walking phase, And she will sleep walk, Into our room, Shouting, Which is yelling, Which is waking up the baby, Which is thirty more minutes, Of no sleep, And she's worried about spiders, And everything that might get her, Sometimes she just wants to use our bathroom, She has a perfectly good bathroom, At her end of the hall,
But she would just bust through our door, Wake up the baby, And use our bathroom, It's a coordinated effort, You guys, But the joke's on them, Because I'm a terrible father, When I'm tired, It, I just, I'm just being honest, I'm super self-centered, When I, At three a.m., I don't do well, Sometimes I wake up in the morning, And it goes, My wife, She goes, What happened last night, You look super angry, When you're changing diapers, And I'm like, I don't remember it,
It certainly seems in line, With my character at three a.m., I feel like I get a pass, If you don't remember these things, That's, That's my weak spot, That's my, When I get pressed, That's the friction for me, At three a.m., Self-centeredness, Rise to the surface, I know some of you may be judging me, And that's okay, You're in the same boat, Whatever that is for you, Maybe you get pressed at work, And work gets really difficult, And selfish ambition rises to the surface, Maybe it's in traffic, If you're on the death stretch of I-20, Or just in everyday traffic, Self-interest rises, Whatever that is for you,
When you get pressed, It's human nature, What comes out is self-interest, And here's why I say this, This is why it's important to know ourselves, That in this season, Y'all, This exciting season, Where we get to join, With some other Christians, Who have said, We want you, It is going to be very easy, When it gets real, For selfish ambition, And conceit, For self-interest to rise to the surface, It's going to be easy to get annoyed, At the sound of the music, If it's not loud enough, If the song selection isn't the way that we want it, If the lighting isn't the way that we want it, If I've got to walk a little farther, Because we're going to say,
Please don't park near the front entrance, Let's let that be for our older generation, It's going to happen, Y'all, A month in it won't, We're going to be super excited, Six months in, It's going to happen, We need to know ourselves, So, If gospel citizenship, Is unity, And selfish ambition, And conceit, And self-interest is the enemy of that, How do we combat that? I would say it is an issue of focus, A lot of times when you see sins like this in the New Testament, The gut response, Especially for me is, Kill it, Put it to death, Period and term, Mortification of the flesh,
Just get real excited about crucifying the flesh, Which is language we see in the New Testament, And I think that's helpful, But that's not always what Paul is getting at, It's a problem of focus, Let's keep reading, He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition, Or conceit, But in humility, Count others more significant, Than yourselves, Let each of you, Look not only to your own interest, But also the interest of others, Have this mind amongst yourselves, Which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who though he was in the form of God, Did not count equality with God, A thing to be grasped, But emptied himself, By taking the form of servant, Being born in the likeness of men, And being found in human form,
He humbled himself, By becoming obedient to the point of death, Even death on the cross, Paul shifts the focus, The Bible takes the focus, From ourselves, And says, No, no, no, no, Look up, Look at one another, Now I want you to look higher, Look at me, This is God, Taking your chin, Picking you up, And saying, No, no, no, no, Look higher, A few years ago, When the solar eclipse happened, They said, Don't look at the sun, Because the sun is very powerful, It will change your vision forever,
And we laughed, Because Donald Trump took off his glasses, And he looked at the sun, And it's because the sun, Will forever alter, The way you see things, And it's a little bit, Of what's happening here, God is picking our head up, He's saying, No, no, no, God is more powerful, He's more holy, He's the highest good, He's the highest form of love, He's the perfection of beauty, He says, No, no, Look at me, If you focus on me, It will change the way you see one another, The focus needs to be on Jesus, Who humbled himself, Stepped into our timeline,
Y'all, Jesus washed the feet of his enemies, He washed the feet of Judas, Right before he went and betrayed him, He healed the sick by the masses, He taught people who sought to kill him, He was the perfect embodiment of humility, And he took that with him to the cross, Where his blood was poured out for us, Where his body was broken, God is saying, Look at that, Look at me, Look at the gospel, And when you focus so much on the gospel, You will look at one another, And you'll say, My interest, Pale in comparison, To us being a unified body, Together, That's the hope of the gospel, That's what it means to have gospel citizenship, To be a unified church,
That focuses on him, So, Let's do that, Let's be that kind of church, Let's rock up in, To our new building in January, And let's do this, Let's be one church together, Y'all, I was talking to Dr. Ken, He said that after the vote, That after the vote, A few ladies came up, And they were in tears, And he realized that these tears were, Mixed emotion, That they, Were very excited, Because of what this meant, The reason they collectively, Voted with a resounding yes, Is because they want to see, This building, They want to see,
A younger church come in, And use, Those facilities, To reach the people, In that neighborhood, That desperately need the gospel, They get it, But there's also, A little bit of sadness, Because y'all, As a church of a hundred plus years, There are folks in that church, That have been there for ten, Twenty, Thirty, Forty, Fifty years of traditions, That are coming, To a close, And y'all, We've had traditions for like, Sometimes two, Three, Four years,
And we change a thing, We get annoyed, So why is that not happening, Why are we not doing it, This way, And we've been, Existing for like, A few years, They've been, Existing for decades, But they said no, This is worth it, To see Jesus change this city, We're willing to, Do this, To invite y'all in, To be one church, May we, Adopt, A hair of that humility, Excitedly, As we walk in, With them together, And here's why,
This is what I close with, Verse nine, Therefore God, Has highly exalted him, And bestowed on him, The name that is above every name, So that at the name of Jesus, Every knee should bow, In heaven, And on earth, And under the earth, And every tongue confess, That Jesus Christ is Lord, To the glory of God, The Father, What that verse says, Is that there, Are going to be people, When everything comes to an end, All of us, That will stand before Jesus, And we will, Bow the knee, And we will all confess,
That Jesus is Lord, But the reality is, Is some will do it, From a position, Of fear, Because judgment is coming, And those of us, That have placed our faith in Jesus, Will do it from a place, Of joy, And the reason, Why, We strive, For the unity, That was bought, With the blood of Christ, Is because there are people, In Casey, There are people, That are currently, Walking towards judgment, They don't have the hope of Christ, They don't know him, But the hope is,
Is that we're going to move in, It's going to create some buzz, We're going to do what we're going to do, We're going to reach neighbors, We're going to move all throughout Casey, And God willing, One Sunday, They're going to come and visit, And they're going to see, Five year olds, And 85 year olds, Joyfully worshiping together, Displaying the gospel, Displaying the citizenship, The hope that we have in, They're going to hear the gospel, And they're going to profess Jesus, And they're going to place their faith in him, And one day, They're going to bow the knee with us, Joyfully, Confessing that Jesus is Lord, That unity is worth fighting for,
I would say it is an issue of focus, A lot of times when you see sins like this in the New Testament, The gut response, Especially for me is, Kill it, Put it to death, Period and term, Mortification of the flesh, Just get real excited about crucifying the flesh, Which is language we see in the New Testament, And I think that's helpful, But that's not always what Paul is getting at, It's a problem of focus, Let's keep reading, He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition, Or conceit, But in humility, Count others more significant, Than yourselves, Let each of you, Look not only to your own interest, But also the interest of others, Have this mind amongst yourselves, Which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who though he was in the form of God, Did not count equality with God, A thing to be grasped, But emptied himself, By taking the form of servant, Being born in the likeness of men, And being found in human form, He humbled himself, By becoming obedient to the point of death, Even death on the cross, Paul shifts the focus, The Bible takes the focus, From ourselves, And says, No, no, no, no, Look up, Look at one another, Now I want you to look higher, Look at me, This is God, Taking your chin, Picking you up, And saying, No, no, no, no, Look higher, A few years ago, When the solar eclipse happened, They said, Don't look at the sun, Because the sun is very powerful, It will change your vision forever, And we laughed, Because Donald Trump took off his glasses, And he looked at the sun, And it's because the sun, Will forever alter, The way you see things, And it's a little bit, Of what's happening here, God is picking our head up, He's saying, No, no, no, God is more powerful, He's more holy, He's the highest good, He's the highest form of love, He's the perfection of beauty, He says, No, no, Look at me, If you focus on me, It will change the way you see one another, The focus needs to be on Jesus, Who humbled himself, Stepped into our timeline, Y'all, Jesus washed the feet of his enemies, He washed the feet of Judas, Right before he went and betrayed him, He healed the sick by the masses, He taught people who sought to kill him, He was the perfect embodiment of humility, And he took that with him to the cross, Where his blood was poured out for us, Where his body was broken, God is saying, Look at that, Look at me, Look at the gospel, And when you focus so much on the gospel, You will look at one another, And you'll say, My interest, Pale in comparison, To us being a unified body, Together, That's the hope of the gospel, That's what it means to have gospel citizenship, To be a unified church, That focuses on him, So, Let's do that, Let's be that kind of church, Let's rock up in, To our new building in January, And let's do this, Let's be one church together, Y'all, I was talking to Dr.