The Village Church
A Joy-filled Life: Gifts of Grace, pt 3 - Philippians 1:27-30 - 2024/06/23 - Audio
You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Everyone online, we're Welcome to the church where our mission is to know Jesus to enjoy Jesus and to glorify Jesus. We're glad to see lots of returning faces. But if you happen to be a first-time guest, there is a QR code on the front of your bulletin. And if you don't mind taking a minute to scan that, it will take you to our link tree where you can fill out our guest form. And that allows us to connect with you and answer any questions you have about the church. Just a few announcements this week on the back of your worship guide. There's a calendar with the summer fun dates for first steps and little kids. So we don't have our SCC classes for the kids this summer, but just a few chances to get together and play with their buddies. Keep those friendships going. And then for our youth, we have several summer events. Chances to serve or just to have fun together. And there is a calendar of those events in the lobby. Next to the bulletins. And then our youth have a really fun event a week. This coming Saturday, June 29th, we are going out to the Powell Lake House. And it is one of our favorite events. It's an annual event. We have motorized and non-motorized watercraft. We have tubing. We have awesome food, tons of time to fellowship. If you like to be active, you can be active. If you want to take a nap. You can take a nap. On the dock, it's wonderful. So this is for our youth and their entire families. It's also a great opportunity to invite a friend. Maybe you've been wanting to bring to church. Invite them to come along. You should have gotten a text from Kate before Wave Kate. So if you did not get that text to sign up, please come and talk to her after the service to make sure that we get you that information. Finally, at the Village Church, we believe that giving of tithes and offerings is part of our worship to the Lord. So there's three ways you can give. You can give online on our church website. You can mail a check to our church address, or you can use the box in the back of the sanctuary. So these are our announcements. You've governed yourselves accordingly. Thank you. And now we're going to do our call to worship. So please stand if you are able. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, where the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Please join me as we pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us here today. What a joy to gather with other believers and come before your presence, God. How humbling that you allow us to come into your presence and worship you, God. We don't have to come once a year. We don't have to offer sacrifices here in this place, God. You've given everything we need. You are the sacrifice and you've made the way. We thank you that you are completely worthy of our praise this morning. No matter how rushed or hectic or sad or lonely our morning has been, God, you are the same and you are steadfast and you are faithful even when we are faithless. So regardless of how we feel, God, we thank you that you are the same and you are completely worthy of the praise that we are coming before you to offer you this morning. I pray that you would be completely fortified and honored in all that is done here in your name. Amen. Good morning, TvT Saints. You look beautiful this morning. I'm treating my sorrow. I'm treating my shame. I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord. I'm treating my sickness. I'm treating my pain. I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord. We say, "Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes ♪ That His joy is gonna be my strength ♪ ♪ Though the sorrows made back for the night ♪ ♪ The joy comes in the morning ♪ ♪ I'm trading by sorrows ♪ ♪ I'm trading by shame ♪ ♪ I'm taking them down to the joy of the Lord ♪ Our training by sickness, our training by pain, I'm saying them down to the joy of the Lord. We say, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord." We're looking at again. We say, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord." We say, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, amen." I impress and I crush, perfect you to not have been. Shrug down, but not destroyed. I am less beyond the curse, Lord, love and fill the door. This joy is going to be my strength. The stroke of sorrow fades out for the night. Enjoy comes in the morning. Our training by sorrows, our training by sickness. I am less than down to the joy of the Lord. Our training by sickness, our training by pain. I am less than down to the joy of the Lord. I am less than down to the joy of the Lord. When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me, how He filled me with the Holy Ghost, how He healed me to the uttermost. When I think about the Lord, how He picked me up and turned me around and how He fed my feet and started ground. It makes me want to shout, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, Lord, you're worthy of all the glory, of the honors, of the praise." It makes me want to shout, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, Lord, you're worthy of all the glory." It's all the honor, all the praise. When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me and how He filled me with the Holy Ghost, how He healed me to the uttermost. When I think about the Lord, how He picked me up and turned me around and how He fed my feet and started ground. It makes me want to shout, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, Lord, you're worthy of all the glory, of the honors, of the praise." It makes me want to shout, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, Lord, you're worthy of all the glory, of the honors, of the praise." It's all the praise, it's all the praise, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the darkness we were waiting without hope and without light, to from heaven you came running, that there was mercy in your eyes, to fulfill the law and prophets, to a verdict in the Word, from a throne of endless glory, to a cradle in the dirt. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three and one, guide of glory, our just deep praise for ever to the King of King. To reveal the King coming and to reconcile the laws, to redeem the whole creation, and you did not have to fight the cross, for even in your blessings you sought to the other side, knowing this was our salvation, Jesus, for a Savior died. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three and one, guide of glory, our just deep praise for ever to the King of the King. In the morning that he rose, all of heaven held his friend, till that stone was moved for good, for the Lamb had conquered there, and the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe, for the souls of all who come, to the Father by the Lord, and the Church of Christ was born, and the Spirit was born, now they got forth through the Lord, shall not heal, shall not be, by his blood, and his fame, and his freedom, I am free, for the love of Jesus Christ, who has risen to the King. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three and one, guide of glory, our just deep praise for ever to the King of the King. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three and one, guide of glory, guide of glory, our just deep praise for ever to the King of the King. ♪ Praise forever to the King of King ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of King ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of King ♪ (gentle music) - Good morning, TVC. I'm gonna lead us in our confession of faith. This is from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I will read the question and then we can all respond together with the answer. So what is prayer? - Prayer is offering of our desires to God. (muffled speaking) - Amen. I will read the scripture for today, which is Philippians 1 verses 27 through 30. - Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now here that I still have. This is the word of God. You may be seated. And I will lead us in a prayer of supplication so if you would pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you just so much for this time that we get to gather together. I pray that we would just not take this for granted, just to gather with other saints and worship you. And Lord, just thank you for the worship team and how they just prepare our hearts to come and be with you and for the Holy Spirit to just come and speak to us. And we ask of that. We pray that you would give Pastor Alex the words and that you would just prepare our hearts, that you would speak to us and meet us wherever we are. Lord, we all come in here with so many things on our plate, whether it's sadness, grief, even joy, but distractions as well. Lord, just pray that you would just remove those distractions so that we can just be fully present with you. And again, we just ask that you would meet us where we are and so that we would walk out of here knowing more about you and knowing you're better. And we pray all this in your Son Jesus' name, amen. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ He is jealous for me ♪ ♪ He loves like a hurricane ♪ ♪ And I am a tree, bending knee ♪ ♪ The weight of his wind and mercy ♪ ♪ And all of a sudden ♪ ♪ I am unaware of these afflictions ♪ ♪ It flips by glory ♪ ♪ And I realize just how beautiful you are ♪ ♪ And how great your affection's up for me ♪ ♪ ♪ How he loves us now ♪ ♪ ♪ How he loves us ♪ ♪ How he loves us ♪ ♪ Do we believe that this morning ♪ ♪ will lean into that church ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ He is jealous for me ♪ ♪ He loves like a hurricane ♪ ♪ I am a tree, bending knee ♪ ♪ The weight of his wind and mercy ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And all of a sudden ♪ ♪ I am unaware of these afflictions ♪ ♪ It flips by glory ♪ ♪ And I realize just how beautiful you are ♪ ♪ And I'll make your reflections out for me ♪ ♪ Then he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ We are here to force it ♪ ♪ And here's our pride ♪ ♪ We're on to redemption by the grace ♪ ♪ And if I did this grace ♪ ♪ In the ocean we're all mistaken ♪ ♪ So heaven, peace, earth, like ♪ ♪ And one for speed ♪ ♪ Kissing my heart turns ♪ ♪ By the three inside of my chest ♪ ♪ I don't have time to maintain these regrets ♪ ♪ When I think about life ♪ ♪ That I belong like ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Yeah, he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Yeah, he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ ♪ Whoa, how he loves us ♪ Thank you. Good morning, TVC Saints. Good morning. It's good to be back with y'all. As most of you know, I was in Richmond, Virginia last week for the General Assembly for the President's Union Church in America. And I must say, I had a really good time. So, it was, I felt the moderator did a really good job. I thought he was fair. All the debates on the floor of the assembly hall, I thought were fair. There were several votes that didn't go the way I wanted them to go. But I felt all the debates and discussions, I thought were fair, honest, and respectful. And so, thank y'all for allowing me to go serve our denomination last week in Richmond, Virginia. But it is good to be back here with my church family. So, please join me as I ask the Holy Spirit to now bless the preaching of the Word. Lord Spirit, you, you live inside of all of us who have a saving faith in Christ. The third person of the Godhead. The one who is leading us into all truth. The one who prays for us. The one who gives us courage, peace, and hope, understanding of truth. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will help us to be sensitive to your voice and to your urging and to your leading of us. I pray that you will continue to minister to our hearts and to our minds as we come to the preaching of the Word. If you're not moving along with the Word, it can fall on dead hearts. It can fall onto minds that are just struggling with unbelief. So, Spirit, I pray that you will penetrate all of us. Our heart emotions, our heart hearts, and help us to be able to allow the Spirit of the Word to land and fertile soil that it can grow in us. Encourage us, convict us, change us, comfort us. You know us better than we know ourselves, Spirit. And you know just what each person here needs from this service. From the announcements all the way through the benedictions. You know what we need. You know what we need to take from this time. Help us to breathe. Help us to inhale and exhale. Help us to relax. Help us to be fully present today. Not just thinking about what's coming, not thinking about lunch, not thinking about dessert, not thinking about video games. I think about the Sunday nap, or what we got to do next week on our jobs, or the kids schedules, the camps, or VBS. Right now is what we are. All we have is this moment. So for the next few minutes as we open up prescriptions, I pray that all of us will be present, that our minds will be centered, and our hearts will be anchored. And I pray for all this in Christ's name. Amen. Steve was getting really fed up with old man-winner. Old man-winner had Steve feeling like a cage lion cooped up and restricted. Steve was tired of running on his treadmill. He longed to go outside for the great outdoors. He longed to be outside of him. So on a 35-degree day in late March, Steve decided he was going to go for a run on this, on a trail in a local state, or in a local county park. And Steve, he felt joy while he was running outdoors, even though it was cold. And he wrote it in his article. He said, "The cool breeze, combined with the warm sun, was a pleasant contrast. The fresh air filled my lungs with pleasure." But now as he ran further, the trail quickly turned into mud. He was still winter, and the ice was melting. So it was soft, and it was slippery, which made it difficult for him to maintain his balance and endurance. So as Steve continued to struggle through the mud, he eventually passed a couple who was walking by, and the couple tried to warn him what was ahead. And the husband said, "Too muddy there. It's too muddy there." Steve smiled. He thanked them for the heads up, but he didn't turn around. He was determined. He kept taking the next money step. He kept moving forward to the end of a 4.5 mile muddy trail. Later in the article, Steve wrote, "Life presents us with muddy roads daily." Life presents us with muddy roads daily. Those challenges that seem to be difficult and insurmountable ones that test our mental and physical capabilities. Those barriers are an illusion. It is not the physical and the mental barriers that block us. It is our perception of those barriers that block us. It is our perception of those barriers that block us. So what barriers are you facing right here on this Sunday, June 23rd, 2024? What barriers have you faced this week on your job, on your relationships, in your own mental health, in your own struggles, in your own faith? And what are your perception of those barriers? Take a moment, pause, reflect. What are the perception of the barriers that you're facing? This question is not just for the adults. It's for the kids as well. Those kids are people too, and they have their own little barriers. Sometimes it's the parents, but they have them. And what are your perception of those barriers? In Philippians 1, verses 27 through 30, we come across two barriers faced by the Philippian Christians, two barriers faced by the Christians in Philippi. You see, a healthy understanding of those barriers will help them experience a joy-filled life. How many of you want to experience a joy-filled life as a Christian? Raise your hand. Yes, we all do. You can be a Christian and not be mad about it. You can be. You can have joy. You can. And so having a healthy understanding of the barriers that we face will also help us experience a joy-filled life. Because it's not the physical and the mental barriers that block us, it is our perception of them. So what are the two barriers that we're going to come across? I preached on one a few weeks ago, who remembers it. Man, I can be the host of Jeopardy. Internal unrest is a barrier that Philippians face. You see, their differences and their personal preferences create the barrier. Their differences and their personal preferences create the barrier. If you remember that sermon a few weeks ago, the church at Philippi is made up of Christians who are Roman citizens, and there are some who are not Roman citizens. So for the Christians in the church who are Roman citizens, they get certain privileges that non-citizens do not get to partake of. And one of those privileges was they didn't have to pay certain taxes. And so if you're in a church with other believers, and you know there's a group of believers that have privileges that you don't have, then what's going to eventually happen? What's going to eventually happen in that church? Conflict with eventually happening. And another thing about the Church of Philippi is that Philippi was known as Little Rome. Philippi was the military colony, so a lot of Roman soldiers lived there. Retired soldiers lived there. So in this church you have soldiers, military, even have those who are not military. So you have all these differences in this one church. Now they're all Gentiles, but they also come from different backgrounds, different experiences, and different purposes. And so this has led to internal conflict. You see this barrier, seeing this barrier in a negative light, has resulted into disunity, self-centeredness, relational friction, and competition. The Christians in Philippi are under attack. And it's important for them to band together. It's important to them to understand what is actually happening. The Apostle Paul uses military terminology to illustrate that point. He says, "Continue to stand firm in one spirit." "Continue to stand firm in one spirit." Stay in your pulse like an active duty soldier. Stand firm in a defensive position. The Philippians are urged to join forces to defend their position from attacks. And so what you think they're defending, they are defending their unity. They are defending their unity. That's the position that they are to guard, and that's the position they are to defend. A lack of a healthy perception of our differences and our personal preferences on the mind of our Christian unity. They're under mind. You see, disunity and self-centeredness are attacks within our own ranks. Relation of friction and competition is us ambushing our own platoon. There is a dangerous tendency for Christians in every local church to eventually turn on themselves. There's a natural tendency for that. It can happen here, it can happen in any local church. It can. There's a general on the battlefield. The Apostle Paul passionately delivers imperative orders to correct and to inspire us. He says, "Defend your unity, Philippians, from yourselves." Defend your unity, TVC, from yourselves. So how do we safeguard our Christian unity from internal threats and unrest? How can we ensure that our differences and personal preferences do not weaken our unity? It requires a better understanding of themselves, a better understanding. The Apostle Paul gives us in the Philippians this understanding. He gives us a healthier perspective. See, there's a gift of grace that the Spirit can use to change the perception of our differences and personal preferences. This block of sermons that I've been on is all about the gifts of grace. We've already talked about the same until life. There's the gift of grace. We already talked about salvation. That too is a gift of grace. And so the grace that he's talking about here is the grace of stewardship. Stewardship. A steward manages and oversees what belongs to another person. All Christians, if you are Christian, if you are someone who believes in a nice and creed, if you are someone who has saved in faith in Jesus and Jesus is your savior, Jesus is your Lord, and you are in union with him. You are in union with him. You are in fellowship with him. All the blessings of God comes to you through Christ. You are now beloved. You are now adopted sons and daughters. You now have grace. You now have justification by faith. You have forgiveness. You have been sanctified. And eventually all of us are going to reach glory and get out of new bodies. Eventually when Christ returns to all the blessings of the kingdom that we experience as Christians, all come to us through the finished work of Christ through his finished work. And so he laid down his life to make you his own, through his shed blood. Because only his blood could taunt for our sins. And sin is not just the unrighteous things you do. It's the righteous things we do as well. Because sin is a heart issue, not a behavior issue. Oh, from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speak and we make decisions. So you can do all the right things and still not know Jesus. It's through saving faith given the hearts and lives to him. So when you come to Jesus, he's not just your Savior and your Redeemer. He becomes your King and your Lord. Which Jesus do you love more? Jesus the Savior or Jesus the Lord? Which one do you love more? Can you have one without the other? And so as your Lord, that means everything about us, everything about you belongs to him. Your our minds, our bodies, our souls, our time, our talents, our treasures, they all now belong to Jesus. And we are simply stewards of it. Parents, your kids are not your kids. They're his kids. You are stewards of them. You don't own them. You're stewards. Kids, the technology, your homework, all that stuff you think you own, that's God stuff. You to be a steward of it. Are we good stewards of what God has given us? Are we good stewards of it? As Christians in America, our civil liberties and our American rights belong to Jesus, not us. We are to steward them in a way that brings him out of it. Are we doing that? As Christians, our lives in America are for Jesus and his glory. As Christians, the way we operate in TBC is for Jesus and for his glory. As Christians, we are simply stewards of everything we think we own. Young people, some of you are going to go to college. Some of you are going to go to the college you want to. You're probably going to graduate with honors, you're going to get that first job. You're going to finally get that house you want. You're going to finally get a car you want. But I want you to know if you are a Christian, that stuff does not belong to you. It belongs to Jesus. All of it. Some of us don't have joy because we treat our life. We walk around with our life like this. Like this. Who's seeing fine and emo? What was those seagulls stay where everything falls to the ground? Mine. That's how we live our life. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. I'm going to tell you here because it's mine. I'm going to do this because it's mine and Jesus says no baby. It's mine. The more you try to control your life, the less joy you're going to have in it. The more you try to control your family and your kids, the less joy you're going to have being a parent and a spouse. You can't control everything because you're not God. Thank God you're not God. Thank God I'm not God. So most of our life as Christians is God peeling back our hands from around our stuff. And as Christians in America, we have a lot of stuff. We accumulate a lot of stuff. But are we students of it? Are we using it for his glory or for our glory? Are we using it to advance his kingdom or our kingdom? This is convincing stuff because I think I spend most of my time trying to build my kingdom. And I can tell you, my kingdom has a name. It's called comfort. And it's the name of your kingdom too. We love comfort. And most of the things that we do is to ensure we don't lose it because we won't be comfortable. I got to tell you, God has not promised us that. He promises many things, but he has not promised us a comfortable life. On behalf of Jesus, we are to steward our differences and personal preferences in our church in a way that maintains the unity of the spirit and a bond of peace. For example, the assessment results revealed that the political affiliations in our church are diverse. I mean diverse. 59% of you are older. 20% are Democrat. 13% Republican and 6% are libertarian. How are we going to steward that? How will we steward that diversity in this upcoming election? How will we? How will we treat one another? Let's drive to maintain unity in the midst of our diversity, our generation of diversity, our ethnic diversity, our vocational diversity, our educational diversity, our agenda diversity. Can we maintain a unity in the midst of that? I'm not talking about uniformity where we don't talk about disagreements. I'm talking about true Christianity that stands unified where they share perspective and solidarity and the commitment to each other. Let's use our differences and personal preferences to bless and to build up TVC. This church does not belong to us. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jesus. And we have to be stewards of the way we steward this local body of Christ. We cannot put our flag down here. There's only one flag and it's an actual cross. And it's here. It's here. Let's continue to stand firm in one spirit and through the spirit we can press a beer even doing conflicts and disagreements because those will happen. Even when people who love you challenge your views on social issues. Those views on social issues here will be challenged because we all don't think that the same. Political issues will maybe challenge. And that's okay. We're looking for uniformity. We're looking for true unity that's willing to engage and even talk about hard stuff so that it can draw us close to the good and create better understanding. Because if we can't do it here as Christians, how do we expect pagans to do it when we don't even do it? How do we expect a pagan country to live by Christian values when people who are called Christians can't do it? That makes sense. But I love for one another. The world would know what? If you are my disciple. So easy but so hard. So easy but so hard. So when we realize that we, that even when it comes to our differences in person preferences, we are stewards of those things, I believe that can give us a little more humility as we deal and do life with people who are different. Because that simply means my way and always the right way. My way is not always the right way. My view is not always the right view. It takes humility to be able to say that from everybody here. From everybody here. How are your relationships with your parents be if you have humility? They say you know what? I don't know everything mom. You got more years than I do. I don't know it all. I come across as if I do. But you know you're right. I don't know it all. Now some of you kids, you ain't going to be able to say that until you and your 40s and you have kids. And that's your parents revenge. Yeah, well, that's a treating father or father on this one tree. So humility. Be stewards of what you have. Be stewards. In wartime, in wartime, soldiers eventually switch from defending against attacks to launching their own attacks. If you ever been in war, I'd ever been in war. I'd seen a lot of war movies, but I'd never been in war. So you, as a soldier, you said times you're going to defend a position. Then there's going to be times when you're trying to take a position. My enemy. So you're eventually going to move from defense to offense, from holding a position to taking a position from blocking punches to delivering punches. The next barrier Paul addresses will require the Philippians and us to take an offensive position to take a proactive approach. And this barrier is external unrest. So one of the reasons Paul is writing to the Philippians is not just because they give them an update on what's going on with him. Because again, he's on house arrest. He's been on house arrest for four years now. So he's currently on house arrest in Rome. So he's not writing this letter from a place of comfort. He's writing his letter from a place of being in jail. And so he is writing this because he has got word that there are issues going on in the church, the internal issues that I just spoke about, and also the external unrest as well. So they are experiencing the same things that Paul is experiencing. Fighting the same battles that he is currently, has fought and is currently fighting in Rome. The saints are facing external pressures, afflictions and opposition. In verse 28, Paul refers to these external forces as your opponents. The opponents are the Philippians. The people are, they are people standing in opposition to the saints in Philippi. And notice Paul doesn't call him, he doesn't name any names. I find that interesting. Because I think the Philippians know who he's talking about. When people are against you, you know who they are. You know, sometimes they make it clear that they want you to know. And so who are these opponents? For my study in research, it's the pagan raised residents of Philippi who were fully committed and participating in the imperial court court court court court court court. And so as Philippians, they are trying to move away from the paganism of Rome because they found a new God. And so if you're trying to move away from that and you've got those who don't understand why you're doing that, again, what can that create with those relationships? Friction and conflict. Are you familiar with the phrase standing on business? What does it mean? When someone comes to you and say, "I'm standing on business," what do they mean by that? Standing on business means to be about the grind. It means taking care of your business and affairs. It's held in your obligations. The Christians in Philippi are standing on business in the face of opposition. Jesus is the Lord and Savior, not the Roman Emperor. Jesus is. The allegiance of two are greater kingdom, greater than Rome, and greater than Little Rome, which is known in Philippi. They're standing on God's business. God's truth, God's gospel, God's mission, God's people. If you decide to stand on God's business, you will face external opposition as a Christian. It's just a matter of time. Now, it might not look like the serpent who's persecuted church is experiencing. You will face that even here in America. When there are people and systems and laws and ideologies and politics and social movements, you will face opposition from those and sometimes from other Christians. When you make a stance, they're on standing on God's business, on standing on what is true. There are external forces at work in our culture that would make you question the sufficiency of Scripture. And that in your theological beliefs, be mindful. Be mindful here as they may guide you down a path that deconstruction causing you to question the very existence of God when they're down with you. Be careful. Guard yourself. Be mindful. Be wise. Be innocent as a serpent and wise, innocent as a dove and wise as a serpent. As a church, we're committed to standing firm on biblical truths and theological truths. An external opposition may arise and lacking a healthy understanding may prevent us from experiencing a joy-filled life. How do we effectively respond to opposition that targets our Christian beliefs and fellow Christians? How do we respond to that? How will we respond to that? A friend of mine was a street preaching in Seattle years ago. And as he was preaching, he said he was up to preach for like four to five minutes. And eventually two men came up next to him and stood on one man still on his right, on his left and one man still on his right. The whole four to five minutes while he was preaching these two men just stood there. And so after he finished the sermon, he inquired about their identity and who are these two men? He asked him, "Why are you standing here beside me?" So the two men were Christians and they told my friend, "We stood next to you for your protection as you preached the word of God." Paul exhorts the Philippians and us to stand to gather in the face of external opposition. The press to the church knows a lot about this. They stand together because they all they got. And it's hard for us sometimes to wrap our minds around the importance of the communion of saints because gathering for us sometimes is optional here in America. It's just optional. So Paul kept in America in any game, he urges us to assemble. He writes, "With one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." Assemble. Assemble. Shoulder to shoulder for the faith of the gospel. That should be our first response. We're to rally to one another. To rally to one another in the face of opposition and affliction. We support one another. We speak the truth and love together. We give a reason for the hope that we have in this life together. As one people, the body of Christ, we stand on God's business together as one people. As one people. We stand on business without fearing anything that may happen to us. Anything that whoever our opponents may be in word, be social media or podcast. Even one day, if we as Christians lose all of our American rights. Because we refuse to deny our faith, we would be okay. But do you believe that? At least no, our civil liberties are not kingdom liberties. It's just because we live in America. People don't get it twisted. This is because we live here. Those are not things that God promises. I get a house in allowance as a pastor. A tax benefit. Is that a kingdom benefit? Or is it because I'm a pastor in America? I'm a pastor in America. So when those things are taken away, and if you believe, if you confuse those with kingdom privileges, then you're going to thank God that's punishing you. No. He's not punishing you. When you stand on God's business, everybody ain't going to be for you. And if the church in America stands on God's business, eventually we may lose some of those benefits. And then that'll be okay. That'll be okay. How can we reach a place where we face external opposition in pressure without fear? How can we as American Christians get to a place where we can say if I lose all my civil liberties because of my faith, I'm going to be okay. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be okay. How can we get to that place? It requires a better understanding. It requires a healthier perspective. And the Apostle Paul gives it to us. You see, there's a gift of grace that the spirit uses to change our perception of external opposition. The suffering. Suffering. There's a gift of grace. Thank you, verse 20. For it has been granted to y'all because that you did through. So if Jesus Paul was in the south, he'd be like, "It has been granted to y'all. For the sake of Christ, y'all should not only believe in him, but also suffer." How does that fit with your soul? How does that fit with your spirit? And you really got to take that in. It has been granted to us. Not only that we should believe in Jesus. Not only should we have faith in Jesus, but he says it has been granted to us that we also suffer. For a group of people like us who really don't know what it means to be persecuted for our faith. Uncomfortable. That's very uncomfortable. Isn't uncomfortable to you? Many of us love being a Christian. I love being a Christian. But you know what I love more? In a Christian in the mouth. I'll be honest about mine. For the sake of Christ, we are to endure a hardship on his behalf. Again, the apostle Paul, as he writes this letter, he writes this letter in the midst of hardship and the midst of suffering because he's in jail for the faith. And he encourages us in the Philippians to do the same because somehow God uses our suffering to advance his purposes in our life. Remember early in the chapter, Paul was like, God is using my hardship to advance the kingdom where I am. And in that he rejoices and that he finds joy. Not in the suffering itself, but in how God is using it. And how God is using it. In Philippians 1st, the word that God has begun in you, it includes Satan until life. It includes salvation. It includes stewardship and it includes suffering. We don't have a theology of suffering in America because it's not in our context. It's not in the history of the black church, it has the idea that we're born out of suffering. We don't have that. We don't like talking about that because it's uncomfortable. It's not sexy. But suffering has always been part of our faith. As Christ said, if they persecuted me, they would do the same thing. If you know anything about church history, Christianity and Rome was known as the way. And Christians were persecuted. It was a persecuted faith. And guess what happened that changed that? It was Christian to me. That's when Christianity became the official religion of Rome. Guess what that meant? You couldn't advance in Rome if it wasn't a Christian. At that point, everybody was a Christian. You couldn't advance politically if it was a Christian. So Christian dumb is when Christianity moved from a persecuted faith to a protected faith. But historically, the church has always been a persecuted church. It has always been that way. And somehow I can't explain it. It grows more. The church grows more when the world tries to destroy it. The church in China is growing. The church in the persecuted world is growing faster there than it is here. Somehow, the more the enemy tries to destroy the church, the more it grows. Because God uses the sufferings of His people for His glory and somehow for their good and your suffering. Whatever it is you experiencing or whatever it is you may experiencing is not in vain. You are not being tortured. I will try you when God is using our suffering to bring about good in our lives and to glorify Him. Yes, it's not going to feel good. It's not supposed to feel good. But we have to hold on to the fact that God is not torturing us. He is with us. He will see us to the end. And that's joy in that reality. Joy in that reality. Here's another thing TBC thinks. We in this church do not have to suffer alone. You don't. You don't have to come here and pretend like everything is great. You don't have to do that. We can assemble together in the face of our hardships and sufferings. But we won't if we don't trust one another. We won't if we don't give each other benefit or doubt. We won't if we don't believe this is the same place to be honest about our pain. And what we actually give them is. One of my favorite lines from the movie Gladiator is where Maximus says to his Roman troops he says that my signal unleashed hell. The hell that we unleashed on our opponents is what Jesus unleashed on them. He killed them with kindness. He killed them with love. He killed them with truth. He killed them with compassion. He killed them with forgiveness. We as a church are not instruments of God's judgment. We walk in bibles of his grace. The spirit does that. We're not here to tell people who's going to hell who's not going to hell. Now we hold people accountable. But none of us will be where we are without God's grace. And all of us are just two or three paychecks away from doing what other people we just other people for. We're doing the very thing. Don't ever say what you won't do. Because if you haven't done it yet, because you haven't been put to the test. Because when you in it, it's always easy to stand on my reality when we're in it. But when you in it, when your back up is up against the wall, you're going to do the very thing you said you would never do. So you better praise God. None of us have committed the worst because God's grace. Not because of our days. Not because of our morality. It's the cause of God's grace and mercy in our life. So as we face the hardships, we unleash hell. The hell that Christ unleashed, we do that shoulder to shoulder. Father, forgive them, but they do not know what they do. We can stand as the hands and feet of Jesus together. And without fear, we can face whatever opposition and suffering may come our way. We can do that together. The communion of saints is one of the most beautiful, beautiful means of grace that God has given us. And many of us take it for granted. But when hardships come, if persecution ever comes to this country, then this is going to be the place that you're going to rattle to. Because at the end of that, we're going to be all we got. So let's live like we're in a mis-suppression, let's live that way now. So that if it comes, we won't be surprised by it. It's struck now, but not destroyed. We're just talking about it. We're just talking about it. One commentator says, Jesus offers another avenue of responding to our opponents. Confidence grounded in God's grace. That frees you to react to opponents with calm kindness. And thawling fellow believers for humility and forgiveness. Because we are just also recipients of such mercy and forgiveness. For TVC Saints, at my signal, I unleash hell this week. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for the fact that these gifts are grace. Sanctative life, salvation, stewardship, and even suffering you give to us. I like the first three, I don't really like the last one. But somehow you use it. So my prayer is that as we deal with the things that we deal with, that we help us to know we don't have to deal with them alone. Help us to know that we can rally to one another. And I pray that when we rally to one another, that we assemble together, that there will be compassion and humility there. Knowing that we're stronger together than we are apart. And so as this church, Father, I pray that you will help us to meditate on these means of grace. These gifts of grace go back and listen to the other sermons. Help us to be able to believe them. Help us to be able to know that whatever we're struggling with right now, whatever we're facing, whatever suffering we're dealing with, you understand. You knew it would be where we are because of the work you started and us started long before creation. Sir, you're not surprised about struggles without a struggle with fear, questions that we may have. I just pray that you will meet our needs and that you will build us up. And I pray for all this in Christ's name. Science, will you please stand as we close our service? Alright, this song goes pretty fast, so I thought I'd talk through some of these lyrics before we get into all of it because I don't want to pass us by because this is straight from scripture, a lot of this. And so I wanted to take a second and just dwell on it so that we've got it before we just sing through it all. So it starts out with a bunch of questions about who breaks the power of an endowment, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, and then it says the king of glory, the king above all kings. And it repeats things like that several times in the song, and the chorus is, "This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love that you would take my place and that you would ban my cross." Which is just what we were just talking about, our inability to do anything outside of grace, just our darkness and our evil outside of the grace that he's given us. And so the only response for that is covered in the bridge where we sing, "Worthy is the land that was lit." And a worthy is the king who conquered the grave. So I invite you guys to sing that and to appraise that and to push that back out to him, that you would remember the grace that you have received and that you would respond in the only way that there is to respond to understanding what you have been given. Who breaks the power of sin and darkness whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the king of glory, the king above all kings. Who shakes the hold earth with holy thunder and leaves us breathless and on one third, the king of glory, the king of all kings. This is unfailing grace. This is unfailing love that you would take my place and that you would ban my cross. If you lay down your life, then I would be a deathly. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Who brings our pagan back into order, who makes the organ? I've thought and thought of the king of glory, the king of glory, who rules the nation with his ingestion, shines like the sun in all of its brilliance, the king of glory, the king of all kings. This is an amazing grace. This is unfailing love that you would take my place and that you would ban my cross. If you lay down your life, then I might be a deathly. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Worthy is the level of fame. Worthy is the king who conquered this grave. Worthy is the level of fame. Worthy is the king who conquered this grave. Worthy is the level of fame. Worthy is the king who conquered this grave. Worthy is the level of fame. Worthy, worthy, worthy of this is amazing grace. This is unfailing love that you would take my place. Now you would ban my cross. If you lay down your life, then I might be a deathly. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. I know you've done for me. Amen. Jesus took our place. Jesus bore our cross. That is unfailing love and that is amazing grace. He has God's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And all God's people say, "Amen, please greet one another saints."
Welcome to The Village Church, where broken people come together to embrace and extend Christ's love.