A Life Worthy of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27-30)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here we are in the book of Philippians so if you'll grab a Bible and go to the book of Philippians if you don't have a Bible there should be one tucked under the seat in front of you will be on page 570 in one of these blue Bibles um if this is your first time with us we're glad that you're here this morning we mostly just work our way through books of the Bible and that's what we're doing we're in Philippians this is a letter written by the Apostle Paul.
While he is in prison in Rome he was under house arrest so he most likely would have been chained to a guard in a home in Rome he's writing this letter to a Church in Philippi which is about 800 miles away um that has uh sent a gift basically like a care package for him where he is in Rome that they gave him this gift because when you were in under house arrest you were still responsible for your own care your own provision.
And so they found out that he was in Rome under house arrest they they send this gift to him and he's writing this letter back in thankfulness to them and he just got got done and what we were looking at last week in saying that he doesn't know whether he's going to live or die he doesn't know if they're going to set him free he doesn't know if they're going to execute him this where you get the verse that is to live is Christ to die is gain he's not just pontificating about a theological truth he's talking about a theological reality.
For himself while he is sitting in Chains facing a very real potential death he's saying if if they set me free I'll keep serving the lord it'll be for Christ fruitful Ministry is the way he puts it there'll be fruitful labor and if they execute me I'll go be with Christ to live as Christ to die as gain I I'll get what's better I'll get to go be with Christ and he's now turning from that to some instruction to the Philippians.
So we're in verse 27 he says this only let your manner of Life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ so now he's turning to giving them instructions he starts off with the word only we should perk our ears up he's boiling it down he's giving them something essential kind of a if if you forget everything else remember this now we know because of how talking with people goes this isn't the actual only thing he's going to say otherwise he wouldn't have written the rest of the letter.
But he is saying hey this is primary pay attention only and like okay what what's the main thing we have to do let your manner of Life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ oh is that all that's a massive instruction your manner of life so the way you live let your whole life be fitting matching to the Gospel of Christ do you know what the Gospel El of Christ is it's the message the reality the news that the God of the universe.
While we were in our sin and Rebellion against him took on flesh was born as a human that he lived a perfect sinless life so that he might pay the penalty for our sins he dies on a cross he's buried he rises again to show his victory over death and sin and hell that his his sacrifice was accepted he doesn't stay in the Tomb he's not just like a a a good man that we look to for for um uh some sort of motivation no he actually literally paid the price of our sin as a sacrifice and rose again.
So that we know that God's blessing is on him and that he accepts the sacrifice that he is the king of kings the Lord of lords that everything he said about himself is real that he rises and that all who Trust in him are forgiven your your debt is paid it's gone one of my favorite representations of this is in the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou Delmer goes down in the water he gets baptized he comes back out he says all my sins are forgiven I'm clean I'm washed they're washed away he says even that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in yazu and his friends go you said you were innocent of those charges.
And he goes well I lied and that's forgiven too and that's the reality that in Christ we're forgiven it's gone that he's paid the debt of our sin that was mounted against us that stood to accuse us that stood to drag us to Hell he's paid for it that there's hope and redemption and forgiveness and so Paul says let your life match that now for the Christians in the room we should want that we should want our life to match that we should immediately say yes I actually do want to live in such a way that it it's fitting that it matches that that it's worthy of that.
But that's a heavy request it's weighty someone came to you and said hey I I got a guest coming over to my house and I need you to help help me prepare a meal help me get the house ready they're going to be over on Saturday and you're like okay I can help cook they're like you're pretty good cook yeah I'm okay all right cool I need you to help cook uh it is the newly um crowned King of England Charles III he's coming to my house.
So I need you to make a meal fit for a king and you're like I was going to do cheese grits so I guess we could put shrimp in there I don't I don't know that's like my one dish I got like I didn't I for a king and this it's like yeah and remember he's British so nothing spicier than Salt but it needs to be delicious it's like okay here we go and that's some of what feels like here when he says I want your manner of life to be worthy.
And then all of a sudden he says of the Gospel and it's it elevates it to this oh okay what does that look like well he's going to tell us he doesn't leave us here to to just figure this out on our own he doesn't leave the Philippian Church to just figure it out on own he's going to say this is what it would look like this is a a life matching the Gospel before we read that part let's pray because as Christians we want this and we need the help of the spirit to achieve it.
Lord we ask that we would by your grace live a life that corresponds to the Gospel that we would live in such a way that we proclaim the truth of the rescue and the hope and the kingship of Jesus May our Church look this way and may our individual lives look this way and may by your grace and by the work of your spirit this be carried out in a real practical level in Jesus name amen all right only let your manner of Life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
So that so now he's going to say if it if that's happening if it's worthy of the Gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent whether I'm released from prison and get to make it to you or I'm kept in prison or I'm executed or I just can't make it to you I may hear of you that you are so now he's about to say if your life if you're living in a manner worthy of the Gospel this is what I'll hear about you this is the report I'll get that 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 I'm going to read that again that I may hear of you that you are standing firm fir in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents a life fitting to the message of the Gospel a life fitting to what Christ has done for us is one that is Unified in the spirit with the Church.
For the Gospel fearlessly unified in the spirit with the Church for the Gospel fearlessly that's what he lays out for them so let's talk about that the first part unified in the spirit he says that I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind this is the unified in the spirit with the Church so that you're in one spirit with one mind you're on the same page and specific to this context he has said right before it that there are those who are uh out.
For selfish ambition they're out for their own name they're out for their own good and then below it he's going to talk about what we read together which is the humility of Christ and how we should have the same mind among ourselves that though he was in the form of God he humbled himself and took on the form of a man that we should be humble and and relate to one another so there's this idea of that we would relate to one another in humility.
Now there is some question as to whether or not when he says in one Spirit he means the Holy Spirit specifically and that should be a capital S which is what the NIV does with it it's the same word same word he uses in similar phrasing that he uses in chapter 2: 1 where it says any participation in the spirit and that's capital S we to understand that as the Holy Spirit or if he just means kind of the way we use it which is school spirit or we were all of the Same Spirit meaning we were all on the same page.
And then it really just means in one spirit with one mind is kind of saying the same thing twice I think if you were to follow Paul's logic because he uses this phrasing in other places in Ephesians 4 he uses it in Corinthians that if you were to ask him about it and say okay well what do you mean unified What Spirit what what's our Unity over he would You' eventually get to where he would be saying oh well the Holy Spirit like the the Holy Spirit is the one who's the one spirit that we have that's going to keep us unified there's no way.
For the Church to be unified without the work of the spirit and so it's going to be ultimately a work of the spirit for this to happen whether or not we need the Holy Spirit to work whether he intentionally brings it to mind here the Holy Spirit to mind or whether or not he is just saying to be unified that's still a work of the spirit so that we would be unified in the spirit with one another on the same page have you ever thought be a lot easier to be a Christian.
If I didn't have to hang out with these other Christians have you ever thought like I would be in a group and I know y'all say we should join a community group but that's going to be tough yeah it is do you know how agreeable I am when I'm by myself every one of my ideas is brilliant like I got married and I was surprised that she wasn't able ble to catch up with that as quickly as I thought it's like I don't know you don't think I'm I'm confused I've always thought I was a genius why are you acting like this.
But I'm patient with her um the idea that we're going to have to relate to other people takes work it takes effort there's there's difficulty and it takes the work of the spirit to be in us to create humility to create Grace but y'all we don't get to say well I love Jesus I just don't love the Church oh I'm I'm spiritual I walk in the spirit the Holy Spirit he you know I just I go alone and the Holy Spirit just tells me stuff and it's wonderful and it's like what Church are you a part of I don't need one of those you haven't been listening to the spirit he loves the Church he.
Loves Jesus and he loves the Church and he's going to help you belong to a group of people who love Jesus and love the Church and it's going to take humility and it's going to take work and it's going to take effort it's going to be frustrating in times but it's also going to be really beautiful we're better together it's going to be wonderful and you're going to grow in ways that you hadn't intended to you're going to grow in ways that you never would have grown.
If you were on your own and I do want to add this if people if you're saying okay I want to know how to listen to the spirit I want to know how to walk in the spirit what I would say is you begin by sticking your facei in your Bible and then putting yourself around other Christians that's how we walk well in the spirit that's how you learn how to hear the voice of the spirit to discern the voice of the spirit do you know the word of.
God you know that he's not going to lead you outside of what this says he's going to to speak and to teach you things but he's not going to say something contrary to the Scriptures and you begin to discern his voice you begin to learn how to walk in the spirit I want you to walk in the spirit I want you to be filled with grace I want you to be used by God mightily and I I want you to be in the word.
So that it's tethered as we do that and so that we get to walk in Church family together I want you to be in a situation when you were about to do something really stupid but you're in Church family and everybody in your group says we love you you that's really stupid I want you to be mad at them and I want you to submit to them I want you to get your Bibles out I want you to say why is it dumb why does everybody disagree with me I don't want you to go home and go wow I'm the smartest person in my group I'm the only one who knows what's right I want.
You to have some humility I want you to get what he's saying is that they would be in the same mind on the same page but it's not just for no reason it's not just so that they would have each other that's wonderful but there's a purpose behind it he says I want you to what I want to hear about you is that you're standing firm yall haven't fallen apart you haven't split up that you haven't been knocked over why standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side.
For the faith of the Gospel there's a purpose to the unity given to the Church and that's the proclamation of the Gospel that we're better together in proclaiming the Gospel and declaring that message y'all know that we have one primary thing that we're about as a Church is that some more people might meet Jesus every once a while I'll hear things and I'm like yeah yeah people say like I like the Church when it was small and then it's gotten bigger Praise.
Jesus you know it got bigger with a bunch of Sinners who needed Grace right and they're like yeah but they're aggravating yeah so are you me too that's that's the we we need Jesus we're we're here to Proclaim this message we're here to work together with this this is why we want to keep the main thing the main thing you know we don't do a whole lot we have a big pretty building the Lord's blessed us with but we don't do a whole lot at this building we don't invite a whole bunch of people here we don't have a bunch of programs here.
Because we want you to be out in the world telling people about Jesus we want your time to be freed up we love Gathering and pointing to Christ together and singing together and walking and studying the Scriptures together but we want to be be missionaries out in the world that's the main thing that's what we're after is to be standing firm with one in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel there's a Church that I know of I'm affiliated with it.
Well enough I know that at one point I think they're a good Church I think they love Jesus but I know that at one point they had multiple business meetings heated passionate business meetings over the purchase of doorknobs we're not going to do that here because it's not the main thing I I'm be honest with you I don't want you to be that passionate about doorknobs I just don't and if you are I want you to keep it to yourself honestly maybe don't tell people you know like we we want to be about seeing people meet.
Jesus which means that we give some freedom to our people who run Ministries to make decisions and and to handle their own budget and to do some things and every once in a while there should be times when you show up and see something you don't like I don't like that color and then you should remind yourself the Gospel is the main thing I've had people say to me I don't like this and I'm like yeah me neither Move Along let's go it's not the main thing we want to be pulling together striving not having Strife.
But striving for the Gospel which means that it should take some effort and some labor and some sacrifice that is a life matching to the Gospel I think that if we were to fill this out if we were to say okay I'm going to try to guess what Paul's going to say to have a life live a life in a manner worthy of the Gospel so that I may hear of you and if we begin to fill that out we would begin to say he's probably going to say this he's probably going to say this he's probably going to say this I'm sure we would put good things on the list.
But it's possible it would all boil down to at some point behave be moral live a life good enough but it's not something that we earn we respond to Jesus in obedience certainly we respond to Jesus in Repentance but a manner of life in a Church that matches the Gospel is a bunch of people who want to tell other people about the Gospel because it's so good that he redeems Sinners that he offers Grace that he rescued us not because we're good and not.
Because we're intelligent and capable and hardworking and that you need to come be a part of us if you're good enough it's no it's he saves Sinners he redeems the weak he died for us while we were still his enemies we have a king who rules and Reigns in love and grace and kindness towards us so that we strive to share the Gospel we're going to get to uh end our time this morning we're not about to so don't get all excited there's more to go.
But when we end our time long long time in the future from now we're going to get to pray over two Community groups that are getting launched out and I'm so excited because launching healthy Community groups the multiplication of healthy groups is one of the things that we've said that this helps us see that we're actually trying to do this and every time we multiply a group everybody in the group a lot of times is like Yay because it hurts it's sad I've told people before.
If your if half your group is being sent out and your response is good riddens you probably weren't doing a real good job of being in your community group you should love those people you should miss those people I had someone this past week say to me I miss every group I've ever been a part of yeah absolutely but we're striving for the Gospel which means there are times that takes sacrifice it takes effort it takes a little bit of something hurting a little bit.
For us to be able to see more people come to know Jesus it's the best way I know to put it I talk to our group leaders about this I tell them tell your group this this is the way I think about it at some point if I'm hosting a group you're hos on a group the table is full I got a table at my house that seats 8 we put a table outside to seat children cuz we love them so much we just don't want to hear them you know.
While we're trying to eat want to be able to see them there's a glass window you know put that stick in at some point Point there's no more room in my house and you love these people and so there's this this desire to go we did it this is it but as a Church family what we're hoping to do is to have group leaders train leaders in training and then eventually send them out to make disciples and to multiply and when we do that.
Now there's space there's space at this table and there's space at that table every time I've ever multiplied a group every time I've ever sent people out I'm sad about people who are leaving this group who weren't in my group the last time we multiplied which means that if we hadn't done that I never would have known this person loved this person seen this person meet Jesus we didn't have room for him we have room for him now and now we got to make more room.
For the next person who's going to come in and y'all there is a table that has enough seats there is a wedding supper of the Lamb that has the right number of seats and there's going to be a day when we get to all sit around it and there's going to be a day when we get to see the people who we got to know in life for a season to come to know Jesus but then we get to see the next person who we got to.
See come to know Jesus and the next person through our striving to proclaim the Gospel the effort and the intentionality that we put down and there's going to be a day when we sit at the wedding supper where the king rules and Reigns for all of eternity and there are enough seats at the table but until that day comes we strive so that more people might come to know how good and glorious King Jesus is more people might be at that table.
So some of your money should walk out the door and go to Mission work to generosity to this Church some of there should be times where you're you're mourning the loss of a community group while having to celebrate the launch of a new one we should put effort in to see people come to know Jesus that's the goal so we stand firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel and then he says this and not frightened in anything by your opponents not frightened in anything by your opponents he says I want to hear y'all are on the same page you're laboring to.
See people meet Jesus because he's so good and the Gospel is so good and the hope of Eternity is so good and the fact that this isn't all we get there's this this reality of forgiveness and joy I want to hear that you're proclaiming that and I want to hear that you're not afraid afraid of anybody who tells you to shut up you know that Christians we're not supposed to be scared of everything this is one of the things that that grats on me in our current cultural climate is that I hear a lot of noise on like online and stuff of Christians like ringing alarm Bells all the time we're not supposed to be.
Scared of everything y' we have such a bigger story with a king who wins and he's specifically saying they have opponents and they know that the one of the people who's the starter one of the starting people of the Philippian Church was a Jailer who Paul met because Paul was beaten and thrown into jail Paul's writing this letter from prison they have real opponents who don't want the proclamation of the Gospel he says I want to hear that you're not afraid of them.
And if you follow Christian logic what are we afraid of they have nothing they can give you on the on the grand scheme of Eternity there's nothing that anybody if you're a Christian that anybody can offer you there's nothing that they can take away from you and you can say like Paul who very really means this if I live I'll serve Jesus and if I die I'll go be with him so he says this not frightened at anything by your opponents this is a clear sign to them of their destruction.
But of your salvation and that from God that a lack of fear in the face of opposition declares the Gospel it co-signs it it's a clear sign of your salvation and their destruction because those who would oppose the Gospel are going to use human means to oppose it but human means aren't supposed to work on Christians all of them are supposed to Short Circuit we'll throw you in jail okay that's how jailers meet Jesus the Philippian jailers is like I I I just I know it was bad.
But I'm so glad he got arrested maybe they shouldn't have beat him but I'm glad he got arrested Paul says that everybody in the Roman guard they know about the Gospel because Paul's sharing the Gospel to the Roman guard while he's in jail we'll take everything from you okay I'll get Eternal versions of all that stuff because the Bible says anything sacrificed for the Lord that our reward is great in heaven like that anything that you try to take from me is actually ultimately you accidentally gave it to me forever like I don't I don't know exactly how that works I don't think it's like I got the best Toaster in life life.
If you stole it but it's like I think that there's just reward he honors this we'll kill you okay half a second later I'll be standing before the king and I'll have done all the work I ever had to do it's a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation I love this quote it's a story from a pastor in Romania when they were under communist occupation he was preaching the Gospel and putting it on tapes and passing them out and he had passed it out and he got called in by some communist officers who were trying to stop the Church and they were correcting him rebuking him threatening him and he.
Says this during an early interrog ation I had told an officer who was threatening to kill me so he says sir let me explain to you let me explain how I see this issue your Supreme weapon is killing my Supreme weapon is dying here's how it works you know that my sermons are my sermons on tape have spread all over the country if you kill me those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood everyone will know I died for my preaching and everyone who has a tape will pick it up and say I'd better.
Listen again to what this man preached because he really meant it he sealed it with his life so sir my sermons will speak 10 times louder than before I will actually rejoice in this supreme Victory if you kill me after I said this the interrogator sent me home it's a clear sign I I have hope that you can't touch so when he says that the Church is to be unafraid in all these situations it's because we have something they can't touch and we serve a.
God they can't touch and he owns everything and guards everything and leads everything that we can trust him and so in the middle of all this there's nothing that they can give to us or take away from us a life a Church lived out in response to how good the Gospel is is that we would be humbly unified working side by side laboring together and we are better together we we want you to be a missionary where you are if you're the only person at your gym.
If you're the only person in that class if you're the only person uh on your floor at work that's a Christian we want you to be a a missionary there but we also want to be missionaries together because we're better together our groups are better together there are certain things that you're good at strong in built for as a Christian that someone else in your group isn't and so we work better when we're a team when we invite people in.
When we intentionally invite ourselves into other situations so look a lot of times as a group you can say hey I've been inviting this person who doesn't know Jesus to join our group but you can also invite the people who do know Jesus to join that person meaning that you know that they're going to go see this new movie or that they really would go throw axes or do a poker night or knit and drink tea or whatever it is is you know they'll accept that invitation.
So you just smuggle other Christians into the situation hey would you like to do blank and they say yeah and then they show up and two people from your group are also there and you just say hey welcome whatever and y'all hang out and just be normal Christian people who are kind and fun to be around and then later when you say hey you want to come hang out with our group you already know blank blank blank you already met this person at that thing it's easier to walk in you ever been invited to a party and you only know one person there what do you do.
Okay if you're like one of these people who's really good at parties I'm not talking to you I'm talking to everybody else what do you do you follow that yeah don't go correct you follow that person around like a lost puppy like hey be my friend hey talk to me hey hey hey hey hey or you do what I do you grab six cookies and stand in the corner just I'm I I don't know my friends over there I only know them and someone's like oh hey how you know them and you're like they my friend and they're like oh neat.
And then they walk off and you're like I'm I'm real good at this that shouldn't be your invitation all the time to people who hey do you want to come hang out at my house uh with a bunch of people you don't know read a book you don't care about and do some weird things that you're not sure about like pray also since you don't know much about Christianity it could be weirder than that and you don't know surprise you want to do that I invited them they didn't come yeah.
Okay it was a it was a high you know it's a high bar but if you can get your Church family around them to be friends with them to be kind to them to show them that we aren't weird and that the message is wonderful so that we're alive in response to the Gospel unified striving side by side for the Gospel without fear and he keeps going he's going to say he's pressing into this idea and he's kind of bringing this in front of them.
Look at verse 29 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 it's been granted to you that you should not only get to believe in him that that's given to you that's granted that was Grace to you that was given to you that's what granted means it's a gift it was given to you that you would believe in him but also that you would get to suffer.
For his sake we're going to talk about suffering for his sake in a second but take a moment Do You Believe In Christ that was given to you he says it was given to you that you would get to believe in Jesus God do you know that there are people who don't there are people who don't have a hope of an eternity there are people who haven't had their sins forgiven there are people who are still dead in their trespasses and it's been given to you that you would believe some of you you're the only person in your family who believes some of you you're a wild minority from your your country of origin who.
Believe it's odd that you would believe some of you this is a lineage of Christian faith in your household and that was granted you by the grace of God Don't Blink at that I mean don't sneeze at that don't don't just move on past that like that's just something to take for granted it's something to understand that it's been so wonderfully good that you have a hope of Eternity through the work of Jesus that was not earned by you it was not given to you by your works or your ability or your intelligence.
But it was given by the blood of Christ and his goodness and mercy on your behalf and he says it was given to you that you might believe and it was also given he's talking to the Philippian Church but I think this rolls right into us that you would get the opportunity the grace the gift of suffering for the sake of Christ and that's how we're supposed to see it do you know that if you'll strive for the sake of the Gospel there's a chance that at some point you'll get to suffer reproach.
For the name of Jesus and do you know how wonderful that is there's a chance you might get mocked or reviled do you know there's a chance that someone might oppose you do you know there's a chance that something really Earthly bad might happen to you that is as this beautiful Heavenly gift that you might get to suffer for the sake of Christ that you might actually get to drop some sweat and some blood and some money and some effort and some tears.
For something that rolls into eternity that's how we're supposed to see that that's what Jesus says Matthew 5 he's talking to his disciples he says blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
If we labor for the Gospel there's a chance that we get to operate on Jesus's account that we get to be reviled on his account that we get to be participating him in suffering for his sake and it is blessed that's why the disciples in Acts chapter 5 when they're beaten for sharing the Gospel it says then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name so what if you strive to share the Gospel with people in in your school in your classes and what.
If they oppose you and what if eventually they revile you and they accuse you and what if on that day we do what Jesus says and we look at him and say thank you thank you that I got a taste of what it was like to be you and to suffer and thank you that I got to join in your suffering for the sake of those who don't want to know you what if you share the Gospel at work and I tell you not to and you do it again and they say.
If you keep this up you're going to be in trouble what if you graciously humbly say I'm G to have to keep trying I'm going keep trying to share the Gospel I'm not what if one day you get fired not because you're bad at your job I want them to have to find three people to replace you if you get fired but but what if you just had these opportunities and you were sharing the Gospel and you were trying to point people to.
Jesus and they were opposing you and what if you walk out into the parking lot and you look at the sky you look up raise your eyes to the Lord and you say Lord I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills because that was my job but I trust you and thank you that I got to suffer reproach for the sake of your name now there's ways to walk this out in wisdom and there's ways to be as wise as a serpent innocent as a dove.
But y'all we're not supposed to be afraid we're not supposed to have one little remark from some kind of an opponent to the Gospel and we just clam up and stop may we stand in the spirit with the Church for the Gospel fearlessly because it's so worth it because the message is worth it because none of the other things that we labor for are ultimately worth it none of the other stuff lasts none of the other stuff stretches into eternity no other message no other no other person forgives sin rescues there's a movie that came out in 1998 called Saving Private Ryan and it's it's a good movie it's a war movie there's a.
Four brothers and three of them die and they go to write all three of the letters and send all of the folded up American flags to the mother at the same time they notice that there's one brother left and they just decide we're going to go find him and we're going to send him home it's the premise of the movie so they task a captain and a handful of people to go find Ryan and bring him home and as they're going several of them die they die going to get one guy out of the War the movie ends With Private Ryan as an old man standing over the graves of one of the men who.
Died for him and talking to it and he says I've thought every day about what you've did and I've tried I've tried to live something fitting and y'all we're the people who know Jesus know what he did know what awaits oh let's live in a way fitting let's respond in a way worthy to the Gospel let's live in a way that makes way more sense with Christ and Eternity than with the American dream let's pray L we ask that by your grace the reality of Eternity would grow grip us we ask.
Lord that you would help us to see the hope that is in Christ and to respond to tell other people about him to repent of our refusing to submit to a Church to repent from our not walking in the spirit and studying the word word and and listening to your voice and following your will to repent of all the times when we've lost the thread on what the main thing is so that we're worried about other things that don't matter.
Lord to walk fearlessly together and to see people come to know you we pray that you would bless this Church with more and more people who are saved by grace that will step in and walk shoulder-to-shoulder with us to see more and more people be saved by grace because this message is too good for us to sit on it you are a glor glorious King and we love you in Jesus name amen amen verse 30 says engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had.
Now here that I still have and I should have read that earlier the band's going to come back up what Paul's saying is that they are laboring I went to pray and I was like I didn't read my whole text Paul's saying that they are late laboring in the same conflict he's telling them not to be afraid in the same conflict that they saw that he had meaning that he was preaching the Gospel and went to jail and that they see that he still has.
Because he's in jail meaning they had real opponents and so I should have just read that earlier and said that sentence earlier and then said all the other stuff I said you're welcome the hope as we stand and sing and respond is that we would take a moment to consider the matchless worth of Christ and that we would say Okay Lord let me let me have a life that tries to mirror that and point to that let me have a life that only makes sense in light of that let's stand and sing.
To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain (Philippians 1:18b-26)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the book of Philippians we're in chapter 1 still uh we're going to be in the second half of Verse 18 all the way through verse 26 so you can follow along with us on the screen you also can follow along in a blue Bible it's on page 570 you can track along with us so the other day it dawned upon me that my oldest uh is going to turn nine this year which means that we're kind of at the halfway point of her being in the house.
God willing uh and that there's not a lot of years left to really you know influence to be able to show her what it means to love Christ what it means to display that love to others what it means to uh have a Gospel centered life like we don't have as much time it's and I'm also you know I'm not naive I understand that when she gets more into uh you know the teenage years that my influence is going to WAN a little bit and her wife as she starts to become her own adult uh person.
But it's just I mean it's kind of hit me honestly oh man um you know we you know we read the Bible at night we do some worship songs at night we we try to have some time where we talk about applying God's word to um their lives and to our lives and it's like I want to I want to maximize this time as much as possible because I'm losing it the time is is is running away and that's going to happen with each of my children as they get older old and as I get closer and closer to 40 which is typically the time where a lot of men start to ask Big Life.
Questions because you're at the halfway point of life and you're like I I mean this is like I'm I'm I'm nearing I'm nearing the end the halfway point is just going to keep going like and that's when you know midlife crises come into play and people make sometimes really bad decisions uh you know some of those are less bad than others uh you know some might say I'm going to get a car I I got to get I got to get the car.
Because if I don't get the car like what am I doing if I'm I got to travel I got to get to Europe I got to do this I got to do that there's all types of things some things I think are good people might say I got to go back to school I got to refocus I got to you know join a gym do CrossFit whatever it is like I but there's just this evaluation when you understand that time is a finite resource and you don't have much of it left.
But what are you actually going to do that reality check Dawns upon us and it does leave you asking questions like I'm just like am I am I always going to drive a Prius is that how this is like I mean I'm just kind of Peace meing this car together as it goes like am I am I going to like keep wearing flannels and rocking beards I started that Trend like in my early 20s and it's I mean it just kind of continued like those can like fall upon you and you start to re-evaluate and I think to have the really the the finite nature of time and really the reality that death will one.
Day come to us all I think that's actually a good thing to do I don't think you should do that at 40 years old I think you should regularly as a Christian think about that reality and to make the best use of our time and to live the best life that you could possibly live that we should ask the question what is the what is the ultimate life worth living now I have good news for us today the book of Philippians and where we're at in this part of the book speaks directly to that it gives us.
If you're asking questions about how should I live my life but is the best possible life I could live we're at the place that absolutely addresses that God has a good word for us today so I want to pray for us as we really lean into that question and then we'll walk through the text together heavenly father I pray that you would help us be open to receiving your word and that we would not just be hearers of the word but we would be doers and that comes through.
First acknowledging the Gospel and trusting in you and out of that Faith Comes repentance that changes the way we live so that we can worship and honor and Delight in you God I pray that you would do that work within us this morning so that we might be a people that take this life life seriously in Jesus name amen all right so we've been in Philippians in chapter 1 for a bit one of the things we've seen the last few weeks is that Paul in his imprisonment as he's in Rome he's in prison and house arrest the Philippians they're they're exchanging letters in this letter he is talking about how his imprisonment is being used.
To advance the Gospel it's encouraging Believers Christians on the ground in Rome and he was excited about that even as we saw last week that there are some people who were preaching from Bad motives from selfish ambition a rivalry with Paul but there are others who are preaching with good motivations and he goes regardless of the motivations I'm just jacked I'm rejoicing because the Gospel is being preached because Christ is being proclaimed so he's at this moment where he's just rejoicing that Christ is being preached and he has something else to Rejoice about in the back end of.
Verse 18 where we pick up when he says yes and I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my Deliverance that's his rescue he's going to be rescued as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by by death so he's not just rejoicing that the Gospel is being repe is being preached and being proclaimed he's also rejoicing.
Because he's going to be delivered and this is I I don't want us to miss this isn't the main point of this but he says due to your prayers through the prayers of the Philippian Christians and the work of the spirit that he's going to be delivered which just should really Center us on like prayer is unbelievably important God accomplishes his will through his people through the prayers of his people from Old Testament into the New Testament so we should be a people that are praying.
For God to work we have a prayer list that goes out to members in our Church who've opted to receive that text that goes out on Monday we have a prayer list that you can if you want things prayed for you can go on our website to uh I think it's one of the times if I had it off top of my head I'd tell you but I don't but it's somewhere in there you scan all the tabs you'll see pray and you can put in a prayer request it goes to that list we should do that.
Because prayer matters God accomplishes his will through the prayers of his people over and over and over again and don't I want us to miss that as we launch into the rest of this that they've been praying for his Deliverance they've been praying for Paul and he says I'm going to be delivered now that word delivered comes from the same Greek word uh for saved sotia so this is saved this is delivered and the question is okay from what from what are you going to be delivered is it what you were just talking about is it your imprisonment that you're going to be delivered from prison is he going to have his Tim Robbins moment.
Where he goes through the tunnel or the the what do you call those pipes that Shaw Shank and gets out into the water and looks up in the sky and he is free which if you don't know what I'm talking about I'm so sorry for you if you've never seen Shaw Shank Redemption first off how dare you like just you've missed out on something this is one of the top five movies if you have this Tim Robbins moment where he's just he's.
So excited to be is's going to be delivered is that's what's happening here so some will argue that's happening others will say no he's actually he's moved on that was so verse 17 we're on to new and better things in these next few verses what he says is is that they will turn out from my this will turn up for my Deliverance verse 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage.
Now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by by death others will say no no he's moved on from imprisonment he's talking about eternal Deliverance he's talking about death he's talking about the fact that because he believes that Christ was crucified for his sin and he put his faith in Christ and because he put his faith in Christ God the Father looks at Paul and says that he stands righteous because of the righteousness of Christ and not his own.
Because Jesus died for him he stands confidently waiting to go into the next life waiting to be delivered into the next life where he will be with Christ for eternity so some will say no it's it's more that's what's happening here I think the language here between two ideas I think he's being a little bit vague and koi for a reason I think he's kind of going with both and when you read the rest of the passage I think you'll see that he actually means both very practically as he works through this that he does expect to at some point be released from this Roman imprisonment and also he is eager.
For what is next after this life which he picks up in verse 21 for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain if I'm to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me yet which I shall choose I cannot tell I'm hardpressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better we'll pause there verse 21 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible like it is Shaw Shank Redemption top five level at of all the passages in the Bible this this right here is it you can come back to it over and over again and the deeper you weit into it.
The more satisfying it actually is to live as Christ to die as gain now his basic argument is pretty easy to follow if you're going to live it is for Christ if I'm going going to live a life it is going to be for Christ if I'm going to get out of this R imprisonment and continue my Ministry it's going to be for Christ it's going to be fruitful labor is the language he uses In this passage which will further unpack in the verses that follow that means more churches planted that means more Sinners saved that means more Christians discipled.
If I'm going to live huge win if I'm going to die huge win because if I die I gain I gain eternity I gain an eternal life with Christ I depart this painful broken marred sinful world and I get to be with Christ and that is far better so here is why I think this is one of the most important passages in the Bible it's hard to find a more succinct summary of what the Christian life looks like like this is the headline.
For the Christian Life and when I say headline I mean like how headlines used to be it used to be that you got a paper and that paper was like a physical paper and it smelted really good and you would look and you'd see headlines and the headline was a few words that summarized the whole article you could read the headline you get a general gist of where it was going nowadays headlines are not that they're clickbait sometimes have nothing to do with what's in the article.
Because journalism's lost complete ethic bearings and just but it's just the actual headline like what what actually like this is it like the old school headline you see this to live as Christ to die as gain that's the Christian Life and there's a whole lot more that can be said about that when you read the rest of the Scriptures but you have that right there and you understand what it means to be a Christian that when you actually trust in the finished work of.
Jesus when when you trust in his perfect life and the righteousness that comes through that that gets accredited to our account when you trust in his death that I a sinner and I need a savior and his blood covers me you trust in his resurrection that I actually get to have a new life in Christ because death no longer has a grip on me and that he ascended to the right hand of God the Father where he rules and Reigns from and I get to serve him out of that hope.
When you understand that the rest of the Christian Life is this you put all your chips on that hope on that reality you don't H your bets it's all in on Christ and now what to live as Christ to die is gain so I want to spend some time digging into this phrase because I think this phrase is unbelievably important if you understand what the best life is to live so let take a look at the first part to live is Christ he goes on to say.
If I'm to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me now he's going to go on to unpack this in the next few verses and just say that this is serving your brothers and sisters in Christ this is in service of the Church but that's what it means to live as Christ means to serve Christ to live is to serve that's the Christian Life to Live is to serve I went to a college called Presbyterian College and they had a a motto in Latin was called Dum vivamus servamus which was.
While we live we serve and at one point I'm sure in the history of our college that was attached to Christian values this is no longer a Christian College not remotely close but just like Harvard back in the day was founded as a seminary this was founded as a Christian College back in the day and at some point someone made the connection that the life that you live in Christ is one of service to live is Christ if you're going to be a Christian you're going to serve that is what it means to be a Christian and not only that that is the Pinnacle of human existence you understand what the what the what the.
Most maximized human life is do you understand what the good life is the good life is one that is found in serving Christ but in a lot of different ways I think our actions and our desires reveal that we don't really celebrate that Anthem that we don't really wholly Embrace that idea and then if you're in a bit of a midlife or quarter life crisis or you're just evaluating your time and you're trying to think through what do I do with the life that I have left like Paul is.
If I get out of prison this is what I'm going to do to live is this that if we're pose the same question that says if you had more time if you had more time in this life what are you going to do what is your gut instinct say what do your actions reveal I think if we're honest might reveal a lot of things that if I get more time what I'm going to do is I'm going to maximize my time to make money that I'm going to do what I can to make money.
Because money means freedom to choose freedom to do what I want freedom for me freedom for my family it means a lot of things that I can gain in this life this life is very temporary and I need to maximize my life and the aim of my life in a way that maximizes how much money I can have in my bank account I think for others that if you had more time that you'd be really focused on I want to be able to find someone to do this life with that I want to be able to find someone that I can journey through life that I love that I want I want that person.
For others who even might be married now might be just in a marriage that you're not happy with and it's like I if I I want someone I can actually love and journey through life with to live is if I had more time I could just have this if I had more time I could have the perfect family the right amount of kids who behave the just right amount of like all the things I want them to do that they would be involved in these Sports and would be uh uh good at this aspect of school and be able to have these type of careers.
If I could just uh have more time I'll be able to establish that type of family if I had more time I would be able to establish the kind of the kind of career I want but as you're thinking ahead primary focus is what kind of career I can have and the time I can put into that and the Legacy that I can leave through that and the work that I do if I had more time I would just grow to be a person that is admired by others that people would like me and I could leave that type of Legacy.
If I had more time I could live the kind of comfortable lifestyle that I want I could ditch the car that I don't like it improved the truck that I do like I could live uh I could level up in the house that I have I could have Comforts I could have the big screen TV if I had more time I could get happy if I had more time I could get healthy I think the Instinct within us and I think the actions that we display would reveal a lot of different things that.
If we had more time it would be a focus on this but to live would be this and listen I don't I don't think that I think having a good job and a and a spouse and a sweet family and a career that you like and being liked by others and being able to afford Stakes on the weekend like I'm I think those are good things and guess what Christianity is not opposed to those things this just not a a faith that's built on aestheticism this super righteous over-the toop lifestyle that's not what this is at all.
But here's the thing those things are not the Pinnacle of what it means to be a human those AR the the that's not what it means to live the good life not for the Christian at all that's not what it means that's not that should not be the central aim of Our Lives all of those things in our lives should be in joyful submission to the central aim of our life and that life is one of serving Christ which means that the money that we make is in service to Christ that.
If you get a pay raise it's like I God has blessed me with more so that I might not use it all on myself that I might bless others I might see other people in our Church family that are in difficult situations and be able to bless them that I might be able to reformulate my budget so I can send more missionaries because ultimately my money is a means by which I get to serve Christ that if God blesses me with a spouse that means I get to be in a one flesh Union that is in service to Christ that.
If I'm currently in one I get to rethink how our marriage is centered on the Gospel so that our marriage can ultimately not serve my needs or even my spouse's needs but ultimately in service of Christ that if you choose a career or you decide to switch jobs that every one of those decisions is like how do I submit this in the service of Christ how would I be a missionary in this workplace how will choosing this uh job help me serve the kingdom better you can go on and on down the list.
If I'm going to raise a family it's going to be one that is centered on the idea and the truth that is beautiful to live is Christ which means that I'm going to spend time with my children to help them understand that is the most important thing they could possibly ever understand and believe which means that I'm going to have make decisions as a father that says maybe we don't do the travel ball team this year and maybe I'm not impressing upon them that straight AIDS is the most important thing you can do to have the career that you want that I might even stretch them past bedtime on a night at community group knowing.
Good and well when I get home at 8:30 they're going to be really tired and awful at 6:00 in the morning when I'm getting them ready and the whole next day they might be a little tyrants but it's for a purpose because ultimately I want them to understand that to live as Christ and that this is more important we make decisions all the time that should be in service to Christ and should guide ourselves our families towards the ultimate good life that whatever Comforts that whatever whatever things.
God gives us in this life is in service to the ultimate aim that is to serve Christ that we would Le we would leverage every aspect of Our Lives towards making disciples and loving Brothers and Sisters in Christ and doing just to be blunt whatever God wants you to do now sometimes when you put a big emphasis on that there's a part of us especially in our Church where it's we we preach over and over again that you're not saved by works we beat that drum all the time that you're not saved by your Works you're not saved by your Works you're not saved by your works from Grace you've been saved through faith we.
Hit that drum over and over again for a reason because we need to understand that we trust in the perfect works of Christ on our behalf and that record stands for us you don't get into the kingdom of God by doing a bunch of good so we'll hit that over and over again but not at the expense of go 2 verse uh Ephesians 2: 89 and verse 10 which says that we are his workmanship that once you're in the kingdom of.
God you're created for good works which is not for you to get into heaven it's for your neighbors and it's for the advancement of his kingdom I love how Paul puts some very similar ideas in this passage into 2 Corinthians chapter 5 when he says in verse 8 and9 yes we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord see that similar language there i' ra I'd rather be at home with the.
Lord because that's my heavenly home it's not here it's there i' rather be at home with the Lord verse 9 so whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please him and I want us to miss that we don't please him to get into heaven but we should make it our chief aim as Christians to say how can I please him how can I serve him how can I do this and I think the problem for us as a as Americans I think as American Christians I think we're.
So drunk off of Earthly blessings and Earthly riches and Earthly things that when the Bible confronts us on this when it comes to us and says You must live for Christ you must please him you must obey him a part of it just goes yeah I know but if I do that I'm going to miss out on some things and I just I want to just brutally murder that idea from us ever believing that is true because it's the idea that enjoying the things of this world is somehow better than what Christ has to offer us I I just want to kill that idea.
If I took my child if I took my son and I said we're going to get ice cream and not just any ice cream like we're going to the Baked Bear in Five Points which I've been on keto for a month and today is my first day off and sometime this week I'm going there because you can get ice cream and they take gooey butter cookies and they press it together into just I mean it's amazing and yeah I'm like that's where we're going we're getting that it's like that as that's the that's the best we got in Columbia we're going there and we're walking through five points and all of a sudden he sees.
A red shiny thing in the gutter and it's a one of those strawberry candies like the outside looks like a strawberry wrapper it's bright and shiny inside tastes like lip gloss you know what I'm talking about and he darts to it and he picks it up and he's like no no no dad I found it we're good I'm going to camp out here you go do whatever you want I don't have to walk that much further because I found what is going to satisfy me I would smack it out of his hand I would say you're not enjoying this no no no I don't you don't understand I want this i' smack it out of.
His hand again and have to look around and make sure that nobody's going to call the police you leave that for the kids in Five Points coming off of USC campus that's not what we're going to enjoy we're going to the Baked Bear I know we got to walk a little further son but that's where we're going because once we get there it's going to be good and it's going to be better than that filth that I'm going to stomp into the ground no that's what I do with my son and that's what God's trying to help us.
See yeah it's a little more effort to serve Christ takes a little farther to get there but it's good it's actually where goodness is found it's unbelievably good when you read Psalm 37 in Psalm 37:3 he says trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness he's saying trust in God and in trusting him serve him do good but faithfulness and then you get to verse four when it says delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart which people have Twisted out of context.
For their own purpose purposes and said you had Del lighten yourself in the Lord he's going to give you whatever you want it's like no no don't miss what it's sandwiched between verse three do good verse 5 commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act that ultimately goodness is found in Walking With Our God and doing what he commands and trusting in our savior and then obeying him that's where goodness is found not just goodness you get to delight in.
God through that and delighting in God who is the Perfection of beauty who is wonderful is good serving Christ is not drudgery it's not it's not a boring life no matter how much it gets depicted in movies or in TV the Christians live a boring life it's not service of Christ is not drudgery that is a lie you ask anyone who has followed Christ for decades they've pursued him in word and prayer regularly they have been obedient to make disciples they have entered into the baptism Waters and they have seen people testify that Christ has change them.
Because they got to be vessels of that being used to declare the Gospel to them you listen to their stories of how they helped other Christians get out of debt of how they helped walk with other brothers and sisters in discipling them you ask them if they would wish they had spent the last few decades doing something different that they would have would you would you have rather spent your time on endless amount of hobbies pursuing meaningless sex would you rather have watched a bunch more shows and bed a bunch more series would you have rather gone to a bunch of really fancy parties and gotten sosed is that what you have rather have done.
With your time if you ask them that question they're going to look at you sideways they're going to look at you like have you have you lost your mind absolutely not not because they've experienced what it means to Delight in Christ through service they know what it means to walk with their God and out of walking with their God serving others they have experienced that and that's better as we say every Sunday morning better than everything else and they believe that yet.
When I talk to people who have spent their years spent the last decade pursuing empty Pursuits chasing after worldly things I hear I'm s I'm tired I'm depressed I'm anxious I'm burned out because those things don't actually ever satisfy because that's not where true Joy is found to live as Christ is where true Joy is found service of Christ is not drudgery it is joy and when we realize that and believe that we become the Living Sacrifice that God has called us to be.
Then we tap into a greater form of joy that is better than anything this world has to offer so when he says to live as Christ of course I'm going to keep doing this what else would I rather be doing this is it and that's why he can so freely say in the next breath to die is gain death is gain because he knows if I die it's promotion to the big leagues I'm going to Eternity and that is far better and I think the problem.
For us is that so many of us are tempted to squeeze every ounce out of this life to squeeze every ounce of Earthly pleasure out of this life that we can't even see that that's better that I think that if many of us were told that you were going to die younger than you thought it would be scary and it would be sad and Paul just doesn't have that mindset he's so freed up in believing in Christ and understanding eternity and that this life is a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of time that spent in eternity and how much better that is he's.
So grounded in that idea he says if you kill me good I'm I'm I'm going to get where I want to go faster where I'll behold the face of God where I won't have the stain of this body and its Brokenness and its pain and its suffering or I won't be in I won't be I won't struggle with sin anymore yeah I I'll take that all day long he says yet which I shall yet which I shall choose I cannot tell I'm hardpressed between the two to Live to Die My Desire is to depart and be with Christ.
For that is far better he's not suicidal y'all that's not what's happening here he just understands Eternity for what it is and he's just being honest he's like I'm heart pressed I know that I should I got more to I got more to do but man I want that CU that's better and if you've ever heard stories you've been around Christians who've walked with the Lord for years and they have a terminal illness there's a part of them that's sad because they're going to leave a wife or a husband behind and they're going to leave kids behind and that's painful.
Because death thingss and that's painful but if you press in and you ask but but are you are you excited about being with Christ and that face just turns and it's like yeah I am I'm really looking forward to that I believe our calculations are off if we think there's less reward in serving Christ and I think our calculations are off if we fear death we should live every day to serve Christ in any way that he desires and we should.
See the joy in doing that because it is wonderful and then when God calls us to be home with him we're ready for the gain that awaits us that's what Paul's articulating here now it's when you see how he's talking around this you see he's somewhat convinced I would argue he's somewhat convinced that he's still got more work to do and the history behind this is is that there's a few historical resources outside the Bible that say that he got out of this imprisonment and he ended up in Spain which is.
When you read the book of Romans where he wanted to go and take the Gospel now we don't know that for a complete fact whether he did that or whether this really was the last imprisonment I lean towards looking at this text and realizing that I think he expects to get out and then he expects he has more work to do and you get a glimpse of that mindset when you go through verse 24 and 26 which was what we close out with.
Today he says 24 but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again so I think from this that he he thinks he's getting out regardless of where you where you land on that his mindset is if I get out.
When I get out it is for your progress and joy in the faith that's what he says the way I get to live as Christ the way I get to serve Christ is for your progress and joy in the faith later in Chapter 2 he's going to talk about himself as a being poured out like a drink offering which is sacrificial language from the Old Testament that he's gets to be a sacrifice for their benefit he gets to be a sacrifice.
For their joy and progress in the faith that's what it means to serve Christ brothers and sisters that you leverage your life in service of Christ for the good of one another for the joy and progress of the people in this room to know and love and enjoy Christ we do that first by remembering Jesus in a sacrifice for us what he did on our behalf what he went to the cross for us we look at that sacrifice and out of that and realizing the mountain of debt that he paid.
For that our sin that put him there out of that we overflow into worship and we say and try to leverage Our Lives to say how can I serve others that I might help them have joy in Christ progress in their faith in Christ that's what it means to live as Christ and that that looks like the group leaders we have in our Church family that are laying on the line for their groups and when group gets hard and it gets messy and it gets tiresome you.
Look to Christ and you say thank you Jesus you serve me I'm going to serve others too and I'm going to I'm going to persevere in this and the joy that's found in the hardship of doing that is watching people taste and see that the Lord is good and watching Sinners be saved and watching marriages be restored and watching people understand what it means to truly serve Christ and to give themselves away this happens when a brother or sister sits down with someone who is hurting another brother and sister maybe.
For hours maybe for days maybe for weeks and just sits with them serving them because it's for not my own good it's for the good of others and it's for their joy and for their progress in the faith so yeah this is a a negative situation and it's got negativity within it but I press into that reality because it's worth them knowing and enjoying loving Christ this means leveraging your hospitality for others which is hard cuz I don't know if you bought groceries lately.
But like two bags is a 100 bucks and I we feel it and it's like man I I mean I we can we do hot dogs like I just you can by the way um it's like you're leveraging this I'm I'm going to I'm going to put this in my budget I'm put this in my mindset that I'm going to give up time and money for others to invite unbelievers into my house to invite their Christians into my house because it's good.
Because it's ultimately for their joy and progress and the faith Faith this means hear this this means sticking it out with people that are described as messy or even toxic man there's there's so much of an ideology going around right now that says if you got messy people in your life you got toxic people in your life you draw all this boundary and that's your circle and they can't get in the circle because if they get inside the circle that's a problem.
Because self care is Pinnacle at this moment you got to care for yourself so they can't be let in and what I'm not saying is is that you don't keep in mind that you don't give all of your energy and all of your time to messy people but you go the gospels and you show me a time when Jesus drew a boundary around himself and said these messy people can't get in and you ain't going to find it you know what he did do with messy people with hurting people he spent time with his heavenly.
Father and he got away from the crowds and he was filled up so that he could serve others well and I just want to again murder the mindset a lot of murder language sorry I want to destroy the mindset that says I can't serve others because I have to only care for myself it's the opposite of the Gospel to live is Christ whatever that is fill in the blank to live is serving Christ and leveraging our lives for others joy.
For others progress in the faith and we do it over and over again because we ultimately believe that Jesus is better over and over again and that in and through those labors and those efforts we get to see other people as he says In this passage have ample opportunities to glorify Christ ample cost to glorify Christ so brothers and sisters we leverage our lives for Mission we leverage Our Lives to loving one another well for the good of one anothers and we do it over and over and over again and we give ourselves away.
Because ultimately we get to help others experience joy and progress and in that labor even when it is hard we experience joy that is found in him because that level of joy is only found in the service of others so that means we need to be honest about how we'd answer that question to live is what that we should be honest about what we are basing Our Hope in this life on but what we think the good life is to live is what.
And if that answer isn't Christ then we say I submit this to you Jesus and I put it at your feet and you Chang my heart and you help me repent and you help me to live is for you for the good of others and for the progress in the faith until Christ calls us home again I'm at the halfway point with my oldest and I've only got a few years of really PR primary influence in her life before she leaves the home and I.
So want the next n plus years just to say an embody in her to live is Christ baby girl to live is Christ and to die is gain that's the Christian life because I want her to be able to go into the world and see money not as a God but as a tool and she's like I'm just so that one day she'll say this is just a tool and I won't be anxious about this I'm not going to be needing to.
For all this but I will live for the good of others and I will leverage my finances for the sake of others that if God does call her into a marriage one day and she has a husband that they will enter into a Godly marriage that is in service of others that she chooses a job that it's ultimately going to be how can I serve Christ in this job if she chooses to spend her time she says I'm going to serve Christ as.
God blesses her with children that one day she's going to raise them in service of Christ and enjoying him and God willing is going to live a long life and I'm going to beat her to Eternity and then one day at the end of her life a legacy of serving others she's just ready and she's ready to go home and she's ready to depart this world because what awaits her is eternal gain and I will get to be there and welcome her there and invite her and we celebrate.
And then for the years that follow I get to see person after person after person after person who enter into the kingdom of God because she leveraged her life to live is Christ and saw death as only gain that is the life I want for her that's the life I want for all my kids that's the life I want for myself and that's the life that I want for every person in this Church to live a life that is for Christ and doesn't cling to this world.
Because ultimately death is better because we gain him me pray heavenly father I pray that you might break within us a love for this world that we might not cling to anything that it has to offer but we might truly submit Our Lives to you to be in service to you because that is eternally better that's where Joy is found and my heart doesn't want to believe that it wants to cling to the things of this world may you break that within me.
So that I might embody what it means to live as Christ that our Church family that is struggling with loving the things of this world whatever that might be that you might break within them a heart for others that comes out of loving you and serving others may you help us be able to answer this question Faithfully that to live as Christ and to die as again and if there's anyone here that has not trusted in you that this is not the central aim of their life at all I pray that you'd help them.
See that this world is not worth it and they pursuing the things of this world is not worth it but they would go all in on you and they would live for you so that ultimately one day death may be gain in Jesus name amen the band's going to come up we're going to take prepare to take the Lord's Supper on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it he said this is my body that was broken.
For you he took the cup of the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return and we are people that regularly come to the table of a meal that signifies death it signifies the death of Christ but also through faith in Christ death to ourselves which means that in the moments as you prepare to take the Lord's Supper as a Christian you get to.
Look at the things that we might say to live is what and we might fill that in and bring that before Christ and that we might repent joyfully H prly joyfully that we'd come to the table joyfully say thank you Jesus that you died for my own selfish ambition for my own selfish desires thank you Jesus that you died for this so that I might joyfully be able to spend what the this meal also points to Eternity the final meal that we enjoy with Christ forever that as a people between those two realities we get to live a a life that is.
For Christ expecting that one day death enters into game now if you're not a Christian if you never trusted completely in the finished work of Christ please don't come to the table this is not a meal for you what I want for you right now is to contemplate and to think that if you've banked your hope if you banked your life on anything outside of Christ if you're honest with yourself you're like I don't no I've never done that I've actually never believed My Hope Is that you would surrender to.
Jesus now because he's good and living a life for Christ is good and it's Joy filled and it's wonderful and ultimately it ends an eternal game but that can't happen unless you surrender in faith and I pray that you would now now so when you are ready come to the table with gluten free in that back corner over there if you want to know more about this if you want to know what it means to trust in Christ and surrender your life to him grab me grab another pastor we would happily walk you through the Gospel and what it means to believe and trust in him.
See that he is better heavenly father I pray that you would.
Rejoice in the Gospel (Philippians 1:15-18a)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we're continuing to walk through the book of Philippians still in chapter 1 a few more verses 15 through the first part of 18 so you go ahead and flip there be on page 570 the blue Bibles you can follow along there if you don't have a Bible at home please take that we want you to have a Bible that you can uh that you can read that you have access to and the text will also be on the screen.
If you want to follow there so we I make an assumption of the room most of us probably I would say all of us do good things from time to time you serve your neighbor do the extra mile at work like we we do good things but I think if we were honest that a lot of the times those good things are done for motives that aren't always pure we just I know maybe y'all are better than me I just see I.
See with them me like there's just there's a lot of selfish motives sometimes I mean may do a good thing but it may be for the sake of advancing your career it might be to make us feel good or maybe we just simply like praise like to do good things because we like the praise that comes with it now we realize that that's socially unacceptable right for that to be seen you know we got some teenagers in the room about the teenage years is.
When you start to figure out that like I I it's not good for people to know that I just did a good thing just to be praised right like you just you start to realize that I mean into adulthood like it just that's not a that's not a thing that works well it's not going to help you in the workplace like my kids are not good at that little kids are terrible at that they're not subtle uh they're not slick they're not Savvy my youngest what she'll do sometimes she's she's not four.
Now so she's growing a little bit out of this but my youngest she'll do like a good thing or she'll pick up her toys or whatever and then she'll come to me and she'll go and oh this is what this is about like you you wanted praise you okay good job now at some point she's going to goow around and realize that's not how you make friends and secure a job like I'm just I I challenge you to do something good at work this week and go to your boss and go and it's not going to it it doesn't go.
Well for you uh and if you do please record that I want to see their face it's just we know that's not it's not really acceptable but if we're honest there's a lot of that within us doing the right things for the wrong reasons last week we went through verses 12 through 14 in chapter 1 and we got to see that Paul's imprisonment helped Advance the Gospel it also helped embolden the Believers on the ground to share the Gospel as well and what we're going to.
See this week is that there are Christians on the ground in Rome we near where he's imprisoned that are sharing the Gospel some of them are doing it for the right reasons but some of them are doing it for the wrong reasons and we're going to take a look at that and after acknowledging that reality Paul is going to help us see he's going to reveal where we should place the most value and how that applies to our lives as Christians.
So I want to read these verses and we'll pray and we'll walk through this together verse 15 some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwi the latter do it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel the former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment what then only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in that I Rejoice let's pray heavenly.
Father I pray that you'd help us be open to hear your word this morning we as CH Just prayed are are needy sinners in need of Grace in need of instruction we need your guidance uh and and passages like this certainly reveal what is within us I pray that you would expose that and help us see the need for Faith see the need for repentance and running to you and seeing that you are better and this would ultimately result in a life of worship that glorifies you above ourselves we ask this in.
Jesus name amen all right so as we kind of introduce the book of Philippians this letter is different than the other letters that Paul wrote so God has inspired this is speaking through his servant Paul there's there's 13 letters that God used Paul to write to to help us see his wonderful truth this letter is very different than the other ones most of the time he's dealing with a problem in that Church or or or speaking to a leader who's dealing with problems within their Church and he's helping engage some of that Philippians is just different it's a joyful love you know uh uh based letter between a Church that deeply loves Paul and a.
Church that he loves and he's just kind of telling them what's happening on the ground and what's happening on the ground here is you've got some Christians who've been emboldened by Christ and out of good motives are declaring the mystery of Christ he's imprisoned in Rome and he's connected to those Roman Christians but there are other Roman Christians that he's connected to that are doing this for bad reasons we picked that up in verse 15 some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry.
Now there are people in the Church at Rome that are preaching Christ from place of envy and rivalry now this passage has confused commentators theologians who've been interacting with this text me like it just it's it's conf it's some confusing stuff here because he uses language envy and rivalry that typically when he writes in his other letters is attributed to those who don't know Christ those who don't follow Christ like envy and Roby especially paired close together that's applied to if your life is marked by this he says you don't know Christ he does this in multiple places in Galatians chapter 5 we're familiar with many of us with with the the fruit of the.
Spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentl faithness self-control right before that is the works of the Flesh and in Galatians 5 it says now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity Strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions Envy drunkenness orgies and things like these I warn you as I warn you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God he is saying that if your life is marked by this.
Then then you're you probably aren't a Christian you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God now the language here stands out the same word for Strife in the Greek which is the original way this is written the same word for strife and rivalries is the same word and that is paired right next to Envy so he's got these kind of close together and that helps see this is what marks someone who doesn't believe and isn't living out the Gospel he does this again in Romans 1 says they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covet malice they are full of Envy murder Strife deceit maliciousness again Envy pair close to the same Greek.
Word for rivalry that is translated here here Strife this happens again and not just describing those who don't believe the Gospel but also those who are teaching a false Gospel false teachers in 1 Timothy 6 he says if anyone teaches a different Doctrine does not agree with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that Accords with godliness he is puffed up with conceit understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels About Words which produce Envy to Ascension slander evil suspicions again Envy paired up with the same Greek word that's.
For rivalry that's translated here as dissension so you see kind of how he uses these words close together throughout the letters that he's written and then you get to Philippians 1 and it's just odd because he's applying it to people who preach Christ and what he doesn't do he does not destroy their credibility he he does that in other places for those that are false teachers he doesn't do that here let's work through the rest of the passage it says somebody preach Christ from envy and rivalry.
But others from goodwi the latter do it out of love knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the Gospel he said there are some in the Roman Church that are preaching the Gospel for the right reasons for a place of love but then he shifts right back to in verse 17 the former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment so then we get a little bit of a clearer picture of what's going on there are people in the Roman Church that from a place of envy and rivalry specifically with Paul out of their own selfish ambition and their own self-interest are preaching Christ in.
A way to hurt Paul and a way to to to Really what it seems like push his influence down in that Church and lift up their own influence within this Church that's what's happening and the confusing part is how he responds in verse 18 what then only that in every way whether in pretense that's false motives or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice and when you read this against his other letters it's like wait what you take envy and rivalry very seriously and yet all of a sudden you're just what.
Then these people have hurt you personally they've Afflicted you and you're just like what then at least the Gospel is being preached at least at least Jesus is being proclaimed and I want to be like have you read your other letters man this is this is a big deal I me the same person that told Timothy to keep a close life on your keep keep keep a close watch on your life and your Doctrine like you care about how the those who proclaim the Gospel live and you care about the message like what What's Happening Here is Paul speaking out of both sides of his mouth what is he getting at that's the question that.
Kind of lingers a little bit and it's the answer to that is it's it's complicated it's a complicated answer but it's worth pressing into so when Paul says some D preach Christ it is very clear that he's talking about the Gospel he is saying they're preaching the true Gospel they're not preaching a false Gospel which means they're not false teachers and the reason you can say that very credibly is because Paul in all the places he talks about false teachers has zero patience.
For them I mean he absolutely extends zero kindness to wolves and sheep's clothing I mean he dismantles and destroys them over and over and over again I'm not going to give you three quick examples they're a lot more in the book of Galatians a Church that a letter that was written to the Church in galacia a region where he had planted churches after he left some people called the judaizers came in and tried to convert Christians back into following the Jewish law and saying you need this to be saved and he in chapter one at the gate in.
Verse 6 says I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel not that there is another one but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to the preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preach to you let him be a cursed as we have said before.
Now I say again if anyone is preaching to you a Gospel contrary to the one you received let him be a cursed that phrase let him be a cursed very literally means let him go to hell so he just said you're pre if anyone is preaching a false Gospel let him go to hell let him be a cursed he picks up in in in second Timothy he says but avoid irreverent Babel for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like Garing here false teachers he says their teachings are like an infection that are rotting out the body and will kill the body and he says among the them.
Are himas and philetus which he just called them out by name he doesn't play with false teaching and false teachers he says who have swore from the truth saying that the resurrection is already happened they are upsetting the faith of some and I'll give you one more again there's more but I'll just give you one Titus one says for there are many who are insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the circumcision party they must be silenced these are the these trying to convert people back to the Jewish law to be saved he says they must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching.
For shameful gain what they ought not teach he says they must be silenced their talk spreads like gain green they can go straight to hell he has very very strong language for false teachers and he has no patience for false teaching at all and then you get to Philippians and you read this passage and it's like what they're marked by Envy and rivalry what what this seems like a big shift so nowadays there's a lot of uh 90s Nostalgia a lot of 90s Nostalgia I think that's good just I'm partial.
Because that's where I grew up but I think there's not enough focus on one of the best things that came out the 90s and that is '90s country music ' 9s country music was amazing it was so good I know some of y'all don't like country it's fine we can't all have good taste but '90s country music was the jam it was so good Allan Jackson Martina McBride George Straight were just killing it and then 2000's bro country came and it was awful they murdered country music it's.
So so so bad but it's making a comeback you guys cuz when Chris Stapleton took the stage at the CMAs a few years ago I mean just bringing it back it makes me so happy so so many good artists Zack Bryant I can go on for days on that but '90s country was just so good and there was one who is at the top who is killing it more than anyone else in country music can I can I get a guess that's exactly right G Brooks was killing it y'all no only one other artist has sold more physical units of music than G Brooks that's the Beatles number two is GTH Brooks that's wild he.
Was and I mean he was killing that decade and then in 1999 I walked into Walmart and I saw a display case and this display case had it just one artist all the CDs and I walked up to it and I saw a man who had an emo haircut before emo haircuts were even a thing yet and a soul patch and I saw eight of the saddest words I've ever read in the English language G Brooks in the life of Chris gains and he just became a pop artist and and I I got that I got the CD and took it home and it was trash it was awful it's like dude you were killing.
It in country and then you became this this really really bad pop artist it didn't work out for him it worked out well for Taylor Swift but not for him it was a big shift and it was like what are you doing it's so uncharacteristic of everything that you've put out and that's what I feel like when I read Paul In this passage I'm like you are are you Chris gaining us are you just like what have you lost the thread on everything that matters that you're about.
But when you press into this you see that's not it at all because one thing is abundantly clear that has not changed at all and that is that Paul deeply deeply loves the Gospel he deeply deeply values the message of the Gospel you can't mess with the message of the Gospel that's his Anthem you cannot touch that he still believes in the message of the Gospel he still believes and preaches and cares about those who preach that Christ who looked upon us in our sinful hopeless State who came and left heaven.
For us who lived a perfect life for us obeying the Old Testament law Paul still cares about the fact that Christ went to the Cross because he loves us because of his great love for us and that his blood was poured out for us for our offenses and for our sins and for our struggles so that we might stand justified through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross that when God the Father looks upon those of us that have Place Our Hope in.
Jesus and not our own good works but put all of our hope in Christ that he would see the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ and not our own sins and that in that faith we are reborn to a living hope that we cling to until Jesus takes us home he still cares deeply about the message of the Gospel he loves it and he has no patience for a false teaching that corrupts that at all because he understands that a false Gospel leads to a false belief which ultimately leads to an eternity in hell and he takes that very seriously which.
For the record we should care about that we should absolutely not tolerate a false Gospel at all we should not tolerate wolves and sheep's clothing at all I in Paul's time it was it was people that were saying the resurrection already come it was people that were saying that you had to do good works and obey the Old Testament law to be justified and our time it's different the main false Gospel that's rampant throughout the American Church is the Prosperity Gospel it's it's just everywhere and we should absolutely take that seriously we should take seriously the false prophets and false Gospel that's preached from people like Joel ostein and Joyce Meyer and TD Jakes.
Crlo dollar each of them preaching false Gospel leads to a false belief that leads to an eternity in hell we should take that seriously you might think that's a little judgy you calling individuals out and I'd say yeah it is Paul called out himonas and phileus and Paul makes it very clear in in 1 Corinthians 5 he says are you not called to judge those inside the Church it's a direct quote are you not called to judge those inside the Church he's saying hold those accountable inside the Church those outside the Church you have no business making any bit accountability you have no business in making any judgment call on.
If anyone outside the Church no inside the Church if they claim to follow Christ absolutely you hold accountable to what they say and how they live because the message of the Gospel is of utmost importance and we catch a glimpse of God's heart through his servant Paul to help us see that false teaching is seriously we should take that very seriously and I think the problem for us is that we we don't there's so much of it it's like we we don't I think we get more upset.
When someone has a different if you have a family member or you know husband wife brother sister best friend I think we get more upset if they pick up art of the deal by Donald Trump or Obama's Memoir than we would if they took Joel olin's life your best life now book I think we' be more upset about the the political difference there I think it' be more upset if our family or friends were watching news or watching MSNBC then we would.
If they were actually watching TBN which is a horrible Channel I mean they they put some good stuff on there like Billy Graham sandwich between kod dollar and TD Jake and Joyce Meyer and all and it's just like it's awful which the iron of that channel I think it's called Trinity broadcast network and some of those cats don't even believe in Trinity it's just it we should take this seriously which means that if we have family or friends that are being immersed in this type of we we we should lovingly and winsomely compel them to turn away from that cuz this a destructive force it has ruined churches in America it has ruined churches in.
Africa and South America taking a a a false Gospel to people who barely have anything and telling them to give their money so that they can be it's we should take it seriously as serious as Paul takes in 2 Timothy chapter 4 when he says for the time is coming when people who will not endure sound teaching but have itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to truth and wander into myths.
Because we live in a time where everyone wants to hear what makes them feel good wants to he what what their ears are itching for and it will suit their own passions and it's going to lead to destruction so when he's talking about these Roman Christians they're preaching Christ they're not preaching a false Gospel here and when you understand this this and what he's doing I think there are three questions we can ask of Paul and ourselves that will help us understand and apply this better I have three questions the.
First do we love the message like Paul do we love the message like Paul so when he says 15 some of the preach Christ from envy and rivalry and it goes on to say the former Proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment I mean just understand like Paul Paul was being hurt by this like I mean if you've ever had anyone I remember the first time that I was in when I was in high school and a I found out that a friend of mine was talking smack about me behind my back and I was like I thought we were friends that hurts that had to.
Have hurt him they are afflicting him I mean the the the most comparative thing I could say what's happening with him and Roman maybe here is if we sent chck to like the Middle East to do Mission work and then he gets arrested and he's imprisoned and then I just was like all right now's the time I don't just preach half the time I preach all the time I make the rules here now I'm taking over Community groups and I'll scrub his ugly face out of the website it's just out this is my house and I just said I'm doing it this is me and y'all be like is he doing.
Okay it doesn't matter how he's doing we're moving on it's wicked it's corrupt that's what's happening he's being afflicted by people who are preaching because they they Envy his influence they're out of their own selfish ambition so it had to have hurt him certainly but Paul has an eternal view in mind he says but at least they're preaching Christ at least they're preaching the true Gospel at least they're preaching a Gospel that saves and not a false Gospel that dams so at least they're preach in Christ cuz he cares more about advancing the Gospel than being personally maligned that's clear from his writings that he doesn't like those motives he doesn't like envy and rivalry.
Probably was praying for the repentance but he rejoiced that they were preaching a true Gospel and that Sinners were being saved so it's what those Rivals and what they were doing in that Church was it Wicked yes are these rivals operating out of as they're operating out of selfish ambition are they in danger if they keep following that track if it's all about themselves and all about themselves all about themselves are they in danger of becoming likeus and phileus and becoming false teachers that's certainly possible.
But is it it's clear from these writings here it's clear from what's Happening Here that their motivations though flawed their their motivations though sinful are not the same as someone who would preach that Jesus isn't really God which started in the first century but also continues in the veins of jehovas witness in Mormonism now and it's certainly not the same as someone who would preach a Prosperity Gospel saying that you come come down here and we'll pray over you give some money and we'll pray over you plant the seed of faith and we'll pray over you those aren't even in the same ballpark.
See yeah they're flawed but they're not preaching a false Gospel and there's a lot of nuance here that separates that out I think there are a misguided leaders that are hurting Paul and they've lost sight of what this is all about and I think it is possible that we don't get to see how this ends that some of those those teachers ended up straying away from the faith but they're not there yet and therefore Paul is still going to celebrate that they are preaching Christ and he's not going to treat him like a wolf I love what John Piper says about this he says Paul is more agitated.
When the Gospel itself is defective than he is when the people who preach the true Gospel are defective and I think that's a very good sum summarization of what this is now that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about leaders that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about character we announced a few weeks ago that Isaac who's been in the Elder and training process here for four years that we're going to install him as an elder after four years is a reason why we took that long we were evaluating his character we still should 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 care about the character of those who Proclaim name the Gospel we should care about that like.
If any of you move to another city and you try to find a Church I've helped different people who've left here and gone to different places I usually get on n Marks Church finder or Gospel coal uh Church finder and help them find a few churches but I tell them like you should care about their teaching so get on there read their doctrinal statements listen to a few sermons hear what they are teaching because that matters but if they show up and all of a sudden like the pastor is really into himself and like he's wearing $500 sneakers and it's just like you can tell like he's just trying to build his brand and you.
Get on social media and like it's just a lot of cringe posts about I mean you know what I'm talking about it's just like if if you see that it's like okay you should care about that you should care if there's just blatant self-interest in how they do their Ministry but you also should pray for pastors like that when you encounter them you should and you should be thankful at least they're preaching a true Gospel there's a quote that's attributed to Martin Luther that's.
God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines and it's like yeah yeah there's some crooked sticks including myself that God uses to preach Christ and we should celebrate that so when you encounter churches and pastors and authors and Ministry leaders that seem to be so self-interested should pray for them and pray for their repentance because that's a miserable existence making an idol out of yourself and your ministry is tiring and exhausting there's a quote from a Moravian Bishop Zen and dorf he said preach the Gospel die and be forgotten and it's like yeah that's it that's it preach the Gospel die two generations you everyone will forget you praise.
God because the message message outlasts the messenger even a broken one we should love the message of the Gospel we should love the message of Christ second question do we love the message more than ourselves do we love the message of the Gospel more than our own selves or to put it a different way what about our own selfish ambition what about our own Envy what about our own rivalry because what happens is that we're really quick to identify it's easy to.
See you know a slick preacher with $500 sneakers on Instagram doing all kinds of things and be like oh yeah that dude's about himself but we skipped a step because what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7 is take the plank out of your own eye so that you can see the speck in your brother's eye and we just skip that stuff and that passage gets misunderstood for lots of reasons on one side it's like oh God says you should never judge anyone and Tupac like just made that a big Anthem Only.
God can judge me and it's like no that's not what Jesus is teaching at all there he's saying take the plank out first so you can see the spec there's accountability built into that passage but the other side of it is is that we just don't like to do that we don't like to take the plank out that's hard work inspecting it's suspecting your own sin first is difficult work it's a whole lot easier just to look at everyone else so do we love the message more than ourselves are we willing to do the tough work of saying.
First okay where are my selfish Ambitions where am I envious where where am I uh creating rivalries with others and where do I need to repent of that in my own life first so I can clearly love the message over my own self so we should do that that's something I have to die to myself regularly because I I just my flesh I I want admiration and Glory I want that and I I regularly pray before I preach I say God not.
For my glory but for your own because I know deep down within me I want that Glory but we got to do that Soul work of looking within and seeing what's happening within us so that we can actually repent so what planks do we need to pull out in order to practice this well do you celebrate with others when they do well or are you quietly jealous of how their how it's going for them can you really celebrate what those you should be joyful about or are you just secretly.
So jealous that you're not getting what they've got how about this on the community group level when other community groups are just crushing it seemingly from our perspective another community group it's just it seems like it's just going so well are you happy for them are we imately envious of what's happening there which group leaders like that's a real thing right actually let me put group leaders to side for a moment let me talk to group members okay and I can say this.
Because I'm a group member now my wife and I we LED groups for 10 years and now we're just we're group members leading a group is hard leading a community group is hard it is you can talk to them you ask them hey is it hard and they'll say yes it is it's made harder when we're not being good group members when we show up once a month when the list goes out for meals and it's like I'll bring cups it's like you want to try a salad they make those in kits.
Now you just open it up you TI the bowl you just that's it like it's it's real easy it it's made more difficult when we stir up drama it made more difficult when we're complaining it's made more difficult when we say I want this to change and this change to serve my needs it's made more difficult when it's like I you got to revolve around my schedule it's made more difficult when we're not good group members so let's change let's love our group leaders y'all should bless them take them out to eat ask them how you could be a better group member all right group leaders.
If you get into a comparison game where you're just envious of other other situations that's a terrible drug and it just has no bottom cuz you'll just grow bitter and then you'll just hate groups all together you know not that I've ever experienced that ever in 10 years leading groups do you have a created rivalry in your head with another person person maybe it's at work maybe it's someone in our own Church another person and your family another person in your friend group do you have a rivalry that's like it's just in your head or maybe it's not even in your head maybe it's just like understood it's like Taylor and Kim Kardashian like they.
Just you just know it's just I think that was them right right front row yes okay it's just understood there's a rivalry between you and this other person person I sin I sin and it should be repented of and Reconciliation should happen is your work your ministry your life is it all about self and your selfish Ambitions are you making much of yourself or are we seeking to make much of Christ to his glory and not our own We Must Love The Gospel and the message of the go Gospel more than our own selves.
And when we do that we make the proclamation of Christ and him crucified the most Central aim of our lives but in order to stay on track with that aim there are things there are planks that must be REM removed there sin that must be repented of to make the Gospel primary third question do you rejoice in the message going forward do you rejoice in the message of Christ and him crucified going forward do we so deeply love this message like Paul we.
So deeply love it that we would care about that Gospel going forward and we just celebrate when it's preached there's a few different ways where we just that we fall short in this area I'm going to talk to a super Niche group of people in our Church I'm talking like probably less than five so I'm going to give this space like for a minute but if you're the kind of person that loves Theology and you also love being on YouTube and you love what's called discernment Ministries on YouTube be careful there are whole YouTube channels devoted to help you discern and heresy hunt and figure out who's the bad ones and some of those cats.
They spend they get a little too gleeful about taking shots at others and I just I I didn't throw up those names earlier I didn't throw out TD Jake and Klo dollar and Joel oin and Joyce Meyer flippantly I followed the ministry for years I had to reorient myself again this week with some of the really terrible things they say right but you better be real careful when you start throwing out names and lobing bombs that people that actually might be brothers they might be Sisters in Christ.
Because you're maligning a a Believer which first John has some pretty sharp words for you on so just caution they may listen they they may you you would never go to their Church and you would never quote them and they're just they make you cringe and like I'm tell there's a lot of goofy American Christian pastors out there a lot of great ones too a lot of great ones but a lot of goofy ones that you would never get behind but are they preaching Christ are they still preaching the Gospel.
Then you should celebrate that we should celebrate the proclamation of Christ we should Rejoice regard L of maybe our differences in opinions or even even differences in a little bit in character theological differences I whether it pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed in that we should Rejoice I don't care if you're Anglican or if you're Baptist if you're egalitarian or you're complimentary or you know what those words are and care I don't like I just I don't I don't in the grand scheme of things I I do care like lowkey level care.
But like a grand scheme of things I don't care if you're preaching Christ then go for for it just keep doing it don't let up I want to celebrate you preaching Christ not be so just judgy on the smallest of things like I even got the point like years ago I I would see Street Street Preachers and I even confronted Street Preachers back in the day how dare you do you not know how many people you're dissuading of following Christ.
Listen there are some bad Street Preachers out there Al some crazy Street Preachers out there who are wacko but there are some Street Preachers that listen that's not my style I I'm not I'm not going on the streets with the soap box it's not my game but some of them are genuine Brothers and Sisters in Christ who were just proclaiming the Gospel and sure we don't have a street preaching Ministry but I've got to the point where I'm like you know what.
Look in the mirror bro they've shared the Gospel with more people in the last five minutes than you have in the last five months so like just calm down and if they they're preaching Christ then like it's not my style but like I'm going to pray I want to pray for that dude I want to pray for them that the Gospel would actually sink into the hearts of those who don't believe we should Rejoice with people who are proclaiming the Gospel we should check our own s to.
See if we're actually sharing the Gospel or if we just think we can friend people into the kingdom and never use words which doesn't work totally fine with friending people but you got to share words at some point and I feel that within my own self we should rejoice when those who proclaim the Gospel and that means that we should be willing to acknowledge in the times where we're not doing that we need to if listen if we're not willing to get in the fight and share the Gospel with a friend with a neighbor with a coworker it's either.
Because we don't love this Gospel nearly enough or we love ourselves in our comfort way too much we should rejoice when the Gospel is preached and we should embody the part of the Roman Church that made Paul just joyful and he said out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel that should be us that that the latter do I love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel may we be a people that embodied that.
But out of love for the message in Christ and of love for those who do not have ears to hear and a love for our Brothers and Sisters in Christ who will be emboldened to share the Gospel if we do it we should out of love preach Christ and then rejoice when those and rejoice in those who do let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us love your message so deeply that we would repent of the own sin our lives that keeps us from being Messengers and Heralds that bring you glory I pray that you would use us in spite of our sin in spite of my own folies.
God I pray that you would help us celebrate at the proclamation of your wonderful Gospel and the Eternal change that can happen because of it I pray for brothers and sisters that that may Proclaim Christ for selfish motives that you would lead them and and me into regular repentance upholding you as more glorious than our ourselves so that out of love we would stand on the Gospel and Proclaim it regularly to your glory and not our own in Jesus name amen man's going to come up and we're just going to close out in worship and singing Take a couple minutes to reflect we don't just like to hear the word.
But we like to be doers of the word but in doing the word and practicing this we must stare Within and see the sin that's within us must be repented of but that's not even possible if we don't actually believe the Gospel in the first place so first you got to love Christ and you got to love the good news of the Gospel you got to admit your own need for a savior and see that God loves us so much that he did come to rescue us and to put all of our chips on that and to make all of our Hope on that and from that belief we get to.
Look at the sin within us repent of it and then be those who proclaim the Gospel and rejoice in those who do.
The Gospel Through Suffering (Philippians 1:12-14)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Treasured Possession, Kingdom of Priests, & a Holy Nation (Exodus 19:1-6)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Exodus chapter 19 verses one through six as we continue to Journey Through The Book of Exodus so a few weeks ago I was on my phone I saw a video uh with a kind of a clickbaity type click baity type title pop across the screen and I was like I have got to watch this and the title of video was some form of uh this is why you need subtitles to watch movies and television nowadays and I went what I thought it was just me I thought my children just blowing on my eardrums and I can't hear anymore.
That it's not a unique problem to me that people needs subtitles so I was like yes I will give you 10 minutes of my time I'd love to know why I need subtitles and I'm not going to get into all the nerdy details because there's multiple reasons but I'll give you a couple one of them is because back in the day there used to be One mic above each scene so they have a mic above that scene and those actors were trained uh to very be to be articulate to project their voice at that mic.
So that all these words could be caught and then nowadays because there's mics everywhere they can put them on their person they can put them in all parts of the scene that actors have gotten lays here and they've started to slur and Mumble their words together which for someone like me who if you've ever been an informal conversation with me who slurred in my words it's like oh I'm not alone even the pros do it uh but then I kept watching and I thought that there was uh uh something that I found to be very helpful is that they shoot movies and television primarily.
For a surround sound experience okay so like that and they shoot it for in the theaters to have all the speakers from front to back and all around and at home if you have like an expensive Sonos system that's what it's made for and what they do is they shoot up for that type of quality and then they start to reduce it down to the lowest kind of common uh listening experience and one of the more popular listening experiences is what I do I have a flat screen TV that is thin and has one tiny speaker on the back and that shoots sound back at the wall.
Then comes back to me and by the time that I'm listening like there's moments where I'm watching this a show or a movie and I'm like I know that this is important I can tell by the setup that this is a very important scene but I can't hear in the word so I have to rewind put subtitles on and be ah there it is to catch some of the most important pivotal parts of the story you need the full surround sound experience and that is a little bit of where we're at in Exodus.
Today that is our passage we're going to look at what is one of the most pivotal an important and foundational passages in the Old Testament this passage clearly outlines who the people of God are supposed to be who God's people are supposed to be in order to hear it clearly there's these major descriptions that are given for the people of God and each of those is like a different speaker the front the back and the sides you need all of them to help hear who we are supposed to be.
Now as the Church so we're going to walk through this together and we pray for us and then we will see what God has to say to us Heaven heavenly father I pray that you would help us be present this morning I pray that you would help us listen that we receive your word with glad and generous hearts that we would be willing to be molded and shaped into your image whether that's through correction whether that causes to repentance whether that causes cause us to just simply delighting in you I pray that you would help that happen this morning and you'd work in our hearts we ask this in.
Jesus name amen okay we're gonna start from verse one says on the third New Moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that day they came into the Wilderness of Sinai so most of us aren't well versed in Jewish calendars when it says on the third new moon this is about seven weeks okay and a lot has happened in the last seven weeks when they left Egypt we've seen the the Great Red Sea Crossing and everything that went into that with.
God uh destroying the enemies of Israel and saving his people we've watched as they've been in the wilderness the highs and the lows we've seen them suffering with starving and thirsting we've seen God provide through Manna through Quail through water from the rock they have fought a war with the amalekites and then last week we saw Jethro Moses father-in-law visit there's a lot that's happened in seven weeks but now finally we're at a big shift in Exodus they are out there they have arrived they're arriving at Mount Sinai Mount Sinai is where Moses and the people are going to receive the Ten Commandments it's where they're going to receive the law.
So in verse 2 when it says they set out from rephidem and came to the Wilderness of Sinai then can't end the Wilderness there Israel and Camp before the mountain the mountain being Mount Sinai while Moses went up to God so they get to the mountain the people of God and Camp below it Moses goes up to meet with God and this is what happens the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore You On Eagle's Wings and brought you to myself.
So Moses the prophet is going to tell the people this y'all remember what I did to the Egyptians right the very people that enslaved you for centuries who brutalized you you remember what I did to them and what I did for you because you were helpless in your state you were slaves you had no hope of saving and redeeming and freeing yourselves but he used the language of I bore you on the Eagles wings just you were helpless and hopeless and I swooped in like an eagle and picked you up and carried you to myself this is a picturesque of uh Return of the King uh the final book final movie of.
Lord of the Rings when Sam and Frodo have completed their Journey the ring has been destroyed now Mordor is going up in flames and there's lava all around them and they are exhausted and they're they they're starving and they've got nothing left in them they're completely hopeless about to die and then all of a sudden Eagles come in and scoop them up and carry them to safety that's us that's the Israelites that's our story hopeless and helpless on our own.
God in his Rich mercy and his love for us redeeming us scooping us up and it says Like an Eagle he bore us on his wings to himself it is this save us away from destruction he brings us to himself that we might live with him and Delight in him that's what he's trying to help the people of God see that the God who saved you is now about to teach you what it means to be my people so what he's telling Moses and what the people of.
God need to hear out the gate is Grace I saved you because of my great love because of my power over the Egyptians I redeemed you and now you're going to learn as my people what it means to be the people of God in these next two verses are foundational for them so verse 5 it says now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant let me pause there for a moment he says since I'm the God that is.
For you that's redeemed you I want you to listen to what I have to say my words that's going to be the law that he's getting ready to deliver obey my voice but he says keep my Covenant now amongst Bible nerds which is a tribe that I've got a foot in they really love to debate this word covenant what does he mean because there's two possible options for what he means by Covenant so the first option is the Covenant that God made with Abraham in the Book of Genesis this will be the the abrahamic Covenant and this is the Covenant where.
God chooses Abraham there's nothing special about Abraham but God chooses Abraham and says I'm going to make a great nation out of you your descendants are going to be the means by which I bless the Nations so you'll see the different commentaries that go this is the abrahamic Covenant you look at the language and how it Compares some of the Covenant language that was earlier in Exodus it goes back to Abraham of Genesis and it's like oh this is a compelling arguments.
But on the other side they're like no no this is the Covenant with Moses What's called the Mosaic Covenant that's the Covenant that we're entering into right now that we're seeing in verse 19 20 and following this is the Covenant of Moses the law where the language that flows out of this is obeying the Lord and you listen to both of their arguments oh that's that's compelling oh that's compelling but as I've looked at the text this week what's become clear is that this passage is actually a bridge between those two Covenants that it's it's one plan the whole time and two promises two uh covenants that.
God has made with his people and this really brings them together you have the one of God's grace that Abraham chose and trusted God in faith and you have the outworking of that and the Mosaic Covenant which is obedience it's trusting God at his word that it is good and following him but this kind of holds both of those together with faith and following that's what's happening faith and following are bound up in when it says keep my Covenant so verse 5.
Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be here it is here's the big descriptions okay the big surround sound descriptions of who we're called to be as the people of God you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the Earth is mine verse six and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests second description and a holy nation and that's the third these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel treasure possession Kingdom of priest holy nation this is what it means to be the people of.
God now we're going to spend most of our time in that before we get there I want to help tie this whole story together for us because What's Happening Here is profound it's beautiful so if you go back to the Covenant with Abraham and specifically when God is reinforcing it when he calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac they're on the mountain and then he's about to sacrifice his son but then God intervenes and says no I've seen your faith Abraham and that what follows that is the reinforcing of this Covenant in Genesis 22 verses 17 and 18 it says I will surely this is.
God speaking I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your Offspring as the stars of the heaven as the sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall hear this all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice okay as the promise that he made with Abraham that I'm going to bless you with a great nation and through your people I will bless the Nations.
And then you get to our passage today which is hundreds of years later when one of Abraham's descendants Moses is on the mount and God tells them now therefore if you indeed obey my voice same language and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasure possession amongst all peoples for all the Earth is mine you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation now we're going to get more into that and that language of what's happening there.
But what the people of God are called to be is the kingdom of priest to the surrounding Nations and this gets reinforced by the book of Isaiah in chapter 49 when it says God's speaking he says is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel I will make you as a light for the Nations that my salvation May reach to the end of the Earth and what you.
See is you're pulling this thread from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament is that God chose a people that they might be a holy nation a kingdom of priests a light to the surrounding Nations and then he brings them into his Promised Land into his presence and if you just look at the geography of where he chose that Israel geographically is this land bridge between two continents between all these different surrounding Nations all these different surrounding Nations that did not know.
God that did not love God they did not follow him they did abominable practices like sacrificing their children to foreign idols they don't know God but this people you're going to know me you're going to be like me and you're going to be a light to these surrounding Nations but when you read the rest of the Old Testament you see a rejection of that calling they don't want to be a treasure possession they don't want to be a kingdom of priest they don't want to be a holy nation they don't want.
God and they reject them over and over and over again they love the gods of the other nations they fall in love with their practices all the way to sacrificing their own children to foreign gods they failed they were not the light to the Nations but that promise Still Remains the promise that Abraham Still Remains the promise to Moses through Moses to his people still remains and God makes good on his promises despite the failure of his people and in steps.
Jesus and Jesus steps in and he becomes the light to the Nations that he fulfills the Mosaic Covenant obeying the law perfectly and that when he goes to the cross and dies for the sins of the world and when he rises out of the Tomb he is making a way for the light Nations to expand and for all the nations to be brought in and then when you get to after his resurrection before he ascends you get to the Great Commission which happens on a mountain you.
See a mountain thing there too from Abraham to Moses to now Jesus commissioning his Church and what does he say go therefore and Make Disciples of what All Nations you see it of all Nations This Promise is being pulled through at its coming true guys that this is biblical theology this is it right here like this is the sweet reward of reading the Scriptures and seeing these it's not a bunch of disconnected stories that's not all linked together it's one grand story from Genesis to Revelation the whole way through.
And then when you keep pulling that thread you get towards the end of the Bible and you get to second Peter it's coming alive you guys second Peter chapter two it's going to bring us home this is God through inspiring Peter speaking to this new these new testament churches here it is but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession sound familiar see same language of Exodus the same calling that the people of.
God are about to receive in Exodus that continues for thousands of years it doesn't change if you belong to God this is it that you're a royal priest to the kingdom of priests that you are a people for his own possession God's treasured possession that you are a holy nation same language but then you get the purpose right for what God's people and why they're called to be this and it goes on that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light that you are these things as my people.
So that not only you would know God but that you would Proclaim God to the world who needs him that you be a light to the Nations as God's people bearing the Light of Christ that you proclaim the excellencies the glory the goodness the Gospel of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light you were once enslaved to sin but now you've been made free as my people to Proclaim the Gospel that's why he continues in First Peter he says in.
Verse 11 beloved I urge you as sojourners and as Exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which waged war against your soul keep your conduct among the Gentiles that's Outsiders who don't believe that's the language there the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil must speak speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation that how you assemble as the people of God and what you look like how you walk in this faith and the message that you have that they might.
See it and they might want to know Christ they might want to follow him so that when the day of visitation happens when judgment happens they might stand joyfully that's what the people of God have been for thousands of years that means that in this Exodus passage we really need to be very familiar with this language of what it means to be when he says now therefore if you want to obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession.
When he goes on to say my kingdom of priests he goes on to say a holy nation we need to be very familiar with those that language and we need each of those descriptions so we can have this surround sound experience of hearing who God is calling us to be as the Church so we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at those descriptions and why they matter so let's look at that first one my treasured possession or as.
First Peter says a people for his own possession okay so you shall be my treasure possession among the peoples and a people for his own possession in First Peter God looks at us and says you are my treasured possession out of everything and everyone that's ever been made God is the creator of the universe that means that from the farthest Galaxy and all of its stars to the very atoms beneath our feet that he looks at his people and says you are my most treasured possession how wonderful is that how beautiful is that.
God loves us that much that he calls us his treasured possession the Israelites they so needed to hear that they so needed to hear that for years for centuries they were pharaohs abused possession and God says listen you are my treasured possession and the same thing is true of the two of us with Christ that in Christ were God's treasured possession and we need to believe that because the enemy would love to would love to lie to us and like let us believe.
So many other things that God doesn't love us that God doesn't care that you don't matter I'm gonna walk as one of the things I do is I do pastoral Counseling in our Church not walk with people that had this internal Narrative of just I don't matter no one loves me God doesn't love me God doesn't care I'm worthless I'm terrible I should just end it I mean the the thought patterns that people have that just this reinforcing of the exact opposite of the language of.
God that you're a treasure possession we walk in this negative feedback loop of just it just continues and it continues and it continues and God in the middle of all of it is just trying to break through and says don't you see you're my treasured possession that you belong to me that I love you that I love you so much that I sent my son to die for you I I sent him to give you new life that what's while this moment in life might be filled with suffering it is light and momentary compared to the surpassing worth of the glory and the weight of Glory that awaits us at this moment in life it.
Feels long but it's like a vapor it's here and then it's gone when you compare that to the vast expanse of Eternity that God has secured for us in Christ and all the joy and endless peace and his presence that awaits us you don't realize how treasured you are Christian is what God is trying to help us see you're unbelievably treasured you're far more loved and cheers than you ever possibly imagine or dream I love the language that continues in Exodus of how.
God views his people because here he says treasured possession but when you flip to the next chapter in The Ten Commandments which we're going to spend more time in and the second commandment he says you shall not bow down to them or serve them talk about Idols for I the Lord You Are God and they jealous God our God is jealous for us his tragic possession how great is that the God of the universe cares that much about you like if I.
If my with one of my children came to me and said father well Daddy they don't use the language Daddy I've been playing with some kids down the street and that family is awesome dad they have all kinds of toys like their parents make a lot more money than you do they've got all the things they their dad drives a full-size truck that's like a tank it ain't like your Prius or your little pickup truck they drive the real deal they provide all the things and you know what we've decided I've decided that I'm I'm going to move in with them and I'm going to call them dad and I just think that family's better.
If I heard that you know what I feel jealous Wrath I'm jealous for my children they're my treasured possession I've looked at them and say you're not going to anywhere you were riding in the back of that Prius until it dies you are a part of this family you are mine I love you more than you could ever possibly imagine you ain't going nowhere because you're my treasure possession that's how God feels about us and then some feel that believe that Christian you're more valued than you could ever possibly understand your life was literally bought with the blood of.
God you are as treasured possession you need to hear that because what happens is is that we we when we endure suffering when we endure suffering we question them and we question the goodness of God if God's really good it really does value me as a treasured possession then why is life so hard why do I feel so sad or why do I feel so alone or what fill in the blank that's a longer discussion that sometimes you're not going to get the most satisfying answers answers to.
But you're not alone the Israelites felt that I mean they wandered in the wilderness through all types of Trials and they questioned the goodness of God and God's not trying to help them see and help us see you don't understand how treasured you are that our minds are so focused on this moment and the and the sufferings that feel great but pale in comparison to what await us we are absolutely treasured and loved by God and you need to believe that.
And if you believe them if you walk in them these next two descriptions are going to make a lot more sense when he says Kingdom of priests and holy nation okay now these are similar similar language here Kingdom of priests and holy nation all right but there's there's some differences here that is worth separating out to see the Nuance of the language that's being used we're going to look at the Kingdom of priests first so priests are a specific group of people.
Okay they're distinct from the rest of the people that we're going to see this later on in Exodus when God establishes this literal the priesthood of God and you're going to see these laws that show how they were different and distinct that they uh they had to follow all types of of different rituals and uh to to be holy to be Pious they had to even dress differently their dress was I mean later on in the New Testament that it gets used as a place of arrogance.
But the original design of of the dress and the difference was you all are distinct you distinct because you're called to a higher calling they were called to uh to maintain Holiness and to consecrate themselves make themselves holy for different rituals and the reason why is because the priesthood had special access to God the priesthood had unique access that the rest of the people did not that when the temple gets built there are different parts of the temple that the rest of the people cannot enter and and there's only the priest could enter into that.
Because they devoted themselves to God and to this pursuit of holiness and what we see coming out of that is not only for the end itself knowing God it was so that with their special access they might teach the people they might teach the law that they might be in charge of corporate worship helping people bring their sacrifices to God that they had special access to God to know him so that the people could know him that's what it means to be a kingdom of priest is that we as Christians have special access to.
God that we're called the priesthood of all believers now because we no longer need a preach between us and God that we have Jesus our great high priest who gives us access to God the father that we can approach him in prayer and in worship at any moment and with that special access it's not just for our good it's for the good of others that we might know God and the Overflow of knowing God and loving him might be poured out.
For the good of others that's why in First Peter he says keep your conduct amongst the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil against you they may see their good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us on the day of visitation so that the people can hear the excellencies of him who cauldron of Darkness into Marvelous Light a kingdom of priests Proclaim who God is that the invitation to God ultimately is flowing through them as teachers of the law and as those who facilitate worship and in Christ we have that message of who.
Jesus is and we get to as a kingdom of priests Proclaim who he is to the Nations who need him that the Church we say this every week I don't know if you've heard this the Church is plan a not plan B There It Is say that every week in our closing and I just missed it did the Church's plan a there is no plan B it's the means by which God proclaims his Gospel to the world because we are the kingdom of priests who give the invitation the Gospel to those who need him.
So second third is holy nation he says in verse 6 of chapter 19 you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation first Peter he says a royal priesthood and a holy nation now the word holiness it's a bad rap in our culture okay I caught a glimpse of the Grammy's performance that was talking about unholiness and I was a good night this is crazy also you misunderstand Holiness completely I've misunderstood Holiness completely when I was a lost teenager and rebellious like I got around some people that were very self-righteous and judgmental and you know I used to not be Baptist and they were and I thought Baptists were the worst.
Because what I equated I equated Holiness with holier than thou Holiness with self-righteousness and I think largely when you use the term Holiness that's what people think they think of self-righteousness no you think you're better than me that's not what Holiness is at all Holiness quite simply as seeking to be like our maker it's seeking to be just like him when he says Holiness that you've been set apart to be like your God that's the pursuit of Holiness is this trying to be like.
God and in any other listen any other phase of Life any other example like you no one looks at a at a boy that you know who loves his dad and he looks up to his dad and he wants to dress like his dad and look like his dad and talk like his dad no one looks at that and says oh you're just trying to be better than me you're just gonna be like your dad no one looks at a little girl who wants to be just like her mom or or a student that wants to be just like their teacher or a player that wants to be like their coach and says anything negative.
About that we all look at that and say that's awesome that's great but when it comes to God I said oh you you think you're better than me you must be self-righteous and it's like no no I Holiness is not I'm better than you as Jesus is better and I just want to be like him because he is better and what he has to offer is better and I trust him at his word that the God who saved me who redeemed me and set me apart and gave me these Commandments that show me what it means to live in life with.
God that these things are actually truly better that I'm going to trust what the Scriptures teach on this over what my gut says my trust with the Scriptures teach on this of what the world says because what Jesus offers is better and I want to be like my God and the people of God had a unique opportunity to be a holy nation amongst all types of surrounding Nations that did not know God and we as Christians get to be a holy nation not.
Because we're great because he is and his light gets to shine through us to people that desperately need to know God that's what it means to be a holy nation so with these three different phrases the Israelites we're hearing a picture this surround sound every part of it this is what it means to be the people of God that you are a treasured possession no longer the abuse possession of Pharaoh but you are treasured possession that you're no longer a kingdom of slaves.
But you're a kingdom of priests that you're no longer subject to the Egyptian Rule and reign as that Nation you are a holy nation that belongs to The Great I Am and with each of those descriptions you have an essential pick they're an essential part of a grander picture of what it means to be the people of God and you need all three I think all three descriptions to see your to try to embody what it means to be the Church all three of those matter.
So chat now this week uh we're talking through this and and we put together this Venn diagram um one because Venn diagrams are awesome they just are uh but it's just a helpful tool to be able to actually see kind of what happens if you don't have all three of them now if you're the kind of per if you're cynical you can try to poke holes in this all right that's nice or you can just kind of every illustration can break down eventually.
But we're going to look at this now and you have time and in your groups this week and group content actually work through this so treasured possession royal priesthood Kingdom of priests and a holy nation okay that's the three descriptions now here's what happens if you just have one of these individually go to the next slide please so if you just believe that you're a treasured possession and you post up and that that that's what you believe the Church is supposed to be that ultimately you just believe that.
Well just God is good and he is that's one part of it God is good but what can happen is is if you just believe that God is good and you're not concerned with being a royal priesthood an invitation to those who don't believe you're not concerned with holiness then ultimately what happens is you just think God okay is all of whatever we want to believe whatever we want to live the God's just gracious and he's good and you get this nominal Christianity this this Christianity that's a name only.
But as it doesn't actually ever take sin seriously doesn't reckon with what the our sin cost us that doesn't see a need to go therefore Make Disciples of all Nations and that can go all in all kinds of directions and go towards even universalism they're just like God just gonna be good to us it's all going to work out in the end and that's a misunderstanding of the Gospel if you just have this okay not we're not there yet go back the big reveal is coming you guys all right.
So if we just have Kingdom a priest royal priesthood then we have is just do good okay it's just you're doing a bunch of good you're just concerned with being uh you know an invitation and and missional and if you're just concerned with doing good but you actually don't see the part of the Gospel where God has Grace towards us if you don't see the calling to really this personal Holiness to be like Christ then what can happen is you really just have a bunch of good works that you reduce our faith down to really just kind of like a social Gospel of just doing good and doing good and doing good and ultimately you.
Don't have the essential parts of the Gospel that tell us that God is graceful towards us and his Mercy towards us that he calls us to be different for a reason and if you just have holy nation you understand what it means to be a Christian is to be a holy people but you don't have these other two you don't see the grace of our God you don't see but he's called to make us missional people that bear the Gospel then what you have ultimately is a holy huddle that's where you get the self-righteousness.
For people that are just like oh we're so great we're so concerned with being good and being good and being good but that's not the Gospel now what if you have two of these next slide please all right so if you have two of these if you see yeah we're a treasure possession we believe that God is and his grace and his Mercy and we believe that yes we're called to go and do and and serve the poor and and do good.
But you're not concerned with Holiness in any form and pursuing God and being like him that what you ultimately have is compromise you won't see that oh like sin is real and we should put it to death goodness one of when I became a Christian one of the most popular phrases at the time he's like 15 years ago I think it still lingers a little bit is we got to be relevant we got to be relevant I heard that over and over and over again and the people that bang that drama like the problem with the reason the Church is dying in America is we're just we're not relevant enough like they they they hit.
That drum over and over again to the point of Ad nauseam and a lot of those people aren't even following Jesus Anymore because they may compromise after compromise after compromise and listen what I don't know if you know this I'm going to totally break your brain if you don't know this Christians aren't cool to the world we're not we're weird we are Guided by a book that's thousands of years old we're not relevant at all in the sense of what people might think.
Today and that's okay you get to be distinct and different for a reason you don't have to look like or be like the rest of the world that's not how you make disciples of all Nations you're missing it if you don't have no we're actually called to look differently and if you just have a royal priesthood the invitation and a holy nation and it's just about doing good and being good that what you have is moralism are due to gain God I do to to be seen as good before.
God that's not the Gospel gospels that we were dead in our sin and Brokenness in our mess and is by his grace he Scoops us up and redeems us and sets us apart to be the people of God you just have moralism that's not the Gospel if you just have that you're a treasured possession that God is good and that you're a holy nation that you're called to be like him but you don't ever see the need to be a royal priesthood who proclaims the excellencies of him who calls us out of Darkness into moral of his life.
Then you just have a retreat you I mean you you and I'll be honest if we're going to air anywhere as our Church it's going to be in that category right there that we we have we love theology we talk about God's grace and his mercy and the richness of his kindness and that we see a need in our groups if you've been with our groups long enough we love each other we don't want each other to live and sin so we hold each other accountable and correct one other and pulling us to Christ.
But the one thing we might be lacking is evangelism and being the people that take the invitation to the world you need all three and if you have all three of them that that sinner sweet spot if you have all three of them you're never going to see this coming we get to be a Gospel-centered community on Mission boom nailed it that's it but it's true it's true we talk about that all the time that we believe the Gospel that God's grace and his Mercy claims it's redeemed is.
Because of what he did on the cross in the empty tomb and it sets us apart to be a holy nation and a people that know him that love him so that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of Darkness into Marvel's light so that the world might taste and see that the Lord is good and take refuge in him that's the calling of what it means to be a Christian and that's the calling what it means to be the Church of.
Jesus Christ as the people of God were called to be thousands of years ago in Israel and that's what we're called to be now and that calling is beautiful and it is good and it is wonderful and we get to press into that together as a Church the band's going to come up and we're just going to worship and sing one last song as the Church that's seeking to be these three descriptions so let me very clearly this morning need to hear that.
God loves you that he sees you as a treasured possession that he does want you that he does desire you that he does want you to live in relationship with him and some of you may not know our God and the invitation is there that you don't have to clean yourself up you don't have to be good to gain him that you get to trust in the finished work of Jesus that he died for our sins and that he rose to give us new life in him and you get to experience what it means to be a treasured possession some of you need to feel the correction that we are called to be a holy.
Nation we are called to be different for a reason that distinctness and that separateness does not make us better but it does help us enjoy God and be a newer and beautiful better ways and then if we do that we do get to be a kingdom of priest and you got friends and neighbors and co-workers that lead Christ they don't know him that's our surrounding Nations I don't know him and if you lean into and press into who God calls us to be that maybe just might they might get to know him by the way that you live and the Gospel that you Proclaim.
So let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us really own what it means to be the people of God that you would help us see what it means to be a treasure possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation you would see this as unbelievably beautiful and good and if there's anyone here that does not even begin to know where to start I don't know what it means to be your treasured possession I pray that right.
Now they would see that the work that you did for them 2 000 years ago and the offering that is there for them right now that they would take it and if the rest of us who are sinners in desperate need of a savior for daily growth and wisdom and strength and insight as he mold us and conform us into your image may you make us be the holy people that bear the Gospel to a world that needs in Jesus name amen.
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. It's the last time you're going to see that bumper, you guys. This is the last sermon in the Matthew series.
We're at the end, the final verses of the Gospel of Matthew. We have been in this book for 58 weeks over the last year and a half. Now, I know some of you were like, I want 80 weeks. No. No. No, most of you guys are tired.
The reason why we teach through books of the Bible is the Bible has a ton of depth. When you search the Scriptures, you can read a lot and you will miss a lot. And you can sit in a passage and go deeper and deeper. And the well goes deeper and deeper. And we like to sit in passages of the Bible, slowly work through books. We think it is good for our souls to patiently journey through a Gospel like this.
So thank you for being patient. Thank you for riding the journey with us. We will be starting the book of Proverbs next week. Over the next few months, we'll be walking through the Proverbs. But today is the final sermon for the Gospel of Matthew.
These are the final words of Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew. He's getting ready to ascend into heaven. These final words have importance. What He's about to say is heightened because it is the last few words that He's going to say. If someone is on their deathbed, some of the things they have to say towards the end, it heightens the importance. It elevates the importance of what they're going to say.
When the coach goes into halftime on the title game and he has his team, the speech that he gives, the final words before they go out to play one last time together, it matters. It heightens how important the message of what He's about to say. And the church has called these final few words the Great Commission. For hundreds of years, we refer to this as the Great Commission. What I want us to see this morning is two things. I want us to see why.
By looking at the authority that is in Christ as He's commissioning out the church. And then I want us to sit in the details of the Great Commission and be molded and shaped by this. So let me pray for us. And then we will jump into this final passage in Matthew. Lord, we love You. We thank You for Your Word.
We thank You that we get to open it and read it. That we get to sing songs about it. That we get to read Scripture. And that we get to sit under the authority of Your Word and be molded and shaped into Your image. Because Your Word is powerful. It is like a sword that pierces the heart.
It is like a hammer that breaks the rocks to pieces. God, I pray that right now that You would instruct us. You would teach us. That You would train us. And You would send us out as a church that is obedient to Your Great Commission. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Alright, let me read through it and then we'll walk through it. Verse 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
Now here comes the commissioning. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Alright, so. Like I said, we're going to look at this in two parts. Really the set up to the Great Commission itself.
And then we're going to walk through the Great Commission piece by piece. Alright, so. Those first two verses. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped, but some doubted. Alright, so let's give some context for where we are.
Just a few days before this, the disciples abandoned Jesus. When He was arrested, they fled. And Peter, who stuck around, well, he denied Jesus three times. So, their head's spinning a little bit. Then all of a sudden, on Sunday morning, Mary bursts into the room and says, He's risen!
He's alive! And we've got to go to Galilee, because He's going to be just there. Now, from Jerusalem to Galilee is a few days' journey. Alright? And on that walk back to Galilee, I can assume that a lot of doubts are starting to creep in. There's some shame and some guilt, because they abandoned Jesus.
What is He going to say to them? Right? Maybe some doubts on it. Is He really risen? Is He really alive? Their faith is being questioned.
Their doubts are arising. And they finally get to Galilee. Verse 18, Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus answers their doubt by displaying His power. His fully resurrected, glorified body. And He tells them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
So I want us to look at this from two different ways. The first part that I want us to see what is bound up in this statement is that this is the ultimate flex of His power on Satan. This shows dominance over the powers of evil. Because of what happened at the cross and the empty tomb, He is flexing His power. If you go back to Matthew 4, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, there was a final temptation that He gave. And He said in verse 8, Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And He said to them, All these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship Me. He understood what Jesus was doing in part. He understood His arrival meant. And He's trying to keep the mission from happening. He says, If you will just bow down and worship Me now, I'll give you some of My power. You want some kingdoms here on earth?
I'll give it to you. And Jesus says, No. He's obedient to the will of the Father because He wants to save sinners like you and me. But it's not just that. He didn't just come for the earth. Look what He says.
He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. He is the sovereign king and ruler over all existence. From the heavens, that is this galaxy, in all galaxies, that is the invisible heaven where God rules and reigns from all the way down to earth and in the earth and everything on the earth and under the earth. Everything is under the authority of Jesus. He has won the war against sin and death. He has disarmed the rulers and authorities.
I think even the geography is a flex on Satan. I mean, think about it. Satan takes Him to a very high mountain to show Him the kingdoms. And Jesus goes to a very high mountain and says, No, no, no. I didn't just come for the earth. I came for everything.
I'm the king over all of it. Now, the text doesn't say this. Alright? And this may have never happened. But I like to imagine a little bit that Jesus is almost just kind of winking at Satan and the rulers of evil.
I think he's just saying, Oh, the same setting? Alright? All of this is mine. This is important for you to know as a Christian. Because the reality is is that as you are sent out, you will face forces of evil. As you are obedient to the will of God in your life, you will face evil.
You will face demonic activity. We believe this. And the reality is is you don't have to be scared. You don't have to be fearful. You get to remember who is in control over all things. It is Christ.
And that power over all things is a comfort when we face evil. The second thing that's being demonstrated here is he's answering the doubt of the disciples. Jesus and his supremacy and his rule and his reign over all things is the authority for mission. It's the authority for how we are sent out. For how we obey his marching orders. I finally, last year, it was my bucket list to watch Band of Brothers.
I've been wanting to watch it for a very long time. And I finally got to watch it. It's an HBO series that follows the Easy Company. It's a famous company from a battalion paratroopers in World War II. And it follows them from when they're training and getting ready for D-Day in France. And they drop over France all the way to the end of the war.
I finally got to watch it. And just seeing them get ready for this jump in a D-Day. I mean, there had to have been a lot of nerves. A lot of nervousness. Because this was before the days of halo jumps. So halo jumps is how everyone jumps now in the military.
It's a high altitude, low opening jump. It's when you jump out of a plane, you don't pull your chute to the very last second and then you pull your chute. I mean, if you want to get shot out of the sky, if you want to be detected, that's how you do it. They didn't have that in World War II. So, as they're flying into D-Day, into the darkness of the night, there are bullets flying, shooting planes down. They're having to jump out as bullets are flying by.
And they jump out immediately and their chutes are opened. And they're slowly descending into the darkness as bullets are flying by. Some of them are getting shot out of the air. And then below, the German army is waiting for them. Some of them are being arrested, some of them are being shot on sight. And you look at that and the bravery it took and it's like, why?
What motivated them to be so courageous and to do this? And it's because it was the calling. It was World War II. They had to defeat the Nazis, the axis of evil, all of it. They had to do this. It was the only way.
And I think about this as Christians. How much more boldly do we get to go into the darkness? Because the reality is is that the paratroopers are jumping into enemy territory that is controlled by the German army. That's not us. That ain't us. Wherever we are called to go, Jesus is sovereign over every aspect of where we go.
He is the one who is in control. As bullets are flying, as opposition, as we're facing it, He is the one who is in control. There's a 19th century Dutch prime minister. He's the father of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper. I love what he says. He says, There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine.
I love that. Every single place you could go to declare the Gospel, whether it's the most hostile places to the Gospel in the world, or it's the most hostile work environment that does not love Jesus. Jesus says, Mine. He is sovereign over all of it. And that is so incredibly important for us to remember. It's incredibly important for us to remember that the end is written.
Flip to the end of Revelation. Jesus wins. And we get to celebrate with Him for all of eternity. Jesus and His authority. That is the God who sends us out. You have to remember that the disciples needed to hear that because He's about to give this commission and it's going to say, Go therefore.
That therefore is linked to the authority of Christ, the God who's sovereign over all things. So that is the God who sends you. That is the setup of the Great Commission. Then He gets into the commissioning itself. Verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now, over the last decade plus, I've spent a lot of time on this passage. In college, I had a thesis. My college thesis was on this passage.
In seminary, I studied the Gospel of Matthew in Greek syntax. I've spent a lot of time in this passage and I want to make something very clear. There's one main verb, one main command, one main instruction in this passage and it is make disciples. That's it. That's the main command. Make.
It says go therefore. Make disciples. You've got to see that. And then, there's some participles in the Greek. There's some further explaining. Think of it as make disciples as the hub and there's some spokes that come out of it.
And you've got go, you've got baptizing, and you've got teaching. Those three aspects help explain the command to make disciples. And that's where we spend the majority of our time today. Is walking through what it means to make disciples by looking at go, baptizing, teaching. So first, let's look at that first part.
Go. Now, some of you may have heard that you can look at this and translate this as you go. That it means as you go, make disciples. And I just want to say, no. Absolutely not. That was my college thesis.
I got really excited about it. I just started studying Greek and I was like, oh, look at this. It means as you go. And I got some claps, I got some pats on my back, and I said, good Job. And then, I got to seminary and it took five minutes for my Greek professor to absolutely just dismantle it. There's a reason why every translation says, go.
Go. That's why the disciples went. So the force is, I know there's part of us that wants to water this down and say, well, it's just kind of, as you're going in life, you can kind of make disciples. No. It is go, therefore, make disciples. Now, you put this against some of the other commissionings in the New Testament.
Look at the book of Acts. And there is the idea that some are called to go to Jerusalem, some are called to go to Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. That's why we use the language. Go across the street and make disciples with your neighbors. Or go across the world. But I actually want to give a caveat to that statement.
I want to say, go into the workplace. Go across the street and make disciples. And be involved in going across the world. Do all of it. Be involved in all of it. John Piper has a quote.
He says, go, send, or disobey. Real simple. He says, go, I would actually mean that go, slash, send, or disobey. That's it. That's the calling. And that is why we want you to be everyday missionaries where you are.
So that you'll go and make disciples. Then some of you are going to receive the call and you need to go further. It is the reason why we got excited. We rallied around the Rockies this last fall. Chris and Daniel Rockies, we sent them to Honduras. They sold everything.
And they left to make disciples in Honduras. It is the reason why a few years ago a team of us went to Egypt and we did some training and equipping with some churches and ministries in Egypt. Because we want to be a part of sending and making disciples across the earth. We want to see every, the word is all nations, every ethnos, which is every people group. Every tribe, every tongue is what's built into that. We want to do it all.
It's the reason why there's three of our members that are going to Lebanon in just a few weeks. We partnered with 1040 Hope. We actually give 1040 Hope office space here to be able to work out of here as they are raising money for church plants all across the Middle East. And three of them are going to Lebanon in just a few weeks. So we want to be a part of all of it.
We want to go and make disciples in our neighborhoods. We want to send. We want to do it all. And if we don't, we are being disobedient. We are not obeying the command to go. So we want to embody this as a church to do it all.
Go. Alright, next one. Baptizing. The next aspect is baptizing. Built into this is not just the literal act of baptizing, but it is conversion. That's what's being taught here.
Now as good Baptists, we believe, converting them to faith in Jesus and then baptizing them. But the force of what's built in here is converting them. And I want to be very explicit about that. It is converting them. A couple of years ago, something clicked for me and I found this so incredibly helpful for my soul. I was watching a movie that came out a few years ago.
It's called 1970. It's a World War I movie and it's incredible. It became one of my favorite movies. It's just, it's awesome. And it's artistically done. It's shot all in one take.
It's a good war movie. I loved it. I mean, it's just, if you haven't seen it, you're not bothered by war violence. It's incredible. And I got really excited about it. And I was like, man, this is obviously the best picture of the year.
This is definitely going to win best picture. And there was a lot of excitement because of how well it was done. And then all of a sudden there was some major criticisms that came. And the main criticisms that came were people were saying, well, you know what? This movie actually isn't doing anything. It's not trying to say anything.
It's just about, it's just a story. And guess what? It didn't win best picture that year. Because the main criticism that was against it was, is it wasn't actually, they wouldn't use this word, it wasn't preaching. And that's why you see every Oscar movie is just super sad or has some cause that arrives behind. They're preaching.
And it clicked for me. I listened to this late night comedian who was talking about culture wars. And he's like, politicians, they've got to stay out of the culture wars. He's like, because we're the ones that win them. He's like, let Hollywood take care of that. We are the ones who will win people over.
And it finally just clicked for me. Everyone is preaching. Everyone has an angle. Everyone has a message. Go on Facebook. Everyone wants you to join their political movement, to buy their product.
Everyone is preaching. And the reason that was so good for me to just finally, for it to sink in fully in my soul is because when I became a Christian, I was very wary of being the kind of Christian that, you know, a big critique from skeptics is, oh, Christians are always trying to convert you. They always have, they always have got an angle. They're always trying to convert you. And I was always sensitive to that. I was like, I don't want to seem like I'm just trying to convert you.
I'm done with that. Yes, I am trying to convert you. Absolutely. Unapologetically. I am trying to convert you. Everyone's preaching and I'm getting on this.
You know why? Because worldviews have consequences. Eternal consequences. I'm absolutely, unapologetically, I want to convert you to the worship of the one true God. I want you to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I want you to know the triune God.
John Piper also says that missions exist because worship doesn't. There are people that do not worship Christ. They don't know Him. They don't love Him. They don't know the perfection of beauty, the author of goodness, and love, and joy. They don't know the glory of Christ.
They are dead in sin. Absolutely, I'm trying to convert you. I want you to know the one true God. I don't want you to miss out on who this God is. There's an atheist comedian named Penn Jillette. We've mentioned this quote before.
It's just really helpful to hear his perspective. He's talking about how Christians try to convert him sometimes and how much he appreciates it because he's like, if you believe in heaven and hell, I mean, why aren't you trying to convert me? He says, how much do you have to hate someone not to proselytize? That's evangelize. How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? And it's just, to hear an atheist say that, I mean, it's refreshing and it's so convicting.
How much do you have to hate somebody? How much do you have to not love somebody to say, I don't want to make it weird? Like, I don't want to make our workplace weird. I don't want to make them uncomfortable. You know, faith is a personal matter. I don't, you know, I don't really want to push it too far.
If we love Christ and we trust His word and if you love other people, your heart will say, absolutely, I want you to know Christ and you will look for every opportunity that God presents for you to demonstrate the gospel, share the gospel and help them believe. Now listen, we fail. Alright? I look at this in my own selfishness, my own fears sometimes. I feel that. Alright?
Here's good news. Jesus' grace covers your lack of obedience to this great commission. He covers it. Our failures, our fears, it's been paid for at the cross. So know that.
Yes, you fail in this area. But His grace covers it. And then once you realize that, in repentance, see that Jesus is holding the door open and He's saying, get in. Join me in mission. You don't know what you're missing. There's so much joy found in partnering with our God to see sinners taste and see that the Lord is good.
There's a quote by a famous missionary, C.T. Stubb. He says, I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give. I do not suppose that there is one I have not experienced, but I can tell you that those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that saving of that one soul gave me. no hobby, nothing in this world compares to the joy of joining our God and mission to see people believe in Jesus. It's beautiful and it is good.
We get to join with our God and mission to seek and save the lost. There are times where my son wants to help around the house. We're doing yesterday and he's helping me and he's three and he's not the most helpful at times. He's just little and he doesn't have a lot of attention. But he loves it.
He gets really excited. He'll go grab his toy tool kit. He's got a little plastic camera and plastic screwdriver. Every now and then he's nearby and I'll actually give him something to do. Hey, can you hold this? And his face just lights up because he gets to help his dad out.
And I love that it's a picture that we get to partner with our father. Our God is inviting us into mission. Listen, hear this clearly. When someone is saved, by the blood of Jesus, that is God at work. It is not us. Right?
God is the one that brings about redemption. He's the one that brings dead people to life in Christ. It's his work. But we get to be a part of that. We're invited into that. How joyful it is that we get to partner with our God.
That he gets to use us to bring about his kingdom. There's a lot of joy filled in that and I don't want us to miss out on bringing people to Jesus. The third aspect. Is to teach them. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. If you want to make disciples, and hear this, if you want to make disciples that last, you need to teach them.
You need to help them know the Bible. You need to help them know God. That's why we say all the time, read your Bible. We're fighting against, there's a big swing on the pendulum to this, it's over simplicity just to help people to read their Bibles. Yes, it can be. But also, read your Bibles.
Like, absolutely know God through His Word. It will shape you and mold you into His image. Read your Bible. We absolutely want to know God by observing His teachings, by observing His commands, and this is why I love Matthew's Gospel. It's just, he's brilliant. Because what He does right here, is honestly, He's also tagging back a lot of Jesus' former teachings, a lot of His former commands.
Observe all that I've commanded. That goes back, I mean, just think about where we've been in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 4, He talked about making fishers of men. Come, I will make you fishers of men. That's the kind of kingdom that He calls us into. In Matthew 5-7, we get to see this kingdom of a higher ethical teaching, a higher ethical living, that ultimately we want to live out, but have no shot of fulfilling ourselves, which is why Christ came to fulfill it Himself.
In Matthew 8-10, we get to see how our Lord is a missionary, that He cares, that He heals people, that He mends the broken, and that He sends us out as missionaries to go and proclaim the good news of His kingdom, even in the midst of persecution. In Matthew 11-12, we get to see a kingdom where the King offers true less against the backdrop of horrible, bad religion. In Matthew 13-17, we get to see parable after parable, teaching after teaching, that has so much wisdom that for thousands of years the church has come together to study and mind for its wisdom. In Matthew 18-20, we get to see the church and how He calls us to care for one another, to hold one another accountable, and how to pursue good together.
In Matthew 21-25, we get to see all these teachings where He's in the final week, He's instructing us, He's teaching the disciples, He's giving some prophecy of what is to come, He's showing down with the religious leaders, again, showing us how bad religion is not what we're called to, and then in Matthew 26-28, the King goes to the cross, and He conquers death and the resurrection, and then He comes to this mountain in Galilee, and He says, observe all that I've taught you. All of it. And listen, the good news is, is we don't just have the Gospel of Matthew, we've got the whole Bible, and the whole Bible is filled with teaching, and filled with commands, and filled with so much goodness that we get to search and discover. So absolutely, teach others to know God.
Not just to read the Word, and to know facts. Not just to be hearers of the Word, but be doers also. We want to know the Scriptures. So He walks through these three, go, baptize, teaching. These are the three main aspects of what it looks like to make disciples. The whole universe is Christ.
And He calls us to make disciples. To go out and get them, to lead them to faith, and to teach them the message of Christ. Those are the marching orders. Out of all the marching orders, out of all the commands, in all of human history, there's none more important and none more profound. And it is given by our God. Now, it is also a command that, let's be honest, can be difficult.
And at times, can be scary. And it's so sure and guaranteed to bring us pain at times. From the foreign missionary on the mission field that faces intense persecution for sharing their faith, to the everyday missionary who is in her office when she's sharing the gospel and her co-workers are mocking her and making fun of her and her faith, it's hard. It invites pain and discomfort. When you obey this, it absolutely invites hardship. And that's why I love how Jesus ends all of it.
He says, And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Our King promises. Hear this. He promises to be with us all the way to the finish line. All the way to the end. If you obey the call to make disciples, it will take you to places you never expected.
If you obey the call of God, it may call you to do things you never thought you would do. And you're going to face opposition. You're going to enter spiritual warfare. You might lose friends. It is difficult. But God is with us.
He gets to be a comfort with us along the way wherever He sends us. There are times where I'm downstairs with my kids and I have time. Hey, go upstairs. Go grab that toy. Go grab something. I tell them to go upstairs.
And I hear them kind of walk to the bottom of the stairs and then I don't hear the pitter-patter of feet going upstairs. And I'm going to corner them. I'm like, Hey, what are y'all doing? And they're like, We're scared. It's dark. And I try to reason with them because reasoning with a three or five-year-old is usually effective.
And they're just like, Guys, I don't want to know. I'm like, okay. So I come up behind them and we walk up the stairs. Together. And we turn on the lights. And they're not scared anymore because their dad is with them.
And there's nothing to be scared of when their dad is with them. And that's us, guys. God calls us to go into the darkness. He calls us to go and make disciples. He calls us to do some pretty extreme and radical things. But He's not going to abandon us.
He's with us every step of the way. It is the sovereign King who declares, Mine over every inch of existence who's behind us and who's with us and is never going to let us go. If you surrendered your life to this calling, He'll be with you even in the midst of great loss. The famous missionary Hudson Taylor was married to his wife for 12 years and she died on the mission field. And I will celebrate my 10th anniversary next month. I cannot imagine losing my wife right now.
And in the midst of all of it, He writes this letter. He says, At times He, God, He allows me to realize all that I had in her but have no longer. And then He who will soon come and wipe away every tear comes and takes all bitterness from my tears and fills my heart with deep, true, unutterable gladness. How good is that? In the midst of unbelievable, unbelievable loss. He feels the comfort of God.
Our God does not abandon us in the midst of suffering, in the midst of the calling to make disciples. The reality is that many of you have entrusted your life to Jesus. And some of you are seeking to obey the Great Commission. And in your obedience of Jesus, you face some pain and hardship. Some of you all have lost friends. Right?
I felt this when I became a Christian. And Jesus started to change me. And all of a sudden, your friends are like, I don't know if I want to be a part of this anymore. And they just kind of abandoned you. That hurts. You feel that.
Some of you have multiplied community groups. We're going to get to celebrate that in a moment. That we're multiplying a new group. And that's hard. To journey with someone for two or three years, and all of a sudden, the reason we multiply groups is we want to make room for mission. Our groups are how we make disciples.
And we want people to experience Jesus. And groups, when they get big enough, it's time for them to multiply so that we can create more room for others to know Christ. But that's hard. When you've journeyed with someone for two or three years, and you go and you multiply a new group, sure, you're going to see them on Sunday. The gathering of the saints right now, every Sunday is good. And you might hang out with them a little bit outside of the group.
But be honest. The reality is, is you won't see them as much as you used to. You won't see them that one time a week that was guaranteed every week. You won't hear the words of comfort that you've got to hear on a regular basis. That's hard. That is loss.
It is loss for the sake of gain. We experience all kinds of hurt on the mission. The Rockies, who right now, are you either listening to this right now or I know you're going to listen to it later because you listen to all our sermons online. You gave up everything. You left everything behind. It wasn't just the stuff.
It was the people. It was your friends. It was your family. It was this church family. And that's hard when you give up that kind of loss. We experience loss in so many ways in the mission.
Some of you, in obedience to the gospel, in obedience to the teachings of Christ, you've had to have really difficult conversations with other Christians. You've had to call them out in sin. And it has not gone well. And it's blown up in your face. That hurts. This can be incredibly difficult.
There's a lot of risk in obeying the Great Commission. There's a lot of risk in following Jesus. I love this quote that comes out of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia. Or whatever you, people who nerd out about it might be the first book. There's a debate on that. It's not important.
Still want to speak untruthfully. For the three of you that care about that. There's a part where Susan, who's one of the main characters, is about to meet Aslan, the Lion. And she's nervous. She starts talking to one of the other characters, Mr. Beaver.
She's nervous when she finds out he's a Lion. Mr. Beaver says, Aslan is a Lion. The Lion. The Great Lion. Oh, said Susan.
I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a Lion. Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe?
Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you. I love that. That's a picture of our God. Of course he isn't safe.
Read the Gospels. We've already walked through. You follow Jesus, persecution will come. Family might turn on you. You will face opposition. You will face the powers of evil.
You absolutely will. There's no safety in following Jesus. That's not guaranteed at all. But he's good. He's the king. He's sovereign over every inch of existence.
And he promises to be with you every step of the way. If you go where the Lord is calling you, if you're obedient and you go, I want you to know something. Some of you, that might be across the world. And some of you, that might be more missional in your neighborhood and your workplace. But if you go, there are people, hear this, there are people right now that do not know Jesus, that currently walk, as the Bible says, as enemies of the cross, of Christ.
They don't know Him. They are journeying towards hell. But if you go and you proclaim the gospel, some of them are going to believe. And some of them right now who are destined to destruction will have their eternity diverted. And a thousand years from now, when you're worshiping God and we have perfect fellowship with one another, they're going to be in the kingdom with you. How good is that?
That's worth the risk to hear the call and go. Some of you need to leverage your life to make disciples. There's so much joy in converting people to help them see that God is good. It's so joyful when you share the gospel and they realize, I don't have to earn God's favor. I can trust the finished work of Jesus. Yes, I want Him.
And then the end of the baptism water is with you. It's beautiful and it's good. Some of you need to teach. Some of you need to commit to discipling and teaching others the scriptures and giving your time and your energy and your wisdom and your experience. Some of you need to lead groups. Some of you, listen, if you obey the calling and you do this, you will lead groups.
And your groups, there's going to be some mess because we're all sinners and we bring our mess in it. And sometimes you're going to come across a marriage that is on the rocks. And because you committed to teach them and to show them the scriptures, you'll get to watch marriages be restored and reconciliation happen. You'll get to spend time with Christians who've been bitter towards family or friends or other Christians for years. And you get to open up the scriptures and watch their hearts be softened. And you'll see families be restored.
Friendships be restored. You'll see God go to work. But you've got to obey the command to do it. We've got to do it. We've got to obey the Great Commission. That we want to see this happen.
My hope is we'd hear these words and we would participate in work that lasts and resounds for eternity. The sovereign King over all things, the resurrecting King that we just joyfully sing about stands and says all authority, it's all mine. Now go out and get them. Go out and make disciples. Teach them to observe my commands. And I will be with you every step of the way all the way to finish.
Let's receive that and let's do it.
Dont Waste Your Pandemic
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Simply Unstoppable
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the fourth week of our Multiply series. We'll finish it up next week. And we began this year talking about how Jesus commissioned his church, sent his disciples out to make more disciples.
And so we've been discussing what it looks like for us to make disciples and how we go about that and how we multiply disciples, how we equip people and send them out, that we share the gospel with them, that we walk with them, train them up into what it looks like to follow Jesus and equip them to do the same with others. Jesus talking in Matthew chapter 13 says this. We're not going to turn this on the screen. We'll be somewhere else this morning, but I want to start here. Jesus talking in Matthew chapter 13. He says he told them another parable.
He says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. Now, if you're like me, baking analogies. Am I right? Like as soon as he said the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you were like, yes, leaven. No, what he's saying is three measures of flour is 36 liters. And unless you're Raz and from Australia, that doesn't help you that much.
It's like two five gallon buckets. It's a lot of flour that you just put a little bit of leaven in and the leaven takes over. What he's saying is that the kingdom of heaven seems simple, seems small, that if you zoom in on it, if you look at it and just kind of investigate it, you go, that's it. And Jesus says, yeah, that's it. Now, wait a minute. And it's going to take over.
When you zoom in on the gospel that the God of the universe would die, that he would come in humility, that he would live simply, that he would die on a cross, and that you would go, really, that's what he came to do? He didn't come to set up this kingdom. He didn't come. He said, no, the kingdom of heaven starts small and then overtakes everything. And so that's what we're talking about, that discipleship works that way, that the kingdom of heaven grows that way, that it's small and simple and it's bit by bit, but eventually it spreads and overtakes everything, that the kingdom of heaven expands.
And so grab your Bibles, go to Acts chapter 2. That's where we'll be today. So Jesus sends out his disciples. He commands them to go make more disciples. And then we pick up in the book of Acts as the church spreads and we see what the disciples did so that we get to learn from them how they went about making disciples. So what happens is in Acts chapter 1, they pray, they replace Judas with another disciple.
They say, we're going to keep the number at 12. Then the Holy Spirit falls in Acts 2. Peter stands up. He opens his mouth. He proclaims the gospel. It's what we talked about last week.
We would share the gospel and people believe the gospel and they say, what do we need to do? And the disciples were like, we're ready for this because Jesus has just told us. Be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's what he said. Go make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So they say, repent of your sins and be baptized.
And then we get to see how they began to teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded, how they began to make disciples. And so our question today as we look at this is, what does discipleship look like? How do we make disciples? How do we grow as disciples? We've been talking about how we share the gospel, how we get people to believe the gospel and be baptized. And now we're saying, okay, what does it look like to help them observe everything that Jesus commanded?
So I'm going to pray. Pray with me and we'll study this this morning. God, we ask that we would be disciples who make disciples for the glory of your name and the growth of your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. So today we're going to look at four aspects of discipleship.
That what needs to be in place, what needs to take place in order for us to be making disciples. What is the content of discipleship? What is the context of discipleship? And so that's what we're doing. We're in 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
So we're going to start there. The first thing that we're going to see is that discipleship is a life of learning. If you're going to be a disciple, you're going to commit to a life of learning. That you're going to consistently be learning and growing. And so it says they devoted themselves. And I want us to see that first.
They devoted themselves. One of the things we've talked about a lot in our church is that we belong to one another. That we're family. That we're members of one another. And so we rightly have taught that we ought to pursue one another. We ought to correct one another.
We ought to, when somebody's running in sin, we ought to go to them and challenge them and point them back to the gospel. But what happens is over time sometimes, especially the good-natured, good-hearted ones of us. Some of us are like, not exactly there, but others of us start really trying to want Jesus on behalf of somebody else. Start trying to want to follow Jesus on behalf of somebody else. And that's not how it works. They have to devote themselves.
We have to devote ourselves. The people who follow Jesus are the people who wanted to. Now, certainly we should correct each other and certainly we should go to one another when we're in sin. But eventually, some people are going to choose not to follow Jesus and we can't want Jesus for them and we can't follow Jesus for them. The encouraging thing is if you want Jesus, you'll get him. If you want more of Jesus, you get more of Jesus.
But if you don't, you won't. And so the first thing we have to see is that they specifically, intentionally devoted themselves to the things we're about to talk about. So it says they devoted themselves first to the apostles' teaching. So the apostles were the twelve disciples that Jesus had sent out, proclaimed the gospel, and then people said, what do we do? We need to repent and be baptized. And then the apostles began to teach them everything that Jesus had taught.
And so they devoted themselves. They were hungry for it and they ate it up. So how do we do the same thing? We devote ourselves to the Bible. That's the apostles' teaching. That they were taking the Old Testament, explaining how Jesus showed up in it, and teaching the new things that Jesus had explained.
That within about 15, 20 years, we started having the letters that we have being passed around the churches. In about 30 to 40 years, we started having the gospels written down, bound together, that we have. By about 90 years, we had all of the New Testament that was being shared and spread around. And so we study the New Testament and we study the Old Testament in light of Jesus. And that's us devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching. So that if you're going to be a disciple, you're going to be hungry for the word.
You're going to study the Bible. That's one of the reasons we gather on Sundays. That's why we read biblical texts. That's why we say them out loud together. That's why we study them together. That's why we study them in our groups, is that we would be devoted to the scriptures.
And as Americans, we have the least excuse whatsoever to not be devoted to the scriptures. Your phone will read the Bible to you. If you pay a little money, James Earl Jones will read the Bible to you. We have podcasts and websites. We have ways to access the Bible in multiple translations. Not just in English, but in multiple translations that we might pursue the word together.
And so what I would say is that the content of discipleship is a life of learning. That we are learning and studying the Bible. Studying the scriptures together. That we might grow together. I would encourage you to do a couple of things. If you're new to trying to read the Bible, I would encourage you to find somebody who's not new to trying to read the Bible.
And y'all read it together. Or just say, hey, I'm going to read these three. We're going to read the first three chapters of Matthew over the course of this week. And then we'll talk about it. And you just write down things that you have questions about. You know you can read your Bible and text somebody and say, hey, what is this doing?
I still do this. I'll open my, I'll be reading my Bible. I'll open up the Bible app. I'll copy the verse. I'll send it to a group of guys. And I'll say, what on earth is that talking about?
Is it this or this? And we discuss it. And I grow. It's edifying. I would also encourage you to get a study Bible. They're very helpful.
If you want more, if you want to listen to podcasts or know some websites, we'd love to talk to you and point you in the right direction. I would not encourage you to just Google your questions. I would encourage you to go to resources that have already been tested for faithfulness. So it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. We're going to skip over the fellowship because that's what we're going to talk about next more in depth. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching to the breaking of bread.
This means two things. It means that they shared meals together. That they got together. They shared meals together. But specifically as we see this play out in the New Testament, these are intentional gospel meals.
Intentional church family meals. That ultimately this is communion as we have it now. That they would get together and specifically intentionally say, we are reminding ourselves over a meal of who Jesus is and what he's done for us. One of the ways we've done this in our community groups is when we've taken communion in our community groups, we've actually gone in a circle, person by person, and said, how do you need the gospel right now? What is it that you're fearful over? What is it that you're in doubt?
Where are you sinning and not believing that the gospel is better than the thing you're chasing? Where is it that you need the good news? And somebody would just confess or they'd say, here's where I'm struggling. And the rest of the table would just say, well, here's how Jesus is better than that. Here's how this is good news for you. Here's what you're celebrating when you take communion tonight.
And we would ask at the end of that, do you understand when we take communion what you're celebrating? How Jesus is good and how the gospel is for you? And they say, yes. And we go to the next person. And that's what they were doing. They were actively, intentionally applying the gospel to life.
They were sharing gospel meals. They were reminding each other of what Jesus had accomplished for them. And they were spending time together. So they devoted themselves, not only to just learning what the apostles were teaching, but to applying that in repentance and applying it to their lives as they celebrated communion. And the prayers. That they were intentionally, collectively praying together and praying separately.
That they were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to applying the gospel to life, to practicing the gospel in life through repentance and through celebrating what Jesus has done and praying. That is the content of discipleship. That if you're like, I'd love to try to walk with somebody, but I don't know what to do. Okay. Get together. Get your Bibles out.
Talk about how the gospel applies to life. Repent of sin. Celebrate that Jesus is good. Pray. Boom. That's the content of discipleship.
That's what they were doing when they gathered together. This is how they were practicing this. And the other thing they were devoted to is the fellowship. That's the context. That this happens in relationships. And so discipleship is a life of learning, but it's also life on life.
That you would actually be around each other. This is what it says if we keep reading. So it says they devoted themselves to the fellowship and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to any to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. That they were around each other day by day.
They were gathering in big groups. They were gathering in homes. They were sharing their possessions. They were with each other in life. I want to read Deuteronomy 6. When the law was given to the nation of Israel, God gives this command.
It's called the Shema. Shema just means here. This is the command that Jesus says, if you'll go to Deuteronomy 6. This is the command that Jesus says is the most important command. Hear, O Israel. Yeah, cool.
All right. This is what Jesus tells them. This is the greatest commandment. It says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today should be on your heart.
So the first command is that you would love God and that you would have his words in your heart. And then he says, and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. He's teaching them how to train others, how to equip others. First step, love the Lord. Have his word in your heart. Second step, live your life.
With others, that's what he's saying, that you would love the Lord so much that when you're just typaling your children, that it's what you talk about when you rise up. That's what you talk about when you sit. It's what you talk about when you walk. It's what you talk about when you lay down, that it's part of life, that your love for Jesus is so part of your life. Now, this was a command specifically to parents for their specific children. So for me, it'd be my two boys.
But it was also a command to the nation of Israel for the next generation, that they would teach their children. And it is how discipleship works, that you are around people in life. So I want to pause for just a second and talk about discipling children. And then we'll go back to talking about exactly how we do this in application to each other. Parents, you're supposed to disciple your children. The church is supposed to join in that and help that the collective call to disciple and raise up children is something that takes place in community groups that we try to help with in Kid City.
But primarily, you are around your children way more. And here's the thing. Sometimes parents go, all right, I don't know what to do. Like, am I supposed to read a Bible story? Or am I supposed to, are we supposed to do like family worship and every night or just once a week? And how's that supposed to look?
And they get real stressed out about it. And I understand taking it seriously. And it does help to read Bible stories. And it does help to do family worship. I mean, that's as easy as playing something on a podcast, singing with them. Or if you're with my son singing Joy to the World, 365 days a year.
This is his favorite song ever. And sometimes I'm just like, no, bro, we're not singing that tonight. Like, I just, I don't like Christmas that much. We've got to sing something else. There are other songs. But like, walking with them, training them in specific moments.
But really, your kids pick up way more who you are and what you love all the other times during the day than just some specific moments when you say, okay, now we're going to teach. Now we're going to learn. Because that's what he's saying. Teach them diligently, meaning be intentional. But also, when you wake up, when you walk, when you sit, when you lay down.
By the time your children are in middle school, they've got a real good handle on what you actually care about. By the time they're in high school, by the time they're graduating, they've got a good, good handle on if you really love the Lord and his word is in your heart. Or if what you really appreciate is the praise of men. And you were always worried about how your family appeared to others. If what you really cared about was your own personal comfort. They've got a good handle on that.
You actually make, you reproduce who you are way more than reproducing what you teach. This is just true for any amount of discipleship. You reproduce who you are way more than what you teach. We can see this very simply in some of our community groups. We've seen it as we started out. Matt and I were the first two group leaders.
Matt's groups tended to be very encouraging towards one another. Very loving. There's like a lot of hugs in their groups. My groups tended to be easily distracted and sarcastic. It wasn't uncommon for us to quit studying the Bible to make fun of one another. Lose our train of thought.
And it just had to do with I was trying to teach the Bible but unintentionally just sharing a lot of what I'm like. Easily distracted and sarcastic. I didn't promote encouragement. We promoted saying mean things to one another. And that's what happens and that's what he's saying is that that life on life discipleship is how you raise your children. I want to tag one more thing with raising children.
Your children matter and if you are new to parenting, which a lot of people in this room are, they're like little cannonballs into your life. You had a nice little life and then you had a child and they're terrorists. They are. They're. I'm going to scream until you feed me. That's how they enter the world.
And then I'm going to scream because I went to the bathroom. I'm going to scream because I'm sleepy or I'm going to scream. And you know that I just slept, that I just ate and I have a clean diaper. I'm just going to scream. They're terrorists that you're deeply in love with. It's super weird.
And what happens is it's pretty easy early on with your children to start bending your life to them. You have to. But at some point, you've got to help them bend their life to Jesus. And you've got to help them see that life, that he, it's a long-term value play, that he matters more. And so what happens is at some point, we're like, I've got to work around my kid's schedule. And at some point, you've got to say, no, my kid's schedule has got to work around how we follow Jesus.
And this will happen when they're young with nap schedules and with bedtimes. And it will happen when they're older with sports and school. Now, it's a life of loving Jesus, which means that for some of you, you need to say no to travel sports because it affects how you follow Jesus. And for some of you, you need to say yes to travel sports because it's one of the best places to teach your children how to be on mission and how to love people and how to serve people and how to connect people and how to share the gospel. But over the course of a life, your children will pick up, did they matter more than Jesus?
Did their schedule matter more than Jesus? Did sports matter more than Jesus? And whether or not the value play was at right in your home or was he in your heart and his word in your heart and your life was, how do we rise? How do we walk? How do we sit? How do we sleep in a way that we love Jesus?
And that is how discipleship works. It happens life on life. So Jesus gets disciples and the first thing he says to them is just come follow me. You, come follow me. Leave your tax booth. Let's go.
You, drop your nets. Follow me. Let's go. And he just starts going. And then they start picking up what he's like as he goes. That's how it happens, that they're around him in life.
Teaching my son Bible stories. He's two and three, so we would just act him out so that he'd help remember him. I remember one time I was laying on the floor. My wife comes in. He's throwing all his Nerf balls at me. She's like, what are y'all doing?
He's supposed to be getting ready for bed. I'm like, well, we're doing the story of the stoning of Stephen. And she said, are there not appropriate children's stories you can do? I was like, he's loving it. In a second, he'll get to declare that Jesus is great and I'll throw balls at him. It'll be wonderful.
But I was doing one where, sorry, I was doing one where we were trying to help him see, you know, Jesus just trained his disciples in life. And so what we said was, you're the little kids. Your mom's going to be Jesus. I'm going to be the disciples. I want you to come over and ask me, can I come see Jesus? Y'all know this story?
The disciples tell the children no. And so he would come over and say, can I see Jesus? And I'll go, no, you can't see Jesus. And I'll just push him to the ground, which is a little more than what the Bible says it was, but I was trying to help him pay attention. And then finally his mom would say, no, let the children come to me. And he would go over there and she'd hug him and tell him he was wonderful and we'd do it again.
And I thought this was great, but what I ended up teaching was the disciples were bad guys because at one point I was like, we're disciples. He's like, no, we're not disciples. We're the worst. But the disciples on that day learned something because they were with Jesus in life and they began to see how he valued the world and how he loved children. And what happens is that's how discipleship takes place, that it isn't just sufficient to get with someone for one hour and teach a thing, but we're actually meant to be around each other in life so that we might share who we are. That is why you will disciple your children, whether you want to or not.
You will train them. You will teach them what is valuable, what is good. It will happen. That's why he says be diligent. And at first you got to love the Lord and you got to have his word in your heart. And the truth is anybody that walks with you in life will be slowly discipled by you.
And so what we need to do is love Jesus and then intentionally be around one another that we might help grow one another towards Jesus. That's what we see throughout the New Testament. First Thessalonians 2.8 says, Paul's specifically writing to Timothy there and he's saying, you know me, you've been around me, you know my life. Not just you've read all my letters. No, no, you know me. You know what matters.
And that's what he says in 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And that is a lot of how discipleship works. As you say, no, walk with me as I walk with Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. Let's walk together.
Let's imitate one another as we imitate Christ. As we picture this out for one another and display this to one another. That we're meant to walk in life together. So the content of discipleship is scriptures, actively, intentionally applying the gospel to life through sharing meals and through sharing communion and through applying the gospel to each other and walking in repentance and praying. But the context for all of that is normal, everyday life.
Life, not some extra bonus time, not once a month at Starbucks. Everyday, normal life. And it's life on life, but it's not just life on life. It's life in community. It's not just you and one other person walking together. It's not just you and two other people walking together.
But it's a communal picture. So let me show this. We showed this a couple of times. This was kind of Spencer's. It used to have little names in there or whatever. But Spencer's line of this person shared the gospel with these people, helped disciple them.
They shared the gospel with these people, helped disciple them. And the truth is, if that's just evangelism, just sharing the gospel, that is how it looks. This person shares the gospel. They share the gospel. And it does spread and grow and multiply. If it keeps going, it gets beautifully ridiculous.
You know, kind of like leaven. All right, so, but what happens when we see that in the discipleship mindset is, okay, you immediately start picturing this next picture, which is this, which one am I? Who am I ready to be? Am I a discipler? Or do I need to be a disciplee? Like some people looked at that and saw and said, I'm not ready to have two or three people that I'm helping coach and equip.
That's overwhelming. And some of you saw it and thought, okay, I'll do it. Yeah. White knuckle. And this is your little chart here. This is how you follow Jesus sometimes or how you decide it.
I'm going to try harder. I'm going to do it this time for real. And you get fatigued. You're tired. So you quit.
Then eventually you feel bad again and you try harder again. That's the wheel of religion. Some of you are like, yes, that's me. I'm in like a hamster wheel of that. Okay, that's not the gospel. Try harder.
Get exhausted. Quit. Feel bad. Try harder. Get exhausted. Quit.
And there are churches that are just running through with like, all right, we're going to work with the 20% that are in the guilt zone right now. Y'all in the guilt zone? You ready to work? Y'all are fatigued? You quit? We'll get back to you when you feel guilty again.
We don't want to do that. And we don't want discipleship to look like that. And we also don't want you to be fearful and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't. I just need to be coached up. Because the truth is that's not the best picture of discipleship.
That's not a good picture of the gospel, but it's also not a picture of how we go about discipleship. So the next slide is how we intend to go about discipleship. We want to be in community groups. Now, community groups aren't in the Bible. We are trying to actively apply what we see in the Bible, which was they were around each other day by day. And they gathered in homes.
And they gathered together, large groups in the temple. They gathered in homes. They shared life together. And here's what we know about Americans. You don't have to share life with anybody. We say this all the time, but you can watch friends instead of having them.
You can be very independent. You're taught that you're supposed to be. Like the ultimate hero of America is like the marble man out by himself smoking on a hilltop or whatever. And doesn't need anybody and doesn't want anybody. And he's going to get cancer and die. It's going to be awesome.
But we're actually meant to be in life together. And so what we do is we say, no, no, no, no. We're going to be intentional, diligent about making this happen. So here's you. And don't tell anybody I told you this, but you are the shining star in your group. You're the best group member.
Here's how this works. You're connected to everybody. And everybody's connected to you. Once you're in a community group, you get to know everybody. You're connected to everybody. Everybody's connected to you.
And I didn't tell Miss Bebe I was going to say this. And she's here. So hopefully she'll forgive me. But Miss Bebe told me one time that one of the things that she began to enjoy and appreciate about community groups was that she could no longer read her Bible the way she used to. She used to read her Bible and she could only think from her perspective. She read it like Bebe.
And she said, I now read my Bible and I see everybody else. I hear everybody else. I know people who have small children. I know people who are in this season of life and this difficulty. And she said, I read my Bible now with our group in mind. And it's changed the way I read the scriptures.
And what we're seeing is that we're supposed to be connected to other people. And we're supposed to be connected to other people where the thing that we have in common is Jesus and nothing else. There are supposed to be people in your group that you have an extremely hard time talking to. That's how it's supposed to work. And it's possible that you have a hard time talking to them because they have a hard time talking with everyone. And it's possible you have a hard time talking with them because you have a hard time talking with everyone.
And it's possible you just aren't on the same page. But that's how it's supposed to work. that we're supposed to be around people that we don't naturally connect with because they help us grow and they help us see things that we don't see otherwise. But you're connected to everybody. Everybody else is connected to everybody. So this is what groups look like.
Because they're supposed to be connected to everybody. But it's life on life and life in community, so there's also this. You're more connected to a few people. Just how it works. You get along a little easier. You're in similar stages of life.
You live near one another. Maybe you're not in similar stages of life. Maybe they're empty nesters and you have small kids, but they love small kids, so they just hang out with you all the time because they have more open schedule. I don't know, but you've got some people that you connect with a little better. And the truth is, that's the case for everybody in your group. That everybody's got somebody they connect with.
There we go. That's what it looks like. Now, for some of you, seeing this web and thinking about a community group, you're like, yes, I'm an extrovert, and that's a trampoline of awesomeness. And some of you who are introverted is like, that looks like a spider web of despair. I would get trapped in that. It would suck the life out of me.
This would be terrible. So I just want to talk for just a second about what this looks like and how this plays out and talk to a few different people. So some of you think, no, no, no, no, no. I have the thick lines with everyone. What I'm willing to bet is you make a certain depth of relationship and never go past that. So everybody feels like they're on the same level.
Everybody's your thickest line. And what you ought to do is get to know people a little more deeply. You ought to walk a little more closely with some people. We want to have people that can speak into your life. You want people who love Jesus, who are not you, who see the world a little differently, be able to speak into your life. One of the things that frustrates me to no end that happens all the time in churches is someone just announces some big life change, some big we're doing this, we're doing that, and everybody just goes, oh, congratulations.
We're in a community group, but we end up being like Facebook friends. We just all press the like button. And somebody needs to know you well enough to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got some questions. Not saying this is a terrible idea. Just saying I got some questions because I know you.
I've walked with you long enough to know that one of the things that you have as an idolatrous nature in your heart is this wonderlust, that you have to be in some other city in order to be happy, and you get bored with places, and you don't know how to build deep relationships. And so when you said, I've got a job. I'm moving to Tulsa. And everybody said, yay, congratulations. I immediately thought, that might be terrible for you. Let's talk.
Someone when you say, I've met the man of my dreams. I've met the girl. She's the one. Someone who knows you well enough to go, isn't this your fourth one? In like four years, like don't you do this every time you meet somebody? I'm sure they're nice, but let's just tone it down a step.
People who know you well enough to not just cosign everything, but love you. Now, for the introverted person, keep the spider web up there, please. For the introverted person, there's a lot of slides. Thanks, Nick. You're doing a great job. Way more than normal.
Usually it's like, here's a Bible verse, and then we just go for it. For the introverted person, some of y'all looked at that and thought, some of you looked at it and thought, I've been in the group for a while. I don't have a deep connection with anybody. And that may be true. I'm sorry if it's true. Don't be okay with that and don't think that's how that has to work.
You may need to insert yourself a little more. If you only build relationships one-on-one, you may need to invite people one-on-one. There are some people in your group who feel perfectly, beautifully connected with you because their level of relationship only goes to a three. I feel super close to everybody in my group. But that's because I have to work real hard to get closer with people.
My wife, it takes her like 15 years to develop a friendship. Now, once you're there, she'll help you bury a body. She'll stab people for you. She is on your team. I feel sorry for any teacher or anybody that ever messes with one of our children. People think I'm intense.
I'm going to be the person just holding her and she's going to be like, I'm going to get on my back. No, no, hold on, hold on. So some of you, it takes a while to build relationships. Keep doing the hard work of relationship building. Some of y'all see that and think everybody's already full. They already have all the relationships they can handle.
That's not true. That you're meant to be welcomed. So here's what I want. If you're that person who just says, I don't feel like I've connected with anybody, announce that to your group in a non-condescending, non-condemning way. Just say, hey guys, I'm having a hard time and I really would like to hang out with someone one-on-one. Community groups.
Make that happen. I have a hard time making friends in groups. So I end up just sitting next to this conversation and sitting next to that conversation and sitting next to that conversation. And I feel like I'd be intruding to press into that any and I need some people to just, can somebody just hang out with me? Can we just get a cup of coffee? Can we get, I just need to.
That's why one of the reasons why our groups try to do fun things periodically is because it helps change the dynamic. We believe fun makes family. Okay. Content. First aspects of life of learning. And the content is the word.
Applying the gospel to life. Praying. The context is a life on life, life in community. And we actually have to see each other in real life and we have to be around people who we would not normally choose to just be around. And that's what makes the church beautiful. That's where all the one another's come in.
That we love one another. That we serve one another. Then he starts saying things like bear with one another. Forgive one another. Be patient with one another. Do you know you have to bear with, forgive, and be patient with?
People who frustrate you. People who you're around more than just a little bit. A lot of us have been in a group and we've gotten super frustrated with people. And it's the moment, the moment where we can apply the gospel. And we can confront and we can confess and we can forgive and we can bear with and we can be patient. It's that moment where we can really do some Bible things.
And you know what we do? We say this group's messed up. Filled with sinners. I'm going to find a church where they're not like that. We go to our next church. We say my last group was terrible.
And they were so sorry. They wouldn't build friendships with me. We're so sorry. They were the worst. We're so sorry. Come.
We're not like that. We love Jesus. We love you. Come. And you're like, this place is great. And it is like a year, year and a half, two years until you start trying to build some real relationships.
Until your friend Karen does the same crap she's done 1,500 times. And you're like, you know what? They're all the same. It's like, no, you have a moment to grow, to repent, to be gracious, to forgive, to be patient, to bear with. And when you do that, it becomes beautiful and glorious and we grow. So that's discipleship.
Life of learning. Life on life. Life in community. Now, immediately you might ask, okay, cool chart, bro. How on earth do I have time to do that? I'm glad you brought it up.
Here's February. How on earth do I have time to be in life on life, life in community? I'm super busy. Okay, well, your group meets every Tuesday. Every Tuesday. Did you know that?
Some of you are like, it's Wednesday. Okay, whatever. Once a week. And for two hours, hour and a half, if y'all are quick and got a bunch of people with little kids and you want to go home. Three hours if you're super chatty. Two hours studying the Bible.
Praying together. Sharing a meal. Applying the gospel. Confessing sin. Every single week. We get together every Sunday.
Every Sunday. We're here. Unlock the bill and we pay for it. Every Sunday. We gather together to devote ourselves to the word. To be around one another.
Some of you, a community group isn't enough for the amount of relationships you can have. Some of you, it feels too much. It's overwhelming. There's 12 people here. I can only have two real friendships. So it's like, okay, we'll find those two people, corner them and talk to them.
Some of you are like, I need 45 friendships. I will know everything about you. I will remember you. I will know your birthday. You're the people who are super frustrated when anybody forgets anything. Because you're like, how on earth can you not?
If you love people, you know every aspect of their life ever. And you can keep up with everybody ever. Show up on Sundays and get to know people. We want to be a bigger group. We want to have, you can have friendships outside of your group. We want you to be intentional with the ones in your group.
But you can, don't feel like it's wrong to have other friendships. If that's you, do that. We gather on Sundays, but you get to see, there's a handful of guys in our community group that show up early on every Sunday. I get to hang out with them on Sundays. Sometimes we get into really intense conversations about the Bible. Sometimes we get into really intense conversations about SEC football.
It doesn't matter. We're walking in life together. Serving, seeing each other on Sunday. Seeing each other when we get together during the week. Let's say your group decides on a specific Saturday that you're going to do some kind of a mission outreach something.
You're going to try to get around some people to share the gospel. You're going to all go to a park and just try to meet people. You're going to go downtown and hand some food out in some areas where homeless people hang out. You're going to go serve at a school. So all of y'all are going to see each other on Saturday as you're on mission together.
Let's say there's a Friday during February when somebody just says, hey, we're going to a movie. If anybody wants to come, come on. Hey, we're all going to go eat at Cracker Barrel. Hey, we're doing a game night at our house. And so you get to hang out then. Let's say that on Thursdays, some of the guys are able to get together for lunch.
Or some of the ladies get together for an extra Bible study. Or maybe they get together for breakfast. Or you figure out a way to trade off who's watching kids. And you figure something out. The guys in my group used to eat at Denny's every Thursday morning. Now we're trying to get some lunches.
It happens about twice a month. And it's not everybody, but it's whoever can make it. Now it's 2019. I'm not going to tell you which color represents which gender. You can pick that for yourselves. Let's say that with the people that you hang out a little more with, you get to see them more often.
Your life overlaps a little more. It's easier for you to watch kids together or not have kids. Or you both get off of work at 11 p.m. and you play video games or whatever. You get to see some other people. But look at that.
That's a normal schedule in people whose lives are busy, who've set out some intentional time, and then who go out of their way to overlap their lives. It is doable for you to be around people. It does take some effort. It does take us working with our schedules because we're busy people. And if we're not intentional, our schedules will fill up. But it's possible for us to devote ourselves to being around one another, to walking in life together, to pointing each other towards Jesus, and to be around each other in enough circumstances in life that we might be able to grow together as disciples.
Lastly, it's life on mission. That we were meant as Christians to be making more disciples and sharing the gospel. And that when we stop doing that, we become unhealthy. If your group ceases to be on mission, it will start becoming unhealthy. I can tell you the best way to be miserable anywhere in your community group, but you can also import this into your marriage or your roommate situation, whatever, is to show up and think that it is about you. When we cease to be on mission, we forget that we're supposed to be actively sacrificing to see other people grow and to see people meet Jesus.
And when we stop doing that and when we fail to be on mission, that's what the disciples, what it says here is that day by day, attending the temple together, this is verse 46, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. They were walking in life together, loving one another, serving one another, sharing with one another, and making their city better, proclaiming the gospel, and people were hopping in all the time. The Lord was saving people day by day.
Let me tell you what happens. If you start hanging out with your group and y'all cease to be on mission, you start thinking that the purpose of your group is for your own personal edification and your own personal growth. And you show up and you start asking questions like, what am I getting out of this? Who's talking to me? You see people enjoying, you ever been out to eat and you're having a good time until there's two tables over is having a better time? They're laughing real loud and everything's going super great.
And so suddenly you're like, well, my dinner's not as nice as it used to be because look at them. And so what happens sometimes you start hanging out with your group, you start hanging out and you start going, well, they're better friends than I am. They talk during the week. They just said they got caught. And you start, and we forget that the whole purpose is that we collectively grow together, that you're here to serve other people. You're here to pour into other people.
And we're actively walking in, helping other people meet Jesus, that we would be on mission together. And there's joy in that. Also, mission happens better in community because there are things that you're gifted at that the person next to you isn't, and vice versa. And as we serve and connect and love together, more people meet Jesus. They get to see what the gospel does among a group of people, and more people buy in because more people connect, more people understand, more people see how on earth do y'all hang out with each other, and they get to begin to see what it looks like for people to follow Jesus together.
And then they, maybe you're really good at inviting, but somebody else is really good at getting close to somebody. I've had that happen in my group. I've been friends with somebody for a couple weeks, known them at work, bring them to our group. They finally come, they hang out a little bit, they hang out one time, and afterwards, a week later, one of the people in my group will go, hey, how's that? How's that issue that they've been struggling with? How's that going?
I'm like, what issue? What are you talking about? They were like, well, they told me they were struggling with issues. They were like, well, nobody tells me that stuff. Nobody, my coworkers aren't volunteering that they're struggling with things with me. That's not how conversations go with me.
I've never really just made a conversation go there. I have to have been someone's pastor for two and a half years, and then they're like, maybe I'll tell it. But there was somebody in my group who just went over and said, how are you doing? I don't know, the Holy Spirit works in that. The person looked at them and went, terrible. And they talked, and they worked, and the Holy Spirit works, and people end up getting closer to Jesus, so they meet Jesus, and it's because we collectively are on mission better together.
So that's what happened in the New Testament church, and that's how we walk this out. So I want you to know it is doable as you commit to all the small things, that you're going to love the Bible, you're going to have God's Word in you, and you're going to commit to being around each other. You're going to commit to showing up to your group, to showing up on Sundays, to talking to people, and we're going to commit collectively to try to help other people meet Jesus, and guess what? We'll make disciples. See, that's what Jesus is saying about the leaven. So if you zoom in on it, it doesn't seem that spectacular.
If actually, if you just walk somebody through the February schedule, it's like, yeah, we meet every week, we meet on Sundays, yeah, we're confessing sin, we're walking together, but the truth is, you pull that out over a year for someone who's bought in, committed, devoted themselves to the Word, devoted themselves to the fellowship, devoted to applying the Gospel, and guess what? They're growing. And if we're actively devoted to sharing the Gospel with people, more people are hopping in, more people are growing, and none of it looked that spectacular, and none of that was overwhelming, and none of that was amazing, but it was we just collectively decided, this is who we're going to be, we're going to be around each other, we're going to devote ourselves to the Word, and we'll get to see it happen. That a little bit of leaven is going to take over the whole thing.
And so, if there's any aspect of that, that you have opted out of, don't. Devote yourself to it. Some of you, it needs to be, you need to devote yourself to the Word. Some of you, it's life on life. You hang out with your group, but other than that, you don't really get to know people, you're not really talking to people. Some of you, it's life on life, but you won't hang out with your group, so you only hang out with somebody one-on-one, but you never get in the community aspect.
Some of it's a mission. But that was how they made disciples, and that was how they began, and the church exploded. with people meeting Jesus, and people growing. And that's what we want to see, and that's what we hope to see. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing one song together, and as we sing, we're going to take communion, because as we've gathered to fellowship today, we're also taking communion, we're breaking bread together, to remind ourselves that Jesus saves sinners, that He's good, and that it's not on us to just try harder, or to do better, but to trust Him, to work in us, and to be faithful in all the small things, knowing that He ultimately makes them effective.
That He's died, that we might be redeemed, and then if you're sitting here today, and realize I hadn't been doing this stuff, you don't need to feel overwhelmed, or crushed, you need to run to Jesus, and know that He works, and He redeems, and He's good, and you're holy, blameless, and above reproach, and we get to take communion, and walk this out together. So if you are a believer, if you are part of our church, we'd love for you to take communion. If you're not a believer, we would ask that you refrain from taking communion, because we want you to know Jesus, before you practice the remembrance of His death, and His resurrection. Let's pray.
God, we thank you for your grace, and your goodness. We pray that we would be active, in all the small things, as your Holy Spirit works in us, that we might see disciples made, that we would be intentional about it, that we'd be devoted to it, that we'd be diligent in it, daily, in all the small ways, to overlap our lives, and to be around one another, and to study your word, so that we might proclaim your gospel, and see more people come to follow you. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Y'all stand, sing when you're ready. Take communion.
During the sermon, there were many slides used to visually display the concepts taught. We have included them below with a brief summary to help you better follow along while listening to the sermon online.
Discipleship multiplication as described by Spencer during the first sermon in our Multiply series.
When we start considering discipling others we may begin to think of it as a simple dichotomy: Am I a prepared to be a disciple-er” or do I need to be a “disciple-ee?” But the truth is more easily accessible.
As discipleship plays out within groups you are connected with everyone in your group and everyone is connected with you. Therefore you are both able to pour into others and have them pour into you.
You are not alone in your group. Everyone is intended to disciple everyone; therefore, the weight does not fall entirely on you.
You will naturally have deeper connections with some people than with others and you will spend more time discipling those you have deeper connections with and having them disciple you.
As long as you are invested in your group, you will have deeper connections with some people than with others. Spend your time cultivating those relationships understanding that this is how it works for everyone. In this way discipleship gets to be both Life on Life (deeper relationships) and Life in Community (the full group dynamic).
By committing to your group, you will have opportunities in your schedule to be around people in your group. We gather on Sundays, meet once a week, and have various rhythms throughout the month to ensure the people within our groups are spending time together. It take intentionality in our already busy schedules, but it is doable and it is worth it.