May 4, 2025 • 46 mins
Philippians 3:15-21; 4:1-3 - Let Us Live Up To... Message by Adam Meredith at The Red Door Community Church.
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We're jumping into Philippians.
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We're sort of nearing the end of ourseries, and so this morning, as in
this afternoon as well, we're gonnabe from chapter three verses 15.
So the end of chapter threeinto the very start of chapter
four, verses one to three.
So we're gonna read it together,says this, all of us, everyone
say, all of us then who are matureshould take such a view of things.
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Full stop.
And if on some point youthink differently, that too,
God will make clear to you.
Only let us live up.
Everyone say live up.
Let us live up to whatwe have already attained.
Join together in following my example,brothers and sisters, and just as you
have us as a model, keep your eyes onthose who live as we do for, as I have
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often told you before, and now I tellyou again, even with tears, many live
as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their destiny is destruction.
Their God is their stomachand their glory is.
In their shame, their mind is set onearthly things, but our citizenship is in
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heaven and we eagerly way a way to savioryou from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who by the power that enables him tobring everything under his control
will transform our lowly bodiesinto that, so into our body so that
they will be like his glorious body.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, youwho my love and long for my cr joy and
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crown stand firm in the Lord in this way.
Dear friends, I plead.
With Odier and I plead with you.
Sin tiki.
Tiki sin.
There we go.
To be of the same mind in the Lord.
Yes, and I'll ask you my truecompanion help these women since
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they have contended at my side inthe cause of the gospel, along with
Clement and the rest of my coworkerswhose names are in the book of life.
That's our reading for today.
And so I, wanna begin,
this way.
There's a story of a man in the early19 hundreds who'd lost everything.
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We're talking about London, England here.
He'd lost family and Francehome possessions, work.
He'd lost everything, including his hope.
But the only thing he didhave was a ticket on a large
passenger cruiser to America.
The caber he was in was in the lowestpart of the boat, the cheapest room
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with a hammock for a bed, and the triptook for over a week, and as the ship
pulled up at the dock in New York,the exiting passenger shook the hand
of the captain as they disembarked,and the captain met this man.
And he asked why did he not see him eatingin the hall during the Atlantic crossing?
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And the man replied, oh, I'm sorry, sir.My, my ticket was just for the ride.
I, I couldn't afford the food.
So I stayed in the cabin and the captaininformed the man that all the food,
even a meal at the captain's table, wasincluded in the price of the ticket.
It says here Paul's saying,only let us keep in.
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Step, step into live, up to stepinto what you have already attained.
You've not just been given a ticket,you've been given a life that is to
be lived with Christ and with Christ.
There's so much more to experience.
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Paul's saying, actually, it's possiblefor you to believe in the finished work of
Jesus, but still miss out on the abundantlife that Jesus offers every single
one of us, his children are you living?
This is a question for us this morning.
Are you living the life that youthink God has imagined for you?
Are you living a life like you readin the New Testament that you hear
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about in the early church history?
Maybe moments in.
The history of the church, thelast 200 years of evangelical
missionization of the word.
Are you living a, a life that's kindof on purpose with passion and vision
seeking first the kingdom of God, orare you seeking first your own kingdom?
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Or have you started to believe,well, I'm just a second class
kind of citizen, Christian.
Citizen in the kingdom of God.
Have you started to believe,well, that kind of thing, you're
describing this kind of abundantlife, this on mission kind of life.
Well, that's just for the special people.
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It's not actually for me.
Paul is.
I think Paul was telling us here thatthese stories that he talks about,
that he's experiencing, that thesesort of stories can be your stories.
He's calling us to live up towhat we've already attained.
That's what it says in verse 16.
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And so Paul, what is he referring to?
What is it that he's already attained?
What does he have?
Well, based on the earlier part of chapterthree, verses eight through to 12, we're
told Paul believes that he's alreadyattained Christ, that he can know Christ,
know him, know God, and be found in him.
And Paul lists kind of in this moment,in the buildup to what we're just read,
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he's listing the things that in his priorlife, he attained his accomplishments.
And then he says fromverse eight, which was.
What we read, a coupleweeks ago, I'm gonna read it
again from Earth verse eight.
These prior accomplishments,he considers them garbage.
That he may gain Christ and be foundin him not having a righteousness of
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my own that comes from the law, butthat which is in faith through faith
in Christ Jesus, the righteousness thatcomes from God on the basis of faith.
I wanna know Christ yes, to knowthe power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferingsbecoming like him in his death.
And so somehow attaining tothe resurrection of the dead.
Don't miss this.
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Not that I've already attained allthis or that I've already arrived at
my goal, but I press on to take holdthat which Christ took hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not considermyself yet to have taken hold of it,
but one thing I do, forgetting whatis behind and straining toward what
is ahead, I press on towards the goalto win the prize for which God has
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called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Is there real authenticity as you,you read that it's quite inspiring.
Do you feel your heart stir?
Like in the reality they like, thisis Paul speaking and he's like, I
haven't even already attained it,I'm still working towards this.
What, what is he already attained?
That's kind of this questionmark that's lingering and, and he
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points at it in different places.
But I kind of wanna summarize it inthis way this morning and I wanna.
Potentially introduce you to, threetheological concepts, just to
help us grasp what he's attained.
And many of you'll know these words.
I've got them on the screen.
These words are very theological.
They're justification,sanctification, glor, glorification.
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Now what, what are these things?
I've, I read this week this way,and I thought this was quite
interesting.
Say justification
is this, you saved from,from the penalty of sin.
Sanctification is you saved from thepractice of sin and glorification
saved from the presence of sin.
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Just, kind of explain those a littlebit more Justification reminds us
that Jesus Christ has done everythingnecess necessary for our salvation.
He's paid the penaltythat our sins deserved by
sacrificial death on the cross.
His death satisfied God's justiceand turned away his wrath from us.
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And, but Jesus also lived the perfectlife, and by his righteous obedience
to God's lo, both Christ's, sacrifice.
He's, he satisfies the.
The penalty of judgment.
He satisfies that, but he's also, hisperfect righteousness is given to us.
It's words, ideas imputed to us.
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It's credited to us.
It's ours by grace, through faith,and we're all meant to take comfort
in the fact that this has all beendone for us, and that when the
father in heaven looks upon Jesus.
Actually, he looks upon us asthough we are completely free.
We are completely sinless.
We are as perfect as Jesus is.
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That's how the father looks upon us.
Justification, sanctification is thework of God's free grace, whereby
we are renewed into the whole man.
The whole image of God.
We are enabled, more and more to dieto sin, to live unto righteousness.
When you are in the middle ofprocess of sanctification sin, the
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practice of sin begins to look sorepulsive because you've got this
beautiful new affection in your life.
It's called your desire to seek after God.
And as.
Those gone before us said there's likethis explosive power of a new love.
I love Jesus.
And so the attractivenessof sin gets less and less.
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This is the journey of sanctification,
glorification.
This means
that there's the sinand consequences of sin.
No more sickness, no more fear.
Where sanctify sanctificationis the transformational process.
Glorification is this kind of ideathat we are arriving more and more
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into the actual body of Jesus.
We're actually becoming glorified,like Jesus is glorified.
And this is an interesting dynamicbecause we can talk about that as in
it's kind of happening today in part,but we know there's gonna be a day
where that is gonna happen in full.
Is this making sense to everyone?
The reason why I speak like this is'cause sometimes when we read these
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ideas, we think about the idea thatjustification has already been done.
It's like a, like a past concept.
And then we think aboutglorification, we think, well, that's
definitely in the future, right?
And then sanctification.
Well, that's kinda likewhat we're in right now.
And I wanna submit to you todaythat all three are currently
happening here and now.
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Right now it's not like.
So I think in the, in the churchgenerally, there's been an emphasis
on justification and glorification.
And sanctification.
Well, that all seems like a lot ofhard work, so we'll try and sort of
downgrade that a little bit because thefirst, the first and the last kind of
have this great sense of hope, right?
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But the reality is weare all in this process.
So the Bible says to work out yoursalvation with fear and trembling,
that's happening even right now.
I need Jesus today just as much as theday I first believed for my justification.
Would you agree?
So it's not just like a past dynamic.
And this glorification dynamic isa sense, yes, the fulfillment of
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it might be in the future, but thereality effect of it can actually sit
and affect me in the here and now.
Does that make sense?
Like should I live in hope today,that I have a future that is
perfect with God that should.
Move my heart.
I just wanna quickly add to this,'cause someone, when we read this,
which I love the language thereby the way, that's fantastic.
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But the, one of the common wordsthere is the idea we're saved from,
I just wanna give you a anotherquick way of thinking about it.
That we're actually not just savedfrom, we're saved to something.
And so justification is we're savedto forgiveness and righteousness.
We are children of God.
Sanctification we're saved to alife of holiness and obedience and
glorification we're saved to an eternalperfection in God's presence because
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sometimes if we don't have a vision forwhat we're actually after, sometimes
this idea we're saved from somethingactually doesn't lead us with vision.
And what's Paul's starting here?
He's saying live up to whatyou have already attained.
So we've gotta understand whatwe've already attained in order
to live up to that very thing.
Would you agree?
Awesome.
You're with me.
I'm liking this.
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Well done Paul.
You are making this nice and clear, butthere's a lot, like sometimes when we
read scripture, you gotta understandlike the foundation before you can kind
of go and rip into where are we headed.
Okay.
In a general sense that church has beenemphasizing kind of one over the other.
But the reality is they'reall at play right now.
These three things, it's thisjourney of sanctification we
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find ourselves in right now.
It's this journey of justificationwe find ourselves in right now,
but you've gotta understandthat what is motivating us?
It is powered by the spirit.
It's powered by joy and peace becausethis is what we've already attained.
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It's either gonna be that as yourmotivation, joy, and peace, and the
spirit of God, or it's gonna be motivatedby obligation and insecurity in order
to get something from God, right?
The latter will nevertransform you like the former.
Sanctification is thework that's going on now.
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Justification is a workthat's going on right now.
Glorification is the workthat's going on right now.
But my question to all of us is thisprocess in you, in forming a joy, is
there a joy in the midst of this process?
For instance, has this processbecome onerous to you, become
heavy, become a sense of, ah,it's just all bit hard, you know?
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Because this process is actually formingus more and more into the person of Jesus.
So it is becoming more like Jesus is a,is that a joy to you or a burden to you?
That, that's a really good question.
Maybe you feel that it's a burdenbecause, well, as, as much as I do this
journey, I feel like I never arrive.
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I don't feel ever feel likeI've become like Jesus yet.
Okay, now.
What's been interesting in this series,and you know I have Dale to blame on
this particular front, is she's dividedthe scripture into certain ways.
So last session we did chapterthree, verses It ended on verse
14, and today we're kicking offfrom chapter three verse 15.
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So.
Where we ended, which I kind of, I
already read.
I do not
consider myself to have taken hold ofher, but one thing I do, forgetting
what is behind straining forward presson towards the goal, which Christ has
called me, Heatherwood, E Christ Jesus.
So like newsflash, noteven Paul attained it, so.
That's interesting.
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Now have that in your mind.
Pick up verse 15, which says, and weread it before, all of us then who are
mature should take a view of such things.
What?
What things.
Paul is actually beingdirectly ironic here.
Paul's saying true Christianmaturity is knowing that you have
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not fully arrived at maturity yet.
Yeah, I thought I, I thought I'dhave that request 'cause I had to
think about it a couple of times.
So you've gotta remember Paul'stalking about what is he attained?
He then tells us to, Ihaven't already attained it.
I'm working towards it,but I'm pressing on.
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But he's pointing to, remember thearch, the arching goal here is to become
Christ-like having joy, maturity, unity.
And he's saying here, Christian maturity,as I repeat the quote, Christian
maturity, is knowing that you havenot fully arrived at maturity yet.
So what does that build into your heart?
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That thought should build into humility.
It should build you into you likea constant openness to be ready to
grow, to ready to understand, notjust mentally cerebrally, but step
into experientially more of what it isto know Christ and be formed by him.
Now, there's some of you out therethat might go, Adam, the moment
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you believe you become fullytransformed into the image of Jesus.
And you might reference SecondCorinthians five 17 and go.
It says, well, if anyone's inChrist, they're a new creation.
The oldest come.
The oldest passed away.
The new has come.
You know that scripture, I've beenfascinated by this transformational
journey that we're all on fascinatedbecause I think part of my accountant
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brain kind of wants to create process andcategories and how does this all work?
And part of it honestly is like themystery, but part of it is we can also
grapple with it to, to cooperate withwhat the spirit is doing in all of us.
Okay?
So I want you to think about.
The transformation of the all of you,a hundred percent of you, not just 5%.
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All of you now.
All of us have been madein the image of God.
And one way to think about howwe have been made is that we
are made as mind, body, spirit.
Now, when you say yes to Jesus, when youinvite him into your world, I do believe
that your spirit man becomes brand new.
The problem is you've got a brainand a body attached to this thing,
like you're one, your whole,you're a whole person, right?
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And so.
There is a journey to go on interms of your mind to be renewed
to the pattern of God's thinking.
God's way of doing.
God's way of thinking about things,God's way of seeing the world, and that's
called Renewing Your Mind, Romans 12.
We could read that together andwe could spend a whole other
message on that, but we won't.
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But then there's also this body,this flesh bag that you carry around.
Would you agree?
Some of us feel less, more like that,and as we get a bit older, but your, your
body, not your flesh bag, let me rephrase.
Your body is actually ona, a process of obedience.
Right.
So the transformation of our fleshis actually a journey of willing
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submission to God's ways becauseyou've renew your mind to it, right?
In obeying, but we don't.
And so we're not just listening toGod's word, we are doing what it says.
James one talks aboutthis Q slide, verse 22.
Do not nearly miss, listen to the word.
So deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
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Oh, I love this picture.
Anyone who listens to the word but doesnot do what it says is someone who looks
like, looks at his face in a mirror andafter looking at himself goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like.
Great imagery.
So good.
I love to do like a shortfilm on that moment.
It's like something outtathe Matrix, you know?
But whoever looks intently intothe perfect law, remember the
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perfect Lord is God's word.
God's word is a mirror.
Shows us who He's, shows us who we are.
Right.
That gives freedom and continues in it.
Forgetting what they, not forgettingwhat they've heard, but doing it.
Transformation of the flesh doing it.
They'll be blessed in what they do.
Why are you blessed in what you do?
'cause you're starting to walkto total transformation of
spirit, mind, flesh bag, right?
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Sorry, I know it's humor.
Sorry.
So let me say like this, the processof transformation is to be with Jesus
through prayer, through word, throughfellowship, to become like Jesus.
I. The reason you may not see howthis is connected to joy, which is
the theme of our series, right, isbecause you've forgotten who you are.
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You've forgotten whose you are,you've forgotten more accurately.
Who is it that lives inside of you?
The creator of the cosmoslives inside of you.
So it's important to remember thatas we engage in this transformational
journey into the person of Jesus.
That maturity is not measuredby, I'll use a new phrase.
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You might not have heard this before.
Maturity and transformation is notmeasured by your watering method.
Watering method.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about your reading ofthe word, your prayer life, your.
Coming to church life, yourfellowship life, it's not measured
by your capacity to do those things.
It's measured, measured by the fruitthat's coming out of that watering space.
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Does that make sense?
So the fruit that's coming out of yourlife is how we discern whether the
transformation is unpacking or not.
Now, praise the Lord.
We have a bit of an idea of how tomeasure that, to measure that fruit love.
Second word is.
Four.
Four of us know the didn'tyou go to Sunday school?
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They spent so much time on thislove, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
Did I get it all?
No.
What'd I miss?
Goodness.
See, I need to go backto Sunday school too.
The most joyous person who is livingin you is the creator of the universe.
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Do you see that?
That person living in you is joyful?
Like you can't get any more joy than thesource of joy who's living inside of you.
He's the source of joy.
Well, how do I know that?
Because it's the fruitof the spirit is him.
The fruit of the spirit is describingJesus, and if he's living inside
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of you, it's only natural tosee joy emanating out of you.
No joy, no fruit.
Mm. Question to ask yourself isgoing, is Jesus taking up ance?
Is he fully alive?
Story.
Oh, there's this greatguy, he's passed away.
Bill Ballantine, everybody I wanna tellyou about this young man, such a champion.
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Edna and Bill used to come to Red Door,some of you know who I'm talking about.
And Bill, got the privilege ofdoing his funeral and his son got
up there and was telling how Billused to act and he was a builder.
So like houses, you know, so.
Concrete pad, bricks, all that stuff,and he's, I just have this picture
of, you know, when the building'sjust got the pad and then you got
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the piles of bricks on the pad.
And this the son, I can't thinkof the son's name, don't remember.
No, missed it.
He's describing Bill as singinghymns all day long, walking
around the pad of this building.
And these workers are justlike, who is this guy?
But all of a. Sudden they beginto see, just like Chris, who comes
down the front and starts ravinglike a small 4-year-old child.
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It's great.
It's good by the way, you know, becausewe've gotta be a childlike faith, right?
It's all good.
But Bill would do this, right?
Bill had joy emanatingout and he didn't care.
He didn't care because what we, ourlives are like a 45 degree mirror, right?
What happens is.
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As we are transformed, that mirrorthat's meant to reflect God.
And showing the world God throughus is the mirror Bill experienced
something that not all of ushave experienced a clean mirror.
The clean mirror just is this purityspace where he can't help but reflect
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the joy of the Lord to others around him.
He's just so clean.
Does that make sense?
Now, remember, I'm not saying yougotta be clean to get God to love you.
No, he loves you.
He wants to make you clean.
The question is, will youcooperate with the transformational
process to make yourself clean?
Lemme rephrase, make yourself clean.
That's not correct.
Jesus wants to make you clean.
He's doing the work.
You just gotta surrender your mirror.
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And let him clean you up.
Now, why was Bill like this?
Oh, another great story.
Bill Belline, his dad was, you know,in England the culture is like the pub,
you know, being down the pub bill's.
Dad was like that, right?
And so, Bill's mom and Bill and, andhis sister, I'm pretty sure used to pray
at home while Bill's dad was at the pub.
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And one day they were just so sickand tired of coming home drunk.
You know, all this whole thingthat comes with that culture.
And so mom and the family are prayingone night that Bill Bill's dad, I
don't know Bill's dad's name, butBill's dad, when he has his first beer
that night, would taste like vinegar.
This is what they're praying,like specific prayers.
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So bang straight through the doorand everyone's like, you know, just
gripping their, their hearts withwhat, what are we gonna get tonight?
And so.
Bill's Dad comes in, he goes, oh,I'm never going back to that pub.
First Pint, tastes like vinegar.
I winched and complained.
So they gave me another one.
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That one tasted like vinegar, differenttap and everything, and he's like blown
away and, and everyone's listening to thisstory just like completely blown away.
That's exactly what they've prayed.
From that point on Bill'sdad never went back to a pub.
He received Jesus thejoy the Lord hit him.
The reason why Bill was like that isbecause he saw his dad transformed
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and became like that Bill was justdoing it like his dad did it full of
joy because he'd been so transformed.
If you believe, do you believe thatyour transform transformational
journey in Christ has ended?
Like, is that it?
Like right now, the condition ofhow, who you are today is that it?
Are you fully, are you, you're done.
I'm good.
Okay.
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Or have you kinda like, ah,it'll, it'll, it'll be enough.
It she'll be right.
I'm just saying there's more.
And would you believe thatthere's more for you to be
transformed to become like him?
Jesus is way bigger thanthe box you put him in.
And so there's more to discoverin this transformational journey.
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And and be assured, oneof those dynamics is joy.
And Paul goes on to say, Hey,follow my example, brothers
and sisters, as you've seen us.
As a model, keep youreyes on those who live.
As we do.
Keep your eyes on to, tolive as those, as we do 2025.
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How much do we sit and rest onthe podcast culture of our world?
It says, imitate and follow.
Hard to imitate and follow a podcast.
If what you wanna become is apodcaster, creating more content.
We don't need more content in 2025.
Everybody.
What we need is authentic communitythat causes followship and
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transformation because I'm imitatingsomeone I live and breathe with.
Why did Jesus, Jesus didn'tgive the disciples a podcast?
It's fine.
You're not gonna, you'relistening to the podcasts, but
not at the expense of community.
Not at the expense.
Don't do that.
Jesus didn't.
One way of thinking about Jesusand, how he, he did this kind
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of followship in imitating him.
Um.
Yeah, I remember Josh and I weretalking about this the other day.
Jesus kinda said, I do you watch?
Jesus said, I do.
You help.
Jesus said, you do.
I help.
Jesus said, you do.
I watch, you know, this sort of journey.
We walked, walked with people,imitate me as I imitate Christ.
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Paul then goes and clarifies this newway of living because in the moment
there's other ways of living that are verypressing and, and relevant and prevalent.
And so in verse 18, I read it before.
Here it is again, as I've often toldyou, and I tell you again with tears.
So see the emotion here,he's crying about this.
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Many live as enemiesof the cross of Christ.
Their destiny is destruction, theirGod is their stomach and their
glory is the in their shame, theirmind is set on earthly things.
And so Paul is highlighting thisand by highlighting those who
live like this, he's teaching us.
To look with new eyes at waysof living that up until now, we
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might have taken for granted.
Yes.
This is the way people go abouttheir lives all around us.
And Paul is saying, pull back the veil.
And look, these lifestylesare dehumanizing.
These ways are corrupting anddestroying these beautiful
creatures called human beings.
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Who the living God made andloves and wants to rescue.
It's here as in many placesthat Paul writes about.
He's wanting the church inPhilippi, Philippi to and to
us today to think differently.
To say no to all of that way ofliving and to come alive in a totally
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new way of being a human being.
And Paul feels is so deeply to thepoint of tears, he's passionate
about people who are blindly justliving like the world and they have
no idea that this system of living.
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Is destroying you.
It's destructive.
Paul is
revealing that, we can become
so it can be some so easily hiddenin the dark that you don't even
this destructive way of livingthat it kind of passes as well.
That's what everyone does.
Well, that's very normal.
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And Paul, and this person is acting likea, like a bit of an alarm right now.
Like, we need someone to sound thealarm around destructive practices
of how we shouldn't be living.
Does that make sense?
We were in, South Africa.
I was remembering this
last night.
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In 2010,
the Mighty Men's Conference,over a hundred thousand blokes.
There.
It
was Mint.
It was such
a powerful time and therewas a group of Australians
there and I got an
opportunity to be there.
It was in, I think it
was Gray Town, somewhere in that area.
I, I believe that is, um.
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Amazing time.
I'll tell you lots of stories.
One story was that we'reall sort of packed up.
Most of the locals are just all, they'reall left, you know, they're all gone.
And us, us Australians aretrying to find something to do.
So we're stacking hay bales orsomething mucking around anyway,
like it's a huge area, right?
So it's a, it's just paddocks, paddocks,hills, just massive amounts of space.
(30:44):
Lots of people, but they'repretty much all gone.
And all, all the week, all the weeklong, you know, they've been concerned
that the weather was gonna justchange and the weather just held up.
It was fantastic.
And we're all, we're just about to leave.
And then a local man starts running down.
Kind of like one of the, the pathways insort of the, the driveways, John Farrell,
(31:05):
I'm trying to say like huge paddock areas.
He's, and he's screaming, run, run.
And we're looking there going.
Okay.
He's sounding an alarm of somedescription, but we have no
idea what you are talking about.
So we stand there watching, observing,what is this alarm he's speaking of?
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We get there and all of a sudden.
Heaven breaks loose in the atmosphereand hailstones the size of cricket
balls start coming out of the skyto the point where we're now running
for cover because all the tents havekind of been packed up and so forth.
But this guy saw something thatwe didn't see, and I think Paul is
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sounding an alarm here to, to, toa, to a, to a, to us, the church.
Don't fall for that
thing where, that's how
people live.
This emphasis towards hedonism andpleasure and food and possessions
and comfort and earthly things.
(32:09):
Paul's revealing that something thatcan be so that's dark, that's so easily
hidden, this destructive lifestylethat it passes for everyday life.
If all you ever think about.
Is what is in the here and now.
You actually, like, you are earth bound.
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You, you're stuck.
You, you're just sitting in anenvironment where all you see
is the physicality, the physicalthings, and you think you conclude
that that's all there actually is.
And so Paul goes through and nowhe's got in verse 20, he says.
No, no, you're not citizens of earth.
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You're citizens of somewhere else.
You're citizens of heaven.
You see,
one of the challenges when we usethe word citizen of heaven, we
get this impression that, we'll,someday we're gonna leave this space
that's broken and we're gonna go.
To heaven.
We're gonna go, we're gonna return to theplace where we were always meant to be.
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But the truth is, the direction is
not, earth to
heaven.
The direction is heaven to earth.
Where actually the life, the culture, thecivilization of heaven, is to birth in
this very contested space here that wecall Earth, so that the people who are
earth bound may be surprised to discoverthere's actually another way to live.
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A heavenly way, a way of the kingdomof God, which is what happens when the
spirit goes to work in us and through us.
'cause Paul says, and we eagerlyawait a savior from there.
So we are eagerly awaitingon earth a savior from there.
So.
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If we were meant to go there, probablyJesus would've taken us there the
day we said yes, but he didn't.
He's left us here, but not alone.
We have his spirit, the spirit of Christliving inside of us, Jesus himself, living
inside of us, and we're here for a reason.
We're here to reveal.
(34:22):
The king of kings in our livesand through our lives, the goal is
for us to be a people of this newearth, this new place, the earth
like it was always designed to be.
And we don't take up that role by lordingit over people controlling in some sort
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of self-righteous posture that, Hey,I'm a citizen of heaven, and you all.
It's not the posture.
The posture is to takeup a servant posture.
What did we read earlier?
Philippians chaptertwo, the Hyn of Christ.
This beautiful depictionof his servanthood.
We are meant to embody the same thing.
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And Paul then says, you know, mybrothers and sisters whom I love
and long for my joy and my crown.
There's that word again, joy.
Stand firm in the Lord in this way.
Dear friends, joy and Crown.
Paul's actually experienced atransformational work in the Jewish
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culture, and now this place called Fify.
It ain't, it ain't.
In Israel.
Okay.
We're outside the realms of that.
We're in a new realm.
It's called the Greek land,the land of the Greeks.
And he's, it's not just Philippi,but he's experiencing something
fresh in this new space.
And I think what's, this is mypersonal per position, but you can.
(35:48):
Bagg me later.
I think he's so in awe of the factthat the God, the king of the Jews is
not just the king of those in Israel.
He's going, dang it.
He's the king of the whole wide world.
And he's starting to see thevastness of his kingdom is not
more than just this little pocket.
He's seeing it spread and move.
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And I just think he's like, oh,there's something new here for Paul.
And he's realizing, man.
Yes.
Like he's discovering it andit's exciting to him that there's
so much more to experience
that should excite you.
I think so a church family, red doorstand firm in the Lord stand firm
(36:31):
that you are a citizen of heaven.
You are called not to livelike the pagans, so that means
does your life look different?
Yeah, that's normal.
That's fruit.
Live with eyes open to a new wayof being, a real human being.
The the way you always meant to belike Christ, he's the real human being.
Actually live with an expectation thatour bodies will be actually transformed
(36:56):
when Jesus comes back to renew all things.
So there is gonna be a day, it'sgonna be absolutely perfected.
Restored.
How can you tell if you're not livingup to what you have already attained?
Did I say that too
quickly?
Yeah.
How can you
tell if you are not living up towhat you have already attained?
(37:19):
Quick little list.
Eight things.
Not gonna go throughit in too much detail.
Number one, you are livingwith unrealistic expectations.
It's an interesting way ofthinking about it, isn't it?
Because you're actually asking this worldto be something that it can never be.
Number two, you are focusingtoo much on yourself.
You are not the center of the universe.
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Number three, asking too much ofothers so we can fall under the trap of
expecting others all around us to providethe paradise, which our hearts crave.
Others will not.
Jesus will.
Number four.
Being controlling or fearful, wecan ignorant ignorantly, try to
control the world outta fear thatthis world can't provide what our
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hearts actually long for the mostwe, we can question God's goodness.
We don't understand God's agenda.
We tend to end upquestioning his character.
Living more disappointed than thankful.
Unrealistic expectationslead to disappointment.
It's kind of an extension of the firstone, lacking motivation and hope.
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The gospel helps me not to feel numb tothis life and moves my heart to a posture
of participating, experiencing for myself.
Last one, living as if lifedoesn't have any consequences.
The spirit forces me to face the fact thatlife does have consequences, so I end up
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experiencing life in a thoughtful way.
Joy, what is your experience in this life?
Is it happiness based on circumstanceor is it an abiding joy that
goes beyond circumstances to beyour default operating system?
(39:11):
Ah, got joy.
We get to the end of theletter and suddenly it feels
like there's this departure.
Suddenly it feels like, man, what?
Who are we?
Who are these people?
Euodia, ity.
Who are these?
Who are these people?
Well, Paul begins to wrap up this letterand this short kind of, it seems a little
bit pastoral advice kind of dynamic, andin one way it kind of feels separate, but.
(39:36):
I really think that what'shappening actually is, Hey, you
know, I've told you all about that.
Well, let's just see how you're going.
It's a bit like a tester.
So you can imagine if there's thismassive argie barge between two of
the people in our church family.
I'm trying to
think of who, who could
be that in red door.
No, I won't
do that.
It's Dale
(39:57):
and Adam Dial.
And Adam.
Yeah.
I appear to you, Adam and Daleto come to agreement in the Lord.
So Paul's making this urgent appealto come to a common mind in the Lord.
Okay.
It echoes the previous themes we've talked
about unity, frustratingly.
Paul, you, you read it and youthink, oh, well, what's the deal?
(40:19):
Give us more details.
Mm. He doesn't, and it's probably onpurpose because he's wanting to focus our
attention on the reconciliation aspectof this, not the, what's the issue?
There can be such amisunderstanding around unity.
Let's be clear.
The call is not to be unified aroundpersonal preference or how we think,
think things should be done, not evenaround secondary matters of the faith, but
(40:44):
around the person and the work of Jesus.
Anything else is just conformity.
It's not unity.
Paul is calling us to valueunity above being right.
If you write down anythingtoday, write down the words.
Holy Spirit, help me to valueunity above being right.
(41:06):
'cause our differences prove that ourunity in Jesus is actually the real deal.
So we can have our differences, but howwe still unified, how we still friends?
How are we still connected?
How are we still be in thesame room without, it's
because Jesus is at the center.
(41:27):
That's it.
He's at the center.
Paul is calling us to value unity abovebeing right, but how to come back to
unity in the Lord when you are feeling sohurt, so disappointed, so misunderstood.
Even maybe betrayed
(41:48):
in the middle of the hurt, inthe middle of the discouragement.
We gotta put our mind on whatJesus actually accomplished for us.
The thing that we've already attained.
Live up to it by seekingunity above being right,
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live up to it.
This
week, I, had a front
seat into a very concerning, um.
Division in a, in a, in a church in our
city.
And, again, I'm
gonna do Paul, not gonna gointo details, but what I saw
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and heard and and witnessed were thepeople who were really hurt and damaged
holding that pain.
Accessing the mind of Jesus inrelationship to what he's accomplished
on the cross and saying the words to, inthis case, a perpetrator, which FYI we're
(42:55):
all perpetrators, saying, I forgive you.
And then they said in the face ofthe wrong, the sin done to them.
Then they said, can you pleaseforgive me for the things I've
thought about you this week?
(43:18):
And Paul is saying, live up to thething that you've already attained.
You are so free that you don't need topush your righteousness or your being
right on anyone anymore because youhave his righteousness in you and in
you, and in you, and in you, and in you.
It's yours.
(43:41):
So the need that our fleshcontinues to go towards, around.
I'm trying to justify myposition, justify my thing.
Do you think this doesn'thappen at Red Door?
Mate, there's lots of things oureldership don't necessarily see eye to
eye to, and some of them
are sitting here today, our eldership,and I wanna say the times when I
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have pushed what I think is rightabove the mind of the Lord, what
he's accomplished, what he has done.
Which has then created levelsof division and thoughts.
I wanna say, please forgive me
because how we do this is somuch more important than the
(44:28):
small things of what we do.
Does that make sense?
Please don't mishear me.
I'm not saying that what we do isunimportant, but I'm saying the things
that we can, you know what I mean?
Just.
Kind of get bent outta shape about thosethings in this, in the light of eternity.
Just do not matter.
And I know as I'm saying this, you'veprobably got a couple things coming
(44:51):
to mind in your own world, would you?
So what we're gonna do right now, socan you see how Paul's just like legend?
No.
It's actually in spiteof the spirit, right?
He's laid this out and then he's justbringing his example for you to go.
You wanna test this?
All right, let's go.
Let's see if we can actuallylive like that is true.
(45:14):
So just close your eyes right now.
And so Father Paul's got thisthing that he says about.
This loyal comrade.
He says, come loyal, comrade, andhelp us to this true companion.
And there's no indication of who this is,like which, which person in the church is
(45:35):
this loyal comrade, this true companion.
And today we stand here together asbroken people, but children of God,
recognizing we have a true companion.
We have one who is alwaysloyal to you and to us.
Holy Spirit, come right now andBria be our two true companion.
(45:58):
Help us right now to step across theline and say, God, I want to value unity
above being right for every hurt, everydisappointment, every pain, every injury.
We present that today to you,holy Spirit, and say, soothe
our hearts, comfort our hearts.
(46:20):
To know that these things that havehappened, yes, they deserve penalty,
but the penalty's already been paid.
It's been paid at the cross, andJesus has already paid for it.
And will we trust in thatpayment for that very thing?
Father, forgive us for holdingon to this need to be right
(46:44):
so that we could find freedom.
And return to a posture of joy
in Jesus' name, amen.
We're jumping into Philippians.
(00:01):
We're sort of nearing the end of ourseries, and so this morning, as in
this afternoon as well, we're gonnabe from chapter three verses 15.
So the end of chapter threeinto the very start of chapter
four, verses one to three.
So we're gonna read it together,says this, all of us, everyone
say, all of us then who are matureshould take such a view of things.
(00:25):
Full stop.
And if on some point youthink differently, that too,
God will make clear to you.
Only let us live up.
Everyone say live up.
Let us live up to whatwe have already attained.
Join together in following my example,brothers and sisters, and just as you
have us as a model, keep your eyes onthose who live as we do for, as I have
(00:48):
often told you before, and now I tellyou again, even with tears, many live
as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their destiny is destruction.
Their God is their stomachand their glory is.
In their shame, their mind is set onearthly things, but our citizenship is in
(01:09):
heaven and we eagerly way a way to savioryou from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who by the power that enables him tobring everything under his control
will transform our lowly bodiesinto that, so into our body so that
they will be like his glorious body.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, youwho my love and long for my cr joy and
(01:33):
crown stand firm in the Lord in this way.
Dear friends, I plead.
With Odier and I plead with you.
Sin tiki.
Tiki sin.
There we go.
To be of the same mind in the Lord.
Yes, and I'll ask you my truecompanion help these women since
(01:54):
they have contended at my side inthe cause of the gospel, along with
Clement and the rest of my coworkerswhose names are in the book of life.
That's our reading for today.
And so I, wanna begin,
this way.
There's a story of a man in the early19 hundreds who'd lost everything.
(02:17):
We're talking about London, England here.
He'd lost family and Francehome possessions, work.
He'd lost everything, including his hope.
But the only thing he didhave was a ticket on a large
passenger cruiser to America.
The caber he was in was in the lowestpart of the boat, the cheapest room
(02:39):
with a hammock for a bed, and the triptook for over a week, and as the ship
pulled up at the dock in New York,the exiting passenger shook the hand
of the captain as they disembarked,and the captain met this man.
And he asked why did he not see him eatingin the hall during the Atlantic crossing?
(03:01):
And the man replied, oh, I'm sorry, sir.My, my ticket was just for the ride.
I, I couldn't afford the food.
So I stayed in the cabin and the captaininformed the man that all the food,
even a meal at the captain's table, wasincluded in the price of the ticket.
It says here Paul's saying,only let us keep in.
(03:22):
Step, step into live, up to stepinto what you have already attained.
You've not just been given a ticket,you've been given a life that is to
be lived with Christ and with Christ.
There's so much more to experience.
(03:45):
Paul's saying, actually, it's possiblefor you to believe in the finished work of
Jesus, but still miss out on the abundantlife that Jesus offers every single
one of us, his children are you living?
This is a question for us this morning.
Are you living the life that youthink God has imagined for you?
Are you living a life like you readin the New Testament that you hear
(04:08):
about in the early church history?
Maybe moments in.
The history of the church, thelast 200 years of evangelical
missionization of the word.
Are you living a, a life that's kindof on purpose with passion and vision
seeking first the kingdom of God, orare you seeking first your own kingdom?
(04:28):
Or have you started to believe,well, I'm just a second class
kind of citizen, Christian.
Citizen in the kingdom of God.
Have you started to believe,well, that kind of thing, you're
describing this kind of abundantlife, this on mission kind of life.
Well, that's just for the special people.
(04:50):
It's not actually for me.
Paul is.
I think Paul was telling us here thatthese stories that he talks about,
that he's experiencing, that thesesort of stories can be your stories.
He's calling us to live up towhat we've already attained.
That's what it says in verse 16.
(05:13):
And so Paul, what is he referring to?
What is it that he's already attained?
What does he have?
Well, based on the earlier part of chapterthree, verses eight through to 12, we're
told Paul believes that he's alreadyattained Christ, that he can know Christ,
know him, know God, and be found in him.
And Paul lists kind of in this moment,in the buildup to what we're just read,
(05:36):
he's listing the things that in his priorlife, he attained his accomplishments.
And then he says fromverse eight, which was.
What we read, a coupleweeks ago, I'm gonna read it
again from Earth verse eight.
These prior accomplishments,he considers them garbage.
That he may gain Christ and be foundin him not having a righteousness of
(05:57):
my own that comes from the law, butthat which is in faith through faith
in Christ Jesus, the righteousness thatcomes from God on the basis of faith.
I wanna know Christ yes, to knowthe power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferingsbecoming like him in his death.
And so somehow attaining tothe resurrection of the dead.
Don't miss this.
(06:18):
Not that I've already attained allthis or that I've already arrived at
my goal, but I press on to take holdthat which Christ took hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not considermyself yet to have taken hold of it,
but one thing I do, forgetting whatis behind and straining toward what
is ahead, I press on towards the goalto win the prize for which God has
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called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Is there real authenticity as you,you read that it's quite inspiring.
Do you feel your heart stir?
Like in the reality they like, thisis Paul speaking and he's like, I
haven't even already attained it,I'm still working towards this.
What, what is he already attained?
That's kind of this questionmark that's lingering and, and he
(07:03):
points at it in different places.
But I kind of wanna summarize it inthis way this morning and I wanna.
Potentially introduce you to, threetheological concepts, just to
help us grasp what he's attained.
And many of you'll know these words.
I've got them on the screen.
These words are very theological.
They're justification,sanctification, glor, glorification.
(07:27):
Now what, what are these things?
I've, I read this week this way,and I thought this was quite
interesting.
Say justification
is this, you saved from,from the penalty of sin.
Sanctification is you saved from thepractice of sin and glorification
saved from the presence of sin.
(07:49):
Just, kind of explain those a littlebit more Justification reminds us
that Jesus Christ has done everythingnecess necessary for our salvation.
He's paid the penaltythat our sins deserved by
sacrificial death on the cross.
His death satisfied God's justiceand turned away his wrath from us.
(08:09):
And, but Jesus also lived the perfectlife, and by his righteous obedience
to God's lo, both Christ's, sacrifice.
He's, he satisfies the.
The penalty of judgment.
He satisfies that, but he's also, hisperfect righteousness is given to us.
It's words, ideas imputed to us.
(08:31):
It's credited to us.
It's ours by grace, through faith,and we're all meant to take comfort
in the fact that this has all beendone for us, and that when the
father in heaven looks upon Jesus.
Actually, he looks upon us asthough we are completely free.
We are completely sinless.
We are as perfect as Jesus is.
(08:53):
That's how the father looks upon us.
Justification, sanctification is thework of God's free grace, whereby
we are renewed into the whole man.
The whole image of God.
We are enabled, more and more to dieto sin, to live unto righteousness.
When you are in the middle ofprocess of sanctification sin, the
(09:16):
practice of sin begins to look sorepulsive because you've got this
beautiful new affection in your life.
It's called your desire to seek after God.
And as.
Those gone before us said there's likethis explosive power of a new love.
I love Jesus.
And so the attractivenessof sin gets less and less.
(09:38):
This is the journey of sanctification,
glorification.
This means
that there's the sinand consequences of sin.
No more sickness, no more fear.
Where sanctify sanctificationis the transformational process.
Glorification is this kind of ideathat we are arriving more and more
(09:59):
into the actual body of Jesus.
We're actually becoming glorified,like Jesus is glorified.
And this is an interesting dynamicbecause we can talk about that as in
it's kind of happening today in part,but we know there's gonna be a day
where that is gonna happen in full.
Is this making sense to everyone?
The reason why I speak like this is'cause sometimes when we read these
(10:21):
ideas, we think about the idea thatjustification has already been done.
It's like a, like a past concept.
And then we think aboutglorification, we think, well, that's
definitely in the future, right?
And then sanctification.
Well, that's kinda likewhat we're in right now.
And I wanna submit to you todaythat all three are currently
happening here and now.
(10:42):
Right now it's not like.
So I think in the, in the churchgenerally, there's been an emphasis
on justification and glorification.
And sanctification.
Well, that all seems like a lot ofhard work, so we'll try and sort of
downgrade that a little bit because thefirst, the first and the last kind of
have this great sense of hope, right?
(11:04):
But the reality is weare all in this process.
So the Bible says to work out yoursalvation with fear and trembling,
that's happening even right now.
I need Jesus today just as much as theday I first believed for my justification.
Would you agree?
So it's not just like a past dynamic.
And this glorification dynamic isa sense, yes, the fulfillment of
(11:28):
it might be in the future, but thereality effect of it can actually sit
and affect me in the here and now.
Does that make sense?
Like should I live in hope today,that I have a future that is
perfect with God that should.
Move my heart.
I just wanna quickly add to this,'cause someone, when we read this,
which I love the language thereby the way, that's fantastic.
(11:51):
But the, one of the common wordsthere is the idea we're saved from,
I just wanna give you a anotherquick way of thinking about it.
That we're actually not just savedfrom, we're saved to something.
And so justification is we're savedto forgiveness and righteousness.
We are children of God.
Sanctification we're saved to alife of holiness and obedience and
glorification we're saved to an eternalperfection in God's presence because
(12:16):
sometimes if we don't have a vision forwhat we're actually after, sometimes
this idea we're saved from somethingactually doesn't lead us with vision.
And what's Paul's starting here?
He's saying live up to whatyou have already attained.
So we've gotta understand whatwe've already attained in order
to live up to that very thing.
Would you agree?
Awesome.
You're with me.
I'm liking this.
(12:37):
Well done Paul.
You are making this nice and clear, butthere's a lot, like sometimes when we
read scripture, you gotta understandlike the foundation before you can kind
of go and rip into where are we headed.
Okay.
In a general sense that church has beenemphasizing kind of one over the other.
But the reality is they'reall at play right now.
These three things, it's thisjourney of sanctification we
(13:00):
find ourselves in right now.
It's this journey of justificationwe find ourselves in right now,
but you've gotta understandthat what is motivating us?
It is powered by the spirit.
It's powered by joy and peace becausethis is what we've already attained.
(13:20):
It's either gonna be that as yourmotivation, joy, and peace, and the
spirit of God, or it's gonna be motivatedby obligation and insecurity in order
to get something from God, right?
The latter will nevertransform you like the former.
Sanctification is thework that's going on now.
(13:42):
Justification is a workthat's going on right now.
Glorification is the workthat's going on right now.
But my question to all of us is thisprocess in you, in forming a joy, is
there a joy in the midst of this process?
For instance, has this processbecome onerous to you, become
heavy, become a sense of, ah,it's just all bit hard, you know?
(14:08):
Because this process is actually formingus more and more into the person of Jesus.
So it is becoming more like Jesus is a,is that a joy to you or a burden to you?
That, that's a really good question.
Maybe you feel that it's a burdenbecause, well, as, as much as I do this
journey, I feel like I never arrive.
(14:29):
I don't feel ever feel likeI've become like Jesus yet.
Okay, now.
What's been interesting in this series,and you know I have Dale to blame on
this particular front, is she's dividedthe scripture into certain ways.
So last session we did chapterthree, verses It ended on verse
14, and today we're kicking offfrom chapter three verse 15.
(14:52):
So.
Where we ended, which I kind of, I
already read.
I do not
consider myself to have taken hold ofher, but one thing I do, forgetting
what is behind straining forward presson towards the goal, which Christ has
called me, Heatherwood, E Christ Jesus.
So like newsflash, noteven Paul attained it, so.
That's interesting.
(15:14):
Now have that in your mind.
Pick up verse 15, which says, and weread it before, all of us then who are
mature should take a view of such things.
What?
What things.
Paul is actually beingdirectly ironic here.
Paul's saying true Christianmaturity is knowing that you have
(15:36):
not fully arrived at maturity yet.
Yeah, I thought I, I thought I'dhave that request 'cause I had to
think about it a couple of times.
So you've gotta remember Paul'stalking about what is he attained?
He then tells us to, Ihaven't already attained it.
I'm working towards it,but I'm pressing on.
(15:56):
But he's pointing to, remember thearch, the arching goal here is to become
Christ-like having joy, maturity, unity.
And he's saying here, Christian maturity,as I repeat the quote, Christian
maturity, is knowing that you havenot fully arrived at maturity yet.
So what does that build into your heart?
(16:16):
That thought should build into humility.
It should build you into you likea constant openness to be ready to
grow, to ready to understand, notjust mentally cerebrally, but step
into experientially more of what it isto know Christ and be formed by him.
Now, there's some of you out therethat might go, Adam, the moment
(16:36):
you believe you become fullytransformed into the image of Jesus.
And you might reference SecondCorinthians five 17 and go.
It says, well, if anyone's inChrist, they're a new creation.
The oldest come.
The oldest passed away.
The new has come.
You know that scripture, I've beenfascinated by this transformational
journey that we're all on fascinatedbecause I think part of my accountant
(16:59):
brain kind of wants to create process andcategories and how does this all work?
And part of it honestly is like themystery, but part of it is we can also
grapple with it to, to cooperate withwhat the spirit is doing in all of us.
Okay?
So I want you to think about.
The transformation of the all of you,a hundred percent of you, not just 5%.
(17:22):
All of you now.
All of us have been madein the image of God.
And one way to think about howwe have been made is that we
are made as mind, body, spirit.
Now, when you say yes to Jesus, when youinvite him into your world, I do believe
that your spirit man becomes brand new.
The problem is you've got a brainand a body attached to this thing,
like you're one, your whole,you're a whole person, right?
(17:46):
And so.
There is a journey to go on interms of your mind to be renewed
to the pattern of God's thinking.
God's way of doing.
God's way of thinking about things,God's way of seeing the world, and that's
called Renewing Your Mind, Romans 12.
We could read that together andwe could spend a whole other
message on that, but we won't.
(18:06):
But then there's also this body,this flesh bag that you carry around.
Would you agree?
Some of us feel less, more like that,and as we get a bit older, but your, your
body, not your flesh bag, let me rephrase.
Your body is actually ona, a process of obedience.
Right.
So the transformation of our fleshis actually a journey of willing
(18:30):
submission to God's ways becauseyou've renew your mind to it, right?
In obeying, but we don't.
And so we're not just listening toGod's word, we are doing what it says.
James one talks aboutthis Q slide, verse 22.
Do not nearly miss, listen to the word.
So deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
(18:50):
Oh, I love this picture.
Anyone who listens to the word but doesnot do what it says is someone who looks
like, looks at his face in a mirror andafter looking at himself goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like.
Great imagery.
So good.
I love to do like a shortfilm on that moment.
It's like something outtathe Matrix, you know?
But whoever looks intently intothe perfect law, remember the
(19:11):
perfect Lord is God's word.
God's word is a mirror.
Shows us who He's, shows us who we are.
Right.
That gives freedom and continues in it.
Forgetting what they, not forgettingwhat they've heard, but doing it.
Transformation of the flesh doing it.
They'll be blessed in what they do.
Why are you blessed in what you do?
'cause you're starting to walkto total transformation of
spirit, mind, flesh bag, right?
(19:35):
Sorry, I know it's humor.
Sorry.
So let me say like this, the processof transformation is to be with Jesus
through prayer, through word, throughfellowship, to become like Jesus.
I. The reason you may not see howthis is connected to joy, which is
the theme of our series, right, isbecause you've forgotten who you are.
(19:58):
You've forgotten whose you are,you've forgotten more accurately.
Who is it that lives inside of you?
The creator of the cosmoslives inside of you.
So it's important to remember thatas we engage in this transformational
journey into the person of Jesus.
That maturity is not measuredby, I'll use a new phrase.
(20:22):
You might not have heard this before.
Maturity and transformation is notmeasured by your watering method.
Watering method.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about your reading ofthe word, your prayer life, your.
Coming to church life, yourfellowship life, it's not measured
by your capacity to do those things.
It's measured, measured by the fruitthat's coming out of that watering space.
(20:47):
Does that make sense?
So the fruit that's coming out of yourlife is how we discern whether the
transformation is unpacking or not.
Now, praise the Lord.
We have a bit of an idea of how tomeasure that, to measure that fruit love.
Second word is.
Four.
Four of us know the didn'tyou go to Sunday school?
(21:07):
They spent so much time on thislove, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
Did I get it all?
No.
What'd I miss?
Goodness.
See, I need to go backto Sunday school too.
The most joyous person who is livingin you is the creator of the universe.
(21:30):
Do you see that?
That person living in you is joyful?
Like you can't get any more joy than thesource of joy who's living inside of you.
He's the source of joy.
Well, how do I know that?
Because it's the fruitof the spirit is him.
The fruit of the spirit is describingJesus, and if he's living inside
(21:52):
of you, it's only natural tosee joy emanating out of you.
No joy, no fruit.
Mm. Question to ask yourself isgoing, is Jesus taking up ance?
Is he fully alive?
Story.
Oh, there's this greatguy, he's passed away.
Bill Ballantine, everybody I wanna tellyou about this young man, such a champion.
(22:12):
Edna and Bill used to come to Red Door,some of you know who I'm talking about.
And Bill, got the privilege ofdoing his funeral and his son got
up there and was telling how Billused to act and he was a builder.
So like houses, you know, so.
Concrete pad, bricks, all that stuff,and he's, I just have this picture
of, you know, when the building'sjust got the pad and then you got
(22:32):
the piles of bricks on the pad.
And this the son, I can't thinkof the son's name, don't remember.
No, missed it.
He's describing Bill as singinghymns all day long, walking
around the pad of this building.
And these workers are justlike, who is this guy?
But all of a. Sudden they beginto see, just like Chris, who comes
down the front and starts ravinglike a small 4-year-old child.
(22:54):
It's great.
It's good by the way, you know, becausewe've gotta be a childlike faith, right?
It's all good.
But Bill would do this, right?
Bill had joy emanatingout and he didn't care.
He didn't care because what we, ourlives are like a 45 degree mirror, right?
What happens is.
(23:14):
As we are transformed, that mirrorthat's meant to reflect God.
And showing the world God throughus is the mirror Bill experienced
something that not all of ushave experienced a clean mirror.
The clean mirror just is this purityspace where he can't help but reflect
(23:35):
the joy of the Lord to others around him.
He's just so clean.
Does that make sense?
Now, remember, I'm not saying yougotta be clean to get God to love you.
No, he loves you.
He wants to make you clean.
The question is, will youcooperate with the transformational
process to make yourself clean?
Lemme rephrase, make yourself clean.
That's not correct.
Jesus wants to make you clean.
He's doing the work.
You just gotta surrender your mirror.
(23:57):
And let him clean you up.
Now, why was Bill like this?
Oh, another great story.
Bill Belline, his dad was, you know,in England the culture is like the pub,
you know, being down the pub bill's.
Dad was like that, right?
And so, Bill's mom and Bill and, andhis sister, I'm pretty sure used to pray
at home while Bill's dad was at the pub.
(24:18):
And one day they were just so sickand tired of coming home drunk.
You know, all this whole thingthat comes with that culture.
And so mom and the family are prayingone night that Bill Bill's dad, I
don't know Bill's dad's name, butBill's dad, when he has his first beer
that night, would taste like vinegar.
This is what they're praying,like specific prayers.
(24:40):
So bang straight through the doorand everyone's like, you know, just
gripping their, their hearts withwhat, what are we gonna get tonight?
And so.
Bill's Dad comes in, he goes, oh,I'm never going back to that pub.
First Pint, tastes like vinegar.
I winched and complained.
So they gave me another one.
(25:00):
That one tasted like vinegar, differenttap and everything, and he's like blown
away and, and everyone's listening to thisstory just like completely blown away.
That's exactly what they've prayed.
From that point on Bill'sdad never went back to a pub.
He received Jesus thejoy the Lord hit him.
The reason why Bill was like that isbecause he saw his dad transformed
(25:22):
and became like that Bill was justdoing it like his dad did it full of
joy because he'd been so transformed.
If you believe, do you believe thatyour transform transformational
journey in Christ has ended?
Like, is that it?
Like right now, the condition ofhow, who you are today is that it?
Are you fully, are you, you're done.
I'm good.
Okay.
(25:42):
Or have you kinda like, ah,it'll, it'll, it'll be enough.
It she'll be right.
I'm just saying there's more.
And would you believe thatthere's more for you to be
transformed to become like him?
Jesus is way bigger thanthe box you put him in.
And so there's more to discoverin this transformational journey.
(26:03):
And and be assured, oneof those dynamics is joy.
And Paul goes on to say, Hey,follow my example, brothers
and sisters, as you've seen us.
As a model, keep youreyes on those who live.
As we do.
Keep your eyes on to, tolive as those, as we do 2025.
(26:25):
How much do we sit and rest onthe podcast culture of our world?
It says, imitate and follow.
Hard to imitate and follow a podcast.
If what you wanna become is apodcaster, creating more content.
We don't need more content in 2025.
Everybody.
What we need is authentic communitythat causes followship and
(26:46):
transformation because I'm imitatingsomeone I live and breathe with.
Why did Jesus, Jesus didn'tgive the disciples a podcast?
It's fine.
You're not gonna, you'relistening to the podcasts, but
not at the expense of community.
Not at the expense.
Don't do that.
Jesus didn't.
One way of thinking about Jesusand, how he, he did this kind
(27:08):
of followship in imitating him.
Um.
Yeah, I remember Josh and I weretalking about this the other day.
Jesus kinda said, I do you watch?
Jesus said, I do.
You help.
Jesus said, you do.
I help.
Jesus said, you do.
I watch, you know, this sort of journey.
We walked, walked with people,imitate me as I imitate Christ.
(27:32):
Paul then goes and clarifies this newway of living because in the moment
there's other ways of living that are verypressing and, and relevant and prevalent.
And so in verse 18, I read it before.
Here it is again, as I've often toldyou, and I tell you again with tears.
So see the emotion here,he's crying about this.
(27:53):
Many live as enemiesof the cross of Christ.
Their destiny is destruction, theirGod is their stomach and their
glory is the in their shame, theirmind is set on earthly things.
And so Paul is highlighting thisand by highlighting those who
live like this, he's teaching us.
To look with new eyes at waysof living that up until now, we
(28:18):
might have taken for granted.
Yes.
This is the way people go abouttheir lives all around us.
And Paul is saying, pull back the veil.
And look, these lifestylesare dehumanizing.
These ways are corrupting anddestroying these beautiful
creatures called human beings.
(28:38):
Who the living God made andloves and wants to rescue.
It's here as in many placesthat Paul writes about.
He's wanting the church inPhilippi, Philippi to and to
us today to think differently.
To say no to all of that way ofliving and to come alive in a totally
(28:58):
new way of being a human being.
And Paul feels is so deeply to thepoint of tears, he's passionate
about people who are blindly justliving like the world and they have
no idea that this system of living.
(29:22):
Is destroying you.
It's destructive.
Paul is
revealing that, we can become
so it can be some so easily hiddenin the dark that you don't even
this destructive way of livingthat it kind of passes as well.
That's what everyone does.
Well, that's very normal.
(29:43):
And Paul, and this person is acting likea, like a bit of an alarm right now.
Like, we need someone to sound thealarm around destructive practices
of how we shouldn't be living.
Does that make sense?
We were in, South Africa.
I was remembering this
last night.
(30:03):
In 2010,
the Mighty Men's Conference,over a hundred thousand blokes.
There.
It
was Mint.
It was such
a powerful time and therewas a group of Australians
there and I got an
opportunity to be there.
It was in, I think it
was Gray Town, somewhere in that area.
I, I believe that is, um.
(30:23):
Amazing time.
I'll tell you lots of stories.
One story was that we'reall sort of packed up.
Most of the locals are just all, they'reall left, you know, they're all gone.
And us, us Australians aretrying to find something to do.
So we're stacking hay bales orsomething mucking around anyway,
like it's a huge area, right?
So it's a, it's just paddocks, paddocks,hills, just massive amounts of space.
(30:44):
Lots of people, but they'repretty much all gone.
And all, all the week, all the weeklong, you know, they've been concerned
that the weather was gonna justchange and the weather just held up.
It was fantastic.
And we're all, we're just about to leave.
And then a local man starts running down.
Kind of like one of the, the pathways insort of the, the driveways, John Farrell,
(31:05):
I'm trying to say like huge paddock areas.
He's, and he's screaming, run, run.
And we're looking there going.
Okay.
He's sounding an alarm of somedescription, but we have no
idea what you are talking about.
So we stand there watching, observing,what is this alarm he's speaking of?
(31:25):
We get there and all of a sudden.
Heaven breaks loose in the atmosphereand hailstones the size of cricket
balls start coming out of the skyto the point where we're now running
for cover because all the tents havekind of been packed up and so forth.
But this guy saw something thatwe didn't see, and I think Paul is
(31:48):
sounding an alarm here to, to, toa, to a, to a, to us, the church.
Don't fall for that
thing where, that's how
people live.
This emphasis towards hedonism andpleasure and food and possessions
and comfort and earthly things.
(32:09):
Paul's revealing that something thatcan be so that's dark, that's so easily
hidden, this destructive lifestylethat it passes for everyday life.
If all you ever think about.
Is what is in the here and now.
You actually, like, you are earth bound.
(32:32):
You, you're stuck.
You, you're just sitting in anenvironment where all you see
is the physicality, the physicalthings, and you think you conclude
that that's all there actually is.
And so Paul goes through and nowhe's got in verse 20, he says.
No, no, you're not citizens of earth.
(32:53):
You're citizens of somewhere else.
You're citizens of heaven.
You see,
one of the challenges when we usethe word citizen of heaven, we
get this impression that, we'll,someday we're gonna leave this space
that's broken and we're gonna go.
To heaven.
We're gonna go, we're gonna return to theplace where we were always meant to be.
(33:17):
But the truth is, the direction is
not, earth to
heaven.
The direction is heaven to earth.
Where actually the life, the culture, thecivilization of heaven, is to birth in
this very contested space here that wecall Earth, so that the people who are
earth bound may be surprised to discoverthere's actually another way to live.
(33:40):
A heavenly way, a way of the kingdomof God, which is what happens when the
spirit goes to work in us and through us.
'cause Paul says, and we eagerlyawait a savior from there.
So we are eagerly awaitingon earth a savior from there.
So.
(34:00):
If we were meant to go there, probablyJesus would've taken us there the
day we said yes, but he didn't.
He's left us here, but not alone.
We have his spirit, the spirit of Christliving inside of us, Jesus himself, living
inside of us, and we're here for a reason.
We're here to reveal.
(34:22):
The king of kings in our livesand through our lives, the goal is
for us to be a people of this newearth, this new place, the earth
like it was always designed to be.
And we don't take up that role by lordingit over people controlling in some sort
(34:43):
of self-righteous posture that, Hey,I'm a citizen of heaven, and you all.
It's not the posture.
The posture is to takeup a servant posture.
What did we read earlier?
Philippians chaptertwo, the Hyn of Christ.
This beautiful depictionof his servanthood.
We are meant to embody the same thing.
(35:05):
And Paul then says, you know, mybrothers and sisters whom I love
and long for my joy and my crown.
There's that word again, joy.
Stand firm in the Lord in this way.
Dear friends, joy and Crown.
Paul's actually experienced atransformational work in the Jewish
(35:26):
culture, and now this place called Fify.
It ain't, it ain't.
In Israel.
Okay.
We're outside the realms of that.
We're in a new realm.
It's called the Greek land,the land of the Greeks.
And he's, it's not just Philippi,but he's experiencing something
fresh in this new space.
And I think what's, this is mypersonal per position, but you can.
(35:48):
Bagg me later.
I think he's so in awe of the factthat the God, the king of the Jews is
not just the king of those in Israel.
He's going, dang it.
He's the king of the whole wide world.
And he's starting to see thevastness of his kingdom is not
more than just this little pocket.
He's seeing it spread and move.
(36:09):
And I just think he's like, oh,there's something new here for Paul.
And he's realizing, man.
Yes.
Like he's discovering it andit's exciting to him that there's
so much more to experience
that should excite you.
I think so a church family, red doorstand firm in the Lord stand firm
(36:31):
that you are a citizen of heaven.
You are called not to livelike the pagans, so that means
does your life look different?
Yeah, that's normal.
That's fruit.
Live with eyes open to a new wayof being, a real human being.
The the way you always meant to belike Christ, he's the real human being.
Actually live with an expectation thatour bodies will be actually transformed
(36:56):
when Jesus comes back to renew all things.
So there is gonna be a day, it'sgonna be absolutely perfected.
Restored.
How can you tell if you're not livingup to what you have already attained?
Did I say that too
quickly?
Yeah.
How can you
tell if you are not living up towhat you have already attained?
(37:19):
Quick little list.
Eight things.
Not gonna go throughit in too much detail.
Number one, you are livingwith unrealistic expectations.
It's an interesting way ofthinking about it, isn't it?
Because you're actually asking this worldto be something that it can never be.
Number two, you are focusingtoo much on yourself.
You are not the center of the universe.
(37:41):
Number three, asking too much ofothers so we can fall under the trap of
expecting others all around us to providethe paradise, which our hearts crave.
Others will not.
Jesus will.
Number four.
Being controlling or fearful, wecan ignorant ignorantly, try to
control the world outta fear thatthis world can't provide what our
(38:04):
hearts actually long for the mostwe, we can question God's goodness.
We don't understand God's agenda.
We tend to end upquestioning his character.
Living more disappointed than thankful.
Unrealistic expectationslead to disappointment.
It's kind of an extension of the firstone, lacking motivation and hope.
(38:27):
The gospel helps me not to feel numb tothis life and moves my heart to a posture
of participating, experiencing for myself.
Last one, living as if lifedoesn't have any consequences.
The spirit forces me to face the fact thatlife does have consequences, so I end up
(38:50):
experiencing life in a thoughtful way.
Joy, what is your experience in this life?
Is it happiness based on circumstanceor is it an abiding joy that
goes beyond circumstances to beyour default operating system?
(39:11):
Ah, got joy.
We get to the end of theletter and suddenly it feels
like there's this departure.
Suddenly it feels like, man, what?
Who are we?
Who are these people?
Euodia, ity.
Who are these?
Who are these people?
Well, Paul begins to wrap up this letterand this short kind of, it seems a little
bit pastoral advice kind of dynamic, andin one way it kind of feels separate, but.
(39:36):
I really think that what'shappening actually is, Hey, you
know, I've told you all about that.
Well, let's just see how you're going.
It's a bit like a tester.
So you can imagine if there's thismassive argie barge between two of
the people in our church family.
I'm trying to
think of who, who could
be that in red door.
No, I won't
do that.
It's Dale
(39:57):
and Adam Dial.
And Adam.
Yeah.
I appear to you, Adam and Daleto come to agreement in the Lord.
So Paul's making this urgent appealto come to a common mind in the Lord.
Okay.
It echoes the previous themes we've talked
about unity, frustratingly.
Paul, you, you read it and youthink, oh, well, what's the deal?
(40:19):
Give us more details.
Mm. He doesn't, and it's probably onpurpose because he's wanting to focus our
attention on the reconciliation aspectof this, not the, what's the issue?
There can be such amisunderstanding around unity.
Let's be clear.
The call is not to be unified aroundpersonal preference or how we think,
think things should be done, not evenaround secondary matters of the faith, but
(40:44):
around the person and the work of Jesus.
Anything else is just conformity.
It's not unity.
Paul is calling us to valueunity above being right.
If you write down anythingtoday, write down the words.
Holy Spirit, help me to valueunity above being right.
(41:06):
'cause our differences prove that ourunity in Jesus is actually the real deal.
So we can have our differences, but howwe still unified, how we still friends?
How are we still connected?
How are we still be in thesame room without, it's
because Jesus is at the center.
(41:27):
That's it.
He's at the center.
Paul is calling us to value unity abovebeing right, but how to come back to
unity in the Lord when you are feeling sohurt, so disappointed, so misunderstood.
Even maybe betrayed
(41:48):
in the middle of the hurt, inthe middle of the discouragement.
We gotta put our mind on whatJesus actually accomplished for us.
The thing that we've already attained.
Live up to it by seekingunity above being right,
(42:09):
live up to it.
This
week, I, had a front
seat into a very concerning, um.
Division in a, in a, in a church in our
city.
And, again, I'm
gonna do Paul, not gonna gointo details, but what I saw
(42:34):
and heard and and witnessed were thepeople who were really hurt and damaged
holding that pain.
Accessing the mind of Jesus inrelationship to what he's accomplished
on the cross and saying the words to, inthis case, a perpetrator, which FYI we're
(42:55):
all perpetrators, saying, I forgive you.
And then they said in the face ofthe wrong, the sin done to them.
Then they said, can you pleaseforgive me for the things I've
thought about you this week?
(43:18):
And Paul is saying, live up to thething that you've already attained.
You are so free that you don't need topush your righteousness or your being
right on anyone anymore because youhave his righteousness in you and in
you, and in you, and in you, and in you.
It's yours.
(43:41):
So the need that our fleshcontinues to go towards, around.
I'm trying to justify myposition, justify my thing.
Do you think this doesn'thappen at Red Door?
Mate, there's lots of things oureldership don't necessarily see eye to
eye to, and some of them
are sitting here today, our eldership,and I wanna say the times when I
(44:04):
have pushed what I think is rightabove the mind of the Lord, what
he's accomplished, what he has done.
Which has then created levelsof division and thoughts.
I wanna say, please forgive me
because how we do this is somuch more important than the
(44:28):
small things of what we do.
Does that make sense?
Please don't mishear me.
I'm not saying that what we do isunimportant, but I'm saying the things
that we can, you know what I mean?
Just.
Kind of get bent outta shape about thosethings in this, in the light of eternity.
Just do not matter.
And I know as I'm saying this, you'veprobably got a couple things coming
(44:51):
to mind in your own world, would you?
So what we're gonna do right now, socan you see how Paul's just like legend?
No.
It's actually in spiteof the spirit, right?
He's laid this out and then he's justbringing his example for you to go.
You wanna test this?
All right, let's go.
Let's see if we can actuallylive like that is true.
(45:14):
So just close your eyes right now.
And so Father Paul's got thisthing that he says about.
This loyal comrade.
He says, come loyal, comrade, andhelp us to this true companion.
And there's no indication of who this is,like which, which person in the church is
(45:35):
this loyal comrade, this true companion.
And today we stand here together asbroken people, but children of God,
recognizing we have a true companion.
We have one who is alwaysloyal to you and to us.
Holy Spirit, come right now andBria be our two true companion.
(45:58):
Help us right now to step across theline and say, God, I want to value unity
above being right for every hurt, everydisappointment, every pain, every injury.
We present that today to you,holy Spirit, and say, soothe
our hearts, comfort our hearts.
(46:20):
To know that these things that havehappened, yes, they deserve penalty,
but the penalty's already been paid.
It's been paid at the cross, andJesus has already paid for it.
And will we trust in thatpayment for that very thing?
Father, forgive us for holdingon to this need to be right
(46:44):
so that we could find freedom.
And return to a posture of joy
in Jesus' name, amen.
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